More Than I Ever Imagined

It is no secret that there is a lot of information out there on the Internet. Sometimes, however, you realize how much more there is out there than you thought. Sometimes you go looking for it, and sometimes you just kind of stumble into it.

I did just that a few weeks ago, and found a whole new Internet world out there to watch. It all started when I was working on the lapel flowers that I sold at our holiday boutique:

I had seen some flowers kind of like them in a store, and wanted to replicate them, but couldn't quite figure out how to make them. I sat down at the computer and googled "silk flower tutorial", and found all kinds of interesting instructions on how to make flowers.

Of course, one site led me to other sites, and those to others. Suddenly I had blundered off course from the flowers and didn't know how to get back to the sites whence I had come, but didn't really care. I had unwittingly opened the Pandora's box of the Creative Internet World. Suddenly I was discovering more and more sites with clever people showing how to do wonderfully creative things.

The good news is that I found a veritable plethora of people out there that love creating, crafting and do-it-yourself decoration as much as I do (not to mention spray painting). The bad news is that it gives me more to-do ideas that I could ever begin, much less finish. Plus, I'm beginning to think that I might need a miter saw, along with some other tools.

I think that between now and tomorrow I will take away my "Books Read" column and instead make a blog roll of these other interesting sites.

That way you readers out there that also enjoy creating and fun home projects can discover some new things to do. Or, so you could do as I sometimes do - look and look and look and not do any of them.

Either way, it's a whole new Internet world out there.

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Holiday Boutique Prep

I'm working feverishly today getting my items ready for the Holiday Boutique at church this weekend, so I don't have much to say other than that.

Here are just a couple of pictures of items:

Okay, off to work some more.

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And Now for Something Completely Different

After my self-indulgent tirade yesterday, I think I'll move on to something different. I suppose this post goes in the "Things I've Made" category.

This is my fall tree. Well, at the moment it's my fall tree. I think it's supposed to be a jewellery stand, but when I saw it at our local unfinished furniture store, I thought it would be perfect to hang some tags on. So I dug around in my scrapbooking stash and made some fall-ish ones.

This one is my favorite. The black edging ink got a little out of control, but I love the "gems".

A button from Grandma's stash.

This is a Mrs.Grossman leaf sticker that used to be red or brown or something. This is a classic example of what a Sharpie can do for you.

This one is my second-favorite. I just love the sparkly, sequiny things. Perhaps I have some bling in me after all.

Another of Grandma's buttons.

This one is the only real "Halloween" one. It's getting the boot now that I've taken the pictures, and can be replaced by something else more generically fall.

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The Trash Can Costume

We had a pleasant Halloween experience this weekend. Well, pleasant except for the last-minute costume making, but who can I blame for that but myself?

Jacob decided several weeks ago that he wanted to be a trash can for Halloween. I'm really not sure where this idea originated from, but once he decided, he was set on it. I think part of the motivation was that he wanted to hide in the trash can and then jump out and scare people when they came up to it. Or perhaps he was hoping for a trashcan full of candy, but either way, he was determined that this the only thing he wanted.

Of course, I worked on his costume the way I work on most projects, which means I waited until the day before the event to even start thinking about it. A quick Internet search came up with some ideas, and the day before I sent Jason out for a plastic Rubbermaid can. The morning of I took out my trusty heavy duty scissors, a utility knife, some duct tape, and some odd nuts and bolts. A few hours later we had this finished product:

The person beside Jacob is his friend Josh, and I'm kind of glad that he's incognito here, since I certainly didn't ask his parents if I could put his picture on the blog.

The truth is that Jacob wore the lid/hat for about 10 seconds longer after this picture was taken. For some reason he just didn't like the tight elastic under his chin choking him.

The costume was very well-received and received many comments during the evening, but I think that's because it just stood out from the Walmart costume crowd. A stranger even asked to take his picture as we were trick-or-treating later in the evening. Jacob did say that there were some disadvantages to it, though, as people (that we knew) kept throwing trash at him. Plus one person suggested that he might be dressed as white trash, and others were guessing Oscar the Grouch, which of course was not correct.

In the end, Jacob didn't meet either of his costume goals, or at least the ones I imagine he might have had. We had to cut a hole in the bottom of the can for him be able to wear it, so any candy (or trash) thrown in there fell right through. Plus, he found that he was unable to scrunch down and hide in the trash can without getting his legs stuck, severely inhibited his ability to jump out and scare people. At best he could just topple over and lie on the ground calling for help, body wedged in tight, and feet waving out the bottom. Scary, no. Funny, yes

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What I've Been Creating Lately

Hello, blog friends. I haven't been writing very much the past week at all. In fact, I'm feeling a little rusty word-wise today. Not as rusty as my husband's car, however, but that's another blog post all together. Anyway, I was away from the house and computer quite a bit during the days last week doing this and that.

One thing I was doing last week was sewing on this tote bag:

This bag all started when a new friend from church took me to a quilting store in town. Fortunately I didn't decide to make a new quilt, since I just gave away all of my quilting fabrics (but then got them back in completed-quilt form), but I did find a quilted tote bag pattern. I did as my wise mother advised me and waited a few days to see if I still wanted it, and surprise - I still did! So Gay (my friend) and I went back and got the pattern, and we decided both to get different fabric to make bags together.

I'm not sure how long we thought this process would take before we started it, but it turned out to be three decently-long days of sewing. But at the end we both came out with very cute bags (unfortunately I don't have a picture of hers), and enjoyed spending time together in the process.

I even made mine to have a diet-coke sized pocket on the inside.

They turned out cute enough to for me to want to make one for all my friends and relatives in their favorite colors, but were complex enough for me to want to rest a while before I take that on.

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Six Happy Things

In the midst of a weekend filled with discouraging, disappointing, and dissatisfying sporting events that our sons are taking part in, here are six things that are making us happy right now.

1: My new spring mug that I found at the fancy Sur la Table store last weekend, marked down to a mere $2.99. Cute and my favorite color - green.

2. This "stained glass" piece of lupine flowers that is now finally finished and is displayed in one of windows. A couple of years ago when we were on Prince Edward Island in Canada, I saw one just like this, and thought, "I could make that." So I did. It just took me a couple of years to get it all done.

3. The boys' new shorts (with pockets) and jackets (also with pockets, although that doesn't matter). They're never been too much into non-athletic type shorts before, and I was surprised when they picked these nice plaid ones.

4. These recent pictures of the boys that my new friend Sandra took and gave me. (Thanks, Sandra.)

5. Jacob's Domo collection. Today he found Domo #6 at a yard sale for only $.25. What a deal.

6. This green package of gum that I splurged on at Starbucks yesterday. The gum is not that great, but the container is great - shiny and green (see #1, above).

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