Joyful Abode

You may or may not have realized by now that my husband is in the Navy. He’s a student aviator right now (starting formation training today!!!). Anyway, I’ve begun to make a series of military stationery for other families like ours, who will be moving more than they ever thought possible, and experiencing other life-changing events alongside the Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

My first series features the T-34 turbomentor, which is the plane used at Whiting Field NAS for aviation training for the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, and Air Force.

Heck… I’ll just post what I had in my descriptions at the shop.

“When you are part of a military family, you move quite often. And you know that it’s important to keep in touch with friends you’ve made along the way. These notes will help you let everyone know when something new has happened in your life.

These flat notes feature a glossy illustration of a T-34 (which is the plane the Navy, Marines, Air Force, and the Coast Guard uses for aviation training at NAS Whiting Field) on one side, and a matte blank side so you can write your own moving announcement (or birth announcement) and a quick note. This is a set of 10 notes and envelopes.

Since I’m a military wife, I’ve decided to create a series of flat notes to correspond to various life events. I’m always working on new illustrations, so if you have a suggestion, please send me a note! ”

I’m working on a series with the training helicopter right now. After that, who knows? Let me know if you have an idea!

Click here to see the whole series in the shop!

I was at work the other day when I thought of a hedgehog on a tire swing. I don’t think the children remind me of hedgehogs or anything like that… but children are cute and so are hedgehogs. And children like swinging on tire swings, and so do…um… hedgehogs? So maybe that’s part of it.

Anyway, I sketched it out and squeed with the adorable factor of it all.

So I refined my drawing, and then traced the “final” version in pen. Then, I decided, why not try another medium? I love embroidery. It’s like doodling with thread. It’s so organic and flexible, like crochet is.

I still need to stitch in the rope and the tree’s branch, but I couldn’t wait to share this little project.

Please give a warm welcome to the newest members of the Joyful Abode family:

Stationery sets! It’s been in the works for a long time, and many, many doodles later… a huge order of paper and envelopes later, and lots of time spent digitally coloring and designing layouts later… I present to you unique stationery sets illustrated by Emily Chapelle (Yup, that’s my name! I decided to “come out” with it).

Each set includes 12 sheets of writing paper, 6 matching envelopes, and 12 matching stickers (perfect for sealing the envelopes or adding accents to your personal correspondence). These darling note sets will make perfect gifts for recent graduates (so they can keep in touch!), travelers, family, and friends.

These darling stationery sets will also help you keep your New Year’s Resolution to keep in touch with the people you love. Who could resist writing on such adorable paper? You can also rest easily knowing that the paper and envelopes are both made of recycled, 30% post-consumer paper, to help you keep your other resolution of going green (at least a little).

You’ll also be happy to know that I bought a scale and revisited my shipping prices. I had worked out a “flat rate” based on averages, and it was pretty dead-on. Unfortunately, I think it has been deterring people from purchasing less expensive, lighter items, and that’s the opposite of what I want!

I want all of my shop items to be accessible to everyone around the world. So I’m not longer offering flat-rate shipping in my shop. Instead, most of the shipping prices are lower than what they had been, but shipping for heavier items (Winter Warmth blankets) had to go up a little bit. I think this will be more fair to everyone. I hope you agree!

Almost two weeks ago, I posted about a Halloween coloring contest here at Joyful Abode.

Since then, I have received… zero entries!
So I am amending the contest. If there are fewer than FIVE (5) entries submitted by the deadline (October 29th), the contest will be called off. If five or more entries are submitted, the winner will be announced when one picture receives 13 votes or more, or the deadline occurs, whichever happens later.

I took a few copies of the coloring page to the preschool class (where I am the assistant teacher), and I tried to get the kids to help me figure out the lack of interest.

I said to each child, one-on-one, “I drew this picture and gave it to a lot of people, but no one wanted to color it! What do you think is wrong with my picture? Why doesn’t anyone like it?”

(All children’s names have been changed to protect the REAL kids in the school. Just in case.) 

Nate said, “The bat isn’t black.” Then, when I explained to him that it was the color-er’s job to make the bat black, he reconsidered and speculated, “Maybe ’cause everybody don’t like spiders.”

Aiden plainly said, “It’s too scary.”

Julie-Ann said, “Well I like it!”

Kenny’s answer was, “I don’t know. Hey, I like it! I can draw (color) it for you. Want me to show you how?

Russel said, “Because the ghost can’t move. It’s stuck.”

Samuel’s answer was, pointing to the grave, “I think it’s ’cause that think’s broke.”

Mary Ann, the sweetheart, said, “Nothing’s wrong with it. I like it.”

Basat’s answer was a very grumpy,  “Because you make it not good.” Then he pointed out all of the things that weren’t good in the picture one by one, which ended up being everything.

After these conversations, several of the children asked for their own page to color. Their pictures really turned out well.

I love Autumn, October, and Halloween. So in honor of these three times of year, I am hosting a Joyful Abode Halloween Coloring Contest.

The winner will receive a lucky (or is it unlucky) $13.13 gift code for Joyful Abode!

Currently, the shop is full of lovely aprons, and soon we’ll be adding some supplies for sewing-type folks!

So… are you ready?

Step 1: Save the coloring page to your hard drive. Please click here to download the large version.

Step 2: Color it. You can print it, color it with crayons, markers, pastels, or paints, and scan it back in if you’d like. Or you can use a Photoshop-esque program to color it digitally.

Step 3: Email it to me at emily at joyfulabode dot com (please in .jpg or .gif format). Feel free to include a little blurb about yourself or about how you colored your picture. I’ll include it in the description when I post the entries.

Step 4 (really a step for me, not for you): I put every entry into the flickr album for the contest (with your blurb if you wrote one).

Step 5: Tell your friends to vote on your entry by commenting on flickr with their choice. Remind them that only one vote will count per voter!

Step 6: Wait until the winner is announced on Monday, October 29th!

I can’t wait to see the creative ways you color your pictures!

PS: I’ll accept submissions until the contest is over, but the sooner you submit your entry, the more time you have to garner votes for your picture. Only one entry per person, please!

We bought this Whirlpool Duet Sport washing machine and dryer set from Lowe’s. It was delivered to our new house yesterday, and soon we’ll be washing clothes, fabric, and towels with SUPER efficiency! I’m most excited about the quick drying time. Since the washer spins out so much of the water, it takes much less time to dry the clothes. The dryer also senses when the clothes are dry, and it stops so it doesn’t waste energy.

Here’s my vision of how happy our clothes will be, dancing and swimming in the high efficiency waters of the whirlpool washer.

I wrote about my first quilt. Since then, I have finished the top and machine-quilted the whole quilt top-batting-backing sandwich (I should’ve used a walking foot on my machine to make it a bit easier, but it turned out fine). I bound the edges in my handmade bias tape, which was a good choice.

Now for the finishing touches… some embroidery I decided on at the last minute. Four embroidered hearts.

A long time ago, I made a log cabin quilted wall hanging under the guidance of my mother. Really though, I made the top, and then lost interest. My mother finished by quilting and binding it, and that was the end of my quilting.

Recently though, I’ve been inspired by numerous blogs full of gorgeous quilt. I decided to attempt a simple checkerboard pattern quilt. It’s very small, because I didn’t want to experiment on a large scale.

I think it’s coming along nicely so far.

Well, if Consumer Reports gives points for being happy…maybe so! This one is enjoying munching grass and frightening the local flowers.

Since we are moving again soon (GASP! Have I mentioned it in Joyful Abode yet?), this time to a house with a YARD… we went ahead and bought a lawnmower.

It feels like such a boring grown-up purchase. I don’t have any lawn-mowing experience, so it’s a good thing the husband (supposedly) enjoys mowing.

But I’m not looking forward to future deployments or long training exercises… just me and the lawnmower, together. Alone. Anyone have any tips on how to mow a lawn?