New Room Day...

I sat today aside to be THE DAY that I organize the craft room. And what is the first memory that pops up on Facebook this morning?

My craft supplies right now is a little bit of yarn, some scraps of material and some glue products (guns, bottles, etc.) along with assorted buttons. Everything else was stuff I have purchased over the years to have on hand for Children's Church. With our new program, I won't be needing those items any more so I'm clearing out to make room for fabric and items needed for applique. I want to start doing some applique. It is so fun and so relaxing.

I also want to do appliques on items that I can sew and make into something.

I also want to do some Mason jar crafts.

I need to make a Walmart run. A friend of mine found these baskets for $1.98 each at Walmart. I'm going to head over there tomorrow and try to pick some up. They would be perfect to hold craft supplies.

I will keep you posted on what I end up doing. 

Placemat crafts

Years ago my mom, my sister and I went through a stage of making placemat totes. They were adorable and so super simple and super fun. I may try my hand at making them again. There are so many pretty placemats out there. Here are some I found on Pinterest. This first set is made from Dollar Tree placements and the accessory is a pot  holder.

  

Lots of ideas. 

A great day...

I'm really enjoying my stay-cation this week off work. Two of my grandchildren are spending a couple of days with me. Yesterday, we had an awesome day. Started out by going to Magic Quest. It is a fun place. We all got wands and we go around the premises collecting whatever is on the Quest we choose and by the time our time ran out, we had all received the rating of a Magi. When we go back, we can pick up where we left off and work on slaying the dragon and becoming Master Magi's.

We also did lasers, putt-putt and mirror maze. Note to self, someone who gets claustrophobic sometimes should not do a mirror maze where you only guides are 12 and 6 years old. We had a blast, it was hysterical. But a little freaky at the same time. Mirror mazes are  not for the faint of heart. But it was a fun place to be. The kids wanted a picture of the little mushroom house out front.

Afterwards, we stopped at Wendy's which always involves Frosty's. One of our weaknesses.

Last night was pizza night so I sat out the fixin's (as we say in the south). And we each made our own how we wanted them.

I think they had as much fun making them as we did eating them.

Colby did pepperoni with just a little sausage and ham. He wanted me to be sure and say that his pepperoni was shaped in a smiley face.

Alexis loaded hers with pepperoni, sausage, ham and bacon. Not to mention tons of cheese. She said she likes her cheese on the bottom but then when she put the toppings on decided she wanted cheese on the top as well. 

I stuck with my standard of lots of sausage. I told the kids pigs were probably squealing everywhere in terror at the amount of pork we went through last night.

We did the TV tray in the living room thing so we could watch Air Buddies and then Shopkin's Chef Club movies.

Today, we are heading out to the movies and watching SING. I am so excited. Colby says we are going to set up top where we can set in the recliners. Alexis said I could recline back and watch the movie. I said if I recline back I'll probably fall asleep. I'll be happy to sit in the recliner but thing I better remain in the upright position. 

Some changes....

I didn't pick a word of the year this year for the first time in a long time. There were so many that applied, it would have taken a long time to narrow them down. I also didn't make any resolutions. I am going to try just winging it this year. Because my resolutions rarely last. Life has a habit of getting in the way of our plans. 

I have made some decisions though for this year. Effective 12/31/16 I terminated myself from being a Thirty-One consultant. It was a lot of work to make it successful and it was a lot of fun. But when the year end rolls around and you realize that you spent way more time trying to make it work then you did actually selling things, it's time to walk away. It had started to take up too much of my spare time. I still love the product and will still host parties so I can earn freebies, but I'm not selling it any more.

I worked on getting my Christmas stuff all put away yesterday and getting my house back into shape. I did get most of it like I wanted it, but I'm taking a couple of days off to spend some time with some of the grandchildren and will finish it up on Thursday.

Have a great Tuesday.

Some great information...

This popped up in my Facebook Memories today and it has some great info in it. Enjoy!

THINGS YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU

1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

5. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

6. For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

9. Reheat Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

10. Easy Deviled Eggs

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

11. Expanding Frosting

When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

12. Reheating refrigerated bread

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

13. Newspaper weeds away

Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

14. Broken Glass

Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

15. No More Mosquitoes

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

16. Squirrel Away!

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

17. Flexible vacuum

To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

18. Reducing Static Cling

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... guess what! ... static is gone.

19. Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (Or spray the measuring cup or spoon with Pam before using)

20. Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

21. Re-opening envelopes

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

22. Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

23. Goodbye Fruit Flies

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

24. Get Rid of Ants

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

25. Dryer Filter

Even if you are very diligent about cleaning the lint filter in your dryer it still may be causing you a problem. If you use dryer sheets a waxy build up could be accumulating on the filter causing your dryer to over heat. The solution to this is to clean your filter with with a toothbrush and hot soapy water every 6 months.

Welcome 2017! Happy New Year! 

Pillow talk...

Let's talk pillows. I am in the process of converting the home office to an all purpose room. One thing will be my sewing machine coming out of the closet and starting to actually use it. I want to make some pillows for various places in the house. Here are just a few that I saw I like. I want to make them with Wunder-Under and fabric and do the primitive type stitching around the applique. The sewing machine will be to sew the sides of the pillow up after I make the front piece. Here are some I like...