SV -- 08.30.2012

Despite being CRAZY distracted today, 

I completed my Speech Communications class work for the week! 

It's not all due until Monday!  

Woot Woot!

Now, I've got to run along and figure out something to feed the fam

Small Victories!!

Them Bones

I have an odd obsession with all things dead and bones.

Here is a "photog" of some dead things I have found and received while living in the country...

Link Parties

I have recently discovered that link parties are awesome!  So may different blogs in the "interwebs" host link parties for sharing things from your own blog or website.  

This is a great tool for finding other blogs like your own, networking, and also getting the word out about your own blog and helping it grow!  

So I have decided I would start sharing some links to Link parties most of which have a designated day of the week!  

This is also a GREAT incentive to get some craftiness moving right along so you can have something to share EVERY WEEK!

(We all need a little kick in the britches once in a while right??)

Animal Scarves

Thanks to my loverly soon-to-be-step-sister-in-law Ellen

(sheesh is that a mouthful)

I discovered an awesome gal who makes these amazing crochet patterns

(Bees Knees Knitting on Etsy.com)

My favorite are the animal scarves

I just bought these as a set a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to get to work on them!

(She has others so go and check her out, these are just the few that I bought.)  

SV -- Wednesday 08.29.2012

1.  Got to spend some really good and fun quality time with my hubby yesterday (blog post to follow)

2.  I ran my 2 miles this morning nearly 30 seconds faster than last time! 

(for those of you runner's out there this may not seem like an impressive 2 mile time, 

but I live on a really hilly road)

3.  I feel really good about the day!

Small Victories!

Cuttlefish Art Gallery

Here are a few scans of some of my own cuttlefish I have drawn.  

These are just scans, so they aren't super great quality, 

but here ya go anyhow!

Each is done with colored pencil 

(My favorite medium) 

Let me just say, my husband is amazing.

He is my visionary.  I'll tell him that I'm stuck on something and he instantly knows the solution!

I told him I needed a tag idea for my "Hollow Hiding Books"

It's T-Shirt Time!

I love T-Shirts.

I mean, that's just all there is to it.

I made my husband a t-shirt quilt for Christmas a couple years ago 

And thought that I would start collecting more shirts to make other quilts with.

It started small...

But of course, it turned into a huge operation.

My local Thrift store is awesome.  

Everything is dirt cheap

For instance, t-shirts are $0.25!

Prices that low make it easy to increase my stash!

Last week I went to the "Good Samaritan Thrift Store" in town and picked up 29 new t-shirts!

Elementary, my dear Estate Sale...

There are these two ladies that live in my county who are sisters and they are well-renowned in the area because they do Estate Sales

Most of the houses are very old and have tons of antiques and amazing goodies. 

The prices though are typically VERY high 

But on the plus side they almost always have a "Clearance Day"  where they mark everything down 25% or more!

So 2 weeks ago I went to one of their sales here in town on clearance day and scored!

Here's my little Haul:

Sprinkler Time!

Here in southern Georgia it gets crazy hot in the summer.  

And since we don't have a pool, 

The kids spend their time acting like goof-balls and running through the sprinkler while SQUEALING!

I had to turn the water pressure way down because Gracie wouldn't got near it when it was shooting up really high.

In Mimi's Shoes...

In July My husband, Son, Daughter and I went to visit my mom.  

She lives about 2.5 hours away 

the way I drive anyway ;)

My mom has some serious style

and like just about any other average woman, 

she has an intense love for shoes.   

So, there are big beautiful high heels of all shapes and colors 

all over her house at any given time. 

Gracie managed (with little difficulty) to find some.

Isn't it funny and also kind of amazing that ALL little girls do this?  

Lackadaisicats -- Your Keyboard Cats

For you Cat owners out there 

(or sometimes more accurately out "cat-owned" out there)

Finding your cat resting on your keyboard pressing every ungodly combination of keys is no surprise

EVER.  

(What is that about anyway??)

Cuttlefish from CuddleFishFarm

Like I said in my last post, I am nuts over any kind of cephalopods.... but my most favorite of all are cuttlefish... they are amazing and super smart and beautiful

ya know... in a slimy kinda way

a common pattern for cuttlefish to show is a zebra stripes, however they are capable of MANY designs 

Cuttlefish also have really cool eyes.  Their pupils are shaped like "W"s

The Mighty Hugtopus!

Something you may not know about me:

I am a fiend, an obsessive fan, an avid follower, and an absolute nut for all things CEPHALOPOD!

So because I love to sew and I have so much fabric in my shed that it's just ridiculous

I decided a long while back I was going to make my own cephalopods!  

So I thought that today I would share my "Hugtopi" 

(like Hugtopus, clever, I know, lol)

I love them!  

Here was my first prototype:

(She's mine to keep, wee cuddle on the couch together)

SV -- Tuesday 08.21

1.  I managed to sell my couch in record time on Craigslist yesterday!  

2.  Cleaned my kitchen

3.  Got to eat pizza for TWO meals, (so bad, but so good)

4.  received the crochet patterns I bought on etsy from Beeskneesknitting!

Small Victories!  

On the Corner of Zebina & Campground

Out here where we live in the country there is no garbage pick up.  You fill the can til you can fill in no more, then you load in your truck and haul it off to the dumpsters....

It's smelly and inconvenient...

However, the dumpsters that I take my garbage to have this really neat very old brick building just in front of them and I have always wanted to take pictures of it.  

So last week when I was finishing up dumping the trash I realized I had my camera 

(in it's awesome little choochoo bag) 

SV -- Saturday 08.18

1.  Today I got to go to the thrift store in town 

2.  I took a nice afternoon nap with my husband

3.  I finally got the old couch moved out of my living room and into the shed, now my living room looks HUGE!!

(it was the longest part on the left that we moved out to the shed)

4.  I got to spend some awesome time with a good friend tonight!

Small Victories!

Tybee Island

My husband and I went to Tybee Island, GA in March to spend the day.  

You see, we had just bought our dog and she was coming in on a plane from Michigan.  

The Airport is in Savannah, which is only a few minutes from the beach on Tybee, so we went and hung out a while there.  

This is the center of the GIANT gazebo at the mouth of the pier 

Georgia Red Clay

For those of you who have never been to Georgia, we don't have "soil" here... 

We have Georgia Red Clay.  

This stuff is thick and dense and difficult to deal with, horrible in the rain because it's slick like an oil spill... 

But it sure is beautiful!

Mr. Darcey

Last year some friends of ours found an orphaned little baby white tail buck.  He was completely helpless and super tiny and would've died out on his own, so they brought him home and took care of him.  

They bottle fed him and got him nice and heathly and when he got to be a little more independent they found a nice deer farm and carried him over there to live.  

They named him "Mr. Darcey" and he was the cutest thing I ever saw 

(apart from my babies of course)

Here is my husband giving him a little chest rub.  you can tell he's eating it up

SV -- Friday 8.17

Things I accomplished today:

1. Went for a run this morning

2. Studied for my math final

3.  Made 2 new blog posts (now 3!)

4. Completed my Math final 
5.  Ended up with a 91 in Biology and an 81 in Math

6.  I get to celebrate with Crocheting and Drinkin a BEER!!  

Small Victories!!!

What were your small victories today??

Visit My Etsy Shop!

Yeah, So, I'm a little Artsy Farsty....

Check out my Etsy Shop and Enjoy my Creations!

I make everything from quilts to plushies to jewelry

My Big Beautiful Yard

This is a cool little bird's nest tucked away in one of our pear trees out front in the winter.

Tips for a Stiff Upper Lip

How To Keep a Stiff Upper Lip on Those Dismal Days

Yesterday was kind of a crummy day for me.  

And let's face it, we ALL have them sometime or another.

And when we have those kinds of days, it feels like an avalanche;  like everything catches up with you and you just can't pull yourself out.  

The key to not getting swallowed up on days like this is to remind yourself of what is GOOD.  

To rejoice in the small victories of everyday life.  

Let's Begin...

Cemetery in Gough, GA

For my birthday 2 years ago my husband took me shopping for a digital SLR camera.  I had been BEGGING for the longest time, but those suckers are pretty pricey!  So anyway, I got the Nikon D3100 and I freakin love it!  Now I'm begging him for new lenses  ;-)  

I love taking pictures, I always have, and if you could see all the picture folders on my computer you would see that I'm never IN a photo because I'm always TAKING them... that part is kind of a bummer... oh well

The place where I live is extraordinarily rural, like we have a HUGE county and only 16k-ish people living here.  Most of our county is just farmland, and we don't even have a Walmart.... that's right people, I've got to drive 30 miles (COUNT'EM!) to get to my "local" Walmart!

I know, It's freakin' nuts.

The Takes-Friggin-Forever Blanket for my Bed

Croc Blanket Project

So, You have seen my "new" bedroom set, and obvious, you thought it was awesome 

(I mean, really, how could you not?).

Well, I have just started crocheting this year and I love it!  I was really inspired to do it by my sweet friend Lisa over at LGDesigns  

(she also has an etsy shop you can find here)

She is so talented and makes her own patterns! plus she is just generally awesome

Anyway, I got serious about crocheting and decided I wanted to make a blanket/afghan for my bed to match my awesome new color scheme in my bedroom.  

Birthday TUTU-TUtorial

TUTU-TUTORIAL

When my daughter turned 1 I talked to a girlfriend of mine, who is a photographer part-time, and asked if she would do a photo shoot of Grace for me for her birthday, she happily obliged and did it for me for FREE!  I was so stoked!!  So, we planned what she should wear and we decided that with her strawberry blond/red hair we should do reds and turquoise (a favorite color scheme of mine)  I found most parts of the out fit and decided I wanted her to have an over-the-top tutu to wear for it!  

I wanted the tutu to have some depth so I went to the fabric store and bought a yard each of three different colors (light blue, a richer turquoise and a pretty green) of tulle that together would give a nice turquoise color with a lot of depth.  

Furniture Revamp Challenge -- Part 4 (Complete)

The time has come for (((drumrollplease))) the 

FINAL REVEAL!

I had so much fun fixing up this furniture!  I can't even tell you how rewarding this was!  free furniture, plus a crafty project!  what could be better than that?!

Furniture Revamp Challenge -- Part 3 (Progress)

Ok, So, here we go.  I've got my furniture unwrapped and in the house, I had to investigate all the pieces and get them cleaned up.  There was some grime and gunk, but hardly any scratches, or real damage.  I got so lucky with this furniture!  

It's time to get to work!  

Looking hideous as ever, so let's begin...

Furniture Revamp Challenge -- Part 2 (Colors & Prep)

So, when I found out I was getting new furniture (new to me anyway).  I did what any other person would... I went to trusty ol' Pinterest and started looking up design ideas. 

 I first went searching for color pallets that I liked, and I found this.

via pride of place interior design

I love love love beachy colors! 

they are so fresh and clean and relaxing...

Furniture Revamp Challenge -- Part 1

In The Beginning There was Ugly Furniture...

My dad and my step mom were cleaning out her father's house (his name was Moz) and trying to empty all that they could so they could sell it and sent me a few pictures of this old Broyhill bedroom set.  The color and design were HIDEOUS but the quality and the lines were quite nice and looked like they would go well with the ideas I had in mind!  

Here are some before pics that my step mom (Linda) texted me: