My Vintage Sewing Room

 I wanted a sewing room for some time but there wasn't any spare room in the house for one.  I decided to use my tiny laundry room which is just 6 feet by 10 feet. I stacked my washer and dryer to give as much room as possible for my sewing room.  I love all things vintage sewing related and it was a easy decision to go with that as my decorating theme.  I also wanted lots of bold color for this tiny room.  It had to also function as a laundry room and give me room to fold laundry.

I framed a bunch of vintage patterns and embroidery patterns and put them in brightly spray painted frames.  A vintage printers drawer holds all colors of threads.  A spice rack with glass vials hold my sequins.

I collected a bunch of jars and spray painted the glass lids for a pop of color. 

They hold some of my vintage buttons.

I was able to hang my thread rack from the ceiling along side my dryer

My sewing desk 

One of my many vintage sewing machines

Vintage planters hold my sewing scissors

My vintage singer red-eye sewing machine

Now that I have it all decorated, I just need to find some time to actually sew!

First Day of School 2016

After a summer that went by too fast, it was time for the first day of school.  Lots of mothers cry on this day, some with sadness at sending their baby to school others cry with joy at sending all their babies to school.  I was ready to send my babies back to school, even though it meant the end of sleeping in late.  

This year everyone of my kids is at a different school.  The kiddos were pretty excited for the first day: new clothes, new shoes, new backpacks, & new teachers.  We had our traditional first day of school breakfast: boiled egg, banana, and donuts.  I tried talking the kids into healthy muffins instead of the donuts but they insisted we hold to tradition.  I drive the kiddos to school on the first day but they ride the bus home.  I don't know who was more looking forward to getting back to routine and a schedule me or the kids.

Zaynzley's first day of preschool in the 4 year old class

Archer first day of 1st grade

Look at that big backpack!

McCoy first day of 4th grade

Declan first day of 7th grade, junior high

Declan loves his high top Nikes

Archer with his new teacher Mrs. DeSpain

Quinton first day of Sophomore Year, high school

They all had fantastic first days of school and they all like there teachers and classes. I enjoyed a quiet house for a few hours. So it was a great first day all around!  Let's hope we can keep our enthusiasm until summer rolls back around!

Dog Days of Summer

By the time the town baseball playoffs roll around it is the dog days of summer!  It is hot, hot, hot.  It doesn't stop these Arizona boys from playing ball though.

Dog days, indeed!

Quinton plays on the oldest group of boys, the 13 to 16 year olds.  He has been playing town baseball since the young age of 5.  Despite the heat and humidity, he really loves playing town baseball.  Not sure how much his fan club loves to sit and sweat while watching him play but it is an integral part of summer.  This year Quinton played 1st base and short stop.  He also was third up in the batting order.  His team played very well all season but then fell apart in the championship game.  They still came out with second place though and a trophy!

Quinton, in navy shirt, waiting to run to third base

Here he (navy shirt far left of photo) comes running to third!

Quinton (center) playing short stop

Ready for the ball

Nona kindly brought donuts for Quinton's fan club. 

Declan loves the filled donuts!

Quinton at bat

Quinton's coach handing out a trophy

What a slugger!

I think he may be choked up here or not?

2016 Yankees- 2nd place

Quinton (second from left)

They don't even look hot and sweaty maybe the dog days of summer are yet to come?
Gulp, can it get any hotter?

Country Playground

Nona had a friend who set up a country playground at his farm and he invited us to come a play at it. The kids were really excited as they're all kinds of fun equipment to try out. I was a little worried but kept it to myself.  There was a zip line swing, a super high rope swing, spinning tractor ride, atv, and horses.  The kids had so much fun and got to enjoy their first ever horseback ride.  Zany has loved horses since she was little.  She talked about getting to ride a horse for days afterward.  

Declan tries the zip swing

McCoy was fearless

Archy took it a little slower

Archy just loves animals, especially dogs

Zany on the rope swing

Gives you and idea how high the rope swing could go. 

You climbed up the hay bales and jumped off

Archer and Zany

Tractor seat spining ride, faster you pulled the level the faster you went.

Quinton even enjoyed it

Archy's first horse ride

Zany enjoying the view!

It was a fun outing, and no one got hurt! Big plus when you're a worried mama!

Insert Carlton Family Here

Duncan, AZ grows the best sunflowers and I have always loved that.  I have wanted to get my family pictures taken in front of a field of sunflowers for a five or six years now.  I don't want to pay 300 or 400 for some fancy photographer to take a bunch of family photos.  I just wanted my sister to take the photos with her camera. That would be great. Last year we had lots of rain and the sunflowers were amazing.  Ashlee hiked out to a place she knew that had a lot of sunflowers to see if it would work for what I wanted.  It was perfect.  One problem our football schedule was so insane we could never get out of town to Duncan to take the photo. Then all the sunflowers died.  I was determined this year come heck or high water that my sunflower family photo was going to happen.  Well we went to scout it out and found that there were no sunflowers at all.  None.  We didn't enough of the right kind of rain to grow them. So disappointing!  Below is the photo of the spot we were going to use.

Insert Carlton family here

Maybe next year?!

Catwalk Revisited (Glenwood, New Mexico)

When I was in high school, there was a magical place called The Catwalk.  It was a canyon that a stream/river ran through and along the canyon walls there were metal grates and railings designed to let you walk above the water. There were swimming holes various places along the route.  Waterfalls, rock slides, and hidden coves were all along the stream.  It was such an amazing place.  We would go there for pre-prom dates, or just with a group of friends for the day.  It was one of my favorite places.  I always meant to take my kids there but I was waiting until they were older because it was quite a hike to get back to the waterfall.  

A couple of years ago, there was a terrific storm and the canyon was nearly filled to the top with water with a flash flood.  It wiped out all the catwalk walkways and ruined the hard work that had been put into for over 50 years.  Part of the catwalk was recently reopened with about a mile of trail restored.  

We decided to go and see if it was restored to its former glory.  It took a couple hours to get there and it was quite crowded when we arrived.  We decided to hike before we ate our picnic lunch.

Declan (left) and Archer wade through the stream

Our party on the bridge

"Forks Up"

Overlooking the very small stream 

Carlton Clan

We only found one really good swimming hole, which made me sad there used to be so many.  Archy was game to jump in and go for a wee swim.

Archy swimming away

Quinton preferred to hike up where he found a cave

Declan with his canoe

McCoy prepares to jump

Zany got in the swimming hole too with Eddy's help

Archy's having fun now!

(Ashlee asked if I ever feed him after she saw this photo!)

It was all fun and games until Zany tried jumping off and slipped and skinned her knee.  Luckily her mama was prepared and had bandaids. 

Poor Zany and her hurt knee

We were a bit disappointed by the low water level, crowds of people, the short hike but maybe in a couple more years they will restore more of the catwalk.  It is a lovely drive if a bit long and what they have restored is very nice.  Archy especially liked it and wants to go back.  Maybe he will even take a prom date there someday.