Fall into crafts!

Mom has been hard at channeling her inner "Martha Stewart" once again!  This time she has been creating new fall wreaths for our front doors.  So, it was off to Hobby Lobby to purchase a couple of grape vine wreaths and all the necessary fall foliage to adorn them!

It is amazing how she can take a plain grape vine wreath add a few picks and tweak it this way and then that and end up with two beautiful wreaths!  We have already had several compliments on the finished products.  I swear she is missing a bet by not selling this stuff, but according to her that would them become the dreaded four letter word "WORK", which would translate into no fun!

 Take a look at the wreaths we are proudly displaying on our double doors!  

Halloween Treats....No Tricks!

Halloween will be upon us quickly and we (Mom and I) have been busy working up a new Halloween treat, which is sure to please just about everybody.

I found these cute Halloween inspired pails at Target. Some had beaded handles, others had pumpkins on them, pumpkin faces along with Happy Halloween wishes.

Mom and I constructed these in the same fashion she did the birthday candy surprise vases. These little charmers contained (11) types of mini candy bars, Peeps in the shapes of ghost, packages of fake mouths with fangs and wooden plaques with Halloween wishes printed upon them.

We delivered a set of these to our favorite family the "Z" troop. Mom and I had the best time making these things and believe me the kids will have a great time eating all that candy! No trick to this treat it is just a bucket full of sweet!

Better than a bouquet of flowers!

Bouquet of goodies anyone? I spied this gift idea while visiting our local Kroger one evening. It was great and simple to make or at least my mother said it was relatively simple to make.

Our daughter wanted to surprise a school friend of hers who is turning '13" tomorrow with a bouquet of goodies and so my mother constructed this master piece for her. You start with a glass vase, we chose a smaller version as she would have to lug it around school. You fill the bottom with assorted candies, dum dum lollipops, tootsie rolls, Reese's peanut butter cups you get the idea. You use Mylar sheets, colored cellophane wrap, which you would use to cover a gift basket and colored tissue paper, bamboo skewers, packing tape and of course your selected goodies. You use the strapping tape to adhere the candy to the skewers, we also included hair bobs as she is a cheerleader, colored pens a hot pink butterfly pick as it is her favorite color and a mini birthday balloon. You layer the Mylar sheeting, cellophane and tissue paper in the neck of the vase and push the skewers down through the layers arranging the "goodies" as you go. The end result is what I snapped a picture of and believe me this photo does not do it justice. I am sure she is going to be thrilled to receive it and I am sure there will be a few other friends who will be registering their birthday dates as well. I tell you it is better than a bouquet of flowers, and this one is edible....can't get better than that!

Hoppy Easter "How to Project"

Ok, so I realized I am still behind on my posting after losing a month to absolutely no Internet connection (curse technology...or lack of it). Anyway, I found this post in "draft" status and realized I had never finished it, which meant I never posted it.

So, I have finally added all the pictures to correspond with my comments and have posted for your viewing pleasure! I am sure there are a few other 'orphan' post hanging around. Who knows maybe you will be reading about Christmas in July. Enough of that..............here is my Hoppy Easter How to Project post!

My mother and I made what I think has to be one of the cutest gifts we have every created. Our inspiration came from a center piece we saw at the 4-H awards banquet in February. It was simple, a glass vase, soil, grass seed and bulbs. I said to my mother….there is a gift in here and it has Easter written all over it. So around came March and I said to my mother, we have to make something special for our friends for Easter and I want to do something similar to what we saw at the 4-H awards. I decided to create springtime Easter pails so while we were out an about in Hobby Lobby, I picked up several mini pails in assorted springtime colors. I told my mother I needed to get some paint pens as I intended to use these for our Easter craft. Mom and I headed to the PX and purchased soil, grass seed and candy to include mini Godiva chickens (you will see how they fit in shortly). Back at home Mom and I started drilling holes into the bottoms of the pails. Once we were done with the holes, I hand painted Hoppy Easter on each of the pails.

Mom and I placed soil in the pails, covered with grass seed and topped with another ¼ inch of potting soil. We misted the pails and placed them in a box lid for easy transport as it was still extremely cold outside and we would need to move them to and from the window ledge for sunlight. The directions on the seeds said it could take 7 – 21 days to germinate. So we planted all the pails the first week of March and hoped for the best. We got lucky as our grass began to sprout in about (7) days…woo hoo! Over the next few weeks we misted them with water and moved them to and from the window and out on the back deck on the days when the weather permitted. Finally we had pails which were filled with luscious green grass.

As Easter grew closer we found ourselves having to give the plants a "hair cut" as you can see the grass began to lay over it had gotten so long. A few days before Easter we brought them in and began adding the special Easter treats to each pail. I had purchased chocolate Godiva Chicks at the PX, which I used as the main focal point for each pail.

After placing the Godiva chick in the spot of honor, we "hide" chocolate eggs in the grass around him.....and behold the our creation of Easter art!

We made a "holiday delivery" to our very special friends to drop off their Easter pail of goodies! Everyone seemed to love them, but I tell you for me there was no greater fun than creating them!

Easter Eggstravaganza

I cannot believe how far behind I am with my postings. Our Internet connectivity has been sporadic at best and my posting has really suffered. I did not have a chance to post picture from Easter even...now that is pitiful.

Our daughter had a blast dying eggs with her friend from our neighborhood “J” the day before Easter They dyed some solid colors a few were two tones and a couple they customized with these snap dye sticks I purchased at Wal-Mart for .88 cents. They were the neatest things, they looked like q-tips and all you had to do was snap one end and the dye would run into the head of the opposite end.

“O” and I created “Easter Boxes” for my husband and his partners in crime who are serving overseas with him. I used flat rate boxes from the post office and lined them with biodegradable peanuts to create a little cushion. I took Easter basket bags and placed them in the boxes filling them with multi-colored Easter grass. O and I went to town adding assorted candies and handcrafted treats from my mother. We decorate the outside of the boxes a sure give-away as to the contents inside and sent them priority mail across the pond. I was so excited to find out they arrived in about (6) days flat, heck you don’t get that type of service trying to mail a letter across town any longer! My mother and I put the finishing touches on the special Easter surprises we made some special folks I work with and our daughter’s special friends. We made deliveries the week before Easter to ensure everyone received their goodies before the actual holiday. Our family went to the Country Club for brunch/lunch on Easter. They really have a wonderful buffet with more of a selection than I could ever cook at a price that is impossible to beat. As to be expected the Easter Bunny made his usually “pit-stop” at our home, and “O” scored big. You have to love the bunny’s ability to keep up with changing times and technology. Candy was always the staple in our basket. Now days it is electronic gadgets, computer games, CDs and the like. I think I will ask the bunny to visit me next year as I am really missing out on a good thing!

Friends made our holiday extra special and we are extra blessed that our daughter has several special people to shared these precious holiday moments with! We hope you and yours had Hoppy Easter holiday.

What is inside your purse?

It always amazes me the things our daughter will pack in her purse. Just this morning, I removed the following from her purse in preparation to change over to the new purse my mother had made for her ( see pictures below).

• Box of Jolly Rancher Gummy Bears
• I bottle of Tom's natural deodorant ( don't ask...I have no clue why this was in her purse)
• Mobile Phone
• Two Pens
• A post-it hard bound pad with paper
• Spiral pad
• Two DS stylus
• Wallet
• Toe Ring
• Lip Gloss
• Finger nail clippers and.....
• Q-Tips

I must admit the deodorant bottle left me scratching my head, but who knows maybe she thought she would be working up a sweat walking into the movies and would need some "extra" protection.

All kidding aside, one of the best things about having a mother/grandmother who can sew, serge and embroider is all the neat new things you acquire. Our daughter loves purses and as such never passes up the opportunity to add another one to her growing collection. My mother along with a sewing buddy set out on a few afternoons to construct this latest creation. It is a brightly colored purse, which contains a separate draw string bag, which is removable.

Man, with this much space, I shutter to think of what she may stash in this bag and haul around town!

Projects Galore!

My mom has been super busy with all types of sewing projects. I must confess most of them have been at my request, as several of our friends had new babies and the like. Check out the latest batch of bibs and burp cloths she made for newly arrived Sophia Elizabeth.

Here are some snap shots of a few more of her pieces of art! It is hard to believe she did all this work on something that is going to catch baby spit! Those babies sure must feel special!