Home Sweet Home! (Deployment Projects #37-40)

There is nothing that feels better than being home after a long vacation!!  The kids and I finally made it home this afternoon.  We had a great trip, but it’s good to be home.  I have so many ideas and projects to do around here, I am going to have a ton of projects coming up!!

I did actually get some projects done while I was away.  I thought it might be fun to do a post on my vacation and the projects I did while on vacation.  Am I the only person who goes on vacation and the purpose is to go and visit family and friends and help them with projects?

Our vacation started out 3 weeks ago when we loaded ourselves, our luggage and my sewing machine into the truck and headed west.   We were delayed from leaving Virginia by snow, so on the extra day that we had before we left, I made an Amy Butler Weekend Bag.

 

Our first stop was my Mom’s house in Ohio.  We were only there a couple of days before we took off for Wisconsin, where both of my brothers live.

In Wisconsin, we had a blast enjoying time as a family.  My brother Dan took us all for a bobsled ride pulled by four of his horses.  Charise loved the horses!

 

 

After we were done with the old fashioned horse-power, we pulled out the snowmobiles!  This was a new experience for the kids and only one would actually try it!

She loved every minute of it!!

 

Even Grandma and Papa O got in on the fun!

Our time in Wisconsin was short, but we enjoyed every minute of it - - I even met my new stepbrothers and their wives.  I think we all could have talked for hours!

Family First!

After Wisconsin, we headed back to Ohio where I met up with a friend that I went to high school with (in Wisconsin) - - she now lives in the same town as my Mom!

We met for an early dinner around 4:30 and ended up having to leave because the restaurant was closing!  We had a blast talking about the past and catching up with each other!

The next day I left for Indiana.  I dropped the kids off at Handsome Hubby’s parents and headed to Beckie’s house.  We worked our little fingers off, but successfully re-upholstered her two chairs.  You can read my post about it here, but it you want step by step instructions, you have to go and check out Beckie’s Blog - - Infarrantly Creative - - she has been doing a week long series on our project!

After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also helped Beckie figure out her embroidery machine and make some of my Pottery Barn Knock-off Nest pillows.  Big news coming next week about those!!

After Beckie’s I headed back to Handsome Hubby’s parents and spent the night there.  I got big-time stuck in their driveway the next day!!

Next, it was back to Ohio to help my Mom with her couch.  This couch used to be my grandparents, but Mom is the proud owner now, she wanted it to have an updated look and she also wanted it to work with her Den - - which has an Americana look going on in there.

 

This is a pretty bad before shot, but when I got there, Mom had already started on the frame of the couch and fabric was already attached, so we had to call my Grandma and see if she had any pictures of the couch!  She did - - it was one they took of all the topiaries she had made for a woman’s dinner. - - So, focus on the couch in the background :)

Here is the after:

She used a tan and black hounds tooth for the cording which really made the lines of the couch pop!  It is definitely an obvious before and after!!

I also embroidered 2 pillow tops for her, but I forgot to take pictures of those! - - I come by it honestly!!

I made one more project while I was on vacation --

A bag for my Grandma - - on Sunday when I picked Grandma up for church, she was carrying her Bible and her Sunday School book in a paper gift bag.  That just would not do!  So I ran to the fabric store and picked out some fabric for Grandma and made her a bag.

 

Here I am with Grandma.  Charise took the picture for us and she insisted that Grandma wear her gold medal.  Grandma won a gold medal in the Olympics too!  In Hockey!

Her community hosted an Olympic competition for the residents where they competed in all kinds of Olympic sports with funny twists and modifications.  Grandmas hockey puck was a cane!  She had a blast and was quite proud of her gold medal and were quite proud of her for winning it.  Grandma isn’t just gold medal quality when it comes to sports, she’s gold medal sweet and I’m sure that it is from her that I get my creativity and artistic abilities!!

All in all, we had a great time, I accomplished a ton, and we are glad to be back home!  I have so many projects on the burner, I’m not sure where to start!!  First, I think I should start by unpacking my suitcase!

Broken

Oh, what a sad, sad day at my house :(  My sewing maching has broken down - - broken as in, can't pretend that it is working corectly - - broken as in, can't jerry rig it to make it work - - - broken as in... no sewing for me until it is fixed.    GRRRRR and I was working on so many fun projects right now!!!  I did pull out my old dinosaur machine.  The hamsters that are running around in it to make it go sound very tired and strangely metalic!  So no detailed or exact sewing on that one either.  Now all I have to do is figure out where to take my machine to get it serviced and figure out how to transfer my warranty from the CA shop to wherever the new shop is in VA.  Moving has so many little details that you just don't think of!

So, in light of the fact that no new crafty things are going on, I thought I would share some pictures of our little day trip to DC.  Going into "the city" is only a 30-45 min. drive depending on the traffic, but we like to take the metro in, so we don't have to worry about traffic or parking and we can just enjoy the day!  We love to go into DC, I would go at least once a week if I could still get everything else done that I needed to.  There is so much history and fun stuff to do.  I don't think we will ever be able to do it all, even if we are here for three years.  It is the perfect place for homeschooling.  Where better to learn American History than right where it all took place?  The best part about DC?  Being the "frugal" person that I am, I love the fact that almost everything is free!!  The Smithsonian -made up of something like 13 different museums in the DC area - and all of them FREE!!!

while we were walking toward the Washington Monument, we heard lots of helocopters going over...

and then we got to see Marine 1 land on the whitehoue lawn - - pretty cool!

looking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument

Arlington Cemetary

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The view from the top of Arlington cemetary, over the cemetary, across the Potomac and the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background.  What a view and what a perspective.  Knowing that all of the people buried here have sacraficed their lives for everything that those monuments and buildings represent.  May we never take it for granted!

Disney

Here is a sneak peak at our time at Disney! We had a great time as a family, getting away from all the stress of moving and just enjoying some time with just the four of us. Our hotel was just a couple of blocks away from the entrance to Disney, so we parked our van at the hotel when we got there and never moved it again!! It was great, we walked there every morning when the parks opened, and walked back to our room for lunch and swimming at the pool, then we would walk back for an evening of fun at the park. It was great. The kids were the perfect age to take, not too little to have to struggle with a stroller and naps and not too old that it wasn't cool anymore! Enjoy the picures. It't time for us to get back to the real world again and contiue preparing for the big move. Only two more rooms to paint back to white and we are done! Then packers, movers, inspections, and final goodbyes - - - but oh yeah, we still need orders before we can get everything done. Oh the sweet sweet life of the military!