My Baby Things

After 6 months, my dad and I are finally finished cleaning out my moms rooms, she just had so much stuff, I even found her report cards from 1937-1939, First Communion Certificate from 1936, and lots of other neat papers. Also came across some of my baby things...not in the greatest shape, but considering how OLD they are...lol!! Here are a few of the things.
Poor Baby, looks like the moths have gotten to her clothes, you wind her up and she crawls, I played with her until I was about 6-7, she used to have a hat, but I guess that is long gone.

The little kitty is also not in the best shape, but when you wind her up she still walks. I am going to find a spot in my bedroom to put these.

I LOVE the little hairbrushes, I didnt have any hair, so they didnt get used much as a baby. My aunt made the little shaw, hat and matching booties. She is 83 and still makes baby blankets, baby clothes....."just in case" anyone has a baby.

There were quite a few of these little cotton shirts, but I thought these were the cutest, one on the left has a little rabbit and that pocket on the other one is just too cute. They are stained, as is all of them, I am afraid to wash them though.

I think I like the box the shoes came in better than the shoes. You can tell which ones were my "walker" shoes. My parents believed kids should have shoes on the second they were born...well, I raised my kids the opposite, they never had any shoes until they were walking well on their own. As soon as my first child starting showing signs that she was thinking about walking, my mom said I had to go to Stride-Rite and get those $60 shoes...NOT! I am barefoot most of the time and so are my kids, therefore they wont have any baby shoes to reminisce about.

And last is my rattle engraved with my name and date of birth and the little bracelet they put on you in the hospital....how cute, I guess they would be considered a safety hazard these days thats why we get those generic plastic bands! Hope I didnt bore you too much with my baby blabbing, its just kinda neat to come across things that you thought were long gone.

And the Winner Was...

No, I didn't forget the drawing on Monday, the winner was Carrie of Cottage Cozy, she should be receiving it soon. I spent most of last week finishing up Easter crafts, I have run out of chenille so I guess I am done with Easter. These items are in my lollishops shop.

I finished cleaning out my mothers closet and we came across a bunch of my baby clothes, and toys....lots of neat things, will post them later. Another rainy weekend...boo hoo!

I'm Back!

I have an excuse for not keeping up with the blog thing....been busy with Easter Swaps, Easter crafts and it is also that time of the year that the school board gets project crazy. I had a Black History project, Science Fair project and Famous Woman project. 2 of the 3 are done, and I might add that "I" won 2nd place in the science fair. And I do mean "I" since my sons only input into the project was running around the room telling me what to type, then I had to print it all out and arrange it all according to the County Code on the tri-fold backboard. I always save the previous years so I have a sample to work from, so as soon as I finished this years, we went outside and had a bonfire with it, how fun to watch it burn!! I dont know if I will be able to burn this years since it has a pretty red ribbon on it. Anyway, now for the give-away...a little basket purse filled with goodies, a bunny balloon ornament that I made, and a few other surprises not shown. Just leave a comment. I will pick the winner on Monday.

Sorry, but this little duck is MINE!! I have been trying to find the bunny like this for years, except it is made out of a clorox bottle. Last year I bid on a bunny one, but I would only go up to $30 and it went beyond that. Well this year I won the little duck off ebay and a few days ago I won the kits to make a bunny and a duck with the clorox bottles. It looks kinda complicated, but I remember making them as a kid, so hopefully it will come back to me. I just dont like reading instructions!!!!

Catchin Up

We have had a really nice week here weather wise, in the 60's & 70's, sure makes up for that cold blast we had a few weeks ago. Last weekend I went to Fredericksburg to go shopping at the DC Big Flea, they had about 40 vendors and their prices arent too bad, but I only took $100 with me and vowed not to use the ATM (because they charge too high fees). I guess I did good, I came back with $10 and considering it costs $14 to get in since they charged me for my 13 yr old daughter, plus I spent another $20 on them, buying little trinkets.
It has been almost 5 months since my mom passed away and my dad and I are still sorting through her stuff. We finally finished up last week with the jewelry. My mom LOVED jewelry, and we had to be careful when we were getting rid of things because we found 3 diamond rings stashed in a makeup bag that was on its way to the thrift store....can you imagine!!! I have 4 shoe boxes full of jewelry to sort through. She mostly had real stuff, but I like the costume jewelry. Here are two boxes of what I have sorted through. I love the rhinestone sets and the crystal sets. I dont want to put them in the jewelry box, I would like to display them somehow. I remember playing with alot of this jewelry as a kid, and I always made sure I put it away so I wouldnt mess it up.

During the cold days I did manage to work on a few Easter crafts. One is the bunny balloon. I have a few christmas ornaments like this, so I thought, why not Easter. I am still not sure if they are the way I want them to be, still searching through my easter things for some more embellishments.
Well, hope everyone is having a good week....and hope everyone gets lots of Chocolate on Valentines Day!

Sweet Revenge!

My 13 year old daughters greatest joy in life is to aggravate me, but in a fun way. If I am working on a craft she will casually walk by and swipe one of my supplies, then stand by and watch as I turn the house upside down looking for it.....all the while she has it behind her back, just holding back laughter. Or I will make a glass of ice water, and I like to sit it on the counter for a few minutes so it gets nice and cold...I come back....its gone or "someone" has drank it. Most recently she knew I was anticipating a package from Julie of Pieceful Bits. She always picks up the mail on her way in from the busstop and recognized the package and quickly hijacked and wouldnt let me have it....we struggled and I can tell you it wasnt pretty, but I won because I'm the momma. Anyway, it is very hard to get back at her because she is really laid back and hardly anything bothers her EXCEPT, my vintage wind-up clocks!!! SO, I gathered them all up, wound them up, and put them on the shelf in the bathroom......DRIVES her nuts in the morning, thats my payback. I, of course, love them, even if the bathroom is right outside my door and I have to listen to that ticking all night :)

Valentine Giveaway

Geesh, slowly but surely I am figuring out blogger, but I dont know why my pictures didnt appear in the order I downloaded them. Anyways, this post will just be all screwed up and backwards. So, instead of what was supposed to be first, this is second. I am doing a Valentines Tree this year and since I have no ornaments, I have made a few, this in one of the little glitter wreaths I made for it.


Now, this was supposed to be first. I joined a few Valentines swaps, some are whimsy jars, matchboxes, and decorated heart boxes. I have made a few of the heart boxes and had a ball doing it (other than glue gun burns), my partners havent received them yet, so I dont know if I gained their approval. The one you can win is below. Just so you know, I am still learning to get the hang of them, so you may find a few mistakes on it. But, I am going to fill it up with all sorts of pink and red goodies....not gonna show you on here, that will be a surprise. And since I had to eat all the candy, I will replace that too (with better stuff). Just leave a comment and I will pick a winner on Sunday.

Oh Yeah, and these I made to go under my Valentines tree (this picture is actually in the right space). I have a few more sets and will be listing them in my lollishops soon. I have the bodies made, but they are headless right now because we have the slowest mail delivery in this town that ever was!!

Am I really weird?

I have been tagged by Kathy from Kat Collects, I have to list 6 things about myself, so I opted to list some things that others think are weird of me (and they have told me). Here goes:

1. I cringe everytime I have to open a can of biscuits! Its the anticipation of when they are going to POP that scares me...which means I usually use bisquik and avoid those cans.

2. I WILL have a coat on if the temperature is not at least 75 degrees, I stay cold and it drives me nuts.

3. I live on Little House on the Prairie.....no airconditioning, my house is heated with an outside woodstove (as well as our hot water), I hang my clothes on the fence..yes fence..in the summertime, but I do have running water and an indoor bathroom :)

4. I dont like to park close to other cars, I have a big van and will park waaay out in the parking lot, I get nervous if I have to back out......this drives my kids nuts, but they need the exercise!

5. I have over 100 cookbooks, and loads of other books...I love to read! Current reading "The Last Lecture"

6. Now my family just doesnt get this, but I would rather wear my old costume jewelry than diamonds and pearls......my husband learned this lesson after he bought me some diamond earrings twice...and I took them back Twice and went shopping at the thrift store to buy what I really wanted.
And see that little puppy, isnt she the cutest, and I am really jealous because she is not mine, that is what my girlfriend in Florida got for her christmas present...she doesnt think I am weird.

Why parents hate me & Christmas Giveaway!

This week is all about school parties. My kids are in 8th, 6th, & 2nd....and they all still like to get goodie bags. So right now, my kitchen table is full of things that parents don't want their kids to get, but that kids LOVE...for example...Play-Doh. The parents who have carpet are not too fond of getting play-doh, I, for one like to play with it myself, even the smell is intoxicating (thank god its not toxic). All kids love Fun-Dip, as soon as they see that in the bag, it becomes total mayhem with them ripping the bags open. My daughter in middle school, made brownie bites and bagged them up with mini-candy canes for one of her classes. Unfortunately my boys will bag up about 5-6 goodie bags and then they loose interest, so it will be up to me to finish....but thats okay, because i get the leftovers!!

And now for a blog giveaway...I will draw a winner on Thursday so that I can get it mailed out by Saturday. There are a few old candles, vintage santa ornament, vintage elf ornament, The Merry Christmas Book dated 1953 (has really great images) and a Think Christmas book from the 70's with recipes, crafts, etc. Just leave a comment to enter.

Its okay to lie and play hooky!!

I think its okay once in awhile to tell a little white lie and play hooky. I sure hope so because I have done it twice in the past 4 days. Thursdays are usually my thrift store day because they have 25% off the entire store, so my daughter was begging me to pick her up from school so she could go. I said "OH, No, your education is wayyy too important, so be ready by 11:30", so I lied when I signed her out and said she had a doctors appointment. I couldnt possible say that we were going thrifting. I do this a few times a year with the kids and they think it is fun. The funny thing was that I had stopped by my kids teachers house that they had for kindergarten to drop off some goodies and told her I was on my way to pick up Betsy and she laughed and said she used to do the same thing!!
Yesterday I lied again. My boys like to go to antique stores for the first 30 minutes and then they forget the "do not touch, pick up, play with, breathe on, rules". They were having a few open houses at the antique stores yesterday which means cookies, brownies, candies, cider all through the stores and I could just see them on sugar overload and tearing the stores apart. SOOO, I told hubby that I needed to run to Food Lion for some Milk and Bread and wouldnt be gone long. Well, my daughter knew something was up and promptly snuck out with me. My lie paid off because I got some nice goodies, all for under $15, and there are a few things I want to go back for (hope they will still be there)!! Knowing me, I probably wont blog again before Thanksgiving, so I am wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Lots of leftover turkey for sandwiches and soup!! Here's my loot:

Back To Crafting

As usual, still trying to figure out the blog thing, I think this time I got my pictures right...we'll see. Well, they say things come in threes and I believe I have had my "3", first with my mom passing away, then a few weeks later, my husband got in a motorcycle accident (deer ran into him), and then I ran over my poor dog. Hubby has a broken hip socket and hobbling around on crutches, but getting pretty agitated with being house-bound.......(which sometimes makes me annoyed..:) My dog had pretty bad road rash on his hocks and had to have a few stitches in his paws. I felt so bad, I wasnt going fast and was pulling into the driveway and he ran out from the side. I thought he wouldnt like me anymore, but in true dog fashion, he had forgotten it was me driving within a few seconds. Although, he did think twice when I hauled him into the vet hospital, and when one of his bandages fell off, I put a Kotex mini pad on his paw since it was all I had. He kinda held his head in shame at this, even my husband said he didnt blame him! But hubby and dog are on the mend and while I am playing nurse I am finally getting some crafting done. I was worried I wouldnt have anything ready for Lollishops when it opened. Here are a few things I have finished lately:




Vintage pink chenille with vintage spun cotton angels, these were pretty fun and quick to make.

I enjoy making these baskets, these are a little bigger than the ones I usually make, and I added a little bear under the tree after this picture was taken.

These were made with vintage Mr. & Mrs. Claus picks, chenille, styrofoam ball, pom poms, and felt. I glittered the bases to make them a little more sparkley.

Well, thats it for now, I hope to start working on some of my beaded ornaments next week as I had pushed them aside after doing quite a bit of them for the CSSTeam Christmas in July promo.

New Goodies

WHAT??? They are not supposed to be here!

Mini glass ball ornaments and glass icicles from Woolworth.

Vintage glass balls, I have a big collection of these but wont use them, because of my dog, his tail is a major weapon when it comes hitting balls off the tree.

I dont know if these are old or not, little strawberries with velvet green leaves. Plus I am having a hard time telling if they are glass or plastic, you would think that would be easy.

Okay, I dont know why those pictures popped up on the top, but it looks like I need more practice with Blogger, guess it will take time. Although it seems I need more time to get things done anymore. Since my mom passed away my dad has been on a cleaning frenzy, mostly her clothes. My mom was a pack rat with clothes, and just to give you an example she had 141 Bras!!!!! So I have been busy helping my dad clean. Then, just when I thought I was done with the hospitals for awhile, my husband had a motorcycle accident. A deer hit him, and he thinks the deer actually hit HIM, because the bike is not messed up. He wound up with a fractured hip bone and his whole right side is bruised. They didnt want to operate to put a screw in his hip, just want it to heal on his own, therefore, he is on crutches for 6 weeks. Plus he has to give himself shots in the stomach twice a day for 4 weeks. He was joking around wanting me to do it, but aagghhh, NO, I am not a nurse!!

Well, I have been stopping at the Flea Market on Saturdays before I take the boys bowling and have gotten a few christmas things lately. I seemed to have missed Halloween, I got the attic door open but havent had the time to get the decorations out....Bummer...So, those pictures you see at the top of the page are my recent christmas finds!

A New Start

Well, this is something I have been wanting to do for awhile and now AOL has given me a reason......get a new blog.  They are shutting down their blogs at the end of this month.  I was always getting emails from people who were not able to make a comment on the blog, apparently AOL made it quite difficult if you werent an AOL member.  I believe I will be moving over to blogger since it is FREE!!  And since I am computer challenged I am going to have to learn how to use their program, which may take awhile.  I'm not sure I will be able to move all my posts from here to the new blog, that would be another computer dilema for me to deal with.  All in all, I am looking forward to starting a new one, and will hopefully be easier to use.

On a sad note....I have posted before about my parents health.  About 6 weeks ago they told us that my mom didnt have long to live and of course our first reaction was disbelief since she was mentally alert and not complaining much.  She was in the end stage of Kidney disease, and the dialysis wasnt working anymore, she had COPD and her lungs were damaged, her heart was bad, her liver was failing and she was retaining fluid.  We never told my mom how bad she was.  They kept her in the hospital the past month because my mom believed she was getting better and we had told them not to tell her the truth so she would stay in good spirits.   I took my kids to see her as often as I could since she would get so excited when they were around.  The day that I took the kids to Mt. Vernon we went by the hospital to see her, this would be the last time they would get to see her.  My daughter had taken her camera with her and starting taking pictures of my mom blowing bubbles with her gum.  This was on Sunday. The rest of the week she was feeling well and eating good, and they were talking about sending her to a rehab for a few days to get her strength back and then home. On Friday as I was on my way to the hospital they doctor called me on my cell phone and told me to pull over, I pretty much knew what this meant, needless to say the rest of the way to the hospital was a blurr......it still doesnt seem real to me and everytime the phone rings I think it is her calling.  This week has been about helping my dad, he is the type of person who has to be doing something (even though he is 83), and the other day that "something" was having me clean out my moms bathroom.  A job I really didnt want to do, but if it is what he wants then I need to do it.  So now I have to keep an eye on him, I dont like that he is living in a big 2 story house by hisself, but he says he wants to stay there for now. 

Now, back to trying to get things normal again.  My poor kids have only had half of my attention......which is starting to show in their behavior..Yikes!

I am going to start playing around with blogger and see if I can navigate it, hopefully there will be an easy way to add everyone's blog address...feel free to leave me any TIPS!!   I will need it.

 

A "Secret" Obsession

Well, I guess its not really a secret.  If I knew that I wouldnt get shot I would mosey around old and abandoned building and houses around here.  And there are a lot of them around here.  There are a few in our town that still have furniture and things in them.  Which I find really weird since the person passed away and the relatives live on the same farm, but just never bothered to move the stuff out....goodness I hoped they at least cleaned out the refrigerator!!   I have even corrupted my kids that now they are always on the lookout for old buildings.  When I lived in Florida there was on old Army hospital that was abandoned at a local airport and I would go over there and wander around in it while my parents were working...I thought it was so neat they still had the hospital beds in there, medical supplies and charts were strew everywhere, although, that was 30 years ago and I am pretty sure I wouldnt go in there now.  The coolest building I have LEGALLY been  is in Philadelphia at a old mental hospital that has been shut down called Byberry (i think).  At Halloween they transformed it into a haunted house, such a cool building and obviously some of the "actors" were previous mental patients.  We had a lot of fun the few years we went there. Hmm...I will have to check and see if they still do it and maybe my kids would want to make a road trip and do that this halloween.

 Here is a couple of pictures of an old general store that we pass on our way to the boat ramp.  I just wonder what sort of things they sold and what it was like when they were open. 

Somebody obviously cuts the grass....think they'd let me in!!  Well, I think I am the worlds worst when it comes to keeping up on my blog, but hopefully in a few days I will get my August giveaway posted. Have a great week!

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Am I obsessed?

Well, my kids and husband think so.  I was going to clean up my "Raggedy Room" today but them the voices in my head voted against it....and I listen to them.  So I took a few pictures to show you a small smidgen of my collection. I do have a few pieces from my childhood, but most I have gotten off ebay, thrift stores, and received as gifts.  It has really gotten out of hand though, just a complete and utter mess, needs to be dusted, re-arranged, and weeded through.  I am sure I have lots of doubles that I could get rid of.    Here are a few pictures of my "really raggedy right now" raggedy ann collection....Now, I am off to see a play with my kids and neighbors...."Gypsy", about Gypsy Rose Lee, it said "No Nudity", I wonder if there is partial nudity, well, if there is, my boys will sure enjoy that...will let you know:

Have a great Sunday!!

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Quik Post

Just a quick post since I have been neglecting my blog.  First I should have posted this last Monday, but I did do the drawing and Miss Suzy of Georgia Peachez won the blog giveaway and she has already received it.  Now I need to get something together for August.

Also thanks to everyone for your purchases for the CSSTeam Christmas in July promotion.  I am getting everything mailed out today, I got a little behind with some unexpected company over the weekend and then my mom took sick and is in the hospital.  She has had a rough 6 years battling colon cancer, emphysema, gout, and now she is on dialysis and every week it seems to be something else wrong. 

And last I am trying to figure out how to put blog buttons on my blog.  Heidi of Everyday Cookies gave me a few pointers.  I did get the lollishops button on there, but I dont think its "clickable" (or whatever). 

Hopefully I can catch up this week on my blog!!

Back from Vacation

Well, we have been back from Florida for a week now and I am still behind, but I might as well realize that it is going to stay that way until the kids go back to school.  We had a good trip, left at 4:30 am on a Friday and stopped in Savannah and spent a few hours walking around.  I had to stop in Vintage General, which is a shop that Jen from Sweet Eye Candy mentioned on her blog, and let me tell you that have some awesome things, I wasnt going to buy anything, but did come out with a bagful.  Florida was great, I managed to visit with most of my friends and ex-coworkers.  Basically we just went to the beach every day (and night) and visited.  My daughter is afraid of heights, but she did manage to go up in the lighthouse...203 steps and 175 feet high, great views.  Of course, my boys charged ahead up the spiraling steps ignoring my yelling to "Wait".....this is the lighthouse at Ponce Inlet in Daytona Beach.

The puppies thrived while we were gone and our neighbor loved taking care of them, but I cant say that much for my black lab.  He wouldnt eat, kept running to our back door looking for us.  Needless to say, he was a bit skinny when we got home, and he had bald spots.  So I gave him a bath and have been feeding him double trying to get him back up to his normal weight.  He was so sad!!

I did hit a few thrift stores in Daytona and got some bargains.

I have managed to squeeze in a few hours of crafting, the little glittered wreath is for the CSSTeam Christmas in July Promo on July 25.

And I am still messing around with the Tussie Cones, these are my 3rd and 4th try and will be in my Etsy shop.

Now for the July Giveaway.  In keeping with the Spirit of the CSSTeam Christmas in July promo on July 25, I am giving away these 2 ornaments.  I will pick the winner on July 21.  Just leave a comment..Good Luck!

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Summer is Here!!

Well summer is here at my house since at the moment I have 2 small critter cages on my kitchen table...one with a baby snake in it and one with an injured baby bird in it....Oh, the joy of boys!!!  I really dont mind either one since I am an animal person, but on my kitchen table....C'mon boys..take 'em outside!!  I just set a tent up in the backyard for them, so hopefully they will take them out there. 

We had a great trip to Hershey. I had a pass to get 8 people in for free, so we loaded up my van with 8 people and headed to PA.  My daughter had 2 of her friends go and the boys had one of their friends, so I wasnt going to be stuck with 6 kids alone so luckily one of the girls mom went along with me. We went up a day ahead so we could do the factory tour and do a little sightseeing....all in all everyone had a great time!!  Here is picture of my youngest with the 5 pound hershey bar that I wouldnt buy because of the $30 price tag (and waaaayyy too many calories)

I have been doing entirely too much shopping lately, but I figure that is what my stimulus check was for right.....here are some of my recent purchases:

I LOVE this piggy bank, it was horribly dirty and I was worried it was stained, but it was only .33 since so I figured I wouldnt be losing much if it didnt clean up, but with those Mr. Clean Miracle Erasers it came out great!!

I have always wanted one of these but never came across one in my travels.  I spotted this one on pinkpomegranate.net and just had to have it, and it was a steal...at least in my opinion. I think she still has one more left too.  Now, I just need to find one with a christmas theme.

These have the Napco stickers on them and are numbered.  I got them both on the same day at two different yardsales....it was fate!  I am not good at judging what something is made of, but I believe they are bisque. 

Arent they just so cute!!  They are almost 4 weeks old and starting to get playful, the kids are having a ball with them, they are going to be sad when they are gone.

Now, I am a little late on posting this (As usual), but the winner of the two books is Whinendine!!  Be sure to check back for next months giveaway!!  Have a great weekend!

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