To Thank You - A Random Giveaway

Hey everyone! I promised a draw was coming ....and here it is. In honour of my new blog design , and tto thank you readers & thank you Zee! from pixie blossoms!!.......What do you guys think???? Isnt her design work amazing? I thought it was so delightful!!! Im so pleased. Now I have to challenge my brain mentally, and figure out all this Html.... He, Hem........ stuff. I think It will be worth it !
So for you fabulous ladies, I have made A set of 4 hand Towels with a pretty vintage pillowcase trim along bottom. There are 2 of each design. I was having so much fun creating my project for The pillowcase challenge & I had all this leftover peices, so I enjoyed no waste& found a use for every scrap!
Im also going to throw in a random one of my Japanese craft books for the lucky winner.
So Im saying A virtual farewell to winter(i my mind anyway) and a grateful welcome to springs arrival. Simply leave a comment , with the name of your blog if you have one with a way to reach you if your not with Blogger* and I will draw a name with the good old random # generator sometime soon! That way I can check out your wonderful blogs too!!!

Thank you so much for reading my blog, I truly enjoy reading every comment, so cheers to all of you amazing ladies!

~blessings~

My Other Love

I know were always talking crafts over here, but I do have another love. Baking, and making. I guess they are a pair. I love to create in the kitchen too...which I seem to always neglect to take any pictures of. Call it a hungry family...or... pure lazyiness. LOL. Tonight im enjoying a fabulous glass of eggnog & I thought I would share a nice easy & most of all fun recipe:

Yummy Holiday Eggnog(Large Batch)

1 dozen eggs

1 cup sugar

3 cups whipping cream

2 Tbs sugar(second addition)

1 Tbs Real Vanilla

7 cups milk

2 cups Kalua or spiced Rum(optional)

1/2 tea nutmeg

To Make: Beat egg whites(save yolks) in large bowl until thick. Add first amount of sugar. Beat until thick. In second bowl, beat yolks until thick. Add egg whites & beat until mixed and thick. In 3rd bowl(sorry dishes) beat cream until it starts to get thick, add sugar remaining and vanilla.Slowly add egg mixture. Add milk, and kalua(if using) and keep beating. Chill & Enjoy.

* I Modifed an old companys Coming favorite!

Ok, I did find a few minutes to update the G & G site for today too(see side bar)! These are some cute holiday fabric gift bags made from an old vintage tablecloth, and other bits & bobs. Only 25 days till Christmas!

*Happy Holidays*

Open Invitation

Ok so I was supposed to update my link list last week & it still didnt happen. Dont get me wrong, I have been thinking alot about.Thinking about how I want to add so many, but I would need a million pages, thinking to scrap the whole list because i want everyone included, and its just too many to list and to many gazillion to read. Thinking how if I do keep it, that I would like my links to reflect special places to me, and special people to me, ecspecially all my regular sweet commenters because they are a huge part of my inspiration to keep going in this very ,what seems to be a competative blog world. On the other hand there is sooooo much genuine goodness,kindness, and more generosity than I see in my daily real life. All this is why I keep going on posting, even if no-one cares what Im saying? Right??

So many things to be grateful here, yet so much time wasted online too. I really need to set my priorities on paper. Basically I feel so blessed that anyone actually cares what I have to say! I really want to thank each & ever commenter because as I said before, Im not able to get back to everyone, with blogger, so if you ever think, boy shes a snob, I really do try! PLease make sure your settings are set to bloggers can reply to you! So I really want to encourage everyone who reads this to do me a huge favor, if you do read hear & care what i have to say, or just like creating & pictures-thats Ok! Just tell me who you are, I would love to see whos really reading here and send out an open invitation to stop lurking & come meet me! I might get really brave and post a big picture of myself or something crazy! LOL. So Im not sure what will end up on the link list so that is why you need to help me. I got through the whole pressure to blog thing & that was easy- If I have time I do, and if I dont ,I dont. That was easy-peasy. If i get pressure for stuff I just end up backing off of whatever it is,and just start to procrastinate. This is why I've decided to come up with a daily schedule. I must try to stick to it somewhat to get anything accomplished. Does anyone else follow a daily scheduele?this really interests me so please share!

So no post is complete without a few crafty pics

so heres a bag I made out of 2 seperate vintage tablecloths. One pre-printed & one hand embroidered daisy seafoam one, complete with drawstring top.

~blessings~

Surprize!

Im back.......dont ask- heres the briefing. We almost had the awning on the trailer ripped off in the hurricane & hail. Need I say more????? Lots of card playing and relaxing though, so it was worth the family time & quality time with my husband anyway!

So in honour of all you fabulous ladies- I think a giveaway package is in order! Lets celebrate the end of summer- it must be coming soon here or something!LOL! Leave me a comment if you would like to get in on it! Im thinking a SURPRIZE

package of an apron, some trims, whatever i can get together to say goodby to summer and welcome to fall, will be on the way to one lucky winner.

More repurposed grocery bags and vintage aprons are in the shop too!

What an honour, I just found out that the awsome Mrs Kwitty, & sweet as ever MadreKarin have nominated me for a nice matters award! Ok- So they must not have read my last post, ripping out my hair with these crazed, hyper children......ok so enough about them,,yikes I dont need to remind myself:) So --here are my 5 nominations, & of many sweet & inspirational bloggers that I visit:

1. thepioneerwomancooks.com- oh my goodness talk about making me hungry-you'll never run out of ideas here!

2. A little imagination & a pile of junk- Amazing ideas, super kind and she always replys to comments (unlike me ...im so slow)!

3. Silly lil' Doe of course! Brimming with talent and always inspireing!!!!

4. Tales from Pixiewood- a super down to earth, honest girl, wonderful reading!

5. Purple Kappa- An amazing , and generously kind woman who's inspiered me to start to teach myself Japanese!

So there you go, thanks again ladies!!! Please leave me your email addy to!

Back to School is coming!

Were off!

Taking a well needed brea k (I desperate)& going camping! Its been 3 weeks since my husband has been home & hes coming home today! My mind is being overrun with teenage anger & hormones so I cant wait to run away to the bush with no TV, gaming junk(sorry for you playstation lovers, but im done!) I need fresh air!!!!!!! I want to throw the TV into the pond so bad its killing me except I know that I need to watch my Big Brother, & a couple other of my goofy shows.

I cant run away from the teen so at least there he can run away from me!!!LOL!

Maybe Im having a mid-life crisis, or maybe hes going into grade 8, knows everything, is always right, and needs boot-camp. HUmmmmmmm- venting maybe, well somedays you guys are the only ones i can say these things to and still keep a peaceful home! So thank-you & sorry at the same time! Ahhhhhhhh, feeeling better already!

Ok, so i made a few goodies for the shop before I leave. Back to School Pencil Cases, and gift card sets. Anyone who purchases them in the next few days, please note, they will be shipped out on Tuesday morning. I cant believe almost all my packages of vintage velvet flower picks are gone! Are those hard to come by? I will keep my eyes out for more of those forsure!

Oh yes- And for the stapler thing from last post, for some reason some of my Japanese craft books say to use a STAPLER instead of pins! Whats up with that? I dont know but I wasnt willing to try it on my precious vintage fabric, so I opted for pins. Is this maybe a special stapler? I wish my exchange student knew but he didnt have a clue. It actually bewildered him too. Anyone know what this could be?

PS- I wanrned my husband when he gets home tonight that the kids (I love them to death) but they're all yours ;Im done for a whole week until he's back again! Whooo hooo!!!!!

I *Heart* Japan

Wow!!! I had such A blast having our exchange student! Words cant even describe the relationships we built, Im so happy, and so sad to see him go! That was one of the best experiences in my life & I am very grateful. One day I hope to go to Japan & tutor English and experience the amazing culture in real life. The kids had so much fun too, just a great 3 weeks, better than I could have ever imagined. We were such a bunch of wet rags by the time the students had to leave!

So whats the cure for such a sad/happy goodbye??? Thrifting of course!

Found a bunch of vintage zippers, notions, and trim. A cute pair of crocheted dress trivets.
3 great pieces of fabric,
and this really fun aqua/turquiose(is that how you spell it??) letter holder, & a bunch of transfers.
For some reason I absolutly cannot sew or make stuff if my house is a pig sty, so i had to somewhat organize it a bit after all the company. After a major housecleaning,thats not nearly complete, I had a chance to make some new shop goodies. This altered clipboard & the little wool felt cell phone cozy. Now to make my way through the cluttered maze to find an ironing board is priority! I Must organize something this weekend so I can start dreaming up of all my Christmas creations to come...scary I know!

~Toodles!~

How do I love thee....

Did I tell you how much I love a good quality vintage sheet??Oh yes, I 'm so smitten in love with this one sheet, so I made this simple ruffle shoulder bag out of it. Its a bit large, but i like the ruffle.
Here's a close up of the material I love so much,
And this is a vintage tablecloth I found at a local thrift store. I made these little crochet flowers to attach and are removable.
So im in a bit of a shoulder bag frenzy, so much so , that I forgot to put in pockets! Anyways lots to do, lists to make, beds to make, dishes to do & the garden to till . In an odd moment today I caught this beautiful glimpse of a shadow of our hummingbird feeder on the kitchen wall. It was really pretty. This next month will be crazy busy, as we are having a Japanese exchange student come to live with us for awhile. My older son is so pumped, because they are close in age, and have very similar interests!
Maybe one day Tyler could go to Japan in exchange, something I totally wanted to do as a teen, but my grades sucked too bad! Anyways, if I get through our VBS Jungle Jaunt, and my Mary Kay open house alive I will have lots to post about! Have a fabulous weekend ladies!

Clothesline Dreams

Im believing Spring is just around the corner, and am visualizing warm laundry days spent outside, clothes on the line, gardening plans, spring renovations....
Maybe a new peg bag to hang outside for me , but because i have a while to go, for now this ones in the shop. Made with vintage chennille (is that how you spell it?), and some pretty fabric I got over here, a little white waffle weave fabric for liner, some ribbon, & some handstitched wool hearts. Ok. Im really dreaming of hot days ahead can you tell? Actually now thats beginning to sound like work, so while were working we may as well look at pretty things.

Actually all our snow is melted (in my yard anyways) and were planning some major renovations to our home this spring. Inspired by Joyce were "gonna take what we have and make it better" instead of buying something else where we would just go into extreme debt. We purchased this tiny place before I knew I was having a third child, and were really feeling mega cramped. So onward we go to make it liveable!

A few people asked for closeups of the paperbag photo memory albums so here's a vintage chicky one,
with some cute chicky and wagon co-ordinating tags. Its available here, and I think there are still 4 left to pick from.
I'll post a few of the others soon. I also found some great treasures while out thrifting that I want to share next time. Oh yes, and my new moo's!!!! I'm so pumped about all the granny square love going around blogland right now, because I can crochet (not a knitter, no matter how hard i try, im not co-ordinated enough-LOL ask my husband!), and iv'e always done these style blankets. This one Im making now will just be one on-going square building outwards. I don't like all the messy joining of sqaures,and hanging threads, there are enough with all this color changing already & im too lazy!

So I must go catch up some much needed blog inspiration so I don't fall back into my slumpy procrastination trap that i'm finally breaking out of. I think it had alot to due with that terrible lingering flu we all had that lasted for 3 weeks! BTW Did you see Pams fabulous Moo card holders in her Flickr? She also has an adorable free Starbabies pattern I would like to try on her blog!