High Winds in our Area

I woke up around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning hearing super loud winds beating at the south west corner of our home. I had a small thought run through my head..."Hmmm....I did clip the straps that hold down the spa cover didn't I?" I then confirmed that I had by re-tracing my steps. Whew...I was satisfied. Yep everything is secure, no problem.

Boy was I wrong! The winds kept blowing, sometimes the gusts were 60 mph. We finally got up around 7:00 a.m. since the dogs needed to go potty. When I opened the doorwall blinds I found NO spa cover and NO outside light fixture! Hmmm....I knew what had happened but I didn't know where they were. I couldn't see them at all. We later found them in our yard. I can't imagine how this 100 lb. spa cover looked as it was flying through the sky completely sheering off our outside light fixture during the process. I honestly am thanking our lucky stars that it didn't pull down our electric and phone wires since it some how flew right by all of them on it's way to the ground. I really thought the light would have been in a million pieces but just a small crack in the glass and a large chunk of metal is missing by the connection.





The clips and straps that just tore away.






This is our temporary solution to the problem so we can still keep the heat in the spa during the winter weather. Too funny!

Today will be filled with an insurance claim and price checking. I thought I'd write about this crazy weekend ride my husband and I took because it was a crazy day and quite funny when you think back on it. It could have been so much worse but still I hate to have to pay deductible and repurchase what we already had. UGH!

Have a great day!
Darlene

The Painting has begun...

Now that Christmas is over and we have returned from visiting our son and grandson in Missouri it's time to get back to working on the scrapbook room. I had already made a trip to Home Depot to mix paint a few weeks ago and painted the closet. I am off to Lowe's this weekend to get all my closet organizer goodies so I can begin putting some items away before I get to the room painting.

This pretty melon color will go great with all the ideas I have in store for this room. I want to accent areas with copper items also. There may be a need to go antiquing! I am going to build two wooden wall storage units for each side of the desk area/counter by the window. These units will store all the pretty ribbons, buttons, boxes and wicker baskets filled with goodies. The closet will contain mostly other craft items and books I have collected over the years such as embroidery thread, acrylic paints and yarns. I drew a rough sketch for the closet organizer considering that we will be selling our home in a few years and this closet may be used for a child's room. This way I can add small 16" shelving units in certain areas for my current storage needs but they can be moved or removed for small children's clothing for a new owner. I hope this proves to be a smart move.

I now will removing all the border paper around the perimeter of the room, prep it and start painting the ceiling and walls. I chose a light ivory for the ceiling as to keep a warm cozy feel. I also plan on two long accent lights aiming down onto my work area from over head something like this pic however I want to go with a pretty blue globe color instead of white my accent color.

This is a pic of the room as it is now, empty and horribly boring! I would imagine ANYTHING I do to it would be an improvment LOL.

Well I'm off to the store for a few purchases and then onto more wallpaper stripping.

Darlene

A little Holiday Cheer

....very little I may add. Due to the puppy a.k.a the "Gretchen-ator" we are not decorating for Christmas this year and I really miss it. I have a few discrete simple items placed around so she won't notice!


I always need to have the cinnamon pine cones somewhere during this time of year. I decided a glass vase was the best option instead of the wicker baskets I usually have them in. Gretchen doesn't even care that these are out. She also doesn't care about this cute little angel I just received from my friend Irene last week. We went to Johnny Carino's for a nice long lunch and she surprised me with it. She's a very nice lady and we worked together for many years before we retired. We usually get together once a month or so to catch up on all the latest news.








These are Gretchen and Sadie's poochie bells that I made. My husband and I were at JoAnn fabrics a couple days ago trying to use up my awesome 15% off your total bill including sale and clearance items. We ran across sets of these jingle bells in the Christmas aisle. We purchased 2 sets, 1 for our home here and one for the house in the woods. They love to ring the bells when they need to go potty and it really helps me to know someone need to go out if I'm in the other end of the house. They only cost $2 for 8 and they are quite large. Pretty shiny too since you can see me and the camera in the reflection LOL!




The next storm has begun here so it's time to sit back and see what mother nature is sending us today! Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and stay warm and safe. Enjoy your family times and take alot of pics!


Merry Christmas!!!!!





Darlene

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Blistery Bitter Cold Day

Woah, I didn't expect it to be this bone chillin' today. We are in the single digits due to the wind chill and we had rain yesterday. Who'd a thunk!!!



I had a very small quiet time today, and let me say VERY SMALL. This 60 lb. puppy doesn't like so see me craft at all. Nope, no painting, scrappin' or even organizing my goodies. She loves to play so sometimes I have to wait until she naps to get any creating done. Gee you would think she was a child and not a dog!



I did get to play a bit with my new mirror cardstock from Club Scrap. I really like how heavy this paper is and I love how reflective too.

A few embossed holiday sentiments....these will be fun to do a few LO's with.

I had a few sheets of Basic Grey's Figgy line left from last year so I made these flowers.

Of course I was in a snowy mood because of this crazy weather so I also made a set of snowflakes.

Stay warm everyone if you are in a chilly climate!

One more card for 2008

I designed one more acrylic card for Christmas this year. I die cut the circle for the front of the card and embossed the words "joy" with an acrylic stamp. Added a few holly leaves, red rhinestones and some gold glitter for some bling. I also added background paper that I had embossed with my "Merry Christmas" texture plate.



TFL!

Acrylic Christmas Card for 2008

I love the new look of the acrylic cards so I decided to attempt using acrylic for this years' Christmas card. I cut a transparency to size using my Fiskar's cutter and then the score wheel for the fold line.

The mirror paper is embossed with a Sizzix embossing plate in a snowflake pattern and is attached to the front of the card. I die cut the snowflakes and then embellished them with crystal glitter and crystal stickles.

The "Happy Holidays!" is stamped with black Stazon ink on the front of the acrylic. The snowman paper was attached to the front from the underside so it would show through. I just love the Basic Grey Figgy line from last year!

The mirror paper is from Club Scrap. This is the first time I have used it and I love how easy it shows the embossing and reflection. It is truly like a real mirror!

For the inside sentiment I just diecur a circle and again used the black Stazon ink with an acrylic stamp....added a blue satin bow with a mini glue dot and it was complete.

This is the inside of the front top cover. I added some contrasting patterned paper from the same Basic Grey line and embossed some white cardstock for a textured effect throughout the cover.

TFL!

A Fun Packed Saturday Night

We all had a blast this past Saturday night. Heather and I planned a trip to our local apple orchard Erwins Orchards in South Lyon. This is only their 2nd year for this light display and they did an wonderful job. Lots and lots of colors and it was very different to go through an apple orchard with decorated trees. Very unique idea! Here is the website if you live around South Lyon, Michigan and are interested in a visit http://erwinorchards.com/elf.html. They put alot of work and expense to entertain all of us. Thank you so much Erinwin's!!!!

When we first arrived we were greeted by two snow plows clearing the parking lot. Of course Heather and I picked a night that was very wintery. We had snow all day and then just very pretty flurries during our visit to the light festival. It was very windy and pretty cold so we wore layers and layers of clothing, our down coats, boots and a snuggy blanket for the wagon ride.

The first lighted sign we saw after the entrance was this "elf" sign so I asked Tom to stand behind it. Somehow it just fit his personality!

We headed up the sidewalk to pay for our admission tickets (VERY reasonable at $5 for a fun night and a 25 minutes wagon ride through the orchards) when we came upon THUNDER the reindeer. He was just adorable and very happy to be in the cold windy snow! We asked the elves how old he was and they said he was 6. They said most reindeer only live to be around 8 years old.We entered this wonderfully decorated pole barn where the admission stand was set up. They had picnic tables and hay bales set up everywhere as well as a nice patio heater and gorgeous christmas lights. We stopped for a bit to get warm and took these pics.

Heather and Reon

Tom and Me

Reon and Tom at Santa's entrance

We then headed off to another building to get some of those great "pumpkin" donuts and hot chocolate. Yum...they were great! Some had carmel glaze and some had sprinkles.

Erwins did a wonderful job decorating this building also! Much to our surprise we even had a chance to talk with Mr. and Mrs. Clause. They were just adorable! Santa even offered to take a pic of all of us. Here are a few pics of the decor inside. It was very pretty and cozy and of course the donuts made the smell even better.

We hopped on the wagon and off through the orchards. We weren't able to get many pictures of the lights because the wagon was quite bouncy. Here is a pic of the Land of the Dinosaurs.

After our night outside was done we headed back to Heather and Reon's home and played a little Wii. She made us some great hot Frappuccino with mini marshmallows.....

Ummmm Ummmmm GOOD!

As my husband always says....A FUN TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!!!!

Enjoy the simple things in life!

or "Stop to smell the roses." ...that's what we've all heard from our parents for years. This morning I was enjoying a wonderful hot cup of coffee that my hubby made for me, sitting on the couch sharing conversation, when I looked out the East window in the livingroom and saw this beautiful sight. I wanted to share it with you. I kept snapping shots because every time I blinked the view changed until (within 4 minutes) it was totally gone and just blue sky with white clouds. I hope you get views like this on special mornings in your life as we did today.



Yesterday our "little" (I say that sarcastically!) 5 month old puppy Gretchen was doing her usual romping and playing in the yard with her Brittany sister Sadie. They were in and out most of the day enjoying the snow and all the sticks they could find! I went in the kitchen to make a cup of tea and peeked out to keep an eye on them. They are just like little toddlers always getting into trouble so I never know what is next!!!! To my surprise I caught a movement out of the right corner of my eye through the diningroom doorwall and this is what I saw....
Since when did this little adorable puppy decide she can climb up on our covered patio table like it was a platform for viewing the local neighborhood? From the look on her face she wasn't even ashamed of herself either! I grabbed the camera and snapped this pic. Hmmm........I may have a behavior problem here LOL! I had to turn my face so she wouldn't see me laugh (just like you do with your kids) because I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. I told her I'd come outside and help her down because I thought she couldn't get down. Yeah right! Just like a little gazelle she gracefully popped down to the deck floor and frolicked off into the snow. I hid around the corner to see if she would do it again because she has needed help (or at least we thought she did) getting up on our bed to snuggle in the early evening. Of course she did! She hopped back up with absolutely no effort and was again very proud of herself. What a little stinker we have! Who would have thought that our bird possessed dog Sadie would have better behavior than this German Shorthaired Pointer! Now I have two crazy bird dogs. I don't think I'll be bored anytime soon. Enjoy your day everyone!

LOVE LOVE LOVE these!

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone......

(we had a WONDERFUL time visiting with our little grandson Eli and combining his first birthday party with turkey day)

it is now time to stick my nose to the grindstone and work continually on this scrapbook room. I have just finished the deconstruction.

WHAT A MESS! I tore down all the moldings from inside the closet and spackled, sanded, respackled, sanded....repeat until it is ready for paint. I put two coats of a moisture barrier on the ceiling of the closet to keep all the insulation dry up there. I had already put 2 coats on the room ceiling when it was a bedroom and wasn't crazy enough to try to even touch that closet disaster.


Let me tell you the history of this closet!!!! First of all this home was new when I was 12 years old. We moved here (my parents, grandmother and me) from Detroit in 1967. Yes...that makes me 53 years old now :-) Wow has time flown. My father retired and moved upnorth to his home in the woods (mom had previous passed away from brain cancer) and I purchased the home back from him. Actually my first husband and I had purchased the home. Then after 25 years of marriage that came to an end, we divorced and I repurchased it again to keep it in the family. I am now remarried to an awesome man named Tom and he has helped me redo this whole house and make it a home me so it feels like a new place for us. Only good memories now ;-) The work he does is just beautiful. I'll have to post some pics of the decks he has put on our home and then he dropped an awesome spa on top for a relaxation spot. He's a super duper guy!!!! With children coming back home from college, or just back home back and then back again, with and without grandchildren accompanying them, this "guest" bedroom has seen many visitors. It actually was my bedroom at 12 years old. You can imagine the accumulation of goodies that closet has had. I found material and patterns for suits that I never made LOL! Funny thing is that I still love the pattern and the material but not enough to come out of retirement and wear suits and heels again....nope no way !!!!

I took one entire day and emptied that entire horrid closet. It was a step back in time to say the least but here it is when I was done...ugly, empty and very small but I have BIG plans for this area.
I am now in the process of putting on 2 coats of paint and the storage shelves. I will take a pic of that when it is complete. I will continue moving onto the room with paint and wallpaper next. It's been fun actually seeing some progress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know I'm a bit behind the times and most of you have all the fancy electronic cutters (I'm sooo envious) but I still just have the Sizzix BigKick and love it. I know there is a Pazzles in my future though LOL! I was cruising around the Joann fabrics website a couple weeks ago and found Sizzix's storage boxes on sale for a pretty good price. For those of you who don't know about them they are not cardboard but heavy duty wood covered in a nice linen fabric. They come in 3 colors....I chose the beige because the room is going to be dark walnut with warm pumpkin colored walls. I love the plastic dividers inside to keep each die seperated. Pretty cool design and I just LOVE THESE, hence the title to this post.

TFL...have a super week.