Great Days...

Well, the kids and I had a wonderful Halloween and my birthday yesterday was great. As you can tell, my kiddos were the Bat Kids!

I did have to do one final tweak to my daughter's costume. I picked up some cheap black masks at Michael's but when she tried it on, it just did not work. So I found one I liked online and used a silver Sharpie to draw off the parts I wanted to remove. Here's the before and after of what I did.

I thought it turned out pretty good!

My neighbor and I took our kids to Publix where they had a few games set up. Then we traveled over to Wendy's where it just so happened to be $.99 meals for the kids that night. They also had a clown doing face painting. One of my neighbor's kids had dressed as the Cheshire Cat so she asked if he could enhance it with some face painting. He did an amazing job!

How cute is that? After Wendy's we visited the home of a theater friend who was having a little get together. She and her hubby had made up lots of little "Harry Potter-like" party foods and even had a drink my son loved. They took rubber gloves and froze cranberry juice in them. Then they pored cranberry Sprite in the bowl over dry ice. It looked like hands were floating in the punch which my boy thought was so cool! Plus the 'smoke' from the dry ice added to the affect.

After all this they finally got to do some trick or treating and still came away with quite a haul.
Then yesterday was my birthday. It's also my neighbor's birthday so we usually end up giving each other gifts, but this time we decided to go on a birthday tour. We took my daughter and two of hers, then drove to Warm Springs. First stop?

We had a little home cooked southern food at The Bulloch House. Yum! Then we walked around the square and did some shopping. I came home with several scarves, some soaps, and a few Christmas gifts. When we got home, hubby had cooked a pot of minestrone soup and had flowers on the table. I got a gift card to a local spa so I'll have to figure out what kind of treatment I want to try. Plus I need to figure out what to get him cause his birthday is next Saturday and I have no ideas! Plus my daughter's birthday is Wednesday and I have no ideas for her either. Yuck!!!

The Country Living Fair!!!

My little sis (granted, she's about 5-6 inches taller than me, but still younger) came down from Tennessee and we went to Stone Mountain in Atlanta for the Country Living Fair today. My hubby took the kids with every intention of taking them around Stone Mountain, but my daughter decided to hang with us.

They had a huge display of beautiful pumpkins, squashes and gourds out on the meadow.

There were hundreds of booths set up, food trucks, and there were classes and speakers through out the day.

(My sis and my daughter doing a little browsing.)

There was even a quilting fabric booth by Olive Grace! I also saw the Modern June booth for various oilcloth and laminated cotton fabrics where Kelly McCants was signing copies of her book, Sewing With Oilcloth!

I also got some major ideas with everything I saw...like this one. Someone took old quilts that probably couldn't be salvaged, cut out the pieces that were usable, and used them as sort of a background for photographs. She also embroidered quotes and such on them. My favorite was this one:

Sorry for the glare. I'm definitely going to try this out. Hope you're having a great weekend!!!

Mommy Stress

My kids meet their teachers today, and tomorrow my sweet girl starts middle school, the bane of the educational system! God bless her, I pray that she has a good experience and everything goes well for her and her 2nd grade brother this school year!!!

P.S. I plan to get some major sewing done while they are at school! Goodness knows I have plenty to get done.

The List
1. Binding on the Falling Charms queen
2. Finish crocheting wrap for MIL
3. Finish quilting and bind flag mini quilt
4. Complete READ mini quilt top and finish for school librarian
5. Back, quilt and bind orange, green and blue sampler quilt

The Ultimate UFO list
1. Red and white hexi
2. Carpenter Wheel
3. Scrappy Star
4. Simply Color 9 patch variations (two versions)
5. Gray, yellow and aqua granny square


And these are just what I can think of off the top of my head!!!

Lovin' Me a Freebie!

I save Coke Reward points in their online program. Last year I was able to get myself and one of my kids in free to the World of Coca-Cola Museum. Having to pay for only one child was helpful. This year we figured out that there are some restaurants that print points on their receipts, so my mom has been sending me numbers to input for a while now. School starts back next week so I thought I'd cash them in again; this time we all three got in free! Suh-weet! It was a lot of fun for our last hurrah before returning to school next week. The kids loved the tasting room where you could try various Coke products from all over the world.

I think my favorite thing was this cool pixelating frame they had. I got a great picture of my daughter's friend in it before they rushed us into the 'secret vault' where the original version of the recipe is kept.

The LQS that is closing had another markdown emailed out so I'm going to run by there tomorrow to see what I can pick up now that fabrics are a little cheaper. I'm going to look for some backings and maybe some rulers if she still has any I can use.

My Baby is Home!!

A friend and I drove three hours up and three hours home today to pick up our daughters from camp, but they're home. We dealt with lots of Friday afternoon traffic through Atlanta, but they're home. I'm dealing with loads of laundry...but she's home! And I'm happy!

The Sound of Silence...

Listen.....
Hear that?
Me neither. Do you know why?

I'm here all alone. I drove my 11 year old daughter to North GA for camp yesterday. Then I got up early this morning and drove my son to day camp that will run from 7:45 to 5:00. I am planning on spending the entire day today cleaning so I can spend the remainder of the week sewing. That is the PLAN!

Family Fun Day!

We spent yesterday at Stone Mountain Park with the kids. My son started off the day getting his face painted, then we headed over to the SkyHike. My daughter was being an 11 year old girl at the time and sort of threw a fit about having to be there so she and my hubby ended up wandering around, but Little Man and I got on our harnesses to check it out!

What's really funny is that they were running a deal where it was cheaper to get two kid's memberships and we went in as free friends, so he had to get his membership card picture taken like this! I ended up getting kicked off on the second level for pulling out my cell phone. The chick told me I needed to go down and do something with it. Really? It's been in my pocket the whole time with no problem and just because YOU saw it, I have to go down? And I had no idea where hubby was so I basically ended up getting kicked off. Nice, huh? He stayed on for a while but we finally ended up heading over to ride the cars to the top of the mountain.

As long as I've lived here I've never actually gone to the top of the mountain so this was pretty cool. It sort of makes me think that's what the moon looks like.

And here is the fam at the top of the mountain. If you look closely in my daughter's hand, you'll notice that she found a stuffed version of Pepper to purchase while we were there. A pretty cool day overall if I do say so myself!

A Little Birthday Fun

My daughter has a birthday party to go to tomorrow night and it just so happens that the girl is my friend's daughter, our neighbor, and also one of my theater buddies! I was trying to come up with something cool for her and decided it would be fun to have a memory box for her theater goodies (programs, pictures, pieces of costumes, etc.). I made a little visit to the local craft store and came home with some goodies.

I picked up a 12"x 12" storage box made of paper (it's sturdy cardboard and it's like those boxes you get to store pictures), some pink and orange scrapbooking paper, ModPodge, and some foam brushes. My original plan was for a wooden box but the size I wanted had ridges across the top and I needed it all to be flat. I also had wanted to paint the whole thing but I wasn't sure that would work so I decided to decoupage the top. Little did I know that painting would have been the easy out, but it still turned out pretty cool.

I tore the paper and decoupaged it in overlapping colors all over the top. When I finished I wasn't so sure I liked the effect, so I decided to paint over it which would still result in a cool textured effect.

Cool, huh? She's very into orange and pink. I only had light pink at home but I had some red and mixed it to come up with more of a hot pink effect. I simply painted the bottom. Then I started the fun part. I went online and made copies of each of the shows she's been in so far and printed them out. Then I decoupaged them onto the top of the box. As she is in various shows, she can add pictures of those to the top as well.

I think she's done pretty well so far as she's only turning 10! I am including the extra foam brushes and a new bottle of Mod Podge in the gift so she's ready for future shows. I may go back and add some orange stripes or polka dots on the bottom so she has her other color included as well. Here's the finished project so far!

I also made up a bunch of shower puffs for a friend who has 4 girls. She color codes all their stuff (toothbrushes, etc.) so I did them in each of their colors.

She loved them and I had several other people ask for some so I've got to get a few more done!

Baseball Season Has Begun!

My son's team had their first game of the season this morning and they won! He is playing on the 7-8 year old teams now and this year is the first year where they actually call a winner of the game. Totally coach pitch, 5 chances to hit or you're out (as opposed to 5 until you can hit it off the T), and this is the first year they go by the three outs rule. It was really fun to watch because you can tell they're really getting how it works now and everyone is trying to come together as a team. Fun Saturday morning at the ball field; now off to my LQS for thread!!!
I fixed my niece's quilt top and I have the backing done. Now I just need to pick up some batting and thread to start quilting!!!

A New Family Member!

We made a little visit to Petsmart this weekend and ended up picking up a new friend. They had named her Izzy, but we decided to change it to Pepper.

She is a pocket beagle and is very sweet. The kids love her and my daughter has already designated her as her official snuggle buddy.

I'll be glad when hubby gets the invisible fence back up and running so we can let her run in the yard. That will make it a lot easier for me to get things done. She was supposedly housetrained but that hasn't been really apparent yet. We're working on it but it makes getting ANYTHING else done nearly impossible. Hubby says to just put her in the crate when I need to do things but I'm really trying to not let her eliminate in the crate. I want her to look at it as her den ONLY.
I have actually gotten some sewing done but will hopefully post some pictures of that tomorrow.

Life Goes On...

Not a lot of blogging, but a whole lot of "life-ing" going on. My days have been so packed lately, and not always with good stuff. My gifted daughter has been struggling with grades and school lately because she is suffering with bouts of depression. As anyone who has dealt with depression in their family knows, it affects everyone it touches so our lives have been very tumultuous lately. Wednesday of last week was particularly rough which lead to a complete breakdown by me on Thursday. Having to endure biweekly appointments to be beaten up by a physical therapist has not made things better. My shoulder is improving but not without a lot of fatigue and crankiness. Crankiness doesn't mesh well with depression if you haven't guessed, so I have to be careful about how I speak and what I say.
On the bright side, hubby and I went to a gala at the local community theater Saturday night where they announced their 2013-2014 season. I got to see so many of my theater peeps and it pepped me up so much to see people get excited to see me! Nothing like feeling needed. Now I just have to find ways to convince my daughter she is needed as well.

I initially didn't add things I've been working on but decided to go back and throw in some pictures to prove I have not been completely un-crafty!
I am working on some different colored placemats to go with my Fiesta Ware dishes.

So far I have a red one and an orange one.
I also made a shawl, WHICH I LOVE!

I loved it so much I did one in a variegated yarn for color.

I also have been feeling that need for a dog in the house again so I had to go get my puppy fix at Petsmart this weekend. Several of the rescue places represented had dogs taken from a recent hoarding situation. The woman had 75 dogs on her property. I don't understand people. How do you think you can properly take care of that many animals? They said the judge let her keep 10. What's sad is that she will probably have 80 by next year again. They were so very cute but several were definitely a bit shy and reserved which goes without saying.

No, I Have Not Disappeared...

Today was our last performance of Madeline's Christmas so one crazy aspect of my current life will now change! I am still in the crazy Christmas mode and still haven't finished my shopping! I have a few things coming in on Tuesday from Amazon, but they may not be the last. I have a few things I'm sewing/crocheting and hope to finish. I also just found out that my mother has the flu. Poor mom! All medicated up and feeling cruddy. Hopefully she'll be better and we can visit for Christmas. I plan on getting some sewing done tomorrow if I can possibly help it!

On a more somber note, I wanted to take a moment to send out my prayers to the families of the victims in Connecticut. I believe that the media has got to stop sensationalizing the killers in these situations or this is not going to stop. Our thoughts and prayers should be concentrated on those that were left behind, not on the person who tried to make a name for themselves by performing such a horrifying act of violence. I found myself in tears as I read the names and ages of the victims this evening. Those children were my son's age. I just can't fathom it, can't put my head around it at all. I just pray that those left behind find some comfort from all the love and thoughts that are sent their way during what can only be the most trying moment in the life a parent, a husband, a wife, a loved one.

Look Out Foxy Loxy

If you're looking for my Traveling Stash giveaway, you can find it here. Come check it out! Deadline for entries is Tuesday, November 20th!

I was going to get some sewing done and post some more here but Little Man had different plans. Right after karate yesterday, he was complaining about his head and stomach. He ended up with a fever of 102 and got sick in the middle of the night as well. So guess who's staying home with me today? Hopefully the worst of it is over though!

Now, what is all this about Foxy Loxy? Well....
It seems that when society encroaches on the habitat of wild animals, wild animals sometimes don't pay heed to the boundaries. We have seen many a deer in our neighborhood (I've seen as many as 5 in our backyard at one time), and we've seen squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks. You know, the usual crowd. But then there are those animals you don't usually see. Well, sometimes you might see some of them as roadkill (armadillos, raccoons, etc.) but we have started noticing a few "friends" in our neighborhood that we haven't seen before. Foxes. And I don't mean the cute kind like those that appear on Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods.
These are real foxes and they have gotten really brave. They started out just being seen in the backyards around here but this is what I found when I came home today.

He was sitting in my driveway. And he really didn't offer to move until I almost ran over him. Oh joy. Now I have to be worried about more than my son getting hit by a car when he's outside playing...

Spa Party

I finally got around to throwing my daughter a party for her 11th birthday. She wanted a slumber party and invited several friends. Two got sick and couldn't come but it was still fun and crazy. We sort of did a spa theme and incorporated several of those types of activities.


The biggest hit was "Spin the Bottle." I bought enough nail polish from the dollar store that each girl could go home with one. I ended up with 5 different colors and a total of 8 bottles. I placed all of them in a bag, pulled one and spun it on the table. The girl it pointed to had to paint one fingernail that color. She would then pull the color for the next spin. I really thought the girls would bore with this but they got frustrated with me because I finally had to let them finish up the nails so we could watch the movie (The Princess Bride, of course!). They all ended up with very colorful fingernails.

We did oatmeal facials from a teaspoon each of olive oil and honey, mixed with cooked oatmeal; the exfoliate mask here. The girls thought this was hilarious. Hard to get a good picture when they're laughing!

I picked up a set of little paint pots from Hobby Lobby for $2 with a coupon and we made vaseline/kool aid lip balm.

I picked up a couple of Mad Libs from the book store, as well as a pack of Smencils. Smencils are fun if you've never heard of them. Pencils that smell. My favorites are cinnamon and black cherry. One of the Mad Libs was specifically about slumber parties so I figured that worked well.

Their little go home bags will consist of headbands I picked up at the grocery store to keep their hair back from the facials, 2 pots of lip balm, a bottle of fingernail polish, and a Smencil. I am not big on sending home a bag of junk so I kind of liked that it could all be used.

I had originally ordered a pack of materials from Candytiles shop on Etsy to have the girls create their own glass tile necklaces. I ordered them on Saturday the 3rd. However, I received an email on THURSDAY to say that they had only just been sent out that day. I'm not sure why it takes 5 days to send out a little pack of tiles. I was not happy because they will not arrive until this Tuesday. I don't foresee there being anything wrong with the package of goodies but I hate that they couldn't get them out in a timely manner. It may have something to do with when Paypal actually sent them their money but I find it strange that it would take 5 days. Very disappointed. Even with this setback, the party went over with a bang so all was well!

A Pinched Nerve,...Possibly

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder. Luckily it only hurts when I pull my arm back at odd angles but it always seems to hit at inopportune moments. I was trying on a jacket today while out shopping and I thought I was going to burst into tears when I tried to put that arm in the sleeve. I don't think Kohl's associates would have known what to do with me. I keep hoping that it will work its way out and I won't have to go to the doctor or anything, but I'm afraid that may be wishful thinking.

Well, back to planning a soon to be 11 year old daughter's Bday party for the 10th. So far, not good. I've never been this slow about getting things pulled together. Of course, my birthday is Friday so, how is it fair that no one's planning for me? (excuse me while I laugh hysterically at the thought that my children would even remember that it's my birthday!)

Mama's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow! (Well, Saturday!)

I mentioned Saturday that we had  rough start to the school year. But I have to say that Saturday itself ended up A-MA-ZING! My daughter's GS troop went to the Atlanta Zoo and we did a tour. It just so happened it was Free day for Fulton County so they let us in for free as well (even though we don't live in Fulton County!). The tour guide, Mr. Thad, walked us through several of the exhibits and gave the girls a lot of background information on the animals. Then we got to go behind the scenes to the Nutrition Kitchen where they prepare the meals for the animals.

The kids loved hearing about the fishscicles they make for the otters when it's hot, and thoughi it was amazing that in order to make something similar for the elephants (a fruitscicle), they have to put it in a large trashcan...the huge rolling kind they have in school cafeterias! He said it takes 5 days to freeze and 5 seconds for the elephants to demolish!

He also took us through the animal hospital and we had an animal encounter with a red tailed boa constrictor named Shayla and a hedgehog named Gusteau!

Several of us moms who have taken our kids to this zoo remarked on how things really just seemed to come together for this trip. There was not one animal in it's habitat that we did not see. That never happens. Even the lion, who is only ever out on his rock or not seen, was lying right in front of the glass one of the times we came by.

My favorites, however, are the orangutans. And this fellow was just too much.

How can you not love that face?
Then, after 6.5 hours of walking around, my friend and I threw ourselves and our girls into the car for the trip home. We decided to hit Sonic for a Slushie on the way home and just happened to hit it at happy hour so they were half price! Woo hoo!

Remember When Schools Were a Priority?

Remember when: 

• school supplies meant a backpack, a pencil and some paper?

• bathroom supplies on your child's supply list would have seemed ludicrous? 
• every politician in the United States wasn't trying to cut spending so instead of increasing taxation in the upper class who can afford it, they slash school funding?

Sorry for my rant; I just returned from spending $70 at Walmart for school supplies and that didn't even include tissues, a roll of paper towels, pencils, and a 3" ringed binder because I already had them at home...and a 5 pack of pocket dividers for her notebook because Walmart didn't have any. I am not aiming this toward the schools. I have worked there. I know and I understand. I am just sad that America is supposed to be such a wealthy country but we can't afford to outfit our schools with what is needed for our kids.

I also had to hit Aeropostale which may be my saving grace this year. My 10 year old daughter looks more like a 13 year old (height and physical maturity-wise) but she's still a 10 year old inside so she's fighting how she looks. She wants to wear cut off jeans and big baggy boy shirts to school. I told her she was going to have to compromise with me somehow I wasn't going to send her to school looking like a bum. We actually found 5 shirts to start off so I feel much better.

Also, I have been having problems with blogger lately. Has anyone been having issues with blogger 'whiting out' parts of their posts? I will write a post and nothing looks wrong on the post page, but when I try to publish, some of the sentences are just long white rectangles and can't be read. I usually have to rewrite and move it around until I can make it go away. I can't tell you how may times I had to rewrite portions of this post to get it to stop.

Proud Mama for All the Drama!

My son finished a week of Kidscamp at the local community theater yesterday. They learned about designing sets, makeup (monster week) and learned lines for a short play as well as a monologue. Thursday was makeup day and he came home looking very interesting... I usually don't post pics of my kids but this was just too much.

Does he look beaten up or what? No, I didn't tell him to close his eye up like that. As soon as I got the camera out, he started posing his arms so everything could be seen and he immediately closed up that eye. I was cracking up when I saw the picture. Here is his "Frankenstein" look from the play yesterday.

Yeah, gotta do the dreadful face to go with it. What a lot of fun!
And I leave in about 30 minutes to go pick up the girl after her full week at "away from home" camp. I have enjoyed seeing pictures posted on FB by my friend who went as a sponsor/chaperone. My daughter has been very happy in all the pics and I can't wait to hear her version of it.

Bullies Come in All Forms...And Bully in Different Ways

Near the end of the last school year, I picked my 4th grade daughter up some cute tops from Justice. She wanted to spend some birthday money and she was very excited about what she picked out. She wore one top a few times and another only once when I started noticing a change in how she dressed. She wanted to wear dingy cut off jean shorts and only big tshirts such as their field day shirts. I could not get her to wear the cute stuff ever again except when we had the reception after hubby's grandfather died. I KNEW someone had said something to her but I couldn't prove it and she refused to admit to it. She even said she didn't want to wear "girly-girl" clothes, even though she was the one who picked them out.

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with my neighbor and she mentioned a mutual friend from the neighborhood who leads a girl scout troop (she's tried to get me and my daughter into her troop but I've held out thinking that we should stay with the one we started with). The leader, Sarah, used to have her daughter in public school and she was friends with my daughter. She said they did some type of presentation last year in their troop where they were discussing a phrase/saying and how it applies to them. They chose "You are what you wear." Well, let me tell you what came out of that discussion. It seems that, at 4th grade level, the girls are already becoming mean girls. They have already divided themselves up into cliques which are set up because of the types of clothes they wear. The girls that wear girly-girl clothes (yes, that was the term she used and it immediately tipped me off!) hang together, the athletic girls hang together and dress that way, and so on. As SOON as she said "girly-girl" I knew I had my answer. It also seems that, if you wear clothes that are not deemed part of your 'group', than you are picked on and harassed. In the 4th grade.  I am just so upset about the whole thing because, I'm sorry, but that behavior is a precursor to bullying.

I love my daughter dearly but she, like I always did, has some self esteem issues. She came out of the womb thinking she was a peer and not a child, so it has been very difficult finding a happy medium of helping her understand that she has to follow authority but keeping her from feeling bad about herself. She tends to take any constructive criticism or redirection as a personal affront to her. She also appears to be somewhat of a follower, which worries me. I worry not only that she is not satisfied with herself and wants to be like these other kids (who I am not so duly impressed with), but also that she would not be strong enough to stand up for someone else who is being picked on. I know she KNOWS it's wrong, but I fear that the "at least it's not me" feeling would kick in. I remember that feeling. I was picked on as a child and I don't want that for her. I was an overly emotional child because of early physical maturity which made all my hormones rage all the time. Now she's going through the same thing. I know I had it rough for a while, but it is just so much worse in this day and time.

I had a meeting with her teachers at the beginning of the year last year about some things and one of the teachers made the comment that there was a group of girls in the class who, had they been in her class when she was a child, would even have intimidated her. Okay, does that not sound like she was hinting that these girls could have been picking on my daughter as early as the beginning of the year? And if they knew that the possibility was there for that long, why was I made to feel at the end of the year meeting like it was going to be my responsibility to get her behavior under control? It now makes me wonder if one of the reasons that she won't talk about it with me is because she lost any respect she had for the teachers because they didn't offer her any help. And if the teachers won't help, and they're actually there to witness things happening, how can mom help? Not that any kid really wants mom to show up at the school anyway. This would also explain a bit why she picks at her brother so much. Yes, I know sisters pick at brothers but she takes it a bit too far sometimes. And she also picks at me. I get the feeling that, because she doesn't feel in control at school, then it's her way of feeling in control here.

Argh!! I am just frustrated and not happy about school starting back in just a few weeks. I have no idea how to get her to see how beautiful she is and to get her to loosen up. She goes to camp next week with a  friend (a Christian camp) and I'm really hoping some of this friend rubs off on her. This child is more self-confident and has more a "whatever happens is fine" mentality than my daughter. She auditioned for Seussical when I did but didn't get a part. Her mom said she was upset for about 10 minutes, but then she was over it and on with her life. My daughter would have been distraught for weeks and wallowed in it. Do you have a confident child? Are there any tips or things you think help that child be more confident?

As an afterthought, you know what's really crazy? My son is TOTALLY not like this at all. He's much more like my daughter's friend. He gets upset for a while but usually just throws it off. He has had a bit more episodes of crying lately but I wonder if he and his sister just need a break from each other (yahoo camp!).

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

Wow, my weekend was busy. Was yours? Karate belt ceremony, baseball, quilting guild, Mother's Day...I'm tired and the new week has started!
As far as Mother's Day goes, I got the sweetest gift ever yesterday morning. Hubby worked all weekend so the kids and I were sleeping in before church...or so I thought. I was awakened yesterday morning to...

Little Man: (knock, knock on my bedroom door) Mom? Don't open your eyes okay?
Me: {to myself: Well, considering you just woke me up, that will be easy} to him--"Okay"
Little Man: (bumping around in the kitchen) Um, Mom? Where is the jelly?
Me: in the refrigerator door.
Little Man: (silence and looking) I don't see it.
Me: Do you want me to come help you?
Little Man: No, I don't want you to open your eyes yet.

After a few minutes I hear the bedroom door open and in he comes with breakfast for me. He made me a bagel with jelly and a cup of water. He was so stinkin' proud of himself. And no one told him to do it. It was completely his idea to bring me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. That little sweetie!

That's him. He's the one. With his Spiderman pajama top, ScoobyDoo pants, and Superman cape. Still just cracks me up!