Weekend Accomplishments

Sometimes I have weekends that I accomplish a lot of fun things!  Last weekend was one of them.  I picked up this ugly miniture hoosier cabinet at Goodwill for $2.50 a couple of weeks ago and finally got a vision!

 

She needed a matching fun chair, so after a quick seat redo.

Next I needed a few Christmas garlands to spruce up the place.  And some curtains.

The sewing room also need some words of inspiration.

And Kenzie needed a fun Thanksgiving outfit, one that she can twirl in, while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

 

And Aunt Marie needed a Roman shade in her kitchen so I squeezed in a sewing lesson.  Mom is so proud! 

She also needed a garland.

So what have you worked on?  Go check out Funky Junk for more fun ideas!  Wait until you see this weekend's project!

Earlier this week my mom bought me a piece of jewelry.  It made me think of the jewelry I have.  Jewelry tends to have a story.  Who gave it, when, why, etc.  I thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane.

My grandmother gave this to me for my high school graduation.  It was her engagement ring from her second husband. He took me to the zoo.  And read me Sammy the Seal.  He was short lived in our family but a memory all the same.

This is my charm bracelet.  It holds charms that my mom collected for me all through childhood.  Each of the charms holds a story that I can remember.  Like the heart was given to me when I was the flower girl at my Uncle's wedding.




This "pearl" necklace was given to me by my grandmother this past year.  It was given to her by my dad for Mother's day when he was 17.



This locket was given to me by my mom.  It holds a picture of my hubby and me in costume as Anne and Gilbert from my favorite book "Anne of Green Gables".  We played those parts in a play our senior year.  What memories.



This is the POW bracelet that my mom wore as a teenager to remember Captain Fielding Featherstone.



This is my brother's necklace.  He gave this to Kenzie the day he left for Army boot camp.  He graduates in four weeks.  We are very proud of him. 

And my new piece.  Not sure of the stories it will hold for my daughter but I'm sure many will be made while wearing it, that is if I can get over the overwhelming decisions of what color to wear.

So what story does your jewelry tell?  Tomorrow is Veteren's Day, remember to say thank you.

Funky Junk is having her famous Saturday party.  And I'm fashionably late.  Actually this is the first time I've come.  The theme is "Anything Goes" or "Window Treatments".  Goodness knows I love window treatments so I thought I'd feature 3 of my favorites!

I've decided to start decorating slowly for Christmas since I am so busy this year.  Yesterday I cleaned all the kitchen surfaces and hung my window display.  It is so fun that it usually is the last thing to come down.Don't mind the ridiculous hole in the ceiling- not exactly sure what to do with it.  Any ideas?  At one time it was probably a light fixture but there is no power to it now.

Here are my dining room Roman shades that I made out of shower curtains. 

These are my bedroom curtains.  They were $4 tablecloths from Wal-mart and the Roman shades were $12 from Ross.  You can't beat $20 window treatments for a huge 9 foot window.

These are Kenzie's room's curtains.

Have fun checking out the other fun treatments or whims that people have come up with!

Today, Edie, over at Life In Grace, is starting the 12 days of handmade Christmas and I am so excited!   Not only will I get 12 great gifts to make and give but one of the days will feature my mom over at Living Life Creatively!  I am super excited for her to share her talents!  See you there.

On a side note, here is Kenzie's class performing at chapel this week.

Camping Adventures

This weekend was a long weekend. We went camping. It was an adventure. Let me start by saying this was our first time really camping. I mean we camp every Memorial and Labor day weekends with a group of friends, on our church lake property, but we have a building where we cook, play games, and take showers and there are a lot of us, so someone is bound to have what you forgot. And we are like 15 minutes from home. And it never rains.

This was our first time camping at a campground, by ourselves, too far from home to go get something. And we paid for it. We packed everything up on Friday and left as soon as Travis got home from work at 4pm. Note to self, you do not go through Pigeon Forge that late on a Friday night. It should have taken us about an hour and maybe 15 minutes to get to the campground.

It took 3 hours. And the entire time was spent on a 15 mile stretch. Pain in the neck tourists.

Do you know what time that puts us at? 7 p.m.

Do you know what time it gets dark? 7:25 p.m.

Do you know when the rain started? 7:20 p.m.

Fantastic.

We, new owners of a pop-up we've only put up 3 times, had to hustle big time to get the camper level and up. We keep saying we need to make a laminated card to remind us what to do next but I'm only ever reminded of it when we need it. Bummer.

We finally got it up and we go to plug it in so we could see and wouldn't you know the plug size was different than what we have. Terrific. Now we not only get to camp in the rain, but in the dark too. Thankfully when the campground owner came back from dinner he had the adapter and could bless us with lights. On to the sink hook-up and well, it leaked. All. Over. The. Floor. Splendid.

But we were having fun. Really. Who cares if it is raining, dark and we are all crammed in 5 feet of space. We had Yahtzee. And popcorn. We were good. Or at least that is what the kids thought.

It proceeded to rain, thunder and lightning all night. This is where you're expecting me to say the roof leaked. Nope. Sorry to disappoint.

The next morning was sure to be better. We were able to get a better sense of our surroundings now that there was light. It was still raining and it was muddy as could be, but the kids didn't seem to care. They enjoyed the crazy wildlife.

We had a great breakfast of pancakes and decided to go to find something to do. We packed a lunch and went to Cade's Cove. If you've never been it is worth the trip.

We enjoyed the wildlife...

the views...the hiking in the mud...

and the riding in the back of the truck looking for bears, ...

until the park ranger told us it was up to a $500 fine for riding there. We promptly climbed in the cab.

After we went back to the campground we discovered that it is impossible to start a fire when your wood is wet. The neighbor gave us dry wood and we still struggled with that dumb fire. We had tacos. I had made them at home. Lame.

We took a walk to the river behind the campground. It was beautiful and a perfect picture spot.

The kids rode their bikes...
and I lusted after the neighbor's trailer.

Made me want to watch "The Long, Long Trailer" with Lucy and Desi. And collect rocks.

We ended the night really roughing it, watching the Florida vs. LSU game on the laptop.

We spent the next day hiking on various trails and hanging out at the campground since that is what the kids wanted.

We spent the last night with a great fire (finally), ice cream cones,

and more Yahtzee.

Things I've Learned This Week
-dedicated to Emily

1. I have no time for blogging.

Tuesday is a crazy day for me. It is one of the two days of the week that I teach art to 103 kindergarten through eighth graders. It is a lot of fun! I've learned that kids can do anything if instructed in a way that they can handle. But I've also learned that because all of my creative juices are going to art projects I'm left with little to blog with. I don't have time to find a great armoir to repaint or new fabric to sew or yarn to crochet. And you know what, that's not fair. Because that is what I love.

2. I'm amazed at what my kids have learned in just 7 weeks of school. These videos are from the 4th week of school.

3. I need a desk at school.

We may want to eat at our dining room table sometime in the next year.


4. No matter how many times you tell me the Baxters aren't real, I will disagree.

I have one book left to read in the Karen Kingsbury Baxter Family books and I'm dreading the end. I mean I want to meet Dayne and Katy's kids and I want to see Cody and Bailey get married. I want to see CKT established. Who's with me? I attended a simulcast of Karen Kingsbury this weekend and just loved it! Tell me they're real. I'm going to have a Baxter family reunion. Who's coming?

Where were you 8 years ago today?

Praying.