Welcome to the 2013 Blogger Party!!!

Hello all!  I want to welcome you all to the party and thank Karen Valentine for taking time to put this party together.  What a great opportunity for all of us to share our ideas and get to know one another better.

This is my first year participating in the annual blog party.  However, I am not new to the blogging scene.  I have been blogging since June of 2008.

In 2008, when I first started blogging it was about our faith, family and the fun stuff we did.  It was also mainly used to keep our family connected that live in different parts of the United States and world.  

At that time, our daughter was getting ready for her junior year in high school and our son had just graduated from college.  

Here we were last summer, 2012 just four short years after I had started blogging and all of a sudden I came to a lull, so to speak, with postings.  Life got a little busier at work and the postings had quite a bit of distance from one post to the next.  I wasn't doing it for enjoyment any longer but more out of duty, or to check it off my "Done" list.  

I am very blessed to have a job in which I work 9 months out of the year and then get three off during the summer months.  In the past, I have filled my summers with lots of fun things but also things that would keep me so busy, and yes, I was often times doing things that I enjoyed but at a very hurried pace.  Then by the time my summer break was over, I didn't really feel like I got a break.     

As we came to this summer, I set some different goals.  I wanted to get back to cooking more and experimenting with creating my own recipes, as well as trying some new and old ones, and then modifying others after we had tried them; making them either healthier or more to the want of our taste buds.  It was my son that inspired me to change our family blog to more of a food and family blog!  

Since that summer of 2008, things have changed a lot around the home front.  Our son has since got married and we have a wonderful daughter-in-law!  Our daughter is still at home but in her fourth year of college, changing majors only for the 1st time, she is hardly at home between work, school and a serious boy-friend.  These changes have allowed us to do some remodeling and that has been exciting!

It actually all started with remodeling our kitchen three years ago!  It isn't anything huge but it works for our family.  In the foreground you can see a bar and pass-thru window, yes we knocked a hole in a load bearing wall!  That was fun stuff!!  We wanted our kitchen to open up into our dining and living area so when we were hosting family or friend gatherings (which we do quite often) we could feel like we were all together!  

So welcome to my "new" first space of creating, our kitchen!!

This was my "original" first place for creating.  This room was used to homeschool our daughter for six years when we moved into our home thirteen years ago.  We did lots of lessons and crafting in this room!  Our idea with putting this long 10 foot counter top in this room is so that one day it would transition from the schooling room to my crafting/sewing room.  

However......

Our daughter did go off to high school eight years ago but it wasn't until this spring when we tackled refinishing our wood floors that we transitioned this room from the school/crafting room to basically "The Office".  We cut down the 10 foot long counter top, and now we each have a place in the room with our computers to work on whatever project we might be working on using the internet.  Yes, my husband has this 4 foot section of the counter.  We just did this project a few weeks ago and have not completed his area, totally.  

This is our daughter's area of the room.  There were some ugly sliding doors on this closet and we took them off and put this curtain up using a tension rod.  

I like the look a lot better, makes the room seem a little homey!

  

This is my area!  A friend gave us, yes gave us this roll top desk!!  

This is were I find all my inspirations behind my cooking, crafting and home decorating ideas!!!

This has become my "new" crafting/sewing area!  It is now our extra room in the basement.  Eventually, the other 6 foot section of the counter top is going to be placed in this room!  

This room is still a work in progress!!

Although, I do find myself at this table more often putting together my crafty things, or pulling out my portable sewing machine to repair something.  

Then, if it is a nice day outside temperature wise, I often find myself out on our back patio creating.  

I have used this area for a couple of projects this summer!!

Thanks for taking a look at my spaces where I have fun creating my food and crafty items.

I hope you come back for more!!