Art, Typing & Crochet

It was a windy, rainy day today with tornado watches in effect until 4pm.....So, needless to say, the kids were kind of cooped up inside. They ended up having a full-blown art-fest this afternoon. Which was fine with me really......it kept them entertained & hey.....it was 'Art Class'.....body art, I guess you'd call it. LOLJon's artwork on his own arm.

Alli worked her magic on Michael again.....remember they did this back in the fall around Halloween time.

'Why so serious?' Jon painted Alli's face to look like the Joker.

And Alli did this to Jon. I wish you could REALLY see the detailing in his eyes! She's really good. She says she wants to work in Scare Mare doing make-up when she's older.

******************
Well, that was our Art Class. Typing. Clay came home from work yesterday evening & wanted to know why both girls were sitting here in the dining room (Alli here at this computer & Ashley at the table with her laptop) & IMing each other on the computer instead of just talking. I told him to hush & don't ruin it........Alli was doing 'School'. I told him she's learning the keyboard & spelling & its all disguised as having fun with her sister.

********************

Now the crocheting.........

I finished my little 12 x 12" Stripey pillow this afternoon.

I love how it turned out. So bright & cheerful!!

Now...what to work on next. I'm still plugging away on my Granny Stripe blanket, but I'm kind of hankering to start something else.....a little smaller & more portable.....to take with me to NC this weekend so I'll have someting to work on in the van & while I'm down there. I've been thinking about doing some hexagons with the scraps I have stashed around. Or I could do a scarf. I have several ideas floating around in my head.....I just need to decide.

Happy Saturday

In between loads of laundry this afternoon I was able to do a little bit of scrapping. I stuck in the 6th season of NCIS & scrapped away.Just a cute pic of Rocky I snapped one morning. I was trying out a new technique here.....see the cute little blue dotted flower? You cut/punch out 6 small circles......use one as your base, crimp/pinch the other 5, add a dab of tacky glue & I clipped them with clothes pins until they dried. Then you just assemble them onto the base circle & add a button or brad for a center. I love how it turned out. Will definitely be making some more of these!!
Just a very simple pocket page to showcase pics from our Valentine party & it also gives me a place to save all those cute little Valentine cards I received. Note the OLD Rebecca Sower tag I used.....does anyone remember those or still have any?

And here are a couple of little hooky flowers I was playing around with this evening. I love the shawl/wrap thingie that Lucy is making using these flowers & I've been hunting all over trying to find a pattern for them. I found one CLOSE to hers & gave it a whirl first. Really easy & quick & I like how it turned out.

Just a little while ago, I found another similar flower on a blog, so I eye-balled it & this is what I came up with.

Here they are together. I really can't decide which one I like the best. They were both really easy & quick to do. I'm thinking of doing these in some Attic24 colors & joining them into a scarf. Was thinking they would make pretty Christmas presents for this coming year.

Big News Today!

Got a call from Clay today while the girls & I were in Sams.....seems he just wanted to call & congratulate Ashley.............He got the call today saying she had been accepted to Liberty University for this coming fall! We are so proud of her. She has worked SO very hard to get to this point & we are praising God tonight for His goodness!!! Goodness I have such mixed emotions....Chris graduating & starting on this next new chapter of his life & Ashley finishing high school & heading off to LU & a new chapter of her life. My kiddos are growing up! We are so very proud of the awesome young adults they have become & how they are wanting to serve God with their lives.

**************************************************

On a lighter...definitely funnier note......look what Clay brought me this evening. My late BD present.

Isn't this just an absolute hoot?! He said he found it at Pier1 & knew I NEEDED this mug.....to go along with Michael's cool Monkey mug he got for Christmas. LOL!

Recipe Pages

I had been asked by my friend, Inger to make some recipe pages for her.......

I had fun making these & hope they work out for her & meet with her approval. Just wanted to share them here before I mail them off to her.

Harry

We had one of those spur-of-the-moment 'field trips' yesterday. Took the kiddos to the dollar theater to see Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. The kids had already seen it when it first came to the theaters, but have been wanting to see it once more on the big screen when it came to the dollar theater. And I hadn't seen it, so we were all pretty excited to go yesterday.

Like I said, this was so spur-of-the-moment that Ella couldn't find anyone to sit with Jesse & Taylor, but she did drop Cori off so she could go see it with Alli. Of course while we were out & about I had to run a few errands too.......ran by Sams since we were in town & picked up another milk & got Chris some poptarts.....to the admission's office at Liberty AGAIN to drop off some papers for Ashley's application file.......dropped by Chris' dorm to give him the poptarts & of course, there was a stop at Starbucks in there too....thanks to Aunt Vada & her empty Starbucks coffee packages that she sent.....each kiddo was able to get a FREE coffee. Pretty sweet!! ;-) Didn't get home til supper time....around 6pm, I think. Thank goodness I had put a pot of chili on BEFORE we left, so all we had to do was heat that up. Really yummy on a cold evening!

Check it out........Ashley's new laptop! Can you tell we are preparing for college?! Clay had found a really good deal on a HP laptop that had been a display model, but after getting home & playing with it, he realized the 'I' key was a little wonky.....not really bad, but after use, you know it would just get worse. So, he packed it all in & took it back yesterday & came home instead with this Toshiba. Pretty sweet. She's over here now as I type playing around with it........if you can call taking practice SAT tests 'playing around.' LOL!

College Life

I Love this picture......just look at the expressions on their faces!Chris said they had to 'cram' into Damian's car for a short distance........Jon told me Damian is forever picking kids up along the way & dropping them off to class or the ROT, etc. Aaaahh, how I remember those days.......fun times! I am SO thankful for the good friends that Chris has made over the past three years at Liberty & pray that God will keep them close in the years ahead.

My Weekend Scrappiness

Love how this one turned out.....I lifted a LO in the latest issue of 'Scrapbooking & Beyond'This Christmas LO was also inspired by a LO in said magazine.....& I use the term 'inspired' very loosely here because my final product really in now way resembles the original, but anyway.....that's where the inspiration started....

The spread below, as many of you can tell right off, was inspired by Lucy's blog....Attic24

Not only did I get the inspiration for the blanket from Lucy, but my paper-piecing on the LO was inspired by her blog header. My journaling tells how I happened upon her blog & fell in love & how my Granny Stripe blanket came to be.

Hooky Stripey Springy Goodness

Working on another smaller cushion cover...to go along with my other cushion I made & it will also match the Granny Stripe blanket when it's done too.

I spent some time working on this yesterday afternoon while watching 'Fifty First Dates'. Love that movie.

I'm really pleased with how its coming along. Like I said, it's smaller than the other one I did. This one is just 12"x12". I love finding these awesome little pillows/cushions at Good Will in the dollar bin & then crocheting nifty covers for them.

And remember that handful of little flowers I posted the other day? Well, here they are.

I hung them across my kitchen window. I needed something to replace the heart garland I had there for Valentine's Day. I kept saying last year this time that I needed a little flower garland to hang up & look all Springy-like, but I just never got around to it. But this year I did....thanks to Lucy & her wonderful patterns over at Attic24.

Just had to share a couple of pics that the kids took on Friday while they were outside enjoying these lovely spring-like temps.

Does this photo just not scream 'Hello Spring!' I love it...makes me think of that Newsboys song 'I am Free'

******************

I am free to run,

I am free to dance,

I am free to live for you,

I am free!

Dentist & Antiquing

Went for our final consult about Ashley's invisalign braces today. The computer technology is amazing. They showed us how her teeth look now & gradually how they will change & what the final results will look like. We wrote a check & they are putting the order through in the morning, so she will be in braces in about two weeks. She is so excited! After the dentist, Clay headed back home....he had left the boys in charge of smoking a deer ham for supper & Ashley & I headed off to some antique places over that way.

These first two pics were taken for the boys. Ashley said she knew Jon would particularly like that first sign & Michael would get a kick out of those lovely faces! LOL

I love these two little Avon pins. I actually had two just like this when I was little & hoping that Maw can uncover them somewhere in her bathroom closet maybe. I'd love to have them!

On up the road a bit, we stopped into the Covesville Store. It is the coolest place. Love the big old house turned into store with the creaky old wood flooring, cool stairways, etc. Ashley decided that she wanted to live here....or it at least could be our vacation spot....where we could escape for a weekend here & there & spend scrapping in the upstairs rooms (our own little 'Attic 24') Sounds perfect to me! A girl can dream, right?!

Started on another quick little hooky project this afternoon. I'm wanting to take my heart garland down & replace it with these adorable little spring flowers.

I plan on crocheting up a bunch of these & then stringing them on a green chain. Should look very springy, I think.

Another Hooky Project

First of all......here's a picture of our 'pet' owl......Erol. See him in the very middle there...in the hollowed out spot in the tree? Just the perfect little nesting place for him. He's so cute! Spent the afternoon watching 'Letters to Juliet' with Alli. Such a good chick flick.
And while I watched, I crocheted. Wanted to finish up Alli's pillow that she's been begging for.

She chose the colors....to match her comforter & the afghan I made her. I think it turned out pretty cute. I love the little scalloped edging on it. And as long as she's happy with it, that's what counts!!