Wish me safe travels.

I'm going to spend two weeks with hubby over in Durham, NC. I'm driving solo and it's about 5 hours away, with rain forcasted for the rest of the week- remnants from tropical storm Fay.

I don't mind driving in the rain but I hate the sudden "curtain of blindness" when tractor trailers go around you, or get in front of you. And I hope my GPS knows where I'm going because I haven't a clue and I am horrible, horrible, horrible with directions. I could learn to speak Hebrew faster!

After two weeks I get to drive back alone again because Chris will be heading to another contract.
Just think good thoughts for me and safe, uneventful travels. I should* have internet access once I get there and if I am able I will update to let you know I arrived ok. :)

Tree Ornies/Gift Tags

My latest creation. Aren't these cute? Just made and listed them. They'd be nice on a traditional Christmas tree or used as gift tags.

Inked edges, chalking, foam pop dotted the stocking cuffs, gold pen detailing, and soft velvety ties. Made of textured Bazzill cardstock.

What's your design style?

Mine is totally primitive/rustic and shabby chic.
I made this faux chocolate decoration set with a primitive flair in mind. All hand formed from cold porcelain clay. No fancy tools used, except my hands. ;)
I'm hoping someone, somewhere will just have to have these. I know I'm not the only prim crazy girl on the planet! lol You can see more pictures and a better description in my shop.

Hand made beads!

I wanted to share this one with you. I made the beads on this bracelet by hand. Some are fabric, some are paper. They are ultra durable and I think this is one of those items that a lot of people are going to want to know more about. Get ready for a conversation piece. Just listed in my shop.

What's up with that?!?

So strange! There are songs on my play list that I did not put on there. I tried to remove them but when I log in they aren't there. I only see them when I open my blog. So if you see I wanna sex you up, LOL, I most certainly did not put that on my play list. That, along with several others that keep playing!

Aug. Entries Updated

August Gift Certificate Entries

On the last day of each month I draw a name from the pool of customers that have shopped with me.

I'll be doing this on the 30th day of each month throughout the year.

The name I draw will receive a $5 or $10 gift certificate, or free item of their choosing from my shop!

*Only actual purchases count for the drawing. PIFs and trades are not entered to win unless a regular purchase was made at the same time.

*You can see the list of winners on my shop home page under announcements.

Entries for August:
jessiewagoner

VieleraDesign

LisaJean2

nebesocobe

Out with the old...

and in with the new.
We built this extended counter top/table in when we built the house. That was some 10 years ago give or take a year. The BIG problem with it was it made it impossible to bring anything large in to the house. Bringing in the kitchen appliances was almost impossible! Beyond that I was just sick of it!
At one point we had bar stools at it so we could sit there and eat. But if anyone came walking in, the front door would hit your chair. You had to get up and move your chair, wait for them to scrape by and then readjust your seating position. Not the best building idea we ever had! Plus is was never technically finished, as you can see by the oh so fancy leg Chris built on to it. lol

BEFORE

That's DS Caleb under there loosening the screws, getting ready to rip that thing out for good.


AFTER
With the old bar gone there was plenty of room for this little kitchen table and chairs. Yes, my kitchen is small and there is no formal dinning room. We work with what we have though.

Tomorrow we paint the baseboards and repaint the front door. Some day when I am feeling really brave I will tackle those stark white cabinets. Chris doesn't know about this little addition yet. I hope he approves when he gets home again- first of September.

And I forgot to tell you that he really liked the bathroom remodel. He said he was pleasantly surprised because he was expecting it to be really feminine. He said we did a great job on the flooring, loves the lighting fixtures. "It's nice to be able to see when I'm shaving." So all in all it was thumbs up all around. :)

Zen Garden. Zero $$

Look what my DS Caleb made for me! A Zen garden!

He's so thoughtful and sweet. And the best thing...
It didn't cost anything to make (technically), because he used supplies we already had around the house and made the little rake out of toothpicks and sticks. That kid of mine is so creative! :) Just thought I'd share.

This Week @ CVS

Between me and Alex we got just over $100 in product for less than $1 out of pocket.
In fact I had a $6 overage and that's how I came to get the Gain detergent. A pleasant and unexpected surprise. I'm not good at thinking fast on my feet so I just grabbed that and ran back to the register. LOL She scanned that and I still needed another .21 in product so I had my niece grab herself a candy bar.

8 bags Dove chocolate
2 Suave body wash for men
2 CVS Ibuprofin
2 Covergirl TRUblend foundations
2 8ct. packs Extra sugar free gum
1 Gain detergent
1 Gillette Fusion razor pack
1 Advil
1 Alavert bonus pack
1 Colgate toothpaste
1 Lamasil foot spray
1 Lamisilk foot lotion

1 Reese candy bar (not pictured) lol

He's Gone Again

No that's not him giving me a credit card. LOL That's him finding yet ANOTHER motel key card in his pants! He never leaves those at the motel. Drives me batty! LOL

:( Chris packing up his clothes to leave out this morning. Gone again...

But on a funny, this proves that men will NOT shrivel up and die from doing their own laundry. HAHAHA

Hey all you Etsy people!!!

If you buy on Etsy or sell on Etsy here's what I want you to do. Make me laugh. Keep it "G" rated, please! Whoever makes my sides ache the worst from laughter is gettin' the goods. :)

The bag will contain some of my handmade jewelry but other things as well. You'll just have to wait and see. ;)
*You must be a member of Etsy.com to participate in this drawing. When you leave a comment with your joke or funny tale you must also leave your Etsy username so that I can contact you for address information if you are the winner.

I'm taking comments until August 29th and will announce the winner here on August 30th!
Spread some much needed laughter. Enter as many times as you wish. Ready, set, GO!

August Gift Certificate Entries

On the last day of each month I draw a name from the pool of customers that have shopped with me.

I'll be doing this on the 30th day of each month throughout the year.

The name I draw will receive a $5 or $10 gift certificate, or free item of their choosing from my shop!

*Only actual purchases count for the drawing. PIFs and trades are not entered to win unless a regular purchase was made at the same time.

*You can see the list of winners on my shop home page under announcements.

Entries for August:
jessiewagoner

VieleraDesign

My Big Lots find.

I found this shelf set at Big Lots the other day and thought I would show them to you. I think they are really cute and they were only $12.
The bears on the shelves were hand made by a lady on Etsy.

I'm being wife napped!

I'm being wife napped for the night.
Hubby is finally getting to come home. He will be coming right by the house via Virginia on his way to the office in Knoxville. He has to stop in at the office before he can officially come home, (as always.)
So, He is going to pop in, grab me and I'm going to the office with him and we'll grab a room for the night down there.
We haven't seen each other in a month and a half. I think we deserve one night really alone with no kids around. Sounds like a plan to me!
Going to pack a little overnight bag and wait for my wife-napper to arrive. LOL

Finished Bathroom

Before

You'll probably have to click on the pictures to read my descriptions. I wanted to tone down the ultra feminine appearance and frankly we were all sick of the blue bow print wallpaper.
Chris hasn't seen it yet. Cross your fingers that he approves.

$600 later this is what we have. It's a lot less cluttered and way more orderly. I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

96 Bags!

Since we've been SO super busy on the bathroom remodel I forgot to tell you about last Sat. nights CVS deal.


The big hit of the trip by far was being "paid" $50 to take 96 BAGS of Lifesavers for FREE! Every bag was free between the b1G1 free sale and our B1G1 free coupons. That's a picture of them in Alex's office chair. We almost had a Lifesaver avalanche just trying to get a picture.

We'll give some to Chris's coworkers, and a lot of other people. I'm sure we will not have a problem finding homes for it all. LOL

We got a few other things. The typical stuff like razors, band aids, soaps, etc. but this was the real wow of the night. :)

And speaking of the bathroom...
All that is left is to find the correct replacement knobs for the sink and shower. (I've made 3 different trips to Lowe's for these and still don't have the right ones!) and I need new bolt covers for the potty. After I get those taken care of I promise to post pictures.
We ended up putting in new flooring which was NOT part of the original plan. But then neither were light fixtures! More to come soon...

July Customer GC Entries List UPDATE

And the winner is GabbriellasCloset2!

I'll be sending you a convo shorty. :) Congrats!

On the last day of each month I draw a name from the pool of customers that have shopped with me.

I'll be doing this on the 30th day of each month throughout the year.

The name I draw will receive a $5 or $10 gift certificate, or free item of their choosing from my shop!

*Only actual purchases count for the drawing. PIFs and trades are not entered to win unless a regular purchase was made at the same time.

*You can see the list of winners on my shop home page under announcements.

Entries for July:

angelbabe6333

GabbriellasCloset2

EDIT: OK it's been a super slow month. Nevertheless the drawing will still be held tomorrow because I am a woman of my word! :) Check back on the 30th for the winning shopper.

Some bathroom pictures.

Keep an open mind until you see the finished result. We're making a transition from roses and bows to masculine faux leather walls. It looks awfully dark at this point but like I said, we aren't done yet.

BEFORE

I saw this technique on HGTV for covering papered walls and not dealing with the hassle of removal. We were able to remove the top of the paper- in some places- but not the adhesive residue beneath, so this was a great option for us.


The first thing you do is "paint" a section of the wall with wood glue and apply tissue paper that was wadded up and then un-wad, leaving as many of the crinkles and wrinkles as you can. Yes, tissue paper like gift wrap tissue. :) You end up with something that looks like the picture above.

DURING

Next we started in painting the papered walls brown, or coffee bean to be exact.


Here's DS Caleb painting the peaks where it is cathedral. Thank goodness he doesn't mind being on a ladder!
A shot of the corner wall completely painted.



Then we went in with the next color which was coffee. As in coffee with creamer color. We thinned the paint with water and wiped in on with cloths. After that we used the same color undiluted and just slung paint all over for the splatter effect. (Those white spots are where light fixtures and outlets go to go after we finish.)

AFTER

So that's all I can share for now. It really looks like leather in real life. Albeit paint splattered leather. LOL I will try to get a better picture of the texture once we are done. I can't wait to get this finished and decorated!

When Hubby Is Away...

the mom will play. LOL- HAHAHA- evil laugh.
I've been wanting to totally redo our master bathroom for quite a while now but every time I bring it up Chris shoots my ideas down. See, Chris can do anything he puts his mind to but he really, really didn't want to tackle the bathroom because it is wallpapered and has real high cathedral ceilings. If you don't know, wallpaper is a nightmare of all nightmares to get off. Chris just wasn't ready for that and never was going to be ready! But me, I was beyond ready for a change.

So what's a girl to do? Well, first she waits till dear ole hubby is out of town for like 2 solid months. LOL Then she watches a lot of home improvement type shows and learns of an awesome way to give wallpapered walls texture and new color without having to actually remove the old paper! Perfect, I thought to myself. How wonderful!
The wheels in the mind begin to turn. Notes are being jotted down. Instructions absorbed like a sponge. A list of materials needed is compiled. And finally a trip to town to make the leap and buy the suppies. Too late to turn back now. I'm in too deep. The money's been spent. Renovations have begun.

As I am gutting the room I smile with glee as I threw out the old light fixtures. I can hear hubby in the back of my mind telling me not to throw them out. Telling me those might come in handy some day for something else. Never mind that two of the globes are broken! Sheesh. I felt 10 years younger when I took down the old mirror with the intention of never hanging it back up again. For I shall buy new light fixtures and a new fabulous mirror. Gutting the bathroom I liberally toss things that I know hubby would want to keep. Things like rusty screws that are just laying around with no purpose. The bathroom mat that will no longer come clean no matter how much I wash it! An old jar that used to have one of his pipes in it.

What was old is rapidly becoming new. The bathroom is looking great, and there's nothing dear hubby can do to stop me. I am a woman mad with power and the freedom to let her creative mind run wild. Bwahahahaha. :)

Pictures coming soon.

What I've been up to.

Edit: A few people have shown interest in purchasing some of my new goodies. I never dreamed anyone would want to buy them. Just goes to show you never know what may happen in blog land. lol
If anyone else wants to buy some of the gift baggies or the soap clothes just send a convo to me here and we can discuss price, and I can make a listing just for you in my etsy shop.

It has been so hot here the past couple of days. Between laundry and the usual housework I've been trying to keep my mind focused on something other than the heat by being creative. Instead of making jewelry I wanted to "play around" with some of my other many hobbies.
So... I thought for today's blog post I would share those things with you.


I started off making 64 little silky fabric gift baggies. They are 5" X4" and I cut some cotton ties for each one. I love how every color of the rainbow runs through this fabric. I may use them to pack my jewelry sales. I may list them as a supply in my etsy shop. I really haven't decided but I had a blast making them. I'm glad I know how to use my sewing machine! :)

I call these Soap Cloths. You might look at these and think I am completely crazy, but bear with me and hear me out.
I really love these because each family member gets their own bar of soap and their own "washcloth". They are filled with Peggy's goat milk soaps which are just super for your skin! They lather extremely. You never have to stop mid wash and re-suds your washcloth, and you never drop your soap because the coasie acts as a grip.
Each one has a loop on the corner to hang your bar to dry between showers. The coasies are made of 100% cotton. They are refillable. Still think I'm crazy? lol
If you thought I was crazy with the Soap Cloth idea then you may really think I've flipped my wig on this one. It is a coffee filter memory book. Or at least it will be when it is finished. When the pages are open it kind of looks like a butterfly.
I am using #2 cone filters for the inner pages and a #4 cone filter to tuck the book away in. My hubby bought the wrong size filters one day so they've just been taking up shelf space ever since. Coffee filter books aren't new. They've been around about a s long as the paper bag albums, or so. I hope to finish this project tonight.



So there it is. I've been a sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking fool lately. Needed a little break from making jewelry. ;) If you made it this far, I thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a bit of feedback and let me know what you think. Yes, even if you think I'm crazy. lol