Notes From Home

For those of you who have been wondering what we have been doing… we have been busy!  We have neglected this blog for quite some time now, as many have noticed.  We have been very busy with the magazine, the Thanksgiving/Christmas season and of course our own home projects and family.  I was very surprised to see that we still have had so many readers lately!  This of course brings me to the point of my update here!  I made a new blog for us :).  I wanted an easier blog design, and I think I’ve got it.  So be sure to stop by!  We are going to be doing all of our blogging over there from now on, plus our Holiday baking and what-nots for the rest of the month!

Many blessings, ~*~Jessica~*~     Visit: http://www.joyousnotions.com

The usual weather for the past two weeks has been some dark clouds blowing through about dinner time… bringing little more than a lot of lightning and maybe a sprinkling of rain. Last night was no different, we only had a 30% chance of rain. Warnings and watches of any kind were non-existent for the evening. But, looking out the front window was a little *thing* poking down out of the clouds. After watching it for a couple of minutes, it slowly turned into…

and then this…

Now people, this is a sight to be seen in our area. We don’t get tornadoes. It’s the simple fact of elevation, it all goes around us. This did too in point of fact. But since we weren’t sure which way it was heading, we had all of the kids throw pillows into the basement anyway. It actually turned out that the storm was moving very little, and was practically stationary.

Now, give or take a few minutes and we have this… how often do you get to stand on your front porch and see something that neat?

It got a little thicker after this, but then broke apart for a minute or two, then it came back. The pressure being too much, Mike and I got in the car for a little drive so we could get some better pictures. Mike drove so I could get *ahem* take pictures. In other words, every time I went to snap a picture, he would hit the gas pedal a little harder.

 

Sitting at the stop light. Again, this is blurry cause the light turned green and Mike blew across the road just as I snapped it. Darn. It’s not too bad I guess, at least you can tell what it is! I think it was reforming again from the bottom.

 

Isn’t that just the most awesome thing to look at? It really did just sit there and spin, I don’t think it even hit anything. After a few minutes… it left, and my camera was out of space. We were very privileged to be able to watch something so cool from a distance. And to think that we only had a 30% chance of rain.

Now, wasn’t that a good picture post? 

~*~Jessica~*~

Seasons At Home Magazine site is officially up! Go and check it out here: www.seasonsathomemagazine.com

We are just praying that this site is truly a blessing to all of you ladies.  Can’t wait to see you there!

 

Good afternoon ladies, look what’s in!

 

Needless to say, the packing crew (us ;)) has been in.  All magazines are being shipped over today and the rest of the week, so you can start looking for it in your mailbox at the end of the week!

The Quilt Block Membership site has been in testing mode, but will be up and out for everyone to go over and sign up, look around etc.!  In the meantime, yes, I can now post a picture of the August block!  For our first block we are doing the LeMoyne Embroidered Star.  Didn’t that come out pretty?  I will announce when site is up!

One more quick update.  I have changed the permissions on the blog for those who wish to comment.  You no longer have to sign in, or make a user account to leave a comment.  I forgot we had it set to that, and it’s really not necessary!  You only need to leave your email (which is not posted for anyone to see) and your name!  Didn’t that simplify things? Have a lovely day!

 

Friday is my favorite day of the week. School is usually lighter for the kids, so Mom and I can do other things that have been either been neglected over the week, or things we just want to do! Today is half business, half pleasure sewing. It is also our “cleaning day”, and pizza-with-a-movie night. We have had this Friday tradition for at least 13 years, and never miss it. Does anyone else have a weekly tradition?

I do get to do a little sewing today for the Seasons quilt. I wish I could show the whole block, but that would ruin the fun! So, I will only post a picture of the fabric I’m using. Boring, right? I took along 18 year old brother Mike to ”help” me pick out the fabric on Sunday. Less than thrilled, he stood guard at the cart watching me talk to myself over which fabric pattern to match against which color, and then exclaim how they didn’t match worth beans and walk back over to the shelf to rummage for more. At one point, an elderly man (carrying many bolts of fabric) walked by with his wife. He looked at Mike (still standing by watching me dig through a bin of quarter cuts that were on sale) and said with a smile, “It looks like you are in training”. Indeed he is :).

Anyway, here are the colors I finally dug out of the abyss of fabric! I’m so glad that I finally found a blue that went with the yellow. I started to look at the purples, but I have huge purple quilt that I am in the process of finishing and I can’t buy one more scrap of purple fabric right now!

 Have a wonderful weekend! Many blessings,

Hello dear ladies,

     I’m sure some of you have been wondering if we had entirely abandoned this blog!  No, we have simply been so busy with new business production, magazine and household doings, that we hadn’t been able to post.  We do have some new things coming, one of which I am very excited about! 

     On another note, I will be making this blog my main blog.  I had decided against continuing to post on my other blog, The Beauty of Home.  Two blogs is simply too much to worry about on my part.  God has given me an abundance of things to work on during the day, and blogging is waaayyyy down the list of priorities!  Therefore, both blogs were looking very neglected.  So you will be seeing more, and perhaps mostly me, posting here!

    Now, what all have we been doing?  Getting the summer issue of Seasons At Home done mostly!  I must say that all of the projects came out lovely.  The Rag Quilt is especially nice, and so easy.  In fact, it came out so nice and I felt so inspired, that I have already been to the fabric store to buy flannel to make a twin sized quilt for my bed!

     While I am on the subject of quilting, that is part of our new business venture: quilting.  We have another website/forum coming for all of our subscribers to Seasons At Home, and part of it is our new quilt block membership, respectably called, Quilting with Seasons.  What is that, you ask?  Starting in August, and every month for the next 12 months we will be making a quilt block, not just a quilt block, a block that matches the month and the season!  Each block will be different, and we will be using lots of wonderful little tecniques.  We will show you how to make each one with pictures and even video tutorials!  So, by the end of next year those who participate will have a beautiful quilt of all of the seasons.  The most creative quilts will be showcased in the Holiday ‘09 issue!

     What makes this even more fun, is that not only do you get to do it along with us, but with lots of other women, so that will hopefully turn out some wonderful fellowship.  You can do this with a friend, long-distance or close (keep you Kindred Heart Pen Pal in mind for this!), or just do it along with us on our forum!  Personally, the whole thing sounds like so much fun, Mom and I are both doing quilts for this, instead of working on just one (you can never have too many quilts!).

      We are keeping the membership fee reasonable, and on a month-to-month basis so that it stays very affordable.  You aren’t going to have to be a quilting connoisseur either.  Basic supplies (sewing machine definite must though!) and very basic sewing skills will be needed.  So all you ladies out there who know even a little bit should be able to this!  We will have more information about all of this on both our website and in the summer issue which is soon to show up in your mailbox (and we can’t wait for you to see it!)

     Must run for now, have a very blessed day!

This announcement concludes the final week in our giveaway! Many thanks to all 0f the ladies who have participated! We had many wonderful suggestiongs and this has greatly helped us see what our readers would like to see in upcoming issues.  Some of suggestions given were already planned for the summer issue, so you may look forward to seeing them in there!

Now, the winner is… comment number 74, AbbyDee!! Congratulations! Thank you again ladies for taking the time to tell us your thoughts.

Answer any one of these questions:
What would you like to see for boys in the magazine?  OR

My husband does woodworking projects for dads in the magazine, does your husband have a request of what he’d like to try?  OR

If you haven’t seen our magazine, tell us what you think constitutes a good homemaking magazine. You can answer this question  if you have seen it and want to make suggestions on future projects!

Please only answer one question above! 

Congratulations to Shawna Wright, she won our bread making basket!!
Blessings today!  Theresa

    

Cathy Goodspeed won this weeks drawing!  We will send her our Bosch DVD, Bread Made Easy!  We still have a Bread Baking Basket and Pressure Cooker to hand out!  Isn’t this exciting!  Ok, this week’s question!  What is the most important staple/supply in your storage for unplanned emergencies; what is in your storage and can you offer advice to others on how to plan?  Let’s help each other big on this one!  With so many weather disasters right now it seems like a good question. 

Have a wonderful day!  It’s warm here today and we have been out in the garden.  I planted a new rose yesterday.  Believe it or not I had to read a whole book on growing roses before I could get one to do well.  We also planted our vegetable garden and some lilies and daisies.  And here is a picture of my tulip plant that I never thought would grow.  I had two miscarriages two years ago only a few months apart and planted one tulip for each lost baby.  It bloomed yesterday morning with the other not far behind.  Yellow.  I couldn’t even remember what color they were it took so long!
Jessica takes beautiful pictures, she took this one last night. 

Have a wonderful day! 

   

I love to post the funny things my children say… these are the things you write in your ‘funny sayings by the children.’  Zoe got stung by a bee and was just beside herself.  She apparently got a close up view of the little beast before it got her.  She said, “It got under my sleeve and I brushed him! He pulled out his stinger and I didn’t want him to pull that out, and he stung me.  I was crying and he just stung me anyway!”  I asked her if it was a wasp and she stopped and with her eyes full of tears and said “NOOOOO, it was a bee!”

So cute… I love the warm weather today.  Snow is in the forecast tonight and tomorrow LOL!  Blessings,  Theresa