Joy Leanne

  The house is a mess, but in a good way. Piles of toys, piles of books, piles of fabric, relaxed bodies sprawled on the floor. Yes the house is a mess, but it's the kind of mess I thank God for!

Today was one of those days where nothing went quite right. Nothing was went wrong exactly. But nothing went as smoothly as I was hoping. My potatoes over cooked. I let the bread rise to long. My errands took longer than I anticipated. The fabric picnic basket came out horribly awkward even on the second try. Goose is up way past bed time. The house is a mess. Not a bad day. Just a day full of reminders of my humanness (is that even a word?).  Thankfully there was also a few quite hours at the sewing machine. The chance to try and encourage and minister to some one who was there for me when I desperately needed encouragement. A family dinner celebrating a special person. Fresh baked bread. Pretty fabric to work with. And the anticipation of an evening spent in bed with journals, fabric, and HGTV hoping, dreaming, and planning. So tonight, I am thankful that I am humane, thankful that I serve a God so much bigger than I am, and thankful for my super fluffy comforter.

  Maddie Goose fed herself for the first time yesterday after church. Mashed potatoes were a big hit! I have five followers now, so I will be hosting a give away for this book mark and the end of next month. If we can add five more followers between now and then I will add a doll to the give away as well. I finally picked out and photographed my fabric for the Amy Butler Birdie Sling bag I am making this weekend. It took me forever to pick out fabric. It wasn't until this project that I realized I tend to gravitate towards very juvenile fabric. Maybe it's becuase I sew mostly for little ones, or maybe I just like bright colors. But so much of what I was picking out looked like fabric more suited to a diaper bag, not a purse for personal use. At one point I picked out a great black, red, and white combo, but the more I looked at it the more I realized how not me it was. While I would love to be one of those amazing people who wears red lip stick in the middle of the afternoon a...

Sorry for the lull in posting. Hubby and I were struck with the stomach flu and have been down for the count the past few days. Times like this I am extra thankful to be living near family. His parents stepped in and took the girls for a few days so we could sleep. Then today they came and helped me put the house back in order. I can actually see all my floors again! It's a miracle! After all that I was even able to go shopping for a bit. I finally picked out the fabric I will be using next weekend to make the Amy Butler Birdie Sling. It took me forever to decide on fabric and I am so relieved it's finally done. I wanted to post pictures but by the time I got home it was to dark to take any. Hopefully tomorrow. I also stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of Blogging for Bliss.   I've heard mixed reviews about the book so hopefully it will be worth the money. While I was there I browsed the journal section and found an awesome sketch book and came strait home an...

Today was hubby's day off so I didn't get much done. Well I didn't get much house work or crafting done today. I did, however, get to spend a lot of time with the family. Watching TV, meeting with our real-estate guy, taking naps. Tonight we went to a revival service at our church and had a wonderful time of refreshing and reconnecting. Tomorrow I'll clean house.

I've decided I want a happiness/inspirational journal. So I spent the afternoon online looking at ideas, journals, and other things that make me happy. I am now lusting after... Sharpie Markers from Sam's Club. Leather journal from  threestories over at etsy. And this funky journal by FunTime324 at etsy. What about you all? What do you journal in. What do you journal about? How do you journal?

Feeling a little discouraged today. Not a lot to say. So I will simply share a picture of a patch I am working on for another onesie for Goose. Sorry for the poor quality picture. I took it after the sun went down. Will post pictures of the finished product (hopefully tomorrow.) Happy weekend!

Feeling a little discouraged today. Not a lot to say. So I will simply share a picture of a patch I am working on for another onesie for Goose. Sorry for the poor quality picture. I took it after the sun went down. Will post pictures of the finished product (hopefully tomorrow.) Happy weekend!

Today was one of those days where I felt like nothing was accomplished. Sitting down and looking over the day though I actually manged to do quite a bit. I had chili on the menu for dinner but since it is a bi-weekly staple in our house I decided it needed a little sprucing up this time around. So I took another staple in our house and mixed up a batch of Amish white bread. However, instead of shaping it into loves I made bread bowls. Definitely spruced up an old stand by.  In between baking those I managed to pick the house up a bit and even spent a little time browsing for fabric at a local quilt shop. I also went walking today. I've been saying since Christmas that I was going to walk every day it was over 50 degrees and today was the first time we broke 35 this month. I had no desire to drag myself to the park at 4:30 but I knew if I didn't today then the whole year would be shot, so I kicked myself into gear. Afterward I even had energy to do some light sewing. During our ...

More proof that my little gals are growing up way to quickly. Maddie Goose has started on solid foods. She's been having cereal for a few weeks. But, we just recently started "real" food. Yesterday it was bananas and today was sweet potato. I'm trying something with Maddie I never did with Abi Bear, making my own baby food. If you can call pureeing bananas and bake sweet potatoes "making" baby food. Even Bear got in on this big event and helped feed Goose her lunch. So how about you all? Any favorite baby foods store bought, or made at home?

A bitter sweet moment when, instead of asking to be carried down stairs, she offered me her up-turned palm. "Mama, come on, hold my hand." Photo courtesy of  Sarah Abbott Photography.

Hubby, Abi Bear, Maddie Goose and I loaded up the car and drove up north to see some of my family this weekend. We squished the 4 of us, my brother, his wife, their three kids and two dogs as well as my parents into their three bedroom home for the weekend. We spent them time with my mom, dad, and my sister and her husband who live near by celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday. What a milestone! Abi and Bo hanging out at Nana's house. In other news my blog has been up and running for almost two years! So to celebrate I am going to host a give away. There is one condition though. I would love to hit another milestone in the on year mark. So I must have at least 5 followers by February 28th. I currently have 4. If this milestone is met I will be giving away the following bookmark.   For every 5 more people that become followers I will be adding to the giveaway. I also make this promise. For the next six weeks I will post every day. Now, off to watch Heroes with Hubby. 

No pictures, the camera was out of batteries and I couldn't find a single new one. So sad becuase we had such a beautiful day. I hate to see a little one sick, but a love the cuddly little bear she turns into. We spent the majority of the day snuggled under the covers, watching movies, and taking naps. So beautiful.

I let the day dictate it's own rhythm and we were all much happier for it. 

The girls were sick today so we didn't make it to church. Instead we bundled up, piled into the car and did a little day dreaming. We drove by a house I fell in love with. The pictures on the web-sight were amazing. I want to sit in front of this fire place and look at craft books.  

We started the New Year out the three of us on a beach in North Carolina.  And ended it the four of us at home in Virginia. With a few adventures along the way!