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New State Who Dis?

We made it to Maine! Yay! We drove in on July 1st- the OG Raptor’s 14th birthday. We’re currently settling into our Air BnB for the next 2 weeks right outside of Portland. Then we have 6 weeks in an Air BnB about an hour away. We’re hoping to find a house in the next few weeks so we can be finished with closing by the time our second Air BnB is done. Fingers crossed! So far, we are all falling in love with Maine! It’s absolutely gorgeous!

June Goals?

  1. Pack all the things. Done!
  2. Load Pod. Done!
  3. Road Trip Hotels. Done!
  4. Road Trip Activities. Done!
  5. Clean all the things. Done! Well, we paid someone to clean all the things, but they are clean so I’m counting it as a win. 🙂
  6. Find a house to rent. We’ve discovered that rental houses are a myth.
  7. Find Schools. ::sigh::
  8. Explore New England. It’s beautiful!
  9. Fall in love with New England. We’re working on it. 🙂
  10. Adventure. Boy howdy! It’s been an adventure!

July Goals.

  1. Find a house!
  2. Sell our house! (Fingers crossed for a quick sale!)
  3. See a lighthouse. This was top of Mia’s list so we need to make it happen!
  4. Go to the beach! This was top of my list. :). We’re not attempting it today because it’s the 4th of July and I’m allergic to crowds, but soon!
  5. Go to the Cat Cafe. Ugh. This was Kate’s pic. I’m super allergic to cats, but I’m just going to mask up!
  6. Boat Ride. Not sure how we’re going to make this happen, but Xander’s pick is to go out on a boat and catch a lobster. lol.
  7. See some mountains. RaptorDad’s pick is to see the mountains.
  8. Baste more hexies. All of my craft supplies are packed up! ::sob:: But I did keep some fabric and a basic EPP kit in my backpack so I want to keep basting hexies for the binding of my hexie quilt.
  9. Design map embroidery. I have had this project saved on pinterest for YEARS but I haven’t had a cool trip to do it. Basically you buy a road map and then embroider your path directly on the paper map. I’m wishing I had kept track of our exact route and stops in real time, but I get super carsick so that wasn’t an option. I’m trying to retroactively record our path though. I’m not sure how detailed I’ll make the map, but I think it’s going to be cool. 🙂
  10. Stargazing! We’re hoping that we can see some amazing stars out here! I want to play with my intervalometer and camera and try to get some amazing images. 🙂

So that’s where we’re at! Not much crafting going on because everything is packed up, but we’re having a blast exploring our new home. 🙂

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How is it June???

Oh boy. We’re leaving on June 25th, so now that it’s June 1st things are starting to feel real. We’re starting to have the “lasts” and saying goodbye. Last day of school. Last time at camp. Last time to see friends. (But we’re really hoping all y’all will come visit us!) Let’s take a look at the May goals.

  1. Scrap October, November, December 2019. Sadly, only October got done. And now the majority of my scrapping stuff is packed up. But, I feel good about getting another month done.
  2. Road Trip Plans. Well, I think we have a route and we do have an Air BnB booked for the 2 weeks we’ll be in Maine. I don’t have any organized activities for the kids, but I did make some clipboards that I think are going to work well. Maybe I’ll do a separate blog post about them later?
  3. Teacher Gifts. Ugh. This didn’t happen at all and I feel super shitty about it.
  4. Heart Quilt. I’m about 3/4 of the way done with stabalizing it.
  5. Color Wheel Quilt. I have the center quilted with some straight line quilting, but I want to do some stippling around the edges where the applique is. I need to finish the hearts and then I’ll change out the sewing machine foot and I should be able to wrap up the color wheel quilt pretty quickly. Which is good because it’s a gift for a friend and we’re leaving in 3 weeks. EEEPPPP!!!
  6. Scrap Goal. Honestly, I didn’t even look at this.
  7. Passports. Done! I mean, they’re not back yet, but we sent off all of the information and had our appointment. 🙂
  8. Edit Photos. They came out so cute! And most importantly, the graduate AND the family were happy with them. 🙂
  9. Crafty Plan. I think my crafts are going to be the bucilla kits and my hexagons. I’ve managed to misplace my advent calendar bin though so hopefully it turns up as we’re packing!
  10. Ice Cream Soda. I wanted to prep a bunch of blocks, but it just didn’t happen and I’m trying to be ok with that. I think I’ll end up with plenty to work on with the stockings and if not, I guess I’ll be forced to buy a bunch of fabric and start a new project! lol

Not in the list, but I did make a big breakthrough on the hexagon quilt! I figured out how I want to bind it and I did a teeny test section. I absolutely love how it’s turning out.

Now for some June goals.

  1. Pack all the things.
  2. Load pod.
  3. Road trip hotels.
  4. Road trip activities.
  5. Clean all the things.
  6. Find a house to rent.
  7. Find schools.
  8. Explore New England.
  9. Fall in love with New England.
  10. Adventure! 🙂
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We’re Moving! Also May Goals

We’re moving!!! I can’t believe it’s actually happening, but we have made the decision to move out of Texas. I know, I can’t believe it either. BUT I think it’s going to be an awesome adventure! We are 80% sure we are moving to the Portland, Maine area, but seeing as how we’ve never been to New England we’re planning an epic road trip this summer so we can go check it out and pick a town to move to. Oh, and we also have to pack all of our things and stage our house so we can list it. In less than 2 months. ::cue panicking:: So there’s a whole lot to get done! Let’s start with April Goals.

  1. Get at least 1 quilt top basted. Done and then some! I got 2 quilts basted at retreat.
  2. Project Life March and April 2023. Nope.
  3. Project Life catch up plan. Done!
  4. Scrapbook February and March 2023. Well, I got March done. But in bigger news, I also got August and September 2019 done!
  5. Clean up and organize WIPs. Not really, but I did make some decisions and finish the color wheel quilt top. 🙂
  6. EPP. Nope.
  7. RE Homework. Done! By the skin of our teeth, but it’s done!
  8. First Communion party. It’s happening this weekend! 🙂
  9. Plans for quilt retreat. OMG we had a blast. 🙂
  10. Plans for the twins’ birthday party! Yay! They had an amazing time. 🙂

May Goals:

  1. Scrap October, November, December 2019. (I’m cheating a little since I did October on the 1st. lol) I’d love to get as much done as possible (FOR REAL) before we move.
  2. Road trip plans. I would like to finalize the route up to Maine including possibly hotel rooms? Also, car activities for the kids.
  3. Teacher gifts. I totally dropped the ball on Teacher Appreciation week, but I do plan to get them some kind of end of the year gift.
  4. Heart Quilt. I’d like to finish stabilizing it so that I can do the hand quilting.
  5. Color Wheel Quilt. I need to piece the backing and get it quilted and bound.
  6. Scrap Goal. I’d love to also wrap up 2020. I have a large chunk of it done because I did it in real time for early Covid.
  7. Passports. We have our appointment today, but I need to finish filling our the paperwork and making copies.
  8. Edit Photos. I took some graduation pictures for a friend of mine and they turned out so cute! Now I just need to edit them. 🙂
  9. Crafty Plan? My craft room will probably end up packed up for a chunk of time. I want to create some very condensed, very portable craft projects that I can keep out. I’m thinking the Bucilla stocking kits? But I’d like to give that some thought.
  10. Ice Cream Soda. On that note, It would be awesome if I could go ahead and prep the rest of the Ice Cream Soda blocks before I had to pack up my fabric. 🙂

All this while also packing all the things and getting ready to list the house. Ack! But we are all excited about our new family adventure and we can’t wait to make some new memories as a family. 🙂

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April Goals (On Time Even!)

It’s not an April Fool’s Joke- I’m actually posting my April goals on time! Let’s see how March went.

  1. Schedule travel vaccines. Done!
  2. Schedule dental/ eye dr appointments for Kate. Dentist is scheduled. 🙂
  3. Twin Birthday Plans. RaptorDad took point on this, but we still need to get the evite out to their classmates. Evite is sent!
  4. Plan for PL/ Scrapbook catch up (2023). Not yet.
  5. Book swim lessons. Done! And this has been hanging over my head ever since I missed the sign ups last year.
  6. Retake Bluebonnet Pics. Nope.
  7. Edit Soccer Pics (x2). Nope.
  8. Put new quilt up on the design wall. Done! And I’m loving it. 🙂
  9. Write April goals post (on time?) Woo hoo!
  10. Enjoy my birthday!!! My birthday was amazing!!!

April Goals:

  1. Get at least 1 old quilt top basted.
  2. Project Life. March and April of 2023.
  3. Project Life Catch Up Plan. I want to go through and make a list of exactly what I’m missing. I also want to go through and label my Project Life kits so they are ready to go.
  4. Scrapbook. February and March of 2023.
  5. Clean up and reorganize WIPs. I want to go through and look at each in progress quilt and figure out what needs to be done.
  6. EPP. Ever since I put my Ice Cream Soda quilt in time out, I haven’t been keeping any EPP projects in my backpack. I’d like to change that.
  7. RE Homework. This is due at the end of April. Ugh.
  8. First Communion Party. The twins are making their First Communion. Party? IDK.
  9. Plans for quilt retreat.
  10. Plans for the twins’ birthday!
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Is it March Already?

lol. I’m typing this on the 23rd 27th. Might be a little late for goals at this point, but I’m a creature of habit and I enjoy being able to look back on these so I’ll post anyway.

February Goals:

  1. 2023 Project Life. I got 1 of 4 weeks done.
  2. Old Project Life. Nada.
  3. 2023 Scrapbook. Honestly, I only got 2 pages scrapped in February.
  4. Old Scrapbook. hahahahahaha.
  5. Heart Quilt. I didn’t get the back pieced, but I did cut out some squares for the backing. Progress?
  6. Girl Scout Cookies. Done! Totally done!
  7. Beach Trip. Done! Yay!
  8. Spring Break. Honestly, we had a pretty low key spring break and it was exactly what all of us needed.
  9. Wood Signs. Nope.
  10. Hexies. Also nope.

You may be wondering, did you do *anything* in February and March? Yes! I actually took a long term sub job in the library at my kids’ school and it was amazing! It was 16 days (so just over 3 weeks) with spring break in the middle. I absolutely loved it, but I’m very glad for a bit of a break to get caught up on all of the things around the house. We’ve also been having so much fun working on our dollhouse miniatures! We work on them at the kitchen table so it’s more of a fun family time activity and less of me hiding in my scrap/ sewing room. lol. I’ll try to post some pics later. Also, I started a new quilt! (again)

March Goals? I mean, it’s like 5 more days. lol.

  1. Schedule travel vaccines
  2. Schedule dental/ eye dr appointments for Kate
  3. Twin Birthday Plans. RaptorDad took point on this, but we still need to get the evite out to their classmates.
  4. Plan for PL/ Scrapbook catch up (2023)
  5. Book swim lessons
  6. Retake Bluebonnet Pics
  7. Edit Soccer Pics (x2)
  8. Put new quilt up on the design wall
  9. Write April goals post (on time?)
  10. Enjoy my birthday!!!

Almost summer time! <3 <3 <3

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Hello February!

Oh my gosh, it is so cold here. We’re on our second ice day! Unlike 2021, we currently have power ::knock on wood:: so we’re actually really enjoying it. I even let Kate and Xander go outside and play in it! Mia looked at us like we were insane for leaving the warm house. Kind of think she might have the right idea. 😉

But we had fun. 🙂 I switched my lens out for my macro one- so fun!

I’m actually pretty proud of this shot! And now, back to the goals.

January

  1. 10k steps a day. Well, I’m averaging 8,463 steps a day which is a step up from the 6,238 I averaged for 2022. I tried to find how many days I actually got over 10K steps, but my phone and I are currently in a stand off. lol.
  2. Old Project Life. Done! I got 4 weeks of 2021 done. 🙂
  3. New Project Life. Done! I got the first 4 weeks of 2023 done and I am thrilled!
  4. Old Scrapbook. I didn’t get August of 2019 done, but I did get February 2021 done so that’s something.
  5. New Scrapbook. Done! I am all caught up and January 2023 is finished! Yay!
  6. Ice Cream Soda. This quilt is in time out.
  7. Africa. Still trying to get our flights booked, but we’re working on it.
  8. Doll House. I didn’t get a bookshelf made, but I did make a fish tank and that’s pretty awesome.
  9. Girl Scout Cookies. Well, we’re not done yet, but we are getting closer and so far it’s been ok.
  10. Valentine’s Day. Behind as per usual, but I did start a new tradition last night that I’m pretty excited about. I cut out hearts and I’m writing down one thing I love about each of them every night between now and Valentine’s Day and taping them to their doors. So cute!

So February Goals.

  1. 2023 Project Life. I’d like to get caught up and do February in real time. That’s 4 weeks.
  2. Old Project Life. Fingers crossed I can keep the momentum going. I’d like to get 4 weeks done in one of the old Project Life albums.
  3. 2023 Scrapbook. Keep current! January went really well and I’m hoping I can get some systems in place to keep this up.
  4. Old Scrapbook. I’s like to get 1 old month done. My current (delusional) plan is to keep current while knocking out 1 old month each month so I can (very slowly) catch up.
  5. Heart Quilt. I didn’t really get any quilting done last month. This month, I’d like to piece the backing for my heart quilt.
  6. Girl Scout Cookies. ::sob::
  7. Beach Trip. I’d really love to make a day trip down to the beach. I love the beach so much and it’s a huge recharge for me. Bonus is that in the winter, it’s so cold that my kids don’t want to go out in the water!
  8. Spring Break. Make a spring break plan! We’re going to do it as a staycation so I want to make a plan. Initially I was thinking “all the Austin things!” but then I remembered that spring break in also SXSW. Hmm… Will need to ponder this further.
  9. Wood Signs. I’ve decided to make some wooden signs to sell on Etsy. Um, I need to figure all of this out.
  10. Hexies. My poor neglected hexies. I want to pull these back out and get to quilting!
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Doll House Fish Tank

I made a fish tank, y’all!

There is lots of room for improvement, but overall I’m really pleased with it!

I made the actual tank with pieces of acrylic that I cut on our laser. The gravel on the bottom is actually bits of broken glass from the floral section at Michael’s and the plants are sculpy. The fish are pieces of twine that I coated in mod podge, then folded over on themselves and added a dot of stickles to. Then I placed the things and added resin.

Things I would do differently… Well I would have found a better way to suspend the fish for one. They kept floating to the top which just made it look like a tank full of dead fish. lol. So next time I would either glue the fish to the plants or pour the resin in layers. I would also try to find a better solution for getting rid of the bubbles- maybe a pressure pot? But either way, I had a lot of fun making this!

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Art Room Tour

My quilt guild is doing a program this month about sewing room organization and asked if we would send in pictures of our sewing spaces. Since I had to clean it up for pictures anyway, I thought I would give y’all a little tour. 🙂

Here’s the wall with the closet. We took the closet doors off and it was honestly the best decision ever! I do plan to make a curtain that will hang down about 20 inches to hide the mess at the top of the closet. One day! I am obsessed with the cubbies from Kallax Ikea. The top 2 rows hold my fabric stash, then the little white bins hold random craft supplies. Bottom row is books and albums.

Then if you turn to the right, you have the wall with the window. I have another Kallax here, this one holding my quilting projects. I assign each quilt a bin and it’s so easy to keep everything organized. We keep the laser in here as well. We took 2 Alex carts from Ikea and put them back to back to hold the laser. We then screwed in a sheet of chalk board on both sides to keep it together. One Alex hold supplies for the laser and the other hold scrapbooking supplies.

Turn right again and you have the general crafting zone. The desks are butcher block counter tops from Ikea that we got a million years ago. Left to right you have- silhouette, diamond painting, project life/ scrap supplies, pens and markers, papers, and journals/ notebooks.

Turn right again and you have the sewing zone. I love having the design wall up! Don’t mind the million cases of cookies under the desk.

It should go without saying that my room is never this clean. In fact, I was literally moving piles from one spot to another so I could take the pictures. lol. But I love my room! I am so glad that we switched the twins’ room and the art room if for no other reason that it forced me to look at everything and decide if I wanted to keep it or not. Plus, is there anything better than a fresh coat of paint???

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Doll House!

RaptorDad and I have been getting really into miniatures so we decided to make a doll house! But since we’re extra, we’ve decided to do each room as a self contained thing instead of an actual 4 room doll house. (We’re going to hang them on the wall.) I love this, because I feel like we don’t have to have planned out the entire house before we start! And if we want 3 different kitchens, who’s to stop us? lol.

The first room we’re making is a mad scientist study. We cut out the basic shape for the room on the laser and then last night I added wall paper while RaptorDad worked on prepping floorboards. The wall paper is fabric that I glued in with mod podge. We were sitting down to veg in front of the TV last night and I went, why don’t we work on the doll house instead? So much fun! Kate even sat down and sketched with us. Hoping to spend more time being creative as a family this year and this was a good start!

We’re having so much fun with this!

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Happy New Year!

It’s January 1st! You know what that means, right? It’s the few weeks of the year when I’m motivated to tackle things! So let’s see… Shall we look at the 2022 goals?

  1. Monthly Adventures. We didn’t manage to go on an explicit monthly adventure day where RaptorDad took the day off of work EVERY month, but we did manage quite a few! Highlights being the Ice Cream Museum for my birthday and Barton Springs to celebrate back to school. I’m going to give us credit for this anyway because we also tried a ton of new local restaurants for lunch dates!
  2. House Reorganization. Well, we didn’t end up getting the new wood floors because we found out that peanut needed hearing aids! But we were super thankful that we had the wood floor money set aside and we could get her the hearing aids when she needed them. Plus they’re pink and blue and *adorable* and her speech has exploded since getting them! Plus, I’m giving us credit for this anyway, because we managed the room swap/ playhouse tear down and it’s been amazing. My new art room is *chef’s kiss.*
  3. Road Trip. This got put on hold, but we are tentatively planning to take a 1 month road trip all the way up to Maine this summer. As soon as we find out about RaptorDad’s bonus and our tax return we will finalize plans for this summer or keep planning for summer 2024. 🙂
  4. Past Project Life. Um, well, about that. lol. I did finish 2020 so that’s something. And I went from 27 missing layouts in 2021 to 23. Some forward progress at least.
  5. Current Project Life. I failed pretty spectacularly at this. I’m missing 39 layouts from 2022.
  6. Past Scrapbooks. Well, I didn’t do so hot with this goal either. That said, I went from 10 missing months in 2019 to 5. And I got 1 more month of 2020 and 2 more months of 2021 done. But still. Momma needs to pick up the pace in a big way.
  7. Current Scrapbook. I got 4 months done. Leaving 8. So I guess on the upside I did get a total of 12 months of layouts done and I’m not *further* behind? Except that now I’ve added a whole year to the mix… Maybe I should stop typing while I’m ahead.
  8. Bucilla Advent Calendar. I didn’t manage to completely finish this, but I got it done *enough* that we were able to use it this year.
  9. Smitten Quilt. I actually finished the top! I want to hand quilt it so it’s going to have to wait until I’m done with the hexagons.
  10. Butterfly/ Caterpillar Quilts. This still aren’t labeled, but I’m counting them as done anyway. They’re hanging in the twin’s bedroom and they love them. 🙂 I even entered the caterpillars in the Austin Quilt Show!

And the December Goals?

  1. Sub 15 days. No lie, I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I did!!!
  2. Buy all the things. Done.
  3. Africa Trip. We got travel insurance! And RaptorDad got me hiking boots for Christmas! We haven’t booked our flights yet just because we’re waiting for the tour people to get back to us to see if they can get better rates than us.
  4. Evaluate Goals. hahahahahaha.
  5. Sports. Ugh. I dropped the ball on this and we missed the registration deadlines. ::sigh::
  6. Teacher Gifts. Target gift cards to the rescue!
  7. December Montessori Trays. Done! I pulled out our Santa stuff much to her delight.
  8. Advent Calendar. Done enough.
  9. Advent Activities. I didn’t do great on this one this year, but I’m trying to give myself some grace and remember that we can do fun things next year too.
  10. Hexagons. I made some good progress on this!

So new annual goals? Hmm… I’m honestly not sure for this year.

  1. Old Project Life. ::sigh:: Maybe I can focus on 2021? I talked more about this in my scrappy update post, but I am missing 23 layouts in 2021 and 39 in 2022. I once again considered throwing in the towel on this project, but the thought of that made me so sad that I just ordered an album and page protectors for 2023. lol. Maybe instead of an annual goal, I’ll just keep a running total this year and try to be less behind that I currently am by the end of the year.
  2. Current Project Life. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d love to do these in real time.
  3. Old Scrapbooks. Um, I’m not even sure where to start. What’s an actual realistic goal… Maybe to finish 12 months of old scrapbooks before the end of the year? That won’t get me anywhere near caught up, but it would be a good start.
  4. Current Scrapbooks. Do them in real time!!! Also, only do 1 or 2 layouts a month. More realistically, 5 or 6?
  5. Lose 30 pounds. Not sure how feasible this one is. I didn’t manage to lose any more weight this year, in fact I regained about 7 pounds. BUT, I’m still down 45 pounds and keeping that off feels like a major accomplishment! I’d really like to get in better shape before Africa and to shrink my butt a bit before I sit in an airplane that long. lol.
  6. Africa. Speaking of Africa, I need to get ready!
  7. Hexagons. I want to finish this beast!
  8. Try New Things! I am leaving this goal deliberately vague to promote creativity. lol. But I want to push myself to try something completely new once a month. That can be a new craft technique, a new restaurant, a crazy recipe- I just want to push myself to say YES more this year.
  9. Crafty Nights. RaptorDad and I are thinking of making a YouTube channel! More because RaptorDad wants to play with videography than a desire for a bunch of followers. hahahahaha. I thought about making a goal of 12 videos in the year, but then I decided to reevaluate given that we don’t actually care if the videos ever get posted. I’m making a goal that we have (at least) 1 video worthy craft night a month. We’re wanting to make a doll house so we have lots of inspiration!
  10. Felt. Always felt. lol. I *really* need to finish the advent calendar. And then make 3 new stockings. And no, we’re not having triplets! Or any babies! But I want to make our puppy a new stocking. And I want to make myself a grown up stocking and I found the *cutest* kit! And then RaptorDad needed a new grown up one too! Will I finish this? Outlook not good. lol. But we’ll see.

Which brings us to January goals! And since this is the world’s longest (picture-less!) blog post, I’ll keep them brief.

  1. 10k steps a day. I am embarrassingly out of shape so baby steps? 10 thousand of them? A day? hahahahahaha
  2. Old Project Life. 4 layouts.
  3. New Project Life. 4 layouts.
  4. Old Scrapbook. August 2019. If by some miracle I finish that, January 2020.
  5. New Scrapbook. January 2023.
  6. Ice Cream Soda. Finish round 6. Prep round 7.
  7. Africa. Book flights and research travel vaccines.
  8. Doll House. Make some books for the bookshelf!
  9. Girl Scout Cookies. ::sob:: I’m the cookie mom for Peanut’s troop again this year. Survive.
  10. Valentine’s Day. Remember, for once, that Valentine’s Day does not come at the end of the month like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas would have you believe. Give some thought to some fun kid activities!