To the First 5 People that Read This Post...

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.

The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!!

You don't really have to post this on your blog, I just thought it would be fun!!

An Interview

So a few weeks ago I was reading For the Journey's blog and she had a posting titled An interview and I thought it was a neat way to get to know people. I have been following her blog for a little over a year now and I feel as though I have gotten to know her, well at least that she is an amazing photographer and is one of the most creative people I "know". So anyway I thought I would volunteer for her to interview me and here are the questions she sent me.

"I think I remember reading that you're from California. What's
your opinion of the East Coast vs. the West Coast. Would you want to
ever live on the West Coast again?"

I absolutely love living on the East Coast and I seriously doubt I will ever live in California again. I just never felt like that was "home" to me. I never felt like I belonged there. I am all about road trips so living here on the East Coast is great for me to see a new town all the time and to learn the history of our country. I also love how nice the people are out here, it did take me some time to get use to children calling me Ms. Cynthia they definitely do not do that in California. I also love the beaches here, they are WARM unlike in Northern California. One thing I will say that I do NOT like at all about North Carolina is the fact that I can not get my salami out here and they do not have a Round Table Pizza here. I miss my Gallo Salami!

"It sounds like LDS is a new thing for you (correct me if I'm
wrong). How were you introduced to it?"

I am a convert to the church. I joined the church back in 2002. I grew up with a few Mormon friends but I never knew what the really believed I just knew that my Mother was against the church so we never really talked about it. When I lived in California I met a missionary and we became friends, stayed in touch with him throughout his mission, he went home to Canada and I moved to North Carolina. In January of 2002 I was just feeling lost and somewhat alone and I was talking to Sean about it and he sent me a Book of Mormon and asked that I read a few scriptures that he had marked, long story short I met up with Elders Holgate and King while they were tracking and on February 8th 2002 I was baptized and confirmed a member of the church. That lost feeling I had and the sense of feeling alone was gone. Even though I have been a member for 7 years now I still feel as though I am a new memeber because I was not raised in the church. ( this is totally the short version of my conversion story. )

"Do you have a favorite birthday party memory? Which birthday and
what made it special?"

I do not have a favorite birthday party memory but I do have a favorite birthday memory. Every year for my birthday my Grandmother would always make me a lemon cake from scratch. She was an amazing baker!

"If you had a perfectly empty weekend without any chores, how would
you spend it with your family?"

If I had an empty weekend without chores, I would spend the weekend in the mountains. I love going to the mountains here in North Carolina. We would spend the weekend at a cabin and just hang out, play games, go hiking, take tons of photos and just have some quality time together.

"What is your favorite dish to cook? Where did you learn the recipe?"

My all time favorite dish to cook is lasagna. I learned how to make it from my parents. My Mother showed me how when I was younger but my Father taught me how to perfect it when I was an adult. I use the fresh herbs and I make the pasta from scratch. I always have homemade bread to go with it as well as a salad.

If you would like to be interviewed let me know, I will send you some questions and you can answer them in a post :)

Before and After

Here is what the house looked like when we first bought it in 2004. It was a bluish gray color that was rather depressing to me. We actually bought the house because the yard was so large and it was on a cul-de-sac.

And here is my house now, in 2009. JB painted the house this past summer and I just love how my house looks now!

We still have some things we need to do to the outside, like replace the light fixtures and do some landscaping but that will be done in the spring. This post is for a friend of mine back home who was curious about before and after shots so here you are Dre.