What Now?

Halloween is over and my life is no longer consumed with costumes and candy - well, at least the costumes are out of the picture.

Pirate, Lanie (AG), Cinderella, Dora and Special Forces

The kids had a blast and everyone was pleased with the final costume.  (A huge relief for a stressed out momma.)  The candy haul was extreme this year, too.  We have some of the most wonderful and generous neighbors!  Although, I'm trying to decide if I need to remind the kids or the husband that trash goes in the trash can.  Hmmmm........

So, now I'm on to crafting and sewing whatever I want, right?  Definitely true - to an extent.  I have Christmas on the brain and that makes it hard to think of much else.  'What about Thanksgiving?', you ask?  I really enjoy Thanksgiving, but I don't feel the need to DO anything for that holiday.  Thanksgiving is just a great time of the year in which I know I get to spend a lot of special time with family.  Christmas is family time and stress time.

Now that you all know where my mind is, you know where this blog is headed for the next couple of months.  (Really - 53 days?!)  I've got some new ideas of my own and lots of ideas rounded up from other places I'm hoping to share with you during this time.  {If you are family, don't read this for the next month or so if want to be surprised.}

I've already started.  Here's a sneak peak at one Christmas project/gift idea I'll be sharing with you all very soon.

If you haven't yet, now is a good time to like This Too! on Facebook.  I'll be on there quite a bit adding little snippets and comments (or questions!) as the time goes by.  Feel free to post any of your own links, pictures, questions and comments, too.  Just please keep it craft related and G rated.  Maybe we can help each other make it to the end of the season with our crafts all wrapped and ready to give!

The Original Scrapbox

Have you seen this before?  I stumbled upon The Original Scrapbox about 2 weeks ago, and I find myself going back to it time and time again to drool over all the products.  When you click on the link above, you will get to see a short video.  The Original Scrap Box is a scrapbooking storage system with fold out table and cabinets for the home.  (Yep, you read that right.  A table!).  It offers shelving, racks, carry totes, ribbon boxes and drawers.... I mean, could it get any better?!

It blows my mind!  Of course, I look at it and think how much cleaner my craft room would look.  I think this is the one ...



Although, this one looks really nice, too.



Both of those are The Workbox, just in different finishes.  See all the bins and pouches inside the cabinet?  It comes with 81 canvas totes in various sizes and 20 clear zippered pouches!  No extra buying.

Of course, in my mind, I would also 'need' this -

All the totes and pouches are included with this one as well.

There are other products available. Like this.

The CraftBox: Vanilla Raised Panel Craft Storage Furniture

Or this.

The EZ View: White Craft Desk Craft Storage Furniture

There's even a Sewing Box for those of us who sew.  And a Paper Tower for storing, you guessed it, paper.  Although, I think the Paper Tower would also work well for  storing a stash of material.  Or both- I'm equal opportunity.

There are several different accessories available, as well.

I'll give you one more piece of information... Shipping is FREE in the continental USA on several of the products.

Okay..... pick your chin up off your lap and wipe away the drool.  :)  One of these days I'll be posting a picture of my craft room all nicely organized featuring one of these amazing cabinets.  Until then, I'll keep going back to the site trying to decide which finish would look best in my home.

Identity Crisis

I often get on my blog and play around with the appearance of my blog.  Seems to be happening a lot lately.  (Have you noticed?)
I finally just made myself sit down and create my own banner and the above is the result.  A graphic designer I am not, so here's the run down on my sources I used to create it all.

Image Manipulation Program

I downloaded and used GIMP.

I didn't have a good program on my Mac and GIMP is great and it's FREE.  There's a learning curve with this program as with any other program.  A huge plus is having tutorials on the web and lots of 'how to' videos on youtube.com to make that learning curve a little shorter.

Images


There are so many sources out there for graphics to use on personal sites.  Just do a search and you will quickly be overwhelmed.  The specific site I used was Pixels and Ice Cream.  The background of my banner is 'Gypsy Garden' found under 'paper kits'.

And that's it.  Well, there is the time involved to get everything just the way you want it.  And all the extra time involved when you mess up and have to start over.  Or change your mind on what you want the end result to look like and have to start over.  (Or does this only happen to me?)

So?  What do you all think?  Do you have any good sources or products or resources you like to use?

Kitchen Confession

I'm in the mood to repaint my kitchen.  I love the color, but right now it just looks like a dark hole. *sigh*

Dark walls, dark cabinets and dark furniture.  I need something lighter.  

I think a kitchen full of white cabinets is beautiful and open looking.  

Via pauladeenmagazine.com

There's no way I'm going to repaint our current cabinets, even if Kevin were to jump on board with the idea.

So the walls it is.  Now to go through the agony of picking out just the right color.  Any suggestions?

New (to me) Blog

Well, I've stumbled upon a new blog and they are doing a giveaway of 2 Janome sewing machines!  Yep!  You read right.  How exciting!

Kim and Kris have some great ideas and videos going on over at The DIY Dish.  Head over and take a look around at everything they are doing.  Don't forget to enter for your chance to win in the giveaway while you're there, too.



Can't wait to see what is to come!

Begging For More!

Ever serve your kids spinach, carrots and sweet potatoes and have them begging you for more?  Me either, until Saturday night.  Now, my oldest is a parents dream when it comes to eating veggies.  Baby spinach salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers and feta cheese is one of her favorite side dishes.  She won't touch a baked potato for anything, though - go figure!

Anyway,  the other three leave a bit to be desired in there veggie consumption.  But, Saturday was such a special night here.  A friend recommended the cookbook Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld to me over a year ago.  I've even had it on hand for that long and just put off using any of the recipies thinking it wouldn't work on my kids.  Boy, was I wrong!

Hubby and I kept stealing glances across the table as each child tried the homemade chicken nuggets smuggeling copious amounts of sweet potatoes into their little bodies.  Score one!  Dipped in buttermilk ranch made from a can of great northern beans.  Score two!  And for dessert?  Yummy chocolaty brownies filled with spinach and carrots.  HOME RUN!!!  My kids couldn't get enough of it all.

Next on the list - Another batch of brownies for home and one for Hubby's office, Blueberry muffins with flaxseed meal and yellow squash, and pink pancakes with beets and apples.  How scrumptious!

Who knew eating your vegetables could be so good?!

Sweet Booties!!

Hubby and I had a very nice and unexpected Valentine's weekend. My wonderful in-laws decided to make a last minute trip for a visit. They even suggested we take some time for ourselves and actually have a Valentine's day date. Let's face it, they really came to see the grandkids and not us, anyway!

I was, once again, spoiled by my sweetie - eating at P. F. Changs (yumm!) and going to several different stores at the local malls. The highlight was when at Barnes & Noble bookstore, I was told to bring the craft book I'd been drooling over to the register. I felt a bit guilty, since I knew I could probably get it off of Amazon.com cheaper, but who am I to argue?

Image via Amazon.com

There are so many yummy little project to keep me busy and surrounded by happy colors until summer is in full swing. Booties? Of course. Hats? Yep. Bloomers? I'll take two, please!

The cherry on the top was going out again yesterday to Joann's and getting to pick out some material to actually do the projects instead of just looking at the book. The ones on the left are fat quarters (for $1) and those on the right are knits. Aren't they pretty?!

Now, there has been no sewing at this point, but the material is washed and that's a step in the right direction. Next will be cleaning up my sewing area so a full scale project can be done without chaos creaping in around me.