Summer Vacation, Part 2!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far! It has finally cooled down here, back to 'normal' summer temperatures (75 degrees and sun!), and it makes everything so much more pleasant, although it has been a while since it rained. Oh well, it's quite nice, especially with the welcomed breeze! Anyway, enough of the weather-bragging! As we said yesterday, we are going to continue our story about our vacation back east. I know, not very exciting for our crafting friends, but we'll get back to our fun posts tomorrow! (And we've found that writing it all down here makes it quite a bit easier to scrap later on.)
So, after some time recouping from our travels, we had a family get-together on the 4th of July. We took the opportunity to throw our parents a 'surprise', belated, joint, milestone birthday. After some arguing and getting on each others nerves, it was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. We made some decorations for the party, but I'm pretty sure all of our pictures were on our dad's camera. However, I know we have a picture of the invitations we sent out:

Hopefully I'll be able to put up some of the pictures of the decorations (because that IS one of the reasons we decided to have the get together!) We were also able to meet our littlest cousin, who is absolutely the cutest! (Not the best picture of any of us, but you could just eat him up! Even though he was about to cry!) He has the biggest eyes and you can't help but smile!

We spent one afternoon with our aunt and mom. We started the outing with a delicious lunch and spent quite a bit of time taking pictures (a handful of which were approved). After lunch, we went for a stroll along the beach:

I must say, it looks surprisingly nice in the picture. We'll leave it at that! After walking and gossiping about boys, we went on a little sight-seeing "tour" as Mom and Aunt drove around their hometown. It was an extremely nice day (except for the stagnant beach smell).

We were also able to spend some time catching up with our friends, which is always fun. We also went up to Vermont to visit the Twin, and spent the morning blueberry picking with two of her little ones (so adorable!) The little boy kept eating his berries, and those that he didn't eat, he kept sharing with everyone. It was so much fun. Seeing our family and friends were the highlights of the trip. We did get some nice color, which is always appreciated! It's all gone now, but it was nice when it lasted! All in all, it was a nice, relaxing week or so!

The hardest part was the time change. It was kind of hard to wait until a reasonable time to messages to our West-Coasters, but it was a nice surprise the morning of our flight back to have an early morning/late night conversation with Boy! The only thing we were hoping for was that the flight back to Seattle was nothing like the one home. We kept checking the weather, to make sure everything looked good to go. It did!

We left for the airport at 4:00ish, and had no trouble in Connecticut, except for a little construction traffic. Once we got to New York, the story was a little different. At one point, we got stuck in traffic, but couldn't figure out why. Turns out, all of the signs that show the height of bridges are there for a reason. Some idiot (sorry...) decided to take his box truck and try to fit it under the bridge. It didn't work for him. Although, now it might fit. There was also one wrong turn, but that was because the road construction was not marked very well. After some choice words, we were back on the road and the only other problem we faced was all the traffic at the airport. Everyone impatiently trying to merge into one lane. 

After our quick goodbyes, we got into the airport and into the (much longer, but quickly-moving) security line. I got stopped after the metal detector/body scanner and the lady goes, "Ma'am, I need to check your head". Well, I don't know how much you can really hide in a head of braided hair, but I'm pretty sure it was my glasses that set it off. Or, at least I hope so. While we were waiting for our flight to board, we were sitting near a group of three ladies and a boy who were clearly Lawng-EYElanders. Not the quiet ones, but those that talk at a loud volume constantly. We looked over to one another and both pretty much said, "As long as we're not near them". We finally board and we have the two aisle seats. Robyn's seat is next to an older lady who kept to herself. I find myself next to a little boy, maybe four years old. Pretty sure you can tell where this story is going. And who should come ten minutes later? The group of ladies who were near us. Great. Before the plane took off, he tried to fall asleep and kept kicking me. Once he decided he wasn't going to be comfortable, he started watching a tv show on the screen. But his sound wasn't working. And he didn't like the headphones. And he couldn't hear it. Once the show was playing, he was quiet and no problems. Once each episode ended, he spent five minutes yelling at his dad because it wasn't automatically going to where he wanted. But then he'd be quiet again. This went on for the entire trip. Oh, except for the 5 minutes they were in line for the bathroom. That was so quiet time, as well. Until they came back and the kid's tooth was loose and there was blood and tears everywhere. I kept scooting over towards the aisle so I'd be away from him. I did feel bad for his dad, though. He wasn't very happy with him and it was a long flight for both of them.

We finally landed on time without any problems! It was nice to be back on the West Coast (I'd say 'home', but I know how much Mom and Dad don't like it when we call Washington 'home'...) We made it back to our apartment at like 11:00am with no problems and fell asleep for the rest of the day!

The next few days were spent catching up on some things we started before we left. There has been quite a bit of classroom decorating, some favor making, some cleaning, and a lot of relaxing! Hopefully we'll have another project to share with you tomorrow! There's one that is just about done (only two months late) that is so cute and I wish I could keep it for myself!

Have a great night!

Oh, It's Been Awhile!

Happy Friday! I know, it's been quite a while since we last posted. We've been rather busy the last month or so. Who said summer was a vacation?! The last month or so saw the end of a successful, yet sometimes trying, school year, a bump in on-line orders, and a trip back home to see the family. Now that we're back on the West Coast and just about all caught up on everything, we figured now is as good a time as ever to get back on here and maybe share a few of the projects we've been working on since!
Our mom wanted us to update our blog when we were home, but it was so hot that we didn't really do much of anything, so that's where we'll start as we play catch-up. After spending weeks on the road for the last three summers, we decided to take 'easy' and take a non-stop flight home. After waking up at 4, leaving at 5, we got to the airport at 6 and got through all of the chekpoints without any issues. We were able to find the bathroom (you know, just in case, because who would really want to use the airplane bathroom unless it was a real emergency?!) and by the time we got back, they were already boarding the plane. We waited in like for all of like 5 minutes and it was pretty great. After spending $400+ on tickets, they treated us quite well. Like, surprisingly well. We got some breakfast wraps (meh, but something was better than nothing), snacks, and a frozen yogurt pop. At this time, you know, about 4 hours into the flight, it's just about time to need the bathroom again. But you think, "Oh, I can wait another hour until we land to use the bathroom". And then the pilot comes on the loudspeaker and tells you that you are in a "holding pattern because of a wall of severe storms in New York and Pennsylvania, but it should only be an hour or so". Ok, maybe you can hold it, but the bathroom on-board is looking like a necessity, but you push on. So then after an hour, the pilot comes back on and says, "Well, we need to make a pit stop in Buffalo to get some gas". Now all you want to do is run off the plane and find the bathroom. Oh, but wait, we have to turn back around to go to Buffalo, and then sit on the plane for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for the air traffic controller to tell the pilot what the plan is. Finally, the pilot feels bad and lets you all out (politely, of course) and you run to the bathroom. And wait. We walked around the Buffalo Airport for a little bit, longing for that first cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (and only the second one of a long day) that we've been waiting for for the last year, but unfortunately we didn't find any. It was another hour until the pilot came back and told us to get back on board. It was rather impressive how quickly that went. One would think that it would be a pretty straight line from Buffalo to NYC, but oh no, they had us swing over towards Cleveland and Virginia, and then back up north. That was an additional two hours. At this point, all we wanted to do was land, but then we noticed that the "time to destination" on the screen didn't change too much. We were stuck in another holding pattern over New York. After like 12 hours (the whole flight was supposed to be 6ish), we finally land amid a torrential rain storm with thunder and lightning (oh, how we missed that summer sound!) The lady next to us made some comments about the weather, and we were like, "Oh, no, this is natural". She was rather friendly, so it was good. We sat on the plane for another 30 minutes or so because there weren't any gates free to drop us off. Once they found one for us to disembark, the pilot told us that we were the last flight to get in for the night because of the storm. That would have been terrible, to be stuck at some airport so close to home. Fortunately, we didn't have to get on any additional flights, like the couple going to Milan or the family with a 6-hour delay to Maryland. When we got into the airport, there was an international flight waiting to leave, but they weren't going anywhere. It was hard not to feel bad for them.
We decided to rush through the airport to find the kiosk for the shuttle to Grand Central. As we're sitting there, waiting for someone to show up at their post, trying to charge phones, not get on each others' nerves, and burst into tears (that'll come later), we figured we just missed the last shuttle to leave. 45 minutes later and there's still no one at the kiosk. There were two or three shuttles from Connecticut, and I was totally tempted to lose the money spent on the two tickets and hop in their vans.  We decided to wait it out and went outside, and after finding the small sandwich board, stood with a group of people who were apparently going to LaGuardia. After three unmarked shuttles, and one bus go by (you know, since the bus was "only dropping people off") we started to get really frustrated and with tears on the verge of falling, we asked a driver what we were looking for. He was quite helpful, but it was still like another hour that we had to wait. In the meantime, Robyn ran inside to charge a little and not two minutes later, the bus pulls up. He was in an apparent rush and I told him to wait so I could get Robyn. He gave me an attitude and said "No, catch the next one". I'm not proud of how I reacted, but I ran inside to grab Robyn and we made it. We ended up waiting for like five minutes anyway. Pretty sure the driver almost got into a few accidents on the LIE, but we finally made it to Grand Central at about 11:00.
At this point, we were just happy to know that we only had one more leg of the trip to go and that this was going to be the easiest part. We were able to get our tickets, found the track it was supposed to be, and waited. We went back and checked the board, just to be safe, and they had changed it. We walked over to the other track and spent the time determining where people were from (you know, the guys wearing pastel shorts, button down shirts, and boat shoes were most definitely Southern Connecticut). With three minutes to go, they alerted us to a change in tracks, (oh, back to where it was supposed to be originally) so everyone rushed over to that track. And of course, it's like 11:20 and no one wants to share a seat. (Or, should I say, it's New York to Connecticut, so no one wants to share a seat?) So we were scrunched in with a fella going to Southport. After not eating anything since the first part of the flight, we were beyond uber excited to find a granola bar in my bag from the day before we left. Thankfully we got to BPT without any more issues and our awesome daddy was waiting for us. At 1:00 in the morning. What a trooper! Once we were finally home, we spent another hour talking to the 'rents (Mom was also a trooper for staying up so late, and only got on our nerves once, as she called while we were at the airport). After such a long day, it was finally bedtime, and I'm pretty sure we slept in until 10:00ish, but then again, it was only 7:00am on the West Coast.
Phew! I'd say that this post was way too long, but it was a looong day of travel. I will continue the rest of the trip round-up tomorrow. I need a nap after writing this!
Thanks for stopping by! For those looking for our crafting projects, come back Sunday (or maybe Monday) and we'll start posting our crafts again! Have a great day!

Sunny Days!

Happy Thursday! We hope everyone is enjoying their first full day of summer, and like we've said, it seems as if it's been summer for a while.Everywhere but here! Although it looks like summer is right around the corner and it's supposed to be gorgeous for the next few days! Today's project is a mini album we whipped up to keep some of our pictures from the summer. The first picture is below, which is the cover:

 The entire album is full of bright colors and cute little accents! Right now, there are 5 pages. Each page has a spot for a picture and some journalling. The nice thing about it is that we can always add more pages in, since we didn't finish off the back and they're connected with rings.

 

 

Also, we've done some embossing on each page. each I don't know, I think they're all pretty cute, so I can't pick a favorite!
Thank you for stopping by! Join us tomorrow for a super-fun kid-friendly project! It's sure to get the inner artist out!

Today's Party Trivia:
 - New Hampshire became the 9th state in 1788.
- In 1984, Columbia Records introduced the long-playing album, or LP (look how far they've come!)
- Today is National Peaches and Cream Day! Sounds like another delicious desert. Click here for our peaches and cream Cupcake Saturday post.

Slight Change of Plans

We hope everyone is having a great week so far. Look at that, it's already Wednesday! As you know, for the last few days, we have been showcasing some graduation projects. There were some more that we really wanted to finish (which could have been the start we needed to begin our own high school scrapbooks that had been planned years ago...) but things just weren't working like we wanted them to. We didn't want to show a half-hearted project, so we sort of changed the direction we were going in. Since graduation means the end of another school year, and that means thanking those who work so hard all year to get students where they need to be, we decided to make some gift sets any teacher would like to get! (OK, so if they're anything like us...)
Here is the first gift set we made. It doesn't have to be a "teacher" gift, per se. It would make a fabulous gift for a friend, for the holidays, or just for yourself!! This is a teacher one, due to the decor on the basket.

This is a perfect set for a coffee-drinking teacher, and what teacher doesn't like having everything she needs at her disposal?? The basket includes a bag of Margartitaville coffee(!), some individual creamers, and some snacks. It also includes a travel mug, complete with:

It's own little cup cozie! How cute is that pattern?? It's so fun and cheery- perfect for summer! (It is actually a homemade cozie- can't wait to make some more!) Below are pictures of two sides of of the basket.

Each little section has it's own little "theme". The first one is the arts and crafts, since that's the best part of elementary school! The other side is dedicated to the "specials", like  gym and music. And the last side is more "academic", with pencils and books.

This basket was a cinch to put together, except for some of the smaller cut-outs. And before we go, the last picture is of the matching card. The card is actually a little pocket. The little teacher can be used as a bookmark, too!

Phew! I think I covered it all! Now that that's done... We hope you come back for another gift set tomorrow! I have also entered this into the Cooking with Cricut "End of the Year" Challenge.


Today's Party Trivia:
- The first YMCA was founded in London in 1844
- Downtown Seattle was destroyed in an 1889
- In 1984, Everyone's favorite video game, Tetris, was released