More curtains

I feel like a lot of my posts lately have been look-at-me-type posts. You know, tooting my own horn. I'm just in one of those project moods where I want to be doing stuff. I go through cycles from time to time, when I'm really excited to make stuff or paint, and then other times when I don't have any desire to do anything.

So, doot doodle doo, here is the valence I made for our kitchen window to match the curtains in our dining room.

As soon as I hung up this valence I LOVED it, which then made me only like the curtains, which then made me sad because I spent so much time on the curtains. What do you all think? If you need to compare just scroll down a little. Overall though, I'm just really excited to have both of them done, because I bought the fabric quite a while ago.

Another project is coming soon, but it's a BIG, no HUGE one so it may take a while depending on the amount of motivation I have.

Seven months old.

To see some cute pictures of Macy click HERE I'm really hoping there's no question as to what the customer name is, but just in case it's SALLY ROLLINS.

Do you play?

So, Josh got me a guitar for my birthday this year which I am really excited about. So excited in fact that I went straight down to the music store to get a book about basic chords and then I went home and snapped one of the strings while I was trying to tune it.

In my defense, Josh didn't tell me that he had tightened all the strings because he thought they were too loose. I was way too embarrassed to go back the next day and ask the same girl for new strings though, so I sat in the car like a little kid while Josh went in for me....so very noble of him.

The first couple of days I was OK with memorizing chords and icing my very sore fingers, but then I got impatient as I always do and went digging through my music to find some actual songs. I want to play and sing.

As a side note, here is a little known fact about me. I Love to sing and seriously wish that I could be Taylor Swift, minus the being a teenager part because who wants to do that again!? Unfortunately not only do I not sing nearly well enough to make a profession out of it, but I'm also a little bit shy when it comes to singing in front of people. I guess I just have to stick to daydreaming in my living room.

Back to the whole point of this ramble... I ended up finding two songs that only have a few simple chords repeated over and over. Concrete Angle by Martina McBride, and Breathe by Faith Hill. I love both of those songs and although Josh has assured me that he isn't sick of hearing them I would like to add a few more to my repertoire.

So, I'm wondering if any of you that play could give me a few suggestions on good beginner songs. My fingers are finally starting to get calloused so now I can practice for more than an hour every other night.

Change is good

I realize that I'm a few days late in posting my first day of school pictures, but aside from the fact that two of my three kids are gone most of the day, I'm still really busy. How exactly does that happen? Where is all the time I was planning to use to clean my bathroom, scrapbook, exercise, read, and play with my baby? Well, wherever it went, one thing is for sure, I've discovered pretty quickly that I'm going to have to downgrade my list....I'm thinking the toilets will be the first to go.

How cute are these two kids!!

Well, it's no secret that I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time, but it turns out that I was not as prepared for it as I thought I would be. I thought for sure I would have a harder time with James going to school than Samm, especially since she went to preschool all last year, but James is one exhausting boy so I was really glad to send him out the door. On the other hand, sending Samm off that first morning was really emotional for me, more so than I would have ever imagined. My little girl is growing up!!!

OK, and just maybe sending her off on the bus with this shady looking character had something to do with how stressed I was that morning.

What happened to the cranky old lady or that fat old man bus drivers?

Well, she made it home so I guess he's OK. Actually she isn't riding the bus in the morning anymore since I have to drive James to preschool, and the afternoon driver is different so you don't have to worry about her at all.

Overall both kids are loving school and Samm even started soccer this week so look forward to some pictures of her first game. She looks so cute with all her gear on. Wow, I guess I really have morphed into . soccer Mom, That's kind of scary, but fun too in a my kids are growing up and becoming fun little people kind of way.

Are you ready for this

OK people, get ready because this is marathon blogging....basically I'm combining about five posts into one, so if your not in the mood for lots of pictures than just move on to a different blog. I won't be offended!

So to pick up where I last left off, here are a few more pictures from my trip to Oregon...

Samm found this enormous blackberry in my parents garden.

We took the kids to a splash park for some outdoor fun.

While we were there my Mom gave us girls some jewelry that had belonged to my Grandmother. These earrings were in the bag and I thought they would make great dress up jewelry. Auntie Jenn glammed her up with the sunglasses and hair piece. Samm liked the curly hair so much that she asked if she could wear it on the airplane. It wasn't until we went through security and Samm set off the alarm twice that I realized how much metal was in it.

The highlight and whole reason for the trip was to welcome home my sister Krista from her mission in Argentina. She had no idea that we were all coming, so it was a fun surprise.

And then there was the fun three plane rides with three kids to get home. At least none of those got cancelled. That happened on the way there.

This pretty much sums up how I felt by the end of the day!

Then, waiting for us at home in our garden was this very large cucumber. It needed to get picked probably a week or two earlier to still be good, but since this is my first attempt at growing any food, I was still pretty excited.

The kids are loving the vegetable garden too.

And finally...DOOTDOODLE DOO (that would be me tooting my own horn Keith!) I just finished a little project that I have been working on since before I left town.

What started out as this...

After many many frustrating hours and a few ripped out seams...

Turned into curtains for our dining room!!!

I don't sew very often, mostly because I get so dang frustrated with the machine, so I'm pretty proud of myself for actually making these curtains all by myself. (Thanks Joni for letting me borrow your sewing machine and curtain panel so I could have something to follow)

So there you have it! I had a really great time in Oregon with my family. Traci and Anne it was great to see you guys too. But it is nice to be back home and now I'm running around crazy trying to get Samm ready for school.