World Wide Knit In Public Day

World Wide Knit In Public Day is the largest knitter run event in the world.

Each local event is put together by a volunteer or a group of volunteers

The dates for 2012 are June 9th to the 17th.  The second Saturday to the third Sunday in June. 

9 whole days of fun! 

You can get your special gear here...buttons, t-shirts, bags and more!

There is no way

that I can do it all!

Felt and a little elf costume got me to thinking.  Thinking about some adorable little things to make and maybe even sell.  But there is no time.  No time at all.  What to do?!  Start now!  If I start now, I will (maybe) ready for next year.  Would that just be awesome if I were actually ready for next year?!  Yeah!

Ok - here is what I'm thinking...
My youngest son loves crafts.  He wants to learn everything that I know how to do.  Knit, crochet, sew, stitch, glue or whatever else there is to do with crafts.  By the way - I don't glue very much at all.
So...I found these links and I am gathering my things and getting ready for next year and here they are...
Felt -o-rama
Felt Mitten and Ice Skate Ornament
Peppermint Swirl Ornament
Felt Christmas Ornaments
Christmas Owl Ornament
Felt Christmas Ornament
Wintertime Felt Ornaments
Embroidered Felt Ornament
Peppermint Candy Stars
Cute Elf Shoes
Partridge Ornament
15 Felt Ornaments to make
Ginger Bread family and a Guinea Pig
Felt Birdcage Ornament
Felt Ice Skates
Jingle Mouse Ornament
Peppermint Bark
Candy Cane Mice
Make a Snow Globe

I think you may have an idea now as to why I can't do it all.

Lazy me

I know somebody somewhere thinks I sit around watching soap operas all day and that I never get anything done.  Well you know what? They are wrong.  Some days I never get anything done but it isn't because I sit around watching soap operas.  So...here is a little bit of what I do...
These things are not in order of how they were done.  Sometimes in a world of chaos, we just take things as they come, order or no order.

We moved a chicken house. 

I crocheted a few (at least 75) flowers for a wonderful person.

We found a corn snake and put him in a safer place.

I finally learned how to make a "tooth brush" rug.

I found a sunbeam in my yard.

We hiked 3.2 miles and swung on a vine.

We saw a Fox Squirrel on a post.

The dog even helped roll the kids around in the barrel.

We rolled our kids around in a barrel.

We stuffed a kid in a barrel.

Almost 50 pounds of sweet potatoes.

Me and the boys dug some sweet potatoes.

The SWAT bus I drove in the memorial day parade.

I bought the piece to fix the toilet.  I was going to fix it but

 my husband beat me to it.

 

The tiny screen from the cold water for the washing machine.

This is what came out of the screen.

This is what it should look like.  No sediments clogging it up.

I fixed the washing machine while Superman was out of town.  This was to fix the agitator.

I Love Yarn Day

Simply amazing! Yes, you read it right...I Love Yarn Day. Who woulda thunkit!
And before I get side tracked and forget what I was talking about...October 14th is the official "I Love Yarn Day". How utterly cool is that!

So Little Time

or The Count Down. I have a few more days before my surgery and I'm starting the countdown thing. Really, it's the kids that are doing the countdown. I'm just ready for the recovery. The docs office called today to let me know that there will be 2 surgeries done on my hand at the same time. Yeah - 2 (two). I had some test done to see if I have Carpal Tunnel and guess what...I have it. It isn't a bad case but shoot, why wait.

I'm a little worried now about the healing time and such. Why? Well I am teaching VBS the first week of August. I know that teaching isn't a big deal but...Crafts - me and the boys have lots of crafts to do that will be props. We want the kids to get a feel of what we are teaching not just listen to it. I really want the kids to get something out of the class. Today we started making some paper mache coconuts and some wood planks out cardboard and contact paper. The wood planks will be used to make cardboard boxes look like wood crates. Oh it looks awesome! Check out the Amazon Expedition

And just to remind you there is ... So Little Time.

Did you notice?

Did you notice? I mean - really...did you? I have made a few changes. Some time back the changes were kinda forced on me. I have to laugh about that part. The forced part. I was doing a little editing of the ole blog and I guess I edited way too much. Yeah - like things were just gone. Oh I was mad. I'm talking MAD! Not a cigarette anywhere (cause I was quittin) and I was MAD. Now that I'm over all that, I think I will work on this thing again. I won't post everyday but I sure will try to post more than what I have in the last year.

I have lots of pictures to show that I have been doing things. For example, today I helped one of the neighbor girls with an Earth Day project. (oh yeah - no pic of that) Anyway, I told them to save me all of their juice packs because I am addicted to that.

Gotta run for now. I have a few things to take care of. I have bible study in the morning and I don't wanna miss it like I did last week.

Not Much Happening

I say there's not much happening but then again I could say that life is happening. We all know that life happens. No matter how we want to slow down time or even stop time at times, it just goes on and on.

For us the weather has been warm and cold. Not hot, but warm and cold. During our warm days we can actually wear shorts. During our cold days we certainly have to bundle up. One day the ac is running and the next day the heat is on. We are still way below the average rain level. We did get a little rain this weekend, maybe an inch. Just enough to make the sand stick to your shoes so you could track it in the house. And of course we had company yesterday and a lot of sand was tracked in the house. It's ok though, because the dogs bring in a lot of sand all the time.

Over the holidays I only gave the boys a few days off from their lessons. If I give them too much time they seem to have a huge memory loss. Is that with all kids? I'm actually wondering who is learning more, me or them. LOL At least one of us is learning.

I have worked on a few crafts. I actually finished a small quilt that I had started about 2 years ago. The boys really like it. We use it to snuggle up with when we are watching a movie.
I started another quilt last night. I dug through my scraps of material and started getting them in some type of order and cutting out squares for the quilt. I want to get really creative with quilts but I have a lot to learn when it comes to quilting. I have a book somewhere that has a little info about quilting but I think it covers more on applique than actually quilting. Yes, I want to try applique also.

I am still working on my gather points. I just got a free gift card to Home Depot and I can hardly wait to spend it. I'm working on getting my second gift card. I kinda thought I would save up my gift cards and maybe buy some paint.

Homemade Christmas Crafts

I horde things...Imagine that! I don't mean that I am a pack rat. I just mean that I keep some scraps of material, frozen juice lids, yarn, and, well you know. You're a crafter so you do the same thing. Today these little treasures paid off.

Here are a couple of things that the boys and I did for the holidays.

Card stock paper folded in half. I drew little stockings on the wrong side of some jeans material that I had left over. I wrote the boy's names on each stocking. I cut a tiny rectangle for the tap or stocking holder. I glued all of the material (stocking) pieces onto one half of the paper. I used an Elegant Writer pen (from Michaels craft store) and wrote "Merry Christmas", Twas The Night Before Christmas" and "Jesus is the reason" on the cards.

I cut little triangles out of left over jeans material and glued it to the inside of each card. I used the little triangles to hold the pictures inside the cards. It gives the card a little photo album or scrapbook look to the cards.

On the frozen juice lids I glued the stockings on one side of the lids. On the back side of the frozen juice lids, I glued a long scrap of jeans material. The loop on the back is made to hang these little ornaments on our tree.

The 3 R's

You know what the 3 R's are. I know you do. It amazes me how many ways the 3 R's are used. I remember them as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Those are the 3 basic things we need to get through life. How about this.

Reduce - Recycle - Reuse

I like those too. And I am gonna give you a few little hints, ideas or whatever you wanna call them.

Reduce -
So easy, just use less. I bet you are thinking, "Now how can I do that?". Well there are several ways. So you just have to use disposable plates, ok, use paper instead of Styrofoam. Paper breaks down so much faster than Styrofoam. How about getting yourself some cloth bags to use when you go shopping. You can use those bags over and over again, creating less plastic bags being used. The drive thru - what a waste. The drive thru waste gas, and that's a fact. Park your car and walk inside. Not only are you reducing the fuel that you are using, but you are getting more exercise.

Recycle -
Some people just hate the idea of recycling. No, I have no clue why they hate it. Unless it just takes up way to much of their time to separate plastic from cans or what not. Maybe it takes too much of their time to haul an extra container out to the curb for pick up.

ReUse -
Tacky! Not! To reuse something is not tacky. I mean you reuse the same pair of shoes and the same purse. So what's the big deal?! ReUse is one of the most simple things. Find ways that you can be creative in what you reuse. Every one's doing it. Ok, maybe not everyone, but you know what I meant.

As for me and my family, we will use the 3 R's. Reading, writing, arithmetic. Reduce, recycle, reuse.
Today we loaded our aluminum cans on the back of the truck. We strapped them all down and off down the road we went. The back of the truck was full to the point of splitting at the seams. Darn good thing I know how to strap things down - we didn't loose the first can. The total weight of our cans was 248 pounds. The total of our cash for the cans was $151.20. Not only did we do something for the earth, we put some cash in our pockets. I don't think that the boys will throw away another can.

We try our best not to buy things that come in plastic containers. However, I am really impressed that plastic is being recycled more and more. Did you know that the carpet in your home could be made from recycled milk cartons. Yes - it's true.

We are also using some old pallets to make things. The boys get the experience of using a hammer, saw, nails and a few other really cool tools. We try to be creative with our 3 R's.
I want to make homemade paper. I'm gonna do it. The one thing that I am missing from already making homemade paper is the blender. I have never, ever owned a blender. Hmm...I think my mom may have one, I know she used to have one. Mental note to self - call mom, ask if she still has her blender. And I have a couple of idea with dryer lint.

I'm off to bed for now, gotta go and dream up ways to use my 3 R's.

Our Christmas Tree

We are in the process of decorating for Christmas. I'm not much in the mood, but that's a long story. Regardless of my mood, Christmas is on it's way. The boys are so excited about the whole Christmas thing. For them to have done without for so long, they deserve every happy moment that they have.

Friday - All 5 of us went out to eat and then off to buy Christmas decorations. I'm not sure who wanted the most decorations, Superman or the Boys. I think it may have been a tie. We didn't go over board at all, but we did get some really nice things. The decorations that we got are mostly for the tree, we did get a few for inside the house. We also bought a few presents, some of them are for the boys to make for their grandparents. The boys and I will be doing a few crafts for school work. We will all color a few pictures that we can hang up and of course the crafts for gifts.

Saturday - Time to get a tree. We went to a Christmas Tree Farm to find the perfect tree for us. Why a tree farm? I am more an artificial tree person myself, but Superman is all for the real thing. Superman likes the smell, he is the one that does most of the work with cutting it and hauling it, so I am ok with that. What really amazed me about our tree is that it only cost $25. A 7 foot Christmas tree for $25. Now I like that. Especially when the places around town are asking $75 and more.

We walked and walked, looking for the perfect tree. You could tell that most people didn't walk very far from the little shed where you picked up a saw and a cart to carry your tree. I guess the walking and smelling the fresh air was just way too much for them. Not for us! We walked some more. Then we turned around and went back to the front of the property. Then we turned around and walked back down the rows of trees. They were all so beautiful and it was a tough decision.

Finally, we decided on which tree to take home. It had an aroma that was so strong, it smelled of the outdoors and of the tree itself. This is it we all said - this is our special tree. So we start the process of cutting it down. Everyone had the chance to saw a little bit. Once it was cut, we loaded it on a cart and took it to the shed. Once we got to the shed, the tree was put on a shaker machine - this shakes all the dead nettles out of it, then it was wrapped with some type of net material - this is to hold it together for the drive home. We loaded it on the car and off down the road we went.

Once we got home we took the tree off of the top of the car, carried it to the front door and then started getting it into the stand. Once it was inside we had to adjust it. We all worked together to make everything come together nicely.

We set up the video camera and that's when the fun began. Shoot, we haven't even watched the video yet, but I can tell you right now, it's gonna be fall-on-the-floor-split-your-sides-laughing-funny. No doubt about it.

Here we all are in front of the tree. What tree? Next year we may all have to sit in front of the tree, just to be able to see it.

In the Middle of

Right now I am in the middle of a lot of things. And in general, that's how it is. Some people call it to many irons in the fire. Regardless of what it's called, that's where I'm at.

My family is running from here to there and we seem to be just spinning our wheels. Even with spinning our wheels, things are getting done. Granny Karen is coming home tomorrow from rehab. I am thinking of taking the boys to Publix on Saturday for the pumpkin painting fun. My sister is flying in on the 30th. She even said that she would go Trick or Treating with us. That's gonna be a blast. My mom has surgery on the 31st. I'm still giving Tigger some meds. I just have a couple more days of that. It's not to bad if you hold him right. Yeah - and just how do you hold a cat to shove a pill down his throat? Very carefully!

No matter how many loads of laundry I do in one day, it always seems like the laundry basket is still running over. At least the boys have picked up a lot of the chores and they are even starting to do them without being told. Sometimes I have to give gentle little reminders, but I can deal with that. Every Sunday I assign different chores to everyone. Instead of us trying to remember them, I post them on the refrigerator. I know they all see it on the refrigerator because they drink tea like it's going out of style.

I've been working on a couple of crafts. Yes, more than one. Go figure. I just finished a beautiful baby blanket for a friend. About a week ago, I started an afghan for one of the boys for Christmas. It's camo, which is all 3 of their favorite colors. I wonder how in the world I'm ever gonna tell them apart. Oh well, I'll worry about that later. Today I started making a few more cloth bags. I make them from pants and shorts that the boys have outgrown. Some of the clothes I can pass down but most of them I can't. My boys like to play in the dirt and help their dad with working on greasy stuff. Some things you just can't shout out. LOL
One of most impressive crafts right now is plastic bags. Oh yeah, back on the eco thing again. By the way, I stay on it. Before we started using cloth bags (recycled from clothing) we would get lots of bags every time we went grocery shopping. I searched online and I found an awesome way to recycle them.

Marlos Crochet Corner has this awesome Plastic Tote Bag that you can make. There is a link on the website for the instructions on cutting and tying the bags. Once I get enough of the bags cut and tied, I'll start crocheting them. I thought that I would make at least one bag (probably many more) and use them when we go grocery shopping. I'm not worried about any certain color pattern right now. Most of my bags are white with black writing on them. It's silly for me to go out and find different color bags, that really defeats the purpose anyway. And if this works out, I thought that I would ask my friends to save their bags for us.

Superman has come up with the idea that we should make Christmas stockings instead of buying them. Of course I have all this material that I hoard, so it won't be difficult finding material to use. He has the idea that all 5 of us can make them one weekend. It sounds like an awesome family project to me. I'll have to let you know how that goes.

In the next day or so, I'll tell you all about our pumpkin carving that we did last night.

Full Calendar

Have you ever wondered when it will every end? What ever "It" is. Well some days I wonder. This whole month has been a month from - yep - you guessed it. Oh yeah - and we are only 11 days into this darn month. What will the rest of the month bring?

Granny Karen has had her knee surgery this morning. MJ has surgery on the 23rd of this month. And my mom will be having surgery on the 31st. I have heard all my life that things come in three's. Will the surgeries are certainly coming in three's.

My October calendar is certainly full. And now I have to write more things on it. I think it may just be full after this. LOL And I just got a call from my sister saying that I need to pick her up at the airport on the 30th of this month. I knew about it but I had kinda forgotten. Just as long as I don't forget on the 30th I'll be ok.

Our weather was much cooler this morning. It was very nice to walk out the door and not feel like you're walking into an oven.

Yesterday the boys and I decided that we would have class on the road. We had a doctors appointment for MJ and from there I wanted to run by the book store. I couldn't find any books by James Patterson on sale. I did buy another "Wee Sing" cd for the boys. I love these little songs on these cd's. Once we left the book store, we decided to go over the Target and just look around. We have been looking for some Halloween cookie cutters and couldn't find them anywhere. We found them at Target, they were right inside the door and they were only $1 a pack. Pretty darn good deal.

We have been doing a little paper mache'. It is so very messy but so much fun. We are making pumpkins. I really have no idea how they are going to turn out but right now they look really cool. We started out with a balloon and then we started layering the paper mache'. We tied a string to the balloon so that we could hang them to dry. We are making them in a couple of stages because we want them to be sturdy. I'm excited about decorating them!

WW is baking cookies right now. He just said to me that he has never baked cookies before. I bought a roll of the toll house cookies and I got him started baking and off he ran with it. Chocolate chip cookies too! Yummy!

Even though our calendar is full, we are finding time to have fun and spend time with each other. It's very important to enjoy your family no matter how busy your life becomes or how full your calendar gets.

Better Ending to a Bad Start

Well I have to say that my 1 mile walk/trot thing was my workout for the day. I had all kinds of plans on what I wanted to accomplish today, but things happen. The horses made sure that I managed to get my exercise this morning. I guess they just figured I needed it - and of course - I did need the exercise. Thank you CoCo, Shadow and Redman!

After my little rodeo, I decided that I was pretty much done for the day. With the August heat outside and the air conditioner on inside - hmm... think I'll stay cool for the rest of the day. I started doing a few things inside and then I thought about getting a few errands done. Darn good thing I did. By doing 2 errands today I saved almost $100. Here's how I did it...

I decided to go ahead and run over to our local home school store and buy the Lifepac material that I needed to start school on the 20th of this month. They didn't have all the material that I needed, so I ordered it. By paying for the items today, I didn't have to pay State sales tax. Yes - no tax until midnight tonight for school purchases. How cool is that?! I had a store credit of $42.95 also. WW and JD will be starting in the 5th grade, so I don't have to buy the teachers guide for one set. That in it self saved me another $40. So with the credit, the discount for not needing the 2nd teachers guide and the no sales tax, I think I did pretty darn good. We were looking at $250 for each child, making it a total of $750. However, I managed to get all my material paid for at a grand total of $516.00. Yippee!

Off to Walmart I hurried so I could pick up a few last minute little things (3 chairs, 3 binders, 3 pair of scissors, 3 sets of binder dividers, 2 erasers and a quilt marking pen for me). We're getting ready for our big day - our first day of home school. I think the boys are as excited as I am. I showed all the material to Superman and I thought he was gonna cry. We both are so happy that we are able to love and provide for our 3 boys.

I almost forgot to mention that I started a quilt pattern today. I haven't quilted in several months of Sundays. So for now, I am off to bed (and lookie at that, it's before midnight), really early doctor appointment in the morning. Nighty, night, night!

Recent Sewing Things

I think I mentioned that I have been doing a little sewing in the last couple of days. I put together some curtains for our homeschool classroom. They have a map of the world on them. The cutest darn things (or so I think). All of the primary colors too. WW and JD helped me sew them and they really enjoyed the project.

Yesterday I made curtains for our den. Of course they are John Deere print. I had to think for over an hour on how to hang them. Finally it came to me...I had some left over legs from a pair of jeans, so sure enough, I used the jeans material and I left the seam out for them the ravel. How cool is that?! Superman picked out the material and he said that he would love to have curtains made with the material. I orginally had a sunflower print hanging underneath them but I just didn't like the look. Yes, I made the sunflower curtains too and now I have them set aside for another window.

Check this out! I think I am the proudest of my little jeans project. My youngest son MJ somehow managed to ruin a new pair of Wrangler Jeans. Me being the thrifty and frugal person that I am thought that I would try to fix them. Well I tried. Sometimes things are just not repairable. I kept the jeans out and I thought and thought about what to do with them. I just didn't want to throw them out. It finally hit me! So I pulled out the sewing machine and started planning and sewing. I cut the legs off just above the crotch, that way I could fix the rip below the zipper. Here is what I came up with...a clothes pin bag!

I took the legs from the jeans and made a cute little bag. Sometimes when there are jeans that no one wears, I will cut them up and save them for later use. I had some pockets left over from another pair of jeans and added them to the bag. I had some heavy duty camo material, scraps from another project that I made handles out of. I know they kinda look like a pair of short shorts, but that really is the whole thought. Well that and the idea of recycling instead of putting something else in the landfill. To use the clothes pin bag, the easiest way would be to untie the bow and unzip the zipper. So watcha think?

I put all of the seams on the outside of the bag for them the ravel and I think it looks really neat. I can't wait to take it to the grocery store and load it up. It is heavy enough to tote the heaviest of thing. Now if I can only tote it once it is loaded up. But who says that I have to fill it to the top.

I am thinking about selling things like this. I love to create them. They are all orignal - designed and sewn by the 3 of us...Me, Myself and I.

Summer Is Almost Over

Or so they say. Here in Florida in the month of August, we break a sweat just thinking about going outside. Seriously, we do. And it's a good thing that we have cloth seats in our SUV, if we had leather or vinyl...we would have fried thigh. LOL Funny how our hottest month is almost the end of summer. We swim up until the weather gets cold though and that could be until Christmas. And to think that Christmas is just around the corner too. Wow, I haven't even mentioned school starting again either. Yes, school is almost here too.
Do you have any big plans for the last days of summer? Anything up your sleeve for the few days left before school starts? We have more swimming days planned. We didn't get much swimming in last week because of all the rainy days. I mean every day it rained and rained and rained. We need the rain though.

The boys were supposed to go to camp this week. JD didn't want to go today because of issues with 2 or 3 kids that keep picking on the other kids. It was his choice whether to go or not. And today when JD and I picked up WW and MJ, we heard all about all of the picking on the other kids is still going on. This is 4-H camp! How can this be happening?! And it is the same 2 or 3 kids that keep causing trouble with the other kids. It has to stop. At this point I am considering writing a letter. Superman is not happy with it either. WW and MJ said that they don't want to go back to camp this week. I will not make them go and be uncomfortable and submit them to being picked on and talked down to.

I did a little more sewing today. I made some really cool curtains for our den. The only thing is - I can't seem to get the bottom material to match. In other words the curtains are kinda like cafe curtains. A curtain at the top and one at the bottom. I am thinking about buying some crocker sack material and seeing if that will match. My batteries for my camera are on charge right now, so hopefully I will be able to get some pictures and show them to you in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I have a swimming trip planned to the springs. The boys are all excited about going to the springs. They have even ask Granny Karen to go and she said yes. I think the boys finally got their job done for her. WW and JD came home yesterday with a 100 dollar bill. I had to go to the bank today and get it changed for them, but I got 2 fifties and gave them each their money. Now they want to start a savings account. Well I am off to do a little more research because I just came across an awesome homeschool website.

Superman Trips

Well - not really. I should say, Superman's trip. But that doesn't even sound humorous, so I just changed around a letter. I figure what the heck, if the School Board could leave an "s" out, then I might as well use it.

Superman just direct connected me on my walkie talkie phone. That means he is closer to civilization. LOL He actually called me 2 times today on the land line, to tell me about what he found and the offer he was going to make. We discussed the property and in all honesty, I am kinda confused. But with the last call (the direct connect) here is what I know for a fact.

A CONTRACT IS SIGNED

Isn't that exciting?! And to think - I couldn't sleep before. I know I need to go to bed now but I will not be able to sleep. No need to tossing and turning and just messing up the bed more than I do already. Mmmmm...7am sure is gonna come extra early in the morning. I wonder why I feel like I am about to enter in the panic attack world right now? Excited? Not sure. Maybe it's that 7am thingy! Not that I can't get up at 7am or that I don't usually get up early, it's just knowing that I'm not gonna get much sleep tonight.

Sometime this afternoon I pulled out 3 Rubbermaid tubs that are full on my hoards of yarn, material, patterns and just bits and pieces of craft things. I started sorting through it and now it is laying all over the place. Well not all over the place but all over the dining table, my desk and a few dining chairs. I want to organize all of these things, but then I ask myself...If I organize it, will I be able to find any of those things? Maybe and maybe not. Ok, I know what I need to do. I need to sit and just go through some of my yarn, material and patterns. I have a couple of ideas and that is what led me to pull all of it out anyway. So off I go to play in my tubs of stuff. Have a great night or day (whatever time it is in your part of the universe)!

Stay tuned for "Superman Returns".

Doing A Few Things

We are setting up our little homeschool room. It is going to awesome! Yesterday we took a little trip to Walmart and I browsed around looking and thinking and getting ideas to go with the ideas in my head on how I wanted to set up the classroom. I got it! I bought folding desk (3 of them) that are easy to move around and they can be folded in case we need the room or even want to take the classroom outside. How cool! I love the craft section of every store, I think I spent almost 2 hours just looking at material. I found some awesome material that I wanted to make curtains our of. The material is all in primary colors and it has all of the countries printed on it. The boys love it! Yesterday and into last night, WW, JD and I started cutting and sewing. I had a small piece of material (primary colors) that made excellent hanging tabs to sew to the top of the material. The curtains hang from about 1/4 the way down the window and rest on the window sill. We used the spring loaded curtain rods, that way we can move the curtains up or down. I think that will let in enough light and prevent the boys from day dreaming out the window. And the curtains can be used to learn about different countries and we the United States is located in relation to other countries. I know - I'm still patting myself on the back for this one!

Now if I can just get this junk moved from the middle of the room. Junk - a file cabinet that I may use (but I doubt it), it's just so big and takes up so much room. There's a microwave cart that who knows what I will do with it. It's really nice but there is just no room for it. I also have 2 really nice old tables that I remember using in school. They are very useful and I have no plans of parting with. I just don't know what to do with them right now. Oh yeah - tubs of material and yarn that I hoard. Imagine that! I turn around and look at the stuff (junk) and I also see a stereo cabinet that I have no clue as to what to do with. Yard sale? Probably a great idea but I really hate having them! Guess I need to bite the bullet and just have a yard sale.

We also took down some curtains in the den, threw away the old ratty blinds, cleaned the blinds from our front room (there were salvageable) and put them in the den. I bought some sheer material (dark blue) that was on sale for $1 a yard (I bought 7 yards) and this is what we hung around the window frame. It looks pretty darn good for $7, if I do say so myself.

The other day, nope I don't remember what day. I found a pair of MJ jeans that somehow he managed to rip in more than one place. I cut the legs off just above the crotch and made a clothes pin bag from them. It's the most adorable thing. I still have the legs of the jeans and I think that I will make us a resuable grocery bag out of them. I need to find something really strong for the straps. I know somewhere I have some sturdy straps that I cut off of something else that I can use, now I just have to remember where they are.

My Most Recent Finds

Well it's late again, and I am up while the rest of the family is sleeping. I really messed up today because I took a 2 hour nap. I call it a cat nap because every little thing would make my ears perk up just like a cat. Naps are generally out of the question for me because I have enough trouble sleeping normal hours. Generally when I get sleepy during the day, I will busy myself in some way. I usually get a lot done by just piddling around.
This morning we managed to get some low hanging limbs cut from around the barn. WW hauled 3 trailer loads with the four wheeler and there are about 3 more loads left on the ground for all of us to clean up tomorrow. I managed to get a few more things added to my little flower garden.
As soon as this roll of hay is gone, we are going to redo the inside of the barn. It's pretty funny that I even call it a barn. It started out as one of those metal sheds that Sears used to sell. You know the ones, they rust in about 2 years. A few years back we had a tin roof over it and my dad and my father in-law came over and helped us add on to it and pull the old rusty shed out. Now it's an L shape shed. But it just sounds much better when I call it a barn. I keep the horse feed and the hay in it and it is located in our little paddock, so we have come to call it a barn. I just like the sound of "barn" better anyway.

Since I am awake and everyone else is asleep, it really gives me some time online without being interrupted. So I browse through my emails, read a few blogs and in general just get caught up online.

Here are a few things that I just found that I really like and wanted to share them with you.

Maggie's Musings is a very interesting blog.
Martha Stewart has a lot of great tips and a website that can keep one busy all day. I especially like the crafts Martha Stewart Crafts.
If you are looking for low-cost, home-cooking from scratch, you really must check out HillBilly HouseWife. Owned by Miss Maggie. She is also the owner of An Old-Fashioned Education, where you will find a directory of free homeschool curricula, literature and text books organized for the use of homeschooling families.

I know I certainly will be looking around these websites. I like the whole issue of free.

Karisma and Kids

You have got to check out the other side of the world. 2 friends that met somehow, someway online and have really hit it off and look forward to reading each others blogs. I think Karisma is just so wonderful and I love reading her blog now that she has finally started one. I love the colors that she has used for her blog. It is awesome - just like her.
Take a trip on the wild side with Karisma...

Karisma and Kids
The ramblings of nutty aussie mama of five very spirited kids, 2 dogs, a cockatiel with attitude, A Rat called Rupert and an Axylotl. Welcome to my world of children, homeschooling, crafting and coastal life in Australia..................

Karisma from Down Under

Welcome aboard Karisma. You can read more about Karisma in her
introduction. She has joined Love Country Living and we are so glad to have her. Karisma is from Australia. I love the way it is called Down Under. Karisma homeschools and crafts. I am very thankful to have her with us.