* ~ beyondbaffled ~ *

Train scale...

2012-01-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to try out train scale for a while now. I've checked out a bunch of different kits online and the two scales that I am interested in are HO (1:87) and N (1:160). I have been watching this particular kit on Ebay and finally found one that wasn't $40 before shipping.

Woodland Scenics Maple Leaf Cemetery #S131.

An 8" x 11" scene which includes; basswood tool shed; basswood fence rail; eight trees (with two colors of foliage); four colors of grass and soil; two colors of foliage for bushes and weeds; and over 40 white metal castings including stone fence posts, stone walls, gates, two men, a central monument and 28 tombstones with names.

Remember the movie Beetlejuice? I loved the scale model of the town that the Maitland's had in their attic.

This pic doesn't belong to me - I found it on this forum:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/beetlejuice-house-model-finished-pics-page-2-a-88464/. The person who wrote the post was looking for pictures of the Maitland's home in order to make a model of the house.

Another kit that I've seen that I adore is this one -

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/ncm/ncm87101.htm

But I had better see how well I do with the Maple Leaf kit first! I'll post pics as soon as I've started. Happy Monday everyone :)

Food for Thought Friday

2012-01-06T08:00:00.073-05:00

Jessie's Best Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 thick piece of Texas Toast

2 eggs

1 slice of bacon

shredded cheddar cheese (as much as you like)

1/4 tablespoon lemon juice

1/8 cup butter melted

pinch cayenne pepper

pinch salt

Most of this recipe is really simple things that everyone already knows how to do so I won't go into detail on those. The hollandaise sauce is what really makes this recipe yummy. David doesn't care much for it so I had to tweak my recipe in order to make "hollandaise for one."

1. Take one of the eggs and separate the egg yolk from the egg white. The easiest way I have found to do this is to break the egg in half and pour the insides back and forth between the two pieces allowing the egg white to fall out while keeping the yolk intact. You can have a bowl waiting underneath to catch the egg white.

2. Whisk the egg yolk and the lemon juice in a stainless steel bowl until it has doubled in volume.

3. Place the bowl over a saucepan with barely boiling water. If you have a double boiler you could of course use that instead. Don't allow the water to touch the bottom of the bowl and constantly whisk the mixture. You don't want the egg to get too hot or it will start to scramble.

4. Add in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the mixture has again doubled in volume.

5. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the cayenne pepper and salt. I love cayenne pepper so I usually add a bit more.

6. While you are doing steps 1 through 5 you can also be working on the simple parts of this recipe. Toast the piece of bread. Scramble the remaining egg - you can add in the leftover egg white if you so choose, salt, and pepper etc. Cook the piece of bacon as well.

7. Now it's time to put everything together! Top the bread with the scrambled egg. Crumble the piece of bacon and add that as well. Cover with as much shredded cheese as you would like. Then pour the hollandaise sauce over everything.

8. Enjoy!

I hope everyone has a great Friday!

T.A.A.F.O.M.F.T.

2012-01-04T08:00:00.002-05:00

These are a few of my favorite things...

I love my Nick and Nora bedding! I bought these sheets a few years back from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They are so pretty that I almost don't want to cover them up with a comforter! It's 19 degrees right now and the road outside of my window is covered with snow and it's still coming down. Currently it's about 2:15 in the morning and once I've finished typing this post I'll be climbing into these warm and cozy flannel sheets under my down comforter :)

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Project of the Month: The House of Miniatures Chippendale Canopy Bed / Circa 1750 - 1790

2012-01-03T08:00:00.021-05:00

David's sister Lisa sent me some amazing HOM miniature kits for Christmas and I am so excited to start putting them together. The first one I have begun working on is the Chippendale Canopy Bed / Circa 1750 - 1790. Below is a description of the bed frame that was included in the assembly and finishing instructions:

"This type bed was also known as a "bedstead", meaning wooden frame with mattress. Although a few high-post bedsteads in the Queen Anne style have been found in our country, the story of fine American bedsteads really begins at about 1735 with those having square block feet or ball and claw feet in the Chippendale style. The high-post bedstead became an article of elegance in our country, as it was in England, with the increase in wealth and the building of fine houses. The wood used in finer bedsteads in America was generally mahogany."

I used a hemp beading board and straight pins to hold the pieces together while the tacky glue dried and of course a level to measure how straight my work was along the way. First I put the four base pieces together.

Next I glued the two side rails and the end rail.

While the glue was setting I used a drill and the pattern provided to drill holes for the string that will later support the mattress.

Next I glued the two part corner posts and the block feet. I also centered and glued the headboard to the frame.

Next I assembled the canopy frame. There were two side pieces and four middle slats. My two middle pieces are just a little off, but once the canopy is covered in fabric no one will notice.

Next I added the four corner posts. This was by far the most difficult part. I worked for a long time to get everything level.

Next I turned the bed upsidedown and glued the canopy frame on. The above picture shows all of my progress so far. My next step will be deciding what color stain to use. Then of course stringing the bed and deciding on fabric for the bedding.

More updates coming soon! Until then happy Wednesday everyone! :)

2011-12-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Holiday DIY Decorations

2011-12-24T08:30:00.016-05:00

I meant to post this earlier, but better late than never! I've had such fun this month making Christmas crafts. My friends Shannon, Adita, and Jessica all have young children - all at the age where they still enjoy making fun handmade crafts, especially those that involve paint!

The first craft that we did was one that a friend shared with me from Pinterest. We made these adorable Christmas wish list spool ornaments - here is the direct link if you want to view the instructions: http://pinterest.com/pin/184295809720847674/. The spools were bought at Michael's for 99 cents apiece, the ribbon, paint, and accessories were things that I already had, but could be found at any craft store.

Each kid picked a color and painted their own spool. Then we had each one make up their own wish list - we of course wrote the list down for the ones who were too little to write their own. Ribbon was then strung through the spool, the wish list was taped and wound around it, and then scrapbooking scissors were used to cut the bottom of the list. To fancy our spools up a bit we added a strand of shiny ribbon strung with miniature ball ornaments and a candy cane. Then we added each child's name and the year.

The kids who were old enough wrote out their own wish lists. I thought it would be cute for them to see their handwriting years from now.

The next Christmas craft that we did was salt dough ornaments. Below is a list of ingredients:

4 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

The trick to these ornaments is to add the water a little bit at a time while mixing. If you add too much too soon your dough will be gooey and you'll end up using more flour. If the opposite happens and your dough is a bit dry then I found out that you can cheat and spray on a bit of non-stick cooking spray. Once all of the ingredients are mixed you kneed the dough for about 20 minutes.

We used flour and cooking spray to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter and the rolling pin. The next step is simple - just roll the dough out exactly like you would if you were making cookies.

We used Christmas cookie cutters and made lots of fun shapes. The round ornaments you see on the right were made using a round jar lid. Each little one pressed their thumbs into the dough and we used a skewer to write their names as well. We also used the skewer to make a hole in the top of each ornament so that it could be strung later. The ornaments bake anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes depending on thickness in a 325 degree preheated oven. The salt dough will turn white on top and will curl up slightly at the edges. Allow them to cool completely.

And now comes the fun part - the kids love painting! I gave them lots of colors and brushes and just turned them loose :) You can also use glue and glitter if you want. We let them dry for about 24 hours and then I used a spray sealant to coat the ornaments so hopefully they will last longer.

I already have a list of Christmas crafts that I want to try out next year! But until then Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Things have been mad busy around my way (excuses, excuses, I know!), but I thought I'd try to get a couple of holiday post in before the end of the year. This first one is just some fun festive pictures to show off my holiday decorations. And of course one very important thing to decorate this time of year is my feet! Gotta love glittery green and red fingernail polish :)

This is a pic of my Mother's trio of Christmas trees. She did a very nice job of decorating as usual :)

All lit up!

This is my $2 holiday special. I bought a tube of red ball ornaments and a tube of gold ball ornaments both from the Dollar Tree. Then I filled two mason jars, alternating red and gold, and used them as bookends for my fireplace mantle.

This is the first year that David and I have set up a tree. I wanted a real one, but that may have to wait until we move out of this apartment. My Mom let me borrow this 4-1/2 foot tree with a bunch of red and gold bows. Five strands of lights and our oddball collection of ornaments later and I think it turned out nice.

This is an ornament given to me by Kim from Flowers and Art so I had to find a special place for it on my tree :)

And one final pic of my mantle with David's handmade (by me!) stocking, my mason jars filled with ball ornaments, a Santa hat, and all of our great Christmas cards from family and friends!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Food for Thought Friday

2011-11-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

Taco Ring

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 onion

2 eight ounce cans refrigerated crescent rolls

1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2-3 cups shredded lettuce

1/2 cup diced tomato

1/4 cup sliced jalapeno peppers

Ranch dressing, hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, or any other preferred toppings

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2. Fully brown the ground beef and then drain.

3. While the ground beef is browning go ahead and chop up your onion. Use as little or as much as you like.

4. Add the taco seasoning to the ground beef according to the directions on the packet. The original recipe calls for making your own taco seasoning - you can do this by combining 1 tablespoon mild chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.

5. I add my onion in when I add the seasoning packet because I like for my onions to still be a little crunchy. If you prefer you could add them in earlier while still browning the ground beef.

6. Now for the crescent rolls - I hate opening these things, don't you?

First spray your pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the crescent rolls in a circle with the tops of the triangles hanging off of the pan and the bottoms of the triangles pressed together to make a smooth circle. I call this the "crescent sun" step.

7. Spoon the ground beef over the widest part of the dough circle. The original recipe calls for adding the shredded cheese on top of the ground beef before it goes in to the oven. You can do this if you so choose, but since not everyone in my household prefers cheese I leave it off for them to add themselves.

8. Fold the tops of the triangles over the ground beef and tuck the tips underneath.

9. Put the pan in the oven and bake 20-22 minutes or until the crescent rolls are golden brown. My oven always seems to run hot so I only cooked mine for 15 minutes.

10. While the taco ring is baking I put the rest of my ingredients together.

11. This isn't really a step, I just wanted to show you how tasty the baked ring looks.

We made a pot of yummy Mexican rice as a side dish.

12. I put all of my topping in bowls in the middle of the ring so that everyone can just pick out what they want. The original recipe calls for you to put the shredded lettuce and other toppings directly in the middle of the pan. If I had a nice pan that I could put on the table instead of a hot metal pizza pan then I probably would have made it all pretty too. The taco ring will easily pull apart in little triangle sections.

13. Enjoy!

Food for Thought Friday

2011-10-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

Trick-or-Treat Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box fudge brownie mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons water

2 eggs

1 cup white vanilla baking chips

1-3/4 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons butter or margarine softened

3 tablespoons milk

6-8 drops red food color

6-8 drops yellow food color

24 miniature candy bars

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray your muffin pans with cooking spray to prevent sticking.

3. In a mixing bowl combine the brownie mix, oil, water, and eggs.

4. Mix well - duh.

5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake them 13 to 18 minutes. Test with a toothpick to be sure they are set.

6. And now for what I like to call the crucial step - lick the whisk, spatula, and any other utensil that touched the mixing bowl (including the bowl itself!) completely clean. None of the yummy brownie batter should be wasted!

7. Allow your brownie cupcakes to cool for 30 minutes.

8. Microwave the vanilla chips on medium heat (50%) for 30 to 45 seconds. Be sure to stir every 15 seconds or so.

9. While the vanilla chips are cooling combine the powdered sugar, butter, milk, and food colors in another bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Fair warning - the first time I made this recipe I added the milk right away and ended up with the runniest icing ever. As with most recipes it is best to add your dry ingredients first and then add the wet ones a little at a time as needed. You may find that you don't even need the entire 3 tablespoons of milk. Also as far as the food coloring goes - use however many drops it takes to get a color that you like.

10. Stir in the melted vanilla chips. As you can see from the below picture I don't actually own a mixer so everything has to be done by hand. It's a bit messier and much more time consuming, but I eventually get the job done :)

11. Spoon the frosting over your cooled brownies. If you want you could always use an icing bag and tip and pipe the icing in pretty designs onto the brownies.

12. Top each brownie cupcake with a miniature candy bar. I used Snickers because they are David's favorite, but you could use whatever you like.

13. Enjoy! The rich fudgey brownie taste mixed with the sweet creaminess of the vanilla in the icing is wonderful and makes for a perfect Halloween treat :)

Spooky Halloween Silhouettes Part III

2011-10-28T08:00:00.005-04:00

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Today's post is the last installment of my Spooky Halloween Silhouette series. I have had so much fun decorating for Halloween this year! The above set of pictures was me being silly with my camera and the spooky hands from Mr. Rudell's book. I started thinking of the three wise monkeys from the old proverb, and of course the black hands were a fun way to depict it.

Then I started thinking about the fourth monkey who symbolizes "do no evil," and I guess at this point I could have taken a picture with the black hands crossed, but by this time my mind had moved on to Evil Dead II (you know - Bruce Campbell, creepy hand, freaking awesome low budget horror film from 1981?).

So my next photo came out like this - lol.

But anyway...I'm way off topic. I wanted to share the rest of my Halloween silhouettes today. I used the Frankenstein's Monster template from Mr. Rudell's book to make a silhouette for one of my kitchen windows. As I said yesterday I had to shrink him quite a bit in order to make him fit. We named him Frankie, but since he came out a bit short and skinny, maybe he should be Frankie Jr.?

Above is a view of Frankie from the side of the house.

And a close-up. As you can tell Frankie really needed a double set of windows because he should be a bit wider and you should be able to see both of his outstretched arms for his classic mummy walk.

This is another shot of my camera trying but failing to take a picture at night. I even changed the settings so that the lens stayed open longer in order to let in more light. I really want a fancy new camera!!! And if you can't tell from the pictures itself, this is a vulture from Mr. Rudell's book perched on the balcony door.

Mr. Rudell's book also included a witch template and while she was especially wicked looking (Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz wicked looking) she was also enormous. Attempting to blow the template up to size and then shrink her to the window would have put her totally out of proportion.

So I started searching online for free printable clipart and I found this lovely lady.

I opened the clipart file in paint and erased all of the middle section so that all I had to print out was the outline. I then used the Posteriza program that I mentioned on Monday to blow her up to size.

David said that we should name her after the Looney Tunes witch so now we have Witch Hazel. Above is a picture of Hazel from inside. I added one of the clawed hands from Mr. Rudell's book into her cauldron. Below is Hazel from the outside.

Well I hope that everyone enjoyed the silhouettes. I highly recommend Jeffrey Rudell's book. I already have so many plans for next Halloween!

I've also got a Food for Thought post that I meant to share last Friday (but I forgot!) so I am going to post it later today. We made some festive Halloween cupcake brownies that were super yummy!

After that I probably won't be posting again until next week so I want to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween!

Spooky Halloween Silhouettes Part II

2011-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Today's post is a continuation of Monday's one about Halloween window silhouettes. Basically I had so much fun with Mr. Rudell's blog post that I went out and bought his book. The book is oversized and contains 28 different silhouettes that are ready to use. Each page inside of the book is like black construction paper and already perforated so you just punch it out, hang it on your window, and voila - a spooky Halloween silhouette!

I checked at my local Books-A-Million and they didn't have the book in stock, but it was available to order online. Boo. So I called Barnes & Noble who fortunately had plenty in stock, but were a 30 minute drive away. As you may have already guessed, I made the drive.

The first inside cover shows all of the different silhouettes. The cat as you can see comes in two pieces so it had to be taped together and the vulture is so large that it folds out onto an extra page.

The back inside cover included more silhouettes that could be used as templates and blown up to scale. I was very pleased to see that these weren't the same ones used in the blog post, which made buying the book even more worthwhile. The only problem that I had with these is that when blown up to scale they are absolutely enormous. They would probably work perfectly for someone who has a house with large picture windows though. To give you some perspective, although my windows are very tall (floor to ceiling) they are only about three standard sheets of printer paper wide.

I did use these templates to make Frankenstein's Monster, but I had to squish him so much that you'd almost think the poor guy was starving himself. I will have pictures to share of him later this week.

You can't see it very well in this picture, but the last page of the book is a red see-through plastic page to be used with the silhouettes that have open spaces.

The first silhouette that I did from the book was the cat. Besides the zombie he is probably the one that I have gotten the most compliments about. I named him Salem and here he is perched on the window sill above my computer.

My camera doesn't take very good pictures at night so most of the pictures of the smaller silhouettes had to be taken from the inside in order for you guys to see them. This is after I added a couple of spooky bats to the window. You can't see it from this angle, but standing outside of the house you can see a witch's hat sitting on the lower window sill.

And now you can see where the red plastic page comes in. Creepy cat when you see him up close, huh?

These next two windows also had to photographed from the inside in order for them to show up well enough to post on the blog. They do look awesome from the outside though - I promise!

Above we have an owl with lovely red eyes and a crescent shaped moon in the corner.

Below you'll see the bottom of the window with a tombstone and two hands reaching skyward.

(I promise that you can't see the crazy stars on my window sheers from outside of the house either! The sheers do have to be up though or you don't get the spooky effect from the outside.)

And here we have two crows - one looks like he just landed on the top window sill while the other is perched on a group of pumpkins.

Two of the pumpkins in the book were already carved as jack-o-lanterns and two were left plain in case you wanted to cut them out yourself. I used the one that was already decorated and put more of the red plastic page behind it in order to "light" it up.

So what do you think?

Spooky Halloween Silhouettes

2011-10-24T08:00:00.019-04:00

I adore autumn and for me Halloween is the best part of the season. I know there is only one week left in October, but I have been decorating all month long and I have some really fun Halloween posts that I'd like to share this week.

I found this great blog post through craftzine.com where Jeffery Rudell decorated a client's house for Halloween with a budget of only $100. On this very limited budget he cleverly decorated the entire house with spooky paper silhouettes in all of the windows. In the post he included 3 free pdf files of silhouette templates for the readers to try at home.

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/10/haunted_house_with_silhouettes.html

My favorite of course was the zombie silhouette.

Mr. Rudell's silhouette was basically like a piece of clipart with instructions on how to enlarge it at a copy center such as UPS, etc. I loved the idea, but I wanted something simple and inexpensive that I could do at home by myself. I downloaded the pdf file and used a free program online to convert it to a bitmap image. Adobe won't allow you to make changes to a picture, but if it is converted to bmp then you can open it and make changes inside the Paint program that comes with every computer.

I wanted to turn the zombie picture into an outline in order to avoid using so much black ink when printing it out and the Paint program allowed me to do that. My printer doesn't have a tile print feature so next I downloaded a free online program called Posteriza, which did the work for me.

Above it what my zombie looked like once he was turned into an outline and tile printed.

A friend of mine was kind enough to give me a roll of black art paper, which saved on expenses as well. Above is my zombie outline cut out of white printer paper and taped together. I used it to draw the outline onto the black art paper.

The above step of trying to flatten out your zombie silhouette is only necessary if you use a roll of black paper that has been rolled up very tightly for a long time - lol!

And now I'd like to introduce...George! I named him after George A. Romero, the "Godfather of all Zombies." This picture was taken from my kitchen window looking at George standing in the living room.

And here is a much more spooky angle taken from the street. I've gotten compliments from just about everyone who has driven by and seen him. And I will admit that he's creeped me out a few times when I've been walking down the hallway and caught sight of him out of the corner of my eye!

I have more silhouettes to share so I may be doing double posts some days this week. Until then I hope everyone has a happy Monday!

I spy with my mini eye...

2011-10-20T08:00:00.006-04:00

When I first got into 1:12 scale I remember reading lots of posts on Greenleaf about people spotting things with their "mini eye." I came to find out that this was when you see everyday objects that are perfect as 1:12 scale miniatures. One example is the tiny little metal trays that eyeshadow comes in. Once you've used up all of the eyeshadow you can pop the trays out and they are the perfect size to use as miniature baking pans.

So anyway, I spotted these today...

And what did I spy? Well miniature cookie cutters of course!

These were .97 cents apiece at Wal-Mart so I bought one of each. Now I have far too many craft projects going on right now to even consider pulling out my polymer clay - seriously, there are some parts of the turtle/craft room that aren't safe to walk in right now - but, I figure I can always put these away for next year.

I can imagine all kinds of tiny little Halloween shaped cookies with different shades of icing in some cute little setting or another. If you haven't done much with polymer clay here is a great tutorial to get your imagination started -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ID4cN6RC1w

This is one of the best tutorials that I have found. She gives very simple and easy to follow instructions to show what you can do with thin pieces of polymer clay, a hair dryer, and hole punches. Pretty cool results with not much expense :)

I've got more crafts to post about within the next few days - some fun Halloween window silhouettes and also an update about the painted aluminum can tab bracelets. Until then everyone have a happy Thursday!

Food for Thought Friday

2011-10-07T08:00:00.003-04:00

Gravy Baked Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 or 5 thick (about 1 to 1-1/4 inch) pork chops

salt and pepper

butter

3/4 cup of milk

1 can condensed cream of celery soup

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Salt and pepper the pork chops to taste.

3. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

4. Saute the pork chops for 5 minutes.

5. Meanwhile drain one can of sliced carrots.

6. In a mixing bowl combine the carrots and a can of Cream of Celery soup.

7. Add 3/4 of a cup of milk to the mixing bowl.

8. Stir to combine the 3 ingredients.

This stuff is so good that I could just stop at this step and eat the entire bowl :)

9. Flip the pork chops and saute for 5 minutes on the other side.

10. Place the pork chops into an oven safe dish.

I turned one of the chops sideways to show you that they will still be pink in the middle at this point and that is okay.

11. Pour the soup mixture over the pork chops.

12. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

13. This next step is crucial. While waiting for the pork chops to bake you must lick the mixing bowl clean - this stuff is too good to waste!

14. Enjoy! We added a side of mashed potatoes and some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls to our dinner.

Happy Friday everyone - have a great weekend!

Fall is my favorite time of the year!

2011-10-05T08:00:00.008-04:00

What is your favorite season? I love fall. I love getting to wear my hoodies again and I love driving around the mountains to see the autumn leaves. I like the weather change too - for those few months where we don't have to run the air conditioner or the use the heaters. I especially love the lower electric bills!

And of course, I love decorating for fall. Even better is the month of October. If I had it my way (and if I had the money) I'd celebrate Halloween all month long. Pumpkins, scarecrows, scary witches and black cats, corn mazes and haunted houses, too much fun stuff to name!

So I thought I'd share a few pics today...

Our super comfy sleigh bed with flannel sheets and my cozy down comforter. The comforter is a bit wrinkly though, probably should have fluffed it up in the dryer first?

Photographs of David and I, our friends, and family on the mantle. I've had the silver train lanterns for a while so I decided to fill them up with lamp oil and set them out.

Just one of my many Stoneware Baskets - made by Mary Curtin. I filled this one with tiny putka pods because they look so much like tiny pumpkins. You've probably seen these before, they dye them different colors and use them in potpourri.

And a funky little skeleton thrown in for some Halloween fun...

Pumpkin candle holder.

These are my dining room table decorations. I decide to put my mason jar chandelier out as a basket with flicker candles. The pumpkins came from Hobby Lobby a couple of seasons ago. And of course more skeletons and putka pods.

And one last pic with the mason jars all lit up - spooky, lol!

That's all for today, happy Wednesday!

Project of the Month: Benefit Bracelets

2011-10-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

Today I want to share the story of an amazing little boy that I know. His name is Weston and he is the 5 year old son of my dear friend Julie. At 9 days old Weston was diagnosed with critical aortic stenosis. I won't pretend to understand exactly what that is, but I do know that his heart doesn't work the way it is supposed to. Weston has had 3 open heart surgeries so far in his short life, the first when he was only 7 months old. He has had other complication and his lungs have been affected as well. He is such a brave and strong and determined little boy, so much so that it is hard for me to imagine going through all that he has experienced and I am an adult.

Since around June of this year Julie and her family have been living in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Weston is in a hospital there awaiting a heart / lung transplant. Julie keeps all of us back home updated through Facebook and also through her Caring Bridge website page. I am happy to report that Weston is doing well right now and I pray every day that he continues to do so. Weston also has 5 brothers and sisters and a 6th sibling on the way so Julie and her husband have a lot to keep them busy on top of Weston's health. Add to that the fact that they are 500+ miles from home.

There have been various benefits held for Weston and his family to help with expenses. A local company called Crusin' For A Cause held one this past weekend.

A cruise-in as I found out is when people (mostly guys) with fancy, "suped-up", or antique cars get together to check out each other's vehicles. Definitely something my Dad would like.

Below is, in my opinion, the coolest vehicle that I saw there :)

My Mom and I arrived fairly late so unfortunately we missed out on the flea market that was inside.

So now for how this ties in to my project of the month. If you remember I have posted before about making aluminum can tab bracelets. I taught my buddy Josh how to make them and he has had the same experience with them as I have - everyone wants to know where they can get one. So we discussed it and thought that we could put a few bracelets together to see if we could make any money for Weston. Josh's boss said that we could use counter space at the gas station where he works for the bracelets since they are for a good cause :)

I bought some paint from Michael's so that we can make bracelets with different colored tabs. At first I looked at the new Martha Stewart craft paints that are supposed to be for any surface, including metal. They were more expensive of course, but my biggest question was the cure time - 21 days? I ended up going with FolkArt, they were less expensive, had more colors to choose from, and the label said 48 hours cure time.

If anyone there tries the new MS craft paint please let me know how it goes.

And of course this next pic is just a reminder of how many tabs we have to work with!

So hopefully soon I'll be able to update with some lovely colorful tab bracelets :) Until then I'll wish everyone a happy Tuesday!

Healthy Thinking Thursday

2011-09-08T08:00:00.015-04:00

I'm still working to actively improve my health and cutting back on my carb intake has been a large part of that. One of my favorite dishes is macaroni and cheese, which unfortunately is loaded with carbs. So I have made it my mission to create my own low-carb version. My first attempt was a disaster, but my second attempt (pictured above) not only looked tasty - it actually was!

Just to give you and idea of what you are up against when you eat macaroni and cheese here are the nutrition facts:

Valu Time Shells & Cheese

(this is a generic version sold in stores like Food City - compare to Velveeta Shells & Cheese made by Kraft)

Serving Size: 1 cup prepared

Calories: 380

Total Fat: 16 grams

Total Carbohydrate: 44g (dietary fiber 2g so net carbs would be 42 grams)

And here is my version:

Jessie's Low-Carb Mac'n'Cheese

Serving Size: 1 cup prepared

Dreamfields Penne Rigate: 1 cup = 380 calories, 2 grams of fat, Total Carbohydrate 41 grams (dietary fiber 5 grams, soluble fiber 3 grams, insoluble fiber 2 grams, "protected carbs" 31 grams, so net carbs would be 5 grams*)

Kroger Original Cream Cheese: 1 ounce = 100 calories, 10 grams of fat, 0 carbs

Kroger American Singles: 2 slices = 140 calories, 10 grams of fat, 4 carbs

I cooked the pasta in boiling water for 9 minutes. I put the 2 slices of cheese and the cream cheese along with 1 teaspoon of water into a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds then stirred until it was a nice thick consistency. The cheese was really thick, but since the pasta was still so hot after being drained it coated quite well.

Total for one cup prepared: 620 calories, 22 grams of fat, 9 net carbs

*Dreamfields is a low-carb pasta that you may have heard of before. There is quite a bit of debate about the product itself. The total number of carbs for one cup of their pasta is 41 grams, but they use a special manufacturing process that Dreamfields claims only allows 5 grams of carbs to be digested - thus 5 net carbs per serving. I have read arguments from both sides of the fence - some people say there is no way to guarantee that the other 31 carbs pass through a person's system before breaking down and being digested. On the other hand I have read personal accounts from diabetics who have tried the pasta and then checked their blood sugar at intervals of 2 hours, 4 hours, and even 8 hours after eating and noted no blood sugar spikes. So really I guess it's one of those buyer beware situations - you can read more at the Dreamfield's website and make up your own mind.

Even if I do trust Dreamfield's nutrition facts to be correct you can still see that the calories and fat in my recipe are much higher. My recipe has 240 more calories, 6 more grams of fat, and 33 less grams of carbs. This is something that I have found to be true in other foods as well. For example low-calorie dressings are often higher in carbs than their full fat counterparts. I have no idea what the correlation means.

As far as taste goes the plain cooked Dreamfield's tasted just like every other pasta I've ever had. My cheese was very creamy, but not quite as "cheesey" tasting as I would have liked. I can say that my version tasted far less salty than the Valu Time brand. I am not a diabetic but do have IBS so I am very sensitive to certain foods and I had no problems with the Dreamfields pasta - I actually stayed full longer and felt less bloated than I do with regular pasta.

For my third attempt I would like to try 2% american cheese, which has fewer calories and grams of fat, but should still have only about 2 carbs per slice. I would also like to see what low-fat or fat free cream cheese would do for the recipe as well. I've had fat free cream cheese before and I didn't like it. I may try more water next time as well, but only a teaspoon at a time because runny cheese was the biggest problem with my first attempt. I'd also like to try out other cheeses - I know that parmesan has less than 1 gram of carbs per ounce, but I'm not so sure about the taste.

I'll update again once I've perfected my recipe. If anybody out there is brave enough to try this then please let me know how it goes. Until then I hope everyone has a happy and healthy Thursday!

Paper Crafts - Origami Lucky Stars

2011-09-02T08:00:00.002-04:00

I have always loved origami. It's very methodical - I enjoy the careful deliberate precision of it all. As odd as it may sound it's similar to how I feel about mixing drinks. I love the detailed order of a great drink - the sequence of liquors, the measuring, the pouring, the chilling, the shaking, the straining, everything from picking the appropriate glass to the perfect garnishment. I could never be a bartender though - I'd be much too slow. But having lots of pretty barware does give me something to display my origami in - lucky coincidence :)

I stumbled across the Lucky Stars pattern while searching for paper lanterns online. It was so simple and cute that I just fell in love. I can imagine so many ways to decorate with these. You could scatter them across a party table instead of using confetti or maybe fill a bowl full of pink and blue stars for a baby shower. Even more fun is that you could write tiny message inside before folding the stars up - like congratulations, or Bible verses, or even favorite quotes.

My Mom has this cool looking vintage paper cutter that I borrowed for this project. I don't know if you can see it well enough in the photograph, but the cutter was made by Milton Bradley Company.

Each strip of paper is 1/2 inch wide and 11 inches long. I won't begin to try and type out a tutorial since there are already so many wonderful ones online. The following link shows extremely easy to follow instructions in case you would like to try folding Lucky Stars yourself.

http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-lucky-star.html

I have folded dozens of little stars since I discovered the tutorial. I found that it is best to start out with basic printer paper as it is much thinner and easier to fold. As you can see some of my star shapes leave a bit to be desired. Once I get better I have lots of gorgeous scrapbook paper that I want to try out as well.

Lucky-Star-Cocktail

Lucky-Star-Shots

I've had so much fun that I picked up a couple of origami books at the library the other day. Right now I'm reading Origami in Action by Robert J. Lang and Classic Origami by Paul Jackson. If I find some cool new patterns I will be sure to share them :)

That's all for now - I'm off to celebrate David's birthday this weekend and we're heading out to the Tennessee / Montana game Saturday. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend - see you next week blogland!

Wednesday Wishes

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! Here it is almost September and I've barely blogged at all this year. So I've decided to try and put more effort into my blogging for the rest of 2011. One of my plans is to try a project of the month. I'll pick one particular thing that I'm working on and then update about that throughout the month. Then depending on how busy I am I'll throw in other posts as well.

I thought today I would do another "What I Wish Wednesday" post. Looking around at all of the mess that I can see from my desk what I'm wishing for right now is a new craft room. I was just imagining (if I had an unlimited amount of money) what an awesome room I could design.

Just to give you an idea of what I'm working with now I thought I would post some pics.

The big plastic drawers help to a point, but I'd probably need about ten more just to get all of the stuff off of the floor - and they're not very attractive to begin with.

This blue tote is full of craft supplies. Helps to keep stuff off of the floor as well, but it's hard to remember what you have when you can't actually see it. And of course the top of the tote gets used as a place to pile junk on. I really wish I had a better way to store my wrapping paper too.

I really want to learn how to crochet, but I have no place whatsoever to store the yarn.

This picture actually looks somewhat organized, but my aluminum can tab collection has really taken over. There are jars and bags of tabs absolutely everywhere. Besides the enormous 9.5 pound bag that I posted about a while back, I was given another 4.5 pound bag recently.

This is a little cloth storage bag that I picked up at Lowe's on clearance. It hangs over the door and has 20 pockets. I haven't actually started using it yet, because I haven't quite figured out what I want to store in it.

So what would my dream craft room look like? First I can say that it would have to be much larger. One thing that I know I would want is a gift wrapping station. I saw one that I absolutely loved in one of those Lowe's Creative Ideas magazines that they send out in the mail.

This is so simple - I just love it! They basically used a piece of peg board, some peg hooks, a couple of peg-hook baskets, and some cafe rods. This would be so simple for anyone (especially me) to put together and you could set it up any way you wanted. I would probably make mine just a bit wider and attach it to the back of a door. You could attach more cafe rods if you wanted to hang more wrapping paper, but I could easily get away with 3 rolls - one that would work for birthdays of any age, some sort of "congratulations" paper that would work for graduates, weddings, or baby showers, and of course Christmas paper. I know this pic is a bit hard to see so if you'd like more details you can see the original project here:

http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/idea-library/projects/gift_wrap_station_1109.aspx

As far as what kind of furniture I would like I'm really just dreaming for now. I've been looking at some of the Martha Stewart Living Craft Space furniture. They have some beautiful pieces that you can configure your own way. If you check out the website it actually has an interactive tool that you can use to design your own room.

(These picture do not belong to me, I copied the urls straight from the HDC site) In this sample room I like the storage cabinet with the storage hutch on top in the back left of the room. And what I love is how they put two craft tables back to back so you can work on all four sides. I would love to have that kind of space! I have a large table right now, possibly bigger than one of these pictured, but it's currently pushed up against the wall and blocked in on either side so I only have one workable side to use. If I'm working on the inside of my dollhouse I have to pick the whole thing up (and it is heavy!) and turn it around to work on the outside. And if I'm painting then I just have to give up and wait for everything to dry before I can turn it.

This is another sample room. I love how clean and organized it looks, but it almost seems more like an office than a craft room to me. My wishful craft room would need to have a desk area for my computer though so I do sort of like that part of this room.

Anyway, that's all that I've dreamed up for my craft room so far. Maybe by the time I've figured out exactly what I want I'll have the money to put it all together lol! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Wednesday and if you have any pics of your craft room that you'd like to share then I would love to see them :)

Healthy Thinking Thursday and some craft updates

2011-08-18T09:00:00.005-04:00

There haven't been any Healthy Thinking Thursday posts on this blog for quite some time - mostly due to a lack of motivation on my part. Thankfully though my fitness ambitions seem to be returning full force. I thought I would take a moment today to share my progress with everyone. This time around I have an arsenal of tools in my fitness plan. On July 11th I started a program with a local weight loss clinic. I'm taking appetite suppressants and Lipovite M shots for energy. And on July 26th I joined the local YWCA. I've been so motivated lately that I've barely missed a single day at the gym! A week ago today I also started the induction phase of the Atkin's diet. Basically I'm trying to relearn how to eat right and get the right amount of physical activity in order to be a more healthy happy me. And now of course on to the numbers... I've lost 8.8 pounds so far!

(The picture above is one of my yummy Atkin's breakfasts - omelet made with 2 eggs and 1/2 ounce cheddar cheese, 2 slices of bacon, and water to drink.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And now for a craft update: Some of my recent buys -

I found this patriotic basket garland at Ben Franklin's. It was originally $19.99 marked down to $7.99, which I thought was a pretty decent deal - 12 baskets for around 65 cents apiece. I don't know who would actually use the thing as a garland though, the baskets are all in random order and tied with simple knots onto this ugly threadbare maroon and beige checkered piece of cloth.

The baskets themselves are adorable though and once all separated I'm sure I'll be able to find a dozen cute craft projects to incorporate them into.

Next I got these great seed pods from Michael's for $5.99. I can't for the life of me remember what they are called, but I love them because they look like tiny pumpkins.

And finally I got 2 more great House of Miniatures kits from the flea market for $6.00 apiece. One is a Chippendale Slant Front Desk and the other is a Chippendale Chest on Chest.

That's all for now - happy Thursday everyone!

Blue Ball Mason Jar Chandelier

2011-07-18T16:01:00.001-04:00

I love Etsy. Who doesn't? If I had money to blow I imagine that most of it would be spent on that site. But until I'm rich I've settled for making my own version of some of my favorite Etsy items. One of my favorites for a long time has been the chandeliers made with Blue Ball Mason jars. I've been working on this one for a while. What do you think?

This is hanging from the skylight in our second bedroom/computer room.

So pretty!

(The skylight is very dirty :/ I tried to crop out the broken parts that are covered over. Our landlord is still working on fixing the storm damage from 04/27/11)

I just adore the blue color!

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the jars lit up. It's much prettier in person.

Another view looking back toward the window that is in front of my desk.

I used battery powered flicker candles - I'm not a real fan of fire above my head...

Sat them on the ground to take this one.

I'll try and get some better pictures and post those later. I think the chandelier would look so sweet hanging from a low tree limb over an outdoor picnic table or something.

And now for the details on this project:

Black mason jar basket from Walmart - $7.50

(My Mother actually bought the basket for me as a gift so technically it cost me $0.00)

Four Blue Ball Mason jars from the flea market - $16.00

(All 4 came with the old lids, which I've had a hard time finding. Three of the jars are stamped with a 5 on the bottom and one with a 4. The gentleman that I bought the jars from says that he's seen one with a 13 stamped on the bottom - I've only seen those on Ebay.)

Black decorator chain from Lowe's - $8.98

(The chain was 10 feet, but I only used 6 for this project so the real cost would be a tad less.)

I already had the battery powered flicker candles, but they can usually be found in the candle aisle at The Dollar Tree.

Have a happy Monday everyone!

Quotes by Me:

2011-07-14T14:35:00.001-04:00

The less you have the less you have to dust.

- J. Manuel

Frame project update:

2011-06-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've been slowly working on the window frame project for a few months now. If you remember this old window was original to my parent's house, which was built back in the 1940's. In the process of using the heat gun one of the glass pieces ended up broken. I had already been thinking of replacing the glass with plexiglass so the break made up my mind for me. To avoid injury I completely covered both sides of the glass with tape.

I then put the frame in one of those huge thick outdoor trashbags and took the whole thing outside.

I was extremely pleased when my preparation worked and each pane of glass came out in one piece.

This next pic shows you the side of the frame that was inside the house and was painted at some point. You can see where the glazing compound has been removed.

Here's the final pic for today - the frame after two coats of primer. I'll upload some more pictures tomorrow to show you guys the final color I've decided on. Have a happy Monday everyone!

2011-06-08T08:00:00.004-04:00

I don't have anything very exciting to share today, but I did want to show everyone that I have found some form of crochet that my hands are willing to work together on. I bought a set of Knifty Knitter long looms from Walmart probably about a year ago and over the weekend I thought I would give them a try. I'm not giving up on my granny squares just yet though!

I started with a double knit pattern on the smallest loom. The instructions say I am making a scarf, but I am anxious to learn how to pull the end loops together in order to tighten the weave so I may stop early and make a pot holder! I'll update with more pictures later.

Happy Hump Day everyone! :)

All I want...

2011-06-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

... is to learn how to crochet a granny square. Is that so much to ask? I just want my hands to have the patience to learn this skill. My mind is already way ahead and planning all of these beautiful pieces, but my hands do nothing but cause trouble. I'm left-handed so of course that's a point against me from the start. Ever searched online for crochet tutorials or youtube videos? Don't bother unless you're right handed.

Alright, alright - end rant. I'm off to practice this chain stitch thing some more.

~*Just imagine all of the beautiful throws, soft baby blankets, and then some day cozy leg warmers, and socks - maybe even toe socks!!!*~

Wild Weather Part Two:

2011-06-03T08:01:00.013-04:00

After April 27th it seemed like we were having severe weather almost daily in my area. The majority of the storms have been thunder and lightning, severe winds and rain. We've had at least two more hail storms though, the worst coming one day shy of a month since the first one. David was at work so I was home alone, but at least this time I had my flashlight, my keys, my cell phone, and I was wearing my tennis shoes! I feel like the entire town was more prepared this time. The police department sent out an automated call to all published landline phone numbers to alert that a tornado had reportedly touched down in the area. I don't have a landline phone so my Mother called me to make sure that I knew. At the same time the civil defense / air raid sirens around town began going off and continued until the storm was over. I live across the street from a school that has a siren so there was no mistaking the urgency.

This particular picture was taken by the mother of a student that my friend Glenn coaches. They were at the school for practice when the storm began and she snapped this photo. Scary, isn't it?

This first video was me looking out the door when the hail was just getting started. You can see the pieces bouncing off of my already dented car! The sound is bad on this video because of the air raid sirens going off in the background - it was too much for my digital camera to pick up.

This next one is when the storm got really bad. This is when I was back inside huddled in the downstairs hallway wishing David was home! I'm looking up at one of our skylights and the window on the landing. You can hear how loud it gets as the hail gets bigger.

This one was taken after the hail was over. It gives you and idea of how strong the wind was and how much rain came down. The electricity was off at this point as well so you can't see much past my neighbor's house.

These next few pictures are ones that I took after the storm was completely over.

Hail on the ground, but no where near as much as in April.

Walking down the street a bit to show all of the rain water that had no where to go.

Looking up the street.

And down the street looked like an absolute muddy river.

A neighbor's yard.

Those are all of the wild weather photos that I have to share for today. Let's hope the weather stays nice so that I won't need to share any more! I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll be back to posting again on Monday :)

Wild Weather Part One:

2011-06-03T08:00:00.014-04:00

April 27, 2011 is a day that I don't think I will ever forget. As I'm sure all of you know there was a huge outbreak of tornadoes and severe weather all across the Southern United States. I live in NE Tennessee and my family was very fortunate to avoid the worst of it. I thank God for bringing us through safely and I pray for those that still need help as it seems tornado season has really just begun.

I have never been so scared or felt so unprepared in all of my life as I did that night. I knew the weather was going to be bad - we don't have cable television, but I kept seeing severe weather alerts pop up online and I was also in cell phone contact with my parents and sister who live on the other side of town. I was actually signed into Facebook watching as all of my friends were posting about the weather where they lived. I remember the storm getting worse and worse as it came closer - the thunder and lightning seemed almost simultaneous - there was no time to count the seconds between the flash and the sound.

Then came the hail. It started out like normal hail - ping, ping, ping - it sounded like little marbles hitting the roof and bouncing off. And then it just kept getting louder, I thought for sure the windows were going to break any moment - it sounded as if someone were taking billiard balls and smashing them into the roof. Keep in mind I live on the top floor of an old house that was turned into apartments - I did not feel safe. And just as I thought it couldn't get any worse - that's when the electricity went out. In my first few moments of panic I realized that I didn't know where any of our flashlights were, didn't know where our candles were, and even if I did - I didn't know where the matches were at. It got so bad that David said we needed to go downstairs into the hallway. The entrance to our apartment is on the first floor and we didn't have any basement to go to so we went to the lowest place we could. David is originally from Florida and lived through hurricanes growing up so when he told me to go downstairs I really got nervous. Huddled in the hallway listening to those awful sounds I admit I cried and I prayed - aloud. I realized how unprepared I really was. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I was wearing flip flops and I thought if we should have to leave the house I would need tennis shoes. When the lights went out I had set my cell phone down who knows where and I had no idea where my car keys were if I should need those as well.

Here are some of the pictures that I took that night (can you believe I had my camera strapped around my wrist the entire time?). There were three sets of hail storms that went through our area. After the second one we left to go be with friends who were gathering downtown - just the thought of big sturdy multi-story brick buildings made me feel safe - that's not to say that they were just that they made me feel that way. This first picture is outside of the apartment - you can't see it in the picture, but it looked as if it had snowed - the entire ground was white, there was no grass to be seen. And of course I was still in my flip flops so it felt like walking on marbles.

This picture is sometime after 3 am when the storm was done and we felt safe enough to come home. The hail is mostly gone, but it looks like a tree went through our back porch.

And below is the next morning - the driveway was still covered.

The view in between our two cars.

These are some shots that I took 04/28/11 while driving through the neighborhood to view some of the damage. This is someones trampoline wrapped around a telephone pole.

A crushed car.

And that is a very large tree that fell straight through a house. I don't know the owner's personally, but I have a friend who does and she says they had both just gone to bed when the tree fell so were not anywhere near that part of the house. Thank God!

The worst hit area close to where I live was Glade Springs Virginia. If you look on youtube there are multiple videos of the destruction. It's sad because you see houses and businesses that you've driven by a million times before and they're just not there anymore. They're gone.

Here is a flickr album of Glade Springs. These are hard to look at.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaemergency/sets/72157626474513895/show/

This page gives more detail about how many tornadoes there were that night and where they actually touched down and traveled to.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/weather/weather_news/historic-outbreak-the-latest-information-on-the-april-27-tornadoes-as-the-nws-surveys-the-damage

In the end the only damage we had was one broken skylight and two very dented cars. The adjustor estimates there are over 130 hail dents just on the roof of my car alone. That's not counting where hail hit the same place more than once and caused the dent to wrinkle!

Enablers...

2011-06-02T08:00:00.006-04:00

So I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but the can tab bracelets are pretty popular. Almost every time I wear one someone wants to try it on or asks if I can make a bracelet for them. My reply is always, "Sure, just save your tabs and I'll put it together for you."

Well, it appears that some people have taken me quite literally. The bag you see in the above picture contains nine and a half pounds of aluminum can tabs! My friend Josh got these from a friend of his and brought them to me. I have no idea how long he had been saving them. This bag is mostly regular tabs with a few Redbull, Monster, Rockstar, and various others mixed in.

David just about died when he saw the bag. His concern of course was that sometimes I tend to start a project and then not finish it. When it comes to crafts I will admit to having many projects all going at the same time. So I promised that I would not let the tabs take over. My idea (other than making more bracelets) is to make a beaded curtain. It wouldn't be too hard, I just need to find a length of small silver chain links on my next trip to Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Until then I've just got to clean the tabs and separate them. They were very sticky so the above picture is approximately five pounds of tabs in my kitchen sink. Aluminum will not rust and is very resistant to corrosion as well.

This pictures is of my two newest bracelets. The red tab came from a can of Redbull Cola and the blue one from a can of sugar free Redbull. The rest of the bracelets were done with regular silver Redbull tabs. I would love to be able to make a Redbull bracelet that is red, silver, and blue all the way around, but that might be difficult given that they don't make the cola anymore. I might have to do some searching on amazon or ebay to see if someone has some still lying around... :)

Blog hiatus is over!

2011-06-01T20:05:00.000-04:00

After a much needed break from blogging I'm back and ready to start posting again :) I'm glad to see that there are still plenty of you guys out there! Thanks for sticking around!

Today I'll start by sharing a few pictures of some of the crafts that I've been working on recently. I started making these aluminum can tab bracelets this past December. They are fun to wear and super easy to make. The first one is made out of tabs from the energy drink Monster. And no, I didn't drink these all by myself! One of my favorite bartenders was kind enough to collect them for me :)

The bracelet below is made with tabs from the energy drink Red Bull. It took a little longer to make these than the bracelets I made with regular can tabs. The bull on top is a little hard to work with and the Monster tabs have no opening on the top so I had to use a nail to poke two small holes into each one.

I'm working on a couple new ones so I will probably post more pics tomorrow. Until then everyone have a great evening!

Aluminum can tab bracelets

2010-12-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing these tab bracelets around and I love them! I have a recycling bin full of aluminum cans so I thought I would give it a try.

To make a bracelet like this you will need 20 - 25 tabs and about 2-1/2 feet of elastic cord / thread. I used a silver elastic thread for mine. I won't attempt to do a tutorial since there are so many good ones already out there. Here are links to the two easiest to follow ones that I found:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pop-Tab-Bracelets/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5427863_make-bracelets-soda-can-tabs.html

It's super easy - the whole thing took me maybe 10 minutes. The best part is that if you ever get tired of the bracelet then you can just recycle it!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

T.A.A.F.O.M.F.T. and disaster averted...

2010-12-15T16:48:00.001-05:00

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

I've been running around singing songs from The Sound of Music all day. Don't you just love that movie? David has requested that I please stop singing - he hates musicals. He even hates it when his favorite tv show has an episode where they break out into song. I pointed out the fact that he loves The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Same difference, right?

So anyway, I've seen it done before and I thought it would be fun to do a version of "my favorite things" posts for my blog. My first favorite thing is this wonderful pair of Christmas socks! I love silly socks - the more colorful and flashy the better. I know it may sound silly because most of the time no one can even see them, but it makes me smile!

Now to explain the "disaster averted" part of this post. It has been snowing on and off since December 1st here in Tennessee and it is so cold right now. This morning was a record low of 5 degrees! We use electric space heaters for the apartment, but there are also wall heaters in some of the rooms. Years ago when we first moved in the landlord told us that all of the wall heaters had been disconnected. Well obviously they missed one because I woke up this morning to a strange burning smell. I walked around the apartment trying to figure out what it was when I realized that the wall heater in the second bedroom was on. I'm assuming since it was so cold that the furnace has some sort of emergency thermostat and it kicked on automatically. The second bedroom is sort of our catch-all room, it has the turtle aquarium, my desk and computer, David's weight bench, and all of my crafting supplies. The house that our apartment is in is very old so the closets are almost non-existent. I have two 48 gallon plastic totes that I keep all of our extra linens in for that reason. The totes and my desk are against the wall where the heater is - and since the heaters were "disconnected" I never worried. Needless to say I was not a happy camper this morning. I have since searched the entire apartment to make sure that nothing is touching or even close to a wall heater. It's scary though, because the whole situation could have ended much differently.

So everyone out there please be careful with your heaters and such this winter! Stay safe and have a happy Wednesday :)

Christmas Gift Sneak Peek...

2010-12-02T08:20:00.001-05:00

My Mom is a bit of a "luddite" so I have no fears of her getting online and reading my blog. So I think it's safe to show off a couple of her Christmas gifts a bit early. For years she had been telling us how much she admires the "faceless angels" that they carry at Hallmark. So my Dad and I were out shopping and we decided to check them out.

Her "faceless angels" are actually these beautiful figures designed by artist Susan Lordi. The collection is called Willow Tree. I'm in love with these and am already wishing for my own "faceless angel" collection!

One of the quotes from Lordi on the webpage says, "I try to keep the interpretation of Willow Tree open. I hope this makes it more personal, and allows the viewer to decide its meaning." She really does an amazing job because when my Dad and I saw this first sculpture we immediately knew it was perfect to represent my sister and I. I took pictures at all different angles to show you just how beautiful the figurine really is.

"Heart and Soul"

Open hearts, sharing souls, trusted friends

My sister is probably my closest confidant so I love that to me the two girls appear to be in deep conversation.

(The day we were shopping I was wearing my hair back in a pony tail just like this!)

(Did I mention that my sister is a blonde?)

Don't you love it?!

We also wanted a figurine that would represent my Mom and Dad. This is the one that we picked out:

"Anniversary"

Love ever endures

I think this side is so sweet. As of 12/31/10 my parents will have been married 33 years :)

I hope everyone has a happy Thursday!

It’s the first of December and we have snow in Tennessee!

2010-12-02T05:00:00.002-05:00

Hello! I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in a few weeks, but this is such a busy time of year! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a great time with my friends and family and for once actually managed to not overeat.

Christmas time is already in full swing around my place. Tomorrow is the annual Bristol Christmas parade and I’m hoping that it won’t be too cold outside to go. I also hope to have some fun holiday decoration pictures to share soon.

I’ve still got a bunch of craft projects going on so I’ll be posting new pics for those as well. A couple of things that I have managed to accomplish as far as the blog goes is of course updating the background and overall layout. I also took the time to go back and tag all of my posts with labels so they are easier to find. This is definitely something I wish I had done from the beginning and will continue to do from now on. A word cloud can be found at the bottom of the blog.

I am behind on checking out all the new blog followers and I promise to catch up on that as soon as possible. In the future I also plan on only posting when I’ve actually got something to say. I know that may sound weird, but there are times when I wrack my brain for something to post about. I envy those of you who can update your blogs every day. I’ve joined in on different “topic of the day” posts, but they just seem like space fillers. I have so many hobbies that I enjoy so why not just post about those instead?

And this next thing that I want to talk about kind of sucks – and what I mean by that is how ridiculous it is that I would ever need to write about this in the first place. I basically want to say that in the future no “anonymous” comments will be accepted on this blog. If you have something that is important enough to say then you should want to sign your name to it. I will reject rude and offensive comments even if you do post them with your username. I enjoy blogging and even more than that I enjoy the feedback that I get. Helpful hints, compliments, and even constructive criticism are welcomed.

What I really can’t stand is so-called “unsolicited advice.” I apologize if that offends anyone, but I do have my reasons. Unsolicited advice is when you give counseling to someone who neither asked for nor wanted it. What I’ve discovered throughout my life is that if someone really wants your advice – they will ask for it. The best way that I know how to express this is to share part of a post that I read a while back:

“The giver of unsolicited advice may claim his motive is purely to be helpful, but the action is almost always driven in part by a conceited desire to show off (what he perceives as) his superior knowledge. As such, it comes across as argumentative, arrogant, and annoying — not kind, friendly, and helpful.”

So to the anonymous poster who proudly proclaimed of his expertise with his 4 year old RES I appreciate your concern for my turtles – I truly do. Although I would ask in the future that you not take the tidbits of info or the few pics that I choose to share to be a comprehensive review of their health, habitat, or anything else for that matter. Before I allow myself to become more annoyed I’ll stop here – and again I sincerely thank you for your concern.

Signed,

Jessie – proud owner of 2 RES
Herman – 13 years
Cecil – 12 years

Beer Bottle Rings

2010-11-09T12:08:00.001-05:00

This is a neat little project that I ran across online. I found an interesting youtube video a while back and I finally decided to give it a try myself. You can rub the necks of 2 beer bottles together and cause the top portion (where the bottle cap is normally) to separate from the bottle. The bottles have to be the kind with twist off caps - if it requires a bottle opener it will not work.

Since we have a collection of beer bottles lining the cabinets of our kitchen this project didn't cost anything to try. Works for me! :) (sorry for the blurry pic!)

Here is what the ring looks like once removed. This actually worked for me the very first time. Make sure you put your thumbs on the necks of each bottle in order to hold them securely. Also be sure the bottles are pointed downward and away from anything breakable. The ring will shoot off rather quickly once it breaks. The ring as you can tell breaks very smoothly, but I sanded all of the edges just in case.

You can watch the youtube video here:

And just in case the above video doesn't work here is the actual link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg1aH6nyGgY

If anyone gives it a try please let me know how it goes. I hope everyone has a happy Tuesday!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

2010-11-05T11:41:00.000-04:00

Reduce, reuse, recycle is an idea that I definitely try to live by. I'm no where near perfect and there are plenty of ways that I could improve, but I do try my best. David and I take all of our cardboard, recyclable plastic and glass to the local recycling bins and we donate our cans to a local animal shelter. The shelter in turn recycles them to raise money. I would like to learn more about mixed paper recycling and hopefully one day when I have a house of my own I'll be able to start composting as well.

For today though, I wanted to show some of my "reuse" projects that I am currently working on. I finally got back to work on the old window that I'm turning into a chalkboard. One of David's friends brought over a heat gun so I could remove the rest of the glazing compound. This gun works wonders! If you look at the top window pane in the pic below you can see all of the compound that I was able to remove. Hopefully after a few more passes I will finally be able to remove the glass.

I also finally tried out the glass cutter that I bought at Michael's. This was my first attempt so as you can see my score line wasn't very straight, but at least I was able to separate the bottle. The instructions say that "practice makes perfect" and I believe it. I also want to try another method that I saw online that involves string and acetone. I'll post pics after I give it a try.

My friends and family have been saving their incandescent light bulbs for me for a while now. Many of the bulbs have a filament inside that is shaped like a tiny liquor bottle. I use them as minis for the 1:12 scale saloon I am building, which I posted about a while back - http://beyondbaffled.blogspot.com/search/label/mini%20liquor%20bottles. Some of the bulbs have the wrong sized filament, but the bulbs can still be used for other things. I used pliers to remove the filament and then soap and water to wash away the kaolin (the white ground up clay that makes the bulb opaque) inside. I've seen these used a vases and also as mini terrariums. I'll post again once I've decided what to do with these.

Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

Weathered wood trial and (mostly) error

2010-10-31T07:30:00.002-04:00

The old window / menu board project is on hold for now. Basically what I've done so far is don a painter's mask and scrape away at the glazing compound with a putty knife. I'd say that so far I've removed half if not 2/3rd's of the compound. The rest of of it is completely and totally stuck even after almost 60 years. From what I've read online the solution is to use a heat gun to help loosen the remaining compound. So now I just need to find someone who has a heat gun that I can borrow.

I've also been wanting to try some aging techniques on wood. I want the board and batten siding on my saloon to look like it's been sitting out in the elements - sun, wind, sand, etc. - for many years. So I thought I would try first on a couple of $2 tables that I found at Ben Franklin's.

I tried out 2 different solutions. I learned about both of these techniques from a Greenleaf thread about Weathered Wood.

#1: A 1/2 cup of white vinegar with a steel wool pad left to rust for about 24 hours. Then I removed the pad and added 1/2 cup of water to dilute it a bit. The steel wool looked pretty rusted after 24 hours, but the solution didn't look all that different.

#2: Isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of India / calligraphy ink. The solution immediately turned black.

So here are the results of solution #1. Personally I don't see any difference. Do you? I am thinking that next I may try leaving the steel wool in the vinegar for a longer period of time. The results that I saw on Greenleaf looked amazing so now I just have to figure out what I did wrong :(

Results for solution #2. Now this one I can definitely tell a difference with, but the only problem is that to me now the table just looks dirty. The tabletop didn't really change color, but the legs now have this sort of blue - gray tinge. Not exactly what I was looking for either.

Oh well, I guess this was okay for a first try. If anyone out there in blogland has any guidance on weathered wood or other techniques then I would definitely love to hear from you. Ideally I am looking for something more brown, but still with a nice aged appearance to it.

That's all for today, but I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! :)

Finally a finished project!

2010-10-28T07:30:00.001-04:00

Remember when I was working on the mini dresser kit a while back? Well I finally got around to finishing it :) I'm pretty happy with the results.

The House of Miniatures Chippendale 3 Drawer Chest / Circa 1750 - 1790

Scale 1" to 1'

I added the penny for scale purposes and a few minis on top for decoration. Some poor tired cowboy must be about to turn in for the night :)

The one thing that I didn't do was add the keyhole plates. If you look closely at the picture on the box you'll see that each drawer has a lock. I like the way the dresser looks in the picture, but then again I like it without the locks as well. I can always go back and add them later.

All in all I think it turned out pretty good for a $4 kit from the flea market. I used some Minwax Red Mahogany Stain that I already had and then I finished the outside of the kit with Minwax Clear Satin Polyurethane. I did end up staining the inside of the drawers even though the kit instructions said not to. I just think it will look better if I stage the dresser with one of the drawers open with clothes or blankets, etc. peeking out.

Back to blogging...

2010-10-24T07:30:00.002-04:00

I know I've been gone for a long time, but real life seems to be calming down a bit now so hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a more regular basis. I noticed that there are now 101 followers, which is amazing! You guys are the best :) I'll take the time to do introductions soon as well.

For today I just wanted to show a few of the craft projects that I'm working on right now.

Project #1: Of course I'm still working on the 1:12 scale saloon.

Project #2: My parents recently had the windows in their house replaced. This particular window came from the attic, which was my old bedroom. Their house was built in either 1952 or 1954 so this window is close to 60 years old. My concern of course is lead based paint, so I will take the proper precautions.

Here's a view of the inside.

So on to my idea - I'm going to use chalkboard paint on the actual window panes and I'm going to sand and paint the trim white. I'm thinking I'll hang it in the kitchen and use it as a sort of menu / bulletin board.

Project #3: A couple of week's ago when Michael's was running a 50% off coupon I finally gave in and bought this bottle cutter that I have been wanting to try out. I have lots of ideas for this one :)

Anyway, those are my current projects. I'll post updates soon. Happy Sunday everyone! :)

Celeste Debwa has arrived!

2010-08-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

The travel doll that I told everyone about previously has finally arrived in Tennessee! I would like to introduce you all to Celeste :) She hasn't been able to meet Kitty, Sophie, or Olive yet as unfortunately we've spent her first few days here running back and forth to the hospital. My Dad has been ill for a few weeks now and was admitted to the hospital on Saturday. Thanks to the great doctors and nurses and some pretty good medicine he is doing better now and may even get to come home today :)

Celeste reminds me a bit of Emma (our last travel doll) as she has quite a bit of luggage already!

Celeste's owner also sent along gifts for each of her travel hosts. Mine is this lovely acorn with a gold bead on top made to look like a jar and lid. Its hard to tell from the picture, but it says "Coyote Cuticles" and has a small coyote footprint on each side. Celeste's brother Jacob is in love with a lady named Chloe who owns a shop named the "Blue Cat Mercantile" - which is where I think the gift came from. I wonder what else they sell there?

Please everyone go and check out Celeste's blog to see the pics that we've taken so far - and leave some comments :)

Virginia Highlands Festival 2010

2010-08-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

This past week has been pretty yucky around my place - I've been sick, but no worries I'm finally feeling better now. My poor Dad has been sick as well and actually had to visit his heart doctor and have some x-rays done. They put him on some antibiotics and may be changing around some of his prescriptions so hopefully he'll be feeling well again soon. My Mother on the other hand is going a bit stir crazy at home. With Dad being sick all week they haven't been able to go to church or the gym or anything. So today I thought I would take her out for a little while.

The Virginia Highlands Festival is held every August in historic Abingdon, Virginia. Lucky for me Abingdon is only about 20 or so minutes away from where I live. There are tents full of arts and crafts, food vendors, and lots of music. There were no "mini" artists, but maybe someday! :) I thought I'd share some pics with everyone today.

This is the back of the Field-Penn 1860 House Museum. The entire house is very beautiful - I love the vines that run along the back porch. The black metal piece you see in the yard is some sort of old fashioned water pump. A couple of other historic places that I didn't get pictures of, but are worth checking out are the Martha Washington Inn, which was a private home built in 1832, but is now a 4 star hotel. There are some ghost stories that go along with the hotel as well if you care to google it. There is also the famous Barter Theatre, which has some pretty cool history as well.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these - pottery with faces!

This tent was full of very interesting wind chimes. See the one with the tea/coffee pot on the left? There was also a neat one on the other side that was made to look like a chuckwagon. It was too big for 1:12 scale or I would have definitely bought it for my saloon.

The "Starving Artist Cafe" - I thought the raged looking awning was very appropriate.

This guy was carving wooden bowls. The huge pile behind him is all of the wood shavings. It looked so cool that I just wanted to jump in it! Probably would have come away with quite a few splinters though...

The arts and crafts tents went down a street that ran alongside a set of railroad tracks. There was a really cool pedestrian bridge that ran over the tracks so my Mom and I walked up to take some pictures.

Here's a cool view looking down the tracks. And at the bottom you can see my shadow :)

And a view looking the other way. The old white train station building has been turned into the Art Depot.

Below is my Mom's favorite tent :)

Now I want to show you my favorite part of the arts and crafts tents. Mary, the wife of my very first boss, makes beautiful pottery. You can read more about her craft here - Stoneware Baskets.

And here's Mary :)

I have many of Mary's beautiful baskets at home that I'll have to take some pics of to share with everyone as well.

I hope everyone has a great Monday - it's also my sister's birthday so Happy Birthday Samantha!

Blog giveaway - Celeste Travels the World

2010-07-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to do a quick update on the blog that I told everyone about yesterday. Celeste's blog is going to have a giveaway if they can reach 50 followers!

1st prize will be a doll made by S. Marie Carlson - the artist that made the Celeste doll

2nd prize will be a set for your garden

3rd prize will be a new addition for your library

According to Celeste's blog rules will be posted on how to enter once they reach 50 followers.

Sounds great, huh? So go here http://travelwithceleste.blogspot.com/ and click to follow :)

Celeste Travels the World - a blog recommendation

2010-07-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

*UPDATE* I just realized that I didn't include the link to Celeste's blog - oops! So here it is
http://travelwithceleste.blogspot.com/

I think I've mentioned Celeste's blog before, but I wanted to share some more with everyone today. This blog has a little bit of everything - miniatures, travel, genealogy, and more!

Celeste Debwa is a 1:12 scale miniature doll that is currently traveling the globe in search of her family's heritage. She is 22 years old and is quite the wandering spirit. Up until recently the only thing that Celeste knew about her family was that her mother Jacqueline Debwa, left when Celeste was only a year old to join a gypsy caravan. Her brother Jacob helped to raise her ever since.

A few things that Celeste has discovered is that her great-grandmother was a servant at a castle in the Netherlands. There are rumors of a scandal involving her and a prince...! Also Celeste found out that her great-grandfather emigrated from England to the United States where his last name was changed to "Dubois."

So far Celeste has traveled to:

New Hampshire

Waldorf Maryland / DC area

Derbyshire United Kingdom

The Netherlands

She is currently en route to Texas and then hopefully she will be visiting me here in Tennessee!

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you check out her blog and her great travel pics. There is an amazing pic of Celeste standing behind the Department of Defense podium inside of the Pentagon! Celeste also has pictures from the birthday party of Deborah Cavendish who is the Dowager Duchess and widow of the last Duke of Devonshire.

So far Celeste's blog only has 25 followers - a few more would be greatly appreciated ;) So please stop by and say hello!

Progress pic for the HOM Chippendale 3 drawer chest

2010-07-26T07:50:00.001-04:00

Well I've gotten the first coat of stain on the Chippendale chest. The instructions said to use a mahogany or cherry stain so I decided to go with Minwax Red Mahogany. I like the color so far, but I think it will look better after another coat of stain. The instructions also said "For authenticity, when finishing drawers, finish only the drawer fronts." I'm not sure that I like the way the drawers look with only the fronts stained. Also I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stain the inside of the chest either. I would like for it to look like the original, but then again I guess I can just do it the way I want it. I can't wait to see how it looks with the hardware attached!

Have a happy Monday!

Monday minis of a different kind...

2010-07-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

I thought that by now I would be finished or at least much further along with my House of Miniatures Chippendale Dresser. But alas, when I came home from work last Tuesday I found a lovely surprise waiting for me.

Herman must have been very busy that day because there were turtle eggs all over my aquarium! I counted 14 whole ones. I have no idea how many there were in total because Cecil had obviously been eating some of them as well. It was such a mess!

This one is almost an inch and a half long! I can't believe there were so many of them!

This is afterwards as Herman was desperately trying to escape while I was attempting to measure just how big he/she really is.

Here is a front view to share, this is from a few months ago, but Herman is still about this same size. From left to right the top of his shell measures 8-1/2 inches wide.

And from front to back the top of his shell measures 9-1/2 inches long. He just doesn't seem to be big enough for all of those eggs! I may have mentioned it before, but Herman was already named when he was given to me and I've been referring to him as a "he" for so many years that I still have trouble saying "she."

I'm sure you're wondering at this point, but no I won't be having lots of baby turtles swimming around. Turtles like RES require very specific conditions in order to have viable eggs - for example a place to bury the eggs like in sand or dirt, specific temperatures, incubation time, etc. Also there is no way to tell if these eggs were even fertilized to begin with. I have reason to believe that Cecil is a male, but then again I thought Herman was a male for a long time as well. I've read that female turtles can carry sperm for as long as 7 years after an encounter with a male as well. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, the tank and the filter were such a mess that here it is days later and I still haven't been able to put it all back together again. I'm actually writing this Sunday night - guess it's time to sign off and give it another try - wish me luck!

Time for an update on my mini project

2010-07-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

I wanted to show everyone some progress pics on my House of Miniatures Chippendale 3 Drawer Chest kit. Remember before when I said I was going to start doing a project of the week? Well at the time I had never put together one of these kits before and didn't know how detailed they really are. I have sanded so many tiny pieces and I still feel like the whole thing needs to be sanded again. Did I mention that I hate sanding?

Anyway, here's the first shot. I used wax paper on top per the instructions in order to line up the first pieces and avoid getting glue all over the paper.

And now a shot of the top.

And the cute little decorative curvy bottom piece. Does anyone know what this is called?

This is the part that took the most time (after the sanding of course). I used a pencil to draw a light line marking the middle and then measured out from each end where the drawer hardware will eventually go. I used a straight pin and my Easy Cutter to start the holes in the wood. The wood is fairly pliable, but I still ruined many a straight pin.

And finally the first drawer is complete! Also by this point the instructions are covered in a fair amount of glue themselves - so much for good intentions!

And a shot of all the drawers in place. You can still see a little of my pencil line so I'll probably try to erase one more time.

And finally a shot from the front. I think I did a pretty decent job for my first try with a mini kit. And the holes for the hardware lined up nicely.

And now I've got to go back and do more detailed sanding (blah!). I'll check for any glue residue and then I'll need to go buy some stain. I want it to look as close to the original as possible. After all that is done and the hardware is installed I'll post some more pics.

I'm really proud of it so far - I feel like I actually sort of "made" it even though it's a kit. It feels a bit more personal since my work went into it rather than buying a ready made mini. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Mini vanity mirror

2010-06-29T08:00:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post for today, but I had promised to share a pic of the mini vanity mirror that I bought the other weekend at the flea market.

It was super hard to get a pic where the flash didn't just white everything out. I love how the edges have that sort of chipped metal look like old antique mirrors. I want to use this upstairs in the saloon on a bedside table or maybe beside of a washstand with a bowl and pitcher. I thought it was a great deal for $2 :)

The main reason that I wanted the mirror is because it reminded me of my great-grandmother's tabletop vanity mirror. I have no idea how old the real mirror is. I do know that the dresser the mirror is sitting on is part of the bedroom suite that my Granny got for her wedding. I don't know what type of glass older mirrors were made of, but I love the cloudy sort of fogged look that they get around the edges. I'll work on getting some pics of the entire bedroom to share with everyone so you guys can see how beautiful it really is.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Locks of Love

2010-06-27T08:00:00.004-04:00

Before and after.....

It's all gone! My hair that is. I've been wanting to get my hair cut for a really long time now, but with money being tight it was just one of those things that I kept putting off. It got to the point where I always pulled it back in a messy half pony tail because I just couldn't stand it any longer. I feel so much better now - and I'm going to save a ton on shampoo - lol!

They cut off 12 inches! The stylist at Regis told me that I could make really good money selling my hair for extensions.

But I'd been thinking about it for a long time now and I have always wanted to donate to Locks of Love. Just in case you've never heard of LOL before I copied some info from their website -

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

I'm donating my hair in memory of my cousin Heather. It's been almost 2 years now since we lost her and its probably been at least that long since I've had a haircut. Heather was diagnosed with leukemia at a very young age. She was just 21 years old when she passed away. It makes me sad to think of her, but happy to think that in some small way maybe my hair will benefit another little girl who's out there fighting her own battle.

Heather Nicole Blevins

August 29, 1986 - July 23, 2008

The House of Miniatures

2010-06-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday my Mom and I journeyed out to the local flea market. It's a big place with like 10 buildings and a huge outdoor space where people set up in sort of a yard sale layout. The temperature was well into the 90's so thankfully all of the buildings are air-conditioned.

My favorite place is building #2. A wonderful lady named Billy has her own miniature shop set up there. Needless to say it is where I spent most of my time. My Mother eventually gave up on me and went on to explore other parts of the market. I won't get into how long it took me to find her again...

Below are my newest mini treasures:

There was an entire shelf of House of Miniatures kits and I was so excited! I got the Chippendale 3 Drawer Chest kit for $4, the Hepplewhite Round Table kit for $3, and the Side Chair kit for $2. Can you believe it?! I wanted to buy every kit that she had, but I had to restrain myself. I will definitely be going back soon though.

I also got a mini antique looking vanity mirror for $2. I got it because it reminded me of the one that belonged to my great-grandmother. I'll wait to share a picture of it later as I'd like to show you the real one as well.

What I want to start doing is a "project of the week" like my friend Kim does over at Flowers & Art. It's been so long since I've had any money to spend on minis or even gotten to work on my saloon and that was the biggest reason that I started this blog to begin with. I am determined to get back on track!

So my first project of the week is going to be the 3 drawer chest.

I've never put together any of these kits, but I've seen a few on other blogs and really liked them. Wish me luck!

MIA...

2010-06-26T05:16:00.000-04:00

Who's MIA you ask? Well, that would be me. Missing in action from my blog that is. I apologize for just disappearing, but once again life just seemed to get in the way. My goal is to get back to posting (and commenting) regularly. I am also behind on all of the blogs that I follow so I have a lot of reading to do.

As you can see I've been changing my blog design around a bit as well. Still trying to find something that is more "me." Have any of you out there in blogland played around with the new Blogger Template Designer? I like it so far I think. I was able to get the layout I wanted and change the width of the columns. Why is it that blogs always seems to be so crammed in the middle of the screen?! The only feature that I didn't see that I would love to have is the ability to upload my own background. If anyone knows how to do it, please share.

I have a ton of new stuff that I want to share with everyone so you may see a bunch of posts all at once from me. I guess I better get to it!

Cheers to my scotch drinking buddy

2010-06-26T04:19:00.000-04:00

Jim Moore

02/08/52 - 06/20/10

When time shall come for my leaving

When I bid you adieu

Don’t spend your money for flowers

Just a rose will do.

I’ll go to a beautiful garden

At last when life’s work is through.

Don’t spend your money for flowers

Just a rose will do.

I’ll need no organization

To make a bid to-do,

I’ll need no fine decorations,

Just a rose will do.

I’ll go to a beautiful garden

At last when life’s work is through.

Don’t spend your money for flowers

Just a rose will do.

Just have an old-fashioned preacher

To preach a sermon or two

Don’t spend your money for flowers

Just a rose will do.

I’ll go to a beautiful garden

At last when life’s work is through.

Don’t spend your money for flowers

Just a rose will do.

An old friend...

2010-06-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

A while back my parents went out of town for the weekend for a mini vacation. My Mom is one of those people who always has to buy a little something to bring home to everyone. She also likes to be sneaky about it and drop little hints as to what the gift may be...

My hints were:

"It's an old friend..."

and

"It's someone that you haven't seen in a really long time..."

*Drum roll please*

Here's what she got for me...it's a giant piggy bank! Lol!

As you can see my new piggy friend a little bit cross-eyed ;)

Her paint job isn't the best and I almost wonder if I could just repaint her completely. I wonder what kind of paint I would use?

Late last year my Mom and I were going through some old pictures and we came across these of my first piggy bank. I told her that I was so sad when it got broke years ago. Little to my knowledge my Mom had been searching for a new pig for me since Christmas!

I used to love that pig! I saved all of my pennies (and the occasional quarter, nickel, or dime) for years. I remember when my parents had company over that I would hit people up for the change they had in their pockets. I even got the occasional dollar bill folded up and stuffed inside!

So anyway, my Mom is just the best Mom ever and I love my new piggy bank! :) And just to let you know all of those years ago I saved up my pennies and bought a brand new hot pink banana seat bicycle - complete with pink and white streamers!

Who knows what I'll save my pennies up for this time?

Time for another Turtle Tuesday!

2010-06-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted about my turtles, but I thought I'd do a follow-up to show how big Herman and Cecil really are now. They are currently in a 75 gallon tank that they have all but outgrown.

Here's a great pic of Herman that I like to call "Turtle Neck" - lol!

The second one is of Cecil. I think he looks like he's smiling at the camera in this one :)

Here's a shot looking down into the tank. You can see the filter with clean water flowing back into the tank in the upper right hand corner. The thing that the turtles are sitting on is a type of ramp/platform where they can get out of the water and sunbathe under a special lamp. Just to give you a reference for their size the platform is 11 inches wide.

This shot is from a few minutes later when Cecil had climbed completely on top of Herman. If you ever see a tank full of baby RES at a pet store they all like to sit directly on top of one another. I think it's some sort of comfort thing.

I think this last one is cute, but David actually thought I was being mean when I took the picture. Herman was crawling off of the platform when he slipped and flipped upsidedown. David panicked and kept saying, "flip him over, help him over!" I tried to explain that I couldn't help because if it ever happens when I am not at home then Herman will have to be able to flip over on his own. A turtle in the wild has to be able to do the same thing or they could possibly drown. But not to worry, I think Cecil may have sensed Herman's distress because he swam over and actually put leverage on Herman's shell so that he could get his head out of the water. Then after Herman calmed down for a second he used his neck to flip himself back over.

I hope everyone enjoyed the pics and I hope you have a happy Tuesday!

Healthy Thinking Thursday!

2010-06-03T18:39:00.001-04:00

My Thursday posts always seem to be late in the day, for one it's my day off, for two I like to sleep late, and well... mostly because I get easily distracted - lol.

I've decided that when it comes to Healthy Thinking Thursday posts I'm probably going to start posting these every 2 weeks or maybe even monthly. My goal to be more healthy isn't going to happen overnight and sometimes I don't even feel like I've accomplished enough in a week.

For this week I wanted to share a quote that I came across. A girl I know posted it on Facebook and I just kept reading it over and over. Each time I was like wow, this is totally me.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

- Corrie ten Boom

I am one of the worst when it comes to worrying. I worry about things that haven't even happened yet and some that may not ever happen. I'm a big "what if?" kind of person - to the point that it becomes overwhelming. I won't go into specific details because you'd probably just think I was crazy.

So more to the point, my new Healthy Thinking goal is to worry less - or at least attempt to. It's not something that I'm going to be able to fix overnight - and probably something that I need to discuss with my counselor more in depth as well. My worrying about things that haven't even happened yet won't stop them from happening, but it sure as hell takes away my power to be a happy person today. How's that song go? - "Don't worry, be happy"

See ya later blogland!

Welcome Wednesday!

2010-06-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!

I wanted to say hello and welcome to a few new followers. I can't believe I'm up to 79 now!

First is Glenda who is from Christchurch New Zealand. She loves miniatures and her blog can be found at http://peppercornminis.blogspot.com/

Second is Alafosca who is from Barcelona Catalunya Spain. This person has 3 blogs that can found at

http://nocturnacottage.blogspot.com/

http://altafullaminiatures.blogspot.com/

http://enllunada.blogspot.com/

Third is Mirel Korhonen whose blog can be found at http://minimami.blogspot.com/

Fourth is Imola whose profile says they are from New York, United States. Their blog can be found at http://nevermore-offshore.blogspot.com/

And fifth is Ascension. I can't find a profile or a blog for this person, but it you have one please share so that I can put a link up for everyone else.

For all of the Etsy lovers out there...

2010-06-01T13:47:00.000-04:00

My friend Cyndi just opened an Etsy shop and I wanted to share some of her work with you. Most of the blogs that I follow, and most of the people who follow my blog make their own beautiful handmade items - from 1:12 miniatures to original artwork, handmade jewelry, and many other types of mixed media. With that in mind I think that everyone here will definitely appreciate Cyndi's craft.

Cyndi's Etsy shop is called Spiritbooks and can be found here http://www.etsy.com/shop/spiritbooks. Her Etsy profile says she started pressing flowers (which is what I remember her doing) and that led to making her own books. Below are a few of the items that I linked from her shop - the titles and descriptions are copied straight from her site, but please click the above link for more detail and many more pictures as well.

- Big Red Journal -

Binding technique is "Langstitch und Kettenstitch" - "Long Stitch and Link Stitch".

- Woodland Trio -

Natural deckle edges. Made with Red Flex board, which is a soft flexible material. Front covers close with magnetic closures.

- Dream Journal -

Journal has natural deckle edges and is edge bound with natural stones, a tiny dreamcatcher, and a real feather. The binding used with this journal is a unique Japanese binding using 2 needles, and it opens completely flat for ease in writing.

- Floral Heirloom Set -

This set includes a lovely handmade box with a starter of floral potpourri and a unique handmade book that fits inside the box in its own compartment. Whenever anyone in your family has a special occasion involving flowers, add a few petals to the potpourri in the box. Write down a brief description of the event and include pictures! Over the years you will accumulate a wonderful potpourri, a floral heirloom of all the special occasions in your lives.

I think Cyndi's work is beautiful! Feel free to pass the link to her shop along to anyone you think may enjoy it as well :)

Memorial Day Monday

2010-05-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm just stopping by for a quick post today to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day. We're having a barbeque at my Mom's and then I plan on doing nothing but relaxing for the rest of the day - gotta love paid days off from work! I hope that everyone out in blogland gets a chance to spend some time with their family as well.

And I hope that everyone takes a moment out of their day to remember our honored dead and to give thanks for those who serve our country. Without our service men and women we wouldn't enjoy the freedoms that we have.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/ is a great site if you want to look up more info on Memorial Day. It's also where I borrowed this beautiful picture of Old Glory.

Healthy Thinking Thursday!

2010-05-20T20:11:00.001-04:00

I know I've kind of been slacking on my Healthy Thinking Thursday posts - actually on blogging in general. I think one of my biggest problems is that I take too much on at once. So to try and be more effective I have decided to work on just one goal at a time. Of course the first goal that came to mind was "Lose Weight." But honestly I think even that may be asking too much of myself right now so I decided to go with something simpler.

My next thought was "Move More." But even my goal of walking a mile a day at work hasn't been doing it for me. Real life issues, ongoing health issues, and just an overall lack of motivation just seem to be taking their toll.

So I decided to go even simpler. My goal for now is going to be to "Play More." So I thought I'd include a fun pic of my marbles - to remind me to keep on playing! Maybe this way I'll get a little exercise in without even thinking about it. And I'm not promising that I'll have a new goal each week either, I'm going to take as long as I need to work on each one.

By the way, my schedule at work has changed so now Thursdays are my day off, which is one of the reasons that this post is so late. I've been out playing... :)

Tuesday Treasures

2010-05-18T09:00:00.004-04:00

I am a keeper of things.

Not any "thing" in particular and really not for any particular reason either - if that makes any sense. There are just occasions that I come across something and I feel the need to keep it. I have a carved wooden box at home filled with random items, confetti from my 16th birthday party, a smashed penny that I put on a railroad track over 20 years ago, and I think I've kept the cork from every bottle of wine that I've ever opened. Just random stuff that's probably of no value to anyone other than me.

This odd $2 bill is one of the items in my collection. I've had it so long that I don't remember exactly how or where I got it. I just remember being intrigued by the signatures on the bill. It's hard to read, but I think there are either 3 or 4 names on the bill. I think the one in blue is Anthony something. To the left of Jefferson it looks like Derek and then maybe something starting with an H. To the right of Jefferson it looks like Steven Martin maybe?

I guess I liked it so much because it got my creative juices flowing. Back in 1976 this bill would have been straight from the bank, still crisp, and it still would have had that funny money smell. Maybe the dad of some little kid gave him this $2 for mowing the lawn, or for helping his grandmother carry the groceries in, or for birthday money, or for some other random reason. So maybe this little guy wads the bill up in his sweaty little hand and shoves it in his jeans pocket. Later that day when he's up in his treehouse with three of his other elementary school buddies the boys make some kind of pact and they all sign the bill. Maybe they're going to use the money for a pair of x-ray glasses, or a secret decoder ring, or maybe just a new fishing pole. Maybe they put the $2 bill in a tin can time capsule and bury it in the backyard only to dig it up a few weeks later. Who knows what all might have happened, but maybe one of the boys finds the $2 bill in the back of an old leather wallet 30 plus years later.

Have you guys ever seen "Stand By Me," - the movie based on the novel "The Body" by Steven King? I watched it again this weekend and it reminded me of my $2 bill. That is such a great coming of age movie. I hope everyone has a great Tuesday and I'll leave you with some cool pics of scenes from that movie. None of these pics belong to me - you can right click the pics and then properties to see the sites that they came from.

Mini Memories...

2010-05-17T08:00:00.003-04:00

Please pardon the quality of the following photos. My sister is on vacation (on a cruise in the Bahamas - I'm so jealous!) and she asked to borrow my good digital camera. So I got stuck using an old ornery one that refused to cooperate. The camera didn't want to connect to the computer so I had to put the memory card into the photo printer and then transfer the pics to a usb memory stick that would "talk" to the computer! Kind of a pain in the rear for just a couple of pictures, but hey - at least I'm dedicated, right?

Anyway, my parents are also out of town, but only for the weekend. So me and the boy (an endearing term for David that I am borrowing from Melly Kay at http://www.cutestew.com/) got to house sit and dog sit for the weekend. I thought this would be a good time to show everyone my first dollhouse. Actually it was my only dollhouse until I bought the saloon and started working with minis again a little over a year ago.

I may have blogged about it before, but my Mom licked "green stamps" in order to get this dollhouse for me when I was about 3 years old. I've heard these referred to as "tin dollhouses." I remember many happy hours spent playing with this dollhouse when I was little.

Here is a shot of the front. I'm 30 so the house has been stored in my parent's basement for many many years now and is in a bit of disrepair. It was wrapped in a large plastic bag, but unfortunately it didn't help keep the dust out. I just really appreciate my Mother for keeping it around for all of these years. I have seen tin dollhouses like this at the flea market before, but none as pretty as mine. I don't know if they are worth anything or not, but I can see myself wanting to collect these in the future.

Here is a side shot that shows the chimney. On the left side of the white paneling are two little lines written in blue that I guess give the name of the house and the manufacturer. I promise when I get my camera back to take a better pic. I'd also like to do some research as to who made the house and exactly how old it is.

This is a shot of the other side. This is my favorite side. I love how there is a side door that goes into the kitchen. When my Mom got this dollhouse for me I was very small and we lived in an apartment, but the house that we moved to and that I grew up in up also had a side door in the kitchen :)

And now for a shot of the inside. Now you can really tell how dirty the house is! One of the pegs is missing so the second floor is sloping on the left side, but I think it could be fixed. The bag that my Mom wrapped the house in also served to keep up with the original plastic furniture. So once again props to my Mom! I can see some extra furniture that made its way as well over the years - the large blue chest of drawers in the upstairs bedroom is actually from a My Little Pony set! I can see the front door lying down in the living room and also the chimney top in the upstairs bedroom!

And this is another pic of all of the furniture. I plan to wash all of the furniture and do some cleaning up of the dollhouse itself.

You'll laugh when I tell you this, but for years my Mother had no idea what happened to the dolls that lived in the house. Like most little girls I played with my dollhouse, then moved onto Barbie dolls, and then there came a time when I put my dolls away. For some reason I couldn't give up these dolls. I tucked them away in my sewing box and always wanted someday to learn how to make new clothes for them. The original family came with a Mother, Father, son, daughter, and a baby. Somewhere along the way I picked up a second boy doll and I have misplaced the baby doll, but I do have an idea of where it may be. Please excuse the boys are they are not dressed atm.

I'm not sure exactly what the scale would be on the house - maybe 1:24 or maybe something in between 1:24 and 1:12? I plan on cleaning up the house and taking some much more detailed pictures once I get my camera back. I am excited to share more of this house with everyone :)

I hope everyone has a happy Monday! Ttyl blogland!

Blog Construction!

2010-05-13T02:22:00.000-04:00

Please pardon the mess - I'm changing templates and I've got a bit more work to do - I'll be back to blogging soon!

- Update - Sorry I haven't been posting in a while, real life has gotten in the way a bit lately. I found a new blog template that I like, but it seems to have messed up all of my pictures so I'm going to have to go back and fix some posts. Does anyone have luck keeping their pictures sized correctly? I guess I need to start uploading them all the same size. I also want to go back and add labels to all of my posts. I find that extremely useful especially when I'm searching thorugh other mini blogs. My sister is leaving for vacation next week so she's borrowed my digital camera for now so I can't really upload anything new at the moment. I'm still reading other blogs and commenting, but I'll be back to posting soon!

Hello and welcome to more new followers! :)

2010-04-29T00:12:00.002-04:00

I would like to say hello and welcome to a few new followers today! And I would like to thank you all as I am now up to 74 followers - you guys are the best!

First I also wanted to update on a previous follower. At first I couldn't find any info on chrischronicles, but Kim let me know that she is a very talented mixed media artist and that her blog can be found at http://viewsbychris.blogspot.com/

Our first new follower is My Realitty who is from California. Her about me section says "Just can't seem to keep up with the housework!" so I already know that we agree on at least one thing! Her blog can be found at http://myrealitty.blogspot.com/. Her blog says that she never met a dollhouse that she didn't like and that she has over 20 of them!

Second is KLC. I don't see a profile or a blog for this person yet, but if you have one please share!

Third is Lisette who is from the Netherlands. Her profile says she has loved dollhouses since she was 3. Her blogs can be found at http://lisettesminiaturen.blogspot.com/ and http://leeroefenen.blogspot.com/. Through her blog I learned about "The Worldwide Miniclub." You can find out more info at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldwideminiclub/

Fourth is BeautifulDees who is from Utah. Her profile says that she has 5 children whose names all begin with the letter "D" and that is how she came up with the name "BeatifulDees" - I love it! She loves crafting and blogging. Her blogs can be found at http://beautifuldees.blogspot.com/ and http://wheatheredrose.blogspot.com/.

Fifth is Sara Carlson. I don't see a profile or blog for this person either, but again if you have one please share :)

Sixth is Mar who is also from the Netherlands. Her blogs can be found at http://mars-smallworld.blogspot.com/ and http://mars-art.blogspot.com/. Mar is also part of another blog that I will be participating as a co-author on, which can be found at http://travelwithceleste.blogspot.com/. If you remember Emma you'll know that I love travel dolls so I can't wait to help on this new blog!

And seventh is Natascha who is also from the Netherlands. Her blog is also about minis and can be found at http://aworldofminiatures.blogspot.com/.

And the last newcomer I almost couldn't find at first. For some reason if you don't have a profile picture blogger likes to hide you at the end of the list. Anyway, this user's name is nschaaf. I don't see a profile or blog as of yet, but I'd love to share with everyone if you start one!

Tiny Tuesday :)

2010-04-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

If I had done this post yesterday I would have called it "Messy Minis Monday." Even though I don't have any money to spend on minis right now I really shouldn't let that stop me from working on what I already have. And as you can see from the above picture what I have right now is a mess!

As I've collected new things I've just sort of been putting them into the unfinished saloon until I figure out what to do with them. I'm sure Kitty would be upset if she knew there was a horse on the second floor! (Kitty is still dewigged so she thought the straw hat was appropriate for the picture)

So anyway, my goal for this "Tiny Tuesday" is to put my saloon back into order. I actually want to work on my entire craft corner to be more specific. Getting everything straightened back out will probably motivate me to get back to my mini projects. Anyway, wish me luck!

Family Photo Friday :)

2010-04-16T08:00:00.007-04:00

I've been trying something new with my blog this week. Since I don't really have any money to spend on minis right now I've been trying out a new topic each day. So far I'm really having fun with it :)

Today I'd like to share some old family photos. I may have mentioned it before, but my Mother has me scanning all of her old black and white pictures. Once we're done I'll burn them all to a cd and make copies for other family members. These are so much fun! Some of the people I recognize and some I have to get my Mom to tell me who they are. The ones I want to share today are of my Mamaw Dorothy Gentry - my maternal grandmother. You should be able to click the pictures to make them bigger.

L - R: Mary, James, Martha, Rachel, and George Short

L - R: My Mamaw, her father, mother, sister, and brother

I think this is such a lovely family photo! I just wish I knew the year it was taken and where. As you can see the picture has been through quite alot. It is yellow and faded and has also been torn at some point and then someone tried to repair it. The paper itself is not glossy like a modern photo and it's very thick as well - more so than cardstock. I never met James or Martha, but I was lucky enough to have my Mamaw around until 1995 when I was 15 years old. I was also fortunate enough to met Rachel and George many times as well.

Mary Dorothy Lee Short Gentry

Here's a close-up of my Mamaw. Isn't she beautiful! For years I have admired the hat that she is wearing in this photo. It would please me to no end to have one like it. I've googled around looking for it, but since I don't know the exact year of the photo it's hard to find out what kind of hats would have been fashionable at the time. By the way, my Mamaw and I share the same middle name - Lee.

Mary Dorothy Lee Gentry Short

This is another photo of my Mamaw, but I believe she was a bit younger in this one. I love everything about this photo! I love her hair, I love her face and her sly little smile :) I love the belted floral print dress and I love the collar! I wish I knew what color the dress was. I definitely love the shoes - I wonder if they are Mary Janes - weren't those popular for many years? Probably my favorite part of this picture is that she's standing with one hand flat and one hand on her hip - just like the way celebrities pose!!!

Since the first time I saw this photo I've told everyone that when my grandmother was younger she looked just like Claire Danes. If you remember Claire Danes she starred in the tv show "My So-Called Life" and the movie "Romeo + Juliet" back in the mid-90's.

Another hobby of mine is working on my family tree. I use a website called myheritage that I really like. You can sign-up for free and if you end up needing additional space you can pay to upgrade. They have many great features and one of my favorites is called Celebrity Collage. You upload a head shot and they tell you what celebrities you look like.

So am I good or what?! 76% look-alike is Claire Danes! I also think that it's cute that 63% is Judy Garland. I have another photo of my Mamaw that does remind me a bit of her as well.

I hope you enjoyed my family photos and I hope you have a great Friday!

Healthy Thinking Thursday!

2010-04-15T08:00:00.052-04:00

Hello and welcome to another Healthy Thinking Thursday! First the beautiful picture that I'm sharing today is a view from atop a hill here in Bristol, Tennessee. Those mountains you see far in the background are in North Carolina. Gorgeous sky, huh?

So I finally got my lab results back this past Tuesday and it seems that I do have a virus in my liver. Good news is that it's a very common virus - according to what I read 95% of all people have had the virus by the time they are 40 years old. I can't think of the name of it now that I'm trying to tell you guys about it, but I know it's related to the virus that causes mono. One of the first things that the nurse asked me was if I had ever had mono, which I haven't to mine or my Mother's knowledge. From what the nurse explained to me it was sort of like chicken pox - even though you only get sick with it once it remains in your system forever. Most people never even have any symptoms. The bad thing is that right now the virus is doing what I guess you would call flaring up and it's doing a number on my liver. They want to do more blood tests in about a month to see if the level of enzymes in my liver is back down. I know mono causes fatigue and that is definitely something that I have been battling for quite a while. I also felt feverish today, so my body could be working to fight off some kind of infection, but of course that could be something different altogether.

So on to the healthy thoughts! I guess I'm just going to have to be that much more dedicated to taking care of myself. After all I'm the only one that can be held accountable, right? I just get so stressed (especially lately) about other things - like money, work, home issues, etc. that it seems I'm always putting "me" on the back burner. No more, right?

What are you healthy thoughts for today?

P.S. Don't forget to check out Kim's healthy thoughts as well.

Happy Thursday!

What I wish Wednesday...

2010-04-14T08:00:00.003-04:00

Melly Kay over at LAMC does these adorable posts she calls "What I Wish I Wore Today." I really enjoy reading her blog so I thought I'd do my own version. Before I get started though, I want to let everyone know that Melly is having an awesome giveaway and you can enter here.

So do you want to guess what it is that I'm wishing for today? No clue yet? Okay, let me show you my inspiration first. And btw, these really cute bubble frames came from a program called ArtEdges. If you google it you'll find a free version that you can download.

This week I've decided to try something new with my spring cleaning. It took five years for this place to get as messy as it is so it's not going to get clean overnight. So I've decided to concentrate on one area at a time. I'll clean it from top to bottom and then move on to the next section. My starting point is going to be the counter where my microwave sits and the cabinet above it.

As you can see the cabinet stores all of my barware. Unfortunately the cabinet has no top (I have no idea why?) so the glasses tend to get very dusty. The top shelf has my wine glasses. The middle shelf is for my margarita and martini glasses along with my cocktail shaker and seltzer bottle. The bottom shelf is for my collection of shot glasses, all of the stirrers and spoons, bottle openers and corkscrews, and also my ever expanding collection of koozies :)

So anyway, am I wishing that I could snap my fingers and all of this cleaning could magically be complete? Not exactly.

Here's a few pieces of my favorite barware to help clue you in...

(These are my absolute favorite stirrers! I love olives and I've had these sturdy little guys for years!)

(Layering spoon - essential item)

(I love the little guy taking a siesta on these margarita glasses!)

(My favorite flask - and yes, I have more than one. This one says "In Case Of Emergency Unscrew Cap." It also says Lucifer, but that's a completely different story altogether)

So now do you know what I'm wishing for? As the song says, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere..." - I'm just wishing that "somewhere" was here and now! Oh well, maybe after work ;)

Cheers everyone and have a happy Wednesday!

Turtle Tuesday!

2010-04-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

*** I wanted to do a quick update to this post - these pics are still from when the turtles were smaller - I have yet to show you pictures of how big they are now! JM 04/13/10 11:56 AM ***

A while back I promised that I would share more pictures of my turtles - and finally I'm getting around to it :) If you do a search for Red Eared Sliders you'll find my earlier post. The first pictures were of Herman only, when he was just a little baby turtle. The ones I want to share today show Cecil as well.

To give you a little background info the girl that gave Herman to me had kept him in the tiny bowl that they give you at the pet store and he wasn't the friendliest little guy to begin with. Also RES grow in accordance with their environment - so basically the bigger the tank you put them in the bigger they will grow. He really hadn't had any chance to grow at all. When I first got Herman he was about the size of a quarter and when I adopted Cecil (who is about a year or more younger) he was about the size of a nickel.

In these pictures you'll see that Herman was just starting to grow, but he and Cecil look almost the same size even though they are about a year apart in age.

This first little guy is my Cecil :) He was all wiggling and not really wanting to have his picture taken. When I first adopted him it was back when AIM was pretty popular. I actually polled my friends and let them pick his name.

Next is a pic of Herman. Overlook the fact that it's a bit blurry - it's hard to hold a wiggly turtle with one hand and a camera with the other!

(And I just noticed that both of these pics show my cool spinny ring - I wish I knew what ever happened to that thing!)

Next are some pics of the first tank that I had. You can imagine how quickly they grew out of it. The glass columns are filled with those glass jewels that you can buy at any craft store. They were then sealed with tank silicone so no water could get into them. They were positioned underneath a sheet of plexiglass that was also siliconed onto the sides of the tank. I used more silicone to glue down tank gravel - it had to be glued down because at this point the turtles were big enough to where they would try to eat it. You have to make sure that any decorations in the tank are as big as the turtle's head - anything smaller will get eaten - trust me! One top of the tank gravel was a large flat piece of slate. Hanging directly over top of that was a special tank lap with a heating bulb. The bulb would heat the stone and the turtles would swim up and sun bathe for hours!

In this next shot you can see some of the tubing from the tank filter in the back. You have to have a really good filter for turtles. They are about a million times messier than fish. You also have to be willing to constantly clean the tank. This is one of the main reasons that I never recommend giving a turtle as a pet to a child. Just like how the miniatures that most of my blog friend enjoy are actually intended for adults and not children - this is the same sort of thing. You need to be willing to spend a lot of time and be very patient with turtles. Also there is a chance of getting salmonella from a turtle so another good reason that children shouldn't be playing with them. Always thoroughly wash your hands after handling any reptiles.

In this next one you can see the stacks of rocks that the turtles liked to climb on in the corner of the tank. The little terracotta pot in the middle is what I would plant anachris in for them to eat. After they had eaten the entire plant they liked to push the pot around and play with it.

Here you see them both swimming around - I think they wanted me to feed them. They would eat all day if I would let them get away with it. In the background you can see the tank heater. RES prefer to stay very warm, both in and out of the water.

Here is one of the little guys resting on the bottom - did you know they sleep underwater? I also see some little pieces of tank gravel that have broken off in this pic - oops.

In this last one you can see a bit of the slate rock that is above the water. If I can find any pics of them sunbathing I'll post those as well because they are the cutest thing! The top glass of the tank is hard to keep clean - turtles like to splash alot!

I hope you enjoyed my turtle pics - have a great Tuesday!

Mini Monday :)

2010-04-12T19:15:00.002-04:00

I enjoy the fact that my blog goes in a direction other than minis on occasion. I like the freedom to express myself in other ways. Minis were one of the main reasons that I started this blog though, and since it's been a while since I've posted about them, I thought for today I'd get back on point.

I've been sick as of late and haven't really even been in the mood to work on my saloon. But I did receive this beautiful horse that I wanted to share with you. My family was in town visiting for the race back in March and my Aunt from New York brought me this lovely little guy - or girl? She spotted it and thought of me - how sweet!

I think I'm going to call him/her Brownie :) The brown fur is very soft and the shiny black hair is very silky. I like the little red blanket on its back as well. The saddle and the bridle are plastic, but I don't think they look too bad. The horse itself is very close to scale, which is a plus. I wanted to stand Kitty next to it to show you, but at present she is dewigged and refused to stand for a picture. I even offered her a hat, but she still declined. Anyway, I think the horse will look cute tied up out in front of the saloon.

That is as soon as I get back to work on the saloon!

As you know I'm an Oz fan...

2010-04-10T23:48:00.001-04:00

I was so sorry to hear today that Meinhardt Raabe had passed away. He was one of the last living actors who played a Munchkin from the famous Wizard of Oz.

He played the Munchkinland Coroner and his famous line from the movie was, "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead."

Check out the article that the above picture came from here:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/04/10/2010-04-10_wizard_of_oz_munchkin_coronor_meinhardt_raabe_dies_had_famed_line_really_most_si.html

And another great article where Raabe and an actual coroner from Kansas discussed the Wicked Witch of the East's death certificate.

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-04-10/oz_coroner_most_sincerely_dead

Healthy Thinking Thursday

2010-04-08T08:55:00.001-04:00

Welcome to another Healthy Thinking Thursday! Spring has been beautiful so far here in Tennessee. I've spent most of this week not feeling well and today is my first day back at work so I'm hoping for a good day. Also don't forget to check out Kim over at Flowers and Art for her healthy thoughts.

I got a letter from the nurse at the gastroenterologist's office asking me to come in to the lab for a blood test to check my hepatic or liver function. So I went by there Monday, missed a call from the office on Tuesday, and finally got back in touch with them yesterday. The regular nurse was out to lunch so the nurse who answered the call read from her notes. She basically said that an enzyme in my liver came back way out of range, that I could have an infection in my liver, and that I needed to go to the emergency room immediately.

So needless to say I F-R-E-A-K-E-D out!!! I asked if she would please explain to me one more time exactly what the need for concern was. Basically two enzymes in my liver were flagged because they were out of range. SGOT reference range is 13 - 39 and mine was 179. SGPT reference range is 7 - 52 and mine was 359. When I had my labs done back in January/February with my yearly physical my SGPT came back high, but nowhere near what it was on Monday. According to what I read online both of these enzymes are present when there has been damage done to your liver or heart.

So anyway, back to the nurse - she basically said that she was putting in the order for more labs and that I was to come back to the office that day or go to the ER to have them done. Needless to say I took a shower, got dressed, jumped in the car and drove on over. I'm hoping to hear something today since they were so quick to call me back to begin with. So now I guess it's time to reevaluate (sp?) some things health-wise, but in the meantime I'm going to try to remain positive.

What are your healthy thoughts for the day?