Where is Spring?

Woke up to snow flurries this morning!  Where o where is Spring?  It is almost April....we should be having sunny and warm days...ones that get warmer as time goes by....I want to open doors and windows!

I added a header today....it is from The Background Fairy...she also has a site The Graphics Fairy....two awesome sites...check them out!  The graphics site is filled with images...and you know my love affair with vintage!  Well, I could drool all day over her graphics!

Wednesday

Where does time go?  I still can't believe that its been another week since my last post!  I just don't know how these days and weeks are flying by me!  Is it true that the older you get the faster time goes by?  Sure does seem that way!

Here's a pic of some jewelry supplies I picked up a while back.  Still haven't decided what to do with them, but when I was at the store, these were at a great price, so I couldn't pass it up.  The colored pearl strands were 67 cents each!  The other strands were only $1.00 and $2.00 each!

Love, love, love the colored jump rings.  Wish they would have had more choices in colors and sizes.  There were only a few choices left in each color and size, so I bought one pack of the colors/size I figured I would use most....but keep thinking I should go back for more.

 Here is a pic of the bath salts I made for the gift basket I put together for a friend's birthday.  I used mineral salts and epsom salts, along with colorant and scent.  The tag I made on the computer and resized to fit the jar....made sure everything was in the purple/lavender color theme!

 And here's the soap I made.  The base of the soap was an olive oil mix and then I added the lavender scent and some lavender bits into the mix.  Smells so good!

 Here's the basket before wrapping it all up.  There is a bath pillow, foot brush, towel, Spa CD, body massager, tealight, the bath salts, the soap and a bottle of wine in there...of course, everything was again bought in the purple/lavender color scheme.

And here's the basket all wrapped up....with purple ribbons and lavender silk flower stems...of course keeping with the theme!  My friend's birthday was this past weekend, and was so happy to receive this "pamper yourself" basket.  She loved it and her mom was pretty impressed with it too.





The weather is supposed to get pretty crappy here starting later today...maybe that will give me some time to decide what I want to do with the beading goodies that I posted above.  Where o where is Spring?  It was absolutely beautiful for a few days, with the temps warm enough for me to get out my beloved flip flops...honestly, I could live in flip flops...if only we didn't have snow and freezing temps for 6 months out of the year!

Hump Day

Been a busy week....had some things that I needed to take care of.  Looking forward to Friday when I can relax.  I've also been busy with a new craft.....soap and bath salts.  I made a gift basket for a friend's birthday....sort of an at home spa/pamper yourself gift.  I bought a bottle of wine, and then put that in a basket with a bath pillow, a foot brush, a small hand towel, a CD called Spa At Home, a small hand held body massager, a tealight and then I made a bar of lavender scented soap and lavender scented bath salts.  She is going to be my tester!!! lol  If things turn out good, maybe this will be another craft that I will try to sell.  Once I wrapped up the basket, I tied some silk lavender stems and purple ribbon to the clear wrap.  I kept everything in the purple family that was inside the basket....although my bath salts didn't turn out so purple...they are more on the pink side.  But I had already added about 10 drops of the colorant, and didn't want to add too much.  I will take some pics and post later.

Saturday

Wow...what a busy week....can't believe it's the weekend already!  Time sure is flying by these days!!!

Been busy scrapping this week, trying to finish up my friend's baby album.  Want to get that done so I can work on my two Route 66 adventure ones.  Then I need to catch up on my own stuff!

And I had a job interview this week!  Yeah!!  It was an awesome place, with nice people and fantastic benefits....hoping this is the one I've been waiting for!  Won't hear anything til the end of the month.

Also have been busy going through my stash of beads and stuff.  Have seriously been thinking about opening up an Etsy store.  I have so many beads and stuff that I don't think I will ever wear all of the jewelry that I could make from it, so I will make it and try to sell it.

Got a pattern for a quilt table runner from a friend.  She did hers in Civil War fabrics, and it was beautiful!  I am thinking that I will do mine in beachy colored fabrics...I think those colors would love great on my black table.  So I might have to go to the fabric store today just to check to see what I could get for this theme.

Bought a nice and cheap three shelf bookcase yesterday at Walmart...only $16!  Had my son build it for me, and then rearranged the living room so it could go in the one corner.  Looks good and soon will be filled with my scrapbooks that are in my bedroom.....no one gets to enjoy them in there, so I figured that if they make their way to the living room, others will be able to look through them and enjoy them like I do!

Still haven't gotten out and done any thrift store shopping...I just can't seem to find the time!!!  I need to decide upon a day and just go....and don't let anything or anyone stop me!!! :-)

I wanted to share a few more of my scrapping layouts

Virginia Beach vacation

My Mom

About me (digital)

Virginia Beach

One of my trips to California

My Grandma

My Great Grandma

My Dad

Sunday, Sunday

Well, I thought spring was going to be here soon, at least according to Punxsutawney Phil.....woke up this morning to a wet snow falling and its been doing it all day.  Only laying on the grass and cars, but it's still snow!  I hope its the last one we see this winter.


Had to run my son to the gym last night, so I decided to stop in Michael's to see if there was anything new....nothing new as far as I could see, but I did manage to pick up this package of vintage coasters.   I just love them!  They had a recipe box to match, and a few other things...might have to go back and pick up the recipe box.


Sitting here watching Haunted History on the History International channel...I love watching these, but I've seen all of them so many times....wish they would have some new episodes.

The Weekend

The weekend is here....not that it makes a big difference for me whether its the week or weekend....maybe once I become employed again, I will look forward to the weekends.

Didn't make it thrift shopping yesterday.  Ended up taking my youngest for a haircut and then doing some grocery shopping.  Then it started raining, so I really didn't feel like going out in the rain.  Will see how it goes today...maybe today will be a thrift shopping day.

I think I will do some more scrapping today.  I did some the other day and am closer to finishing up an album I am doing for someone else.  Then I have the two Route 66 ones to do, then back to scrapping for me!

Summer Necklace

Here's the necklace I put together with the stuff I bought at JoAnn's....reminds me of summer and warmer weather.  I can't wait for this winter to be over so that I can wear this one!

Planning on going thrift shopping today.  Don't know what I will find, or even if I will find anything at all.  I will look at the jewelry bins at the thrift store for sure...I could always take apart the jewelry to use each piece individually.  There sure are some pretty vintage pieces out there!

Already thinking ahead to the fall/holiday crafting.  Think this might be the year I am going to try to sell some of my crafty stuff.  Going to start going through some of my ideas and plan things out so that I can start buying the supplies needed now (especially when I've got those coupons from the stores) and then I won't have to rush to get it all together later in the year.

Have also been thinking about making my own spa items and candles.  Love some of those aromatherapy things I see in the stores, but hate to either spend that much money on one item, or if its cheaper, after taking a look at the list of ingredients and not even being able to pronounce some of them, well, I just don't want to take a chance of using that on my skin!

Will be back soon to let you know how things go at the thrift store and if I come up with plans for future ideas!

Things

First of all I can't believe it's been a week since my last post....but haven't really done much.  My ankle is almost healed from last week's fall.  It is still sore in spots, and it will probably ended up aching me lots on those damp days, just like my bum knee does.  And I ended up getting a bad head cold....maybe because when I fell last week, I ended up getting totally soaked on my backside from head to toe...maybe I chilled off.  But the cold is just about gone...have a little congestion left, but feeling so much better than I did.

I did get my necklace done with the stuff I bought at JoAnn's.  Ended up not using the big silver beads, and I like the way it turned out.  I will use those big silver beads in something else!  I went shopping at a local craft store over the weekend, and they were having a big sale on all their beads and jewelry making stuff.  I ended up getting some strands of beads for $1.00, $2.00, and even got some glass pearls at $0.67 per strand!  Great deals that I couldn't pass up.  I got pink, cream and teal colored pearls, two strands of white howlite, two strands of those big ball beads you see in vintage necklaces, three strands of aqua colored crystals, two bracelet blanks, a ring blank, 4 packs of jump rings in colors - lime green, gunmetal gray, turquoise and hot pink (can't wait to make something with those) and I ended up getting two things to take photos of my completed projects...one is a black shaped hand and one is a neck/chest thing to display the necklaces.  So I feel I got some great deals and am anxious to get working on things!

Lately I've been finding myself really drawn towards vintage things, whether it is kitchenware, fabric, hankies, jewelry, images...whatever, but I do love the vintage look.  And I think that I need to start shopping the thrift stores to see what I might find.  I don't want to go crazy looking for items, and I won't pay lots for something, but I do want to start seeing what there is out there.  I read on other blogs about people going to antique stores and auctions to pick stuff up...don't know if I will do that....but I will start out slowly and work my way up to those!!! lol

Another thing I've been itching to get completed are my two lap quilts.  I started one many years ago and the other about two summers ago...I am sewing them by hand, so it does take a little longer...but I like that doing it this way makes them portable...I can sit anywhere and sew!  One is a fall themed village and the other is a beachy scene...I think the beachy scene needs to be completed first!

And I also really need to get back into my scrapbooking.  I am finishing up an album I was working on for a friend, and then have two smaller ones to get completed for my brother and his father-in-law...that one should be fun to work on...they drove Route 66 from California to Pennsylvania back in December, and that's what I will have to work with in these albums.  Some of the pictures are amazing!  I wish I would have a chance to do something like that....all that neat memorabilia they got to see!!!