BABY SHOWER CRAFTS

For the past few weeks I have been getting ready for my daughter's baby shower. Being crafty came in handy and I had loads of fun making all kinds of things to decorate for the shower. I am including pictures as they tell alot of the story.


These were some clip art lambs I found on a site and we cut them out to decorate the walls. We stuck them on with that tacky stuff so there is no damage to the walls.
These were some little box patterns I found on a site. Printed them up, cut them out, glued them and voila - neat little decorations for the shower all at pennies a piece.

Don't know if you can see these o.k. but they are little party favors. They look like baby soothers. They are a life saver with a jelly been glued in the middle and hung from ribbon. The jelly bean is supposed to be stuck in with icing sugar but that didn't work and I had to resort to using glue to stick everything together.

Tried my hand at a diaper cake. Took alot of time but well worth it when I saw the finished product. I added colourful toys around it and on top to finish it all off.

A diaper wreath again decorated with diapers and colourful toys and lots and lots of ribbon.



Why buy a corsage when you can make one with a baby bonnet, booties, a soother, diaper pins, and loads of ribbons?





Crafting with food can be so much fun as well. Here I made a baby carriage out of a watermellon. Notice the wheels are made from a melon with hearth shapes cut out for wheels. Trimmed all in lace and filled with fruit salad.



Fruit cut into fancy shapes and then placed on a skewer stuck into the top of a pinapple makes a nice hawain type display. So much fun. Then loads of vegetables in all shapes and colours to stimulate the appetite.

Many thanks to everyone who complimented me on my creations. I had so much fun doing it all.

If you have craft ideas, please feel free to share them with me.

Hope you have a scrump deleisious(sp??) day filled with crafty ideas.

I'M AN ADDICT

Hello. My name is One of Six and I’m an addict.

(Crowd says "Hello One of Six")

My addiction started a few days ago when I decided to check out what all the hoopla was about on Ebay. I registered and joined Pay Pal as well. Then I began to search.

Being an expectant Grandmother, I decided to check out Baby Items. Well, I was hooked instantly. I couldn’t believe the prices on some of the baby items and I started bidding. Before I knew what hit me, I had bid on over 9 items and ended up winning 8 of the items I bid on. I felt so fortunate. Yipee! I was getting all this great stuff for next to nothing.

Then I went to Pay Pal to pay for all these great deals and it HIT ME like a ton of bricks. I had to add the exchange rate as I am Canadian and everything was being sold in American dollars. Not only that, but the shipping charges were horrendous. Imagine paying only one measly dollar for an item and then having to pay $25.00 shipping costs. Does that seem a little ridiculous to you? It sure did to me - but I was committed and had to do it.

My few little purchases for about $100.00 ended up costing me around $300.00 Canadian.

Did that deter me - NO WAY HOSEA!

Next day I was back at it again thinking it was still cheaper than buying it in Canada. (And maybe it is - will have to wait till I get everything before I will know for sure)

Some things you just can’t find anywhere else but Ebay and then it is worth it to pay the extra money.

I am hooked on the bidding part and notice that everyone waits till the last few mins. to bid. Why bother putting something up for seven days if they are all going to wait till the last minute. I am learning and learning fast.

Being a stay at home person, this Ebay thing is great for shopping. I have learned to try to stick to Canadian sites now as the shipping is cheaper and the cost is more to my liking as it is in Canadian dollars. I can’t stand all the ‘Business’ type of sellers though. They should have a separate venue for them. I think the garage sale idea of Ebay is great but the business part isn’t so great.

I have to get busy and put some of my junk up for sale and try that end of it yet. Would be nice to receive a little money instead of only spending it.

Hope you have an addiction free day.

AND GOD CREATED FRIENDS

I’ve been busy the past few days as I had a great friend over, spending some time with me. I hadn’t seen her in a few months and it was so nice to hook up with her again.

I’ve written about my friend Tilly before and you can read more about her here if you would like.

She’s a little bit 'country' and I’m a little bit 'rock and roll' and yet we get along fabulously. We are so different in so many ways and yet our hearts are joined together as one.

When God is involved in creating a friendship, you know it is going to be JUST PERFECT.

I can remember praying for a close friend for years and years. I had almost given up on the prospect of ever having the friend of my dreams. I was so very shy. Whenever I did make friends of any kind, they would always seems to move away and even though I would continue trying to keep up the friendship long distance, they wouldn’t and it would die. I had hardened myself against getting close to anyone.

But God in His mercy knew that I needed Tilly and he encouraged her to persue me. It wasn’t in her nature to persue either but God arranged it all and it is a perfect friendship.

When God keeps tugging at your heart strings to open up to someone or to persue them, LISTEN. He may have a great reward awaiting you. The best of friendships are made in heaven and nothing seems to be able to break them.

God is so awesome to give me this friend in my later years. Friends can come and go throughout life, but a true friend in your old age is such a joy to have.

Never take your friends for granted and listen to their hearts. Their actions are not as important as what their heart is saying to you. Too many friendships are superficial - surface friendships only. The friend of the heart is an amazing thing. She knows you inside and out and nothing can compare.

Words need not be spoken as the heart speaks loud and clear. Feel with your friend and share the most intimate secrets. Know that she will hold them close and let the rubbish go.

I wish everyone could have a great lady as their friend like I do. Tilly, I love you. Thank you for being my friend.

I hope you all have a friend filled day.

TELEVISION LAND

Don’t you just wish you could be taking a stroll on a beautiful moonlit night and have your partner break into song and dance with a full orchestra accompanying them in the background. Those were the good old days. That must have been true love.

I’ve never had an orchestra play for me when I walked with my husband and I would have been embarrassed if he started dancing. Singing would have been o.k. as he was a great singer with a deep bass voice.

And wouldn’t it be nice if we could dress up every evening with a beautiful dress and pearls around our neck and greet our hubbies at the door with a cocktail when he got off of work. Of course he would be elegantly dressed in a three piece suit as well and we would both sit down to a fully loaded table with all the trimmings.

Some of us would have maids and cooks and we would hardly ever see the children as they would be hidden away somewhere and well taken care of. When we would see children, they were always well dressed, had exceptional manners and were extremely well behaved.

And wouldn’t it be nice to have all our problems solved in just a half an hour because someone said or did just the right thing.

T.V. Land - the land of the imagination. The land where Women were women and treated with respect and dignity. The land where men were the head of the house. They worked, had refinements, and cared for their families. A man’s word was his bond and nothing could break that.

Life outside of T.V. land must have been so miserable that they had to make movies that were purely escapism. They should have called the T.V. the "wish tube" as that’s what it was all about. We wished we could be like that family we saw every week for half an hour. We wished we could have the bright teeth they advertised about. We wished we could drive the new cars they showed.

Then T.V. shows started to grow up. They wanted more realism. Boy did we get realism. Swearing, killing, blood everywhere, and sex, sex and more sex. I must lead a very secluded life as I don’t see those kinds of things happening around my place too often.

Today’s t.v. shows boast of being ‘reality t.v.’. How often have you been locked up in a house for three months with 14 or so other people? When was the last time you were stashed away on some forsaken Island with a bunch of people and have to compete for your food or prizes?

I don’t know about you, but that isn’t what my life is like. That isn’t realism. We never see these people go to the bathroom or pick their noses. (Not that I would want to see that) And have you noticed the people are always so slim and trim and beautiful. Never an old hag with boobs down to her belly and a gut out so far they can’t see their feet.

One of the most realistic shows I’ve seen on the Tube is "The Biggest Loser" There they show people as they really are. FAT. The goal of the show is to see who can lose the most weight. Now that is reality. They are constantly tempting them with huge beautiful meals and all kinds of dainties. But these people are serious about losing their weight and they inspire others that are watching to want to lose weight as well.

The non reality part comes in when they have to vote someone out. What a cruel thing to do. Who cares if you aren’t the winner in the end - they all win as they all end up losing some of their weight. Mind you, not all of us can have a trainer and dietician on hand all the time and all those exercise machines to motivate you. Other than that - it is reality television. Real people with real problems working hard to try to fix them.

Television - what is it coming to. It has become babysitter, companion, entertainment, and even life itself for some people. They couldn’t live one week without their televisions. Now that’s reality.

These are just my thoughts for today. What’s your opinion of the television shows we are seeing today?

Go out and have some fun and have a television free day.

THOUGHTS ON BEING FREE

How come others can sit down at their computers and blog about regular events of their day and make it sound so interesting. I sit here and immediately get writers block. It is like a fear of speaking in public or something. Totally weird.

Even my grand niece blogs and she is only 11 and I find her posts quite interesting. She is the daughter of my nephew so does that make her a grand niece or a second niece or what? Can never get those things straight. I know I am her great Aunt - and boy what a GREAT Aunty I have been - NOT! Does that make her a great niece?

Yesterday I finally decided to wash my kitchen floor. I have an off white floor and I like to leave it get REALLY dirty before I wash it. I like to be able to see the difference after it is washed and then I have a sense of accomplishment. Is that weird or what? What is the use of washing it daily if you or nobody else can see the difference. Then it is just clean but there is no sense of accomplishment.

I need things to motivate me when I do regular household cleaning. If you have any ideas I’d be more than great full for your suggestions.

Can a person be ‘more’ than great full? What would more that great full be? We always tack on words like that to emphasize what we mean but really there isn’t a lot of meaning in it, is there? We say things like "more than happy" "most sincerely" etc. What is more than happy or most sincere. Can we be only a little sincere? Isn’t being sincere the same as being honest. Can you be more honest and less honest? Isn’t honest just honest. If you are less honest then you are lying and that isn’t honest at all?

Getting on with my day. I also finally vacuumed yesterday. Isn’t vacuumed a really strange word. I just found out recently that it has two "u’s" in the word. Peculiar I tell you. This English language is way too screwed up for my liking. I think it must be the only English word to have two "u"s together like that. Can you think of any others that might have it?

With my husband passing on, I find I have a lot more freedom. Not freedom from his tyranny or anything like that as he wasn’t a tyrant, but freedom because now I have a vehicle to get around in and I can go out wherever and whenever I please. Well, not wherever I please yet as I am not used to driving on the highways but only the byways around town. I have been to our local "Big" town a few times now on my own and it is so nice. Some day I may try the big highway and the big city. I’m not grown up enough yet in the driving department to tackle the "Big" city.

I also have more freedom when it comes to shopping and spending money. Before I worried about every little cent as we would need it for groceries or gas money for my husband to get too and from work. Now that he isn’t travelling the long route every day, the gas money is next to nothing. He would travel over 50 kilometers there and back every day. That was long trip but he never seemed to mind it.

With my freedom, comes responsibility though. I have to make sure the car is in tip top shape. The other day I had a low tire on one side and I had to get it filled. Well I went to the gas station and borrowed their tire gauge and filled the tire ALL BY MYSELF. Wow, I felt like I had achieve such a monumental accomplishment. I know that many ladies out there must think I am a little off my rocker feeling so good about that - but I had never done that before. I am learning new things daily.

Being alone can have its rewards if you can get past the lonely part. I can do what I want, when I want to and I don’t have to stop to make supper or do this or that before my husband gets home. I can clean house all night if I feel like it without the worry of waking him. (Like I would do that - NOT)

I don’t have to plan meals ahead of time so that is one great relief for me. Making meals was one of my biggest chores. I could never think of what to make for supper and it would grind me to a halt. Meals seemed so ho hum all the time and the same old - same old. Now I just grab whatever I feel like eating and it can be any time of day or night. No set times for meals. Yipee!

Well it is time for this lady to hit the road and go to the Post office. Then I may go to the grocery store and pick up a few items, or I may decide to just sit around and do absolutely nothing. I can do it. I can do whatever I want. I am free, free, free to be me.

Hope you have a day filled with FREEDOM to be who God wants you to be.

WHAT A BARGAIN

I need to blog today and don’t know what to blog about. People write about things that happen to them so I am going to write about what happened to me yesterday.

I was so excited I just had to write and tell you about it. Not a real big thing mind you but to me it was neat. I went over to bring a friend some cards I had made for her and her friend and to mail and letter and check my mail. I realized as I got there that the post office was closed today. Anyway, I visited them for a short while and then I was about to leave when I noticed this huge garage sale going on downtown. So I went to browse. I only had 3 dollars on me.

Anyway, I saw a play pen there that folds up and was in fairly good condition so I asked them to hold it for me as I went to the bank machine to get out more money. Then I went back and started shopping some more. This is a list of what I got.

Playpen Marked for $5.00
Starfrit Gourmet Decorating Kit 2.00
3 bags wooden pieces 1.50
(it includes 6 hearts, 2 cats and a rectangle. All cut out, sanded & ready to paint.)
A cross stitch baby picture that is nearly all completed. Came with threads and embroidery hoop.
Tupperware Jello Mold .25
A baby sleeper
Bag of platex bottles 1.00
(5 bottles, 2 boxes liners, teething ring, funnel, bottle covers and screw on caps)
A small wooden craft type crate.
Large metal dump truck .10
(it is really rusted and needs painting but I thought I might like to try it)
25 children's books in various shapes and sizes,
A Farm Mega block set
(comes with a cow, chicken, farmer, tractor and a number of other pieces.)
3 large picture frames 1.00
Ceramic snow man .10
Bag of plastic multi coloured eggs .25
(13 {different sizes} in bag.)
Cat shaped soap pump 1.00
Toys:
4 plastic furbies that do various things
A frog shaped teething ring
2 dalmation dogs
An elmo little toy
Small ball that changes faces
A standing man with moveable parts.
A donald duck, Winnie the pooh, Pooh Rabbit, Pooh Egor, A ganz Egor and a Ty baby elephant.
All like new.

Alot of the things didn't have prices on them but I figured they wouldn't be too expensive as the prices were really marked good.

Anyway, I put everything into the playpen as I shopped and then told the lady I was ready to cash out. She looked in the playpen and said "How about $6.00 for everything?" I said "Are you serious?" She said "Quick, pay me before I change my mind or anyone else hears what I gave it to you for." So I did. I couldn't believe my good fortune.

I was just praising and thanking God on the way Home. Wow, what a deal. I would have paid $6.00 just for the playpen alone. I think the books were marked something like .25 each on the box where I got them.

On my way home I noticed there was a garage sale down my street so I decided to check it out. I ended up buying a teddy bear sleeping bag. She was asking $5.00 for it. (It has a big teddy bear head and arms and is all made of fur) I thought it was a clothes hamper that hung on the wall but the lady told me it was a sleeping bag. Great for kids. I also got a halloween costume. It is an orange ape costume and the original price tag was still on the hanger. It sold for $20.86 originally and looks like it has never been worn. She was asking $4.00 for that. I also got 3 packages of napkins and 2 packages of paper plates for a baby shower all for $2.00. As my oldest daughter is going to be having a baby shower for my youngest daughter at the end of the month, I thought she could use them. And finally I got a plant waterer thingy. It lets you know when the plant needs watering. So for all that she only charged me $10.00. That wasn't too bad. I ended up getting $1.50 off of all that.

I was so happy with all my purchases. Lots of gifts for the grand kids. Some I will put away and give as Christmas or birthday presents in the future. Some I will just have here for them to play with. (Maybe all of them yet, will have to see.)

Anyway, the playpen will double as a bed when they come over when I have to babysit them. I used to use a playpen when I babysat my nephew years ago. It is also good for them to play in if you have to leave the room for something.

So that is my news to the moment. Just had to tell someone as I was so excited.

Hope you have a bargain filled day.