I will NOT say I'm playing 'Catch-Up Again'.......

Goodness gracious....I'm so behind with my blogging again. I got patooed when my camera/computer went all wonky on me last week. It was SO pretty all last week & we did school outside pretty much every day. I had taken a bunch of pictures of the kids & Rocky on the quilt out under the Dogwood tree doing math & vocabulary words, etc. and then I couldn't post them. Dumb computer. 

Friday we met Ella & kids for lunch at CFA & some Target shopping. Alli found this cute leather jacket that she wants for Christmas. She says it's perfect because it matches her cowboy boots. After shopping, Alli went home to spend the weekend with Cori. A sleepover with your best friend is always fun! Picked Ashley up & ran her to get her bangs trimmed & by the camera store to get a roll of Black & White film then back to meet with her adviser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday afternoon, two of the neighbor girls came over looking for Alli. They wanted her to go bike riding with them & to see the other neighbor's horses. They ended up staying & just hanging out visiting with me & the boys for a good while. Then later, after supper.....they came back with my cousin & wanted to know if Jon & Michael wanted to come over (just up the road) & have a bonfire. They ended up being over there until 11:30pm. I was pooped waiting up for them, but they had a blast! I'm so thankful for good neighbors/friends/family!

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Monday I did tons of laundry.....it was overcast & looking like rain, so I had to use my dryer. It had been well over a week since I used it last, so I didn't feel TOO bad having to use it. Clay & the boys worked on their tree stands....it's that time of year again.....getting ready for hunting season. While they were up in the woods, they also cut a load of firewood. Clay rewarded all their hard work by getting us Vitos pizza for supper.....

AND, he also got me the ingredients to make pumpkin pie for dessert. Some Bloggy-Friend of mine had planted that little pumpkin pie seed in my brain & I had really been wanting some. It was SO yummy with a nice hot cup of coffee!

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Yesterday was a wash out! The perfect day for being inside & doing some crafting. After school, I stuck in 'Singing in the Rain'....the perfect movie for such a day. I worked on some little Halloween cross-stitches while I watched. Will have to take some pictures tomorrow of my daily art journaling. Surprisingly, I've been keeping up with it each day.

Gorgeous!

Yep, that's what it is alright....a gorgeous Sept. day today! Blue skies with little puffs of white clouds here & there & the high only about 76 degrees. Can you tell I'm lovin' it? The boys are off playing golf & this is what I've been doing today between loads of laundry.

I am not ashamed to say that I spread my quilt out under my Dogwood tree & enjoyed some art time. I also finished reading the book I had borrowed from Sarah......'The Fiddler' by Beverly Lewis.

Goodness....I told you the sky was BLUE!  There was just something so peaceful & wonderfully relaxing about being outside today! I even enjoyed the chores.....doing the laundry.....I'm loving hanging stuff out on my clothes line. Again, something so peaceful about it. Not to mention how awesome everything smells when you bring it in! Have I been reading too much Amish literature? I'm just reveling in the joy of the 'everyday' today......the laundry, having a pot of chili simmering on the stove for supper & just the relaxed pace....being able to read, do some art work & even a little knitting.

'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.'

~Psalms 19:1~

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sweet Ashley-Girl's 19th birthday. I know it's so cliche to say 'where has the time gone?'....but seriously. A college sophomore majoring in journalism. She's beautiful both inside & out & we praise God for the joy she brings into our lives!

We all gathered at Maw's house today after church for a birthday celebration.

Ashley requested Maw's apple crisp instead of cake. So, we stuck the candles in & all sang 'Happy Birthday'

Blowing out the candles.

Jon had my camera here & snapped this one......Love that smile she flashed him!!!

Ashley & her 'favorite brother'. ;-) See Alli trying to sneak into the picture?

There she is!

My 'Fantastic Five'. I love these guys so much!

So glad that Ashley C. could come up to celebrate with us this weekend!

And of course they had to do a silly picture.

Opening gifts. This was a Jane Austin devotional book from Maw. Ashley had seen this at Lifeway & really wanted it.

Chris made this poster for Ashley....how's that for an 'original'? The picture didn't take too well with the glare of the light.....but it's Audrey Hepburn over the NYC skyline & it says Breakfast at Tiffany's down the side.

Here's one of Jon's gifts that he made for her. She had seen this cool, funky pencil holder on Pinterest & hinted that she'd love to have one....so Jon made this for her. He also whittled her a wooden ring. It turned out SO cool!

Alli's gift....for her dorm room wall.

Ashley had to take some pictures for her photography class this afternoon & so Alli agreed to help her out. I LOVE this one!

What a fun day we had. God has truly blessed us beyond measure with family & friends to share life with!

Yippy Skippy!

I just had to share the pictures of my new clothes line. I'm SO excited!

A little overcast, I know....but I checked the radar & the rain was gone, so I went ahead & hung them out. The sun eventually came out & they dried nicely.

This is going in the homeschool transcripts under 'Wood Shop'......along with several of his (Jon's) other projects. What do ya think?

I know, I know.....THREE pictures of a clothes line......yeah, well....it's the little things in life that excite me!

I just had to snap a picture this morning. Rocky was being so sweet & lovey.

My latest art journal pages. Just playing around with some backgrounds. I painted the pages with the darker blue acrylic & let it dry. Added some torn pieces of a security envelope I had saved. Then added the lighter blue to a piece of corrugated cardboard I found lying around & used that to stamp all over. Will show you the finished product......when it's finished. LOL!

A Time to Dance

Another amazing book by Karen Kingsbury! Just had to share a quote:

'It can NEVER be better to divorce. That's a lie from the pit of hell; mark my words..........The only thing you need is faith in Christ & a dedication to each other. If you have that...everything else will fall into place.'

**Throughout the story she uses several references to the eagle. Here's the best one:

 Once paired, bald eagles remain together FOREVER until death parts them! Hmmmmmmm...................

Little Bits......

I canned 7 qts. of beans this past Saturday.....thanks to our neighbors, Mason & Gail. So nice of them to share with us!

 

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I feel like I haven't scrapped in ages! One or two layouts all summer long.   I've truly wanted to scrap.....spend time looking at mags & saving layout ideas on Pinterest, but when I go to sit down at the table.....it's like I have scrapper's block or something. Anyway, I came across this awesome deal on Half.com the other day.

This Elsie Flannigan book for just  $2+. I kid you not!! Shipping & all it was just a tad over $5. I had seen it before in the craft stores, but never buy these books unless I get a really good deal on them. Well, I figured for this price I was bound to find SOME sort of inspiration to get me motivated again.

And here's the layout I was inspired to create! Large frame cut from patterned paper. Flowers & arrows cut from  different pieces of paper. I added some buttons, hand stitching & some cute little ticket accents from my stash. I love how it turned out & already have a couple of other layout ideas planned out.

Some more art journal pages. I loved that tree with the owl.....a Bo Bunny ad, if I'm not mistaken that I cut from a magazine. The verse around that reads: 'He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water....' Psalms 1:3

 This spread here was inspired by a new blog I recently found Happy Reminders. She's a very talented lady.....you should check it out, Sandee.......she's got some lovely quilts on there too! Anyway, I loved how the tree went up the middle & spread across both pages. Again, nothing fancy.....but I sure am having fun & I guess that's all that counts.

New Journal

I love getting a new journal, but I'm always scared to start using it. It's so new & pretty & I don't want to 'mess it up'. Crazy, I know......but anyway. I started off by spritzing the first two pages with some colored mist I had. That was a nice start. Then I decided to doodle the word CREATE across the front page......because, after all, that is my intent with an art journal.....to CREATE....everyday!

The next doodled page was inspired by a page from an older Art Journal magazine that I pulled out. I think I'm going to go back & add some watercolors to this one. The next page has a water colored back ground with some images I had cut from a scrapping magazine. It's entitled 'June Bug' because it was a Basic Grey ad for their June Bug paper collection.

These last two images are from today. I saw something on Pinterest that inspired me to pull out my paints & paint without using a paint brush. obviously the back ground had already been done with watercolors. Then I added the painted circles with a paper towel tube. I cheated a tiny bit because I swiped the excess paint from where I painted the paper towel tube along the bottom of the page as I 'cleaned' my brush off. Will take more pics of these pages when I actually finish them. LOL. I did go back this evening & added the pen doodling along the bottom to create my flowers.

This page was stamped with painted bubble wrap. Then when that was dry, I noticed the empty bottles sitting there from where Alli had done her tie dye the other night.........hmmmm.....wonder if that little tip would fit on the bottle of acrylic paint........why YES, it does!  'Wow....How Cool!' I used the lighter green to paint the words across the page. And lastly, I took some magic mesh from my stash & used that randomly as a stencil with some gold paint. I added some bits of washi tape, outlined my painted words, added a few white paint pen dots & finished with my journaling along the inside edge. Nothing fancy, but I'm having fun CREATING!

Tie Dye Ta-Da

Voila!

This is just one example. She ended up with enough dye to do 5 shirts! Four for herself & one for me. Mine is much paler than hers. I learned that the soda ash really makes a huge difference in the brightness of the colors. All the other shirts got soaked in the soda ash to start with, but mine was kind of an after-thought when she realized she still had some dye left & didn't want to waste it. Which is fine......I really like mine......but we were just amazed at the difference in the color intensity. That's GOT to be a science lesson, right?!

Tie Dye--part 1

It all started way back when..........

When Alli watched them do an episode about tie-dying on Gullah Gullah Island. Anyone remember that show?

Well, she's been on a roll here recently about REALLY wanting to make her own tie dyed T-shirt. She even told me how she's watched several How-To videos on youtube & knows exactly what she's looking for at the store AND how to do it. So.......with a Michael's coupon in hand yesterday, we went searching. We priced the kits at Walmart first, but figured that even if they were close in price at Michael's we could use the coupon & get a better deal. At Michael's, they just happened to have their plain T-shirts on sale too.........so, along with the sale & the coupon for the tie-dye kit, we were able to buy BOTH for LESS than the original price of the kit. How 'bout that for a good deal!

After supper last night, I cleaned the kitchen sink really well & let her loose to work on her new project.

Applying the dye

All twisted, rubber-banded, saran wrapped & ready to sit for 24 hours. Will take more pictures later today of the completed project.

 

 

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Yesterday, while we were in town, Alli asked if we might possibly go by the music store. She LOVES going there & trying out all the different instruments. She could spend HOURS in there if I'd let her. She loves playing the 12 string guitars, but she also kind of has a hankering for a mandolin now.

Here she is testing the keyboards. She says they sound SO much better than our old piano.

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And one last tad bit of total randomness......

Alli demonstrating how to do a 'Snake Braid' on my hair. Isn't that cool?!