HEY!!! I hope some of you reading this are some of my "long lost blog friends" from my old blog Creating With The J's!! New friends, or old ones, WELCOME to everyone!!!

I haven't blogged since December. There were some life changes, hence the new blog! I am back. It may be hit or miss at first, because there are still some pretty big details, ok, one really big detail, that needs to be worked out. I will get there. At this point, most of the things that lead to blog posts, well it is all in storage. Hopefully those days are numbered.

I did decide on the new blog name though and have finally figured out this first post! The blog name came pretty easy once I sat down and got serious about it! This first post, we've gone round and round!

I AM a small town girl. I am a small town girl that has moved back home to the small town(s) that I grew up in and around. There truly is no place like home! For those of you that are coming over from The J's, yes, I came home by myself. All those neat projects and hours of hard work have been left behind. Moving on and moving forward, means finding more walls and yard space to transform right???? I am hopeful of such.

I, in no way, considered where I lived before now to be the big city, that was always Pittsburgh or Cleveland. However!!!! Having been home for awhile now, it was the big city compared to here. There is something refreshing and promising about small town stores and it really is quite sad to watch them struggle to keep up with "progress."

Coming home means I get to enjoy things that I have missed out on for way too many years. Yes, that choice has been mine, but boy do I have a list of things I intend to do this year -- things I haven't done in awhile!

This means I can spend time with my nieces and nephews, something I have definitely missed doing.

They are crazy, but then again, aren't we all????!!!!????!!!!

I also get to spend time with the rest of my family.

I have contemplated sharing pictures, but all the pictures would be older. Believe it or not, my camera hasn't taken a single picture in over a month. I guess it is time to fix that problem!!!

I am closer to most everyone in my immediate family. While I am closer to my Mom she is still a couple hours away, but that drive time has been shortened. My Dad, my Grandparents, (step)Sister and other members of my extended family are all nearby, as well as some friends.

I do have a crazy commute to and from work, but my boss is cool and we have worked something out so it isn't as bad as it could be! That means I still get to see all my crazy friends once or twice a week or every other week. It also means, that when I need something from a store I don't have here, I can just make plans to get it while I am in "the big town" for work.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh are no longer my big cities. My big cities are now Erie and Buffalo. My Mom is in Buffalo. There is a Hobby Lobby in both towns so I am good, once I have driven AT LEAST an hour to get there!! Here's to hoping I don't get up some Sunday morning and decide it is a good day for a drive to go to Hobby Lobby, driving an hour or two only to get there to be reminded they are closed on Sunday would be a whole lot different than driving 15 minutes.

I was going to share my "bucket list" of things to do this year, but perhaps that will be a post all its own and one we can revisit often.

We will still have plenty of paper crafting going on around here, and all those cookbooks still need blogged about. I just need to get it all out of storage!

I will leave you with a few more pictures and a couple links back to the old blog just so you can see what will be coming this way!!!

Coming home means no more driving long distances on snowy roads to be home for the holidays!!

This picture has good roads, but just think of driving through an area like that and the roads are snow and ice covered. Yep, that is definitely one thing I won't miss!!

This is the view of the "extended back yard" at my Dad's.

Definitely a good view to come home to!!

If you are coming over from The J's, Moon Pie Magic Mondays will be coming back!

I am going to rerun the first couple here so everyone is on the same page, and that will help with not having my stuff. :)

Here is the link to a family recipe. The story of where all the recipes came from can be found here.

With St. Patrick's Day approaching here is a link to last year's St. Patrick's Day Cards.

And here is a link to a Cricut Project.

That is all for now!

Thanks so much for stopping in. I am glad you stopped by and hope you will follow me and share me with your friends. I am still contemplating whether or not I want to do a facebook page associated with the blog. I guess time will tell and we will just take this one step at a time.

There are plenty of good things to come, both here and in life!!

Have a great day everyone!!!

Hugs ~ Just a Small Town Girl (Jen)