Finished

I started working on this latest project last night, when I realized how few days there were left of June. Luckily the wind had died down in the evening so I could go outside and stain these letters. They are, once again, from the cute shop in town, "Cut It Out". I've wanted to get these since last summer. I bought the lower case letters--it was all they had left. I guess everyone had my bright idea before I did. The paper is by Samantha Walker for Creative Imaginations. The stain is Minwax, the ribbon from my stash, the buttons and other embellies, also from my stash. I don't keep labels or packaging, so the only thing I know is the buttons are Just Another Button Company. The wood stars I bought with the letters.

I traced and cut out the paper letters last night, stained the wood parts last night and let them dry overnight. This morning I trimmed the letters, adhered them to the wood shapes, picked out my buttons and embellies and had them nearly finished. The only thing I needed was the blue organdy ribbon. Now, this afternoon, they are all done. Cute, too, if I do say so myself.

I still have one more project to do to be ready for July tomorrow. I bought fabric last week to make a patriotic apron, and I can cut that out this evening, have it sewn in less than 1/2 hour and still make it to the grocery store before bedtime, as long as I brainstorm menu ideas while I sew. I want to have the shopping done before tomorrow, because I'll be busy getting Hailey from camp, doing her laundry and preparing for Tad's arrival tomorrow.

Happy July 4th!

Interlude

I put my girls on the bus this morning back home to their husband and daddy. It's pretty quiet around here now, because Hailey also left Monday morning for Girls' Camp. She'll be home Friday noonish, and then my sweet baboo will also be on his way home, either Friday or Saturday. It won't be quiet for long.

It was so lovely to have Jessie and Evie here for the last week and a half. We spent the entire time kissing and hugging each other, with Evie being the recipient of the greater portion, but I think that Jessie felt the love, too. If we weren't kissing the baby, we were holding her, feeding her, trying to get her to sleep, and taking her picture. Poor baby had the camera in her face so much, she quit smiling when she saw it. I did sneak a couple of pix of her with her smile, though, and my dad, her great grandpa, had her laughing at one point. It was her first laugh, and it tickled him to be the one to bring it.

I'm spending today and tomorrow shopping, crafting and getting my hair done (finally, tomorrow, it's been WAAAYYY too long since I've had it done). I'm working on something tonight that I can finish tomorrow, just in the nick of time, and I have another project to do tomorrow, also in the nick of time. I'll post pix as I finish them.



So smiley, so silly, so cute!




 

Evie and her mommy, Jessica, during family scripture study

 



Evie laughing with her Great Grandpa Derryll and Great Grandma Norma Hillman



It's the Truth

I love paydays. We haven't had one for the entire first 6 months of this year. That changed yesterday. Tad got his first paycheck of this new job yesterday, and there was much excitement. I paid some bills needing desperate attention and took the girls shopping. It was SO NICE to have some money to spend. I got some paper and an album for Jessie to make Evie's baby book, shoes for Hailey and myself, a little planner to make a new purse book, some scrapbook paper for myself and beads to make a necklace for a t-shirt I got for Mother's Day. This is going to be the start of a really beautiful situation. :D

Hen Party

Tad has been gone for 2 weeks, Todd has left for his East Coast Tour with the Choir, so Jessie brought Evie up to stay with us for the time Todd is gone. It's just been us girls, and we've had a blast. We've had Spa Pedicures, video parties with popcorn, snuggled the cutest baby in the world, kissed and hugged each other, shopped a little, played a lot and  had a great time. It's great to have my girls here with me. We are enjoying our time together. We have the weekend, and then Hailey leaves us to go to Girls' Camp. She's been looking forward to this, and will have a fun time. She's been planning treats for her Secret Sister, and gathering her camp supplies.

We miss the men in our lives, but we know where they all are, and what they are doing, and they are doing good things. They will all be home, soon, and things will be as they should be again, but in the interim, we're loving our time together.

Getting Busy

Tad's been gone for 5 days now, and I've been working hard on  my decluttering/dejunking regime. On Wednesday Hailey and I dropped a whole trunkload of things at the Youth Ranch Thrift store and dumped a huge, heavy bag of trash into the dumpster. There are still more things on both my mental and written list, but that was just one afternoon of brainstorming and gathering, and mostly one room. Now, I haven't ever had lots of anything, and I'm not a hoarder, but sometimes I look around at things and think, "I really don't need that", or "That could go away", or "I have too much stuff in here" (usually when I'm in my scrapbook room). I've moved around enough in my life that the thought of storing and stashing lots of useless items gives my tummy a twist. I detest clutter--visual, mental, aural--so I'm always looking for things to remove. Putting things away properly usually helps, but sometimes I just have to let things go. It's such a cathartic action. Even though on the surface of, say the kitchen, things don't look much different, I know that the excess is gone. It makes me feel free and light. I love that feeling.

I'm always careful to never declutter/dejunk things belonging to my family. They have stewardship over their own things. I did, however, ask Hailey to spend a couple of days working on her room last week, and she did me proud. She hauled an even bigger and heavier bag to the trash than I did. We have now established that there is actually carpet on her bedroom floor, and even what the color is. Yay for her!

There is still much to do, and I know I don't have to do it all at once, but getting started is the thing. Keeping things going is also the thing. One of my goals is to have my scrapbook room decluttered, stored and organized in such a way that it could be in a photo shoot for a magazine. I don't WANT it in a magazine, I just want it to be PRETTY enough to be in a magazine. I've got the storage, I just need to manage the contents. I did a big dejunk in there a couple of years ago, and it felt great! So great that I want to do it again. It's going to be my summer project.

Here are pictures of the different areas of my scrapbook room.

The craft storage closet--definitely the biggest part of the problem. See the pathetic pile of baby quilt tops and backs? I don't have a way to quilt them. Evie will be here this week and I can't even use them with her. That's a problem I need to solve. Also, the clear fronts of the drawers cause visual clutter. It's nice to see what is in the drawers, but it would also be nice to have them covered in some way. That's another problem I need to solve.

 Scrapbook table--good. Not a problem here

 Sewing table--also good.

Bookshelf containing scrapbook & card magazines, scrapbooks, CDs,  papers to file--could be a problem here.

 Computer table--This sometimes looks worse, sometimes better. I need to file more regularly.

Scrapbook storage. This is great. I love this storage area.

So there is my summer project--make this room look a little neater,  more organized and a little more polished.

Whoosh!

After all the waiting and preparations, Tad had left for his training. He left Sunday afternoon and arrived there about 9:00 pm. These first few days are spent doing paperwork and payroll chores. He had a DOT physical before he left, but for some reason needs another one today. Apparently to get a CDL requires a special medical checkup. Who knew?

Hailey and I spent our first day alone running a few errands and taking care of the usual around the house. Of course, because daddy has left the building, there has already occured a crisis. Our dishwasher picked yesterday afternoon to quit working--mid cycle, and of course, full of semi-clean dishes. Hailey was right in the middle of fixing dinner, needed something out of the dishwasher, popped it open like we often do, shut it again so that it could continue the wash cycle, and water began pouring out of the bottom of the door. Not just a little flood of water, a BIG flood of water. I don't know if something is blocking the inside drain, but the water INTAKE is, of course, still working. Unfortunately the Cancel button refuses to work, so as soon as we close the door, it fills with more water. I had to bail it out twice yesterday to stop the flow of water. This seems like a very dodgy situation, but I cannot see the water shutoff under the sink, nor can I find an external power switch to shut the whole thing off, and it's not on its own circuit, so I can't just flip a switch in the garage. The only thing I CAN do is block it open, but it's very inconvenient and hard to work around. Neither Hailey or I minds washing a few dishes by hand, so we don't have a problem that way, it's just very ironic. Maybe we should have had him pronounce a blessing on the house, as well as us.

Summer has finally arrived, interspersed with cold and rainy days, but the warm days are glorious and I throw the windows open every day to enjoy the fresh air. Tad threatened to install the AC unit before he left, but I gave him the evil eye and he didn't do it. I rarely feel the need to run it, but he likes it. I figure that he'll be here so infrequently that I'm not going to worry about him installing it, at least for a while.

Hailey has been enjoying her summer break so far, spending many afternoons and evenings with her group of friends, or playing night games. I'm glad that she's got such a good group of friends. She is also planning and preparing for Girls' Camp which will be the week after next. Jessie arrives here Sunday evening and Hailey will get to spend a week with her before Girls' Camp, then I'll get to hold Evie part of the following week. I'm going to have to stock up on extra snuggles and hugs with both Jessie and Evie, since as soon as they return to Orem, they will pack their bags and move to Colorado to live with Todd's sister and her family. It will be an opportunity for Todd to find a job, pay off some of his student loans, and eventually find a house for them. It nearly breaks my  heart to think of them being farther away. I'll just have to make plans to go and visit them regularly.

With  Tad being away, I've been thinking and making lists of things to do while he'll be gone, because I'll have so much time on my own. I've got lots of ideas about cleaning and decluttering and even fixing up a few things, once we have a little extra money to play with. I've got a couple of ideas to surprise Tad with, and I'm really excited about them. We'll see  how all of the Crafty Genius plays out.

Getting Ready

Tad is leaving Sunday afternoon for his three week training in Rock Springs, Wyoming. I've been keeping him busy this week doing Honey-Do's. He's cut down 2 trees, cleaned up the yard, moved things around, repaired things and done lots of other manly things. I've been doing his laundry, cleaning the house and doing the cooking. It seems a fair trade.

I've also gotten a few crafty things done in the last couple of weeks. I already posted about Hailey's quilted tote bag. I also sewed 2 aprons for myself. I love aprons. One is a leftover piece of fabric which I found a couple of years ago at Walmart, and if I'd been able to afford yards and yards of it, would have decorated my entire kitchen with it. I love the bright colors and big flowers.

The second apron is a leftover piece from the fabric I actually used to decorate my kitchen--Crazy Daisy. Also bright, also fun, also a favorite.

It's a crazy idea of mine to have an apron for each major holiday. I've already got Christmas and Halloween nailed down, but I'm thinking that I really need one for patriotic holidays, Valentine's, St. Patrick's and possibly Easter. My sister, Jen, also loves aprons. We've tossed the idea of seasonal aprons back and forth on more than one occasion.

Not much else going on these days, but we are looking forward to the arrival of Jessie and Evie next week. It'll be fun to snuggle that cute baby.