Curtain Fabric Finds

I found a great deal recently on fabric. I spend only 60 bucks and bought 20 yards of home decor fabric.

Compared to Joann's prices that is a savings of 440$. Blogged here: one-happy-homemaker.html

A New Home! :)

Lily wanted to let everybody know that we got the house! :) After almost a week of waiting for the results we found out the owner chose us over the other applicants! So very excited!!!! :)

The great thing is it will only take 7 min. for Harrison to get to work. He never has to get on the freeway to get to work again! So cool! :) Although it is dangerously a close walk to Taco Bell fountain drinks AND Starbucks! hehe.....perfect for the stay at home wife with no car. :) *maniacal laughing*

Also, it will be only 2 minute drive to my quilting group when they move to their new building. :) Thanks to everyone who prayed! :) We are so happy to be moving into a house!

New Home? Yippee!

It has been a long time since I blogged here. These past 3 months have been very hard on me. Filled with unending jaw/teeth problems that most likely wont be fixed for a while. I am slowly learning to wait on God's timing. Constant pain is not my cup of tea, but I am learning to cope with my constant bite changes and TMJ pain. My jaw has decided to have a mind of its own. :P

There is great news though! I love good news! We could possibly be moving soon! Into a house! wooohoo! So excited. We are taking a second look at it today and turning in our application. SO, if all goes well, we will be moving October 1st!

I have been in so much pain lately that going on the computer is exhausting, which unfortunately has been affecting my crafting. So all my crafts have been mindless crocheting. :) Which I love!

Papa and the Ducks

For all of you Gleaner Readers:

Here is the video I made of: Papa and the Ducks. Sorry for the poor youtube quality. The quality lessened when I uploaded the video.

Enjoy!

Seaside Bliss

This past weekend Harrison and I went to a family getaway. Harrison's side of the family rented a nice house near Jenner, CA on the coast. It was beautiful there. Our bedroom had double doors that opened to a view of the sea. It was really breathtaking.

Of course, I HAD to bring some crafts. So I decided my Granny Ripple would be the perfect craft to enjoy by the sea. :) The pattern even looks like the sea with all the wave like ripples.

Below is the view from our room.

The ocean is my favorite place to be. I just love the Coast of Northern California. It really was beautiful.

Monday, Monday

Monday is finally here. I am so happy last week has come and gone. I am praying this week holds lots of dental relief and crafty fun! :) Finally able to get my retainers adjusted, I have now entered into the stage of more waiting as the head pain slowly decreases.

Being the craft addict that I am, I have begun to dabble in jewelry making! I have already made 2 necklaces. One for me and one to sell! I even wore mine to church yesterday! So excited, will have necklace pictures soon. But for now, I wanted to share some other pictures of my newest flea market find! Posted.... Here....

I hope everybody has a lovely Monday and a week full of happiness.

Artfire Fun and Dental Woes!

I cant believe how long it has been since I have blogged! This past month has been wild! I have been dealing with a lot of dental issues that have affected my jaw and my retainers. I think my TMJ is coming back which I am hoping the orthodontist can help me with this friday. It seems like trials have been coming my way.... But in the midst of trials there is always a glimmer of hope. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I cant wait!

I have been trying to keep myself busy with lots and lots of crafting! :) I am so excited because I finally have items in my Artfire Shop! In fact, I listed a Susan Branch Pincushion just last night and already sold it! I will have more Jello Mold Pincushions coming soon to my store. I also added a variety of beaded stitch markers for those knitters out there! Check out my pictures below and go check out my new Shop! :)

I also was FINALLY able to go to Room With A Past this month. I found some great treasures to spice up my craft room! Cant wait to share pictures of those! :)

Did I mention I am donated a set of stitch markers to a giveaway? Check out BekahJan.com for details! :)

Colorful Bobbins!

So excited about my recent craft! Go check it out at: BekahJan.com! These Embroidery Bobbins were so fun to make! They were so easy too! I found this great idea from Heather Bailey! I even used her fabric as background for my pictures! :)

In the midst of Chaos.....

In the midst of Chaos... there is always beauty!

Some days there are times where everything goes wrong...but if you look hard there is always something of beauty. Today is one of those days for me.

My Apartment Complex. Enough said. If you read my blog you know that they have caused so many problems and today is no different. There are a total of 9 fire sprinklers in our apartment. We were informed after one postponement that there were annual testings to be done. 2 days worth. One for everybody and one random apartment with fire marshal. Ok, fair enough, even though they should have done that 6 months ago when the complex opened instead of waiting for people to move in. This entailed lots of cleaning and hiding stuff that could get ruined by the workers or that were in their way. We even had to move our 3 birds over to my parents for today and tomorrow.

So today comes, my husband took 1/2 day off of work unpaid, and we got up by 8:00am and waited and waited and waited. Harrison left for work, then I waited and waited.... Until 3:15pm. Harrison called and was informed that they went into every apartment and if you weren't home they had keys. Well, just our luck, they missed us. Everybody is already gone, So they might have to reschedule which entails another shifting around of stuff and another hassle of transferring our birds somewhere else, and another wasted day waiting when I could be getting stuff done. Oh, ya and all that happens after I put everything back to the way it was.

I spent a lot of time working around this apartments demands and they pass over us. Anger set in real fast. It is times like these where I just need to realize that the Lord is in control over my life. In hindsight I might laugh at this, ok, I said might. :) Even though things went awry, I know that...

all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

I then start to think about the positive things that have come out of this. For example, my craft room is really shaping up! But most of all, in the midst of chaos I am thankful for things of beauty God has given us. For example..this lovely picture (above) I took today of my Hydrangea blooming. The Lord knew I needed to find these beautiful blooms.

This Bible verse has given me comfort this past month when I feel discouraged...

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

No matter what life throws at me, I know that I am in His hands.

Mother's Day Craft

Go check out my latest blog post at BekahJan.com!

DIY: Pampering Body Scrub!

Want to make some fun Do It Yourself body scrub? Check out my craft blog for the info on where to find the instructions!

Mine turned out great! I even found a cute jar to put it in! :)

Where's Waldo? aka Lily?

My sweet little parrotlet, Lily....I went to change his water dish and he lunged at me! sigh..he can be so sweet, yet so aggressive. And of course I freaked, dropped the water dish in his cage. Water Everywhere! I let the little guy out, so I could change his cage papers. The vacuum scared him and he took off. Can you find him in the picture? hehe..so cute!

Blooms all around!

Today, I was able to go outside on my patio and enjoy the dry heat and water my plants! I was thrilled when I saw my cactus had bloomed. Granted it was just one small flower, but it was beautiful!

I then noticed, my hydrangea starting to bud! It had blue flowers last year when it was given to us for our 2 year wedding anniversary by my Mother-in-law. I didn't do a thing to it, but cut it back and water it. So I have no clue what color it will be. I am voting for pink!

My Little Brother - Engaged

Congratulations to my younger brother David and his fiance Steffany! They became engaged last Monday and plan on an October Wedding. My little brother is not so little any more!

Spring has Sprung

Well, Spring has Sprung and I have a new project that has NOTHING to do with Crochet, Knitting or Painting! ;) It is dreaded and it is called "Spring Cleaning"! When we move into a house, I will be ready and organized. I know, I have said this before! But this time I mean business. The month of April is my "Spring Cleaning" month. I have already written out an itinerary. Each day has a task and by the time April has left, I will be all caught up! :) Each week will be a new room to spring clean and organize. I also plan to find lost items such as my cell phone!

I have begun to walk around with a pad of paper just encase I remember a task in my head. I tend to remember things at all hours of the day and Night and am too lazy to write it down. Which means they never get done and they all pile up!

April here I come!

Blog Tweaking

I finally got around to changing my banner for my BekahJan.com website. I joined a blog critique on ravelry and the main suggestion was making the banner shorter. Not really feeling like working on my blog design, I put it off...until this week. I think I have everything finished to look right. But being the perfectionist I am, I just dont know if I am completely happy with it. Any suggestions would be awesome! :) Anyone have a second opinion? :) Please check it out and let me know what needs improvement. :)

Late Night Safeway Trip = Detection Work

I have come to realize that a normal night is never normal. It seems since we moved, we cant seem to find a normal evening at home. Last night was no different. Harrison and I decided we needed a trip to Safeway at about 11:00pm. So we hop in our car and head down the road. On our way to the intersection, we notice a parked car with a man wearing all black sneaking around a locked gate that enters to the construction zone of our apartments.

This is not normal! So we turned around to investigate, nonchalantly of course. :) The man, with his car running and waiting, was no where in site. We get back to the top of the hill and call security and wait. Ok, so that did no good! So much for security. So finally the man emerges and hops in his car and takes off. We follow, thank goodness he is heading toward where we are going. :) So we catch up to him get his license number and call it an evening.

Today we promptly delivered the information to the apartment management. Come to find out, this happened once before. They were very thankful to know we got a license number. I am feeling very happy we did a good service, yet wondering, is it really safe to live here? That is the second suspicious thing we have come across.

Dream apartments are now becoming Dreaded apartments. The end of our lease cant come fast enough!

Most Unbelievable Place!

A sign use to be displayed on the side of the freeway that stated:

"The Most Unbelievable Place You Will Ever Live"

This sign referred to my apartment complex. This statement is quite hilarious because it really is the most unbelievable place! But so not how they meant it. This place is so Unbelievable for all the wrong reasons.

I start to think how this place could not get any more unbelievable, but then I am always proved wrong. I will list a few of the things we have and are dealing with, then I will tell you about the newest development of this "Unbelievable" Place.

To list a few: open draining pipe hanging over bathtub, humidity of average 51%, fire alarm going off about 10 times at night and morning, neighbors above pounding, car almost getting broken into (scared off by car alarm), Gates not working, a rodent in the wall, drag racers on our street, power going out in bedroom and craft room (because I was running the vacuum), waiting one month for phone and internet because apartment didn't have what we needed, sliding door didn't lock, no hot water when we first moved in, Bathtub pipes clogged from mud from construction, heater broken (still is broken), had to bug them for 2 months just to get the early move in bonus they promised us, smoke alarm going off because I ran my popcorn popper, solicitors because the gate isn't fixed, Must I really go on? Too many more to list...

Now on to the most recent problem. A fight between 2 neighbors buildings. I will set the scene, 4:30 am, loud thunderous pounding. I hop out of bed scared out of my mind someone is braking in or the roof is falling. I wake up Harrison and we head to the front door and wait for the sound again. More thunderous pounding down the hall. Then we hear it, a man yelling at the top of his lungs loud obscenities with complains of the other neighbors being loud at all hours of the night. More ranting and raving continues followed by our neighbor going back into his apartment with a door slam. Peep hole on door finally comes in handy! lol We wait, moments later the police come to settle the argument. Finally after things quiet down. I fall asleep.

Does the story end here? Of course not! Next day, I am in the living room with the birds. I quickly put the birds back in their cages because of loud voices outside our door. I go to my trusty peephole and spy our neighbors fighting about last night. Back and forth the argument went "your being too loud at night", "I can do whatever I want its my apartment and you scared my wife" "not after hours you cant!".....and so on. Just when I am about to call an apartment manager, they part ways angrily. Of course I am a little worried about the threats they hurled...so we shall see how this even will unfold more.

But until then, I have plenty of problems to deal with. Renting a house cant come any sooner. I will miss my craft room and huge bath tub though. But are those things really worth it when we deal with so much more! I think not.

Chocolate Lava Cake

I found this awesome video recipe for Chocolate Lava Cake! I am dying to try this recipe! Yum! Check it out!

Bath Time For The Birdie!

Lemon loves baths! While Harrison was in the Kitchen washing dishes, Lemon tried every trick to get to the running water. We finally got the clue.





She wants a bath. So we filled up a bowl of water and she plunged into the water. We grabbed our cameras and started taking pictures. Silly birdie parents!

Popcorn Fun!

Last night Harrison and I decided to pop some popcorn. I have not done this in ages!

The birds were scared of the popcorn. But once Tootsie saw me eating it, she had to try some! Lemon didn't think it was cool. But Tootsie Loved it!

So, I just had to share the fun pictures of Tootsie Eating her Popcorn.

Birthday Fun!

Today was a fun day for me. For my 26th birthday, Harrison took me to 3 new yarn shops on the way to see Point Reyes Light House. He was also able to use his new SLR Camera to take pictures of my knitted projects. The yarn stores were great! I of course couldn't leave each store without buying at least one skein of yarn. :) It was very chilly outside which made my new gloves and neck warmer all the more fun! We ended the day at our favorite waterfront restaurant in Suisun City; The Athenian Grill. All in all it was a fabulous day!

Quilting for Soldiers

Today was my first time attending a group hosted by blue star moms that meets once a month to make quilts for our wounded Soldiers. We send the quilts we make to Quilts of Valor. I had a blast! It was nice to enjoy the company of other quilters while supporting our Heroes. I added a ChipIn to the right and below if any one is interested in donating fabric money for the quilts my group makes.

Starting New Year with a Bang!

Yes, I have started out the new year with a Bang! The sickness Bang! Yes, I am sick....again! and just in time to ring in the new year, yay for me. Sorry to say, Harrison is also starting the new year out with a bang. Maybe I should postpone my new year to start on February 1st.

I have been so sick, I cant even get out of bed. I am dying to get out of bed to put my crispy Christmas Tree out of its misery. Thanks to my laptop, I have at least been able to be in touch with the outside world....better drift off to sleep.......zzzzzz