Dear Husband

Dear Husband,
It's been 11 years since we first celebrated your birthday together! Just so you know, it doesn't feel that long ago. While eating a piece of the most delicious homemade chocolate cake ever, baked by yours truly, you said you were so glad you married me. I'm not sure if it was the chocolate cake talking, but I'm really happy you married me too. I know birthdays are not that much fun now that we are starting to see grey hair but I must tell you the grey is making you look very distinguished.
I love you! Happy Birthday!
Love,
Your Amazing Wife.

Shop on Vacation

With the studio fully packed, tower of boxes in the living room, and with all around transition happening I decided to flip both shop signs to closed. Once we are moved (still unsure of the exact date yet) and a little bit more organized then the shops will open up again. When it does there will be some wonderful fall things added and the ever so popular snowflake garland will be made and in stock. 

By the way, the studio looks really different all empty - Here are some before and afters:

Delays

Planning anything lately seems impossible. The nights are getting darker faster and soon the leaves will change. I'm getting praises from the kids for letting them start school later, not because they don't like school, but because they love free unstructured days of lounging. Really the only reason for the delay is because of the move but I will let them think it's because I'm a cool mom. With lots of things already packed we are just waiting for some small details. Then there will be pictures of the castle and all the projects - and there will be many. We are looking forward to it all - yes even stripping the wall paper and pulling up the shag carpeting.
Hubbies birthday is this week. The kids and I are planning to make him the most delicious chocolate cake ever. He deserves it - with all my crazy mood swings lately. Now I must go pack away that yarn before I start another project when I have so many to finish already.

Us adults this weekend really didn't have a weekend. Just the word weekend tells you exactly what is suppose to happen. The crazy go go go of the week is suppose to end and slower more relaxed days happen. If I had to put an official name to these "days off" they would be called weekeepgoing. Somewhere the school shopping was finished, kids had their teeth cleaned and sealed, all three got haircuts, school transcripts were transferred, two whole rooms fully packed, furniture sold to strangers, a couple trips to the post office, and one trip to the Dr's. I'm sure there was more that I completely blocked from my memory. Hope this means my week feels more like a weekend!

Winner of Fabric Stash

The random number generator shuffled and spun - out it turned the magical number of the winner.

Congrats to Rachael who won lots and lots of fabric. 

Behind the Scenes

We had a couple productive days off around here. Lots of furniture pieces cleaned out and put up for sale. Finally got around to taking pictures of the linens for the shop. This photo I left unedited just so you can see the behind the scenes - notice boxes scattered all around the living room. I thought about building a maze with them just to keep things interesting but my better judgement told me not to. It's official that the crafting/making has been put on hold until after the move - sewing machine as well as more than 3/4 of the studio has been packed. Things may be quiet, less crafty around here for a bit - but all is well....just a very happy hectic.

Looking Forward Friday

Took a moment today to sketch. Scanner didn't get all the detail, it never does, but it's gray and rainy outside. Not enough light to get a pretty picture. I like the fact that the lines of my sketch aren't perfect, things are bit wonky, but you can get a feel of all the character that must lie inside the walls. 

If you had to name this house a real name, what would you call it?

Ride Home...For Right Now

Lately on the ride home from work I've been seeing new things I never noticed before - like the barn that looks like a bunch of faces or the pedestrian holding flowers sign (What does that mean?! Guess it's a good thing it wasn't on my drivers test). I've also noticed this beautiful pink Victorian with a hydrangea garden in the front, pretty wavy square glass windows on a house by the green, and this cottage looking house with cascading purple flowers by the door - I was just a little too chicken to stop on the side of road to take pictures of other peoples homes. Maybe I'm noticing all these things because this way won't be the way home soon. Which explains my silence this week. I've really tried to hunker down on my free time for packing up boxes and sorting things.You never truly know how much "stuff" you have until you have to move it all.
Every time I pack a box it does feel like a breath of fresh air. I've also got this really great incredibly amazingly awesome idea - it truly is just that wonderful - about a scrapbook for the new home. It's too hard to explain without pictures but I promise to share it ... and hopefully inspire others.

The Weekend

This weekend we savored a bit of summer while it's still here. Watching the Olympics, we ate bowls full of bing cherries, while being awe struck by the sheer awesomeness of these athletes.
The in-laws treated hubby and kids to the family tradition of the air show. One of my quirky things is not liking low flying airplanes over me, it's weird I know, so I love the fact that this is a tradition the kids can have with Rob's family.
There has been more packing and making lists of things to do before the move. Moving was a much easier thing to do before kids and before they were in school - still not sure how people move across country or to another country. Just moving a couple towns over, my list keeps growing and growing of things that need to be done.
While packing I'm pairing down things. It's great when hubby and I agree that we want a fresh start. So today I'm focusing on ironing some vintage linens to put in the shop, taking pictures of furniture that will be put on craigslist or ebay, and just general "why am I saving this?!" cleaning.

Fabric Stash Giveaway

You knew it was coming! I cleaned out my glass cabinet full of fabric goodies, packed away two very overflowing boxes full of fabric that will be moving to the new place and still had a very large pile of fabric (both new and old) left over.

In the pile there are some great old embroidery and cross stitch pieces. Things that would look great cut up and given a new life - also you won't feel guilty for doing so, since most have imperfections. Doilies, both square and round, will be included because for some reason I have just a bit more than one person needs.

 Each piece is a different size - but some pieces are yards long and others may be less than a fat quarter. There was so much that I couldn't even picture it all. But one lucky reader will get the whole stash! If there are pieces you get that, well just aren't your style - can't even think of a possibility for them, feel free to pass them along or host your own giveaway with them.

Here is how to enter :
1. Leave a comment telling me how you would use the fabric if you won.
2. If you are a follower of this blog with google friend connect, twitter, Facebook, Bloglovin', or any other way just leave me one comment telling me how you follow me for an extra chance to win.

Unfortunately due to the weight of all this fabric this giveaway is only open to anyone with a US shipping address. (sorry my international followers but the next one will be open to all). The winner will be randomly selected on August 17th, 2012. Goodluck ♥

Whatcha Working on Wednesday

I've been slowly packing things up and decided last weekend to start on probably the biggest room - the studio. There are a bit of things that I just don't use anymore, never have used, or have way too much of. So after packing up 2 large boxes of fabric - I decided to do a little giveaway of craftiness coming up.
What have you been working on lately?