HOOT HOOT!!!

just a quick break from the studio (aka dining room table) to show you a couple of things that i am working on for next saturday.


owl pin cushions


owl cards


tomorrow i will spend the whole day with ms. sewing machine (and hopefully we will get along). i only have 7 days to get everything done that i need to get done and i'm not freakin' out as bad anymore (okay, so that's a lie, but at least i still feel a lil bit in control).

hopefully when i am done, i will take pictures of the rest of my cards, scarves, pins, pouches, etc. that i have made.

i also need to make my etsy shop. this of course is mostly a note to myself so i can remember.

my head is swimming right now with ideas and things i need to get done. i really need to wear a pen and notebook tied around my neck...lol.

A GOOD MAIL DAY!!!

after a day at work of sitting around waiting for the day to end, i came home to a happy mailbox.


first i opened the package containing the beautiful postcards from hillary.

lemme just say that these cards are so much better in person. i don't wanna use em. thank goodness i have four of each design :)


my second pkg. was a silkscreened (i believe) owl from lisa. this owl is amazing. i am thinking that it is going to turn into a bag. however, i'm not sure yet. i may just frame it.


beautiful way it was wrapped



okay, now back to all the craftiness i need to do :)

I'M STARTIN' TO FREAK OUT YA'LL!!!

okay, the craft fair is next saturday and I.AM.FREAKING.OUT!!!

i don't have near as much done as i think i should.

i have so many fears:

*what if i don't sell anything?
*what do i price everything?
*will it be too high? too low?
*do i need to make up business cards with information on it?
*is what i am selling going to be sold at another booth?
*do i set up and etsy store so i can put the information on the card in case someone wants to buy something at a later time?
*how am i going to package my cards?
*what about bags?
*i'm not a people person at all, how am i going to talk to these people? (thank God my mom will be there with me).


deeeeep breath

i need to chill.

what do i have to lose?

i think i'll be okay :)

WHAT KINDA DIVA AM I???

You're Part Diva

You know that a girl's gotta work it to get her way in the world. And while you aren't about to throw a tantrum at every turn... You do amp up the drama when you know you need it. You mix charm, honesty, and kindness to get ahead.

Are You a Diva?

actually i am a lil surprised that i am even a part diva. i didn't think i was very diva-like at all :)

A LIL MEME!!!

i snagged this meme from amanda and thought it would be great to talk about me again ;)

2 names you go by
*lucy
*liz

2 parts of your heritage
*italian
*irish

2 things that scare you
*dying (either myself or anyone close to me)
*snakes (despite conquering this fear last year.

2 of your everyday essentials
*music
*perfume

2 things you are wearing right now
*cute black skirt
*long sleeved white tshirt

2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment)
*dave matthews band (ALWAYS)
*damien rice

2 favorite songs (at the moment)
*addicted by kelly clarkson (i can totally relate to this song).
*the theme song to languna beach (okay, these two songs are completely different than what i listen to. i am a classic rock/80's kinda gal. really. i am.)

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love)
*romance
*laughter

2 truths
*i really do know that i am a bitch
*i express my feeling entirely too much. i need to learn to keep my mouth shut (okay is that 3 truths?).

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex)
*gorgeous eyes
*nice hands (strange i know)


2 of your favorite hobbies
*reading
*crafting

2 things you want really badly
*our new house to be built and moved in to.
*inner freedom

2 places you want to go on vacation
*italy
*ireland

2 things you want to do before you die
*travel
*accept myself inside and out 100%

2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick
*emotional basketcase
*luv, luv, luv skirts and shoes

2 things you are thinking about now
*shoes now...lol
*the other is a secret ;)

2 stores you shop at
*walmart
*old navy

2 people i would like to see take this quiz
*greta
*robin

HOMEMADE GRANOLA!!!

thanks to the wonderful allison, i have found yet another breakfast that i will be addicted to.

her homemade granola. i adapted the recipe to fit what i had on hand.

here's mine:




2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup (aunt jemima's)
1 cup or so of cherry flavored craisins

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees. in a small sauce pan, combine oil and maple syrup until combined.

2. in another bowl, mix oatmeal, coconut, and nuts together.

3. pour oil/syrup mixture on oatmeal mixture and mix until completely covered.

4. pour mixture on parchment paper which has been placed on a rimmed baking sheet.

5. bake for 20 minutes and stir.

6. return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes till golden brown.

7. take granola out and mix in craisins.

8. slide parchment paper, with granola on it, off the pan and place on the counter until cool.

9. once cool, break up and store in an airtight container.

voila!!!

i have another batch in the oven that has chopped walnuts in it. what i love about this is you can add whatever you want to it. you should smell how yummy my house smells right now. like the microwave oatmeal in maple and brown sugar.

yum!

A NEW TOY!!!

i almost forgot to mention my early christmas present!!! i've been wanting a new camera for quite some time, and new my hubby would be excellent at helping me pick a new one.

after much research on his part, he found all of this. isn't it just dreamy? i can't wait for it to arrive. and fortunately i don't have to wait until christmas to use it.

isn't my hubby the best?

i also almost forgot to mention the new and exciting thing i did this week.

i developed a picture from a negative in the hubby's dark room at work. you wanna talk about fun!!! i was a lil nervous about messing it up, but it came out pretty good (despite the fact that the chemicals were a lil old). so me and the hubby are going to buy us some new chemicals and of course we need to buy more paper. we went through almost a whole pack just playing around.

this has definately got us thinking about whether or not we want to put a dark room in the new house.

here is the picture that i developed. its mike's boss (who recently retired). this pic is circa late 70's very early 80's. i wish it would have came out better. i really wanted to frame it and give it to him as a present. however, due to the age of the chemicals, instead of black and white, the picture is actually a rose color and the image is not as dark as it should be. i still may give it to him. i think he would be pretty impressed that i developed it myself.

GREEN DAY?!?!?!

mike came back from picking up pizza and i was serving the kiddos their's when a conversation started.

it went something like this:

mike: "the son working there had green hair".

me: nothing, but a sideways glance at him.

mike: "but then again, he was wearing a shirt that had green day on it, so i don't know".

me: i look over at mike and start to laugh. i then said "where's a pen & paper? i gotta write this down".

you see, mike couldn't tell ya who green day was if his life depended on it. that is just not his cup of (green) tea ;)

CARDS, RIBBON, AND HINGES!!!

well, since 10:30 this morning, i have been making cards for the upcoming art n craft fair that i am going to participate in.

the past week i have been exhausted, so the only thing that i have been working on is scarves. so it feels really good to get these done. i don't exactly know how happy i am with all of them, but i got 64 done so far. i will prolly take a picture of each individual card (except for the scrabble letter cards) tomorrow.



i finally got the ordered that i placed last week with qvc.


isn't this ribbon delicious??? oh, i don't know i if will be able to use it. they all look so pretty in the white box. yum!!!


these are stickers that look like actual vintage hinges. they also came with title cards. i believe its a set of 196 altogether. i cannot wait to start using these hinges.

all of this will definately come in handy for when greta comes over next friday so we can scrapbook all day. its been quite some time since we have had an all day scrap-a-thon (and a long since i have scrapped at all). i am going to work on some albums for christmas gifts.

A READING!!!

the card picked for me...queen of wands


today, i finally had a tarot card reading. last summer, while we were in milwaukee, greta had her cards read by a very good friend of a co-worker (i won't mention how i cussed my girl out for doing it without me :) the stuff she told greta was right on. and i mean this was stuff that this lady could not have known.

so for over a year now, i have been trying to get my cards read and today was the day. the stuff that was said to me after a simple introduction was mind boggling. things were said that put my mind to ease. normally the reading is taped, but due to the storm, she had lost pretty much everything and didn't have her recorder. i was able to right things down which i did.

during the reading, i asked her how she started reading cards. i mentioned that i had a deck, but never used them due to not understanding. she recommended a book to read and to start sleeping with my cards under my pillow. i don't know exactly what mike would think about this.

i know there are sceptics out there (waves hands wildly at non-believing husband), but really, this was amazing.

i would definately do it again (but by her only).

here is what is said about the queen of wands:

A lady of the manor either living in or loving the country. A very generous, capable and fair person especially in her dealings with people. A woman who is both fertile in mind and body and a homemaker. She enjoys social ease due to her charm and is protective towards those in her circle. The card may also indicate the success of a project.

yes, i live in the country
yes, i am generous (if i do say so myself)
yes, i am fertile in mind
yes, i am very much a homemaker
yes, i am protective of my circle of friends

DROOL!!!

i am currently drooling over these two library card catalogs on ebay.

since i was little, i have loved these cabinets. i loved opening the drawers and thumbing through the cards trying to find the book i was looking for. it breaks my heart that libraries use computers now. PHOO-IE!!!

wonder if i can convince mike its a good idea to bid on these.

prolly not. he does not share my love of the catalog. but damn, either one of these would look great in my new house.


aunt madelyn, if you are reading, you wouldn't happen to have any old ones sitting in the basement of the library that work at huh??????

:)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN (A DAY OR TWO LATE)!!

the manna's 2005 halloween card
move mouse over card to see inside...cool huh?

halloween started off with both the kiddos have parties at their classes (mikey at school and bella at daycare). i wish i would have been able to go, but i couldn't. i bet i missed some wonderful photo opportunities. they both acquired a ton of candy from these lil parties alone.

halloween evening, after i got off of work, i picked up the kiddos and headed over to mom's house to go trick or treating. we were all kind of wondering how many houses would participate and how many children would stop by. halloween was kinda cancelled in a sense by the local cities due to debris still on the side of roads and of course neighborhoods being completely demolished.

once we arrived at mom's, we at pizza, changed the kiddos into their costumes, and waited for daddy to arrive so we could hit the streets. the kids had so much fun walking from house to house. this was bella's first year to walk and did suprisingly well (until her basket got too heavy).

all and all, halloween was wonderful this year. the kids racked up on a ton of candy and loved dressing up in their costumes.





**i hope to have the rest of halloween 2005 pictures uploaded to flickr by the end of the week.

SOME HALLOWEEN BAKING!!!

on top of everything else i got accomplished today, the biggest was some halloween baking. i think when everything was said and done, i made six dozen cookies in three different varieties.


the kitchen with a ton of baking stuff all over the place. cooling cookies everywhere.


irrestible peanut butter cookies w/ reeces pieces



got this recipe from jif. very good cookie. love the texture.

ingredients

3/4 cup Jif Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

3 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda


directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.


2. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.

3. Combine Jif peanut butter, Crisco® Shortening, light brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl.

4. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended.

5. Add egg. Beat just until blended.

6.Combine flour, salt and baking soda.

7. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

8. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

9. Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.

10. Bake at 375ºF for 7 to 8 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

oatmeal/pumpkin cookies



i took this recipe that i got over at baking sheet and tweeked it a lil bit to add some fall flavor to it.

2 cups ap flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
quite a few good shakes of pumpkin pie spice (i like a lot...you can adjust this)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark), firmly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs (large, extra or jumbo)
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup of canned pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together flour, soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl.
Cream butter and sugars in a large bowl until well combined. Beat in vanilla, canned pumpkin and eggs until light, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour mixture. Add oat. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 11 minutes at 350F. Cookies will be lightly browned.
Let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet, then move to a wire rack until completely cooled.

oatmeal/pumpkin/walnut cookies with cream cheese frosting



same recipe as above except add some chopped walnuts. once cookies have cooled, spread with the following cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with more chopped walnuts.

cream cheese frosting
recipe from recipezaar

1 (8 oz) pkg. of cream cheese,softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups powder sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla

mix with handmixer until smooth.

note: i made a half batch of this recipe and it frosted two dozen cookies!

hope everyone's hungry :)

HALLOW-EVE DINNER!!!

tonight for dinner, we had some yummy chili accompanied by halloween shaped pasta, cheese, and halloween shaped tortilla chips. and of course, a piece of the cake that mikey won during the cake walk.

it was pretty SPOOK-TACULAR!!!


yummy chili!!


halloween pasta. came in shapes of a spider web, a ghost/martian, & a pumpkin.


tortilla chips. shapes: ghost, pumpkin, & bats. this were really good. i got them at walmart. they have a really light and airy texture to them.


chocolate snicker cake that mikey won. i haven't had a piece yet, but mikey said it was delicious (i think its mostly b/c he won it :)

HALLOWEEN GOODIES!!!

these are the halloween goodies i put together for mikey to bring to school tomorrow. a kit kat (which happens to be orange on the outside, crispy wafers on the inside) with halloween pencil taped to the front of it. lil message letting them know its from mikey (address label with information placed on some scrapbooking paper) tied with orange ribbon, and VOILA!!!!

A HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL!!!!

well, today the major's (the boss) church was having a halloween carnival. we decided to take the kiddos there knowing that it would be good fun. the kids got a bag (for the goodies) filled with tickets (for the games). we first grabbed some hamburgers and hotdogs and had a seat in the yard of the church and had us a lil halloween picnic.

after the picnic, the kiddos were ready to play some games. they had so much fun and won lots of great prizes. we also participated in a musical chairs version of a cake walk and mikey won a chocolate snickers cake. this is going to be for dessert. yum!!!

bella's name got called out and won a door prize. the cutest stuffed monkey. i knew she would pick that one out.

we had a wonderful time there.


entering the carnival.


captain jack sparrow (aka mikey)


lil halloween witch enjoying her lunch (which consisted of cookies and soda for her).


bella playing a game.


mikey making a great toss!


this is what happens when i try to get a good picture of michael and he makes a silly face at the last minute. didn't think i would post this pic did ya dear???? maybe you won't make silly faces anymore :)~

I *HEART* TARGET!!!

today, we got up early and made a trip to mobile, alabama to do some shopping. i got some new shoes (i swear i'm an addict), i hit joanns, we ate at olive garden (since ours is nothing but a parking lot and a slab), walked around the mall, hit a coffee shop to buy some goodies (see below), and then hit the mack daddy of all discount retail stores....TARGET!!!

i luv target and the closest one is in mobile which is about a 30+ drive. my main reason for going to target was to see their new line of chocolates called choxie. i have been seeing commercials for them and i have been dying to get my hands on them.

below is a few of the other goodies we got there.


choxie chocolates...do i really need all this chocolate? the answer is YES!!


rosemary olive oil chips made by archer farms (target brand). i got addicted to these chips when i was in knoxville for mike's graduation and the past few times that we have gone to target, they were out! i bought three bags :)


italian soda...again by archer farms and is very delicious. mike opened up the lemon one and it tasted like mike's hard lemonade (minus the alcohol of corse...drats!)


finally found the fresca black cherry. lemme tell ya, i think this tastes delish. like some fruity candy. very good!!


these are the goodies that i got at the coffee shop. i also got two other things, but they are for my girl greta and she will have to wait till monday to get em. so girl, if you're reading, do NOT call me and ask what it is.

i cannot wait to brew a cup of the pumpkin spice coffee tomorrow morning.


we had a wonderful day today. filled with good food and good shopping. while we were out and about, we decided to take the kiddos to toys r us to let them them use some gift cards they received (again, another location that is currently closed right now). i also found a few old cards, that i thought possibly had balances on it. boy where the kids lucky. between 3 cards there was a enough for them to each get $30 of goodies (and believe me, this helped with the "i wants" throughout the day). bella racked up on some cinderella stuff and mikey got some more army stuff. the best part though is, when we first got in the store, i saw they had some lil event going on. one of the employees asked if we wanted to go on a lil scavenger hunt and when we found everything, to report back to them and get a goodie bag. of course we were game. the kids had fun reading the clues and finding the location. they also loved everything in their goodie bags.

gotta luv the free events at toys r us!!!


the clues


bella makes a new friend.



on a completely different note, things are coming along okay with the art/craft fair. i would like to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement. this week has been a hectic one filled with exhaustion on my part (we're talking about being in bed reading at 830 and asleep at 930). i am so glad that mike is finally working a more decent schedule to help out with some things around here. i am beginning to feel the pressure. what if i don't get everything made in time that i want to get done? i think i'll be okay though. i got a few scarves done and some zippered pouches. i know i will have the energy (fingers crossed) to get a lot done this week.

wish me luck :)



note: i forgot to add that next weekend, targets are supposed to be giving out samples of their new choxie line. i had one of the chococate peppermint sticks shown.....can you say yum!!! and they are huge :)

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER!!!!

when i was getting bella dressed on tuesday morning, i didn't even realize that i was putting her in the exact same outfit that i was already in until her pants were going up!!

i just wish we would have shared the happiness over it. you can see how thrilled she was to have her picture taken at 630 in the morning :)

WELL, I'M GONNA DO IT!!!

after much encouragement from my wonderful hubby and from greta i decided to go for it.

what do i have to lose?

so i spent the weekend working on some owls and some cute lil zipped pouches.

after work, i went down to the library, paid, and picked out my table spot. i'm very excited, but now that the payment has been made and i feel the committment, i am a lil nervous.

i plan on working on some cards during the week.

don't worry, pics will be up soon.

HMMM...A DECISION TO MAKE!!!

about a week ago when i was driving on the main strip here in big country, i noticed that on the 19th of november, the library is having a arts and crafts fair and a book sale. of course i was excited to go see some crafting (and maybe buy) and scoop up some books/magazines for super cheap.

i decided to take the kiddos up to the library today to get library cards and to check out some books (that will be in another post) and i noticed that there was a sign up for tables to sell your stuff at the arts and crafts sale.

the dilema now is if i want to get a table and try to sell some goods. it would be the very first time that i have ever sold anything (except for that zodiac picture i painted in highschool and sold to my art teacher).

i don't have anything made up and would have to make a buncha stuff by the 19th. i have to make my decision by the 11th of november.

i just don't know what to do. i know its not that big of decision, but i am afraid that if i don't jump on the bandwagon and do it, that once i go there i am going to regret not doing it.

i think tonight i may work on a few things since mike will be at work and see if i like what i have come up with and base my decision on that.

what do you guys think?