latest projects...

I decided to try my hand at making these.  What are they?  you ask...  They are felted coffee sleeves.  Right now they are drying because they just spend time in the washer to become felted.

    Right now I have 7 made.  I'm making so many because I'm doing this as a fundraiser for Darly's Mission Trip.  She and 9 other youth from our Church along with 4 adults will be going to Gulf Shores AL to help with a VBS and School Supplies outreach that our sister congregation runs each year.  We currently have about half of the money that we'll need for the kids to go.  

Currently I have them in purple and teal, I also have a pink & brown yarn that I'll be making them in.

And here we have pictures of the plant box that I made from the pallets featured in my Achey Brakey Back post.  See, not very pretty, just functional.  Plants in the box are Roma Tomatoes, Green Bean seeds (you can't see them) Eggplant, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers (two varieties) and slicing tomatoes.  The red box to the left will be squash and the red box to the right is lettuce & spinach.  Then on either side of that are maple trees (a project that Darly & DH are doing to see if they can get them to grow!)

If you would like a felted coffee sleeve, let me know.  Right now I'm limited in my yarn colors, but as soon as I check out what kind the major sewing place carries I'll probably have most any color.

Achey Breaky Back!

I had to move my garden this year. The place in my yard that I had been using for the past 9 years is now completely shaded in by trees, so last year after attempting to plant my veggies where I had been able to before I had to dig them up and move them in an attempt to get something out of my money. This year I knew that the garden would have to be moved, but I learned from moving the garden last year that the best spot for the garden is one that gets a lot of wind and I had to do something to protect the veggies. I also had 3 mini-pallets that I had made a bridge for our Girl Scout troop out of sitting in my garage just providing a nice home for the spiders since our Girl Scout troop disbanded. So I decided to recycle the wood from the pallets to make a box to enclose the containers that I'm gardening in this year. First I had to get the pallets apart. Let me just say that while it may appear that pallets are put together cheaply they aren't! Those buggers are not going to give up and fall apart. All the nails were counter sunk into the wood. That meant I had to get up under the wood slats to pry up the nails. Luckily DH had a very nice pry bar that I could use for this task. Once I got the hang of using it, I was able to get the pallets apart. Unfortunately that meant that I had to put the pallets on the ground and bend over them to get the best angle on lifting the nails. After I reduced the pallets to stacks of wood, some that still needed the nails removed from...I moved my project from the front yard (because the pallets were stored in the garage and I didn't want rogue nails ending up in our tires) to the back yard...the final resting place for the box I was building. Back here I could use the retaining wall to lift the project up a few feet so that I wasn't bending over quite so much. Building the box wasn't quite as much work as getting the wood for it...the hardest part was finding straight nails (recycled from the pallets) and convincing them to go into the box straight. It went rather quickly and I was able to start planting! Next up, mixing dirt! I grabbed my trusty folding wagon to haul the dirt back to our old garden, because that's where our compost heap is and I wanted to put some of our compost into my dirt mixture. DH asked that I use up all the old potting soil he had brought from his mom's house so that it was out of the garage. I then added some soil that I had purchased from the store. Since I had so much bagged dirt, I decided to avoid using any of our good old Colorado clay in my mix. I think that my mixture should make the plants very happy out there. I might have to add to it as it was very fluffy and should sink some with water. I filled my containers and loaded them into the wagon to move them to the new garden spot...in the box. Oh it started raining while I was mixing up the dirt...the plants will be happy. Now it was time to transplant the seedlings into their new home. Since the soil was pretty fluffy, that went quickly...good thing as the rain was now coming down quite a bit. I got all the seedlings into their new home before the lightening. I also got the yard all cleaned up before DH could come home and complain about it. Tossed myself into the shower and put on my jammies. Of course DH reminded me that we were supposed to go to Church...so I had to change. But at least I didn't have to make dinner after all my hard work! My next project will be to get seeds planted quickly (today) for beans, squash and lettuce. Since they grow so quickly I didn't bother starting them early. Hopefully we have veggies all about the same time, but it will be okay if I have to wait. Now to figure out what all I plan to do with these veggies. DH is worried about the onions as he hates them. I plan to make veggie stock and maybe learn how to dry the onions and make onion powder? I don't know...I may just have a ton of veggie stock. :p

Mother's Day

a recap of my Mother's Day events for you... As you know I was uber busy with Darly's play for the past 10 weeks. So there was all of that plus her confirmation plus her regular end of our school year stuff! Perhaps I should move the end of our school year...just to make this time of year easier? IDK So I knew I wouldn't be able to send my mom her usual Mother's day present (Girl Scout cookies) because Darly didn't sell any this year and we bought our stash from the girls posted at the grocery store. *pout* So I racked my brain over what I could get for Mom. Let's see... well she could use this... but who wants that for a present? right sigh! so after getting a bazillion ads for flowers as Mother's Day gifts, I decided to get mom some plants delivered. Ideally it would be nice to just call up a nursery near her and have some plants for her yard delivered...but she really can't plant them herself anymore and my step dad is just as hopeless. So florists sell plants...I'll get her plants. My credit card of choice sent me a coupon where I would get a deal and get extra cashback. However, since I told hubby I wasn't going to use it, he cut out our address and put it in the recycling bin. When I dug it out, he had also cut out the coupon code. So instead I used the florist who is attached with our member card. For that one I log in and it sends me to the website...their florist is FTD. FTD has you enter the zip code for delivery and then shows you a list of what is available to order. Mom lives in Florida, so getting most anything shouldn't be a problem. I picked out a very nice basket...got 25% off for my member card and got it set up to deliver on the 11th at 4:30. Right away I got a confirmation email...the next day I got an email that they had shipped my delivery via FedEx with a tracking code. Check FedEx and yup, they set up for pick up. This was on May 9th. On May 10th my tracking still looks the same...no sign of pick up. Hummm I wonder if they just didn't scan it or something or if the computer is being slow. On May 11th in the morning it still hasn't changed any...but I was busy with the play that morning. At 3:30 my time (5:30 her time) I checked and FedEx has now deleted the expected delivery time as the package was never picked up. I contact FedEx and was told the shipping label was printed, but no package was ever shipped. So I contacted FTD asking for a trace on my package. Ignoring me FTD sends an email saying that my order has been canceled because the product I ordered wasn't available. WHAT??? How can I order something that isn't available... your site said it was in stock?!?! Oh and the email said I could order something else and get $10 off of it for my trouble. "Um... my original discount of 25% was more than $10 off!" Numerous emails from me were flying...all of them ignored except for the auto generated emails that say "we care about you...blah...blah...blah" Okay, now what will I do about Mom??? So I hop on Google maps and see that there are 3 florists in her town...one is right down the road from her house AND they have a website. I get her a bigger basket of plants for about the same price AND they can deliver it on Mother's Day! Wow! Saved the day! Click, click, click...DONE! I sent glowing reviews for that florist. Now for my mother's day... Saturday night we were up very late as we had to do the 7pm show and then had to get all of our stuff out of the theater. Kids were all excited and it took a long time to get all the costumes turned in. At one point I asked some kids to go & see if they found anyone else still in costume. We got all loaded up and home at 12am...but I still needed food for Darly's confirmation party. So we run to the store to get that...home by 1:30. Beat, we go to bed! 7am roles around way too early. Get ready and to Church by 9am. My brother's family made it not only on time but early! They took the boys over to McDonalds to play before Church. The service was wonderful! I'm biased, but my daughter's witness statement was the best! Well it was at least the best delivered... her acting chomps showing very well...she could be heard and she kept the audience interested. :D My Mother's day present? Um well hubby did the grilling and all the dishes for me. So Darly & I went shopping. I got myself some plants and some new hot rollers on Monday. Tuesday I found out that I had won a gift certificate for my favorite garden center so I got myself some more plants! :D Now to get some dirt and go plant all my prezzies! :D Oh and I need to buy groceries. :p

All Done!

Well we made it! The show is over. The kids were great! We managed to somehow get all our stuff out of the theater. Another CYT season is done! Today was Darly's confirmation. That went really well and I'm so proud of her! and now we don't have a lot going on until nearly the end of next month. I don't know if I'll be able to deal with all this free time! LOL!

Unfriended :(

I have Social Fixer on my Facebook. Among other things that it fixes about Facebook it also shows me who has unfriended me. At first when I decided to use that feature (I can turn it off if I want to) I didn't think it would bother me. But then today I noticed just a bit ago that I got unfriended. I know exactly why I got unfriended by this person. He had posted something and I commended with just one word... AWKWARD! Now before you get to feeling all sorry for me... he he ... this person who had the nerve to unfriend me is a teenager. I had only friended him because he and my daughter have been in a few theater shows together. He isn't in our theater group any longer. I mostly try to friend Darly's Facebook friends so I can just be aware of what they're up to. So the unfriending isn't a huge loss. What did he post that I thought was awkward? Something to the fact that his jock strap not only protects him but carries his confidence. hummm sounds awkward to me!

BLARGH!!!!

So currently we are working on Darly's play... Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr AND her confirmation*. The play runs from May 10-12th. Confirmation will be on May 13th. This week we had a Confirmation class last night where the kids went over their witness statements and how the ceremony will go. They also did a review of all that they have learned over the past two years. Oh I forgot that Tuesday I received an email asking us to come and perform one of the numbers from Millie to advertise the show to other folks who pretty much already know about the show. Since we were already booked with a ton of stuff to get done that day, we didn't go. Today Darly has her class showcase. This is where at the end of taking their classes the kids show off all that they have learned. In order to be in this theater group the kids are required to take classes. This evening should be fun to see all the cool things the kids have learned. Tomorrow rehearsal. (normally a day only used if we had to cancel a rehearsal due to bad weather...we didn't have any canceled rehearsals, but the directors chose to have this one anyway.) Saturday is Super Saturday. This is an extra long rehearsal where the cast will run through the show twice. I got a call yesterday that the directors were considering asking us to bring in the costumes so the kids could run the show in costume and learn their fast changes... a great idea. HOWEVER... waiting until 3 days before to spring this on us was so not cool. Our normal Super Saturday for costumes is to prep the costumes for the show. We iron or steam them, make sure they are all labeled and ready for transport to the theater. Some of the costumes aren't even made yet! The location where they will be doing the Super Saturday rehearsal is NOT set up with dressing rooms or even a back stage area, so it doesn't really give them an idea of how things will go. And doing this means we 1) don't get the costumes ironed (unless I do that all by myself today & tomorrow...which I am obviously NOT doing if I'm typing this out. lol) and 2) means the costumes have to be packed up and transported to the rehearsal and then packed again to go back to my house until we can move them into the theater on Monday night. Luckily, after I emailed all the directors and my costume committee about the possibility of this happening, the directors backed down. And Super Saturday will be our normal ironing session. Course that means that hubby will be hiding...but he joked about sneaking in a few of his shirts to get ironed. Next week we have Monday night - move into the theater. Tuesday & Wednesday rehearsal. Thursday 2 shows. Friday 1 show. Saturday 2 shows and pack EVERYTHING up and move out of the theater afterward. Sunday is confirmation! :D Just call me CRAZY! Oh I wonder if anyone remembered that we need to recognize the kids who are graduating this year??? *Confirmation: In our Church after a period of instruction our youth "confirm their baptism" and profess that they believe in God and accept Jesus as their Savior.

Dog Frustrations

I really need to ask a dog trainer about this…I’m hoping to get them to peek at this post. My dog Lilly is 10 years old this September. We’ve had her since she was 4 months old. I did put her into doggy obedience training when she was 6 months old and she really took to it well… we worked so well together that our teacher suggested that I put Lilly into agility classes. Lilly is a very smart dog and learns quickly. However, I had other things to deal with…like my daughter and life! One thing that we never really solved with Lilly’s obedience training was her pulling on a leash and her leash aggression. She was fine in the classroom with the other dogs, but outside of class she is a terror. I’ve read on numerous dog training websites that Lilly displays this behavior because she wants to be the alpha and is trying to dominate me. However, I don’t believe it. From the behaviors I am seeing in Lilly I truly believe that she is SCARED when she is on a leash. One sure fire way to get Lilly to poop is to put her on a leash! Now to admit my fault in this… Lilly is not exposed to other dogs…at all. She gets to bark at them through the fence, but that’s it. I don’t walk Lilly because she pulls like crazy on the leash…hurting me and herself. Things I’ve noticed… Lilly is scared of other dogs…especially of dogs larger than herself. With dogs smaller than herself she is okay, but she mostly ignores them. Lilly is scared of the leash…I’m sure the pain she feels from choking herself and that head halter forcing her mouth closed don’t help. Lilly is scared of car rides…she mostly goes to the v.e.t. and the groomer when she rides in the car…so she hates them all. Of course it totally doesn’t help that when we took Lilly for a walk the other day she was “attacked” by our neighbor’s dog who was off leash. (the neighbor’s dog just wanted to play with Lilly…but she doesn’t understand this.) I really think that we are most likely just doomed to dealing with this by avoidance for the rest of Lilly’s life. I mean we could spend the money on a dog trainer and get her over it for a while, but we don’t really have the time to continually keep up with whatever the trainer offers us. After writing this I did a bit of googling and did look at some Cesar's stuff... but it is so hard to read through other problems when they don't really apply to you. And there are so many differing opinions on how to train your dog. Like I mentioned above, most think pulling is a dominance problem and I don't agree. Cesar seems to think it would all work out if I did a better job of showing Lilly who the alpha is. (dominance again?) But I know she knows I'm the boss. I also know that it is very hard for me to not be nervous when we walk because I know that she'll freak out if we see hear or smell another animal. oye

Busy, Busy, Busy!

From about mid-March through mid May my life seems to get just crazy busy.  There are a lot of things I just have to let slide in order to get it all done.  This last week was one of the most crazy.

First I have to say that ORIGINALLY things were NOT planned to go like this.  We had planned to have Darly's birthday party ON HER BIRTHDAY last Sunday.  But due to most of the girls she invited having to attend another event we rescheduled for the 22nd.  Then I found out that the person who had scheduled the intruding event on my baby's birthday almost rescheduled her event for the 22nd because of weather...but luckily she remembered my email about Darly's birthday party and decided to just keep her original date.  WHEW as I wasn't prepared to reschedule Darly's party for the original day at the last minute.

Currently I'm in charge of costumes for Darly's play  Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr and we've been trying very hard to get the kids costumes picked out.  Trying to do this with their very busy rehearsal schedule has been tricky, but we were finally ready to do our Costume Parade (an event for the director to see the costumes and make any changes).  That day was Saturday (yup the day before Darly's party!)

I first learned that there was NO WAY that I was going to be able to fit all of the costumes in my car.  So I asked one of the other moms to bring some in her car...whew!  This made my life much easier.  Another thing I did was to bring my folding wagon.  Rolling the costumes in was so much easier as I could carry a lot more at a time and less stress on my back.

Except for some stress with getting the room set up... we had 30 minutes to get all the costumes into the room and then set up...things went very well.  The director LOVED the costumes (even though some of the boys forgot to bring the suits they promised me they would bring in.  "Oh I have my own suit Miss Renee...I can bring it tomorrow."  no show... "I forgot")  Grrr  But we made it!  I sent bins of accessories home with the mom who had brought some of our costumes to the parade and then I LEFT the rest of the costumes in my car...they're still in there!

I had a party to get ready for and no place to put all those costumes.  We took hubby's car to Church yesterday because there wasn't room for the 3 of us in my car that is loaded with costumes.

Hubby's Sunday School class ran long (as usual!) so we had to run out of there and get home for last minute prep before the party started at 1pm.  We wolfed down our lunch and set the table.

here's the rundown on the party copied from Facebook...
First clean the house you've been neglecting due to your busy life. ;o)

then come up with a menu:
Menu:
Breakfast foods:
Mini scones, Mini muffins, and English muffins. add in Fruit & Yogurt
Lunch Foods:
Mini quiche, Chicken Salad Finger sandwiches & Cheese Pinwheels  add in Tuna salad & GF crackers
Dessert:
Mini Cheese cakes, Shortbread cookies, and Mini Lemon Cakes
and lots and lots of different tea flavors!

Then scour the internet to find recipes for all this stuff!

Then go shopping and hope you can buy some of this stuff already made!

Then start making the stuff you couldn't find (why doesn't my store carry the mini muffins this week?!?!)  Freeze the stuff you can freeze.

Day before, thaw all that stuff you froze!

Morning of... pull out everything you need and go to Church.

When you return start cleaning like a mad person (how did this place get so dirty?)

Heat the foods that need it.  Get the water hot.

Party starts... start serving the food.  Oops!  forgot the English Muffins...no one seemed to mind.  Too lazy to make the sandwiches so just put out the salad & crackers...that went over very well.  (we added Tuna salad too)

and I think they got full when I served the lemon cake, only one slice was half taken (they took half and left the rest).

No one went home hungry...possibly for a long while. ;o)

Try to talk birthday girl into cleaning up all the mess.

long for a nap!

We had one party guest who is gluten free (GF) and another guest who is a vegetarian (she eats fish though), so I chatted with the GF mom and she offered to send over some yogurt, I bought some fruit.  I made the quiche with a potato crust and the cheese cake had no crust at all.  So GF guest had plenty to eat.  Then for our veggie guest all the food was meat free except for the salads and she could have the tuna salad.
Everyone enjoyed the food...  I put out two plates of muffins & scones, one was emptied the other came back pretty full...I think the girls just took from the first plate.  All the fruit was gobbled up.  Yogurt was half gone.  Quiche was gobbled up, one guest asked for another (which I had in the kitchen).  Both salads were gobbled and I had to refill the Ritz crackers for the girls.  (they may have been eating them w/o salad too)  The cheese pinwheels were not gobbled down.  Even though Darly tried to talk her friends into them, they didn't seem too interested...that's okay!  more for me! :D
Cheese cake & cookies were a hit, but the lemon cake, not so much...I think that perhaps they were full by the time it came out.  and it wasn't as pretty.  Oh well there's dessert for the week!  In fact I should put it in the freezer for Wednesday.
I made a "Devonshire cream" recipe of cream cheese, sugar & whipped cream that was a huge hit.  One guest was eating it with a spoon (but she was the GF girl, so she really had nothing but fruit to put it on).  I figure I might get asked for that recipe.

Now that the party is over, I need to get those costumes out of my car and reorganized.  Then I can return the costumes we aren't using to the costume closet.  and get ready for Darly's confirmation retreat this weekend.  :p