Reflections on 2012

Well, it's almost the end of the year. That's a great reason to reflect upon how I spent 2012. I'll have to say that 2012 will be a year that I will always remember. Several VERY special things happened in 2012 ... life events that I will never forget. 1 -- In the spring I learned that I was selected to be a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and would travel on an Arctic Expedition with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. I had a FABULOUS, educational time exploring Arctic Svalbard. Thanks to Google and Oracle who were also sponsors for this trip. There I saw seals, walrus, numerous birds, Beluga & Fin whales, and polar bears. I was also able to experience and learn about climate change first hand. I also traveled to Washington D.C. and Dallas with National Geographic. First, to D.C. to prepare for the expedition and then to Dallas to share about the expedition and the ocean curriculum we've been working on. This was a life changing experience; and one where I met some fabulous people from around the globe.

2 -- Our youngest daughter, Haylee, got her RN at the end of 2011 and got a great job as a nurse at a hospital at beginning of 2012. We're so proud of her.

3 -- Our oldest daughter, Lindsey, moved back closer to home in July, and then we had her wedding to Tom on September 29. The wedding was in a local church but the reception was in an event tent her in our yard. It was a very special occassion that left us all with tons of memories.

In addition to these three events, there were many more wonderful times spent with family and friends. It was a wonderful year!!!

Impromptu Redo

When the partner in my booth space said that she was going to make a trip into the store tomorrow and she was willing to take my items too, I had to jump on that opportunity and redo a couple of items for her to take in. We live a 2 hour and 15 minute drive outside of the city where we have our booth space. THAT'S why this was such a great opportunity. I didn't have much time so I managed to redo a chair and a footstool, plus create a few "smalls". Here's the original chair... well, I had already removed the red vinyl seat at this point.

I really liked the lines of this chair. I decided to paint it with graphite chalk paint and wax over it with dark wax. I found a perfect fabric for the chair, just from the "stash" that I always have on hand. If your a sewer/crafter like me, I bet you have a "stash" of fabric too! Here's what I came up with.

Since I still had a little time left, I decided to redo an old footstool. This thing was a dirty mess. Here's what I started with:

The tapestry was hand-made and was probably quite pretty at one time. But when I took that off, below it was some old vinyl and LOTS of dirt and dust. Eventually I got down to the wood.

One more time, I looked into my fabric "stash" and found some solid off-white ticking and decided to cover the footstool with that. It was a nice heavy fabric.

Oh, it was pretty exciting as I was able to use some vintage lace that a friend had found at a garage sale and then let me have. I just love that lace! While I was crafting I made a few other items.

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AND.... just in case you'd like to see pictures of our booth. You can find some on our Face Book page here.