Is She a Sailor, or a Strongman?

I made miss Emmie a new swimsuit before we came out to Arizona, with the intention of sharing it on Project Run and Play as one of their Summer guest bloggers. 

I was supposed to be sharing the suit with a cover up tutorial, and after making the cover up I decided to go a different direction and do the sundress I shared instead. 

(There was nothing wrong with the cover up, it was just s sort of generic maxi-dress in french terry, and I just felt like it didn't really scream "my style" or go with the adorable swimsuit. I have a tutorial about it to share, so you will probably see it making an appearance here at some point.)

 I don't have a tutorial for the swimsuit because I was honestly just plowing through it in order to share the cover-up tutorial while planning the move, but it turned out so cutely I wanted to share it anyway!  

I made it with the intention of her looking like a little French sailor, or something, but after I made it, it suddenly struck me that she sort of looked like an old fashioned circus strong man too!

All she's missing is the handlebar mustache! 

 This suit was made entirely of scraps and leftover things from my stash, as that was my rule for Summer sewing this year, as I needed to pare down somewhat for the move!

This poor child was freezing when I used the only water I had access to for the photo shoot, to make her look summery, I had her run through the sprinklers when it was "only" 75 degrees outside at the beginning of June, and you would have thought I was asking her to do it during an arctic Winter she was avoiding the water so much!

After which she promptly sat herself onto the sun warmed driveway soaking up the heat!

So I pose the question to you, do you see sailor, or strongman? Hopefully you see cute too, but I can't quite decided which genre this actually looks like it was inspired by!

I'm in Arizona at my mom's house today supervising swimming children, while Paul is back home in Richmond supervising the last of the movers who came to the house to pack up the very last of our stuff. Everything that didn't go on the light weight fast ship, or into permanent storage for the next 3 years, is now packed up and ready to go to Korea by slow boat - so hopefully we will be seeing it all 2-3 months from now. (We will be arriving in Korea before the end of July without our car for at least a month and our furniture for at least 2 months.) I'm intentionally vague about dates because we fly via Patriot Express, and I never like to say too much in advance about exact troop movements just in case someone gets irritated with me for doing it! But I will let everyone know what is up as we go!

Three Out of Five {photo of the day}

Since we are in AZ right now, three of my mom's five girls are all in-town together! My sister had a groupon to go get our pictures taken, and I have since discovered that although I am the oldest of the three of us, (by 9 years in one instance and almost 16 years in the other) even at 5'9" I am now officially the shortest!
What the heck is that about?

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Thanks for reading!
Catherine

Emmie's Cake Decorating {photo of the day}

Miss Emmie has been so determined to learn to decorate cakes, we bought her a frosting tip set for her birthday a couple of weeks ago, but here at Nana's house has been her first chance to practice using them, I love the concentration in her face!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thanks for reading!

Catherine

On our way! {photos of the day}

So I am now safely in Arizona for the next few weeks, we are visiting my mom, step dad, and two of my sisters while out here and are looking forward to the family time before heading over to South Korea in July. 

We own 2 cars right now, but are only in need of one, (as that is all we are allowed in South Korea,) so we are selling our one car to my sister and her husband (the ones who came to Peru with us.) We need to drive both of our vehicles out from Richmond, VA to Tucson, AZ in order to drop one off with my sister, and the other off in California to be put on a boat and shipped to our next base (we could have sent it from the east coast but it would have taken an extra month to get it in Korea) both Paul and I were both going to need to be drivers, although I was a bit worried because I had never done an across country drive all by myself! My sweet sister, Sarah, came to my rescue and flew out to help me finish up the last of the packing we needed to do, and then drive across the country with the kids and me! (ALL 37 hours of it!) 

I wish I had pictures from our whole trip, but we honestly didn't stop and take many! We started in Virginia, and then drove through Tennessee FOREVER with our first day being 10 hours long- poor Sarah only found out once we got started that she couldn't do any of the driving, because the car we were in charge of bringing is a manual rather then an automatic! She was my life saver though, as we both went hoarse from how much we were talking and catching up with each other, so I never felt sleepy while driving!  

We decided to take 4 days to do the trip, going the scenic route since we wanted to stop whenever we felt inclined (we were on an adventure!) We took two days to get through Tennessee; we stopped at a Pearl Museum (and I hit a squirrel, I am actually still traumatized....I hate to think how the poor squirrel felt about it!) and while in Tennessee we might have, sort have run out of gas......... I don't want to talk about it. 

Well okay, Paul's car doesn't have a sound or anything to indicate it is low on fuel, so by the time I noticed I was low on gas we were in the middle of nowhere and didn't see a gas station for at least 30 miles. Finally we saw a sign that said "gas in 1 mile" but unfortunately we only made it about 10 ft past that sign. Isaac and I left Sarah and Emmie in the car, and Started the one mile RUN up the road (I was so thankful for our 10K training at this point!) me in flip flops and Isaac in Tevas, we got about 3/4s of a mile up the road when a very nice man and his teenage son offered us a ride in the back of his pickup truck (I watch Criminal Minds, so I was very suspicious that we were about to get murdered, but felt good about getting in the back of the truck rather then in the cab) and they took us the rest of the way to the gas station, helped us put the gas into a plastic jug (the gas station didn't have a gas can, so I bought a bottle of water and we emptied it out,) and then they gave us a ride back to the car so we could put the gas in the car. All told the crisis took less then 30 minutes, and it was sort of funny after all! We simply drove the rest of the way to the gas station to fill all the way up! 

Instead of dropping down into Texas for the majority of the trip we went to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma city to visit where Isaac was born in 2000 (while we were stationed in Wichita Falls Texas) and Sarah's husband Scott served an LDS mission. We went to the Cowboy museum, and ate ice cream at Scott's favorite place Braums. The Cowboy Museum was pretty amazing, and as a Blue Star museum we were able to show military ID and get in for free!

The 3rd day of the trip we made it just across the New Mexico border to spend the night there before moving on to Arizona for day 4. We had traveled 10 hours on the first day, 11 hours on the second day, 6 hours on the third, and now we only had 10 hours to go in the trip. So this would be the perfect time to get pulled over right? Luckily it wasn't because I was breaking the law through my driving, but because one of my headlights had gone out, and I couldn't tell because we were in a town with street lights. I didn't get a ticket, but we decided getting pulled over officially made it a road trip!

The next morning we actually took a picture or two (yay us!) We got a wild hair, and decided to stop in Roswell, New Mexico and take pictures with all things alien! Isaac is a huge alien fanatic, and reads "fact" books about them all the time, so we knew this was going to be his stop. We went to Walmart the night before (when we got pulled over) and bought tin foil upon Sarah's suggestion, and once in Roswell we made ourselves tin foil hats, and walked around taking pictures! I'm sure everyone thought we were crazy, I suppose they would probably be right! (we had fun though!)

Sarah and I protecting our brains from Alien mind control!

The kids were very into designing their hats, Isaac's kept falling apart though!

Sarah was apparently powerless to the wiles of this handsome devil!

Aren't you sorry you weren't there to be COOL with us!

After some shopping and getting back on the road, we drove the rest of the way to Tucson AZ, arriving by 6:00 in the evening. It was a seriously long and grueling trip, but we are so proud of ourselves for doing it! 

We have been sewing up a storm since we got here on Wednesday to Nana's house; Sarah and Emmie have made dresses, Sarah and I have made matching quilt tops, and we have plans for all sorts of other projects (I think my family saves up for when I am in town!) I am going to try to post more stuff while here before we move on to Korea and the real changes start happening! Paul is going to be driving out next week with a loaded minivan, so he'll be doing our trip all over again (hopefully without the running out of gas or getting pulled over bit.) 

I realize I never even posted about our cruise and the stuff I sewed for that last December - let alone Peru, the rest of the house tour, furniture pieces I finished before coming out, and I also have some guest blogging coming up over the next little bit. I am going to try to catch up if I can (I doubt it, I feel like I will never be caught up with everything we have done as long as we are still doing stuff) 

But anyway, I wanted to check in and let everyone know we are safe during our travels, and that I haven't forgotten you all! 

A Summer Sundress

Hey Everybody! Sorry for the silence, but I'm in the midst of the move, and it has been crazy around here!

I am pretty excited today though, because I am guest posting today over at Project Run and Play (I LOVE that blog!) with a fun little sundress that I made for Emmie,

so if you hop on over there, you can see a tutorial for my dress!

10 Years Ago Today.......

I delivered all 8.5 lbs of this little girl, and I can't believe my baby is now in the double digits!!!


(miss Emmie had a Hawaiian themed birthday at school today, we took in themed cupcakes and she dressed for the occasion!)


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Thanks for reading!

Catherine

In The Mail! {photo of the day}

Look what arrived in the mail today!


Is it terrible to say that I kept having an awful paranoia that they were going to suddenly call me and figure out I hadn't done something, and that I really hadn't graduated, right up until I opened this? Now I feel like it's finally real! (after going to university on and off for 13 years!) I still haven't mentally figured out that there isn't any homework in my current future.

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Thanks for reading!

Catherine

Our House in Virginia (Part 3)

Here's part three of our house tour, today is the living room and the kitchen! (part one and two are here)

Here is the living room as we found it, there was a big hole over the fireplace, and a gross carpet. The yellowy orange color on the walls was the only color in the whole house.

Here is the after,

We added the wood floors, and closed up the hole over the fireplace. (In addition to all the painting, curtains, and furniture!) The curtains are actually made from a silk that I carried around for about 5 years, so yay for stash busting! I think the paint color is called Churchill Hotel Wheat by Valspar.

Here is the breakfast nook/kitchen before,

And here is the after,

we continued the wood flooring rather than the linoleum in the breakfast nook, we changed out the lighting, and I made the window treatments as well.

The DVD shelf was built a few years ago by my hunny, he's so talented! The shelf is an antique one we brought back from Germany dismantled in a dress bag!  

Before,

After,

I love how the wood paneling looks on this wall! I added this one day while Paul was at work and it was a near disaster as I shot a nail through a water line! I almost died - it took shutting off the water main, getting a pipe repair thingy from Lowe's (apparently this happens a lot, since there is a special part just for this problem.) and then repairing the drywall.......so needless to say the project was much more than I was expecting, but now it's done, it's totally worth it! 

The sofa table was one I got on clearance from a local furniture store, I actually really like this piece - even though I am always debating whether or not I should paint it, I am not usually a huge fan of light wood.

Here is another view of the big hole over the fireplace, 

We added framing into the hole and covered it with plywood and molding so that it could hold the weight of the TV (along with painting it all white!)

Here is the kitchen before,

Here's the remodeled kitchen, we have a blackboard/magnetic wall, that the kids love. The frames are the same on the cabinets, but the doors are new custom made Shaker style ones. I love the quartz counter-tops, they are one of my favorite things in the kitchen!

Another before view,

and then the after,

Here is this bank of cabinetry before,

And then the after,

I did the kitchen before Paul came home from his deployment, so it was a bit of a surprise to him when he came home! I tiled all the back-splashes, and replaced the range hood. I made the stained glass panels for the doors over the range. 

The only thing left to share downstairs is the half bath and the front and back patios, and then I guess we'll  move upstairs. It has been kind of fun for me to see the before and afters side by side!

linked up at,

 Sew Woodsy 

Our House in Virginia (Part 2)

In case you missed it, here is Part 1 of our house tour! 

This post I thought I would talk about the dining room and the bonus room that used to be my studio, *cry* but the bonus room tour will be short since the studio has been touched upon before, and it's mostly just staged right now!

Here's the dining room as it was when we moved in,

And then here it is now,

We Changed out the light fixture, refinished the wood flooring, and Venetian plastered the walls in here. (My mom was in town when we did the plaster, all of our arms nearly fell off!) The dining room table is an antique one we picked up at a local antique store for $100 because the stretcher was "broken" Paul just replaced the snapped metal "L" bracket that held it in place for $1.50, and it was as good as new! The leaves pull out of the sides since it is a pub style table, and it comfortable seats 8. The sideboard (that I don't have a great picture of) was from a thrift store, and I just stripped and re-stained it. The plates on the wall are HIGH/LOW in the sense that the top one is from an antique store (cheap) although hand painted in Spain, the side plates are all from Home Goods, and the center plate is hand painted from Deruta, Italy, where we visited a couple of years ago because I had a historical clothing conference to attend, and Paul got me a plate for our wedding anniversary (It was a pottery-ish anniversary I believe as far as dates go.) The chairs are some I got off of Ebay, after wanting this exact same set from the Toscano Catalog  for about 5 years, (which by the way is $1,450 plus shipping if you get it from them) and I got them for $500 total from Ebay, from someone claiming they were vintage and one of a kind from England...... um not quite, but I still wanted them for that price! (I'm actually thinking about painting them for the next place, but I haven't managed to make myself commit to a color yet! I don't love the color of pine, but I am not sure if I want to go grey, or what about crazy bold and teal or something?)

The rug is a wool one we got at a salvation army store for $25, and we LOVE it. It has Paul's favorite color pumpkin orange in it, mustard yellow, navy blue, etc. it has deer and lions on it (when you see more of our house tour you will notice deer around, Paul loves them)

Here's the before view into the dining room from the kitchen hall.

And then the after,

The bird light fixture is one I got at a decorators closeout store for $100 (which is a lot, but I loved it,) and I found the exact same lamp a couple of months later for $350 at the non closeout version of the same store! The curtains started off as IKEA sheers, that I unpicked the tabs off of, and then sewed button holes all along the top. I used plant hooks as the hangers, with a buttonhole threaded through each hook. I was particularly happy with these ones, I like that they are light and airy (and less than $20 helps!) 

Here is the before of the bonus room, sorry about the ghost orbs, and the open garage door!

This room has gone through several incarnations just since we have been here, when we moved in (while Paul was deployed) it was the family room with my sewing studio upstairs, 

 

We had new carpet installed, and painted the walls before Paul left, so that there was one finished room in the house for the kids and I to sit in during the remodel.

After I got my loom, we couldn't fit it upstairs, so this room became the new studio, and the carpet got ripped out to be replaced with an epoxied cement floor, and a lighter brighter wall color!  

and then all the studio stuff,

And now is is back to carpet, and a living room again for selling the house, it's the same couch as before, just with a different slip cover on it.

Here is the other side of the room, we have added a temporary studio space at this end, (Paul is too sweet, he put hours of work into moving stuff there for me, even though I will only be here for 2 weeks more before heading out to AZ, he said I needed a spot to sew!) 

The stairs were another one of my projects that I never blogged about,

 I ripped up the carpet, and added textured wallpaper to the risers, which I painted white and added an antiquing glaze too. 

 Next I added molding along the backs of the treads to hide the gap left when the stairs were built (there were never meant to be see, only carpeted, so I just had to clean them up a bit with some filler and trim) 

 We added some trim to the bottom of the handrail, and then painted the wood all black, and then varnished them multiple times so they would be durable. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on these rooms, or any questions you may have! Also I would love to see  any links to your room projects so I can come check out what you are doing!

linked up at,

 Sew Woodsy