Spring In January?

It's looks like I've been bitten by the "spring" bug.

I've been doing a bit of spring cleaning the past few days ... and I've got spring on the mind when creating some new paper piecings!

It seems I'm in a bright-and-cheerful color scheme frame of mind here lately.

Here's what I just posted to MY EBAY STORE




Wishing you a warm spring like day ...

Handmade Easter Paper Piecings

I love when the cooler weather turns a bit warmer.

For me, it's a sign that spring is just around the corner.

Yesterday I took some time to make some handmade Easter paper piecings.

I've been making the same little bunny for years. I've just updated him with a little ink for a bit of added dimension.


This is a brand new Easter Egg Bunny ... in pink!


We can't forget the boys so I made one in blue too!


This is on of my all time favorite paper piecings to make. I literally created this paper piecing like 10 years ago. But I've updated it. This version is without a bow. But I do include a bow in case you would like to personalize it for a girl.

You can find these and more by CLICKING HERE to visit my Ebay Store.

Have a great day!

Is It Tuesday Already?

The past couple of weeks we've been a sick bunch here at our house.

The Wednesday before last Griffin woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach virus. Both Mike and I were up all night with him. It was pretty bad. For several days after he didn't want to eat anything. At all. This is a kid that is constantly (and I mean constantly) asking for food. We made him eat lunch and dinner. I'm sorry we did that. More about that later.

After Griffin's go 'round. Mike got it. His lasted for several days as well. Again, he didn't want to eat anything.

Even all the cleaning, Lysol Spraying and Clorox wiping didn't keep it away ...

Because, last Wednesday I got it. Ick. That's the perfect word for it. The Ick.

It was bad, bad, BAD!

Why does the virus always seem to hit at night?

I tell you ... I haven't felt that bad in a very long time.

I didn't want to eat for several days after either. I had to force myself to eat a piece of toast here and there. I finally was able to keep a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup down. Honestly, in my world Chicken Noodle Soup is a cure for all that ails.

Now ... back to Griffin not wanting to eat. We mad him eat. Now I feel so, so bad about that because I know how he was feeling. He would take a few bites of food and tell me his tummy was full. Next time I will listen and I will not make him clean him plate should he ever experience another virus like this.

We live and learn don't we?

A Little Boy's Dream Come True.

Griffin LOVES tractors ... that is a fact.

Out of all of the John Deere toy tractors he has, the combine is his favorite. He actually has four of them in different sizes.

Imagine his delight when he had the chance to ride in a real John Deere combine with a friend of ours.

Let's just say ... this was most definitely a little boy's dream come true!


We met Mr. & Mrs. Engel at the corn field near their house.

You should have seen the look on Griffin's face when he saw the combine.


He climbed right in with Mr. Engel ... ready to go cut some corn. I learned they call this "shelling" corn.


And there they go ... shelling corn!


I thought he would get a short ride ... but Mr. Engel took him for a long ride. They filled up the entire bin with corn.


Here they come to park near the semi-truck so they could do the off load.


They manuevered the off load auger over for the corn to fall into the trailer.


And there they go ... off loading the corn.


And here they are ... Mr. Engel and our country boy Griffin.

Mr. and Mrs. Engel certainly made our little boy's dream come true.

Partying At The Cheese.

Griffin enjoyed attending Kyra's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday ...

I have just a few pictures from the fun event. The birthday girl's Mom prefers her picture not be online. I totally respect that. I didn't have a chance to ask the other attendees ... so I'm just sharing pictures of Griffin and Mike. My two favorite subjects!


Kyra's Grandma made these beautiful cakes for her. Not only were they pretty ... they tasted good too! She puts almond extract in the icing and it was oh, so yummy!


Mike and Griffin enjoyed playing the games together ... we've been to CEC before, but this is the first time Mike has had the chance to go with us.


It was so much fun watching them play ice hockey together ...

What a great day we had ... thank you Cindy & Kyra for including us!

Spammer Comments.

The past couple of weeks I've been having a problem with spammer comments left on my blog.

Just yesterday I had one left for 25 different posts. I went in and deleted them, but seriously this is getting old.

Why is this happening? Is it happening to anyone else?

I really do not want to change to word verification or have to go in and approve each comment left ... but gosh ... I'm getting tired of the spam.

I love comments ... from my friends and visitors ... but NOT spammers!

Any suggestions?

Good-Bye Juniper.

Remember all of that snow we had?


It covered everything and did a number on the juniper in front of our house.


The snow was so heavy and it turned to ice. At one point most of the juniper was laying on the ground. Much of it was twisted and broken off.

So what else could we do?


Well ... the temperature got to the high 30's the other day and we were tired of being cooped up in the house. We went outside and did yard work. Yes, that's right ... it was in the 30's but it felt warm enough to be out there.

Mike cut it down and I dragged it to the burn pile. Griffin's job? Well ... he was enjoying being outside swinging on his playset to his little heart's content.


This is just one little piece of the juniper. It was big as a tree! Look at that!


So we said a fond fairwell to the juniper. Though it looks a little bare in front of our house right now we plan to plant pretty azaleas in it's place come spring time.

Custom Birthday Wrapping.

Griffin has been invited to a birthday party tomorrow and I wanted to do something special for the sweet little girl for which this gift is intended.


After wrapping her gift in pastel pink paper (which I LOVED doing since I rarely get to do anything pink!). I decided I would make one of my Custom Teddy Bear names to decorate her package.

I think it turned out pretty cute. I used scrapbook photo splits to attach it to the gift, so it's easy to remove. If her Mommy so desires, she could trim it down a little bit and frame it for her wall.

This is the kit I used ...


I have this one and several other available in MY EBAY STORE if interested just CLICK HERE to check them out!

Hope you have a GREAT weekend!

M & M

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having brunch with one of my dearest friends ...


I love when Melinda and I can get together. She's the "Real Deal". You know, one of those people who will be your friend for life. With Melinda, what you see is what you get.

I consider myself lucky to have her in my life.

She's been there for me on so many occasions ... one time in particular stands out in my mind. I was pregnant with Griffin and she was going to the doctor with me. Mike normally went but he was away on a business trip. Because of my age, my pregnancy was considered a high risk pregnancy.

This particular doctor's visit was to the specialist. When I arrived the specialist encouraged me to have an amniosantesis. Everything I had read about having an amnio was negative. I wasn't prepared for this.

I was so scared.

I called Mike on the telephone and we decided together to go ahead with it. My dear, sweet friend Melinda sat right there with me and held my held and got me through it. It's something I will never, ever forget.

And another time when we had to make the decision to put our dear sweet dog Wyatt down. This was one of the hardest times for both Mike and me. Griffin stayed with her when we went to the vet. That night she made us a full course meal and brought it to us. That was so very unexpected ... and just so very much how she is.

She knew we were hurting and wanted to do something to help us through.

I'm so lucky to have her as my friend.

I count her as a blessing in my life everyday.

Two Sammidges.

Last night I made a gourmet dinner of sloppy joes and tater tots. (Ha!)


Griffin LOVES sloppy joes and devoured his dinner with no urging from us. Normally we have to keep after him to finish up. Especially when there is green vegetables involved.

But not with the sloppy joes.

In fact he asked for a second sammidge last night. That's what he calls any sandwich. It could be a cheeseburger, ham & cheese or sloppy joe. If there is meat and bread involved, it's a sammidge to him. I love that because that's what my Daddy called sandwiches too ... a sammidge.


Here you can see the final MESSY results of his eating two very SLOPPY sloppy joes last night. He's normally not a messy eater ... but he sure was last night.

Gosh ... I love this guy!

Just Another Tuesday.

It's day 5 of this brand new year and it's FREEEEZING cold!

I am SO ready for some warm weather!

Not much chance of that though as we are supposed to have snow showers Thursday and Friday.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed school will be open on Friday because I'm supposed to get my hair cut while Griffin is in school. If it's closed ... I'll just enjoy the time with my sweet boy and reschedule my hair appointment.

Stay warm and toasty ...

Bathroom Re-Do.

My 2010 motto is live in the moment ...

The day after Christmas that is exactly what I decided to do. I've been wanting to re-do the bathroom in our bedroom but just had not taken the time to do it. Well, I got the urge to live in the moment and tackle that project.

The bathroom had this really awful striped wallpaper with a floral border. It just wasn't us and as you will see in the pictures our then 2 year old Griffin thought it was fun to peel the wallpaper from the wall.

So ... on with our project.

I had LOTS of wallpaper to peel from the walls. All it took was water mixed with a little Dawn dishwashing liquid, patience and hard work.


When you have a cute little assistant as a helper it makes hard work all the more fun!


This is the before picture complete with peeling wallpaper. It took awhile to get all of the wallpaper down but once it was wet it came off pretty easily.

After peeling the paper from the walls we had to putty the holes, sand them, putty some more, sand some more ... and finally we could get paint on the walls! This process took about three days.


First we put two coats of bright white ceiling paint on the ceiling and then we painted the walls this beautiful bright green color.


This is another before picture ...


And the after.


And another before picture ... good bye ugly peeling wallpaper!


I love, love, triple love our bathroom re-do! See those wooden shutters? Mike put those up like 5 years ago ... who knew they could stand out and be so pretty?


Our beautiful new green bathroom!


This is the ugly light fixture that was in the bathroom. Well, actually this is in the other (equally ugly) bathroom upstairs. I just forgot to take a picture of the real one from this bathroom.


And the gorgeous new light fixture that Mike replaced it with!


We even got a new water faucet.

I am so, so happy we conquered this project!

Care to see our next challenge?


This is the equally (if not more) ugly wallpaper in the other bathroom upstairs. I can not wait to get rid of it. I'm thinking of painting this bathroom a really pretty buttery yellow or a pretty blue.

I'm so excited about this change ... can't wait to tackle the next one!

Happy New Year 2010!

A New Year is upon on and it's going to be a great one!


I fell asleep on the couch but woke up in time to welcome the New Year in with my wonderful husband.

My wish for everyone for 2010 ... it's the BEST year ever!