WEEEEE! My curtains are in and up!

actually pretty heavy, picked up from JCPenny catalog pickup

Not too much in the way of words today, but if you all could see the great big smile on my face you wouldn't need to hear anything (or read). My mom would be so proud, ha ha. She would love these curtains, too. So here are a few pics I took this morning. I picked up the curtains last Wednesday so I've had to wait all this time to have them up! But I am so thrilled with the final outcome. Just come and look :)

I had to get one out and look at it.

I am so happy with this fabric. It is so pretty. I don't think I could've recreated this, not even close.

so cute!

They pick up on all the black elements I have in the kitchen and just looks so much more cozier.

I love them with my mother's copper she gave me

Yay!

Ahhhh

In other news, Asher is doing just great. We have a follow up appointment on Wednesday and his eye almost looks as though nothing happened. He still has some minor bruising but it has not hurt him in the least and he has been very good about letting me put in the ointment to help it heal fast. Click here to see what I'm talking about, if you don't know.

Playing his Mobigo game

The kittens are growing so fast! I'll post some super cute pictures soon and I also have a Cherry Cheesecake recipe I want to share. It is soooo yummy. See ya soon!

Whew! It's over and I can relax

Spiffy gown

Asher's eye surgery was early this morning and everything went just as planned. He didn't need an IV because it was over so quickly, the surgery that is. We got there at 5:30 and didn't leave until 8:15. Asher was so brave and happily colored as we waited.  He doesn't even have a bandage or patch over his eye. We just need to go back in 10 days for a follow up check up. So I can now relax, I am so glad this is over. Everyone treated him so well, I was really thankful. So I guess I got my Thanksgiving early this year.

Before the surgery

In other news, my craft show was a let down. I should've known that there would not be many people there because of the location. It was held in our county's 4H center and it is out of the way and not near town at all. It was also a first annual craft show, so I'll be people just did not know about it. To add insult to injury it was also very foggy for half the day. I almost passed the building up it was so foggy, and I know where I'm going! There also wasn't much in the way of advertising as they promised way back in February when we committed to do the show. It all went to a good cause though. It was to benefit our county's homeless dogs. I hope they made a lot of money and it was a success. But I think if there is a next time, I'll just write a check for the donation instead of wasting my day, and the day before getting ready for it. I think I may be  holding off on any more shows for a while. Focus more on just the online sales or maybe even try consignment.

I did meet a lot of great people and chatted all day long. I also purchased some home made peppermint lotion and a cute a Christmas decoration with a snowman and poinsettia's and had lunch and a box of donuts plus I "donated" money with all my non winning half pot tickets! About $6 worth. My partner was part of the entertainment and she sang half a dozen songs or so and everyone loved it. She has a very Patsy Cline kinda voice.

Oh! I'm excited to announce that I got my curtains!!! I picked them up Thursday evening but haven't had a chance to do anything but look at them and hang one on a pocket rod to see how it's going to look in my kitchen. I can't wait to get them up, they are super cute! I am so pleased.

Some not so great news is, when I came home from my show Saturday one of the kittens left me a present in the bathroom. It pooped in my sink :(  Yuck. My wonderful husband left it there all day so I could see it and clean it up when I arrived back home. So I may have 2 kittens and a husband to give away.

I haven't had a chance to answer everyone's well wishes yet, so if you haven't gotten a reply from me, I am getting caught up today. Thanks for all your prayers and sweet thoughts!

Keeping busy with craft show stocking stuffers

Future magnets

I've been busy getting some last minute projects done for the craft show this Saturday. I haven't had much luck lately at the shows, so I'm trying to get together some inexpensive items for stocking stuffers in hopes of generating a little more interest. I'm kinda disgusted with the whole arts and crafts show scene as of late so I hope this one will be better and not a waste of time.

So above here I've got some of my previous designs with GeeJayCreations and I've shrunk them down and tweaked a little here and there and cut out some of the poetry and in some cases added very simple words, such as Love and Look to God. I've laminated the front and will plunk a magnet on the back and was thinking $2 each. Any thoughts on the price?

Below here is my mini pot project I've told you about. They are different than my painted pots that I've done in the past because I'm decoupaging these. I may be sand blasting them and redoing them if the beginning ones are as good as they get. As I was telling Stephanie of Dragonfly Design Studios, these are not turning out quite like I imagined them in my head. Usually most things don't turn out like I envisioned it, but these are kinda... *eek* I'll ask your opinion. Decoupage may not be my forte. I got the idea from my new friend Frenchy of Le Chateau des fleurs by Frenchy. She had a beautiful one and I had visions of sugar plums in my head... well you get the idea. I'm not exactly getting sugar plums.


Of course, I'm getting my fantastic graphics from Karen at the Graphics Fairy, and they don't disappoint. 

So I got this box of mini terra cotta pots from my local yahoo group, cheapcycle. If you haven't checked to see if you've got one in your area, you are missing out! These are great. I think it was inspired by freecycle.

Got em for a song

So they needed a little scrubbing and voila! I've got instant toothpick holders or Q-tips holders, candle votives.. you name it. Anyone have any other ideas of what to put in them for selling purposes?

I've painted some here, rustically and I really like the way they turned out. Not all perfect looking, but I like it that way.

Cute little Thanksgiving paper to add for a toothpick holder

It will go, like so. See the blue underpainting? I like the rustic/aged look

A horrible mistake below here. I tried painting on the small picture to add color. yuck.

Yikes!

The colors are not showing up very well, but it was not what I had in mind.

The next picture is one I did about midnight and I was thinking it would look cute to have a "burnished" look behind the rooster and chickens. Well, as I look at it, it's more like what was I thinking? But I kinda like the patchwork patches along the rim. Any ideas on salvaging this one?

Very country, but that is what a lot of craft goers buy around here. I kinda like it, but I like roosters and chicks.

This last one might be the best one so far. I have kinda gotten into the French look lately, especially with my curtains coming in soon (I can't wait!!!). So I think it's simple, but the black and bits of gold shining through make it rustic but elegant. Anyway, I like it.

Would look cute in a Paris themed bathroom?

One problem I've ran into is I didn't take into account the curvature of the pot. So now I have this smiley face syndrome going on and the bigger the label, the bigger the problem. It's not too bad on these small labels. Does anyone know how to remedy this? I know I could just play around with it to guess the right distortion, but if someone knows the easy and fast way to do it, I'm all ears.

I was thinking of asking $5 each for these. Any thoughts? Also, if you're a seasoned decoupager or just have some better ideas than I've done here, please tell me. I'm all for ideas but I'm running out of time for my show so I just haven't had time to research it and look for more ideas. Please, share your thoughts! :)

Also, thank you all so much for your concern for my son, Asher. I've had wonderful messages and comments from you all... my friends. They mean the world to me and bring me much comfort. I've really been missing my mom lately (like there are days I don't miss her, jeesh!). I guess I've been looking for comfort and her words to let me know everything is going to be fine and it will all work out, just like I know she would tell me. All of you have in some way have filled her shoes with your encouragement and I cherish my friendships I've made on here. Thank you all, you have no idea how touched I am that you all care.

I did it!

I did it! I bought my curtains for my kitchen! You guys are not gonna believe the deal I got on my curtains that I was telling you guys about and asked advice for. I have great advice from all you friends out there in blogland and thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging words. I thought about sewing my own curtains for about 2 seconds and ditched that idea simply because there are so many windows and I had to face reality, I just don't have that kind of free time. If I did, I would be creating more art than I am.

I left you all last with them costing $29.99 on sale thru Saturday and I had a 15% off coupon, and I needed 10 of them. Well, I went in to the JCPenny Home Store tonight and thought I'll just look at them in person and make sure this is what I want and that they are worth the money. A lot of you mentioned that they were a fair price and I whole heartedly agree, but I love to get a bargain. So I walked in and the nice ladies there were all friendly and willing to help me so I felt comfortable to tell them I was looking for a better deal on the curtains. One mentioned the scratch off tickets they had behind the counter. She helped me by looking them up in the computer and I went off with her to look at the curtains but they didn't have my color, which I was surprised. I just figured they wouldn't have the ten that I needed. I asked her if she had any intuition about which scratch offs were "winners" as in 30% off which is the maximum you can get off and she told me she'd been pretty good the last few times she picked them out. We went back to the register and she offered me a scratch off ticket and BAM! It was 30% OFF! So she helped me order them and I don't even have to pay shipping because I can pick them up at the store! Ok, I know you are dying to know what they ended up costing... so (drum roll, please... dat dat dat dat dat...) $17.89 each! Can you believe that??? I am so delighted! These are normally $55.00 each! I am just so thrilled, it must be meant to be that I have curtains instead of pokey corners pointing out at me all the time :)

They are supposed to be in next Wednesday evening so next week I hope to be posting pictures of my new window treatments soon! I know they are going to just transform the look of my kitchen and I can't wait!! I don't think I could've even made them much cheaper than this. I'm so happy!!

Oh and one thing I'd like to ask of all of you. Please say a little prayer for my son, Asher. He has had a what I thought to be a stye in his eye for about 2 weeks now and it has gotten so bad and not healing I took him in to the doctor on Monday and she put him on antibiotics, oral and drops and wanted to know Thursday morning if it had not improved and then to get him into an eye doctor. It now looks kinda fleshy and has a hard knot under his eye, like where we get bags. Well, it's not better and I am so worried that it's a tumor or something terrible like that. It looks pretty bad and the thing that scares me is it doesn't hurt him. I've always had a lot of soreness with a stye. So we have an eye doctors appointment Friday at 11:15 am. I'm worried he may have to have it lanced, be put under, that it is a tumor or worse that he could lose his vision! I know... my mama worrying habit is getting the better of me and I shouldn't worry until he tells us what it is. But I can't help it. So please, just a quick prayer or special thought at that time that he is healed and it turns out to be no big deal.

Thank you all my friends! Here's some super sweet pictures of the twins.

Lightning - doesn't she look like a nautilus shell all curled up?

Thunder - he's more of a straight out sleeper, look at that cute fat little belly