Winner!! Winner!! Chicken Dinner!!

I am in love with the blog Mich. in L.A.
You HAVE to go check it out!!
She make the most AMAZING jewlery out of some of the most NEATEST things!
She always amazes me with the clever ideas she comes up with!!
She hosts very fun guessing games and I happen to win one!!
My photos do not do her jewlery justice so please click here to see it in a better photo!

This was made out of a barbie doll brush..amazing right!!
Now go look at her blog she rocks!!

Little Lady Love Bug Has Landed!

What a fun Valentine surprise I receive in the mail!!
I tell you what I have met some of my favorite people online!
There are so many good people still out there!
I really am blessed (and a bit spoiled) by the people I have been connected with just thru the internet alone!

It was a nice, fun, unexpected surprise when I receive this card and plaque from Barbee Masterson in the mail!
It's it just the cutest?? AND it goes perfect with the decor on my hutch!!
Thank you Barbee for thinking of me! Such a sweet gesture from you!!
I love it!!!

Chocolate Orange...good or not....

The Chocolate Orange...
Standing in Menards very looong line during Christmas shopping time,
Dan and I seen the chocolate orange on the display case and started talking
about how it sounded so gross!
The lady in front of us turned and said to us "You'd be surprised! It's very good!"
So we thought it'd be a fun family activity....
Well ...it took us FOREVER to remember to try that thing!
Carter kept asking and every time either someone was already sleeping or not everyone was at home at the time.
Well eventualy we remembered!

I have no idea why Carter is making that face or why Caleb is about to bite his brother's ear..I guess the chocolate orange brings out the vampire in people..

Carter giving it a whack on the table...nothing happened..either he is a wimp or maybe because at this point the chocolate orange is old..lol..

Caleb giving it a go......

Atlas, it worked!

Impressed or not Impressed???.....

Lets think about this...let me let it set into my tastebuds...

I'm not sure I wanna eat this..cracking it open was the fun part....

Overall, we all agreed that it was good..but it wasn't something that we are going to rush out and make sure we buy every year...I mean its no Chocolate Charley!
It had a slight orange taste but was more chocolate flavored.
It was fun tho!

Wordless Wednesday



A LOVEly little tree

Here is how the little Valentine tree turned out.

I am very happy with it! It was fun using pink and red!!

And look what surfaced..more of those heart cut outs..

I told you I wasn't joking about cutting alot of them lol!

Even the cat enjoyed the tree..

A little too much!!! Darn cat!

And even my plastic kids got dressed for the occasion!

Hope your Valentine's Day is full of lots of love!!

I've Been Featured!!!

Yay! So exciting!
The heart wreath that I made got featured as a top 10 on the Happy-Go-Lucky blog!

Thats super cool...I know right?!!
Thank you so much to Kara and Amy for hosting a fun blog party!
Be sure and pop on over to Happy-Go-Lucky and check out her blog.
Lots of link ups and cool stuff to see!!

January Almost Over..........ALREADY..??!!

Looking at the calendar today, I was a little taken back by the date! January 26th!

Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the New Year!

How are you doing with your New Years Resolutions? Are you sticking to them?

I myself...have stuck to some..some I haven't started..and some are starting to fall by the wayside...

When I looked at the calendar I realized Valentine's Day is just around the corner (already!) and it's time to start packing away the winter and new year's decor and pull out the red and pink..yay the one time I can get away with pink in this house :)

So Before January comes to an end, I want to wish you a Happy New Year one last time this year!

*~* Wordless Wednesday*~*

(My neice Allie)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year...What are your resolutions?

(another crappy cellphone picture)

Christmas for me seemed to be here and over in the blink of an eye!

As I took down the Christmasy stuff I decided to decorate my mantle in a winter theme

until February, when I will Valentine it up!

For the year 2012 I resolve to be more prepared for Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas and LOVE to do all things Christmas related!

My friend Teresa over at 8 Things About Me and myself have come up

with a month by month motivational challenge.

So if you are like us, always running behind, please feel free to join us. And if you post on your

blog about it please let us know or link back to one of us so that we can see what you are doing as well!!

Here is the list of challenges we've come up with...

1. I will clean up all the Christmas decorations and will start a gift closet in Jan.
2. Feb.-make Christmas cards
3. March make Christmas crafts/gifts
4. April- buy forever stamps for your Christmas Cards.
5. May- buy one gift for every child in my house.
6. June- find crafts (Kids) and recipes for Christmas
7. Christmas in July we are going to do crafts with the kids make a Santa list,watch a Christmas movie.
8. August- Stocking Stuffers- school supplies are on sale.
9. September- Make sure you have supplies for your cookies.
10. October- Address Christmas Cards, make sure I have enough crafts made for everyone.
11. November- rearrange furniture and start getting Christmas decorations out.
12. December- Wrap gifts

Sounds easy enough right?!! Come join us for the fun and motivation!

p.s. As I write this Jan 4th...Im sitting on the couch looking at my pretty lovely lit up Christmas tree...I always hate taking it down I love that thing all lit up!! But as the challenge goes for January....lol..I have put everything else away tho so I am doing "something"....

As for the rest of my resolutions...

1. Stick to the Christms Challenges and see how they work for me

2. Open an etsy store

3. Be smoke free by my birthday-April 9th!

4.Lose at LEAST 20lbs this year..refer to #3..this will be a REAL challenge concidering

I could go on and on with a list of things I'd like to do and like to change but I will stop here!

I hope 2012 holds nothing but the best for you!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

And so Valentine Decorations are creeping out...

• I decided to put away the winter stuff and put together a little table setting for Valentine's Day.
• 
  I bought the two large red candles at walmart for $1.35 each. I think I am going to glue them to glass candle sticks as well (eventually). The glass pedistal holder I put together using a floating candle cup and a glass candle stick holder. (see directions in pervious post). I then added a votive holder to the middle and surrounded the candle holder with conversation hearts...works for now..Im not sure Im 100% pleased with it, but it'll do for now!!

Home Made Laundry Soap

With all the hoopla I've been seeing online about "Homemade Laundry Soap", I finally decided it was time for me to jump in and give it a whirl. I procrastinated on making it for some time because I thought that it would take forver and be a mess to make on top of buying the first time supplies would be expensive..I was wrong about all of the above..it was fast, simple and cheap to make!!

So let's begin...

To make this you need the following....

1 quart Water (boiling)

2 cups Bar soap (grated) This can be any soap but ivory or fels Naptha is what is recommended. Also recommended is glycerin soap. (which is what I used) But really the soap is your choice.

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing Soda

1 quart Water (boiling)

2 additional Gallons of warm water

Ok so you got all those items at your local walmart in the grocery isle (over by the oxyclean..dryer sheets etc.) Rough estimate on cost is $5-$6 total.

 Add finely grated bar soap to the 2quarts boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.

Please Note- I used glycerin soap for 2 reason, one I had it on hand already from making it for Christmas gifts, it's a soft soap so you just have to chop it up and it melts quickly, Two because it is said to be a natural fabric softner, thus eliminating fabric softner. Altho Im not sure yet them I'm prepared to give up my liquid fabric softner because the truth is I don't buy it to make my clothes "fluffy" I buy it because it makes my clothes smell good :)
Pour the soapy water into a large, clean pail once it's ALL melted and add the Borax and Washing Soda and 2 gallons of water Stir well

 

I raided the recycle bin and used empty fabric softner and laundry jugs to store this in. Now when I need to use it I just shake it up and add 1/3 cup of the soap to the laundry. Which I measured and it equals a capful on my jug.

I wondered tho, how would this effect my washer since it's a HE Front Loader..so to google I went and here is some information I found.....


There is a good reason for using detergent that is specially formulated for these newer front-load washers. HE detergents are concentrated laundry detergents that are low-sudsing especially for use with low water high-efficiency washers.

If regular detergents were to be used in front-loading and high-efficiency washers, the presence of too many suds could 'confuse' washing cycles, cause delays and make proper rinsing of clothes difficult.

So it seems that this soap is doing ok in my front loader. It does not suds up like your regular soap will. But that's ok, because we all know suds are a visual and aren't really what cleans our clothes RIGHT??!!

Apon using this soap I found that it cleaned the clothes, yes even Dan's pig barn smelling jeans..there was not a scent of any kind what so ever in the jeans...they were very soft..I did however use a dryer sheet because I didn't want him walking around picking up people's socks and mittens due to static cling seeings as it's winter and dry here in Michigan.

So all in all, I've used this soap in 5 loads and all have came out clean and so far I am pleased with it. This recipe made two big jugs and then some (I ran out of jugs lol) I'd say it's worth giving a try and if you don't like it you can always use it to clean your toilets or anything else you'd need a cleaner for.

• Now..hmm...wonder if I can figure out a way to make liquid fabric softner tee hee...

Teeny Tops made from..well..tops

Tonite I was just browsing around on the internet and I came across a blog called "Creative Jewish Mom" http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2010/11/a-handmade-hanukkah-game-spinning-tops-from-plastic-bottle-caps.html#comments. Her blog was full of so much fun! She had posted these little spinning tops that she made out of bottle cap tops. I thought instantly "ah ha! Tomorrow is a snow day, two fighting boys does not sound appealing"...so off to the recycle bin I went and got 2 bottle caps. These will fit nicely in their count down to Christmas that I made last year!

http://shawnabatesart.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-christmas-count-down.html

A Hartfelt Christmas Blog Party!!!

Everyone is invited! Would you like to join the celebration? Read on...

How to join:

Make a post in your blog with the big announcement to let people know you're attending! Big catches people's attention. *winks*

Post the button in your sidebar with a link back to this blog for those who missed your grand announcement! (Plus it will help you not to forget too!)

Have your post ready to go on the 12th.

Post a comment here after you have made the announcement, and leave a link to your blog so Kelly can add you to the guest list.

Once your post is up, make sure you make a comment on http://hartfeltchristmas.blogspot.com/ and link back to it from yours that day so everyone knows you have made your post and can also find the rest of the party posts.

*************************************************************************************

Not sure what to post? Here are some suggestions:

Your holiday decorations

A story about your favorite present of all time

Your family traditions

Recipes

Crafts

And don't forget to include some pictures that incorporate your work if you are an artist, everyone loves to see that!

You're only limited by your imagination!

Blog Party Winner!!!

Long overdue...........

I finally got a winner from the Blog Party Giveaway!

I used Random.org in order to make the giveaway fair.

The winner will be receiving the lovely bracelet and earring set.

And she should know I love how it turned out and am having a hard time parting with it :)

So on to the winner......the winner is.....

*~*DRUM ROLL *~*

Sheryl1024

My doll is modeling these for you all to admire.

(We still need a name for her!!)

She's such a great model huh? rofl!!

I love it! It's very sparkly too! The pictures don't do this set justice!

WELCOME TO THE BLOG PARTY!!

Are you ready for a fun time of blogging?? I know I sure am!!

There are SO many blogs that are doing this blog party so be sure to check them out!

When I set this blog up my intentions were to set it up so that people could get craft ideas and maybe some ideas on cards and layouts.

It has become a great outlet for me when it comes to sharing my crafts and ideas. I hope you will take the time to look around my blog and maybe you'll find an idea or two.

And as always, come back, I'm always adding something new!!

Would you like to get in on my giveaway??

For the blog party I decided to have a surprise give away!! Whoever the winner is will receive a surprise piece of jewlery made by yours truely. (Psst...I bought special beads just for this piece)

Winner will be chosen March 27,2009

You can enter by doing the following-

1.) Everyone that wants in on it MUST tell me what your favorite craft, card or layout is that I have posted already on my blog and post it here.

2.) For an extra chance blog about my giveaway and then post here

Please be sure to have a way that I can contact you if you win. Winner will be chosen by random. org

I want to give a special THANK YOU to my friend Teresa who has TOTALLY helped me set this whole thing up!!!! She's such a gem!

She'd doing the blog party too and has a wonderful blog full of TONS of great stuff. Go check her out when you're done here! http://8thingsaboutme.blogspot.com/

And the winner is..........

I used Random. org to determine a winner for the St. Patty's Day bracelet and our winner is....................

TERESA!!!

Congratulations Teresa!!

Teresa has a great blog full of neat things sure to spark your interest.

Check her out over at

http://8thingsaboutme.blogspot.com/

Please let me know which bracelet you would like. The circle beaded or the square beaded.

Keep an eye open for more giveaways in the very near future!!

BLOG GIVE AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

Last night my kids had "Parent's Night" at their Kids Club. (Wednesday night Bible school)

I always like to send their teachers a little something during the "holidays" to show my appriciation of them volunteering their time.

So yesterday I whipped up these GREEN bracelets for St.Patty's Day.

I am also going to be making them for their school teachers as well.

It got me to thinking, since I'm going to be making 2 more anyways I may as well make THREE!!

One for each of the teachers and maybe one for YOU!!!

SO with that said...........I decided to make an extra one to give away right here on my blog!!

If you're interested in getting in on maybe grabbing one of these bracelets here is what you will need to do..

1.)Leave a comment ANYWHERE on this blog. You can leave several comments if you like, but your name only will go in one time...however..

2.) If you link this giveaway to your blog and let me know either in a comment or email dash_02@netzero.com I will put your name in for the drawing a second time!

The drawing will be on St. Patty's Day. Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you are the winner.

Good Luck to EVERYONE!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Just want to take this chance to

tell you all Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope your whole day was full of LOVE.

To all our friends and family,

we don't say it nearly enough but we LOVE you all!!

Time passes so quickly, and before you know it..weeks..months..go by

and we go so long without seeing each other or saying I LOVE you to one another.

I LOVE you is not something that should just be said to a spouse or a parent or your children.

Many people feel funny saying "I LOVE you" to people they "actually do LOVE..but I say if you LOVE someone tell them....especially while the opportunity is there to tell them. LOVE is not a shameful emotion. It's the best emotion a human can have...so again to you friends and family, we LOVE you all!!

Photo Tagged

This is a photo of my nephew Bryce. It was his first birthday.

What a ham!!! He's so cool!

Photo Tagged

Teresa at 8 Things About Me

http://8thingsaboutme.blogspot.com/2009/02/photo-tagged.html

tagged me for a fun and easy photo challenge.

Here are the rules:
Go to the 4th picture folder on your computer.
Post to the 4th picture in the folder.
Explain the picture.
Tag 4 more people.

The blogs I tagged.......

http://scrapatheartproject365.blogspot.com/

http://melaniescrafts.blogspot.com/

http://sharonsfamilylife.blogspot.com/

http://yourgypsygirl.blogspot.com/