Our Next Move Will Be Upon Us Soon

All of our military moves have been hundreds of miles apart.  Not this time.  This summer, we'll be moving to Charlottesville, VA.  It's a two hour drive from our current house.  We made a little road trip this weekend to check out the town and housing.  It was a pretty drive.  It looks like hiking will be in our future.  Dan really wants to take the kids on an overnight hike.  We shall see...

Dan will be stationed at a facility north of town.  This is the first time we won't be near a military base.  We found a mix of houses, but very little for sale or rent.  We are hoping that'll increase once it warms up or we might end up having to buy.  We made the mistake of going into a model home that was way over our budget and absolutely beautiful.  Dan even commented that we shouldn't have done it.  I have a friend with military connections in the area who will keep an eye out for us.  I've decided to homeschool all 3 kids next year.  It was nice not having to compare areas to school ratings.

After checking out the housing, we drove to a trail near Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.  We had a great time walking on the trail.  Last weekend was weird.  The kids were in short sleeve shorts and even shorts some with snow on the ground.

All in all, it was a great day.  I've been anxious about our upcoming move; so it was good to check it out.  I'm excited to get our orders (next moth or so) so we can start making plans in earnest.

For My Alaskan Friend

I finished another quilt last week.  I love how it turned out.

My friend's only request was a dove.  I love this one with his olive branch.

One is a lonely number, you know, so I gave her two more.

And who doesn't need a little extra sunshine in their lives?

I hid a couple of hearts and a cross in the background.

And it's a little hard to see, but I did a swirly stitch instead of stippling.  It was a lot of fun and actually felt easier because I knew where I need to go next.

Kid's Stitchery Quilt

I finished the kids' project last week and I couldn't be happier.  Well, there's a few things I would do differently, but it has nothing to do with their part and all to do with mine.  I bought some really cool (and super duper expensive) variegated rayon thread and I'm in love.  It worked great to do the writing on the quilt.  I would LOVE to do a whole quilt with nothing but quilted words.

I Want a Gerbil...Says Jaelyn

Jaelyn has been begging to have a nasty little rodent in her room for years, and for years, I've been saying "no" and Dan's been saying "when you can behave with no explosions."  We are quickly approaching the no explosions clause.  She is still up and down like a yo-yo and can be a little toot, but she is controlling herself when it comes to the really out of control behavior.  We haven't had a major screaming fit in a while.  Once she finished her horse and sloth research, she moved on to gerbils.  Are they rodents?  I don't know, but they look like little rats.  Yuck.  She's learned all about them.  She can quote you types of hay and why one brand is better than another.  She has researched prices of cages and accessories to know what she wants.  She knows the type of gerbil and colors that she wants.  We've added "a savings of one year worth of gerbil expenses" to her "behaving" requirement because I'm not paying for it.  Tonight she gave us a presentation with a homemade poster with all sorts of facts and a powerpoint presentation that she put together.  I must say, I'm a little impressed.  If she continues to hold it together and saves about $100 (her estimation), then I think Jaelyn will be the proud momma of two nasty little rodents just as soon as we move this summer.  Of course, the day she forgets to feed them or asks me to clean out their cage will be the day they find a new owner because I'm not being responsible.  Cats and dogs are my limit!

I'll have to get Dan to help me upload her presentation.  I haven't figured moviemaker out yet on the new computer :).

Self Motivated Learning

A Little Bit of Sewing

I needed a present for a little girl's birthday so I thought I'd try something I'd seen on Pinterest. This was only a Pinterest semi-success. I used a pair of Caden's old jeans and turned them into a ruffley girlie purse. Just FYI, rivets and sewing machine needles don't play well together.

Allie was off yesterday; so I decided to spend some extra time with her today. As the typical middle child who is fine spending hours by herself playing with her dolls, she gets over looked a lot. Definitely something I need to pay more attention to. Anyway, she's still asking to sew. I showed her how I made the material for the cat in her quilt and taught her how to do a very basic appliqué. Her cat turned out so well that I decided to do the same project with Caden and asked Jaelyn to make it on her own. Caden loved the project. I'm going to turn their little quilts into a wall hanging for me. We'll call it an early Mother's Day present.

A Little Bit of Snow

So we got a little bit of snow last week....about a foot to be precise. The kids had a 5 day weekend with Presidents' Day today. No one, including me, is ready for school next week.

I finished Caden's quilt.  He loves it which makes me love it even more.

If you look at the stitching on the bear and then this corner you can see how much I improved over the course of the quilt.  I wish I had quilted each section with color that matched the section, even if it had been very time consuming.

I think it looks great hanging in his room.

Do You Want To Build a Snowman?

I think we got the 7-12" of snow the meteorologists were predicting and we aren't done yet.  We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.  Thankfully, it's nice and toasty warm in our house.  Sleet and/or ice are heading our way soon, followed by more snow, so hopefully the electricity continues to stay on.

Gracie was not thrilled that she had to hop through the snow like a jackrabbit to potty this morning.  Her knee didn't like it.

The snow did something weird on the partially frozen lake.  Those are some crazy ducks and geese!

Jaelyn's New Shadow Box

Jaelyn chipped in and helped buy a printer's drawer off Ebay to turn into a shadow Box.  She was so excited the day it came in the mail.  It was filthy, dirty.  Step one was cleaning.

We decided to paint it white and back each hole with a different color paint chip.  The kids got a little out of control the day I turned them loose at Lowes.

Jaelyn learned how to spray paint and distress wood.

It's going to take her years to find the perfect memory for each little hole.  This dragon came from our last Thanksgiving at Medieval Times.

We found these sweet knobs to go on the bottom for ribbons and awards.  As soon as the snow clears and I can get to Lowe's for shorter screws, we'll get them attached. :)

Allie's Getting Crafty

Allie tends to be like a bull in a china shop for many activities. Teaching her to ride a bike made me swear I would not teach her to drive. While Jaelyn showed interest in sewing, Allie never has. She never had until recently, that is. With a lot of trepidation over breaking my recently repaired sewing machine, I helped her make a bag today. I was happily surprised at how focused she was. She listened and watched while I demonstrated. It was impressive, especially since it was late afternoon when her medicine had worn off. She made a very basic grocery sack style bag. I'd say she did 95% of the sewing.

As if sewing wasn't enough, I also let Allie wield a can of spray paint today. That's seriously scary. My mother in law gave me a mirror that used to hang over Dan's Grandpa's dresser. It's beautiful, solid wood, and heavy. Can you believe we spray painted it? I'm nuts, but Allie wanted a mirror for her room and Joan said I could take it and paint it. It turned out really well and I imagine she'll spend hours primping in front of it in the years to come.

Finished

I have close up pictures that I'll pull off my good camera later, but for now I wanted to share Caden's quilt all hung up. There are some things that I should have done differently with the quilting thread color, but overall, I'm really happy with it. I love how the blocks bleed into each other rather than being rows of blocks lined up (as my inspiration quilt was). I also tried a new rectangular stitch that I really like for a boy instead of a curvy, girly stipple. Caden's favorite parts are the pockets I added at the end. They make it special and personal since he loves to carry around his treasures in his pockets.

The Big Ninety

I just realized today is a big day and then I jumped up and down and squealed while Dan and Jaelyn looked at me like I was crazy (well, let's be honest, I probably am a tad bit crazy).  When we started school in September, I never thought I'd make it a month.  There was a day I literally got in the car and drove away sobbing to get space between me and Jae.  She's driven me absolutely batty, but it's also been a joy to watch her grow and learn and want to learn more.  Yesterday afternoon, when she could have been doing anything she wanted, she brought me the chapter book we've been reading and asked if I'd read with her.  This is a girl who HATES to read.  Anyway, back to the title.  Kids go to school 180 days a year.  Today is Jaelyn's 90th day of school - hump day for the school year - and I have no doubt we'll make it to the end.  I think we might deserve a ride on a camel or at least a visit to the cupcakery to celebrate!

T-shirt Yarn Love

Jaelyn needed a new bag to carry her piano books and I had a bag of T-shirt yarn I'd made from the girls' outgrown summer shirts. Three hours later and I might just keep it for myself because it's so cute.