What we've been doing...

Well, we've been packing and enjoying the summer days (although I'm still and work and Joel just found out he's teaching a class for the June term). I've packed up what I can - the things that we can live without (other than some of our clothes and such that we're just going to put in the car as is)...now we're down to the things that really can't go into boxes- for example kitchen items - until I don't want to cook for us anymore!

Joel and I also had a conversation about how we shouldn't unpack boxes that have been packed! He's been warned! :)

On Sunday we headed to Athens for me to meet with a principal. We took the opportunity to look around and enjoy some time there. It was a quick trip...headed down Sunday afternoon and came back Monday afternoon. The meeting with the principal went well...they just don't know if they'll have any positions because of the budget and such. So if you get the notion to pray, please be praying for a job for me! Thanks!

Here are a couple of pictures of the famous Arch at UGA. I didn't take these pictures...but thought you might enjoy them.

The Arch is the official walking entrance to the campus. It is on the north side of campus and separates downtown from the start of campus grounds. This view of the arch is from a person standing on campus looking into downtown.

This picture came from here.

This view from the arch is standing in downtown looking onto campus. Same place...just a different view.

This picture came from here.

Hope things are going well for you. Are you enjoying the summer (before it gets blazing hot!)?

Big Weekend

So last weekend was fun and eventful. The biggest event was graduation. Graham has officially graduated from high school!

On Friday afternoon before graduation Graham had a little get together with family to celebrate the big event. I made some cute graduation cap candy things...instructions found here...

Close up of the hats...notice the orange and blue tassels for the school's colors!
(They were fun to make but messy!)

On Saturday we got to keep our niece and nephews. We had a good time playing outside until it started raining! After lunch we watched a movie and enjoyed being inside for a while.

How was your weekend?

Yard Sale!

So this week has been pretty crazy. Monday night we got to go to my parents house and visit with my sister who was in town for just that night. We ate hamburgers and played some games. Then on Tuesday night we watched the movie Deja Vu with Denzel Washington in it...if you haven't seen it go rent it this weekend. It is a really good movie (Of course pretty much all the movies I've seen with Denzel Washington in them are good). Then Wednesday night we had LOST, which was good, but it was mostly just an episode to set up for the Finale...2 hours next week! Last night we got to go and play with some kiddos and start preparing for the yard sale. Which brings me to my next point...

YARD SALE

If you are in town on Saturday morning you should swing by the second house on the right on Hiwassee. It is three families worth of items...should be some good things. Hope to see y'all out there!

Pillows...

Finally, I am posting the pictures of the pillows that Kelli and I made for Mom. I think they turned out really well. It was my first time to do a buttonhole, and I think they look pretty good :)

If you'll notice the couch they are being shown on...that is our new couch. We got it at Flexsteel, and we love it. It is SO comfy!

Here they are...you are able to see what the front and back's look like here. The bigger pillows have 4 buttons instead of 3.

Here you can see our new couch...doesn't it look comfy?

Close up of the front.

Close up of the back.

By the way...isn't it a beautiful Friday?

Bad Blogger award goes to...

So obviously I've been a bad blogger lately! I looked at it this morning and realized it's been almost a month, to be exact just two days shy of it! How awful! To make matters worse lots of things have been going on. I have more birthday pictures to post, pictures of the pillows I helped make for my mom, and big news to share.

Unfortunately the pictures mentioned above will not be posted today because I don't have them with me! I promise to try to get those up soon...

So the big news. Most people already know, but Joel has officially decided to pursue his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Georgia in Athens. We are pretty excited about all of this, but we are also nervous. We found an apartment a couple of weekends ago and are just trying to get everything else in order to be ready for the move in July. Still don't know the exact date of the move yet, hopefully will know sometime soon. We've been furniture shopping and I've been hoarding any good packing boxes I see!

So I guess that's an update for now. Again I'll try to do better and post those pictures soon!

Hope all is well with you.

Busy Weekend

We were able to celebrate two birthdays, visit with family, and help a couple of new people discover LOST this weekend. Joel's birthday was yesterday and our nephew Sanders birthday is Wednesday. We had a combined party on Saturday complete with two cakes and gifts. I only have pictures of Joel's cake today...but more to come I promise.

Joel's LOST cake...if you don't watch Lost you won't get it.

Side view...

Last night we got Nathan and Deborah to watch the first two episodes of LOST, and we sent them home with the DVD set of the first season. Hopefully they'll get hooked on it!

Hope you had as good a weekend as we did.

Chocolate Chips...Yummy!

On Monday I was perusing through my usual reading of the blogger dashboard when I came across this new recipe on Our Best Bites. Once I realized I already had EVERYTHING I needed to make the chocolate chip cookies at home, I naturally decided I'd make them, that night.

So here is the recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Go check it out, and then immediately go make them. Just do it!

Snow...

Ok, so I'm behind. We had snow on Sunday, but I couldn't get the pictures ready to post until today. Now for those of you not from the south this may seem like nothing, but for us it is AMAZING! Haha! It has been at least 8-10 years since I have seen snow actually accumulate and stick! So here it is:

This is at about 6:30 a.m. when the snow was still falling. (Picture taken through the window because it was too cold to go out!)

Scene from out the front door.
Looking out toward the pasture.

This is around 9 a.m. It had stopped falling, and we went out and threw a couple of snowballs.

This was too much fun for us. Hope y'all had a great weekend too!

So...

I promise I'm still here. It's been a week since my last post...sorry about that. Anyway, I do have several projects in progress with a couple of family birthdays coming up and the secret sister project we have going on at church. I'll try to update soon on some of those projects.

On Monday I ordered this book...Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I can't wait for it to get here. It shipped yesterday, so hopefully sometime next week! I have read many reviews of the book on amazon and on other blogs and it sounds like a book to really be excited about. Over 40 patterns in the book. Right now I think the first one I'll try is this as seen on Film in the Fridge Blog. I'm nervous to be making clothes for myself, but I'm hoping it'll turn out great. Just from the pictures the shirt looks GREAT!

So I'll keep you updated on that front as well. Hope you're having a great Over the Hump Day!

Great find

On Sunday afternoon Joel and I headed to the local JCPenny. Now I have to be honest, most of the time it is hard to find anything good in there, but we were up for the hunt since they were having a 65% off sale!

Anyway, Joel was able to get some new khakis and a belt, and I found a cute shirt. It's like a rosey maroon color. It's different from the other shirts I have in my closet so I was excited about that too. But wait, the best part was that it was on sale for more than 65%! I got a shirt that usually sells for 36 or so dollars for $6! That's what I call a steal. I wore it yesterday, and I really like it.

So there is my exciting news. What's going on with you?

Finally finished!

I actually finished my quilt on Wednesday night, but I wasn't able to get it washed or take pictures until last night. But finally I am able to show you the completed quilt. I'm so excited with how it turned out, I really love it. It is super warm and snuggly, especially after washing (and it smells so good, I got the Gain Joyful Expressions detergent last time I bought detergent, and I am LOVING the new scent).

So here goes:

Front after washing

Back before washing (see some wrinkles)

Back after washing...look at all that wrinkly goodness!


Here is one of the front corner...I was pretty proud of the way my corners turned out since this is my first time to do binding like this. I like it!

And here is one corner from the back. Again, pretty pleased with how it turned out.

So there it is. What do you think?

Ragged Squares Quilt

I started working on this project last week and got sidetracked, so unfortunately it's still not complete. But I have been meaning to show these pictures for a while now. So here goes...

My version of the Ragged Squares Quilt as seen over at Crazy Mom Quilts:

All of the fabric is from Moda the Bistro line by Deb Strain. My sister-in-law Deborah started my stash of this fabric, and then I found the whole line at a little quilt shop that I happened to go into. I was very excited to get more pieces.

Layer 1

Layer 2

Top all put together.

I'm excited about this quilt. I think it'll be a good size for me to cuddle up under. I am also excited about the back (sorry no picture yet) because it is mostly a green color with a blue strip down the center.

It looks a little crazy with all of the patterns, but I really like how it all comes together and goes together.

Hope to finish the quilting this week and then I'll post those pictures.