Forgotten...

Oh... hey... Does anyone even remember how I used to make jewelry... I think I'd almost forgotten. You see, after the disastrous Christmas fair in Dec., I think I've had a hard time feeling motivated to make anything.  My jewelry making spirit just got so low that there was no desire to make anything for a while.  And I've been wondering if I'd ever even get the desire to craft again... although I do have some more ideas that I'd like to see implemented, so who knows?  Maybe I'll break everything out and craft away soon.  For now, here are some of the things that I made before that fair that shall never be mentioned again...

I really like this one... Maybe I'll just have to keep it for myself!

I'm not so sure about this one... I think I might need to re-work it a little bit before I'm completely happy.  The perfectionist in me is not fully satisfied...sigh.




There's more... but these are all the pictures I've taken so far apparently.  I'll have to break out the camera (awww shucks!) and take some more.  Looking at these pictures, I think I've caught the crafting bug again!  And so I need to get motivated and make some more stuff... and set up a shop on Etsy... and... the list goes on... someone please give me a kick in the pants to get going on all this, ok?  Thanks!

Bethy's Kitchen Corner....

I want one of these....



In pink... just like the picture... Because these mixers are amazing... and I think that having one would help me to be a better cook... and it might cause me to actually bake more... although, let's be real... who has time to bake?  I say I'd bake more, but I really probably wouldn't.... maybe one day I'll have one of these suckers adn then I can test if my theory of Kitchenaid mixer = more baking for Bethy proves true.... 



 And wouldn't this mixer just look fantastic in this kitchen??

You know it would... Oh... my... goodness... I could just die and go to heaven...

A little bit about Britt...

I have this friend.  I like to call her Britt.  There's something you should know about our friendship... it is an interesting one.  You see, Britt and I have very different personalities and completely opposite tastes, for the most part.  She's calm and logical when I'm dramatic and emotional. She's tough when I'm not so tough.  She's cool when... we'll just leave it at that.  And every once in a while we often question how it is that we're friends.
Take this for example...

How are we friends?

Yes, we're still friends, even though she's very misguided in her choice of sports teams.  I'll forgive her for this.  However, and this hurts me deeply to say... she is the one who can rejoice after Sunday's game...

Oh sure Britt... rub it in...

Sigh... it still hurts to talk about that loss... so sad...

But back to Britt... I'm so grateful for my friend Britt.  She has encouraged me, challenged me, and entertained me.  Who cares that our tastes are so different!  It's people's differences that spice up these lives of ours.  And for that I am truly grateful!

Bethy's Book Nook...

Eh... I've been fighting this cold/sinus thing pretty much the whole month of January... Which means, the lovely post I had all written in my head yesterday flew out the window when I had to crawl into bed the second I got home from a family birthday party because I was feeling so awful.  I'm sorry dear readers, but I just did not get that lovely post written... So you have to deal with the piddle paddle that will be typed here while I take my much longed for lunch break today...  How about we just discuss what I'm reading at this time?  Sound good?

Ok, I'm in the middle of two books right now.  One is a book for work and one is a book for leisure.  You can guess which is which.  The first book I'm reading is "Then Comes Marriage: A Cultural History of the American Family".  I admit, the history nerd in me finds this book ultra intriguing.  It is what the title says it is... a history of marriage, thoughts on, beliefs of,  in America.  And I think I've learned some new things, but don't ask me to repeat them to you, because I wouldn't be able to tell you adequately what I've learned.  I just know that my mind has been expanded... I hope...

The second book I'm reading is the American classic "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".  And guess what, I ran to the library and checked this book out because it was mentioned in the other book I'm reading.  I don't think I would have ever chosen it otherwise.  But, it's good.  It's a little slow moving, but what I like best is getting into the psyche of a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1900s.  I like reading about a time when New York was teeming with immigrants from all over the world, and getting a sense of how difficult their lives really were.  It makes me think of the films, Newsies and Gangs of New York.  I can picture those movies as I read this book.  I'm not very far into this book, I've been very negligent in my reading, but I'm looking forward to learning more about this family of characters and their struggles to make a better life for themselves as 2nd and 3rd generation American citizens.  Hopefully I can just get this book read before it's due back to the library... that's really my biggest concern right now!

The question is, would I recommend these books to you, my dearest of readers?  And the answer would be a resounding yes.  If you enjoy history at all, you should absolutely pick up "Then Comes Marriage" by Rebecca Price Janney (And I'm not just saying that because I work for the publisher, or because I sat on the acquisitions team that decided to publish this title. Honest.)  And of course, I'm always a sucker for the classics, so yes, you should read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith because it will give you a true sense of how the poor and the immigrants lived in the early 20th century. 

So go... read... learn something and expand your mind.  I promise you'll like it.

Book Nook Winner!

Happy Saturday all!  We have had the random drawing for the book nook giveaway!  Congratulations to....

 #3 Andrea for your stunning victory! 
"A gift card to Barnes and Noble!? :) Awesome!!
Man, soo many good books to choose from. From my childhood-I would have to say the American Girl books. :) From present day-I would have to say Pearl in the Sand. Gotta represent MP. Thanks!
-Andrea :)"

You are now the proud owner of one of the best novels ever written as well as a $15 gift card!! 

I'll hand this lovely prize off to you next week!

Thank you all for playing!!

DIY Friday

Today is DIY Friday, in case you'd forgotten. 

She's also a little silly,
but I wouldn' have her be any other way!

And this first post is coming at you from one of the coolest people on the planet. 

Thanks to Audrey a best friend of moi, mother of 3, and crafty lady like none other for this fun post...  Enjoy!

Homemade Mobile 

Here’s what you need:

The inner ring to a quilting circle         A variety of ribbon
Fabric                                               Interfacing (iron-on or tear apart)
Embroidery thread                            Hand needle
Beads                                               Buttons
Feathers                                           Hot glue gun/glue
Any crafty finds (I used butterflies and wired bead sections)

Really though, you can use just about anything you want for a mobile, so I’d start looking around at things you have in your house like fabrics, beads, buttons, and ribbon.  I love Hobby Lobby and I found the butterflies in this mobile on clearance there. 

You need to decide on your color scheme.  You could pick a few colors and make everything match or coordinate, or you could be a bit eclectic and bright.  Then start to gather it all together to make sure you like where it’s going.

I sense come cuteness coming your way!

Make the hanging objects:
I started with the fabric shapes.  I drew what I wanted onto cardboard pieces and then cut them out and traced them onto the back side of my selected fabric.  Then I cut out the fabric pieces, making sure I had them drawn so that they’d have a front and a back I could sew together.  Then I layered the front and the back with a square of interfacing in between.  I chose a contrasting color of embroidery thread and got a large eye hand needle, lined them up well, and started to sew them together.  Then I cut the interfacing to the shape of the front and back so you couldn’t see any of it. (if you use iron on, you could iron it on, cut it to match the shape, then sew it to the back)  Then I used the hand needle to thread a ribbon so it could hang.  I then attached beads to the end of the ribbon for a more finished look. 

It'll look a little something like this.

To make the bead/button strings, secure a large button at the bottom so the beads don’t slip off, then just string the beads on the ribbon.  The last string of beads is actually made from a bracelet my daughter had that broke.  I kept the beads, and this was the perfect place to use them! (the small flower and leaf beads on the green ribbon)

I had feathers… so I just had to use them. I chose a few colors and hot glued them to a few different ribbons. I also glued a button to the top of those strands for some extra detail. 

The green beads on the green wire were all one piece that I found with the artificial flowers.  I took it apart and twisted sections of them onto the bottom of each butterfly and then a few to the top. 

Finishing it off:
For the circle I used the inner ring of a cheap quilting circle.  I found a fabric and hot glued it to the inside making sure that both the outside and the inside both looked good- you’ll be able to see both sides!

I used ribbon to hang the circle from a hook in the ceiling while I tied each piece onto it.  I tried to make sure that similar things were spread apart and no two of the same color ribbon were hung next to each other.  After they were all hung, I used a hot glue gun to glue the extra ribbon up and then I cut off the extra ribbon.  That way you couldn’t see any unfinished parts.  I chose a few extra buttons and glued them over each ribbon on the outside of the ring.

And here's the finished product!

Muy bien!!

I love this mobile so much I don’t want to give it to my daughter! Maybe I’ll hang it in my room. 

Some other ideas for mobiles-
Christmas: Stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, Santa hats etc.
Outer Space: Planets and stars for a boy’s room (there are some great planets fabrics for around the ring)
Sports: Baseball bats, gloves, balls (baseball, basketball, soccer ball, etc.) with twine instead of ribbon for a boy’s room
Valentines Day- hearts, cupids, red, pink, and white buttons, children’s valentines, foam hearts




Thanks for letting me share!

Audrey

Oh the places I want to go...

I have a "bucket list"... My bucket list is a list of all the places I want to see in my lifetime.  And it keeps growing.  Because, wouldn't you just know it, there are so many fascinating places out there!  This world is a glorious mixture of untamed beauty, intriguing people groups, and fascinating cultures.  It makes it hard to not want to quit everything and travel the world for, oh, forever.  I know that it would take unfathomable riches to do just that so I guess I'll just have to wait to win the big lottery jackpot (fingers crossed)!  So, for your Thursday enrichment, pleasure, entertainment, and so forth, I am sharing my Traveling Bucket List with you dear friends... Well, the top ten places at least...

1. Ireland ~ Seriously, it is my dream to go to here.  If I could only choose one of the places on my list it would most definitely be Ireland.  My life will not be complete until I go there.
2. Italy ~ I dream of the day when I can gaze at the beauty of Florence, glide in a gondola through the canals in Venice, and meander through the historical sights of Rome...
3. Paris ~ I would love to visit and gaze at the Eiffel tower all aglow at night after having spent the day walking along the Champs de Elysee... preferably with someone I loved... it is the city of love after all...
4. London ~  Another of my biggest dreams is to visit this city and then tour through the surrounding countryside... Mostly where Jane Austen lived, worked, and breathed.  That's really the dream, to go to the places in her books, see where she grew up... Too nerdy?
5. Plitvice Lakes (Croatia) ~ Thanks to a Rick Steve's Europe episode that I saw one evening on PBS (Is that even more nerdy? Please don't answer that question...) I now long to visit this place and attempt to photograph the beauty that is this natural wonder. 
6. China ~ Ever since I took that year of Mandarin Chinese in high school I've wanted to head over to this ancient land and give them a loud Ni hao wo peng yous (that's "hello friends")!
7. Spain ~ Maybe Barcelona, maybe Madrid, who really knows.  All I do know is that I am not running with the bulls, nor do I want to see anyone else running with the bulls...
8. Holland ~ What can I say?  I'm a sucker for windmills, wooden shoes, and tulips.
9. Somewhere Scandinavian ~ I really have no preference of Sweden, Norway, or Finland... Oh wait, which one has all the fjords?  That's where I want to go... just so I can say the word fjord over and over...
10. Australia ~ I think this on the list only because, well, I want to see a Koala bear... and a kangaroo... And because it's a goal to visit every continent!

I could go on and on but I'll stop with just these 10.  I know. You're welcome! I'm always looking out for you dear reader...

One of these days I am going to pack up my bags and head on out to see all the wonders of this great Earth... Someday...

Photo courtesy of Mille Motts

p.s.  There's still time to enter my giveaway!  Do you like free stuff?  Do you like to read?  Then enter here!
p.p.s. Want to enter to win a free Kindle 3G (this giveaway is not being hosted by me obviously!) Go here...

Bethy's Kitchen Corner

Again, it's time for... Bethy's Kitchen Corner.  Brought to you this week by the color purple and the letters "C" and "D".  The "c" and "d" standing for Chicken & Dumplings, of course!  I decided to make this delicious meal this weekend while at the 'rent's house.  It's always such an easy yet mucho delicioso meal.  Have you ever made Chicken and Dumplings?  Well, here's our Easy Peasy Delicious recipe if you would like to run home and make this tasty dish tonight...





Easy Peasy Chicken and Dumplings
What you will need:
2 - 3 Chicken breasts              2 - 3 cans of chicken broth (one can per chicken breast)
Salt, Garlic salt, and other preferred seasonings (try using McCormick herb chicken seasoning)
2 c flour                                  4 tbs I mean tsp! baking powder
2 tbs shortening                       1 tsp salt
Milk

If you have a crock pot, combine chicken breasts with chicken broth and set crock pot to cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  We like to cook the chicken overnight, then refrigerate until the next evening.  If you do not have a crock pot, just boil the chicken breasts in a large pot with the broth and enough water to fill the pot 3/4 full.  Again, it's better if the chicken is cooked the day before and then sits in the broth until the next day.  Let chicken cool and then cut up into tiny pieces.  Place cut chicken in large stock put and fill with broth and water until the pot is 3/4 full.  Bring to a boil...
While the chicken is coming to a boil, prepare the dumplings by combining the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut in the shortening.  Combine milk slowly to dry mixture until soft dough forms.
Once chicken mixture is boiling, drop teaspoon fulls of dumpling mixture to pot.  Cover and let cook for 12 minutes.

And that's it!  Easy peasy right?!  Enjoy!

Don't forget, there's still time to enter the giveaway!! Click here for details!

What the what?!

Confession, I used to torture my cat.  In my defense, I had no clue that I was torturing her.  I just wanted to play with her as I played with my dolls.  Dress her up in doll clothes, push her in the stroller.  But she wasn't a doll... and she hated it.  Absolutely hated every moment of the torture.  Oh, it doesn't look like that in the picture, I know, but that's the way it was. I would chase her and she would hiss at me, and then I would chase her some more, only because I was mad she was running away and hissing at me.  It was a vicious, endless cycle... What can I say, I'm an only child.  We have to find amusement on our own and consequently tend to do the weirdest things. But enough about the cat (and apparently my hidden resentment over being an only child)...

Can we just talk about this picture for a minute... I mean, really!! Those jeans?!  And is my shirt actually tucked in in some nerdly fashion?  And don't even get me started about the hair... Oh, no... here I go... I don't even know where to begin!  The bangs?!  What?!  I think this may have been the short time where my mother (yes, I'm going to blame her for this) let me get my hair permed.  But we were cheap, so it was done from a box by a family friend that "did hair".  But if I recall correctly, the place she actually did my hair was in the back of the office at the church and school we attended.  Oh, the mixture of smells from the ink (for printing bulletins of course) and perm chemicals... excuse me while I go throw up...

Goodness gracious... who ever thought I could carry off a perm?!  Oh wait... that was me...  I'm still blaming my mother though, because after all, I was only like 8 or 9 at the time. She should have known to stop me. And isn't that what mothers are really for?  To blame all of our bad decisions on?  I think I heard that somewhere once...

P.S.  Go enter my giveaway here: Really fun giveaway... if you like to read that is...

Bethy's Book Nook....

Welcome to the inaugural Bethy's Book Nook post.  Come on, pull up a big comfy chair and join me in my book nook as I talk about, well, books.  I guess that's pretty obvious from the title, huh?  No mystery here, sorry.

So, for the first book nook post ever, I'd like to share with you about my most favorite book. This book, of course, is Pride & Prejudice! I love this book.  I've read it so many times, and yet each time I read it, it's still like reading it for the first time.  I love the language and the manners.  The formality of Jane Austen's world and works just intrigues me.  I love to get lost in the pages of this book.

This book seriously never fails to disappoint.  No matter that I've read it, or seen the movie version a million times, I'm always waiting on pins and needles to see if Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy really will get together in the end (This isn't a spoiler is it? I mean everyone knows the ending to this story, right?). Sigh... And it just thrills me to the soul when Elizabeth puts aside her pride and her prejudice against Mr. Darcy to find that she truly does love him.  This love story is just classic!  Oh to find a man like Mr. Darcy!

So, there are many reasons I love this book.  And I think that it truly is a must for everyone to read this book.  For that reason, I'm holding a giveaway!  Some lucky reader here will win their very own copy of Pride & Prejudice along with, drum roll please, a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble!!  What?!?!  Yes, I'm throwing that gift card in because I know that not all out there are as fascinated by the ingenious Ms. Austen like I am.

The book... the gift card... good luck!

The details:
Just leave a comment telling me the title of your favorite book. That's it! So easy! But, please, only one entry per person. The drawing is open until Friday evening. Winner's comment will be randomly picked and announced on Saturday!

Happy Reading!!!

DIY Friday

So, I've decided something. Fridays are going to be devoted to DIY projects!  That way, if you like what you see, you can go ahead and take your weekend to make the DIY posted here.  I'm sure you will all just be dying to make every last project posted.  I just know it.  Sadly, I don't have one for today, I'm just making the announcement.  But, stay tuned for lots of fun!!

Blast from the Past

I'm sitting here listening to some music while I just chill before bed.  Nothing spectacular in that, I know... but you see, this song came on.  And this song... well, it takes me back to my teenage days.  The days where my friends and I did nothing but talk on the phone, have sleepovers, and dream about the day we would be "grown up".  I have since learned that growing up is overrated.  But it's nice to every once in a while be transported back to those days through this musical time machine.  I love it when something reminds of nothing but the "good" times.  The times we drank Sprite and ate twizzlers and hadn't experienced most of the hardships of this thing we call life.  And it makes me miss my friends.  I want to call them up (3-way calling of course, that's how we did it back then) and tell them to grab a pillow and come over for another sleepover.  We'll watch movies, and talk about boys, and forget the stresses and worries around us.  Wouldn't that just be nice.  I think about one night, where three of us got together and wrote out predictions about ourselves and each other.  And we put them in a box and hid them in my room to be read at a later time.  I think I still have those somewhere.  None of the predictions came true, thank God for that.  But it's so funny to think about what we thought back then.  We were silly... I was silly... still am sometimes...

Bethy's Kitchen Corner....

I've had a revelation in the kitchen.  I have one miss Britt to thank for this revelation.  It's actually a very simple revelation... yet it has changed my life!  And by "my life", I mean the way I make chili.  You see, I've observed something about the way Britt makes and eats her chili... she adds something... something that I would have never even thought to add to chili... Do you want to know what it is?  I'll tell you... it's rice!  RICE!  I always thought it was a little odd to put those two things together, but I was determined to try this innovation.  So I made some chili yesterday... it's fine... nothing spectacular... but the kicker was when I cooked up some rice and added that... so much better.  I am a rice in my chili convert now... Try it the next time you whip up a pot of chili... I think you might just become a convert as well...

Is it wrong that I want this kitchen, green carpet included?  Is the pink a little overkill?