A Clean Slate

I have 4 projects going...all of equal importance...and my sewing room was a MESS! My design wall is busy, as you can see.I could have shut the door for the Open House, but decided to do the "right" thing and not the "easy" thing...a lesson I preach here daily to my kids! My office/studio was put to a place of perfection! Forgive the blur.... What did I do with those projects that were all in progress???

My friend Niki made a shawl for me last year and gave it to me in this box....I LOVE this box! I even have the gorgeous turquoise and brown tissue paper! I keep thinking I will use it when I give a gift to someone, but I can never part with it. Soooo, I put my 3 projects in their various stages in the box!!Now I know I said I have 4 projects.....I went ahead and finished one up! I will show it to you when it is washed and all "crinkle-y"!

Now that the Open House is over, I can pull those other 3 projects out of the box and mess up my studio once again....as it should be!

30 Years Together

Our 30th Wedding Anniversary is today. It has been such a wonderful 30 years, and I am so blessed to have Sweetheart as a husband. We celebrated our 30 years together on Sunday with an Open House and a renewal of our vows. My mother in love and mom took care of most of the food....
BBQ'd pulled pork, meatballs, rolls, potato salad, cole slaw (both homemade and "to die for!") baked beans, fruit, and hor dourves ...These trays (which spin on there own...electric) were filled with homemade brownies, pinwheels, and onion wraps....all made by my mother in love.My mother in love has been recovering from her surgery and she felt quite ill. She sure looks beautiful though!!!
The colors were pink and brown. The balloon ladies were here bright and early!They tied balloons on the fence posts, made centerpieces for the tables and built an arch for us.Guests began to arrive and the weather was beautiful.
At 2pm we were ready to renew our vows, but Sweetheart was in the middle of a game of corn toss. Not a biggie, but all of a sudden the clouds came in and it rained for 10 minutes...a nice cool rain that brought a nice breeze with it. It was really hot before that, so it was actually perfect. Finally he was ready, but I am not sure where I had went off to.... Pastor Paul gave a beautiful ceremony with our children, grandchildren and family and friends all around us....though the balloon arch was a bit worse for wear ;) Luckily I am no Bridezilla! My mom cried!!! Yeesh!He sure does love me!!!

Zach was pretty clingy during the whole thing, but he was very well behaved, as was Charlotte.The cake had our wedding picture on it and was filled with fresh strawberries and had a satin frosting. It was very good.Like I said, it was a beautiful event and I am looking forward to another 30 years married to Sweetheart!!! Thank you for all the cards, e-mails and well wishes.

Beautiful!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!! I will be back tomorrow or Tuesday, which is our actual Anniversary, to share lots of pictures of our vow renewal.

Tomorrow morning bright and early, we start a week of this...."Camp Pine Grove" Vacation Bible School, hosted at our house. It will be great fun for many kids!!

Now I am going to collapse into bed!

Catching Up

I thought I would do a catch up (semi-update) post as I am sure I will not be posting until after the weekend. It will be a very busy few days here starting tomorrow. I will start with the kids....
Charlotte came home from camp on Saturday afternoon. I met her at the church parking lot. I was there when her ride pulled in and she ran into my arms and immediately sobbed! That was such an incredible thing. She shared that she cried the first night cause she missed me and again on the last night as my perfume had worn off her pillow. Otherwise her time was fantastic. She had so many stories to share and she talked in 15 minute sentences for 2 days! I think she has just now gotten caught up on her rest!
She went a little heavy on the lip gloss there (it is the only "make up allowed yet)!! Still cute as ever. I love her hair in a braid...it shows all the highlights. She has so many natural colors in her hair.
My mom gave me some pics from their time at Cocokey. Here is Zach and Casey (my sister's grandaughter) in the "rapids".
Emerson and TJ were there for a few hours of water fun too!
The actual event was Casey's 8th birthday. Zach spent the night with them at the hotel. I had made Casey a quilt for her birthday....Sunflowers. I had made Casey a quilt 3 1/2 years ago...hand quilted friendship stars in purple and lime green. She loved it. I gave it to her at Christmas and the end of January she went to live with my sister. Her quilt was lost after that. The sunflower quilt was an old UFO from my "let's try machine quilting" days. I hate machine quilting so I rarely, if ever do it, and when I do it is baaaad. When I gave my sister her quilt at her birthday, Casey was reminded of her lost quilt.
This one fit the bill, as all it needed was a binding. Casey went to live with her father recently, though my sister gets her a couple weekends a month. She has had a rough start! I am glad the quilt made her happy.

As for other quilting, I finished hand quilting this little table topper and have the binding ready to hand sew to the back.These little 3" trees have been giving me FITS!
They are so darn cute, but they are not measuring out for me. I plan to conquer them next week!

All our plans for the Anniversary Open House are coming together. My Mother In Love bought us this beautiful outdoor rug for the deck. It is reversible. We are using the lighter side for the party. It looks very nice!

I am going to tackle my hardwood floors with this kit....In honor of Billy Mays (I loved that guy!)
Have any of you used this?

EDIT: After reading Christine's comment, I googled "Orange Glo Reviews" and found 3, 5 star reviews...they seemed to put up these reviews after using it one time. Then I read PAGES and PAGES of horrid reviews, all saying the same thing...it looked great the first day then it seemed to ruin the hard wood floor. They had to get on their hands and knees and remove the orange glo! There is even an e-book out there for sale on "How to remove Orange Glo" from your wood floors!! I will be taking the Orange Glo back to the store...here are the reviews.

I lost Zach this morning, and here is where I found him.... He was sneaking some cartoons...not allowed...but the fact that "Back to the Barnyard" was on the TV instead of the normal Fox News morning show, should have been a dead giveaway!!
Thank you again for prayers for my mom, and may you all have a blessed 4th of July as we celebrate the birthday of our wonderful country!!
God Bless America!