Button love.... completed

Remember the gorgeous wreath from Ballard design?  (OK so my new Macbook Pro and I  are just getting acquainted and I can't seem to figure out some things consistently...so no picture, sorry!)

And here is my Ballard design inspired button wreath!  Oh how I love this wreath!!  Not only is it going to be a Christmas decoration but it will reside in our bedroom the remainder of the year.  It will be a constant reminder of my grandma and my mom!  Two ladies whom I love dearly!  Mom, I sure wish we lived closer.

 but wait let me show you how it started!

My husband absolutely loves this wreath as well!  Yeah score a BIG one for thrifty inspirations!!!

Now the next big project is to make an "antique" mirror out of an old picture frame and "mirror" spray paint... I'll let you know how it turns out!

This week I am linking up to these wonderful link "parties" I hope you will stop by....









 

Button love...

Do you ever see something that causes you to say..."I can make that!"  Something that brings back memories of someone you loved?  Well when I saw this wreath I knew I had to make it.  It so reminded me of my Grandma Seng.   You see before my Grandma died she gave me some of her buttons.  Is there anything truly special about these buttons?  To me there is... you see my grandma was a "saver!"  Many of these buttons came off of clothing destined for the rag bin and who knows the origin of the others.  Mixed in with Grandma's button is my own collection of buttons.  Buttons cut off clothing, buttons found at yard sales, and buttons rattling around the bottom of boxes from auctions.  Is my wreath complete?  No, I didn't have enough buttons. ha ha!  But once it is you will be some of the first to see it.  Until then here is my inspiration!

Photo courtesy of Ballard Designs:

(I don't know what is going on but I can't add my link.... any suggestions?)

computer crash

Yes, you read that correctly!  My computer died a painful death... maybe not for it but definitely for me.  Lesson learned back-up your files on a regular basis to a separate hard drive!!  The mother board gave up the ghost... AGAIN! So no more HP or PC's.  Chris bought a MacBook Pro and now I am trying to learn how to use it.  It really is quite simple but now there is all the finger work of transferring files to the appropriate "areas."  Thankfully we did not lose any data... it just needs reformated to be compatible!  So.... that is where I've been and where I will continue to be... cleaning and clearing out files.  Yes decluttering the computer is just as important as decluttering the rest of our lives!

I am so thankful we did NOT lose our pictures... ah the memories! :)

What its November? Impossible

Okay I just say the date of the last post... Now I have a question for you.  Where did the month go?  How could a full month have passed since I posted anything?  I mean seriously folks where did the time go and what did we even do?  Ah now I remember band and football! And week long TDY's plus overnight away trips, a week with my folks, and fall break. (plus the onslaught of seasonal allergies in addition to sinus/bronchial infections)

Well I can honestly say football season is over. And marching band for that matter!  All my lovelies did well!  The football player improved his game and is anticipating next season already.  In fact he is starting his conditioning now by going out for wrestling... yep you read that correctly.  wrestling... Yes visions of teenage boys grappling while dressed in their underwear dance through me head.  I assure you it is NOT a pretty sight.  But he oh so wants to give it a try.  So we will be there to cheer him on and give him all the encouragement he needs and deserves.  I'm proud of all of my boys!  They are getting out there and trying things they've never done before.  Mr. Music completed marching band season is anxiously awaiting the beginning of December so that he can start marimba lessons.  Know of anyone who has a good quality marimba for sale? CHEAP!?!



The the week of my last post in October we had company.  Grandma Carol and PawPaw Roland drove all the way up from Louisiana for a visit!  It sure was great to see them and be able to spend time with them.  My two biggest regrets are we do not live closer (or vice versa because I'm not a fan of hot humid weather) and that our house is not large enough to accomadate a guest room.  We planned on moving our eldest in with his brothers but Mom refused to move him out of his room.  Now I have to ask... what good is having a full size bed in his room if he is the only one who will get to sleep on it?  We bought it so it could be used by guests.  I won't complain as he loves his bed and all the room it affords him to sprawl plus Chris had one at his age too.  So....

We were able to take a varsity football game to see the marching band play, a jv game to see Ian play, evenings filled with laughter and card games, and some day time shopping!  All in all it was a lovely time!!

Do you see that brown vase with the orangish red flowers?  Here let me give you a close up of it...

Well my eldest made it last year... Yes LAST year in 3-D art and it only made it home recently!  It was in the display case at school.  He HATES it!  But I LOVE it because he made it and trust me that is saying a LOT.  He is not the artsy craftsy kid and never has been (at least he never seemed to enjoy it.)  Now give him Legos when he was younger and that's a different story.  We have all kinds of pictures of his "projects" but haven't seen much in the past 4 or 5 years.  Which is why I was ECSTATIC when he decided to take 3-D art (even if some sort of fine art courses are required at our school...  I mean he could have taken choir like many of his friends but he chose art.)  In fact he is taking a ceramics course right now.  What has he made?  I have no earthly idea!  But our youngest... now that is a different story.  Mr. I-don't-like-art is LOVING it this year!  Give him paper, glue, scissors, string, clay, anything and he loves it! I think I see some present making sessions in our near future... we still have a container or two of paper clay and lots of notebooks to be embellished!!!

I think that pretty much covers it for us for the moment! Lots of projects in the works... strawberry jam, cocoa mix, buttermilk pancake mix, homemade fruit syrup, candy, an anthro inspired cookbook and an embroidered perpetual calender.

(this is the inspiration for the embroidered perpetual calender... found over at Our Hartbeat in the picture of Annalea's room.  you know the one being voted on!)

Once I can access photos again I'll get them up.  And just to let you all know I now have blogging time actually penciled in on the calender.  Its the only way things get accomplished in a timely fashion around here is to have it on the calender and the chalkboard!

Hope you have a great week!