Check out Jennifer's site and her fun give-away!

I just love to share all the blogs where I find the fun things I attempt. This is why I started this blog. If you look at my "About Me" page you will see this.

But tonight, once again, I'm not highlighting a craft, but a blogger who cooks (and sometimes crafts!) and tells fun stories... She is doing a yummy giveaway and telling you about her blog gives me an entry. Her blog is sort of a secret addiction of mine, so I'm letting the cat out of the bag for her fun giveaway.



Check out her site, enter the giveaway, and then poke around. You will be hungry in no time!

I hope you get the chance to get creative today!

A little of this, that, & a FIRE in my oven!

I had a great weekend. I couldn't list all of what I did, because much of it was random, but there were a few standout points.

I.

My (now 14 yo), Dee, was privileged to sing background with our local symphony for their version of La Boheme on both Saturday and Sunday. It was amazing. My older teen went with a friend to one of the performances and they both cried. The symphony had a translation on the screen in the air behind them onstage, which made it easier for people to understand - even if you know the story it really helped to get the little jokes (all in Italian). This is a picture of the conductor:

II.

My new stove was delivered on Saturday! We weren't planning to set it up, but here is what happened... On Sunday night we were getting ready to cook dinner. The kids had been busy, musical practice, youth group, and I had snuck over to AC Moore to the Midnight Madness sale (I'd never gone before, and I won't go again...).

So it was around 7:30pm and hubby had a plate of cheese and crackers and sausage, and was getting ready to put some Costco hot wings into the oven. Our old OLD oven. I had preheated it. Only when we went to open it, it was ON FIRE!! Here is the offending oven - it was here when we bought the house 8 years ago...


Yes, the filament on top of the stove (the broiler) was aflame! Even shutting off the oven didn't work. Finally my husband went down and shut off the breaker. Yay.

Oh no, but this was NOT the end of it! He decided he would cook the wings on the grill. He started the grill and commented about how our luck would be we'd have no gas. THE GAS WENT OUT.

LOL.

So finally we ate at 10pm.

We were just lucky that we actually had a stove waiting in the wings. Luck must be turning our way, lol. We got that hooked up (the royal we, I really mean my husband) today. You can see the new stove to the right of our counter. We are in the middle of some MAJOR projects!

III.

I was really glad to get to church on Sunday morning. I really needed the break from life that I get from church! It keeps me grounded. Of course, after Sunday night I was ready to go to church again on Monday, lol.

I didn't create anything this weekend, but I participated in some great memory making moments with my family. AND as a bonus, I bought some clearance fabric and clay at Micheal's!

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

...and your stove works...

Fun things I love and something you will, too:

You might know I love art in any form, and art history
(this is a Degas)
You might know I love the water and boating
(ok, this is not a boat, its a ship. I took this photo with my phone!)
And of course, I LOVE my kids (this is one of my four)

But you might also be able to guess that I love giveaways! Here is one for you to try from Jennifer at Life, Crafts, and Whatever - in order to celebrate that she now has 250 followers:



Go check out her terrific site! And not just for the giveaway, but that's a bonus.

While you do that, I have to go get some batting for my little quilt square I'm trying to make. And I'm going to get some fabric to finish my quilted pillow. No pictures today but have a great weekend.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

A little note about silk flowers.
The tutorial from the other day can be found here.

See the difference between these two? The one on the left is flat and not as frilly and curled. You might like that look, but you might want to know how to avoid that flat look, and I don't think I addressed that in my tutorial.

When you hold the silk over the flame, hold it fairly high over it. You just need the heat. If you like a singed edge (which in this color seems to add more depth) then sure, go lower, but BE CAREFUL, of course!

Now, while you hold it higher over the flame you also need to NOT place the edges above the flame. Make sure the fabric, at about a half inch or more, is over the heat. This creates the curls.

I hope this helps as you make your flowers!


I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Just a little rambling, a little quilting, and a dog pile...

So tonight my small dog was bugging me to play.

I wanted to keep working on the patchwork quilted pillow.

Finally, I couldn't resist anymore, and I ran to my sewing machine. Taking some leftover valentine fabric, I made her a new toy. I stuffed it with scraps of fabric, including an old pocket I had cut off a pair of pants.

Yes, weird that I was saving an old pocket.
But I thought I had a project for it. I didn't, but I still had the pocket. Go figure.

Anyway, here is the toy:

And here she is playing with it:

And here is my big dog playing tug-of-war with the little dog:

They are so cute. Little dog will grab a toy and stand in front of big dog's face (standing, her head is the height of his head when he's laying down). She will then shove the toy into his muzzle, willing him to take it.

Excuse my rambling tonight, but thanks for stopping by. I don't have anything new to show, but I do have works in progress, so at least I'm continuing to create!

This is what I was working on tonight. I have never tried to make a quilt, and I am going to quilt a pillow. It turns out it is challenging to match those darn corners!



I got home from work energized. I tidied up my bedroom - which today meant actually hanging up the clothes I've been meaning to hang up for the past 3 days. I then folded laundry, and cleaned the kitchen. Not a big deal but since I don't have a dishwasher and no one did their dishes last night (it was eat and run night!), I did have washing to do. Then I cleaned off the top of the fridge, which I was using for storage, and I moved the fridge to another part of the room. Of course then I had to sweep and wash the floor. All this was because we are getting our new appliances soon and I am quite excited!!

Well, you know the drill... then I had to make dinner, check up on my Google Reader for my blogs I follow, then I had to do some crafting, and before I knew it, it was 10:30pm!

My night could have been much more busy (I could have had some school functions!), but I have a feeling tomorrow might be a half-caff day, lol. and I rarely drink caffeine, in any amount.

My new job is going great. I still cannot believe how amazingly nice these people are. Its like I've died and gone to heaven. I'm still waiting to be told they had to cut me out of the budget or something!


I'm happy and exhausted, but still creating, so that's good!

I hope you get the chance to be creative tonight!

Decorating my office space

The first thing my husband said when he looked at my pictures was,
"Why is it crooked?"

But I did that on purpose! I thought it looked fun!
This is on a wall in my cubicle at work -

First I found an old frame that could hold an 8 X 11 picture. Then I removed its "innards".

Next I decided on the quote I wanted, I printed it out, placed it on a piece of colored scrapbook paper, placed it into a laminate cover, and laminated it. I purposefully made it smaller than 8 X 11. I wasn't sure if I should waste the laminate on it, but I loved how bright it made it.


Then today I brought two upholstery pins in to work. I placed them into the wall of my cubicle at an angle, about 5 inches apart.

I then hung the frame on the pins. Then I took a push-pin and stuck my quote into the wall within the frame. FUN!

Here is the quote I chose. It is from lithographer Herm Albright.

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Proof that my kitchen is FUN and FUNKY!

Two quick and easy crafts to share:

This first is a very quick trick I did with my $18.99 laminator that I bought last week.

I took a piece of scrapbook paper and cut it to the width of the high school lockers. My 16 yr old junior has a locker that she shares with a bunch of her friends. The school is pretty big so they all combine their needs at lockers throughout the school. I made this to be a dry-erase board that they could use to share little hellos throughout the day.

I simply took some alphabet stickers that I found (!) in my craft closet and wrote "smile!" on it, then I laminated it and stuck a piece of magnetic strip onto the back. Done!

Then I took two pieces of the same paper and placed one over the other and laminated them, then I used a straight edge to gently cut open the laminate at the top of the smaller piece of paper, creating a pocket.

Again, a two-minute operation, total. But SO cute.

I used two magnets on the back of the note holder.

Then, while I was talking with a guest at my kitchen table, Dee came to the table with all sorts of craft supplies. She seemed oblivious to the fact that I was at the table with a guest.

She proceeded to put down her sweatshirt and TAKE OFF HER PLAY SHOES...

And, wait for it,

PLACED THOSE STINKY PLAY-SHOES ONTO THE TABLE!

Okay, this was sort of gross. But the finished product was pretty cool. Dee used 6 lengths of embroidery thread and braided herself some new shoe-laces! Though she did put down her sweatshirt to obstensibly "protect' the table.

Here she is looking sweet while she does it... Notice she has tools over the table, along with a glass of milk!!

So this, above, is a quick snapshot of a very small period of the day this weekend. And evidence that my kitchen is full of funk AND fun!

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Looking for ideas for favors!

Yum! (Well, except for the Reese's, since I'm allergic to it)

I need some ideas for items to give as favors for instructional speakers.

I am hoping that I can search online and find some, but I'm also going to ask here.

We are giving them mugs from our organization, and my director suggested matching pens, and maybe post-it notes. But come-on, I can't really give that out!

I want them to have more pizazz!

Does anyone have any suggestions? They can be either things I can buy cheaply, or make creatively.

We do live near Hershey, PA, but so do many of our speakers, so I don't want to go with chocolate. Though I may end up doing that, since it is so universally loved!

Does anyone have any ideas?

Our youngest child turned had a birthday today! Happy Birthday, honey!! We have had a nice evening and we're going to snuggle and watch a movie together. While I didn't actually get a chance to craft today, I honestly designed 2 projects while I was driving home from work! Conceptual creativity counts, as long as you put it into practice before too long!



I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

May the Moo Be With You!

The Purple Cow

I ran in to Costco tonight after work. Well, after going out after work with people from work. (I love saying that! Because it means I have a JOB!) Going out was fun. What a great group of people!

Can you guess what I had? White Sangria... yum.
This photo is from the Real Simple website.

(A subscription to which I just WON from a contest held by Tracie at CLEVERLY INSPIRED)

But WHO "runs" into Costco? I do! I'm one of the few people who can run in and out of there spending less than $100. Though I do admit it can be a challenge!

Tonight I ran in for a few specific things, and I might have accidentally navigated down the home office aisle, and spotted a laminator for $18.99.

I LOVE to laminate things. When I do it, I use Kinko's. This little machine from Costco was less than $20 and included 100 pouches. That means even if it didn't work for more than tonight, it would be worth it!
So I bought the laminator and took my happy self home.
I cut out bunches of scrapbook paper. I'm really not that good at that. But I made a little pocket and a little card to place in it.
I made several.
And then I laminated them!

Stay tuned for some laminating projects! BTW, the laminator company has a blogspot with crafts, which I've linked to up at the top of the page.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Pajama Pants and FRIENDS!

Pajama Pants!

Woo Hoo! I'm so excited. I sewed a pair of pajama pants for my daughter! I used Valentine flannel that I got on sale, and for the first time I can say,
"It was cheaper to make it than to buy it!"

Also, on a side note: FRIENDS! I find it great fun that I can open up a linky party and look at some of the offerings and recognize them. I sometimes think, "Oh, that's ----" and "Look, --- make that, and I saw that in my Google Reader!" and I feel like I KNOW all of you crafters and artists out there!! What a great feeling of community. Truly, this would have been a great community to belong to when my children were small, but I'm so glad I found it now!

This was the first pair of pajamas in any form that I have ever made for any of our four children. I can't believe it, they were so easy!

On the other hand, I'm sort of glad I wasn't sewing when my children were little.
It's so fun to sew that I might have neglected playing with them! I'm not a person of great limits! Unlike many of the wonderful people I look up to, I'm either all in or I'm all out!

Just had to share this, I was so thrilled. I'm going to go make some more!

Have a great night and an even better Thursday. My first big conference is coming up tomorrow, and even though I've done what I need to, I'm still a little jittery. I just need to sit back and let the instructors teach, and make sure the coffee pot is filled, LOL. Say a prayer for me that I don't spill it.


I hope YOU get a chance to be creative today!