Ohana, an unexpected adenture.

Hello! What a month it has been! My youngest sister lives on the Marine base in Hawaii. Her hubby has been stationed there for the last four years. They just had their second little one. Their first, Sarah, is 16 months old. And sweet little Charlie will be one month on the 12th. He was born about 5 weeks early and his lungs were not opened up yet so he spent about a week and a half in the NICU. My husband and I were following everything on Facebook when he asked if I would want to fly out there and help out. Of course, yes! I didn't even think of it as a viable option with him starting a new business, still working on jobs for his current business, and the small fact that we have four young children and no family in state. He said it was important, go, and he'd figure it all out. Amazing man. He coordinated with his grandparents, who made an impromptu trip to our house to help him with the kids while I was gone. I flew out to Hawaii on the 20th of Feb, due to arrive home on March 2nd.

I had never been to Hawaii and though I wasn't there to vacation I had a wonderful trip! It was great to see my sister, get to know her husband and my niece, and to meet my brand new nephew. My sister was at the hospital pretty much 24/7 until Charlie was released to go home. Her husband was playing Mister Mom at home, brand new territory for him. Needless to say he was quite excited to see me when he picked me up from the airport. Help was a welcomed change. I helped with Sarah, scrubbed bathrooms, swept floors, dusted ceiling fans, and wiped down kitchen cabinets and such, made trips to the hospital to visit my sister and the baby, went on walks with my niece, walked down to the beach (which was only one block away)! The weather was gorgeous, as was the scenery. Man of the house had to go back to work from paternity leave the Monday after I arrived. Little Charlie was finally able to come home that Wednesday. I flew home late on Friday. The timing was perfect. Their family was able to be home all together before I had to leave. I'm so very glad that I was able to make the trip and help welcome my nephew into the world. Thankful for the opportunity to reconnect with family, deepen relationships, and experience a new place. I would love to go back to Hawaii one of these days. Check out other beaches, hike around, experience local food and learn more about the culture, and share the experience with my husband. It would be such fun.

Here are some snap shots from my trip via Instagram. Enjoy!

My sister with little Charlie a couple days after he was born.

All hooked up to his new oxygen apparatus.

Flying over Phoenix.

First day in Hawaii on our way to the hospital. This became a familiar route :).

Hilltop view. Beautiful day.

My first walk on the beach on base near their neighborhood.

Me and my niece Sarah. I was in heaven with the sand beneath my feet, the sound of the waves in my ears, and the salty air against my face. Oh, it was wonderful.

We were able to steal my sister away from the hospital and go on a short tour. It was a lot of fun!

One of the views during the tour. This was actually one of the backdrops used in Jurassic Park.

Fresh coconut water. Sooo good!

Trip to the hospital. Still on the feeding tube and oxygen.

Daddy holding his little boy.

Another venture onto the beach.

Collection of rocks and coral I picked up for my oldest boy.

No more feeding tube or oxygen! and news that he'll be going home soon!

An afternoon walk with my niece Sarah.

Charlie comes home!

Playtime with Daddy.

As it should be.

Precious boy napping.

So sweet.

My final walk on the beach.

Flying over Colorado. Home!

Technical difficulties.

Hey all! Just wanted to check in and say hello. My lovely laptop has decided to dislike the internet. Over the last three or so weeks I either can't manage to get connected to our wireless account or can't manage to stay connected. When I do find a magic window of signal it's super slow, so blogging and uploading photos is near impossible. Took me forever to upload photos to my last post and I thought I was going to loose the whole thing more than once! I think it's my wireless card or possibly a software issue. I've been excited to share the rest of my Christmas making and details! We'll get this sorted out soon hopefully. I miss reading all the wonderful blogs on my reader.

In other news, my husband and I have been working on getting his/our new business up and running. He's been working from home as I've mentioned and that's going to be a permanent change for us. He and his current business partner are parting ways (all on great terms, just time for shifts and change), and he's starting up his own entity. I'll do the books and internal accounting with some helping with project management and he'll continue being awesome (design & illustration). It seems I'm starting my first career! I'll be getting a pay check and collecting Social Security and everything. As well has having 50% ownership of a business, look at me! Would have never thought I'd be here, but I'm so excited to be able to be a part of and collaborate with my husband and all the hard work he does for our family. We don't have a website up yet, but when we do I'll certainly be sharing. Oh and one of our legal DBAs (Doing Business As) is Josh & Kate! And that's going to be my personal projects folks, so I haven't forgotten about the advent calendar. We've just had a whole bunch shifting around us over here at the Emrich house. It is so wonderful to have a clear direction and pathway in front of us to work towards and walk down. It's been exciting to start paving our way, our very much guided way. God is good! Hopefully next year we'll be able to finish our basement and create a proper workspace down there. That will be very exciting to share as well!

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day next week! I'll be getting a shiny new iMac for doing business work on, with a ginormous screen I might add. I should have that in 3-4 weeks at the latest and my internet troubles will for sure be over by then.

Until then, I'll leave you with a random but great quote that I found printed on the underside of my beverage cap this morning:

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" -Eleanor Roosevelt

Handmade Baby.

Our youngest turned two on Thursday! We celebrated her birthday on Saturday and I finished her birthday present Monday. Fortunately just-turned-two-year-olds don't know or care about the "proper order" of things :). I made the Tag Along Doll from Hilary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls book (fabulous book, highly recommend). I went with a doll with felt hair. I haven't mastered yarn hair, yet. The original design is supposed to be accompanied by an apron with a pocket for the doll, super cute idea, but I was going for the quick route. The only modifications I made was adding the little cheek circles, the stitching detail in the hair, and the little bow. Other than that I just followed the pattern and directions bypassing the hand sewing whenever possible if I could manage by machine. Haha, hand sewing is not my favorite. Audrey loves dolls "babies" so it was very fun making her one. I loved dolls myself as a kiddo so it's been fun to share that with her.

The body of the doll is a natural linen/cotton blend that was originally a dress that I thrifted months ago. The felt is a wool blend, the dress is part of a Japanese remnant that I bought over a year ago, and the legs are a cotton/linen blend I've had on hand for just as long.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Working away!

Hello 2013! We started the new year full tilt. Over winter break we took some time to start a semi-large project. The corners of our walls on the main level have taken a beating over the years. I could blame that all on the kids, we do have four in a very modest sized home. Though if I was honest I think the vacuum cleaner and I are more to blame. We had a canister vac and I yanked the body over to me which in turn rammed into the corner of our wall knocking the dry wall off and denting the metal frame. Nice one. At any rate the need for protected corners was in order. After some brainstorming we decided wainscoting was the way to go. It took us about three weekends, with the kiddos under our feet and needing fed, but it looks great! Josh did the bulk of the work—measuring, cutting, gluing, nailing, caulking, sanding. I mostly kept the kids out of his way and pointed out places he missed (I'm good at that). My job was the painting. I'm the finisher. I vacuum up all the dust and make things look pretty. It works out because Josh hates to paint and I happen to really enjoy it. I love the instant gratification of giving something a new pop of color or making something look nice and finished. We also went to IKEA and picked up a few items to boost our organization. That was incredibly fun. We don't go to the giant blue and yellow airport often (it would be detrimental to our family budget), but it is my happy place. So many fun and lovely things to look at, and the prices! Makes updating and decorating your home feel tangible. It's my Disney World, a place where dreams come true. Okay that may be a bit much.

Without further ado, or rambling from me, here's a peek into our home and the beautiful work my husband did on our walls.

Here's the view of the wainscoting as you enter our home. A couple of large frames are to be hung over the mantle shelf, which was made by my grandfather. He also made our TV console, based on a design by Arne Vodder.

View from the dining room.

we carried the wainscoting down our little hallway and around into the kitchen.

My new sewing cart! Sharing a desk wasn't working out too well, so now I just grab my machine and work at our dining table. Nice to have a place close by to put my things away. Works out great!

Wainscoting underneath the kitchen bar.

New organization from IKEA. Aprons easy to reach and handy. Which means they actually get used, which means less grease stains on my clothes, which means less work for me. Wish I had done this sooner!

Our colorful pantry door, a Pinterest idea.

More IKEA organization in the kitchen. Hanging utensils=clear counter tops and more workspace.

Our living room/family room complete with handmade furniture and a hand-me-down sofa, love it! The side table made by my grandfather also inspired by Vodder, the storage bench another wonderful gift made by him, the pillows made by me, Josh & Kate prints hanging on the wall, and the lovely sun print by Lab Partners. We also have this one that needs to be framed and hung.

Dining room with my sewing cart and another bench made by my grandfather, yes he is awesome. The seat lifts up and there's lots of storage underneath for the kids coloring/craft supplies and also table linens.

Our sweet ones. Photos taken by my sister-in-law. If you're in the Indy area give her a shout!

The awesome Darth Vader spatula, worthy of a photo spot on the blog. The same before mentioned sister-in-law got this for her brother for Christmas. Perfect since he's the pancake maker in the house :). Williams Sonoma doesn't carry them anymore, but if you simply must have one you can purchase it on Ebay in the next 14 days and 21 hours.

Here's a close up of my husband's beautiful work. The total height was three feet I believe. The baseboard was about 5.5" tall and we got all of our supplies from Lowe's—Just in case you are swooning over how fabulous this looks and need to talk your husband into protecting the corners in your own house ;).

It feels so nice to be able to fix some things that needed fixing and to make simple changes that upped our homes organization and function. Plus it's nice to spend the majority of my day in a space that looks and feels nice. We still have some decorating projects we'd like to do here and there and we'd love to replace our carpet with beautiful wood floors. Why did the builders put carpet in the dining room!? That I will never understand. The day we can finally pull up this carpet and get it out of our house will be a happy one!

If you are still reading, thanks for sticking around for such a long post! It's our smallest sweet one's birthday today! She's two! after celebrating her I'll be posting the rest of the Christmas goodies I made and more detail on the gifts I posted earlier.

Have a lovely rest of your week!

Brown Paper Packages

Did you get all your lovely surprises sent off in time? I got all of our packages filled with goodies for our family members far away (IN, FL) to the post office on Monday morning! (Is it just me or does it take just as long to pack up the boxes as it does to make the gifts?!) They are to be delivered by Christmas Eve at the latest! I was so pleased with myself. Handmade gifts did not happen last year and I was so excited to give a handmade holiday this year. The fact that I accomplished just that and ON time? Well, I'm thrilled! Anyone with small children knows that being on time to anything is a struggle. My husband was quite impressed and admitted that he didn't think it was possible. Puh, how could he ever doubt me?! ;)

I dressed up our brown paper packages with little strips of washi tape. Super simple, but it added something special. As simple as it is I thought it was an idea worth sharing. Have a beautiful weekend and a very Merry Christmas! See you in 2013!

Handmade holiday.

I've been working away on gifts! Here's a peek at what I've been up to. Detailed posts to come about my projects after the big day! Hope you're all enjoying the holiday. Looking forward to my daughter's vacation time from school and my husband's vacation time from work! Lots of fun still ahead...and more Christmas gift sewing still to go. Having such fun! Hope you are as well!