the simple woman's day book

i found this wonderful blog this last weekend and noticed that she did a day journal every monday, so i thought i would give it a try. you can find more information here.




FOR TODAY December 15, 2008
Outside my window...the sun is starting to set. i see a little snow and it is cold!

I am thinking...that i need to make a dr. appointment. i have had face, cheek and head pain for a week.

I am thankful for...our warm home and clothing for this cold weather.

From the kitchen...going to warm up taco soup and fresh bread in a little bit for supper.

I am wearing...jeans, turtle neck, vest and a light weight jacket.

I am creating...an album for a girl that is getting married in our church.

I am going...to start purging our home of unnecessary items to make our life and home more simple.

I am reading...'having a real relationship with God' and 'the five love languages' for the two bible study groups i am part of.

I am hoping...for nice weather during the Christmas season so families can get together.

I am hearing...channel 32 'the message' on my xm radio, the dishwasher going, traffic going by our house.

Around the house...emma is on the computer, our boxer, jasmine is sleeping at my feet, dishes are done, and mail needs to be gone through.

One of my favorite things...having to not go anywhere when it is this cold.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
make Christmas goodies, awanas, church Christmas program, women's bible study, couples bible study, laundry, wrap Christmas presents.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

i am missing the nice weather, so i thought i would post a picture i took this summer.

i hope everyone is having a wonderful evening and God bless
alissa

it's beginning to look like christmas

we finally put up our tree a couple of days ago. with just a hectic schedule, we just weren't able to put it up as soon as emma thought we needed too! of course i was inspired by her to make our tree topper, so our tree was topperless (i don't think that is a word but you get the idea) for a couple of days. i was finally able to get it finished tonight. I really like it! kinda looks like a huge flower. i am thinking about making a few of these to make a garland to hang on the wall. how cute would that be. my hubby will just shake his head and ask if they are necessary. Yep! they are!

i know i have neglected my store just as i got it started. just for your information, do not try to do something big like that just before Christmas...

i think i have to rethink my schedule. i don't want to neglect anything...you know, things like family, home, blog and etsy. i an going to try to blog one day a week, update ella & ruby's one day a week, and spend the rest of the time with family, friends, cleaning and crafting. if i don't do this i think i will start to feel overwhelmed. if anyone has advice an how to juggle your life, i am all ears!

hope everyone a wonderful week and i will see you next week.
God bless
alissa

local old fashioned christmas

if you are from custer county you might want to check this out. i will be set up at the community center for a home based business/craft fair. hope to see you there!

God bless
alissa

hello. my name is alissa. nice to meet you

boy! how does time fly when your busy...i can't believe it has been two months since i last posted. we have been trying to harvest. we are usually done by now, but with the rain, snow and the break downs, we have only started. ron and i celebrated our 8th anniversary last week, emma has a case of chicken pox this week , and i had a craft fair 2 weeks ago. plus, if you look to your right, i have finally got my etsy store started. i have changed my name to something i felt suit what i wanted. ella, was my grandmother and ruby, was ron's grandmother. it took a lot longer to set up then i thought. with the craft fair and my etsy store, 'worked' everyday, sometimes until 10:30 at night to get enough made. here are some pictures of my show.











i appricate everyone who visits, and i look foward to meeting and getting to know you.

i hope everyone has a great day and God bless
alissa

fabulous finds....at least in my opinion

well, where as the time gone! i had planned posting a few days ago, but our internet connection was quite slow. don't know what happened but it seems to be fixed now. i came down with a whopper of a cold yesterday so here i am on the couch, passing the time blogging and visiting friends. colds always slow me way down, so i doubt i get much done other than what i am doing now :).

i wanted to shared with you some of the things i found this summer. i found a bag full of these packages of crepe paper at goodwill for a dollar! as you can see some of them weren't even open. i have never worked with this stuff and i have to say that i like it better then the streamers i use.



i also found this book of music at goodwill for $5. i had planned on tearing it up to use on my projects but i say the copyright date...now it has a home on our piano.


...the picture is bleary but i think it says 1880...


the next couple of items comes with a story. my hubby and i went to an auction this summer that had quite a bit of stuff that i needed (or wanted) to get. on the auction bill it had said there was old postcards. well, when we got there i started to search for what i was looking for. the auction had started before i had located the postcards. 30 minutes later, they held up a shoebox full of postcards. no one was bidding so as they came down to $5, i decided that i could handle that price if there was nothing that i could use. i got the box and when i saw what was on top, i was disappointed. lots of newer ones...til i went there about 40% then the good stuff was there. i have already filed away the postcards that i got out of the box. about 30 of them. but these little cards i thought i would share. they have bible verses on them...and as you can see they are pretty small.


these autograph albums were in the shoebox too. the dates range from 1903-1911.
one of my favorites pages says,'when you are at parties and don't get home til late, remember it is bedtime and don't swing on the gate.' lol!


at lastly my favorite find of the summer. my daughter, i and my husband found these bird eggs along our driveway from june thru august. my hubby even found a whole one for my collection.



i hope everyone has a great day and god bless
alissa

time for creating

i want to say i am sorry for not posting all summer. i appreciate everyone that comes to visit and i feel like i have let you down. i am still try to get back to our routine since school has started. i have had time to create some things and thought i would share them with you.

here are a couple of plaques that i made to sale at an up and coming craft fair. they both have vintage wallpaper and postcards.





here are some banners.



this banner was made for a friend for her newly remodeled home. hi penny!



here are some charms that are waiting to be soldered. most are made from vintage wallpaper...the problem is that i think they are pretty just setting in the bowl the way they are, i don't want to do anything with them!



i did manage to get three soldered and made into necklaces. i had made on for myself, so emma thought that she needed one, and one for a friend of hers that celebrated a birthday. sorry for the poor quality of the photo. i am still trying to figure out my digi camera.



i still have some things to share with you but i will wait for another post.
everyone have a great weekend and god bless.
alissa

emma's birthday furniture

Emma has been wanting a 'big girl' room for quite awhile. She has had a hard time cleaning her room because of all the stuff and no place to put it. So earlier this summer we purged out everything that she didn't want. then, I started watching out for some pieces that I could customize for her. These were the pieces i found.

This first piece I found at the sidewalk sale at a near by town. It came from an antique store and I was able to get it for $15. I thought that was a steal, despite the water spots and damage to the wood on top.


this piece I was able to get for $10 at my favorite place to shop. Though there wasn't much to it, i thought it would make a nice shelving unit for all of Emma's crafting supplies.



This is how that look now in her room. I still need to work on the glazing technique for furniture, but i guess she didn't think it was too bad.



You can't see it in this photo, but I put some pink and cream toile paper in the back and I used vintage trim on the edges of the shelves. The cabinet above was a old medicine cabinet with the mirror missing. I used vintage wallpaper, music sheets and some scrapbooking paper for a collage look. It is the home for her Precious Moments figurines that my MIL gives her every year for her birthday.



She was excited to see 'pretty, big girl furniture' when see came home form school on her birthday.


Well, I have plenty more to share with you. Since school started 2 1/2 weeks ago I have finally been able to get some crafting done. Let me tell you it feels so good to get back to it. I have sure missed being creative. I will share those projects with you in a few days....plus a few of my favorite fun finds of the summer. Until then have a great evening and God bless.
Alissa

my baby is seven

Happy birthday peanut!!





p.s. I am so sorry for not posting much. It has been so busy around here. Now that school has started, our life will start to slow down. I have a lot to share, so I hope to be back next week. Have a great weekend.
God bless
Alissa

what i have been doing and what i have seen

As you can see I have been busy traveling and not crafting! I hope everyone is having a great summer....I know that I am.
God bless and have a great week
Alissa

a short post

I am so sorry I haven't been posting is awhile. Spring is always busy at our house hold. My hubby started planting his crops a few weeks ago between the rains. When it rains though, we try to get as much family time as we can. Emma and I won't be seeing him much when we finally dry out 'til November when harvest is over. We have been visiting family and friends and just doing a little light traveling to do some family things. We are leaving in a little bit to go on a ride, then off the Ron's grandpa's birthday party. I am sure we will be doing other things for the Memorial weekend so I an not sure when I will be able to post again. I do have a lot to share, but family calls. I will try again to come and see everyone next week and to share what we have been doing. I hope everyone will have a great weekend.
God bless.
Alissa

a sneak peak and a sign

Apparently, spring is not a good time for me to blog! I can't believe that a whole week has gone by and I didn't post. Oops!
We have been having typical Nebraska weather the last week. Wednesday our county had tornadoes, golf ball size hail, rain and thunderstorms. Luckily, all we had was rain. Thursday highs of almost 80. Emma came home form school and immediately changed into shorts and a tank top. We ran outside that afternoon enjoying the warmer weather. Then, Friday morning we woke up to snow and slush! They say if you don't like Nebraska weather, wait 24 hours! This week is going to be no different. Highs in the 70's tomorrow, but a chance of snow Friday. I just wish mother nature would quit playing games on us.

Anyway, I was part of Heather's spring journal swap from Speckled Egg. This is my sneak peek of the one I sent to Kristin at My Polka-Dotted World. I hope she likes it. I saw sneak peek of the one she sent me and I think she got the short end of the deal...



I finally was able to get the top of the cigar box that tore off finished. This is the first thing like this I have made. Not quite sure what to think...i might have to change it again.



I hope that everyone has a great week, if I don't see you until then. God bless.
Alissa

a women's salad buffet

This was our table.




We had our salad buffet last night. It was wonderful to get together with friends and eat wonderful salads! One of the best things to do is to walk around and look at the other table decorations. One had a disco theme, complete with wigs and clothes. What a hoot!! Another had a western picnic, with denim and rope. The reason I don't have pictures of those is that I didn't notice my camera battery was going fast. So you will have to use your imagination. Sorry!

Here is my daughter, Emma. I told her she had to wear her party hat all night. She was a good sport. She was even picked to draw the winning tickets for the door prizes that were given away, plus the quilt they had for a raffle. She did have fun!



Have a good evening and God bless
Alissa

one big post

Talk about a hectic week! I feel like I have done a lot of running around without really doing anything. Here is what I did:
Friday - decorate for a salad buffet for our church
Saturday - Emma and I rearranged our living room, then off to the salad buffet
Sunday - out of town for a flea market...turned out to be kind-of a bummer
Monday - work at my paying job
Tuesday - meeting about insurance, and had our last stamping club meeting until August...complete with a dinner.
Wednesday - spoke at a Christians Women's club about my hobby.
whew!!
Well, I tried to have a 'work' day like I told you I was going to do. However there must have been other plans for me that I didn't know about, because everything I did went wrong. Sewing machine wouldn't work, glue was getting stuck on things that it shouldn't, kept dropping dinner on the floor (don't ask), and so on. You ever have one of those days? The last straw was when I was making this box.



It was going ok, until I started covering the inside and then I shut the lid...RIP...yeap the lid came off. So I sat there not knowing whether to cry or scream. When life hands you lemons...make lemonade. I decide it wasn't worth the stress, so I decide to make a wall plaque out of the lid and a shadow box of sorts from the bottom. However neither are finished at this moment.



Here are my new business cards, that I came up with today. I hope that they are easy to read.



This is the project that we made at our stamping club...wanted to do something simple, quick, and something to inspire us in our craft rooms. One lady said that hers should say 'help'. Cracked me up!



Here are a few finds at our hospital auxiliary sale. The set of 5 plates were my favorite. But of course, the vintage hats are well loved to.





Well, I better head off to check my favorite blogs that I have missed this last week.
Hope everyone has a wonderful evening and God bless.
Alissa

our spring storm

Well, we always get one last blast of winter this time of year...so I guess this is it. It rained all night last night, then freezing rain and now snow on top. School was canceled today at 11:00, and they called it off for tomorrow. We lost electricity once for a couple hours, so hubby got the generator ready if it happens again...which is likely. They are saying we could see up to 13 inches of snow. We already have 7-8. I am thinking tomorrow will be a wonderful day to unplug and 'work'. Notice I said work...hubby calls it playing! Just doesn't understand! LOL! If you are also getting some nasty weather take care, but have fun with it! My daughter has already took advantage of the snow.
Have a wonderful weekend and God bless.
Alissa

some time to create

Hello! Hope all is well with everyone. I went to a crop last weekend that my SIL puts on twice a year. I believe that she had around 60+ people. Her crops always seem to bring a pretty good crowd. I went as a vendor for Stampin Up!, but I was able to get a few pages done. I decide to work on a 6x9 pet album. I didn't get a whole lot done, because I think I talked too much! It was so great to see my friends again. And can you believe that I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of the crop...These are the few pages I was able to get done.









I also got some altered bottles done for the spring salad luncheon that I told you about on 2.21.08. The wonderful wallpaper came from Karla's Cottage and the enamel flowers that are on the side of the large bottle come from Sleeping Dog's Studio.







I am trying to spring clean my studio. Anyone else doing this? I am having trouble getting rid of things, cause I think that just maybe I will be able to use it 'sometime'. However, I am tired of the clutter not only there but in the rest of my house. I just want a nice, comfortable, clean and clutter free home. The bad thing is though, I am a pack rat. I like to bring things home from antique stores and flea markets with projects in mind. I would love to open a store so I could sell my finished 'junk', that way I could still go on the shopping trips i love so much. Then my house wouldn't look like a flea market itself. I just received 'Junk Beautiful' by Sue Whitney 7 Ki Nassauer. I absolutely fell in love with everything in there. That is the kind of thing I would like to do...plus my paper crafts. Well all I can say that if it is supposed to be, than it will happen. If anyone has help for a pack rat, I would really like to here it...so would my husband!
Have a wonderful night and God bless.
Alissa