The Winning Project is ?????

Hey everyone, Seth here, keeping you up to speed on things going on around here.Just a few weeks ago my wood shop instructor called to tell me the curio cabinet, that me and two of my wood shop buddies had been building, had been selected for the National Woodworkers Association Competition. The competition is held in Las Vegas every two years in July and lasts about a week. We're all pretty excited about it, considering it's our first time in the competition and this is the biggest project we've ever built. Our project is a 7" foot tall 4"feet wide oak curio cabinet. It has four different wood joints all of which we have never used before and is made from $600 dollars worth of wood. Just wanted to share this with everyone. Have a great week.


This is me in front of our project.It may not look that great in photo because the two top cabinet doors were having glass put in to them. The little stool in my hand is the first project I ever made in wood shop.

This is the team. The kid on the left is Andrew Raymond, he just started wood shop this year and has picked the trade up quite well.The tall kid in the middle is Steven Garret, who has been in wood shop with me since it started 4 years ago.

This is Ms.Miser, our wood shop instructor. He's a great woodworker and teacher. This picture really shows his personality.

These two pictures are of our wood shop. It's not high tech but we manage.

Back from the Beach

Hello Everyone. We're back!! We had a wonderful time at the beach. It was so much fun. The weather was cooler and the friends we went camping with were great. We went to lunch in Cayucos on Friday (pronounced Ky U cuss. It means canoe in Chumash language.) The waitress was complaining about how hot it had been the day before. It was 75 degrees. When we left home it was 112. We didn't have much sympathy for her plight I'm afraid.

We rested and walked on the beach.

That's not one of us though. Just wanted a picture of where we had walked that day.

Roasted marshmallows for s'mores and ate way too much food. The "kids" had a cream puff eating contest. Our friend Louise had made giant cream puffs. They had a lot of fun. Of Course the biggest kid won!

Tina catching waves on the boogie board.

Seth after the big wave. The kids love to boogie board. I'm not sure how they can do that for hours on end when the water is so cold, but they do.

In a way it's good to be back. I'd love a summer home by the shore though. It gets really hot where we live. Hard to leave 75 degree weather to return to 112, but the jobs are here.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

School room and off to the beach

Good morning everyone!! Hope you all had a great weekend. Just thought I would post a brief note and then go tackle that school room. I get to surfing around all the blogs I love to visit (A Cottage Industry, One Woman's Cottage Life, Southern Heart, Southern Hospitality, Cherry Hill, etc.)(If I knew how to put in the nifty click and go things I would do that. I am a little technology challenged as my kids remind me often) and realize I need to get cracking. Seems like everyone gets so much done and I'm doing nothing. Well I guess laundry, cooking, day to day living stuff is something. Grandma has no doctor appointments this week. Yeehaw!!! Maybe things will get done. I did manage to get one whole flower bed weeded and 3 feet of another one done last week. The weather has been very cooperative, but the Bermuda hasn't.

Well I'm off to do the school room. We had to switch Grandma's room and the school room. When we did the big remodel last year I made sure we got a room for crafting/sewing/school room. Last fall Grandma decided that she didn't mind the smaller room and sharing the larger room. Well she's had several falls lately and her home nurse recommended we move her room back to it's original location to minimize her falls. So this past Friday, hubby and son helped to move the two really heavy closet amoir and the antique amoir around for the second time. They weren't happy, but they were cooperative. So I now have all that stuff to reorganize and the clocks a ticking to go back to school and work in 9 weeks. Ugh, so much to do so little time!

Oh, also on Thursday we're off to the beach for camping. Nothing as grand as Southern Hospitality's though. Just good ole San Simeon State Park and surfing for the kids at Cayucos. If you haven't seen Southern Hospitality's beach pictures you really need to. They're awesome!! You'll find her link under Inspirations on the left hand side. Now as Nike used to say "Just do it!"

Inspiration Friday

Inspiration Friday again, yippee!!! Hope everyone has had a great week and an even better weekend planned ahead.

This is what I would love to have. Photo courtesy of BHG.

I would love to have an outdoor kitchen. Where we live I could use this just about year round. Especially in the summer when it gets so hot.

This is the reality. For the past two years for some reason or another I haven't been able to work in the yard. 2 summers ago I had spent the whole school year sick. So I just didn't feel up to working on the yard. Last summer the big remodel was going on and there was no getting into the yard at all. So this summer I am determined to get out there and claim my flower beds again. Bermuda has taken over in several spots. That will be a challenge. Hopefully next summer things will look better.

Have a great weekend!!

Romeo and Winifred

The kids were asked to be in a play in January and could they addition for certain parts? Well long story short they both got parts in Romeo and Winifred. Tina actually got casted for two parts and Seth played the lead, Romeo. They were both excellent. Lots of practice later they were finally able to perform before an audience. Thought I would share a couple photos from that night. I should mention that the play was a parody of Romeo and Juliet. It was set in modern day New York with two feuding department store families. It had a lot of great one liners and plenty of humor for even the little guys in the audience.
Tina as Prologue. She's the one in the red overdress and blond hair.
One scene was set at a Disco. Yes, that's Seth in the white John Travolta suit. Watch out John Travolta!
This is Tina as Gucci, a visiting Italian. She looked really good, I guess even the guys in the play thought so too.
Romeo and Winifred getting secretly married by the Friar.
The entire cast. Considering it was a play for at least 35 people they did a great job. Kudos to all!

Where o where have I been?

It's been such a long time since I've blogged. Life definitely gets too busy. Lots of things have been happening since I blogged last. The kids had their performance and they were great. Of course I would say that. My best friend's daughter got married and I catered the food. The wedding was just beautiful and everything worked out just wonderful. Of course the play performance and the wedding were on the same weekend. I survived the end of year crush at work and home school. So, yes I'm ending my first week of summer vacation. Only 9 more weeks left. I have managed to work on a few things around here. Mostly just resting and a few yard projects. I thought I would blog everything separately so the post wouldn't be too long. Where to start?