To do this week

Shortened list this week since it's already Wednesday:

• banner orders
• tag orders
• paper bag albums to take to craft fair
• mini books to take to craft fair
• couple more Christmas card sets to take to craft fair
• couple other card sets
• do some sewing

Hopefully I can get this done along with our normal December stuff this week. 

10 on Tuesday

1. I got hit with a NASTY stomach bug yesterday. It was bad. I think I was awake for a total of 3 hours yesterday. I feel much better today, but am going to be smart and take things slow still.

2. We had a great Thanksgiving. Got to spend time with family and laugh until we cried. I think on Thanksgiving we spent 6 hours playing Mexican Train Dominoes. It is so much fun to play. I love being with my family like that.

3. Catching up on work today. I have 2 banner orders to get out and a tag order. I am also doing a craft fair/open house this week so I need to get some things done for it.

4. I have some things weighing very heavy on my mind right now and would appreciate any prayers or good thoughts my way.

5. Does anyone know of a site you can paste a font in and it will tell you what font it is or one similar? I have a font I found that I know I have seen before or something very similar. I would love to have the font.

6. Being sick yesterday has thrown off my whole week. I will get my Weekly Menu up in the next day and also my weekly to do list.

7. If anyone knows where the month of November went can you please let me know? This whole year has flown by, but I swear November was a flash.

8. Did anyone else watch Elf on the Shelf Friday night? It was so cute. I hope they bring it out on dvd.

9. Tonight is my favorite episode of Biggest Loser!! I love the make-over episode. I won't get to watch it until tomorrow since Audrey has gymnastics tonight.

10. Working on some wish list posts! Can't wait to share them with you.

Shop update

I added 16 new items to the shop today. Have a few more things to add, but honestly I'm going cross eyed looking at the Etsy loading page. Lots of Christmas cards, some Christmas gift tags, and a couple new custom items, cupcake toppers and gift/favor bags.

To do this week, Menu Plan

No menu really to plan this week. Tonight we are having the roast we didn't have last week. Tomorrow the kids and I are heading to my mom's after Audrey is done with gymnastics. The rest of the week we are at my mom's. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

To do this week:

• Shop update(in progress as I type)
• Edit pictures for a gift
• Edit sisters pictures
• gift boxes
• gift bags
• PACK

I won't get all my sisters pictures done, but I can get some done for her.

I do have some posts planned for this week and will be updating from my mom's. I cannot wait to be with my family and hang out with my cousins. We always have so much fun and usually end up laughing until we cry and our sides hurt. I need this break, because then it will be crazy season for sure!

I'll be back later when I have my shop update for today done. Will do more tomorrow as well.

Happy Birthday

to my Mom!!! I am so thankful everyday that she was my mom. I wasn't always the easiest child(how many of us are), but she always had so much patience and was always there for me. I am so thankful everyday that my kids are lucky enough to have her as their "Moo Moo"!

 She does crazy things with the kids like jump off the fireplace!

She takes them all sorts of fun places like football games, baseball games, the zoo, and more!!

She decorates the house for every holiday, especially Christmas. Trees in every room, a huge set up of candy, cookies and more on the table. She has more patience than any person I know. She is a special ed teacher and loves all her kids like they are her own. She is AWESOME!! Hope you had the best birthday ever mom!!

In other news, the principal at the kids school announced she is retiring at the end of the year. I know when she told the PTSO board we all cried, I can only imagine how it was when she told the teachers. When I told Audrey she cried most of the way home. The kids, parents, and staff all love her and are going to miss her more greatly. She has been amazing!

Mini-Goals Update

• 10 orders at Shopapalooza. I'm really not sure how many people will be there, so I'm shooting for this. Would LOVE more, but will be very happy with 10.-Did not happen. Let me say though, I'm not disappointed. There were only 5 shoppers, hard to get 10 orders when 10 people did not walk through the door.
• Get Elf plans made for December. The kids have elves who spend from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve with us and I want the plans made ahead of time this year. Tired of scrambling to figure out what I want to do.-I've got a good start. Working on some new fun things for the elves to do each day in order to deliver their notes. I'm excited!
• List something new in the Etsy shop every week day. Will try for Sat and Sun as well, but week days will be awesome!!-I think I've missed a couple of days, but for the most part I'm doing well. I did miss a Friday, but listed 2 items on Saturday so that makes up for the Friday.

• Start Christmas gifts. As I said in a previous post, most of the adults are getting all hand made gifts so I need to get started. Kids are getting a few handmade gifts as well. -The lists are started. I have lots of ideas marked so I'm ready to really get going on the stuff. Have a few other things on the to do list before I can really get started on these. 

I also want to put this out there. Yesterday our hot water heater was fixed by a small local business. I know I am always pushing buy handmade, buy small when it comes to gifts, but after yesterday I was reminded that we need to not only support handmade, but support other small, local businesses. Whether it be a repair to your home or car, getting your oil changed, yard service, and even eating out. Don't get me wrong, I know there are times it's just not possible, I know we all love our Applebee's or Chili's(believe me I know about Chili's I could live on their chips and salsa!). I know getting your oil changed at a chain is usually cheaper, but the service you will get from a small shop is going to beat the price any day. I know the economy is bad and so we need to cut costs wherever we can, but these people are your neighbors, their kids go to school with your kids, they are the ones who will be there when you need someone. Supporting local companies in anyway we can supports the cities we live in.

10 on Tuesday

1. Chopped my hair today! I love it. Will try and take a picture later. It went from my shoulder blades to now being just below my chin. Actually has a style and body to it!

2. Dinner is in the crockpot and I can't wait to eat chicken tacos tonight. Love the crockpot on Tuesdays when Audrey has gymnastics.

3. Tonight we meet with the superintendent to discuss boundary changes and bond issues. Sounds like fun doesn't it!?

4. Does anyone know where I can buy transparencies? Seems no one uses them anymore now that most teachers have smartboards. I need some for scrapbooking!!

5. I went to bed early last night and while I didn't fall asleep for a while, I feel much better today. Spent probably an hour in bed reading. It was so nice.

6. Why oh why do toy makers not think little girls want advent calendars like the lego ones for boys? For a couple of years Audrey had a Littlest Pet Shop one and loved it. Now if you find one on Amazon they are like $70+. UGH!! She doesn't play with legos so buying the lego one is out.

7. You have to read this article about choosing your battles.

8. Got some fun new goodies to play with later. A new punch and some masks. Also got some adhesive, but that's not all that exciting.

9. My hot water heater is being fixed as I type this. In the last few days it went from working fine to having about 3 minutes worth of luke warm water if you were lucky! Not good when it's COLD outside.


10. The weather is GORGEOUS right now. Nice and sunny with temps in the 70's. Tomorrow...Upper 40's for the high. God love Missouri weather!!

To do this week!

• Finish editing pictures for a friend
• Edit sister's wedding pictures.
• Major shop update!
• Make Thanksgiving subway art.
• Make journals.
• Christmas banners
• finish a banner order
• Cards for winners of a contest!!

I hope that's enough to keep me busy this week! The Thanksgiving Subway Art will be a printable item, so no shipping. I think it would make a neat thing to add to your table. I'm hoping to do more printable type items for the shop, even offering customizable subway art prints. They are so much fun to make. For those who aren't sure what a Subway Art Print is, here is a sample of one I did for the 4th of July:

The great thing about these is they can be done for any occasion or event. Coaches gifts with team name and words about the sport, teachers gifts with kids names, wedding with party names or info about the couple, if you can dream it it can be made!

Menu Plan Monday

Hoping this will force me to plan each week. It was so nice last week having a plan.

Monday-Tuna Casserole I think I pretty much have the recipe in my head, but here is the one I basically make. I add cheese to the top while it bakes. Can't wait to eat this!!
Tuesday-Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos Using this recipe. Busy night with Audrey's gymnastics and also the superintendent speaking at our PTSO meeting about school boundary changes with a new high school opening so I need something easy to do and my crock pot is great for those days.
Wednesday-Chili Dogs
Thursday-Veggie Soup Found the recipe in my Taste of Home Heartwarming Soups book.
Friday-Pizza making my own sauce again(will share later this week) hoping to attempt my own dough one of these times.
Saturday-Buffalo Chicken Nachos Using this recipe Not gonna lie, my mouth is watering already. Adding some other finger foods we already have in the freezer and green bean fries. Will do chicken nuggets for Audrey if she isn't a fan.
Sunday-Yankee Pot Roast Found the recipe I'm going to use in my Taste of Home Family Favorites book.

I will let you know next week what we think of our new recipes. I love knowing that we have a plan for dinner each night and that everything is in the house. I HATE going to the store everyday or pretty much everyday which is what we were doing. We also weren't eating very good.

Update to do list and other stuff

• start handmade holiday shopping series on the blog, which means I get to spend some time "screen" shopping on Etsy for awesome gift ideas. If you have something you are looking for let me know and I will see what I can find.-got the ideas, just need to start posting
• 3 banner orders-one last one needs a few things to finish it.
• cupcake topper order
• Christmas tree shadow box for a friend for her school Christmas party-got paper picked out
• new banner for my blog-Haha!!
• Thanksgiving cards-nope
• edit a friends pictures I took-working on still
• edit sisters wedding pictures-went through and deleted bad ones
• pictures of new items
• list something in the shop everyday!
• work on more product-got a few ideas

This week ended up being really crazy due to book fair and some other stuff. Hoping to do better next week.

Spent 3 hours today CLEANING Audrey's room. I mean we sorted things back into the correct buckets. My goodness Barbie stuff is tedious to sort. Cleaned off the book shelf and it looks so pretty now. After it was done had a long talk with Audrey about keeping her stuff picked up. We'll see how long it lasts!

Hard to believe Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away. I'm looking forward to the food, the football, and hanging out laughing with my family. And of course shopping on Black Friday. I will get my lists made this week of who is getting what!!! Can't wait to share the stuff that I'm making this year.

To kick off the gift giving ideas, here is a great idea for the person who has everything, you never know what to get, or has arthritis. It's a jar opener my grandpa makes. It mounts under your cabinets freeing both hands to hold the jar you are attempting to open. My grandma has really bad arthritis in her hands and she uses this with no trouble. Opens everything from spaghetti jars to 2 liter bottles. It really is a great gift idea! If you are interested see my etsy store or email me.

11-11-11

11 things about our 11-11-11

1. I worked on some banners
2. A glimpse at the new bookmark the kids picked out for me while at Barnes and Noble with grandma.
3. Audrey watched Scooby Doo! We are big Scooby Doo lovers in this house.
4. A look out my living room window! Clear sky, bare trees, nice crisp fall day.
5. Audrey's box of crayons. She spent a little while sorting them all by color.
6. Dart playing Madden '11 on Wii.
7. My new favorite drink. Fuze Peach Mango! So yummy!
8. Pizza for dinner. Made the sauce from scratch(will share the recipe soon)
9. Watched Alf while we ate. We have season 1 on dvd.
10. Spent lots of time perusing Pinterest. Love that site.
11. Audrey and Dart played Wipeout on Wii for a while after dinner.

Nothing real amazing or out of the ordinary for our 11-11-11, but I want to remember this day even if it wasn't any different than most days. Kids were out of school because it was parent/teacher conferences. Their conferences were last night. Great reports on both kids. Audrey is "very social" as her teacher said. Ha, we all know that! Dart is a hard worker and able to seperate himself well when others are talking instead of working. I was a bit worried since 2 of his closest friends are in his class, how all of that would go. Proud of both of them.

Another quick story to share; Dart came to me today and told me he wanted to talk to me in private. We went on our room and he said "I want to go see a movie with Jenna in January. This gives you all of the rest of this month, all of December and part of January to meet her parents." I tried hard to keep from screaming "are you crazy????" I listened to him all the while thinking "why is my baby growing up so fast. I want my baby boy back!!!" I'm not ready for him to have any interest in girls and dating. Now obviously he won't be going on a date, he is only 10, but I know this is just the beginning. When I texted my brother to tell him about it his response was "That's my boy!" Yay, thanks a lot there brother. Wonder if he would feel the same way if it was Audrey wanting to go see a movie with a boy! Something in me says not only would his response be "He## NO!!!" but he'd be stalking her at school to make sure no boy came within 100 yards of her. I do have to give Dart credit for the fact of thinking it out so that we could meet her parents and he also said he would go see whatever movie she wanted to, even if it was a romance. I'm just not ready for this. I want my baby boy who loved Bob the Builder and Spiderman back. I want the boy who only wanted to go see a movie with his mommy back!

At the Moment....

Listening to-CMA Awards. Complete with our choices for each award.  We are just a tad competitive in this house!
Eating-Nothing. Full from Baked Potato Soup
Drinking-Water
Wearing-Fleece jammie pants, CYFL/Mizzou Golf Tournament shirt, socks
Feeling-Stressed, lots to do and not a lot of time.
Weather-Cold!!!! Was FREEZING this morning on Walking School Bus
Wanting-more time, more sleep
Needing-to see Footloose(haha!), more sleep
Thinking-about all the things I need to get done, Christmas gifts
Enjoying-life!!! Crazy as it is, very thankful for it.
Wondering-how I can get everything done I need to.

Took lots of pictures today of projects that need to be uploaded in the store. Ready for a big update soon!
Tomorrow is parent/teacher conferences!!

 Just a glimpse at all that is to come! Pictures are distorted a bit, in real life everything looks normal!

10 on Tuesday

1. There was some crazy thunder last night. Seriously one clap that I could have sworn was a bomb going off in the house. Not something I want to experience at 1:35 in the morning.

2. I have a 3 Packet Roast in the Crock Pot! Can't wait to eat dinner tonight. Found the recipe here.

3. Audrey is still loving gymnastics. I can see improvements in things already.

4. I will have Christmas cards in the shop this week!

5. This week is book fair at the kids school. They love book fair week. They know I'm a sucker when it comes to buying books.

6. This week is also Parent/Teacher Conference week at school. Shepard does an amazing job and getting pretty much every parent there. I look forward to conferences.

7. After my printer died a long and slow death, I got a new one this week. Mark's parents bought it for me. Well they gave me the money to go buy it. I was going to go with another HP printer, but decided instead on a Canon. I love having a wireless printer and so far it is working great.

8. With my new printer, I am looking forward to adding cupcake toppers to the store. I did some today for an order to match a banner for a baby shower and had a blast with them. The new printer prints so much better.

9. Already working on my 35 before 36 list. While most of the time I come no where near getting them all done, I do love the idea of having the list. I think this year, I'm going to approach it a little different. Still working on it though.

10. I've spent some more time this week on Google +. I haven't done much more than just post something and read what others have posted, but I am anxious to try out their business pages.

Custom cupcake toppers I made for a baby shower. I also made a banner to match them. I LOVE making these so look for lots more soon! Will be offering them to match banners of all kinds too.

Treasury Love

My "Lonely Tire Swing in Winter" isn't feeling so lonely these days. I think tonight it was featured in it's 3rd or 4th treasury this week.

Another great one tonight. Here it is.

To Do this week

On the to-do list this week:

• start handmade holiday shopping series on the blog, which means I get to spend some time "screen" shopping on Etsy for awesome gift ideas. If you have something you are looking for let me know and I will see what I can find.
• 3 banner orders
• cupcake topper order
• Christmas tree shadow box for a friend for her school Christmas party
• new banner for my blog
• Thanksgiving cards
• edit a friends pictures I took 
• edit sisters wedding pictures
• pictures of new items
• list something in the shop everyday!
• work on more product

A friend is having a Holiday Open House on December 3rd and I will be taking my stuff. I'm hoping it will go better than this last one did. 

Mizzou

after months and months of flirting....

it is official, the relationship status was officially changed from "it's complicated" to "in a relationship"

I am so glad this is finally over!!! Not sure what the future will bring us, I'm sure we will go through a rough period of change, but now at least we can get back to the things we love; the games, the athletes and the fun!

Random Musings

• My "Lonely tire swing in Winter" was featured in an Etsy Treasury today. Please check it out here.
• I spent my morning at a very disappointing Holiday Shopping event. I had a booth with cards, American Girl clothes and some other stuff. There were a total of 5 shoppers the entire time. Thankfully it did not cost us anything to do it, but still disappointing.
• I'm interested in what your thoughts are on what makes something "handmade"? Does it have to be completely handmade from scratch type thing or does say a card where the maker has stamped an image, cut the image out and adhered it to the card count? What about stamping on a card and coloring the image in? Just something to think about. 
• Who is the most difficult person to shop for on your list? What do you usually end up getting them?
• One advantage to the bummer fair this morning is I have lots of stuff made now so the shop will be getting stocked over the next week or so! 
• My craft table is buried in junk right now. It is scary! 
• Watching "Finding Nemo" right now! Dart LOVED this movie when he was little.
•  I found out today we are getting a "new" JoAnn's!!! I'm so excited. It won't be HUGE, but when you compare it to the one we have now anything will be an improvement. Ours now is awful. Fabric section isn't horrible, but compared to my mom's it is bad and the scrapbook section is PITIFUL!! I say "new" because we already have one and it's not going in a new building, which makes me happy because at least they are using some of the empty buildings in town. 

Update on my to-do list from this week:

• Rag coasters(will post pics when I get a set done) still need to take pics
• Christmas cards
• headbands
• American Girl clothes
• Holiday Planners(if I can get them to come out the way I want) still trying to get them to work
• mini books
• Thanksgiving banners
• Christmas tags

 Don't forget to "Fall back" tonight!!!!

November Mini-Goals

I really hope I can do better this month than I did last month. I'm not even looking back at last months because I know it was bad. Moving forward!!!

Here are my goals for this month:

• 10 orders at Shopapalooza. I'm really not sure how many people will be there, so I'm shooting for this. Would LOVE more, but will be very happy with 10.
• Get Elf plans made for December. The kids have elves who spend from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve with us and I want the plans made ahead of time this year. Tired of scrambling to figure out what I want to do.
• List something new in the Etsy shop every week day. Will try for Sat and Sun as well, but week days will be awesome!!
• Start Christmas gifts. As I said in a previous post, most of the adults are getting all hand made gifts so I need to get started. Kids are getting a few handmade gifts as well. 

In going with listing something new each week day here is what I listed today:

Great for Santa gifts. Available in red and green! I think they are adorable!

Update on my 34 before 35. Only 2 months to go and I know some of the things on my original list will NOT happen and I am okay with that. Some I've just lost interest in, some I don't have time to do and some I think if I'm really honest with myself I put on there because I thought it was something I should do. I think next years list will be done different.

4. Have 100 sales in my Etsy shop. I've got 2 so far! 40 so far. Not sure I will hit the 100 mark, but I'm going to work hard to get as close as possible.

6. Maintain 50 items in my Etsy shop. I have so many things I want to make and hopefully it will be hard to have 50 items in my shop all the time because hopefully things will be selling! Currently have 20, but have about 10 things I need to photograph to get up and also some that just need to be listed.
7. Do more sewing. I want to make doll clothes, clothes for Audrey and lots of stuff to put in the shop. Made lots of things this past month include 2 pillow case shirts for Audrey, 3 headbands for Audrey, 2 pillowcases for the kids, coasters and a few other things.
 
9. Create digital cards. Think the cards you get at Christmas. Great for birth announcements, birthday invitations, Graduation open houses, wedding save the dates and more. Working on a few designs right now.
 
10. Declutter. I am tired of all the junk we have. I have started with my scrapbook stuff and actually look forward to creating because I don't get caught up in the stuff. My room is so much cleaner than it has been in months. You can actually see the top of the dresser!!
 
11. Be proud of me. I have always had a hard time when someone tells me I create beautiful things and I'm talented. Need to learn to accept it. I made some big strides in October. Still a struggle, but I'm doing better than I was at the beginning of the year.
 
18. Procrastinate less. I have been working hard on this. I am horrible at procrastinating and then doing everything at the last minute. I decided to journal when I was procrastinating to see if I could figure out why it is such a big issue with me. I think the biggest reason I came up with was fear. Fear of putting myself out there. This was a big eye opener for me. 
 
27. Read 1 fun book a month. I love to read, just have a hard time making time for it. Hopefully this will force me to read more. I'm pretty sure I've read 12 this year already. I am currently forcing myself to go to bed a little earlier and read at least every week night. I try to read on the weekends before bed too, but it doesn't always happen. I look forward to that little bit of quiet time before going to sleep.
 
34. Do more to encourage Handmade Items!! I don't care if it's jewelry or cards or what, I just really want to do more to encourage buying handmade. I'm probably going to drive people crazy with this one the closer to the Holidays we get. I challenge you to try and buy or even make more for the Holidays this year than you have in the past. Most of the adults in my family will be getting nothing but handmade stuff for Christmas. The few that might not be will be pictures of the kids and I'm pretty sure I will do something with them to add that handmade spin to it, whether it be doing something to a frame I pick up at a thrift store or making a little scrapbook with them. 

I'm participating in a Shopapalooza this weekend and I can't wait. I was killing myself trying to get a ton of things made, when I realized I should take orders of things instead. I don't know how many Christmas cards people are going to want in a set, so instead of killing myself to try and have that many pre-made I am taking orders. I'm hoping next week at this time I'm up to my eyes in orders. If you could cross your fingers that this weekend goes well I would appreciate it. I'm really nervous and excited. The last craft fair type thing I did was HORRIBLE!!!! It was at a grocery store, which would have been great, but they put us upstairs, hello who is going to go upstairs!?! And the spot I got placed was just as bad. Not really in the flow of the room. This one is free, we just have to donate a door prize. I'm hoping to put together a little "gratitude" basket: a Thanksgiving banner, a little gratitude book that they could fill out on Thanksgiving with family and possibly a little minibook!

Off to work and watch Cars 2 with the family. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cars so I can't wait to see Cars 2.

10 on Tuesday

1. One of my dearest friends celebrated her 40th Birthday on Saturday. We had a "TOWANDA" party! You know the scene in "Fried Green Tomatoes" where Kathy Bates teaches two young things a lesson. After eating amazing food at her house we headed out for a little fun on the town. She even had shirts made for us that say "TOWANDA" on the front. We have since started our own little sorority!


2. Hard to believe there are only 2 months left in this year!

3. I have decided Halloween should be the last Saturday of October and that should also be the night we set our clocks back an hour. So hard getting up this morning.

4. There is something to be said for spending a little extra on quality products. Working on some projects today and I can tell the difference and those quality products make life so much easier.

5. I'm looking for some new or even just new to me Christmas music, any suggestions? I can't wait to get Michael Buble's new Christmas cd.

6. For all my paper crafting friends this will make sense, I LOVE the new Tim Holtz Seasonal Distress Inks. You can go here to see them.

7. Book Fair is next week at school!! My kids can't wait. They love book fair week. Wonder how many books end up on their wish list this year? Dart will have a ton I'm sure, Audrey who knows with that girl!

8. Is it just me or did the trees seem to lose their leaves really fast this year? I can't believe how many trees around us are now bare!

9. I love the new look of Google Reader. I will say people who have their blog set so you can't read it in google reader frustrate me. I usually don't end up reading their blog because of that.

10. With it being the month of Thanksgiving now, I am posting at least 1 thing I am thankful for each day. Today I am thankful for the amazing friends I have. I can't imagine my life without some of these people!!