Day 10 of the 12 Days of Fun

Dane lost his first tooth!!! And that got me looking for a tooth pillow. Found an adorable pattern made from felt, but we didn't have any. So I used the next best thing...construction paper! I will make the pillow, once I get to the fabric store and buy some felt. I have been finding all kinds of cute things made out of felt. Enough for a post all by itself.

Here is the toothless boy!

Day 9 of the 12 Days of Fun

I've been having some fun with my sewing machine! I have always had a desire to learn to sew clothing, but never really say down long enough to learn. Now that I have a little girl, there are so many cute things I want to make!

These turned out so cute, I made another pair for myself as arm warmers. But they were confiscated by my son when he came home from school. Now, we'll be going back to the store to get many more pairs since we decided that so many people would like some of these! And it's been cold here, so they are perfect!

Day 8 of the 12 Days of Fun

Another project I have been putting off. I have a few pieces of jewelry that needed to be repaired. The charm bracelet needed some new charms added and the two necklaces that I made needed some minor repairs made. Now I can go out on my birthday wearing some
BLING!

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Fun

Later on, I want to post about my reading goal that I have for this year. But I did read one book during my 12 days and was so glad I did!

I can't believe that I had never read this before, but it is definitely a wonderful book. And not just for kids!

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Fun

(oops...I'm running behind...but I've been having FUN!)

I believe I've said this a few times, but when we moved I had some items in storage and wasn't able to get it all. So all of our Christmas decorations are still in Florida. So I've been trying to think of ways to be a little frugal this year. I did know that I was going to need new lights for the tree, so that was an expense I was anticipating. But when we went to Lowe's to get our tree, they were sold out of white lights! I really don't like colored lights, so I thought we could stop at Dollar General. Still, no white lights. Dane had run into the store with me and he said he liked the colored lights, so I thought with the kids, all the different colors might be nice for a change. So, colored lights it is! And I must say, I found one box of LED colored lights while digging behind all the boxes of lights. I grabbed it along with a few boxes of the traditional lights and once they were on the tree, I love the LED lights! The bulbs are shaped somewhat like a pinecone and the glow off of them is remarkable. And they were only $3 or $5 dollars (can't remember) but definitely a good deal. I'll have to remember to check Dollar General next year for some more lights.
So once we got home, for the first time, all of us gathered around the tree and helped with decorating it. And we had a nice fire going in the fireplace! It was wonderful!

If you look closely, the LED lights are around the top of the tree. You can see they have a different glow about them.

Day 4 & Day 5 of the 12 Days of Fun

Okay, I got a little behind, so two things got done in one day.

Day 4

Alabama is the 2009 SEC champions!

And, while I was watching the game, I finally got some snowflakes finished!!

Day 5

Day 3 of the 12 Days of Fun

Homemade Fried Pickles and a Corona = A Fun Day!!

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Fun

With the new year right around the corner, I have been thinking ahead to my goals for next year. I made something like 12 goals for this current year, and think I will succeed on one of them, my Books to Read. And one of those is "The Artist's Way". One of the task was to create an Inspiration board, which I had done in the past, but I never hung it in a place where I could see it everyday. Then after thinking about the coming list of new goals, I found this great article and one thing that really stuck out was: Some gurus of goal setting recommend that you keep a picture of the item where you see and are reminded of it every day. So taking all of this advice, I create a Inspiration board for over my desk, which I sit at EVERY day!!

A few of the things represented here:
1) Yeah, I want a TRUCK!!
2) Turn the extra room into a guest bedroom instead of a junk room
3) New bookcases
4) A beautiful home
5) Go to a Junk Gypsy event

Day 1 of the 12 Days of Fun

(This one project ended up taking place over three days and ran me behind on posting, but I do have something for each day.)

Day 1

Awhile back, Dane & I were in the craft store and I let him pick out a toy to get. He picked out a bucket of the Perler Beads. They were new to me, I had never heard of them before. Anyway, for a long time, he would just play with making designs, but never wanted me to iron the beads and fuse them together. Then this past week, he asked if I would help him create some designs and iron them for him. After looking at the website (which is full of wonderful ideas) I had the idea of us creating some Christmas ornaments. This was brought about by two facts: 1) I love unique ornaments and 2) I don't have a single ornament to put on our tree! (they are in storage 300 miles away). So, what started out as my son creating some cool designs turned into Me becoming obsessed with Perler Beads!! In the photo above, Dane made the killer whale, and I made the rest. The pink dolphin is for Gracyn and now Dane wants his own snowflake and heart. We are having to be creative in our color schemes though, as we only have the one bucket and do not have such Christmasy colors as red, green or white (hence the blue snowflake!. But we did have a fun time doing this together and have spent the last few evenings, sitting in front of the computer saying, "Oh, look at this one, oh, look at that one!"

12 Days of Fun

Seeing as someone in this family will be having a birthday on December the 12 (hint, hint), I have taken the initiative of declaring the next 12 days FUN DAYS!! I'm being optimistic here in that I can find at least one fun thing to do each day for the next 12 days (and cheap too!) Dane was all for it, as only a 6 year old can be. And the wee-one, well, she's delighted about anything. I just haven't informed Hubby that he will be participating in this Fun-filled event (Ha Ha) You would think after 9 years he would be use to my eccentric ways by now, but I still manage to amaze him with my brilliance!!! Since I am including the whole family and 1) Dane is in school until 3 pm and 2) Hubby is at work until 7 pm, this events will take place later in the day, so my blog post will be a day behind. So, come back tomorrow for our first event!! See you then!

Let the Crafting Begin

I guess with the cooler weather and the Holidays fast approaching, I've been bitten by the Nesting Bug and am having crafting ideas out the wa-zoo! There are just So Many Things that I want to make I'm not even going to bore you with all the details. But I did get a little crafting done this week.

First off, I purchased this book a while back, along with the necessary starting supplies: felting needle and wool roving.

While the directions are great, I only attempted this one time. And with the help of my son, who picked out the colors.

I introduce you to Jack the Dog (breed: unknown)




Dane just loves this little fellow. But I never did attempt to create any more dogs from the book. While wandering the woods I found a whole slew of unique fall leaves and acorns. I started gathering them, not really sure what I was going to do with them. I actually had them sit there for a few weeks. Then, while perusing the internet the other day, I happened upon a tutorial from Martha Stewart about making felt acorns. So that got me on a roll.

I went from actually using the felting needle to just rolling the wet felt in my hands. But I just can't seem to get the shape I want. Still going to keep trying. But it did have other rewards. I had started gathering the acorns and caps but realized that I didn't need the acorns anymore. Then I discovered, you can actually SELL the caps! So, new to the shop tomorrow,

Acorn caps, minus the dead ladybug (another post I haven't made yet). A few weeks ago, our back porch was literally swarming with ladybugs, but now that the weather has gotten cold, I'm now finding ladybug carcasses. At least this one will live on, if only in my blog :0)
So, drop by Grace Goods tomorrow if you need any acorn caps to use in your crafting. Or maybe you could play a practical joke on a friend and send them a box, just so they will ask "What the hay?!"

Now I have a request to ask, since I am on the subject of the shop. How does one take a GOOD picture of black clothing? I have this awesome vintage coat in the shop. But I feel like it hasn't sold yet, because the pictures are just, well, bad.

Here is the first one I took outside on the lower porch. I thought natural lighting would be the way to go, but obviously I was wrong.

Too faded.

Then I brought Adell (the dress form and my first employee at Grace Goods) into the Dining Room, thinking indoor lighting would be better, but I still don't think it makes the coat look good. This coat is so cool. You can see the listing here.

If anyone has any experience or ideas of how to take better pictures of black clothing, I would appreciate it. Most of the other things turn out great on the lower porch with the natural lighting. Still learning all the selling techniques and tricks.

Well, I'm off to do some more crafting. Stay tuned, I have lots more to show ya!

A Thoughtful Treat

During the Halloween Party at A Fanciful Twist, a few wonderful bloggers host giveaways during the wonderful event. I wish I had been more organized and offered a give-away myself, but I am claiming moving boxes as my excuse. But never fear, I already have some wonderful ideas bubbling around in my head to offer up for next year.

I was lucky enough to win something from two of them. My first gift arrived yesterday...


Mr Wee Pumpkin, made and given to my by Debby at Midlife Poet. She has an amazing blog and I just love the stories she creates for this parties! The stories are creative all by themselves, but then she creates the most amazing scenes to go along with them. Truly a treat to behold. Thank You Debby for the wonderful gift. It really means a lot to me.


Ya know, I haven't post any pictures of our new home. Bad, bad me. I will wander the homeplace and surrounding lands and bring back some pictures of our new home. We have been on a few little roadtrips. And sadly, on this last one, Dear Hubby, didn't tell me that I might want to bring my camera. So I ended up having to purchase a disposable, and like a dummy, left it and my cell phone in our friends truck, whom lives in Birmingham (45 minutes away). I realized I had left my phone about an hour after he left. So, I have been phone-less for the past 3 days. Kinda nice :0)

Anywho's, Hubby is now working in Scottsboro for Advance Auto. Yeah, I never did really mention this, because it was kinda a sore subject, but here goes. He was offered a job with Hollywood Video (Movie Gallery) as District Manager for the Birmingham area. That is why we moved from Florida. He had the job for 3 weeks, had moved his district for the bottom to one of the Top 10, and then like that - BAM- they fired him. To let you know how screwed up they are, it took over a week to find out his actual reason of termination. And it's all PooPoo. But the good thing is, the very next day after he was fired, his old job, Advance Auto, was calling him on the phone. It took about 2 weeks for them to get an opening in this area, and the store in Scottsboro is about an hour and 15 minutes, but they are working on getting him to Anniston, which is about 20 minutes. I'm just happy he got a job. But I have a confession to make. While he was unemployed, I got some many Honey-Do projects completed, he did the laundry, he even cooked dinner a few nights!! He was turning into a real Mr. Mom!!

So, back to the story. Since he is working in Scottsboro, he saw a shop that I might be interesting in going to. Unclaimed Baggage . And is was a treat. I found a few books that had been on my To Be Read list and some music CD's. There was a really nice selection of clothing, but with three kids and two men with me, it was hard to get into a real shopping zone. But I will check it out again.

After that, our friend made a comment that we were only 70 miles from Chattanooga, so we kept driving and ended up at Rock City. This is where I purchased the disposable camera. It was quite an adventure and once I get the pictures developed, I will post and write about it.
Until next time...Ciao for now!!

October 2009

October has always been my favorite month, I guess starting with the fact that Halloween is my favorite holiday, but there always seems to be so much other fun stuff going on. With us moving this month too, the time has just flown by. So I am going to give a quick recap of all the F-U-N stuff that we need, no need to go into showing you what brown moving boxes look like.

1. Our first trip was to the Barber Motorsports Park & Museum in Birmingham. Being car lovers, we were hoping for more automobiles, but the impressive collection of motorcycles will still take your breath away. And we happened to arrive on a day when they were having some speed trials on the race course. I took a ton of pictures of motorcycles, but I'll be descrete and only show a few favorites.

The family along with a friends daughter, Ashlin.

The Shop Rat, built by project bike built by the students of Chelsea High School in Alabama.

1956 Parilla Corsa - Italy

1966 B.M.W. R60/Steib - Germany

1946 Indian Chief - USA



2. Next on the agenda, we visited the Birmingham Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". It was getting late and cold, so please forgive the blurry photos!

Cowboy Dane and Gracyn Belle


****WARNING****
The next picture is not for the faint of heart...it is actual food used at the Zoo for some of the animals.
****YOU'VE BEEN WARNED****

Yeap, rats, mice and chicks. For the snakes and alligators.

Tablescape set up at the Zoo


3. Now, on to brighter events. Dane's school had a Fall Fest...

He is getting is hands painted.

4. Last but not least, there was a fieldtrip to The Farm.

Dane's 1st Grade Class

Child of the Corn

Giant pumpkins to play on

Pickle got her face painted.

Gracyn just didn't know what to think of the giant gourds!


All of these pictures and I didn't get to snap any of Dane in his Halloween costume. Our friend took us to a local church that had a carnival on Halloween night and we were so busy chasing all of the kids, that the night was over before I could even think about pulling out the camera and snapping some pictures.