Monday, November 30, 2009

I'm like a kid in a candy store...

now that I have all these vintage sheet (reclaimed bed linen) fat quarters and more that were so generously gifted to me by my good friend, Dawnie! I might just look at this eye candy for a while, or I might tear into it-not sure which yet. Decisions, decisions!

Today happens to be Dawnie's birthday and I happened to make her a (computer generated) cake! Happy birthday, dear friend-hope you have a wonderful day.☺

PS-I'm still only 41!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Life is just a bowl

...of tangerines.

This struck me as pretty, so I took a pic. Might as well try to capture the pretty in life, right?

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday, everybody!☺

Saturday, November 28, 2009

What's in your dryer lint?

Today is Operation Clean Up Dog Hair Day-the day the lint trap and vacuum cleaner fill up with dog hair! Lovely, yes?

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On to a much more pleasant subject-Happy birthday to my good friend Rhonda-who blogs here.

I made a (computer generated) cake-just for you!

PS-I'm only 41!☺

Friday, November 27, 2009

I just did a very bad thing

I just ordered this lovely Le Creuset 2 3/4 quart French oven for $109.95. What the heck is wrong with me? I don't even cook that much. I guess I'm hoping this will help. And it's pretty enough to sit out on my stove all the time. I love it...I just hope I'll use it.

If I find one of these at Goodwill-I may just have to kill myself. (Oh I'm just kidding!)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Obligatory photo...

of the veggie basket, with some olives and pineapple thrown in for good measure.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I'll be cutting up veggies while listening to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. Then, we are heading to Larry's aunt's house for Thanksgiving "lunch". Then I'll be in a food coma the rest of the day!

Today I'm thankful for:

::a merciful God (man-I need mercy-but don't we all?)
::wonderful family and friends
::my bedroom
::my garnisher/crinkle cutter, that I'll be using today for my veggies
::this little blog and all who read it
::so, so, so much more-but my little mind is going blank
::oh yes-tea and chocolate!

Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Trying to make these flowers.....



from the funeral home, look less like flowers from the funeral home (if ya know what I mean).

Monday, November 23, 2009

Poppy

My father-in-law passed away over the weekend.
Donald or "Poppy", as my daughter calls him, was a lover of John Deere tractors, farming, and kiddos. Especially that kiddo in the above photo, his one and only grandchild-Hopey. His face tells it all.
Of course-he loved his own kiddos too-Larry and Terry. (I love this photo.)
He took Hoper to school everyday on his way to work, for years. I snapped the above photo one morning before they left.
The last few years had not been kind to him healthwise. But he just kept trudging along.....


We're ALL gonna miss him-A LOT!!!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Rescued table

Yeah-my husband was taking a load of "garbage" to the dump for his uncle. I look out the kitchen window and what do I spy in his trailer? The above table! Now tell me this is garbage! I quickly slipped on some shoes, went outside and rescued this little beauty. There is nothing wrong with this table that a little paint or doily won't fix. And he wouldn't have said a word to me about this little table being in there. Good thing I spied it. I swear I'm gonna kick that boy's butt one of these days!☻


And on a side note-
Have a great day!☺

Friday, November 20, 2009

Happy birthday to Kimmie!!!

Today is my youngest sister's 33rd birthday.

And lo and behold, today I wake up and find out she has started a blog.

Well-this may prove to be a little embarrassing to Kimmie, but I'm telling anyhow-

:: When I was a teenager and Kimmie was just a little girl-she would, ahem, cut the cheese in front of my boyfriend (not Larry). Talk about wanting to die! ME not her.

:: Then at her birthday party one year (she was still little, mind you) Larry (my hubby now) got her a little toy tractor and a card with money in it. When she opened the card, she looked at the money and said sarcastically, "Oh wow, free (three) dollars." Oh Kimmie!

::At our nephew's birthday party (only about a year and a half ago, mind you) she says to me, "Do you have a bra on?" Ah yeah, Kimmie, I do wear bras in public. And you can bet I ordered new bras the next day. And now every time I see her, I say, "Hey Kim, I have a bra on." And she says, "I'm sorry." Bahahahahahahahaha!!!

Oh Kimmie-you are a beautiful, lovely person and I wish you only the best on your birthday and always!

Love you and happy birthday!

PS-I'm NOT wearing a bra at the moment. Yikes!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Alice is my new BFF

That's-Best Friend Forever-(in case you didn't know).

Yes-there's a new company on the web called Alice.com.
I very much dislike shopping (the exceptions are Goodwill and online shopping) and I love things delivered straight to my door. So I'm thinking Alice and I will get along just fine.

When I first saw this website being talked about on other blogs I didn't pay much attention-but then I went ahead and signed up and surfed around and I decided-me likey.

I go to 'other ways to shop' and then to 'best deals'. Or I search, say laundry detergent, and then sort by 'low price'. But still-you need to pay attention to the size of the item. From what I've seen, the prices are comparable to the dollar stores. If there's a coupon out for a product-somehow they take it off.

So, this is my first order:
Dawn dish liquid, ultra concentrated, original (10.3oz)-$1.34-50 cent coupon=84 cents
Puffs 2-ply, white (216ea)-$1.97-25 cent coupon=$1.72
1 Suave invisible solid, powder (2.6oz)$1.73-75 cent coupon=98 cents
3 Bounty basics paper towels, 1 ply (1ea)84 cents-25 cent coupon=$2.27 total for 3

So-plus 35 cents tax and my total was $6.16. Not bad-and these are items I know I will use up.

Shipping is always free, but you must always order 6 items at least. They can be the same thing, if you want.

Now-I was going to blather on about how you can get a 5 dollar gift certificate to Alice.com for only 20 Swagbucks from Swagbucks.com and how this was such a great deal and it really is-but you can only order ONE-Alice 5 dollar gift certificate from swagbucks.

Have I thoroughly confused you? Probably-because I have thoroughly confused myself.

Good luck!☺

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I have a confession to make

I love my bedroom. There I said it. I love my bedroom.

Lately, I've been obsessive about keeping it picked up, bed made, dusted and swept. When all the other rooms in my home are dirty and messy (which is almost always!), this is my little sanctuary. Very important for my state of mind.

Do you have a sanctuary in your home? If you don't, you should!

And every night before I go to sleep-I thank God for my wonderful bed (among other things). And my mattress is old, old, old!!! Hey, if it's not broke, why fix it?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Snack on a spoon

This cures what ails ya!

(Except weight gain-it definitely doesn't cure that!)

***Don't give little kids big gobs of peanut butter-I wouldn't want them to choke!***

Let's make photo wrapping paper

My mom did this one year for us girls and I thought it was so lovely.

I used a photo of my niece and nephew and a photo of the rainbow cake. (I'm gonna milk the rainbow cake for all I can!)

Using my photo printing wizard-I printed the "contact sheet" or you could print "wallets sheet". The contact sheet prints the name of the photo under it, so I went in and renamed the photo-you know, so it wouldn't say-copy of rainbow cake-or whatever. I just used plain old white paper.

If your gift is larger, you can print a couple sheets and tape them together.
But don't use this method for an extremely large gift-printer ink is expensive. At least mine is!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Birthday goodness

From me to my sister, Kim.
From me to my sister, Kim.
From my sister, Kim, to me. (Even though my birthday is NEXT month-she went ahead and gave me my gift in case we didn't see each other till after.)

Thank you, Kimmie. I loved everything!☺

Brown paper packages tied up with scraps!

Here's yet another lovely wrapping technique. I copied got this idea from my good friend, Dawnie. (She's an awesome wrapper, btw.)

First-go pick up some scraps from your basement floor-or pick up a pretty sheet from the 15 cent rack at Goodwill. (You don't have to be a person who sews to use this idea.) Second, snip your fabric or sheet with sissors-however wide you want your ribbon to be-and start tearing. Tada-now you have a ribbon for your brown paper packages.

Don't have a roll of brown craft paper? Use a paper grocery bag. Don't have any paper grocery bags? Choose paper not plastic the next time you get groceries.

You're welcome!!!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Two, two-two gifts in one!

This is a candle.
This is a tea towel under the candle.

This is a candle wrapped in a tea towel.

Any questions???

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Another unique gift wrapping idea using thrifted materials

I shared how cute it was to use sheet music for wrapping gifts and now I want to share a cool idea I remember seeing in Country Living magazine a long time ago.

Next time you're out thrifting and you see a cute sewing pattern (that's not all cut up) dirt cheap-buy it. And if you see string or rick rack or any kind of sewing notion that could be used for ribbon (think tape measure) dirt cheap-scarf that up too.

Now-take a piece of pattern paper (which is essentially tissue paper, right?), wrap that package up-tie it with string, ric rac, measuring tape-anything that you can tie (and is pretty, of course) and stick a fork in you and you're DONE!

Now-everybody will say you are so creative. And you can say-"Oh-I saw it on this fabulous blog" or you can just smile and say "Thank you"-it's your call.

And now-I will be taking this lovely little package and delivering it to my sister, because we will be celebrating her birthday after her Pampered Chef party today.

Ta, ta for now!!!☺

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A lovely gift!

Dawnie gave me this lovely gift yesterday-it's a bracelet made from old typewriter keys. I think she got it at the Strip District. She thought of me since this one said HOPE (you know-since that's my daughter's name).

Oh-I love it! It's right up my alley-saying HOPE, repurposed typewriter keys (man-some people are so resourceful!), antique looking.

Thank you, Dawnie. It's perfect!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Now SeeHere-I just ordered 50 free cards




with free shipping too! And envelopes!

Go here for the details.

I ordered 10 of each design (if that's what you want to call it). Very cheesey and corny-I know-but I don't care.

These are 1 sided cards-I figured I could use a permanent marker to write on these.

Some hints if you want to want to order these free cards-
It took me a long time to figure out how to navigate their website (SeeHee). But if you have some time to sit down and figure it out, I'm sure you can. Unless, maybe I'm just a little thick-maybe you'll think it's easy.

Make sure you read the comments at freebies4mom if you have trouble-they have hints in there. Like don't copy and paste the code-hand type it in. Some suggest hitting your tab and then the enter key-instead of using your mouse. It took me 2 days to get my code to work! But their customer service is great-they were going to credit my account if I couldn't get the code to work.

Make sure you save your work.

Go to edit screen to order.

I just stretched my photo over one of their designs because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of their designs.

I probably would have made Christmas cards-but I don't think I sending them out this year. So very bah humbug of me, don't you think?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A good trip to Goodwill today

I found this large plastic sewing box today. I think it's cute in a weird 70's retro kind of way. And after a good scrubbing it was as good as new!

This piece of fabric appealed to me because it looks old fashioned. It's cute in a weird 40's feedsack kind of way (or something).

Finally, this small blue Pyrex bowl jumped into my cart. It's cute in a-my sister, Kimmie, has been looking for this particular piece of Pyrex to complete a set (I think, I hope) and her birthday is coming up very soon-kind of way.

It was going to be a surprise but I needed something besides list takers to blog about!☺

Sunday, November 8, 2009

I've been a busy little bee

I made these over the weekend. I used a combo of stash material and "vintage" sheets.

I've found these are fun to make when I follow directions and don't have to rip out every ever-lovin' seam three times.

Thought for the day(I'm copying my friend Rhonda again): Follow directions-It will make life a little easier-especially in the sewing department!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Another list taker and a wrapping idea

Another list taker for the one who gave me this darling material!
And here's a wrapping idea. My bro-out-law was going to burn a bunch of stuff. He asked me if I wanted to look at any of it before he did. (He knows I like weird garbage stuff.) I pulled 2 little Christmas music books out and kept them for this purpose.

Kinda cute-don't ya think?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I'm makin' a list...

and checkin' it twice!

I bought the pdf instructions for this "list taker" from J Casa Handmade's Esty shop. (Her shop is closed right now.) I thought perhaps I could make some of these as Christmas gifts as well as gratitude wraps. But-I seemed to be burned out already. I kept making mistakes and getting frustrated. There are plenty of mistakes on this one-it's for me, so it's okay.

I used sheets of course!

Hopefully the next one will go more smoothly-if there is a next one!☻

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

New books

These are some new books I ordered from Amazon. As much as I hate to shop, I love my Amazon. (You can order practically anything from there-not just books.) Shopping in front of the computer-now that's what I'm talkin' about. I'm constantly ordering from Amazon. If someone's talking about a book on a blog-and if it looks good to me-I order it. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (if her name looks familiar-she wrote 101 Dalmations) is used and was 1 cent + $3.99 shipping. I cannot drive to the library for $4.00. Don't get me wrong-I love the library and I used to go there quite often. But in the last 4 years since I've had the computer-I mostly just buy my books from Amazon. I usually look at all the options and if they are significantly cheaper used, I will try to pick one in good condition and pay the $3.99 shipping. If the new and used are pretty close in price, I will choose the new, because if it ships from Amazon and your order is over $25.00 you can choose free shipping.

Another reason I love to buy from Amazon is that I get rewards from my Visa and I can choose an Amazon gift certificate. I also use Swagbucks as one of my search engines and usually end up with 5 dollars a month of mad money for Amazon. The Swagbucks come a lot quicker when someone signs up under you. (Thanks Jessie and Dave!)

Oh, and bonus!-I get a free subscription to Country Living magazine (the only magazine I have consistently subscribed to for the last twenty something years and the only subscription I am paying for right now). It came with Simple Country Wisdom-which is a Country Living book.

Thought for the day (I am copying this from Rhonda for today): Books aren't clutter-they're art!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Look what I found today

I found a volunteer cherry tomato plant hiding in my flower bed. Last year I planted tomatoes in my flower bed, so they'd be close by and I could just walk out the door and pick them. Being close to the house must have protected them from the frost.
And now we're volunteering to eat them.

Life is just a bowl of cherry maters, ain't it?!☺

Pumpkin bread

I needed some kind of sweet for hubby's lunch bucket, so I made some pumpkin bread today. I just ate the ends and it's very good. It got dark on me but it's still good. Very soft on the inside-probably the 1/2 cup of oil.

I got the recipe from here. I halved the recipe and added chocolate chips instead of cranberries-except I didn't halve those.

Yes-I like a little pumpkin bread with my chocolate chips!

Have a delicious day.☺

Sunday, November 1, 2009

I just designed a mousepad

using scans of vintage sheets! Me likey.

FYI-if you get an unexpected package from Japan-it's probably from me.☺

Now I'm off to church!