One finished project and some resolutions

One finished project! I would have had two, but I did flock one of the little deers pink and re-glittered its antlers and tail. It was super duper cute and I loved it.....and so did Sam! He felt like it would be really yummy to eat said deer. BAH! Right after I was feeling so squishy lovey towards him, too. I have another ugly red deer and I will flock that one pink and then hide it up really high. So, here's some thank you cards that I made this weekend. They turned out okay. It takes me for-ever! to think of an idea. So, I had been wanting to add in sheet music for awhile and don't really know how - this is closer to what I want but still not perfect. I did try one with some little flowers but it looked like dookie so I scratched that idea.

I'm thinking about some of my resolutions for the upcoming year - are you? I usually try to make at least 5. Here's a preliminary list (in no particular order):

1. Lose weight - I want to be able to wear cute dresses! This year for my work Christmas party I fantasized about wearing a fun party dress only to end up wearing standard black pants with a jacket. My shoes were fun, but no one could see them!

2. Moisturize at least twice a day - my skin is starting to get too dry and wrinkly. This seems super basic, and I do okay most the time, but truly my hands are looking old. And sometimes I skip it at night.

3. Learn how to knit with double pointed needles. There are so many cute little things that I'd like to try to make - first up wrist warmers!

4. Try not so spend so much money on pointless things. I'm really bad about this. Next year at tax time when I get my print out of how much I made last year I don't want to end up saying -"where did it all go???"

5. Do a daily devotional. Even if it is only like 5 minutes. I need to focus on God way more.

So, these are the biggies. I've already started with Weight Loss Wednesdays, so I'm on the right track for that one.

Dogs

Today I am so thankful for my dogs. My bff Jan called me today and was tres upset because her dog Brewster was sick - at the vet and she was having to make some tough, difficult and heartbreaking decisions about what to do next. I offered to be there with her to give whatever support I could, although in that situation I don't know what you can do to comfort someone. Jan went into the vet with her beloved Brewster, the grouchy and loving old man dog - and we left with a cardboard box. It really happened so quickly that I'm still wondering what exactly just happened??? I believe that pets go to heaven. I have always believed that. They are one of God's creation and I believe that he loves them. In some small way that is a comfort - believing that Brewster is no longer in pain or scared. I am so sorry for her and her family. I came home and hugged my cuckoo dogs like crazy and let Sam jump up on me without reproach. I know they will not live forever, but all they want is love. And they have so much love to give and I am thankful for that. And, they keep my feet warm at night :)

A little Christmas cheer perhaps

This tree pic didn't come out so good, did it? Hmmm. Well I guess you get the idea anyway. Sorry about all the dust!! I started it last year from an ornament kit that I found at the thrift. It's got sequins, beads, little pearls and they are fixed with straight pins. The styrofoam tree was first wrapped in pink ribbon and then I started sticking in the pins. I thought about covering the entire thing - I might still. It's pretty time consuming though!

Next is this super cute little linen circle that Jan gave me. It was a decoration from her Grandma Violet, it could be from Norway since her Grandma had a ton of stuff from there. I just love the joy of the little elves!





And, I have taken to collecting these little deer. The tan one on the far left I found at the thrift and it was still in the package, it has a little sticker on it's belly that says "Japan", there were two of them. I'm just digging deer shapes and silhouttes! Some of them are quite ugly - but I have plans to experiment with flocking. Michaels has a good selection of Martha Stewart glitters and flocking - I'm thinking possibly pink or just a new red. Of course, there is the seasonal page in the frame.

I have a whole list of stuff to get done this weekend since it is extra long! Maybe by next week I will have pics of finished projects!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!!

Dolls

Do you have a book that sort of shaped your life? Some people might have a children's book that they loved to hear read to them, or maybe the first book they read and realized that they loved to read. Well, this is mine!

I was waaaaayy into dolls when I was young (who am I kidding? I still am!) and loved dollhouses especially. When we first moved to Chico when I was like 8 we lived across the street from an older lady named Mabel. Mabel had a short, tight perm and was a retired seamstress who wore cut off polyester pants and sleeveless button up tops that I'm sure she had either made herself or altered. She had a little poodle dog that she carried everywhere with her, and this was long before that was a fashionable thing to do. She had loooong fingernails and smoked long cigarettes. She was fond of saying "If you've got it, flaunt it baby!". Needless to say she made an impression on me. The best thing to me, though, was her dollhouse. She had it set up in the front bedroom in her house and it was HUGE - like the whole wall of the room it seemed like. I coveted that dollhouse. It was completely furnished and I loved to play with it. I don't actually remember if there were dolls, but I'm sure there must have been. We moved after that to another house and my mom and I would always go to the library during the summer and this was a book that I would check out and renew and renew. It is the best ever! It's got like a little story on how this doll family came to be, and patterns and instructions to make all the dolls and their clothes.

I didn't quite get the how-to's for the clothes but I sure did improvise! I made a whole little city of dolls - I remember that sometimes I would pretend that they were tired of their hair color and I'd give them new yarn, or maybe they wanted a perm so I'd unravel the yarn. I had drawn all the faces on, so if one didn't come out perfectly I'd sew a little patch over the face and re-draw it. I discovered that this could also be like a facelift if one of my dolls was particularly vain, or maybe they didn't like the size of their nose. I had a blast doing this, and everything was by hand, as you can see they are pretty rough. I made pets for them, and little houses that I would decorate. The houses were in crates that my mom had given me. Currently they are in a box, i dragged a few out for this pic. I was laughing as I was taking the pics because their clothes are so - I guess primitive would be a good word? I was more concerned with having some sort of covering than details. The book has great patterns for clothes but they were definitely from a different era and mine are clearly 80's!

Anyways, I have been looking for this book for ages. I couldn't really remember the name so that made it a little tricky, but finally a google search turned up the right book! I bought it from Amazon for next to nothing - the shipping cost more than the book. But, really, the memories are priceless to me, and the book is so familiar because I had pored over it endlessly when I was young :)

Finally some knitting!

Thursday night was our work Christmas party. We drew names to exchange gifts, and I drew Amy - who loves coffee. Perfect! Easy gift. I bought a $20 gift card and knit up one of these coffee cozies. I made one for myself a zillion years ago and have gotten a ton of use out of it. Mine is, of course, pink and purple :) I found the pattern here from an online search. Of course, I did alter it. I guess I can't help myself! Instead of casting on 34, I cast on 32 and then increasing two stitches so that it would end up with 34 instead of 38. I found that with my stitches being a little loose it fit on the cup more snuggly. But, if you have really tight stitches the exact pattern might work perfectly for you.

Okay, and the next picture really makes me cringe, but I need an opinion! I am about to scream because my hair is driving me crazy. Should I cut it or wait it out to grow it? And my bangs? I have had the same style since I was like 5 - what should I do???

Cranberry Orange Sauce

As promised, here is the recipe that I had mentioned before. Please note that this is not my original recipe, I did find it in a magazine at my Moms house, but unfortunately do not remember the title of the magazine.

Cranberry Orange Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbs honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup pure orange juice
1 package of cranberries

Combine sugar, honey, water and juice in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add cranberries and spices, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Makes 2 1/4 cups.

What I changed in the directions was this - I started to squish the cranberries after they had simmered for 10 minutes so that they would absorb the sweetness from the sauce. I also then simmered for an additional 10 minutes to ensure a good mixture.

oh eeeewwww

I guess maybe I was trying to ignore Weight Loss Wednesday - especially since I gained 1lb!!!!! I fluctuate a lot with water so I'm really really hoping that it's just that. I did return to spin class last night and plan to go next Wednesday night -then after New Years plan to join "for real" the gym. I'm just waiting because I'm hoping that there will be a fabulous deal.

Okay, and I don't know why I was hesitating to mention this, but I finished book #3 in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. I have to admit that I didn't quite love it as much as I thought I would. But, I did really like it. I sort of thought it might go in a different direction than it did. But, that's a good thing that I couldn't tell exactly what would happen because it's not any fun to read a predictable book either! I read the manuscript of "Midnight Sun" on the Stephenie Meyer website which is Twilight from Edward's point of view and I soooooooo wish she would continue the story!!! You'd have to read her synopsis to understand why it doesn't seem like she will. It would be cool if she did though, I will say that.

I have a confession: I have hardly decorated for Christmas and I don't even think I'm going to. My heart is just not in it. It's weird not being in my "home" and frankly I guess maybe I'm just not in the mood? I can't explain it very well without going into too many details. Hopefully everyone else is getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoying getting ready!

pants and TobyMac

The not as exciting part first - I made Jan a pair of pajama pants for her birthday. Yes, I felt extraordinarily chintzy giving homemade pj pants, but what the hay. She seemed to like them okay (?) but I'm not a good judge of that kind of thing.

now onto the exciting part:

Last Saturday I went to check my email. Completely unsuspecting of anything cool in my inbox. And then! There was an email that I had won two tickets to the TobyMac Winter Wonder Slam tour, and the tickets were in the third row!!!! What?!? I never win anything! But, it was true! I had entered a raffle on KLOVE because I am a KLOVE insider. So, it was TobyMac, Relient K, and Stephanie Smith. I'll be honest, I actually had to think about if I was really going to go - for a few reasons. First, it's a 4.5 hour drive on a perfect day, and we just had a giant snow storm. And the concert was on Sunday night and I have to work at 8 am on Monday morning. And then gas money was also a factor, since it is such a long drive. And, I would have to go alone because everyone I asked thought I was crazy. But then I was like - wait a minute! This is a concert that I had been dying to go to, awesome tickets, and I'm only young once!!!! So I went and it was totally cool. The drive wasn't so bad - like 4.5 hours on the way there even with slowing down on the pass for packed snow. On the drive back it was more like 5 because I took it reeeealllly slow. I got home at like 2:30am, and I would say it was worth it. I was a really good show! It was great because you could tell that they were having fun up there on stage, not just putting on a show. I love his music so it was cool to see it performed live.

You say it's your birthday ba na na na na na

Yesterday I came home to two fabulous surprises! One was a birthday card from my Mom with a gift certificate for Joann's and also one for Michael's. The other was a swap package from Holland! How fun!!! This is another FQ sheet swap, love the sheets and especially love the card she enclosed.

Nothing much new, I just had lunch with some friends for my bday. I took the day off work so I could sleep in :) It's nice just to not have anything to HAVE to do today!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I'm going to go with my Monday weigh in because it was better than today by one pound! By Monday's weigh in I'm down 4 lbs from last week. I haven't actually noticed that I've done anything different, just watching portions and making sure to eat breakfast. I actually didn't do spin last week or the week before so I'm surprised that I lost anything at all - but I'll take it!

Catch up

So, here are a couple of pics from Thanksgiving. I made this little turkey pin to add some festivity to my outfit! LOL, no one noticed but it made me smile :) And here's a pic of the cranberry sauce I made from scratch. I found a recipe in a magazine at my Mom's house and she had given me this carnival glass dish so I thought *perfect*! The recipes was super easy, and smelled divine while it was cooking!!! I'll find the recipe and add it in later.





And then there's Sam - realizing that I am getting ready to leave the house and not too pleased about it! He cracks me up!


So, yesterday I stopped into the hospice thrift, one of my favorites, and I found a ton of great linens! So the top two sheets were $2 each and the pillowcases were .50 cents each. There are two crinoline lady pillowcases! I love those. The sheet with the bolder flowers was $1. It's sort of hard to find sheets around here for less than $2 so I think I did pretty well. I've almost got enough variety to start a quilt. So, that will be good. Speaking of sheets I just sent out two more packages for another sheet fat quarter swap from Swap-bot. I didn't get pics to share. I hope they like their packages, and I can't wait to get mine!




Let's see, what else? Oh, I went to see New Moon - not sure that I mentioned that? And I liked it. I actually liked it better than the first one. I've just finished the third book in the series. I also had to read the ending of the last one because that's just what I do. I had to know what was going to happen. I will still read it though. I also read another book last night, it was an easy read called "The Book of Jane" I don't remember the author - it was two ladies. The premise is that they took the book of Job from the bible and sort of adapted it to a modern day lady living in New York. It was a fine book, just not completely engrossing.

WLW

Ya-hooo is all I have to say! I'm down 1 lb so I'm happy! I thought for sure I would have gained or at the very least stayed the same with Thanksgiving (and two cheesecake options! Bah!) and no spinning class last week. The other days I tried to be good with cutting my portions, so I guess it paid off.


I have a few crafty things in the works. I am crochetting a scarf that I might give as a gift depending on how it turns out! Then, Joanns had flannel on sale the day after Thanksgiving for $1.49 a yard so I picked out two super duper cute prints to make pj pants. One pair for sure is going to be a gift and then the other might be for myself. I am also almost done with the Christmas advent calendar - I HAVE to finish it this weekend fo sho! I was stumped though last weekend on whether I wanted to embellish each little pocket or leave it plain. I think I've decided to embellish - after all I have all these fun embellishments! Why not use them :)

Cookies, swap and fun!

Okay, so over the weekend I made two big batches of persimmon cookies, and they turned out great! When I was in elementary school I had a friend named Wendy who was from Alaska and lived with her Grandmother and one time when I was over at her house her Grandmother served persimmon cookies. They must have been really delicious because I have remembered alllllll this time how much I loved them and wanted to make my own. So, a couple weekends ago while I was visiting my mom I found some almost ripe persimmons at the store and bought like 8 lbs of them! I will say that persimmons take a loooong time to reach the perfect ripeness. It's worth the wait though because these cookies are the bomb diggity! I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, it's a good resource. I did not, however add raisins, just walnuts and I liked the flavor with those.

And swoon! Friday I trekked to a teeny little outlying town to check out the quilt store and found this fabric that I absolutely had to have a 1/2 yard even though frankly I have no idea what I'm going to do with it! and let me tell you part of the fun was that the bolt was wound around not merely plain cardboard like normal bolts of fabric but metallic gold! It just looked so pretty! And whimsical. and fun.

And next up is another swap I participated in on Swap-bot, "Bakers Dozen Ribbon Swap." the first picture is what I received which was from Jeanne, a very generous package of fun ribbon!

this second picture is the package that I sent out to Katie, I had fun putting it all together. Katie had mentioned in her profile that she scrapbooks, so I just put in a few little brads that she might could use with the ribbons. I like to do that with some of my scrapbook pages.

a tardy WLW

Oooops! I forgot to post my weight loss Wednesday results! I didn't lose anything, just stayed the same this week. I was sooooo sore from the spinning class last Wednesday night that frankly any other exercise was out of the question. BUT, I went again last night and it was way better this week! I'm hoping that once it gets closer to New Years the gym will have a special (I'm figuring they will) and I can join and go to classes more than just once a week. As it is, I'm going as a guest and it's $5 a class. If I wasn't a guest it would be $10 which frankly I'm just not willing to pay.

fabric and swaps

This past weekend I drove down to visit my Mom. She had asked me to come down to help her get a little organized in her sewing room. We had so much fun on Saturday avoiding getting down to work, let me tell ya! We went to a couple thrift stores and a yard sale. I was specifically looking for vintage sheets, so I was super pleased to find a few at "Thrifty Bargain" which is a giant sorta grody thrift store. And, everything was 30% off!
So, when I left town it was SNOWING! ugh. By the time I got past the California border a little ways there was no more snow, but Mt. Shasta was in a cloud cover. On the drive back, this was the view! Absolutely beautiful! I had to stop along the way to get this pic because it was just so clear and gorgeous.

The other pretty landmark along the way is Castle Cragg. It just jumps out at a couple points along the way and is beautiful. This one is a little trickier to get a pic b/c it's on the side of the highway and there's not really anywhere to safely pull over to get a pic. So, honestly this picture does not do it justice, but you get the idea anyways :)
Also, can I please tell you that when I left Chico it was 68 degrees (!) and when I got home it was 34 (double !!). Pretty much that is not coooool. Brrrrr dude.
Okay, so we did get down to business and got all the Christmas fabric folded, sorted by color (I can't help it!) and drawers labeled. It was great! So, one genre done. My Mom's sewing room is seriously like a giant store, she has every type you could ever want! I brought home a box which is a generous mix of vintage, solids and Christmas prints! Also, we dug out some flannel to back my quilt! bonus! I'm looking forward to finishing up the quilt and now it will be totally cozy too!

So, I'm going to go ahead and post the pics of the "vintage sheets as fabric" swap that I participated in on Swap-Bot. We each had two people to send a package to, the requirements were to send two fat quarters of vintage sheets. One of the ladies that I sent to I think hasn't received hers yet because it was going all the way to Canada, so I'm not going to put a pic up yet. (just in case?)

These two pics are of the first one that I received, I liked everything in the package.

And then this was the second package, from Jane, all totally cute as well! She also included a little piece of a moo-moo she was making a quilt out of.This is the "scrapbook supplies surprise" package that I received. In an earlier post I had posted a pic of what I sent to my partner. But I guess it wasn't really a partner per se since I sent to someone different than who I received from.This is the first package that I had sent out to Adaiha. She had put in her likes that she liked olive and lime green so I tried to pick sheets that sorta matched that. I included a handmade card. I really hope she can use everything!

WLW

As of this morning I am down 2.1lbs! Yahoo! And tonight I am going to try spinning for the first time. My friend Kristin convinced me to take the class with her and a few other ladies. Honestly I'm hoping I don't keel over in the middle of it, I'm so out of shape. Frankly that would just be embarrassing! And last night I could NOT sleep. I finally made myself stop reading and close my eyes at 4am. I really could have stayed awake all night, and even though I was technically "sleeping" I wasn't really.

today's Godstop

Okay, so seriously??!! I literally JUST posted my last post, then popped over to the LPM blog (Beth Moore) and this video addressed what I was just talking about. God is so cool. I just HAVE to say that! Have to. I didn't say before exactly what study I'm working on - it's "Believing God", and in it there is a 5 statement pledge of faith, which is: God is who he says He is, God can do what He says He can do, I am who God says I am, I can do all things through Christ, God's word is alive and active in me. As if the video didn't get my immediate attention, Beth says that exact statement of faith towards the end of this video!

V. cool

stuffins

So, ladies night at Jan's was great fun! We laughed a ton, which we all needed. Sunday was the scrapbooking crop - I just worked on my Thanksgiving decoration thing. I really should think of an official name for it so I'm not rambling every time I explain what it is. I finally finished it up last night after bible study. I like the way it turned out! I also made this tote bag over the weekend with more of the fabric I'm loving right now. My embroidery skills are still not super fabulous but I really like the way this turned out. I drew the deer freehand and then traced over it onto the white fabric. I'm totally digging deer silhouettes right now so this makes me happy :)
I have a little confession. I think I'm in a "blue" period. I can't even articulate what I mean. I have done bible study after bible study and continue to ask God to change me, change my reactions, my feelings - everything. But I don't think I'm changing. And the sad part is that I know it's me. It's my fault. I have not been drawing close to Him, I have not followed through with scripture memory even though honestly that was helping me tons. And I think I just do that, run out of steam and then feel terrible. When am I ever going to get it through my head that I can't do this on my own energy - that I need to totally rely on God and let Him fill me up and get me through? One thing I am relieved about is that He is so patient and does NOT give up on me - or anyone else for that matter. In our video last night Beth Moore said "We get do-overs", and I thank God for that. Every day right now is a do-over.

mish mash of weekend stuff

I tried out one of these journal covers, not sure that I completely followed the directions (what's new?) but I think it turned out well anyway. I didn't really pay attention while I was sewing that the lining fabric was sewed upside down. But I figured that was just fine since it is on the inside. So the fabric on the outside I found at the thrift store, and loved it. I decided to use it for this project because I wasn't actually covering a journal but rather a composition book that I use as my idea book. And, I felt like the print was sort of creatively ispiring. The inside is part of a vintage sheet. I love the pen holder!

At the office I work at we have two Debbies. One we call Little Debbie because she is short and the other Big Debbie because she is tall. I prefer to call Big Debbie, Tall Debbie because she is quite thin and Tall Deb fits her better. Anyways, Little Debbie brought me a huge bag of apples on Thursday from her apple tree! Today I peeled and cut them all up. I put two big ziplocs in the freezer with enough apples for two pies. I'm deciding whether or not I'd like to make apple sauce or apple pie with the other ginormous bag?

Next up today I am going to bake some cookies for Jan's girls night! Ya-hoo! I have a recipe that takes boxed cake mix and makes cookies. So, I'm doing German chocolate and I think I might even frost them! mmmm good.

Tomorrow there is a scrapbooking crop! I'm looking forward to making my Thanksgiving page to put in the frame that I change out. I put out most of my Thanksgiving decorations, but don't really have too many places to put things in this other house so can't use them all. I'm trying to think up what I can make to put a display together on the little shelves above the stove.

Oh yeah, and I also got my swap packages sent out yesterday for the vintage sheets as fabric swap I participated in. I'm not going to post pics yet though until they've gotten them. I didn't think anyone actually read my blog except Jennifer, but apparently for the scrapbook supply swap my partner got a sneak peek! Which is totally fine, but it may have ruined the surprise?

orange, black and Red Rain

So, here's the thing, I'm not much of a Halloween candy passing out or dressing up type person. Never have been. I remember as a child being embarrassed to knock on a strangers door and ask for candy being dressed as something other than myself. I do like to make cute (not scary) decorations. Yesterday during the day I took apart this bracelet and made it into a charm bracelet that I will enjoy a lot more. Being right in the middle of town for the time being there are a TON of kids in my neighborhood and frankly I did not feel like buying and handing out candy.

Thankfully last night at my church there was a concert, the band being Red Rain. It was awesome! We have been so lucky that the band has come to play at least once a year. They are all very talented. Since it was Halloween there wasn't a huge crowd, which is too bad because they really missed a great show. I'm glad I went!

wlw and a swap

Okay, so weight loss Wednesday update first: I have technically lost weight because I gave blood tonight - don't know how much that is (?) but I'm counting it! Last weekend we ate so much that frankly I'm surprised I didn't gain like 10lbs. So, I was so nervous like all day about donating blood because I am absolutely the biggest wuss on the planet and hate needles! Hate them. Boo to needles. But, I actually did really good this time, did not turn green, feel kinda normal :) So, next time should be way easier, right?

Yesterday was the deadline to send off the swap that I participated in on swap-bot. My partner mentioned that she has a little girl so I had fun finding girly stuff. We were supposed to send 5 unopened packages and I think it should have been something that we already had in our scrapbooking stash. Since I am always eager to use whatever I buy right away I didn't not have anything brand new, so had to shop for everything. I did what I've done on every other swap I've done, I picked all stuff that I would like to receive. I hope she likes everything! I hope it doesn't take forever for the package to get to her, mail in these parts is super slooooow. Here's what I sent:

I'm fairly sure that she won't be looking at my blog, so hopefully this pic will not ruin any surprises!

giggling is good

Can I please tell you that I laughed so hard this weekend?! It was fabulous and much needed! So, every year a group of ladies I used to work with and I drive up to Bend to visit with another former coworker and friend. We usually go up in the Spring, but on this last trip we all agreed that once a year was just not really as frequent enough as any of us would like to visit Jodi and laugh our faces off! So, Sherry organized a girls weekend here this past weekend. She provided the place and the rest of us all divied up meals and such. We played games, watched movies, caught up and laughed until our sides and faces hurt :) It was great.

I have been assigned my first partners for the swaps I signed up for on Swap-bot and frankly I'm really excited to get my packages together to send out! One of them needs to be mailed by Tuesday so I need to get busy! I have a good idea of a few things I'm thinking of sending. I'll post pics once I have it all together.

wlw and retreat update

Okay, so last weekend the retreat was totally awesome!!! It was so, so good to spend some time just hanging out and scrappin' with Jan and the other ladies. There were these two ladies that had driven from a small town that's like 2 hours away and they were totally hilarious, and mixed with Jan's humour I was laughing all weekend. As predicted, though, I did gain weight! I think mostly because scrapbooking is so sedentary. I did also take my crochet project that I was working on, and finished it up Sunday night when I could not get to sleep. All weekend we were staying up until like 2 in the morning, and unfortunately I am still stuck in the staying up waaay to late cycle! So, these pics I took on the drive back of the brilliant contrast the Fall foliage! So much more beautiful in person, but you get the idea.

So, this little bear was inspired by Ana Paula Rimoli's blog and I have her book "Amigurumi World" which has the pattern for the basic bear. I saw her post where she had made her little bear a little Halloween costume and was like: I have to make one! But, as I think I've mentioned before I am cheap and so therefore did not want to pay for a pattern or ready made costume since I figured I could figure one out! Hers is admittedly way more professional looking. He just cracks me up! I've been keeping him on my desk at work to cheer me up :) I'm planning other little outfits for each season. I know, dorky!

In other news, I joined Swap-Bot. I was thinking I might enjoy swapping some more, and stumbled upon it. I'm glad I did, I've joined 3 swaps so far. I am going to do a Christmas card swap, a scrapbooking swap and a vintage sheet fat quarter swap. I had really wanted to join Jennifer's vintage sheet swap but at the time did not have enough variety to swap! I've gotten a little more stashed so I feel comfortable enough to participate.

wlw and a ponder....

Okay, so I lost 1 lb this week - yahoo! I'm the same today as I was on Monday so I'm calling it an official loss of weight! June and I went for a nice long walk on Sunday, that must have tipped me over to the loss side :) This weekend is the scrapbooking retreat though so I'm not sure that I'll keep that pound off! It's a whole weekend of scrapbooking and the staff at the retreat place makes all the food for us!
So, what I'm pondering is a name for my blog other than just my plain old first name. Thing is that I'm not so witty. And, frankly this thing is such a mish mash of stuff, you know? But, I've been thinking about it. Maybe something will come to mind when I'm not even thinking at all? It'll sneak up on me!

distract me with barrettes

Started sewing all the squares together for the quilt, got to the second row and realized that there were two squares right next to each other that had the same center - bah! Then, at the third row realized that one center was on point that really shouldn't be, so I had to take all the stitching out and resew it. About that time I realized I should work on something else :) Hence, the butterfly barrette. I saw the original on "One Pretty Thing" from Lollychops and thought it was so cute! Mine is actually my own doodled butterfly and I cut it out from 3 different types of fabric, then scrunched it in the middle and sewed on the button (one from my Mom's vintage stash hoorah!) and then I hot-glued it to a clip because I couldn't figure out how to sew it on :) I think I'll trim up the edges a little but otherwise I likey :) I will maybe also make one from the pattern from Lollychops b/c it's super cute.

halloween-y

Aha! I found another ugly pumpkin to re-do!!! For .75 cents I thought it'd be worth it ;) I'm thinking that this started out as papier mache, it doesn't feel like foam. I think I will glitter it tonight! Since there are nice big sections I'm thinking I'll alternate black/orange.


So, I've had this foam cone shape hanging out in my box just waiting for the perfect project. (sorry the table is such a mess!) So, I wanted to do one of these candy corn topiaries and I think it turned out cute :) I realized just now after linking it up that the original was made with posterboard - whoops! I guess it's the idea that counts, right?
Joann's had the cutest ever pompom edging so I had to get it! I used fabric that I just wrapped around then I pretty much just hot glued everything b/c I didn't want stitching to show. The only part that I did sew is on the bottom where you can't see, but I didn't want the raw foam hanging out so I just traced around the circle and added probably 1/4 inch, cut out another circle and sewed around. I cut a slit in the circle and turned it inside out, then glued the slit side down to the bottom of the cone.

Finished product!
And, here it is in the house, June of course snoozing on the couch.

And, here's the other thing I worked on earlier, had to change out the seasonal frame. I hadn't really gotten to try out my new Cricut Hello Kitty cartridge, so this was the perfect project! I have to admit that it was rather time consuming to cut out each little piece and glue it down. And, I didn't have a long enough piece of the orange to cut out "happy halloween" so I grabbed another of what I thought was the same color and now I'm noticing that the "n" is a shade off!!! BAH! Well, you get the idea :)

giveaway!

Okay, so seriously I would LOVE this scrap-box!!!!!! Check out the giveaway at Make it and Love it for all the details! How perfect would that be, for real???

here's what I've decided and wlw

And frankly this is not earth-shattering or revolutionary in any way except to me. I've decided that if I like something it doesn't matter if someone else doesn't, right? I like the stuff I do, and just because say, a close friend, doesn't - doesn't mean that my work is suddenly crap. So there.

Now that is taken care of and off my chest :) I did not lose any weight, but also did not gain :) I'll be happy with that especially since I had a salt-fest this weekend!

And, can I please tell you that our new bible study is AWESOME!!! Just plain ol good stuff. Love it. We're doing "Believing God" which is another Beth Moore study. I had actually started this same study like 5 or so years ago when I first was really serious about my walk. So, it's been cool to see where I was then and compare to where I am now. I think this study is meaning a little more to me personally because I can share it with friends. The first time around I didn't know anyone else and so I was just absorbing everything. This time, I can discuss things and watch friends grow.

I have rummaged

So Jan, her Mom in Law, and Sis in Law and I headed to the annual rummage sale at the fairgrounds yesterday. And guess what day it was??? Bag sale day! Anything you could fit in a bag for $4. So, here's how lame I am (and cheap) - I had really only budgeted $2 for the sale and at first was kind of bummed that it was twice as much as I wanted to spend. Until I got to the blanket/linen table, that is! There were a TON of old sheets. And, an old lady who was about to get to the pretty ones. I felt a little sneaky grabbing them up before her, but I guess that's how it goes at rummage sales? I'm thinking that all the sheets came from the same house, they are all from JC Penney and full sized, except one set of CA king. There is also a Strawberry Shortcake sheet that I just HAD to have!!! Here's a funny story - when I was in high school I went through a phase where I only wanted to wear homemade dresses. The catch is that I also wanted to wear tights that didn't match and my red sweatshirt. I wore my red sweatshirt with everything pretty much. And when I wasn't wearing tights I was wearing purple socks. Anywhoo - I had a Strawberry Shortcake sheet from when I was a kid and cut it up into a dress. But I cut the bodice out with the characters upside down so I never wore it! BAH! So, anyways I had to have that sheet. I will incorporate it in something for sure :)

I also snagged a wool sweater vest that if I don't want to wear I am going to felt. And some really cute old children's books that I have some fun ideas for cards/scrapbooking stuff. I also grabbed an embroidery hoop that is missing the tightener part, but I want to use it to make one of those pincushion threadcatcher things and thought the hoop would be perfect to sew the fabric around to keep the threadcatcher open.

I started to sew my quilt squares last night. Of course, I started stressing out about the thread contrasting because I started with one of the dark brown ones and the thread I had picked out looked terrible. So I ran over to Joanns and grabbed some dark brown thread. I sewed all the brown squares and today started on the green ones (with green thread).

So BTW it is absolutely freezing!!!! here! Freezing. Today when I drove by the bank thermometer it read 43!!!! Yesterday was like 44 b/c the sun was out. So, here's June keeping cozy on the couch, and as you can see she had made herself a little bed by pulling back the sheet and blanket I keep over the couch to keep her black fur from getting all over it! Little stinker :)