Ashley Through the Ages

My friend Rachel put this website on her blog and it subsequently provided me with at least an hour of roll-on-the-floor tears-down-my-cheeks entertainment. Thanks Rach! On another note, I clearly missed my era because 1960's Ashley is awesome.

1952 Ashley

1960 Ashley

1966 Ashley

1976 Ashley

1984 Ashley

2000 Ashley

Projection

This week Graham and I have been taking part in some major projection...the act of doing projects, that is. We have resolved never to paint another room again. I don't think we are particularly talented at it; as it took us four (yes, four) coats to get the wall to stop looking streaky. Our dining room is now exactly how we want it; which feels so good. It went from red-horrible-floral-wallpaper-border to red-on-our-terms. Here are some pictures of the process.

Before...ugly wallpaper

I was in charge of peeling off all of the old border

and Graham was in charge of sanding

The end! TA-DA!

Then we got these candle holders at Target to put on the blank wall...we like the candles the best...does anyone want to stick up for the flowers?

Our Newest Addition

Life is extremely busy right now and that gives way to a lot of good posting material...so I will be writing a lot this week.

One of my favorite things about Connecticut thus far is the prevalence of locally grown food. It doesn't seem quite fair that we are able to help the environment just by eating delicious, fresh food! Graham and I went to the Coventry Farmer's Market after church this morning and it was fantastic.

We came home with this eggplant, which is comparable in size

to my niece, Belle. We are having eggplant Parmesan tonight and eggplant/tomato sandwiches on Tuesday....four meals and that honker only cost us $2.

The farmer's market is so close to us, and it is one of the largest in New England. They have fresh breads (yum yum yum yum yum), every fruit and veggie you can imagine, meats, seafood, milk, soap, condiments (we picked up some sweet and spicy mustard, jalepeno mustard, and dill pickles), doggie treats, and much more.

But really...have you ever seen an eggplant this big?

Coming Apart at the Seams

Before our big move my Grandma surprised me with one of the most thoughtful gifts. A sewing machine. I have been trying to teach myself how to use it without patterns...and on smaller things this has been fine...but today I had to un-seam my very first project. It was sad; heartbreaking really. I would have just thrown it away (in my frustration) but I wanted to keep the fabric and try something different.

Here is what is left of your birthday present, La :) But don't worry. Something much cuter will be coming your way. This just goes to show that, in life, sometimes we would all do well to follow a pattern. As one of my professors puts it "Don't re-invent the wheel." Until I get a little bit more experience under my belt I think I am going to be a little less proud about taking help from patterns.

Our New Home

Well...we are in Connecticut and, after a little over one week of moving, cleaning, arranging, painting, and more cleaning, we are about settled in. I am so thankful to everyone who has helped us with this move...my mom and little brother came out to help with the hard work of moving the furniture from Atlanta to Connecticut, Graham's parents helped us move and have been here for about a week helping us with the finishing touches, and Grandma is making us all sorts of goodies!

Here are some after pictures...there is still a good bit of painting to be done, though. More pictures to come later.

Our kitchen...this is one of my favorite parts of the house...I actually have extra cabinet and counter space.

The kitchen again

The TV room
The TV room again, the frames with the plates in them were my favorite projects

Foyer...this piece of furniture used to be brown

Upstairs hall after...we need to get some of Graham's photos framed for the wall

The neighborhood is so nice and the people are extremely friendly. Last week we went out to pick blackberries and then made cobbler...it's like living in Mayberry. Needless to say it is a lot different than California. We are really excited and feel very blessed.

It has been a busy week elsewhere in our family, too...as Graham and I have two new baby cousins. Jake and Mallory were born yesterday - Congrats to J. and Allison!! We are so excited for y'all and will be praying for your new family...whoa, long post...sorry...but it has been a while and MUCH has happened.

Changes

I am sitting here getting ready to move to Connecticut in 5 days, I am reading blogs from various members of my family, and I am mulling over things in my head.

Suddenly, it hits me. There must be a name for this year: the year when FOUR (yes, four) new babies will be born into our ever-growing family, David will have bid farewell to a fruitful 30-year career with AT&T just as Ryan says hello to a new career in teaching (yay!), we will have moved across the country from West to East, and Lauren and Josh will have moved across the country from East to West.

"The year of the change", I think, is an appropriate title for 2008. I am so blessed and thankful that all of these changes have been welcome ones. God is good and faithful.