Big, Huge

GIANORMOUS

PINECONES!

 On sale now

at Joanne's.  Half off and spider free!

Wreath #1

It's large.

It's brown. 

And white.

It looks more like a work horse harness than an oval.

(I maybe should have just gone round. Oval grapevine wreaths are hard to find, so when I found one, I just sort of snapped it up.)

But I'm still hanging it on my front door.

Because I like it.

Thanks for reading!  

I Am Going To Make This

I am.  I think it's so pretty, and I'm not even a huge fan

source  of brown. And then when I'm done with it, I'm going to make 

source This wreath. I REALLY love this wreath.
And then when I'm done with both of those, I'm  decorating for a Christmas dinner for 300 people. On a $75 budget. 
Yeah. I am.  Wish me luck! 

Christmas!

I don't know about you, but

 I'm getting excited to decorate for Christmas.

(but here's a handy tip. If you go out to pick up pinecones, put them in a plastic bag-not just an open cardboard box-and SEAL IT before you put it in your car. I've killed 4 spiders in my car so far, and who knows how many are still in there? It's creeping me out.)

In other news, look what we got at Walmart!

And I thought we'd be safe looking at Great Dane puppies. I thought they'd be so expensive that it would be easy to walk away. Foolish woman!

I was SO wrong!

The family who was selling them was anxious for them to go. They had 12(yes, TWELVE)3 month old puppies. They cut us a deal. 

So Gus is ours. 

 Except he thinks he's mine.

Merry Christmas to me! 

I Thought About It!

May your day be mellow and happy. 

I Am Thankful

Our Thanksgiving will be quiet this year. Just me, the Mr. and 4 of our kids. Maybe my brother and his family. It's fine with me.  After all, that's not exactly 

chopped liver.  (which, incidentally, looks like dog food or worse no matter how it's served. We won't be having that.) My kids are fun. So is the Mr.  And they all help me with the cooking.

I'm mostly thankful I won't be cooking for one. I have a family. How lucky am I?

I'm thankful we have a home for our kids to come home to. Yes, the floors squeak, the bedroom carpet is an embarrassment and the doors sometimes stick. But it's a home (in every sense of the word) and I'm thankful.
I'm taking next week off to spend with my family. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
 

Still Making Jewelry

I decided to try something harder. I saw this photo 

on Pinterest and fell in love with it. But all I could find was black leather cording, and I couldn't find a clasp like that to save my soul. So this is what I have.

It's OK. I don't know if I'll wear it much. 

(yeah, I did photoshop all my scars, age spots and large wrinkles out of the picture)

 It's a little too big. But 5 of those knots made it too small, so it had to be 6. 

I just really need a better clasp. Something more solid so that the band won't twist like that. 

Anyone know where I can get one? 

I'd order more leather and make a white one, or maybe a pink one, but I could only find fold over claps that were on the, well, butt ugly side. Or worth more than all my jewelry combined. Paying that much for a clasp seems a little ridiculous. 

Thanks for reading!

Would This Qualify As A Slump?

Because I have to say, it sort of feels like one. I haven't done any projects lately.

 My husband did bring this home. Something fun could be done with it, I'm sure.

source

See? Fun!

I really like the stenciled words.

 Or I could make one of these 

cool spool tables. Or,

this spool bookcase is kind of awesome, too. I'm hoping that something will spark and I'll get off my caboose and get something done. 

So what have I been doing with my time? 

 Making jewelry.(At night. Hence the crappy photos.)I made the turquoise bracelets from a necklace I never wore. So, they were free. And since all the beads at Michael's are 40% off right now,

the black/grayish stuff cost about $10 to make. I haven't made a lot of jewelry before, and I find it oddly addictive. And it's easy to justify. I mean, why not wear 4 bracelets at once? 

(kidding! Sort of)

Thanks for reading!

One Of Life's Lessons

I don't know about you, but life throws me some hard lessons on a pretty regular basis. The older I get the more convinced I am that one of the hardest lessons to learn is how to forgive someone when they've really, really hurt me.

I can forgive the small things. That's easy. I don't like to carry a grudge. It takes too much energy. But the big things? The things that go beyond a simple grudge?  That's hard.

But necessary. 

I once had a client tell me the first step towards forgiveness. I thought it was too simple to really be effective. However, simple hardly ever means easy, and it turned out that she was so right. What was her first step? You stop talking about it. Whatever it was that happened, you just stop talking about it.

It's the only way to stop thinking about it. It's the only way to stop that bad thing from growing, from taking root. 

 Can it really be as simple as just letting it go?

As simple as letting all the hurt and anger rise up and out of your life?  I think so.  That's not to say it's a fast process. And not an easy one, either, since simple and easy are not always synonymous. And some balloons rise up more quickly than others. 

I'm not sure why I decided to write about this today. Maybe it's that a particularly ugly election year is finally over for us. I have some forgiving to do there. Politics don't have to get personal or slanderous and this year it was both. I have to say~I resent it and I do have some hard feelings over it. I'm not thick skinned and I kind of hope I never will be. I'm glad I'm a little on the sensitive side and I hope it's something that makes me more sensitive to others. Having said all that, I have some work to do. 

What's your advice on forgiveness?

4 More Years

My hubby is still employed. He's happy, and so am I. It would have been nice to have a full time handyman, though.  Maybe.

For All Of You In The U.S.

I hope you'll earn one of these today!

I'm off to earn mine as soon as the polls open. 

Election night is a late one for us~I'll probably be absent tomorrow. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us. 

Just Stuff

 I scored this vintage crib at an estate sale Saturday. I was excited about it because the rails along the sides are spaced very narrowly and the paint is lead free~no safety issues! Plus, it's just adorable. I might not even paint it. Just add some clear coat. 

 And then there's this. My husband went hunting a few weeks ago and brought it back for me. I'm not sure what I'll do with it. 

 Some people paint them.

I don't think I'll do that.

I prefer them white. I thought I'd try bleaching it.

(and if I had two of them, I'd mount them like that. But this particular elk wasn't considerate enough to shed both antlers on the same hill.)After reading up on that process, I changed my mind about that. No one really recommends it because bleach can ruin the antlers. So I'll probably leave mine au naturale. Maybe I'll use it as a centerpiece with some candles and pinecones for Christmas. After a good scrubbing. Thanks for reading!