Sewing Class...

For those of you who expressed interest in the sewing class, I haven't forgotten about it!!! I've just been a tad busy these days. I'm thinking an evening in June would be good. I'll let you know!!

Inspiration Overload!!!

A few of you have asked lately where I have been getting all my crafty ideas. Well I've been on inspiration overload from all kinds of great blogs!!! One of my favorites is www.tipjunkie.blogspot.com it features all kinds of peoples' blogs with great ideas and lots of tutorials. Another great site is www.craftgossip.com, and finally www.todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com. If you read any of these, you'll quickly find blogs that you'll add to your favorite list and have a continuous supply of ideas!
Happy creating!!

More Heaven from Han

Last night our area had some pretty severe storms come through.... a tornado touched down and the path was headed toward our city. The sirens were going off and we were all down in the basement eating dinner and listening to the storm chasers on the news. Naturally the kids were a little nervous. We prayed together and afterwards Hud said, "Mom, what could happen to us if a tornado came?" I said, "Well either God will protect us, or we'll go to heaven." At that Han piped up in a very excited tone of voice and said, "Tonight would be a gweat night to go to heaven!!!"
Leave it to Han to remind us that heaven is a very exciting option!!! The best, actually!!

Pizzookies!

For those of you who like pizzookies I found a great recipe!! These are generally a cookie baked in a deep dish pizza pan and topped with ice cream. You'll find them at a lot of pizza restaurants.

For this recipe you can use your small white ramekins. It said you could use a muffin tin if you don't have ramekins, but it sure was fun for each person to have their own little dish of goodness.

I made these tonight and they were definitely a hit. A simple, easy and fancy dessert.
I just used the store brand chocolate chip cookie dough. I think I put a little too much dough in so it took 3-4 minutes longer to bake. The first time I took them out they were way too gooey so I put them back in for a few more minutes. Don't be afraid to get the outside edges too brown. It made a good crunchy crust.

Try it out and tell me what you think!!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/03/pizzookies.html

Hippity Hoppity

Easter's on it's way!! I've been doing some fun new Easter crafts.

I am very excited to have inherited this buffet from my parents! It has taken the place of a tall book shelf that was becoming a catch all for the kids and always looked like a mess. I plan to paint it soon and give it a whole new look.

Here's a mirror I found at Big Lots. The price tag said $30 which I thought was a great deal for a beveled mirror with nice frame. It had a few nicks and scratches on it so I asked for a discount. I got it for $24!! Hee Hee. I plan to paint it with the same paint I use on the buffet and of course I will hang it a little higher.

Don't you love the little blond girl holding an egg? She reminds me of my Han. I found the picture with the frame and everything for $22 at a cute little shabby store in Halstead. I already had the bird house and lamp. The bunny was half off at HobLob. I used my cake stand to put a nest on top. The blue eggs are plastic Easter eggs I painted.

I found this wire basket for $1.99 at Goodwill. I primed it and spray painted it this cute pink color called "Ballet Slipper." It is a real vintage shade of pink. More moss and eggs I painted in the nest.

I had this old grape vine wreath that I resurrected from my garage sale pile. Some more of that pink spray paint and it's a updated wreath!! I painted all the eggs (which are a bit time consuming) and still haven't managed to put some kind of bow on the top. I'm thinking I'll use burlap or a tan linen for the bow. Hopefully it will get a bow by Sunday!

To make your own eggs see this tutorial.

A Jewish heritage?

Yesterday Russ was walking around without a shirt and Han said, "Dad did you used to be an Israelite?"
Russ: "Well no Han."
Han: "Then what are those whip marks all over your back?"
Russ had just scratched his back and there were red streaks. Han was thinking maybe he had been a slave in Egypt and gotten beaten like she saw on her movie "Moses, Prince of Egypt."

More on heaven from Han....

This morning Han was snuggling with me and said, "When I'm dying and getting ready to go to heaven that will be so exciting!! Mom, when I die can I get buried instead of buhned up?"

Brown sugar body scrub

I saw this little recipe on a blog the other day and tried it out. It definitely has a brown sugar smell in the shower, but it really does make you feel like you've moisturized and exfoliated!!
Here's the recipe (if I had it to do over again I might have cut the recipe in 1/2):

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey

Happy scrubbing!
Let me know if you tried it and what you thought.

Wanna learn to sew?.......

A few weeks ago a couple of my girlfriends were talking about how they feel their generation was skipped when it came to learning how to sew.

Sew I was thinking (ha ha), maybe I could offer a little class one evening. I just saw this cute little tutorial about how to make a ruffled skirt for a little girl. You would learn how to cut out a pattern, sew on a machine, make ruffles, make a casing for an elastic waistband and hem.

There are a few details we'd need to figure out, like coming up with enough sewing machines.

Since I'm trying to use my crafty energies to raise money for my friend whose adopting from Ethiopia, I'd probably charge $15 for the evening. You would bring your own fabric and thread, but that cost would be minimal as you'd probably only need 1/4 yard each of two coordinating fabrics.

Sew, if you're interested, leave me a comment. I'd like to have 8-10 people for a class. If you in, maybe you could recruit a friend!

More on heaven from Han....

Yesterday Han asked me, "Mom, when I get to heaven will I get to see Jesus?"
Me: "Oh yes Han, you'll always be with Jesus in heaven!"
Han: "Whenever I do something fun in heaven I'm going to ask Jesus if he wants to do it with me!"

This morning Han and I were snuggling in my bed and she said, "Mom, does Jesus have a nickname?" I told her that Jesus has a lot of wonderful names and I started telling her some of them. "I know all those, Mom, but does he have a nickname?"
Then she said, "I wish I could be in heaven right now!! When I get to heaven I'm going to stand up and give Jesus a big hug!"

We have a winner!!!

I asked my husband to pick a number between 1 and 14 and he picked 5. Number 5 is my sweet friend Julie who just happens to be a teacher!!! She's not just any teacher either, she was an award winner before she even graduated.
Congrats on winning my first blog giveaway, Julie!! I'll have your gift card and let you pick out your cozy next time I see ya!

Thanks a Latte!!!

I've got all kinds of fun crafty things brewing around here... this is one of my latest, latte cozies. I've made them out of felted wool sweaters (which basically means that they were washed in hot water and dried to shrink them). A few of them are even made out of cashmere. They're so soft, fuzzy and cute! I think they will make perfect teacher gifts for next month's teacher appreciation week. I plan to put one on a Starbucks cup with a gift card inside for Joshua's speech therapist.

I also thought it would be fun to have my first blog giveaway!!! The lucky winner will get one of these cozies and a $5 Starbucks gift card. To enter please leave me a comment telling me how you found my blog and what keeps ya commin' back for more.

Oh, and if you don't turn out to be the winner but you'd like one of these for yourself or for someone you want to thank let me know. I've made some new ones in different colors and sell them for $10 each. A portion of the profits from everything I sell on my blog is going to help our good friends adopt from Ethiopia.

I'll leave this giveaway open until Wednesday night and announce the winner on Thursday. Good luck!!

Conversation between Grandpa and Hud....

This conversation was quite awhile ago... I was just deleting emails and found it from my mom.

As reported by Grandpa:
Hudson: "Grandma sure is pretty."
Grandpa: "Ya"
Hudson: "Did you marry her?"
Grandpa: "Ya"
Hudson: "Then you got old."

Still Sewing...

It's not too late to click HERE to order an adorable pinnafore.

Wedding Bells

Yesterday our friend and Rusty's co-worker got married. When Hud heard there was going to be a wedding he got this look of disappointment and said, "A WEDDING!? Are the boys going?"
Me: "Well, Daddy has to go because he's an usher but you don't have to go if you don't want to."
Hud: "Nah, I don't wanna go!"

Han immediately jumped into the conversation to try to convince him otherwise...
Han: "But Hud, if you go you might get to be the Ringmaster!!!"
Me: "What's the ringmaster, Han."
Han: "You know, when you walk down the isle with a fishing pole that has rings on the end. (She and Hud were the flower girl and ring bearer in an outdoor wedding and that's how Hud took the rings down.)

Moving on to her next line of argument...
Han: "And I'll bet there will be candy there."
Me: "There might not be candy, but they'll have cake."
Hud: "Well, I don't like cake." (It's true, there's hardly any sweets he likes. He'd rather just eat tomatoes or some kind of veggie.)

Han's final attempt at changing his mind....
Han: "Well Hud, there's going to be dancing and I think you'd make a willy gweat dance pahtnuh for me!"

No such luck. Boys just don't like weddings much.

Calling all woolies....

This is a random request, but I'd like to try my hand at felting which requires wool garments. I was wondering if any of you might have old sweaters or socks that you really need to part with because you never wear them. If you live nearby and would be willing to pass them on, the creative, crafty side of me that never quits would love to have them. Thanks!!!

Grandpa's Dog

Discussion between Han and Grandpa over the phone:

Han: "How is Sophie doing, Grandpa?"
G: "Oh she's pretty good except when it's cold, she gets real stiff in her joints and comes into the house at night. She likes to sleep on the red couch in Pat's room."
H: "Why doesn't she sleep in her dog house, Grandpa?"
G: "I don't know. I've put in a warm rug and straw but she likes to sleep on the red couch."
H: "Grandpa, then why don't you build her a dog house big enough for the red couch?"

From Big Brother to Little Brother

Hud: "Josh, someday you're going to be pretty cool just like me."

Questions from Han returns....

It's been awhile since I've posted any questions from Han. This is not because she isn't still asking them. She likes to start sentences with the phrase, "I'll tell you one thing....," and I usually think, "no, you'll tell me 20!"



Here are a few of the things she's asked lately:



1) "I was wondering. How do you make gum?"



2) "How do you build a parking lot?"



3) "How do you know if they're just practicing?"

Me: "What?"

Han repeats

Me: "Practicing what?"

Han: "The sirens. How do you know if they're just practicing?"

Me: "The tornado sirens?"

Han: "Yes."

I explained that on Mondays at noon they practice. Any other time they go off it's an emergency.

Han: "Mom, wemembuh when I was a little guhl and I used to be scared of the siwuns?"

Apparently she's not a little girl any more

4) She was learning the verse, "Lord, teach us to pray." I told her the story about how the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. She said, "That's silly. Why would they ask him that when they were with God everyday?"

5) "Mom, how do you make water?"

6) "Mom, how do trees drink?"


7) "Mom, can we do miracles in heaven?"

Full of Joy!