Blog your Heart

Blog your Hearts flows right into New Years resolutions for me! 

*I want to work on my patience and how I speak with my children.  I need to be more encouraging, more YES and less NO NO NO.  I have to remember to ALWAYS SPEAK KINDLY TO THEM  no matter what frame of mind I am in.

*I want to improve my relationship with my husband.  We have been so involved in the day to day life of raising kids we have forgotten about OUR relationship.  We need to make time for date nights.  It seems like he is gone all day, everyday and we just don't connect anymore.  We have to have more in common than just our kids.

*I need to focus on my goal and achieve it.  I feel so scattered all the time.  Like I never accomplish anything.  I need to pick one thing and be good at it....find my niche.   I'm not saying that I neglect my hobbies, but I think this is more about crafting as a business.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I would just love to be one of those people who crafts for a living (well, maybe a part time living!)

* I need to scrapbook Madison.  As the last of our kids she is so neglected.  LOL

*Church.  Weekly.

that's it.  I think. 
Thanks Stephanie.

Blessings

Sue

Packing up Christmas

Every year I say I am going to wait until after the New Year to put it all away.  But then I get to packing just "a little bit up" and soon enough, the tree is coming down, lights and garlands are being put into boxes and then the house looks empty.  Sigh.  The only sign that Santa was here anymore is the small  tree that I've decided to leave up and decorate for upcoming Valentine's Day and a few snowmen here and there.  The kids still have their trees in their room of course, and all the outside lights are up.  Today I may conquer the door garlands and lights and definitely the small Santa out back must go into hibernation.  Then its cleaning time and time to re decorate.  I only have a few items for Valentine's Day, but we'll be making more :)

I finally finished the floor in my craft room and got the threshold covers in place...thank goodness..another project off the list!  I also hung this little 3 piece placard I made that I think is just so hilarious. 

It's made of three painting canvas's that I watercolored and added some scrappy paper to.  I had these 1950's looking woman stickers like forever and I thought they were great for the project.  They speak to me!  One thing I am promising myself for the new year is to decorate my house for ME, not for what I think other people would like, but for what makes me love it.

Another of my resolutiions this year is to DRINK MORE WATER.

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS.

I'm hoping it will help in my goal for lose oh, say, 20 lbs!

Did I mention I broke my toe?  Ugh, it hurts so much.  Kicked a gate last week.  Add the "control the temper" to the New Years resolution list too, eh?  Lol.

Last night we decided to just kick back, listen to some music and just enjoy...

I'll post some pics later (hopefully) of the cleaned up New Year version of my space here in Georgia. 

But for now, we have to begin planning to celebrate the New Year with some yummy goodies, plans for a slumber party in the living room and trying to stay up until the ball drops! 

What are you planning for the New Year?

Happy days to you!

Sue

Accomplishments

I woke this morning before the kids and I am sitting here at my kitchen table in a perfectly still, quiet house.  The rain is falling heavily outside and the sky is dark and gray.  It's two days after Christmas and I'm feeling the urge to renew.  Renew myself, my spirit.  I checked into blogland this morning and found that many of my fellow bloggers are re visiting their lists from this past year.  List of their accomplishments, things they have yet to finish and thibgs they would like to do...well, here goes mine!

2011 Accomplishments:

Bought a home in Georgia, and moved out entire family 22 hours from what I always called home.
Sold our home in Pennsylvania.
Built a big old deck on the back of our home.
Had a playset installed for the kids.
Began raising chickens.
Got a dog.
Made a few new friends.
Painted the living room, dining room, master bedroom, one girls room and the craft room.
Sucessfully finished tiling my craft room floor.
Started a new job x3.
Quit a new job x2.
Started my on line classes for med transcription.
Planted a garden.
Started a compost pile.

and here's what I hope to accomplish in 2012:

Become a scout leader.
Blog for income.
Build my etsy store.
Complete my on line classes
Buy a second car.
Re paint the master bath and decorate it! 
Tile two showers.
Paint kitchen cabinets.
Build storage closet in upstairs and convert to family/guest room.
Expand the chicken coop.
Plant and maintain two square foot gardens for vegetables.
Grow an herb garden.
Plant two fruit trees on driveway.
Complete base of deck and put in flower garden beds around deck:  install base plants.
Plant tree in back yard.
Install shade rollers on back deck.
Paint hallway.
Become more involved at the kids school through PTA.
Host a kids Halloween party or Christmas party.
Have one summer picnic and one dinner party.
Make 5 new friends.
Learn how to get rid of gnats!

It's a pretty big list...but with a little help from God and my family...I'll get it done...well maybe not ALL of it!

What are you planning this year? 

Wishing you a joyful day!
sue

A Gem

Last night we went looking for a place called Thompson Farm here in Georgia.  Now, I'm not quite sure what town it's in, you see.  It's not well advertised and as the man there told us "they have no website, it's all word of mouth".  Well, my jaw dropped when we got there.  Far out a windy road you will drive up on this big line of arched lights....

There's no admission fee, they only ask for a canned food donation and of course, monetary donations are accepted as well.  As we exited and asked about what the place had been, one of the family told us it all "started in 1994 and it's just a bunch of Christmas lights".  He said they had about 8500 visitors since Thanksgiving!  At first I thought it was only what you could see from the initial drive...

After we passed by the main house, I was astounded to see we were turning into the woods!  There were tons of inflatables (much to Jacob's joy) and Christmas lights strung everywhere...angels and nativity scenes, Santa's and snowmen.  We turned into the woods and you could hear a train whistle blowing...you passed by tons of outbuildings decorated for the season, old cars and older farm equipment scattered throughout this windy road through the woods.  A decoated steeple, a fake trains station, a livery...it was unbelievable!

My camera card was full so I got 0 pics of the wooded area...we may have to go back tonight!

Then way far back into the woods you come upon this old Western towne!  You can park in the corral and take pics...all of it is a fake front, but it's unbelievable!  The town (as the gentleman at the gate told us) grew from his love of black and white Western's

So, if you are out in my neck of the woods, take a drive down Lakeview Road and turn left onto Old River Road North until you come to Thompson Farms.  You'll be glad you did!

Happy Holidays!

Sue

Celebrating Solstice

Now, I thought I had a fancy idea in my head this year to celebrate winter Solstice...turns out, I've been celebrating it all along!  Well the last few years anyway, back home in Bethlehem....festival of lights?  Every year a woman from the women's shelter in town would come and sell luminary bagsas a fundraiser.  My !
neighbors and I would put them out on Dec 22 and the sidewalks would be bathed in beautiful light.  I for some reason, didn't equate it with solstice!  Ha ha!

Well, this year, since I thought I had found an earthy new way to celebrate...we did this little twist.  I put out some white luminary bags in the driveway and around the pond (pardon the pics please!)

Then we all gathered around a big old campfire and sang carols (mostly led by Emma...Sam even sang Jingle Bells!) and the kids made up scary stories, we talked about what winter Solstice is and roast marshmallows.

(hopefully Santa will bring Emmy her two front teeth this year!)

Here's a view of the house from across the pond.  It was really pretty!

Hope you enjoyed the Solstice too!

Blessings!

Sue

christmas around here..

Around here, Christmas is about handmade ornaments that my kids bring home from school.  Bags of reindeer food in decorated bags, pipe cleaner stars and the like.

Santa face handprints....to remember when they were

oh-so-small!

Christmas is about these little hooligans running around here.

Excited every morning that it's just one day closer!

Busy, busy, but so fun!

Hope your holidays are memorable too!

sue

mantra

sue

63 peeps pops later....

Last night I made up 63 Peeps snowman pops.  Each back dipped in chocolate and then crushed candy canes.  Wrapped and tied and ribbons curled.  Labors of love I tell you!

what's your labour today?

sue

Snowman Ka-bobs!

Late this evening...(well, really most of the day) I worked and worked on my Christmas TO DO list.  My list isn't about gifts, it's about things I have to make.  Little things..like cupcakes, and peeps pops and simple bags.  Homemade things because that's what it's all about.  Gifts from the heart, not from the store!

Since Emma has her Daisy Scout troop meeting tomorrow, I wanted to make something special for the girls.  Now, before I lived in Georgia, I lived in Bethlehem, PA... Home of Peeps.  We had a funny little Peep car that drove around town with a giant yellow marshmallow duck on the top.  I was devastated to find that Peeps are not popular here (say that three times fast!) because I like to skewer them and dip them in chocolate to convert them to lollipops.  I was able to find snowman Peeps so they became my unsuspecting ka-bobs!

Now, I'm frugal and Bi-Lo wanted like $2.50 for a little tiny thing of sprinkles (hey it was where I was at and I was toting four kids, so I wasn't going bargain hunting elsewhere!).  So I made my own.  One plastic baggie, four candy canes and a metal spoon.  Voila!  Peppermint sprinkles!

Hello Mr. Peepy Snowman!

Minty and chocolate..yum!

Now I didn't take apic of it, but I wrapped them up in a clear bag and tied them with festive curling ribbon and popped them into a Christmas cookie box that I found (Must have bought them last year on clearance!  Ha!  cool!)

So there you have it.  Instant pops that the kids love.  Very easy.  Just pop them on a stick.  Dip their backs in chocolate and then in crushed peppermint.

It's love on a stick.

Happy Day to you!

Sue

Homemade gift totes

Oh, now these are fun and so easy.  I saw them on another blog recently done with magazine pages, but since I have like a bazillion pieces of scrapbooking paper laying about, I decided to use that.  Now, the bags are for my kids teachers at Brooklet Elementary (which is the greatest school...EVER!)  So, here's what I did...

Gather 4 pieces of paper. 

I sewed a tree on one piece only.  ( This will be the front panel piece)

Sew two of them together only at the top (wrong sides together)  This is your front panel.  Sew the other two together at the top the same way.  This is your back panel.  Using the two sheets per panel makes it sturdier.

Align them up and sew a zig zag stitch up the other three sides.

Punch holes to place ribbon handles in.

Add a pretty gift tag.

Done!

Here's how mine turned out...

Aren't they cute??? 

Think of how you could personalize this!!!!

this one has a little twist...the sides are accordian folded magazine pages..

Loving this one...pretty colors...

Did I mention I love, love, love polka dots?

Can you guess who this one is for?  Ha!

We love our bus driver!

*******************

Wanna see what's going into the bags?

I know you do

and

I

want

to show you!

Christmas bunting!

I so love bunting!

Especially when it's done in simple fabrics. 

These were super easy.  The panels are a drop cloth

sewn with a zig zag stitch.  I topped it with binding and added cotton

twine on the ends to hang it.   I added little jingle bells to them as well.

I made four different one's and the kids got to choose which one's they wanted to give.

So they are happily wrapped up in tissue paper inside the goodie bags.

All in all, a fun crafting night.

And I checked alot off my to do list!

Hope you are getting stuff done too!

Sue

Linking this up at Tatertots and Jello Holly Blogging Linky Party!

Easy Peanut Brittle

It's that time...time to make some homemade goodies for the holidays...number one item on my goodie list is Microwave Peanut Brittle!
This stuff flies out of my kitchen like hot cakes and it's super easy to make! I'll be packaging it in mason jars and attaching a pretty tag as gifts to friends, teachers, scout-mates...who knows else!

I found the recipe at All-Recipes...

Mix 1/2 cup light corn syrup and 1 cup of sugar in microwave safe bowl.
Microwave on high for 4 minutes.
Add 1 cup of salted peanuts.
Microwave for 3/5 minutes.
Add one teaspoon of vanilla and one teaspoon of baking soda.
(Watch out! It's hot and it foams up)
Pour onto buttered cookie sheet.
Chill and break into pieces.

A sweet treat for the holidays...and easy too!

Happy day to you!

Sue

Linking this up at...

Tatertots and Jello for the Holly Bloggy Christmas Linky Party!

Join us!

Join Gina for a week long party....lots of giveaways and inspiration!

Only 12 days till Christmas Eve!

Sue

kid fun stuff

Ahhh...remember when you were a kid and you made those shoebox diorama's at school? Last night the kids and I got on our crafty pants and played around. No rules, just creating and having fun!

We made salt dough ornaments....

Jacob was really getting into it!

Easy salt dough recipe: 2 cups of flour + 1 cup of salt + 1 cup warm water

I saw this on a blog post (somewhere in my travels this week!)
so I took a holiday stamp with Christmas writing and stamped it into mine before I threw them into the oven.  I'm going to use them on my christmas gifts and little tags.  Cute! 

I also saw this online this week....what a whimsical idea!  Reminds me of Cindy Lou Who!

And this...this is a secret little gift for someone....(it's ok, they don't DO blogs so it's safe to post it!)

Jacob is all about decorating this year (don't you love a 7 year old mind?)

We (tried to) make some paper houses...he already has plans to put lights inside and glue people in the windows!

And then there was a shoebox laying around....

If you have a shoebox and some leftover crafty stuff...let your kids do this!  My kids had a blast making

this and so did I!

Hope you are getting your crafty fun on this holiday season!

happy weekend!

Sue