Exhilarating, Exciting, Extraordinary NEWS!!

Well, with a title like THAT, you MUST read this post, right? :D
I am thrilled and delighted to announce that we sold our house.

WE. SOLD. OUR. HOUSE!

(imagine me dancing in circles right now)

We really have been wanting to move for about.... six years now? We've lived in this home for 10 years, and loved it so much, but there are several reasons why we desperately need a change. More on that later.

So where are we moving?

A beautiful little spot between two larger spots about 20 minutes south of Atlanta. :D 'suburbs' of Atlanta are cities in their own right, with actual awesome stores (not just super-Walmart) :D But more on that later...

My plan, honestly, was to do a bunch of sweet and cinnamon-esque fall posts on Julia's Journal during September. That got blown out of the water with all the craziness of a HUGE pre-moving yard sale we did and then the mind-whirling week of sale offers, counter-offers, contract terminology, and finally, sheer and utter bliss. :)

But I have another announcement!

I'm starting a brand-new blog, because:

1. Our new address is so charming, I'm still floating four feet above the ground. Ladies (and gentlemen?), we will be living on... London Lane. *be still my pounding heart*. 
2. Our new house needs some updates. It's a lovely home in great shape but it's been lived in for years by an older couple and it needs a fresh look. That's where I come in. :) I'll be chronicling all my DIY redecorating projects, one-by-one. 
3. I'm really ready for a new chapter in my blogging journey!

Julia's Journal isn't going anywhere, and I'll probably post more personal stories and non house-related things on this blog (including more Singleness Series posts) but my new blog is going to be such fun. In fact, I'm still building it (so pardon the blank corners) but... here it is. 

INTRODUCING:

Life on London Lane.

The address is LifeonLondonLane.Wordpress.com!

I actually have a first post written up for you to read, plus a cute About page --- I can't decide whether it is silly or clever. Probably a combination of the two. But anyway, I just had to let YOU know about it!

Prayers for simple, smooth closings on both our old and new homes would be MOST appreciated!
Love & Blessings,

Cover Reveal - DIAMOND!

Hi lovelies!

Here it is, the cover for my upcoming novel, DIAMOND, book 2 in the I.C.E. Agency series!

The proof copy CAME and unfortunately the spine image got squashed by Amazon because the image I'd uploaded was too wide, so I'll have to alter that. But the rest of it is *singing voice* FAAA-Bu-Lous!

Thankfully the edits are all done - I tweaked a few things here, changed one character's name, added an extra scene, and generally made sure there were no missing punctuation marks. I am a typo bounty hunter, and I believe I've caught every single one of the little beasts!

So tonight I'm going to be uploading the revised document to Createspace and ordering another proof copy. As soon as that arrives and I give the final thumbs-up, the paperback AND Kindle versions of DIAMOND will be ready to purchase!

*SQUEE*

So tell me, what do you think? Do you like my cover design? How does it compare with its older sister, my first book? :)

At last, my novel has a face!

Hey readers!

I know I'm going about this all backwards and that I should have a bunch of fellow bloggers release this at the same time with lots of pomp and fanfare and confetti, but since the rules are more like 'guidelines' - I have something VERY SPECIAL to show you.

Drum roll please....

INTRODUCING- 

The cover for my novel, ASHBURN. 

I designed it myself. 

(comments, thoughts... do you like it?!? I DO!)

Release date coming soon! I'll be in the final editing process for the next few weeks, but I am self-publishing this book to Kindle and CreateSpace on Amazon in paperback form. After a lot of procrastination, the time has come to share it with the world!

If you are a fellow blogger and are interested in an interview or a review copy of my book, (Or want to splash my pretty book cover on your blog or website!)... please let me know. I would greatly appreciate any support and help to spread the word about this exciting story. :)

Also, I'm pretty sure I want to hang out a shingle as a graphic designer and start doing book covers and other projects for real, live customers. More info on that coming soon as well. :)

Delightedly yours,

My New Blog - Resourceful Gals!

ResourcefulGals.blogspot.com 

I am beyond excited to announce the birth of a brand-new blog, Resourceful Gals! Written by my mother and I, it is an endeavor to share basically anything and everything we know about crafts, cooking and baking, DIY, managing a home efficiently, home decor, finding free stuff, and much more. :)

You're going to want to follow it, I just know it. (Besides, I'll be thrilled if you do!) Even if it's just for the absolutely AWESOME recipes. Because we're the best cooks I've ever seen, if I do say so myself. :D

So what are you waiting for? Hop on over there and take a look! (Oh, and do you like the design I created for it?) I think it looks fresh and happy, but calming. :D

eShakti.com Product Review {My New Dress}

Recently I contacted eShakti.com about reviewing their products, which happen to be beautiful and affordable custom-fit clothing! They replied right away and told me to choose anything I wanted in the store. (Wow!) I looked for a long time through the pretty dresses and briefly thought about choosing one of the really cute jackets or coats... but I ended up settling on this dress - which was actually in the clearance section. I thought the color and style would be best for me, out of all the selection of dresses. Many of them were sleeveless, which is great unless you would rather have some sleeve on your dress, like I would. ;)

Yup. I love it. The dress was a bit more vibrant in person than it looked on the website, so instead of the light peachy orange I thought it was going to be... it was brighter and sunnier! :D But I still like it, and the color looks well with my complexion. :)

My sweet Dad and brother Mark took these shots of me one evening. :)



I'm not crazy about my pose in this picture but it's the best one I have of the back of the dress...



And here's a close-up for you.

I chose to go with the custom-fit option instead of choosing a regular size, and I was very happy with how the dress fit me!

I would HIGHLY reccomend eShakti.com to any of my blog followers. I was very impressed with the quality and service... the dress came earlier than they stated it would, thus I'll be able to wear it to my cousin's wedding in Florida! *Score!* (I was shocked that it came all the way from India in such a tiny little flat box... gracious!) :D

The next week looks like a busy one for us, but I'll try to throw some blog posts your way! :)

Do I Dare?

Do I dare to announce to the world this idea, this wild inspiration, that has taken me by surprise and swept me off my feet?

Do I dare open up, and share, and tell you what I've been dreaming and planning and imagining?
Do I dare to acknowledge that my fingers have been busy hammering away on the keys of my laptop in an exciting, thrilling race with my mind?

Do I dare to spill my secret, and listen for the echo of your replies, hoping for cheers, but dreading a disapproving silence?

I dare.

I'm writing a book.

It's a completely different book than my other completed novel. I finished my Jane Austen-inspired story set in Regency England and I'm in the process of editing it.

But I'm 28,000 words into my newest work. A suspense/action/thriller/mystery.

Set in several European countries. Present-time.

I love mysteries. And action. As long as it's clean. But I don't consider myself particularly brilliant at coming up with a mystery. I never figure it out before Sherlock Holmes. I'm always surprised at the endings of the Perry Mason cases.

But this story seems to be working.

I hope to introduce you to my two main characters soon. I love them. I feel excited about finding out what happens in their story... because I'm writing the book, chapter by chapter, and discovering it as I go along! I only have a few vague elements I want in the ending. I don't know how it all happens yet. But I want to find out.

For now, I'll share their names.

Cara Stephenson.

Bryce Reynolds.

I've had to stop writing their story for now... because I have so much work to do getting ready for the homeschool conventions. Displaying a booth full of jewelry and CD's of ebooks on how to make jewelry takes a whole lot of preparation, leaving not enough free time in which to write a book.

I'll continue thinking and planning for now. Maybe my mind can do the fine-tuning and discard some of the ideas, holding on to the ones that turn into golden pieces of this puzzle called a story. It'll be good to take a little breather, come up for air. Then when I have time, I can dive into the delicious depths of my writing again.

So... stay tuned.

And what do you think about all this? Do share your thoughts, I'd be thrilled to hear them.

They won!

I can't help myself, a blog post was practically mandatory.......
I am a huge NY Giants fan. It's my dad's fault, really. Ever since the time I was a wee little thing knee-high to a grasshopper, I've loved watching football with my daddy. I asked him questions about everything that happened until I finally understood the game. And I'm a 3rd generation Giants fan.
We don't have TV anymore since the bunny ears antenna signal died, but last night Daddy found out that NBC was streaming the game live on their website, sans (without) commercials and halftime show (which none of us prefer to watch anyway!) Thank you NBC! That was very nice of you!

And this game was awesome. It was a nail-biter and adrenaline-pumping down to the last few seconds.

In the last (fourth) quarter of the game in the last Super Bowl the Giants played in, there was an amazing play where Eli Manning threw a pass to David Tyree, who caught the ball between his hand and his helmet!!

And in this game, a similar play happened late in the fourth quarter. The Giants got the ball way down the field and had a lot of ground to cover if they were going to make a touchdown. They needed to score some points, because they were trailing the Patriots by 2.

Then, Eli threw a bomb 38 yards down the field to a receiver who caught it over his shoulder and just barely got his feet inside the field (vaildating the catch) before he was tackled by two Patriots. It was amazing! (I put a picture of it up there ^ so you could see what I'm talking about)

The Giants scored a touchdown with under a minute left on the clock. And the Patriots didn't respond with any points of their own - Tom Brady's wild toss into the end zone resulting in an incomplete throw.

Eli Manning was awarded Super Bowl M.V.P. (Most Valuable Player) for the second time. He's holding the Vince Lombardi trophy in the above picture. He also won a really awesome, brand new, black Chevrolet Corvette. I was slightly envious.

I really admire the Manning family, Eli in particular. He's such a great guy. Here he is just after the game with his wife Abby (the pretty blond lady on the left) and 10-month old daughter Ava Frances. I'm so glad he won, and finally everybody admits he's as good of a quarterback as Tom Brady.

Speaking of Tom Brady.... He looked pretty bummed out at the end of the game. I felt sorry for him... a little ... but I was thrilled that the Giants won. So my sympathy was short-lived.


In case you haven't noticed, I tried to write this post in a way that would be understandable to even my non-football-loving friends. *Ahem, Cough, MOHL girls* I had some people ask me "Who's in the super bowl this year?" I mean, puh-leeze.... ;) The people around where I live seem to be more into college football. I can't get very excited about that, but I did root for the FL Gators when they had Tim Tebow. Another really great guy.
I hope you enjoyed this post! :)

GO GIANTS!

The Atlanta Homeschool Expo 2011

Today my whole family and I drove alllll the way up to the Cobb Galleria centre to "spy" on the Homeschool Expo. ;) We've been vendors at the GHEA convention for the past 3 years and wondered if it might be worth our while to try out the homeschool expo too. (we decided we'll probably try somewhere else... possibly the big FPEA convention in Florida).

Originally we were going to visit on Friday and then hit Friday Frisbee on our way back home, but we decided (fortunately, in my opinion) to do Frisbee and the convention on separate days. So we went today, Saturday.

We had great difficulty finding a parking space when we arrived just after noon, but we made it and then traversed a partially underground tunnel (cool!) to get to the convention center itself and the exhibit halls.

While Mama asked about using a wheelchair (her ankle has been bothering her with flare-ups recently with her RA - please keep her in your prayers) my brothers and I gawked shamelessly like country bumpkins at the shiny marble floors and huge, high, circular ceiling in the entryway of the convention center. It was most impressive and living in a small town like we do, we don't see much of the like very often. ;)

I have almost no pictures of our day except for the striking bouquet of artificial flowers in the foyer (see above)

And the stairs & escalators going up to the second floor (see below)

Because once we signed up at the registration booth I heard about this 'scavenger hunt' the convention was doing. My ears perked up when I heard about the prize.

An iPad.

Uh-huh. That's why I decided it might be worth a shot doing the little scavenger hunt thingy. I actually won my first iPod Shuffle (that, sadly, found a watery grave when I left it in the pocket of the hoodie I wore at the gym and it went through the washing machine) - in a contest a few years ago at my orthodontist's to see who could get the most words out of the letters in "I LOVE MY BRACES". My total was over 780 words. (Including things like "Cobra" and "Olive") :D Yeah, it took me 3 days.

So... I sort of had some luck winning Apple products in the past so I have a wild hope that I might win one this time.
But get this - I only had until 3:00 to turn in the scavenger hunt list! So I buzzed around the exhibit hall and, booth-by-booth, asked people if they were on the list. There were clues about each vendor you had to write down, but it was faster to just go down the rows and ask people. Some people were very helpful and just signed their initials and vendor name right away and some made me discover which clue went with their booth.
It would sound like this... I would walk up to a booth and ask "Are you on the scavenger hunt list?" And they would either say yes, or no. If yes, I continued "Great! Do you know which one you are?" Handing them my list of clues. Some people said yes and proceeded to add themselves to the list, and some people replied "Do YOU know which one we are?" And made me figure it out on my own.

What is it about people giving pretty girls a hard time? Especially the young guys running the college booths and various bored old men with odd senses of humor??? :P *sigh*

And then after I'd found about 43 of the people on the list (out of a possible 60 or so, I think?) one vendor helpfully told me that you only needed 30 to submit your list! And lo and behold, I checked the top of my sheet of paper where some stuff was listed in fine print... and it was so. *facepalm*

The end of the story is that I got the scavenger hunt submitted by 2:45 PM, nicely before 3:00! Yay. Now I just have to pray that my sheet gets randomly drawn as the winner. If I win, the iPad will become our family iPad and all will share it equally.

But guess what - I heard from the man running the registration booth that they only had about 15 people turn in scavenger hunt sheets. So the odds are pretty good!

~*~

I'm pretty exhausted from my busy weekend, and glad that we are planning on staying home tomorrow and doing some Bible study on our own (Daddy is teaching to us out of Hebrews, chapter by chapter). Frisbee really tuckered me out this week and although some of the stiffness got worked out in walking around the exhibit hall this morning ... I'm still achey and sore and just. plain. tired.

So this is what I hope the rest of my evening will be - Quiet. Relaxed. Peaceful. Perhaps finishing my Jane Austen novel by the light of a cozy lamp. That's what I'll be doing. :)

How was your weekend? What have you been up to? I'd love to hear about it in the comment section. :)

Have a blessed Sunday!

Leaving for the 2010 GHEA convention!

Hi Readers!

My family and I are packed and ready for our departure tomorrow afternoon. We're going to the 2010 Georgia Home Educators Association convention in Atlanta! I am SO excited. This trip will be a lot of fun for my family, as we're staying in a hotel up there for the duration of the convention. In a suite. With indoor pool. *oh yeah*. :D

The primary reason we are going is because we are running booth 105 in the exhibit hall! I am selling my handcrafted fine glass and swarovski crystal jewelry, and my two brothers Mark and Steven are selling their padded, duct tape swords, spears, battle axes, and a completely enthralling e-book with instructions on how to make each item! Woohoo! We are so excited. The jewelry takes up most of the booth, but the boys will have a square table in the corner. Mama and the boys and I created some eye-catching fabric signs to hang on the wall behind us. The boys' is brown, with duct tape letters saying "WARFARE BY DUCT TAPE" and mine is a light pink with darker pink fabric letters saying "Jewels by Julia". I will be taking my camera and hope to post pictures of the booth from the hotel room. :D So check back for that!

But before I sign off, I have one plea. Could you please pray for us? We hope that our merchandise will sell very well, because it would be such a blessing for our family, and all the hard work we've put into this effort will be worth it. :) Thank you.

Blessings!

Winter Wonderland

And without further ado, here are the snow pictures! :)

Our house. (as you can see, my family members were outside as well... marveling at all the fluffy white stuff)

I loved the snow... while it lasted, it was so beautiful!
Me, in the snow.

My brother Mark made a snow Koala Bear. *Cute!!*

Our chickens were highly insulted at the weather, and hardly poked their heads outside the whole day while the aggravating precipatation fell.

Our garden pots were buried underneath a generous blanket of icy snow. Miraculously... some of the lettuce survived! :)

A view off the porch. (I believe I took this shot out the window)

This used to be our driveway - it morphed into an arctic forest while we weren't looking.

I can still feel the crisp, frosty air on my cheeks that I enjoyed while shooting this photo of our mountain view.

I managed to get Steven to take my picture in front of the view. That's me, down in the corner there. :)

This is a shot down the driveway while it was still snowing heavily on Friday evening. (Some of these pictures are from Friday the 12th,, and some are from the next morning.)

As a side note, I have no idea how I managed to get my wide-leg cargo-style corduroy pants to look amazingly like wild, hippie bell-bottoms in ^that shot.

I ended up making my mom's birthday cake the day of the great snow, even though her birthday was on the 9th... so I decided to photograph the cake with the snow. :D

The view out my bedroom window.

Steven, standing out in the little clearing where we have a tulip poplar, a pear tree, and a plum tree.

A shot through the woods.

More woods. This is on Saturday morning.

This is looking up the driveway.

Snow-laden branches of the post oak trees. Lovely!

Hope you enjoyed the snow pictures! :)

Spring Blog Makeover

My delightful mother picked out an ADORABLE new blog background for her spring makeover. :) I helped her with the font colors and designed a cute new header and blog button for her.

And, the obligatory sneak peek... ;)

I melted when I saw how sweet the finished project looked. You really must head on over to her blog, Gloria In Excelsis Deo, and drop her a little note! I know it would brighten her day to hear how you like her new look. :)

I am frightfully behind in posting pictures of the 8 inches of snow we were blessed with one week ago, but I plan on sharing those very soon. :) (in fact, if I don't post them soon, feel free to send me a little reminder via the comment section saying something like "Julia! Where are those snow pictures you promised??") :D

Love & Hugs!

Very Exciting News!! New Shop!

I am exceedingly pleased to give you...

JandKdesigns! A fabulous new Etsy shop that my dear friend Kierstyn and I started together!

Kierstyn and I go way back. We've been friends ever since we were about 3 months old in church nursery together. :) We grew up going to the beach together and having the most wonderful time dancing together in ballet class. There were several occasions that we performed choreographed worship dances to songs like Shout to the Lord on stage together. When I moved up to GA we lost touch, but last year Kierstyn looked me up on white pages and sent me a letter. Ever since, we've been in close contact, catching up on each other's lives. Then, Kierstyn got a bright idea.... Scarf and Earring sets!

We have combined our talents of crochet and jewelry design into one amazing place.  Kierstyn and I have matched up sets of her scarves and my earrings to make something splendid. :) Here are a few samples:

Now you just HAVE to go take a look. :D