Our Story Going Private

No this is not my story of going private, it's about me making my Our Story section of my blog private. I love sharing with the world, but now that we're further from home, and I have a goal to blog more about the daily happenings of our personal story, I want to be a little more open about what I share and there is just something about putting myself out there and letting every I-don't-know-who-you-are read the intimate details of our life, that kind of isn't so much what I want to think about. Anyway, it'll be going private... so if you want in, then shoot me your email either in the comments or email me at fromblankpages {at} gmail dot com.


I will keep updating new posts here on this blog with fun little snippets, so make sure to stop by to stay up to date on our new happenings! :)


***To clarify, this MAIN PAGE of my blog will remain open to everyone! :) I have way too much fun blogging to cut this off from others! It is the family section of my blog (found under the Our Story tab) that will be private. :)


lol. After some more thought and starting to enter in emails to make my blog private, I decided I'm going to keep it open. I just have a feeling that maybe someone out there somewhere might need to read what I have to say one day and they might not even know they need to read it. I'd hate to close the opportunity to help someone else by restricting readers to my blog. :)

Our Story: I'm Back! and faster than ever!

A bit of babbling and pictures to give me a break from the stress of moving in! ;)

read more here...

Hello Iowa.

Well, we are in Iowa! Happy day. :) This last week was full of driving, hotels, swimming, sleeping, and more driving. We went and saw our new place today. It's cute and has character. The kitchen is awesome and I think the rest of the house will be too, except it's not finished. They are doing some amazing remodeling and renovations and I'm really excited for them. They say they'll be finished on Monday. Yay! The movers should also be delivering our stuff on Monday. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a crazy mess. The yard will need a little work/cleaning up, but I'm hoping they'll let us do what we want with it. :)

For now we are staying in a hotel in the next town. We've stayed in some nice hotels this week, which is always exciting to me. The Fairfield Inn was by far the nicest! I could seriously decorate my house the way they decorated the rooms. I'm writing this on my phone so I can't format anything, but I'll add some pics at the end. :) The Hampton Inn was a close second. We made sure to swim at each hotel, a definite highlight for the boys!

They all did an amazing job in the car each day! We actually drove both of our cars. It would have been nice to get a break from driving and be able to trade off, but it was also nice to have H in a separate car. He can get kind of intense sometimes sitting between M and J. Poor Mabel has been dealing with ear infections and a sinus infection all week. Luckily we caught it before we left, I think she's feeling better. Maybe that helped her sleep more though? Idk.

Anyway, we're going to go to Target tomorrow (30 miles away) and get some clothes for church on Sunday. We already got invited to a baptism and a BBQ after church. That should be fun! Neils new boss is also LDS and we actually met him and his family two weeks ago while they were in Utah. It's nice to already have some ”friends” in our new town. Otherwise it's really weird to be here with none of our stuff and nowhere to stay. We arrived and were hit with this feeling of ”now what?”. Especially since Neil starts work on Monday! What a crazy adventure! I half feel like we should jump in the car and start driving.

Oh, and I can't forget the best part... I get a sewing room! Wahoo! :) lol. I'm going to set up the learning center in there too. I can't wait to set it up and share pictures! :) (ok, maybe that's not the best part, but I am excited for it!) ;)

Maybe I'll be able to share my last sewing project tomorrow. I want to link it up with Ellison Lane Quilts Summer Sewing event, but we'll see what happens. ;) if not tomorrow, then soon. (I didn't get my sewing machine back in time to get it on the truck, so it's actually in the car... I'm so tempted to sew. lol. Neil would kill me!)

The Charming Travelers visit Canada!

I'm writing this on my phone, so I apologize in advance for the lack of formatting and pictures.

There is a Charming Travelers giveaway going on over at Live, Laugh, Love... Sew! It is open for US and Canadian residents who are willing to send to either place as well. Giveaway  ends on May the 11th, so don't miss it! :)

Modern She Made Swap! Lots of goodies to go around!

This was a fun swap! Through a move into the mix and it totally threw off my sewing groove. For some reason finding a place to live took a little more precedence over sewing. ;) But alas, I finished my item for my partner and I really hope she likes it! :)


I made an 18" pillow form. I was going to go bigger, but I'm glad I didn't. :)

I used the same pattern that I tried out for my MIL and her pillow. I did get a last minute "I think I want to do something else", but I'm glad I stuck with this! I smoothed out a few kinks in the pattern and I really do love how this pillow came together in the end!

the back. super simple.
I put my label just under the flap on the right. I can't show you because then my partner would know it was theirs!

I love looking at patterns with the light shining from behind!

before I put the back on.

I did a wavy line cross hatching for the quilting again. I have such a hard time doing the exact same thing twice, but I was just so happy with the first pillow that I couldn't help myself. 

I really like the pattern for this. I've gotten a lot of compliments on flickr which I TOTALLY did not expect! Wow! Thanks everyone! You make me want to cry. ;) I am planning on making a pattern for this (after we finish moving). This pillow was made completely with a template, my purple pillow was made mostly with a paper piecing pattern I think, or at least a good mix. I don't know which I like better... But I will tell you, it kind of kicked my butt! lol. I think I finally got the sizing of the templates right so in the end it was a lot easier. But there is a lot of cutting, and where the points meet up it is thick. After a little ironing it's not too bad. It definitely requires some precision to get everything to line up right (which I didn't do perfectly, but people don't seem to mind). Anyway, there's the truth about it. :) 

My goodies arrived at my sisters house yesterday! Wahoo! My sis texted me a bunch of photos this morning! I couldn't believe all the goodness inside!! :) Kelsey did an amazing job!! Her pictures of the stuff she made are here, here, here and here. Here are the pictures my sister sent me:

There are 6 placemats! Look how awesome they are! My sister said they're big, maybe 12". It'll be like a house warming gift when I get them at our new house! ;)

Then she added some cute fabric

and this awesome magazine! I can't wait to get my hands on this stuff. 

Thank you Kelsey!! :)

I really did enjoy this swap! There were so many talented people in it! :) But I also have to admit that for right now, it is SO nice to not have anymore sewing commitments (as in I'm done with all my swaps and bees)!! Wahoo! :)

Happy sewing to everyone! 

I will probably be checking out soon for a bit. 

In less than a week we will start our drive to our new home! :D

The Charming Travelers are at it again!

Hey! If you have been following the Charming Travelers around, another giveaway for them has opened up today!! :) If you don't know what the Charming Travelers are, then click here to find out! And then go enter! :)

Stop by Happy Momma Quilts to enter!

the giveaway ends June 12th
for US residents only. Sorry.

(there is another charm pack that should be arriving soon that will also be available for all you Canadian folk! Wahoo! Thank to Karen!) :)