Thursday, March 29, 2012

Learning and Growing.

Allison doing her homework:


There are certain things you are told when you are a new parent. "Time Flies" is one of them. And that could not be more true. It really is more of an understatement than true. It speeds by so fast, you barely notice it is happening, and then a new year has begun, then it is 3 years later.. and you are left stunned. Where did all of these years go?
What surprises me these days is the rapid rate of learning that the girls are going through. Allison reads and writes so well. It was just yesterday when we were sounding out words together. It was just yesterday that I was a nervous mom walking Allison to her classroom on the first day of school. And pretty soon, she will start first grade.

And Emily will be in kindergarten. My little Emily!
We got their North Carolina school assignments last week. They will be attending a year round school. For those of you who don't know, Year rounds schools have breaks throughout the year rather than just one long summer break. It is basically 9 weeks on and 3 weeks off throughout the year. We will try it and see how it goes.

They will have their first break in August into September, another break in November, break in February, and another break in May. We will be able to travel to see relatives over Thanksgiving, when we would otherwise not be able. And we hope to go to DisneyWorld in February. They start school early compared to the traditional calendar schools. I am looking forward to having them home and being able to travel at various times throughout the year, rather than one long summer break. Although, there is another part of me that thinks the schedule is very, very weird.
I chose the school first and foremost because I have heard very good things about it. And it just happens to be a year round school, so, off we go! I will be sure to let you all know how we adjust to it.
Change can be a good thing. And we will never know if we don't try.

And with that, I hope you are all well! I am doing ok.. prepping for the move has me a bit overwhelmed, but I am hanging in there and I keep reminding myself of that light at the end of the tunnel, when we will be settled, back in our North Carolina home.

Emily at Bring your Daddy to school day: (I took Daddy's place, because he was in England for work.)

Monday, March 19, 2012

2012 - the year of the vacations.

Yes, that is what I have decided to dub this year.

The first vacation begins when we move on June 2. We are moving our stuff directly to a storage unit in NC. From there, the girls and I head to Connecticut, where we will stay for a month at an apartment in my Uncles house. So, first vacation in Connecticut! A vacation filled with visiting friends and relatives, we are really looking forward to it! Connecticut is where I was born and raised.

Then, we move into our NC house in July. And just a few weeks later, we are lugging ourselves to the beach in Cape May, New Jersey.

And before the end of the year, we are heading to Disneyworld. When is still up in the air. But, Emily will be 5 in June, and Allison is turning 7 in September, and they really seem to be at the height of their love of Disney - princesses, dress-up, and the land of make-believe.
Luckily, we have a place to stay in Connecticut, and we already have a house rented in NJ, so it is just Disney that we need to work out - where we are staying - how MUCH we will be spending. I will need to immerse myself in hotel reviews, not thrilled about it, but it is a must-do.

I hope it is a Happy Monday for you all!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Happy Sunday!

Hi everyone! I hope you all are great!
Things here have been pretty busy.
I have taken on the arduous task of going through every single box in the garage, to prepare for an upcoming garage sale. It is a LOT a LOT of work.

Our house in NC is a lot smaller with much less storage space, so it is time to take a real honest look as to what we have and what we need or can not part with...
We are also getting rid of probably most of our furniture. We will purchase furniture in North Carolina that will better fit our home there.
We took a break yesterday to make some Banana cake. That is a picture of the girls before the kitchen took a turn for the worse - baking with the girls is always a fantastically messy experience!

And the cake turned out sooo yummy. I tried to take a picture of the actual finished product, but truthfully it looked terrible, so I would just rather you take my word for it.

And with that - Happy Sunday!

Monday, March 12, 2012

The lamp, the zoo, and the crawfish

What a strange blog title, huh?

Well, I finished the lamp last night.. and I was just so excited to take its picture, that I didn't even wait for the sun to come out this morning, so I just used the flash and took its picture. I am so happy with the way it turned out. You know, me and stripes go together like peanut butter and jelly, so of course - it is striped!

And after what seemed like days and day of rain, we finally were greeted with blue skies by mid morning yesterday, so we hopped in the car and headed for the zoo.

Allie loves to feed the animals, but Em - not so much. Emily doesn't want to get the animals "boogers" on her! lol!

Emily likes to chase the peacocks that roam freely.

And one of them put on a show for us.. they are really so so very beautiful. I never tire of them.


Then we came back home and walked around the streams in our yard.. some of them are more like a river with all of this rain we have been getting! One of them was easily 12 feet across in places.. And I found this guy lurking.
Can you see the crawfish?

Some people I bet would have loved to catch him and eat him. But, he is not my kind of eatin'.

Happy Monday!

EDITED TO ADD: Wow! That crawfish is REALLY HARD to see! But, I promise he is there!! ha!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Let it burn

In my last post, I talked about how I wanted to branch my Etsy store out into offering more home decor items.

Well, here is my first candle - I think it turned out pretty neat!

This one is for me since this is the first I ever made and I need to test it out first.
This was just your typical pillar candle, that I stuccoed up the side, making it a cozy little home.
I will let you know what happens after the candle is put to use...
My hope is that it can become a pencil holder or a tea light holder after the candle is gone..
We shall see - Fingers crossed!

Happy Saturday!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Art Adventure

The next time you see this lamp and these candles.. they will be made over by moi.

I got this idea when I put this lamp in my garage sale pile...hmm... what if I could stucco it, and paint it.. similar to my style of vases? It might turn out really neat.. I am also going to stucco up the sides of the candle and then burn the candle and see how well it holds up..

So, currently I am in the "testing phase" of some new home decor ideas. I really want to expand my shop to offer a wide variety of functional art. I am excited to try these new ideas.. I will keep you updated on how they turn out!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!