Kapachino

I was in a spiritual wasteland for over a year after Meredith was born. My beliefs never changed – I always loved and trusted God – but I stopped putting the effort into the relationship. As a result I experienced a lot of anxiety and frustration. I have mentioned before that right around the time Meredith was born the church I had attended since high school (and that David’s family had been at for 25+ years) closed down. I never mentioned the reason, but I will now:  the pastor, who we thought of as a very good friend, had systematically alienated and manipulated the members, obtained sole financial control without accountability, and then stole or took all the (tithed) money…
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A few things in progress around here… I chose my quilt size and design! For a couple of weeks I thought about just going for a king size (which is what I really want to make for our bed) but in the end reality won me over and I decided to go with a crib-size to use as a throw. I’m very much a beginner at quilting and sewing so I don’t want to get in over my head. I chose the half-square triangle design below from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts and I plan to follow the directions exactly other than choosing a different color that will match my house better. On a whim over the weekend I pulled out my…
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It sure feels good to have one whole year in the books. I still love it so much. I tried a couple of new things on this last page that I will be doing more of in my 2013 album. One of them you can see in the top photo, which features the group of us who gathered for New Year’s Eve for the 7th or 8th year in a row, where I added text right onto the photo in PSE. On the bottom row I cut out the “notes” from a Paper Source wall calendar and wrote a summary of our year, and the label on the bottom right is a printout from the Studio Calico Day by Day…
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This is the last spread of 2012, and all I have left to do is the back ending page! I’ll share that with you in the next week or two since I’m awaiting the arrival of my core kit to start 2013′s album. A color scheme emerged naturally this week. I usually don’t use much red but I love it as an accent color with the teal + neutrals since it was Christmastime. On the left side are some everyday photos & journaling about Meredith’s favorite stuffed animal, plus I cut out some of the kraft paper that she and I colored to wrap David’s present in. Included a duplicate photo of our work Christmas party that I already have…
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This is a simple challenge I’m setting for myself, to make ten cross stitch projects. It doesn’t have a deadline because I can’t handle deadlines right now. I do, however, want to keep stitching. It’s one of my favorite crafts and something that I can pick up and put down as needed. Like a book, I want to always have one going. My style is simple, “modern grandma” if you will, so there’s no reason I can’t get through more projects than I do. Also, they won’t count until I  finish them off. Right now I have one that’s been done for a couple of months but I haven’t found the right frames for it, and I hope to be…
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