It was a Good, Good Friday

The kids and I had a great day yesterday. 

We had the day off so we enjoyed EVERY minute of the beautiful weather.

 

Got my paint clothes on, let's go!

 

Before little bench

After little bench

Before little table

In the process

 



After closeup

 



 

 After.

 Still need knobs.

 

Here are the 2 pieces I worked on for a client. 

 They have been sitting in my kitchen forever and I finally got the time to paint them!

 

While I was busy painting my kids were busy starting seeds for our garden.

Looks like we will be having peas, onions and watermelon.

I sent Morgan to the store to buy the seeds so, her choice.

Oh I see cucumbers too.

should make a good salad.

speaking of salad...

I got the eggs done to dye but we didn't get them done yesterday.

 

We topped the night off with a trip to WalMart and a

stop at Sam and Louie's for some gluten free pizza.

Best part of our busy day... 

 We won our whole meal by winning the 7:00 drawing!

Whoo-Hoo

We all slept like logs last night and are at it again today. 

 

Need to get ready for the town Easter Egg hunt. 

You don't want to be a minute late or you will get NOTHING!

As Always,

Karie

Free Pass...

Today I took a personal day to take my dad to the doctor.
His appointment got cancelled.
This means I had a WHOLE 6 hours in my house all by myself!!!

I could have been...
Crafting
Sewing
Painting on canvases

I should have been...
painting furniture
Cleaning
Doing laundry
Clean 2 month of dog poop out of the back yard
Oh and writing a 3 page paper

Instead...
I fianlly wtched Bridesmaids
Yes I know I am tardy for the party but i wanted time to watch it uninterupted and it FINALLY happen.
So I watched the movie then I took a nap and got caught up on my DVR shows.  It was wonderfull!

how would you spend a free pass day?

here are some pictures of projects I have done the past week.

 

This one is going to Colorado

 

 

This one is for my niece who turned 12 last week.  How did that happen???

 

Speaking of niece, the cousins were here this weekend and my kids were in heaven.

 

 

Here are the girls "doing hair" and watching the ISU vs KU game.

 

 

Fun at the Diner with Grandpa.

 

Better get started on that paper...

 

 



 

 

The weekend

The weekend started out with a big ol' pity party from yours truly. I was at the end of my rope and didn't want to tie a knot, I just wanted to go back to sleep.  The brown dog was acting crazy and wanted to go out about 5 times before 8 am, the kids were demanding things about every 5 minutes and I decided right then and there that I need a mommy weekend.  I don't know when or where this will happen but you can bet it will.  Working at school and having the same hours as your kids has MANY advantages but with those advantages comes a few drawbacks... One being, you are with kids 24/7.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids but it's time for this mama to take a break.  I wish I could afford to go to one of Meg's craft weekends.  That would be a dream come true!  We will see if I can save my pennies for that...
After a rough start I put myself in a time-out  (took a nap).  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE naps? When I woke I was ready to craft. I gave Morgan a project to do.

My silly girl

Finished Project.

I am teaching a group of 4-H kids in a couple of weeks and I had her do the sample board.

I even felt like crafting and made one of the canvases on my to-do list.

This one is for my friend in Colorado.  She has 2 girls and one of them wanted a fairy.  She was very concerned that her fairy didn't have eyes...
I will work on her other daughter's sometime soon.

Morgan even talked me in to making some bunting for her room.  She got the idea from the
 Pottery Barn Teen catalog.  I am teaching her well.  She showed me the picture and said "Don't worry mom we can make that."  I love her.

Completely ignore the mess on her bed! She is rearranging her furniture AGAIN and sorting through her stuff....
Another amazing thing that happen is that Morgan let me pull her tooth. 
It was not pretty
It was the last baby tooth
It was wedged between 2 other teeth
It should have come out MONTHS ago
I have begged, I have held her down, I bought her numbing medicine
but nooooo...
Finally Saturday night she said, Ok pull it
I worked on it for a minute and it popped right out. She looked at me and said
 "thanks mom" Like I just handed her a glass of water or something.
It was my belly laugh of the day.
Her last Tooth Fairy visit :(

Today was a much better day!
We got snow...  Tons of snow!!!

 Made these for our neighbor, Phil.  He plowed our walk 2 times today.

I even talked the kids into going out for a while to blow the stink off...

The tooth was right there... now time for braces...

Nice time for the neighbors to put a new roof on...

Avalanche off the porch.

Yes it was still coming down when they went out to play.

 It has been snowing since last night.

They had a blast until big sister threw a snowball in little brother's face and that was that.

He marched in and claimed he will NEVER go out and play in the snow with her again.

 Taylor decided to take herself for a walk.

 

I am now off to bed and will plan for our snow day tomorrow. 

 Let's hope this mama has shaken her

no good rotten feeling away.

 

 

Hello Blogland!

My Computer is BACK!!!! 

I have been without it for a year and boy have I missed it!

I also got to craft for the first time in a week so it is a great day all around!

Here is what we did today.

I think this is one of the very first things I pinned on Pinterest and I am finally doing it!  It was fun and Rowdy had a great time watching the whole process of the melting crayons.

My little artists

Need to do projects in the daylight so I can get better pictures.

It looks like I hung it really high on this wall but in real life I swear it's not.

It was fun.

Rowdy was so inspired that he put one in his art journal. I love his creative mind.

As Always, Karie



Fun weekend

Our weekend was FULL!

We started out Friday night going to an ugly sweater contest.  It was fun to be out and the kids had fun too.  We did learn that next year we will have to step it up a notch!

I was rockin the shoulder pads!  We went to my Dad's to pick through some of the clothes that were left from my grandma and when Morgan got to the one I wore, she asked, "What are these on the shoulders?" Oh Honey....

Saturday we took it easy in the morning and then headed to the "city" for some shopping fun.  The first 2 hours were enjoyable then it sort of went down hill.  The 3 of us all had set in our mind what we wanted and when said person didn't get what they wanted when they wanted it, it got ugly... (ok it may have been me a time or 2)

our list of stops

Indoor Garage Sale
McDonalds

Antique Store

WalMart 

Habitat for Humanity ReUse store

Target

Hobby Lobby

(wanted to go to another antique store but was voted down)

Justice

DSW

Achievers

We then picked up my mom and went to Nebraska Furniture Mart

Buffalo Wild Wings

and back to NFM to pick up her purchase

To my mom's to put her purchase together. 

I was going to get all bloggy and take pictures of all the stuff we did but lost it after spending too much time in  Wally World.

I also have pictures of the room I worked on for 4 hours today but can't get the pictures off my camera and onto this computer...  CANNOT wait to get my computer back up and running.

So you will have to stay tuned for that.  

As Always, Karie

Really, It's already Wednesday???

The weekend was a bit off. 
My husband came home for the weekend and when that happens things don't go as planned. 
I did get a bit of crafting done and got a couple of orders sent off to Colorado and Minnesota.

These are the ones that went to Colorado.

 

This is the one I made for my monkey.  She wanted me to make her a Native Princess just like her :)

I still have a few pieces to paint that have been sitting in my kitchen.  I thought if I had to walk around them I would be more likely to get them done. Haha, that didn't work.

Off to bed with the hopes that I can sleep tonight... it has been hit or miss this week.

As Always, Karie

Bad mom...

today I am feeling like a bad mom...

I know why and there is nothing I can do about it right now.  The kids dad came home for a visit and he gets to be super parent while I am still here cooking, cleaning and answering every single question they have. Let me tell you when you have a kid who talks as much as my son, that is a LOT of questions!!!  We ran to the city to get my daughter since she stayed at my mom's last night and it was very exhausting!

When we got home I grabbed the computer and a stack of magazines and headed upstairs to the kids room.  They are never up here so it is a good escape for me.  I will just put myself into a time out until I feel like I can play well with others.  Is that really so bad of me?  

They really are kinda cute, I just needed a little break.

As Always, Karie

Like Mother Like Son

Ok, so I have a feeling I have been watching too many how to videos on mixed media lately.  My son decided to make his own.

He truely does make me smile. Love him!

As always, 

Karie

Finally

Well it has been quite a week.  Last week we had 3 days off for "winter break" a.k.a. Iowa High school wrestling tournament...  That is when our school district schedules our break since most of the kids take off anyway to go watch our wrestlers. So anyway, I got a lot of crafting, cleaning and organizing done last week.  I was even able to take my computer to a person from my church who said he would look at it to see what was wrong. (please insert the sound of "taps" playing in the background now)  It was toast, fired gonzo, kaput...  that means all the pictures for the past 4 years are gone, or at least I thought.  When he told me this I ran home and dug through my desk drawers and came across a flash drive that I tried backing up the computer on last year and they were there all (or most) of my pictures that I thought had been lost. Yeah!!! Oh and Mr Computer Fixer had an extra hard drive that he didn't need anymore so he put it in my computer and I am back in business.  I will be able to blog much easier with my computer fixed and the nifty new camera I got myself for Christmas this year.  Yeah again!
Another exciting thing that is happening this coming week is that we are getting Internet again!!!  We have been without for over 2 weeks! This is what happens when you change services in a small town, things get done at a different pace than when I lived in the big city.
Today we had a snow day from school so my husband and son decided they wanted to go to the movies.  I am not much of a movie goer.  I can't seem to sit long enough to just watch a movie.  I feel the need to multitask every minute of the waking day. I opted out and went to Wal Mart.  My husband was concerned that I would not be able to waste enough time while they were in the movie and tried to talk me in to going with them.  Well no sirree Bob, I will be just fine by myself :) I went to Walmart and spent my time walking up and down every aisle, looking at everything on the shelves.  It was wonderful.  When you have 2 kids in tow you NEVER get to do this.

This is what you buy when you wander around a big box store for an hour by yourself. 

I can't wait to show you what I am going to do with the fabric!

See those CUTE alphabet stamps.  Wally World sells them for $.97.  I have a total of 3 sets now!

The line art canvases are for the kids (or me if I feel like doodling) and the pickles I bought just because I thought the jar was so cute!

Here is the sad part of my story though.  I went into the movie theater to wait for the guys to get done with the show.  There was a sofa in there (small town theater) so I brought my brand new Flea Market Finds magazine in with me to pass the time.  Well I left my magazine on that sofa in the theater and now I am sad.  I was really looking forward to reading it tonight :( Oh well...

As Always, 

Karie

So here is what happens with New Years resolutions...  you forget about them...  I had BIG plans at the beginning of the year (yes I know we are only 41 days into this year) to blog, blog blog...  Well life got in my way.  I suffer from Fibromyalgia and have not been having a good go of it lately.  It has finally caught up to me and I have basically been sleeping for the past 3 days.  I also decided to embrase the gluten-free lifestyle.  I have heard this will help me feel better and at this point I will try anything.  Oh, by the way, the sun could shine a little more and that would help too. 

I have been doing a few projects here and there when I have felt like it and even did a vendor show last weekend.

Here was my little set up.  I need to work on my displays but since I didn't sell anything so all was not lost.

Here is a cute little number I made and here is a picture of the outside.

My next step this year is to make an Etsy page.  I will have to do something with all these things I am creating ;-)

Here is to sunshine and better health!

As Always, 

Karie

Where has the time gone...

I can't believe it has been over a year since I have written a blog post.  I have not felt well enough physically or mentally to keep up with my blog and that makes me sad.  It has been a very hard time for me and my kids and I are still not through the rough patch that has consumed my life.  I am going in to this new year with a new attitude and a feeling that this will be our year to pull through this. 

 I have been doing a bit of painting and even did a little mini craft show right before Christmas.  It was great fun and I would love to do more this coming year.  I guess that could be on my New Years resolution list.

See I told you it was small but it was kind of last minute and I didn't have a lot of room to paint.  It was a great day none-the-less and got me started on my way to doing shows.

Now I would like to introduce you to my new obsession...



Hello Mixed Media!

 To say I am obsessed would be an understatement!

I loved doing these projects and will start adding them to my line up.

So here is to the New Year and happy and prosperous times ahead. 

As Always, Karie