Boy, we just had a huge thunderstorm come rolling through. I just love summer storms. The wind was blowing, the rain was cascading down, the thunder was all around, wonderful. As long as we don't get hit by lightning, of course. Which we have been three times. But why take all the fun out of the summer storm. I didn't see any lightning so I won't worry about that. And Ryan is downstairs just working away on my leaky old pipes. There are some new holes added today. He is doing his best not to chop away too much of the wall and ceiling, but he has to be able to get to the pipes and fittings. I told him to just do what he needed to do to get it done. Looks more and more like there might be some redecorating happening! I didn't have my girls today so it has been a productive, creative sort of day, working on new projects for the upcoming Fall classes. I think I've come up with some fun and fallish projects that will be fun to make and fun to decorate with. I have such wonderful ladies in my classes who are always so supportive of me and my "projects". I truly appreciate each and every one of them for the confidence they show in me and their willingness to learn what I have in my brain that is not always easy to teach at times. I'm working on a new Fall penny mat which is going to be a very scrappy mat. So the best way to get into that scrappy look is to just dump out all the scraps from the big giant scrap basket and dig in which is exactly what I did. Oh why fun that is. I have two classes at my house this weekend so the ladies will be in for a big surprise when they get here -- DISASTER!! Certainly not the house that was in the magazine!!! All of my living room furniture is pushed to one end of the room and covered in plastic and the rest of the stuff is in the dining room piled on and around the table. All of the bathroom contents are emptied into the master bedroom piled high on the floors and bed. Oh my goodness, I'll just have to keep them in the workroom with blinders on. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Well, the demolition has begun. I have holes all over my living room ceiling and walls, in the kitchen, and in the two bathrooms upstairs so far. Ryan is trying not to cut out more than he has to, but he also has to get those pipes replaced. So hopefully by this time tomorrow we will have all new pipes and not have to worry about leaks ever again. Then we have to get the drywall repaired and then there will be lots of painting to be done. I may be thinking about redecorating a little bit since all this work has to be done and things have to be painted. Might as well think about some changes. Just hadn't gone that direction yet in my mind but now that I see how much is actually being cut away, might be a good time to start thinking. Oh my brain!!! And we all know I love to decorate. We'll see..................
Mark is trying to be the plumber's assistant.......anyone up there?

What a great class we had last night. The ladies created snowman pillows from one of my early patterns which I had tweaked a little bit. Everyone got their pillows done and were happy with the results and most wanted to make more as gifts. That's always a promising thing to hear as a teacher. I'm just going to post several pictures of this group of ladies and the hard work and fun that they had. Thanks gals for a fun evening.

And to all a good night...............................

I had a class to teach Sunday afternoon. In preparation for the class I was in my workroom getting the supplies out and for some reason I ended up in a cabinet looking for something. I can't remember now if it was something I needed for the class or not, but I ended up emptying most of what was in the cabinet, as you can see from the picture. I sat in the middle of the floor with piles all around me, organizing and sorting through things. Still don't know what I was looking for, don't even know if I found it. But the cabinet got organized. Must be old age. Had another nice group of ladies and a fun class. More Santas were created and again, it is funny to see how each one turns out so differently. Everyone starts with the same mold and they all develop their own special personalities. Thanks gals for a fun afternoon. Or as Liza might say, a wee bit of a good time.

A day with my girls. The morning started out early at 8am and was just a busy day all day. Reagan and Raleigh are always busy doing something, drawing, coloring, acting out their favorite TV show, playing on the computer, playing doctor and pet doctor, picking vegetables from Poppy's garden........always active. However, I caught Reagan lounging in a haphazard way this afternoon, just relaxing and enjoying a show. I remembered that she starts kindergarten on Monday so this was her last weekend of FREEDOM. So lounge away little girl. Reagan went school clothes shopping with her mother this afternoon and Raleigh stayed behind with me. Oh what fun she had playing games on the computer, something she's not normally allowed to do because big sister usually controls that keyboard. She played for five hours on the computer, going from one site to another. She had the best time and was quite adept at maneuvering around the sites. I had a revelation after she had been on the computer for about three hours. She was using her right hand and doing OK but having a little difficulty with the mouse. Well, the little thing is left handed! So I said whoa Raleigh, let's fix something here. I moved the mouse to her left side and after a couple minutes of getting used to the new arrangement she was fine. Have to remember that left hand!! My son asked if they made left-handed mouses. Do they? Speaking of my son, he came by to pick up Raleigh who informed him she was never ever going home again and she was living with Mina and Poppy. So adamant and so cute. She ended up crying and going home with Daddy. Oh well. But getting back to my son, he was helping Raleigh work on the computer and I snapped a picture of him. Isn't he a handsome fella?! My younger son lives too far away for me to get candid shots of him but don't worry, I'll see him at Thanksgiving time so get ready for lots of pictures Eric!!! I got in a little stitching while sitting with Raleigh at the computer but not a very productive day all in all. That's Ok, my little girls are growing up so quickly I relish the time I have with them. I'll be working at The Rusty Bucket tomorrow helping celebrate their five year anniversary. Come on down and visit. Big sales and door prizes.

We had another fun class at The Rusty Bucket last night. Continuing with the Christmas in July classes, the ladies completed very sweet and fun and whimsical Santas. Everyone worked so hard during the class and were rewarded at the end with a new decoration to add to their Christmas treasures. The most fun thing about this class is seeing everyone start with basically the same materials and each and every Santa ending up looking so unique and individual. Thanks ladies for a fun evening!

I've had a little stitching time this week. The plumber can't come until next week to work on our leaky pipes and arrangements had already been made for the girls to be with their other Grandma, so that freed up a little time for me. So I got busy on the new pattern design I'm working on that I've been posting sneak peeks of here and there. I have two more "blocks" and I'll be done with the stitching part. I'm so excited and absolutely love these "girls". Here's a sneak peek at part of one of the blocks.










Our garden is abundant with tomatoes this year, especially the grape tomatoes. It's amazing how many are on just one plant. Our cucumbers, like many other folks, didn't do so well this year. They started out ok but ended up being very bitter. Time to plant a new round of crops for the fall harvest. The girls have already planted their pumpkin seeds, so we'll have that to look forward to. Need to get some squash and zucchini in the ground soon. Love the fresh vegetables.


My friend Evette and I got together last night to work on preparing a model for the August recipe card. I had purchased some papers and a stamp set last week, so that was what we had to start our creative process. We sit across from one another and just toss ideas back and forth and cut out paper and stamp designs and in the end we come up with a pretty great card. At least that's what we're hoping for while we're going through the brainstorming session. We can also make quite a mess with all the supplies, which we did last night. Too late to clean up, too tired, so that's was on today's agenda. But in the end it was all worth it and I think the ladies will like the August card alot. I already know some of them love the recipe since I served it at the Stampin' Up open house on Sunday and it received rave reviews.

What a busy weekend. I taught a snowman class on Saturday where the ladies made darling wool snowmen decked out with wool scarves and hats. They turned out adorable.

Just as we were finishing up the snowman class, my husband informed me we had another leak in our ceiling. Sure enough, water spots were traveling all across one end of the room. Oh no, not again. We were looking up at the ceiling and all of a sudden water started pouring down the living room wall. Double OH NO!! So he turned the water off, called our friendly plumber, and waited. Ryan got to the house as quick as he could, inspected the problem, gave us very bad news about where the leak was located and what it would take to fix it and then capped off the line where the leak was. We made a decision at that point to go ahead and get all the pipes replaced. So this week's adventure will be having 1/4 of the ceiling cut away in the living room and I guess some of the walls so the pipes can be replaced. Oh whoa is us!!! But hopefully this will solve those bad pipe problems and we can stop worrying about leaks every few weeks. After my class was over I looked at my husband and said just great, I have an open house on Sunday with 30 ladies coming in and a big hole in my ceiling. Oh well, maybe no one will look up!!

The open house was for Stampin' Up's new catalog preview. I decided to have Christmas in July projects to give everyone a headstart on planning Christmas cards and projects. The event was a lot of work for me but also a lot of fun planning and preparing for. Lots of wonderful ladies came to the house and had a good time stamping, eating, visiting and looking at all the new goodies from Stampin' Up. Thanks for coming everyone!!

Lou, Tammy & Avery, Mom, daughter & granddaughter, stamping together!

Heather & Debby, a crafting duo
Evette, Stephanie & Sandra hard at work having fun!

Rhonda & Pam take time from their card making for a pose
Ooooh, so much to choose from!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the house this weekend for all the crafting projects. What a great way to spend with friends, new and old!

Time flies when you're having fun. I've been busy with my little girls this week, picking the fruits of our labor from the garden, visiting the library for story hour and bringing home stacks of good books to read, coloring, drawing, creating cards, chasing butterflies, watching their favorite Disney movies and so much more. We're going to do a little baking after dinner this evening. They wanted to create a recipe this afternoon but every recipe we chose I was missing several ingredients. So we need to make a trip to the store and then we will get creative in the kitchen. Both girls love to cook and bake.

I have a snowman class tomorrow so it will be a busy day with ladies creating wonderful snowmen. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

I have been trying to grow black eyed susans for years. I could never get them to grow, bloom or resemble anything close to the beautiful flower I remembered from my Mamaw's gardens. So this summer I've been watching the plant grow that has just not produced for a couple of years. I sort of held my breath waiting to see what would happen. For some strange reason it decided to bloom this year and is just beautiful. It is covered with big beautiful yellow flowers with a zillion buds waiting to burst open. I am so excited to finally have this flower bloom. It just brings back such fun and fond memories of being at my Mamaw's house in the summer time and walking around her gardens looking at all her beautiful flowers. She always had such a green thumb. And I guess this flower takes me back to a simpler, quieter time, which we all need these days. Here's to black eyed susan summer days!

Wow, another fun class. Last night a group of ladies met at The Rusty Bucket and we made (well, they made) starry eyed snowman pillows. This was a pattern I designed many years ago and even though it was old to me, everyone looked at it with new "starry eyes" and loved the design. What I love is watching everyone work from the same pattern and seeing each snowman develop his own personality as his face was stitched on. Some snowmen had bigger eyes and some smaller, some were smiling and some were sort of, well, smirking!
And the conversation was certainly lively during the evening. We discussed everything from favorite books and authors to menopause to where we lived in the past to, eventually ovaries and alzheimers. And some startling revelations were made regarding our bodies that we won't go into here! Poor Heather (the youngest of the group) sure got her ears full from us old-timers! Sorry Heather. But your turn is coming!! By the end of the night, conversation and good times aside, we actually did end up with snowman pillows. Good job ladies!