beautiful envelopes... and our move...

sorry about not posting in so long.  here is my story, and i am sticking to it...
on september 13, we put our house on the market... time for a new adventure... 
on september 14, we sold our house.  on september 18, we put an offer on a house...
on october 19, we closed on the house we were selling...
on october 26, we closed on our new house, packed a uhaul, and moved. 

one craaaazy month!   we still have boxes strewn about. no curtains or blinds. a POD in our driveway. but... i love it in our new place.  it is a little mini farm.  or at least that is what i like to call it.  i was going to include a couple pictures of the place. but alas, my camera just ran out of batteries.  i will be posting more about our move, the house, and a new floorcloth.

in the meantime...

in may, i signed up to be part of the summer elevated envelope project.  i was excited.  i had big plans.  i usually do.

raspberry bushes through paper art...

through this project i was assigned 9 lovely ladies to create artistic envelopes for.  and they made envelopes for me.  how fun is that?

bunting is always cute, right?  well... i think so :-)

i showed my first attempt at my envelope back in june.  my design involved paper cutting, scrapbooking, and embroidery.  it was exciting for me to try it out.  i could have done it a quicker way which allowed me to complete them earlier (which really meant... on time), but i really had a desire to make the envelopes this way.  it was challenging and took some time (a lot of time to be exact), but i think they ended up beautiful.  when i took them to the post office to mail them the postal worker really loved them.  she wanted to know where i purchased them!  i was so happy to be able to tell her that i made them myself.

envelope loveliness.

so, 2 months late, i successfully mailed all my envelopes.  yay!  and a month later... i am finally posting about them.  it felt so good to finish the project and feel so good about the final product.  i will definitely sign up for a future elevated envelope project.

happy wednesday!

~ julie

the new adventure begins...

soooo...  i mentioned in my last post that we had decided to sell our house, right?  little did i know that we would put our house on the market on thursday, september 13... at noon on friday, september 14th... we sold our house!  ridiculous, right?  crazy, right?  i know!  we figured our home would sell, but we figured it would take a month or two. 

sooooo... we have been busy looking for our new place.  our new adventure.  the place we will cultivate new dreams (and hopefully bees with honey & hens with eggs)! 

to be honest, i have felt a bit panicky.  my stomach hasn't been quite right for the last week. 

we looked at one house that seemed like it had great potential.  we planned to go back and take a look at it with our daughter and son-in-law.  BUT before we could, it went into contract.  seriously?  ugh!

we have spent more hours on realtor.com than any normal person should.  we made our search larger, changed some of our 'wants', tried new areas.  we looked and looked.  so many were already 'in contract.'  seems to me, as a home buyer, that the market may just be picking up.  good for the economy.  bad for us at the moment.

but then this week, we went to a listing we hadn't looked at yet.  we thought, 'this seems to be what we are looking for!'  then our agent called the listing agent... they have a contract on the table already!!  YOU ARE KIDDING!  so, we sent an offer an hour later... and the next day they took our offer!!  woot-woot!  today, we found out we are allowed to have bees & chicks.  shoo-weeeee.

so in one month's time we decided to sell our house, had to find another, found one, oops, found another, got our offer accepted and will be moving!  we are excited about our new place now that the dust is settling.

i just wanted to explain why i have been absent.  off the grid.  in la-la land.  that's my excuse for the past few weeks.  my new excuse will be that i have to pack up 16 years of life and move it to another place.  oh, and weed out all those things we have accumulated and don't really need or want anymore.  it won't be quick... or easy.  you should see our garage!

i am challenging myself to put blog posts on about my move, about leaving one home for another, our new cottage home,  and trying to stay creative throughout the process.  it is good to be challenged.  it is also good to accept the fact that i might not get it all done.  you gotta have goals though!

sorry about no photos today.  i have some just waiting to be uploaded and put online.  soon.  very soon.

happy friday!

~ julie

picking, canning, moving...

life has been busy these last few weeks (ok, always... but this is my excuse for not update my blog over the last 2 weeks... not forever... that will entail more excuses at a later date)

here is a little photo journal of just what i have been up to...

visited a local 'u-pick' farm and picked mcintosh &  bought honeycrisp apples.
(fyi, it was lynd's fruit farm)

the trees were loaded! it was the first day of picking... so there was a crowd!

the best ones are always at the top, aren't they?

my mini cooper was full of delicious smelling apples! mmmmm!
this is going to make great applesauce for canning!

our neighbors got two, yep 2, new puppies!  they are sooo cute.
so we have spent time visiting with them lately. 

going to a small skateboard competition to watch my son. 
he does crazy tricks.

we have been driving around the country lately (more on that below)
and found a great farm.  they picked us a bushel of tomatoes for canning.

not a bad view... tomatoes, herbs, floorcloth, etc. 

and, the final product... 24 pints & 2 quarts of canned loveliness!

there is something satisfying about knowing we have stored up some
freshness to open during the colder months! isn't there?

so... we haven't made or canned the applesauce... maybe later this week... maybe next week.  but at least we have the apples and are ready to go with that process.

and... we have decided to put our house on the market and look for a place in the country.  yep, it was a tough decision.  we have lived here for 16 years.  since our youngest was 2.  that's a lot of memories stored up in one place.  lots & lots of great memories, good times with family, great neighbors, etc. 

but... we also believe it is time for a new adventure.  there are so many things to experience and enjoy in this little life we have, and we have always dreamed of living on a small farm in the country... so, we best be gettin' on that, right?  my sweet husband and i are getting excited about this (even though i have warned him there will be crying when it is closer to time to go & we have to say goodbye to our neighbors).  i do believe that change is good though.  it makes you think, and challenges you in new ways.  plus, i want some chickens who will lay me fresh eggs.  :-) 

there are, of course, other things going happening... because there always are... but i will share more on those (like my elevated envelopes which are just about done.  hey, don't judge me because they are late. :-)  that's how i roll.)

so, thursday's the day the house goes 'on the market'.  i can't wait to get to work on decluttering, fixing, touching up paint, rearranging furniture, cleaning... hey, you get the picture.  (*this is sarcasm, in case you weren't sure.)  the house will look great and we will start questioning ourselves... we must stay focused, we must stay focused. ~ smile!

to new adventures!

~ julie

quiltin'... sugar dish & point me

well, i survived the arts & crafts show last weekend!  it was very much a learning experience for me, my daughter (who stayed with me all afternoon), and my husband (who made my display).  it was a new show in columbus.  there were lots and lots of vendors... and not so many shoppers.  i heard this is typical for a new show.  here is my area at the show:

the lime loft 'booth'

this week was spent getting a few things done that had been put 'on the back burner' while we were getting everything ready for the show... especially a little quilting!

i am taking a class at sew to speak with the amazing, wonderful mary of molly flanders!  it started last monday and we are making the point me quilt from denyse schmidt.  she is full of tips & tricks to help us out in lining up our points. thank goodness!

so, she gave us home work (and added twice as many triangles to my quilt... which i think will look great!).  and here i go...

lots of 4 1/2" squares!

ready to be cut into quarters...

cut up and divided...

so, once the squares were sewn, they were then cut into quarters, then ironed open, trimmed of their dog ears, and arranged into larger triangles...

a completed triangle!

 at this point, i have sewn 5 triangles... only 11 to go... before monday!  yikes!

and also this week, i was able to bind and complete my sugar dish quilt!  finally!!  it is being sent to some friends in new jersey who have opened their home to us many times over the last 4 years while our son has been at west point.  hope they like it. 

pretty colors! fabric: hometown by sweetwater.
i think the hand quilting turned out nicely.

i really, really love all these polka dots!

so, now to get back to work on my floorcloths... and the 13 triangles for the point me quilt... and i must finish my elevated envelopes which were supposed to be sent out almost a month ago... and... :-)  such is life, right? 

happy saturday!!

~ julie