Reading Nook

It is now 3 weeks post surgery and I am feeling pretty good.  During my time of inactivity I made a huge list of projects that I wanted to accomplish.  For 8 months or so, because of my health,  I have been letting things in the house slide.  And when that happens things pile up, get stuffed, get lost and get cluttered.

As I am feeling better I have slowly been checking things off my giant to-do list.  One of those was to put some vinyl on a wall in Naomi's room.  I have a Silhouette, which is a craft cutting machine.  With this machine I am able to pick my color and design my own vinyl.

Here is the area where I wanted to put the vinyl:

We are setting up this area in Naomi's room to be a Reading area.  I found a really cute font online, with hearts, and designed it and had the vinyl cut.  Then this morning I placed it on her wall.  I love how it turned out!  What do you think?

 Here is a close up of the letters:

P.S. I made all those adorable pillows!

Thankful

As I write this, I am sitting alone in my living room eating a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar reflecting.  Hey wait...it's Friday afternoon, you may say, how can she be alone?  Don't panic!

Darrick and the boys left a little while ago for the annual Cadet camp out and Naomi spent the night last night at Miss Debbie's house and has not returned yet.

There is a nice breeze blowing in the window and this is my gorgeous view:

That is what I see when I look out my living room window, and apparently Oliver is enjoying the breeze and view too.  I am thankful for beauty.  Blue skies, green trees, and beautiful flowers.

I cut three flowers this morning to put on my kitchen window sill.

I found that cute flower holder at Michael's last year, it is perfect for fresh summer flowers.

I am thankful for Cadets.  Cadets is like Boy Scouts with a CRC foundation.  My brothers all went Cadets and I am so thankful that we attend a church that has it.  Ever since we started going to Everett CRC the boys have attended Cadets.  They met twice a month during the school year and then they have a big camp out in the summer with all the other Cadets in the area.  I am thankful that Darrick is home this year to go with them.

I am thankful for people who care about me.  I have received so many phone calls, messages, cards, flowers, visits, and meals in the past 2 weeks.

When you are sitting on the couch, healing, it is so comforting to know that you are cared about and loved.

I am thankful for people who invest in my children''s lives.  They love them and pray for them and even care for them when I cannot.  To me investing in a child's life will not return void.  For example, Miss Debbie, who has grown kids of her own, called the other day and offered to take Naomi overnight.  She is a loving and energetic Christian Woman, who Naomi adores.  She bakes and cooks with Naomi, they craft and sew (right now they are working on a skirt for Naomi).  She is investing in Naomi, making little deposits into her bank and filling her up.  What a gift.

Projects

I love to work on projects, when I get the time, which isn't always a lot!  Here is what I have been working on!

After the boys saw the pillows I made for Naomi's room, they asked me to make them each a pillow too.  Micah found some fabric one day when we were at the craft store so I made his.  Jacob is still searching!

We have had this bird cage picture holder in our kitchen for a few months.  It came with clothespins to hang up the pictures.  I knew I wanted to add glitter to them to give them some sparkle!

We also have another picture holder on our kitchen that was originally white but since it sits on a white window sill with a white curtain it was getting lost.  So I gave it a pop of color with some spray paint.

I added glitter to this frame just to liven it up! 

Last Visit

On Thursday we had our last home study visit with our social worker!  First we went over 2 forms we still need to fill out, and we need to find and make a copy of Naomi's adoption decree. We have our CPR refresher course scheduled and our last set of fingerprints are going to be done this Thursday.  She said all our referral letters came in (and they were great).

We need to make an 8.5x11 collage of pictures of our family to be presented with our home study to social workers.  We also need to come up with a list of 10 things that we would want to know about a child and we need to help the kids come up with a list of 10 things that they would want to know about a potential sibling.  We really appreciate how well our social worker has been including our kids in this process. 

Then it was time for our final home inspection.  The only thing that we did not have was the proper weight of fire extinguisher.  We had a 2.5 lb and we need a 5 lb.  On our initial walk through inspection she gave us two things that we needed to do. 

One was that we needed a curtain to hang to give Naomi's room privacy.  I guess her room upstairs is more of a loft area then an actual bedroom because she has a doorway but no door.  I wanted to try my hand at making a curtain now that I have my sewing machine.  It was pretty easy, just straight lines and I loved how it turned out.  I did not use a pattern, I just made it up.

The second thing that we needed to do was to put  locks on the attic doors that are in Naomi's room.  The locks are to prevent a child from opening the doors and getting in the attic crawl space.  We have never had any of the kids even try to do that but things are pretty strict when you are dealing with adopting a child.

The next step is for our social worker to write our home study and then it needs to be approved.  Every Thursday our social worker attends a meeting with lots of other social workers, they are located in a different county each time, where they are presented with profiles of children who need to be adopted.  She told us that she is going to actively start searching for us!  We can hardly contain our excitement.

Polka Dot Wiener Dogs

 When Naomi and I saw this fabric, we just couldn't resist-what is cuter than pink polka dotted wiener dogs? 

 This is my second sewing project.  It is the same pattern I used here just a different sized pillow this time.  This is another pillow for her reading nook.

My first sewing project

 I am learning to sew!  I have sewn little projects here and there throughout my life but I have never owned my own sewing machine or been able to call myself a sewer.  My goal is to make 2 quilts for the girls bedroom but that is for another time.  I will talk more about my machine and set up in another post but today it is about a pillow.  The girls room is going to have a reading nook in it.  I thought it would be awesome to make pillows to put in the space.  I found this tutorial online to make a "Super Easy Removable Pillow Cover".

Naomi helped me pick these fabrics- I love the cherries!

I am not sure what I did here-opps...

Much Better!

All done!  FRONT

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