Mantle Woes!

I need some advice. This is our fireplace. These vents are so ugly. Somehow the heat from the fireplace comes up through them. So we need them. But who wants to look at them all the time. I had a quilt hanging up there, but I like to change it from time to time and that was a pain. Drag out the ladder, blah, blah, blah. I had this idea to put up some old shutters, but the ones that I had were about 6 feet tall. And that didn't look right. I found an old window that I could put over them. But I need a way to cover the glass. I thought about putting a mirror behind the panes. But I don't want the mirror to look new. Does anyone know how to age mirrors to make them look old? Any suggestions are welcome!

Can't Sleep

Well, it is after 1:00 a.m. here in Southern Indiana, and once again I can't sleep. I am going to the orthopedic doctor tomorrow for a cortisone injection in my right shoulder. I have been battling this pain for a couple of months now. My regular physician and my chiropractor both agreed not to do anything as far as treatment until my thyroid was under control. Well, my TSH is where it should be and has been for about a week now. So, lucky me! I am very nervous. I can't imagine how this will hurt, and it might be for nothing. There is no guarantee that my shoulder will feel better. It is really starting to interfere with my day to day living. I came home from work early today, because I just couldn't stand the pain anymore. Sorry, but I needed to vent! Keep me in your thoughts and prayers for tomorrow.

I can be creative after all!

A couple of months ago, my mom and I went "junking". I came home with this old beat up rocking chair, the bottom was out and it was in really bad shape. But the back was really cool. I kept thinking what could I do with that?

So this is what I came up with. A rack to hold my jewelry. I hung this above the toilet in my bathroom so I can easily grab my jewelry. Hopefully this will make me wear it mor often. I used some antique glass drawer knobs for my hooks. I applied weathered wood to the original wood finish. Then applied a coat of buttercream paint. After that I used burnt umber oil paint and brush cleaner to antique it. Spray it with a couple of coats of "matte" spray to protect it, and voila! It's done.

Pink Saturday

Thanks to Beverly for hosting another Pink Saturday. This week's contributions for me are just a couple of things. First, this pink polka dot fabric I am using in a baby quilt for Ashley. Ashley is my boss' daughter. They have opted not to find out the sex of their baby, which by the way, I think is wonderful, so I had to try to make a gender neutral quilt. It will be wild and crazy when I get it done, but I think they will love it.

Secondly, this doll. I happen to love her. My family on the other hand, finds her spooky. Crazy people. Anyway, this is another beauty that I got from my husband's grandmother Bobby. She was naked, so I made her this mauve pink dress back in the 80's. I think she needs an update. Up until last week, she was wearing some bloomers that my Megan wore under her little dresses when she was little. They were replaced by some really cute cotton britches that I found at Goodwill for a quarter. Guess I should put updating that dress on my list of things to do.

Friday's To Do List

I know this sounds like I am a spoiled housewife, but this working four days a week is for the birds. Normally, I do have Wednesday off, not this week. We have been busy decorating the shop, aka The Heart of Newburg h, for Fall and Halloween. I know it sounds crazy, but summer is almost over and people are out of the mood for patriotic and summer items. Time to quit thinking about the summer heat and looking forward to fall. Fall is my favorite time of year. I love Halloween and after getting the stuff out at the shop, I want to decorate for Halloween. But not yet, I will make myself wait, well at least until August 1st!

Some things I hope to accomplish Friday
1. Finish Ashley's baby quilt top, the shower is August 24.
2. Pick out a paint color for Megan's bathroom and develop some type of plan to redecorate.
3. Move my corner cabinet up to the kitchen.
4. Come up with some creative idea to hide the vents above the fireplace.
5. Clean House, Yuck!!!

We shall see how much I can get accomplished.

My new favorite sewing notion!

I went to Jo Ann Fabrics today. They are having a really good sale right now, well at least if you got the flyer in the mail. All these different 40% off coupons. I got tea dyed muslin for a quilt backing. Some jewely pliers, 40% off. Quilt batting by the yard, 40% off. And, presto, the Yo Yo Maker. This is so cool, I actually like to make yo yos now. I plan to create something for Donnas yo yo challenge. Got a couple of ideas in mind, we'll see what comes out of this!

Anybody else dread Monday?

Is it just me or does everyone dread to see Monday come? I work in a small shop called The Heart of Newburgh. It is me, the boss and one more girl. You would think working in a smaller environment would be easier, but no. I don't know, I don't want to seem like "Debbie Downer", just wondering if there are others out there that feel the same? Love to hear from you.

Pink Saturday

In celebration of Pink Saturday, I decided to feature a quilt that was handmade by my husband's grandmother. Pictured are some of the pink fabrics in the quilt. She hand pieced this quilt, no machine used here. Amazing! Grandma Susie died a couple of years ago, and we received this quilt as a Christmas gift last year from her daughter Sharene. I never had the chance to say thank you. Thanks Grandma Susie, your work is truly wonderful!P.s. Girls, don't think I ignored you on Pink Saturday. We are leaving for Indianapolis to go to my step sisters wedding reception, so no time for blogging today. I will catch up tomorrow evening!

Changed my mind, again!

In preparing my quilt top to send to Donna at Donna's In The Attic, http://www.donnasintheattic.typepad.com/, I decided that I might as well make it big enough for my bed. If I am going to do that, I need to add a really big border. So, off to Boonville to the Village Mercantile, http://www.villagemercantile.com/. Searching for the perfect fabric. I don't need to take my fabric samples with me, heck no. NOT, I get there and the choices are overwhelming. Mind you, I was just there on Wednesday to pick out the fabric for the backing.





I needed to purchase 5 yards for the borders and binding, and at $8.95 a picking out the wrong fabric, could have been a costly mistake! But I should have went with my gut feeling, because I wound up picking out the fabric I had seen on my first trip. Oh well, better safe than sorry.



Can't wait to get it in the mail to Donna on Monday.

Feeling a little down...

Well friends, this week has been a rough one. First of all, my youngest, Megan, her boyfriend of 3 1/2 years decided it was time to "take a break". We know what that means. Boys! This just hasn't been our year for men.

Second, my friend Lori T. needs prayers. She went to the doctor for what seemed to be a sinus infection. Well tomorrow she will be having a complete body scan. They took 12 tubes of blood for testing and x-rays. The doctor suspect lymphoma. Wow! is all I can say.

Thirdly, we will be going to Indy this weekend for my step sister's wedding reception. I know you are probably thinking this will be fun. Not really. Since the death of my dad, family times together are not so much fun. I always thought of my dad's second wife as my friend, not just my step mother. But since he passed away, I have done all the calling and making all the contact. But I am going because that is what dad would have wanted me to do. I am not looking forward to this at all. Seeing aunts and uncles will be hard, all we do is cry when we are together now anyway.

County Fair Time

It is that time of year again. The smell of funnel cakes,walking tacos, cheese sticks and various other fattening foods is in the air. You guessed it, the county fair. Now that my kids are done with 4-H, I have joined a homemakers club. AKA, 4-H for grown ups. I had a few projects to pick from that I had finished. I had even more that were just a little something from being finished. But, leave them for next year. Here are some of my items that I will be exhibiting.

My felt pumpkin table square. The pumpkins and pennies are stitched on using the blanket stitch.

My quilted table runner/wallhanging. I machine pieced this and hand quilted it. I had the leaf/nest piece of fabric for several years and finally, something sparked my creative juices. Just goes to show you, that piece of fabric you just had to have, can actually make it out of the stash and into a project.

 

Then there is THE PUMPKIN. I actually finished this a while back, but the Homemaker rules state that as long as it has not been exhibited before, and was made by the homemaker, you can exhibit it at any time. This bugger took me FOREVER to finish. Hope it wins a blue ribbon.

I've Been Tagged

What a great thing to wake up to! I have been tagged by Donna from http://donnasintheattic.typepad.com/donnas_in_the_attic/. As some of you may or may not know, I am fairly new to blogland, and have really enjoyed searching through various blogs and finding people with common interests. I found so many creative people.

Back to the matter at hand. Here are the Rules to the Game:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules to your Blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag people at the end of your entry.

So here it goes!

1. I prefer Coca Cola over Pepsi, I know it is crazy!
2. I am a little over the top on organization. Well, at least my closets. My entire house could be standing on its ear, which it normally does, and my closets are always neat and tidy.
3. I love jewelry, love to look at it, love to make it, but rarely ever wear it.
4. I still have ALL of my Barbies from when I was a girl. And, it is still in the boxes. I played with them all, but when I was through, I would just put them back in the boxes.
5. I am not a morning person. I am lucky to have a job where I don't have to be there until 10:00 a.m. It's a good thing, I am usually up late working on some project.
6. I love to piece quilt tops. I am always on the lookout for great fabrics that would be great together for a wall hanging, table runner or big quilt. Until recently, I didn't enjoy the hand quilting aspect of it, but I do enjoy it now. However, I am into the instant gratification of machine quilting. Especially sending it to a creative person to do the quilting. Then it is such a surprise when you get it back.

Hope I didn't ramble too much. Now here are the people that I tag!

1. Teresa at http://plumwatercottage-evansville.blogspot.com/
2. Deborah at http://picturespotspens.blogspot.com/
3. Diane at http://diane1876.blogspot.com/
4. Heidi Ann at http://foxglovesfabricandfolly.blogspot.com/
5. Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/
6. Maryjane at http://thebeehivecottage.blogspot.com/

Looking forward to getting to know more about my new friends!

Michelle

Pink Saturday

My third PINK Saturday and I am the prowl for the PINK. So I decided to improvise a little. Here is my foster greyhound, Sadie, sporting her PINK bandana. Sadie has been with us since the beginning of the year. She has been retired for 2 years and has been with our group, GPA Tri-State. She has yet to find her forever home. She is such a sweet spirit. Loves everyone, and wants everyone to love her. The poor thing has a mitral valve disorder, although you would never know by looking at her. If all comes back okay from this last batch of tests, she may just stay here.


A special little PINK quilt that I picked up at an antique shop. Since the binding looks new, I believe it was probably part of a bigger quilt. This may have been the only part that didn't get worn out. Oh yeah, and Vera Bradley PINK elephants.

It's Twins

While I was away in Tennessee, my daughter Megan took these pictures. Twin fawns. This particular mamma deer has multiples every year. Last year, she had triplettes. She took these pictures from inside our house. Some of them aren't very clear, but they are just adorable.

This baby is trying to figure out what that giant contraption is! Their ears are so big, but darn they are cute!

P.S. to Sunday

I am little slow these days. I finally got pictures of my journals. Remember, this is my first attempt at making journals.

The sketch pad, I am not quite sure what will become of it. I may put it away in my "stash" for a Christmas gift. Now as long as I remember where I put it, we'll be in good shape.

The one with the pansy, I made for Patty. The butterfly with the "B", I made for the boss, Becky.

And last but not least, one for me. I think I will use it in my purse for quilting notes.

Today's projects

Today, I was creative. Granted I should have been cleaning house, but what the heck. I started on a small quilted purse. My hope is to get it done in time to enter it in the Homemakers Exhibits in the county fair. I also made 3 small journals and one sketch pad. I say made, I just covered already existing journals. But it is actually harder than I thought. There has to be an easier way. I had kraft paper journals, so I used mod Podge to adhere the paper to them. Then I just cut out some little tags to put on the front of them. I made one for me. The other two I did for my boss and my co-worker/friend Patty. Hope they like them. The other was a sketch pad that I covered as well. Kind of the same theme, but a little different. Probably not as creative as I could have been, but maybe I will get better with time.

Pink Saturday

Here are some more of my favorite PINK things! First, these cute little dessert dishes. They were a gift to me from my favorite grandmother-in-law. I have no idea what these type of dishes are called, but they are adorable.

This cute litte PINK cup and saucer, I picked up at an antique shop to go along with my dessert dishes.

A cute PINK and white gerbera daisy wreath, my daughter's favorite flower.

Last, but not least, one of the bridesmaids bouquet from my oldest daughter's wedding. I love these flowers. There is a small PINK rose in there.

Pearls, anyone?

A short day at work because of a doctors appointment. There I find out that my Vitamin D level is mostly nonexistent and my thyroid is way low. So, Vitamin D supplements and an increase in my dosage of Synthroid. Yuck! With only a half hour left of the work day, I decided to take my stuff to the recycling center and then home for a little time on the couch!

After dinner I decided to make some jewelry. I had this idea for bracelets a while back. It just took me a while to make it come to reality. My thinking was, make your bracelet just shorter than the wrist. So, here are three of my "pearls".

Then, next I take a magnetic closure and put a jump ring on each end. After that, put a lobster clasp on each end. Use the lobster clasp to attach to the ends of my three pearls. And the great thing about this, I can make a bunch of bracelets and use the one closure. And it's magnetic, so it is easy to get on and off.

Here is what just one bracelet looks like. Let me know what you think!