Weekend wrap up

Saturday started out with thunder and heavy rains. But I had a trip to A.C. Moore planned and nothing gets in the way of that, so I headed out armed with a 40% off  one item coupon, a 50% off one item coupon and a sale paper full of good deals. I got all of this below for $7.00. Considering the yarn is normally $3.00, $7 wasn't a bad price for everything. You just need to make sure you tell them which item you want your 40% and 50% off on or they will give you the discount on the cheapest item. I got enough stuff here for 5 projects I am working on. 

Some of the projects are for me and some are for Sunday School class. These items were for our kindergarten class at Sunday School yesterday. 

They made these little snowmen cups. His smile is a little crooked but he turned out cute. We filled him full of popcorn at snack time.

I headed from there over to Bed, Bath and Beyond just to start getting ideas for spring. I love my bedroom decor, but it is very wintery with deep brick reds, blues and creams. I am toying with the idea of sprucing it up come spring with a new coat of paint and some lighter colors. I didn't have a clue what color I wanted until I saw this pillow. I fell in love with it.

Here is the quilted bedspread that goes with it. I would love to have this with my walls just painted a clean white.

I change tablecloths with the seasons. I am tired of my spring tablecloth because I have used it for 3 or 4 years. I decided to just take a look to see what they might have and get ideas of what to do for my tablecloth in spring. I want to incorporate these colors to go with my new Pyrex Shenandoah bowls. I love this green and soft buttery yellow. 

I was just looking because I have a large table and need the 120" tablecloth for it to hang over enough on the ends to look right. Which means, I usually find the ones I like for over $35. That's why I've used the same one for over 3 years. I was done looking at the tablecloths on the wall and turned around and this one caught my eye. Talk about going good together with my Pyrex. It was $34.99 so I was thinking I would come back and get it before spring. Till I saw a discount sticker for $14.99 and one on top of that one for $8.99. There was no way I was leaving it there when I saw the price. Now I can't wait for spring so I can spruce up my table. 

I have no choice but to wait for spring since hubby is working a puzzle on the other end of the table right now. It's funny but the grain in the lake home in the puzzle is the same grain as my table. Lots of the puzzle pieces that are for the wood on the house blend into the table perfectly. Makes it a little difficult at times to find the right piece. I try to help but my eyes go blurry after awhile. 

After I came home from shopping, I wanted peanut butter cookies but was feeling too lazy to roll them in balls and smoosh them with a fork. So I mixed the cookie dough and put it in a little baking pan and baked them like a cookie bar. The result was a shortbread style peanut butter cookie. They are good and chewy so I may make them like this more often. 

Sunday I went to church and then came home and fried some bacon and baked a few potatoes. Then I put it all together in a baking dish and covered it with cheese. I fixed some scrambled eggs to go with it. It was a great meal for a Sunday afternoon. Then I just vegged out and relaxed for awhile. 

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Sunday Morning Song

I love gospel music, especially those songs that make you just want to get up off your feet and move. Some believe dancing for celebration of God is something that is wrong. The bible says in 2 Samuel 6:14 "David danced before the Lord with all his might." The side notes in my bible says danced in that term means whirled about. I reading one commentary on it that said "David didn't hold back anything in his own expression of worship. He didn't dance out of obligation but out of heartfelt worship." The write of the commentary went on to say 

"This expression of David's heart showed that he had a genuine emotional link to God. We don't think that dancing is strange when the baseball player rounds the bases after the game winning home run. We don't think it is strange when the winning touchdown is scored or when our own child scores a goal. We think nothing at hands raised at a concert or a touchdown. We should not think them strange in worship to God."

I recently saw a video over at Jeremiah-2911 about a song by Mercy Me called Shake. I was reading the blog on my phone and couldn't get the video to come on and I forgot to go back and watch it later. Then my sister calls me out of the blue the other night to ask me if I had seen this very same video. I was intrigued so I went to You Tube. Oh my stars! I am in love with it. Yes, it does make you feel great and yes it does make you want to get up and dance with them. Talk about a song to pick you up when you are feeling down. You have got to watch this video. It is my go to song now when I feel in the dumps. Sorry about the short ad at the beginning, I couldn't find it without the ad.

My mind is racing

It's one of those mornings where my mind is jumping from one thing to another. I have been motivated so far this year to try to complete one item per week that I see on Pinterest. Some weeks may be more, but my goal is to completed a minimum of 52 pins I have seen on Pinterest. Whether it is decorations, recipes, crafts, DIY, clothing or just an idea, I want to follow through instead of just pinning. You can check out my progress on my page 52 Pins on this blog. Feel free to use this badge below and pin your projects on your blog. Leave me a comment if you do because I would love to hop around all year to see what everybody is accomplishing.

Here are a few things that I am planning for the upcoming weeks. Some are for my Sunday School class, but those count because I have to make the sample one for them to see what to do. This may be the one I do tomorrow because we have had so much snow this past week.

I also like this next craft for my Sunday School class. This would be perfect to take home to their Mommy. 

And this is so simple, but I just love it so I think I will make one of these for MY Mommy! I may make a little red and white basket and fill it with some of her favorite candy as well. Ssh! Don't anybody tell her or show her this post. I am going to make mine using fabric and Wonder Under so it will be vintage looking. 

I love this wreath but I do not love the yellow. I would go with another color. I know a couple of young girls who are becoming Yo Yo pros. I need to get my material I want and see if I can sweet talk them into making me a few yo yo's. I already have yarn, buttons and some of those flowers that I

I am going to love having a plan.

Another Pinterest Idea completed

The other day I showed you some Pinterest ideas I had saved to try. One was this heart made from scrapbook paper.

So I went to my local scrapbook discount store and bought a few pages of Valentine paper. They didn't have many choices, but this was just my first experiment so I didn't want to invest a lot of money incase it was a flop.

I used my handy scrapbook paper cutter and made twelve 1" strips.

Then I folded each strip in half, making sure there was a good crease at the fold.

Next, I pulled the ends in and shaped the heart. 

The directions said to staple together. I didn't want to do that so I tried glue dots and it didn't hold so I stapled like it said. Next time, I am going to try just a dot with my glue gun. 

This is what I ended up with....12 hearts.

Then I taped them together. Be sure and put the tape about even with the point inside your heart. If you do it too high or too low, you can't make it into a wreath at the end. I laid them down on the table and just kept hooking them together. 

This is what they looked like when I tape them all together. 

Then I brought the two ends together and taped them.

I cut a length of red ribbon.

I tied the ribbon between the hearts. I messed up and tied one side lower than the other, but it worked out okay for a trial. Next time I will know to tie it higher in the arch of the heart like I did the second side.  

Then I hung it on my door. 

I was pleased with the result even though next time, I would make wider strips, use my glue gun, and use a wider assorted my designs on my paper. But for a first try, it wasn't bad. Considering, it only took about 20 minutes to make...start to finish.

A walk down memory lane.....

The House up the Holler

It was more than a house. It was our home, our shelter, our refuge. A place of love and family so dear.  A place to laugh, a place to live, and a place to love. So many memories live inside those old walls.  

I remember winter nights so cold that Mom would hang blankets over the doorways to keep the warmth of the old gas stove in the living room. It was a room that was always cozy and warm.

I can picture Mom in the living room with her ironing board. She would sprinkle the clothes with the old plastic water bottle, tie them up in a tablecloth and place them in the fridge. She would get the bundle out, set up the ironing board and settle us around the TV to watch Pete & Gladys or Hazel while she ironed. We’d pile on the furniture or floor and watch that old black and white TV.

When Andy came along, we would sometimes sit and fold his diapers while Mom did the ironing. After the chill of the cold winter was gone, we’d open the windows for the cool spring breeze to drift in while we listened to birds singing in the old maple tree outside the kitchen window.

In summer time, Daddy would sit on the patio in the sun listening to the Reds ballgame on the radio. Rachel and I were usually on blankets in the yard or sitting under the shade of the old oak tree playing dolls.  Jack and Andy would be playing ball in the yard or cars and trucks in the dirt.

As fall rolled around, Dad would light the pilot light. I remember many nights coming home from chilly fall football games, that old house feeling so warm and cozy after the long walk home. Mom would have glazed donuts and homemade hot chocolate with marshmallows waiting. 

We each grew up and moved away from that old house up the hollow, but our love for it never dimmed.  We got married, had kids, and one by one, went back to enjoy cool fall evenings and sunny summer days as we visited with our families and let our children share in the great love found in that old house.

I had a thought....

All last summer, I would go out to yard sales and I was forever seeing nice pieces of furniture at good prices that I would love to have but I don't have any extra room. But I was working on craft projects this weekend and had to get something from my little three door Rubbermaid chest.

As I was looking at this corner and looking around my room, I realized that I could move some furniture over here and get rid of these two pieces and get something to replace them that has more room. I headed to Craig's List. I found these that would work for me. 

Then I found these hutches and thought "WOW, I could have a lot more storage room if I go up instead of just out. Not to mention what nice pieces of furniture these are.

But why stop there? If I want to go vintage, why not get rid of my big bulky plastic table and get something like a drop leaf table. 

And of course in my search, I started finding things I loved that had nothing to do with chests or tables. One thing was this library step stool. Oh be still my heart! I would love to find one of these.

And then I saw a painting I fell in love with. I know it would be almost impossible to find in the wild, but one can always hope. The Antique Mall on Hwy 66 in Kodak has tons of vintage pictures on their third floor attic room. I may have to check that out.

And the last thing that caught my eyes was this vintage utility table (which is what we called them growing up.) This was $45.00. I just bought one exactly like it last summer for $2.00. So yes, I would say I got a good deal.

Valentine's Craft Projects

First, I bought these little dish clothes at Walmart. Three of them for just $1.28 in a package. 

I bought some red burlap at Walmart for just around $2.00. 

I cut hearts out of the burlap. You can free hand them or get a pattern from online. 

I placed the heart on what would be the front once the dish cloth was folded back up. I used fabric glue to glue the burlap on. It dries clear.

Then I cut my other heart out of some polka dot material I had and ironed it on with Wunder Under.

I glued a little piece of ribbon and a button. 

I made one for me, Mom, and my sister.

I hung mine on my kitchen rack and moved some pink and red items to that shelf to get the Valentine's theme going on. 

I am very pleased with the results. 

I also created this picture frame I had found on Pinterest. You will recognize the dotted material and the red burlap. I bought the frame from Walmart for .97 cents and the ribbon for .31 cents. So this was a cheap and easy project. And printed the little vintage card tag from off the internet.

It looks cute in my office with my other pink items.