Dilemma, to switch or not to switch?

Ok blogging world, I have a dilemma here. I set up this blog before we got married as a way to keep a journal for myself, friends, and family and document my new life with my husband. I wasn't very good at it to begin with, but thanks to New Year's Resolutions I've done a pretty good job updating this blog all year!

So here's the dilemma.

I've really gotten into crafting and sewing and my blog is getting filled with all of my crafting endeavors and my hobbies and my personal life are getting all jumbled together. Family and friends are most likely more interested in things like my move across the country and my trip to the zoo. I link up my crafts to a lot of parties and these gracious visitors are more likely interested in seeing the crafts I make. So for both cases I feel like someone isn't interested, either my friends and family are getting sick of my crafts, or my fellow crafters are getting sick of seeing all of my family photos.

So what should I do? Should I keep my blog the way it is now, or should I move my craft stuff to another blog and bring this blog back to only being a family blog? I really don't know what to do, so I'm enlisting your help in aiding my decision. Any feedback would be lovely! (I'm also putting a poll in my sidebar in case you're in a hurry and don't have time to leave a comment.)

Summer Vacation

Yesterday I went with my family on a "summer vacation." My dad didn't get to go on a real vacation so we decided to squeeze as much fun as we possibly could in one day! And let me tell you, it was one of the funnest I've ever had!

We started out hiking at Cunningham Falls, which just happens to be one of the longest cascading waterfalls! (Meaning, it doesn't drop straight down, it just kinda runs down rocks for a very long time.)

It was really pretty. I'm not too much of an outdoorsy person but I really like being outside and enjoying scenery all of God's creations.

We discovered that my sister Allie is incapable of "waterfalling" aka pouring water into your mouth from a water bottle without touching your lips. It was really amusing to watch her try though. :)

But it's ok, I still love her.

I just like this picture, this is my dad demonstrating how to do yoga. :)

He then found a millipede and stuck it on his face. What a brave man! I got creeped out just watching it move.

This is Brandon's action shot. I like how he's holding a giant walking stick while he's jumping, what if he fell and landed on it???

Brandon, Allie, David, and me.

 I always find it's a lot easier to go up than down (unless it's a rock wall and you can just glide back down.) Apparently Allie feels the same way. :)

I saw a few cool things on the trail, and I used those opportunities to try and improve my photography. I know practice makes perfect, and even though these are far from perfect, I'm still trying!

(This little an was carrying that much bigger green bug! It was fascinating to watch.)

 After the hike we went to an awesome candy store in Thurmont, MD. I remember going there a few times as a child and trust me, I was just as excited then as I was this time. :)

My favorite part of summer is the fresh produce. Man oh man do I love juicy peaches, crisp corn, and red ripe tomatoes. MMMMMMMMMMMM.

Now remember, this was an entire summer vacation in one day, so we did a ton of things! As we headed back home we went laser tagging at Shadowland. Typically we go on New Years Day, but c'mon, laser tagging is so much fun and should definitely be included in a jam-packed, fun-filled day! Unfortunately, laser tagging isn't exactly an activity that you can take pictures of. So I'll move on to....

Cici's! Where the have macaroni and cheese pizza!!!! Did you know that macaroni and cheese is my favorite food? Did you know that pizza is also pretty high up on my favorites list? Did you know that the two of them together is AMAZING? Well, it is. 

We ate a lot of pizza, but Brandon beat us all with 20 slices. Oh to be a 16 year old boy with a high metabolism.

 After all that fun we needed something relaxing, so we headed to the pool. Too bad it was anything but relaxing. For me, it was honestly the most fun I can ever remember at a pool. My siblings are just a lot of fun. But poor David...

He dove a little too enthusiastically and scraped open practically off of his fingers on the bottom of the pool. I'm really glad he didn't smash open his head, but still. I won't show you a picture of the actual scraps, it's pretty cringe-worthy. 

I got to see my Jellybean!! :) I love my kitty, she's pretty much my favorite. I had such a great day with my family, I should go on summer vacations more often!! (Yeah...dream on huh?)

Legal Pad Cozy

Ever had one of those random ideas pop into your head really late at night that you just can't wait to start? That's how this project was born.

Since we were busy Monday night, David and I had Family Home Evening last night instead. (Interested in learning more about Family Home Evening? Click here.) We decided it would be good to start gratitude journals to help us really start to look for the blessings in our lives. Now this was at about 11:30 last night, and I got so excited to start my journal that I didn't want to wait to get started. My MIL has a bunch of little yellow legal pads in a cabinet so I went a grabbed one to keep in my purse. If you're anything like me, you just can't leave a little yellow legal pad all by itself, even if it is a little late. However, late at night might not be the best time to start a project, because I failed miserably. Twice. What you are about to see is my third attempt.

Tadah!! I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out, even if it did take a few hours of hair pulling and scrap bucket filling. :) It was pretty simple, I basically made a small "pillowcase" and put two rectangles of recycled cereal box inside to make it sturdy enough to write on. Added embellishments, a button/elastic closure and voila! Simple and elegant, just how I like it.

I love this little button I found, it's so pretty!

I also added a strip of one inch elastic inside so that the legal pad could stay in snugly and allow me to switch it out whenever needed.

(Yes, I added lace to the legal pad....)

Now my new gratitude journal is ready to be tossed into my purse so I can always be ready to record life's little blessings. :) Like 73 degree weather, ahhh. So refreshing. If I was still in school I would probably use for taking notes in class, jotting down reminders, and writing notes to the hubs. :)

Also, if anyone is interested in a tutorial for this, let me know! The hubs still needs one. ;)



  

Maryland Zoo

Another adventure for you! Getting sick of these yet? I hope not, I have a few more to squeeze in in the next several days! Gotta make summer last as long as it can. School starts on Monday! (Not for me though...)

I'd never been to this zoo before. I've been to the National Zoo in DC a dozen times, but never this one in Baltimore (frankly, I didn't even know it existed until last week!). It was kind of "lame" compared to other zoos I've been to (San Diego, Wild Animal Park, National Zoo) but I love the zoo, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll try to only post my favorite pictures, but I do have a few favorites.

(Ever seen that Spogebob episode where Squidward gives Spongebob a pie that's a bomb and Squidward and Mr. Krabs think Spongebob is going to die so Squidward spends the whole day doing Spongebob's fun list? Know how when Spongebob gives Squidward the list of fun things he says "The things that are extra fun, I've written in red." Then Squidward says "Everything's in red." And then Spongebob says "Yeah I know!!" And wiggles his eyebrows? Yeah, that's what I feel like with this post. All my pictures are "red.")

Moving on!! We learned (and relearned) many things during our trip to the zoo.

We learned that David is about as tall as a thoroughbred horse.

We learned that Elisa loves donkeys.

We learned that you should make funny faces in pictures, because if you don't, you'll feel like the idiot, not the funny face makers.

We learned what "nesting" really is. (And that peanut butter ice cream bars are rather delicious.)

We relearned that Amie LOVES polar bears (they are her second favorite animal!)

We learned that despite starting to run and work out again, Amie has not lost any weight.

We learned that polar bears at the zoo eat popscicles!

We learned that said popscicles are apple-pear-fish-carrot flavored and that zoo workers get excited when the stripes come out all pretty.

We learned that polar bears have strange bluish-purplish tongues! (Cute huh???)

We learned that monkeys like to cuddle.

We relearned that Amie really likes frogs (especially yellow ones!)

We relearned that giraffes are really, really tall. (David's sister is 5'3'' just like me.)

We learned that baby elephants are adorable.

We learned that there are bouncers even in the animal worlds (I laughed at this one for a while.)

We learned that cheetahs are really, really fast even when they're walking! (This was the only un-blurry picture I got.)

And finally, we learned that fences really screw up would-be cool action shots.

More adventures on the horizon! I'm even working on a cool craft that I should be done with soon!

Creativity

I don't consider myself a creative person. Most of my "good ideas" are inspired by something that I've seen or heard of, and then I personalize it to make it my own. I know half of creativity is inspiration, but I don't ever feel like I have a good idea that I just thought up myself. This doesn't bother me most of the time though (only when I want to open an Etsy shop and realize that I can't because I haven't thought of anything awesome enough to sell), I've still been able to create things that I genuinely liked.

However, lately it feels like there are ideas swimming in my head all the time. I think it's because I barely done any sewing or anything crafty at all since we moved. There are still a lot of things I need to do (finish unpacking the last few boxes and finding a job are the biggies), so I always feel guilty when I want to bust out the sewing machine and/or glue gun, because there are more important things to do. Grrr. I'm thinking about starting an inspiration journal so I can jot everything down when it comes to me and get back to it later. But we'll see, I'm really self conscience about my ideas, I usually shoot them down before anyone ever hears of them. Stay tuned.

Trip to Philly!

Am I boring you with posts about my adventures? I guess I've just been really lucky to be able to go to so many fun places lately! Today was Philadelphia, I'd been there before but the last time I remember being there was in fifth grade, so it was like I'd been there for the first time! We listened to stories (from some very animated storytellers), visited a ton of historical sites, and....actually, I'll just move onto the pictures. :)

The first post office in the United States!

Me, Ben Franklin, David's sister Carolyn and her friend Grace.

Where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.

For lunch we ate at City Tavern, a cute little era restaurant where we drank from pewter goblets and the waitresses dressed up in colonial clothes! Since  I am a major seafood lover I was very much drawn to the "lobster bake." She described it and I wanted it! What I heard was "a pound a half of lobster (I wanted to share with everyone since some people hadn't had it before), clams, mussels, and corn on the cob." What she actually said? "A pound and a half lobster." Holy crap!! I honestly freaked a little when she brought out the plate, I know how to eat a whole crab, but not a whole lobster! I had a lot of fun with it though, and I discovered I was with a bunch of wimps! ;) I guess it takes a kind of person to annihilate seafood.

What was left, it took a little bit of balancing to fit it all! I know, I know, we take a lot of pictures of our food.

We saw so many amazing "vintagey" things, these were some of my favorites.

WANT!!!!!!!!!!

Walking down the oldest street in the country, Elfreth's Alley.

I loved this kitty fountain!! It was right by Besty Ross's house.

David by the Liberty Bell.

To finalize the trip I wanted to get authentic Philly Cheesesteaks from Philly!

Uh-maze-ing!!! (Sorry about more pictures of food...)