BHS Craft Show

On Saturday, November 6th, the Bloomington High School had a craft show to benefit the band. There was a great turn out and mom and I enjoyed having our items on display together. Here are just a few of the items I created for the sale. If you see something you like don't hesitate to contact me!

Here is my White Junk Drawer. Love that things came from around my house and Katharine's home, too! In the back ground is the Cardinal Tree, a Christmas tree with music notes covering it.


This is leaf print (that sold) but behind it is a set of apples that spell out WELCOME and the Journey Pail is a simple white bucket with an atlas rosette and the word "Journey" stamped on it.

This is the large Botanical Wreath. The book it came from was a collection of vintage botantical prints that had been reprinted in order to tell information about each flower and plant showcased in the book.

I ADORE this cone wreath. It is made from a book for ladies from the 1970's about how to be a member of club. Refreshments to serve, how to arrange babysitting, and inviting guest speakers were all explained in this informative book.

This large Atlas Wreath came from an atlas that the Corley's had laying around. It's spiral bound pages made for interesting edges. There was a smaller version (half the size) but it sold. I'm looking forward to making more with old maps as I find them.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

The "before" of this story truly began with reading this wonderful book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. So inspiring about knowing where your food comes from and taking charge of creating your food sources. These are tomatoes and chives from my garden this summer. Such a wonderful metamorphosis happened...and not just in the yard. Our garden grew to be to a crazy mess and I loved every minute of it. There was lettuce galore and so many tomatoes that we have frozen, canned, dried and shared. Yellow squash and cucumbers grew along with onions and a very small patch of potatoes surprised and thrilled me. Funny how these little seeds that we carefully selected when the snow was still on the ground in February have brought me so much peace and happiness throughout the spring and summer and now into fall. When I spent time in my garden I felt so relaxed and content. Knowing that I was creating something that didn't need to be standardized tested to be proven "good enough" brought me great happiness. In fact the tomatoes that didn't fit the mold were the ones that brought laughter and dozens of smiles. My tomato garden was differentiated in colors and textures and sizes and tastes. Each was valued for its uniqueness and I loved them all. I'm already planning for next year's garden...and still eating tomatoes with every meal (but I'm totally not complaining)!

Sunday Afternoon Cake

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Since it is Crystal's birthday, I decided that I would make cake while talking to her on her day! Em was craving something chocolatey and cakey...so here is the yellow cake from the Betty Crocker cookbook with a mousee-like drizzle between the layers. That recipe was inspired from the Cook Yourself Skinny cookbook. I got fancy and cut the cake with a biscuit cutter to make perfect little circles of cake. Now the scraps are going in a bag to enjoy after lunches this week. Like the bee bowl?! I love it!!! The cake tasted great and was a perfect treat as we recovered from last night's wedding and watched the Bears get a win.

The Little Things

After the day I have had, I'm trying to remember the little things from summer that I so loved. Those things that brought me such happiness and peace and serenity. Now I know why my heart needed a beautiful layer of wonderfulness surrounding it to be ready for this school year.

This picture was taken at the beginning of the summer when my heart skipped a beat as I caught sight of the day lily in bloom through my Wrangler Jeep's window. Beautiful and unexpected they brought a huge smile to my face and heart. There will always be things in the public school system that baffle me. But nature baffles me as well. In a manner that makes my heart sing. So I guess I'll keep the crazy bafflings of one to keep the beautiful bafflings of the other!

Today the things that made my heart sing were:
-Starbucks and homemade bread
-texts from Em :)
-driving with the top off the Jeep and my hair flying in all directions as the icky-school film blew off
-taking time to watch my Clinton girls play their last game of the season (though the loss brought sadness, I was glad to be in the sunshine and beautiful weather watching them fight)
-knowing that my creative energies are appreciated and there is a place for me to dream (thankful to still be a part of Blooming Grove Academy)
-bottled sangria and $5 pizza
-getting a sub ordered so I can support my momma at the craft show she's doing (which, I am so very, very proud of her)

So, I'm not going to list out the things that made my head almost dislodge from it's natural position...though I could. But, in the words of my colleagues, Nobody Cares!

Life is good. Sometimes you just have to look really hard.

Craft Room

I also got a new table at an estate sale. It was $25 and Kevin (Dani's husband) helped me haul it home. Good thing it is super light because it would have been hard to get down to the basement- which we didn't require Kevin's help for but I know he would have helped! While we were at the estate sale a lady from a local retirement apartment complex was asking if we would haul home a grandfather clock for her...unfortunately, as we discussed coming back to help her haul it, someone else bought it. Maybe she would have paid us in meatballs! (That was a bit of an off-track ramble :) !)

The glass front cabinet is also new. On top of the glass front cabinet is my printer and a set of speakers that I can play either the computer or iPhone with. My laptop is usually on top of the printer for storage and the cord easily reaches to the edge of table so I can type captions for pictures or sentiments for cards and print! I got it at the thirft store in downtown Bloomington. It was displaying dishes and I asked if I could buy it. I offered $30 and she said sure...wish I would have started lower, but I would have paid more! So for $56 dollars I added three pretty awesome pieces. Krystal came and crafted and there was room for BOTH of us to work on scrapbook pages at the new table.

You'll notice also that I moved my shelf like how mom had hers just next to her workspace/table. I like having the pictures and stamps closer than storing them in the corner where the new cabinet is. My cricut is on the shelf but now with the bigger table I have room to use it on the table comfortably.

$1 Chest of Drawers

I am linking up (for the first time ever!) to Between Naps on the Porch- check out what other things have gone through a metamorphosis on this Monday!

$1 CHEST OF DRAWERS...

For Amy's birthday we went to an auction and spent the day doing whatever the day brought. It was so much fun! Of course, I bought all sorts of little fun things and giggled the whole time. Em spotted this chest of drawers in the barn and we got it for a buck! The hardware was incredible and totally matched the drawer pulls on the cabinet already living in my craft room. They needed a little TLC so I cleaned them, got the rust off and then hit them with some black paint.

The entire chest needed TLC! After getting the spiders evicted and clearing out the webs from the bottom, I cleared out the bird nest from the bottom drawer. Since there was so much rust on the drawer pulls I struggled to remove them from but after a bit of work they were all off.

I fixed the base so the chest of drawers would stand upright and my craft supplies wouldn't come tumbling out and then I painted it. The paint was leftover from painting the exterior of our house and all the lumber for fixing the base was found in our garage from other projects. The drawers got a fresh coat of paint before the storm came rolling in.

AND THE FINAL PRODUCT......(insert drumroll here)

I love how it just looks like these pieces were meant to be together but I got them from at various times and places!

Now You Can Add...

Mom, Dad and Crystal: Since I have more know-how now on how these work after a quick tutorial...you guys can now add to "our" site. Now it really is our site. We have to add healthy meals on here now that biggest loser is starting. I'm so glad you are doing the biggest loser with us!!! Yippy!!!