Friday, March 30, 2012

Scrap happy bookmarks

I recently pinned a cute tute on making use of tiny scraps of fabric by creating bookmarks. Since I'm an avid reader, I thought I would whip some up.
I used a bookmark I already have, as a guide.  Just laid my fabrics out in the order I wanted, stitched, ironed on some interfacing,  sewed right sides together with another fabric for the back, then turned right side out and stitched around the edges.  Easy peasy.

I added a loop of ribbon to the tops and stitched my initials on one side of my "artwork". Once I got the hang of it, each one took me less than 10 minutes. 
Bubbie came home from school while I was in the thick of it and asked for his own.  Which got me to thinking:  there's a lot of people I could make these for, including his brothers, sister, aunt, grandmother...good thing I have plenty o' fabric scraps!


Gina

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Mealplan Monday #1 - cut yourself some slack!

Last week was rough - no doubt about it.  Between my job, my family, and helping my mother with her cornea surgery, I felt like taffy - pulled in all directions.  So I purposely made sure that the menus for this week were easy so I could do some stuff I had put off!

Monday - Crock Pot Roast, mashed potatoes, green beans
Tuesday - Cafe Rio Chicken Bowls with rice, pico, black beans, guacamole
Wednesday - Stouffer's lasagna, mixed veggies (Freezer meal night!)
Thursday - Homebaked Mac and Cheese, oven carrots
Friday - Buffalo Chicken Sammies, sweet potato tots, coleslaw
Saturday - Dad grills
Sunday - Leftover Beef and Beans from freezer, Cheesy garlic bread, salad


Gina

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hippity hop

I hopped into my favorite Salvation Army Family Store on Spring Break and found a couple of cute treasures:
 I paid $2.50 for the pair of them.  I do love terra cotta.
What's up with those bright red eyes?
A dab of dark brown nail polish changed that and he found a home in the china cabinet with a lot of other bunnies.
The terra cotta bunny got a bow and is perched on a bookcase.  He makes me smile every time I pass him!  I don't decorate for Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day - but Easter, that's something else entirely.  The Girl will be home, I will be off, and we can all go to church together and share a nice meal.  Time to get the house spruced for Spring and make the menu for Easter Sunday. 
What are your plans for that day?


Gina

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Teenagers are so good at this

I think Scout is so used to me bugging him, he's become immune to it.
It doesn't faze him for me to point the camera at him.  
  It's just fun catching a little slice of his day.
When he gets home from school, the first thing he does is grab a snack and sit at the kitchen table.
 
He likes to drink the rest of his morning coffee and catch up on texting.  If you forget to save the rest of his coffee from breakfast, , and toss it while you clean kitchen, you will regret it when he gets home.  It doesn't matter to him that it's not fresh.  Or that it's cold.
It only matters that he has this little bit of down time at the end of the school day. A creature of habit, he is. 


Gina

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Painting fail

Several months ago I painted the inside of the bookcase a color to coordinate with the rest of the den:
 
 
It actually worked fine until anything bumped up against the paint.  Then stuff like this happened:
 And once I saw it I had to see if more would just peel off. The answer was yes.  
  Windex helped get it all to loosen up and come off easily.  And here I thought I was so smart using a paint with primer.  At least I got smart removing it with my widget and the Windex.  It was like removing wallpaper - except that it was stretchy. 
At least all of it came off without damaging the wall behind it. 
I just pulled everything out, cleaned it up, put things back like I thought they would work better.

The slick paint in the back of the bookcase apparently doesn't want to be painted!


Gina

Sunday, March 4, 2012

No such thing as a junk drawer!

I was searching for something and realized it had been a while since I had done a clean sweep on this drawer.  I like to call it my "office drawer" since it has tools I might need in my daily job as mom/cook/cleaner/chauffeur/cat wrangler.
Just a little jumbled.  But where the heck is my widget?  I need it!
I remember having to fish around for a battery last time I needed one so I put a recycled container to use.  A perfect fit.
Baskets and really small ziploc snack containers are my friends.  And I love clips.  All kinds of clips.  Especially those honkin' big paper clips.  So handy.
I snagged a magnetic paper clip holder from hubby's old desk and now it holds safety pins.  Odds and ends have their own tiny spot.  
See our spare set of keys?  One driveway and four cars equals the automotive version of musical chairs.
I think it was 15 minutes well spent!  Some things were in this drawer that just didn't belong, so out they went.  Everything else got arranged neatly.  It pays to be OCD organized.
No such thing as a "Junk Drawer".  Space is too valuable at this house!


Gina

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