Back and moved in!

I know, I know! It's been...forever!

Here I am back and all moved in to our new home in Summerville! It's been wonderful. David and I were married on Sept. 2 and the new home is starting to actually look like a home!

Here are some projects I have done since I went MIA:

Chair redo:

ugly plastic orange chair from school dumpster transformed to:

cute pink chair for Kimmi's desk

another chair from dumpster

painted to match our enamel top table

I did some cute decorations for the porch and house for Halloween:

made from paper by 'lil ole me :)

another paper craft by me

front porch-notice the cute "boo" signs on window? Made those as well. Paper is cheap!

the front doorway all dolled up

a view of the front of our house

Fall came quick and I spread what I could find of the decorations around and made this cute bird on a branch project. It turned out so cute:

made with branches, old book pages and printouts of birds
paper=free

Before we knew it, it was cookie day. Held the first Sat. in Dec. every year in our family:

a small sample of the kids cookies

Katherine made a grinch

another grinch...Hmmm

I made a mess while making my own Christmas tree ornaments. Despite the mess they turned out really nice:

I did the tree in pearl, white, aqua and pink this year

I put out the German angels my mom handed down to me last year. I had brought many of these back to her when I was a German exchange student. They are sitting next to my German smokers that David and the girls bought me for Christmas last year:

Of course I made yet another paper craft. I had this pre-printed village from some years ago and assembled it this year to display on the mantel...picture isn't too good:

I even made my own Christmas cards!

David and I built our first piece of furniture ever! A 9' x 9' shelf for our living room!

it's huge!

Before you know we are to the new year. My Chatty Cathy blog is going strong and I've already made some great projects for February!

quilled heart

quilled monogram

cute fringed flowers for a wreath

a darling scherensnitte silhouette

a little quilled heart for my flocked bird

and a heart garland for the fireplace.

I will be very good from now on about posting on here. I will keep everyone updated on how we are doing and what changes we are making to the home and family....

On the road again...

So down to 15 days. I am clipping and pasting my other blog post to here due to lack of time and packing. In the future each blog will contain different posts one family based updates and one crafty based updates :)

Please check back as I'm moving my home to SC to see all the things I will be decorating and painting!

Copied from my other blog: http://www.chattycathy-clipyourstring.blogspot.com/

Monday, June 6, 2011

moving and rebirth....

So as many know I am moving. 15 days to be exact. In that time I have to pack out the apartment, go to storage and clean out and purge what is no longer useful or wanted, pick up hand me down furniture from generous relatives, drive to SC for a walk through of new home, get my oldest packed up for college, graduation, graduation party, 11 year olds birthday party (same day as graduation!), father's day celebration and my sister's birthday...plus load up the truck, drive to SC, go to closing and move into the house that night. Drive back from SC to pick up 4 kids and then drive to PA to see David's family and register the RV! Oh and did I mention getting married somewhere in there when we can find time? A wedding.... think not.Whew! Okay so how am I still merrily singing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band and smiling? How have I gone through 16 do it yourself moves, surgeries, 4 births in 5 years and still come out looking at the positive? One reason. I praise God I can count on this being temporary discomfort. These life issues are little compared to the really hard things in life like cancer, death of a family member or friend or any other truly devastating thing. My discomfort at the present is because I have a beautiful (diagnosed autistic) daughter that will be graduating with honors and beat the diagnosis of "never going to regular Ed and getting a normal diploma"! I have a beautiful home being built in Summerville, SC and it's going to be wonderful! I have the most amazing man in the world that loves me right where I am, for who I am no matter what (Thank you God for him). I also have a father who is alive and well to celebrate Father's Day with. I have 4 beautiful daughters the youngest being 11 and turning 12 on June 17th (Graduation Day!). I can thank God for good health and the ability to see the bigger picture in life. I am also blessed to share my life with a man that can do the same. How could I complain (trust me I do find a way, I'm sad to say!). I just finished reading The Hiding Place and once again it gave me perspective on life. Instead of looking for what's not good (which let's face it is so easy in our world), let us look at how those can be blessings? Today, while I sweat in the sun at storage I will be thankful I can afford storage to store and protect those items that wouldn't fit in the apartment. I will be thankful that although incredibly small, my apartment has given us shelter and has running water and AC and heat. I will think about how blessed I am to have so much and each time I want to complain I will try to replace that thought with something positive. I really believe that if we can change our way of thinking life can be such a wonderful adventure. I hope Dear Reader you will take away a renewed thought about your life. I'd love to hear from you some way you feel blessed in life. Until next time think:

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love,
Chatty

Positive Things Happen to Positive People!

So, today I woke and thought....why does everyone...even my mother -who is being dragged kicking and screaming into the world of Facebook- have a blog except me? Now mind you, I'm prone to using broad terms like always and never and try very hard to stop myself. So, a better statement may be why do so many people have blogs and yet I don't? I mean how hard could it be really? My mom did it, my grandmother now uses a cell, my grandfather actually went on Ebay! I can surely figure it out right? Well proof is that you are actually reading a blog- MY BLOG! So what do I have that's interesting to say? Nothing, but I am about to leave the world of accounting for a Vacation Resorts company and become a stay at home mom again and it's thrilling and terrifying at the same time! This blog is my effort to make sure I do not dissapear into nothingness and wear sweats and ponytails around like I fear! This blog will be my accountability to remain fluent in the English language and keep my brain sharp! To converse, even if only through the computer, with interesting, creative souls like myself!

By the way Kind Reader,

I am about to be married and move to Summerville South Carolina with the new last name Knight! Hence the Blog name. I hope you'll join me for this journey and watch me grow and create and share in my life :)

-Lori