Crazy Wonderful Busy!!

 Blake Robert/Tater Tot celebrated his first Birthday this week!!! He was a wild man at Chucky E Cheese!!!

 Blake HATES table food...we have tried everything under the sun, still he refuses to eat anything other than pureed baby food. Birthday cake? Forget it, that is until Mason Man shared a few bites with him!!

 Blake is a BUSY, BUSY boy. I am afraid he is going to run circles around his big Sister Kara :( Lord give me strength

 Yesterday while hubby and his buddy knocked out even more projects around the house I got busy FMQ a quilt for one of hubby's Aunts. YAAAAA One down one to go!! I am excited to get it washed, dried, then hung on the clothes line :)

 I have had a recipe for "hot flash" cream on my want to do list for awhile now. I was just waiting on DD#1 to get me a few empty lip balm tubes. This time of year we are all running around like chickens with our heads cut off! As a treat to me I took some time out to whip up a batch when she remembered to bring the tubes to Blake's party. You can find the recipe here. I should remind you I am not a Dr. I am not recommending what will or won't work in the essential oils world and, I didn't sleep at a holiday Inn last night :)

The oil box from this week came in handy for keeping the tubes upright. I had thought about picking up a sheet of Styrofoam to get the job done....have you seen the price of Styrofoam? Ouch, make do was good enough for me!! I hope to find the time today to dress the tubes up a bit with a cute label. Sure hope this works!!!

 Another needed to find the time to do was to get my Mothers Day gift from DD filled out. Have you seen the Erin Condren planners? They are really cute!! I have a love hate relationship with planners. I love having a cute planner all filled out and organized. I hate how heavy they are to carry around. I am crazy in love with the cute stickers this planner came with but I hate I can never get them straight on the little date blocks. I find it a pain to keep up with a calendar and a planner but I just can't go without an old fashion calendar hanging on the pantry door no matter how ugly it looks. DD#1 and DD#2 have both requested the teacher planners for next school year, better start saving money now!!

Almost forgot!!!!! How could I forget this! The Irish chain quilt top is complete :) One row on this quilt gave me fits. It took me forever to figure out what the heck was going on for the middle row, lots of reading the pattern, ripping out a seam, over and over again. I finally realized the pattern was wrong :) After all of that frustration I was more than ready to tuck it away with the other quilt tops!!!

I have been working on super speed this week to try and get as much done as possible before I have the kiddo's for a few days. DD#3 informed me last night that her in-laws will be keeping the grands while they are here for a visit.....It's nice to have a little time off but still.....We are going to miss those little buggers today :(

Hubby and his buddy have decided since we don't have kiddo's to drag around today it will be the perfect day to drive around looking for land. Sigh. Hubby has had it in his head for a few years that he wants a little piece of land in the country. He has visions of spending weekends out on his mini farm enjoying Mother Nature driving around on a full size tractor. I have visions of yet one more thing to take care of.  A giant  time and money sucker, just what we need in our golden years!!

I might be an interesting day

It's Fed Ex Fault

 I was working away at a nice relaxing speed on the Irish chain quilt when the door bell rang... Who in the world?

 Ahh, its the Fed Ex man with my oil shipment!!! Yaa, I was way to excited to wait until the quilt was finished I just had to dig right into this box :)

 A few things for a good nights read, along with the new price list. Hope nothing went up to much.

 Super excited to get these nice roller ball toppers. The roller balls that come with the glass containers we purchase all come with plastic roller balls. These will be so much nicer :)

 Now for the oils!!!!!

DD#1 is trying to keep me practical, what fun is that I ask you!!! Looks like DD is turning into Mommy's, Mommy :) She suggested I stock up on some fall/winter oils that always sell out during the cold/flu season.
Raven - Good for respiratory disease and chest infections
R.C. - Good for colds, bronchitis, sore throats, sinusitis, coughs, and lung infections
Breathe Again - Super charged version of R.C. in a great On The Go roller ball
Gentle Baby - Helps during pregnancy and with diaper rash and chapped baby skin
Eucalyptus Blue - Antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial

Better throw in a disclamer!!! I nor our DD are medical proffesinals. Imformation came from Essential Oils Pocket Reference.

I have an additional oil order coming in this month :) So excited to get that one as it has an oil I need to make a carple tunnel blend as well as a few other Nanny needs blends.

Hubby and I are LOVING these oils!! Anything we can do to keep nasty additives out of our lives is a winner for us.

Now back to work on the quilt top.

Start of a New Week

 I took some time out this past holiday weekend to play with some oils. Super quick and easy Oatmeal scrub/face mask. It's nothing more than old fashion oats blended until it becomes fine add 10 to 15 drops of lavender essential oils ( I use the good stuff from Young Living) Mix well then store in a cute jar, cute is always important :) To use you take a TBLS of the oatmeal blend in the palm of your hand, add enough water to make a past. Scrub your face then leave on till dry, 5 to 10 minuets. Rinse off and your done. It feels really good. Once again poor hubby thought I was in the kitchen baking him up something yummy like oatmeal cookies. I offered he and a buddy who is hanging out with us this week use of my cute face scrub to try as a consolation prize, they passed :)

 More skeeter  spray along with a bug bite blend, and Owie roller ball. Summer is here with it comes lots of skeeters and Owie's around our place. So far we are having great success with ditching the OTC drugs for essential oils.

Today as the fellas do some guy stuff in the garage and yard I am working on an Irish chain quilt top. The goal for today is to complete the top. We have lots and lots of leftovers from the holiday weekend. No cooking for me tonight!!! That should give me a few more hours of sewing.

I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend. Ours was great. Lots of yummy summer food, time with family, and hanging around the back yard enjoying tall glasses of water for me, adult beverages for the others :)

Hubby has taken the week off, best part of all he has a playmate for the week. That should keep him out of my hair and off my nerves :) Already this morning they have made repairs to the deck, done a little work in the garage, taken a load of junk to the dump, and made a run to Goodwill for me. Oh ya, and caught a lizard that was on the staircase, ewwwww

My focus needs to be on quilting all week, finish the quilt top I have started then move on to FMQ of two other quilt tops. Hubby wants to give two of his aging Aunts a quilt when we visit in late June. Works for me!!! I have a great excuse to set at the machine for hours on end.

Still Plugging Away

 Finally today is the last day of Tyler's Sports scrapbook!!! It seems like it has taken forever but looking back I realize I didn't start it until last Saturday. I took it by one evening this week to pick up his team photo's from Mom so he could have a little sneak peak. It was a hit in his 8 year old eyes!! Yaa

 I hate for anything to go to waste, that may be one of the many reasons I have way too much stuff in my crafting stash :) If you look at the layout above you can see I cut the word touchdown in a shadow font. I just couldn't put the negatives from those cuts in the trash. By backing them with scraps I now have 2 more titles to add to my stash for next season. Once I finish his album up this morning I will work the leftover scraps of paper over before putting everything away for a few weeks as this season is close to being over.

Between yard work, gardening, sewing, scraping, and all that jazz my hands are a wreck. After dinner last night I made up a few batches of hand scrub.

 A couple of small bottles to give away

 A few more larger jars for gifting

And one for me :) Poor hubby thought I was in the kitchen blending something yummy for our after dinner desert. All in good time dear.

I am excited to finally get all this scrapbooking mess off the kitchen table sometime today!!! I had planned to finish the quilt top I started last week but it looks like that project will be delayed until next week. We have company coming in tomorrow so somebody needs to do some housework, ME.

We had our first salad from the garden last night with our dinner thanks to hubby's hard work. I have not been of much help this year with the nerve problems in my arm. Slowly it has finally started getting better thank goodness!! We hope to have the last of the spring planting completed tonight, thankfully we have a very long growing season. Time seems to fly by when your trying to play catch up.

Today's To Do's
1.) Finish Ty Boys scrapbook
2.) Clean up the scrapbook mess
3.) Finish garden planting
4.) Give the house a quick clean
5.) Open the guest bedroom and bathroom
6.) Take in a baseball game tonight
7.) Clean fridge
8.) Make a desert
9.) grocery list/maybe grocery shop

That should be enough to fill my day

Doing More With Less

 How many pages can you do in a full day in addition to just a couple of hours on the second? 48 pages :)

 I will need an additional day, maybe two for titles, stamping and some jazzing up of a few pages

 Mommy and Tyler will be in charge of the journaling which gets me off the hook big time!! I hate to journal :)

 Combining traditional scrapbooking with pocket pages is the perfect balance for me. I can get lots of photo's in albums with a whole heck of a lot less cost and work.

 It's hard to believe it's already been 5 years since he slipped on that first set of tiny cleats

 Hubby and I realized a few weeks back that one or both of us have spent our springs at Baseball/Softball games for at least 55 years!!!! We might be getting old :)

And now football.....A sport we are head over heels in love with except when one of our grands are playing!! I really wish our little fellas would stick with Baseball. I am so afraid Ty boy is going to get hurt.

This past weekend I decided to save time, my back, and my arm that has a mind of it's own when it comes to nerve pain and pack VERY light for the retreat. I took my scrapbooking cart along with an album full of assorted page protectors. That's it!! No machines, stamp tower, containers full of stamps, gizmo's or gadgets. Be it tacky or not, I must say I rocked Ty Boys album!!!

For me less is more in so many area's of my life. After almost 40 years of marriage we have too much STUFF!! I am taking today off to continue to work on Tyler's album as Hubby is on a short road trip. Ditto for Tuesday, then it's on to my closet, ugh!!!! Just too much STUFF!!!

Sewing Therapy Thursday

 My sewing machine has been collecting dust for way to long! Yesterday was the perfect day to work on a UFO. There is only one way to declutter the sewing/scraproom and that is to get some projects completed.

 I only needed to make 30 more blocks and cut the blank blocks along with the points.

Things moved along so quickly I went ahead and worked on the rows :) I can't wait until I can carve out another day to finish this quilt top, it's been waiting on some TLC for too long

Finally!!!!! A few hours of play time!!! Life has been way out of balance with all that has been going on since Christmas. How crazy it that? I still have a list a mile long that needs to be worked on but I was getting close to my burn out line. I had to have some me time :)

This weekend is also all about me :) I am headed out after the kiddo's leave today for a scrapbooking retreat, yaaaaa. I did myself a favor this go around by packing LIGHT!!!!! I have never ever taken so few supplies. Once I had a plan in mind of what I wanted to work on over the weekend I realized to complete some pages I would have to load the entire scrapbook room. Not gonna happen, I just got that room back in working order.

In anticipation that I might finish scrapbooking long before the weekend is over I am taking along a quilt that I have been hand quilting. In reality it's a quilt I haven't been able to work as there has been no time, it keeps moving from one place to another with the promise " I do sew love you but it's just not your turn".

Finding a balance in life is an on going battle for me. I am sure it is for most of us. Here lately when I do find some down time I just want to SLEEP!!! I almost backed out of going to this retreat...Hubby and I need to tackle the garage next on our never ending quest to get more clutter out of our life. I had forgotten I made my motel reservation back before Christmas when I could get a super deal on the room. Part of the deal was there are no changes or cancellations to the reservation. So....off I will go :)

Just a Normal Day

 After mopping only one room yesterday I broke down and bought a new mop after all :) Not to be tacky but I think I am worth the $10.00 for a tool I use so often!!

 I just might have saved us at least $100.00 Dr. office visit. My right arm has been killing me since last Thursday, by the weekend I was unable to do much of anything. I had no energy, feeling as if I might just pass, can constant pain do that? Yesterday morning when I took yet another anti-inflammatory pill hoping for some relief I noticed there were 2 different color pills in the bottle. What the heck? It seems a nameless adult male that is nice to have around most of the time mistakenly threw his extra blood pressure pills in my anti inflammatory pill bottle!!!!!!! Thank you Lord for letting me live another day!!!!!! Now that I am taking the CORRECT pill I have hope that things will move in the right direction. I shall allow the nameless man live another day:)

While I was out and about I ran by our local tire store to pick up a few FREE tires for a yard project

Have no idea how many cans of spray paint each tire will need so I am starting with 3 in hopes it will be enough.

Another stop on my errand list was to hit the quilt shop for more quilting thread. I have $75.00 in gift certificates for the store I received at Christmas......Drum roll........I purchases the thread and only the thread!!!!!! Go me!!!

Can I just tell you how free I felt walking out of that quilt shop with only the spool of thread I needed!! I think the key to my fabric addiction might be to touch everything in the sewing room before I hit the store's. Five dollars and seven cents was the total!!!

I am finally seeing a light at the end of this home improvement tunnel. All rooms are back in order, the attic is complete, ditto for the decks and yard. The closets and cupboards.....Rome wasn't built in a day. They will get done all in good time (maybe)

Today is just normal everyday housework. Feels sorta like a mini vacation to just do the everyday stuff for a change!!!!

On today's list:
Print photo's
Pack for weekend retreat
Pay bills, BOOOOO
Paint tires, maybe
Enjoy some down time, For Sure!!!

One Proud Mama

 DD#2 Graduated this past Saturday with a Masters Degree in Education Administration!!! Since she did the majority of her studies on line she didn't want to bother walking the stage :( Oh well....We are so proud of her for deciding to kick her education up another notch and devoting her life to education. I feels so odd to have a DD who looks like a teenager herself that can now be a principal of a High School!!

 I worked hard Monday on housework, not that I am caught back up or anything but still I was working it!! The last of the torn apart rooms is complete too!! I thought I would never get the sewing/scraproom back in order :) As a little prize to myself I played around with a new stamp set. I am always in need of GC holders. I thought this one would be great for one of our ice cream shops.

Stamping, coloring, and a few pop dots, pure happiness :) 

 

On for today. Mopping, UGH!!! Lots and lots of mopping. Every floor in the house is a nasty mess. It will take at least two rounds to get it all cleaned. I am really in need of a new mop as my old one is at least 10 years old, maybe older but...I am sick to death of the spending!!! I am feeling a whole lot of make do will be in our future this summer.

 

Also on the must do list is prepare for an upcoming scrapbooking retreat. I am just not feeling it :) I have no idea what I want to work on, nor do I have a desire to pack it all up. Spending time with the other ladies is the only reason I am even going. I think I am in major burn out after the massive amount of layouts I have finished for Elijah. I am itching to SEW!!!!

 

Speaking of sewing....Lord have mercy I need to finish sew many projects!!!! Putting the sewing/scraproom back in order brought out all the beautiful (ugly) truth. My fabric bank runneth over!!! I pulled out a UFO Irish Chain quilt that I LOVE but had put on the back burner for a year or could it be maybe two?  I am going to carve out an hour or two from my day today to work on it :)

 

Another MUST do sewing project is to finish hand quilting another quilt. I have been moving that quilt around in a bag way too long. It is now resting beside the sofa for some evening hand work.

 

We have a few mini vacations coming up this summer, hand quilting would be a nice way to pass the time in the motel. It beats the heck out of watching TV!!!

Off to the races, if I stay on track I just might be able to carve out a bit of play time today

A New Week

 Do you see this face? It's the face of a girl who locked her Nanny out of the house while she and her baby brother stood laughing at the door. NOT FUNNY!!!! Last week was a long week!!

 Karsyn and Mason are busy beavers too, they at least don't pull crazy tricks on me

 This is the face of someone who has found Nanny's GOOD chocolate stash :)

 The face of sweetness asking for more water from his Papaw

 The face of a girl who needs to spend LOTS of time outdoors!!

 Hubby ask what I wanted to do for Mothers day last week. CLEAN the deck please!!!!! Here is the before.

 And the after :) So much better!!!

A nice clean space for me to sit while he works :). He has been working hard to keep the garden up for me as I have done something to my right arm that is causing terrible nerve pain.

I didn't get much marked off my list last week as I had one or more of the grands each day. But Hubby and I did make a major dent on the deck yesterday afternoon after our Mothers Day cookout.

The list of wants/needs seems to never end in an older house :( Our decks need to be replaced. The top deck is original to our home, the lower deck hubby and I added some 20 years ago, it too has seen better days.

As I was making the list of To Do's and to buy's for the deck area this weekend we marked off painting and staining the deck and rails. I just didn't see spending money on paint and all for decks that hopefully will be torn off next year. It's time to save!!!!!

 We did spring for new cushions for all of the chairs, as well as new umbrella's. OUCH!!! I thought about recovering or old cushions but they were not worth the time and money to fool with. Seeing as how they were 7 years old replacement seemed justified. Have you priced outdoor cushions lately? CRAZY!!! I was shocked that 6 chair cushions ran $419.00 and that was at one of the warehouses!!!

The Lord must have known how upset I have been over the massive amount of dollars that have flown out of our home over this past month, he put a little yard angel in the parking lot of the garden center :) As hubby and I were getting our flat bed buggy a fella was loading his truck. He ask if we were planning on getting flowers? Yes as a matter of fact we are. He was so sweet in sharing if we went to the very back of the store they had 50%-70% off a ton of flowers. SCORE!!!!!!

A Day of Healing

 After killing off all of the ivy and way past their prime shrubs last Spring, Summer, and Fall we have started planting our very bare beds in the front yard. We/I need LOW maintenance plants!!!! Color and cuteness is also high on the list of wants/needs. I hope I have not made a mistake by planting Knock out roses with some Drift roses scattered around.

 Tyler and I had a nice breakfast out yesterday morning before going on some errands together. What does it take to fill up an 8 year old growing boy? A full order of French toast, 2 scrambled eggs, full order of bacon, with a couple of glasses of lemonade to quinch his thirst!! Our grands can pack in the food for sure!!!
 We hit Lowe's after breakfast to purchase a few more rose bushes while they are having a Mothers Day sale along with paint for the shutters and garage door. Now that the new windows are in along with the Hardly board installation to replace some worn siding the shutters and such are looking shabby. Home improvements seem to take on and expensive life of their own!!!!

 The last room in the house to be put back together after the window installation is the sewing/scraproom. Progress is slow, very, very slow!!!

I gave myself an hour to work on the room this morning as I need to pick up DD#1's little kiddo's after Pre School at noon today. If I could ever find a full day free to get at this mess I think I could knock it out. Full free days are rare this time of year!!!!

Tyler and I had a wonderful day of healing yesterday. While we were at Lowe's we ran into bird house kits. Tyler and Papaw love puttering around in the garage building stuff :) After we threw it in the buggy Tyler ask if we could get one for each of the other Grands...he has such a sweet giving heart :) Sure throw them in!! As he was filling the buggy with 4 more bird houses he found a build your own car set. Have mercy!!! After a quick call to his Papaw they decided Mason man would love a new hand made car. Oh the tings we do for this little guys.
Last stop was the grocery store to make dinner for his family. "Mommy is so sad, I don't think she wants to cook" Pork chops, taters and gravy. corn on the cob, and Lima beans. He was feeling a little better when he left to take dinner to Mommy :)

He did have a melt down after lunch while he was cuddling with AJ the beagle which is expected after such a large loss. After some heart breaking tears and hugs we spent the afternoon watching "Swiss Family Robinson" Its his new FAVORITE movie!!! Just goes to show the Oldies really are the Goodies.

Today's to do:
Hang out with the little ones
Make another dinner for Mommy
Finish the laundry
Hope the bread will rise now that the AC is on :)
Download and print the last batch of photo's for Elijah's Volume #2 scrapbook