It's Time to Update!!

Well, it has definately been awhile since I have posted. And let me tell you, life has been CRAZY!! I haven't posted since Mom's wedding, and so much has happened since then! We found out that Jason would be deploying to Afganistan in June. We decided that the best thing for our family would be for the kids and I to move back to Ohio and live by my Mom and Olan. Up until last week, we were going back and forth with the army trying to figure out if they were going to put our stuff in storage or if we were going to have to stay here. We were going in circles. Then last week, as I was sitting in the salon getting my hair done, Jason walked in and told me that he had just gotten off the phone with higher ups and that all plans had changed. The new plan.... (drumroll please) Jason is not deploying until January and we are all moving to Washington DC. - - huh? Didn't see that one coming! So, in just two weeks time, we have to get everything ready to move. That includes, organizing (getting rid of kids clothes that don't fit and things we don't use or need to move with us anymore), having a garage sale, repainting the entire house, finishing up everyone else's projects, closing out accounts, packing up stuff to take in the van with us, and figuring out what we are doing for housing once we get there! AAAGH! I am very excited about us moving and of course I am excited about Jason not deploying right away, but wow - - we have so much to do! In light of everything that we have to do before moving, it is very important for us to make sure we make it to Disneyland before we move! We can't live this close and not go - - so here I am sitting up at midnight typing out a post and waiting for my laundry to finish so I can finish packing us up, so we can leave early in the morning! Woohoo! The kids are very excited and I am like a little kid, I am so excited. Hopefully i will post some pictures, but knowing what the next two weeks hold, I am not promising!

Momma's Wedding

Last weekend my Mom got married... woohoo! It was a great time for us to get together as a family and celebrate. Thankfully for us, the wedding was in San Diego, so we only had a 3 hour drive to get there. We had lots of fun and although the time was short, I was just thankful to be able to be there with Mom and Olan - or Poppa O as the kids call him! I don't have any pictures to post of the wedding, for two reasons: 1. My camera remained in the trunk of the car the entire weekend - - not one single picture taken and 2. My computer is completely dead - flatlined. Oh what a sad, sad day. This my friends, is why you should back up your pictures that are stored on your computer. I have now officially lost 5 years of pictures. Charise is only 6, so that means I have lost pictures of 80% of her life :(

But, on to happier things, I might not have pictures, but my cousin - Shari- who has her own photography buisness and a great blog was there taking pictures the whole weekend! So, check out the pictures here and check out some of her other great pictures while you are on her blog. She is in the San Diego area, so if you are ever headed that way and want some great pictures, you can check her work out - - I think she does a fabulous job!!

White Slipcover

I'm linking up!


I reupholstered this chair for one of my customers a few months back, but since then, she has moved the chair into a different room. She didn't want the chair reupholstered again, but instead asked me to do a simple white slipcover with some nice details. Here is the before picture...

And the after! Ta da!

I needed a way to keep the slipcover tight around the arms of the chair, so I sewed some white grossgrain ribbon to the slipcover at the bottom edge near the arm opening and now it can be tightened and tied shut with a romantic bow. Notice the adorable pleated "short skirt" that goes all the way around, I am just in love with this little detail.

Keeping the slipcover tight around the back required that I pull it tight at the seam and then have buttons to keep it together. The seam right above the buttons, at the edge of the chair is velcroed (I'm not sure that is a word) together from under the arm to just below the buttoned flap.

And the best and most exciting part - - ok for me at least - - I got my labels! I'm so professional now! This is the first one that I got to put on any of my projects. It makes me feel official!

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!! You all need to go here and check out all of her great sewing projects! Talk about inspiration, I wish I could sew clothes like she does! I really would love to win this dress that she is giving away, I would like to think that I could attemp to make one similar, but I'm pretty sure it would just end up being a half finished project!!

By the way, don't miss my post from earlier today... big news in the Franklin family!

Promotions!

Hey all! Gotta be quick about this, my computer has some sort of something going on and it only stays on for about 10 min. at a time....hhhmmmm??? Anyway, the last 10 min I had on it, I quickly printed off our taxes so we can send them in (why doesn't Indiana allow you to fine online?), and loaded the pictures from off my camera. This time I am hoping to get those pictures onto my blog and as a bonus even have a few words to go with them!

So, the latest and greatest going on here is Jason's promotion. Woohoo!! It's about time that all the paperwork finally went through. For those of you who don't know, we have been waiting for almost a year for Indiana and Washington to get all their paperwork straightened out so that this promotion could finally be official and the day finally came two weeks ago. Things around here have been crazy busy preparing for that and then the party that goes with it all. Here are some pictures of the big day.

General Pittard taking off the old rank

I got to put his new rank on and then of course give him a huge kiss!!

Congratulations Major Franklin!!

We had his promotion party at our house. I took the entire week before to rearrange the house and prepare food. All in all it turned out great. This is the large food table. Notice the centerpiece of it all is the chocolate fountain. Nothing better than flowing chocolate with lots of options to dip in it!!

Just a close up of some of the food.

Details...

Long post this time... ok, maybe not long, but LOTS of pictures!!

Welcome to my friend, Kristi's house! All the pictures today are just little details I found in her home, I could sit for hours in her house just finding new details hidden here and there. The day I went to take pictures, Kristi was putting new window mistreatments up, so I told her I would come back and take more pictures later. I hope you enjoy all the little vignettes and even get some ideas for your house!!

Need a little extra height - - stack some old books (make sure you choose some in your complimentary colors!) and voila! The perfect height!
I'm not even sure what this is in the little glass, but it screams CUTE!!

A collection of silver spoons

Kristi loves nests and displays them better than anyone I know! She even has me liking birds and nests!

The big picture of where all those items came from! Seriously....look how good she can make a rolling metal cart look! By the way, did you notice that she covered each of the wire shelves with pages from old books? What a great way to give it depth and character!

A collection of rubber stamps.

The perfect way to keep things organized in your workroom - - use vintage bread pans to organize and display your different supplies.

Aren't these cute? Yup, Krisit made them!

A great way to organize and display all those small ribbons!

Too cute!

A collection of H's all in a vintage egg basket.

Notice how the H is anchored in one of those floral pin thingys. You also get a glimpse of the old typewriter that she has displayed on her shelf.

Again, different little collections on her shelves.

Old keys in an ashtray?

The shelf where the last four pictures came from. Even better in person!

Hope you all enjoyed a little glimpse of Kristi's house. I'll get some more pictures later, but for now I'll let her be. Her husband is home from Iraq right now for two weeks of R&R. Enjoy every minute of it Kristi and thank you so much for sharing your home!!

Peanut Butter and Sparkles

You know what? I actually convinced my friend Kristi to let me take some pictures of her house (OK, actually I just showed up with my camera and said, "can I take some pictures?") and I was going to post them today, but then when I was visiting with another friend today, she shared a story with me that I just had to share with you! And it is even better because the story is about my daughter!!

Now, keep in mind that Cameron is home schooled, but for Charise's Kindergarten year, we decided to send her to school so she could see what it is all about! So the other night, my friend Melissa was at a coffee (one of those mandatory fun things that we do in the military) and another lady there was telling this story....

Her son had come home from school last week and told her that tomorrow for school he was dressing up. Mom said, OK, but didn't really ask about it. The next morning, he was up bright and early and completely dressed. Pinstripe pants, dress shirt and a bow tie. He then went into his mom's room to check on her. She was up and dressed, ready to take him to school. He asked her if that was what she was planning on wearing (she had on jeans and a sweatshirt) She told him yes, as a matter of fact it was. He then proceeded to tell her he really wished that she would wear a dress that day. She explained to him that she was just dropping him off at school and that it was a cold day, and yes she was going to wear her jeans and sweatshirt. He finally decided that it was OK as long as she made sure he got to school on time. Of course, all of this made her wonder what was up. On the way to school, she asked him why he was so dressed up and he said, "because Charise is dressing up today and she wants me to dress up." OK

When she picked him up after school she asked him how his day went. He told her he had a blue day. At school there behavior is noted by what color day they had. Red being a perfect, the very best day you can have and moving down the rainbow to purple - - a bad bad day! Every day they start out on green so blue was just one color down, but no one likes to have a blue day. So she asked her son why he had a blue day. He said, "well Charise and I were sitting next to each other and everyone thought we were kissing, but we weren't." So being the good mom that she was, she continued to ask questions...

"Why did everyone think you were kissing?"
"Well, because we were rubbing faces, but we weren't kissing, mom."

"Have you ever kissed Charise?"

"No, but she has kissed me :)"

"She has?"

"yup"

"So tell me about Charise."

"Oh, Mom... she has hair the color of peanut butter and sparkles across her nose!"

This boy was completely head over heals for my daughter. And apparently the feeling was reciprocated. I have never had the right descriptive color for Charise's hair. It is a beautiful red color that only God could have created and it is gorgeous. Now I know it is peanut butter color. Who knew? And the sparkles - - well, those are her adorable freckles that perfectly adorn her button nose and little apple cheeks - - -we call them cinnamon sprinkles and ask her all the time if we can eat them off of her!

I'm glad that this little boy can see the beauty that we see in our daughter, but I do think it is time to set her down and talk about rules and (big gulp) kissing. Really.... we have to talk about kissing in Kindergarten? Who's raising these kids these days? (um that would be me - - -another big gulp)

By the way, Charise did come home with a blue day last week - - the same day that she was so insistant that she wear a dress - - but when I asked her why she had a blue day, she just told me it was because she had been talking too much. I guess I would rather have her mouth talking than kissing!