"What's It Wednesday"....

What's it? and Terrariums....

I found this wooden thing a majing at the antique store where I got the stool, it was in a bag with some other goodies, so I *think* I might know what it was used for, but I thought I would share it with you and get your opinions as to what it is. Any guesses?

Has a triangle shape cut into the side but doesn't go all the way through.
Handle rotates all the way over to the other side. What's It?
Last week I made some terrariums with some glass jars that I have been collecting.
I couldn't find that many small plants or ones that were suitable for terrarium life. The biggest jar holds two small ferns. It's a bit steamy in this picture because it was newly made and watered, it has since cleared.
I ended up taking the lids off the two small jars because the plants within them are succulents and don't really like a humid environment. So after the soil dries out a bit, I'm going to put the lids back on.

I had been wanting to make these for awhile, but I had to find the right pet store that sold activated charcoal loose. And honestly, after I made them, I wasn't that thrilled, LOL! You really need a huge jar and really tiny plants to have any fun with it...like putting little gardens scenes and stuff in it. Oh well, I have some new house plants and that is a good thing, plus it's better the jars are filled with soil and plants instead of candy and treats!!!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday,

Tiff

Tuesday's Treasures...

Starting up Tuesday's Treasures again :) All these things I found in the last couple of weeks and I'll put in where I found them and for how much(because I know I love to see the deals people got on their treasures). So are you ready for some pics?.....

I found these two tin pieces at Goodwill and I just love them, they were $1.99 a piece. I now have two tin heart in hand pieces :)

Unfinished step stool( $2.99) and worn wood cutting board($.99) both from Goodwill. The stool is a little wide for my bench stack, but after I paint it I will find someplace good for it. I'm going to paint the cutting board too and use it like a display platter.
Wooden bucket from Goodwill, $2.99. It's not a furkin because the shape is the opposite way. This piece will get used in my daughter's upcoming play as a prop. After that, I may keep it or it may go to the yard sale pile.
Ceramic boy and girl bunnies from Goodwill, $.50 a piece, going to become Chocolate Bunnies, with some prim eggs tucked in their back buckets.
Another stool, from a local antique store, $7.99, higher than I like to pay, but the shape was right and it worked perfectly with my bench stack. It was just stained so I painted it the tan color(which has a hint of mustard in real life).
Small square glass pitcher from another Goodwill(not my local one), $.99, and I found the clover plant at our local nursery and thought it was very cool.

I'm collecting Anchor Hocking Wexford crystal dishes to use on holidays. Here is my latest find....16 goblets and two tumblers from a charity thrift store in the next town... $.40 a piece!!!!
And last but not least, a Spring jacket for me. I was just looking through the catalogs that come in the mail constantly for a lightweight fun coat for Spring but didn't see anything that exciting and I certainly didn't want to spend a fortune. Well look at the beauty I found yesterday at Goodwill for $7.99!! I think it was at Target last year or the year before.
Love the buttons! I hope it washes up well.
So there you have my treasures for this Tuesday :) Tomorrow I will show you one more and you have to guess what it is on "What's It Wednesday".

Have a fabulous day,

Tiff

Ps, is anyone else having trouble adding or deleting blogs from their bloglist? I want to add some new ones to my side bar and delete some that haven't posted in over a year. But every time I try it just stalls in the "saving" process and never updates.

MakeOver Monday...Chocolate Bunny

I went looking for my Easter decor in the basement this past week and it was no where to be found. When we reorganized the basement last Fall, I went through it all and got rid of a lot of the junk, but I know I kept a few things, I just don't remember where I put them!

While I was down there, I found this ceramic bunny that I bought about 10 years ago(he used to have two friends, but they got broken over the years). I actually found him in the yard sale pile. I'm not into the ceramic animals anymore and thought he just didn't go with the rest of the house, he is more cottagey.

Then a lightbulb went off in my head.... make him a chocolate bunny!!!

I had no brown paint in the house. So I tried mixing some colors together to make it... didn't work. Ended up at the hardware store and found "chocolate candy brown", Perfect!!
I painted his eyes like a chocolate bunny....
He was too wide for the fireplace with the rest of my bunnies, so I set him on the table, and I think he might just stay there.
I also painted a small papermache bunny I have, but I forgot to take a picture of him. Of course I'm on a mission now to find more bunnies that I can convert :)

Have a Happy Monday,

Tiff

Weigh in Sunday...

I just love this picture from the Walton's Homecoming movie, so I thought I would put it in this post to share with you :)

Now for my WW weigh in, only down 1.1 lbs this week :( Ok, so I shouldn't complain, at least it was a loss. I was really fearing it was going to be a gain as I had a very bad week. My youngest daughter had a sleepover and we had pizza(one too many slices that night, and leftovers the next day) and then we ate out at cracker barrel and with my modest grilled chicken breast I had fried okra and a yummy biscuit. I need to be good this week and do less carbs(ie, no more pizza crust!). The one thing I can't figure out is that instead of WW taking away more points this week, the all of a sudden gave me 6 points! That is 5 more than I started with. Can't figure that one out. I'm going to try and stick with what they were last week and not use the additional ones.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to restart the "makeover Mondays", "Tuesday Treasures", and so on.

Until then...
Have a lovely evening,

Tiff

I'll Let You Know...

Thought this was too funny on pinterest....

Thank you all for the feedback on my last post. I'm almost certain I'm going to sell it all. It will take me a bit to sort it all out and then I will either list it on my blog or on etsy. I emailed most of you back, but some of you have "no reply" emails when you leave a comment so I can never write back, sorry. So stay tuned for announcements.

It's winter break here, so I've been busy with the family and I've also been working on some pinterest projects that I'll share with you this upcoming week. I found some treasures today when we were out and about and I'll share those too.

Have a lovely rest of the weekend,

Tiff

Debating what to do...

I love wool, the only problem is... it irritates the heck out of me. I don't think I'm allergic to it, but I certainly get a reaction from it...stuffy nose, scratchy throat, itchy eyes. I love rug hooked items and have done several myself. I also love penny rugs and wool blankets, again made them myself. Every time I work on something with wool, the same thing happens, so I don't do it for awhile hoping it was just a fluke, but sure enough, same thing again. This latest time was with some wool yarn while I was crocheting a small basket that I planned on felting.

So what do I do? I have been thinking for awhile now about cutting up my wool stash into smaller pieces and selling them in lots by color tones. I have some wool that is already cut into worms too. Plus I have a puritan rug hooking frame and a wool cutter(both not a cheap investment). My heart hates to part with everything, but I know that I am not comfortable working with wool anymore, as much as I like the look of it. I can have it in the house as already made items, it just the process of working with it when the fibers get in the air that is the problem.

I get so excited when I look at rug hooking blogs and want to pull everything out and get going, but in reality(besides the irritation) is just isn't a passion of mine. In fact, I don't really have a passion. I wish I did. I wish I had that "thing" that was mine. But it seems that I learn a craft, succeed at it, and move on. Nothing has captured my attention enough for me to become passionate about it. I'm a dabbler I guess.

Do you think people would buy my stash if I offered here on my blog? I have bags and bags full of wool. Would you sell it in my position? It would help with the move this summer by clearing out and I could tuck the proceeds away into the new house fund. What do you think?

Oh, and in case you are wondering, the prim animal paintings I was going to work on the other night, total bust! I just couldn't get down in paint what I had in my head, so frustrating. But maybe another day it will come.

Have a sweet day,

Tiff

Chocolate Bunny Mantle...

My fireplace mantle is always a struggle for me, I know the look I want, but I just can't seem to make it work. After leaving it kind of blank for a week or so, I finally came up with a Spring/Easter look that I'm happy with. It's very simple, just a mirror with a wreath on it(I need to lower the wreath to the middle of the mirror still), my five faux chocoloate bunnies(best ever goodwill find last year!), and a mustard/tan berry vine.

Simple and easy and I'm happy with it.

I had a dentist appointment this morning, which I was not looking forward too. I had to get an upper and lower(on the same side) molar repaired...drill out old silver fillings, take away the majority of the tooth, and build up two new teeth. She is great dentist and managed to do all this to avoid the crowns for now. But I was so numb(more than I have ever been), and now that I'm not, the upper tooth is throbbing. I have two more lower molars to get fixed in April and then I will finally be free of the ugly silver molars which now look almost black. I was blessed with soft teeth unfortunately.

I've been in the mood to paint some prim animal pictures, so I'm going to give that a whirl this afternoon. If they come out decent I'll share them with you.

Have a great Monday,

Tiff

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my oldest daughter's 17th birthday :) We celebrated with her requested dinner(homemade orange chicken),a "portal" cake(it's a cake from a video game)(and I saved my points to eat it with some mint chocolate chip icecream!), and presents. I thought this was a sweet picture of her with a cheeky little smile on her face.

Happy Birthday Samantha! We love you and you make us so proud.

Today is my WW weigh in, and I'm down another 2 lbs!!! Yay!! Hubby is doing awesome too and can already see a difference in how his clothes fit.

Have a lovely Sunday,

Tiff

Prayers for a Fellow Blogger...

My heart ached for our fellow blogger, Sue as I read This. Please keep Sue and her family in your prayers and most importantly, pray for Richards safe return.

Tiff

Do you Hear Treasures Calling?

I know I can't be the only this happens to, right? You are driving or at home or anywhere, and all of sudden you get the urge in your head to go to goodwill( or where ever you thrift shop) because you just know there is something there for you? I get this every so often and I'm never disappointed, something special is just there waiting for me:)

Yesterday afternoon I was heading to pick one of my daughters up from play practice at the middle school and while I was driving, I "heard" goodwill calling me, LOL! I've really been trying to avoid that place because I don't need more things, but I couldn't resist this time. So after I picked her up I said we are going to swing by GW and just do a real quick walk through.

Walked by the furniture... nothing, by the linens....nothing, onto the crafts, baskets, and wood...nothing, then... there on the lamp shelf I saw this beauty.....

$4.99 and not a chip or crack in it. I have been collecting(slowly) oil lamps for awhile now but didn't have a pedestal one, so I knew this is what was calling me:) I figured it was a little old because I haven't seen brand new ones like it, but I still have no idea how old it is. I went home and looked for it on the computer. The only one I could find that is exactly like it is on Ebay for $59.99!! Here is a close up.... (it's marked Eagle on the brass part)(anyone know anything about oil lamps?) Oh, and that is ALL I bought, I was a very good girl;)
And I forgot to share with this feather tree I got about a month ago at the same antique store I bought Mason's doll bed from. It's not old(maybe 10 or 15yrs), but for $10 I couldn't pass it up...
It's hard to tell in the picture, but it is almost a lime green color and has some flocking on it. It's perfect as a Valentine or Easter tree.
So, have you heard any treasures calling you?

Have a nice day,

Tiff

Brighter Day...

I know we have all said it at one time or another, but I'll say it again, I wish all us bloggers lived in one spot and could all be neighbors. Could you imagine the trouble we would get into?

I truly thank you all for the responses you left for me on yesterday's post. I think I may have come across a bit more sad than I intended. Even my hubby came home from work and said he read my post and felt so bad for me. I am not depressed, trust me, I know that black hole feeling and I am not there. This is just more of a frustrated, stress kind of feeling. And it's not coming out of the blue, there are definite stressful things going on that are out of my control.... and I like to be in control! And having a friendship or crafting outlet would just be such a lovely escape, but I know that I can't(or it will be difficult) to find it here. Maybe I just need to change my expectations and put myself out there...again, while we wait for the path of our near future to be laid out. Thank you all for letting me know that I am not alone, even if we can't be neighbors, it's nice to know that you are all out there and we can share our lives together through words and pictures. I really do appreciate all of you.

So yesterday afternoon I called a friend. We don't talk often, but when we do, it is usually a good conversation. She too is struggling here, lack of family and friends, and not fitting in. We talked a long time and realized we are part of the few who don't run with the "normal" crowd, we aren't followers, we are like many of you blog friends, different in a good way. There just aren't that many of us out there in one spot, we are spread out far and wide.

We decided that we are going to try and do a local big craft show in April! We will split a booth, which will cut down on the cost and the pressure of trying to fill it by ourselves. Plus, we can sit and chat the whole day. I think it will be a nice day out of the house and something to look forward too, whether we make money or not. We both vowed to only use the supplies we have at hand, so as not to acrew any more costs(we both have plenty of supplies). She does beautiful filet crochet edging , sewing, and quilting. Our booth will be mostly textile goods for the home. Now I just need to decide what I am going to make. Any suggestions? What would you buy at a craft show? I'll keep you posted on the details of the show for anyone local who wants to come.

For Valentine's day, I bought myself some flowering plants for the house that I thought would look nice for Easter and Spring. I scrubbed down the kitchen this morning and placed my pretty plants in their new homes. Here is the calla lilly on my kitchen table....

A pink hyacinth in the family room...
And a purple hyacinth in the kitchen.
Today is a brighter day and I'm thankful for that, I'm thankful for my family, and I'm thankful for all of you.

With love,

Tiff

Mid Winter Blahs?

Maybe it's the February Blahs or maybe it's all that is going on, but I'm just feeling "Bleh" right now. Just a warning, this post is probably going to be full of a bunch of questions and whines and all over the place ramblings and maybe some self pity(and very bad grammar!), just so you know.

The pictures have nothing to do with this post, they are just random shots around the house, because a post needs pics in my opinion :)

I'm really struggling with blogging right now, but have been forcing myself to do it because I really do enjoy the experience as a whole and don't want to lose it. But my love for antiquing and decorating is choked at this particular period in my life. We are kind of in limbo at the moment and I really don't know what the next year is going to be like. As I mentioned before, we are 99% likely moving in the summer, so that puts wanting to do anything in this house at a halt for me. I still will do small rearranging and stuff, but it's kind of lack luster and just for practical purposes.

Winter has been really strange here, warm, cold, snow, rain, but no true winter, no huge snowstorms and our large lakes aren't even frozen. With that, just give me Spring, as much as I like winter, if it isn't going to be real, let's just move on to the next season. Plus, I am planning a Major yard sale. Everyday I mentally say to myself that I can't wait to get rid of all this stuff and lighten up the load that I feel is on my shoulders. I am cutting down on toys, clothes, craft supplies, and all my knick knacks and furniture. My basement is overflowing waiting for the sale. But I can't do it until at least May, unless we have a really nice April.

I want a more simplified prim farmhouse look, but then when I see homes arranged just right that are full of "stuff", I like that look too. My problem is that I'm not a purist in any one genre, the only thing that runs similar is that I like OLD things. I guess that's ok, because it is my home, and maybe I just need to stop looking at pinterest photos!

Another thing I realized with a lot of blogs that I love and the homes within them is that most don't have a bunch of munchkins living at home. So if they stage a room, the room will stay that way. My kids are great and for the most part are not destructive, but if I place a prim child's rocking chair with an old doll in it in front of the fireplace, do you think a 2 yr old will not be tempted to play with it? Like my hubby always reminds me, this is our home it's not a showroom, we actually live here(with children). So I really need to let that go, the fact that I can keep my home nice and have an homey antique feel is great, but for now it won't and can't be staged. Why is decorating so important to me? Why do my eyes have to see perfect vignettes and I'm not happy till it is arranged just right? I know that not everyone is like this.
Then there is this place where we live. I just don't fit in here and I feel like there is nothing here for me. We have no family here. No friends that we get together with. Yes, I do have some friends, but nothing real close. A lot of people "know" us but they really don't want to "get to know" us. Does that make sense? We are one of the largest families in town and people know my children through the schools(they are well behaved and polite) and people know me as the crafty mom or the throw the class party or make the costumes mom. They talk to others as if they are friends with me. But have they ever come over to my house for tea or me to theirs? No. My definition of a real life friend is not the same as others.

I don't drink and I'm not a workout mom, so the margarita parties and the gym are not places for me to make friends(most of the women in my age range fall into these two categories).

I tried to start a craft group at the library(neutral ground) and gave it 5 months, but nothing, no one showed(other than the two friends). We were hoping to meet some women with common interests. I really don't know what is up with this town. It is very "keep up with the Jone's" and I hate that.

I look and look for things to join, craft wise, but I can't find anything and feel so lonely. I do know that I tend to have greater ambitions than I have time and I always say that I'm full of good intentions but don't always bring them to fruition, but I just wish I could find a nice group of women to get together with. One where if I miss a week, the group still goes on but when I'm there I feel at home, and they feel the same way. Oh how I envy those of you when I read about your hooking or quilting groups or the ladies you get together with to go junking.
And it doesn't help that we haven't been able to find a church either, I'm sure that would fill my need for fellowship. It's not that we haven't tried, trust me, we have, but that is a whole other story for maybe one day in the long distant future.

It just always feels like it is hubby and me against the world and we can be nice, follow the rules, and share but in the end we get pooped on. I feel like I'm constantly seeing the witches of the world reap all the rewards. Oh, I know that sounds awful and I'm not talking about just material things. I was shown this over Christmas with my own extended family and that we were not as important as others and blatantly told so(again, another story for another day).

Ok, I really don't know where I was going with this post, I guess like I said, maybe it's the winter blahs and I'm just feeling sorry for myself. I do thank the Lord for my children, hubby, and all that he has blessed us with, I suppose my mind just does not do well with living in limbo land and not knowing what is going on with our immediate future.

It probably also doesn't help that my hormones are wrecking havoc on me and I am having a severe case of baby fever. Yes, I DO want another baby. I would have 10 more if I could, but in reality, I would be thrilled with just one more blessing.

If you got through all that, bravo to you, lol. I guess I'm off to take down the Valentine decorations and clean the kitchen, do laundry and squeeze in some sewing.

Thank you for listening,

Tiff

A Sweet For You

Valentines and a Magic Box...

Here's how I spent yesterday... making Valentine's :) Both of these were inspired from pinterest of course!

This first set is for my kindergartner, they are melted crayon hearts, pink and red for the girls and blue and green for the boys. These came out really nice using a silicone mold, the worst part was peeling the wrappers off the crayons. (the big one is for his teacher)

And these are for my 3rd grader....
These were SUPER easy to make!
And I only needed to make one Valentine box this year!YAY! Here it is.... a magic box called a TARDIS, those of you who are Dr. Who fans know what it is :)
If you want to take a look at last years boxes you can look Here and Here.

Now I need to bake cupcakes, get the teacher bags together, and get the party supplies packed up for the school parties tomorrow.

Have a fun day,

Tiff

Weigh in Sunday...

It's that time of week again, WW weigh in for me. I hope you don't mind me posting this on my blog, but it's a nice way for me to keep a tally on myself.

So after Super Bowl Sunday(with some lower cal versions of yummy treats), Mason's birthday with cupcakes and icecream, and one night of take out pizza(oh how that tasted so good!), oh and one night of tummy sickness, I lost 3lbs for the week. My total so far is 6.6 lbs gone. And because of that, they took a food point away from me :( , guess I need to get used to that, right? My measurements went like this for the week... chest - 1", waist - 1.5", hips -1.5", arms -.5", still nothing off the thighs. I need to figure out some leg exercises because the other exercises I am doing are working.

Onto another week and I hope I can keep this up, it seems like baby steps but I know they will add up.

Have a splendid evening,

Tiff

Eye Candy...

Thank you all for the well wishes, and I think we are feeling a bit better today, so hopefully it was just a 24 hour stomach bug, but that means 5 of us still haven't gotten it!

I was surfing my pinterest boards and came across this woman's lovely home. Maybe some of you are familiar with it, but I had never seen it and thought it was just beautiful. If you want some lovely prim eye candy check out Suzanne's home HERE. The pic above is her living room. She also has a prim shop in NH, pics of that are on her website too.

Enjoy!,

Tiff

We've Been Hit with something nasty...

Ugh, where to begin? Well I took these three pictures yesterday to show you what I'm working on, no, I can't just do one thing at a time :) The first one you may remember from almost two years ago. I started this fabric hand silhouette after Mason was born and never finished it. I recently discovered it again and worked on it last night, I'm almost done blanket stitching the hands on and then I need to decide whether I'm going to put their names on it or just the date.

On a whim a few days ago I started crocheting a rug. It's out of a thick natural cotton and will make a nice bathroom or kitchen rug because it washes so well. It's going to be quite big, this is after 4 balls, and I have 7 more to add(all free from my mom).
Again, another whim, or should I say pinterest inspired need, I'm making a felted wool sweater quilt for the guest room bed. I have all the wool cut, just need to find the time to sew.
And I'm still working on the cross stitch goat silhouette, LOL!!

But this weekend I am going to take things easy. Last week, my youngest daughter brought home a nasty cough, which is still lingering with her. Then two days ago, my 11 yr old son was throwing up all night(that was the worst mess I have cleaned up in my 18 years of being a mom!). Then my 8 yr old son got a fever last night with a cough. I went to bed and battled nausea until around 2:30 am when I was woken up by my 5 yr old throwing up. I started to clean it up and threw up myself. Luckily hubby has a strong stomach and cleaned it up. I was then up the rest of the night with a sick and throwing up little boy with myself making half hourly runs to the bathroom(we won't go into that detail). Needless to say, we all camped out on the couch all this morning and early afternoon. I haven't been able to keep anything down and I feel miserable. The only reason I'm posting is because I can't sleep anymore and I'm achy from laying down. Lets hope this bug leaves us as quickly as it hit us and I pray that Mason doesn't get it. But I'm afraid he is next in line because he won't stop kissing my face and saying "mommy sick, mommy sick".

And hubby, if you read this, bring dinner home because I'm not cooking.

Stay well my friends,

Tiff

He Likes It !

Mason got a new baby doll for his birthday, one that is small enough for him to carry around easily, squishy soft in the middle, and can go in the bath with him. He also got a Dr. kit and spinny seat(which my 5 yr old has taken over and now wants one for his birthday).

He also got a wooden rope bed for his new baby. Isn't it cute? I found it at a local antique store for $10.
Here he is testing out the bed with his new baby...
Changed the baby into jammies and put him to bed....(and the rubber ducky is not allowed the leave the baby's side!)
He was playing quietly and then a few minutes later I looked over and saw this....

...

....

.....

How cute is that!?!?! I think he likes his new baby :)

Have a Happy Day,

Tiff