It's All Relative

 

 

 

Chance and Emily will be here next week!!!

My son and brand new daughter-in-law will be here next week! I can hardly wait to see him and to meet her.

I Made A Keepsake Plate Of My Dad's Painting

I took this picture of a blue jay painting my father did a few years ago. He's 77 now and battling cancer but he still paints when he can. He didn't even start painting until he was in his 50's I think. I consider all his paintings family 'treasures' and this is a great way to have a Keepsake without actually having the real painting in my possession.

Note that I used a paint program to move his signature from the corner, to the center so it would be visible on a round plate before I uploaded at the link below. You can use the link to purchase this plate as is with my photograph, or use the 'Customize It' button and change my photo for your own. It's really easy and you can add names and dates too.

Customizable Original Art Blue Jay Plate

It arrived in time for Christmas.

I love it. 

Sweet Gum Trees

The Sweet Gum trees have turned gold and orange now, I missed getting a photo when everything was red.

Dog Collar and Leashes I've Been Making

I've been making these adjustable dog collars with matching leashes. I love them!

Here's more Cotton Dog Collars and Leashes

New Pictures Of The Bass Boat For Sale $2500 Dayton Tx

Whoever buys the boat will still need batteries for the trolling motor but we added one so it'll start up to let someone hear it run, the battery can go with the boat. I gave it a bath, it was a beautiful day for working outside. These pictures were taken today! Older pics at Selling Our Bass Boat.

She's old but she's still a nice boat. 

Dual consoles, Lowrance GPS, another fishing chair for the front deck is stored.

Sweet bench seats for sunbathing and storage! Stereo and speakers.

Derick wore the carpet off the deck fishing. Nice 24v, 70lb thrust Minn Kota Troller.

185 Evenrude, power trim/tilt, stainless steel prop.

Buy it so I can go Christmas shopping!!!

Selling The Bass Boat

I guess we're selling the bass boat. I love this boat but could use the money and we aren't using it anyway. The kids moved and we bought a smaller boat, so this one is just taking up space now.

It's got dual consoles, fishing decks and chairs, bench seats, and tons of storage. It's definitely a fishing boat with gps and maps, live well, fish finder, etc, But with all the seating and storage it's an ideal boat for family outings too. The motor runs fine, the carpet is worn off the front and back fishing decks, and it might need some other minor work, but with a little TLC and new batteries you can be on the lake or river this wknd. 

I don't have any recent pics, but these are from Memorial Day 09'. I'd have cleaned it up a little better had I known we were going to use these pictures to sell it! 

Perfect for a serious fisherman or family either one. 

20 ft Champion Fish and Ski Boat 85'

Tandem axle trailer 

185 hp Evenrude motor

24 volt trolling motor

$2500 obo 

 

  

 

I Love FreeCycle

If you haven't heard of FreeCycle.org - you really should check it out.
It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills and membership is free.

WHAT IS FREECYCLE ABOUT?
First, what Freecycle is NOT about.Freecycle is NOT about giving only to the poor.It is NOT about getting as much free stuff as we can.It is NOT about getting things to earn money on the side.It is NOT about getting rid of junk that would be better off in the landfill.It is NOT about posting a "wish list" for expensive items and expecting a fairy godmother to fulfill it for us.It is NOT a community bulletin board for finding rentals, dentists, mechanics, or advertising our businesses and services or special events.
What Freecycle IS aboutFreecycle IS about keeping things out of the landfill.It IS about giving away something that has no use in our life anymore to someone who could extend its usefulness a little longer.It IS about giving gifts to people while clearing out our own clutter.It IS about creating, building, and sustaining an environmentally aware community.
Offering Items We No Longer Need to Those Who Need ThemWhen we post an OFFER, we are offering to give someone a gift. It is up to us to give this gift to whoever we feel would be the best recipient. We are not obligated to give our gift to someone who is rich, poor, single, married, has no kids, has 1 kid, has 15 kids, has a car, doesn't have a car, or has a purple octopus named George living in their backyard. We can choose the most polite, the rudest, the funniest, or the shortest response to receive our gift. We can put their names in a hat and do a draw, or we can wave our magic fingers over our screens and pick one that way. We can choose the first, 3rd, or 53rd respondent. We can wait 24 hours and then decide. It is up to us.
Letting Other People Know What We NeedWhen we post a WANTED message, or respond to an offer, we are requesting a gift. The odds are that no one on this list will be able to give us what we are asking for. But sometimes somebody will see a WANTED for a bowling ball and go "AHA! I have one in my closet!"  But, you know what? Just because we are rich, poor, single, married, have no kids, have 1 kid, have 15 kids, have a car, don't have a car, or have a purple octopus named George living in our backyard, does not mean we are more worthy of receiving a gift from a fellow Freecycle member than the average person living down the street.

I love Freecycle. It's a great way to be green and keep things out of landfills. Personally I've always had a hard time getting rid of things I no longer need. It just seems shameful to  put perfectly usable items into the trashcan just because I no longer use them, don't want to be a hoarder and just store it! I used to have garage sales, but gosh it's alot of work and I felt like I was practically giving my things away anyhow. Some charities will pick-up things like clothes but not everything, and I'm in the country and most won't come out here. With Freecycle I can offer it to my own community and neighbors, choose a recipient, and let them pick it up from my front porch. So easy! 

Sweet Peasant Top From Men's Button Up Shirt

I think these are a great idea, they look like something my daughter might like to try.

See Peasant Top From Men's Button Up Shirt and 1000's of others - 

or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

DIY String Pendant Light Project

Found this easy project I just have to try. I'm thinking I could even do small one's to turn a string of outdoor Christmas lights (the kind with the larger bulbs) into outdoor patio lights.

See Woven String Pendant Lamp and 1000's of others - 
or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

I think while I have the starch out I will wrap some decorative balls with my fabric scraps!

Seems every magazine photograph of a beautiful home has a bowl of these on a table somewhere. Hey I could wrap the bowl too!

Sewing Aprons

I've been sewing on these aprons since Sunday. I just love sewing, all the pretty fabrics, I'm not real good at it, my mind wanders sometimes causing me to occasionally sew things out of order. If you don't sew.... well let's just say it's a big deal. I just hate ripping out freshly sewn stitches, so much in fact I tend to just keep on going, until I get to a point where I see clearly why, and so it takes me a while but I'm learning, and getting faster. I DID learn to use my iron! It makes everything so much easier.

 I've had this fabric for ages 

Country bib apron

 More vintage fabric I found in my closet.

One yard apron. There's only one tie which goes around neck and passes 

thru the sides of the bib to tie in the back, so it's completely adjustable.

 This is all I had left of that yard, think I'll add pockets!

 I plan to make more in this simple style too.

Here's some more fabrics I plan to use.

Hurricane Ike - Squirrel Story

I was just outside playing with Ike. He has a teddy bear he loves to show-off and wrestle with. Derick has taught him to "kick that bears ass" for a peanut, and he does! He rolls that bear all over, then comes over for his treat. I never planned to have a squirrel, it just sort of happened. 

Hurricane Ike in 2008 blew down 8 trees on our property. On the morning after as Derick and I surveyed  the damage, a circle shape happen to catch my eye, it was in a puddle of water beneath a tangle of fallen tree limbs, and just looked out of place. As I looked closer I realized it was a baby squirrel curled up in a perfect circle! I picked him up but he felt cold and lifeless in my hand and I thought he was dead. I didn't have the heart to just toss him back on the ground so I was still holding it in my hand under my rain pancho wondering what to do with him, as we wandered around looking at the damage. 

The first time I felt something, I checked him again, but nothing, and I decided it was my imagination. A few minutes later though, I felt his little tail twitching! I took him into the house and dried him off real well, but he was still so cold I finally just tucked him into my sports bra to warm him up. We had no power! The next few hours I spent going back and forth warming him up and taking him back outside in a little towel in hopes his moma would come get him. Squirrels were all over the yard gathering up their babies, it was awful to see. One moma squirrel found 2 of her babies and put them in our boat, but she didn't want 'Ike' as he later came to be known. Little Ike's moma never did come for him, she probably died, we searched for more survivors, but found none. 

Ike couldn't maintain any body heat at all, and I was concerned about the snakes I'd already seen, plus he was dehydrated. I gave him some watered down evaporated milk (not ideal) with a small syringe, since I didn't have an eye dropper. (If you ever HAVE to do this, you must be VERY careful not to aspirate the baby.) The next day I finally got a call thru to the proper agency. I'll not name names, since they were jerks.... I was told ''all our licensed rehabilitators are overwhelmed with orphaned squirrels. Since it is illegal for you to keep him, the kindest thing you can do is to return him to the food-chain!" I couldn't believe he said that.... 

Well you can call me Outlaw! I hung-up the phone and named my new baby squirrel 'Ike'. We found Esbilac puppy replacement milk, the same thing rehabbers use, at our local Brookshire Bros. He obviously did just fine. He's a pretty happy squirrel I think. He has a big outdoor cage with a passage thru the window to his indoor cage. 

He's a very sweet little squirrel , check him out!

  

Ahh For The Love Of Fat Quarters!

I'm just stopped in my tracks, by colorful fat quarter bundles in beautifully coordinated collections in stacks, folded so neatly and tied with a ribbon. I love them, the hard work of matching prints is already done and I can already see how pretty they look together, and imagine ALL the things I could make with them! 

But a fat quarter isn't a matter of presentation. It' really all about the way it's cut. My friends ask what IS a fat quarter anyway, and what makes it so great? 

The simple answer is it's a square-ish block, as opposed to narrow strip of fabric, so there's more ways to use it.

Most cotton is 44" wide. It comes doubled over on the bolt. So if you cut a regular yard (.25), you cut 9" which is 1/4 of 36". So a regular quarter is 9" wide, by 44" long.

To cut a fat quarter, you start by cutting 18" (instead of 9") off the bolt, then cut that piece in half along the fold. Now you have 2 square-ish fat quarters, each one is 18' x 22'. It's a better size for projects. 

Oops A Daisy collection by Moda . 42 - 5" squares in this one. Sweet huh?

DIY Doggie Sleeping Bags

I recycled my old comforter to make some dog beds for the girls. I'm putting a drawstring on them so I can cinch them up like little bowls. My chihuahuas like to snuggle down under something, and I thought this would be perfect, like little round sleeping bags. I put a little extra stuffing in the bottom, but wish now I had added a whole thick layer to make it more 'poofy'. But as you see the girls were fighting over the first one I got done this evening. I'm supposed to be making aprons.... but had this brainstorm.

I cut three 24" inch circles

Cut and pressed some strips to make a band to run a rope thru, and sewed around the circle. 

  

Maggie got in it as soon as she saw it.

She knew exactly what it was for, curled up and went to sleep. 

 She eventually had to go get a drink of water, and look what happened.

Now Dixie won't get out of it!

Ahh well it's nice to have my handy-work appreciated. Tomorrow I put together the other two.