I Can't Believe It's The Last Day of September!!

I want to apologize to everyone for missing the last week of the party!! I had fun meeting so many new people and I hope you all did too! I want to Thank all of you for participating and making my Blogiversary/Birthday month so special.

Last week when I was sick I missed the giveaway. So for last week and this week I have

Victoria from Vintage Tea

Jean from Quilting Ranny

Dawn from Crafty Ramblings

Kathy from Kat Collects

I have Victoria's address already but I'll need Jean, Dawn's and Kathys. I am running so far behind on my swaps so please give me a week or so and I'll have something sent to all of you!! I am always running late, BUT I do follow through. I'm bad, I haven't got Dianne's, Suzie's, Missy's or Cathy's giveaways out yet, but I promise they will all be out hopefully by the end of the week!!! It's driving me crazy being so far behind!

I want to Thank Melinda, Cathy, Lori and Mary Ann for sending me such wonderful birthday surprises!! That wasn't the reason for the party, but I really do appreciate your thoughtfullness!! Melinda and Lori, I hope you don't mind but I borrowed pictures from your blogs.

This is from Melinda. It is a combination of fabric and paper. All of the little flowers in the hair are machine stitches. It is my inspiration piece!! Thanks so much Melinda!!

Lori made these earings and I really like them. They are simple yet beautiful! I wore them on my birthday when my daughter and her boyfriend took me out. Thanks Lori for giving me something special to wear!!!

Cathy sent me a gift certificate to J.C. Penney's and another gift certificate to Starbucks. I haven't shopped for myself in a long, long time and I've never been to Starbucks before. Thanks Cathy for the gifts and for being such a wonderful and thoughtful sister!!

Mary Ann has giveaways all the time and I swear, those random generators hate me. So sweet Mary Ann sent me a box of treasures and a piece of her artwork. I love vintage patterns and the piece she made is so perfect! Oh my gosh, there are game pieces, ribbon, a stamp, gloves, cocktail forks and swords (the kids loved those!), jewelry pieces, chenille pipe cleaners and just little bits and pieces of everything. Thanks so much for thinking of me Mary Ann and for the inspiration!!

Jean has caught the blog flu that seems to be going around. I hope she didn't catch it from me!! Anyway, send her get well wishes!!

I hope everyone will still stay in touch and I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's blogs over the next week.

Thanks again for such a wonderful month!!!!

The Party Isn't Over Yet!!

Jessica at Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping! tagged me the other day. So lets just include it in the much neglected party activities!! Here goes:

7 Things I plan to do before I die (not in any particular order):

1. Wow, ummmm..........get organized.
2. Spend more time with my kids, grandkids and my family in Kansas.
3. Finish my Geneology Family Album
4. Get Married to Earl, it's a long story or the new big "Hollywood" saying, "It's Complicated!"
5. Go back to school!!
6. Own a big beautiful Victorian style house with a huge front porch and a big yard for my flowers, trees and plenty of room for the kids to play . Have the house filled with beautiful shabby chic type decor' , a bedroom for everyone, a craft room for me and a big beautiful kitchen for Earl.
7. Be happy with myself and just be able to go out and let go. Like go dancing or other things like that. I'm always to shy to do some things and I wish I could just let go and do them.

7 Things I do now:

1. Love my kids!!
2. Crafts
3. Spend to much time on the computer!
4. Love, love, love Earl!!
5. Try to raise my kids to be nonjudgemental, kind, strong, loving individuals with a stong self esteem and that they can do anything they set their minds to.
6. Sign up for to many swaps!!
7. Love to try new things in crafts. Try to be more creative and confident with my crafts.

7 Things I can't do:

1. Dance
2. Find enough time in the day to accomplish the things I want to accomplish
3. Spend enough time with Earl
4. Spend enough time with my kids
5. Keep my house clean! (Read Jessica's blog for a great quote on that subject!)
6. Leave the house more often--we only have the pickup and Earl is working 2 full time jobs, so I'm basically stuck in the house all of the time!
7. Be on time!!

7 Things that attract me to the Opposite Sex

1. A nice smile
2. Eyes
3. Darker hair and skin tone
4. Kind and Good with kids
5. A hard worker
6. Alchol must be one because my first husband is an alcholic and so is Earl. If you ask me to pick out a guy that I think is cute from a group of guys, guess what? The one I pick out will be an alcholic!??????
7. Open minded - open to change, not prejudice or set in his ways!

7 Things that I say most often:

1. I'm not a maid! Please just pick up after yourselves!!
2. You need to pick up your room!
3. I'm so proud of you!
4. I love you!
5. Do you have to go peepee?
6. Just a minute!
7. Great job!!

7 Celebrities that I admire:

1. Johnny Depp of course!! I have liked Johnny Depp since he was in 21 Jump Street. I love his creativity, versatility and of course, he is just plain gorgeous!
2. I'm going to have to copy Melinda's answer on this one, Katie Holmes for putting up with Tom Cruise. I don't like Tom Cruise, never have and probably never will!
3. Celebrities that are generous with their talent and money. Celebrities that give back to the community.
4. Oprah, no more even needs to be said, she's amazing
5. Robin Roberts for being brave enough to share her journey with breast cancer with the world and to appear on national television completely bald. I think she is an amazing woman.
6. Dr. Phil, I think he is a very intelligent man and has some of the best advice ever! I don't like that he uses celebrities sometimes though to bring attention to himself.
7. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, I just think they are so darn cute!

7 Favorite Foods:

1. Mexican, pretty much any Mexican food, yum!!
2. Italian, I love cheesey foods and pasta
3. Chinese and other Asian foods
4. Ice Cream
5. Mashed Potatoes
6. Homemade Mac and Cheese
7. Soups and Salads

7 People who need to do this

All of the party guests should do this!!! I know several of you have already been tagged so everyone else should join in!!!

Sorry for the absence!

Sorry I haven't posted for the last couple of days. I've been really busy!!! I'll be back tomorrow and finishing up the last week of the party.

2 Weeks Down - 2 More to Go!!

This is my birthday week, tomorrow is my actual birthday. We've made it through 2 weeks of partying. I just want to say Thank You to everyone who has participated in the party and to everyone who has stopped by and left a comment. My kids, even the little ones, have gotten to where on their birthdays they are so excited to have their brothers and sisters come over that they don't even care about presents. They look forward to the time with family and friends so much and I really appreciate all of you celebrating with me!!! It's so nice to have so many wonderful friends!!

Here is a quote that I love from a woman that I really admire:

“A journey of a thousand miles can begin with a single click. With new technologies, we don’t have to leave home to make a friend half a world away... "

جلالة الملكة رانيا العبدالله

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah

This next statement Queen Rania makes kind of reminds me of how nervous I was about blogging and not only sharing things about myself and my family but my crafts. I am always so worried that other people won't like what I do and was so scared to show the things I made. I'm really glad I kept on blogging and now feel accepted!

"As convenient as it is to keep ourselves within our comfort zones, we need to step up and reach out to those different than ourselves. Looking back, I’m sure all, or at least, most, of us can recall a life-changing personal experience that has forced us to step out of our familiar boundaries… whether changing schools, enrolling in a university, starting a new job or moving to a new neighborhood… the process of embarking on a new world is nerve-wrecking! But, by meeting new people, learning to get along and forming new friendships, with time, you will no longer be known as the ‘new’ peer, colleague or neighbor, and will soon be part of a trusted circle of friends, a group to which he or she belongs, and, more importantly, feels accepted within. "
http://www.queenrania.jo/content/sectionPage.aspx?secID=pepl

I'll draw another name out today and announce this weeks winner of the surprise giveaway!

Featured Guest

My friend Missy at Fairy Child Heirlooms is my Featured Guest today. I met Missy through the Wizard of Oz Swap. Missy has 4 super cute daughters (the little one has the prettiest red curls in her hair!) and makes them the nicest clothes and doll clothes. Missy is so talented!! If you need a Baptismal Gown for a new baby you definitely need to check out Missy's gowns. They are so gorgeous!! Here are just a few pictures of what Missy can make. It was so hard to decide on just a few to post!!

Doll clothes that Missy made out of some

of her girls old clothes.

These are so cute and what a great idea to recycle.

Missy made this gorgeous doll blanket for a friend of hers little girl.

I want one for my bed!

This is a Boys Baptismal Outfit for one of her friends little boys.

One piece suit with cummerbund belt.

Lots of hand embroidery and pintucks.

This outfit would make a little boy look like an angel!

This is a simple but gorgeous Baptismal Gown that

Missy made for another one of her friend's daughters.

Isn't she precious!?!?

I think these are some of my favorites.

Missy did the smocking and hand embrodiery

on this Baptismal bonnet.

Here is the matching gown.

This is so sweet and just so pretty!!

I love smocking and the little roses

are such a special touch!

This is one of Missy's sets that you can purchase.

A sweet Baptismal Gown, bonnet and a heirloom blanket.

This is a toddler Strawberry dress.
This is the kind of dresses that I remember little girls wearing.

These are two of Missy's daughters, Sarah and Allyson,

in Autumn dresses. Missy made them for Thanksgiving

several years ago and now they've been passed down

to Missy's younger daughters. These dresses remind me of

ones my mom made for me when I was little.

They even have matching covered buttons.

As you can see Missy is very talented! I think Missy's little girls are so lucky to have a mom who can sew such beautiful outfits for them. Make sure you check out Missy's blog because she has so many other beautiful outfits on there and more things for sale too. Thanks Missy for letting me share your work with everyone else!

I'm Running Late and it's Time for a Potty Break!

Just step right into this bathroom

and

fall through the floor!

This is a painting on the bathroom floor

that gives you the illusion

that your falling through the floor.

Pretty cool, huh?

It's a good thing this is a nonalcholic party! (or is it??)

I'm not sure who's work this is

but I found it on the site Amazing Illusions.

Here is an elevator that is on the Amazing Illusions page.

Outside of this elevator it has

a sign that says "Work in Progress"

And then the Amazing Sidewalk Art of Julian Beever.

Check out his site and see some more really cool sidewalk art!!

This is the artist's Self Potrait.

and more of his sidewalk art work.

Enjoy!!

The wall he is leaning on is an actual wall. What's under him is the illusion.

Truth or Dare?

Today I thought I would share some of the stupid things with you that I've done in my life. These are true and no I'm not a blonde (no offense to you blondes)!!

When I was 16 and first starting to drive I was going to be nice and put gas in my dad's car seeing as how he was letting me drive it. Sounds like a responsible thing to do, right? Well my dad stressed to me to always put UNLEADED gas in the car. I pull into the gas station (and this is when they had just started doing self-serve) and got out of the car. I'm looking at the different types of gas and they had LEAD FREE and LEADED. Well I got back in the car and headed home to apologize to daddy for not putting gas in the car. I wasn't sure which one to put in because none of them said UNLEADED. Duh! I didn't think it was to funny but my dad got a kick out of it.

Around the same time period my Grandpa had given us a bunch of apples. One night I decided to make an apple pie. I made the pie crust from scratch and I really filled the pie with apples. It was gorgeous!! I proudly took a piece to my dad and he was amazed at how perfect my pie looked. Then he tasted it............he made a terrible face and ask me what I put in it. I showed him the ingredients and then we discovered that the bowl of "sugar" that was on the table was really canning salt. I had put canning salt into my beautiful pie instead of sugar. I didn't make another apple pie for probably a good 20 years and my dad still gets a kick out of this story 30 years later.

Okay, last story. When I was in my late 20's I went to get gas for my car on my lunch hour. The gas station was just a block or so from where I worked. I park the car, fill it up and go into pay. I'm paying and chit chatting with the cashier when he says, "is that your car?" I don't even look I just tell him the color thinking somebody else must be getting gas too. He says, "No, LOOK, is that your car?" I look out and my car is rolling backwards out of the driveway of the gas station and headed for 4 lanes of 45 mile an hour traffic. I go running out after my car, mind you I'm in a dress and heals, trying to "catch it". It just kept on going almost hitting a couple of cars as it went across the road. OMG, I about died every time a car started coming. Amazingly, my car did a good job of driving itself and it didn't hit anyone. It got all the way across and bounced off the curb and then stopped. I ran across the street and as I'm saying a few prayers I started it back up and got out of there. I almost died I was so embarrassed!!

These are just a couple of True stories of some of the stupid things that I have done. Thankfully I am not quite so "blonde" anymore!! I think I had to do a couple of stupid things just to give my dad something to tease me about.............for the rest of my life!!!

Now it's your turn. Come on, I know I'm not the only one out there that did some stupid things!! At least I hope not! So tell us your true stories!!

Make sure you check out the posts below for other giveaways!!!

Let's Mingle and Play Today!

First off, I have to apologize to all of you party guests. I have been super-duper busy on an order for some bags and stuff and have not been a very good hostess the last few days. I am almost done though. I feel like I've been the hostess who is stuck in the kitchen preparing things and not out enjoying the party. I will be visiting every one's blog, hopefully tonight, and answering all my emails.

Okay, I want to Thank everyone who answered the questions and now you guys can all mingle. I received messages from Beth, Kathy, Victoria, Susan (Suzie Button), Dianne, Jessica, and Susan (SusanShoe's). Cathy, Dawn, Twyla will be answering hers tomorrow because today is her daughter Lindsey's Wednesday Barbie posting. If I missed anyone please email me or leave me a comment and let me know and I'll make the correction.

Most of you got yesterdays pictures right. The one face said Liar. Once you see it, thats all you see! The other picture has 3 faces, a father, mother and daughter. So today I have some word games and a puzzle. Have fun playing and I have to get back to sewing, but I'll be back to the party hopefullly by tonight!!

PACE answer: pacing back and forth

ECAP

V
I
O
L
E
T

S
answer: shrinking violets

PARK/PARK answer: double parked

HEAVEN answer: pennies from heaven

-PENNIES

CHECK answer: triple checked

CHECK

CHECK

S

N

I

A

P

answer: growing pains

I'm glad you all had fun with these yesterday!

Let's Talk Shop!

I thought today we could do some more "small talk".

Let's Talk About Shopping!

1. Where is your favorite place to shop? I like to shop at Wal-Mart for most things because they have a little bit of everything.
   
   
2. Would you rather shop on-line or in the stores? I like to do both.


3. If you needed new undergarments, but you saw something that you didn’t really need, but just wanted, which would you buy? Definitely, the thing I didn't need and just wanted!!



4. What really annoys you about other shoppers? When they cut in front of you and don't say excuse me!


5. Have you ever got up to the checkout stand and had a ton of stuff in your cart and after they rang everything up you realized you didn’t have your money, check book, debit card, or credit cards? Yes, why Yes I have! A few times actually! It is so embarrassing!
   
6. If you buy something that isn’t necessary or something just for fun do you feel like you have to justify it to yourself or your partner? 100% Yes. I always feel guilty and have to justify what I spend!



7. Do you hide those unnecessary things for awhile and then later claim you’ve had them for a long time? I'm guilty! I do this with craft stuff especially!

Let me know if you answer the questions and I'll make up a list of everyone that did so it will be faster to go to the blogs that participated.


Thanks and Have a funfilled day!!

Here are a couple of pictures to look at.

Can you tell what this picture says??

How many different faces do you see in this picture?

One Week Down and the Winner is........

I can't believe it has been a whole week. I also can't believe how many people have responded and joined the party. So many new friends!! There is another person that joined today, Yvonne, from Country Bliss and Vivlyn from Vivlyn Designs, so be sure and stop by and say Hello to them when you get a chance!

I love the Barbie Fairytopia movies and the other night I got to thinking about something that the Fairy Guardian Azura says. In the movie Elina (Barbie) goes to see Azura and Azura offers Elina some tea. The table is set for several people and when Elina asked if they are going to wait for the other guests, Azura replies with, “Those are for the friends that I never met”. I have always liked that saying. We should always be ready for the friends that we are going to meet because we never know where or how we are going to meet them. I have met so many wonderful friends through blogging. Friends that I would of never met otherwise!


Now for the winner.....................

Well, my stupid printer isn't working right so I am going to hand write all the names out and wait for Mallory to get home to draw a name. She gets home at 3:30 so I will put the winners name down her after she gets home. Sorry about that!!

Okay, the first giveaway winner is

.............................

Dianne from Dianne's Ramblings On

and Ezie wanted to draw a name too, so we went on and drew for a second giveaway, and

....................

Susan from Suzie Buttons won that.

Congratulations both of you!!

I will get the giveaways out sometime this week. I have both of your address already from the Wizard of Oz Swap, that is unless they've changed.

Today's Featured Guest

Today's featured artist is Jessica from Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping! I met Jessica through The Brown Paper Bag Swap in June. Jessica is so talented and makes a variety of Paper Bag Scrapbooks, tags, altered tins and other gorgeous things plus she loves to swap!!

This is a Whimsy Jar that Jessica made for a swap she was in. She filled it with odds and ends of goodies. I wanted to show the picture of the empty jar though so you could see the painting detail she did on the side of the jar.

Isn't it beautiful!

This is one of her Paper Bag Scrapbooks. Isn't this just so cute!!
Here is the opened up book.
It reminds me of when I was in Kindergarten, "See Dick run. See Jane run."


I couldn't just pick one altered tin. Aren't these gorgeous!
I think this is my favorite altered tin. I love the colors and the lace!

I think you will all be impressed with Jessica's talent. Be sure and check out Jessica's blog and be sure and look at her older posts too. Somewhere she has these cool tags made out of coin rolls. I know you'll be impressed!!

I now many of you checked out Melinda's blog the other day. Isn't she wonderful!! I love her work and she is such a nice person!

Another Susan has joined the party so be sure and stop by and visit her at Sweetpea Sue's Cottage. Also Jean, Melinda and Diane (I'm sorry if I missed anybody else) added a Truth or Dare story to their blogs. Make sure you read them if you want something to make you smile today.

Blogiversary Party

I think everyone at the party needs a bathroom break and then to go just play around for awhile! Check out this bathroom. You can sit on the toilet and watch t.v., get a foot massage while your putting on your makeup and drying your hair. OOps! I guess that is a computer. I thought it was a make up box with a mirror. Guess where I found this pretty pink bathroom?? It was on a website called GayGamer. It is Pretty creative!!

The Party continues tomorrow with another Featured Guest and then tomorrow night Miss Mallory will draw a name from the hat for the first giveaway. She has been driving me crazy all week to draw a name so tomorrow night before she goes to bed she can finally do it!!!

I must have been a daring or bad girl because no one else had anything to share on their blog except for one person. I did get an email from somebody else though with a good story, so I guess I'm not the only one out there that was daring!! Also, Jean from Quilting Ranny , and Susan from Susanshoe's Weblog just joined the party and told a truth story that I can relate to. Be sure and stop and say Hi to Jean and Susan.

Have a fun day!!!

Giveaway, Game and On The Home Front

Make sure and check out Dawn, Heather, Kathy, Gretchen and Mallory's blog. They joined in yesterday and they have some "small talk" on their blogs too. Thanks for joining and mingling everybody!

I decided to keep the giveaway for this week a surprise.

I'll send a wrapped gift to the winner so they will be surprised when they receive it

and then I'll post what the giveaway was afterwards!

Is the suspense building?? I hope so!!

I thought for today's game we would play

Truth or Dare

I'll start :
I think the best and funniest thing I ever did on a dare, I think it was a dare---it is the truth though, anyway, when I was about 13 and my parents were going out of town (I hope my mom isn't reading my blog today!!) I stayed at one of their friends homes P & J. P & J had a daughter the same age as I was named JK. We always had a great time when I would stay over.

Okay let me set the scenery up here. Next door to JK’s house was a house where several nuns lived. Across the street was the Catholic Church and School that JK attended. A couple houses down on the other side of JK’s house was a very busy main street with another church.

So one night when we were bored, this was in about 1974, one of us got the idea (I’m sure it wasn’t me!) to go streaking. So one night we took all of our clothes off and put our shirts over our heads and ran down the busy street and around the corner back to JK’s house. This got our adrenaline going and it was so fun to us 13 year old!

Is anybody singing the Streak Song by Ray Stevens yet??

Oh, yes, they call him the Streak

Look at that, look at that

Fastest thing on two feet

Look at that, look at that

He's just as proud as he can be

Of his anatomy

He goin' give us a peek

Oh, yes, they call him the Streak

Look at that, look at that

He likes to show off his physique

Look at that, look at that

If there's an audience to be found

He'll be streakin' around

Invitin' public critique

The next night we decided to do it again, but with a twist. We got naked again, put our shirts on our heads and went up to the nuns door and rang the doorbell. Wouldn’t you know it, as our luck would have it, a police man drove by. Omg! We started running as fast as we could. We’re running as fast as we can through peoples front yards naked and with shirts covering our faces. All the sudden some dumb person has a hedge in the middle of our path. JK new it was there, but not me. I jumped but to late, I fell on the pavement. I got up and ran as fast as I could. We hid somewhere, I don’t remember where, and then snuck back to where our clothes were. We got dressed and went back into JK’s house giggling and so proud of ourselves for not getting caught.

The next morning P & J asked if we were out knocking on doors and running late last night. The nuns called them and said about 10 -15 minutes after someone knocked on their door and ran they saw P & J’s back door open up and 2 girls walk into the house. Well, of course we DIDN’T do it!! How stupid would we be to do that to the house right next door! We were just sitting on the back porch talking!! I don’t know if they believed us or not. I don’t even know if the nuns realized we were naked because we both had such good bikini tans that it kinda looked like we had swimsuits on.

When my parents came back we were upstairs listening to the adults talk and they decided they were pretty sure that JK and I would never do anything like that! I’m not sure if they were just trying to convince themselves or if they really believed we didn’t.

What is your funniest dare story??
Can you share it on your blog with us??

On the Home Front

Mallory and Jace made Pumpkin Muffins yesterday.

Mallory had to go to football practice so Jace and I filled the muffin cups and baked them.

Jace is playing peek-a-boo with the whisk. He's just to darn cute!!

The finished product. Yummy!!

Lexie started school yesterday. She's a senior this year!! Way to go Lexie!!!!

My First Featured Guest and a Thank You!

I thought today I would have a special guest featured. My friend Melinda, who I met through a summer swap, makes the coolest things. She makes quilts, tussie mussies, snippet dolls, aprons, tags, pendents, and so many other really neat things! If you haven't stopped by Melinda's blog make sure you do. Melinda has such a wonderfully creative spirit and I admire her so much for that! I wish I could just create things the way Melinda does!!

These are one of Melinda's newest creations.

Melinda made this piece using a mixture of fabric and paper.

It is one of her and her grandkids cats, Ivan Jon Jones.

This is Baby Girl, their other cat.

Go to Melissa's blog to see the details of how she made these beautiful pieces and make sure and check out her other things as well. I know you will be impressed!!

I want to thank everyone for sharing in my Blogiversary Party! I think it's been fun so far. A few other people did the "small talk questions" so make sure and check out their blogs. Alexander, Barbara, Missy, Dianne (sorry I missed yours Dianne!), Victoria, Heidi, Dawn, Heather, Kathy and Mallory. If I missed somebody I'm sorry and I will definitely get you added on if you email me. The link list is still on my sidebar. It looks like several people have been mingling and making some new friends! Yay!!! I'm so glad you guys are all meeting each other and enjoying each others blogs!!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be showing what the first weeks prize is. Thanks for being so patient!

Have fun!