In His Grip

My Kind of Style

If you have read my blog at all you know that I love the local store Urban Arts & Crafts.  Not only is it just the most inspiring place ever, but they carry fabrics that no other stores carry, by designers like Amy Butler, and Anna Marie Horner.  I  have been dying to make something from some of those whimsical fabrics.  So several weeks ago I picked up a couple of those coordinating fabrics and wanted to make something to wear.  Although, I love color, mostly pink, and patterns, I wanted it to be something that was comfortable and up to date.  However, I just couldn't stay away from the large pink floral patterns, so much for trying to blend in.

 
This is the Amy Butler pattern that I chose to make.  It comes in three different lengths, shirt, tunic, and dress.  I picked the tunic lengthen so that I could wear it with either jeans or leggings.

 
I used the small print as a contrast for the button placket as well as the collar and cuffs.

 
 
I love how this turned out and cannot wait to wear my new tunic.  I recently picked up some brown leggings and a brown t-shirt that will work nicely under my flowery fun.

 
The back is great too.  I have always been a pushover for bows. Besides the tie helps give this gal a waist.

I am participating in the following link ups:  Keeping it Simple, The DIY Showoff, The Gril Creative, Its So Very Creative, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Nikkis Nifty Knacks, Blue Cricket Design, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville

Trunk or Treat Invite

 

Halloween Treat Pizza

I have always sent care packages to our kids when they are away at college.  As Anna is the our third college student she does get the short end of the stick and care packages just don't seem to make it her way as frequently as with the other kids.  As I had not sent one to her yet this school year, (I know bad very bad) I had to come up with something extra special to maintain my favorite Mom status.  As I was browsing blogs last week, I came upon Singing with the Birds.  This is a great blog with all kinds of fun things to eat as well as creative ideas.  When I read her Special Delivery post on how to make this great Halloween pizza I knew that I had found the perfect thing for Anna's Halloween care package.  Not only could she enjoy this tasty treat, but she could share it with all of her Pi Phi sisters.  From all reports the gals at Pi Phi cheered when Anna brought it out to share.  Happy Halloween!

Three Word Thursday

Boo Bash fun!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Self-Improvement While I Work

This week I have been listening to the book on CD "It's Not My Fault", by Dr. Henry  Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, in my studio during work.  Wow, this book has a ton of great information in it, so much so, I have now purchased the book knowing that I need to go back and look at some things more closely.  I have never been a big fan of self-help books.  I am not above them by any means, I just prefer a good novel. But after a personality assessment that I had the privilege of participating in, several months ago, I was shown some specific areas in my behaviors that definitely need improvement.  The assessment also came with an hour of counseling on how to interpret the results and some things that I can do going forward.  I have to say that the hour with Greg Wiens and Ken Love has to be some of the most productive time I have spent in a long time.  Since that meeting, a day has not gone by where I am not thinking about that assessment and my next steps for improvement.  This book is just one in a  long list of books that I want to read in order to be the best that God has made me to be.  Here is a quote from the book, "That which you desire will require more of you than you are today."  Now that's the kind of stuff that I can grab onto.

Craft Faux Pas'

Over a month ago Jeff and I entered into the world of "smart phones" when we picked up our new Garminfones.  Although it took some getting used to for me, I now love my new phone. However, the only cover I have been able to find for it is a black rubber skin.  I now can say that I hate the rubber skin.  Not only does it make the phone thicker it is sticky and I cannot get it out of the pocket of my purse or my jeans.  Besides it collects stuff, lint, threads, and other junk.  I began my search for a snap on type phone cover.  This is the type of phone cover I have always had. I like that they make my phone look more like me, and protects it from a little spill now and then.

 
I found one snap-on cover on the internet.  Seriously, I wanted something fun and cute and pink.  But for $2.99 how could I go wrong at least it would not be sticky anymore.  When it came in the mail I tried in on my phone and it fit great, however, there is no cut out on the back to allow it to fit onto my car mount so that I can use the GPS feature.

 
Using my handy, dandy dremel tool Jeff made the cuts to accomidate the mount in the car.  I tried the cover back on my phone and it fit great and now could also be mounted in my car.  Yeah, problem solved right?  Wrong, I was not satisfied with a clear cover I want fun, cute, and pink.  So my creative brain took over and I designed what I though would be a great solution.

 
I used my Cricket machine and cut some vinyl stickers and put them on the inside of the cover.   

 
The sticker not being enough, I wanted some glitter so I got out some glittery pink paint and put a coat or two.  Now mind you, Jeff is in the background saying, "That is not going to work, the cover is not going fit."  Yeah right, whatever. Like he has said that before and was right about the sofa not fitting down the stairs. When that paint dried I put a final coat of bright pink paint so that none of the black phone could be seen through.

 
I love how it turned out all fun, cute, and not only pink but sparkly as well.  Only, Jeff was right.  After putting the stickers on and adding several coats of paint the darn thing will not snap together.  Are you kidding me, after all of that trouble and it turning out so great, the freakin' thing will not snap shut.  So this is one craft that turned out great, but is unusable, sure glad that it only cost $2.99.  I guess I will have to go back to the black sticky thing.  Dang!

I am participating in the following link ups:  Its So Very Creative, The Girl Creative, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Blue Cricket Design, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, The Thrifty Home, Life As Lori, Paisley Passions, Tales from Blogaritville

Cheesy Acorn Squash

This morning at my regular coffee gathering on Saturdays we got to talking about a recipe for butternut squash.  I thought that I had a butternut squash at home in the fridge and wanted to do something different with it.  After getting home and realizing that the squash I had was an acorn squash, I had to go back and do a google search for an acorn squash recipe that would go with the steak that I already had out thawing for dinner.  I, or should I say Jeff, found this great reciep over at AllRecipes.com for a Cheesy Acorn Squash.  AllRecipes.com is a great recipe website that I have used many times.  We both loved it and will definitely be making this again, however, half a squash for each of us was way too much, next time we will only make half and share. 

Three Word Thursday

Loving my job. . .

 

My Fall Home Tour

I have always loved the changing seasons of the Midwest.  Since growing up on the West Coast I did not experience a real season change until I was a senior in high school when our family moved to rural Kansas.  Having come from the Portland, Oregon metro area, my sister and I not only had the culture shock of small town life in rural Kansas, but the added surprise of living in a climate that had real seasons.  My favorite seasonal change has to be from Summer to Fall.  The colors of the changing trees and brisk Autumn morning air is something that I cannot get enough of.  So is it any wonder that I want to bring the beauty of the season right into our home where our family can enjoy it from September through Thanksgiving.

 
This is the entryway of our home and the first thing you see as you come in.  The gold vines and leaves with beaded acorns on them came from Big Lots several years ago for next to nothing.  Yeah, their great right?

 
This is a little grouping that sits behind "my" chair.  See the computer cord in the background.  I hate how these kinds of mordern conveniences (electricity) have to be so obvious.

 
Our hearth is always a fun thing to decorate.  I love the family picture of the kids taken years ago when they were still kiddos.  Maybe its time to update it? Nah, I like to remember them just like this.  Notice my new lighted sticks, aren't they cool?

 
Here you can see both my sweater pumkins and birch pumpkins, that I made. You guessed it I really like pumpkins and have a bunch of different kinds.

This little cement angle hangs out on our hearth year round.  She is always holding something of the season.  Here she has a little pumpkin, but can be seen holding a christmas ball, easter egg, or flower depending on the time of year.

 
My apothecary jar, filled with gourds and pine cones, idea came from the current Eddie Bauer Home fall catalog.  You can be assured mine was much cheaper then you see there.

 
This little black and white scene is on the sofa table behind, you guessed it, our sofa.  I have admired the black and white fall decor for sometime and only have a few things.  Check out the great black birds, $1 at the dollar store.

 
Our coffee table is a bit worn, as you can see, but if you just cover it up with a runner no one will ever know.  But notice how there is a wide open space in the middle, for resting ones feet, no wonder my table is getting worn people.  This is why we cannot have nice things!  Believe it or not there is more, but I will keep that for another time, until then have a great Fall day!

Pink Jack-O-Lantern

Last Halloween, my sister, Lori, told me about how she took the traditional jack-o-lantern buckets and covered them with dictionary pages.  As I have just recently come into a huge box of old sheet music at an estate sale, I thought it would make a great cover for my jack-o-lantern.  And of course, I wanted to bring a little pink into my halloween decorations and what better way than to add a little bit of pink glitter to the mix while I'm at it? 

 

 

 
I started with two typical jack-o-lantern buckets from K-mart for $1.49 each.

 

I spray painted them both white so that they would be easier to cover with the white music pages.

 
There is no real reason to post this picture, other than to prove that I was doing crafts outside in the sun by the lake in Northern Minnesota in mid-October.  The weather was beautiful that day. There was absolutely no wind as proved by the fact that my strips of music are not blowing all over. 

 
Using Mod Podge I covered the jack-o-lantern with the strips of sheet music, being sure to overlap and pressing out the wrinkles. 

 
Once the Mod Podge was completely dry, I used glue to paint the face and then sprinkled with pink glitter. 

 
I used pink wire to make and curly handle and topped it off with a pink bow.  Now I am ready to fill this puppy with candy, and ready for the trick-or-treaters.

 
On the other jack-o-lantern I used a black sharpie to fill in the face and then add glue and black glitter (sorry no picture).  I kind of like him too!

Three Word Thursday

Autumn up north

 

There She Goes Again

Yes, there she goes again, writing another article that can hit a sister right between the eyes.  My sister, Janet, has written another article that is published in the Christian Standard titled Shut Up. This past Spring Janet and I spent some time together in Norther Minnesota as she took a good portion of her time writing this article among some other things and we talked a lot about this "shut up" concept and it impacted me pretty good then too as I wrote a blog post about it here.  Janet serves as the community life director at Restore Community Church, where she helps people get connected to small groups and develops leaders.  She has always been one of those people that has been able to talk to me about the hard stuff of life and I don't take offense but rather know that what she is telling me is out of love and helping me the best that I can be.  I am a big fan, can you tell.  Who knows maybe one day, after she becomes some kind of famous author, I will be able to say I knew her back when she still wore pigtails.

Pumpkins From Up North

With the days as beautiful as they were when we were up north, I was inspired to do some crafts that required things from the good old outdoors.  There are lots of birch trees around in the woods and beings as it is Autumn how about some birch pumpkins?  Now this was something that I had thought up in my head and really wasn't sure how it was going to work out.  So the first course of action was to peel some birch bark from the trees around my Mom's property. 

 
Birch bark peels easily right off the trees and it is a light orange on the inside and an ashy white on the outside.  It will peel off in strips that can range from the thickness of tissue paper to hearvy cardboard.

 
I soaked the bark in hot water to help make it pliable and bend the way I wanted it to bend.  I found that this also loosened up the layers of the bark and I was able to make the pieces that were too thick much thinner by stripping away some of the layers.

 

Using handy dandy hot glue, I just started covering the artificial pumpkin with the strips of bark, overlapping as I went to make sure I had good coverage. 

 
Once the pumpkin was covered all of the pieces came together on the bottom and did not look very good so I cut a round piece of bark and glued it down.

 
Next, I drilled a hole in the top and glued in a birch branch.  Taking some thin bark, I cut some leaves and made some curls for vines and glued them next to the the stem.  

 
These turned out way better than I ever expected.  I love them.  Now my mind is going crazy as to what I can cover with birch bark next time I am in the north woods.

 

 I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, The Halloween Scene, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Winterizing In Minnesota

We have spent the last couple of days in Northern Minnesota helping my Mom winterize her house as well as getting the boats ready for their long winters nap.  Our plan is to do the work for her, but she is no "old" helpless lady.  She gets right in there and works just as hard if not harder than the rest of us and if we are not careful, she just might not "need" us at all.  Jeff has been in training for this winterizing process for the last couple of years under the supervision of my Dad, and this being the first year of getting it done as he supervises from his heavenly home. 

 
When working with Mom, you have to be careful because she is liable to leave you behind when your not looking.  She has her little work chart and when she loads is up you had better be ready to follow or the work will be done before you get there.

 
Our trek up north also included delivering Mom's new car.  What fun to drive a new car and knowing we were delivering the car my Dad chose for her.  During my Dad's final day he talked to us kids about getting Mom a new car and after searching on the internet from his hospital bed, he thought the Buick Enclave would be the car for her. He liked that it had all wheel drive and heated seats for those cold Minnesota winters.  We were finally able to make good on Dad's wish and Mom is now driving the car of his choosing.  Yeah!

 
With the work all done, we get to enjoy the next two days in this Northern Minneasota indian summer.  It has been in the high 70's with no wind, and we even saw some crazy person water skiing this evening.  You just never know what to expect from northerners?

Three Word Thursday

Wedding venue confirmed!

 

 

 
 

Bridal Shopping

With the wedding planning going on for Ryan and Paula's big day, I was very honored when Paula invited the girls and I to Omaha to see the dress she had picked out.  How great to get to see her in the dress.  Having not shopped for a wedding dress since my sister's wedding over 20 years ago, this was going to be fun.  She tried on many dresses that day and to be honest she looked great in every one. 

 
There is really a dress out there for every bride.  But how to choose, these dresses of white come in all kinds of styles, shapes, and sizes.  I was in heaven just looking at all of the work and detail that goes into some of these masterpieces.

A bride can loose herself in a crazy amount of ruffles or if she wants, be adorned with as many sequins and beads as a dress can hold.  None of these dresses shown here are  the "one" that Paula picked, that is top secret, but her choice was none other than perfect for her.  I cannot wait to see how Ryan reacts to seeing his beautiful bride walking down the aisle towards him. We have bets out there, will there be a tear in his eye or not.  My bet is, when he sees how beautiful she is he will not be able to help himself and there will be a tear or maybe two.

 
This whole wedding process is going to be a lot of fun, but the best part about it is that we end up with a great addition to the family.  I think she fits right in, don't you?

Felted Acorns

I found some great felted acorns on a blog a couple weeks ago and thought "I can do that".  I began a search for some acorns so that I could use the little caps, I put a post out on Facebook for anyone with acorns in their yard and I would come by a pick them up.  My friend Nancy responded that she had recently found a giant acorn while on a walk and brought it by to me.  This nice big acorn was awesome, now just any acorns would not do, I needed the BIG ones.  While at K-State for family weekend, we were visiting Anna at the Pi Phi house and what did I see but giant acorns all over their front yard.  Score!  I had all the BIG acorns I wanted.

I began by taking the nuts out of the caps and cleaning them up a bit.  Some still had their leaves attached so I decided to just keep them and see how they will fair over time.

Because I am just a sparkly kind of gal, I decided to spray paint the caps with a metallic gold spray paint.  What nature makes, can always be made a little more sparkly with some gold paint,right?

I chose to use wool roving to make the felted nuts, thinking the roving would be easier than Kristi used over at The Speckled Dog.  Using roving would also give me the ability to make my acorns mutli colored by mixing the colors together.  To add a little more colors I found some 100% wool yarn that I added in as well.

 

Taking a wooden bead and a hunk of roving large enough to covering the bead, you dunk the whole thing into the hottest water that your hands can stand, working the roving into a ball around the bead.

 

Then you add a drop of liquid soap and continue to work the ball of wool.  I am not sure why you need soap, but just trust me you do. Lightly roll the ball around in your hands dunking it down into the water again and again, putting it a side for awhile and starting another will allow the water and soap to soak in and help the felting process.  This takes a lot longer that I anticipated, but as you work it into ball it will continue to get smaller and smaller and will dry even smaller than that.  This being said, be sure to start with a little bit bigger ball of wool than you think you are going to need. 

 Once the felted balls are dry, just hot glue them into the caps and you have some fun acorns for your enjoyment.  I am not sure what it is about acorns but I love the way they look.  Maybe, its because they are the only nuts around that come with their own accessory, hats.  Love it!

I am participating in the these link ups: Its So Very Creative, The Halloween Scene, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Paisley Passions, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Frieflies and Jellybeans, Finding Fabulous, Its A Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, Life as Lori, The Shabby Nest, Vintage Suitcase, Tidy Mom