Some cute ideas...

I can't believe Easter is in 25 days. I don't like it to come so early. I had a lot of craft projects lined up but didn't feel like doing them when it was so cold and dreary. Now that we have had some sunshine I am in the mood but too busy to do it. Maybe next year. Here were some things I thought looked simple and easy to make. I have so many buttons that this would have been fun.

Talk about easy. I may end up doing this one. 

And these are really, really cute. If I could gather enough spools, I would do this as a Children's Church craft. 

This is really cute and simple.

And I may try this bunny. It looks like it is made from a sock. 

Just a few ideas that caught my fancy.

Welcome March....

I am a morning person. I got up today at 4:54 and decided to start  gathering craft supplies for an upcoming. I found some assorted flowers that were left over from various decorating projects over the years. So I thought to myself, those look like I could put them together for something. I took them all and put them on the table.

Then I thought about what vase I might be able to use. As I went to look at my milk glass collection, I remember my vintage Fenton vase my sister-in-law gave me a couple of years ago.  

I decided to clip the stems shorter and arrange them like a bouquet of wildflowers. I am very happy with the result and now I have a little spring time on my desk at work. 

I am very happy with the result for an impromptu arrangement.

Getting to know me....

I am so outgoing and don't mind sharing information, but every so often I say something that totally shocks the people around me. I get comments like "I am so surprised." or "I would never have guessed that about you." So I decided to do a blog about things that might surprise you about me if you knew them. So here it goes...

MUSIC

I am well known for my love of country music. Everybody that knows me knows me as a die-hard country music fan. But did you know that one of my favorite songs is Paradise City by Guns N' Roses.  And that I absolutely love any song sung by Bon Jovi. Yes, I was a fan of the Big Hair Groups of the 80's. 

On the other hand, I love Beethoven and have times at home where I put on a classical piano music while I clean house. 

My all time favorite song of any genre is Take it to the Limit by the Eagles. 

BOOKS

I love to read. Romance novels are my greatest love. All my reader friends swap book recommendations for our favorite romance novels. But if there is a new John Grisham book out, it goes to the top of my MUST READ list. I am a true fan of his and have read almost everyone of his books. Even though I love romance novels and Danielle Steel is the Queen of romance novels but I have only read two or three of her books ever.

TELEVISION

I don't watch a lot of television. But when I do, it is usually The Voice or a comedy. But I love to watch American Pickers, Counting Cars and Pawn Stars. Over the past month or so I have become addicted to a show that my granddaughters watch. It is geared to around the 10 year old age group, but one of them had it on and I was mesmerized. So much so that I have my DVR set to record every single episode and I take a couple of nights a week and do a marathon to get caught up on what is happening on it. It is called Maco Mermaids. I just love it.

MOVIES

As with books, I like my movies to mostly be romances. Dirty Dancing, Sweet Home Alabama and The American President top my list of favorite movies. But I some older ones I own that I just love. My all time favorite movie ever, ever, ever is Summer Magic starring Hayley Mills. I watched it when I was younger and it will always be my favorite. But I also love the old musicals like Oklahoma and South Pacific. My favorite musical ever was Lil Abner. And my favorite old movie was Spencer's Mountain with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.

FOOD

I am a picky eater. But I love comfort food like pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs. I adore fried chicken with mashed potatoes, brown gravy and corn on the cob. And I could eat breakfast for supper every night. But my favorite meal is hamburger browned and mixed in with Velveta cheese, milk, butter and noodles and a big skillet of fried potatoes with onion, garlic powder, and black, red and white pepper on them. And normally I never put pepper in my food, but fried potatoes, I do. 

FLIP FLOPS

If you follow my blog or are friends with me on Facebook or know me in "real life" you know of my love of flip flops. I patiently count the days starting in February and watch the weather daily, just so I will know when we will peak 55°. Then I start bringing them out. And come October/November/December I start dreading the day I have to drag out shoes and socks. But do you want to know the truth? I would rather be barefoot than to even wear flip flops. Flip flops are as close to barefoot as you can get, but if I am sitting at my desk or if I go outside at home these little tiny feet of mine are happiest if they do not have to have anything on them at all. When I was little, it would take longer to wash my feet that it would to do the rest of my body and wash my hair. Simply because I ran around and played outside barefoot most of the time. I love not wearing shoes. It is that simple. 

An Inspirational Sunday...

And the winner is......

Congratulations to Ms. Terri D. You are the winner of an Easter Egg Wreath. 

I will contact you for your mailing address and get it out on Monday. 

Thanks for all your comments!

East Tennessee Weather

I am currently in a love/hate relationship with Mother Nature and my Weather Man. I believe they are in a conspiracy to insure my flip flops stay in their winter storage. Here is what we live with in East Tennessee.

Cold, sunny, sunnier, rainy, stormy, bring on the snow and then back to warming. 

Dear Ms. Nature, 

Seriously. Pick a season and stick with it. There are FOUR seasons every year. That is annual. That is a few months at a time per season. Nowhere can I find a rule that says you must inflict all four seasons in one week. I need to get my flip flops out and you need to cooperate. Thank you.

Signed, 

The Queen of Flip Flops

How to make an Easter Egg Wreath

Hooking up with Friday Foto Friends at Breathing in Grace

The Easter Egg Wreath is very simple and fun to make. You need one dozen plastic egg, a roll of ribbon and a spool of floral wire. Most of this can be found at a Dollar Tree or Walmart. It is less than $5.00 for your first wreath and many of you probably are like me with tons of ribbon to choose from already. make sure the eggs are the ones that have little holes in both ends.

Separate your eggs and lay them on your work surface. A small wreath will take 8 eggs, a medium takes 10 and a large takes 12.

Cut off a length of floral wire (you can just work with it right from the spool, but it is awkward having to keep unwinding it. I usually cut about a yard. You will have some excess, but a yard will give you more than enough for any size.

Make a big loop in the end to keep the eggs from slide off one end as you put them on the other. 

Then start feeding the wire through the eggs. Make sure you do the eggs all int he same direction. I go through the bottom (larger) half of the egg first.

Pull it through....

...and come out through the hole in the top of the small part of the egg.

Snap the egg closed.

Continue until all the eggs are on the wire. You can do your color pattern however you want or you can do all one color. It is up to you.

Pull the ends together and tie the wire in a real tight knot. I tie it in 3 or 4 knots to make sure it is good and tight.

Cut off a length of your ribbon.

Trim the ends of your wire, leaving enough room to make a loop to hang it. Tie the ribbon around the wire at making a bow. If you are a great bow maker you can do any bow that hits your fancy.

Then come down part of the way on each side and tie a small piece of either matching or coordinating ribbon between a couple of the eggs. 

Here is the end result for the 10 egg wreath.