Just Stuff. . . . .

Nothing much going on but I thought I'd just share some random stuff with you all tonight. . .

WHO KNEW LUNCH COULD BE SO MUCH FUN?
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My Little Monkey makes EVERYTHING FUN!!!! These are just a few of the many pictures I took of her last week while she was eating lunch. She has graduated from her high chair to a chair of her own at the coffee table for meals these days. But for some reason last Thursday she wanted up in her highchair. She was too stinkin' funny! She just laughed and carried on while she ate. Of course I could not resist getting some pictures. I really wish I enjoyed my lunch as much as she did hers this day!

This was some sort of crazy dance move she made up during lunch - I really wish this was video so you could get the full effect!

SO NOT ME!!!!

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Those of you that know me, know I do NOT celebrate halloween at all. In Fact my daughter's are 26 & 20 and have never been allowed to trick-or-treat. So the following project is very much out of character for me. I made this little house for a silent auction this coming weekend at The Creative Quest (you local gals come in and use your Caitlin Cash and bid on it - okay) I had bought a bunch of these wooden houses at Mike's last week for $1.75!!!! I had planned on using most of them as Christmas decorations. I thought it would be a fun project for my girls and me at the holidays. Anyways when the auction thing came up I decided to practice on one before Christmas - this is the result. I actually think it turned out pretty cute even though we do not celebrate halloween at all. All in all I think it is "happy" looking and not at all "scarey" It's about 13.5" tall and 12" wide. There are 3 ghosts with googley eyes, one in each of the 3 bay windows. A bone for the door knocker on the front door and a little address plaque above the door that reads "1313" (I loved the Munsters when I was growing up - remember 1313 Mockingbird Lane???)

So this was my first ever altered house and halloween project - what do you think?

You can click on the photo to see more images and the "inside" of the house.

MY CHRISTMAS BANNER

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I have gotten really excited about making banners recently. I just love the look of them and they just make me happy. So I borrowed a friend's (thank you Susan!) die cut and cut myself out some pennants and this is the result. . .

I had sooo much fun making this! But it was really time consumming. I think I have about 30 hours of actual work time in on this. There are 6 layers of paper, one layer of chipboard (to make it sturdy, I want it to last for several years), sewing, beading, stamping, tearing, jewels and of course distress ink on each pennant. There are glimmer chip alphas that I altered to spell out "Merry Christmas" along with some great vintage Santa images. This will hang in our living room over all of our stockings this Christmas. I took the pennants with me to the store to pick out ribbons and while I was there I was asked to teach this banner as a class. I told them NO! Then I took it to The Creative Quest to show the girls and was asked to teach it again. Again I said NO! On the way home I stopped at Joann's and I took it in with me (didn't want to leave it in the hot car) and I was approached by the manager who also asked me to teach it - NO! This would be such an expensive class (probably $150) and I just don't know how we could get this all done in a class setting. Not to mention that I do not own the die that cuts out the scalloped pennants. I guess some things just can't be duplicated.

Click on the picture to see the rest of the images

MY CHRISTMAS BANNER - The Saga Continues. . .
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While I was making the 1st banner I made a second set of pennants (w/out scallops and just says Noel) to put on the back so that it would be 2-sided and could hang in my arch way in the dinning room. I just didn't like how it looked 2-sided. So I ended with a whole other banner to finish off. I really do not have a place to hang this one but I hated to just pitch it, if you know what I mean? I offered it to Kathie to hang in the store during the holidays, with the understanding that I would take it back after Christmas. She said she woudl love to have it. Then the talk started. . . "How about teaching a modified version of the banner with only 4 pennants that said 'Noel'?" After a little more talk I figured out how to make this class a go. So there will be a Noel Banner class on November 14th. Be watching for the sample to show up in the store as well as the sign up sheet. This one will be limited to 10 people!

Click on the picture to see the rest of the images

MY PRINCE CHARMING IS ALSO THE LOCAL "SNAKE CHARMER"!!!!

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That's right! And this guy is his latest conquest! Gary has no real fear of snakes, venemous or not. And whenever a rattle snake ends up on someone's doorstep out here, or on the golf course or at the model homes they call Gary to come get it. He really likes rattlers and wont kill them. I guess they know that and don't bite him. He just scoops them up into a bucket and drives them back out to the desert where they belong. Last Friday the restraunt at the golf course called Gary at dinner time. They had a rattler out on the dinning patio in the waterfall! So Gary being the good guy that he is went up there and caught it and took him back to "his home". One of the guests took some pictures of the snake for Gary and here they are. . .

If you look in the photo here you can see the people getting up to leave. I don't blame them at all! I don't know about you, but I wouldn't go near this thing! But I am glad Gary will since we had one in our very own back yard 2 weeks ago!!!! Now I watch every step I make outside - snakes, scorpions. . .what did I get myself into moving way out here?????

Well, that is all of my ramblings for tonight. I hope you all are having a great week!

See ya soon!

Just a quickie in the afternoon. . .

No, it's not what you're thinking - LOL! I just never post in the afternoons.

This morning Monkey went to BIG girl library time - she has graduated from the infants - 24month group to the 2years - 5 years old group. She LOVED IT!!!! They make crafts in the new group and she could not wait to show me what she made. She sat right down while I got the camera out so I could get a picture. She was so proud of her little watermelon slice made out of a paper plate! So here it is on my refrigerator until her Mommy comes to get her and take it to her house. Seems like forever since I have had artwork on my fridge!!!! Looks like she takes after her Amma - all crafty and such!

Have a great day friends!!!!!

A Smokin' Good Time Today!

Today was just such a fun day for me and I just had to share. . .

Mom and I had plans to go shopping this morning at Joann's, today was the last day of their Cricut sale. I didn't get to tell you all that Mom surprised me this week with a brand new Cricut Expressions machine and some cartridges for it. WOW! What a nice mid-week surprise that was!!!! Anyhoo she wanted me to pick out a few things to go with it that I would like to have.

We didn't get to leave as early as we wanted because there had been a fatal accident just north of our community, on the ONLY way in or out of here! So we were trapped in here (or as in Lizzy's case, out of here) from 2;30am until 9:30am today! But soon enough they got the road open and we were able to leave. So we did Joann's, Costco, Home Depot and Michael's.

While we were driving along Bryanna called and they wanted to come out this evening to hang out. So we cooked out burgers and had an easy dinner. Lizzy's new "boyfriend" Addison came too. It was nice to spend a little time with him - he seems real nice.

Darwin has started getting interested in pipe smoking recently and so he brought his 2 new pipes and tobbaco with hime to try for the 1st time. Everyone else wanted to give it a try too so I broke out my Doodles old pipes and everyone helped themselves. It was so fun and I know if my Doodle could see this he would just be rolling!!!! Watching my girls and their "boys" smoke the pipes was just too funny and of course I had to get my camera out (BTW - none of these people smoke!)

So here is my family smoking new and old pipes and having a smokin' great time together!

Lizzy with one of Doodle's old pipes

Lizzy, Darwin and Bryanna - Darwin and Bryanna are smiking Darwin's 2 new pipes

The tall guy next to Liz is Addison - he is smoking one of Doodle's pipes here too

Monkey couldn't stand that I was taking pictures of the grown-ups and not here and asked me to take her picture - isn't she adorable!!!!

Monkey took this picture of her Mommy

Of course all of the smoking happened outside on the patio - which meant they all had to play darts. Gary was busy setting up the darts that's why he wasn't in the group smoking picture - he was smoking one of Doodle's pipes too.

Here are my two girls - man do I love seeing them all grown up and happy!!!!

After pipes and darts we all went inside to play board games. They stayed until about 12:45am and Monkey was wide awake the whole time too. It really was a great day!!!!

I hope your weekend is turning out wonderful too!!!!

Moving On. . .

So it has been a little over a week since I lost Sugar. I am happy to say I am feeling great and so happy for her that she is finally at peace and no longer in pain. Part of my healing was allowing myself to do what I like to do best. . .
CREATE!!!
The day I lost her I dug into my photo files and boxes of pre-digital photos and I gathered up every image I could of her. I was even a little surprised a myself how happy this all made me. Once I got the photos gathered up and the memories and stories started to flow, I started creating. I decided upon a simple book with no real binding. I ended up using a Basic Grey Bracket book (actually 3 of them made into 1) that will just be held together by a black ring. And because it is a single ring book I made a matching box to hold it all. I have a long way to go before I am finished but I wanted to share what I have done so far. I am just about done with the "Puppy Years". If you click on the pictures you can read the journaling on the pages.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my little "book in a box" and I hope that you all had a great weekend! Take some time out this week to indulge yourself in some srt of some sort. Create something - even if it is only in your imagination. It will just make you feel good!

Have a GREAT WEEK

M

Happy Birthday Monkey!!!

So today was my Monnkey's 2nd Birthday!!!! My how time flies! Everyone had a great time at the party. We rented the clubhouse at teh pool for her party - plenty of room for everyone, nice and cool, and the pool was right outside. What could be better?
It has been a super exhausting weekend for me so I will just let the pictures tell the story tonight. I hope you all had a great weekend and spent it with those you love like I did,

She was spent by the end of the afternoon - and so were the rest of us.

Goodnight friends!