Park Joy

"The Norwood Park" as we like to call it, is a fun stop on our way home from work and school. On this particularly warm afternoon, we decided to stop by and spend a few minutes playing before heading home for the evening. After letting the boys play on the equipment for a while, I told them I wanted to walk once around the track, stop at the other playground, and then head to the car. Jacob, my 4 year old, who usually loves to do this, and this is our usual routine when there, didn't want to walk the long way around to the playground, and did his little winy thing, but Mama prevailed. I finally convinced him to come with us, even though he was being Mr. Grumpy Pants. It's really hard to stay mad when there's some good music playing, so I put on one of our favorite playlists, and started dancing down the trail...yes, dancing on a walking trail. Sure enough, Jacob started smiling, and our walk ended in a lot of fun! All of this to say, that my EverydayJoy that day was turning my sons frown, upside-down! Seeing my boys happy is truly one of my favorite things in the world.

What do you do to make someone change their frown into a smile? Does that bring you Joy?

Pre-summer Joy

As any teacher can attest, these last two weeks of school can seem the longest! In spite if the long list of things I need to finish to close out the year, I am embracing this lovely three day weekend as a total rest & rejuvenation time.

My joy for the day is sitting by our "pool", soaking up some sun, & watching my boys play. It's the little things like these that helps keep my sanity in check during these last two busy weeks of school!

I would love to hear about your Everyday Joy! Please comment below :)

2014 Run the Creek 5K

Go Baby Go!!! Chip time of 35:40! :)

Happy New Year!

As a new year is upon us, I would like to quickly reflect on the past year, as well as lightly plan for this new year.

2013 was an amazing, exhausting and learning year as I experienced motherhood for the first time! Mr. Jacob Sims Blanton was born 12-11-12, and it has been a crazy ride since. He is by far the most amazing baby I've ever seen, but I know I'm a little bit biased. Now that he is 1 years old, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to my pottery a little bit more, as well as do a little more remodeling this year.

In addition to watching this amazing child grow and blossom, I continued my subbing with Montgomery County Schools, and was able to do a 10 week interim teaching art to our local middle school. What an experience that was! This was the first time in a long time that I really looked forward to going to work, which confirmed my love for teaching art.

Football was a big deal this year as my youngest stepson, Connor Blanton, finished his high school football career by winning the 3AA Western Conference and playing at the State Championship. We are excited for what the future holds for him with college, and hope he will get to play wherever he ends up. The end of a 4 year era, but looking forward to possible college ball!

Ronnie's job shifted yet again, and is managing a local banking branch in Oakboro, NC. The best story he's brought home so far is when the local Chief of Police stopped by with a flier stating that they were looking for a lost cow. Come on now! That is just too funny :)

This year looks like it will be a pretty amazing one as well! To start off, I'm still looking for my place in the workforce, and am subbing in the meantime. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to find something that I really enjoy, can use all of my talents in, and pays decent!

The other thing that I really want to focus on is working on my pottery. I want to get my space finally set up, get my kiln re-wired to be outside with new elements, get my sink set up, and start having pottery classes on a monthly basis, at least until the school year is out for the summer. I'll also keep this updated via my Art Blog, if you want to keep checking back.

I'm also really wanting to expand my yoga practice and make that more of a substance in my life. I'm looking at a few options for doing this, and will post more in my Yoga Blog.

Other big news for this year is Matt & Krysta's wedding in June! I'm so excited for this amazing couple as they start their new life together. This will be Ronnie's second child to get married...where has the time gone!

I also have the Cooper River Bridge Run coming up in April, and will hopefully have my best time yet! This is always a great time for the girls to get away, and spend some quality time together. Looks like we may have a smaller group this year, but we always have a great time!

Ronnie and I will also be celebrating our 4th anniversary in April, and It's hard to imagine it's already been 4 years since our wedding. Not sure what we will do to celebrate this year, but whatever it is, I'm confident it will be great :)

Like I said, I think this year is going to be awesome as well! I'll try to keep my blogs updated a little better this year...not let a whole year go by without writing! Happy New Year everyone! :)

Useful Wine Bottles

Ok, so I found a great use for old wine bottles other than vases. Use them to keep your potted plants watered. First thoroughly water the potted plant, then fill up a wine bottle with water and plunge into the soil of the pot. This will help keep the soil moist so that you don't have to water as often. The below pictures show flowers that I did this to last Thursday, and haven't watered them since, even though we had 100+ degree weather for 4 days. Anyway, I hope you can use this helpful tip :)

smb

No Sew Roman Shades

Ok, I did this project as per the directions from the pinterest link. One thing I would recommend is to really measure exactly the dimensions you want to fit into the window. Mine are a little short of the sides. Other than that, it worked great! I also used a fabric bonding glue that was similar to rubber cement, and I would try something else that is easier to spread on the blinds. I just used the tube to spread one thing line on each blind, which actually worked fine, and might have actually been easier than a thinner glue. This also allowed me to hang the blinds almost immediately after I finished them. Feel free to ask any questions about this project. I figured that it cost me about $20 per window, mainly because my fabric was $6 per yard, and I got 4 yards. The heat'n bond tape was $3, and the fabric glue was $3, and the mini blinds were $4.50 each. I also do have leftover fabric (from the width- I couldn't have gotten any less in length), which I plan to make a table runner, and maybe place-matts as well. One thing that was really important in the fabric choice was letting in as much light in as possible, thus the lacy type fabric. I was a little skeptical about the flimsy fabric working, but it ended up working just fine. Also, another tip, is to somehow make things a little square-er. I'm not sure how, but maybe use a large piece of cardboard or something. Anyway, here are two pics of what I ended up with.

Teaching how to create a coil pitcher - excerpt