Spring..In Videos & Pictures

Remember back in January, my solemn oath to blog more...I think we can see how well that has panned out. But life has been ever so busy around these parts & I am trying. I've made notes in journals & notebooks of things to blog about or what needs photographed because it was a good recipe or craft. Teaching full time, managing the household & every day life has just caused the lack of time to sit in front of my computer and blog.

So maybe it will be easier to describe, through pictures and a video or two, what we have been up to. I'm also hoping that with this three day weekend, I can post some of the fun crafts Miss Mia & I have been up to because they really are cute!

First picture- Our entire household participated in some way in the Houston Rodeo & Cook-off. Hubby's work sponsored one of the cook-off tents, which gave us & 2 of our besties free tickets, free food & free beverages & free tickets to the rides. It was so much fun! We tried fried oreos, which although lethal are heaven sent! We also took Miss Mia & her cute cowgirl self to the rodeo, stock show & petting zoo. Just loved this picture of my little cowgirl in boots, hat & plaid Ralph Lauren dress (that her Mommy scored for $5!) & a book about animals. We used the book as a sort of I spy game for the petting zoo.

Second picture- In March, when I was on Spring Break, Miss Mia & I loaded up the Jeep and headed to West Texas for a few days with Nana & Pawpaw. Pawpaw has recently acquired about 10 new horses & after the rodeo, Miss Mia is all about them! So we took her out to the pastures to feed them apples, oats and carrots.

Here is our little horse feeder on the back of my Grandad's pick up truck. I need to peruse the archives because somewhere is a picture soo similar of me about the same age on the back of the same truck! It is scary how much can can look like my younger self sometimes.


In April, we took a family camping trip to Lake Somerville. Miss Mia spent the night in Granma & Granpa's trailer. Hubby & I camped in the tent fairly old school, but with air mattresses. (I'm only going to go so far!) It was a good weekend for camping. The nights were cool & we swam and took the canoe out in the lake. Very fun but tiring weekend.

As for the promised video, for Valentine's day, Hubby came home with mint chocolates. Which would have been good enough..but then he whipped out 2 tickets to one of my FAVORITE singers! My love for all things British runneth over into musical acts. I discovered Bobby Long over a year ago through friends and a recommendation in an article of a singer I already liked. Bobby came to Houston last September, but we were out of town for the show, thus I had to go this time. Hubby took me early, we went to my favorite restaurant Downtown & then headed off to the concert. At the concert, my ever chatty self befriended Bobby's merchandise guy and learned that Bobby would be staying around after the concert. He put on a wonderful show & then, just like the merch man promised, we got to meet Bobby. He signed by album (yeah, I bought the vinyl like an old-school nerd!) and took pictures and talked with us.

So for those of you who haven't heard of Bobby Long, let me help you out with one of my favorites:

Crafting Progress

A small update on the progress of my first craft project of the year. Here are the postcards that I have chosen to use for the vintage postcard calender that I have previously written about. These postcards are from my collection that has accumulated over the past few years. My favorites are the postcards that were sent to members of my family. The postcards from Washington DC and Egypt were sent to my great-great aunt Catherine from an aspiring suitor! Oh the scandal! In case you are wondering, she never married him. In fact she never married. But he sent her lovely postcards from his travels and always ended with, "I see your face in every flower and moonbeam!" Pretty heavy stuff for 1927. The other postcards are to various people that I have no relation to but found in antique stores across the country. A strong coincidence is that two of the cards (from Venice) are sent to the same lady within a month of each other to a lady in Roby, Texas. For those of you who aren't familiar with the thriving metropolis of Roby, its a small town of less than 1500 in West Texas. I bought one of the Venetian postcards to the Robyite in Lubbock and another in Holland, Michigan! Isn't that weird? Not sure how the one ended up in Michigan.

Now that I have selected the postcards, I need to buy my index cards and date stamp, stamp the dates on the cards, and then arrange in a chosen basket. I am very excited to see how it all turns out.

Year of Crafts

A few days ago, I wrote that one of my resolutions was to make more handmade in the following year. As I was surfing the blogworld, I found a few women who broke down their resolutions into monthly increments. I thought this was such a great idea, especially when making things. So here is my breakdown of things to make in 2011:

January- Vintage Postcard Calender- such a great idea & so easy!
February- Camera Strap- my camera strap is in serious need of love. Hubby has requested that I not make the fabric too girly, as he takes lots of pictures with the camera too!


March- Cover for my sewing Machine- My poor little machine needs a cover so badly. I love how Jade over at Chikaustin made this cover with vintage pillow cases & other fabric.


April- Make homemade roast chicken. I have always wanted to roast a chicken and create my own stock. I will do this! Plus, Nigella (oh, yeah we are so on a first name basis) has the best recipe!

May-Entryway- Our entry way needs some TLC. All we have in it at the moment is an old church mirror. I am looking at antique stores and thrift stores for an old metal R...I have plans!

June- Miss Mia's wall art- Miss Mia's big girl room has been in owls. With the new house, she has extra wall space and needs a big statement piece. I have a large canvas that I got for 75% off at Micheal's. I've been talking to Hubby and I have an idea for what I think I would want. Picture a big owl in corresponding room colors with Miss Mia's name on the bottom. This project will take help from the Hubby who is MUCH more artistic than I am. He has already sketched it out and it will be beautiful!

July-Homemade pesto- with the summer comes the herb garden and so much basil! I have wanted to make homemade pesto for years. Every summer I say that I am going to make it and then usually get some from a friend. This year, I am going to make my own, and freeze extra to have in the winter months!

August-Sock monkey- I have seen these everywhere & really want to make one. We have quite a few friends expecting kids in early August & I think a sock monkey is a great gift idea!


September- Craft Space- Right now all of my craft supplies are in big boxes in my closet. It is quite the challenge to get everything out when I need to hem something or make a quilt baby blanket for one of Miss Mia's "babies." I'm not sure where this is going to happen but I have some ideas. Love these ideas that could just be somewhere in a corner!


October- T-shirt quilt- This is of my father-in-law holding his Christmas quilt from his mother. He is Michigan State grad and she made him this t-shirt quilt for Christmas. (Word has it, our family is in for a Texas Tech version! woo hoo!) I have seen these before and loved the idea, especially for the special shirts that I don't wear anymore, like those from high school. I graduated from a small school where everyone participated in virtually everything. I have state cross-country shirts and basketball playoff shirts that are sitting in boxes in my parents house. My brother is the same. So I've been working with my mom to get big brothers football and basketball shirts from his golden days and turn them into a scrapbook quilt. Very excited! Mom is also excited, in that I have 5 boxes of shirts as does big brother...that is 10 boxes folks that are cluttering up her closet!



November- Crocheted Blanket- this blanket is destined for Miss Mia's 4th birthday! Its a tiny bit ambitious b/c there is a tiny flaw- I don't know how to crochet! Oops...But I bought some DIY books at Half Priced Books and have a tutor. The idea is to make the basic design & add extra white around the edge every year. Very excited to get started.


December- Christmas stockings for the family- I have a stash of vintage pillowcases and fabric that have a holiday flare. I have yet to use them but think that I want to make Christmas stockings for the family. The past few Christmases we have had some fairly generic store bought stockings that matched our tree skirt. We changed out the skirt this year and the stockings need to follow!

Snatcher

Since I was young, my parents have called me their "little snatcher." With only one sibling, eight years older than myself, in many ways I was like an only child. I was and am physically similar to my mother, except a MUCH taller version. My personality, however, is the spitting image of my father. Fairly short fused, very sarcastic, somewhat quick witted, and in love with all things old and historical. Some of my earliest memories are going to antique shops when I was 4 or 5 and helping my parents look for treasures. These treasures included old books, old toys from their childhood and various odds and ends. When I got into junior high and high school, my room was adorned with pictures of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents as children and young adults along with other favorite antiques. My friends always thought it was funny that I would have antiques and old history books next to posters of my favorite athletes or other more current teen-age pursuits.

My earliest antiques were usually those that I found throughout our house. Maybe Mom & Dad didn't really need that box on the coffee table. It was obviously better destined for my room and on the top of my antique trunk.

Here I am years later, and I am still "snatching" from my parents. Over Thanksgiving, I snatched a few new items for my bookshelf at home from my parents room. In my defense, they didn't even notice it was gone until I fessed up! So, what did I take? I took my Grandad's old camera. I wanted it for several reasons.

One being, its a beautiful peace, good conversation starter, etc. Two, it belonged to my Grandad when he was young. It was the camera that he used on his honeymoon with my Grandmommie. Thirdly, I played with this camera all growing up. It was the camera we played with as kids when we visited the grandparents farm. Its my new favorite thing to have in my house and on our bookshelf.

Happy snatching!

Miss Mia 2010

A look back at our sweet Miss Mia throughout 2010...from Norman, Ok to Houston, Texas and everywhere in between, she has been the best trooper. No matter where she lived, she rolled with the punches, changed schools, gained new friends, changed churches, and came out of living with Nana for 2 weeks with minimal spoilage! ha!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Is it just me or did 2010 only comprised of 4 months? This year flew by but in some ways January 2010 seems so long ago. 2010 rocked our family. For the controlling, type A girl that I am, it was quite the learning experience. We lived in 5 different places this year, both changed jobs, changed states--lots of changes. If someone would have told me last January that in one years time, I would be writing from Houston, I would have laughed and told them they were crazy. Living in Houston was always one of my "I'll nevers!" (I.e..The good Lord likes to mess with this type-A girl who has said, "I'll never live in Houston!" Look where I live..For the record I also said "I'll never get married or have kids before I'm 30." Reality, I was married at 20 and had Miss Mia at 24.) One of my resolutions is to stop saying, "I'll never," because I think God is messing with me. ha!

My little, Houston based family spent our New Years Eve together. The in-laws watched Miss Mia most of the day so we could help Hubby's sister install hardware on her kitchen cabinets. Then Hubby & I had a little date to the movies. Then we all came back and stayed up to watch the ball drop and be silly with the late hour.
Today we spent the day again with the in-laws. For lunch we made a sausage and shrimp boil that was beyond fabulous. One of the best parts of living in Houston (yes, I said there are good parts) is fresh seafood and Chapel Hill, Texas sausage!

As for resolutions, which I love making, and kept 3 out of 4 this past year, I have narrowed them down to the following:
1) Make more handmade instead of buying. One of the things we tried to do this past year was make most of our gifts and it was so great. I'm already making my brother's Christmas gift for next year.
2) Finish my book- deadline is this summer, and I have book promotions in April..lots to do
3) Build and strengthen new relationships. With moving to a new city where I knew no one but my in-laws, I am so thankful that we have found a great church with amazing people. We have already made some great friendships, but I am hoping they will grow even more this year!

I also love that some people pick a word for the year and I’m thinking I will go this route too. My word for 2011 is Transform. I am in a new stage in life with many new projects in the year and I hope that I can take on these tasks. (Also helps that I just finished an amazing Bible study called Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed.)

While 2010 was the year that I learned the most about myself and what my little family is made of, I am hoping that 2011 will be a bit more gentle! Happy New Year!