We just bought some dirt.

Well, we have officially entered the ranks of home-owners... Mortgaged up to our eyeballs and unable to take family vacations away.

We're not selling the boat or even moving off of it.

We bought a 'cottage'. It's a house. But we keep insisting it's a cottage so our family doesn't get the wrong idea and start thinking we're going to conform to their 'norm'.

The place needs quite a bit of work. But we think we're up for it. And we're excited (and terrified!). We sign the papers in the morning and then there is the rush for arranging the financing and the home inspection and the insurance and... the list goes on... and never ends. We take possession December 1st. Christmas in our own house? I don't know about that. We'll see. Nothing like unfinished walls and floors and a lack of furniture to put a damper on your Christmas spirit (laugh). Did I mention that we're excited?

From Crib to Toddler Bed

We took DD's crib rail down and replaced it with a shorter safety rail to keep her from rolling out of bed at night. The rail isn't up yet in this picture. Now you can get a better idea of the beautiful work DH did in designing the tiny bedroom/stateroom. Below the bed are two drawers that house DD's toys. Above, you can see two dark blue ovals. These are the port holes. I made covers for them that resemble the little caps the pioneer ladies used to wear. A little elastic around the fabric and a cute little skirt of trim. Her 'big' bedroom is still under construction. And since she regularly tells me that this bed is too small for her, I think we had better get a move on and finish her new room. Yet another thing on the 'to do' list.

Atlantic Grace - Maiden Voyage

Here's a digital scrapbook page I did of our vessel. The details of the layout can be found at my scrapbooking blog http://armasdigiscrapper.blogspot.com/

The filmstrip pics are all feature shots we took when we first purchased the boat back in 1998. The main picture and the smaller sailing picture were both taken by friends on our maiden voyage in 2001 after several years of construction. The small black and white image in the corner is a sketch of the original "Spray" owned and sailed by Joshua Slocum.