Joy Leanne

I just realized that I may never have shared with you why my blog is titled Redirected Dreams. So I thought I might explain how the name came to be and some things going on in my life lately. Ten years ago I was starting college with plans to go into journalism. I wanted to move to New York or Chicago and work for a magazine. Seven years ago I was going into my senior year of college. I was planning on graduating that spring with a degree in print journalism and head off to seminary the following fall. I wanted to teach and write and do all kinds of things to change the world. :) Then I met Josh. Falling in love wasn't on my radar and getting married wasn't in my plan for at least 5 years. But God had a different idea. Three months after meeting Josh I found myself standing in front of the Christmas tree in his parents home while he knelt on one knee and asked me to be his wife and God started an amazing work in my heart. When I married Josh I was very much not domestic. I cou...

    1) We still have fleas. I have tried absolutely everything I can think of minus an exterminator, and if this things are still around on the tenth of August, that's exactly what I will be doing.  2) The magazine I'm writing for finally came out this week. Very exciting.  3) Josh has two days left of this month and we need 2.5 cars to be able to pay all of August bills. End of the month is always an interesting time in car sales. :) 4) My shop is picking up for the Holidays and I have a steady stream of orders coming in which is nice. Unfortunately they are all customs which is not as easy, but still it's nice to have steady business. 5) I went to a yard sale this weekend and got 5 gifts for three dollars. I am very proud of this! :) Now it's your turn! Link up in this weeks Weekly Five and be entered to win a free coffee cozy!  

This is one of those blog posts that has been rolling around in my head all day. It has taken on many forms and types of content. My original post was about the fun and relaxing things I did on Saturday. And then things went horrible wrong. I was tempted to go ahead with the happy go lucky post, but then I paused. I was having a conversation earlier this week with some friends about the pitfall of blogging or really having any online presence It is so easy to present just a slice of life. The part that we choose for others to see. Because of that it is so very easy to project a the idea that we have it all together. That everything in our life is perfect and we have it all together. I don't think most bloggers do this intentional I think it's a byproduct of choices we make. I personally chose to share the positive things in my life. I do this for two reasons. 1) No one wants to read a blog, follow some one on facebook, or subscribe to a twitter feed of a cranky person. 2) I hav...

I've been doing so much fun dolly dreaming/planning. While I was in MD after we lost our power I ordered a couple patterns. The one on the left is a vintage doll clothes pattern I'm hoping I can adjust to fit larger Goose Bear Dolls. I found the one on the right when I was looking for clothing patterns to adjust for the Alice style of doll. Didn't find any, but was excited by this pattern. I am so very excited to try this pattern. It will be my first try at vintage patterns and I love how pretty yet simple the clothing is. I especially love the dress in the middle of the top row. Can't wait! I bought half a yard of muslin to play with for this pattern and will be raiding my fabric stash for the rest. They look so sweet yet modern. I know my girls are going to love them playing with them. Working on a new pattern of my own and this collection of fabrics should bring to life the final attempt. Then to assemble the actual pattern and get some testers. Any one want to try i...

Most of our anniversary trip to Williamsburg was spent at Bush Gardens. We planned to go do some of the Colonial Willamsburg stuff but never got around to it. Chances are we will be coming back regularly though so next time. :) Thought I would share a few pictures of our time (though I didn't take many.) Me trying to win a Kindle Fire at the arcade. We actually have it five times and then it dropped. Was a fun experience though so worth the money.           Josh at the breakfast place we stopped at on Sunday. One of I think 5 waffle/pancake places we saw. Yummy candy purchased in downtown Williamsburg.   The cute Converse All Star shoes we bought. Sorta of Chuck Taylors meet ballet flats! 

Josh and I love to eat. Probably a bit to much to be honest. We have a few favorite chain restaurants but what we really love is local places. On our recent trip to Williamsburg we staid at a nice hotel walking distance from down town Williamsburg. Our first night there we decided to walk to dinner despite the rain. We took the big umbrella and at first it wasn't that bad. As the rain picked up and the hour got later we got desperate though so we ducked into the closest place. One look at the menu was enough to send me running. Non of the food looked familiar and frankly the prices scared me. But Josh talked me into stay and we had some amazing food!! Our yummy bread platter with cornbread, pretzel bread and herb bread paired with three dipping sauces. So yummy! Duck breast with mushroom bread pudding and some other stuff. (Real descriptive I know!) I hate mushrooms and even I had to admit the the bread pudding was amazing.  My pork shank ossobucco  with whipped p...

Welcome to the first ever link up of My Weekly Five. Insert your link after the post to link up and be sure to check out every one else Weekly Five and leave some love! 1) After nearly falling apart last Staturday from overbooking and not being home enough the week before, I spent the vast majority of the start of the week at home. I didn't even leave the house till Thursday. It was nice. I got a lot of cleaning and laundry done and worked on finishing up July custom dolls and did a bunch of planning. 2) Wednesday night we discovered fleas on the cat and in one part of the house so I spent all Thursday cleaning the entire place top to bottom. While it put me behind schedule it nice to have the entire house so clean! 3) Friday I dropped the kids and the cat with my in-laws and Josh and I headed to Williamsburg to celebrate our 6th anniversary. It was an amazing time! It rained off and on all weekend but that lead to some of our best adventures including eating at a SUP...

If you are on Pinterest at all and you sew you have probably seen  this tutorial for a cute library tote all over the place.  I pinned it, I have no idea how long ago, and keep coming back to look at it. Then  I visited my mom's library when we were up visiting after the huge storm that took our our power. After that I decided it was time to get a library card at our local library since it's just down the road. Perfect excuse to make a bag!  And, bonus, doing one pinterest pin a week is part of my Summer Bucket List ! So here is my spin on the tote! I used a vinyl fabric from Joann's for the main body. I bought it to make a zipper pouch for my Nook but since you have to buy a yard at a time of this kind of fabric I had plenty to make the bag as well. And now... BONUS they will match! For the out side pocket and reinforcement strip I used some Daisy Cottage. I purchased half a yard of this from UberStitch last winter and had it sent to my sister. She made a nook co...

It's been such a full and busy summer it feels like. And yet when I look at the girls bucket list hardly anything is checked off!! Some things just aren't going to happen. The zoo and Abi visiting my sister probably won't take place as schedules have changed and shrinky dinks are hard to find!. However, many of the things can still happen. Today I am printing out paper dolls and letting the girls work with my markers (GASP!) I got an ice cream maker from my parents and ordered a fun doll pattern to make dolls with the girls. This weekend the girls are staying three nights with Grandma and Grandpa. Then it's time to get to work staying home and having fun! Girls Summer Bucket List o    Zoo o    Finger paints o    Water fight o    Make Popsicles o    Dollar Movies o    Splash Park o    Make ice cream o    Sidewalk chalk o    Photo booth o    Bean Bag Toss o    Fireworks o ...

Last week after getting home from my parents house I was feel the desperate need to be creative.  Since the house was a mess and my to-do list was a mile long I opted for a very simple project and whipped up some sugar scrub.  My original plan was to make lemonade sugar scrub but a few things got in the way. First off I bought organic raw sugar because I love the texture. However that mixed with the olive oil and it was impossible to get a white or yellow mixture. I ended up with brown. I also really wanted to use the lemon rind but since my blender and food processor are broken I couldn't pulverize the whole rind and was only able to use the zest I got with my fine grater. The scent wasn't quite strong enough for my liking so I added almond and vanilla extract and ended up with...... Lemon Short Bread Sugar Scrub! I finally tried it out today and loved it. Just the right about of scrub and left my skin smooth and not oily. Perfect!! If any one is interested in trying here is ...

Friday night we headed to the Salem County Fair . I loved the fair of as a kid and have fun memories as a child and teen going with friends and family. I was so excited to take my kids! The Salem fair is an open gate fair and has free parking which means getting in costs nothing. Granted you can spend a fortune once you get in, but we were able to it pretty cheap. Personally I was most excited about the exhibits, but was rather dissapointed in those. Nothing like the one back home, but all in all we still had a good time. We bought twenty tickets and took the girls on their first ferris wheel  ride. As you can see Maddie loved it! Abi's favorite part was the free petting zoo. We got to see and touch all kinds of animals. We even got to see two baby goats that were less than 24 hours old. So sweet. We gave each of the kids ten dollars to spend on food or junk or games. But is started raining to we skipped out early and hit up Sweet Frog for dinner. All in all a summer highlight. Wha...

I overbooked today. Way over booked. I booked walking with a friend at 9:30, a birthday party with the kids at 11:00 and another one at 5:00. I had insomnia last night a long with my daughter, apparently (they stay with my in laws on Friday nights). I canceled walking this morning because I didn't sleep last night and had hardly been home all week so my house was a mess and the birthday gifts were not yet made. We made it to the first party... two and a half hours late. Despite writing down 11:00 am on ALL THREE calendars I some how got it in my mind it was at 1:00 pm. Even if I had been right about that we still didn't show up until 1:30. We went to a friends house afterwards because I didn't want to drive all the way back to our house only to drive out to the second party. Twenty minutes at my friends house told me all I needed to know about the rest of the day. There was no way we were going to make it to the second party. The kids were tired, ready to be home, and in de...