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Tea Please!

Happy Almost Turkey Day!

I thought I would take a minute and make a post today before being swallowed by all the Christmas boxes that I have out.  Wow, I always forget how many boxes there are.  I usually get started with the decorations around Thanksgiving, but since I am hosting my family Christmas this year I decided to start a couple days early.  I always pack away all of the "knick knacks" that I have (everywhere).   The one area I never have decorated is a china cabinet that I have in my kitchen.

This cabinet is one of the many things that made me fall in love with this house 17+ years ago.

I thought it would be nice this year to change things up.  This is where I had my teapots and I still love my them but I think next year they will be hanging off my fence at the back of the yard with flowers in them.  I am just ready for some changes!  I can still enjoy them out there and have this cabinet for other things too!

BUT, before I pack them away I thought that I would show you some of my little beauties.  This is not all of them as I have another box somewhere of others.  But these are the ones that I had on display.

These two sets came one from my Mom and one from my MIL.

A couple that I bought at a garage sales.

I love these mini ones!  The two really smalls are wood (actually ornaments from an Easter tree decoration that I have) and the Victorian Lady is glass and she opens at the waist.  The trivets are ones I made years ago.

The Red, white and blue one is from my sister and the roses set is another garage sale beauty.

I bought both of these sets (different places) new.  The brown set is one of my favorites 

I LOVE this white set!  Its another garage sale find, but the shape and design just caught my eye.

The other set is a teapot from my Mom and the cups are from my MIL.  The cups actually came from Japan with her when she married my FIL.

:o) 

In the spring when I dig out the other box of teapots I will post pics of those too, and hopefully pics of them with flowers and hanging on my fence!

A couple more quick pics.  When I was setting up my Fall Deco, I didn't do close up pictures of a couple things that I think a few of you might like to see.

This little witches hat I made out of tiny little brooms

This is my book pumpkin that I made last year...I made the back of mine flat so that it can rest against a wall.

This GORGEOUS needlepoint cornucopia my Mom made years ago.  I was thrilled to get to hang it up with my fall decorations this year.  She has such a talent!

This is the last thought I will leave you for today....

I made MANY and sold many of these over the years.

But I still believe it to be true!

That's it for me today.  I hope that you are all surrounded with Love, Family, Friends and good food tomorrow.  Be safe in your travels!

(and remember to RECYCLE those plates and tin pans!)

Pinspiration: Snack Bandoliers

Hello world!

Thought I would post today what I just finished up this morning.  My Sister-in-law showed me a pin of some snack bandoliers and wanted to know if I would be willing to let her use my sewing machine (with a bit of help) to make them.  She doesn't sew a lot but has basic skills and just needed a little backup.  She mentioned a sewing machine that she has...but said something about it being in a closet waaaaaaay at the back.  LOL

Needless to say I jumped at the chance to spend time with her and to have a fun project to work on!  Especially one for little boys!  Being the Mom of girls, little boy things aren't something I have made for years.  When my nephews were little I made Halloween costumes for them and enjoyed every moment but that was 20+ years ago.

So I happened to have some great boy fabric that I offered up for her to use and we got started. We got a bit of a late start, and snow was moving in so we didn't quite finish them that day and I offered to finish them up this morning.  One more project completed!  Woot! I wont go thru all the steps as you can find them on the link I will provide.  We did do one thing differently, by adding some elastic to the bottom of them making them able to "grow" with the child.

We made two (for twin boys)

Little Missy was gracious enough to be my model

Pj's and all lol

As you can see the cars fit great and have room in the bottom for snacks!

This was a fun project and I would recommend it to anyone.

Now to get started on a girly one to give Little Missy for Christmas.

Ours will be the right size to hold Barbies and PINK!

Here is the link to the website with the instructions:

http://whip-stitch.com/snack-bandolier/

On a side note, I am so tickled to say that I have now 401 followers on Pinterest!  

I am not sure that I should be so excited but I am.

So many people that have the same interests is thrilling to me!

Thanks to all who stop to check out my corner of the world.

Until next time be safe in all you do, and hold good thoughts for those caught in that horrible weather this past weekend.

Oh what a Beautiful Morning...

Oh what a beautiful day...

I have this beautiful feeling...

Everything's going my way!

As I woke up this morning that was the song that popped into my head.  I remember in middle school choir singing that.  Frankly at that age I didn't care for the song, but now pushing 50 I totally get it LOL.  Here in Illinois we are getting a couple cooler days and the leaves are finally starting to change.  Fall has always been my favorite time of year and this year is no different.  Though I have this sneaking feeling that it it preceding a bad winter...but for today I refuse to think about it!

As I sit here I am enjoying a nice hot cup of Spiced Tea.  This is a drink that I remember my mom getting the recipe for when I was in my teens.  I haven't had it for YEARS.  I mentioned to her the other day that I could really go for a cup and she of course had the recipe still.  My Mom ROCKS.  So today I share with you a fall treat I hope that you enjoy it as I am right this moment.

Spiced Tea

1/3 Cup Lemonade Mix

1/2 Cup Instant Tea

1 Cup Tang

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Cloves

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container.

Add 1-1/2 to 2 Tablespoons per boiling cup of water or to your 

personal taste.

A couple notes here.

I doubled this recipe and it fit perfectly into a 1 Liter container.

I found a 2T. coffee scoop and use that to leave in the mix.

I also used UNsweetened tea.  I just felt that with the other ingredients

there was enough sugar already involved.

YUMMY!

Time to make some pumpkin bread lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One more addition to this post today.  I have spent a lot of time perusing the Autumn Decoration Boards on Pinterest (and loving every minute of it!)  I kept seeing these adorable crocheted pumpkins and knew that I had to give it a try.  So today I bring to you my version!

These were sooooo fun to make!  I am working on another set with some multi color and thinking I might add some raffia to these.  I didn't look for a tutorial but I am sure that there were some out there.  I tend to just kinda wing it most of the time and use the pictures as inspiration.  I am adding a couple links that inspired me!  Or check out my Autumn board on Pinterest.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/256775616227891621/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/256775616227891510/

Well fellow travelers that's it for today.  Gotta get my fanny in gear here and get ready to take Mom to her Dr's appointment.  Glad that I had a moment to share with you all and I hope that I brought a smile to at least one face.  Blessings to each and every one of you.

New Post to celebrate Autumn! YAY!

Well, just over a  year since I have posted and my life has changed so much.  Last I posted I was getting ready for a craft show and never made it.  It came about that my Mom could no longer live alone and so I stopped working on crafts and pretty much everything else and started remodeling (with the help of family and hubby) 3 rooms of our house to make a "mini apartment" for my Mom.  Here I am just over a year later after many visits to the ER, a crash course in Medicare (holy moly) Nursing homes and Hospitals later and thrilled to say that my Mom is on the mend and doing awesome!  Well enough that I have time to do a few of the things that I was doing previous to her moving in.  She will be 82 in December and absolutely is an inspiration to me personally.  Its a great joy to have her here and to have her get to know her littlest granddaughter better.  Bless her heart she has really handled having a 4 year old under foot constantly like a champ!  Of course I am the youngest of 6 so...she had a clue to start with. lol

So today I wanted to share with the world at large some of the Autumn decorations that I have put together. Some are inspired by Pins on Pinterest (thats one thing I have managed to do this past year!) and some are just my own.  None the less I wanted to share and show.

I will be trying to get back more often now that things are settling down...but we still average about 2 doctor visits a week and time just escapes me.  But I do promise it wont be a year!

Please enjoy and Happy Autumn to you all!

This is the Buffet in my dining room.

Below are some closer views of a few of the things on it

Top left of the Buffet.  I love using corn, so natural looking.

This is my Autumn Girl.   I used to make these girls for craft shows.  

The grasses are out of my yard mixed with some dried flowers.

Love the way it turned out!

The middle section of the Buffet.

The bottle at the top right is old, was some sort of medicinal type bottle.

bottom left is the pumpkin that I cut out of a book last year, that was sooo fun to make!

Just to the right of the pumpkin is my lantern, have had that for years and on Pinterest the other day 

I saw that people were filling them with pinecones, so naturally I had to too! 

Lower shelves, just a couple pretty baskets.

The shelf on the wall opposite my Buffet.

The dust pan is probably 50 years old from my Great Uncles hardware store, it was

just screaming for some dried flowers.  The plates are one of my fall favorites, a gift from my Sister.

My Halloween girl, all decked out for the Halloween Ball.  I so look forward to putting her and the

Autumn girl out each year.  You would never believe how many of these I sold at craft shows! 

They were so fun to design, each one a bit different.

My very ugly front door that needs redone but the pretty wreath that my Mom made!

Broom corn!  I love this stuff!  My future son in law's family grows this and each year he brings me some.

I just love it.

Well thats it for today, tho I still have a couple things I am working on and when time allows I will get them posted.  Thanks to all that stop by to visit my itty bitty part of the internet.

Blessings to each of you.

Braided Rugs

Good morning!

We have a lovely sunny morning here and since my thumb and middle finger are numb from sewing, I thought I would take a break from crazy crafting and make a post.  :)

I also have a peek at what I have been working on for my upcoming craft show that I am participating in, in October.

In trying to figure out what to make for this show, I decided to tackle cleaning out my fabric closet.  Let me tell you that was a process!  Our house has looked like a fabric bomb went off in it for several weeks.  What a job that was.  I literally have one full closet full of fabric.  All of it had been shoved in to boxes and shoved in to the closet and none of it was organized.  UGGG

 Now though every type of fabric has its own box (or boxes in some cases lol) so 

when I open the closet I no longer scream and close the door quickly.  :)

While cleaning out the closet, I found that I have enough polyester to clothe my Mom's retirement community. Hmm what to do with it all?  Braided rugs... that's what!

I made one of these years ago for myself and I love it.  They are durable and feel good on your tootsies when you walk on them.  Its a lot of work and my fingers are in pain but I get more excited the further I get and just had to show it off a little.  I will post a pic when done.  The outside edge will be the dark purple and it should measure out to about 3x3...I think.  

I hope that where ever you are in the world that your day is a good one, filled with Love, Laughter and Friends/Family and Good Health!

I will post again when the rug is done (hopefully in the next day or so.)

<3 to all!

Monogram letters...mostly :)

Greetings to all!

We have an overcast day here, but thankfully have had just a tad of rain the last couple days.  At least enough to green up some of the grass.  So sad to look around and everything looks yellow and the poor farmers!  How they must be worrying.  Hopefully this is just one of those hot summers and next year things will be a bit more normal.

Before I get to the Monogram letter(s), I wanted to give a quick update.  

I have decided to do a craft show coming up in October.  I am so excited!  I haven't done a craft show in years...at least 16 years.  So needless to say life here in our house is a on overdrive.  Just wanted to let everyone know why I will be even more sporadic in my postings than so far.  I will try to pop in here and there to let you know what I am working on, but much of what I am doing I have already covered in earlier postings. 

That brings me to today's post!

All over Pinterst there are pins for Monogram Letters.  Oh my goodness there are TONS of them.  I will post a couple links but if you want more type in "monogram letters" to the search engine in Pinterest and you will be amazed.  There are so many varieties, its absolutely inspiring.  I wanted to give a try to one with my own touches.  :)

Here is the result:

I love Love LOVE the way it turned out!  I am a fan of blue jean and try to work it into most things I make.

I used a bit of ribbon woven in  (some easter ribbon that I had) to add some color here and there.  I can hardly wait to get it up on the wall!  It is going on a bright yellow wall so that blue jean will really pop!  I will add another picture later, but was too excited to wait.

Have you done any Letters?  If so how did you do yours?

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my creativity for today and I will be back as time and new things permit.

Here is a link for Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/search/?q=monogram+letters

Thanks for stopping by today!

From Keyboard boxes to...

Happy Sunday to all!  

Today we have a blissful summer day.  I am sitting in the warm breeze with low humidity and its absolutely wonderful.  Finally a break from the 100+ degree days we have been having and I am going to take full advantage of it!

But while I was stuck in the air conditioning the last few days I did do a fun project!  Here is the pin for my inspiration:  http://pinterest.com/pin/256775616224450475/   When I pinned this I was so excited to do it!  I obtained some clean pizza boxes from our favorite pizza place and then was stumped as to what to do next.  LOL  The boxes used in the pin were different from the ones I had and so honestly I just shoved the boxes and the project to the back of my head.  In the mean time, a fellow freecycler gave me some computer keyboards for another project that I have in mind.  The keyboards actually all came in boxes!  Again the pin came back to me as I looked at these boxes for the last several weeks.

Enough babble :o)  

Here is what I started with:

Six lovely keyboard boxes...

and here is what I made them into!

I am pretty tickled with the way this turned out!

It will fit on my shelf and will be sturdy enough to hold cardstock and papers.

If anyone is interested in the process it took to make this I will be glad to post some pictures and simple instructions of what I did.

Next I will tackle those pizza boxes!

Maybe you should order a pizza today?  

:o)

Bubbles! YAY!

I have yet to meet a little one that doesn't LOVE to blow bubbles.  I know that Little Missy really gets a charge out it.  I don't mind bubbles in the house or outside but the only issue I have is that every time she bends over to pop a bubble while holding the container, she spills them.  That's Ok outside (except the waste part) but inside it's a bit on the messy side.

So here is how I have solved this issue:

I took a wire coat hanger and used the hook to hold the bubbles bending it a bit to fit, cutting open the body of it to make some hangers for the back.  I covered any sharp edges with electrical tape to protect her little fingers. The nice thing is almost every room has some place that I can hook this and this morning while she was playing in her "Poodle" (Little Missy speak for Pool) we hooked it right on the edge and she was able to blow bubbles while taking a dip in COLD water.

How do you keep the bubble spillage down?  Do you have a nifty tip or trick?  

I would love to hear it if you do.

Recycling Station

As I was taking the picture for the memory notes from Daddy, I noticed our recycling station that we have set up in our kitchen.  I say station, but really its a small area next to our garbage can.  We take recycling pretty seriously here and make sure that we recycle as much as possible.  Here is a picture:

The top bag is for cans.  We always rinse them out and take the tabs off.  A friend of mine has the energy to actually take these to the recycling center to turn them in, and I am happy to save them for her! Can you see the pizza box?  That where our cardboard goes.  We always open the ends and flatten it out.  The bottom brown bag is for all that chunky plastic stuff.  I always try to sort it out for our recycle guy, just feels like I am saving him a step in a job that I really appreciate him doing.  Then of course we have the big bins outside that the stuff goes in to.

How do you recycle?

I am always interested to hear how other people do things, share your ideas with us!

Memories for the kiddos

The first on my itty bitty mind is the Little Missy.  I have mentioned before that we are "older" parents.  Little Missy is 3.  I am 46 and Hubby is 54.  He and  I have had many conversations about how to raise this little mid life gem.  We are sticking with some of our ideals from the older girls but we are very conscious about the fact that this little one may not have the memories that the older girls will have when we are gone.  (KNOCK on wood, thats a ways off!)  One of the things that I came up with is this...

This obviously is our coffee counter...we would not function with out our morning coffee!

Hubby is up at 4ish each morning and we have our timer set for the coffee to be ready when he is up and going.  Since he leaves so early in the mornings Little Missy never gets to see him until the evening when he gets home.  That makes for a long long day even tho she talks to him at lunch time almost every day.  So I set up a Daddy note station by the coffee maker for  Daddy to leave notes to his girl.  He's not much of a "writer" and his hand writing at times can be unreadable...but bless his heart he has really taken to this idea!  I put several sizes of post its in a basket with a pen, so that he needn't search for those items.  The giraffe has a clip on the back (up on his head) that he can clip the notes to.  Now Little Missy heads straight for the giraffe each morning for her "dose of Daddy".  It's very sweet, and those notes follow her thru the day.  Eventually I will gather them all up and make a scrap book page for her with them, but for now they are her treasures.

What do you do to make memories for your kiddos?  I would love to hear!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Looks like it will be a HOT 4th here!  Just barely 8am and so muggy and sticky that its hard to breathe! 

Should still be a fun day tho, I picked up some fun activities for the Little Missy.  Her first year with sparklers and pop its, snapits and streamers!  Should be a fun if not NOISY day here.  Throw in some grilled meat and veggies, the pool and sprinkler and we have a lovely relaxing holiday here.   

But for this morning I had several things on my mind and thought that I would share them with you, maybe even spark a bit of conversation here.  :o)  I originally was going to make this one post but decided that several smaller ones would be better.  So watch for that coming up today.  

I hope that you all have a blessed and safe holiday.  Drink LOTS of water and Thank God above and our Soldiers for the many blessings we will all enjoy today.

Peace and love...spread it with a smile today.

A Quickie... :D

Ok fine....quick as in fast, or...ok quick as in not a LONG post!  Sheesh, where was your mind at?
LOL forgive me, its blazing hot here and my brain is nearly fried.  None the less tho I wanted to make a post about what we did today!

On Pinterst...(You had to know that was coming!)  I saw a post about how to make butter in a baby food jar and we just had to try it.  Here is the link so that you can try for yourself if you wish.
http://pinterest.com/pin/256775616224910336/

A couple notes:  Make sure that as you are shaking you keep checking your jars.  We did have one jar that cracked at the bottom.  Just something to be cautious of, no one likes eating glass shards!   After getting our butter done we made one jar honey butter and the other garlic/parsley.  Both were heaven!  I had read on another post like this that they put in a dash of salt (and used nickels rather than marbles).  I was going to do that and then forgot, I didnt miss it tho since our flavorings were pretty awesome.  It was a great way to show Little Missy how a liquid can turn into a solid and it was just plain fun and yummy!

So if you are looking for a fun something that doesnt take forever give it a try and then eat the fruits or in this case the "butter" of your labor.

With that, I am off to eat more butter...I hear it calling my name.  Before I go here is a thought to ponder.

"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."

— John Sawhill

To rain or not to rain...that is the question!

Our morning here started well before 6 am...much to my disappointment.  Since we were up and moving so very early (and the coffee kicked in pretty fast) I decided today was the day to tackle a project I have put off for several years.  I was given one of those glider rockers about 10 years ago.  When I got it, it was not in great shape, but we put it on the front porch and there it has set since then.  Ok so I am slow...already noted!   Since we have had such dry hot weather I felt I was safe in attacking this right were the glider sits.  This bad boy is heavy and I didn't have THAT much energy. I was sanding the wood by 7 and painting by 9:30.  Woohoo gettin stuff done~!  When all the sudden someone has turned off the sun!  What the heck?  I turn around and the clouds were moving in.  They were incredible looking, so I grabbed a tarp to cover the swing (uggg) my camera (borrowed from Sissy really need to get one of my own someday) and a fresh cup of coffee and then sat on the porch steps to watch these clouds roll in.  Normally I wouldn't think to post this but the last picture that I took was kinda spooky eerie and I had to have witness!  LOL So here we go from the top...dont mind the yellow dry looking grass...we NEED rain!

Hmmm...this last picture.

Am I the only one that see's an eye?

After all of those clouds...thunder that rattled the windows...we received about 3 drops of rain.  So disappointing!  Hopefully some more storms will kick up this afternoon...fingers crossed.  I am not looking at any more clouds today tho lol that last one has me weirded out!

Busy Busy!

Good Friday Morning to all.

Has been a couple busy weeks here.  Starting with a tree (or half of a tree) coming down in our back yard.  Normally this would not be such a big deal but it happen to be the tree that our Little Missy's swing was in.  No fear, it was the OTHER half of the tree that came down, but needless to say her tree swinging days are over.  Since there are no other suitable trees to hang her swing from (mostly because one at a time they have all come down from storms etc.) we had to figure something else out.  I started searching for a swing set and found that Walmart had a small metal one for 60.00.  It was small, but it fit in our budget and so we ordered it.  It took just about a week for them to get it shipped to the store.  Now I understand you get what you pay for, we did purposely pick the cheapest one because that was our budget allowed for.   Little Missy and I were very excited waiting for it to come in and finally last Friday it did.  Hubby didn't have time until Sunday to put it up and thankfully he started on it at 5 in the morning or she wouldn't have had a chance to use it until Monday.  For heavens sakes, the instructions were certainly lacking.  So many tips they could have given to make it an easier job.  But more than the instructions it was the way things fit together that were perplexing.  Again hubby and I found ourselves in a discussion about the quality of the toys now vs. say 21 years ago when our middle daughter was little.  This has been discussed several times since Little Missy was born 3 years ago.  It just seems that quality doesn't extend to the lower price items.  As if we who cannot afford the very best don't deserve to have things that fit properly.  I am sure that's an exaggeration but sometimes its how it feels to have these items that don't fit together the way they should. I say charge me a couple more dollars and make the instructions sensible and the parts fit better~

Uggg.  

Ok thats my "rant" for today...sorry just needed to get it out!

So during all of this Father's Day has come and gone and I never did upload pictures of our gift to Daddy.  It started with an idea from Pinterest.  Here is the link.

http://pinterest.com/pin/85075880430303638/

I thought that was the cutest idea!  I took it a step further and we used the cardboard case from Daddys favorite kind of beer for our cut out.  

It was late in the day and the only way that I could get the picture was to get up on a ladder!  Thats my arm there over the top.  Well, let me tell you when we (Big Sissy the middle daughter) and I saw this picture we laughed ourselves silly.  It looks like I am trying to show off my bicep or something.  Still makes me laugh to see it now.   So we decided it was the perfect picture for Daddy (since after 20+ years of marriage he already knows Momma is a goof ball!)! 

We found our frame and decided on blue jean as our mat background. 

We took this yet another step further and used our cardboard cutouts to make a couple other pictures for daddy's garage area.  I had some saved some paintings Little Missy had done that had pretty colors in them.  The paintings were done with that Crayola Color Wonder paint.  When it dries it has a semi glossy look to it and colors that are surprisingly vibrant.  Here is a link to that product, I have to say its one thing we have purchased that she really enjoys and it works just the way they say it does!

http://www2.crayola.com/products/splash/color_wonder/magic_light_brush/index.cfm

I took the paintings she had done and backed the cutout part in the cardboard so her pretty colors were showing thru then made a cardboard frame for it and covered it with more blue jean.  Now he has 3 pictures instead of just one~!  I have to say he really seemed to enjoy it and that made us very happy!

Here are the other two pictures the way they turned out. 

Yes, I know there is a glare.  But the good thing is you can really see the texture of the paint when it dries.  It's pretty cool.  Not the most glamorous gift in the world...but our guy liked it.  So many fathers day ideas that were out there had a mans tie as a part of the them.  Our guy is not a tie guy.  He is a car guy and so we wanted our gift to fit him and I think we succeeded.  Usually his gifts are Car related, so it was fun to have something different for him...and he can put it up in the garage...thats close to the car. lol

Lets see...cleaning up the tree mess, putting up a swing set and fathers day plus the incredible heat that we are all experiencing has kept me from my blogging duties.  I did manage to find some time to check out pinterest along the way as well as some much needed reading on blogging.  Feel free to look me up on Pinterest, such a fun place to get inspired and I have found some really fun pins lately, my recycling board and craft boards seem to be popular as well as the crochet and knitting ones.  I would love to hear from ANY of you about your boards...always looking for new pinners to follow!

I will be making a couple other posts today, but for now I leave you with a quote to ponder (lol I felt it was fitting given the fathers day gift)

"Listen up, you couch potatoes: each recycled beer can saves enough electricity to run a television for three hours."
~ Denis Hayes