Today marks the first day that some students can start officially moving into my building. Goodbye quiet and hello lots of excitement! I love this time of year with the anticipation of all the newness. It’s kind of like New Year’s for academics. It is like a fresh pallet. (Like the craft reference?) Staff training starts soon too, which is always a week full of brainstorming and awesome energy. You always hope that each year is going to be bigger and better than the last. Anyway, so the last couple days have been a fury of keys and killing trees to prepare staff binders, and just trying to get everything ready to open our buildings.

And appropriately, it is also move in day for Tom. He got the keys to our new home today. Unfortunately, because of our long distance, I cannot be there for that awesome moment of getting the keys to your first home that you get together. (Yes we lived here in Iowa together, but I lived here a year before Tom moved in with me.) This home in KY is the first place that is both of ours from the get go. So I have been getting the play by play of what each room looks like until he can get pictures. It kind of stinks to have your first impression over the phone, instead of in person. But we knew going into this, that we would both miss big moments in each other’s lives. Every day, we both make comments about wishing we could see what the other is talking about. Although, I believe I have the better deal because I get to be with our sweet dog Grace all the time! It is one of the sacrifices that the military forces us to make. So it really teaches us to make every moment count when we are together. Life is more than just the big stuff, but it still doesn’t make missing those things easy. We have a lot to be thankful for, so we just try to focus on that instead of all the stuff that we are missing. So all you couples and families together all the time, that comment that annoyed you or that chore you asked them to do that inevitably, is it really that big of a deal?  I say this to myself too, because don’t get me wrong I still complain. We still piss each other off at times, but as I reflect, there is no reason to harbor the feelings. Move past it and start enjoying each other again.

PS. I did tell Tom that he isn’t allowed to buy furniture without me. I have been dreaming about that probably as long as I did for my wedding! Fortunately, I have a husband who loves camping, and he is turning the next month into a big camping trip and living simple.  And luckily, he wont have to live in the empty home for long with his upcoming “work trip.” I am sure he is also using this as an excuse to be show himself how manly he can be. Just ask him about how he cut his watermelon last week.

So on to the crafts! For today’s post, I will include pictures of things that I finished up last week.

The first is a blanket that I made for a few friends of ours that recently moved into a new home. It was a “housewarming-thanks for being awesome couple friends” gift. And it was a nice excuse to try a new crochet stitch. I have never made bubbles before, so that was fun teaching myself. You can’t see them in the picture, but in person they add a really cool affect to it. It took me about a month to complete. (I will also say that I was working on two other blankets at the time as well that I haven’t finished yet.) I am pretty pleased with how this one turned out! And I am glad to hear the Garretts like it too.

The next is my new bathroom art. I was originally going to use sticker letters and just peel them off after the paint dried, but I could not find any that were big enough that I liked. So I stenciled all the letters after the base coat dried. So it took me a little longer than I had planned. I then used an old toliet paper roll to make the bubbles. Great circles, just dip the ends in paint, and viola! It was a fun afternoon while I watched the Olympics. And I have to say, it makes me smile every time I’m using the potty.

So since I started this canvas before I had decided to blog, it had not donned on me to do a prep picture. In the future I will try to do the progress pictures from start to finish.

Well that is it for today. I am hooked on the Olympics right now! Go USA!