Power Walking

I figured it was time to shed my winter coat, so I started power walking. I started with a 2 mile, 30 minute walk and have increased it to a 3 1/2 mile, 53 minute walk, I am smoking. I have braved the 35 degree weather, howling winds and dogs who want to eat me for breakfast. I gave all of the Girl Scout cookies to Sam and told her I better not see them again. I bought a lot of fruit and veggies and have tossed out most of the high carb foods in the house. When I say "I" that means Phil and Sam are suffering too. Part of the reason for shedding the winter coat is due to the high blood pressure reading that freaked the nurse out. The doctor told me it was probably due to the sinus medicine I was taking and to keep an eye on it. Since high blood pressure runs in the family along with diabetes, I figured I better get a handle on it now. So I have been power walking for about three to four weeks now and am feeling pretty good about myself (pat yourself on the back). Then the other day that girl that takes up space in my house and eats all of my food told me "Mom you should see me, I ran a mile in 7 something minutes". Blah Blah Blah. OK, so now I am a teensy bit deflated, bubble busted. I am still determined to keep up the walking, I just won't talk to that girl. Don't you hate it when someone says you look good......for your age? Me and God LOVE Phil, he likes the way I look, even if he doesn't he stuck with me and he's better off lying to me and I'm OK with that.

You've Been Egged

I found this cute Easter project on executivehomemaker.com under her categories > Easter. You print out the tag above, fill some Easter eggs with candy, spread them on the front lawn, hang the tag on the front door, ring the door bell and run. How fun!!

Waller County Historical Museum

This old house is home to the Waller County Historical Museum. Wouldn't this be the perfect spot to take wedding photos? I just love the steps leading up to the second floor. We drove to Brookshire Texas to get a book about the history of Waller County and to our surprise this is where the book was being sold. What a wonderful surprise. We could take Princess photos here. We went inside and while Phil bought the book I took a look around at all of the museum items. What a great day trip.

Let em dance

For the moms who have little boys or little boys yet to come.

While your boys are small, teach them to dance.
That means now, before their to old to think its lame
Before they get older and don't like you and won't talk to you.
Where will they need to dance...Parties, VFW Halls, School & Their Wedding
So in the evening crank that music up and cut the rug,
maybe your husband will join in and dance with you too.
You don't have to worry about the girls it just comes natural
to us. Hold em, carry em, let them put
their feet on yours and two step, count with them 1, 2, 1
And they should always save a dance for me.

Canvas Bag Tote

The Sister Circle group will be making canvas bag totes to carry our handbooks and other sister stuff. I wanted to decorate one first to see if I would have any problems. I sewed the fringe on first and the crosses have heavy duty two sided iron on fusing behind them. First let me say the felt will disintergrate when you place an iron on them, trust me. I placed a towel over the felt and it fused just fine but a small amount of color stayed on the towel. I added red brads and then fused the two crosses together, again using the towel. I turned the bag inside out and ironed the cross into place. I made a blue jean yoyo brooch to pin at the top. I thought about adding iron on jewels to the cross but after I ruined one cross I didn't have enough felt left over to test the iron on jewels. But it would have been Bling!! I think I would like to make a t-shirt using the same cross pattern. I will find some cute cotton material for the cross and then I will iron on jewels. Bling! Bling! Bling!

Valentine Yoyo

I made this barrette for my granddaughter for Valentine's Day. I took some clear Shrinky Dink material and cut out a 4" heart. Using colored pencils I colored it solid red and punched 2 holes. I baked it according to the manufactures instructions. That stuff is so fun to play with, it starts curling up and your thinking it just messed up but it will flatten out again. The colors will be very intense and it will be rigid after it's cooked. If you forget to punch the holes you will have to drill them. I added the bow and hot glued it to a yoyo and barrette. The Shrinky Dinks will shrink to about 1/3 of the original size so you need to start out 3 times larger. I think I will make a large cupcake and then shrink it next.

Rah Rah Sisters

These are just some of the photos from the St. John's Women Retreat. Holly's parents own a home near the Frio River in Concan Texas and so graciously let us borrow it for our retreat. Many, Many Thanks go out to her parents. No children, no spouses, no cell phones just women bonding, a break from our fast paced, crazy lives. We read the first two chapters of the Sister Circle Handbook, and decided to stop there so we could reread the first two chapters with the sister's at church who couldn't attend the retreat. We found ourselves to bits and pieces of every character, good and bad. We decided to pick a name for ourselves but we would have to wait until something snazzy came to us or until God whispered into our ears. Sure enough Laurie blurted it out and it stuck, God works in mysterious ways. You can go to sistercircles.com and see more on the book or learn how to start your own Sister Circle. There are four other books and I hope to read them all. The Lord has touched my very soul and I will serve him all the days of my life.

Yes, There are hills in Texas!!! 

Paper Back Apple

Do you remember the paperback book Christmas Trees everybody used to make? You folded down one corner of every page of the book, spray painted the edge and there you have it a Christmas tree. Do three to four and you have a forest. This is pretty much the same way. I took a paperback book with a 1" spine and cut it in half so the spine is 1/2". Then I cut the front and back cover off. I drew an apple shape onto the top page and cut the book all the way through using an exacto knife. I soaked a small sponge in water and then dabbed it onto my red ink pad so the book pages would soak up the ink. It was a little too red for me so I used the same technique and dabbed on some brown here and there. I fanned the pages and taped the back two pages together and hot glued a twig into the top and added a ribbon. The hardest part of this project is getting the pages to fan out. Some of the pages on the back started to fall off so I had to be careful. I should have hot glued the spine before taping the pages together, but maybe it would have been too stiff, I don't know. I think this would make a great teachers gift or a good "A" object. 

Magnets

I saw some clothespin magnets the other day and decided to make some of my own. My brother-in-law was going to throw away a bunch of printed magnetic material so I pleaded with him to let me take it off his hands. And I have been a very busy gurl. First I made the clothespin magnets. I decoupaged decorative paper on the clothespins, this is a good way to use up all of the scrap paper you have. Then I inked the edges with brown and black ink. Then another coat of decoupage to seal the whole thing. I tied a ribbon on and super glued the knot so the bow won't come undone and singed the ends of the ribbons so they won't unravel. Then I just hot glued a piece of magnet onto the other side. Then I moved onto cupcake magnets. I printed onto paper and then cutout the shapes. I inked the top edges with pink and sewed on pink bead sprinkles. Then I inked the bottom with brown and ran it through a roller that crimps the paper. I hot glued the top onto the bottom and hot glued a piece of magnet onto the back...how cute is that. The next magnet is pretty delicate. The white ruffle is crepe paper and it tears very easy. I used 2- 12" pieces of crepe paper from a roll. On the 12" crepe paper I glued the ends together and basted the bottom edge with thread and pulled it, very gently to gather the bottom. I repeated this on the other crepe paper and then I took a bottle of Elmer's glue and opened the lid just slightly so I could add glue to the edge without making a mess. Sprinkle on glitter and let dry. I printed on a decorative sheet of paper and punched the circle out. I inked the edges and then hot glued everything together when the glittered part was dry. I used silver glitter on some of them and on some I added

glitter to the circle also. My next

project is to try the circle one with

material instead of crepe paper.

V for Victoria (my grand daughter)

Blue Jean Apron

What do you do with those old jeans? You can send them to a Women's shelter or you can make an adorable apron. I don't like to waste good jeans for crafts but occasionally my craftiness gets the better of me. I think even the younger girls will appreciate this apron. I cut the jeans below the zipper and at the sides making sure I cut the side seam off because it would be hard to sew through. The pocket was sewn into the side seam so I zig-zagged the sides and bottom. It will fray slightly but that adds to the cuteness. Then using a straight stitch I added the lace and ribbons. The waist band has a string of beads that I had to hand stitch on. Then I just added two 32" side ties and there you have it, a blue jean apron. I ran out of iron on rhinestones or I would have added some to the pocket openings. Machine wash on delicate and hang to dry.