Friday Hopping

Welcome fellow hoppers, thank you for coming to check out my blog. Have a look around, if you like and decide to follow please leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back!

Psst...wanna know a secret?!

....I can't sew.

It's true. I desperately want to learn, I'm pretty much self taught in everything else but not sewing. I totally dig it and I want to sew but it just doesn't come to me very easily.

I got this beauty from my mom, I can remember her almost always sewing something when I was younger and she recently got a newer machine and gave me this. I also have one of the really old fold away Singers that's gorgeous and still works. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I hardly use them, but I love them! I could watch someone sew for days with the sweet embroidery settings and touch screens, they're awesome! *sigh*

There is a project that I particularly LOVE because I love bags and it's something I can sorta-kinda do.

I can make this. It's really cool but I just cannot perfect it. It's really heavy duty, I made one for my mom and she uses it as a beach/toy bag for my nephew (the one who dubbed me Aumie). I'm all for reusable bags, I love to recycle upcycle! These bags are great cause they can be used for groceries, beach stuff (you can just rinse it out), toys, so many different things even library books.

 

I have quite a few bags that I can practice on so maybe just maybe I'll get better at it!

P.S I just saw that Larri from Seams Inspired  posted about Sew & Tell Friday over at amylouwho! I'm so excited cause I just made this bag last night!

I won!!

I am so excited I just won a holiday rug with two adorable penguins on it from the Shaw Flooring Instant Win & Sweepstakes. I really don't usually win things but I won a trip to Montana last week and now I will have a cute new rug for Christmas!

                                                                    Enter Here

It really only takes a minute to sign up and you pick three glowing leaves. Check it out if you have a minute, it's a really cute set-up. There is also a 200 dollar coupon just for playing. Have fun and Good Luck!

Hopping around Thursday!

Thank you for stopping by. If you're new, look around and if decide to follow please leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back! It's almost the weekend again, I hope everyone has a great day!!

Free samples

                                               Free sample of Sun-Maid recipe book Here

                                                                            

                                                Sample of John Frieda Root Awakening Here

Enjoy!

Welcome Wednesday Blog Hop

Welcome Wednesday hoppers! I hope you will have a look around. If you decide you like it and want to follow please leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back.

Wordless Wednesday

When Lucky was a puppy she loved to rip things up...my comforter clearly wasn't exempt. I kept the blanket around cause the flip side is actually intact so the day Jelly Bean found a hole she could fit in was pretty entertaining.

Rain, Rain...what's the deal?!

I have a husband, one cat and three dogs currently asleep on the couch. I also have another cat asleep in the recycling tote (she needs her space!) Seriously what gives?! I know it's rainy, it's pretty dark outside, and it's boring but everyone is asleep? I could definitely go play some Dr. Mario on my Wii cause I am addicted and haven't played in a couple weeks but if I move my little Lucky is going to get up and she's laying right on DB and that will wake up the entire nap group. Since I'm here I can tell you about my pretties, I love them!

Daisy was MY first dog, we had one dog when I grew up and he got sick my first year of college. I worked at Cedar Point in the summers during college and one year I was staying at my uncles and found a gorgeous beagle/shep at a store down the street and I instantly loved her. She's the sweetest most loving not needy dog I've ever seen. She's my big dog, she's medium sized but the biggest dog I have. I call her 'puppa' I'm not sure why, I just started at some point and didn't stop.

Then there's Lucky, she's a Toy Fox, I love her but she's really a one person dog, she loves everyone but if I blink she's in my face. I'm a huge animal kid, I love animals. This one I call 'monkey' she trots around like she's the biggest dog on the face of the earth, it's funny.

The other dog we have is named Lazlo. He was actually a friend's dog and she is having a baby and decided she didn't have time for him so she wanted me to take him cause he is the same breed as Lucky. He's sweet, he has only been here about a month but he's really taken to DB cause Lucky doesn't like to share me.

Then of course there's Duchess and Jelly Bean. Duchess came from the same friend that wanted us to take Lazlo. Back then she wasn't fixed and always found a way to sneak out. She had one litter of two kittens when we got her. We kept JB and my grandma took the other one, she's tiger striped. They're both fixed now thankfully. We never had cats when I was growing up so it's still kinda new territory to me, not that you have to do much. It's very peculiar that they always want to be 'in' something, the paper tote, any open boxes, open drawers even the dryer.

Today everyone wants to go out and play and it's done nothing but rain. DB also found out he was color blind today, red/green. We already knew, once he told me a green car was black so I found the little dot chart online with the number in the middle and he couldn't see it. Today he was told officially by a doc though, I always wonder what it's like for him to see certain things!

I hope everyone else is having a great day, maybe even sunny!!! This is supposed to all clear up tomorrow so that will be excellent!! Do you have animals like mine? I'd love to hear about it!

To-the-Top Tuesday

                                                           
 Check out One Littler Mister for all the information. Happy Hopping!


- Rules - In order to be considered for the co-host spot you must follow all of the rules!

1. Follow your hosts One Little Mister and Mommy Is Crafty. (We WILL follow you back, so you're guaranteed 2 new followers from this!)
   
2. Follow our co-host – The Mommy Mambo
3. Grab our new Blog Hop button and post about the link-up on your blog.
4. Add you blog to the linky list! And gets lots of new followers!!!

DO NOT LIST GIVEAWAYS!

I will delete them. Also, please don’t make duplicate links….link you blog ONE time pretty please!

Try to choose 4-5 other blogs to follow, tell them you found them at TTT Tuesday Blog Hop!  You are not required to follow back but it is nice to do so, and highly encouraged.

Please make sure you have a way for people to follow you, i.e. Google Friend Connect. 

The link-up will be open until midnight tonight but will be visible all week!

You are also encouraged add the linky code (posted below) on the blog post you make.  It will show all of the blogs that have entered here, people can link-up through your blog, and it will update on all of the lists.

If you decide to follow please leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back.

Making Friends Monday

Thank you for stopping by, I'm still finding my own little spot. Please have a look around and if you decide to follow leave me a comment so I know where I can follow you back!!

Have fun hopping and a great day!!

Relax & Surf Sunday

If you're here hopping I hope you are enjoying your time!! Have a look around and if you like follow me (I hope you will) and leave me a message that tells me where I can follow you back!

Thanks for stopping by!I hope everyone has a great day!!

Rearrange

I love rearranging furniture. To be honest I would prefer to move but this is a pretty good substitute. I love to move, the packing, cleaning, driving a huge rented truck with my Jeep in tow, the love of  a new town, something different, meeting new people, unpacking, it's like rearranging in a different town, it's awesome! I know most people don't share that view but I love it. I grew up an Army Brat so before I was out of high school my family moved 8 times, none of that to the other side of town stuff, we moved states away, a couple times even across the country. Since then I've moved myself 7 times, I love it.

To keep my need for change in check I rearrange my furniture sometimes frequently. Last night I started with my bed room and today I'd like to do the living room but DB is the kind of kid who lived in the same house his ENTIRE life until we got our house and I'm pretty sure his parents furniture was in the same place when I met him as when they bought it, he just thinks I'm weird. *sigh*

I also have a baby shower to go to this evening for a friend I used to work with. Money has been pretty really tight here so I was really excited when I found 2 adorable outfits at Babies R Us for under 5 dollars. I don't know a whole whole lot about baby clothes yet (notice yet, I definitely want kids) but the original prices were 16 and 19 so I thought that's a great deal and they're gorgeous outfits. Also, it's cold outside and I have to take my Jeep and the party is like 30 miles away, I haven't managed to put the top or doors back on and I don't have time today....did I mention it's cold? Have you ridden in a Jeep with no doors or top when it's cold? It's great and cold.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

MAIL TIME!

DB and I are super excited about today's mail!! I was entering some sweepstakes' awhile ago and one of them for a trip to Montana...guess what? WE'RE GOING TO MONTANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right I (who has truly never won anything) won an all expenses paid vacation to The Crazy Mountain Ranch! I'm so excited! DB is going crazy, he's so excited. We haven't gone anywhere since we were married in 2008 so this is awesome!!! It's been a pretty rough year around here so things are definitely looking up! I had to share my excitement of mail once again and will be able to do so again in 4 weeks when I get more mail about my trip. I will keep you posted!

Thank you everyone who has come by today for the blog hops and I hope you all have a great weekend!!!!

Blog hopping Friday!

 

I have to admit I love the blog hops. Of course I like followers (thank you to those people who pick me too!) but best of all I have found a lot of awesome blogs!! I'm hopping again this week and still finding my own little spot. Please have a look around, follow if you want (I hope you will!) and leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back!!


Happy Friday!!

Mail Time!

I'm stoked about my mail today!!

I love to go fishing!! We went earlier this summer and I caught a 9in. blue gill. Yeah, it's only a sunfish but hell yeah I got a pin for it! I had to share my excitement today. I also got a bill for 170 dollars from the Urologist but I opened that first so this negates it!!

Mrs. Miller's Peanut Butter Spread

I LOVE peanut butter!!! That being said DB and I went to a farm market we have here and found this lovely peanut butter spread.

I always want peanut butter toast for breakfast so I used Mrs. Miller's Amish Peanut Butter Spread.

This spread is incredible!! I also eat peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches and this tastes just like it!! It is so tasty, spreads easy and melts perfectly!! This peanut butter is so incredible there's nothing I can say to do it justice!!

You can check out all the goodies they have from Mrs. Miller's They have so much more than this they make noodles, jams and jellies even cappuccino that are all made in Fredericksburg, Ohio, a village in Amish Country! So check out Mrs. Miller's today.

Think of me Thursday

I can't believe it's Thursday already, this week has gone by really fast for me. I hope everyone else is having a good week!

I am pretty new to blogging and still getting started. Stay a minute if you can to check it out, follow if you like (I hope you will!) and leave me a comment so I know where to follow you back.

Snowman votive tutorial.

I had a couple people give me a couple suggestions and even someone who wanted a tutorial so here it is, I hope you will try it out and have it work well for you.

Things you will need:
Pop can
Box Cutters (scissors can be used it's just a little trickier)
Fine grit sand paper (for this I sanded most of the color off but before I just painted the inside so if sand paper is not available you can paint the side with the design on it)
Push pin
Something safe to push on (I use a telephone book it works great!)
Hot glue gun

The first step is to grab your pop can, rinse it out thoroughly and I just shook mine around quite a bit to get the water out.

 Cut the top off with the box cutter and cut one slice all the way down the side. Then begin cutting the bottom off. With the box cutters it's easy to get your hole poked in to start cutting through but if you're using scissors you may want a knife to get your cut started.

With the top and bottom cut off, use the sand paper to begin sanding the paint off the can, if you're painting I recommend securing the can to be as flat as possible and not get paint everywhere. I used clothespins at the each edge to connect to the telephone book.

The sand paper worked well, there are some dents in the can where the paint didn't come completely out but you won't notice it as this side will become the inside of the votive.

Now you will fold it. I fold three times for a square trying to make them as even as possible. You could probably make any shape you want, I haven't experimented too much with this so I'd love to know if anyone tries something different.

Last fold and push down on the edges for a good crease.  Also at the end of the last fold fold in just the end enough to attach to separate edges together like this ------------>

                                                       

I push down with the handle end of the paint brush to have an idea of where I want to make my punctures. Use the push pin to push through the aluminum to punch in your design on as many sides as you want, this time  I went with three sides.

Once your snowman(men) are punched in you're ready to glue your separate edges together. On the right corner is how I put the edges together, this is why the extra edge is folded so it can be placed on the inside so the corner will appear seamless. Put your glue on that small flap and place the open edge on top.

                                                      

This is the finished product with a tea light in it. You can still see some of the red but the light shines through the three sides punched. 

I have never written directions on anything so I hope this is adequate. I'm completely open to suggestions or ideas  on the tutorial as well as the project. Tweak it however you will and I would love to see what you have done! Please be very careful, I haven't had any problems with the edges of the can being sharp but the box cutters and scissors will be as well as the inside where the metal is being pushed through.

I'm so excited!

I've been kind of sick lately and I found out about 2 months ago that I had microhematuria and had to visit a Urologist. After waiting an entire month before I could get in to the specialist and him telling me 'you have to get a kidney and bladder ultrasound before I do a cystoscopy'. By the way I tend to be a negative nancy and panic a little more than most people...I also self diagnose..unintentionally of course. So waiting a month wasn't good for me it just gave me more time to panic, then a week to go get the ultrasound and ANOTHER week to get back to the doctor for any results.

Finally, I got the cystoscopy today and everything is good and healthy YAY!! I'm so excited cause I've truly put myself through hell for nearly 2 months.


P.S. If you're reading this you're awesome for because this was something that I had to get out and has been so nerve wracking to me!! Thank you!!

Sunday dinner, Monday breakfast

This weekend seemed to last forever for me. I haven't gotten anything done in my house or on here so I'm going to squeeze dinner in with a breakfast post.

Taco Salad! It doesn't always look the most appetizing but it's truly delicious!! With this taco salad we just used bag salad, cheddar cheese, ground beef cooked and seasoned with taco seasoning, Catalina dressing and crushed Doritos.

I just put it all into a large bowl and mix it all together. It's definitely better when you get the Catalina stirred in instead of just putting it on top. This salad is incredible and simple.

I also love some blueberry muffins! DB eats usually Fiber One for breakfast so we got Fiber One muffin mix to try out and they are really good!

I love almost any kind of muffin and these are very tasty! They were simple and took about 15 minutes to bake.

My favorite part is melted butter on a hot muffin. My mom always made muffins when we were little and I loved to cut them in half, put butter on them and wait for it to melt. They're delicious!

Relax & Surf Sunday

I feel like this has been the longest weekend ever and it's only Sunday morning. I've been sick, you know, staying in bed and eating soup. DB has been taking care of me. I hope everyone's weekend is going better! I'm still pretty new to all of this and don't have a whole lot going on here yet but I'm definitely working on it.

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you decide to follow (I hope you will!) so I know where to follow you back!

Free sample of Cold-EEZE

                                                           Get your sample of Cold-EEZE here

Some Friday Blog Hops

It's 6:45 a.m. I wasn't sure what I should, then I saw everyone posting all of these lovely blog hops and I think I will try it. I'm still new and trying to find my own little place. I hope you enjoy it and will come back!

Thank you for visiting!!