The vacation that wasn't...

We have been planning a vacation "home" to see my family (in Connecticut) for about six months now. My cousin Christopher was getting married, my sisters are both having babies, and we thought it would be a great time to spend a couple days in NYC then head on up to Connecticut to visit my family. I haven't seen my family in over a year and Doug and I were both looking forward to our trip. Well, to say things didn't go exactly as planned is an understatement.

We were all excited to stay a couple of days in NYC at the beginning of our trip. We had it all booked when Doug got a call from his employer and got the news that a meeting was scheduled for him to be in New Jersey on our planned days in NYC. Bummer that some of our time was going to be infringed upon by work commitments but hey, you do what you gotta do. We would have some other time to enjoy NYC prior to setting out for Connecticut.

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we walked from Times Square all the way to Soho. I wanted to visit Kate's Paperie and Doug wanted to visit Supreme - a skateboard shop (which ended up not being open). We ate at Simply Pasta and it was wonderful!

Tuesday night we saw "Rock Of Ages".

On Wednesday morning Doug went off to his meeting and we got the news his mom was back in the hospital with pneumonia. It has been a rough go since she fell back in July and from what we were hearing we realized we really needed to get to Texas right away to see her. We changed our flight to fly out as soon as we could and spent the remainder of the week in Texas.

Over the past couple of days she has "clinically improved" but she is still very, very sick. Any prayers for her and for Doug's family would be much appreciated.

We didn't make it to Connecticut to see my family and we missed my cousin's wedding but it was more important for us to be with Doug's mom. Right now we are back in Oklahoma and not exactly sure what the next few days are going to bring.

Crafting

Somewhere on the internet, although I can't remember where, I saw a picture of a pillow that I wanted to make. I finally got around to it and I'm so happy with how it turned out.


I'd love to give credit to the person who originally came up with the concept so if the pillow looks familiar, let me know and I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due.
Last night I went to Oklahoma City and took Franc's class at The Paper Crown. Isn't it adorable! I just love that little blue bird.

I'm giving lots of thought to the swaps I'm involved in - The Dorothy Tag Swap hosted by Karla Nathan, the Cupcake Book Swap which we are doing at Silver Bella hosted by my friend Rachel, the Fabric Banner Swap at Silver Bella (I can't remember who is hosting that one) and the ATC card swap at Inspiration Unlimited. Can't wait!
Tonight my friend Kathy is coming over for a craft night - can't wait to see what we come up with.

Yarn Store and Knitting Lessons

I am so excited! I've had "learn to knit" on my to do list for about four years now. I bought a kit to knit a hat about 3 years ago and the kit is still sitting unopened in my craft room. I just couldn't really fathom trying to learn to knit from written instructions. I'm too impatient to sit there and try to figure out what the words are telling me and trying to decipher the diagrams. I do so much better if someone shows me how to do something.
Back in the winter, Doug and I were shopping at Utica Square in Tulsa and I came upon this cute little yarn store called "Loops". Loops had the most beautiful yarns in gorgeous colors and textures and I was dreaming of all the beautiful things I could make if I only knew how to knit. I picked up a schedule of classes but somehow never made it back to take a class. I got busy and honestly too lazy to drive all the way to Utica square (about 30 minutes from home). But imagine my excitement when I discovered Loops was opening a *new* location in South Tulsa! I could hardly wait for them to open their doors.
I went in last week to pick up a schedule with hopes to finally get around to taking a class. It was my lucky day because they were actually holding a free "happy hour" that evening to learn the basics of knitting. I've learned it's best to take action as soon as possible once you set a goal so I went back that very night and got started. I picked out my yarn, bought some knitting needles and now I actually can knit! I'm working on a scarf right now and it is a little lumpy and bumpy but I LOVE it. Where the stitches aren't the prettiest I'll probably cover the area with felt flowers or something. I plan to take Knitting 101 in October, then follow up with Knitting 102 immediately after. At that point I should be ready to knit the cutest little sweater wrap that they have displayed in the store. I've already bought the sweater pattern - you know - for inspiration!

Baby Book

Both of my sisters are having babies. One sister (Amanda) is due in October with a little boy and my other sister (January) is due in January (not a typo) although we don't know just yet what she is having.
I've been busy making a little scrapbook for Amanda's baby. Since I really don't think my family reads my blog I'm pretty sure it's safe to post pictures of the pages before I get the scrapbook in the mail.
The first and last pages look larger than the rest but they are not - I just scanned them individually and scanned the "double" pages as one scan.
I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out since this is my first ever complete scrapbook that I did entirely by myself! It is a small scrapbook with each page being just 6 x 6. I just hope Amanda likes it.


The little lion is a brad that I got at Hobby Lobby.


The cute little giraffes I cut using my Cricut and the Create a Critter cartridge.


Is that cow not the cutest thing!?!

Dorothy Tag Swap

Karla at Karla's Cottage is hosting a tag swap in honor of the 75th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. If you would like to participate check out her post here.

This will be my very first swap so I'm going to try very hard to do a great job. I've signed up for a couple other swaps at Silver Bella in November so hopefully the Dorothy swap will get me in the groove.

I've been working on a few other crafty things this week and will post pictures either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Redecorating and Petite Dolls

Our bedroom is in progress so I don't have pictures quite yet. It is actually taking me so much longer than I thought it would. I'm kind of bad at estimating how long projects will take me - usually I *WAY* underestimate how long something will take. Plus, I've never painted a single room that is as large as our bedroom and we have really tall ceilings. Have I mentioned that I am deathly afraid of heights? As soon as the room is complete, I will post pictures, I promise.
Earlier in the summer I signed up for an online art class with Suziblu called Petite Dolls. Basically you watch her videos, practice and then submit "homework" for her to critique. I watched the first few videos and then I got sidetracked by our trip to Rome and other things, but this past week I decided to try to get caught up. I stayed up really late on Saturday night drawing and coloring. Here is my first ever attempt at drawing, coloring and shading a petite doll:

I'm pretty happy with her. I know one eye is slightly larger than the other and I know she is not perfect - but it is not about perfection, it is about enjoying the process. And that I did. And I can't wait to do more - it's so fun!
So, if you have a comment about any of my dolls - please be kind and make it constructive. I'm just learning. ;)
Here is doll 2. I don't think she is "pretty" per se, but it's interesting to see how different they come out.

This is doll 3:

Hope you like them - I do!