Sunday, July 5, 2009

Anniversary Trip to Helen, GA

I ordered myself a birthday present. Two new books that I really wanted, one that is now available, and one that won't be available until August, are expected to arrive Aug. 17- the day before my birthday! I really wanted both, but I couldn't get free shipping unless I spent $25, which would be buying them both. So I ordered them hoping the one would come right away and the other one when it's available, but it said they'd come in one package by Aug. 17. Oh well, I am excited for them to come! They are Ana Paula Rimoli's crochet book and Amanda Blake Soule's Handmade Home book.

There is an interesting movie I heard about, seems to be big in MN- Fresh, all about the food we eat. I'd like to see it, but looks like I'd have to buy it or go to another state. They said there were a bunch of other food movies coming out soon too.

I am going to post some pictures of our trip! For our 4th anniversary we went to Helen, GA. It's a little tourist town in the Blue Ridge Mountains made to look like a European town in the Alps. First, we stayed at Lucille's Mountaintop Bed and Breakfast, which was really nice. Turns out Lucille, the lady who owns it, is from Bethlehem, PA! Weird! She went to Moravian College.
Views from the porch at the bed and breakfast.


Watching the sunset from the porch.


The view from our bathroom window.

Our first night we ate at The Vines restaurant. At our hotel we saw a menu and I really wanted the vegetable lasagna. When we got there the menu was different and they didn't have that.. so I tried the eggplant parmesan for the first time. It was pretty good! Then we went to the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen and got some jelly bellies.

The next day we went to a soap store. The B&B had handmade soaps from a local place called Greenstone Soap Company. They are made with natural materials and essential oils. We bought a few small things.


Then we went to a coffeeshop called Sweetwater Coffeehouse. They have fairtrade items and I bought a bag that was handmade in Ghana, Africa (where Joel has been) for a company called Global Mamas. They help support women in Ghana. My bag was made by someone named Esther and Eli-Emma! It's cool to see pictures of the women who made the bag I am using!


Then we went miniature golfing! We realized we had never been miniature golfing together. We had fun and Joel wanted to do it again, but neither of us got a hole-in-one when we could've gotten a free game. I got a hole-in-one on another hole! We ended up tying in the the end!



Then we visited some shops. We went to The Glass Blowing Shop. The day we left, Joel was watering the garden and a hummingbird came to explore. While we were on the porch of our B&B in Helen we saw some hummingbirds. We decided to get a hummingbird feeder when we got home. Well, we liked the ones in the glass shop so we got one there. We already filled it up and hung it outside. I hope we get some visitors!


Then we walked around some more and visited a store called Scandinavian and European Import Company. They had all kids of little things from Europe. I bought a Dala horse and a little straw ornament. I saw a mug that I got from Grandma! There were a lot of neat things to get.


We didn't go on a horse and carriage ride this time. We did that for our honeymoon in Savannah, but not here. But we did go to the Live Tarantulas Gallery!! We watched a video all about tarantulas and spiders. Ick! Tarantulas are not really dangerous to humans, but other spiders are like the banana spider and the black widow. Here are some live spider pictures:
This last one is the Goliath Birdeating spider. It's the biggest spider and can get to be as big as a dinner plate. Sick!! They also had a scorpion, some lizards and iguanas, and a huge albino snake.

After that we went to Dahlonega. We were going to pan for gold, but it was getting late and we wanted to be home earlier. So we ate at a yummy restaurant (I had vegetable lasagna) and then went home. As we were leaving Dahlonega I noticed that our gas light was on. I remembered that we were low on gas coming to Helen and we drove a bit since then. We had no idea how long the light had been on but Joel said we better turn around because the next gas station would be in our hometown! So we did. Joel put it in neutral every chance he got and we turned off the air conditioning. We made it safely to the gas station!

When we got home, the cats were lonely, but we saw my yarn all over the living room, dining room, and bedroom! And the project I was working on was under the table! Eustace!!!


We made some sugar water and hung up the hummingbird feeder.



And, while I was watering the watermelons and Joel was watering the ivy behind the house, a black widow spider crawled out!! I called for Joel and he came over. We watched it for a while and brought it to the pavement with the watering can, and then Joel killed it. We just watched a video about spiders and how black widows are one of the dangerous kinds and then I found one! That was the closest I ever was to one.

Joel is at work today so I am planning on working on my diaper bag! I can't believe summer is over half over and the baby is due in about 2 months!!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Crafting

Here are some more sewing projects I finished:
I didn't know where to hang this banner so I just took a picture of it on the sofa. The Creative Family book said to make it twice as long. I thought I would make a smaller one and then maybe one day make another small one.


Here are more bibs. One with a terry cloth back and two with chenille backs. I cut the fabric different ways, one because I thought it looked better and the other because I could get more cut from the fabric. The chenille is rather expensive and so far the bibs are just for me, so I think I will go with the save-the-fabric way rather than style.

I made this grocery bag holder a little while ago. I looked online for patterns, and then just kind of improvised an easy way to make one. We had a HUGE bag of plastic bags to recycle, and that's after we started using reusable bags. We've been really good lately at bringing our bags in the store to use. We don't get many plastic bags any more which is great! But we needed to save a few.


I ordered this fabric at the beginning of June for a diaper bag. It finally came! It came from Japan and I ordered it from ThisandThatFromJapan on etsy.com. I haven't started the bag yet but I want to soon!!

Yum.. muffins on a favorite plate and juice in a favorite mug.

My favorite summer "craving"-chocolate milk and fake hot dogs, and I like dill relish on them! (I've never liked pickles.)

One minute the cats are wrestling, and the next they are snuggled up on the couch using each other as pillows. Silly cats...

July 2 was our 4th anniversary and we went to Helen, GA. I'll have to post more about that later...

Friday, June 26, 2009

Fun Freebies!

Here I am again, in front of the computer finding tons of cute free crafts, mostly printables today. Here are some things I found so far:


http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/tags/How-Tuesday/
This link takes you to a bunch of free tutorials on etsy. I'll share some of my favorites... (click on the picture for the pdf file of link)





If you click on that picture it will take you to a long list of really cute Valentine cards to print by all different people.

http://www.livinglocurto.com/?page_id=132 Tons of neat printables at this site too.


Christmas gift tags
Weekly meal planning sheet with grocery list


http://www.cakejournal.com/
Really neat cake making site.

http://purlbeehive.squarespace.com/busy-bees/ A site with tons of crafting blogs. I could spend hours on here!!



Canon has tons of cute printables including calendars here: cp.c-ij.com

Cute memory game and other printables here: http://del4yo.squarespace.com/non-dairy-avant/category/paper-toys

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Good and Sad News

The sad news... Ichiban Kan is closing their online store! I made two (large) orders from there so far and planned to order more in the future.... They are one of my favorite online stores! They have the cutest bento products and are cheap! And the only online store I found like that. If I lived in CA or Japan, I wouldn't mind so much. But since there are no stores on the mid- or eastern side of the USA I am rather disappointed....!

The good news isn't quite as exciting, but there's a cool website that has lots and lots of free stuff. Actually, they just list all the free things and you go to the actual websites to sign up if you'd like. I've gotten many awesome free things by using this site: http://freethingy.com
It's good to check every few days so you don't miss anything. Warning- whoever types the words doesn't always use proper grammar... but hey- it's free!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Sewing

I sewed a bib the other day and finished a few today:
This one has a pocket and a nylon back. The rest have a terrycloth back.

I made a fleece sleep sack. It seems pretty big... it was a medium. I should add a cute applique in the corner.

This is the first time I sewed a zipper, which will be good practice for when I make my diaper bag. I am still waiting on the fabric to come from Japan. The lady said it should be here any day now....

Friday, June 19, 2009

Painting

We painted the baby's room! It was hard finding a place to put all the stuff we had in that room. Our TV and computer are now in the living room. We are going to keep the futon in the baby's room. I have to find places for all my yarn and craft supplies. But the room is pretty much empty now and we painted the ceiling "Nightfall"- a light blue for a sky, and "Northern Pear Tree"- a light green for the walls. We are thinking of painting designs on the ceiling and maybe walls. I can't wait to start setting up the crib and changing table!!Painting the ceiling...

What the wall color was before the green...


Finished! Except for a few touch ups.

Eustace is so glad to be allowed in the room. He hates having any door closed. While we were painting he was pulling the newspaper out from under the door and scratching at the door (he got in trouble for the scratching).

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Patterns to make

Here are three more things I want to sew!

A super cute fabric dollhouse! UK lass in US has great tutorial.

Another neat bib from Nested. Here is the pdf.

A diaper changing pad from sewtakeahike.

thelongthread.com has a list of great baby sewing projects, with more projects on the side links. Now I need to get off the internet and start sewing! Except I need to finish taping the baby's room so we can paint. And figure out where to put all the stuff we took out of that room... I really shouldn't be sewing (or looking at projects online) much at all today....