fall is coming

Fall is my favorite season out of the whole year.  I love the crisp weather, leaving the windows open, wearing scarves and sweaters, all the fun activities and of course decorating.  This past weekend after meeting some great friends for lunch Jay, C and myself headed to JoAnne’s and I snagged some essentials: a wreath frame, a big piece of foam, some fat quarters and of the most fall-atious of all fabrics...burlap.  Two wonderful yards of brown, orange and green/gray burlap, it was splendid!  I could hardly wait to get home and get C down for bed that night so I could get to play with all my craft store goods!

I started by digging into the big piece of styrofoam.  I found a font that I liked and then blew it up to the size I needed it to be.  The great thing about the letter H is that I could make it so big that only a quarter of the letter printed, but because it is so symmetrical I could just fold it different ways to get the whole letter.  So, I used the print out as a stencil, got a steak knife and went to work carving out a big letter H.  I had it pictured in my mind exactly how I wanted it to look....raggy strips of funky fabric wrapped around a letter H, looking slightly eclectic.  Well, it turns out I am neither eclectic nor funky, although I long to be both, that is just not me.  This is the hideous creation that I came up with.

I think somehow it actually looked even worse in real life.  It was bad, real bad.  After some problem solving with much thought I decided to leave the fabric as is and take strips of my oh, so pretty burlap and this is what I got...much better, if I do say so myself!

I love the texture of the little burlap bits that hang off and the color is much more pleasing to the eye than the other.  It is not funky or eclectic, but much more me!  This lovely quick little craft got hung in the dining room over the mirror.

I think it goes well and I love the bright dash of orange that the burlap strip gives off.  Just when it looked like my dining room had a burlap monster blow up inside it, I started my next burlap project, a bubble wrap wreath that I saw on pinterest.  It was super easy, quick and cheap.  The directions wanted you to pin each “bubble” with a straight pin, but I thought it would be cheaper to hot glue them on.  A day later I am just getting the feeling back in my finger tips from the constant burning from the glue, but hey, I must of saved at least four dollars!  This is the final product hanging above the mantle on the mirror.

Things to excuse:

The fact that you can see about an inch of dust and grime on the mirror.

That I completed multiple projects with burlap (but isn’t it soooo fall).

That I put both projects on a mirror.

I also stole this idea from pinterest.  I would show you what the original looked like, but it is far to embarrassing.  There is no comparison between the two, mine looks VERY homemade.  In my defense Jay and I was not going to guzzle down six very pricey beers and buy a sticker machine just to get the look that I saw.  Instead we enjoyed six root beers and I just painted the letters on the bottles by hand.

Now, all I need is something for the door.  I think I am going to recreate a wreath I made when we first got married.  All I need is a square piece of foam, hot glue gun and a gazillion pinecones.  I also need to make something for the table, maybe a nice fall runner?  I am still looking and getting some ideas together.  For now, these wonderful beauties are decorating the table.  My lovely husband got them for me on Friday after he went grocery shopping to make us a yummy steak dinner.

Last but not least, I love being able to get all my holiday tackiness out by teaching fifth grade.  The kids enjoy the goofy, nerdy treats and projects and Jay appreciates it because it is kept out of the house.  To celebrate the beginning of October I have the makings of Witches Brew for the kiddos:

one bag of popcorn or petrified brains

one bag of pretzels or skeleton ribs

one bag of marshmellows or shriveled up lungs

one bag of candy corn or old witch teeth (she really should have brushed)

one bag of m&m’s or rotted eyeballs

Mix all up in witches caldron, serve into a pointy ice cream cone or a witches hat!

The kids get a kick out of it and I will incorporate a Halloween-y story that they can practice some of their newly adopted fifth grade summary writing skills on while munching on their brew!

Happy fall everyone!

-melissa

just a little tease

Today was a chilly and rainy day in RVa.  It was wonderful to welcome fall but not on a day that we had planned to get C six months photos taken, outside.  I was a little nervous but knew it would turn out fine, sometimes the best photos come from the craziest circumstances. Well, we had a great time with Sandra.  We met at Maymont Farm and she had tons of great ideas and had just the perfect personality for our family.

It was a little chilly, we actually stopped a little early because Charlotte’s legs felt a little cold, it did not help either that we had picked out a very cute summer party dress for her.  We know that it was no longer summer, but the dress is super cute and when we picked it out, all of eight days ago it was still blazin’ Vriginia hot.

Anyways, we had a great time, Charlotte was in a good mood and really hammed it up with the photographer Sandra.  We would recommend her for any event.  By looking at her site it appears that she does it all.  We really enjoyed working with her and we are hoping that she will be interested in working with us again in 6 months when C turns one.

Here is a sneak peak of some of the shots from today.  None of these photos even have her wearing her cute dress...even worse just a onsie!  We might not get the parents of year award, but we might get the cutest baby award!

Please take note how different this little girl is now than she was six months ago with her newborn pics on this very same quilt!

Man, they grow up fast!  We will get the rest of the pic’s up when we get them from Sandra.  Hope everyone is having a good mid-September weekend!

-melissa

six months!

Could it have been half a year already?!

There is a podcast that a friend introduced me to called “the shortest longest time”, it is such a fitting phrase for a families time with an infant.  There were times in the past six months that time dragged on at snails pace, maybe even a snail with a broken tail.  When she was feeding every three hours for an hour and then had to be soothed to sleep for another thirty minutes.  There were times when I could not imagine her any bigger than what she was, I couldn’t imagine what her personality was going to be like.  In the very beginning time crept along.  We were always completely smitten and in love with her, there were just times when we did not know what to do with her.

At about two months old, Jay was on one of his first trips and she really started to smile and show some pretty cute personality.  I took this video of her and looking back she was oh so small and now I can see it was just a little glimpse of her smily, bubbly personality.

Throughout the spring visitors came and went, we had a great time with all of them and it was fun to see the different milestones she was at while people visited.

We have been on countless walks through the neighborhood over the past six months.  We live in a pretty large neighborhood filled with a good deal of older people.  We have talked to almost all of them.   I think I can describe who lives in what house, when new flowers have been planted, and when someone gets a new car.  I have kind of turned into that person in the neighborhood, but little C sure does like to take some walks.  I read in one of the baby books that if you want to prepare your baby for a sleepy state to take them on a walk.  The swaying trees and soothing breeze will ease them into a sweet sleep.  Not this girl, from day one she has been so alert and curious about her surroundings, especially when it comes to outside.  I will admit that I have gotten some mean looks from some of those old sweet ladies I was talking about earlier when I have Charlotte strapped to me in her baby carrier with an umbrella in my hand as we take walks in rain storms.

We have grown so much as a family.  I do not think we expected anything that came with having a baby.  We knew that the first couple of months would be hard, trying and tiring, but we never expected to get so much joy out of Charlotte.  She is such a joy in our lives.  She is a cooing, tooting, giggling, rolling curious little baby who seems to be growing by leaps and bounds right in front of our eyes.

Charlotte’s personality has just been exploding since she turned four months.  It started out a little quite, sweet and innocent.  Now, she is starting to get a sense of humor.  She will laugh on her own and has preferences in life when comes to books, toys and songs.  I still wonder what her little voice is going to sound like (her first words just might be “hi jack!”).  I wonder if she will love music and art like her parents do.  I wonder if she will be creative, dramatic, compassionate, helpful, curious.  I guess only time will tell.  Either way Jay and I are having the time of our lives discovering who this little lady is that is growing before us.

Happy half birthday Charlotte Gray.  You are the coolest kid your dad or mom has ever met.  You bring us more joy, laughs and songs that has ever filled this house.  We are so lucky to be your parents.  We know that you will be one year before we know it.  We are so excited to see you grow and develop...if you could just slow down a little we want to stop and savor you at each of your changing stages just a little more!

We love you so much! -mommy

Most parents my age talk about how easy things get at 6 months and if you can just make it to 6 months you’re in the clear. First of all I can’t believe that its been 6 months already. We spent 9 months preparing and waiting for Charlotte to get here and now she’s almost been here for that same amount of time. Melissa said something about Charlotte being half a year old the other day and the sound of that made my head spin a little. 6 months is one thing, but in my mind, half of a year sounds even crazier than 6 months.

I’m knocking on wood as I say this, but my expectations about being a father have been completely blown out of the water. I expected to be a dead tired zombie half of the time and that hasn’t happened. I expected Melissa and I to have less time together, but that hasn’t happened. I expected that our lives would change drastically, but that hasn’t happened. I’m not saying that things haven’t changed, but in general where I thought life would become a little more crazy, having a baby has actually caused us to slow down. I’m so glad that we waited as long as we did to have kids. I think that the 6 years Melissa and I had together caused a bond between us that made the first 6 months of Charlotte’s life such a blessing and a breeze. We have always been a great team together and Charlotte has only strengthened that bond.

So it’s been a great six months. Our first Mother’s and Father’s day as parents, seeing Charlotte grow and change day by day, our first family vacation, and so much more. I catch myself noticing other children these days and wondering what Charlotte will be like when she’s older. We do plan on having more children, but I know that there will always be a special bond between our first child. I’m so looking forward to these next few months of Charlotte’s life where she’ll begin to crawl around and eat new foods and experience all that this world has. I was blessed in so many ways before Charlotte came along already, so to have a healthy, smiling girl....it’s almost too much for one heart to handle.

Happy half birthday Charlotte. You are my everything! -daddy

dearest honor...

Dearest Honor,

Today some of your biggest fans met to shower your mommy and daddy with goodies to help with your arrival.  Sorry we couldn’t make it to the party, we live so very far away.  Although we were not there we want you to know that we love you so much and can not wait to meet you.  Charlotte is so excited to be your very first friend.  She can not wait to have girly sleep overs and stay up all night talking about silly little things that little girls talk about.  We want you stay inside mommy for as long as you need to, but when you are ready to meet everyone we will be so excited!  We hope that you will love your quilt that we made you.  Please play on it, tug it all over the house, have messy picnics on it, make it into a tent, wrap it around yourself when you get chilly and play pick-a-boo on it!  We made sure that it has your name on it so everyone knows that it is yours.  We also made a sweet sign for you and mommy to share.  We thought it was the perfect saying for a brand new mommy and her brand new little miracle.  

We can not wait to meet you, love you and play with you!

xoxo, Uncle Jay, Auntie Mo and Cousin Charlotte