It's been a year...

It has been a little past a year since I last checked in...
What is new?  Well, not a lot to tell the truth. People are still people and the world still turns. The kids have been ok, minor hiccups, but nothing we can't work through. Crankybear has been ok too and has even started his own blog... Yoda's Outdoor Adventures 
Pretty neat blog about all of the camping and hiking he does as well as our trips as a family. It is an awesome way to showcase some of the neat places we have been.
I have been busy with 2 jobs now, plus kid stuff, and haven't had time for a whole lot, but I am working on making time for some fun in all of this somewhere.  I am excited, I recently bought a Dremel Tool. There is now NO limit as to what great things I can make. I have taken up Geocaching... great way to get outside and have some fun. I have many small projects I am working on craft wise.  I will take some time to post more tomorrow. 
Today was just a welcome back stranger and wow it has been a while since I have been around post.

Happy Saturday Night!   

YAY for finished projects

I had no idea that when I was woken up this morning it would be to the sound of my Toad asking if I wanted breakfast in bed... after politely declining she responds with "but mom, it's the raisin bran with 2 scoops".  I think she was trying to say thank you for the girls night out. I took both of them to get their hair cut and while we were there the girl's best friends showed up to get hair cuts as well. Awesome surprise for them as well as dinner out with bff's afterward.  I was further driven out of bed this morning by the sound of these 2 girls squealing about snow.  Yes, we finally got a touch of snow and now winter can be over and go away.
The first deucedly annoying task for today was to clean the disaster that was the computer desk. I had forgotten how large this desk really is...  I had a whole list of other things to do, but as with any list I decided the more interesting things would get done next.  
There was one project I really wanted to get done and I am happy to say that it is finished and turned out pretty awesome.  Monkey helped A LOT, it is amazing how we every manage to do things with only 2 hand sometimes, I am very glad that I had her hands as extras to help.  I have been to Kohl's many times and always looked at the fabric/ribbon photo boards, but could never bring myself to spend that much cash on one. 
When I revamped the dresser into the kid's desk I saved the rectangle board from the bottom of one of the drawers, this turned out to be the perfect size for this project.  I had the fabric from a previous project (I bought the fabric at Ikea), and the ribbon I had bought at Walmart on clearance when they did away with the fabric department. 
Well, after 2 hours and a lot of hot glue gun burns here it is....

While I didn't get a lot done other than this and the cleaning of my tornado stricken desk, I would say today has been one pretty awesome Saturday.  Tomorrow though is when the real work begins. (it's laundry day)
Happy weekend.

Hello face lift!

It's a new year and to celebrate, I have a new look!  Happy 2012 everyone!
I did not really make a resolutions, but I can say that this year is going to be great! I am working hard on trying to make sure that in all of the craziness of life that I take a few moments to myself and do something I want to do. So far that has been to crochet items and work harder at selling them. I have a facebook page dedicated to this now Crafty Creations, I also have a Made it myself page to try and get my items out there. I know I won't get rich doing this, but it would be nice to make some extra cash as well as keep dying arts (like crochet) from becoming history.
I have my first real customer, so I have to get busy on getting the hat and scarf set for her done. I also have a baby gift to make for a friend, so with that I think I should hop off of here and post more later.
Hope you enjoy the face lift.
Here is a picture of one of my latest creations.
The winter blues set, a hat and scarf set for girls ages 7-12 with 3 interchangeable flowers.(only one flower shown for now) There is also a picture of a bubble gum pink baby girl hat I made. The one I made is sized for infants 0-3 months.  Toooo cute for words!

Buy & Sell Handmade Crafts, Jewelry, Quilts, Soaps & Greeting Cards, Custom Homemade Products Online - Made It Myself

Buy & Sell Handmade Crafts, Jewelry, Quilts, Soaps & Greeting Cards, Custom Homemade Products Online - Made It Myself

A new site for peddling my wares... lol we shall see where this takes us.

Unemployed and anxious.

Not all of my choices are the best, and I proved it once again. I thought I had found another job that would be better than where I was, that was wrong.  I had left my sales position to clean houses with the promise of higher pay and no nights and weekends. There is no way to explain how excited I was...  But that ended after a month.
I was lied to, used and fired a month after starting. After some serious job hunting that day, I have an interview scheduled for Sunday.  The most frustrating part is trying to figure out how to pay bills and keep myself occupied while I am home.  So far it has entailed some cooking, crafting, and cleaning. 
There is a new show on called The Chew and of course I swiped a recipe (sort of) from them. The Apple Ring Pancakes that were made on the first show looked awesome. Now while I couldn't get the actual recipe I had the basic idea, so I took some apples, peeled them and sliced them, cored them, and dipped them into pancake batter with a little all spice. They were amazing!  I made enough to stick in the fridge for the children to warm up all week for breakfast and the kids finished them this morning. I have to make more tomorrow to stick in the fridge by special request. :)  I am super happy the kids liked them so much.
The crafting I have done has really just been about flowers. I have been making some paper flowers and satin flowers. I don't know yet what I want to use the paper flowers for, but they are pretty neat and easy to make. The satin flowers are a little more time consuming, but look great on hair ties and head bands.  I will have to take some pictures once I figure out what I want to do with the paper flowers and I will take pictures of all of the flowers and post them.

We are also getting ready for the fall MAHHA(mid-atlantic hammock hangers association) Hang. This year we are taking Toad with us as a special birthday gift to her. She is super excited and I can't wait to get her out with us. Her and I will be geocaching most of the weekend while all of the super hammock enthusiasts talk about gear.  I love going, but I am not a gear junkie, so I really don't care about all of the new and crazy things going on, it's just nice to see friends and enjoy a great weekend camping.
Well I am off to watch a movie with the kids and start planning the geocaches we will be finding.

Searching for my replacement

My resignation was not as epic as I thought it would be. My manager understands the reasons why I told her I was leaving and didn't really say much else about it.  Nice.  I was also glad to see they are already scheduling interviews with people to replace me. It's about time they did something before it is too late. 

I can honestly say I am very excited about this change of pace for me. I have to ton of project ideas that I really want to work on, but just haven't had time. Not working weekends is going to free up a bunch of time for me to work on everything from the giant scrabble board to the rubber hose chair and even more. I can't wait!  I have so many plans and ideas of stuff I want to make and now I will have time. 
I have to go and open up a storage unit to put some extra stuff in. Once that is done though it is on! I will get my dremel tool and router attachment and get to work.  It will be awesome. 

Summer is plugging along at an alarming rate and our apartment looks like a hot mess. We are getting ready for our annual family camping trip and as things get packed, they are being stacked anywhere we can find space.  It reminds me of an episode of hoarders when they are part way through the clean up process... piles everywhere, but it's starting to make sense.  lol  The kid's school supplies are in bags in a pile in the corner until I can get a few minutes to separate and label it all. With school starting soon and everything else seeming to happen so fast, it has made me think of just how fast this year is flying by. Seems like yesterday there was a ton of snow and we were having trouble remembering to write 2011 instead of 2010 and now in 4 and 1/2 short months we will be making resolutions and saying good-bye to 2011.  The kids are getting older, Toad will turn double digits this year!!   The big 10!  I can't believe my baby is getting so big.   Monkey is starting First Grade!! OMG!  Above all else I will be 28 in 10 days.  Where did time go?! 
Oh well, just keep plugging along.

Gear Making hiccups

Every kid wants their own things. Knowing this I decided to make camp stools for the girls to take on our annual family camping trip.  After some research I decided to go simple and just make a little fold up flat stool out of pvc pipe and fabric.  I stopped a few days ago at the hardware store and got all of the pvc pipe and fittings I needed and came home to mixed reactions.  The girls helped me clean the pipes and Crankybear helped me cut a few of the pipes a little shorter.  Well after some work I got one put together and tested it under my butt and it held. I begged Crankybear to try it and I don't know who won but it was hilarious. The fabric gave way to his butt and he landed on the floor.

I will be making new seats obviously. This is the one I got pretty much done and the one that Crankybear sat on after I sat on it. 
In other news. We are almost ready for our camping trip, work is trying to find a replacement for me, and I have had an enjoyable day off today.  Max went to the groomers today, he smells nice and looks sweet. Although I don't think he really likes getting his picture taken...

The second one makes him look kind of chubby. He isn't, but has a good amount of extra skin.  Well it has been a long day and I am pooped. Off to bed for me so I can post another time...lol