The mother of all sales.....

Oh my...oh my oh my......

I found the best little sale today...garage sale that is. I was just winding my way up the hill after dropping Eli off at kindergarten. Just going for a coffee. I only had $8.00 on me.

I got these cute little charirs....one for $8 and one for $5.
The little red and white kids table and chairs was $10.

These two little sewing needles cards were too cute for me to leave behind...there are still some sewing needles tucked inside. And the little miniature photos? Couldn't leave those either.

I've always wanted a little red wagon for my front porch....so cute with flowers in it.

Some silver serving spoons and baby spoons.....they were a steal!

So many vintage linens....some lovely tea towels, six little aprons that tie at your waist, perfect blue and white tablecloths to go with my drapes, and another lovely little table cloth.

Some cute little old canisters for pocket change...

An embroidered picture representing the seasons...loved the colors.



And finally, an original oil painting that looks really beautiful by my front door.

To make it even better - the people holding the sale were the sweetest group of Grandma's and Grandpa's....commenting on Quinn and Addison and oh so very helpful.

(Oh yes, I did have to find an ATM....)

And so it begins....

School that is....forever and ever. At least until they are 18 or you know 22 or so.

Here is our first on his first day of Kindergarten.

This is his assigned spot to sit....see his little name tag there on the desk. How cute is that. He has a little pencil box that he takes out of his little cubby and puts on his desk each day. We had an actual school supply list this year. That was fun. And we got to buy a backpack. With his name embroidered on it of course.

He has declared that he loves school. Thank goodness for that! His class is small since it is in the afternoon - only six kids. Four boys and two girls. What a change from last year - he was one of three boys in his class. There had to have been maybe nine girls! I think the smaller class size will suit him well...he won't get lost in the crowd.

It is a change for all of us going twice a day every day. No more days where I am just a home body. That's a little sad to me. No more running out of town to Nama's house during the week. All of our running out of town will have to happen on weekends now.

It is a good change though. Eli is very happy and he really does well with the daily play and learning times...something I'm not disciplined enough to give him all of the time at home. He was a little concerned about the lack of toys in his kindergarten classroom though. I told him that he probably did more learning and less playing in kindergarten. Bummer.

A day in the life of a two year old

* I put a fresh diaper on my two year old and get her dressed for the day (in a lovely matching outfit of course)

* "Why, why?" says the two year old

*"Why, why, why, why, why?" says the two year old again as she strips off her shirt

* I go downstairs to change the laundry and return a bit later

* Two year old is now naked (diaper is nowhere to be found) & there is pee on the floor

*"Why, why?"

* Two year old is "why?" now wearing a diaper cover AND panties and her three month old brother's shirt

* Two year old appears in a pretty dress that was previously hanging neatly in her closet...very proud of herself

*"Why?" she asks agaaaaaiinnnnn.....

*Two pairs of pants, three shirts, four dresses and five diaper covers later......

* It is nap time and I put a diaper on the two year old thinking maybe I should duct tape it on

*Nap time is over, diaper is off, pee is in the bed..."Why, why?"

*Two year old runs naked the rest of the day until Daddy gets home and says "Where are your clothes?"

*Mommy looks around and sees the entire contents of two year old's wardrobe scattered in every room of the house

"Why, Why?"

*(Portions of this post may have been slightly exaggerated for effect. The crazed Mommy who has to clean up after said two year old claims artistic lisence.)

*My two kids are gone for three days To Do List*

* Sew nursing cover
* Hang curtain rods & curtains in kiddos room
* Clean, clean, clean my MESSY house
* Rehab a really cool old farm table and chairs
* workout....gotta lose that baby weight
* Rehab a free to me picked up off the street rocking chair
* Repaint little side table
* Give my sadly neglected yard some TLC
* Get Eli's supplies all ready for school (it starts next week!)
* Enjoy my sweet husband
*Fold & put away ALL of my clean laundry
* Search for new curtains for the lake cabin
* Mail out two packages for two sweet ladies

Birthday Weekend

This weekend we went to the lake and celebrated birthdays...not mine although this sweet metal flower was gifted to me by my MIL for my birthday. We celebrated my sister in law's birthday and my father in law's birthday. August and September are birthday months for us. Between the two we celebrate six birthdays!

Here is Aunt Reen holding Quinnie.
(She turned the big 35!)

We celebrated by eating out at a fun little Mexican restaurant in the nearby lake town, enjoying a boat ride with Grandpa Tom to Flat Rock Beach (wish I'd had my camera...thousands upon thousands of perfectly smooth and flat rocks...so cool!), swimming in the cool lake water and visiting a few artist's studio on a local art tour.

Our boat....we are the only ones in the family without a motorized fun boat! Although we think our little raft is pretty darn fun!

I finally finished Addison's little quilt. I just had the binding to stitch up and it made for a fast ride to the lake. She is wrapped up in it here because she had gotten ALL of the clothes we brought to the beach wet.

Here is a finished shot of it....

Now I have a mountain of laundry to do, a very messy house to clean and three little babes to watch after. However, my Momma is taking the two oldest later this week for a few days....projects a comin!

Peace

Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.

My soul waits silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.

God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this;
That power belongs to God.
Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You render to each according to his work.

Portions of Psalm 62

Little Birdies....

Isn't she cute in her little birdie shirt?

This was my first attempt at clothing....boy, I admire all of you who do this!
I didn't use a pattern because patterns kind of scare me.
It is soooo not perfect but from far away I think it is pretty darn cute.
And I learned things.
All in all a pretty fun afternoon.
This is my next project....but I'm a little scared. It talks about a gusset. What the heck is a gusset? I might be in a little trouble here.

Wedded Bliss......

(Us on our honeymoon...how cute and skinny were we? Boy, eight years changes you a lot!)

In honor of this beautiful newly engaged gal (who is doing a lovely little giveaway!) I am doing a post on my wedding with some fun wedding ideas! I'm just squeaking in under the deadline too!

My wedding seems so long ago...it was fun to dig out the pictures (that aren't even in an album) and relive a little! It will be eight years ago on December 21st. It is funny, in my head I keep thinking that we have been married nine but we haven't even hit eight yet.

We were married on a Friday night, four days before Christmas. Greg was just finishing up school that week and originally had a final scheduled for our wedding day! Greg proposed on his birthday (September 15th) so we had a whirlwind of an engagement. Really only three months! We knew what we wanted and didn't want to wait around for anything!

Our church was decorated for Christmas with white twinkle lights and a lot of garland. We really didn't have to decorate the church at all! Nice for the budget!

My taste has changed so much in the last eight years that I would probably do a lot different if I were to do it now but really the only important thing is that my best friend still comes home to me every night and I get to love everyday the three little blessings that our marriage produced.



This is the music I walked down the aisle to.....

Greg walked down to White as Snow by Brad Greene. It was an instrumental piano piece...so beautiful. Just hearing it brings me back to that moment and how I felt.

I loved my flowers...very simple, white and red roses.

Awww...we were so sweet...

My biggest regret with my wedding was with my photographs. This is the one picture I truly love and it was the one pose that I suggested. I don't know what we were thinking when we hired our photographer but I really didn't consider his style at all and his style is not my style. Besides my memories my pictures are what I have to remember this special day and I just do not love them. My biggest piece of advice....don't skimp on pictures...hire the best photographer you can afford and make sure you love, love, love their style!

I bought the second wedding dress I tried on. It fit so perfectly that it did not need to be altered at all! Except that on the big day we realized I did trip a little..and tripping even a little is not okay on your wedding day! My dear bridesmaids are pinning it up for me here.

One thing that was so fun was that the photographer captured the first moment Greg saw me. We did the pictures before the wedding so Greg stood with his back turned as I approached him. He turned around and there I was. I'm glad this sweet moment was captured.

I did love my dress although it is probably hopelessly out of fashion now. the train was long and beautiful....

We worshipped during our wedding and at one point people that had a word from the Lord or a blessing for us gathered on the platform with us to share. That was special.

One of our first dances as a married couple.

Cutting the cake...since it was Christmas the cake was made to look like a big present wrapped in real ribbon. We had candles sitting in glass vases with sugar to look like the snow outside.

So I don't have a lot of great ideas from my own wedding but here are some I've seen...

*My hubby's cousin did this...as the guests arrived, a photographer snapped their picture. We later received a picture of us from the wedding in the mail with a thank you! Her hubby is also a musician and he played the guitar for her as she walked down the aisle...very sweet.

*A variation of the above that was so so cute (found through another blog) was instead of having a guest book the bride and groom set up a little photo area with a chalkboard. For them it was against a quilt backdrop. The photographer took pictures of the guests with their special written message on the chalkboard!

*Now that I am thinking back I do remember that my sister made our guest book....she put photographs of us throughout it which was really fun (although some of the photographs were just terrible and I don't know what she was thinking!)

*I got married in the dead of winter at Christmas which was special but now what would really appeal to me would be an outdoor summer wedding. Surprise, surprise...that is probably what 90% of brides want! I did see a wedding somewhere online though that had the guests sitting on hay bales covered with beautiful old quilts! I love that look! If I were to do it all over again I would want a really casual outdoor country wedding....quilts, fresh farm flowers, lots of ball mason jars and galvanized buckets, twinkle lights hung between the trees, old fashioned soda pop in bottles for the guests to drink, little jars filled with old fashioned candy sitting around, a live band to dance to....

Whatever you do KT, I know it will be perfect for you and your sweetie and beautiful to boot! Hope the blog world was able to give you some good ideas!

Sew happy....

So I'm officially back on a sewing kick. I tend to cycle my crafts....knitting for awhile here, sewing for awhile there, revamping old furniture here and doing all of it halfway and with moderate skill. I recently inherited my Mother's cousin's Mother's sewing machine. Confused? It's okay...the point is I now have a sewing machine that lives here and doesn't travel between my Mom and I.

I had a space at the bottom of my stairs in my basement that had recently been abandoned by it's table. It went to the lake to make the t.v. a little prettier. So today I had this beautiful idea to turn that space into my devoted sewing corner. Does something I do only occasionally deserve a dedicated space you might ask? Hopefully it doesn't turn into a table the kids play at or that gets piled high with the odds and ends that live in my basement.
So here is my new little sewing corner. I kinda like it.

Having my new little machine also got me motivated to finish up this quilt for Addison that I started before Quinn was born. I actually quilted this one instead of hand tying like the first two. Now I just need to finish up the binding. Does anyone want to teach me how to blind stitch? I am terrible at it! I got one side done last night before I realized that the rest of my binding had lotsa spots that were messed up. Out came the seam ripper! So I still need to resew parts of the binding to finish this little baby up!

I am also planning on signing up for a class that works its way through this book.

Happy sewing to all!