Our new wood burning stove:

My hubby grew up with a wood burning stove in his home and has always had an affinity for fire. Due to this, we were destined to have one in our home. Also, this winter has been particularly expensive for gas and has kept our family room bitterly cold. So cold, that we really don't go in there much. That is usually alright with us because we don't watch much TV and tend to sit in the living room instead. After a month or two of avoiding the room we missed being in it. A wood burning stove became a natural addition to the house.

Over the last few weeks my hubby has gathered all of the parts necessary to install the wood burning stove he recently bought. His dad came over to help him install it and make sure he had a helping hand through the process. I know my hubby was thankful. I don't exactly know a lot about stove installation so I wasn't any help. Cutting holes in my roof scares me.

I am happy to say, as I write this blog, that I am sitting next to a warm fire in the stove, enjoying my family room again. I am also super happy that we are burning some wood that we cut down from our own yard this fall. Free heat. We win!

Wordless Wednesday:

So, I thought I would become apart of the blogger phenomenon that is, "Wordless Wednesday." Today, I had to use some words to explain but, in the future it will just be pictures.


Tamsin Elizabeth, born Tuesday Jan 6, at 1:09am. 8lbs 7oz.

New Pursuits:

American Sign Language, English Sign Language, Pigeon Sign Language, call it what you will. It is beautiful.

My wonderful friend and I have been taking sign language classes at our church for the past eight weeks. We really enjoyed it when we began but, now we are totally obsessed. It is border line insane. We come home from work and stuff our already tired brains with it. The great thing about it is that we have been absorbing it like sponges and are able to keep up at the same pace as one another. It remains to be seriously enjoyable to learn with no end in sight. We have made a bunch of friends who are deaf and have even started a small group bible study that, coincidentally, has people who are hard of hearing and who sign. Weird.

My friend and I decided today that God has serious plans for us and our ASL usage. It seems to be strange perfect timing and God has woven various people into it. Matter of fact, today we got an invite to a monthly silent dinner group. This will be the perfect time to really get out into the deaf culture beyond just our deaf friends. I am soo excited about what God has in store for us! WOW!

I will definitely post more about it in the near future. Especially when we begin formal classes at Rt. Rita's school for the deaf!

Christmas Update:

I must say, I had a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. My health is getting better, my family is back in the same city, my best friend not only lives with me but also works with me, my marriage is good, I have a beautiful "new" home to live in which I can actually call my own, I have a job, I was able to buy nice presents for everyone this year, and I have finially settled into a church and officially made some friends there.

If that wasn't enough, I got to spend a couple of days celebrating Christmas with my family, and my hubbies family. All went off without a hitch, and everyone was happy and healthy. I even gained a new family member this year, Shannon, who made it that much more special. I really enjoyed seeing her appreciate my family and the way we celebrate the holiday. Some times it is easy to take for granted what we have until we can see it through the eyes of some one else.

I really hope to be able to slow down a little bit more, now that I am back into the groove of working, to post on here more regularly. I miss keeping every one updated and getting wonderful comments.

Love,
me

Who? me? Working?

I work as an independent contractor for a company called America Views Inc. They shoot aerial photography of peoples homes and homesteads and sell them via sales reps. Once ordered, the sales reps send the orders in to the office. This is where I come in. I find the files on CD's and order the files with the orders. Then I open the correct picture from files and I edit to their specifications. Crop for size, adjust the levels for color saturation etc. Then I edit out or add in what they want. On a normal day, I take out cars, trees, buildings, people, garbage, pools, neighbors houses, dead grass, etc. On a normal day, I add in, deer, cows, horses, crops, grass, water to pools, personalizations, etc. I then print them, cut the print down, laminate or canvas it or whatever. I then frame it or burn CD's of it.

Some day's I may just photoshop, or cut and laminate, or frame and ship. Most days I do a little of it all.

Check it out at:

http://www.americanviewsinc.com/

Here is quick sneak peak of my new craft site!

Please mind the dust and errors as my new site is still in the works! I plan on launching it on Etsy.com when I have ironed out the wrinkles and have made some more product. Let me know what you think!

http://thesewingapple.blogspot.com/

This one is just for you ladies!

        I have been using home made, cloth, feminine products for the last 4+ years. I decided to do this for environmental, money and health reasons. I did all sorts of research and I really didn't want to buy any so, I came up with my own pattern and just used what I had made. The originals that I made are still holding up wonderfully and I am still impressed with them after TONS of uses. I have made some more of my original pattern recently that I love and decided to share with you, and everyone else! I also decided that I would try out some other patterns, and let you know what I think of them. I have plans of selling my version 1.0 and 2.0 on Etsy in the near future. Keep an eye out for them! I will let you know on my blogger where/when/how much before I post them! Let me know if you have any ideas, imput etc. I would also love to make some specially for my friends so, let me know if you have any thing you would like/need (ie. heavy flow and would like extra thick ones, or long ones, or night ones, or a certain pattern).

Version 1.0
This is the original pattern that started it all! I love this one the best, and you can't find it anywhere! It's all in my head! :-) It is made out of 100% terry cloth cotton. I can make it with buttons or snaps, and the center is "hollow" so that you can slide in more absorbent layers (I will post pictures of this in the future). I can only make this one in solid colors.



Version 2.0
This is the new pattern that I am going to test out. It is made from 4 layers of 100% cotton flannel. I have not yet added snaps to it but, it can be made with snaps or buttons. I can make it with any pattern(s) of fabric. I want to try adding a layer of PUL to it for a vapor barrier and maybe a fleece layer too. I have plans of adding a nice little ribbon on the outside (in an out of the way place) for hang drying!



I hope you like them! I will add some more to it tomorrow!