Tis the Season.

I believe this picture requires no words.

Layouts.

I'm finally taking the time to share some layouts with you ... these have been made for awhile now ... I'm just finding the time to post them.


I think this is one of my all time favorite layouts ... Griffin with two of his favorite things ... Daddy & Daddy's tractor.


This is Pop and Griffin playing at the playground in The Fan area of Richmond. The Fan is a beautiful historic area and we had driven down there so Ray & Jeri could enjoy the architecture of the beautiful old homes and we also drove down Monument Drive. We happened upon this tiny little playground and had to take a few minutes to play.


This is a 2 page spread ... it's been forever since I've done a 2 page layout. I thought I needed more than 2 pictures to tell the entire story.


Here you will find Griffin and his buddy Ryan enjoying the zoo. If you noticed I've used fibers. Remember when fibers were all the rage? I have boxes and boxes of fibers and yarn ... maybe I'll use them up on my layouts!

Lucky Me.

Seriously ... how lucky am I?

I woke up this morning at 5:30, with a roaring fire in the fireplace and freshly ground coffee brewed in the coffee maker.


My sweet husband has been getting up early.
He is getting alot accomplished early in the morning.

Not only is he a great husband ... but he is also a fantastic father.

I'm so lucky.
And I thank God everyday for him.
===================================
I've added this to my EBAY STORE today!

Secret Santa Swap, A Scare, & Dinner With Friends

Wow ... what a title ... Secret Santa Swap, A Scare & Dinner With Friends ... stay tuned and I will share everything in the title with you ...


THE SECRET SANTA SWAP

On Friday we had our Secret Santa Swap at Short Pump Towne Center. Our Friend Cyndi (Harry & Jack's Mom) planned this wonderful event and we had soooo much fun. Unfortunately they were unable to attend due to a family emergency, but they were with us in spirit. And we also wanted to mention Lea and her boys Kevin & Kenneth who were unable to attend also.

This is a picture of most of the group posing with Santa. Several of the guests had already left before we decided to do the photo, so they are not pictured. Let's see ... back to front, left to right you will see ... Missy, Griffin, Evan, Heidi, Samuel, Hannah, Jaylen, Santa, Joey, Corrine, Spencer, Darius, Ryan. Mommies there at the time but not pictured are Carol and Keisha. The guests that had already left were Christina & Zach, Sonda & Dallas, Jenny & Carter, Kristen & Matthew.

Our boys had a blast making a Christmas ornament, playing in the play area, exchanging gifts, eating lunch together, visiting Santa and riding the train.


Spencer is the first one to spot Santa!


This is Hannah, Samuel's sister ... she was a big help to me ... keeping an eye on my little guy while I was helping the other mommies get things organized


Darius ... this little guy is going to be famous for something one day. I'm not sure what he will be famous for ... but I will be able to say "I knew him when" ...


Griffin and me ...


Our guys enjoying lunch ...


This is Matthew ... we drew his name in the Secret Santa Swap


Complete boy chaos ... trying to organize the group photo with Santa


Before leaving the mall, all the kids took a ride on the train


Evan, Griffin and Hannah in the caboose ... I think Samuel is in the caboose too ... you just can't see him


You will never guess who fell asleep on the way home

THE SCARE

And now I will share the scare ...

When the party was almost over and we were packing up to go ... Griffin was right beside me one minute, I turned around for a minute ... and he was gone. I mean gone. We looked everywhere for him ... in the play area, by the food court, near Santa. I got over to the elevators and this man says to me "Are you looking for a little guy in a red shirt?" I said "yes". He said "He just went down the elevator, you better take the escalator down" ... so I ran down the escalator along with Hannah. I get down there and he is OUTSIDE in the cold with a lady and her little boy. Oh my GAWD!! I was frantic!!! She said that he held the elevator door open for her, pushed the elevator button to go down. While in the elevator she asked him where his Mommy & Daddy were ... he didn't say. So, she was taking him to the member services office. OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!! I am so, so greatful that a nice woman found my son and was doing the right thing by taking him to the office. He is just so fast ... and I can't even imagine what could/would have happened to him. I think I'm going to create some sort of bracelet for him when we are out with my name and cell phone number on it for him to wear. Just in case. I hope this will never, ever happen again ... but just to be on the safe side. Okay ... we're fine ... I know that ... but it still really tears me up.

DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Okay ... so yesterday I woke up with another migraine. After sleeping pretty much all day and throwing up too many times ... I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the house for a planned dinner with our friends John and Cindy (you can view her blog by clicking on her name). We met up at Applebee's and had a nice dinner and conversation. Griffin was very grouchy because we had to wake him up from his nap to head out to dinner. I was very "under the weather" because of the headache ... but Cindy, John and Mike were great company. I feel very bad that Griffin and I were not the best of company. We have to get together again ... and soon!!!

That was our Friday and Saturday. Today I plan to paint some in the living and possibly get the Christmas Tree up. I hope you all have a GREAT Sunday!!

Gift Exchange & A Thank You.

Yesterday we had a gift exchange at our house with our friends Heidi, Ryan and Evan. We had sooooooooo much fun!!


Our boys getting ready to open their gifts


Heidi opening her gift. We got her an iced tea maker. Heidi isn't from the south, and as we all know iced tea is a very important southern staple. So, we got her the iced tea maker to make it a little easier to brew some tea. I was teasing her because as you know, we live in Virginia ... which is kind of "the south", but they are soon to move to North Carolina which is most definately "the south". So, guests are sure to expect iced tea. LOL.


And would you LOOK at this??? Oh my gosh!! This is the gift that Heidi made for our family!! It's just so lovely!! The pinecones came from a downed tree on our property ... and she put this beautiful wreath together. It's even personalized with our last name. I love, love, triple love it!!

And ...

Yesterday I worked on trying to get my missymadeit.com directed to my eBay About Me page. You would think this would be a pretty easy task. Let me tell you ... it was not.

First I called Network Solutions to see if they could help me. I won't go into the loooong conversation that I had with them, but they basically told me I needed to get the information I needed from eBay.

So, I then went to eBay Live and asked my question. I could tell the person was helping multiple people at once (including me) because he kept asking me to confirm my question and then it would take several minutes for him to respond. He had NO CLUE what I was asking for. What it finally boiled down to was him giving me the link to my About Me page. I gave up with him.

I searched on Google ... no help.

Then I went to eBay Message Boards to see if I could find the answer I was looking for. Several of the people on the Message Boards commented about Kirk from webgraphicssource.com. They were talking about what wonderful services he provided. So, I sent him an email. Within minutes I had my answer!! Oh my goodness ... I offered to pay him ... and this is what he said:

"you do not owe me anything, I provide all kinds of support for free, just mentioning my name to other people is good enough payment."

These days rarely do you find someone willing to help a complete stranger. I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Kirk. You totally made my life easier yesterday and I finally accomplished what I was trying to do. So, if you all need web services of any kind (he creates AWESOME websites!) please visit Kirk at webgraphicssource.com.

And you know what???? Now ... when you type in www.missymadeit.com it goes directly to my eBay About Me page!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Christmas Time.

This is a picture of Mike and Griffin decorating our Christmas Tree last year. I hope to have our tree up by the end of this week. Mike pulled everything down from the attic on Sunday, we just haven't had time to get it downstairs and up yet.

I feel pretty good about everything I have accomplished:

Christmas Cards - Done
Outside Christmas Lights - Done
Gift Purchased - Done
Gifts Wrapped - Mostly Done
Gifts Shipped - One Done, One To Go
Holiday Baking - Still To Do
Christmas Tree Up - Still To Do

Mike's mother will arrive in town next Thursday. I'm really excited about that. She will be here for two weeks. I hope it snows while she is here! It would be so nice to have a white Christmas.

I hope your Christmas planning and festivities are going well too!!

And now for today's new EBAY STORE items:

Working.

I'm really in the mood to make Christmasy Paper Piecings and Tear Bears. I'm looking forward to offering only Pre-Made things in the future. That just makes me happy.

While working on orders yesterday, I took a little time to make something new. I've listed it in my Ebay Store if you are interested.

Look what I've added to my EBAY STORE today!

Unexpected Fun.

Yesterday I had a few errands to run, one of which was picking up my friend Heidi's purse from a local restaurant and then take it by her house. When we got to her house she said we'd had an invitation to all join The Leary's (Lea, Kevin & Kenneth) at the zoo. I was really reluctant to go because I have quite a bit to do at home. But honestly ... it's mid-December and it's 75 degrees outside. Really ... who could pass up a trip to the zoo? Our annual passes will expire at the end of December so it was nice to be able to go one more time before they expire.

We had a really nice time. Normally Griffin spends the majority of time in the stroller because he is very fast and at times doesn't listen to me when I tell him to "stop" or "wait". But yesterday, I was quite proud of him. He ran/walked with the other boys most of the time and listened pretty well. Let me just say this ... when I say Griffin is fast ... I mean he is "FAST". He can get away from me before I even know he's gone. Heidi says he's going to be a sprinter ... LOL.

The animals were very cool yesterday. The big python actually came up to the glass and it appeared as if he was peering at the boys. They really got a kick out of seeing the snake up close. And the black bears ... they came right up to the glass. That was a first too! And they had a baby sheep that was born just last Saturday. He was so little and so white.

I'm really glad we went to the the zoo ... sometimes the most fun is on unexpected outing.

The Hobby Horse.

When we saw Pop & Nana (Mike's Dad Ray and Step Mom Jeri) in Florida while we were there on vacation they mentioned several times they wanted to get Griffin a spring rocking horse for Christmas. I've recently learned these are called Hobby Horses.

Yesterday I received a phone call from Jeri and she found one on Ebay. She wanted me to take a look and see if it's something he might like. She said she knew it was used, but she really liked it because the horse was one form and it was black. They had been to Toys 'R Us and didn't like any of the brown ones they saw there. We took a look at it and it looked like it was in pretty good condition. She asked me to bid on it for her, so it would automatically be shipped here. The starting bid was $49.99 so we placed a bid of $65.00 on it. There were no other bids at the time. There were two hours left on it and we had to run uptown. I told her I would look at it when we got home to see how we did. We were outbid. Darn!



She asked me to look online for her to see if I saw one that we might like. Well, I found this one:



Oh my ... I fell in love with it! I know Griffin will really like it alot!! It was $89.99 at amazon.com and shipping was only like $13.00. So really, the price of the "used Ebay one" plus shipping would be about the same amount as this one at amazon.com. I really felt a little funny about them paying this much for one gift ... but they insisted. So ... I ordered it for them and it's on the way to our house. Griffin is absolutely going to LOVE this hobby horse!

Thanks Pop and Nana!

Sunday Morning.

Our household has been awake since 5:30 am thanks to a little two-year old monster named Griffin. I guess he doesn't realize that Sunday is the morning we are supposed to snuggle in bed as late as possible. Downstairs we all came and together we snuggled on the couch to watch Sesame Street.

It's now 7:00 am. Mike is on his way to the airport for a cross-country flying lessons. I'm sitting here in front of the computer sipping a delicious cup of Captain Michael's robust coffee. My MIL picked the coffee up for us as a gift when she went to Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady & Sons. I'm feeling pretty good about what I've already accomplished today too. I already made two pitchers of brewed iced tea (we drink ALOT of iced tea everyday). And I've already started washing clothes. Sunday is my clothes washing day. I don't know why ... but Sunday has always seemed the easiest day to wash clothes for us.

Yesterday I finished up most of our Christmas Shopping and I'm feeling really, really extra good about that! Now I just have to get them all wrapped up and those shipped that I need to send to other states.

A couple of you have asked about my foot. I'm so pleased ... this past Monday I was able to get my tennis shoe on. I'm so happy about that!! I do not have to wear that silly boot anymore. It's still a bit uncomfortable, however it doesn't really "hurt" anymore. I'm still having the problem with my knee though. Now it only hurts at night when I'm sleeping. The doctor said if it's still hurting after the first of the year to come back. I'm hoping it's just deep bruising as he has suggested and needs time to heal.

Are there any Trading Spaces fans out there? I've been a huge fan of Trading Spaces for many years. Especially at the beginning when it was Frank, Vern, Doug, Laurie, Genevieve, Hildi, Pagie and Ty. I've been watching it lately ... but they seem to have changed so many of the designers and carpenters. But there is a rumor going around ... the rumor is Paige Davis is coming back in January. Has anyone else heard this rumor? I think it would be GREAT!! We want the Trading Spaces of old.

Okay ... so I've rambled today ... better get off the computer and finish the washing and other chores so I can get prepared to possibly get our Christmas decorations out later today.

Take care everyone! ~M

Walmart Bound.

So, yesterday about 9 am Griffin and I headed out Christmas Shopping. We got to the end of the road to get on the main road to head toward town and it was iced over. Oh my gosh! Three cars had skidded out before the first drive-way on the main road. We turned right around and headed home. That was pretty scary.

We waited a couple of hours before trying again. This time I could tell they had salted the roads and only one of the skidded out cars were still there.

First we headed to Plow 'N Hearth. I just love that store. I found the perfect gift for my mother-in-law Jeri (Mike's step-mom). I got her a pair of "real" Crocs and a nifty little tool that cuts corn off of the cob.

Then we met our friends Heidi, Ryan and Evan at the mall. It was sooooooooo busy. Oh my gosh. I did not find even one gift there. But, I did find Griffin three cute shirts at JC Penny and they were only $4.99 each. What a bargain.

Santa had arrived at the mall and we thought it would be fun to get a picture of them with Santa. Griffin wanted no part of it. This is the first time he's ever had a negative reaction to Santa Claus. He's never seen this Santa before, so I think next week we will try the Santa we always go to at Short Pump Mall.

It's 7:30 and Griffin is still sleeping. As soon as he wakes up, we are headed to Walmart. I have several children's toys I need to buy, and really no one beats Walmart's prices on toys. Mike has to work today ... so we are on our own. Mike thinks I'm crazy for trying to go to Walmart on a Saturday morning.

I only have TWO Christmas gifts purchased ... I have about 20 more to go. Wish me luck, maybe I'll just find the perfect gift today for everyone!!

I hope you all have a safe, happy and healthy weekend.

More Shopping.

Griffin and I are headed out this morning for more Christmas shopping. We are going to the mall and I'm hoping to get everyone bought for. I used to like shopping ... but these days it's really not one of my favorite things to do. It's really hard to shop with a two-year old.

Wish us luck.

Christmas Shopping.

It snowed yesterday. Not really enough to say "it snowed" ... but white, fluffy stuff fell out of the sky for about 3 hours yesterday. It didnt' stick. It accumulated just a little bit on the trees and bushes, but quickly melted.

I guess that's all it took to get me in the Christmas spirit. After returning from Mommy 'N Me Gym yesterday, I put Griffin down for his nap. He jumped and was singing for an hour in his bed, never falling asleep so about 2:00 I went up to get him and decided to do some Christmas shopping.

We went to Big Lots, Michael's, Target and Kohl's. I only found one gift out of all of those stores. Can you believe that? Griffin is participating in a Secret Santa Swap, so we found the gift for his little friend. Now I still have EVERYONE to buy for.

After our little shopping adventure, we met Mike at Sam's Club and stocked up on groceries. But lo and behold this morning I discovered I forgot one very important item. Bananas! I guess I will have to make a quick stop by the grocery store for just bananas sometime today. Really with a two-year old in tow there is nothing "quick" about any stops. LOL.

We have plans to visit our friends Heidi, Ryan, Evan and their "meows" today. Everytime we pass the road that leads to Heidi's house Griffin says "Heidi's House, Meow, Meow, Meow". It's really cute. They have two dogs and five cats and he loves playing (read harassing) the cats.

It's Cold Outside.

I do not like cold weather. I finally realized that last night when I ran out to get Chinese food for dinner. I'm a true blue Florida girl and I miss the warm weather. I guess I got a little spoiled while on vacation when we were wearing shorts at Thanksgiving.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the seasonal changes we experience. Fall has always been my favorite season. I so love seeing the leaves change. But, last year I realized I really like the Spring as well. Around here all of the trees sprout absolutely gorgeous flowers in the Spring and it's just so pretty. Spring time means we can play outside again. No worrying about getting layered up with clothing, gloves and a hat to play outside.

Now ... when the first snow comes this year ... I will probably change my tune. LOL. I love the beautiful, white dusting that snow brings to our area. I'll stop complaining and just accept the fact that we have four seasons ... one that is just a little too cold for me right now.

Look what I added to my EBAY STORE today!

Good To Be Home.

Vacations are really nice ... but it's always nice to get home too. After being away on a two week vacation, I am so loving being at home right now. We didn't leave the house Friday, Saturday or Sunday and I was loving it.

We decided to start painting our living room on Sunday. We've had the paint for a couple of months now. When we moved in four years ago we didn't have a chance to change anything before the movers delivered our stuff. Our living room is currently painted with flat white walls and this hideously ugly dark green/blue trim. I guess we are lucky that the trim actually matched our furniture though. We are painting the trim bright semi-gloss white and the walls will be painted a color called "Fortune Cookie". I hope it's looks the way I'm thinking it will on the walls.

Since we have a two year old, we are only painting while he's asleep, so we are doing it in stages. It took 2 coats of Killz and 2 coats of regular paint to cover the ugly green/blue trim up. I will post pictures once it's all finished. I can't believe the change just the little bit we've gotten finished has made.

I thought I would try something new. Everyday when I post something to my Ebay Store, I will be posting a small picture of the items at the end of my daily posts.

So ... here's the new items in my EBAY STORE today



If interested ... just click on my EBAY STORE for more information.

Back To Black.

I decided I like the black background better than the tan ...
So it's back to black.

New Look?

Today I've been experimenting with my blog colors. I'm not sure if I like the tan background or not. I think I will give it a couple of days and see how I feel then.

I've added a couple of new items to my Ebay Store today ...
If interested you can see them by clicking HERE





Happy Sunday Everyone!

We're Home.

We're home from our two week vacation ... and it's SO nice to be home.

Today will be a day of getting things organized, clothes washed, groceries bought and getting back to normal life.

While on vacation, I totally had the idea that I would blog everyday ... but I just didn't have the time. I do plan to share photos of our vacation with you very soon and some of the fun things we did.

The reason you see my banner above is there are big changes coming to Missy Made It!. I've been notified by the folks that I use to build and maintain my website that they are no longer going to provide this service come January. I've been using Freemerchant's service for 10 years now and I just love them. It was so easy to use their site to build and maintain my website. After much consideration I've decided I will offer my items only in my Ebay Store. And you know what? I am very, very happy about this. It's so much easier to offer pre-made Paper Piecings, Punch Art and Tear Bears for me. With my two-year old monopolizing the majority of my time it's very hard to find the time to get custom orders completed. And that is so not fair to my customers. So ... with the Ebay store ... it will be much easier to maintain. Who knows ... I might even offer some stuff that's not scrapbook related on there too. I'm trying to figure out where to have my missymadeit.com URL pointed. I'm thinking of having it pointed here to my blog and then you will find my Ebay Store Link and such. What do you think?

Florida.

We arrived in Florida yesterday. It's so good to be home.

My mother-in-law's Thanksgiving get-together is today and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.

We have a few traditions that we always do the Saturday before our Sunday Thanksgiving. One is to have Peebles BBQ for dinner ... yum! The other is the "peeling the boiled eggs" tradition. Basically my MIL boils about 3 dozen eggs for deviled eggs, the dressing and such. Before dinner we sit there and peel them all together. It was nice because Mike's step-sister Valerie and her girls Samantha and Lauren were here this year. It may seem like a silly tradition, but one I've always looked forward to.

Griffin is sick ... he's coughing and has a runny nose. He did not get sick until yesterday morning. We left on Friday afternoon and stayed overnight in Savannah. I think he picked the bug up in our hotel room. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon.

Well it's off to help my MIL with whatever she needs help with. Bye, Bye!

Homeward Bound.

This picture has nothing to do with today's post ... but I'm trying to include a picture with each post and I thought this was cute.

So ... we are headed home for Thanksgiving. I am so excited about this. We will see family and friends that we miss so much.

I have lots of orders packed and ready to ship before we leave. I'm excited about that too.

And ... I am taking lots of scrapbooking stuff with me so I can scrapbook while we are there.

And June ... if you are reading this ... I will be bringing your gift with me ... I hope to be able to give it to you in person. I've sent you a couple of emails ... have you gotten them?

I went back to the doctor about my foot yesterday. I fully expected him to say I was all healed up. But then deep down I knew he wouldn't. I still can't get my shoe on my foot. He said I would have to wear the boot at least another 3 weeks and it would probably be another 4-6 weeks before I could wear my regular shoes. He checked my knee because it's still bothering me alot and he said it's probably deep bruising and needs time to heal. He said if it's still bothering me after the first of the year I should come back. I fully expected to go in yesterday and he say, yes ... you're all healed ... but I guess I really knew that wouldn't happen because my foot is still tender. Oh well ... I guess I'll just have to wear this very glamourous (not!) boot another while longer.