Yes, It's Been a Year and a Half, but I Get Reminders on My Phone Now So Maybe it Won't Happen Again?

 Life happens, right? 2020 hit hard. Since I'm a stay-at-home Mom, you might think I wasn't really affected too much. After all, it's right there in my title: stay at home. Except, I like liked to take my kids places a couple times a week where someone else planned the activity and I just got to enjoy being with my kids. We went to storytime at the library every week. Caleb had just bought us a membership to the children's museum. We went grocery shopping all together, which totally counts.

And then, suddenly, all of that stopped. I was not prepared. I like to be prepared. And it was only supposed to be two weeks. (HAH!)

After falling over and reeling a bit, I came up with some plans. Not all of them worked so well, but one of them was this ABC craft for Jo. I tried to include Micah, but he wasn't super interested. Over a few months, she put together these crafts I prepared. Most of the ideas were from this page, but for a few of the letters, I liked other options better. 

We had them as a border in our dining area for a good portion of the year.

I think N is for Night might be one of my favorites she did. She had a blast painting it and got very creative. Jo splattered some blue paint over the page because "it's a rainy night".

I took up cross-stitching, which I kind of fell in love with. Here's my first project - a good reminder for every day:

Pattern from Etsy

I also took up watercolors (I found a cheap set at Meijer) and I'm having a lot of fun with that. I created a painting board for myself, so I can paint at the table if I want, and then move the painting off the table without disturbing it.

I sanded, stained, and sealed a pine board from Lowe's, then added two handles on each side to make it easier to carry. A year and a half later (with lots of use), it's still in perfect condition.

These were some of my first painting attempts. I've improved so much since then (more on that later), so it's fun to look back on.

Lots more has happened since then, and you can actually look forward to reading more about that because I've set reminders on my phone to write. :)

Love and Sunshine,

Leah Joy

Life Update (and Oh Yeah, Last Christmas)

"Friends, it has been an abominably long time since I have updated this blog," was how she began every post.

So, since the last post, we've had Halloween:

Jo went as Daniel Tiger and Micah was Tigey. The hats were made by Caleb's sister, and I made the pants and tail for Jo/Daniel. Everything else was purchased secondhand.

Jo turned 3 in November.

Then there was Christmas. Here's how I decorated my mantel this/last year:

We did have an 'exciting' accident with the Christmas tree...

No one was even in the room, so I can't blame anyone. :)

Now in 2019... Lots of crafting in the first few months - much more on that later.

I sold truffles again for Valentine's Day, and once again, sold more boxes this year than last year. That was pretty exciting.

Keeping Jo busy while I made 200 truffles:

Micah turned one at the beginning of the month.

And that about brings us up to date.

I have many more posts planned and I hope to get those out soon!

Love and Long Lengths of Time,

Leah Joy

New House Tour: Micah's Room

Micah's room was already painted a light teal, which was nice as it's fairly gender-neutral. (When we moved in, we didn't yet know if we were having a boy or a girl.) The previous owners already had curtains up, which were quite poorly made, but are functioning okay for now. I have fabric all ready to make new curtains for this room.

My mom (and Jo) helped me decorate in this room, too. We put up these paintings you may remember from Jo's room at our former home. Almost everything on these walls was strategically placed to cover any holes or imperfections (since we don't have any extra paint of this color).

Above the crib, we put the Mario wall stickers (also from Jo's old room).

I also hung this mobile I finally put together from the Mario characters I made for Jo years ago.

This is an ABC print Caleb and I found at Salvation Army while I was pregnant with Jo. It never made it onto her wall at our old house.

This is a print I had in my room when I was a kid.

I do have plans to paint the trim white at some point, but that's a project for another year.

Love and Goombas,

Leah Joy

A Dinosaur Quilt for Micah

After making a quite intricate herringbone quilt for a cousin's baby, perhaps I might be expected to do something equally intricate (if not more so) for my own offspring. Nope. I went super easy-mode on this quilt for Micah. Partially because I was 8 months pregnant. Partially because I found some adorable prints that featured better in larger pieces.

The front of the quilt is all flannel. It's so soft and cozy!

I found the perfect binding fabric! It has all the main colors of the quilt in it.

I used this adorable regular cotton print for the back:

Love and Flannel,

Leah Joy

Life Update - 6/28/2018

Dear Readers,

Believe it or not, I have not actually forgotten about this blog! I realize it has been over 6 months, but with moving, being pregnant, having a newborn, and, well, keeping myself and 2 tiny humans alive, I've been way too busy to get around to updating you all. So, there's a lot to say!

In chronological order:

We moved! Last October, we moved to our new house! The first couple days after we closed, we had the carpets and the air ducts cleaned, as the previous owners had animals and we have allergies. We also made sure at least one bathroom was cleaned, and that the storage room was clean and ready for boxes. We then had our first big moving day, where we moved as much as we could, mostly boxes of things we wouldn't need for a week (i.e. books, storage, extra clothes, most toys, home decor, etc.). The next week was exhausting. We cleaned almost every square inch of the house (some rooms got demoted until after we moved as they wouldn't be necessary right away, like the 3rd bathroom, and the spare bedroom). 

Jo had a lot of fun helping us wipe down walls:

And "sweep":

Actually, that's a curtain rod.

 And sand:

Finally, the following Saturday, we rented a U-Haul and moved the rest of everything!

Unfortunately, it turns out we inherited a flea problem! I'm choosing to believe that the previous owners thought they had taken care of the problem, as flea eggs can live dormant for several months. Since we cleaned super thoroughly, it's probable that we stirred up some areas they just hadn't cleaned in a while. (I still wish they would have told us, though, so we could have taken care of the problem before we all got bit!) We actually first thought it was bed bugs, but after thoroughly treating every possible way they could get us, we were still getting bit. That's when we realized it was fleas, which are actually a lot harder to fight! Ugh. At least we don't have pets! That makes it much harder.

After months of daily vacuuming, shampooing, and washing of our sheets, we were finally flea free! Huzzah! Just in time for Christmas! Believe me, there will be a whole slew of posts on Christmas (now that it's nearly July!).

The following couple months were filled with decorating (which I do very slowly), unpacking (still not done!), quilting (more posts coming!), and settling in to our new home. (Plus a trip to IKEA; it was our "babymoon"!) It really is a wonderful house and it feels just perfect for us. We're really happy here!

And then in March:

Welcome to the sunshine, Micah James! He was born March 7, and that's pretty much what I've been up do since then!

I hope to get several most posts out soon, but I make no guarantees.

Love and Babies,

Leah Joy