Amy Webb, March-Aug, survive life

Hello friends! I have definitely slacked in my participation here, but I just am barely feeling like maybe I can get some structure back into my life.  It takes me a good year to settle in and we just hit that mark in August.  I've added to the past 12 months of getting adjusted - a death in the family and a 6 week road trip to Utah - where I drove all by myself with my 3 kids all the way out there. Sooooooo, now that school is back in session I'm starting to see that I might actually be able to be productive for at least the rest of this year.

So here's a little recap!


My goals as listed in my profile were and what I actually did:
February - make hang curtains in the house/planned and threw 40th birthday for my husband.
This was my last blog post! oops.

March - finish scrappy trip around the world quilt/made and hung curtains in the living room.

I was having a hard time getting my curtains finished because of a few different things.  But I finally just buckled down and did it. I think it finishes off the room nicely.  I still have the fabric for the kitchen door - but haven't gotten to that yet. Oh and yes, I only did one panel for each window because it was cheaper and we rarely close them.

And actually - I think these were finished a couple months later - but I started them in March!  The point is I did get them done.  Right?

I love toile and damask.  These two fabrics make me love this room!


April - finish organizing my sewing room/bought shelving for sewing room.

I was just using a bunch of mismatched shelving to begin with and it just looked like a big old mess.  

I saw a photo on pinterest with the cube shelves from IKEA and drawer inserts along the bottom so I finally went and bought them. My little helper loves going to IKEA - for the play area and lunch!

I didn't get the drawers put when I took this photo, but this just looks so much better! 

I still have some organizing to do, but I feel like that's going to be a work in progress.  I've moved a few other things as well and it's starting to shape up really well! Even though I can get messy - I still work better in a neat and tidy space.  Always a struggle for me though.

May - attend my first yoga retreat/Yes, I did that one!

My sister in law took me to Costa Rica with her for the retreat she was hosting.  The yoga was great, so was the alone time.  That plus the views:

 and the gorgeous hotel + food:

 

made for a fantastic Mother's day weekend!!

June - I didn't have a goal written down but I do like to make teacher gifts for the end of the year and I came up with these!

And I liked them so much I made myself one :)

July - going to be drive to Utah solo and survive!/I did drive to Utah by myself with 3 kids and lived
to tell about it.  And the best part of that was my other goal was to meet up with Angie, Kathryn and Nora for dinner!!

I love these ladies so much.  They are the kinds of friends that build your testimony of the fact that Heavenly Father puts people in our lives when we need them.  And sometimes before we need them.  We have all been through similar hard things together and continue to love and support each other through life.  I desperately needed the lift I got from seeing them and am so grateful for each of them!

I need to update my goals post for the rest of the year because I currently don't have any!  But I have a lot of things I want to finish up so hopefully I can stay accountable!  Thanks for reading my lengthy post!  I'm going to try and catch up on all the fun I've missed with everyone else's postings!

Amy Webb, February, Plan a big 40 party

I'm glad that Nora has given us some flexibility with our goals because what I'm posting about here wasn't the goal I had for February.  That goal (of getting curtains made and hung) will have to be pushed back.  Because I can't get a hold of all the fabric yet.

So my husband turned 40 on March 7 and I told him he was getting a party. Well, I asked first and he said he didn't want one.  Then I put my social foot down (on top of his reserved I-don't-want-to-be-the-center-of-attention foot) and told him he was turning 40 and he was getting a party!  I can be bossy like that sometimes. :)

I did keep the invitation list pretty simple.  Mostly immediate family and a few close friends.  I tried to come up with some of his favorite things to eat - so we had pie and mini-cheesecakes instead of regular cake!

I actually saw an idea on Pinterest that I used!! Yay! Go me!! With help from his mom, I got a bunch of old photos together and made a collage on the wall in the shape of a 40!  It was so fun to look at all of the old photos of him - everyone loved it - especially our kids!

I'm not one for games at parties so I let his sister take that on.  And we all LOVED what she came up with!  She got a bunch of stories from when Nick was little and we played charades!  The kicker was that he was the only one who could guess what was being acted out.  And since 3 of his 4 siblings were in attendance there were some funny arguments about what "really" happened. These our some of our friends acting out the time he and a friend stole the YWs ice cream out of the church freezer and snuck up on the roof of the church to eat it! hahahhaha!

I think the best thing that I pulled off was a compilation of video birthday wishes!  I contacted some of his old high school buddies, family, friends, co-workers and asked them to send a quick video wishing him a happy birthday.  I didn't get as many responses as I would have liked, but I get some classic ones and he really loved watching them!  His parents told the story about the day he was born and a friend assured him there was still one more NFL kicker who was older than him!  I loved how this turned out so much I think I want to do it for everyone! Plus it's so easy to take a quick video on your phone and text or email it.

At the end of the night he told me, "wow, you guys really went all out!" I didn't really think it was that big of a deal (cleaning the house was a bigger deal than putting the party together!) but he really appreciated it and it was fun to make a big deal over him since he usually prefers the background!

Here he is looking a little sheepish as we sing him Happy Birthday!

So if you aren't one for parties, or are married to someone who's not - do it anyway. At least once! Everyone likes feeling loved and it's always good to be with friends.

Amy Webb, January, Start Blogging Again

Hi everyone! I'm Amy and I live in Virginia nearish Washington, D.C. I was born and raised here but after a stint in Utah and then marrying a U.S. Marine (Semper Fi!) I've also called San Diego and North Carolina home. :)

Nick is my smarter, more disciplined half and together we have 3 kids - Alison (8), Andrew (6), Maggie (almost 4).  Our kids are hilarious - mostly when they don't mean to be, sweet - when they want something, and challenging - because we have no idea what we got ourselves into! hahaha!  But mostly I think they love each other and us - despite or grave failings as parents.

We've been married almost 10 years and just bought our first home here in the motherland.  I don't really know if we'll get to stay here long term - but it was awfully fun picking out all of the interiors and watching the building process.

Nora and I met during my 3rd year of teaching in Utah.  She along with me, Angie (who is also posting today) and Kass (who posted a week ago) started a monthly after work social group - the TSG (Teacher Support Group).  It was so fun!  We always ate really well and Kass and I discussed our love lives with the wiser and mature married folks (ahem - that was you Nora and Angie!). That's been almost 15 years ago and I still consider these ladies some of my closest friends.  It is a testament to me that God puts people in our lives for a reason. There is a level of empathy and common experience among us (all pregnancy/baby related) that is proof that we needed each other to get through some very difficult times. I love you guys!!!!

So of course when Nora emailed me about the project I thought,  "well that sounds completely overwhelming!" And almost said no, in fact I thought I did, but the emails kept coming so here I am!  And I'm really glad too - because I need some accountability to get things finished.




So I have a blog (amylouwhosews) that I started almost 6 years ago when number 2 was just a baby.  With the addition of baby #3 and a move to NC away from family I found it much harder to keep up the pace I had with my blog while Instagram (also amylouwhosews) quickly filled the need for connection with only a little bit of effort! I pretty much stopped blogging altogether.  Which leads me to my goal of blogging again!

My blog is mostly about my creative pursuits and when I don't have time to sew, craft or redecorate I do find that I have to feed these people every day! Sheesh! haha! I do love to eat and cook for that matter so I've started a weekly (sort of) feature called What's for Dinner Wednesday! I plan on posting more soups since my declaration this would be The Winter of Soup - but I snuck some lemon filled cupcakes in there too. Sometimes you have to have dessert too, right?

Here are some of the food posts I've posted this year so far:

Chili Blanco
Penne and Sausage Skillet Supper
Lemon-Filled Cupcakes

I have several more in the pipeline that I just need to type up.  Hopefully there are some recipes you guys can use and enjoy! I think I'll share Panera copycat autumn squash soup next!

So between posting on my personal blog and here I think I'll be able to continue blogging this year.  Thanks again Nora for committing me!  I've loved the posts I've read so far and need to add READ blogs to the goal!  I'm already working on February's - getting my drapes made!!

Amy Webb's Goals & Projects for 2014

January - start blogging again

February - make hang curtains in the house

March - finish scrappy trip around the world quilt

April - finish organizing my sewing room

May - attend my first yoga retreat (that should be easy)


July is going to be drive to Utah solo and survive!