A few pics

These pictures were taken just moments after we received the keys and were the official owners of the new house. The whole process was so long and stressful, I just had to capture the moment when we were allowed to actually go inside of the house without a realtor accompanying us. It was so great.

These last few were taken yesterday. Because I just can't bring myself to photograph the individual rooms of the house in this undecorated state with nothing on the windows or the walls, I'm "taking pictures of my kids" and all that have requested pictures can see the living room and dining room in the background. Somehow, for me, this makes the balloons all over the floor, the diet pepsi on the half-wall and boxes and un-hung pictures leaning up against the wall okay for y'all to see.

Notice the white carpet. Yep, it's all through the house including the dining area. Not my first choice, but it's fine. Also, the mini-blinds on every single window. Also not my first choice, but super expensive to replace all at once, so that will be an ongoing project.

More pictures to come, little by little, I promise.

Farewell to my garden

Leaving my garden behind in the middle of harvest season was sad, and there were plenty of green tomatoes left on the vines for the renters to eat. The garden space in the old house was large and the soil was just getting to be rich and gorgeous after four years of tending, compost-adding, and tilling. Granted, the spot was shaded for more of the day than I preferred, and had some occasional rodent difficulties, but it is still sad to say goodbye, only to start over here at the new place.

The previous owners of the new house were not gardeners, as the yard is overgrown with ivy and other ground cover, and sucker trees have been allowed to grow up all over the place. The yard is sloped, and we definitely have our work cut out for us trying to get it ready for raised beds next spring. But we are up for the challenge, and look forward to pruning and tree removal to start fresh and plant what we want to plant. Well, maybe we're not super excited about the removal, but the planting will be fun. (and Shannan I might just take you up on your offer next spring!)

Here is a little peek of two corners of the overgrown yard. Just imagine that most of the yard looks like this--front and back. There are two very old little raised beds at very odd places that will most likely just get removed.

Project diaper bag: complete

It occurred to me that I never did report back about making myself a new diaper bag.

Now that it is made and I've been carrying it for some months now, I would definitely change a few things, but mostly I like it and it has some fun and useful features.

These pictures are not great, but bags are difficult to photograph, I've found.

My favorite things include:

• handle is made of seat belt fabric and is my first attempt at an adjustable strap. Turns out adjustable straps aren't difficult at all, and this one makes this bag able to be a shoulder bag or crossed over my body
• also my first attempt at doing the zipper pocket on the back, which i love to stow books away from the main pocket of the bag
• cup holders--didn't have them in my other diaper bag and one for me and one for henry are used everyday
• cell phone pocket sewn into the side--because i finally entered the 20th century and got my first cell phone. and i'm kind of loving it

Things I would do differently next time:

• i made a special pocket just for a diaper/wipe clutch, which I like, but next time i would put it on the opposite side of the bag from the back zipper pocket, as it makes that side heavier and very unbalanced.
• the plum quilted fabric was a spontaneous purchase and coordinating fabrics were purchased (floral) and repurposed (green) to match. But I'm losing the love for the plum.

Probably too much analysis of a bag for many of you readers, but I like to document these things for my own sake.

And finally, here is the bag in action at the roundhouse at the Train Museum in NC on a very hot day.

Almost unpacked

Wow, moving is crazy. It has been awesome and overwhelming to try and get everything organized and all the utilities and cable and internet transferred and set up again. I still haven't hung any curtains or a single picture on the walls, so at times it feels like we're living in a vacation home, but eventually we'll get there. Mostly I just need my big sis, the decorating expert, to make a visit here stat and help me hang all the pictures in one crazy, fun weekend.

Things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this new house are things that many of you probably have but I wanted to share so that I don't ever forget how lucky I feel to finally have them:

• garage
• bar in the kitchen so we don't have to eat every meal at the table
• bonus room at the top of the stairs for toys, sewing machine, and art station (picture to come if it is ever clean enough to show to the world)
• garage
• built-in dishwasher
• garage
• James gets to ride the bus to school! Which means my children's nap routines aren't forever at the mercy of a drop-off or a pick-up

And just one thing that I am loathing a little that came with the new digs:

• ants

We feel blessed and lucky to be here, and my shop is back open again and we are feeling like this is home now.