A New Wall-Hanging...

This past year, for my mom's birthday, I took her on a quilt retreat.  She loves to sew, and I don't take the time to sew much these days, so it was a great excuse to relax and work on a new project.  I invited my aunt as well, and booked us into a local hotel.  I chose one with good proximity to restaurants and craft stores...perfect!

We had a great time and as I chose a larger room layout, we had plenty of space for three sewing machines and ironing board and all our project materials.  I wish I had taken my camera, we used all the space available!

Our retreat was in January and I just finished sewing the binding on my new wall hanging.  I love the greens and browns in my living room and a new wall-hanging brightened up this corner a bit.

The brighter green is one of my favorite new fabrics, full of inspirational words..."Make Life Beautiful", "Make Life Simple", "Make Life Fun"...perfect words to remember in the heart of the family.

What I've Been Reading...

I have always loved reading.  Ever since I was a little girl books have provided a certain comfort, an escape, a way to relax.  One of my favorite things is to share reading with my kids.

Reading with Connar: Connar has been completely sucked into the Percy Jackson series.  Last week he finished Battle of the Labryinth by Rick Riordan and I got to read it.  I read out loud with Connar a bit each night, so I had heard pieces of this book.  The whole book was better than I expected however and I enjoyed every page.  I can't wait for Connar to finish the last book in the series, so I can too!

Reading with Aiden:  Aiden and I read together every evening.  Some nights he feels more like reading and others he wants me to read.  In the past year he's gone from a hesitant reader to a much more confident one.  His favorites to read to me are Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books.  {Little Critter is a bit like Aiden!}  He also goes through fun phases in what he likes to hear.  Currently we're reading lots of Dr. Seuss.

My Reading:  I most recently finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen which I loved!  I read it on the recommendation of my good friend Tessa.  It's sweet and compelling with well-written characters.  I had my next book all lined up...a highly recommended book for a Book Club with my work colleagues...and I just had to buy another Sarah Addison Allen!  {The joys of owning a Kindle...I can change my mind and buy a new book...from bed...at 9:00 at night!}  So, I am currently reading Sugar Queen and I'll let you know how it turns. 

What's on your bookshelf?  What books do you recommend?

Happy Reading!

Getting Crafty…

We have a small bathroom on the main floor, off the kitchen, that needed a new look.  I found this picture at Target that I fell in love with.

  You can see why…I “love” {pun intended} to use words in my decorating, and so much of what I am about is Love!  Since this looked fantastic on the wall in the bathroom, I decided to make something similar to go on the opposite wall.  

I don’t have pictures of the process, but this was so easy to make.  I bought the two stars, the ribbon and the black stickers.  I already had paint and antiquing gel at home.  I sanded and painted both stars, then used antiquing gel to age the edges a bit.  The black stickers have a velvet texture and I randomly placed them on the stars to correspond to the black designs on the original picture. 

I had a sticker that said “Kiss” and I put that on the smaller star.  Then I hot glued the wider ribbon, it has a plaid design, to both stars and looped it over a hook on the wall.  I used 1/4” grosgrain ribbon to tie a bow near the top. 

It didn’t take me long…and now I have two great, new decorations.

What have you done lately to freshen up a corner of your house?

Welcome to Chase-ing the Dream...

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, and today my great friends Ross & Tessa helped me get started. Stay tuned for an appearance makeover in the next few weeks...I have some fun ideas in mind.

The big idea behind my blog is sharing some of the tips, tricks, trials and tribulations of being a mom-who-plays and a mom-who-works and everything in between.

Right now I am listening to my boys chase a Havoc Heli RC helicopter around the house and listening to the Dropkick Murphy's. They are my favorite band to clean the house to (and run to as well). The boys and I have finished our weekend chores and I have paid allowence to spending money and savings (more on that in a future post.) Soon, I'll pour a glass of wine, make dinner and settle us into a good movie. My husband works 24-hour shifts as a firefighter and he's at work tonight.

Thank you for joining my world...I hope this journey is fun for you as well :)