This WONDERfilled Life...

If you’re just tuning into ‘this WONDERfilled life’ it's important that you know that we live in the city…like we live IN the city, the city of Chicago…so going from growing up in Alaska to living in a very extremely urban setting has been hard.   We miss our green space but we miss our privacy most (houses in general are not this close to each other where we grew up).   When we bought our home there were TWO things that we needed and considered non-negotiable…a fire place (wood burning preferred) and a garage.   Eddylow had neither... *sigh* We dealt with the no fireplace by buying an electric unit a few years after we moved in, it doesn’t have the sound or smell of a real fire but it gets the job of ambiance done fairly well.   The garage was a bigger feat. The yard was ready for a garage (meaning it didn’t have one) but the yard was encompassed by a 3 foot chain link fence…that offered no privacy and quite honestly no security.   We knew what we wante...

My husband and I have always sort of joked that until all the variables in a situation are just right we won't move forward with something.  We are so particular and methodical about projects, and so frugal and earth conscience, that it often feels like we move at a snails pace! For example, when we bought our house almost 10 years ago we had big plans to build a privacy fence around our backyard...it ended up taking us 7 years to finally move forward with that project.  But it never felt right before then.  We knew we wanted a garage and didn't want to build a fence that would just get ripped down, wasting time, materials and money, etc.  Meanwhile we had friends who had bought a house and renovated their kitchen in the first year...and then proceeded to repaint the kitchen and other areas of their home several times in the few years they lived there.  That totally worked for them but we tend to sit and stew until all the pieces fall into place...and often f...

Week 6! Can you believe it! Every time I think "oh crap what am I going to make this week" something comes up and a project presents itself. And this week's project is, in fact, a present! It's such an easy sew.  Straight lines only! And as a parent I find it to be a very useful gift.  I made one two years ago for my nephew but this time I actually wrote down what I did and I'm ready to lay it all out for you here!   What you will need: - Pack of color pencils, markers, or crayons - Sewing machine - Gross grain ribbon - Fabric,  I used a waterproof oxford, but a duck cloth would also work well.  Think durability.  This will hopefully be used by little balls of energy for a while and you want it to hold up.  I get my waterproof oxford from Sahara Fabrics .  Check out their oxford selection  here ! The first thing I did was test out how much space I needed for my color pencil in the roll.  I wan...