I forgot....

I forgot to write a post yesterday. End of the month and closing out the last year has kept me on my toes. So good to know I can relax today.

UPDATE: Turns out I DID post yesterday. Looks like I need a day off. Thanks Ms. Debbie for letting me know. :)

I guess I should say "good to know I could relax today". 

I don't have anywhere I need to be. I'm not going out to do any shopping or window shopping or idea gathering. I am staying right here in my nice warm house and cleaning. 

I have been trying to finish rearranging and organizing my craft/office room at home.

I have a planner that I am hand making that I want to finish.

I am working on a scrapbook project that I need to get done soon.

I want to redecorate the grandchildren's room.

I want to store away items I no longer want to decorate with and "shop" my house and closet to find fresh decorating ideas for a couple of rooms. 

And I want to make some peanut butter candy and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies today.

So I ask myself why am I sitting here on the computer if I want to accomplish so much? Good question. I guess I will get to work now. Have a great day.

My Pyrex trades this week....

I am so excited that I couldn't wait to share my latest trades in my Pyrex group. My first ever pink daisy. I am thrilled. Love it. She's a real beauty.



I collect the Town and Country pattern. It is one of my favorites. It comes in what I call a medallion Hex pattern and in the 8 point star pattern. I don't have any of the 8 point star so I traded an Early American to get one. I. am. in. love. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It is perfect in every way. I just can't believe I got one because I have never seen one in person.

The lady that I traded with put me a little extra something in the package. This beautiful little bell. She had no idea about my love of pink flowers. 

And it went perfect with my little pink display I showed you the other day.

Now for the moment I have been waiting for since early last week. I had a Cinderella set I needed to trade. I posted it in my Pyrex 4 Trade FB group; hoping that somebody would want to do a good trade with me for the whole set and that I could get something I really wanted. The trade was a success and I came home today to this box. 

It weighed 15 pounds. So I knew it was my long awaited for trade. The one that made my heart pound in anticipation. 

I cut it open and she had lots of wonderful packing and padding to prevent breakage.

I pulled the empty egg cartons and the newspapers out to get to the goodies. 

I dug around in the peanuts to make sure I found all the pieces 

I laid them all out on the counter so I could start the process of unpacking.

SCORE! Look what I got for trading one complete Cinderella set. I am so happy I can't stand it. I have longed for something, just anything, in the Horizon Blue. And now I get all this. My very first Horizon Blue. I haven't even seen one in the wild around here so that makes it even more special.

Now to figure how where and how to display them. They are mint condition and deserve a place of honor. I see some rearranging in my near future...like tonight!

.

It's not about the beer.....

I can't help it. I love the Budweiser commercials. Every year they come out with a new one for Superbowl. If you have never paid attention to them go to You Tube and search for Budweiser Super Bowl 2014 commercial. 

They carried the theme forward again this year. 

SPOILER ALERT

Here is the one for this year if you want to watch it. 

Dollar Tree Crafts

My daughter-in-law showed me this yesterday. She knew I would go crazy over it. I have go to make some of these. I visited the site and she has step by step instructions at Crafts by Amanda.

That triggered my creative juices so I went to my Facebook and Pinterest pages that had Dollar Tree crafts on them. Check this one out. It is so simple and so cute. I need a bigger branch to put my 5 grandkids on. I am waiting for a response on where she got the pattern for the tree. 

I love crafts that use glass vases and this one was a really good idea. I never know how to fill the bottom to bring the candle up toward the top without costing a fortune or having it plain with just a tall candle. Here was a cute easy way....coffee beans. I may have to try that sometime. 

You can turn trays from the Dollar Tree or yard sales into shadow boxes simply by adding scrapbook paper to the bottom.

These are just too cute. Dollar Tree wine glasses, Vellum sheets from the Scrapbook Store, and little tea lights. Too cute for words.

In addition to loving vases from the Dollar Tree, I love their candle sticks. Check this out. What unique picture frames with just a few dollars and a minimum amount of time. These would make awesome gifts to give Grandparents with picks of their grandbabies. I may have to make one for Mom with the grandkids in it. 

Simple, but elegant. And just $3 each at the Dollar Tree and a little big of glue.

Here is a cute idea for reusing pickle jars. One lady says she paints her glass candlesticks by mixing Rit Dye with Modge Podge. I would never think of that in a million years. 

I am so in love with this. Frame and candlestick refinished from Dollar Tree items. Not sure where she got the bird, but the little finial on the top is from Home Depot or Lowe's. On a side note, Google lamp finial. You will be amazed at the collections. I may have to blog about that some day.

And yes, I know Christmas is a long way away, but oh my goodness I love this. Dollar Tree pizza pans and a cookie sheet painted up for a specialized gingerbread man. 

I thought at first these were more pizza pans. Nope. They are range burner covers. The spindle would probably be from Home Depot and cut into thirds. They used scrapbook paper as liners. I am just amazed at the talent out there.

And with Super Bowl Sunday just days away, here are a couple of ideas to spruce up your party. Duct tape over your water or soda pop bottles. That is such a great idea for any holiday or gathering. And cheap. A roll of Duct tape goes a long way.

If you are lucky, you could even find some of the sports teams and do one for the Seahawks and one for the Patriots.

And one last thing. This isn't so much a craft as just something that caught my idea that would be great for gatherings. Don't have matching chip and dip sets? Tired of tons of assorted bowls cluttering the buffet. Visit the Dollar Tree and get you a big bowl for your chips and a large wine glass for your dip. Instead success.

Hope you enjoyed today's post. Will be curious to see who makes a Dollar Tree run this weekend. These are crafts that even the faint of heart can do. With a few bucks and 15 minutes spare time, anybody can craft from these ideas. 

Peanut butter and toast

How many of you eat peanut butter and toast? Growing up in my family, just about everyone of us loved it and I still do today. It is my favorite "quick fix" breakfast. I normally fix it just in the toaster then slather it with peanut butter. But once in awhile, I take the time to make it the way my Mamaw Eden made it for me. She would butter the bread and put it under the broiler and let it "toast". After it got done, she covered it with peanut butter. Then she stuck it back under the broiler for just a few seconds. It totally changes the taste. It is like eating fresh roasted peanuts. I love it this way. I had to have some for breakfast this morning. It makes it so ooey gooey. Yum. It was delicious.

Of course, I always have to have it with a big old glass of chocolate milk. 

There is just something about chocolate and peanut butter.

What a great way to start the day.

Repurposing...

I am a big fan of repurposing something simple into something useful when the original purpose is over. Pinterest is full of great idea. Here were a few I liked.

Who would have thought about making a cute bottle out of the soy sauce when it is done.



And this would be cute for the car. Carry some grocery bags in a empty wipe container. I don't have a dog, but could decorate this vintage and carry it in my trunk. When I go to yard sales, they don't always have a bag or newspaper to wrap glassware in. I am going to put one of these in my trunk so I can wrap my treasures up and they won't break. By the way one of my pet peeves is the fact that Dollar Tree does not wrap glass items. They just put them in a bag. I bought a beautiful glass vase and the lady put it right in the bag with my pickles. I had to ask for an extra bag to wrap it in. This would solve that problem.

And what a cute re-do of a Swiffer sweeper box. This would also work with baby wipee boxes.

When I first saw this, I thought "What's so brilliant about using a milk jug to water plants." I have done this for a long time. 

Then I saw they had put holes in the lid to make it more of sprinkling the plants instead of drowning them. Love it.

Here are some ideas for repurposing your Keurig's K-Cups. I adore the golden bell.

And I want to do this really bad. Any glass jar with lid would do. You don't paint the lid. You use sandpaper to remove the wording and give it a vintage worn look. Punch a whole in the top and screw in your choice of knob from Lowe's or Home Depot. Easy as can be and you have a cute vintage jar.

I found this at Saved by Love Creations. You can visit the link for directions. She has turned a Matchbox car box into a sewing notions kit. Too cute.

If you get the chance, go to Pinterest and type in Repurpose and you will be amazed at the ideas out there that you never thought about.

All about that grace....

This t-shirt was posted on the Facebook page of Miss Sadie Robertson of the Duck Dynasty clan. This child has become an inspirational role model for young girls. She is not afraid to claim Christ as her Saviour. She travels around speaking at youth conventions in an effort to spread the word of Christ. When I saw this shirt, I really loved it and it was sheer brilliance to parody the pop song "All about that Bass-NoTreble" that is so popular with teens today. 

Now onto the meat of my post. I would like to rant for a moment. When I was reading the comments on this shirt on Facebook. There was such an outpouring of support for the message that God's grace is sufficient. Then BAM! Out of the blue a lady professing to be a Christian bashed this shirt. This bothered me when I read it and I went back to find the comment and it is now gone. I cannot quote it word for word, but she stated very firmly her belief that this shirt was misleading. She said that as a Christian we should never try to portray that if you are a Christian and serve God that you will not have struggles. She said we all struggle and just because you become a Christian your struggles don't end and that as Christians we are misleading others into thanking that if they accept God they will never struggle. OH MY STARS!

She just doesn't get it. I don't mean to be judgmental but she missed the whole concept. GOD's grace is far reaching. It is all encompassing. Simply by being a Christian your struggles will not end, that is true. But having a Saviour to guide you through those struggles, to hold your hand in times of need and to bring you safely through is not something to scoff at. 

Have I had struggles in my Christian life? More than anyone would ever guess. Has God's grace brought me through? Every. Single. Time. 

He is love. He is mercy. He is grace. He is compassion. He is our light, our salvation. And if it was not for His grace I don't know where I would be. When He allows struggles to come my way I rejoice in the grace that brings me through. 

The premise behind the bass song is that the lady loves hearing bass. She doesn't want to listen to treble; she enjoys the bass. It is what is important to her. So the concept of the "all about that grace, no struggles" implies that we WANT His grace; we NEED His grace. We don't want to struggle through this world alone. We want someone to take our problems and to forgive us and help us through life. And we have that in God. We as Christians are all about His grace. That is our focus. We are not about the struggles. We don't want them to be the highlight of our Christian walk. We want it to be about HIS GRACE not about our struggles. That is what I take as the meaning behind the shirt.

So yes, I am all about that grace, 'bout that grace. And the lady that thinks this is a very un-Christian shirt? Well, I can only pray that God reveals to her just how important His grace is to His children. 

Rant over. Enjoy your Sunday. 

An early Valentine's surprise....

I had a visitor yesterday, my dear friend GeorgeAnna. She had brought me a gift.

I had asked her to make me a blue and a tan dishcloth and look what she made. Aren't they gorgeous.

Then she took some of the yarn and made this pretty doilie. 

Which I put under my Town & Country set. I love it.

She also made me some of these coaster type things. I call them dish savers. I put them between the bowls in my Pyrex sets so they don't scratch or rub bowl against bowl.

She also got me this pretty mug. I thing I'll have some hot chocolate later in it.

The last item in the bag was a box. 

But before I open it, do you remember when I posted these the other day?

 

I had shown them to GeorgeAnna and asked her if she thought she could make me a couple in pink, red and blue. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and found this. 

Oh I am SO in love with these. Let the decorating begin!

Thank you GeorgeAnna. You are the best!