Living Life Beautifully

I finished this bag today. It was made from fabric samples I purchased from Johnson's furniture. So much fun to make. Although my poor sewing machine is in need of some tender loving care after all that heavy duty fabric. She may be on her last leg soon. I made two cases to match. One for glasses and the other for a phone or whatever. Today was a stressful day. Being a parent isn't as much fun as you think it's going to be. You think the terrible twos is bad and then you have a teen. You think that's bad and then you have a college student. The definition of college student is = I'm and adult so I don't have to listen to you, but I still want to live in your house, eat your food and do as I please. I can't complain too much. I really do have great kids. I had started some bibs back when Justin and Taylor were babies. I made one for each of them so they could wear them to the parade. A while back I found the same bibs in an unfinished projects tote already cu...

I've been working on some shaby chic designs here and there. It's cheap therapy for me. I thought I would post some pictures of the purses I finished yesterday and the sunglass bags I have ready to go. I make them up and put them away in a tote until I'm ready to take them somewhere to be sold. It's kinda fun, every once in a while, to have a look and see what all I've made. This is a cross over bag that is about 8 1/2 X 12 inches. Cross over, meaning the strap is sized to go across your body. I'm curious if it will fit an ipad. I don't have an ipad so I'm not sure. It has a velcro close, one interior pocket and one exterior pocket. I bought this purse with all the basic body of it finished. It has a really pretty purple interior fabric, no interior pocket, but two exterior pockets. It was a lot of fun working on this one and getting to do all the embelishments. It's a solid bag that stands very well on it's own. This bag is very soft and...

As I was walking through the kitchen this morning I noticed one of my ivy plants needed water. I grow them in water without dirt. I then thought about the fact Scott, Mike and I all grow ivy in water. Scott has the most impressive one that grows along his upstairs railing. Mine are the most pathetic. If you take a cutting of ivy and put it in water, it will grow really well. You just have to make sure that when you add water, you don't stir the roots too much because it will shock it a bit. I keep my african violet on top of the frig. I only water it when it starts to look a bit wilted. If you over water, it will die. My one plant has turned into two. I need to transplant it soon. Wish me luck. I've never done that with an african violet. I remember my mother puting an african violet leaf in dirt and watching it start a new plant. I'm going to have to try that sometime. Our pond has been growing lillies ever since the pump stopped running. We had a beautiful gol...

This morning, as I was trying to hook up enough hoses to water trees on the edge of the property, I noticed a baby dove on the ground. A perfectly healthy baby dove that had fallen from it's nest. The mother dove was frantic flying around, but I could only see one nest and it looked a bit of a mess as if the parents were new to building it and didn't really do a very good job. I decided it wouldn't be worth trying to put the baby back in it's nest and instead thought I would try to find someone to take it and hand raise it. I thought about how I had found a dove once before and my parents put it in the pigeon house they had. One of the older birds actually raised the baby dove as their own. So I decided to try the feed store to see if they might know of someone who would be interested in taking it. The owner of the feed store suggested I try to hand raise it myself. I said I'd been there and done that, without success, once before, and that I have too many cats arou...

It's beautiful outside. Although they didn't think it would get to 100 and I think it's close. I have a few minutes before I have to pick up Alex and thought I would post something just to kill some time. I'm trying to think of good stuff. Every time I turn on the tv or think about all the things that are going on...it overwhelms me. So I went outside and watered the crunchy grass, sat on the swing, and opened some curtains to let the light in. I should stay away from the news and even facebook for a while. My husband says I get too upset because of what other people are going through as if it's not enough to just worry about my own life and family. He's right. Watching friends and people I don't even know, going through difficult stuff puts me in the dumps. I hate not being able to make it all better. Bad things should not happen to good people. Or so it would seem. So...today I'm going to try very hard to think about good stuff, and yet still pray for ...

Trying to explain, to one of the twins why the bad stuff always happens to him, isn't easy. I just tell him that God has a plan for him, and maybe he needs him to learn a few things from his experiences. It's hard when your kids, for the most part, do the right thing but bad things still happen. I think I have pretty good kids, but wow how different they are. I'm so glad it's Friday. I think I'll do laundry and work on some crafts. Last week I sold a large Santa and a large Angel Doll. That was wonderful and couldn't have come at a better time for us financially. I also have some sun glass cases at a shop in Gruene called "Simply Chic" at Gruene Lake Village. I also have a bunch of my designs at "Maldonado Nursery". I pray it rains soon. The deer that sleep on our property, with all their little babies, are ravenous. We give them water, cracked corn, and deer pellets, along with watermelon left overs, day old bread and anything else w...