Quilts

I first learned to sew quilts the summer of 2001. I visited my aunt and cousin in Texas and was looking for something to do. So, they set me up with some scrap material and taught me the basics. It was an instant fit. I ended up making a small quilt during my visit and my mom bought me a sewing machine when we got home. I've made several quilts since and have branched out to try all sorts of patterns. It's a really fun hobby and something I find relaxing (most of the time).

I wanted to make something special for my first niece. So, for Christmas 2010, I found my sister's old doll bed in my parent's attic. I fixed it up and made a pillow and tiny quilt for it. I had so much fun, that I made Laura a matching quilted blanket.

 The pattern reminds me of a magic carpet. She sleeps with it every night, which is so special to me.

 When niece #2 was born in August 2011, I had to make her her very own blanket too. I went with colors from her nursery and this was created in my newly organized "middle bedroom" craft room.

 I think this pattern is called waterfall. It's super easy and fun to make.

Holding Emily the day she was born.

 When Philip and Amanda were expecting their first baby (brother and sister in law), I knew I had to make her a quilt too. This was niece #3 and Amanda even let me use some of the fabric she had picked out for the nursery.

 Here's the finished product, I think it turned out great. 

 And this one is two-sided.

 I hope to make even more quilts in my new Office/Craft Room.

Foster Care Update

We passed our final inspection Monday night with flying colors.  We filled out the little remaining paperwork and the lady putting together our profile has been working ahead of schedule.  Instead of it taking four weeks . . . it may be only two!  That means we could have our licence the week after next!

Another exciting thing is we learned of a potential placement of two siblings that need to change foster homes (the foster parents are retiring).  So, we're looking into that more to see if it's a good fit for us.  This is all becoming more real.

I need to post some updated pictures from the kid's room.  I painted some cute animals to hang on the walls and we have a crib set up.  We even have more books on our shelf. :)  Another huge THANK YOU to everyone that has so generously given us/let us borrow their baby gear!!

Camping

Adam and I went camping in O'Leno State Park in April. This was the first time camping just the two of us and we had a great time. The weather was perfect - cool at night and warm during the day. We only camped one night, it was pretty last minute.

Our set up.

 I prepared some foil pack meals to be easily cooked over the coals. Adam may make fun of me, but half the fun of camping is the food. Heck, half the fun in most things is the food. Anyway, for dinner I combined chopped chicken, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, carrots with olive oil and lemon juice. Then you double wrap it in the foil for the fire. It turned out great. I made so much that we ended up with four packs and made two for lunch the next day.   And of course we had smores for dessert.

 We also had breakfast in foil packs - sausage paddy on the bottom, then put shredded potatoes to form a "nest", then crack an egg in the "nest". It was a great breakfast - we each had two.

 We went hiking along the Sante Fe river drop. This is where the Sante Fe river goes underground. It pops up further south and stays above the ground. It was beautiful hiking and a fun bridge. The water level was low, but it was high enough for the gators to be around.

The sun looked so pretty coming through the leaves.

Gator bait!

 We had a great time and would love to get a group together next time.

Foster-moon Cruise

You've heard of a Honeymoon, and maybe even a Baby-moon. But, we went on a Foster-moon! Inspired by some friends that took a trip before their first baby was born, we decided we wanted a little vacation too. We could have children in our home next month and will not have the freedom we're so used to. So, I scoured the internet for a good deal and ended up booking a 3-night cruise on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Sea. It left our of Port Canaveral and went to Nassau and their private Island Coco Cay.

 We headed out May 18th and had the best time. True to form, half the fun was the food. We got to dress up every night for a fancy dinner and went to a nice restaurant for a white-tablecloth breakfast. And if you can't decide which dessert - get both. Amazing I didn't gain any weight, guess it was good it was only 3 nights.

The entertainment was great and the poolside was relaxing. We spent one day lounging around the boat reading books and the other day kayaking, snorkeling and napping on a lounge chair on their private island. What a great chance to get away . . . I guess we're ready for the kids now.

Before dinner on the first night.

Beautiful Coco Cay.  This was my favorite day - perfect weather.

I found a hermit crab walking by my lounge chair and Adam caught him for me.

 The Monarch of the Seas, really enjoyed the ship.

 Dressing up for formal night.

The sunrise on our final morning.  This was taken from the port hole in our room - beautiful.

P.S. We passed our inspection on Monday with no problems!

File Cabinets

My Dad is currently building new furniture in his home office. As a result, he generously gave us his old wooden filing cabinets. They were in great condition, but didn't match the scheme of my newly decorated office. So, I told him I wanted to paint them white. He didn't like it. He warned me that it was a mistake and the wood was a better look. I like the look of natural wood, but it just wouldn't work in the room. So, I painted it anyway. Sorry Dad - but I love the way it turned out.

 Here's the before picture. Nothing wrong with it, but just not what I wanted. We actually got two, so there is still one unpainted in the closet. Although, he did say now that I painted one, I should go ahead and paint the other so they'll match. But, I haven't gotten to that yet.

 Now it matches my new desk perfectly and creates extra desk space by holding my sewing machine. I love it and it is wonderful for file storage. We were using several plastic file boxes before, it's much easier having drawers, maybe we'll keep things filed now.

Second Week of July

We finished everything we need for the Foster Care license and scheduled our final two inspections this week.  On June 4th, we have our inspection with the county and June 11th is our inspection with Florida Baptist Children's Home.  Then, Florida Baptist will complete our profile and turn it into the state . . . which may have everything turned around by the second week of July!  That means we could get our foster care license and have children in our home NEXT MONTH!  Wow, that's coming up.

Our New Office/Craft Room

Since we're converting the middle bedroom into a kid's room, I need a new home for my craft stuff. I want to have a place to sew or scrapbook. When we were in the condo, I used the Dining Room table. It worked fine, but was a huge mess whenever I was in the middle of a project. It's not so fun to have to clean up everything if you're having someone over.

 Now that we're in this huge house, I want to create a place where I can create. A place where my fabric and stickers can have a permanent home and be easy to find. A place that has a large work surface to spread out. A functional space. Looking around the house, it was easy to find the "non-functional" space. The office.

 We had a desk that I used in college (9 years old) set up with a desktop computer. We use a laptop most of the time and only used the desktop when printing. So, this desk went largely unused. It also had a built-in hutch that hogged all the work space. It was the place to stack papers and mail, hoping the filing fairy would come while we slept. The room also housed a Foosball table. This was a great freebie from my parents, but it just made the room too crowded. We have some bonus space upstairs and it would make a perfect game room/play room accessory whenever we build it out.

 Here's the desk after we first moved in.  We kept the top cleaner, but the desk looked about like that most days.

The room right before the renovation.

We sold the desk on Craigslist and did some shopping online.  I found the perfect desk from Ikea. They also had a great priced shelf with basket pull outs. We already had our college diplomas framed & hung and we received a panoramic picture of the Florida field from a friend who was redecorating. This inspired my gator theme. I didn't want it to be tacky or over the top, but more subtle. I also got some storage containers for the shelves, the short one is the new "in box", no more stacks of un-filed mail.

 There are pictures of our college friends in the frames below the stadium picture.  I've cleaned the clutter around the floor of the bookshelf, but didn't get a picture after.  I also put my yarn stash in that tin basket to place next to the chair.

My sewing machine with cover is on top of the file cabinet.

Our framed diplomas.

Adam built me another shelf in the Office closet, so we were able to keep books up on the wall and bring my craft drawer stack to the closet.  Organization makes me happy.

 So, what do you think? Did I pull out my goals? We are both very happy with the result and I can't wait to create in my new space.