Busy, Busy, Busy!

My BFF reminded me that I have not posted since Tuesday. I've been too busy to post on my blog but any free time I get, I have to catch up on the blogs that I read!
Anyway, nothing new to post except that I did get started on another water bottle holder. The weekend will be quite busy out in the yard since last weekend I couldn't get out there. The grass in the front yard is about 6" tall or so! I want to get some more squash and green beans in the ground and I really need to paint around the new front door and the new trim around the garden door and kitchen window. So much to do, so little time!

Spooked!!!

When I got home from work yesterday, I opened the door, saw no one in the living room but the t.v. was on loud and clear. The news was about some killer on the loose. I quietly closed the door behind me and crept around the corner and got a glimpse of Sparky standing at the kitchen sink with his back to me. He had no idea I was home. I then very quietly snuck over to the wall and waited.... It was very hard for me not to giggle at the idea of jumping out and spooking my husband! So I'm waiting then I see his shadow moving, indicating that he's coming around the corner. The timing was right so I jumped out, shook my hands like a monster would and made a sound that was something between a scream and a growl! It's very rare that I can spook Sparky. The result was sweet justice! He threw his head back, hollered and drew back to swing. Luckily there was enough distance between us for him to realize that he didn't need to attack, after all, it was just little 'ol me. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants! It was great but it's just a matter of time before he gets me back...

Hey, remember me saying that I had ordered some home made soap from Old Red Barn Co.? Well, It came yesterday! I must say, this soap is fantastic! Oh it smells so good and made my skin feel so soft. Love, love, love it! Thanks Dana, I will definitely be ordering more in the future!

Monday Madness!

It's been very crazy here at work this morning! With the phones ringing off the hook and the clients coming in, I can't hardly get my blog done! Don't these people know I got a blog to do? Sheesh!
Anyway, can you believe that I did not take any pictures of "That Baby" this past weekend? What is wrong mith me? I'll tell you what happened. I was so busy trying to keep up with her that I didn't even have time to pick up my camera! We had a blast though and we didn't want to take her back. But we did and we look forward to her next visit!
I did manage to make a proto-type of a water bottle holder. I'm participating in a swap that was arranged by Rhonda and her crew over at down-to-earth. I really love the swap idea and look forward to others! This is my first water bottle holder so I will keep this one for myself since it has a few flaws, I'll work the kinks out on the next one.

I think the pocket is too big, it takes up the whole front and you can't really see the fabric design behind it. I'd like to have a heavier strap as opposed to the thin ribbon. I couldn't find any insulation material so I used a reversable quilted fabric, I love quilted fabric! I ran into a problem with the exposed seams on the inside so I think I will add an inner linning, that way the inside seams will not be seen. I think this is a great project, very cute and very functional. It's a pain to have to carry your water bottle around when you're out and about, this little thing is wonderful, kudos to the inventor!

Fantastic Friday!

Today is Fantastic Friday because I will go and pick "That Baby" up after work and I cannot wait!!!! It's such a treat to see her reaction each time she sees me when it's been a few weeks. She gets that tell tell look of surprise with her eyes wide and a big 'ol smile and says "oh!" then she reaches her little arms out to me and starts her little dancing. Then on the ride to my house, she gets so excited and just rambles and rambles, I look back at her and she laughs and wiggles. I'll point out the window and say "Look!" and she turns her head real fast to see and say's "Wus Daaaat?" Oh she's so cute I can't hardly stand it! I don't know what any of us did before she came along. We recently learned that she is going to have a baby sister or a baby brother next March. I'm hoping for a "Sissy" for her.
Here are some older pics...

She fell asleep during a shoulder ride. I love how she uses Sparky's ears for handles!


Here she is just being silly. She has the best personality for someone so young and small!


Santa Clause brought this little gift to us on Christmas Day of 2006. Here she is on her first birthday last year. It's hard to believe she will be 2 this Christmas!


Stay tuned for new pics on Monday...

Thursday Thanks

I thought that since today is Thursday, I could designate it the day to give thanks. Of course we should give thanks everyday but I'm just sayin', for the sake of today's title, I'm gonna give thanks. So here it goes...

I'm thankful for the very first blooms on my very first Crape Myrtle. The other baby tree has buds but they haven't bloomed yet...


I'm thankful for this piggy bank that my Grandmother gave me for my 15th birthday, it was filled with money! The money has been long gone and Aunt Jamima is looking a bit rough. I think I will spruce her up a little with some fresh paint...


I'm thankful for my cat. His name is Tom Thumb, can you see why? He is a great hunter of squirrels, rats, birds and lizards.


I'm thankful for many, many things but I am not thankful for the punks that keep abusing my mailbox! This is what happens when you have teen age sons who break up with their girlfriends, then said girlfriends get new boyfriends to make the old boyfriend pay for breaking up with her. Oh btw, this was the original mail box. They snatched this one out of the ground and took it with them. Sparky went and bought another mail box and a new post but on the way back saw the old box laying on the side of the road so he brought it back home too. He put the new box on the post and stuck it really far down into the ground. The next morning we discovered that like the old mailbox, the new one had been abducted too! By now Sparky is pretty ticked and very irritated about the kid drama. So, he puts the old box back out but this time he attached it to the concrete wall. Now it seems that all they can do is beat the mail box up. I so want to hide in the bushes and jump out and scare the crap outta these kids then I want to take their bat away from them and take out their truck windows! Wouldn't that be a hoot?!

Wednesday's Whine...

Well yall, I didn't win the Quilt Give Away from Old Red Barn Co. but that's ok cuz not winning has inspired me to make another quilt myself. I just need to finish the trim on Momma & Daddy's quilt first! This year I'm going to make it a goal to only give handmade gifts for Christmas... I'm gonna need more hands! Where was I ? Oh yea, so I didn't win the quilt but I found another super cool blog that I totally enjoy reading plus if making my own soap doesn't work out so good, I've got Dana to buy soap from! By the way, hey Dana, I don't know if it was intentional or not but that was a great marketing strategy! It worked on me, I ordered a set from your website. I'm curious as to how many orders were placed this past week and over the next day or two? I'd like to open up another website someday so I'll keep that move in mind! Gosh, it would be so nice to be able to stay home, make my things, sell them and make enough money to live on. I know - dream on, right? Maybe someday.

In the mean time, I am seriously sick of those squash vine borers! I hate 'em. Ok so imagine this -I merrily skip out to The Garden, I'm so excited, a big smile on my face, I get to the squash, lean over to pick my beautiful perfect squash, I flip it over and what do I find??? Teeny tiney holes. Yep. At this point, my big cheery face has now turned to something that resembles wild and evil rage, I then begin to spit out some very, very ugly words while steam is coming from my ears! Those damn things are ruthless! I think it's probably too late to get rid of them and I'm so fed up that when I do plant more, I'm using sevin dust. It's just that bad. I was also thinking that I'm not cut out for gardening in the summer time. It's just too bloody hot to be out there weeding-n-crap. I almost had a heat stroke last weekend! Besides, the dog days of summer is the perfect time to be inside making things. Spring and fall for gardening, summer and winter for crafting, I think that should be a law.

How 'bout a photo or two?

This is The Garden Gate Guard. Intimidating isn't he?


The Garden's Painted Lady. I have successfully brought her back from the dead!


Pretty Pink Mandavilla, growing like crazy!


Until next time...

How dang hot was it this weekend?

I never did get a chance to look up the temperatures for Saturday and Sunday but I bet is was at least 100 degrees. And cheese & rice, was it humid and sticky! BUT that didn't stop me from getting things done around the house and in The Garden. Saturday I played in the house all day. I watched a few movies. I sewed myself a basic flared skirt but I'm not really happy with it. It's a little too big in the hips and I hate elastic waist bands so I'm gonna work on figuring out how to do something different with it. I also baked 2 loaves of bread and finished my very first afghan! On sunday, I worked in The Garden, ALL... DAY... LONG. I looked terrible! I don't think I've ever sweated like that before in my life! Well, I may have looked terrible but The Garden looks great! Enjoy the pics!

Here's my afghan! Not bad, huh?


Pleeez don't let the worms get into this guy!


Surviving squash.


Okra plants lookin' good but no signs of okra
yet, what's up wid dat???


The green beans look great, I think I'll plant more!


It's a baby loofa!!!

My Boys

I have 5 boys (including my cutie pie husband)! Actually we are a blended family. I contributed 2 boys and my husband contributed 2 boys. We have all been together for 11 years now. The boys were cute little boys back then - gettin dirty, playing hide and seek, gettin into trouble, fightin', all the things that little boys do. The boys were 3, 5, 5 and 7 when we all met, now they are 14, 16, 16 and 18. Time sure does fly! It's amazing how they've grown. One of the 16 year olds is almost 6'2" and I expect the other one will be about as tall before next summer! The 18 year old hasn't decided what he wants to do yet but we think he's leaning towards the Marines. And the 14 year old is just loving being 14! It hasn't been easy getting through the phases, accepting the individual styles, the learners permitts, the girl friend issues, the sneaking out, the fights at school, the bad report cards and the many other unpleasantries that come along with raising children. On the other hand, the boys have all been an overall joy to bring up. They go from making construction paper Mother's Day cards to being all bowed up and ready to punch some guy because he was checking Mom out. They're just so cute, at all ages. Sparky and I reminisce all the time about them when they were little. We miss them being little but it's nice that they are bigger! Some day, we'll be bouncing grandchildren on our knees and reminiscing yet again...

This is Sparky and I with "That Baby!" and Sparky's 2 sons, the tall one on the left just turned 16 2 days ago and the one on the right just turned 18 this past May.


This is my oldest son, he will be 17 in December and is rapidly getting tall...finally!


This is my baby, he just turned 14 this past May and is lovin it!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was Cory's 16th birthday so when I got off work I had to rush home to finish his cake. He's been saying how he wants to eat healthier so he opted for a fuity kind of cake instead of the usual chocolate. Needless to say, Sparky was a bit disappointed. Anyway, Cory loves him some shrimp so we took him to a local seafood restaurant where we all ate so much that we couldn't eat any cake. But never fear! There will be some cake eating today!!!



You want some don't you? Looks real good huh?

Alright fine! So I didn't really make the cake but I could have! I really had ya'll goin, didn't I?
Well, my birthday is next so I think I'll make my own cake this year but It'll definitely have to have some chocolate in it. Maybe Chocolate AND fruity? Sounds good to me!

Quilt Give Away!!!

Hey everyone!
Dana over at http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ is giving away a totally awesome quilt! See it over to the right on my side bar? Yea, so go check out her way cool blog and enter to win!

Go Me!
(I'm my own little cheerleader)

p.s.
I have been meaning to post a pic of my first quilt. It was an old, heavy (not very pretty) quilt that I bought at a yard sale many years ago. After looking at a quilting book I was inspired to try and make the old quilt look new. So I read the pattern directions, made the top, the back and recovered the old one. It turned out perfect! I'd say it's somewhere around queen size and is even heavier now. So now when I'm at yard sales, I keep my eyes open for old and not so pretty quilts.

Bad Gardener!

I was too embarrassed to post the condition of my garden of late. I know it's shameful but I think I just got lazy. With all the rain we've been getting, the weeds have just completely taken over! I thought about taking a before and after shot of everything but decided against it, it was really that terrible. I did get a lot done in The Garden, thankfully. However, my body is not thankful. Gardening really is A LOT of work! Ok so I got almost all of the weeding done in the traditional plot and I harvested more carrots from it. I pulled out all of the corn that I completely failed at, which was all of it! I harvested a bunch of basil (I just love the smell of basil!) and attempted to transplant quite a bit of it, don't know if it'll work or not though, we'll see. Then I had Hubby, (whom I'm now effectionately calling "Sparky", remember National Lampoon's Vacation?) build me another SFG in the area I grow tomatoes in. I can't afford to fill it up with nice "clean" soil right now so I've hoed up a few little rows of the existing soil, haven't decided exactly what I want to plant yet. I might do another tomato plant and some more green beans, or maybe spinach? I did all that on Saturday then on Sunday, I did what I thought would be best for the watermellon/cantaloupe patch. I messed up from the start by planting too many and too close together. Needless to say, I had vines going every where, mixed in with the massive amounts of weeds of course! Then I discovered that there were some sort of larva eating my baby mellons...already!!!!!! That was it! Right then and there I decided that I had to take control of this very disturbing situation. So in the hopes of greater good, I dove in and sacrificed 3 of each plant so now I only have 1 watermelon and 1 cantaloupe plant. By the time I got the other plants separated from the keepers, (which was like untangling a big ball of yarn) and all the weeds pulled, the keepers began looking a little wilted. Loosing the fight against the bugs, I opted to spinkle a little sevin dust on top of the soil before laying the vines back down. I haven't used sevin dust since I learned that it kills bees. But in this case, I thought if I put it on the ground instead of on the plants flowers, maybe the bees will be okay. I have one watermelon that is about the size of a mature cantaloupe and I'd relly like to eat is in a few weeks as opposed to the bugs eating it! My squash is getting hit by the bugs too so I removed any leaves that had what looked like bug eggs on the under sides of the leaves and then I sprayed the rest of the plants with a mix of veggie oil, dish washing liquid and water. Hopfully that'll keep the nasty little worms away. Again, gardening is A LOT of work. Have I mentioned how bad my legs and gluteus maximus hurt? I walk like an elderly person!
I also managed to bake some bread and spinach artichoke dip. It was soooo good. Dang! I shoulda took a picture. Oh well.
My 10 month old niece Daylin spent the night Friday night. She's getting so big. She was born almost 3 months early so it's taking her a little bit longer to do the big girl things but she's getting there. Here are a few pics...I tell you what, I have the cutest nieces in the world!!!



Finally took a few shots of my perpetual orchid, this thing has been in bloom for weeks now!


Now I'm a butterfly mommy! This little jewel was hanging out while her wings dried right after being hatched! She's a Gulf Fritillary, aint she pretty?

Slacker!!!

Ok, I admit it. I've been slacking here. Let me see if I can get cought up...

On the 4th of July, we had a surprise visitor. I was awoken from my sleeping in by a pounding on the door. I turned on the monitor so I could determine whether or not I wanted to ignore whoever it was at my door. At first I thought it was one of hubby's annoying buddies but then I realized that it was my sister! Knowing she had "That Baby!" with her, I immediately engaged in a violent brawl with the covers. No matter how I kicked, threw my arms, wiggled or turned, those damn covers were determined to keep me in that bed! Fearing that my sister would think no one was home and leave, I started screaming to hold on and that I was coming! The covers seemed to feed off of my panic so I decided to take control of the situation by slithering off the bed like a snake. Ha! I won. Take that you covers!
Our visitors stayed the whole weekend, which was nice, we had a really good time! Friday we grilled, played volley ball and watched fireworks from the driveway. Saturday we went to the beach. That Baby had a blast! She was a little worried about the waves at first but it didn't take her long to enjoy them. She learned to chase the seagulls and meet other kids with toys. She walked up and down the beach like she owned the place! Here are a few pics...