Life Lately

We officially started our summer break Monday afternoon. Our first stop (we literally left Elijah's school and went there) was the airport to drop off my husband for another business trip to China - the 5th one since May 2016. Not my favorite, but at least this one is only for a week.

We made it through Elijah's first year of school relatively unscathed. I ended up being hired by the school district to help out in his class for the last 3 months of the year. It was a little entertaining filling out the application though. So, I'm applying to be a kindergarten classroom assistant and they ask about degrees. I have a Masters of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL). Then they ask about your current title. Officially, although I don't agree with it because I don't have a Ph.D., my title at work is Professor. That's probably the most overqualified I've ever felt for a job I was applying for. But let me tell you, the degree and the title don't make working with kindergarteners any easier. There is a special place in Heaven reserved for people who do this for a living.

On the creative front, I've picked up a new hobby - hand lettering + drawing flowers (see image above). I've been using a couple of books to learn, and I highly recommend them. Hand Lettering 101 by Sarah Snyder at ChalkFullofLove, Botanical Line Drawing by Peggy Dean from ThePigeonLetters, and How to Draw Modern Florals by Alli Koch from AlliKDesigns. Today, I should be getting a package that includes an embossing kit, so we'll see how that works out...I have a feeling I will be Embossing. All. The. Things. for a while. :)

I haven't done a whole lot with yarn since the beginning of the year. My husband and I currently have a competition going on to see who can last the longest without buying guitar pedals (him) and yarn (me). We've made it almost 6 months, but it's getting irritating because I keep trying to make a blanket for my new little nephew who is due to arrive in August, but I keep running out of yarn before I'm able to finish. I think I just need to move on to a scrappy yarn blanket instead of a set color pattern, or break into the yarn stash I had saved for a bigger project.

Other than that, we've just been trying to get into the habit of getting out of the house in the morning and get 3 miles of walking in before the heat of the day (which, since it's June in the PNW hasn't really arrived just yet, although today is looking promising). Speaking of which, I need to hustle and get my kid out the door now.

I hope you all have had a fantastic start to your summer!

Stitch People Portraits

About a year ago, as a birthday gift to myself, I bought the Do It Yourself Stitch People Pattern Design Book because I wanted to make little stitch people portraits for each year my husband and I had been together (almost 8 years married + wedding) as an 8th anniversary gift. I planned to frame all the little portraits and hang them on the wall. Here's what I ended up with:

Well, I realized I would now have to make one every year until the end of time, so I bought another frame and got to work...

I have so much fun designing these little portraits that I made one for my step-sister and her husband for Christmas...

One for my coworker's birthday...although apparently, I forgot to take a picture of the finished piece.

And recently, I've been working on some wedding/birthday/new baby gifts...

 (the black canvas was a little different, but I like how the white stands out)

   

I just bought the Christmas pattern book and am going to try to get a head start on a picture for our Christmas cards, and maybe some personalized tags/ornaments for Christmas. Shh...I know it's April, but these things take time to make :)

So, if you're looking for some easy, although a little time consuming, super cute gifts, I highly recommend this book. Happy Stitching!

I Hate Weather Forecasts!

I don't know about where you live, but here in the Pacific Northwest, our weather is unpredictable enough that our weather forecasts are almost always wrong. With all the different mountain ranges, and large bodies of water, it's hard to accurately predict what various weather systems will do.

For example, late last year, they were predicting a huge wind storm. At the last second, the system moved 50 miles off of the predicted course, and most of the area was left with a couple of big gusts that knocked over lawn chairs. Not the huge wind event with widespread power outages that they were predicting. It did give us this meme, which makes me laugh...so there's that...

Then came the snow predictions. I think they've gotten maybe (maybe!) one of them right so far this year. They keep showing up on my phone, and then nothing happens! It's so irritating!

Lies, all lies! We had one little flurry, and nothing stayed on the ground.

Last night, there was another winter weather advisory, and they were predicting about 1-2" of snow to fall in the area overnight. So, at 10pm yesterday, I got a call from my son's school that they were going to preemptively delay school two hours. Sweet.

This morning - no snow! No ice! Nothing! So, I'm chilling at home with my kid for two hours because of rain...awesome.

Silver lining: I'm still in my pjs, drinking tea, and writing to you all, instead of rushing around trying to get my kid out the door, but still - I want some snow!

So, weather people, I know you're trying your best to get the forecast right, and you'd rather be overly cautious, than not cautious enough, but please, stop getting our hopes up! :)