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.