Thanksgiving weekend - survived!?

Well, the big 4 day weekend is over & the fun parts are over for us. We had a wonderful dinner at my step-sister's house. It's such a blessing for all of us that she was able to do this since she has come such a long, hard way in the past 3 1/2 years with her leukemia battles & the set backs she's endured with her Graph vs. Host disease & has amazingly overcome! It was definitely a day to be Thankful for!

It was also her son's 18th birthday that day! He & my son are just a few weeks apart in age. He is such a handsome young man too that's sort of soft spoken.

As usual, there was too much food, but then again, it wouldn't be a blessed one without that too. You should always be thankful everyday if you have enough to eat!

There was fun conversation & my step-sister cracked open this cool 2 tiered crayon holder full of crayons & some pretty coloring pages that she printed off from the Crayola site that were free! If you want to check them out, just click on the underlined word Crayola to get your own.

I was glad for a wonderful Thanksgiving, because in the afternoon of Black Friday, after we were done shopping, Alan got the call from his boss that he is going to be laid off until the beginning of April, tentatively. We always anticipate this happening, but it seems to come earlier & earlier every year. This time, it was a whole month earlier! I am not what you would call a real planner or anything like that, but I find it difficult to make ends meet in the winter months anyway. So, by the end of Aug or Sept., I start stocking up on non-perishable items like toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, ALL laundry & cleaning items, pasta, sauces, flour, sugar.... you get the idea. My laundry room ends up looking like a mini supermarket by November. It's usually my hope to only need to buy milk, bread, eggs, meats & whatever else we may necessarily need. I guess it's good that I didn't run out & buy the laptop I was so hoping for with my craft show money. I was almost going to on Black Friday, but I guess God was talking to me & I actually listened & talked myself out going through with it. It looks like I'm using that money for other more important things now & that most likely means I didn't need that laptop after all. If I'm meant to have one, He will see to it that I get it - now is not that time.

But, on a lighter note...did you go out for the early morning Black Friday sales??? Yep, I did! I was up at 3:00 am & out the door by 3:30. I hit my local Walmart since I'm not driving 30-60 minutes to wait OUTSIDE when it's only 18 degrees! I might be a little off, but I'm not stupid either! No deal is worth frost bite to me! At least at Walmart you can be indoors. I like the way they did it this year over last year. I wanted to get a Nintendo DS for my daughter. I was surprised to see that there was no line. Hmmmm.....so I go up to the lady & ask about the NDS & she asks if I want 1 or 2? I only need one, so she gives me a wristband that technically "holds" one for me until 11:00. COOL!! I can actually go shop around the store without having to miss out on the other bargains they have going on. Finally, they got a little smarter! I did still end up missing out on the Cricut Holly Jolly Christmas Lite cartridge, but I got 2 other new ones I wanted. I was able to get the cute pet one & the tiny Dancer too. I almost didn't get them because I thought that I was getting a laptop & then buying a program like SCAL2 or MTC so that I wouldn't need to buy carts anymore. My plans were dashed again. Why? On our way home from shopping, my husband got the call from his boss that he's laid off until April. I pray that my husband can find a better job somewhere else & soon. He so deserves better.

So, today is Monday & it's back to the same routine, but different since Alan is home. Although he went to my dad's house this morning to install some ceiling fans that they've wanted put in, so that will keep him busy & give us a little extra cash to help out.

And so I will end this long post that still has no pictures to show you anything fun & creative, but it doesn't even look like anyone is reading this blog anymore anyway.

God Bless & have a great day!

Organization!

Well, I don't think my house will EVER be one of those that is totally organized, but we have put a gallant effort into it this weekend. Maybe I'm just sick & tired of the chaotic look around me, I don't know, but it is in desperate need of attention. And the funny part is that we're not even having Thanksgiving here! My sister is coming to stay with us, like she does every holiday, but she has Down's Syndrome & could care less how messy my house is - well to a certain degree anyway.

It started with not being able to sell Brooke's bedroom set. We had them all unloaded & moved out to the far garage for 3 garage sales earlier this fall. They didn't sell, so before loading them back into the house, we thought we'd give Craigslist a try. Well, we got a bogus offer that apparently in turn caused us to lose out on a legitimate sale because we put them on hold. So, after a 2nd no response listing on CL, we decided to bring them back into the house & Brooke can use them for the winter & we'll try our luck again next spring. With all the prep work necessary for getting those large pieces back into her room, it started a cleaning frenzy that must have bled into today. I decided that the good Lord has given me plenty of nice warm days to get the rest of my outdoor stuff put away that I really should not waste another not getting that done. There was a lot more to just putting things away, my new garden shed still had all the tools & wood left in it from the work that was done in the summer. Then, the purpose of the garden shed being built in the first place, was to get MY stuff out of the garage so that DH could open his truck door open a little further. Of course all that stuff HAD to come out of there tonight! It couldn't wait until tomorrow when it was a bit warmer. Don't get me wrong, it feels good to see that garden shed looking like what it was meant for instead of disheveled mess of tools, sawdust & debris all over the place. I really can't wait to get the finishing touches done to that too & start landscaping around it next year.

If you were to come into our home right now, you wouldn't think that we were on the organization trail, but it's still in progress as we're doing other rearranging. It always seems as though it's a series of events just to get to the ONE end result. And the sad thing is, you're wore out before you reach your final destination & give up before IT gets done. I sure hope we can stay on track to the end. My poor house deserves it.

On another topic, I went to one of my distant neighbor's house today as she was having a craft show in her house. I have met her once when she came to one of our garage sales last year. I've even bought a few things from some of her garage sales. Her house is very awesomely decorated outside! I just had to see what it looked like on the inside. UNIQUE! I would have to say that she has some very cool furniture pieces & the prices were fabulous! I would have to change the colors though since it seems like she's really into bright colors. I noticed a lot of hot pink, lime green & sunshine yellow around. I could have done much more damage than I did, but I still have that laptop in my head that I really want, so I'm trying to be good with my spending. I did get a triple folding shutter that has a chalkboard on the last shutter, that was only $10! I think it would be charming to display small signs or ornaments for my craft shows with a sign for the prices. I also picked up a tall, narrow, galvanized pail that she had painted red. I was going to paint it a different color, but I'm thinking now I may not & just add some type of Christmas design on it & leave it red.

Well, it's getting late & I'm getting a bit tired from all the work I did today. Alan has the house all nice & cozy with a fire going. That's probably what's putting me to sleep.

Have a good weekend & if I don't post before Thursday, have a Wonderful & safe Thanksgiving!

God Bless & have a great day!

Breathe........

Well, I am happy to say that I can finally get a bit of a breather now. My two back to back craft shows are done & I am thrilled to say that they were both a HUGE success for me! I now have enough funds from my sales to purchase a fairly decent laptop now & a set of tires for my van! WOO HOO!!

I was also happy to hear from many customers that my friend & I have a "fan base" following for the shows we participate in. We even had a few say that they only come to those shows to come to our booth every year! How cool is that??

I was glad to notice that when it was all said & done, I only had 2 long flat totes of stuff to bring back home instead of an entire van load!

The worst part of the last craft show was that my hubby made the poor judgment to try to burn some leaves while I was out, but thinking that he had them all extinguished, left to bring me lunch & then wait it out to help me load up after the show. He had only been at the show for probably 15 minutes when he got a call from the neighbor that our woods were on fire!! Lucky for us (the Lord was watching over us for sure!) the wind was blowing in a northerly direction, but if it had been blowing to the south, it would have taken our house, since he wasn't that far from it to begin with. We also started to get a few light rain showers & that help keep things in a check a bit too. Ya know, I was gonna make a questionable remark to him on the phone about burning leaves so close to the time for him to leave, but I let it go...you can bet we have a new leaf burning rule now! Here is what it looks like today. Some of the pics don't show the black real well, but whatever looks darker on the ground is the burnt part.








































Also, that same day, a friend came to the craft show & told me that she was awoken at 4:30 a.m. to discover that THEIR woods was on fire! Can you say Holy Smokes! Luckily, theirs wasn't too serious either, but pretty scary, none the less.

So, after a pretty hectic month, I think it's safe to say that I can take a tiny breather. It will be short lived since my house is a total wreck from neglect & I can't even really blame my family since most of the mess is mine from making crafts. I can blame my daughter for the one in the living room though. NONE of that is mine.

Well, it's getting close to bedtime here for the kiddo, so I will keep in touch again soon! Hope everyone is getting things around for the American celebration next week. I can't believe Thanksgiving is already upon us!

PS...have you been checking out the black Friday sales? Oooooh!

November...already? (*sigh)

It just seems like yesterday we were getting ready for the beginning of school & now we're getting ready for the rush of the holiday season. Where does the time go anyway? It must be faster than the speed of light the older you get, I swear. I know now exactly what my parents meant when they would tell me as a child that I will wish back for the days when I thought time was dragging on, because it will just fly by the older you get.

Well, it was still October this past weekend & our community celebrated Trick-or-Treat night on Sat. instead of Sunday, which actually was the 31st. It was a great night for it although it was a bit breezy, Brooke didn't seem to mind at all. I dressed her up as a Witch, "which" she did not want to be at first. I told her the costume was not a scary witch, but a pretty witch & she was OK with that as long as I didn't paint her face green. LOL I promised her that I would not & had something very pretty in mind for her face instead.

This is her & her dad posing for me. I didn't dress up this year as I didn't feel like going to the trouble just for riding around in the van. DH was disappointed, but got over it & informed me that next year, I WILL be dressing up!


















This is the best close-up I could get of Brooke's face with the stenciling work I did using my Cricut & some stamp ink with body shimmer. I thought the ink would be darker, so it didn't show up all that well, but she loved it.


















I just love the look of her costume here with the sun at her back while she's running down someone's driveway. She was having a wonderful time & she brought home quite a load too! The surprising part was, even though the economy is hard this year & people aren't spending much money, she barely got any junk filler candy like the sweetarts, tootsie rolls, bubble gum pieces, instead, she had the Mother Load of candy bars & even a few full sized ones! Lucky for her dad & I, those were ones that she didn't like, but we DO! :-D


















Here are the pumpkins we managed to get carved out on Friday night. Brooke did a great job on her first one & I have to say that the carving tools that come with the Pumpkin Master sets are great for a child her age. She could have finished the whole thing if her arm wasn't getting tired before she finished the mouth. DH's pumpkin is the IH symbol for International Harvester (his tractor) with a few lightening bolts, since it IS Halloween. Brooke wanted a pumpkin carved out of the cute little kitty face from one of the Pumpkin Master sets I have, but it was definitely too complicated for her, so I did that one & it was almost more than I could handle & did lose an eyelid above the left eye before it was all over with. LOL















This is one of the sights we seen walking around during TOT. He didn't appear to be with anyone, just walking around, which was pretty cool!







Well, I just wanted to get this posted before it was too late. Now I have to get going on making more stuff for my craft show these next 2 weekends. I don't want to reveal anything that I'm making just yet, as I don't want to create any competition for myself by having others recreating the same stuff for the same shows. We all copy others, myself included, but when you come up with something that is your own, you don't want to spoil it by having others show up with the same stuff as you. It's kinda like showing up at a party and having someone else wear the same designer gown as you (not that I'll ever know this, but it's the same idea).

I do plan to take photos of my booth this time, as long as I don't forget my camera again. I am sharing a booth with a friend, so not everything in the booth is mine. I might be on the ball, but I'm not THAT good! LOL!

God Bless & have a great day!