Window Turned Menu Board...

Hey friends! I've missed you all! Sorry for the long and unexpected departure. I was in TN all last week celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and I intended to post some , but obviously never got around to it. I hope you had a wonderful holiday! We sure did, but it is always good to get back home.

I hit the ground running this morning, but still feel so behind! It always feels that way when I get back home after a long trip. All of my Christmas decor is sitting in the middle of the family room, and I just can't commit to what I want to do where, so after ho-humming around, I decided to abort that mission all together and work on something completely un-related to Christmas decor.I have had several projects in the "almost finished" stage, and I finally got one completed. Here it is!

I turned this old window I had into a menu/grocery list dry erase board. Originally, I was gonna paint "Welcome to our home" on this window and hang it on the front porch, but the paint kept peeling off. I decided today to just turn it the other way and try some vinyl letters on it. It is just the right size, and I am already using it.

Here it is before:

I planned on painting the window, but after sanding it a little, I fell in love with the finish and left it alone.
For the marker, I got a pack of 2 for under $2 at Wal-Mart, and I just wrapped some rope around the end of the marker and glued it in place.Then I used a big nail to attach it to my window. Easy Peasy.
I probably won't leave it on the wall it is pictured on. My breaker box is there, but I wanted to hang it up and get a few pictures for you.
I used my Cricut to cut the vinyl letters for the top, then I used some rub-on letters I had for the days of the week. I decided to just use the first initial of each day.
There you have it. One project finally done! Now if I can just get motivated to deck the halls with Christmas stuff I'll really be doing good! I am gonna post this at:
and

Because I'm a Dork...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I had to share this. I am a complete dork, but this never gets old to me! The boys really act like this is them dancing. They want me to show it to people like old home videos or something. And by the way, I am decorating for Christmas this weekend. Connor got his adnoids out and tubes in his ears on Thursday, so not a whole lot of time for crafting. I hope to be back to a normal posting schedule next week. Have a great day!

Roadkill Rescue...

There is a Roadkill Rescue party going on over at Infarrantly Creative and I really wanted to participate.

However, the rules of the party are that the item you are fixing up must have been free to you (i.e. from the trash, a relative, etc.) I have several projects I am working on right now, but most of them are items I bought at thrift stores, so I am gonna share some of my favorite fix-ups from past posts that do qualify. Here we go!

Up first are 2 chairs I got from the dump. The man was tossing out 4 of them, but I only had room for 2 at the time. I am still wishing I'd gone back for the others. Oh well. As you can see they were in pretty bad shape.

But after a little TLC, they have found a new lease on life! The black and white one I sold at an antique store downtown, hence the price tag.
But this lime green one is the chair in my craft room. I'm sitting in it now, proud as a peacock. If you want all the details on how this transformation occurred, you can follow this link.
Another one of my favorites is this old entertainment center. Lon's grandma gave it to me, and it was definitely dated, but it was free and that is my favorite word!
Nothing a new coat of paint and some beadboard on the back couldn't fix! I had my brother in law help me with this project while he was in town and it is also in my craft room. You can go here if you want a step by step on what we did.

The rockers on my front porch were also free. Lon's grandpa gave them to me. They were out at the family farm and nobody really used them anymore. They needed a sanding and some paint. But they are perfect on my front porch. I also added decorative door knobs for some detail to the tops of the chairs.
Last but not least, is another item in my craft room. It is the white shelf that holds all my fabrics. There is no "before" picture because I left it exactly as it was. It was given to me when an office went out of business. It held documents, but fits all my fabric perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by, and for lots more Roadkill Rescues don't forget to visit Infarrantly Creative!

Weekend in Pictures...

We have had a super busy weekend and I thought I would post some of the pictures to show you what a Saturday is like around here.

We spent some time on the family farm. Walker LOVES his chickens at Nana's house. He takes his chicken raising duties very seriously. This is Yoda. (Where he comes up with these names I will never know. He's never seen Star Wars, but I guess he heard it somewhere.)

He was trying to teach Connor how to hold Yoda properly. Yoda is a full grown Bantam chicken, and surprisingly tame. Walker says they are gonna go on "Pet Star" and bring home the big prize once he teaches her some tricks.

This is Walker's new chicken pen. Inside is his Rhode Island Red. He named it Connor. Oh wait, that's his brother! HA!

Here is another reason they love the farm, all the dirt. I call these "Farm Feet". It takes soaking in the tub a long time to get all the dirt out from under those toenails!
We always end our farm visit with Con's favorite part, a long ride on the 4-wheelers and Gator. There is a dirt road right behind the farm.
And Walker gives you this face when he thinks you aren't going fast enough because you aren't in the front. Connor is only 2, but he thinks he is big enough to ride the big gas powered 4-wheelers. Here he is showing me a trick he's gonna do when he gets big. Oh how I dread those days!

And of course, we all need a long soak in the tub after a day on the farm! Here's proof that Con comes out squeaky clean!

On another note, have you ever heard of "Buzzard's Nose" or Stinkhorn mushrooms? Last week I noticed an odor in the front yard. It got progressively worse. By Saturday, I was just sure something had died in my flower bed. Then I discovered these:

They are the worst smelling thing I have ever encountered. Imagine wrotting meat times 20, ugh! They are evidently a mushroom, and after googling "stinky red mushroom" I found out they are called Stinkhorns. I had to dig a bunch of them out of the front yard, and while I did that, the boys made their own hayride of sorts.

It's amazing how fast this little tractor will go with a wagon behind it. Anyway, back to the stinkhorns, have you ever encountered them and what is the best way to treat them? I read online I could use Round-Up, but I really don't want to kill off all the grass. They are in a large area in the front yard. Any other suggestions?

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I am working on a few projects that I hope to have done tomorrow. The paint is drying as I type this! Be back soon!

Cute Hat!!

It has been raining cats and dogs here as we get the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida off the coast. While I was getting ready this morning I could hear the rain over the TV, shower, and ceiling fan. Now that's a downpour! In a rain like that, what is a girl to do with her hair? Sport a cute hat! (Truth be told, if I hadn't had to take Connor to Charleston for a doctor appt., this girl would've stayed home!)

I didn't really have a cute hat, so I decided to make one on the fly. Literally, we are talking 10 minutes here. I had 2 baseball caps from the summer. They were 2 for $5 from Wal-Mart.

I took a fabric scrap, ran a piece of thread through it along the bottom, and then gathered it into a flower shape. Sewed a button in the middle, and stitched it right onto the hat. When I get tired of it, I will just cut the thread and have a solid black baseball cap again.

I tried to take a self-portrait, but pointing the camera at your head while you look away is impossible. This is the best I could do.

Connor thought he was really big stuff because he was sporting some of Walker's old shoes. We are all about some hand me downs. Connor has a bit of shoe fetish, like his Aunt Wewe. These are Nike Shox and Walker barely ever wore them so they are like new. They are a couple sizes too big, but I could not convince thiS HARD HEADED child of that. He says they made him "super fast" so I let him wear them. To my surprise he only tripped once.

So what do you think of my new hat? I think it would work just as well with a pin, but I didn't have any on hand. Cheap, easy, and quick. Just my kind of craft.

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 41

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 41 and I lost .5 lb again this week, so that puts me at 39 lbs. total! I am happy to have had a loss, but was expecting it to be over 40 lbs. at this weigh in. I did not post WW Wed. last week because I had a terrible stomach bug. I ate very little for 2+ days, and barely managed to stay hydrated. (I stayed on the couch and slept a lot. Thank goodness for Lon's family who helped with the boys!) Of course when I got on the scales Saturday it said I'd had a huge loss. I was thrilled. Fast forward 4 days, and when I weighed this morning I was back to my normal range. I guess I see how much of a difference all that water really makes at a weigh in. I could never be on The Biggest Loser!

Anyway, overall it has been a good week. I have maintained a good food journal and finally gotten my notebook started. (If you have been following along with me on this journey, then you know I have been intending to put together a master Weight Watchers notebook thinking being organized would help me keep track of my food more accurately.) I kept putting off making the notebook because I wanted it to be "just so". Eventually I decided anything would be better than notheing and grabbed a 3 ring binder at Wal-Mart. So far, I have recipe sheets, food journal logs, and a running grocery list in it. I bought a little zippered pocket that holds my Weight Watchers tools like a points calculator, Core Foods list, and ink pen. The binder has proven to be very helpful this week.

On another note, it has been a terribly rainy and ugly couple of days, so not too much outdoor activity going on. I brought my bike back from the river this weekend so I am gonna start riding a few times a week in addition to the walking.

Since I have been on the subject of the "Core" Plan for the past few weeks, I thought I would post a link to a wonderful list of Core Foods that I found online. It is by far the best one I have found to date.

I hope all my Weight Watchers buddies had a great week! I can't wait to hear your progress!

Scrap Fabric Balls...

I originally found a tutorial for these online, but I have no idea where. I have been making them again lately because they are a wonderful way to use up old scraps, and if you sew very much you have a lot of those!

For your materials, just get all your scraps together. I like mine really thin, so if they aren't already that way I cut them a time or two. Also, make yourself 2 cardboard "donuts". I made mine about 4 inches wide with a 1 1/2 inch center circle.

Now the fun starts. Just wrap your fabric around the "donut" and through the center. When one strip ends, start another. Keep doing this until you can't fit any more fabric through your center hole.

Next you cut the edges all the way around.

Tie a piece of ribbon or another scrap of material around the center. Make sure it is very tight so that your scraps don't slip. Cut or pull your "donuts" out of the center, and fluff your ball.

Find a cute place to hang it and enjoy all your crafty goodness. I think a bunch of these would be perfect on a Christmas tree, but I love them too much to only have them out at Christmas. Mine hang several places. I think they are kind of like tassels, and use them on lamps, knobs, and even furniture.
I used Western fabrics on this one for Walker's lamp.

I'm gonna post this at Chris's "I Can Make That" Christmas party.
And at ASPTL's DIY Day

And at Today's Creative Blog: