Updates...

After 8 years of blogging, I never intended on taking a leave of absence, but it just kinda happened.

Since my last post back in February, we’ve celebrated Emma’s successful first year of college. She made the Dean’s List both semesters and she even had a wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Ireland at the end of winter semester with the Social Work department.

We’re so proud of her ability to juggle academia and working two jobs. She’s pretty darn incredible. 

I recently celebrated my 49th birthday. How the heck did that happen? And we’re getting ready to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on Memorial Day. We aren’t doing anything super exciting for our milestone, but we’ll be heading to my “happy place” Aframe and I can’t wait to unplug and get away from work.

Speaking of the Aframe, it’s in the midst of a huge exterior renovation. It now has all new windows and is in the process of getting siding.

We had hoped to save the original exterior wood and repaint, but it was too far gone and Mother Nature kept finding a way to sneak inside. With us enjoying the lake year-round, we decided to go with siding so that we didn’t have any more surprises.

Our next big celebration is Josie’s 11th birthday. If you’ve been a long time follower, you know how much I enjoy party planning.

We’ll be going ALL OUT with a Harry Potter themed event early June. Stay tuned! I can’t promise how often I’ll keep this updated, but I’ll try to do a better job.  Virtual "hugs" from Kim K.

4th Annual Harry Potter Yule Ball

For my long time followers, you know that my husband loves Harry Potter and spends time each week reading Harry Potter during the lunch hour at two different elementary schools in his district.

 A few weeks ago was their 4^th annual Harry Potter Yule Ball. 

Each year it gets more and more elaborate and the crowds get larger and larger!   They had over 260 kids in attendance this year!

The Grand Rapids Public Zoo was back with several of their magical creatures.

They even had quidditch lessons provided by the Grand Valley State University Grindylowe’s team.

The Knight Bus was also another popular returning activity.

As you can imagine, Chris was happy to wear his Professor Albus Dumbledore costume all evening.

Once again, the decorations were nothing short of fantastic. 

One of Chris’s amazing colleagues even created this Hogwart’s Express from several refrigerator boxes, while Chris supplied our Halloween fog machine for the steam.

Chris and all his amazing staff/parent volunteers really outdid themselves.

With Josie's 11th birthday happening in June, we've already decided that we will be recycling many of these activities and decorations for this year's birthday gala.

Until then, have yourself a magical week! 
  

Happy Year of the Rooster!

Chinese New Year began its celebrations on January 28th.

This year we will be celebrating the Year of the Rooster and I’ll be visiting Josie’s 5th grade classroom first thing Tuesday morning to teach our annual lesson.

If you've followed me through the years, you know that we have a year-round decorative tree that receives multiple makeovers every other month (including some made-up holidays).

I've said this each year, but of all the trees that I display in the sunroom throughout the year, I think the CNY tree is my favorite.

Wishing you good health, good luck and much happiness throughout the year!

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Pixie House

I had hinted on my last blog post that I found a dollhouse for $5 at an estate sale.

No.  I certainly don't need any more mini houses.

But, Josie and I needed a craft project and at $5 I couldn't leave it behind! 

It needed to be rescued.

It needed to be loved.

And I have several pixies that needed a cute Christmas dwelling.

It was a fun project and nearly all the materials, were items I already had in my never-ending supply of estate sale miniatures.

Merry "mini" Christmas!
   

Christmas decorating at the Aframe

Right before Thanksgiving, I stopped at Trader Joe’s and found this gingerbread Aframe kit. 

I just knew it was meant to come to the lake with us.

I know I’ve said this before, but I love our Aframe even more in the off-season. 

It's cozy.
It’s quiet.
. And it’s really fun to decorate at Christmas.  I also love being able to spread out my Christmas collections between two places.  

I know these next few weeks are going to zoom by and December 25th will be here before we know it.  I have a few Christmas projects to share. Josie and I have been busy in my craft room.

We even managed to find a $5 dollhouse that we turned into a Christmas house.

I'll be back!  Pinky swear!