One Day Of Spring

source: openwalls.com

Hi there my lovelies!  Isn't that picture just gorgeous?  Sitting here at my desk, I can see a few buds and white sprouts on some trees outside and it makes me smile.  I can't wait until there are flowers and blooms everywhere, but at the rate we're going, it seems like those days are never going to get here.  We are forecast to have one fleeting day of Spring this weekend.  Saturday it will be about 75 degrees here!  Woo hoo!!  But by Sunday the high will only be 55 and by Tuesday, well, let's just say Mother Nature is going to rear her ugly winter head again.  At the very least, it sounds like we're going to get another wintry mix, if not a full blown winter storm.  Please Lord, make it stop!!!  Us Southern folks just aren't used to this and we can't take it anymore!

Ain't that the TRUTH! 

So, the question is, what all can I squeeze out of Saturday?  I have so much that I need to do!  The back deck is a disaster.  The dogs have had a field day with the chair cushions and empty flower pots out there. Their dog bed has been dragged all over the place, knocking stuff over, and it's just been too cold and miserable to get out there and do anything about it.  Our front porch looks like Fred Sanford's house (Play Sanford and Son's theme song in your head. You know you want to!) - sleds and totes and various other junkery is everywhere.  Besides that, all of my Fall and Christmas decorations are STILL piled up in the garage because of our swampy back yard situation.  That's going to be fixed soon (yes!!!), but I really need to get that stuff out of the garage so I can get to my craft supplies.  I'm not doing as many craft shows this year, but I have a big one coming up at the end of May and I have GOT to get busy since it will be slow going in this wrist brace.  Plus, I'm really itching to create something since I've not been able to do much due to my wrist surgery and I'm just bursting at the seams with ideas and little projects.  The Hub and Bub are in for a real treat - they get to help me move all of this stuff to the storage barn tomorrow!  My plan is to use my big garden cart to pack stuff in, then we can roll it around into the neighbor's yard and hand boxes and totes over the fence so we don't have to trudge through all the muck.  We don't want the cart to get stuck in the muck, now do we?  "Stuck in the muck" - hey, that's a good way to describe what our winter has been like here!

Once that is done, my house needs to be cleaned.  It is bad - really, really BAD.  My wrist feels substantially better this week, so I feel like I can get back to my regular cleaning activities now.  It's a good thing too... The tumbleweeds of dog hair are taking over.  Apparently, no one in my household besides me knows how to use a vacuum or a broom.  The teenage boy funk has spread from the Bub's room into the hall bathroom and that has to be addressed ASAP.  He will be cleaning that up tomorrow and getting a lesson in how to keep the bathroom clean when Mom is out of commission.  He's 16 years old and does his own laundry - I know he can keep a bathroom relatively unpolluted.  I have a lot of clean laundry piled up in the bedroom too.  The Hub's been taking care of our laundry the past couple of weeks and I really appreciate that - now I just have to get it all put away.  I don't think any trash besides in the kitchen has been emptied since I went under the knife either.  And there's lots of clutter everywhere too - I've let that get a little out of hand and I need to get all of it put away/organized.  My Mom's birthday is Sunday and I'm having them over for dinner, so I can't let my Mama come eat at a dirty house, ya know?  Am I the only one whose house has to be pretty spotless when Mama comes over?  It's not her - it's definitely me.  Mine wouldn't care at all if my house was a mess, but for some reason I just want it to be clean when she comes over.

Somewhere in all of this commotion, I would like to find time to do some crafting. Maybe I'll start by painting some picture frames and getting them ready for chalkboards or memo boards.  I also want to get my new sewing machine set up. I promised my niece I would make her an infinity scarf and it would probably be helpful if I actually got the sewing machine out of the box!  Sunday I just want to cook and spend time with the family.

What all will you try to squeeze into your weekend?  I hope the weather's nice where you are and that it will stay that way!

Toodles,

First Attempt At Jewelry Making

Hey Y'all, how's it going?  I'm having a great day so far and I hope you are too.  I get my stitches out tomorrow and might get my brace off too, so I'm really happy about that.  Since my wrist was feeling so much better by Sunday, I attempted to make some jewelry.  It's something I've wanted to try for a while now and I thought it might be easier for me to do since it requires more finger work than wrist bending.  It was a little difficult and slow going because it involved more wrist movement than I expected, but I had fun doing it.  I made these pieces just for me, not to sell, so they're not anything spectacular, but I like them.  I bought all of the trinkets and chains at either Michael's or A.C. Moore and all I had to do was add some scrapbook paper to a couple of them.  Easy breezy!

I made this one to go with a pair of owl earrings that I have.  I just sized the scrapbook paper to the frame and used Modge Podge to secure it.  It's on a pretty short chain, maybe 16 inches.

I did the same thing on this one with the scrapbook paper.  It's on a much longer chain though, probably 30 inches. I glued the bird onto the frame and added this huge safety pin to the chain.  The pin was really more of an office supply I think.  It came from one of the bargain bins at Michael's.  I'm not sure if I like the pin that much, so I might take it off and look for something else to replace it.  But I LOVE the bird! 

This cute little birdcage is on a short chain and I'm thinking about maybe trying to paint the star just to give it a little pop of color.  What do y'all think?  Paint it or leave it?

And I think this simple one is my favorite.  A patient who came to our office recently was wearing a pocket watch on a chain.  It was her grandfather's and her mother had it made into a necklace for her.  What a sweet thing to do!  I just fell in love with it and when I saw this pretty one at A.C. Moore, I just had to have it.  I've worn it twice already!

Now, this next picture has nothing to do with jewelry, or crafting, or DIY, or anything else that I ever talk about here, but I saw it and it really applies to my life right now.  I made a real lifestyle change in early February, just trying to get healthier and in good shape.  I've cleaned up my diet, dropped all diet sodas, added tons of fruits, veggies, and lean proteins as well as adding exercise to my daily routine.  I've dropped a few pounds and some inches, nothing drastic, but I feel so much better.  Anyway, in the past, I've always gotten discouraged when I work out and don't see super fast results.  This time I'm taking it slow and being really patient, but I saw this meme and it just cracked me up...

Is that true for everyone, or is it just me?  That is SOOOO me!  I just keep reminding myself - "patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue".  So, I guess the moral of that story is just one big cliche' - No Pain, No Gain; Rome Wasn't Built In A Day; Good Things Come To Those Who Wait; Suck It Up, Buttercup; etc., etc...

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my jewels and my tales of impatience :)

Toodles,

Where, oh where, has my little blog gone....

Hello my lovelies!  Been wondering where I've been?  Me too!  Well, if you check the picture below, it's pretty self-explanatory... 

I injured my wrist a while back.  My husband, who does Sports Medicine for a living, told me to "rub some dirt on it, it'll be fine" and "don't be such a baby".  Four months later, when I get to the point where I can't turn doorknobs or the steering wheel without excruciating pain, I finally get him to make me an appointment with one of the hand surgeons he works with.  Doc says why in the world did you wait four months to see a doctor about this?  Please refer back to my husband's previous comments...I was trying not to be a baby, dang it!  Anyway, turns out I tore a ligament in my wrist that was allowing the muscle to pop out and rotate across my wrist bone, or something like that.  In other words, it wasn't going to get better on it's own, so it had to be surgically repaired. Fun times.  Of course, it's my right hand, which means I've been pretty helpless lately.  And I've been DYING to do something creative.  So over the weekend, I managed to do a tiny project and even painted a lil' something!

I've been collecting these L's for a while now to fill up this space beside my giant blue window.  On Friday, while off work due to the massive ice storm we got, I discovered that I finally had enough L's!  All I had to do was decoupage some scrapbook paper onto one of them.  But then there was too big of an open space below the L's.  What to do, what to do?  I dumpster dived out in my garage (it really is like my own personal dumpster right now!) to find the wooden tray and thought maybe I'd paint our last name on it. Seriously, girl, who are you kidding?!  You can barely hold a paint brush!  True story, bro.  Maybe a monogram then? More diving...more letters!  I found the three letters that represent, the Hub, the Bub, and me.  I managed to paint the letters and the tray (rather messily) and sand them down a little.  I decoupaged paper onto the letters and glued them to the tray.

It's not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty cute.  Most importantly, it represents our little family in a unique way.  I put my own initial in the middle because it's my favorite place to be - right between my two guys!

I apologize for the shabby photography, but by the time I finished painting and sanding and hanging all of this, I could barely press the button on my camera, much less do a lot of re-shoots!  Needless to say, I was feeling it the next day and my wrist and hand were really sore.  I overdid it a little bit, but I got my DIY/creativity fix for a few days!  Hope you all have a great Hump Day!

Linking this post to:

http://www.commonground-do.com/ 

http://rootedinthyme.blogspot.com/

Toodles,