Lately...

Golly, I have not updated on our family's climate in awhile. This year has clearly thrown us a bunch of lemons and we're doing our darn-est to make lemonade or lemon drops...depending on our mood and if the kids are asleep for the night. There may be some stress-crafting and emotional-cookie-dough-eating thrown in the mix too.

This last week was a bonafide doozy when our eight pound dog freaked our mail carrier out and caused a big scene, resulting in the refusal to deliver our mail. Followed up with a bust in our water main pipe which meant no running water until that could be fixed. And our microwave decided to leave us and go where all other dead microwaves go...the dump?! Perhaps each of these individual cases would be laughable if they didn't occur within days of each other. Yeesh.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, at least. W temporarily fixed the pipe; enough for us to have running water until he can spend more time huddled over a small hole in the front of our house, shoving pvc pipe into the small space. The mail will be delivered again, although we're looking for a new home for our lil' P. In his old age, he's become more aggressive/protective in nature. Having three little ones could just cause him more stress than is fair to him. 

And W's current job {which started around the 1st of Aug} is already requesting to sign him on after his term is over!! HOO-freakin'-RAY!! Answer to what seemed like a long-term and repetitive prayer request. He loves working for them. They love him working for them. It's in his field. With room to climb. In our town. He bikes the four miles to work. Somewhat flexible hours so he can go in early and get off a bit early. Or if we have breakfast as a family, leave a little later. Now, we're just waiting on the details: salary, benefits, etc. But it's got to be waaay better than what we're sitting on now, right?!

I AM enjoying the latest creations I've made, summer play dates, our sweet community group, and the wonderful but hard lessons Christ is showing me along the way. He's not forgotten to bring moments of sweetness and encouragement along the pot-holed filled path. And although our big family vacation this year was our church's camping trip and its typical that W and I go over a month between date nights, we've survived somehow on toddler silliness, family bike rides, picnic dinners, and the occasional take-out & a movie date at home.

Looking forward to this fall for many reasons!!

TWO FEET

Expansion expected to be complete by February 2013!! Things are about to get a little bit wild around here! ;)

{Pregnancy Q&A to come soon.}

Blanket Tutorial: Guest Post

Swenson Style has its first guest post this afternoon!! My awesome mom is sharing her famous hand-tied baby blankets. Hop over and see her detailed tutorial.

Rise & Shine {Pallet Art}

Mmmmkay, so I know how I mentioned here that I was working on a piece?! Way back in MARCH?! So, that piece. I didn't really love it. It took up the dining table for way too long since I just couldn't get to finishing it. I was forced to move it into the garage where it was abandoned. Until last week. 

Leave it to crafty inspiration or whatever, I lugged my big pallet canvas back into the house one night and just got to work. I actually already had some words stenciled on it so I had to work around those and cover them as I went. I was inspired by this google image...

{source}

With some frog tape, sponge brush and craft paint, I just went for it. Most of it was free hand and I worked pretty quickly through it. No lolly-gagging this time. I just wanted to create something and finish it. Well most of it.

I used the cricut machine to make stencils for the "Rise & Shine" then painted those on a few days later.

 W hung it up with some screws, wire and a heavy weight picture hook.

Ta-da!

This is what it was meant to be...right?! It's such a fun bright piece that lightens up our downstairs!

It looked a little lonely up there so I added something else. Excited with my version of the "pallet art madness" trend!

Rise and shine and give God the glory!

Whatever Craft Weekend Re-cap

So..back to my incredibly inspiring and FUN weekend in Kansas. At the Whatever Craft Weekend.

{the weekend's agenda}

Several months ago, I put my name on their waitlist all the while thinking I'd never get picked. But picked I was, so I bought my plane ticket. And my parents generously birthday-gifted the weekend's cost for me, so I was in!

My weekend started off bright and early {read: 4am} on Friday for my flight. I was able to connect with the three other California girls in Dallas and travel our last leg together. Even though it was an early morning, I simply basked in my freedom. Freedom to walk around or sit, freedom to eat whatever, freedom to nap, freedom to read, freedom not to talk or be spoken to...I'm sure you get the picture. FREEDOM.

{Arriving in Dallas. Baggage claim in Kansas.}

 Thanks to Instagram, I also connect with a local gal, Niki, who generous went along with my plan to get pedis before we got picked up. Leave it to the Californians to go rogue and stick in their own fun. ;) Those few hours were heavenly and much needed. Fifteen extra minutes of massage, anyone?! I may or may not have passed out while in my chair. 

{fresh toes.}

Then it was off to the craft house and meeting the rest of the ladies. We had a delicious "traditional style" Kansas meal. Settled into our adorable rooms. And got to crafting!! We made the signature ruffle aprons and talked late late into the night. The fabric choices were out-of-control happy and oh-so-girlie. My kind of heaven.

Ladies busily working late into the night. I'm convinced that if I had still kind of craft space and beautiful supplies, I'd be way more productive! At least, I need to get me a cutting mat, suction-cup handle ruler thingy & a rotatory cutter. It's about time for these investments!

 One of the great aspects of the weekend was not everyone was crafty. Some women had never even touched a sewing machine before. Meg did a great job teaching the newbies and all the ladies were willing to give an extra hand. Allison gave me a quick tute on fabric flowers and Judy {the one in the stripes, next to Allison}  provided an extra nudge with my ruffles. :)

Once my apron was completed, I hit the sack... hard.

The following day included more amazing homemade meals, thrifting/antiquing, and more crafting!

{lingering over coffee before a delish breakfast}

Then onto antiquing, thrifting and junking!

 Post shopping, we hit up Sonic's happy hour. I'm pretty sure this was my first Sonic experience. Then it was back home to compare loot.

Lots of fun stuff!! Way overwhelming too. There were a few things that caught my eye while I walked around, but I decided to look at them later. Mistake when you're with a big group!! Some of the ladies walked away with those pieces and I may have had some slight envy!  E LOVES his Wizard of Oz book and I'm afraid that Kansas is one of the first few states he knows. Ha!

 Lisa Leonard was an honored guest and educated us in the ways of hand-stamped jewelry as part of the evening of crafts. She and her twin sister, Chrissie, were some of my favorite people from the trip. I'm so happy we at least live in the same state and have a chance at hanging out again!If only Niki lived closer!

Sunday went quick with breakfast, pictures, and good-byes before I was back in the airport and heading home. The weekend was such a wonderful experience. A treasured memory I'll hold dear.

Some amazing and wonderful women! And such a delight to hear their stories and learn about what the Lord has done in their lives. I'm so thankful God worked everything out so I could go on this weekend adventure. I definitely walked away with way much more than I put in!

And funny, that even though I had this wonderful freedom and weekend away to myself, I thought about my boys almost every waking moment. I missed them. Wondered how they were surviving. Texting W pictures from my weekend while seeing some from theirs. FaceTime.

 The time away was so nice, but I was reminded and renewed in my role as "Mama in the trenches." When I  lose my way or forget who I am, I only have to look to them to remember. They make me me. They give me a rich context to this life. The Lord shows me my sin and His grace through W and these littles every stinkin' day. And that gets ugly a lot sometimes. I think I'm learning more about the beauty of His grace this season. And how He can actually turn the dark, messy, yucky parts of me into redemptive beauty.

 My only regret was not getting to cross off a bucket list item while in Kansas. Like our trip to Wisconsin a few years back, I got this close to milking a cow. Udder sadness! ;) Kerry, who picked us up from the airport, is married to a dairy farmer!! At least now I know someone who has a cow I can milk. I'm totally going to take her up on her invite! Guess that means I'll be back...

Host Your Own!

Over at NewlyWife today. Talking a bit about Whatever Craft Weekend and thoughts on how to host your own craft event! Come stop by!

Craft House

Still recovering from an amazing weekend away, but I wanted to at least update this poor blog again. So here are just a few pictures of the amazing craft house I stayed at. More on the weekend later! Meg's craft house is a beautiful inspiration!

And those were just from downstairs. {How I miss capturing the charming upstairs is beyond me!!}