Pain and Pillows~

Okay so let me tell you about my lovely weekend. 

Let's start with Friday shall we!  I decided to go into work to make up some of the hours I was snowed in my house last week.  I ended up only working about five hours and then left to go finish up some shopping that I had been putting off for a while.  I grabbed some extra crafting supplies, hit two grocery stores, exchanged some zippers that were the wrong size and upgraded my phone to an iPhone.  I am still not impressed but my husband and son whom both already have ipods can't seem to leave it alone.  Every time it rings I have to try to track it down. 

Saturday we literally did nothing!  Ryan and Tanner got up that morning and went to cut a load of wood for Ryan's parents they were gone maybe an hour.  Apparently all they did was play because it was to wet to do anything else....duh!  I cleaned house and piddled on the computer and we played with my phone most of the day.  I only left the house once that evening to go to the store and get us some chocolate, ice cream and oil.  We also took time out to watch The Last Exorcism...very weird and I only jumped once.  For whatever reason on this day my neck decided to go into psychotic spasms that almost killed me.   I spent a lot of time with ice packs on my neck and downing ibuprofen like it was candy.

Today was more of the same.  Ryan made a yummy breakfast for us, we did some laundry, picked up the house again and just piddled the rest of the day.  I drug out several projects I am working on this morning when I was feeling good but after sitting at my sewing machine for 30 minutes I could hardly move my head at all.  I rigged a handkerchief around my neck with an ice pack inside took more ibuprofen and went back to work.  When I wasn't working on a project I was downloading apps and ring tones to my iPhone.  By the way THANK YOU ERIN!!  She sent me a web site for free iPhone ring tones and it is HUGE and I love it!  I now have some of the most kick ass ring tones ever!!

My lovely get up to keep me upright and mobile.

The pillow while still in process, maybe the stress of sewing this on is what gave me the spasms.

The "f" finally done.

Completed project with a zipper in the bottom for easy washing.  Now I only have five more to make we are spelling out the word family and the pillows will be used in our living room.  How CUTE will that be :)

Weekly extended update~

So you are probably wondering what I have been up to since I have not been posting...well nothing really.  I've just had several meeting I have had to attend and there was that whole blizzard thing.  Plus I have just been really lazy the past two weeks.  Yeah I know, I know, shame on me! 

Okay so with a recap let me tell you what I have actually been doing while away!  First of all I survived 24 hours of this which amounted to 16 inches of snow or 20 it really just depended on where you stood.

This picture was taken form my bay window looking out onto the street that passes by the side of our house.

This was looking out our back door at the neighbors house.

Whew I need to clean that door!  This was at our back door not long after it started.  There is usually about a five inch step from our back porch to the sidewalk below but I was pushing snow with the door when I opened it.  Notice my cute purple stripped socks...so warm and cozy!!

Tanner running over to get the mail in snow that almost came to his needs granted I think he was standing in a snow bank.

SO...with that Tanner didn't go to school all week and Ryan and I missed two days because well we couldn't leave town.  It was a mess but with the city workers, state workers and local farmers all pitching in the city is in great shape now.

With all that behind us I decided to spend some time with little P (my niece) on Friday, sorry no pictures of that I forgot to take my camera with me but she was a pistol.  She yelled at my dad for trying to steal her pacifier, yelled at me for not paying attention to her, yelled at Tanner to come get her and just randomly poo-ed her pants which we graciously let grandma change.  Who knew someone so little could be so full of poo?

Saturday Tanner and I went grocery shopping in a small local town and let me tell you we will not be doing that again any time soon.  That experience just rubbed me the wrong way and their sale items were more expensive than normal priced items at our local Gerbes (which I consider one of the more expensive stores).  Ryan did some more work on the car and trying to figure out where the oil leak is coming from.  We think we now have that under control.  With all that done we decided to cook ourselves silly since the Superbowl was the next day and we wanted no problems or complications to arise.  We made the famous "Mama's Chili" and man did it turn out good.  I put everything in there but the kitchen sink...it goes in sweet and goes down hot.  YUM, YUM, YUM!!

After the chili was consumed we settled on making a dip we affectionately refer to as the "Chicken dip".  Now I am sure it has an actual name somewhere but when I found this recipe years ago I never in my wildest dreams imagined it would have caught on so well with my friends and family.  It seems now that every family function I go to the "Chicken dip" is requested and if I show up without it man do I hear about it.  Oh and let me tell you the recipe is so freaking hard that apparently no one can follow it.  Are you ready...equal amounts of cream cheese and canned chicken then onion to taste.  YEAH I KNOW, super hard!  Since I have to make it in massive quantities around my house and we love onion I have come to realize that I can use four bars of cream cheese, four cans of chicken and one onion and everything comes out great.  See now where is that caveman when you need him?  Serve with Ritz and you are all good.

We didn't stop there we decided to go ahead and make some pre-packaged peanut butter cookies and shove some PB cups in them!  Yes I know I am a terrible person *pre-packaged* what was a I thinking.  Well they were bought on the terrible shopping trip and I was thinking man I am lazy let's take a short cut here!  Oddly enough it worked out nicely.  The cookies were a big hit with the PB King that lives in my house and he kept stealing the warm ones...little or should I say big thief :) 

Moving on then.  I only managed to get half of this weeks task completed and it was DAH DAH DAH..DAH!!  COASTERS!!  I did them in a bunch of random colors and plan on making some photo ones although I ordered my pictures through Shutterly and have not received them yet.  So basically with these they are just off white four inch tiles that a woman graciously gave me...AN ENTIRE BOX OF THEM, because she had no need for them she had ordered to many.  Then I used scrap booking paper and or stationary and just cut it to size.  I glued it on with my hand dandy glue and matte Mod Pogged over it.  I still need to coat them with a sealant to keep the paper protected from water damage and then I need to adhere the felt to the back.   All in due time.  Today was mostly about the Superbowl since both teams playing today were Tanners teams it was a day of conflict.  It didn't really matter who won but it was still fun to watch and after all that cooking the food was YUM YUM!! :)

Tanner even got his own special coaster since he is our musical prodigy and lives for ice cold anything!

HOLY Thundersnow~

Okay I just watched the news and I have to say I am more excited than my kid at Christmas!  They are calling for a major "snow event" to hit Missouri over the next three days.  My local area is suppose to get one inch of ice with five inches of snow HOWEVER we are right on the "snow boundary" as they called it which means we could get up to 18 inches of SNOW.  Oh Holy Mother of Mary I am so excited I could just pass out!  I am a little worried about electricity I must say but, my Grandmother and Parents house are all within walking distance and both use wood stoves.  I am also a little stressed because even though they have been talking about this for a couple of days I have not stocked up.  HOWEVER, once again I can say we only live two blocks from the grocery store so if we need to we can just crawl up there!!  HE HE!!  I am so excited BRING ON THE SNOW!!

Letters of love~

So here we go with another project!  This one although is once again not a Christmas project but one my husband picked out for my son so I thought I would move it towards the top of the list.  I

I bought my letters at Hobby Lobby along with my stationary paper and my paint and the mod podge....yeah I spend a lot of time in there.

The stationary that we choose for Tanner was all related to him as a person.  He is very involved in sports hence the baseball, basketball and football pages.  He has also been playing the drums for several years and loves to hunt which encompasses the other three pages.

I took my letters first and painted them completely with black paint, do ONE SIDE AT A TIME.  I didn't on the first one and I got some weird looks swinging that T above my head trying to dry it so I could set it back down.

Such pretty letters all in a row and behaving themselves quite nicely.

Once they are dry you just need to trace the letters on the back of the stationary and cut them out.

Once they are cut out I simply glued them them onto the letters.

I showed them once they were complete to my husband and asked about the Mod Podge because I really liked the non-glossy look of them. He agree that he did not was them shiny. What is your opinon on this should I get a matte finish and do them anyway or just leave them as they are?  Tanner really liked them as did I now we just need a place to hang them.

Ebayerific~

Now that the rant is done let me tell you about my most recent pur-chase!  In my new house I plan on the kitchen being all white and black.  The cabinets all white with open glass fronts and the floor being black bamboo.  All of the color for my kitchen will come from accents which I have already started amassing in my spare closet.  Recently while paroosing Ebay I found the cutest bowls!  I had to have them! 

Aren't the GLORIOUS!  Now I just need to find me a rosette iron and a pottery barn calendar.  YAY!!

Closet smoker~

Okay so the hubs and I have been bickering back in forth which means no peace for momma which in turn means no crafting.  Let me EXPLAIN why we have been bickering!  My husband who has been smoking since the age of 16 quit smoking...or so I thought. 

Very rarely does this man flat out lie to me, he may avoided the subject all together but it's very uncommon for him to just lie.  Remember this it will help you later in the story :)  The later part of 2009 he convinced me to let him have LASIKS in turn he was suppose to quit smoking.  His rules NOT MINE, he thought this one up all by himself.  He did quit (once again I say...or so I thought) for what I am being told was several months.  Then his sister went through a health crisis that Ryan took very hard.  She was in the hospital for a couple of days had major surgery and had to have babysitters watch her every move and feed her meds for two weeks.  Ryan took all this very hard, understandable she is his baby sister and he was deeply concerned for her.  Contrary to popular belief he is a big'ol teddy bear.  A couple of weeks after that I started to notice his clothes smelling like smoke (he blamed it on the guys at work, all smokers), then we had random charges on the card for items (he called them snacks), then I noticed his hands smelled like smoke (no comment on that one he just told me I was crazy).  I finally trapped him in his own lie on New Years Eve he admitted he was smoking again, however I think the only reason he did this was because he was going to be drinking that night and wanted to smoke too.  He told me a bunch of lies....oh I only do it when I'm stressed, oh I only smoke two a day, oh I just started back up during deer season.  All lies I am sure!  Last week Tuesday he bought a pack of smokes on the card, then Thursday with the weather we were all trapped at home and he asked me to buy him another pack.  Then once again this morning when we stopped for gas another pack.  NO WAY IT IS ONLY TWO A DAY...do the math people.

I seriously think he needs help.  I'm pretty sure he would sell me and Tanner if he could get a carton of cigarettes out of the deal.  Nothing I say helps or changes him, he can't even follow his own rules!  What am I suppose to do here?

Snowballs in a winter wonderland~

So here is what I did I took 2 1/2 inch syrofoam balls and using a glue gun and pipe cleaners I turned them into snowballs :)  It took me about 2 hours to do six of them but I also stopped for lunch, a soda run, laundry change, bathroom break and to attack my husband! 

Pictures below to show the process and now I am taking my soar, coughing, sneezing butt to bed!

I really liked the way they turned out and can't wait to display them next year at Christmas.

Linking this post to some linky parties!

Snow Day~

MAN we got the snow Wednesday early evening straight through to Thursday late morning and then the sun came out.  What a great day it turned out to be.  Ryan and I stayed home from work because we didn't feel it safe to go in given the condition of the roads and the fact that it was still snowing.  Once the sun came out though so did the four wheeler, sleds and tractor.  I got NO crafting done yesterday!  While it was still snowing we cleaned house, baked cookies and watched movies.  Once it warmed up and the snow stopped we wandered out to explore and have fun.  The following pictures should show that :)

Eight flipping inches people...I LOVE it!!

Tanner decided we need option on how to get to our vehicles.

My winter wonderland :)

The woodpecker that was in our front yard tree and driving me crazy.

The guys trying to dig out the truck.  Tanner looks so funny in his overalls...they are a little big!

I promise I'll be safe mom, trust me....OH YEAH OKAY!!

Yeah he had to much fun running through those snow banks that his dad had just made.

Little boy was flying and having a blast I had to close my eyes to keep from having a heart attack.

Winter weather...whaaaaattt!!

So I keep hearing about this wicked weather storm that is going to be hitting us tomorrow evening....can't wait!  I want tons of snow, I want to be completely snow in, the more snow the better I say.  We get more than four inches and my sick and achy body will be staying in bed on Thursday...maybe I can get my husband to do the same.  ANYWHOOO..I feel like I have been hit by a Mac truck so I am going to bed.

Monday madness~

So today I took my mom shopping.  Tanner was in school and Ryan was at work so with the house clean I had nothing else to do.  As soon as we got to JC and walked into our first store I got the call.  "Momma I don't feel good".  Have I told you lately that I really hate this time of year!?!  Luckily my son is now a teenager and can stay home by himself for given amount of time and can even self medicate with instruction.  Mom and I finished our shopping which really didn't take long and headed home to deal with the sicko.

One of the places we stopped was Hobby Lobby, man we love that place.  I picked up a couple of items I will need in the coming weeks and mom restocked on some paper she thought was cute.  We also stopped at the Goodwill Superstore and I purchased four sweaters to make my upcoming mitten stockings...so EXCITED!!  Anyway I get home throw the sweaters in the wash and proceed to trash my craft table.  It was cleaned off but now this is what it looks like :)  YAY CRAFTS!!

Be thankful~

Okay so this weekend was run, run, run and be sick, sick , sick.  Fun times, fun times!!  We managed to wind our way through a Winter National Monster Truck Rally which was more winter and less rally than we expected.  We made the most of it though and had a good time spending the day with my husbands mother, sister and nephew.  Upon getting home the allergy monster set in for my husband which we kind of expected given all the fumes and dust at the rally but I felt so sorry for him.  We doped him up good and sent him to bed.

Today we have a Rainbow Vacuum guy in our house and let me just tell you...these things are fricking AMAZING.  Personally I would love to have one I think they are amazing and would help us out in several ways.  HOWEVER I can not justify, at this point purchasing one.  We have one house for sale and another not even started yet, new furniture we are saving for and a mini-vacation we would like to take this summer.  We were quoted a price of $2,300.00 for this machine which would probably last us the rest of our lives but seriously when or if I am ever between houses it would just sit in storage and what good would that do me.  I think though after seeing everything they can do today my husband is almost convinced to purchase one of these and fore go the central-vac in the new house.  I say whatever I am really indifferent but I will say - that freaking 2 hour demonstration really made me want to clean my house again...THAT THING WAS AWESOME!!

So anyway onto the real reason your here---the PROJECT!!
Between all the running and neither Ryan or I feeling the best this weekend I only worked part time on a couple of projects.  I did manage to finish one project that I had about half complete though, so that is what you are getting to see.  I know it's not Christmas themed and you'll probably see about 5 other project over the course of this year that aren't Christmas related either but none the less it is still a project.  I already had the letter printed out so I just cut for the ribbon and then fed it through and took a pic.  I like the way it turned out and plan on getting some Autumn foliage to go with it next fall.  I have more projects lined up and one that I am very excited about, I get to pull out the sewing machine for this one!!  I need to however get my butt to the Goodwill and get some old sweaters.  I am taking my mom that way tomorrow so we will see what happens!!

Oh hubband of mine~

My lovely husband and I decided this morning that after work we would do some grocery shopping, pick up supplies for my crafting this weekend and purchase a little gift for a good friend of ours that recently did some work on our car.  My husband calls me at 4:15 to let me know he's not going to be there at 4:30 to pick me up as he is still sitting on site 30 minutes away and doesn't know when he will be back!! NICE!  Luckily I got in touch with my sister in law who sent my brother in law over to pick me up and take me to my vehicle at hubby's office.  I managed to fly through Dollar General looking for little plastic containers and hit Aldi's for all of my canned goods and side dishes before he called for me to come get him.  We then proceeded to Hobby Lobby to get my supplies and that is where he managed to amaze me.  I picked up my felt pieces, and then started looking at letters to make my NOEL sign when I said "I think these letter are to big, I want something smaller."  My loving husband then says to me "Why don't you do Tanners name and cover it in his favorite things?"  Hmm, that's a good idea...I was going to do a T for him anyway why not just do his whole name?!  So we pick up the letter for his name, and grab scrapbook paper that coordinates with his personality and life.  We have football, rockstar, baseball, camoflage, basketball and sheet music scrapbook paper.  I doubt this will be my weekend project but I will post pictures as I go.  I am very excited to do this for him.  You know sometimes my hubband really amazes me...and then there are other times!!!

Big Lovin for Pirate Prep~

Okay so I know I said I would post every day but yesterday in the mail I got FIVE episodes of Big Love.  Okay seriously I am totally addicted to this show!  We got rid of our cable almost a year ago but I have all the season on netflix and I started over from the begining so I would make sure to not miss anything.  So that was my night last night I sat down and watched a WHOLE LOTA - Big Love!

I was lucky enough tonight to go watch the local boys and girls play basketball which was not my main reason for going but it was a thrilling three games I must say.  They won all three and I am very proud of them.  My main reason for going was to see my little drummer boy shaking his tail feathers in the pep band!  We was so excited to go and be a part of everything that was going on.  I was NEVER that excited about band growing up as a matter of fact I hated it.  My art teacher once told me that only truely gifted people get into both music and art most people just choose one or the other.  My son is super lucky because he has an artsy, fartsy, crafty mother and a music genious of a dad.  We had a lot of fun though!  Watched the game, watched Tanner, talked to people we hadn't seen in a while and ate lots of popcorn.  Fun was had by all!

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures and projects I swear and will soon be posting my project for the week which I need to have done by Sunday.  Yeah I procrastinate a LOT :)

Tilicisous Tuesday~

Okay so I belong to this little site, some of you may have heard of it and some of you may already belong it is called Freecycle and I found mine locally through Yahoo.  I have been a member for several years and have even joined other organization closely related to Freecycle but still operating in my area.  ANYWAY..I posted this past weekend that I was looking for tiles for my next project.  I am going to be working on the photo coasters project for week three of my Christmas broohaha.  Daphe has a cute little tutorial on how to do it over on her site Moo moo's & tutus.  Okay see how my mind wanders...getting back to the story.  Within two hours of asking for some tiles, not a lot I was really only looking for like at the most four tiles but would take anything that was offered a woman contacted me.  She has recently did an update in her kitchen and purchased WAY to many, had since lost the receipt and wanted to know if I wanted them, she has an entire box.  NO CHARGE PEOPLE...NO CHARGE, all I have to do is pick them up.  HECK YEAH I will take them and THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! 

Mmmm, Hmmm~

WE HAVE SNOW!!  YAY SNOW!!  So tomorrow my son gets a snow day and me...well my husband brought home a work truck tonight so we can for sure make it in tomorrow.  How considerate of him! 

Well in all my surfing today and looking at cool stuff on other peoples sights I found this!  How cool is that!  Angie over at The Country Chic Cottage gives a whole tutorial on how to make a sheet music letter.  I love it and I want one.  I think I might go a little out on a limb though and just purchase a letter at Hobby Lobby and cover it in either sheet music or cardstock.  I am going to buy a T since Tanner is the music man in the house.  We can put it in his new room after we get the house built....if that ever happens!?

I gotta tell ya I am a super big sucker when it comes to my family name or big'ol M's.  We have this huge monstrosity that currently hangs in our living room and I LOVE it.  I purchased it on Ebay and I barely won it at the last minute from some chic named Psycho-bidder, not even kidding!  The guy I purchased it from was nice enough to let me know that it was part of a motel sign in Lake Placid, New York.  The motel was torn down in order to make room for a new high rise.  I love history but I love this big M more :)