Chili Weather!

It's hard to believe that it is mid September. The forecast in Nebraska is 60's all week! Not that I'm complaining, it's beautiful outside! Most certainly chili weather, too bad I can't eat it! I'd have to swallow a bottle of tums if I did as heart burn has become the boss of my menu selections lately. My last check up was great though! The babies are growing right on schedule! We also found out that 2 of them are boys. The third one wasn't ready to show off yet. Of course I'm crossing my fingers for a girl, but when I walked out of the clinic I was just excited that they were all doing good! I'd make an appointment every week to check up on them if I could! My appointments are now 3 weeks apart instead of 4, so that's good.

Anyways, on to crafting. I've gotten a few more things done lately! I finished the buckets I started last time. I only posted 2 of the finished ones here.

This guy turned out cute. You can't see, but the star on the top of the tree is glittery. I added some glitter to each bucket. They have been coated with a spray varnish so they can be outside in the elements and still last.

Here is my reindeer bucket, with his glittery red nose. Pretty simple but I like it. I added so greenery and red tinsel to the handle. These buckets would be nice for storing mittens and hats. Or put them outside with a lit up tree in them!

This creation was dreamed up last Sunday. The box does open, for storing all sorts of goodies inside. He's been glittered up pretty good too.

Lastly, I've been doing a fair amount of needle punching this year too. I made this piece to go on this old bread cutting board. A nice year round piece, it would look good anywhere.

I did manage to get some other things done, stitched prints and ornaments. Some winter lights and winter floral arrangements. Still lots to do! I also need to get the baby room done! That might not come together until early Nov. I'll post photos when I get that far. I might have to spend some time outside enjoying the weather...

Happy Fall!

The weather is getting cooler and it is nice! One of my projects has been to move my craft room out of the soon to be babies room. I finally got that finished and I can start crafting again! My theme for this years show is Use What You Have. I'm always on the lookout for craft bargains. I buy things that are cheap knowing I'll get around to using them some day. Well this is some day. With 3 babies coming I need all of the room I can get!

I've got a stack of galvanized buckets that I've picked up here or there. They always seem to range in price from $4 - $20. So I've always bought the cheaper ones when I see them. Here are 3 buckets that I started on. The middle one is a reindeer. He is going to have a glittery red nose! I'll post pictures when I've got them done. It's been slow going, but it's nice to have a retreat.

Now the baby news! I had an ultra sound today at 20 weeks and we found out 2 Boys and a ?? Or as the doctor said "and the third one is a boy, no wait girl, um boy, no I think girl, hmm I don't know". So now we get to wait some more... (more importantly they are all growing at a great rate, on schedule and their hearts look awesome!) Of course I would really like a girl, but the most important thing is that they are all healthy. I'm just such a planner / organizer I really wanted to know all three so I could get going! Well hopefully that 3rd one will show off it's plumbing at the next appointment!

Hot Hot Hot

After such a nice July, why does August have to be so HOT? My garden has fallen by the wayside do to the pregnancy. I just can't make myself go out in this weather. Just getting the lawn mowed is a feat! Today I am 14 1/2 weeks, but I look like I'm 26 weeks due to the 2 extra ones. My belly came out of nowhere. My imagination can't even fathom how big I'm going to get! Enough about that! Since I'm not going outside this summer, I should have plenty of time to work on my Handmaden stuff right? Well I do work on it when I'm not sleeping anyway. Here are a couple of things I've managed to get done so far.

You can't see, I should have taken pictures of the back, I bought some old cookie cutters to make these ornaments. I needle punched designs to go into the cookie cutter. These are the two designs I've come up with so far.

Here is another one of my new creations. I'm going to try and do quite a few Santa's this year. All different of course. This is just the first one I've gotten done. I've really enjoyed making him. I want to do a bigger one and have an old candle stick light coming out of his bag. Maybe try one in burgundy, and really primitive.

Anyway, that's all I've been up to lately. There's not a lot of extra time when I get done working, after I stuff my face I'm usually ready for bed! But no matter what I wouldn't change this for anything. I can't wait for Jan. and the babies to come! I'm hoping next week at my 16 wk appointment I'll find out the sexes. Then the buying and decorating will begin!

Hmmm Where Have I Been?

Well to tell you all the truth, I haven't really been gone! Why haven't I been blogging? Well... On May 19th I found out I was expecting. I went to the hospital and had my blood drawn to confirm. When my doctor called later that day they did confirm that I was pregnant. Oh and by the looks of your levels you are probably having twins. Well, that was some news. I was happy I was confident, having twin nieces I was sure that I could handle it. My husband was surprised but agreed that it was something we would handle pretty easy. Two weeks later I went in for my first ultrasound. When we started I told that doctor that my other doctor said it was likely that I was having twins due to my blood levels. He said, No, Triplets. WHAT? I said. Right here he showed me. 1, 2, 3. Well it was a good thing I was laying down. He didn't give me that news slowly at all. I was excited but overwhelmed. My husband on the other hand was having a hard time dealing with the thought of three. (He came around quickly though.) The next ultrasound I went in and told the doctor right away if he said there were 4 I would never come back. But there were still 3. So now two more ultrasounds later, I am 10 weeks and they are all doing great, kicking and waving like mad (not that I feel it yet). So most of my free time has been devoted to planning and researching. As I'll probably be on bed rest later on I need to get things done early. Good Bye craft room... Well at least we wont have to worry about getting a room ready, other that the crib setups. Anyway, I am going to try and get some crafting in before I don't have any time for it! So hopefully I'll be able to post more in the future.
So until next time ~ Happy Summer

Quick Update

Well, I'm a little late for a May Day post, but only one day! I can't believe it is May already! Where is the year going?? All sorts of goodies are sprouting up in the flower garden, I took a couple of photos:

Look here! I've got my garden planted! I kind of jumped the gun on the peppers and tomatoes, we'll see how they manage. I also planted (a little late) some seeds for Ghost Peppers. Google that and tell me how crazy I am. If they come up I can't guarantee that I'll try one, but I've got some crazy people lined up that are willing.

I hope everyone had a great May Day! ~Heather

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Okay I'm well aware, April showers, bring May flowers. But we really are not even getting a nice rain. Just yucky weather that spits. My house is in the middle of getting sided, but I see no end in site with this weather holding everything up! On one sort of dry day I managed to get my bunny fence up around my soon to be garden. Hopefully next week I'll have it planted (depending on the weather!) and I can relax... Until the weeding starts.

I have gotten into the craft room a little bit lately. I had sketched this guy out quite some time ago. He didn't make it out for Easter, but he's kind of an all year bunny with a primitive flair. He would look great propped up in a cupboard.
This angel is perfectly prim. I had fun putting her together. I'll be adding her to my website today. She is about 9" tall if I remember right. Here is what I have really been up to lately. I have gathered photos from my mom and grandparents and have been scanning them, to archive to cd's. It is a lot of fun to see all of the old photos and wonder what life was like. So different from now, it's impossible to think of what life will be like in another 80 years. The photo below is of my grandmother.

Baby it's COLD outside!

How cold is it? Missy has decided the only place to hang out on a Sunday is on top of heater vent. I wish I would fit too...

I woke up this morning expecting inches of snow, only to see a dusting. The 50mph wind hadn't stopped though. I also woke up with a Spring? cold. Body aches and headache. So I've been held up on the couch all day. It has given me some time to work on my website. A while back I started building my site with Adobe GoLive. In the past I have paid $20 a month to use a self maintain it site. It has always treated me well, but who doesn't want to save $240 a year? I took this opportunity to redesign the look. Have a jump over and tell me what you think. It takes a lot of time to get everything done. Not all of the buy it now buttons have been added since I have to build each one itself through paypal. Talk about boring...

Anyway, I hope you all are feeling better than me. I see an early bedtime in my future!

Surprise!

Can you believe it?? Me again already? I said I would try and do better. I finally got around to finishing some items for eBay. I started these 2 things quite a while ago. This first one I bought the paper mache' egg with this kind of in mind. I don't know about any of you other crafters, but things just don't turn out like they looked in my brain. I just think too fast and I can't really remember what exactly I wanted to do. But I really like how this turned out anyway. I started by making the "grass" out of paper mache' and went from there. I used a fair amount of glitter too. The emblem in the middle is made from crepe paper and embellished with tinsel wire and paper flowers. Anyway, we'll see how it does.

Okay, what can I say about this guy? I didn't plan him out at all. I started covering Styrofoam balls with paper mache' and this is what happened. I've called him Whimsical Wilber. I guess he is my attempt at something whimsical for a change. You know now looking at it I probably should have named it Wilberette, it kind of looks like a girl with that feather neck treatment. All I know is my cats loved the left over feather boa. I had to wrestle that away from them. I guess the new owner can name it what ever they want. I started his auction at a cool $1.

Anyway I guess that is all that I have been up to lately. It snowed this morning, but since it is still March I'll allow it. Tomorrow however it better start acting like Spring...

Blogger Alert!!

Okay Okay I have been a terrible blogger of late. I wish I had an excuse! I don't even know what I've been doing lately! The fact that spring is here is awesome. Too bad the weather wont cooperate! One day it is 75 the next it is 25... Oh well. Remember my post from way back in the fall, all of those bulbs I planted? Well some have been coming up quite nicely. I took some pictures this morning before work. They are covered in frost.

These poor flowers got a good shot of frost, they are hard to see, but there are rows of flowers popping up here. In a couple of years they will fill in nice.

This is another shot of the corner of my garden. Looks like I need a new flag.

Here is one of my goals this year, to have a vegetable garden. All last year I dumped grass clipping on my "spot". When it was warm last Sunday I raked the clippings away and I've got some good dirt underneath. The edge of the garden bed has been held up by stones, it's been in need of repair, so I dug them all out and I think I'll use treated lumber to hold the wall up since it isn't that high and railroad ties would be a little challenging to do on my own.

Hopefully the weather gets better so I can get the tiller out and dig up the ground. I've already got the seeds, I'm not planning a big one, jut a few vegetables we will actually eat. I haven't decided if I want to do any viney plants, like pumpkins. I like to have them but they just take up too much space.

What else have I been up to? Well I've had this nice piece in my garage for YEARS! I bought in on a junk jaunt for $25! I had to sand the entire thing down and restain it. I just love the finish on it now. I used a wax stain. Now I just need to build a base for it.

All of the drawers are slotted. They use to hold every kind of screw, nut, bolt and washer imaginable. The knobs are old screws. It is a good size piece, about 4 feet long. It works great in my craft room to hold all of the little odds and ends.

Lastly I spoiled myself a couple months ago and bought this neat bench. I knew I didn't really have room for it, but I managed to squeeze it in. I got a really neat antique patchwork quilt to hang on the back, but I had taken this picture before the quilt arrived from ebay world.


Well I'm going to try and promise that I'll be better at posting. I've kind of stacked lately with my crafting as well. I just haven't been in the mood. Being cooped up all winter with no trips anywhere have worn me down. Hopefully the weather will warm up and my mood will come around. Flea market season is around the corner! Til next time...

The Home Tour is Over!

Welcome to my home...

I've been asked for many years to be part of my town's home tour. I have always came up with some excuse not to. This year I gave in and began the process of finishing all of the little projects in the house that had just gone to the wayside. I suppose the home tour is a blessing in disguise since it forced me to get things DONE!

This is the entry way to the house, I fell in love with those long striped stockings when I saw them. I don't have a chimney, so they are hung right by the door. Don't want to make Santa go too far. The little wooden table was made by my Great Grandfather Walter many years ago.



This is our living room, the most important room in the house according to my husband. The TV room! If you haven't figured it out already, I am a HUGE lover of antiques, in particular, primitives. Our TV is on last years Christmas present, a 6' drysink. I holds the stereo, cds and movies. In the corner is an old workshop storage unit. All of the drawers have tin bottoms.



The dining room above is on winter greenery overload! The tattered quilt on the table is my favorite thing in this room. The dough bowl was very popular on the home tour, everyone wanted to know what exactly that thing was.



This is a close-up of the china hutch.



As far as Christmas goes, I didn't get too carried away in the kitchen. Just a little touch here and there. When we bought the house the cupboards were very dark and the counter tops were blue. It is amazing how much change a little paint makes.



If you've paid any attention to my blog, you know what this room is. Like the kitchen there are just little holiday touches in the bathroom.



I purposely wanted a smaller vanity when we redid the bathroom, but that doesn't leave much room for knick-knacks!



I found the easiest way to add Christmas touches was with greenery, all I did here was add some pics to the top of the cupboard and hang an ornament from the knob.



Our bedroom might be one of the next remodel projects on our list. But I do love it now. There is a little tree in an old paint bucket on the bench.



I just bought this little wooden bench a couple of weeks ago, it works great in the bedroom to hold some holiday decor!



Off the kitchen is a sunken den. It is primarily a catchall room for us, with no real purpose. I love the big window that looks out into our back yard.



This old grocery scale got outfitted with some holiday potpourri. This picture looks into the den.



I just finished my office. My neighbor was gracious enough to lay the carpet for me at short notice! You may have noticed another one of my weaknesses, crocks. I built the crock shelf just for those. That wasn't very smart of me, once they were all in one spot my husband noticed how many I had!



Here is where I try to get things done. I told myself now that I had a room to devote to crafting I would actually have to get something done. I'm still trying to live up to that one.



I have little trees sprinkled all over the house and three bigger ones set up. This is the main tree. It is called a Tahoe or Charlie Brown tree. It is decorated simply with a few bulbs and lights. I wanted a real tree, but then I would have to keep it green, keep the dog from peeing on it, keep the cats out of it.... So artificial sounded really good after a thought.



This is my "country" tree in the den. It is covered in cloth and wood ornaments and popcorn garland.



Lastly my Americana tree in the spare bedroom. This tree is full of navy and red garlands with patriotic ornaments.

I hope you enjoyed these photos from my home tour. I took many more, but these were my favorites. It has been a crazy month already, so if I don't post again until after the 25th, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Blessings, Heather