Frou Frou Gypsy in Combat Boots

Bathroom update

2011-09-24T17:30:00.004-05:00

I really do love this color and i wish i had actually finished the room by now and could show better photos...but this is all I have. I hope it helps a little at least!

I had someone ask about photos of my bathroom that I repainted in January. I used Sherwin Williams Tidewater. I have STILL not finished this room, so i haven't posted photos, but here are a few shots so you can get a bit of the idea.

Tablescapes wrap up!

2011-05-15T18:11:00.003-05:00

Here are the last few photos from the mother-daughter banquet. the table above is a "pretty Pink" table and the one below had a butterfly theme...

This one is ''His eye is on the sparrow"

A fun Beach table!

Npah's Ark

and this one, below, is the Sweet Life....so fun! It won 4th place!

This Candy Land Table won 3rd place! It was totally cute!

I think there may have been a few tables i didn't get photos of...but it was so much fun! We are all planning on next year already!

you guessed it...MORE tablescapes!

2011-05-05T19:45:00.003-05:00

The two photos below are of the first place table! It was really beautiful! my photos do not do it justice!

The theme for this table was fairies! can you see the fairy dust?

This little country cutie is the other table i threw together at the last minute. I don't think it turned out too bad!

tablescapes take 2

2011-05-04T20:19:00.006-05:00

Here are some images from one of my favorite tables at our Table party...I said it reminded me of Mommy Prom because we were all so excited about it and fussing over our tables and all for weeks that it was like prom. Anyway, this table was excellent! You had to get in close and pay attention to the deatils....which i totally did, but didn't get many pictures of! silly me!

Totally cute, right?

Tablescapes

2011-05-03T11:07:00.004-05:00

We held a Mother Daughter Dinner at our Church. Many different people decorated tables...here are some shots of mine. It was an Alice in Wonderland theme!

busy busy busy

2011-03-24T18:42:00.003-06:00

so i have been so buy that i haven't been around to post much. sorry. I know you are checking often for a new post *NOT*...but I really should be better about posting stuff here!

Run Baby Run!

2011-02-13T10:50:00.000-06:00

My daughter who never wants to participate in anything .....wanted to run in the Mercedes Kids' Marathon! wow. She certainly does NOT get Her athletic ability or ambition from me!

The kids run all but the last mile during school over the course of a few months. They run the last mile on race day!

We were so proud of her! I think she ran the entire mile!!!

Love is in the air

2011-02-12T20:40:00.002-06:00

With Valentine's Day only a few days away I had to share these! I set up some little mail boxes for each of us in the Living room and the kids have had so much fun leaving letters for all of us and checking their mail boxes to see if they have mail! We have a busy two days of celebrating ahead of us and then i am packing to go out of town with my girl friends for a long weekend! YIPPEE!

home SWEET home

2011-02-06T13:50:00.006-06:00

Today after church, the family did a little bit of SWEET family time in the kitchen. Hub and I have been haunted by a Chocolate cake with Peanut butter filling recipe for a few weeks, and today was the day!

The cake is made with good old fashioned love and ingredients right from your pantry! No boxed cake mix required!

The filling, is super yummy too! I added a bit more peanut butter than what the recipe called for. I wanted a bit more of a peanutty taste!

No one I know has as much fun licking the spatula and beater as Lula! She gets so excited about it! I thought she might have to fight her Dad off to get it; but he played nice today!

About this point James got bored with the whole cooking thing and resorted to playing online! Oh well, at least he was still in the Kitchen!

I ask you, have you ever seen anything as sexy as a man doing the dishes? I think NOT!

After what seemed like forever, the cake was done in all its chocolate and peanut buttery goodness!

The cake and filling are fantastic! I personally am not sold on the frosting; a bit too sugary for me but Lula and Hub seemed to like it! wonder how long this will last?

more to see

2011-02-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

enjoy!

redo updates

2011-02-03T19:50:00.002-06:00

I am still working on finishing up my bed and bath redo...but wanted to share a bit of a sneak peek with you!

have a great weekend!

My girl likes to paint all the time!

2011-01-29T19:32:00.004-06:00

so we finally decided on a color for the Master bed and bath! bought the paint on Friday...and have been painting ever since! Still not done! {HUGE shout out to my parents for helping us paint!!!}

We ended up choosing Sherwin Williams Tidewater for the Bathroom and it is so LOVELY! I can't wait to show you pictures once the room is back together. I will have to find some before photos too if i can.

We went with Sherwin Williams Wool Skein in the bedroom and so far i LOVE it! I got a coat of primer and paint on the walls today...tomorrow the GIANT Vaulted {?} Tray{?} whatever ..ceiling!

Valentine Wreath...easy peasy!

2011-01-25T09:03:00.000-06:00

As promised, here is my "other" wreath for Valentine's made from Christmas clearance items. I got this wreath at the thrift store for 75 cents. Add a little spray paint... and some "christmas" glittery picks....
and you get a sparkly Valentine wreath for your pantry door!

Those little white cherubs that are all over my Valentine decorations, are actually a Christmas ornament that my Grandfather had {for some reason} and entire box of which i inherited! works for me :)

Valentine's .....sigh.

2011-01-24T09:51:00.008-06:00

well, here i am in my first ever linky party! the Valentin's Mantel Linky Party to be exact! Sponsored by The stories of A to Z and her wonderful self! Enough already...here's my Mantle...

That cute little lion is Braveheart, be sure to wave hello to him! {yes, i am thirysomething and i play with Webkinz!} Those darling little topiaries on the left I made several years ago and you can find a tutorial for them here. The hearts and bow I've added to my candles are all Christmas clearance I've picked up in the past! gotta love that, right?

Speaking of Christmas Clearance, this wreath on my front door is also made from stuff I found at JoAnn a few weeks ago at 90% off! go me!!!!

Here is my Buffet that sits in my entryway. Again, mostly Christmas Clearance, including the Pink Pears {LOVE THEM!} and the red hots {TEN cents a bag!} Yes, more webkinz, because what says Valentine's more than pink poodles????

Here's a close up....scored that Cupid at the Thrift store for $1.50 and painted him! made those hurricane with some inspiration from about a dozen tutorials all over the web. Search, i am sure you can find one!

These conversation heart bowls are a hand me down from my mom who won them at Bunco or something and didn't use them and that darling printable....yeah feeling bad about now....i can't remember where I found it! If it's yours. let me know and i'll link you up! {$1 thrift store frame!}

Here are some more shots of Valentine goodness....

{LOVE sign and mailbox from Target....I decorated the mail box a few years back} Love is definitely busting out all over my house! I have another wreath i made from Christmas Clearance that I will show tomorrow! come back!

linking up here at the party:

paint crazy!

2011-01-22T19:44:00.003-06:00

So I have been looking around the Internet drooling over all the home decor blogs and its got me itching to redecorate. Threeish years with flat builder paint, and it is probably time to do it anyway.
I've decided to repaint my bed room and bath room. Here's the problem. I would LOVE to do that white on white sort of look...but my trim....is Sherwin Williams Pacer White.
^^^^^^^ doesn't look too bad here...and doesn't look too bad in my house either...but go check out a paint chip and it is a funky color. Not sure WHY the "decorators" for my builders chose that color..but i didn't have a choice in the matter. hmpf! I am really not wanting to repaint all the trim in those two rooms to change it. Really not an option...at this point. shrug.

So currently my walls are Sherwin Williams Portabello
<-------- which i did choose. My bed and bath, the hall, the kids' rooms {I did add some decorative painting over this in the kids' rooms to snazz it up} and the Living Room are all this color. I love it, but am ready for a change.
I wanted to keep my bedding. Not tired of it yet. Its a quilt from PB and has oodles of colors in it, so i didn't see a need to change it.

I really wanted to paint the walls a nice ivory, or cream or something. When i got home with all my new paint chips ....it looked horrible with my "pacer white" trim. boo!
Also, I found some new drapes that i LOVE which are a aqua/teal/blue-ish color and they made the creams look yellow and i didn't like that either. So, I ended up looking for blues that matched, but were much lighter, than the drapery. makes sense, right?

Well, today i went and got those cool little sample paints of Sherwin Williams Tidewater

<------- <-------- <------- <--------

<--------------

...

and Behr Aqua Breeze

<------ I've painted patches in my bath and bedroom in several different places and right now want to pull my hair out!!! When i first painted, I liked the darker one. But now, it looks too dark! {I've added another coat since i am covering such a dark color}

Also, in our last house, the master bed and bath were painted blue. I loved it, but I am not ready to repeat that 'style' again. Yes, these are really aqua-ish, but still in the blue family. grrrr!

Now, I am even considering.....a totally new direction in paint....a friend to the pacer white I'm stuck with....

.....

Sand Dollar by Sherwin Williams

<-------

sigh. Pacer White is the lightest color on the paint strip. Portabello {what i have now} is #5 out of 7. Sand Dollar is #2. Honestly it doesn't excite me, but I think i need to try it since it might give me "the look" i want and not clash with the fab drapes OR the pacer white trim. In real life, on the paint chip, it seems a little tiny bit pinkish, and a whole lot like "builder beige", but maybe it will surprise me.

The thing to consider with all this is that the time of day makes a HUGE difference in what any of these colors look like...as well as where they are located in the rooms. {because of the lighting} This is why i have swatches painted in 2 places in the bed room and in 3 in the bath. I don't think I have ever had this much trouble picking a paint color before!

The other thing that concerns me....what if i like all that white on white stuff in theory, but not in reality? I am a color person. I have an antique red {behr} kitchen and i love it! I just want soft and tranquil for my bed and bath. I have wanted white white cream white for a long time but have said that it wasn't practical.....and thought now i'd give it a whirl in my rooms. shrug. I'll keep you posted.

Comments and suggestions are GREATLY appreciated here! help!

jackpot!

2011-01-18T18:33:00.002-06:00

I am about to start a re-do on my bed and bath room. I have been looking for several things for my house since the Christmas decor came down and working on Valentine's decorations...posts on that to come soon!

I found, well i guess my BFF found, these FAB paintings at the thrift store today...but decided she didn't want to spend the $$ on them. {I've recently blogged about how our thrift store's prices have gotten insane!} When she showed them to me, i fell in love! I also realized that they had a YELLOW tag and that today yellow tags were 50% off! So, i was able to score them both for $6.88! yes! She didn't even make me fight her for them! not THAT"S a true friend!

Meet my new friend!

2011-01-11T19:28:00.004-06:00

Here is my new friend....Violet Dashwood! My Bff and i made her just a week or two ago! she is a combo of us both...Red&Blue! {notice her groovy hair} Here she is posing with some of our latest thrift store finds! {after some glue and several coats of spray paint to spiff them up!}

I have to say that she is super groovy and even has her own FB page! If you want to be her friend, look her up, she' love to get to know you!

When we were at the thrift store...we saw this chicken.. perched on a shelf in the thrift store. NOT an antique store, or consignment shop; the THRIFT store in all its nastiness....and it was taped together with packing tape; to keep it from separating i suppose. The one in the picture above seems a bit iridescent, but this one was not. Just that amber color......it was marked $74.95!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?!? they also had a clear one marked about $12. Seriously? I've looked online and seen them in the $20-$30 range depending on the glass they are made of, but they are from antique stores, etc. Not filthy and surrounded by packing tape!

I also saw something VERY similar to this....which is currently listed in Etsy for $12.50...was marked $19.95!!! again at the THRIFT STORE! not to mention that several things were spotted from Dollar Tree marked WaY over a dollar! WHAT are these people thinking?

Winter Decorations

2011-01-10T18:47:00.002-06:00

Since rearranging my living room, i have found that i have all these new surfaces to decorate seasonally. Since i didn't really have everything 'set' before decorating for Christmas, once i took that all down, my house looked pitifully bare! This is what i cam up with for the buffet that is now in my entryway....

i think if you click the pic you can see it bigger. I got that design in the frame as a free printable from a blog i stumbled on...sorry i don't remember who or where. the two photographs are of me and my sweetie on 2 separate New Year's Eve's. Guessing I need to frame a pic of the kids on NYE now that we party together! The little honeycomb centerpiece i got in a "kit" on clearance after new year's for $1.25 ( included a banner, which is hanging from my mantle!, confetti (?) and a plastic table cloth) the blowers were less than $1 also bought after New Years! the welcome snowflake is a clearance ornament :).

I am enjoying building my January decoration collection....I have two wreaths, but that's been about it. I'll be ready for next year...now, on to Valentine's Day Decor....coming soon!

loss

2011-01-03T18:22:00.002-06:00

I lost a friend this week. Suddenly. Tragically. She left a husband and two children, 9 and 4 behind. I know it seems hokey to say, but she was an amazing Godly woman who did so much for our Church and community. She will be greatly missed by not only her family, but by many, many friends!

Here's hoping that the new year brings much better things for us all.

7 in '11

2010-12-30T17:28:00.004-06:00

Head over Here to the Inspired Mess blog to join in with the 7 in '11 as we work on Seven goals we have for 2011 together! Check it out and lets work together!

about to ring in the new year....

2010-12-30T13:48:00.004-06:00

Its been a while since I have sat down to blog. Shame on me. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I realize that i need to wrap up some things here in the blog. one of the last things i talked about was the insanity that my house was going through. I wanted a computer armoire for the living room.....wellllllll not that easy. Couldn't fine anything in our price range that didn't look like office furniture. hmpf!

Then, hub had a GREAT idea....turn our TV armoire into one for the computer. Score! Now, what to do with the TV. Apparently all of America has nice flat screen TVs now...except us! I wasn't in the market for a new TV (sorry dear!). We looked and looked and finally ended up with something from the IKEA Hemnes series. perfect!

Perfect that is until i brought it home from the store in ATL, about 3 hours away...and hub assembled it all, and though it fit...there was too much on that wall of the Living room. It looked like a wall of black wood!!!!

sigh.

crazy like i am, i began to shove and push and pull the furniture around the room because I just couldn't wait for someone to be here to help! OBVIOUSLY! After a lot of stress and redecorating with what we had.....I LOVE IT! I am considering adding another bookcase to the configuration, but that is another trip on another day! Here are a few photos from Christmas where you can see the new stuff in all it's Christmas glory....

Now i have to do some redecorating to all those new shelves since the Christmas decor is packed away.

The other thing I started right before the holidays was a redo on the "bonus" room upstairs. the room was "brown" like the rest of the house, only it resembled a cave since it was an attic room with very little light.

I'd been wanting to move the antique desk from upstairs into my daughter's room for a while, so I thought...Let's do it!

That led to the uncontrollable urge to paint...and redecorate...and create an amazing new crafty space for me!!!! My Dad built me this amazing desk as part of my Christmas gifts! you can find the plans for it here. I will totally clean up the space and take some better pictures of it soon, but here is a peek at the new space....

there's a terrible pic of Dad....but a shot of the newly redecorated space.

We had a Christmas surprise...That "stuff" in the picture is actually SNOW!!!! On Christmas Day...in ALABAMA!!!! Crazy, right? and then the next day......

even MORE SNOW! none of it stuck around very long...but the kids did get to throw a few snowballs on the way into church that morning!

and one last picture for now...us in our matching Christmas jammies! Wishing you all the best New Year!

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-22T10:16:00.001-06:00

This free scrapbook generated with Smilebox

What the CRAP?

2010-11-18T16:25:00.002-06:00

right now my life is a big ole pile of chaos! somehow i have ended up redoing half my house RIGHT before the holidays! seriously, how do i do these things to myself?

well hopefully it will really come together, mostly, before Thanksgiving next week and eventually i will be able to show you some of it...right now i have a fall festival to take the kids to!

xox
cyndi

give away

2010-11-11T20:15:00.002-06:00

Donna's Decembers is having two give aways over in her blog HERE.
If you are interested in some crafty goodness.....head on over and enter to win...but hurry, the winner will be picked this Saturday!

a T shirt quilt

2010-10-31T12:20:00.005-06:00

This is my new best friend! Sta-flow liquid starch! i am in love with it. SOOOO much better than spray starch and yet so hard to find! good for many things...but especially helpful if you are making a T shirt quilt.

My Cousin's hub was killed about three years ago in a car wreck leaving her with a 6month old. Well, that "baby" just turned three and I was so honored to be a part of the most amazing gift ever! My darling cousin saved a number of her late hub's T shirts in hopes of one day having a quilt made for their son! *pick me*choose me*I want to do it* PLEASE****

so, I was trusted, and got the bag of shirts back during the Summer. I started looking around online because i knew this had to be the most amazing T shirt quilt EVER! I found some really nice, and IMO not so nice, stuff out there. The most helpful was This site. I loved what she was doing and OH MY she had a book! Well i ordered that baby and then.....

used a lot of her ideas with a few of mine and ended up with this drawing....

and all this MATH to do (no one told me there'd be math!), and then something that looked like this...

and finally something that started to resemble a QUILT!

Here is where the liquid starch comes in...when i decided what size i wanted the "squares" i rough cut them and then put them into a bowl of undiluted liquid starch! One they had soaked it up, i wrung them out with my hands and then popped them in my dryer with a DRY towel.

When they came out, i ironed them and then cut them to size. I then proceeded with the quilty goodness as directed in the fab book I bought Here.

And this my friends is the finished product! Isn't it amazing? and he loved it....i wish i had a pic of him with it to show you....maybe i can snag one...I hope she won't mind!

a Jumble of Squares

2010-10-18T19:45:00.002-05:00

Well here it is! finally. I made this quilt for a friend of mine's daughter. I meant to make it shortly after she was born. They didn't know what they were having...well, a baby of course, but not the sex! So i wanted to wait and make the quilt for the baby...and i hadn't met him or her yet!
Well, Ruthie turned 1 several months ago...and i had an idea, but no quilt.

Found out a few weeks ago that they will be having an addition to the family in about 9 months and that gave me the incentive to get in gear!
The mom of this particular Ruthie, hates all things pink and frilly. I didn't want the quilt to be too babyish...i wanted her to be able to love it for a long time. I absolutely LOVE this quilt. I didn't want to give it away!
See that 2nd square from the top in the right row? It's cherries on a blue background. That fabric has been in my stash for YEARS waiting to become something fabulous....now it is! I love those cherries and I am thrilled that at least part of them has moved on to a happy home!

I put this in so maybe you can see the quilting on the back. I am still not VERY good at machine quilting(and even worse by hand) so I like to stick with backing that won't show all the "mistakes". I love using sheets....lots of fabric for little money if you know how to shop! I am a new quilter so don't expect too much! the inspiration for this quilt...i can't find again, but the link she linked is here. It's how I made my blocks, but i altered the size a bit! super easy! and a ton of fun!

here is the tag that i am currently using on all things....my hair is blue and my BFF has red hair...people call us "Blue and Red" or "red and blue"...whatever. It stuck...but it makes me wonder what will happen when/if i change my hair color???

Popeye the Sailor Man!

2010-10-17T19:29:00.002-05:00

So my Son, always inventive, wanted a Popeye Party for his NINTH (when did he get so old?) Birthday. I am here to tell you that there is NOTHING online to help a girl out when planning a Popeye party! I had to be really creative on this one~

He, of course, wanted a costume. I was NOT going to spend $40 on a crappy store bought one! Have you noticed how poorly most of those costumes are made? ICK! I constructed this Popeye shirt with a $4 Navy Tee and some felt i had "in stock"! Turned out pretty good i think!

I was lucky enough to be selected for another house party...this one by Capri Sun! SO, our Popeye party was "sponsored" by Capri Sun! (thank you craft!) They sent Frisbees and Terra cycle pencil pouches for all the kids, and coupons and magnetic frames for the moms! In honor or Capri sun, we played that game where you pass an orange held under your chin from person to person....this does not go over well with this age group! It was very funny though! We also bought MANY cans of Popeye spinach and let the kids throw baseballs at them...the LOVED this!
WE had mini hamburgers in honor of Wimpy and several dishes with spinach! If you have any good recipes that use canned spinach.....I have several banged up cans in my pantry....send them my way~!!

wow! where have i been?

2010-10-11T18:28:00.002-05:00

i thought i was going to be able to do a catch up post, but life is getting in the way. I do have a lot to share...apparently just not now :(

Beat BarBQue Boredom!

2010-08-17T10:42:00.002-05:00

I was lucky enough to be accepted to host a Boboli Beat BarBQue Boredom House Party!!! The party was this past Sunday! We had the best time. Boboli sent me coupons to purchase all the pizza crusts we needed for the party as well as some nice swag for me and my guests. Above you can see the reusable shopping bag they sent...with the cutie tag i made to go on it.

Here's my Dad hanging out waiting on other guests to arrive. It WAS TOO HOT to be outside so i hung the little "keep flies off your food" thingy from my lamp over the table as a decoration. You cant really see it in this pic, but i also made boboli garland out of their log and hung it from the window behind Dad.

This is one of the recipes they sent me ....Spinach and Artichoke pizza. We had this one as an appetizer when guests were arriving....

OF COURSE ELMO and his talking pizza were in attendance!

Hubs outside in the HEAT grillin the pizzas for us....

as you can see from the rest of the pics, we just had a laid back time...and a lot of pizza

WE let the kids make some pizzas and the adults made some. We also tried two of the dessert pizzas Boboli sent me...they were really yummy!!! Thanks to House Party and Boboli for letting me do this! Ciao!

Jungle Quilt

2010-08-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

Here it is...for size reference, my son it holding it up, he's almost 9. I made this quilt for some friends of mine who just had their third baby...first girl. I had heard that the nursery was going to be done in a safari theme....they didn't find out the sex of the baby so they were going "neutral". My Mom found this vintage animal fabric at a YARD SALE for me and i built the quilt around that.

For maybe the first time EVER i am willing to show the BACK of one of my quilts. I found the best tutorial ever on hand basting instead of all those safety pins!! I don't know how to link a you tube video but if you go there and do a search for hand basting a quilt..you'll find it.

The first time i saw the tutorial i thought "as if!" but then i gave it a try and FELL IN LOVE with it. I did all the quilting on my Bernina, with the walking foot and it looks AMAZING! (the back fabric is a vintage sheet in grey i had...matched the elephants)

I got a little carried away and mad a bag to hold the quilt...leftover sheet and fabric from the quilt..
I even got crazy and made a tag...free motion quilting is not something i am good at so it is only barely legable! I wanted to do something though since i didn't put a tag on the quilt...i haven't found something i like for that yet...oh well.

I've been sew crazy!

2010-08-10T09:55:00.005-05:00

I know it's not just me...
this summer has flown by! my kids go back to school on Thursday!!! I have managed to sew a few things this summer in all the insanity...

I made this bag....and i hated it! just wasn't happy at all with it and was so upset that i spent time on it and used that too cute birdie fabric on it...

Here is the bag after my BFF made me rip it apart and re-make it so that it was tolerable!
I am much much happier with it now....and not so upset for the use of the cutie birdies!

This bag i LOVE! It is entirely from vintage fabric my Aunt gifted me with! I love that! It is made from a Simplicity pattern that I can't find at the moment to tell you the # of! If you really want to know, leave a comment and i will dig around til i find it for you! I was so proud of this interior zipper pocket!! (vintage gifted zipper too!)

I added this fabric rose bling....not origional to the pattern...

and here it is finished! i totally love it and the second it even thinks of feeling like fall here in the deep south....i am going to be sportin' it!

I also made a Quilt as a gift that won't be revealed until it is gifted in October. I don't want anyone to have a sneek peek at it! Tomorrow i will post the baby quilt i made last week!

happy back to school!

better late than never...June in review

2010-08-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

sew....

2010-07-31T19:30:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of bags i have finished up recently. This first one i LOVE and can't wait till fall so i can use it! It is made of 100% vintage fabric that my Aunt gifted me with. Even the zipper i used on the inside came out of the box of goodies from my Aunt!

This one....i started back before Easter. It was going to be my "spring bag". It got set aside and i finally finished it just to get it off my projects list. I am not super happy with it. I LOVE that birdie fabric, so i am bummed that i am not lovin' the bag. I don't love the shape and size of the bag...but it's not workin' for me in other ways either. I feel like i need to do more embroidery .....ideas???

review...

2010-06-30T18:15:00.005-05:00

oops! a bit late....but i'll post 'em anyway.

March in review:

April in review:

May in review:

more pix from Florida...

2010-06-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

Summer Vacation, all I ever wanted?!?!?

2010-06-27T15:28:00.019-05:00

My FAMILY and i just went on a 12 day vacation. We started out with our traditional week at Panama City Beach, FL and then continued on to Orlando to stay 4 nights at the Nickelodeon Hotel and got to Universal Orland's Islands of Adventure.

We laid pretty low at the Beach. Happily there was no oil on the beach (yet). We were all sort of waiting on the "next leg" of the vacation. We swam and spent a little time on the sand. We went to the outlet mall for a few hours in Destin. We went out to eat at Hammerhead Fred's one night. ( my daughter said that was one of her top three fun things of the trip! go figure!) The trip was mostly funded by my gracious parents so there was lots of quality grandparent time. We also had a smattering of (grown) cousins with us for the week we spent at the beach.
After a week of relaxation and a disagreement or two, we headed off to Orlando. We checked into our hotel late that afternoon and the kids were DELIGHTED that they had a sponge bob room! We were with my parents, so they got the bed room, kids got twin beds in the "kid" room and DH and i got to sleep on the pull out sofa in the tiny kitchen/living room combo. fun! fun!
We finally got unpacked and repacked into our room....(the room was a little tight for the 6 of us, but as I didn't want to fork over $200+ a night for a second room, I can take the cramped comfort for a few days). The kids were itching to go to the pools so we got them all ready.... only for the pools to be closed due to thunder and lightening. sigh.
Gran to the rescue! she took them to the on site arcade and got them arcade cards loaded with enough $ to keep them happy for a while.
We spent two full days at the hotel enjoying the shows and activities and the lovely water fun! I will say this....I had not seen any info on this hotel before our stay. A friend recommended it, actually several friends did. Here's what i have to say about it:
The room was clean. If there had only been 4 of us, or 2 adults and however many kids you may happen to have, the room would have been big enough. It was tight with 4 adults and 2 kids packed in there with only 1 bathroom! It needed a revolving door on it! someone was always in there and someone was always waiting!
We had numerous problems with our in room safe. Security had to come out at least 3 times. We didn't have a shower curtain liner until the last day. Our door malfunctioned...as in they had to come out and remove the entire handle/locking mech. and work on it. We could NEVER get the Internet to work in our room despite my DH being an ex IT guy and numerous calls to "the People" about it. I never had what it took to lug the laptop into a common area to see if the wireless would work. The web TV wouldn't work either the couple of times we tried. The vent fan in the bathroom didn't work (foggy mirror o'plenty) and the turntable in the micro didn't rotate (scorched popcorn anyone?). Also we left a bag and some towels at a pool to save our lounge chairs when we ran in for lunch...a thunder storm came up and they closed and "locked down" the pools. It took us a good 20 minutes to convince someone to let us get our stuff. That does not count the 5 min walk to and from the pool in the storm.

Now, the kids LOVED the pool area, the nightly entertainment (included in the cost of the stay) and the adults enjoyed the pool, etc. as well. The pool itself was clean, but the pool area IMO could have been cleaner. Maybe I am just overly sensitive to wet trash..but EWWWWWWW! We did get to meet several characters throughout the day(s) at scheduled meetings. (Maybe i am just a Disney girl at heart but i was a little disappointed that the characters did not autograph...their handlers had a stamp and stamped their names for you). Also, we went to a Character breakfast at the hotel which was nice, if a bit costly. (is $20 for a breakfast buffet too much???)

On Monday, after the opening weekend of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we went to Islands of Adventure. Now, let me tell you my son is almost 9, and a bit skittish of anything he deems "scary" and my daughter is 6 and afraid of almost nothing...neither of them have much experience with amusement parks, though we did do Disney about 18 months ago.

Both of the kids, especially our son, are big HP fans, as are we. Our "plan" was to get to the park early, hit WWofHP first and then see the rest of the park. (i had already scoped out the attractions and decided the "other" park was "too old" for our kids, and that the meal plan Universal offered was not for us at all. honestly i tried to be prepared!) As we enter the park, moments before "opening" we are ushered into a holding area for people wanting to see the WWofHP. I can tell this is not going to be good. It doesn't take us long to realize that there is a LINE just to get into that area of the park...and it is going to take us about THREE HOURS. (i did hear the many people stood in that line days earlier and NEVER made it in!!!) We decided that if we got out of line, we'd never make it in.....and then later found out if we'd just waited until later in the day...there would be no line!

Well, we waited maybe 2 hours before we got into Hogsmeade...and then another hour or so to get on the main ride that is located inside the Hogwarts castle. Once we finally got into the castle, it wasn't so bad to wait...things to look at, AC and all that. Our daughter was too short, son was too scared; so by the time we got to the ride it was me, my Dad and my DH. It was a pretty cool ride, but I don't think it was worth standing in line 3 hours for. Knowing I probably will never go back, maybe it was worth it, to say "been there, done that"....didn't buy the T shirt. ( I will also say that i don't do well with rides like soar'in at Disney, or IMAX movies...they make me a little sick, and at one point i did have to close my eyes ...i was feeling a little green!)
After that, there was a line for EVERYTHING! even to get into the stores. The kids, my mom, and I did manage to ride flight of the hippogriff, which was cool, and totally worth the maybe 10 mins we waited! There was an obscene line to get in Ollivander's wand shop, but they had a cart outside the castle and the kids and DH got wands there. Only $28.95....not as bad as I had expected! At this point, we were all HOT, HUNGRY and Cranky! the got the heck out of Hogsmeade! lol. You literally could not move. We had great plans to eat lunch at the 3 broomsticks...but there was just no way!

We went into Jurassic Park, the kids stood in line 45 mins. to ride a "kiddie" ride, and then we had lunch at Burger Digs...which was WAY too crowded...bad pick on our part...and then decided to ride the "water" rides since it looked like rain...and we were HOT!!!! I had been warned that the rides got you seriously wet, but i thought I didn't care at that point since i was so hot. We rode the two in "toon lagoon" and weren't just wet, we were drenched!!! literally wringing water out of ALL our clothes.

The kids had decided at this point they weren't interested in any of the Marvel Comic's rides...so we headed to Seuss Landing! I love Dr. Seuss as much as HP, so i was very excited to be in that area of the park, even if i was wet! We rode some rides, at dinner, and then headed over to watch a stunt show in the "lost continent" area. (FYI the meal plan is $20 per adult. It included a dessert and entree as often as you'd like to stand in the line. Both meals me and DH ate were slightly less than $10 each...so the meal plan would not have saved us any money. )
After the stunt show, which was cool, we ventured back to Hogsmeade to see if we could get into some shops. We did! We made it into Honeyduke's and Zonko's...which are connected, by only standing in a short line....we were able to walk around a bit more too and see some of the other things, though we did not wait in line for butterbeer or any of the other shops. We were very tired by the time we drug ourselves out of the park and back to our car. It was fun, but I have decided that I enjoy Disney more, and I also do NOT enjoy theme parks in the SUMMER!!! too hot! The fall is a much better time for me...even if the kids do have to miss some school!

* I will post more pictures tomorrow***

Soleil 100 Days

2010-06-11T12:38:00.000-05:00

Soleil 100 Days: "There are thousands of fun, sharable prizes in the BIC® Soleil® 100 Days of Sunshine promotion. Join now! www.FeelTheSoleil.com"

Check it out...Lots of great prizes!!!

2010-06-09T16:36:00.003-05:00

So I have been working on T shirts for us all for our trip; little Potter dorks that we are! Can you guess which shirt is mine? *wink* I improved as i went a long, but they all turned out wearable! I just can't wait!

On the road again...

2010-06-05T08:00:00.003-05:00

in a bout a week my family and i will be headed south to the beautiful beaches of Panama City. At least i hope they are beautiful! I hope this oil spill mess hasn't ruined it for us. We will go anyway and enjoy the pool and the fun, even if we can't enjoy the actual beach!

After that, we are headed even farther south to Orlando to stay at the Nickelodeon Hotel for a few days and to go to Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventures! We are especially excited to be arriving after the Wizarding world of Harry Potter opens! Muggles that we are, we love our Harry!

I am really excited about the trip, though i have to admit it feels wrong to go to Orlando and not visit the mouse. I just might have to pop over to Downtown Disney for some Magic while we are there; i don't know if i can stand it!

SOBE Lifewater

2010-06-04T08:29:00.003-05:00

This is one of my fave deals of the week! Go here
and print your SOBE coupons that have been reset!!! you should be able to print two (per computer) and then go to the Target site and print their store coupon for .50 off One SOBE lifewater. They have them on sale this week 10/$10...and you get a $5 gift card for buying 10!!!
So you can combine as many BOGO coupons as you can print...with as many .50 off one as you can print ( store coupons stack with manuf. coupons) to get your ten for as low as free, or $4.50 depending if they will let you use more than one .50/1 , the target Q does say one per transaction. AND THEN you get a $5 gift card back!!! Sales reset on Sunday....so go! go! (when i did this deal earlier in the week, i had 2 store Qs and they let me use both, depends on your checker)

2010-06-03T07:45:00.002-05:00

If you are new to couponing...check out this article. Even if you are not new...its a cool article about Southern Savers...everyone's favorite couponing site!

yet another trip to publix this week...

2010-05-30T11:59:00.004-05:00

There are a lot of blogs and websites out there that do this, and do it a lot better than i do. I did want to share this with you though, just to give you an idea of how this couponing madness works. I will also say, this is my 2nd or 3rd trip to Publix this week, so many of the "free" items on special this week, were purchased earlier. Anyway, here are the numbers:

total Value of products: $65.14

Special Price Savings: $15.86 (this is what i saved just because some items were on sale this week at Publix)

Vendor coupons: $17.20

Store Coupons: $15.20

Total Out of Pocket: $16.88 (including tax) for a savings of 74% go me!

Here's the break down if you are interested. i am not going to link to printable coupons because there are many sites that do it better than i ever could. I am just going to tell you how i aved the $$$.

Green Giant boxed frozen veggies (on sale) $1 each

I had two .50/2 printable coupons, and Publix dbls manufacturer coupons .50 or less, so I paid .50 a box

Totinos Pary Pizza $1.49 each

These were not on sale, but my kids love 'em and i had a ton of coupons about to expire. They were all printable either .50/2, which they doubled, or $1/2. I ended up paying .99 each for the pizzas.

Publix Milk $3.39

Country Crock spread (on sale) $1 each

I had two .55/1 publix store coupons from one of their flyers and two .30/1 from a Sunday paper, which they doubled. this means i paid NEGATIVE .15 for each tub. (Publix is one of the few stores which allows overages...where you have more value in your coupons than the cost of the product. While they will not pay you money...the overage comes off your total bill, so you end up saving money on items, like milk, that you don't have coupons for!)

Luigi Italian Ice (on sale) $1.50

I had a .50/1 printable hanging out that i didn't realize i had. Publix doubled it and i paid .50 for my box (6 cups) of Italian Ice.

Sara Lee Poundcake (on sale) $2.29

All frozen Sara Lee desserts are on sale for 50% off. I chose the larger poundcake that my store carries. I had $1/1 printable so this cost me $1.29

Sominex $3.19

This is one of those things you have to watch for. In the green advantage publix flyer there is a coupon for $5/2...and there are a BUNCH of drugs listed. There are several on that list, depending on what is in stock and what your store carries, that will make this deal work for you. i chose sominex because i felt like it was something either i, or my family, would use. (In a deal earlier this week i bought sominex and vivarin...i thought the combination was hysterical!) There are printable coupons available for most of the drugs included on the Publix coupon. I had $2/1 coupons for the sominex. You have to buy two products, in this case costing me $6.38, to use the $5/2 coupon. then add in two $2/1 coupons, one for each box and i have paid NEGATIVE $2.62 for every two boxes i purchased.

Lawry's 30 minute marinades (on sale) $1.38

Here i had 2 printables for .50/1, which they doubled making it .38 each!

Kraft mac n'cheese (on sale) .59

here i had .55/2, printables again, making this about .32 a box

Publix pancake syrup $2.39

free when you buy Cary's pancake syrup...so i paid nothing but the tax here!

Cary's Sugar Free pancake syrup $2.99

I wish i had a coupon on one of these syrups, but we needed syrup, and at $1.50 each it wasn't a bad deal.

If you are interested in couponing...check out some of the links in my side bar over there --->

they have great posts on weekly specials as well as how to get started links! Happy Memorial Day and Happy couponing!

new Blogs in the side bar

2010-05-27T06:59:00.004-05:00

I spent $2.02 on the items pictures above!! (4 loaves of bread, nutty bars, 2 deodorants, 2 grill mates seasoning blends)

I have started down the road of EXTREME couponing....You will notice some new links under my favorites in the side bar. These are some GREAT blogs that I depend on weekly for free samples and money saving information.

I use to be a Wal-mart girl...now i try my best to shop at Publix because they are NICER and i have found that i can actually save more money shopping their sales and using coupons. I would have never believed it....

But this week so far i have gotten FREE croutons, disposable razors, Bic ball point pens, Dip, Olay bar soap, and deodorant. For WAY less than a buck each i have gotten Uncle Ben's Chicken Rice, Lawry's 30 minute marinades, Colgate, publix window cleaner, rotel tomatoes, vitamin D, Sominex, and Oreo Fudge Cremes, and Vivrin.

Trust me, this couponing thing is catching...and oh so much fun!

cookies! great for Teacher gifts!

2010-05-25T06:12:00.003-05:00

I will share with you today...the most amazing cookie recipe ever! People will beg you to make these and ask for the recipe!I got this recipe from Christmas with Southern Living 1997 so yes, its been around for a while!

Heavenly Chocolate Chunk Cookies
2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 Tablespoons instant coffee granules
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 large egg
1 pkg semisweet chocolate mega (or any size you like) morsels
1 cup walnuts halves (or pecans)

Combine first 3 ingredients; stir well.Combine butter and coffee granules in a small saucepan or skillet. cook over med-low heat until butter melts and coffee is dissolved stirring occasionally. remove from heat and let cool to room temp, but don't let butter harden. Combine Butter mixture, sugar, egg and egg yolk in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until blended. gradually add flour mixture beating at low speed just until blended. stir in morsels and nuts. drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. bake at 325 for 12-14 minutes. let cool slightly on pan and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

yield 20 cookies.

ok, i make mine "regular" sized and always get about 3 dozen. trust me...these are good!

violin...lin...lin

2010-05-19T10:27:00.002-05:00

a week or so ago there was a talent show at my kids' school. of course my DS had to be in it. He played his recital piece on the violin....Lightly Row. He did a great job...and now the recital is this weekend!

Rockin in the free world!

2010-05-18T19:13:00.003-05:00

here are just a few shots from my DD's 6th birthday blowout. I feel sort of like a slacker this year...like i didn't do much for the party. Shrug. It was nice to be able to sit back and not BE the entertainment though! That cake nearly killed me! never again. I honestly can't believe that she's six! where did all the time go????

Now, a week and a half before school's out. I am excited ...and terrified that the kids are going to make me nuts arguing with each other all summer!

new book!

2010-05-11T07:23:00.003-05:00

just finished! love it! want MORE! i am guessing the next book will be about Blaylock and Quinn....either or. One or the other. I don't know how you can tell the story of one without telling the story of both. Surely they will end up together...though V and Butch didn't....so maybe they won't...but Blay needs Quinn. I want them to work something out. Them hurting this much, just doesn't do it for me, you feel me?

new obsession

2010-05-03T08:52:00.004-05:00

If you hang here much, you know i am a bit obsessive about things.

and they are random and ever changing to say the least. but at least i am passionate! ha!

ok well if you love Target, and love a good bargain...check out the new thingy over there --->

click it...it will take you to the most fab website!!!

Other things i am obsessed about.....

http://www.southernsavers.com/ for all your couponing ideas for Publix, CVS, Walgreens and so many others.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood novels....so so good! and the newest one...lover mine...has just come out! but you will want to start at the beginning! so lovely! so not for young adults or children, if you feel me!

the other series i am loving is the Anita Blake series.... also, not for children....the second book is a bit creepy/scary...and they get A LOT more "sexy" about book 9 or 10....but they are a great escape from the mundane days of laundry and shopping lists...

so....that's all i've got today....are you ready for Mother's day? it snuck up on me and i am so very unprepared!

yikes!

quilter's bag

2010-04-14T07:23:00.002-05:00

Just a few shots of a quilter's bag i made. I got the pattern for the bag from a quilting book at the library. It is pretty cool! i am quite happy wiht how it turned out!

Easter

2010-04-08T09:33:00.002-05:00

Do you know how hard it is to make two kids who don't want their pictures made stand still, look normal and not smack each other?
I am guessing you have a clue.
Here are my darling angles from Easter....DD outfit i made. I would change a few things if i could...but if i ever make it again, i'll know.
Hope you had a great Easter!

junkie!

2010-03-26T13:05:00.003-06:00

Hi. My name is Cyndi and I am a fabric junkie.

sigh.
Here are the things i have picked up over the past few weeks. ( no, this is not all, i scored more at a 50% off sale yesterday....WHO can refuse that?)
This little beauty i picked up for $9!!!! The last Wal-Mart in our area with a fabric department is closing.....not the store, the sewing department.

An assortment of patriotic prints for my little America fiend!

I picked up all these fabric squares at our new local thrift store for $2!!! how could i refuse?!?!?

I just love this! don't know why i love it...but i do!!!

so of this lovely stuff i got that the quilt show and some I got at Wal-Mart...

This is part of what i got at the quilt show....LOVE IT!

and assorted fat quarters of course!

more yumminess to come!

Custom order...

2010-03-23T18:58:00.004-06:00

Our very first custom order bag, delivered to it's happy owner! We'll see what happens. She contacted us and asked for a bag that had certain amenities....we designed it and priced it and she bought it! so now....we're going to take orders for custom bags if anyone else wants one. I have posted this on FB and we'll see...so here's the story of the bag:

This is us digging through our stash looking for inspiration. Other than "i like yellow" and specific functional details, she gave us nothing to go one. She told us to do "whatever"! Fortunately for her...we do know her and have been witness to her personal taste and style for several ...many?...years so we had a feeling of what she would like.

Poor Melissa had to do almost all of the math! I am just not very good. We had some ideas that didn't work out...and we had to make changes along the way. We learned a lot....

During the process, we laid out the bag to see how amazing the trim was around the outside. We found this GREAT ribbon that was half yellow and half orange with blue dots and all of them were the perfect color! we added some brown ribbon too! voila!

She wanted a zipper pocket for cash...I am so proud that I could do a zipper! this is in the back of the flap...so once it is flipped...you can get your cash!

Detail of the ribbon trim on the exterior pockets!

detail of the trim on the flap...

This is inside the back pocket....here is the business card pocket and the back pocket has a magnetic closure...

Inside is one large pocket. She has a large calender that she wanted a pocket for...

She wanted a cell phone pocket and a pencil pocket....cute, right?

we're almost done...you can see the side and back view here...

And here is the finished bag!

wow....we love it! we are glad that it is finished!

projects...

2010-03-20T17:42:00.003-06:00

I have a list of projects growing in my head.
they need out, so i am going to post them here....deal with it!

1. finish custom order handbag
2. start...and finish ....Easter outfit for my DD
3. linen purse for me!
4. sewing needle case
5. no cash wallet
6. and a million quilts running through my head!

eye candy from the 'forge

2010-03-19T21:05:00.002-06:00

during spring break, I spent a few days with my family, courtesy of my parents, in pigeon forge, TN. Long after the trip was planned i realized that there was a quiltfest going on and i HAD TO GO CHECK IT OUT!

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE cathedral window quilts....I am going to figure it out and make one...maybe something small to start with...eventually!

I snapped a few pictures of a few of the quilts in the competition...sorry i don't have the info on these...but they are just too lovely not to share!

I was like..."WOW!"

all this is hand work...beads and embroidery!

this one was so cool! all red and white and christmasy! also hand embroidered!

I will try and post a pic of the (sadly) few fat quarters I bought....they were rockin!

new moon!

2010-03-18T18:41:00.004-06:00

ok, so New Moon comes out on DVD on the 20th....are you excited???
my friends and I..ok, so my friend, and i am invited...are having a new moon party to watch it on Sunday afternoon!!! anyone else pumped about this?

personally i cannot wait for eclipse to come out...its my favorite!!!

February Month in review

2010-03-10T10:46:00.000-06:00

january in review

2010-03-09T10:40:00.000-06:00

have you seen my blogging mojo?

2010-03-08T10:09:00.005-06:00

clearly i have not blogged lately. I have made things...and let them leave me without photographing them.

I have been plugging along with life. Stomach virus ripped through our home last week. spring break and a trip to TN coming up next week. semi-sorta spring cleaning select areas of the house as the mood hits me.

fell into a funk...and am climbing my way back out. I have a few projects on the horizon....hopefully i will remember to photograph them so i can show you.

while away on girls weekend...we had a Cullen fest and so i have been engrossed into reading the books...AGAIN! i use the term reading loosely as i have them on MP3 so i am actually listening to them. Keeps me from totally ignoring all the laundry and things that i NEED to be doing. I will say though it is hard to listen to "books on tape" (yeah i am old) on a shuffle though. One wrong click and you are back to the beginning of a track and have no way of fast forwarding to where you were.

also, sadly the entire book is only two tracks....can you sense my frustration?

I am working my DH for a nano, but he wants to get me a new laptop...and i DO need one...so we shall see. We do have an anniversary coming up though and he hinted that a nano might make a good gift for me. since the kids got shuffles for Christmas....seems weird to buy a new Ipod when they could have had my shuffle! oh well. this one, mine, was free. DH won it at some work thing...and actually my son won his too in a Halloween costume contest!

So, here i am listening to the first 12 hours of ECLIPSE again...yeah i know, its a hard life!

I haven't even done my month in review in ages...maybe i will catch up on that.....while i listen to eclipse!

Happy Monday!

Girls Weekend!

2010-03-02T15:01:00.001-06:00

2010-02-04T20:36:00.003-06:00

ok so i have been MIA. sorry. Well the FBD is moving along. We are getting use to the swing of things. Total weight loss so far is about 6 pounds. I can't say that i am really happy with that. I had expected more. I am in full swing of my Moon time right now so the diet is pretty much out the window for a day or so. I am headed out of town this weekend with some friends from church, so who knows what I will be eating.

No worries.

I have been busily getting ready for girlz weekend which is coming up in just a few weeks. I have also been obsessed with my webkinz stuff.

Honestly, I have also been in a funk, and avoiding life. If you can't be honest in your blog, then what good is it? Am i right?

So I am hoping after this little retreat I will be back to "real life" and moving forward. If not, then hopefully girls weekend will snap me back!

my head is like a plate of speghetti

2010-01-15T09:52:00.002-06:00

so, last night my DS woke me from a very deep sleep and a lovely dream to tell me he couldn't sleep and there was a spider in his bathroom that he was trying to catch. thankyouverymuch!

my brain started spinning and hasn't stopped. I have my DD "ROCK STAR" bday party. We have a friend who is a rock star and we would LOVE to hire him to do something at the party for entertainment...but what?!?!?! i am asking everyone I know to think about it.

i also have a baby quilt banging around in my head, but that has a while. It is trying to develop and "get out" but so far I haven't had time to sit down and plan it.

I have embroidery i NEED to be doing for girls weekend mid FEBRUARY!!! and a stack of library books to go through.

not to mention this new diet i need to be making a shopping list for! Two birthday parties this weekend, a trip to spend your whole check whole foods, and a Quilter's bag i want to make for myself!

wow...if you could burn calories simply by thinking, I'd never have to worry about my weight!

eye candy...

2010-01-14T09:44:00.003-06:00

yesterday, day three....

well i had a "walking date" but it got cancelled, not by me!!

so i went out with my BFF to do a bit of shopping.

i HAD to pick up these new fabrics at JoAnn's.....

I also must confess that i deviated from my "induction" but did stay on the "diet". It was the best day so far!!! lol

I had a chick fil la grilled sandwich and side salad...that comes with...sunflower seeds! a MUFA! YES!
don't know what i am going to do with these fabrics, but when is that ever a problem? I think i just collect them! They are so lovely. I need to get my hiney in gear and kick it working on my "prizes" for girls weekend...and there is another baby quilt brewing in my head...hmmmmm.

always

cyndi

2010-01-13T18:12:00.001-06:00

RUN, do not walk...here and check this out! you will not regret it! also, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

and now a break from dieting

2010-01-12T13:47:00.003-06:00

Here for my Year in review of 2009, i decided to try and show some craft that i did each month. I wasn't always successful, but i tried to show some things i have put together through the year. I really hope that 2010 is a rockin' crafty year for us all!

day 2

2010-01-12T11:50:00.003-06:00

well, i had a few bad moments yesterday where i wanted to eat the entire kitchen. I grabbed a 'forbidden' coke zero and left the house to go see a BFF and plan some future sewing. As is typical the first few days of a new diet, i am cranky. I want my mono-gluco-chemically altered-sodium-high fructose-processed foods!

deep breath.

ok, so I weighed this morning. I know i shouldn't have. but i just wanted to see. I had lost almost 3 pounds! so maybe that momentum will get me through the next 3 days.

Lunch today was carrots...ugh. sorry Guys. I am not a fan unless you are covered in ranch dressing or in some yummy concoction. The turkey and string cheese were most excellent though! I borrowed the BIG FBD(flat belly diet) book from my friend to get some additional info and recipes out of it. So what's worse than the first few days of a diet? the first few days of a diet and having to plan meals and look for recipes....basically think about food all the time!

I know i am a whiner. But this is keeping me from busting into that bag of chocolate chips in the freezer! hey is IS a MUFA! (monounsaturated fatty acids)

I did ask for prayer from a few people. I was shocked that several of them admitted to me that they are food addicts too. I also had a few people tell me that they were starting diets as well. I feel a bit better knowing i am not going it all alone. Though Satan has certainly thrown all he could in my way in the past 48 hours to try and get me to binge! Maybe that is how i know i am doing the right thing!

back on the wagon...day 1

2010-01-11T11:37:00.005-06:00

I don't know how long this will last...me blogging about my weight loss. I have tried it before but just couldn't keep up. New year, new try. I have started , today, the Flat Belly Diet.

Breakfast was pretty good. Lunch..eeeehhh not jazzing on the Tuna without mayo to make it taste good. A little fishy for my tastes.

It is only 4 days...the first four days are "induction" and they are not fun. We will see how it goes. I am not married to this diet. I did not say "til death do us part" to it or make any vows.

I picked it because my BFF has had such good luck with it. DH is doing it with me as well. He is a doll! Maybe I struck out in the DNA lottery with my "child bearing hips" and chunky thighs...but i hit the jackpot when I got him!

Seriously....a PINT of grape tomatoes is A LOT to eat in one sitting!

December in review...

2010-01-10T19:37:00.000-06:00

old blue friend....

2010-01-10T02:03:00.000-06:00

* drum roll...........................................*

I started this quilt ages ago. I finished piecing it a while back. {don't you love my 'periods of time'?} I finally finished it last week!!!! I hand quilted a tiny bit around these inner squares that go up the middle of the quilt...the rest is done on the machine.

I wanted the pattern to be sort of random, but have some symmetry to it as well. Actually i don't think i set out for symmetry but when i started designing chaos, i ended up with it! ha!

I made the top entirely from recycled jeans. I actually was able to 'collect' enough without having to go buy any to use. *happy dance* Some of the jeans had holy knees. if you are an old jean lover, that is the best part, am i right? I didn't want to waste that, so i backed the holes with some music print fabric.

This quilt is for my DS and he loves music. Orchestra music! he is 8! I figured denim was 'boyish' and 'manly'. I didn't want him to outgrow this quilt. i made it BIG! I also thought it would be cool if i left some pockets in tact on the jeans in the quilt. I then had to dodge them when i quilted so that they didn't get sewn together :)The backing was going to be a twin flat sheet, but the top got too big for it! I decided to add the strip to spice things up and to add the extra space i needed.

It is toasty warm! i am really happy with it. The "pattern" runs vertically so i set out to only quilt in vertical lines. Then i got a bit worried, so i ran a FEW horizontal lines of stitching. the actual quilting isn't the best part...i AM new to all this and wow blue jean quilts are HEAVY!

It's done and we all love it! yay!

yarn smitten

2010-01-09T01:44:00.000-06:00

a while back i mentioned that DH and i had picked up knitting. well....we have become obsessed! above is his first project. He made that lovely scarf for ME! Ain't he sweet?

this raspberry beauty is my first "real" project, meaning i knitted a lot and ripped out a lot of stitches before i settled down enough to finish anything other than a "test" or a scarf for one of my webkinz!

This is #2 for DH. All for him this time! made with "manly yarn!" I had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing when he said that!

and finally, my second project, a prayer shawl. I have no idea what makes this any different than a regular shawl, that is just what the pattern called it. I do know i was wearing it on NYD when we wen to the ER and as i knotted each strand of fringe sitting there waiting, i prayed for my DD to be ok!

I am so new to this knitting stuff that i really know very little. I used lion brand homespun yarn for this. I have to tell you. I didn't like it all that much. It is pretty and soft, but the fringe....shreds on you...and you can't make it stop unless you knot it. It is sort of cool looking in a ratty Muppet kind of way, but I don't think i will purchase that yarn again unless i learn some sort of trick here to for unsuspected.

I have purchased some more yarn for another project. I have been scouring the Internet for cool knitting patterns. I have found some things, but a lot are for crochet, or a knit-crochet combo. I have tried crochet....i can't do it! i may have to try again at some point...

but for now. i have other projects i have to finish! I have girls weekend coming up in February!

very late...november 09 in review

2010-01-08T16:46:00.001-06:00

Happy new year! Is it really 2010?

2010-01-08T13:33:00.003-06:00

It seems like we should be flying in hovercraft doesn't it? I grew up in the 80's with the Jetsons and I just KNEW that by the year 2010 we'd have robots to do our laundry and cooking!

I don't know about you, but I can't even manage to get a house elf, let alone a robot!

Our new year started off with a bang....

we did our traditional NYE thing with our BFF's...

and then ended up in the ER on NYDay with my DD who was having a very hard time breathing. NOT how i wanted to start a new year, let alone a new decade, but we weathered the storm and God is good. She is all fine now and it wasn't nearly as scary as it could have been. Looking back now God had prepared us to spend that afternoon in the ER, and its all good.

Hope you and yours had a great start to this new year! look tomorrow or later in the weekend for some peeks at new projects I have finished up lately!

always

cyndi

2009-12-31T09:56:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a bright new year ....it will be here in just 14 hours! I can't believe it. We are just hangin' around the house today waiting on DH to get off work. We are going to my BFF's house tonight for Chinese take out and fireworks....a tradition now! the kids love it!

I have picked up knitting in the past few weeks, as has DH, and i think we are both consumed! It is crazy! We look like little old people sitting on the sofa knitting watching TV.

Hopefully i will be back blogging soon with lots of pictures to show and fun things to tell.

happy new year!

christmas traditions.

2009-12-15T10:42:00.004-06:00

( James 8, Lula 5, Emma 3 and Ethan 7 and three quarters)

for as long as i can recall, so at least 10 years if not longer, DH and i have traveled to Nashville to visit some college friends of ours every Christmas. This year was no exception. Now, we have 4 kids between us, and our party of eight is quite a mess getting out the door or seated at a restaurant. Two or three years ago, we started making gingerbread houses with the kids...instead of buying gifts. The kids love it! It is so much fun...and yummy too! Here you can see our masterpieces!

another gift DONE!

2009-12-14T13:10:00.003-06:00

I made this bag from 2 pair of recycled camo pants ....and lined it with some fabric leftover from another project. I just really love this bag. I hope the recipient loves it as much as i do. It was rather hard to make since the camo pants were rather well put together...disassembling and reassembling was a daunting task.

i actually shattered one sewing needle on my new Bernina putting this little baby together. Once it was finished i felt it needed a little something so i hand embroidered this little rose and vine on the pocket flap.

hope you all are wrapping up your holiday shopping and crafting! won't be long now!

recycled love

2009-12-07T17:20:00.003-06:00

my DD is modeling this scarf I made for a Christmas gift. It is made from three recycled Tee shirts. I just love it. It is so soft! two of the tee shirts were old faves....they just wore out. The third was pulled right from my drawer and sacrificed for the sake of the gift. I needed another Tee and it was the right color.

Santa came a little early this year....

2009-12-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

At least for me! my hub and mom chipped in to buy me this fantastic Bernina 230! yay! they were even kind enough to NOT make me wait til Christmas to get it!
I am super happy about my new baby! I also wanted to share pics with you of this needlepoint rug I found while i was thrifting for $3.88!!! It is in perfect condition! It is sooo pretty! It had to come home with me!

Christmas Tree tutorial

2009-12-03T16:23:00.005-06:00

I have a bit of a "thing' for Christmas trees. My "white" tree "died" this year and i happened to have a "spare green one in the attic....so I put it up instead. I don't like it. All the ornies were picked specifically for a white tree and basically look icky on the green one. so, now do i get a new white tree or new ornies? decisions, decisions!

Well, this started out as a tree to go outside in a urn on the front porch, but then got way too fragile and cute for all that. it has ended up on the counter in the kids' bathroom. i LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it!

here's what you need:
styro cone
garland
hot glue
tons of plastic/vintage/whatever ornies

Here is my cone:
I hot glued, and wrapped the garland covering the cone. This particular garland i got a while back at the Thrift Store for less than $3 for a whole bag! I have enough left to make another tree easily. I love it...

It is this really beautiful pinkish silvery patina that is just yummy!

I had these flora picks from after Christmas clearance last year at Michael's. I loved them and dug and dug for several, even though i had no idea at the time how i would use them...

Above ^ is how they looked ...i decided the "green" had to go because it didn't match all the glittery goodness i had going on...below is the after, i just ripped it off.

here is the tree in its first stages after I stuck in the picks. Then i started adding old bulbs, plastic clearance salvaged ornies, vintage stuff i have hoarded, etc. until i ran out and had to make a trip to the Thrift store...

and HERE is the finished product!!! totally fab! I have to tell this...see that big pink pear at the top? I think it was 2 years ago, maybe last year Target had them at Christmas. I fell in love with them but they were $7.99 for FOUR! no way Jose! well i bought 2 boxes at 90% off because i just HAD to have them....and i finally used one box on this tree! yay! 79 cents put to good work!

hope you are all having fun decking your halls!

embroidery obsessed

2009-11-29T11:30:00.004-06:00

Ok, I think i have found a new love....hand embroidery. I think it is so amazing....here are some of my favorite patterns at Urban Threads....check out their site. They have machine patterns too! They are seriously cool!

Never Say Goodbye!

2009-11-27T18:40:00.004-06:00

May most favorite pair of jeans wore out. I just couldn't wear them anymore. I wasn't ready to let them go!!! If you know me, you are laughing right now because you recognize the jeans in the picture. hahaha!

I used Simplicity pattern 2597...but instead of cargo pants, i used my beloved jeans. If you aren't familiar with this pair of jeans, the appliques were on the jeans, not something i added to the handbag.
I must admit that the pattern does NOT call for the bag to be lined, but i like to hide my seams and seriously, it needed a lining!

The thing i didn't do, and should have, was put some pockets on the inside!!! Seriously as many handbags as i have made, you would think that would be ingrained in my head by now, but sadly no. I was so excited about getting it together so i could see it "finished", that pockets totally slipped my mind, and were not included on the original pattern. I love it. It is nice and roomy and comfy...just like my jeans.

Thanksgiving give-away

2009-11-25T15:43:00.004-06:00

I am sorry to those of you who live "far off"....You can only participate in this give away if you live close enough that i can deliver this to you, or that you can pick it up from me, which probably means that you know me. i am going to post a link to this on my FB....so that will hit all my "friends".

I have this "like-new", partially seasoned Pampered Chef Stoneware bowl that i simply never use. It is FREE to a good home. Just be the first person to claim it...or if there is enough interest i will do a drawing and see who gets it. If no one wants it, it is headed to the thrift store.

I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving!

Papa was a rolling Stone...

2009-11-15T18:24:00.003-06:00

So i had this idea for a baby quilt. I wondered if i could pull it off....i think i just may have!

Some friends of ours are expecting. He is a musician, primarily a Guitar player. I wanted to make them a quilt that would be meaningful and something that they would really appreciate, and i wanted it to be cool.

They are having a little girl so it is (obviously) pink and yellow. It says..."my dad rocks!" and then smaller at the bottom it says "and my mom rolls" and has an embroidered baby carriage

I of course waited until the last possible minute to take a picture of it, so I didn't get a GREAT picture of it....i did get some detail shots

I modeled the guitar after one of his guitars....i was happy with it. I did the quilting and the applique with my machine but all of the embroidery was done by hand. It was the first time i ever tried applique, it was a lot of work, but totally fun and i think they really liked it.

October month in Review

2009-11-14T20:46:00.002-06:00

2009-11-14T11:37:00.002-06:00

well It's back...

maybe i will be more successful this year.

I had a scrapbook nightmare last week.

i do so want to do this again this year. go check out the journal your Christmas post and i know you will want to join in on the fun!

more crock pot dinners...

2009-11-12T07:58:00.005-06:00

ok, i found a crock pot cook book on clearance at my local book store and i bought it....i love my crock pot!

I tried my first recipe from it the other night and it was a big hit!

EASY BEEF STEW

2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 in cubes

1 can (4oz) mushrooms {I used one package of fresh mushrooms chopped}

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup red or white wine {I used white}

Hot cooked egg noodles.

guess what? toss it all in, except the noodles, let it cook on low 8-12 hours...and voila! dinner is ready! I did add a little sour cream and a bit of a corn starch slurry at the end to thicken it a bit and make it more like beef stroganoff, which is what it looked like to me anyway..not beef stew!

DH loved it and the kids said they liked it. but didn't eat a ton of it. There was enough left to freeze for leftovers on another day!

pumpkin' patch days

2009-11-02T19:14:00.002-06:00

Crock pot Chicken

2009-11-01T18:19:00.003-06:00

OK, i have to confess, I got this recipe from the crock pot blog that i have mentioned in earlier posts. But i changed it a little.
It was the easiest thing EVER and all four of us loved it!!!

OK, buy a whole chicken.
skin it. you can do this, trust me! :) think of all the calories and fat you are eliminating :)

slice two onions and peel one whole head of garlic. Rub the chick with seasoning...I used a Greek seasoning blend that I buy at the grocery...comes in a yellow container, can't remember what it is called.

plop the bird into your crock pot and put the lemon slices and whole cloves of garlic in and around it. cook on low 6-8 hours.

I prepped mine the evening before and put it in the fridge until the next morning. The chicken was moist and tender and literally fell apart in the cooker. It came out in pieces and was very yummy!!!

hopefully soon i will have some updates for you and pictures. blog slacker that i have been.

its the little things...

2009-10-17T22:02:00.007-05:00

those of you who know me, know that i am a little bit sad that my daughter wants to be a boy. She's five and not girly AT ALL.

There are moments though when she blows me away. Not that her wanting to be a boy keeps me from loving her so much it hurts, its just that i'd love it if she'd wear a skirt now and then! or a funky dress!

anyway...those moments that blow me away...every night after her daddy puts her to bed, she asks for me. she wants a song, the same one every night, and she wants me to lay with her...just for 5 minutes. She's happy with 5 minutes...that's all! she snuggles up next to me, and usually wants to hold my hand. It is the sweetest thing. She's not a snuggly girl. This is really special time for us.

the other thing is that she's taken to using my camera. the little point and shoot, she's knows she's allowed to use it ...

Here's evidence that she's been at it again...

quliting bug....its bit me!

2009-10-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

ok, ok whatever! but i made this awesome tree block, just trying to figure it out and loved it. I wanted to do something with it, so i decided to quilt it. Gave me some practice with my "Walking foot". I have always been too scared to use it. *shrug*

ok TRY, not to laugh here. Yes, i KNOW it looks like Elmo colored all over my quilt square....

but again, i was just using up scraps, trying out a maverick star, and thought...hmmmmmmmm wonder how that free motion quilting thing works?????

so i gave it a whirl. lol. not as scary as i thought, nor as easy as i had hoped. lol. but, it is practice...and another coaster/trivet/pot holder thingy!

I finally finished the "blue jean" quilt top i have been working on for my DS. I am terrified to quilt it. It is sooooooo heavy and soooooo big. I don't usually "do" small. oh well. Maybe my friends at the quilting group can help me figure it out...hint! hint!!

September month in Review

2009-10-10T10:21:00.003-05:00

crock pot dinner take two!

2009-10-09T14:40:00.003-05:00

the recipe for this can be found here. first, let me say that mine, looked very little like her picture of it. I suspect that i overcooked mine i suppose. While the concept was good, and easy, ours had a bitter taste. I even bought pulp free OJ just like she recommended. K seemed to think there was too much orange rind in it...til i told him there was none! ha!
DD ate it up...which is odd to say the least. the rest of us did eat it, though the addition of some soy sauce to kill the bitterness(from overcooking the OJ???) did help. Not terrible, just not yummy like i had expected. Might try it again sometime and tweak it a bit! hmmm, well that was the 2nd day of slow cooking.

****also I would like to direct your attention to the "blogs i love" in the side bar....a few new additions....Mrs. Medlin, be sure you check out that first one....you'll love it....you know him!!!***

Quilting Bee

2009-10-06T10:15:00.002-05:00

so here's what we've been doing at our quilting group at Church. We just finished our blocks and we will be sashing and putting it all together soon. I believe we are going to raffle it to raise money for something at church.

I know i sort of bailed on the crock pot dinner posts...they will come soon enough. I have cooked some of them, but just haven't had the time to post about them. I wanted to share this! we all made random blocks and then came up with this layout...there really wasn't a "plan" when we started. pretty cool, huh?

crock pot dinner day one!

2009-09-29T07:10:00.003-05:00

Day one into my slow cooker test. You can find the recipe Here. I will say it was easy to make. I started it Sunday evening. I browned the ground beef and chopped the veggies. I went ahead and cooked it for a few hours Sunday night and then put it in the fridge over night.

Monday morning i popped it out of the fridge to warm up a bit and put it back in the cooker...and voila! dinner was ready later that afternoon with only a little work on my part. (you add the milk and cheese toward the end) The only problem I had was that my potatoes seemed to take longer to cook, but that may be due to me splitting the cooking time. Hub and i loved it, the kids....well, I think they don't like soup in general. It was oh so cheesy, and because i cooked it so long the onions and bell pepper cooked into nothingness so they couldn't complain about "veggies". DD says she doesn't like potatoes...whatever. DS said it was good, but he didn't eat much of it. *shrug* My kids are weird when it comes to food.

Oh, also i wish it had been thicker...I tried to thicken a bit with flour...but that started turning into a disaster, so i gave up and whisked it a lot. That probably helped to break up the onions and bell pepper.

There was even enough left to put in the freezer and pull out another nite! yeee haw!

August Month in Review

2009-09-27T16:09:00.002-05:00

Here is the month of August ...in nine little pictures. Stay tuned, I've got my foray into crock pot cooking and the President Bday party coming up!

Hello my blog, I've missed you.

2009-09-23T09:10:00.003-05:00

I am a blog-a-holic. Seriously. I use to check the blogs i loved multiple times a day and get so frustrated when they hadn't been updated. WHAT were these people doing all day???

Well, I had to take a blog break. No 12-step program required thankyouverymuch.

I started out with stamping blogs, and then moved into sewing blogs, and general crafts. Now my blog list is enormous. I don't hit them as often as i should to keep up. I am always finding new blog treasures out there; one blog always leads to another.

The point being, i miss my blogging and i miss my blog reading. Now that the kids are in school, perhaps i can make a little blog time for myself.

that being said, here is the newest blog i have found that i am loving:

A Year of Slow Cooking

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but i am about to! Maybe a week in the slow cooker will get me movin' again. I have gotten where fixing dinner is very low on my list of "have to" or "love to" do things in life. I am not sure why exactly, but i dread that time of day. I really use to enjoy planning menus and cooking, etc. but now it is just a chore I'd rather pass off to someone else. I think i will give Stephanie and her blog that task for the next week and see how that goes. I have a slow cooker and it is used far too little...it is for more than Velveeta cheese dip, right?

Presidential

2009-09-17T11:22:00.003-05:00

I have been consumed with back to school activities. Trying to get in the groove and such. Also working on my son's 8th b'day party. the theme this year is Presidents...or Americana. We have broadened the "theme" a bit. He wanted to be George Washington.....

This is the front of his invite....what do you think?

DD had to be Lincoln! cute, right? I will show you the George costume along with the other party details after i survive it...tomorrow night!

Just wanted to toss this one in for good measure....she loves this bouncy jumpy thing at the mall...that's the 2nd level behind her...yes, she is that high in the air!

Rock on!

2009-08-27T18:56:00.004-05:00

Today i did a photo shoot for a friend of mine. He's a musician, and i guess they all need pictures for "stuff". Anyway, it was fun. I enjoy getting to be creative in "grown up" ways now and then. But really, who doesn't?

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from today....I hope he is happy with them!

You can click on any of them to see them bigger (i think), the last one is especially funny...

more thrifty finds...

2009-08-22T20:12:00.003-05:00

When i went to the Thrift Store last week, i found this little treasure for .99 cents.

There are many yet to be discovered treasures in this book..but here are a few that i found upon my first perusal...these fab aprons!!! how groovy!

I love these embroidery patterns! I can't wait to try them. maybe on this purse, maybe not...hmmm...

Groovy Rag Dolls.....
Felt Christmas ornaments...We actually had these on my Christmas Tree as a kid...this is what sold me on getting the book in the first place!

I am loving these little felt things. More dolls, tools and a tool bag and a felt gun with holster and sheriff's badge! could these be any cuter????!?!?!

I can't wait to be able to try out some of these things. I am still working on my presidential costuming, George is half way done, hurrah!

first day of school

2009-08-22T07:59:00.001-05:00

I am a little late posting this...but here are my little Angels on their 1st day of school. aweeeeee how sweet they look.

a late, July in Review

2009-08-20T21:04:00.000-05:00

gold mine!

2009-08-19T17:40:00.002-05:00

I went thrifting today...i hit on a gold mine! or at least had a good day shopping! I found all these beautiful sheets to cut down for crafts...quilting probably. I am just sort of starting a collection since i have the costuming of two Presidents to work on....and then a Blue jean quilt to make for my son.....

I found a few other cool things, but no pictures yet.