New Blogs I Discovered and My a Few of My Favorite Etsy Shops

My sister, Cathy, just started a blog, The Life and Adventures of Cateepoo. Cathy has rhuematiod arthritis and has been off all of her medication for about 6 months now. She is trying to get a "healthy body that heals with natural herbs, vitamins and homeopathy."
Cathy also talks about the decision to let her hair go gray. Not a thing that to many of us woman choose to do or that society "approves" of. I admire the fact that Cathy has chosen to just be herself!!

The other important subject that Cathy talks about is unschooling. She unschools her two kids, Alexander and Sophia. Unschooling is a relatively new form of schooling and some of you might be interested in finding out more about it.

Another new Blog that I like, Little Cotton Aprons, is by another Kathie. Kathie's blog is sweet and she is interested in sewing and swapping. I love her banner with the aprons on it. She just starting her blog but so far I love it!!

Now for a couple of My Favorite Etsy Shops. Check out Michelle's Etsy Shop Luckychelle Boutique. Michelle has the nicest scrapbook embellishments and handmade scrapbooks. Right now all of her Etsy money will be going to help her and her husband to adopt a baby. Michelle has a great blog too, Hello Cupcake. Check it out!! Here's a few photo's I borrowed from Michelle's Etsy Shop to show you some of her stuff.

Felt Posies -- So cool!

Chipboard Scrapbook

I love this Ribbon Covered Bulletin Board

Another one of my favorite Etsy shops is A Very Mary Design. Mary Ann has some wonderful collages, the cutest tags and some aprons. Great stuff!! I love it and I bet you will to! Here's some photo's I borrowed from Mary Ann'e Etsy Shop to show you. Beautiful, huh??!!

I love this ladies and the colors are so bright and fun!!

Collage of three beautiful homes and there pink. Who could ask for more!

Things I Received from My Wonderful Swap Partners and I have to Show A Picture of My Mallory

First I received this wonderful piece of art from Tina for the Cowgirl Swap. Her blog is {glue on my fingers}paint in my hair formerly Papermojo. She sent the coolest tag, a cowgirl banner and another little piece with a quote from Will Rogers on it. I LOVE everything Tina sent and am so honored to have a piece of her artwork!! Thank you Tina!! Yours will be on it's way tomorrow.
Next I received my second box from the Itty Bitty Swap. This one is from Pam. Look how beautiful the tin is painted. Oh my gosh, Pam put a lot of work into the container and then all the little treasures are wonderful. My Jace has already emptied the confetti a few times. He is just spreading the love with all those confetti hearts (I'm trying to be positive about the mess)!! Pam sent some fibers too but I've already used some of those before I took the picture. Thank you Pam. I hope you like what I sent to you too! Then I received this uniquely wrapped present from Twyla for the Parasol and Paper Swap. I love the pattern paper used for wrapping, what a great idea!! In the packages were four pieces of beautiful paper, the insides for a brown bag scrapbook, a beautiful pillowcase, a purple parasol and a pansy doily. I LOVE pansies and have the perfect spot for the doily and the pillowcase is gorgeous!! Thanks so much Twyla, I love everything you sent. I hope you will like yours too, it will be in the mail tomorrow! I'm running way behind schedule! Sorry!!!!
Today I received the sweetest gift from Angela as a Thank You gift for hosting The Brown Paper Bag Swap. Angela decorated the bag so nice and then gave me a little pop-up book with cute little poems in it and really pretty pictures. It is so nice to sit and look at. Thanks Angela!!
Thank you to everyone for such wonderful swap goodies!!! I love everything and I do apologize for my stuff being so late!! I have been slightly overwhelmed lately! Thanks for your patience!!

Mallory got hit in the face with a metal baseball bat on Saturday night. She really didn't even cry, except about 2 hours later she started screaming that her ear on the opposite side hurt. She kept crying and crying which isn't like Mallory so I took her to the ER just to be on the safe side. It turns out she had a really bad ear infection and the hit must have knocked it loose or something like that?. I took this picture a couple hours after it happened.

Of course, Sunday was Mallory's Dance Pictures. She looked so beautiful up their with her shiner! That's my Mal!

I Saw Red

Our Home

For the last day of I Saw Red I have a picture of the red brick on our house.

Tomorrow I will have pictures of all the wonderful swap gifts I received last Thursday and Friday. I have a ton to do today though. Have a wonderful day!!

I Saw Red

We had some yummy, really juicy watermelon last night after dinner.

Yumm!!!

The kids were trying to help me find red things. Ezie has on his red Ninja p.j.'s and he is holding a red plastic bat and a red cell phone that doesn't work. Thanks Ezie for your help!!

I Saw Red, I was Read to and I Got Mail!!

Finding red things in my house is a little harder than I thought it would be. These are the valance in our kitchen. Earl is a big hot pepper freak so I have 2 of each of these 3 bandanna's sewn together going across our kitchen window. They were a quick and easy curtain to make and they look kinda cute too!

This is just one of his jalapeno decorationsThis is the book that Mallory read to me when I was sick the other day. It is the cutest story about a little boy who wondered what kind of award he would get at the end of the year awards ceremony for the kindergartner's. He felt like everyone else was better at everything than he was, but he ended up getting the "Best Friend" award which I thought was so nice! It's also about how kids and teachers deal with the end of the year and moving on.

Excellent choice of books Mallory! Thank you!
and finally this is what I received from Anna Chadwick for the Itty Bitty Swap. Thank you Anna for the Oodles of goodies. Yours will be in the mail tomorrow, I promise! Did you know that an Altoid tin can hold quite a bit of stuff? I was really surprised to see how much stuff they can hold.

The Wizard of Oz Swap

I have been wanting to host this swap for awhile. I am from Kansas and lived in Wichita for the first 34 years of my life before moving to New York. So who better to host a Wizard of Oz swap but a Kansas girl. I love the Wizard of Oz and all of it's magic. So if you do to and would like to swap Oz stuff leave me your info. I am giving everybody a long time to sign up because of summer and vacations and stuff. Also you can use your summer outings as a good time to thrift shop for Oz stuff.

Did you know that August 12, 1939 was the world premiere of MGM's The Wizard of Oz and it was held at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (why not Kansas??) It was shown through September 16, 1939. It should be noted that this is considered the "official" anniversary date for The Wizard of Oz.

So I will take sign ups through August 12 and the swap date will be September 16 (hey, that's my birthday!) Email me at sherryreneew@hotmail.com with your info and I'll get you on a list and I am going to have a list on my blog of all the people that join. I will also start a Flickr group for photos when September rolls around. I need your:

1. name
2. email address
3. mailing address
4. blog (if you have one)

Sound good. You should have at least 1 handmade Oz item and then some extra goodies are always fun!!

I Saw Red

Right now I'm seeing red because I can't find my camera. Okay, I found Earl's camera in a drawer and he actually found some batteries for me. Woo-who!!

I know my picture is not the best. It's not a beautiful rose or a gorgeous vase or something, but the light that shines in my little Jace's eyes when he sees "Melmo" is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me. This is the somewhat new Tickle Me Elmo, and when Elmo is rolling around the floor cracking up it doesn't matter how old you are he makes you smile!

(Please excuse Elmo, he still has some breakfast on his face!)

I Saw Red

Sarah from Le journal.sadieolive.com is seeing red! She is taking photograph's of red things this week and would like to see what others have to photograph with red being the theme. I just saw this tonight so I don't have any pics yet, but hopefully tomorrow I will!

Men - You Gotta Love Them!

I woke up feeling somewhat better this morning but decided to go on and go to the Doctor's anyway. She said I "just" had the flu. No, she being a mom too, completely understood how it's hard to watch little ones when your "dying" from the flu. Yes, I felt like I was dying!!

As of a couple of hours I am officially back to being a mom, housewife and a nonpittied member of my household. Earl took the day off today to take me to the doctor's and help me with Jace and housework that somehow didn't get done for the last 3 days. My magical fairy didn't come around either, she rarely does, actually I don't know that she ever has, so I don't know why I would expect her to now.

Okay, I'm straying away from the story. Earl told me after the doctor's appointment that he wanted me to just take it easy today and make sure I was completely feeling good before I started this major house cleaning we have to have done by next Tuesday morning. I tried to take a nap and I couldn't so we took some stuff to our storage unit. When we got back I laid down on the floor and crocheted a little and did some finishing up on some of my swap stuff while I was laying there. I had 2 tiny seams I needed to sew and as soon as I got to the sewing machine he says "You know we have all that stuff we have to get done by Tuesday, maybe you should be working instead of sewing". I kept my calm and went on and finished what I was doing and a couple of other little things and then......

I went down to the basement and started moving boxes and tables and sweeping all the crap that gets on a basement floor up. Earl comes in when I'm about half way done (he comes in from talking to the neighbors and playing baseball with the kids) to tell me I should go rest. "What???? What did you say?," I said. "Excuse me, you told me I should take it easy today and then as soon as I go to sew 2 seams you tell me I really need to get busy cleaning. Now that I can't even get to my washer and dryer your telling me to go rest?"

Of course. he sheepishly grins and stutters, "Uh, Uh, well um....". He's so cute!!

I can't complain. Earl takes good care of us and he did do a ton of dishes today and help take care of Jace. He also works 2 jobs and cooks every night. I can cook, but he likes to cook when he comes home to help him relax.

So I am physically feeling better, now if I could just get the stressers to go away!!
Have a great evening and thanks for so many nice messages !!!

I'm Calling In Sick Today and Tomorrow

I'm still sick, I've slept all day and can hardly sit up. I'm going to the Doctors in the morning to find out what is wrong with me. I'll be back in a couple days!

I have been really stressed out the last week. I have been depressed, angry and overwhelmed. Yesterday afternoon I came down with something and I feel like s__t now! I don't have time for this and I want it to go away now!! All of it, just go away!

Okay, on a happier note I have been working on my swap projects. I always feel like what I am sending is not going to be good enough, but last night I buckled down and just started making stuff. I came up with some pretty neat things if I may say so myself! I can't show them though because they are for swaps. I am finishing up on the Itty Bitty Swap, the That's not so Shabby Summer Swap, the Parasol and Paper Swap and the Mermaid Swap (that was supposed to be out a couple of weeks ago).

The Mermaid Swap stuff was ready until I saw my swap partner's blog and found out she actually writes books about art. Of course, then I felt like what I made was very inadequate and I went into panic mode. Now I have decided that I did something really different than I usually would, I tried my best, I like what I made and so it will be in the mail tomorrow with a positive attitude!

After those swap items go in the mail tomorrow I have to work on the Etsy for Charity monthly challenge project, the Vintage Cowgirl Swap and on my Brown Paper Bag Swap stuff. I still need to send a tag to Lori from Pink Faded Roses for her son's "Going into the Military Tag Tree" she is making for him.

I also have to clean, clean, clean. We are having someone look at our place on June 10th and it has to be clean and organized. I have a lot to do, so I don't have time to be sick, damn it!!

Have a wonderful Sunday!!

Peony and I Feel About the Same Today---Blah!!!

After I came home from sitting in the rain at the kids ball game this is how Peony looked. This pretty much describes my mood the last few days. Blah! Well, the beautiful bloom was such a nice distraction to reality, but now it's gone. On the bright side she still has 6 or 7 more buds ready to explode with beauty soon.

I found some really nice Blogs this week. Most I found through Rachael's 100th Post Party and then the some off of other Bloggers Favorites Lists and a couple off comments that others left on my blog (and by the way, THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS!)

I love the blog Turkey Cookies. I especially love the story of how Jessica got the name Turkey Cookies. Jessica has recipes, gardening and life stuff on her blog. Check it out it's a fun blog!

I also love the Mary's blog Isabella's Closet .Mary has some beautiful vintage aprons and cross stitch pieces in her Etsy Shop, she has aprons, pillowcases and other nice things on Ebay and, finally, I'm sure everyone's seen some of Mary's Blog Banners as they have read other people's blogs. The thing that first attracted me to Mary is her beautiful space where she Blogs from. It is so pretty, shabby chicish. If I blogged in Mary's room I would feel like I was in a little corner of heaven! Check out Mary's blog and her stores, I think you'll find them beautiful!

If you want to read a very heart felt story, that is sure to make you cry, go to Tiff's Blog, Folded Gingham. I don't want to give anything away, but Tiff's story hit me really hard and has a very personal meaning for me. I cried all day over it and then when my daughter came home she cried and when Earl came home he cried. You have to read the story and then see the picture at the bottom. I just want to give Tiff a big hug and to tell her that life goes on but the memory never goes away.

I read so many more Blogs that I absolutely love, but, until next week.........

Here is Peony in full bloom.

Isn't she beautiful?

I had to have the kids hold the stem though because it was so windy yesterday.

A Fresh New Do for Summer

Mallory on Sunday modeling a hat a crocheted for my sister

Isn't her hair pretty?

Mallory's Hair on Tuesday
and
presenting
the fresh new summer hairdo

We go every 5 weeks to get our hair trimmed and this time Mallory surprised me. She wanted to get a short haircut. She was initially going to go shorter but then decided on this style so she could still do a little ponytail if she needed to. Mallory is so happy with her haircut. I love it too! It is a nice change and so much easier in the mornings. I am so happy that she has the confidence to cut her hair even though most people will say things like, "Oh, why did you do that?" or "You should have never cut your hair, you were so pretty before". Those are the kind of comments she got the last time she cut her hair short. I like long hair too, but do people realize how it sounds when they make comments like that to someone else? Everyone needs a change once in awhile and she looks so cute and bubbly now. Mallory loves it and she feels pretty, well as pretty as a tomboy can feel, and that's all that counts!

The Story of "Peony"

Have you seen the movie Barbie Fairytopia? If you haven't you should. It is a sweet magical little movie and the flower fairies are so beautiful! Elina, who is played by Barbie, is a flower fairy and she lives in a beautiful magical flower named Peony. Peony plays a soothing lullaby when Elina and her pet, Bibble, are ready for bed, and offers them a wake-up song in the morning.

Elina the flower fairy and Bibble

When Elina approaches Peony opens a petal up for Elina and Bibble to enter.

When we moved 3 years ago, my daughter Mallory and I planted a Peony because we loved Fairytopia and how Elina lived in a Peony. We had collected all the Barbie movies and the Fairytopia ones are our favorites (well, mine at least)! After 3 years our Peony is finally going to bloom. This is a picture of how she looks today. When Mallory and Ezie came home from school they came running in the house so excited and yelling, "Mom, Peony bloomed, Mom she bloomed!" I couldn't believe how excited they both were to see Peony bloom. It's like she has become a member of the family or something. Everyone calls her by the name Peony. Not the Peony plant, or anything, just Peony. I'll have to admit, although she didn't completely bloom, it is the beginning of a beautiful, well worth waiting for, bloom!

So here she is ....

Peony

This is my Rosemary Plant. I LOVE the smell and the taste of Rosemary!!

This is my oregano plant

and this is my sage plant

None of the rest of my plants have bloomed yet. My gardening space is not very big but I still love the results. Someday, I'll have a big yard where I can plant tons of flowers..........someday....

Our Memorial Day Weekend Get Together

Earl, and my son's Jesse and Chad staring at the grill. Earl enjoys grilling with the boys!

My granddaughter Sabrina holding my grandson Anthony
My Daughter Alexis is feeding her son, Anthony, some watermelon and my son Jeremy is trying to help, actually he is dying to take over!

My son Ezie loves to fish, just like his big brothers!!
My daughter, Mallory and my granddaughter, Vivianna. Vivianna is trying to teach Mallory how to bait a hook. Mallory hates worms but she is going to prove that she is a tomboy!

Vivianna, Sabrina and Mallory fishing. Poor Mallory, she finally got the darn worm on the hook and as soon as she cast --the worm flew off! After she touched the worm and everything! Yuck!
My granddaughter, Miss Olivia, caught the first and only fish! She was so proud! I had to hurry and take a picture so she could throw the fish back in because it needed to breathe in the water!

My son Chad playing with his little brother Jace. I love the way my older kids interact with my younger kids even with such a large gap in their ages!!
Ezie fished all day long. You couldn't get him away from the water.

On Sunday all of my kids families, except for one of them, met at a park and spent the afternoon together. We had a wonderful time! We rarely all get together because of work schedules and stuff, so this was really a nice day. A couple of my daughter-in-laws had their sisters come to and it was really nice to see them. The kids fished and played while the guys all grilled. The girls and I talked and watched the kids. It was just the perfect day to spend with my family!!

My Oldest Son, Jeremy is 31 Today!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

This is me and Jeremy in our first apartment. He was almost 2 years old.

This is Jeremy when he was about 7 years old.

This was his "Michael Jackson" shirt. He wore it with a pair of black "parachute" pants.

Jeremy loved Michael Jackson!

Jeremy and his daughter Sabrina in January 2008

I had Jeremy when I was 15 years old. The last week on my pregnancy something happened to Jeremy's cord, it just kind of dried up. He became malnourished and had suffered an extreme lack of oxygen. The doctors honestly didn't think he would ever survive. I was told that "if" he lived he would be a vegetable. Well, Jeremy lived! He falls into the Educatedably Mentally Handicapped area, meaning his IQ is like 1 point below a low normal. He was in special ed all through school, has seizures (which are controlled by medication), has a pretty bad short term memory problem, he is at a 1st grade level in math-which means he doesn't really have a good concept of money, he has a hemiplegia - meaning one side of his body is slightly larger than the other. It's not as severe as cerebral palsy but just a milder form. So he tends to drag one of his legs a little bit especially when he is tired. Jeremy got made fun of more times than I can count in school. He would always brush it off and I would go home and cry and cry at how mean the other kids were to my little boy. It was like sticking a knife through my heart, but I guess it was better that I had the pain and not him.

Through all of the obstacles that Jeremy has endured he has turned out to be an amazing young man. He has held a full time job since he was 16 years old. He very rarely ever misses work. He will walk over 4 miles in below zero weather to get to work, he graduated from High School (it was special ed, but he still did it), he has a wonderful 10 1/2 year old daughter, and he has lived on his own for the last 7 years and hasn't even burned his apartment down!!

So I just want to say to Jeremy that I am very proud of you and of all of your accomplishments! You are a fighter and a hard worker. I know we all tease you a lot and sometimes we loose our patience with you but I love you and I am so proud to be your mom!!

Celebrate Rachael's 100th Blog! Come on and Party!

Rachael who is from Auckland, New Zealand and who's blog is The Rose Room, is having a "its nice to meet you, lets get to know each other a bit better" kind of party to celebrate her 100th Blog Posting.

A party that is going to run for 100 hours and at the end of the 100 hours and then Rachael will announce the prize winners.

As a way to get to know each better, she thought it would be fun if we showed where we blog from (thanks a lot Rachael!) and then answered 10 questions about ourselves.

Okay, this is my desk in that is up against the back wall in our living room. You can see my decor style, "Clutter, On Clutter" and a few of the pieces of my vintage pottery collection.

Ok, so here are my answers to the 10 questions.

Relationship: Divorced after 18 years and "living in sin" with Earl for 11 years now.

Children: Jeremy - 31 on Monday, Chad -28, Jesse -27, Daniel -21, Lexie -17, Ezie -9,
Mallory - 7 and finally my little Jace -2.

Pets: None, don't you think I have enough kids??? We haven't had any in a year or so after our long time bird friend, "Peanut" died last year and our long time goldfish, "Elmo" died the year before that.

Age: 46 - Damn, I'm getting old!!

Star Sign: Virgo

Fave Food: Ice Cream, I guess that explains the weight problem, huh?

Fave Drink: Wal-Marts Carbonated Flavored Waters and Icy Cold Michelob Ultra Light Beer

House Decor Style: Fisher Price and Craft Supplies, I guess you could best describe it at
"Clutter, on Clutter"- they are both in every room of my house!

Collections: Angels, Vintage Hankies, Vintage pottery and I'm just starting Vintage Head Vases.

How Did You Get Into Blogging: Just reading other people's blogs and in the beginning it was more a form of therapy, I was in a rather depressed stage. After the OWOH Giveaway 2008 I really got into the whole blogging thing. I discovered so many amazing woman out there who were kind of like me, and my blog went from depressing to whatever it is now.

Rachael has the champagne and is ready to celebrate! She is giving away some wonderful prizes so if you would like to join Rachael's party just go to The Rose Room and sign up. Party!!

An Update On My Niece, Bridget

I heard from my niece, Emily, Bridget's older sister yesterday. She said Bridget got up with a walker 3 times the night before to go to the little girls room and that she stayed awake for 5 hours straight. She may be able to go home Sunday to begin her long process of healing.

I also got a little better description of how Bridget hurt herself from Emily.

Emily writes, "From what I have heard from the various sources, this is what happened:

They were practicing rescue and retrieval and Bea was on a 20 foot platform. They lowered someone to the ground and she went to unhook them. She got nervous and unhooked herself accidentally. She didn't realize what had happened as she was falling and, even in the midst of the fall, thought she would be caught by something. She doesn't remember hitting the ground, but when she woke up, she was surrounded by people and she realized what had happened. She thought "oww. that hurts" and tried to get up and "shake it off" as she said. She feels very badly about the whole thing - our poor Bridget!!

Anyway, things are looking good and we are feeling so blessed that she isn't hurt worse. From what all the docs have said, she is one lucky girl!!! We are so happy she is still around :)

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers - she still needs them to keep her spirits up and work hard at recovering."

So, Thank you all who have left such nice messages about Bridget. I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and I know Bea and her family do too!!

Do you love CSI, Forensic Files and Other Such Crime Shows?

FORENSIC'S

Do you love CSI, Forensic Files and other such crime shows?? I LOVE shows like that and I am lucky enough to have a little brother who is actually a Forensic Anthropologist, Dr. Daniel J. Wescott.

I am going to brag about my little brother today. He never brags about himself. The only way we ever here about any of his accomplishments is from his wife, Deborah Cunningham, who is also a Professor at the University of Columbia-Missouri.

My little brother, Danny, is a forensic anthropologist. He is an Professor at the University of Columbia-Missouri. Here is part of a quote from the school website, "Danny Wescott has continued research in skeletal biology and assisting law enforcement agencies in forensic cases." and "He assisted law enforcement in several murder cases which also received coverage by the Columbia Tribune and KRCG 13 News."

I just received an email from Deborah the other day saying that Danny had helped in solving a recent murder in Missouri. There was a unidentifiable woman's body found in a shallow grave near the Missouri River. Danny determined that the woman had been dead anywhere from 3-30 days and that at one time she walked, but that she hadn't been able to walk recently. When this information was released by the media the calls started coming in with information about the woman's identity, Melissa A. Corn, and her possible murderer, David L. Corn. They arrested the woman's husband and solved the case. Here are a couple of links to articles about this story. http://www.showmenews.com/2008/May/20080521News004.asp http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/631007.html


Last year Danny helped with a very old (from approx. 1850) and rare cast iron casket that was found in Missouri. Here is a link to a television interview and article that KMBC Kansas City-TV did on Danny last year about the coffin. http://www.kmbc.com/news/13244225/detail.html Here is another link to an article that the maneater did on Danny and the coffin http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2007/4/17/uncovered-coffin-provides-hands-on-experience/

Danny took some of my family on a tour of his lab last spring to view the cast iron casket and the woman's remains.

My sister Cathy and Danny looking at the woman's bones.

So when you have a little brother who when he is 4 years old is telling the construction workers how to build houses or goes to the field at the top of your street and see's a "real live bear" don't totally brush him off as just being an annoying story telling little brother because one day he may grow up to be really telling true stories from the bones he digs up. I think part of him never grew up that he just likes to dig in the dirt!! I am so proud of you Danny and Deborah!

Here are some links to other stories that Danny has been involved in. http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2006/jul/20060716news001.asp
http://www.showmenews.com/2008/May/20080521News004.asp