Kinda tootin' over here...

How do you like THAT title? hee hee. 

It's been some time ago that this even happened. And of course, I announced it on my Facebook page when it happened - and you KNOW I did! If the truth be known, it's not even really the first time I've tooted either. No! Really! I bet you didn't know I was that talented. uh-huh. I tooted the month before too! You have no idea how relieved I am now. Wheeeeew-eeee!


Let me show you an example of what makes me toot.
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I was published in the Cricut Magazine's Holidays Issue back in the late Fall of 2011!


And here's more reason...

And even more! I just can't stop!

How pretty did they do that up?! It looks so much prettier than MY picture of it hanging from my hubby's spray painted, flat metal train decor thing on his man-cave room mantel. LOL! Not sure why I didn't hang it from the mantel in the living room....maybe it wasn't finished yet. You can see my picture of this here.

Well, now that I've got that outta my system, I'm happy to say it was all worth it.  Yep, that was a whole lotta load off.  Don't you agree?


I haven't been all that crafty lately. I've been working on some Christmas stockings, but not much really coming of them so far. I've been mostly just playing online and just when I finally discovered Picnik, they're deciding to close. I was seriously about to pay for a year to get the Premium stuff too. I love how it turns my pictures into something better than just me alone. What the??  However,I think I am the reason that this is happening. No really. It seems that every time I find something that I like, and I mean REALLY like, it ceases to exist anymore. It doesn't really matter what it is. It's most prevalent with food and it drives me nuts at the grocery store. Am I the only one this happens to?  It's like....Whoa! That Beth chic is starting to like this stuff, so we best mess up her world and get rid of it - nooooow! Look out Pinterest, you could be in danger. And naturally, blogs will no longer be cool to have once I finally start getting somewhere with mine. Facebook is safe for a little while, I'm not all that into it (yet - shhhhh!) but they do change it more than my mother changes her mind. And you don't eeeeeven want to go there.


My sweet child came home from school today complaining of not feeling well and she has a fever, so it looks like cheerleading class ain't happening for her tonight and Alan is working really late. Looks like a good night to work on that mini album that I've only been in a creative block with for 7 months now. 

~*sigh*~......!!!

Is that a sigh of relief I can hear across blogland? I know I had one myself the day after Christmas! I look forward to that day, but I also look forward to it being over with as well. The weekend went off without a hitch, the hubby didn't get any service calls to dampen the spirit of the occasion and he got Monday off (without pay tho). We went to Gordman's to do a little shopping, since I have never been there before. It's been there for about a year or two and I never made it in there. Ummm, it probably wasn't a good thing for me to go there either. Can I just say...cute stuff!! I found some really awesome Christmas decorations at half off, which they were reasonably priced to begin with! They will be great for some of my crafts and I will probably kick myself for not buying up every piece of the ones that I got. yup. I can already see it now.

I got some really nice stuff for Christmas and since my hubby has been working so much, he ended up having to make out his own "certificates" to me. Going to Gordman's was for redeeming one of the certificates to pick out a pair of pretty dress heals. He also made me out a certificate for Hobby Lobby, but I won't be cashing that one in yet. Another certificate is for a home date night with him doing the cooking. Very nice!


My son got us some gift cards for one of our favorite restaurants, Ruby Tuesdays. We love that place! My hubby also got me a 16G flashdrive. I need to learn about it some more, but I wanted one so I could remove all the pictures from my desktop unit and hopefully speed that poor thing up more while still be able to get the pictures printed off with all the editing I've done to them. Besides that, it's just a good idea to have them stored externally in case something happens to my computer.


The next thing will be trying to get everything a little more organized, like I try to do every year and yet seem to fall short of that ultimate goal, but some progress is better than none at all, I suppose.


I guess I need to think about how I want to do my mantel after I take all the Christmas decor off. It's so fun to finally have one to decorate now, but haven't really put any thought into decorating one before. Any suggestions? This is what it currently looks like, just so you have an idea of what I'm working with.

I will also need to start cleaning off the treadmill again so that I can start to try to lose some of the weight I put back on from my attempt earlier this year. Or, at least get the tone back that I accomplished then. Why does it take so long to lose the weight and gain the muscle, but so quick to gain the weight back and lose the muscle? That scenario is just so backwards & wrong!


God Bless and have a great day!
 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I just want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and hope all your memories are happy and stay with you forever!


God Bless and have a wonderful Holiday!

Christmas Mantel & Tree

I have been trying for what seems like forever to get a picture posted on here of how I did my mantel this year. It's really pretty simple and nothing spectacular compared to blogland, but these are things I had and wanted to use in a different way. The reindeer is part of a pair I picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance a couple of years ago. I typically have them standing outside my front door. I guess the other one will have to be lonely this year. LOL! I do love the look of a wreath hanging in the middle of shutters, like I've seen on Pinterest and blog land, but I guess I had seen so many of those & and knew I could not do anything better that I just wanted something a little different with the reindeer.


Yes, there's a fire a blazin' in the fireplace insert because we have it going all winter long to help with the gas bill. Because of the heat from the fire, I have to be careful what goes on the mantel in the winter. Some of the red berries in the garland get hot and split open showing the white foam. I pick them off, but eventually they'll be all gone from that practice. LOL! The floral spray at the top of the shutter is from a garage sale. The little tree luminary I just picked up at the local thrift store for some pocket change.


This is actually my first year being able to decorate a mantel because there wasn't one in the living room before.  There used to be a free standing wood stove sitting in front of the fireplace when we bought our house, but we finally had it removed and put a fireplace insert into the actual fireplace. Then my hubby started to put up a mantel when he was laid off the one time. He got called back to work before it was finished, but was able to finish it when he lost his job last Christmas (thankfully he's working again). And now I have a pretty mantel to decorate! I have a mantel in the family room too, but that is considered the hubby's room with it's authentic barn beam mantel that I could make look all cool, but he doesn't want me to touch it, so I don't.

 Here is our tree this year. It's not as pretty as years past, because I slacked on the motivation to put all the pretty icicle ornaments on, just a few made it. As you can see, there is no snow outside in northern Indiana right now. I'm not a fan of the stuff, but as I've maybe mentioned before, I do need it to get me in the Christmas spirit. We've had some, and that helped, but it hasn't lasted.

Here is a picture of the tree looking through some special 3D snowflake glasses that Brooke got in the mail from her aunt. You might get a better image if you click on the picture. Brooke thought these were so cool! VERY fun!!


I made some Keiflies yesterday and they were just delicious!! I LOVE those things! It's my step-mom's recipe that was her mother's, I believe. My back was hurting after rolling out 70 Kiflies and 2 batches of sugar cookies with Brooke. She enjoys decorating with the colored sugars, but I think I end up throwing away half of the sugar because she seems to get more on the cookie sheet than on the cookie.  :^/


Well, I'm done here today. I have a ton of presents to still wrap and I will be picking up my sister later this afternoon.


So everyone have a Wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or any other celebration that I may have missed!!

God Bless!!

I'm linking up to these blogs:

So Close!

We are in the final stretch, aren't we? I'm still working on finishing up some last minute shopping and baking. I haven't even began to wrap anything. My daughter is out of school for the next 2 weeks and my son is home from college for the next month. I might be a little more sparse on here than usual because of this to spend much valuable and needed time with my family.

I have a rewarding day planned for Wed with a friend of mine. She has a much younger cousin that has been bullied (TERRIBLY) at school because she's overweight and her family doesn't have much money, so she has no clothes that look nice. I was horrified when I heard how she was being bullied at school and wanted to make her feel better about herself.  So in talking with my friend, we decided to do some shopping for her. I bought her a really cute outfit and my friend picked up some cute boots and lots of cute accessories to go with the outfit and my friend's dad (actually the girl's uncle) pitched in enough funds for another outfit that can be mixed and matched with mine!  Then, after she opens her gifts, she's going to a local beauty shop for a cute hair cut and a new do at no charge! I hope this is the best Christmas she's ever had. This is a girl that will truly appreciate everything that she gets too. She's just 15 or 16, but she has innocent qualities to her that makes her truly special! She doesn't deserve to be treated the way she has at school, and if I EVER find out who these other kids are that have been doing those things to her, I pray they're not from families I know, or I will have a whole new attitude towards them from now on.

Now onto something different if you've come here to check out some crafty stuff.

I got this idea from another blogger, but I'm too lazy today to go searching for where it came from. My apologies if it was you. This is a small ironing board that I made into a pegboard and covered it with this cool looking burlap potato sack I found this past summer at the local Farmer's Market. It wasn't for sale, but I asked if I could buy it and they said Sure! It even kinda looks Christmasy with the colors, don't it? I made the tacks using vintage buttons. It didn't sell at my show, but it was in the running a couple of times with a few of the shoppers, but was outweighed by other items I had. LOL!

This is a decorated shutter I sold at my last show. It's kinda Christmasy too with the cute rustic Angel and that pretty burlap bow. I distressed the shutter to look older, because it was pretty freshly painted white. If you click on the image, you might be able to see the distressing better.

Here is the cute little Snowman Soup packets I made up for my daughter's classmates last week. I got the idea from over at Tracy's Treasures when she made up some. I had already purchased the cute little ziploc goody bags from the Dollar Tree a while back, but hadn't quite figured out what to put in them that was inexpensive besides a bunch of candy and cheap trinkets. Thanks Tracy for a darling idea! The cocoa packets fit perfectly inside these bags like they were made for it! Added the little candy cane and only one Hershey's Kiss.

I punched the borders of the cardstock with one of my Martha Stewart punches after I printed the Merry Christmas image and the poem on it.

Here is the poem that is printed on the backside. This was about the only way I could think of to make this whole thing work. I did have to use my adhesive runner between the bag and the inside of the cardstock so that the whole thing wouldn't flop around. Brooke said it was a hit!

Then, this is a snowgirl wrapped candy bar that I made up for one of my daughter's friends who had a birthday party last weekend. I like to include some kind of huge candy bar with their gift just to make it a little extra special. I think these things are the cutest things! I used a huge KitKat bar for this one. I forgot to edit the image, so it's not cropped or reduced in size, so if you click on it, it will probably be HUGE! I don't remember where I got the snowperson image to print, but if you look on Pinterest, there are tons of images that have a site to get it from.


This will most likely be my last post this week, unless I'm feeling pretty froggy! LOL!! So, just in case . . .

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS, and Happy Holidays if you're celebrating another holiday instead!

God Bless and have a great day!

I'm also linking up to these parties: While He Was Napping

More Christmas Crafts to share

It's not beginning to look anything like Christmas here in northern Indiana yet. How about where you are?  I have to admit that as much as I am NOT a fan of cold weather by any stretch of the imagination, I do kinda need snow between Thanksgiving and Christmas and maybe just a few weeks into January. But that's it! It helps to put me in the mood. I'm in the spirit, just not the mood, does that make any sense? I'm mostly done with the shopping, except for a few other things, but I need a few more bucks in the bank for to finish that. I don't feel like decorating yet because I like to see snow outside the window as I'm putting up the tree and dragging out all the lights and pretty ornaments while the Christmas music is playing throughout the house. It's just about 2 weeks to Christmas and I am nowhere near making it look all pretty around here yet.No Tree. No decorations. No cookies or goodies baking. And yet I really am in the holiday spirit!

I think I was more in the mood for decorating back in Sept. than I am now. I know, I'm weird. I guess it comes from having to work on Christmas stuff before all the craft shows starts at the beginning of November (for me). I only did 3 shows, but it's one more than I normally do and I like to, and need to add new items for every show or else I'm not working to my full potential and I'm not getting any of the hoarding thinned out upstairs to make room for more hoarding. Make sense? good.

I've been fighting with my desktop computer for a while, and as much as I could use my laptop, my photo program(s) are on the desktop. I haven't decided if I want to include them on my new laptop yet or not. In the meantime, I've worked out some of the kinks on this old thing and can show you some more of my most current projects that I had in my last craft show. Some had sold, some had not, but got quite a few admiring glances.

I had the gold word tree ornament that I got on clearance last year and this paper from a DCWV paper holiday pack. I cut the decorative mat with my Cricut and went around the edge with gold stickles. I'm not sure that I like the black frame with it, so I'm trying to think of what I would like with it. I won't be able to match the red. More gold? This did not sell at the show.

 

This is a wall hanging that obviously isn't Christmas, but depending on your decor, it might fit with the vintage green stained beadboard. It was a cabinet door I found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and since it had white paint scuffs on the framework, I painted it black and added some pretty little picture frames from Michaels. I added some Script embossed and inked cardstock for the background and added some keys I had. Since the door already had a hole drilled in one corner, I had to drill another on the other side and put in some knobs that were just the right look I wanted. If you've been reading along with my blog over the last 4 months or so, you may have noticed that I'm kinda on a sign making kick. I just can't resist! This sold at the show.

 Remember those 2 sweaters I showed you in this post here?  From this sweater that I got at the local Salvation Army.

 




Well here is what the one turned into!

 

I made the other one into a stocking too, but it's not ready for it's debut yet. Since I don't like to see knit stocking stretch the way they do from hanging, I added a band of a brown snowflake ribbon just below the ribbed edge at the top and added a piece to hang by. Solved that problem! It's a little off, but I don't think it looks that bad (looking back, I could have done that hanger a little differently) and, it almost goes with that key sign above it. This didn't sell either, but it had many admirers. Maybe the hanger ribbon kept them from wanting it.  :^(

I'll be linking up to these parties:

                                                         House of Hepworths

God Bless and have a great day!

Shabby Art Boutique Feature - pretty late tho!! Oops!

I woke up the other morning to learn that I was featured over at Shabby Art Boutique for my Santa's Coat pillow that was posted HERE.

Shabby Boutique's Simply Christmas

How exciting for me!! I love this blog and Kerryanne is featuring Simple Christmas ideas and link parties right up to Christmas!! If you can't find some great blogs and awesome inspiration, then your just missing out, plain and simple.

I have still been crazy busy with a last minute craft show that was Dec. 3 that, although it was terribly slow for traffic, I still did quite well, by my own standards anyways, and much better than the previous show that was sadly disappointing for me. You can't beat the space rent of $25 and I got lucky with a really large area, simply because I was by the emergency exit. I didn't like being on a curved wall, but I was able to add 2 more card tables that I desperately needed in order to be able to set all my stuff out, so that was a huge plus!

I was thinking that I'm done, but I might just go ask the ladies at my bank if they're interested in having me bring my stuff in again like I did last year. I didn't make a killing off them last year (nor did I expect to) but I was still happy to be able to get rid of more things and get a few more dollars.

Today I started working on a word sign for my husband's boss' wife that she ordered and paid for. I would like to try to get it done by this Saturday, since that is the company Christmas party. I have more of the papers picked out and now I need to start looking for the right ribbon and accents. Then comes the un-fun part of cutting out the letters and the chipboard scrolls. I really should be doing that instead of being on here. Not to mention that I need to get the rest of my Fall decor taken down and start on the Christmas stuff. We put the lights on the house yesterday, so that's done before the frigid weather gets here by next weekend. My poor hubby, bless his heart, climbs the 28 ft. ladder to the peak of the house for the lights and now his one shoulder has been bothering him badly. He did anyway, even though he informed me that this was not in his plans for the day.

I hope to get some time to load my newest photos of some things I made for the craft show, but my other computer, that has the photo software I use, just gets slower and slower that I can't stand it. :^/  It's because of the free scanning software I have that creates such a backlog that I can't hate to use it anymore. It was never like this when I first got it, but with each update they do, it disgusts me more. And they want me to PAY them for the program? Nah! Better yet, I'm gonna remove it! Nyah!

Well this will be it for me today. Hope you all are getting your Holiday Spirit on and spreading good cheer! I think I'll start on that myself!

God Bless and have a great day!

My Apologies...

I have to apologize for the way my blog looks lately. I'm trying to change it up for the holiday, but I can't seem to get my changes to apply to it, so it's looking pretty ugly and blah. I have been successful in getting my posting margins wider than before, so that makes me happy, but the other stuff is just not working. I had a cute little background all picked out and entered, but it doesn't show up (at least not on MY end)... I'm not very good with this new blogger design set up and I'm losing my tech. savvy-ness the longer I'm out of the loop. I just don't like spending so much time on these kind of issues. I guess this week wasn't the week to try to pretty things up on here, since I have a last minute craft show this Saturday and a couple of pre-show customers coming tonight. My house is a disaster (as usual) and so not ready for any public viewing, and the sad part is that it looks better than it did yesterday! OMG....my hubby hates crafting time because basically the entire house is my workshop. LOL!!

So please, bare with me on this.

God Bless and have a great day!

Treasuring Thanksgiving

I won't be having a long post today and I won't be sharing any crafty pictures, but I did want to share my most heartfelt Thanksgiving wishes for everyone, since it's nearly Thanksgiving here in the States. I will be leaving here shortly to go pick up my sister so she can come to stay with me until the end of the weekend.

We will be celebrating at my dad and step-mom's house with her daughter's family as well.  We have a great time together and really enjoy each others company. I'm hoping it will be one of the happier ones we've had in a long time. My step sister had battled cancer and won so far, but she's struggled with so many other ailments and new conditions, because of her treatments, that it's been heartbreaking. She has been feeling & looking her best in 4 years and I am grateful & thankful for that!

The weather is supposed to be beautiful and that's rare around here for this time of year. I am very content with my life this year. So much so, that I don't really have any strong wants or needs on my Christmas list. I think my husband will thankful for that! ;^) The things I want aren't really tangible things and it may be years before I see that fulfilled.

I will be making home made noodles that I make completely from scratch. I hand mix, hand roll and cut them all by hand, as well. I don't own any fancy food mixers or pasta machines for these and I've made them that way since I was 11 years old...it's been 35 years I've been making these things!

I'm also making a chocolate pie, sopapilla and deviled eggs. If you're wondering what sopapilla is, it's like a big pan of cheese danish and so delicious!! Here is the link to the blog that I found it at. Lisa Bearnson/Sopapilla. And I put my own twist on the deviled eggs too. My husband never liked deviled eggs until he had mine and now he loves them. I learned to make them from my EX-mother-in-law. She was a pretty darn good cook! I had no problems with my MIL, it was her son I had issues with. ;^)

So,I guess that's it for this week. I will still be doing some Black Friday shopping for my kids though and have other outside things to get done when the weather warms up this weekend as well.

 God Bless and have a Wonderful Thanksgiving - even if you're not celebrating it another country!
 

Tornado and A Chance to Win Somethin'

While waiting for my daughter to finish getting ready for school this morning, I heard on the news that there was a tornado that touched down in Rock Hill, SC overnight. THAT is where my Grandma moved to and lives with my aunt and uncle!! I figured it was pointless to call the home phone, but did anyway and got a recorded message from the phone company. I don't have my aunt's cell phone number, so I called my uncle's cell. He was at work and apparently didn't know anything about it. He works an hour away, so he wasn't near it. He was a bit surprised to hear from me at 7:30 a.m. and then to hear what I told him! Fortunately, everyone was OK and it was nowhere close to the family, just no phone service. Now mind you, right after my grandma moved to Tennessee, they had the really bad floods and she moved to SC 2 months ago and now this! I told my uncle that if SC doesn't work out for her, she's NOT coming up here! LOL!! - jk  He promised me he would keep her down there and keep us safe.  ;^) I called my dad to let him what happened and that everyone was fine, since it is HIS mom. I'm saddened to hear that 3 people lost their lives from the storm and praying for their families and the community.

On a much lighter and happier note: I just seen an amazing give away being offered over at Funky Junk Interior's blog!! I LOVE her blog because she has a certain style that is really me. She made me realize that my house is all wrong for me! I don't like dark colors in my home, but I always seem to end up living in them. Why is that? Ironically enough, my house with first husband was dark with dark trim and cabinetry. I hated it, the wall paper was dark and looked like a dead forest at dusk without the pretty sunset. Depressing! Even though it was devastating at first, our house caught fire one day and it was the best thing to have happen to that house. I left NOTHING dark in there in the remodel. Now, my current home is dark trim & cabinetry again with lots of brick & stonework. I think the rustic shabby chic look works for this house and I'm trying to incorporate that little by little.

Anyway, I regress. My point is that Donna over Funky Junk is having a give away from Katie's Rose Cottage Design. If you love the rustic shabby chic look, then you need to go check this out. It's simple, just check out KRCD and comment on Donna's blog what you liked. If you want another chance, then just post about it on Twitter, Facebook or your own blog & tell her about that too!

 So go get a bib to catch the drool and then go window shopping! (**This drawing is closed**)

God Bless and have a great day!!