The End of an Era

Well yesterday our youngest daughter Emily, she is nearly 21, moved out to her own place. How exciting, she and her boyfriend Skylar have been saving money, buying household items, and after a fair number of months of preparation they were ready to sign a lease and voila they now have their very own place to live, they are both so excited to finally have their own space.
It is a strange feeling, for over thirty years we have had children, and now they are all grown and out in the world. I am enjoying Emily's excitement, and remember my own, about her own home. I laughed last week when Emily burst through the front door with a large box containing her very own vacuum sweeper. The box was torn open, the sweeper assembled, and then she was off vacuuming my living room with vigor. She will have many firsts, cooking meals, grocery shopping, paying rent, cleaning, all those things that come with independence and adulthood and remain our responsibility for life. Although independence comes at a cost it is worth every penny. Everyone dreams about the day they are able to get their own place and it is exhilarating when it finally happens. And as parents our goal should be to raise children who grow up and want independence and have the skills to attain it. Dave and I are ready to embrace our empty nest, because it really isn't that empty, our children and grandchildren are over frequently, we enjoy the joyful chaos and then the peace when they go home ;)

It will perhaps be a while until I post again, as our computer has an XP operating system and yesterday Microsoft ended support for the operating system and our computer is now vulnerable to hackers and viruses. We have had this desktop computer for 9 years and it is time to upgrade.  I am going to move the computer upstairs as it still has all of our pictures on it, and I use Quicken for my check register and plan to continue using it, it will not be online though.  I am not excited about a new computer and have heard nothing good about Windows 8, but will probably have to get it. I think we are going to go with a low end lap top since we do need to use an actual keyboard from time to time. For now we can use the Kindle Fire and our phones to access the Internet. I will not be touch screen typing any blog entries though as that sounds like a nightmare.

So April 8th 2014 was the day our nest emptied and our computer had to be retired.  Dave and I are looking forward to having the house to ourselves it is a nice feeling. And it is a nice feeling to know that we have four great kids who are now adults and are all getting on with their lives as they should be. We feel very blessed.

And Now For Some Sewing.....

Lately I have been in the mood to do some sewing. Several weeks ago I made myself a new three tiered skirt. I did not purchase a pattern to make the skirt instead I took measurement from another three tiered skirt I purchased at the Goodwill a number of years ago.

Today Alivia and I went to JoAnne Fabrics, I have been wanting to make a vest but first needed a pattern. I looked through a bunch of pattern books before opting for Butterick B5359. I wanted a vest that was long as I think it will be nice with a skirt and dress up a t-shirt. I am going to make the green vest in the picture but in a pinstriped gray/brown linen, I think the neutral color will allow me to make good use of the vest.

Next we went off to look at plaid flannel so I can run up a new work shirt for my husband, the picture makes the colors look red and blue, but it is actually orange, brown and blue, I picked out blue buttons.

I am knitting Alivia a sweater, I am not keen on the yellow v-neck collar and will interchange the pattern with another in the book to get a crew neck instead.  With the crew neck I will position the sunshine higher up.

Last month I finished knitting myself a bag, it is lined with a cotton print material making it very functional, it is in use daily.

Soon to be Dave's new shirt

Soon to be my new vest

Alivia's soon to be spring sweater

My finished bag