Tybee Island Lighthouse

One of my very favorite adventures from our 4th of July beach trip was our visit to the Lighthouse.

 One of the first stops was the Lighthouse Keeper's home, restored to its original glory.

 Heather, Caleb, my mom, and I were the only ones to choose to participate in this enriching activity.

 It appears Caleb chose to participate in the tour only, not to be photographed.

 What a fun job to set up a historical house like this!

 The next fabulous part of the tour was to climb the winding steps to the top of the lighthouse itself.

Now I stood this picture up for you twice, but it appears to prefer to recline.

 Shoo!  We made it to the top.  That was a hot, sweaty, scary climb.

 The view from the top!

 And the light itself.

 And Caleb trying to climb up to the light itself.

 And back down we go.

(Sideways picture again.)

Caleb is the orange guy.

 Almost made it!

 We celebrated our survival with lunch at a toasty beachside restaurant.

My first trip up a lighthouse was a jolly good time!

Happy Friday!

Hope your weekend is as much fun as a sword-swinging cow...

 and a scholarly Viking skunk-walrus!

Ironing Board: Before & After

And now, what you've all been waiting for, I present, 

my first ever quilt,

in the form of an ironing board cover.

 Here is my ironing board in its former glory.
It had a tendency to poke holes in clothes before I added the yellow towel.
The whole thing used to collapse on occasion, but it seems to have outgrown that habit.

 Also the cover was rather dingy.
Now I will say that the sad state of my ironing board/cover has led me to advise new brides to register for the deluxe ironing board rather than el cheapo.
So far my advice has been taken zero times out of two.
So this could happen to you, Heather and Ashley!

My constant companion, sweet Caleb, was around to oversee the project.

 Ta-daa!
My first quilt.
Now this was a good time.  I followed a tutorial found here:
www.modabakeshop.com/2010/01/quilted-ironing-board-cover.html
I never knew how putting the pieces together for a quilt top worked.
So smart!  Who knew!

 I found the fabric online, already cut into perfectly sized strips with coordinating fabric.
It's called a jelly roll.
I especially love the feathers.

With the leftovers I made a teeny oven mitt and hot pad for Lydia's play kitchen.
But I guess Jennifer will have to start blogging again for us to see that.

Happy 300th post to us!

Visiting Cedine

At the beginning of the summer, Jennifer and I decided to take our offspring and visit Mops at her lifeguard training at Cedine Bible Camp.

My mom has been doing lifeguard training at Cedine for decades, 

and Jennifer and I put in a few years ourselves.  

We've stayed in many lodgings here over the years, but this one was our favorite!

It was so close to the water.  

Beautiful!

For a good time, I decided to dig up some old photos of the places we stayed in the deep past.

 For our first year, circa 2001, we stayed in the dorm.

With mattresses reinforced with cardboard.

 Another year we got to spend a night in the Girls' Circle in a well-ventilated, teeny cabin with nothing but large screen windows.

 More often we stayed in Shiloh or Gilgal.  

They had great views of the lake, but nothing like this year's!

Free bonus picture:  Me rescuing four humans, including my own dear cousin and sister.

And back to 2014.

We took the kids down to the waterfront.

They loved trying to catch these big fish.

That net was just the ticket.

Didn't want to get their jammies wet.

Maybe Eleonora can be a 3rd generation lifeguard here someday.

Or Josiah.

The End.

And, for all those waiting with bated breath for pictures of finished projects, they are coming soon!

Chattanooga Zoo

One of our Spring Break adventures was a trip to the Chattanooga Zoo with my mom and sisters.

 A highlight was the boys' first camel ride.

 Caleb was loving it and Josiah was hanging on TIGHT!

 Caleb is a monkey lover, so he was loving his interaction with this gorilla...ape...monkey?

 Three cousins!

 This is a fun zoo for young kids.  Not too big, with fun places to play.

 Heather took the kids into the petting zoo section, while I conveniently had to feed the baby.

Not my idea of a good time!

As Caleb would say, "Deeee-tusting!"

 And Eleonora enjoyed her first carousel ride.

We were going so fast, her bow was blowing off.

 We were hot and sweaty by this point.

 THE END

"Befores"

Happy rainy Monday morning, everyone!

 The Design&Drill is a great toy for young boys in your life.

My boys got this for Christmas from their own Great Grandmother.

I picked it.  They love it.

 And here is a preview of projects you may see completed here this week!

 A $2 yard sale bedside table that led to a transformation of the boys' room from

'Sneaky Snacky Squirrel' theme to 'Moby Dick'!

 A pantry transformation complete with sparkling white paint job.

 A wicker chair make-over.

And my first quilting experience with a new ironing board cover.

Stay tuned for all this and more, this week on Jolly Days!

And a very happy 6 mo's to my sweet Eleonora!