Vermont Trip

After five days and many, many hours spent in the car we are home! Our Vermont trip was mostly successful, with the exception of some drizzly weather, missing our girl, and a ridiculous situation involving the college. Besides those three things, we managed to have fun and see a good portion of the state. I apologize in advance for the amount of photos :)

We stayed at the Haven Guest House in Fair Haven (a tiny town in western central Vermont). This place is the best--it's gorgeous, the rooms are large and comfortable, the owners are the nicest people you'll meet, and the breakfast is delicious. Win all around.

On day one, we drove south through a bunch of little towns and covered bridges and ended up in Woodstock, VT--a cute town with lots of neat shops and restaurants. It was small, but by Vermont standards it was a pretty happening place.

We didn't have cell phone signal in many of the areas we went through. Most of the driving is on country roads and even when you travel on a highway it's likely that you'll be one of just a few other cars. We had our map with us and just picked places out that sounded interesting and drove. That's one of the great things about Vermont: nothing is far. You can cross the state in 1.5-2 hours. Another great thing? No billboards. They aren't allowed in the state, which makes the driving even prettier.

The next day we did more of the same, except we drove north. We went through dozens more small towns and stopped in Vergennes, Shelburne, Burlington, Waterbury and Montpelier. Monteplier, the state capital, is teeny tiny-- it looks like downtown Medina (for those of you who live in Ohio). Burlington was my favorite of the bunch since there's a lot to do there and it's located right on Lake Champlain.

My only good picture from Burlington, since it rained most of our time there:

And Vergennes:

The leaves hadn't changed as much as I'd hoped, but there was definitely some color starting to show.

Another major highlight? Meeting Henry's identical twin. Seriously, look at this and tell me they don't look exactly alike:

Henry is on the right and the dog on the left is Homer, a five-year old Corgi who hangs out with his owner at a bookstore (she owns a used bookstore in Poultney, VT). I was looking at my phone and then put it in my pocket and turned around to find Homer sitting patiently in front of me waiting for pets. He was just the sweetest thing and I couldn't get over how much he looked like Henry. I would have taken him home if I could, but I ended up just buying a book instead :) He made my day, but it was also a little sad--I miss old Henry!

As with all trips, especially ones that require a lot of travel time, it was good to be home. It's always good to be home :)

~Stacy

Ready to Go

Our bags are mostly packed (and by "mostly", I mean Charlotte's are packed and mine is not). We've been telling Charlotte all week that she's going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days and she's going to have so much fun. We've never left her for this long, but I'm pretty sure that we're the only ones having a problem with it. She's thrilled :)

I'm looking forward to our trip, despite the fact that I'll miss this smiling face a whole lot.

She must have known my resolve was weak today. I asked her what she wanted to do and she thought about it for five seconds before announcing "go outside on a walk and then get a Happy Meal!". She won.

I'll be back in a week or so with stories from our trip. And lots of photos...

~Stacy

September Sunset

I don't know how many more chances we'll get to spend evenings at the beach...though Charlotte asks to go literally every night after dinner, so I imagine we'll keep doing it until it starts getting dark before dinnertime. We rode our bikes up there Friday evening, and it turned out to be the perfect time to go. It was cool but not cold, the sky was clear and colorful, and it wasn't teeming with obnoxious high school kids since they were all either out or at the football game. Lovely :)

Have a wonderful weekend :)

~Stacy

A Room to Grow

Hello! Did you have a nice long weekend? Ours was lovely, and even lovelier is the fact that tomorrow is already Wednesday :)

We finished Charlotte's room a few days ago and now it's definitely my favorite room in the house. I had my worries about painting the walls pink, but now that it's done I think it actually looks really great against the crisp white trim and ceiling. I like it much better than the yellow (I didn't mind the color but I was just tired of it and it had started looking really dingy).

Charlotte's feelings about her room are overwhelmingly positive. Sometimes when we've been downstairs or outside for awhile she'll stop and ask to "go see my room? I love my room!". And she regularly tells me that she's "so excited about my big girl bed!". So that's adorable. And it definitely makes the aggravation of painting the ceiling worth it.

Here are some "before" shots:

And some "during", which are never pretty. We pretty much just dumped everything from her room into the extra bedroom until it was finished, making for this lovely sight:

After the painting was complete, Chad built her new bed frame in her room. We bought her a twin bed frame with built in drawers underneath, which meant we didn't need to buy a box spring--yay! And those drawers hold a lot, which is a must in a small house with precious little closet space.

Thankfully he had some "help":

After a very long day of sanding, painting, cleaning, and building, we were hungry. Charlotte was gone most of the day so it was a race against the clock to finish everything up before she came home and needed to go to sleep. This is what happens when Chad orders dinner on a very empty stomach:

Let's not discuss how much of this we actually consumed in one sitting.

Once everything was done we moved the crib back into the room, along with the bed, just in case there was drama with the new bed and she needed to sleep in the crib awhile longer. Thankfully she loves her bed, so out the crib went after less than a week. 

So now I present the finished room:

I was going to make a new quilt, but realized this one I made last fall was kind of a perfect match. It's a double sided patchwork made of flannel (the line is Marmalade by Bonnie & Camille for Moda). It is super soft and a great size for a twin bed.

I made this bunting out of some of my most favorite fabric ever--The Simple Life by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake Designs.

The only other change I want to make is to switch the curtains out to white--I'd like to find some white eyelet and make them, with maybe a shade underneath to block out more light when she's sleeping. I'm planning on repurposing the pink striped curtains and making floor pillow covers. Someday, someday...

This room just makes me happy. It's bright, colorful and cheerful--just like the little girl who sleeps here. :)

~Stacy

Quilted Placemats (and Mug Rugs Too!)

I did some serious stash busting this weekend. I had a lot of leftover odds and ends of my favorite fabrics with vintage-y vibes and found a way to use up a whole lot of them: quilted placemats and mug rugs. What are mug rugs, you ask? They're a placemat/coaster hybrid: smaller than a placemat, larger than a coaster, and the perfect size to set a mug of coffee and a treat. I first heard of them on Pinterest and thought it was a cute idea so I made my own.

I did my own thing for these--I didn't follow any pattern or standard measurements (are there standard measurements for placemats??). The finished mug rugs are about 5"X8" and the placemats are about 13"X19".

Someday soon I'd like to write up a cutting guide and instructions for these. Someday soon most likely means "hopefully within the next 12 months but don't hold your breath", so we'll see. :)

These were fun to make--kind of like sewing four mini-quilts. I want to make more in different designs and colors, I just need to find someone to make them for. I don't need to become a placemat hoarder on top of a fabric hoarder... ;)

Happy Sewing!