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 :)

Moving on and moving up~

Okay so I got the week two project done FINALLY and am moving on to something not so glittery and a little less time consuming.  I took my little buckets that I purchased this weekend and put a project in each one of them.  Except for the banner one and that is just because I already have the banner half done.  So this week I am going to regroup and make some small purchases to work on some of these things.  I also need to pick some stuff up because I have people donating to the cause AGAIN!!  I will let you know more as things progress but as of right now I am trying to decide which bucket I want to start with....oh the choices!!

OH, FYI...remember the earlier post where I was suppose to find five things in my house that I haven't used in a while and get rid of them.  WELL, I went through my entire house and couldn't find anything.  I was sitting at the dining room table apparently looking like a sad little puppy and my husband asked me what was wrong.  I told him about the challenge and his comments to me was "Well I know why you couldn't find anything".  What...what does he know, but he peaked my interest.  "Okay tell me what you know big guy".  He informed me of my six month rule which I do follow fairly close but I really thought I could complete this one too...I guess not.  My six month rule, clean sweep the house from top to bottom and get rid of everything that doesn't fit, I don't like or I don't need and have a rummage sale to profit from it.  I honestly do this twice a year and do manage to keep my house pretty clutter free.  Okay so I couldn't complete the five things task but my husband is right, rummages sales are more fun.

Glitter and glue~

YAY!  I finished the project.  I totally did it and for less than $5.00 how cool is that.  I got the wreath from my mom and recycled it.  It was an Easter wreath that needed some serious help when she told me I could have it.  Then my neighbor down the road picked up two bags of pine cones from her back yard for me.  All I ended up having to buy was more glue sticks and the ornaments which happened to be on Christmas clearance at Wal-Mart.  So excited about this project being done because it took up my enitre dining table and had me covered in glitter and glue for the better part of a week.  Anyway I think it turned out really well and I owe a big THANK YOU to both Dee and my mom for making donation for the cause.  On to the next project!!

13 years and dollar deals~

So on January 2nd my baby turned 13!!  WHEW...unfortunately I was so sick that we could not take him out for his birthday shopping.  We finally went today and let me just say that when this time rolls around next year I think he and his father will be spending the day together and I'll just stay home.  We spent almost three hours in an archery shop....so boring.  Then it was lipping back and forth and the two of them acting about 5 most of the day...BOUT drove me crazy.  He ended up getting everything he wanted though and got to spend the day with both of us which oddly enough at 13 he still thought was cool!

In between me sneaking away and them finding me though I caught up with some really good deals.  I hit Hobby Lobbys Christmas clearance isle and found kick ass red felt stockings 25 of them.  I am going to embellish them and use them for the advent calendar!! YAY!!  Then at the Target dollar isle I found 6 storage containers that well I couldn't live without so they came home with me too.  The two mesh one have already been put to use in my bathroom closet.  It got cleaning out and straightened up as soon as we got home.  The other four I think I will use for project containers.  I have a bad habit of stretching out my projects because I never have everything at the same time.  With these containers though I can store my papers and the supplies for the projects in one spot so once I have everything I can just sit down and do it.  I actually thought this one through :)

SO....tomorrow is my last day to work on my project before I go into default!!  I'm cutting this one close....oh who am I kidding I am a terrible procrastinator and you should expect this every week.  I will have it done though I promise and pictures posted.

Why hello mellow YELLOW~

SO..up until a few years ago every Christmas I would get a gift card from one of my siblings to Bath & Body Works.  It never failed that was my gift every year.  I LOVE that place and they knew it and they fed my need to be moisturized (I love them)!  Then a couple of years ago we decided it was kind of crazy to exchange names and buy gifts, it was more about the kids anyway so we stopped and so did my yearly supply of scented lovliness.  The one thing I can look forward to every year now though is their big YELLOW sale.  Oh how I heart this sale and look forward to it.  This year I filled my lotion basket to almost exploding.  I love seeing my basket like this!  Oh the wondermuss smells that are filling my closet as we speak.  My favorite by far would have to be Cotton Blossom but of course you can't always buy it....stupid limited quantities.  Do you have a favorite lotion?

First five steps~

Okay so I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and Lisa was talking about organization and how as with anything you need to just start small.  She suggested that before this week is over you go through your house and find just five things that you have that are doing nothing but taking up space and get rid of them.  I am calling it the Lisa challenge and I WILL COMPLETE THIS TASK. 

I started thinking about all the STUFF I have in my house, I mean seriously stuff everywhere.  I have a hope chest full of "Tanner" stuff and he's only 13!!  I have a wardrobe full of stuff for the new house and we haven't even sold this one yet!  I have a closet full of craft stuff.....yeah okay I actually use that stuff but not as much as I should apparently.  I also have this old pie safe!?!  Hmmm!!  I had to take a picture and show you guys because this is where my Lisa challenge is going to come into play.  I have stuff I collect, stuff that was given to me, stuff that I decorate with, stuff that I haven't actually used in god knows how long.  However I must tell you I have issues.  I am not a hoarder per say, and I'm not a freak but I become very attached to items I own.  The cake stand, never used it but it was a wedding gift.  The two pixie lights, antiques and my very first purchases on ebay like what 10 years ago.  The shoe box, full of cups for the antique square punch bowl I bought several years ago and have never used.  The plates a small collection I would like to make bigger because I LOVE the color orange...love, love, love.  Okay do you see my problem here.  I might need to hit the closet with all the craft stuff to find my five items yet.

I got more TIME than BRAINS :)

Okay so I was searching for something interesting tonight and this is what I found.  One more thing that I want to do but don't have time for!  This is such a cute idea though and you can really put it anywhere in your house especially if you're a big note leaver family.  My family use to be but then we all got cell phones.  Maybe if I make this though we can go back to notes!?!  OH CLEVER IDEA MANDY :)  SO...what are you waiting for go over to House of Hepworth and make this cute little thing!!

Okay so we stopped tonight at Wal-Mart on our way home and ran into my grandmother, my SIL & BIL and a girl I use to go to school with and this wasn't wandering around we all ended up in the same two isles it was hilarious.  Anyway I picked up more glue sticks so I am good to go on the pine cone wreath.  Hitting that thing hard on Friday because I think that might be my only day to work on it.  Saturday we will be taking Tanner out for his Birthday celebration.  We wanted to do it last weekend on his actual birthday but I was SO sick.  I think Ryan and I are more excited than Tanner about all this!!

Spirit of Christmas madness~~

SO here are a couple of random projects I worked on before Christmas and actually gave away as gifts.  I am not sure if the people they went to actually enjoyed them or not but in my own twisted worled I am going to pretend like they did and smile psychotically.  These are blocks that I made for my new little niece Paxton.  She was at the time 6 months old and slobbering on anything she could get her hands on.  I thought these would be pefect for her and I wasn't far from the truth.  As my SIL was pulling them out of the bag Paxton was grabbing them and shoving them in her mouth.  There are six total two of each design.

 This was made for my MIL and FIL.  They have always told our children that they love them to the moon and back.  They bought the book and have read it to them several times.  A couple of years ago I purchased a small pillow for my bed that says "To the moon and back" and got in a little bit a trouble because I had only bought one.  In my defense it was a chance sighting another one of those "GOD'S WILL" moments on Ebay no less so I jumped on the deal and got it.  We were all kind of involved with this.  Heather picked out her kids pictures, Tanner picked out his own, Ryan picked out the frame, I put everything together.  We decided to leave all the lettering which we cut out on a Cricut a little askew to make it look more childish.  I would have really like to have each of the kids sign a placard under their picture but I think we ran short on time.  It still turned out cute!

 Every year for Tanner's Godparents I try to do a gift basket of some sort.  This year I got a little carried away.  I cute the lettering out on the Cricut and glued it to the tub.  The tub contained two Christmas mugs, hot chocolate for two that I bought from Hallmark (yes I know, shame on me), homemade turtles, homemade carmel popcorn, one mason jar of monster cookie mix, one mason jar of peanut butter brownie mix, a Christmas card and a school picture.  I also deco'd the bags that I put the popcorn in and they turned out really cute.  Whew I had a busy Christmas! 

Glitter me giddy!!

Okay so while trolling web sites the other day I happend across a page where a woman had one of these hanging in front of her fireplace and I thought...HEY I really like that.  The more I looked at it I thought hey I want that and I can make it.  So later that same day I'm strolling down the Hobby Lobby Christmas clearance isle and there it was.....it was a sign from GOD!  There in front of me at 75% off was a cardboard Christmas stringer...woo hoo!  I grabbed it paid a little of nothing and primered, glitter and mod podged my way to this gloriousness.  Oh I just love it when things go my way!!  Now I just have to wait until next Christmas to use it.  I know it seems like forever but surely I can remain patient!?

 Here is a shot of the back side.  I primered it but did not glitter it because well I was sick when I did this and sneezing and glitter don't mix well.

 Oh look at it....let the shine lure you in.  You know there is just no better place than those dang clearance isles.

One froggy day...

Okay so after posting on facebook today about what I have currently been working on I realized....I need more space. I am moving all of my current projects over here. I have had this blog for years and have never used it to it's full potential or have more than one follower! Why not use it for what I am doing NOW!!?? Okay so I will. I made a decision this weekend to complete one Christmas craft every week this year. I have the first one done and am currently working on the second, will post pics soon I promise. If I could get over this cold and not sound like a choking frog every time I cough maybe things would look better :)