Landscaping Part II

 Where has the time gone?? I promised to post here an update on the landscaping we had done so here it is better late than never. I'll post a few pics of before from last fall. It took them so long to get the pavers to lay correctly, and they even had to cut most of them 😳, that they didn't finish until late October-November. 

And, with it being so late in the year, some of the plantings didn't make it and had to be replaced and some grass reseeded, but we're thrilled with the way it turned out and everything seems to be thriving. 

Some before..

Building a box around the water feature to keep it intact while putting in the retention wall.

Where the steps will be.

The retention wall coming along and the wood brace for the water feature.

Needless to say, we didn't get to enjoy our backyard at all last year but as you can see from the video, we are loving it! It's so nice to sit out here in the morning and enjoy a cup of coffee by the water 😊.

Now, for some reason (probably because I now have a Mac instead of a PC and I'm stumped) I have to link to YouTube 😕.

As always...thanks for stopping by. 

Orlando Part 2

Hey there!

I know, I know, I haven't posted Orlando Part 1. But while this is fresh in my mind and I'm still somewhat giddy from our trip, I thought I'd post away. 

DAY 1 FLYING TO ORLANDO

Elliott recently is fascinated with planes. As soon as she hears them outside, she used to say "what's that?". Now she says "there's a plane!". We've been telling her for a couple of weeks now that we're going on a plane. 

We left on Sunday, February 27th from Detroit. We used to fly out of Cleveland but that's now 2 hours away so it seems pointless. This was our first time flying from Detroit. It worked out fine. Jenn & Dan bought these car seat carts and it made walking throughout the airports with the grands a breeze. 

 

We flew on Delta and the pilots couldn't have been nicer!! Elliott got her first wings and they even gave her a pair to her to give to Ethan. 

  

I made Minnie masks for me, Jenn, Elliott and Linda. This time I added a nose wire, so much more comfortable. 

First day we relaxed when we got there. Check in at Hilton Grand Vacation Club Sea World was at 4:00 and we got there about 1:00 and they checked us in and we got our room right away! We walked down to the pond area and saw some turtles. Some people talk about seeing alligators, which I'm fine with not seeing any of those!   

DAY 2 REST DAY

The next day was a rest day and we had made reservations beforehand at Ragland Road Irish Pub. This would be my 3rd time eating there and knowing they had Irish dancers on stage, I knew Elliott would love it! And love it she did. Her little legs were going under the table.   

In the square at Disney Springs after dinner, we heard a violinist. Wow was she ever good!! 

DAY 3 MAGIC KINGDOM

Tuesday was magic Kingdom day!! Yay!! It truly was a magical experience. 

All decked out for the 50th Anniversary

Little Mermaid ride...

Dumbo ride...

Linda & I in our Disney shirts from Jenn 😊

As we were walking around, they had little guest services booths set up for people with questions or needs. Jenn & Dan asked where would be the best place to see Mickey and the guy told us at the theatre on Main Street. So we headed that way but then noticed all kinds of commotion near the Castle. Out front on a stage were all the Disney characters singing and dancing. We were so glad we were close by and got to see it. FUN!! 

And then...a parade came right by us while we were having some ice cream on Main Street. We got so lucky that we were in the right place at the right time. Elliott was ecstatic she got to see Mickey and Minnie. We all were!!

They had a parade of princesses including the Fairy God Mother at the end. 

DAY 4 EPCOT

Linda and Jim were wanting to take it easy since Linda had recently broken a toe and they had a big diving trip in Palau that was happening when they got back. They had the kids for the day while me, Paul, Jenn and Dan went to Epcot. 

Anyone with kids, especially under the age of 3, knows how tiring it can be. As you can see Jenn in this picture, she is ready to have an "adult" day!! 😆

In England with Mary Poppins in the background. 

THE Beauty & the Beast

YUMM!!! 

DAY 5 ANIMAL KINGDOM 

This was another blast of a day! 1st up is DeVine, a character who is heavily camoflaouged in vines and plants. So VERY cool!! 

We saw a few boats go by with Disney Characters!! 

We went on the Avatar Flight of Passage ride (I went on it in November with the girls). It's so very cool!! Even waiting in line was cool, although it was longer than anticipated.

Everything is so beautiful here!! 

I love the bright pretty colors. 

Ad then back out to walk around the park...

I have to say the special treats for the 50th Anniversary are to die for! 

We had been seeing kids walking around with the Little Mermaid Bubble Blowers so I couldn't resist getting Elliott one to play with. She loved it! 

Next we rode on the Na'vi River Boat Journey. Oh was that ever fun!! Again, the bright colors all having to do with the movie Avatar. 

Another long wait but the kids were good and it wasn't too hot. 

Back outside..

DAY 6 RELAX BEFORE HEADING HOME TOMORROW

We had a very early morning flight. Bye Orlando..until next time 💓

Getting Crafty

 Hi and welcome.

I didn't even post a Happy New Year with how I intend on blogging more or my goals for 2022. They are pretty much the same...blog more, exercise and eat better, journal (which I do already). One thing I plan on doing is memory keeping with photos. I should say "more of that" but to be honest, I didn't do ANY memory keeping last year. I got so overwhelmed with choices, either by the traditional 12x12 album with page protectors by Becky Higgins Project Life method, or Heidi Swapp Storyline Chapters (shown here by Jamie Pate) or 6x9 albums, 9x12 albums and everything, even sketches! I tried them all in January and like I said, I got so overwhelmed I landed up not doing anything. It was pretty sad considering it's my favorite hobby. I have so much catching up to do because I really like documenting in chronological order instead of randomly doing scrapbook pages. 

My thoughts are, I haven't completed a whole Project Life album in a few years so that isn't working for me. I'm going to finish the ones I've started in the manner of how they are right now with the page protectors etc. and this year, 2022 I'm using the 6x9 Storyline Chapters to tell my stories. I'm excited for the change. I'm excited to use stamps, ink and cut up paper etc. I even purchased a QR Code app that links to my Dropbox account so I can put that on some photos where there's a video I want to share. 

I'm going to use a lot of Ali Edwards Stories By The Month which I subscribe to and I might even do Ali's A Day In The Life. How fun would I think it would have been to see a photo album with pictures and journaling just of a day in my mom's life or my grandmothers. Wow! 

I noticed in my last post titled "landscaping part 1 of 2". Well, since the landscapers were so very late finishing, (it was actually snowing) I will post part 2 in the spring.

Lately I've been in a crafty mood. Who am I kidding? I'm always in a crafty mood! Not sure if I mentioned it here or not but I bought some really cool yarn a while back called Monopoly Sock Yarn. 

Even came with a little green house 😄

When I decided to start the socks, instead of using my yarn winder, I attempted once again (again face palm) to wind by hand. WHAT A DISASTER!! Paul was such a trooper. Helped with it for probably a full week! I have finally learned my lesson! 

I then divided it in half using the kitchen scale so each sock would have the same amount of yarn. I found a beautiful local yarn shop close by Chickadee Knit Studio. The owner's family is actually from Avon-Avon Lake area and she was great with helping me pick out some coordinating yarn for the toes, heels and ribbing for the top of the socks. I've never done contrasting colors before, always just straight up socks. 

Got the toes done. 

I think they turned out awesome and I love the yarn, super soft! 

For Christmas I decided to make each of the kids a Santa on a cross stitch canvas, which is the exact Santa I made back in 1992 only I made mine on needlepoint canvas which are just bigger squares. 

The reason was...I don't think people are doing hand made cross stitch or needlepoint much any more and to buy supplies is like pulling teeth!!  When I started cross stitching  40+ years ago, you could find a handful of cross stitch stores around as well as all kinds of stuff at box stores. As I started on each one, I realized I would need to replenish the supplies I used for the original I made myself. I sure am glad that I kept the pattern!! For the pom-pom at the end of his hat, I had used this thread called Santa's Beard & Suit..

This is what was left over from the original.

The pen outline where the pom-pom will go.

Of course this isn't something you can just go down to the local cross stitch store (which there is only 1 near by and that's in Findlay) and buy. So I found a store online that carried it and ordered a bunch. And then I waited. Over a MONTH! I decided to email them and they informed me that it wasn't in stock and they were waiting for it to come in. Sheesh! You'd think they would have let me know! Anyway, I cancelled that order and took a little road trip into Michigan and found something similar to use. Needless to say, one of the Santa's pom-pom is made from leftovers from 1992 (see above), one is made with a combination and one is made with the new stuff. 

I think each Santa turned out pretty damn good. 😊

I found some picture frames and took the back and glass out. I forgot to get pics so I had Steve send me a picture of his..

They took me way longer than I anticipated but #1. I'm happy I started back in February and #2. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Okay, enough about the Santa's. I'm just pretty proud of them. I did find what I thought would be a cool Christmas card holder. I attempted to get the wood pieces that they used but that didn't work out for me. Paul helped me put it together and once I got the cards hung on it, it kind of grew on me. 

I landed up taking it downstairs and working on a long table and gluing the jute to it. 

Turned out pretty good. I'd like to get a star or something for the top for next year. Speaking of Christmas cards..we were right? 

I joined in a Christmas card exchange so to speak. On one of my crafting sites they put everyone who wanted to participate in an excel spreadsheet with your name and address. Most of the cards hanging up there are from people I don't even know. But! They were kind enough to either make or buy a card and send it to me. I did the same with about 40 maybe. 

I cut out the J & Y using my Cricut. Most of the snowflakes I bought in a package at Michaels. I'll show you the cards I made...

This snowflake was cut on my Cricut.

For Christmas, one of the things Steve and Laureen got me was some yarn. I asked if there was anything they'd like knit with it. Laureen said she'd like a hat. I used a basic hat pattern as I didn't want to distract from the self striping yarn. I think it turned out really cute. She hasn't seen it yet but I don't even think she knows I have a blog. I get all my pom-poms from Etsy here fffabuknits.

One last crafty thing I'm working on right now is my windows. We have this huge set of windows in the living room. Last year we bought shades for them because in the summer when the sun is setting, you can't even see each other in that room because you're blinded. Well, when we put up the Christmas tree this year, we decided to put it in front of those windows. To me, the room looked cold and uninviting. More office like. I just really didn't like it.

So I went on the hunt for curtains. Ugh!! I couldn't find any I liked that were long enough, then on Pinterest I came across a post where someone made curtains out of painters drop cloths from Home Depot! Huh? It's true! So off I went and grabbed some that were 9x12'. Cut them in half length wise, folded over the tops and used the circle clips to hang them. Got one of the small windows done and I have to say I'm over the moon happy with the way they turned out!! I'll get two drop cloths for the large middle window. 

Not bad eh? Oh, curtain rod is from Amazon. 

With all these crafty things I have going on I'm definitely never bored. Paul keeps saying to me "we really need to make some friends out here". Do we though? 😉

So, thanks for sticking with me this long. I'll post again soon as I have tons to talk about. Ethan's birthday, Christmas, my Orlando Girls Trip...all kinds of stuff. 

As always...thanks for stopping by.