Pond Collection

For my birthday, my mom gave me the coolest handmade pottery piece. She has one herself, and I have been threatening to steal it for months now. Instead of losing hers to sticky fingers, she surprised me with it for my birthday!

She said that she left it empty so I could fill it with an arrangement of my own... even though her arrangement would have been stunning.

I had originally planned to put a sunflower arrangement in this pitcher, but my husband informed me that sunflowers are "way lame" and I can "do much better than that." Soo... we went searching through the floral section at Hobby Lobby.

I picked up some pretty funky ivory ball puffs and knew everything needed to compliment those. I also picked up some seed pods that I had been eyeballing for a few weeks. Andrew helped me pick out some other really fun items.

When we got everything together, he looked at it and informed me that it looked like a pond collection. At first, this didn't sound very appealing to me, but it quickly grew on me because everything looked so natural and beautiful.

So... here is the finished product! It is SO pretty sitting in the middle of the kitchen table! We really like the colors, the pottery, and the natural feel about this arrangement. Andrew says that he believes the pond collection will catch on quickly because it's so pretty!



Deer Roast

Clever title, huh?

I'm not feeling very creative tonight if you can't tell.

Anyway, after Andrew got over his illness, he made a pretty awesome roast with some of the deer he got last weekend.

Here's his recipe!

Ingredients:

1 Roast

6 Red Potatoes, cubed

4 Carrots, chopped

3 Celery Stalks, chopped

1 Onion, chopped

8 beef buillion cubes

Water to Cover

Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

Sear roast to lock in juices. Add to crockpot.

Add onion, carrots, potatoes, celery, water, and beef buillion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook on high for 3 hours. Reduce heat to low for at least 3 hours.

Cook until roast is done throughout and the veggies are tender.

Serve and enjoy!

There is something about eating a meal that someone else has prepared that makes it taste so much better. It was definitely a nice treat to have my husband cook a meal for us! He's pretty good in the kitchen!



Life With Gato

The Bachelor Pad:

Since Theodore cannot be trusted alone at night, he currently has his own room. We refer to it as the Bachelor Pad. You see, I did leave Theodore out last weekend while my mom was here. A ponytail holder went missing on Friday night. It reappeared yesterday morning. Gross. He's worse than a dog when it comes to eating things.

Anyway, he's very fond of his room. He makes sure to let everyone know that it belongs to him. His favorite part of his room? The chair by the window. He sleeps there at night, watches out the window, and has taken to staying in there most of the day. I blame that on him being almost 18 years-old in human years. He's been quite the teenager lately.

Anti-Social Gato:

As I said, he's taken to being a teenager. He's quite anti-social lately. He will either be in his room, or if he joins me at night, he will often face away from me instead of facing me like he did in the past. I'm not quite a fan of this stage, but, it too shall pass.

The Adorable Gato:

I love watching him sleep. He always looks so cozy... and he always sleeps in the most hilarious ways.

I also really enjoy when he tucks his paws and legs under like this. He looks like a seal.

He absolutely loves being snuggled up under blankets. It's too cute when he is, because he won't move for hours.

The Lap Cat:

Even though he's taken to being anti-social, there are some occasions where he just needs to snuggle with me. I'll wake up from a nap to find him curled up next to me, or while we're watching a movie, I'll suddenly find a cat in my lap.

He's pretty cute- and we're pretty fond of this furry creature.

The cutest thing he's done lately? Last night, we were watching a movie. I pulled my blanket onto me. Theodore hopped onto my lap from UNDER the blanket... stretched the blanket out as far as it would go with his head... until it covered Andrew's feet as well. Once this deliberate task was accomplished, he laid down and fell asleep between us. You see, Andrew normally only covers his feet while we're watching a movie... and Theodore had to make sure that Andrew, his best friend, was taken care of.

He's awfully sweet.

And, he makes life interesting.



GOOO Team!

Today I received an order for 11 blue, yellow, and white felt flower clips. Stephanie requested one for each of her volleyball team members to wear on game day. The hardest part about this? Finding volleyball charms. Seriously, they had every other sport available. Luckily, my husband ISN'T afraid to ask for help, and he had a Hobby Lobby worker point us in a different direction... the scrapbooking section. They had just what we were looking for... plus one!

So, I got to work on these adorable flowers.

After "finishing" about 4 of them, I realized that they needed a little spunk. So, I added the three rhinestones to the petals. You see, I dearly love the girl who ordered from me, and I just had to spoil her a bit.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out, and I can't wait to see the team in them... that means I need a picture, Steph!

I never thought that I would make something for a sports team, but these are just too cute for words, and I think that I will be glad to fulfill more orders such as these in the future! I hear basketball season is coming up for this customer... : ) I also hear that she may be interested in a new clip. Time will tell!

I love my little business, and I love making people happy. It's been such a blessing to work with so many people!



Simply Chic

I had a lunch date today. Helen (Andrew's Nana) invited me to her house to have lunch with her, Harry, and Keith (Andrew's Dad). I jumped at the chance to have lunch with three of my favorite people on my birthday. It doesn't get much better than that!

I wanted "dress up" a bit without "dressing up" at all. So...

I turned one of my felt flowers that I made yesterday into the cutest accessory! I love it!

I attached it to a skinny elastic headband... and it is actually pretty comfy to wear!

I see a lot more of these in my future... I might just make one for every outfit (or at least a brooch for every coat). Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration... but, I love how they dress up an outfit without needing to dress up at all. I just wore jeans and a casual shirt, but this headband added the extra pizazz that this outfit needed. In fact, as I was leaving, I met up with our pastor's parents. His step-mom commented on how nice I looked... and how much she loved my flower!

YAY for success and YAY for handmade, chic accessories.

By the way, if you did not read my previous blog, please do so. My birthday has been filled with many, many WONDERFUL blessings... including my lunch today. God is so, SO good to me.

Bless and be Blessed

This morning, I made my usual trek to the post office to ship my latest orders. I was later than normal this morning, but it's true what they say, God puts His children in certain places at specific times for very explicit reasons. I walked into the post office with my arms loaded with four packages. I noticed that no one was behind the desk, and there were several people in line ahead of me... and more trickling in behind me. My Irish, redheaded temper started to creep up on me when I noticed something a little out of the ordinary.

At the middle counter, where people stand to fill out packaging labels and so forth, stood a woman. At first glance, it was obvious that she had lived a tough life. Her clothes were filthy and worn, her hair was matted and caked with grease, and her face looked worn down and tired. She was staring at a change of address form... not moving. She looked up and our eyes met. I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw kindness... purity... and a twinge of saddness.

She came up to me, out of all the other people in there, and said, "Can you tell me how to spell Frederick?" At first, I gagged on the awful stench that permeated her every being, but then I walked with her to the counter and started to spell F-R-E-D. When "D" crossed my lips, I noticed she was not keeping up. Each letter was painfully, carefully printed onto the form with the penmanship of a child. I slowed down and watched to make sure she had every letter down. It was then that I realized she didn't have ANY of the form filled out.

I realized that she could not read.

At this point, I set my four packages down and started at the top of the form. I showed her where the date went, pointed out where she needed to write her name, and walked her through each of the questions she needed to answer. While doing this, the line backed up even more. I turned to those behind me and told them to go on. I wasn't going to leave this lady to fend for herself. It took us ten minutes to fill out this tiny form. The human in me wanted to grab the pen and fill it out for her to get it done more quickly, but it was evident that this was something that meant a lot to her.

When we reached the end of the form, I learned that her name was Gloria. How fitting.

She looked up at me with misty eyes and thanked me for my help. She encouraged me to go ahead of her in line (at this point the post office was empty), but I needed a moment to regain composure before talking to anyone.

She handed her form to the lady at the desk... and I could not believe my eyes or ears. The worker took the form from her, scribbled something down, and said "You used to live at NORTH Frederick." No please, no thank you, nothing. FURTHERMORE, this lady knew all of the information necessary the WHOLE time I was working with Gloria. Gloria hung her head, said thank you, and left the post office.

I was told it was my turn. I put my packages down, and the worker rambled off all of the information she needed and then said "Thank you for taking the time to help her." I wanted to spout of something unkind, but I simply smiled and assured her that it was nothing and I was glad to do it. Before I even got these words out, she was turned to her co-worker laughing at Gloria's expense.

Since when has society become so calloused that they miss an opportunity to love? As I left, I thanked God for putting me in the right place at the right time. I also thanked Him for showing me that I needed to be willing to take the time necessary to help Gloria. Silent witnesses... showing Christ's love through kindess, speaks far greater volumes than door-to-door witnessing ever could. I am so thankful that I followed God's lead on this one.

Bless and be blessed.

Today, my life has been greatly, wonderfully blessed by an angel in disguise.

Gloria.

Fabulous Felt Flowers

There is only so much sleeping a girl can take before she loses her mind. I was to that point. I had some supplies from working at daycare and in the campus clinic laying around, and I decided that I wanted to be a little creative. So, I decided to expand my flower clip business.

Take a peek:

I first found several patterns that I liked. I printed them out and laminated them... that way I can use them again and again.

I then dug out the felt that I had in stock.

This is Pattern One. It has three layers, and customers will be able to choose the color of each layer upon ordering. The possibilities are endless!

This is Pattern Two. It's simply adorable. It has four layers, and again, the customer can choose the color of each layer when they place an order.

Pattern Three is fun. The customers can also choose the color of the two layers.

Pattern Four is too cute for words. Customers get to choose the color of each layer and also of the leaves.

All of these items can be made as flower clips OR brooches. The customers also have the option of an interchangeable, matching headband as shown in all the pictures, or they can choose to have the flower attached to a mega skinny black or white elastic headband (as discussed in my previous blog).

I am planning to offer more pattern options within the next few weeks, but for today, I'm too exhausted to do anything else with them. I think the couch is calling my name once again! Good news, though, I think I'm finally starting to shake this bug... well, somewhat.



Truly Tailor Made: Take Two, Times Two

I received another custom order from a dear friend of mine. Yes, it was time to make another set of flower clips for my favorite twins girls. Heather asked me to make flower clips for Emily and Morgan to wear in the first birthday pictures. I asked her to describe the outfits they would be wearing, and she pointed me toward this picture:

She requested that the flower match the dark wine-ish purple stitching in their adorable shirts. I luckily had just the flowers for the task at hand... and I've been itching to make clips with these flowers since I purchased them two months ago.

Here is what I came up with:

Aren't they beautiful? I love the color!

When I am feeling better, my next step will be to find a thin ivory elastic to create a headband with. Heather put a bug in my ear that she would love flower clips attached to headbands much like these:

So, I plan to learn how! I hope I can master the headband, but if it is a total flop, I will also be sending two alligator clips that she can hot glue on in a jiffy if necessary.

I will surely post again if I do figure out how to sucessfully make the headbands. I hope I do, because they are definitely cute!

Also, another friend suggested that I begin making silk floral brooches. I plan to try those out as well... once again, as soon as I'm feeling a little bit better!



Truly Tailor Made

On Sunday, Ashley contacted me about picking up the memorial arrangement that I made last month. In addition, she wanted to place an order for two custom flower clips. She sent pictures and descriptions of their personality and hair color, and then she let me do the rest!

Sophie:

3 years-old

Brown Hair

Mild Mannered

Outfit: Pink with Rainbow Striped Tights

What I Chose:

Since pink is so incredibly hard to match unless the outfit is handy, I decided to play it safe... and pull out the color in her tights.I chose the white petals to match her sweet personality. I also chose the lime green center to make it "pop" against the white. I wanted to create a soft, sweet flower for this mild-mannered little girl.

Ellie:

5 years-old

Blonde Hair

Spit Fire

Outfit: Pink with Polka Dot Tights

What I Chose:

Since the outfits were similar, I decided to go with similar clips. However, for Ellie's clip, I wanted a bit more drama. So, I chose black petals. The black compliments the black polka dots in her tights and the lime green adds the spunk the flower needs.

I hope these little girls enjoy their Christmas present this year, and I am excited for Ashley to pick up her order this weekend! Once again, I am incredibly thankful for my customers and their interest in what I do! I love every minute of fulfilling each order.



A Tale of a Hunter's Wife

The Beginning:

Husband goes hunting.

Wife goes Christmas shopping.

Day ends with shopping completed, but no deer.

Wife encourages husband to go out again the next day.

He gladly agrees.

Day Two:

Husband kills doe.

As does brother.

The Result:

A cooler full of fresh deer meat!!

The End!

Well, not really:

Boy, oh boy, did we have a lot of work ahead of us! Andrew got to work setting the meat grinder up.

Theodore and I watched the kitchen transform into a packaging plant.

We then got to work. I had to take a picture of Andrew showing off his kill.

Theodore then had to show off to Andrew. He proceeded to "hunt" his chipmunk until it was time to enjoy some deer meat. It was adorable.

I got to work cutting up chunks of meat to go into the grinder.

Just a FEW of our delicious roasts. Yum! Those will taste so good this winter. I can't wait!

Grinding up meat : ) I can't wait to make Andrew's favorite sloppy joes with this meat!

This machine and I battled it out. I finally won. I do like that handy sealer.

Just a fraction of the meat we packaged.

We, of course, had to fry up some meat. Andrew sure knows how to make some tasty fried deer! Hunter AND cook... I'll take it!!

Finally, our deepfreeze. I LOVE how it is stocked full of fresh meat. I am so thankful for a husband and brother who provided so much meat for us this year. We will get good use out of this meat, and I won't take a single bite for granted.