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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