Candy Cane Themed Christmas

This year I am going with a candy cane themed Christmas. I have found so many ornaments and ribbons, etc that fit this, so it seemed like the way to go. And candy canes are a "sweet" decoration. This is a candy cane holder for our mantle. Got the idea from someone on Pinterest. Loved it, so I made one. It was so easy. Just hot glued some polka dot ribbon loops on the underside of a wide red ribbon. The wide red ribbon is what lays across the top of the mantle. Then insert the candy canes. I used leftover "3M Command Strips" to hold the wide ribbon in place. Just took about 20 minutes to complete!

Been on Vacation!

Well dear bloggy friends, I have been on vacation. From blogging and literally a vacation! Not much of a vacation though, just down the road to Fort Worth for about 4 days while my hubby was at a convention. It was a great time! Had lunch at Billy Bob’s, roped a calf (not a real one though) and watched ladies that had a lot more energy than me take line dancing lessons. Ate at Razoo’s and Cowtown Diner at Sundance Square and they were delish! 

Well my blogging vacation wasn’t really due to being away, but more that my mind has been away.  I have been focused on other things lately. Our oldest son is going through some really tough times right now. His wife left him in January and has just now told him that she does want to divorce. It has been a tough 6 months, not knowing and fearing the worst. On top of all of that, he lost his job in February and that was devastating. The extra time on his hands gave him too much time to worry and he fell into a depressed state. Bless his heart!  My heart has been so heavy because of this!  But PRAISE GOD! He is getting better. In the last 2 weeks he was able to get some depression medicine regulated (some of it would not work, but the doctor finally got a good combination) and this is the best part….He got a job!!!  We are so thankful! The job and good medicine will help him get back on his feet.  He is already SOOOO much better now.  Please pray for him if you can. He is still struggling some with his situation. We are so hopeful that he will be better soon.  But mostly we are praising God because he is in control and will bring us all through this much stronger than before.

Love you all friends!

Texas Buttons

Here are some Texas buttons I made and any of my sweet friends are welcome to grab one for your blog!

New Giveaway…take a look

Anne at Fiona & Twig is sponsoring a great giveaway in celebration of the close on her new home. This giveaway is for a $90 gift card to CNS stores where you can use it for a lot of great things for your home.  Just click on the picture below or the button on the left to read all about it!  Have a great week dear friends!

Bloggerette Sorority

Dear Sisters! Welcome to my blog. I can’t wait for the great fun we will have together. I have met soooo many nice people in the crafting blog world and hope to meet many more through our sorority.

In my “rush” art project, I noticed that one of the sisters seemed a little annoyed. I could imagine that my Grandmother and her 3 sisters could have been in a similar picture like this. One of her sisters was named “Syble”, so I referenced her in this collage.

Here’s me with my art.  Can’t wait to go and visit all of my fun friends.  Glad you stopped by and I’ll be right over for a visit with you!  : )

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Where Women Create 2 – My Hand-Me-Down Hangout

Welcome to my “Hand-Me-Down Hangout” as I lovingly call it. My space is a place that I love to be in. It’s not fancy, but it is comfortable and fits me well. There is nothing in it that cost a lot of money (except the craft supplies-at least that’s what my husband says! Ha!), and most of the items have been collected through the years from relatives, or garage sales. I have a lot of sentimental items in my space which makes it even more special to me. It is a place that has room for my family to sit and visit, as well as my grandson and niece to play. It is my TV watching room, blogging space as well as my creative studio. And with it being next to our laundry room, it is even a space to fold clothes!

Come on over, relax and let me show you my space.

 

In the corner, I have an old safe from my Grandmother Edwards. It is filled with an old Mrs. Tucker’s shortening tin that my Grandmother used to keep her sugar in. Her Sunbeam mixer sits on the shelf along with quilts that her and my Grandma Allen made for me.

On the wall are some items from my Dad. He is a retired auto mechanic so I have a wonderful old clock that I have retrofitted with a new clock mechanism and it works great. My loveseat was purchased from a garage sale for my middle son’s house when he first moved out and when he was able to by new furniture it made its way back to me. I love the red color.

The curtains are from my sweet mother-in-law. She gave them to me to put in my garage sale, but somehow they never made it to the sale! They add a touch of red to the room also.

The entertainment center was one my youngest son had in his room and now it makes a great place for books for little ones to reach.

 

The chest was from my Grandma Allen. She had a great antique finish on it and I just love it. It holds pictures, keepsakes and more than not, is a place I put stuff when I want to keep something but just don’t know where to put it yet! Does the picture above the sewing boxes look familiar?

Well that’s the “sitting area” part of my room. Let’s move around the room and we come to another sitting space. I have a stereo, including a phonograph and some 45’s and LP’s. Wow, I’m old! They include America, The Monkees, The Beatles, etc. I just love the ‘70s!

 

This table was purchased from a vendor at the Canton Trades Days about 20 years ago. One day, I’m going to paint it! (I keep saying that and have still never found the time!) It makes a nice extra work space, a place to play Candyland, put together puzzles and color in the coloring books. The silk sunflowers may look a little cheesy, but I really love them. The old pitcher they are in belonged to Grandmother Edwards. My mother remembers it being filled with milk from their cow and I think that is a lovely thought! She said it was always so cool after being stored in the granite ware pitcher.

Now let’s move around the room to my studio space. Just like the rest of the room, it is assembled mostly from collected pieces. This piece in an old Victrola cabinet that I was given from my father-in-law. It belonged to his mother and when the player no longer worked, a shelf was inserted. It’s a great place to store my glue guns and below, it has a lot of shelves that hold ephemera and scrapbooking supplies.

Next is a bookshelf from Grandma Allen’s house. Attached to it is my main crafting area, which is an old kitchen bar from my kitchen! So I’ll call it my “craft bar”. I ripped it out a few years ago and saved it until I had another use for it. I just couldn’t bear to part with the thing! The cobalt blue doesn’t really match the rest of the place, but it’s no big deal to me! Sounds like a project in the making, huh? I just attached the bar to the bookcase to make a single unit. I have a lot of my supplies handy in all of the storage items on the shelves.

The tray on the table holds my current work and keeps things in order.

The old tin (Grandmother Edwards’) is a great place to hold my sponge stamps. An old boot cup (from when I was a little girl) holds paint brushes.

This shelving unit made by my dad, holds some craft supplies in the mason jars, rubber stamps and special things that are dear to my heart. A card given to me and my husband for Grandparent’s day from my sweet Avery. Bebo (me) and PaPa is what he calls us.

This is a picture of my Grandma Allen. She was such a crafting person and always on the cutting edge of trying new things. Up until the day she passed away, she was crocheting! My oldest son sketched out this picture several years ago. He loves skateboarding and this represents many of the emblems from it. My three sons bring smiles to my face!

Myrtle watches over all the goings on in the room, so behave yourself while you’re here! There is always mail in the box to be mailed.

The yarn looms (from my Grandma Allen) make a great place to hang things. My youngest son did the purple and green art in high school art class.

I don’t know what to call this piece, a chest, I guess, but I love it. The drawers have plenty of space and keep scrapbook papers from getting all bent out of shape. It is the only piece that I actually bought specifically for my craft room. It is on wheels and very easy to move around. I keep my favorite paints handy in an old soda crate. They are easy to transport over to my craft bar as needed and the top of this chest gives me another large workspace.

 

Under the craft bar is a small sewing cabinet from Grandmother Edwards that nicely stores my calligraphy supplies.

Moving around the room is my last space. My desk area. Here’s where I get to do a lot of visiting, with you special “Bloggy Friends!”

Well that pretty much wraps up the visit to my Hand-Me-Down Hangout. I love my space and it is a reflection of me…..it’s not perfect, changes daily, a work in progress, gets better the older it gets and is full of love and contentment! I hope you enjoyed visiting as much as I have enjoyed you being here! Talk to you soon my precious friends!

A BIG Craft Project

Lately I have been away from blogland and have been helping a friend of mine on a craft project of BIG proportions! We have been working on it for about 2 weeks until almost 9:00 PM every night.  It is Dairy Festival time in our community and we have a parade featuring all the Dairy Festival pageant contestants. Each contestant was required to build a float for the parade. My friend’s daughter, Hayley, is a contestant.  The rule was to use a single axle trailer. Our’s was about 10’ long by 5” wide.

The theme this year for the festival is “Red, White & Moo”.  For the float we had a theme of “An All American Summer” and featured fireworks made from plywood, and an “All American Brand” Milk carton. There was a lot of tissue paper stuffed and glitter. Another friend made letters on sparkly paper with her Cricut. All of us working together turned out a pretty nice float.

 

Hayley looked beautiful on the float!

While working on the float was a lot of fun, well at least most of the time, I look forward to working on some smaller craft projects in the future!  I missed all of my bloggy friends and hope to catch up with you again soon!