Life is looking better.

Life is looking better. It has been a really long time since I have posted anything, it is totally disgraceful. But...life is looking better. March 26 will be my last day at work. OH IF YOU COULD ONLY SEE MY HAPPY DANCE. The countdown has begun so let me bring you up to date.

The last week of March is our Spring Break, we will be driving back to Texas to do a couple of repairs to my mom's house and put it on the market. We moved her here to Bako and she has a nice apartment in a retirement community. She is really liking it and I hope that this trip doesn't change that. I do so enjoy her being close and when I am not working it will be nice to spend time with her.

However, that also means that the finances will have to be drastically tightened as while I was working I picked up a car payment. I ACCEPT this challenge however in order to stay home as long as financially possible. I will be spending the first part of my "retirement" creating some menu plans and doing some bulk cooking or cooking ahead. Now, one might ask why cook ahead if I am going to be home? Simple, so I can spend time on other things, like catching up on house cleaning and hobbies. OH HOW I HAVE missed my hobbies. Also, once a month cooking, also called quantity cooking or bulk cooking is the absolute best way to cut the household expenses. When the menu plans are created...and utilized...there is no impulse buying. It is all planned out and only the items needed for that meal are bought. Also, my freezer and pantry is over flowing so I have a wonderful stock pile to work from. I am low on beef, but there is tons of everything else. I also plan to utilize Angel Food Ministries to keep out of the grocery store so much. I also look forward to getting back in to weekly bible study and quilt group.

I will start cleaning this house room by room and purging to the hilt the clutter and excess. Then, will have a massive yard sale. I will be bringing some things from mom's house that I just can't let go to strangers. This will also help get the house ready for the big move this fall. Not that we are moving, my oldest son is moving off to school. I have grand plans for his room. New paint, new flooring, and some work stations for various crafts. I will be getting my machines out of the closet and set up for use. I miss my quilting and machine embroidery so very much and actually hope to make up a few things to try and sell online or by word of mouth. Craft shows are really hard to get space at around here. I will need to get my embroidery machine out next month though as I have found a deep purple window pane shirt to machine embroidery some red hat designs on and hope to have it finished by Mother's Day to give mom. Also, I have a scrapbook project that I started for Mother's Day last year and still sits unfinished. Oh man, when I come back from Texas I will have all the photos. I spent an insane amount of money setting myself up to scrapbook, then got side tracked on other projects and all of that is put away as well. Also, I have some quilt projects and crochet projects as I have a new grand baby, a boy, coming the first part of August. I kind of expect it a little earlier, but will be happy to meet him when ever he gets here and send daily prayers that he is healthy and everything goes alright.

I have also been facing some health problems and that is the what has caused this change in working. For now the main part, the heart problems, is being treated very well with medications. However, when they did a scan of the heart they found a hernia and that problem is still being worked on. So, wait on doctors, wait on results, soon it will be worked out.

We also have taken in my mom's dog, a Jack Russell mix, and he is really funny to be around. He gets along well with Kit and the other dogs so that is the good thing.

Okay, new employment situation, new grand baby, new plans in the work for the hobbies, new plans for organizing the house, new budget to work with, new dog, guess that pretty much sums it all up for this update.

I am off to try for a fourth time to figure out this "easy - beginner" crochet pattern.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Around here it was nice and quite. Actually pretty boring. Thought I would share some photos of my gifts though.

You know how it goes.

Clay pot $3.99
Paints $2.99
Pipe Cleaners $1.97
Tissue Paper $2.49
Styrofoam Ball $2.29
Dried Moss $2.59
Scrapbook paper $.26
Stickers $3.97
Printed photos $.50

A gift from the heart made by my youngest daughter, 12, all by herself.

PRICELESS!


All my kids together with printed quotes for me from each.


My card she made, the little envelopes all have great little notes in them including one giving me the gift of two papers of my choice from her very own stash of scrapbook paper.

Oldest son and his wife came by for a brief visit to tell Mom hello, ask if there was food, then play a video game with his brother before he had to leave to get ready for work.

Youngest son didn't have time for shopping, he is working part time at a near by restaurant and taking the finals for his college classes, so he told me he would buy me dinner this week. His last day of class is Tuesday, Wednesday he starts his full time summer job out where I work, along with working at the restaurant and taking one summer class. He does stay busy.

Oldest daughter texted me to check my email. She sent me photo of my grandson, the kindergarten graduate.
Isn't he handsome? Can't believe he is going to be six this month. I am making him a birthday card, since that is what I do now, make cards and scrapbook pages you know. I had gathered so many supplies and what have you over the past few weeks in order to start this new hobby that I was spending half my time looking for everything and buying some items over again because I couldn't find what I bought the first time. It was time to organize it a bit and if nothing else go through it all to see what I actually have.

This was my corner space when I first started this new obsession. Notice the room on the shelves, the little Cricut all by itself? Thinks have a way of changing. Just look at it now. It has grown a tad bit. Have more papers to play with. Way more stamps and inks as well. Here are some closer views.
As you can see, my little corner is pretty well stocked for a beginner. Notice the addition of the larger Cricut, several dies, all the jars of beads and box of trims was left over from when I did crazy quilting and used them to embellish the embroidery work.

Oh, and my sweet hubby gave me a gift certificate to the local scrapbooking store. Well, I didn't get any projects finished, but I do know where it all is at least.

I am off to bed, took allergy medicine and it has kicked in enough to stop itching. Need to shower and get some sleep. The roofing job is well under way, which is making me break out due to allergies, which has actually been milder than I had anticipated. A helper lost his footing a bit and stepped through the ceiling which has left us a nice hole to repair in the living room.

I will post more when have some on going projects completed.

What am I doing?

Okay, what am I doing? I went shopping and was soon totally overwhelmed by all the different things and the realization I have no clue what to do with it all if I had it.

I bought a scrapbook kit, you can guess it now, there are no directions at all. I am so very hopeful that after the beginner class I am going to take that I will figure out how to do something with all this stuff. Speaking of which, I went to a place called Dollar Tree to pick up some garbage bags. Each and every item in that store is one dollar. They have a little scrapbook section.

This is some of the packages. This has very delicate almost Victorian looking embellishments. The flower shapes to the side are actually little note pads but in person are some really pretty colored paper. To the other side are some vellum like stickers with little sayings and such. Thought that some quotes or sentiments would be safe a addition to any supply stash.

There are some also pretty neat little packs of colored papers that will be great for playing with on the Cricut and Big Kick.



These are some great looking precut shapes of tags and such and some paper page sets that come with co-ordinating papers.


Some other items I picked up at the dollar store were some neat little stamp pads, note cards to decorate, and these really cool looking paper crimps. They kind of emboss the paper with the shape of a teddy bear, hearts, stars and little flowers. There are a couple of little photo albums that I decided needed to come home with me and get dressed up a bit. After all they were only a buck each. The photo doesn't show it very well, but there was these neat wire embellishments. It has some beads on it and is shaped in the word "Celebrate" and at least to a newbie to the craft looks really neat. Bet it would stitch in to a crazy quilt square perfectly. Okay, don't look at this like that. I am not actually crossing hobbies, just making a comment. However, hobbies can be crossed with a world altering catastrophe. It is done all the time.

People tat little shapes to attach to cards, stampers print out images on different mediums, you get the idea. I mean really, did Michael Angelo only paint? I think not.

Speaking of rubber stamps, I have begun my journey to become a Stampin Up demonstrator. I was all excited as Friday came and it was time for the meeting with the demonstrator that will be signing me up. I was all prepared for the cost, eagerly anticipating play with the start up kit while on the camping trip. No kit, as yet, since apparently the kit is ordered from out of town (heck, out of state) so will arrive as soon as my intro letter has been received and a new set sent out to try and curb those actions.

I am posting this while our Internet with "intermittent problems currently being worked on by technicians" is actually working. Then, off to bed for some sleep. Have to get up early in the morning to finish packing the trailer for an overnight camping trip up the mountain. Weather is forecast to be great all day on Saturday with a possibility of breaking a temperature record that has held since the early 20's. Sunday however, a different story, which means that if the storm comes in from that direction may hit there during the night. Hopefully it will come from the other direction and we have some good weather to ride in.

Will be sure to post how it all goes.