Lunch with Laney, Admiring Audrey

Laney and I went to lunch yesterday...a picnic in the park!

It was very hot and humid yesterday so I chose Shelter Gardens instead of the playground park, just because I don't like to sweat any more than I have to. 

We had McDonald's of course!  Laney was a bit upset that I didn't get her any ketchup, but when I ordered at the drive through window she was shouting out her order while I was trying to place the order, so things were a bit confusing!  Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, hey Yaya, cheeseburger!

Hey Yaya, can I go see the fishes again???  Pleasssse??

What??  Seems like I heard that a few hundred times!

Back to the fishes!!  They were so cute (according to Laney).  She showed me which ones were the mama, which ones were the babies....Maybe she will grow up to be a marine biologist, but I couldn't tell which one was the mama or the daddy or the baby.

I thought the wind chime was very nice!  Laney thought the sounds were spooky!  She said "Let's get out of this forest".

Laney accurately identified the beautiful roses...she said they smelled very good...

The dragon fountain with the blue water was soooo interesting....

but Laney thought the lions were so grumpy...she gave this cement guy a kiss and once again said "Let's get out of here." 

He does look grumpy, huh?

One more trip to see the mama and baby fishes and then we went back to Laney's house, where Laney immediately had a major meltdown and was whisked off to her bed for a nap.  She was really tired and it was well past her naptime.

So I thought I would try out my newly knitted brown colored baby pod just like the cream one I posted about before.

Well, Audrey was awake and let's just say not interested....

She squirmed and stretched and grunted and rooted and refused to be snuggled down into the cocoon pod.

It didn't help that she was a wee bit hungry either...I tried propping her up against the back of the chair.

That was unsuccessful also.

Audrey wants me to know that she is a big girl now and she is not going to be squished up any more like a fetus!!

And that is all she has to say about that!

CSN Giveaway Winner!!

The winner of the CSN giveaway has been chosen with the help of Random.org!

The lucky follower is #33

Luvdaylilies said...

I became a blog follower=)

May 23, 2010 7:00 PM

 

I will email you shortly with details...have fun shopping! 

 

And thanks for everyone who entered!

SewMamaSew May Giveaway Day Winner!

Unfortunately the winner I chose last week did not leave a way to contact her....so I am happy to announce we have a new winner or the May Giveaway Day pincushion and wool brooch.

#128 Hi! My name is Erica. Would you be my friend? said...

I love those! My favorite thing in the shop is the orange flower...it would look so nice with the giveaway flower! I think I might have a hard time keeping the cupcake for myself...my daughter will surely want to have it all to herself!  Dozens of people have probably told you this, but I use www.random.org for a number generator!

Well, Erica, I took your advice and used random.org to and you were picked!!

Congratulations!!

Maps, Calendars, Dictionaries, Modge Podge and Cork Coasters

At Salvation Army at ten cents a piece...an 1980 dictionary and an old stained world atlas, plus an Avon calendar from 1980 with rose botanical prints.

Round cork coasters at Michaels--$1.99 for a four pack.  Hobby Lobby also stocks 4" square cork coasters. 

I used my Fiskars (I love Fiskars products) circle cutter to cut circles from the dictionary.  I used the H pages...not sure why because my last name doesn't start with an H!

I applied a thin coat of Modge Podge (matte) to both the cork and the back of the cut out paper, then stuck them together and brushed more Modge Podge on top.

I spread them out to dry without touching each other. I applied two more coats of Modge Podge to make them more solid...

The finished product!

i thougth the map ones turned out especially cool...England, Spain, Ireland...

But my very favorite ones are the dictionary pages...

Hug, huge, hue...

Homegrown, homeland, homemade

I thougth these would be great wedding gifts for newlyweds...or just for myself!

I am linking up to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land 

My 2nd Giveaway ~~CSN Stores~~

I am very pleased to announce that I am offering a giveaway to CSN Stores--the winner can spend up to $40 at any of their online stores...I don't know if you have checked this site out, but CSN Stores has everything imagineable....here are a few of my favorites for under $40.

I could SO use this Winsome Set of 2 Espresso Small Storage Baskets to organize my desk...

And this Totally Bamboo South Pacific Tonga Light Cutting Board would be great in my kitchen...

Or this Courtyard Indoor/Outdoor Rug in the 2'7" x 5' size...this would look so great on my deck!

I could go on and on, but let's just go ahead and get this underway!

Here are the rules:

1.  Go to CSNStores.com, find your favorite item under $40 and make a comment below.

2.  Become a follower on my blog for a second entry and make a comment to let me know you are a follower.

3. Post about my giveaway on your own blog and leave me a comment for a third chance!

That's it...Good luck!

The lucky winner will get a promo code good for up to $4o purchase from any of the online CSN stores!

Comments will be accepted through May 25th...

We have a winner!!

The winner of my first giveaway hosted by SewMamaSew's is:

#46 Samina said...

I really like the cupcake pincushions on your etsy blog. So charming & cute.

May 17, 2010 1:50 PM

 

Well, Samina, you are now the owner of one of those pincushions! 

Samina, please contact me because I do not have your email address.
If I do not hear from Samina by Sunday May 23, I will use random.org and will draw the winner again!

 

Thanks every one who took the time to enter and I am sorry that I don't have about 100 more pincushions to give away!  I had a total of 156 comment entries...I am so honored to have so many!

Stay tuned because I have my second giveaway coming up starting Saturday. 

 

Wow!

I am participating in the SewMamaSew May Giveaway and am amazed by the fact that I now have 109 comments.  I had planned to contact each entrant, but now am thinking I may not have enough hours in the day to do so. 

Anyway, thanks to everyone for entering and good luck!!

There is still time to enter, comments are open until 9pm CST Thursday! 
P.S. I have figured out Random.org so that is how the winner will be chosen!

Creative Passage is the lucky blogger of the week at Tuesday Tag-Along!

Welcome Tuesday Taggers! Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to leave a comment and I will come follow you back! :) Have a great Tuesday!

Without further ado...

Here's how it works:

Create a new Tuesday Tag-Along blog post. Include the Tuesday Tag-Along button by copying and pasting the code above. (You are also welcome to copy and paste these instructions in their entirety, or any portion of this Tuesday Tag-Along blog post!

Add your blog name and the URL of your TTA post to the MckLinky below.

Follow Twee Poppets, the hostess blog listed in the first slot. Twee Poppets will follow you back! (Note: If you want Twee Poppets to follow you back, you MUST leave her a comment saying that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog!)

If you can, please follow the blogs in the three slots before you (e.g., if you're number 20, follow numbers 19, 18, and 17). This is not mandatory, but it will help ensure that everyone who signs up gets a few new followers!

Follow as many other blogs as you want. The more you follow, the more that will follow you back! Be sure to tell them that you're following from Tuesday Tag-Along! You may also want to leave a link to your blog so they can return your follow more easily.

When you get a new follower through Tuesday Tag-Along, be sure to follow them back! It's just common courtesy. :)

The weekly Tuesday Tag-Along MckLinky opens every Monday night at 8:59pm Pacific Standard Time (that's 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time), and the TTA blog post will be posted well in advance of that time. The MckLinky will be open to add your blog until 11:59pm Tuesday night. You then have all week long to visit blogs and return follows!

There is a new list every week. The link you enter one week will not carry over to the next week's MckLinky. Please link up again each week to join in the fun!

~~May Giveaway Day~~My First Giveaway!

SewMamaSew is hosting May Giveaway Day Monday May 17th. 

This is my very first giveaway and I am pleased to offer two of my handmade projects to one lucky person.  You have four opportunities to win this lovely wool felt pin/brooch and a wool felt pincushion.

This pin is a deep rosy pink flower pin with green leaves made from recycled sweater felted wool, white vintage buttons as the center. Measures 3" in diameter without leaves.  Here it is pictured pinned to a black felted handbag, but it would also look good on a suit or a sweater or a coat.

And now for the cool pincushion!  Makes a great addition to your sewing room or would be great to give as a gift to your sewing/crafting friends and family members.

Spring green and cornflower blue (not sure why but these photos don't reflect the true beautiful cornflower blue), this wool felt pincushion is made from recycled wool felted sweaters. Cherry on top is made from wool roving, wet felted. The pincushion measures approximately 3.75 inches tall by 3.5 inches wide.

Here's how to win:

1. Enter by going to my etsy shop WoolenWondersbyEllen and enter a blog comment to tell me which was your favorite item.

2. Favorite my etsy shop for another entry, enter a blog comment to tell me you favorited me.

3. Become a follower of my blog and enter a comment to tell me that you are now a follower.

4. An additional blog comment telling me which is your favorite flower earns you one more chance to win!

That's four chances to win!

I will put each entry into a hat (or a bowl or maybe a paper bag or well, you get the idea!) and have my 2 year old niece Elena draw the lucky winner! That is unless I can figure out how to use an online random drawing process!

You can leave comments until May 20 at 9 pm CST and I will announce and contact the winners Thursday night.

I will ship internationally so don't let that stop you from entering!

The winner will have their package shipped Saturday morning. 

Dad's Birthday (Memories)

This is Dad as a baby, I would guess around a month old...Mom has a picture of me in her album that looks a whole lot like this...with

the same frowning baby face.

Such a sweet little baby face...

Cowboy posing on a horse...he looks very excited.

Proud to be in the Navy, standing in front of the clothesline with all sorts of whites hanging out in the sunshine.  So handsome!

And this is Mom in her nursing school uniform in St. Louis, I think outside City Hospital....very beautiful!

The newly married couple with their mothers....

They look so happy....

Here Mom and Dad are with my oldest brother Chuck and I am in utero here! 

The young professional engineer to be....what a great smile!

This was taken outside our home in Rolla...Dad was in school at the University of Missouri...now there are four kids-Chuck, me, Jane and baby Sarah.

The twins Jenny and Clinton made #7 and 8, they were born in 1969. 

Theses pictures were taken for an article in Dad's workplace newsletter. Our whole family was photographed and the babies were so popular!  Everyone wanted to hold them. The twins were only a few weeks old at the time of this photo. At this time all 10 of us lived in a single wide mobile home in Metropolis, Illinois.  Not sure how our parents did it, because there were so many of us, but we were happy and never hungry, always had a good place to live, and we were loved.

Here we are just the kids when the babies were a little older (maybe 6-8 months)...I remember when this picture was taken because Clinton was a little fussy that day...he was hard to keep happy for the picture!  Look how worried he looks on my lap.  The younger girls had Pixie haircuts, compliments of Mom, and the boys had crew cuts, compliments of Dad.  At 11, I was allowed to grow my hair out.

Here is the whole family in the late 1970s...note the guys in their leisure suits...the three youngest girls wore maxis dresses!  From the left--Cullen, Chuck, Susan, Clinton, Sarah, Dad, Mom, Jenny, Jane, and me.

I have a lot of great memories of Dad.  He has been gone now almost 7 weeks and I still expect to see him or hear his voice on the phone. It is easier as the weeks go by, but today is Dad's birthday so naturally I have been thinking about him and looking at old pictures.

I was able to help Mom go through some things Dad had packed away in the barn...sometimes it seems like I knew very little about my Dad. It was nice to find pictures I had never seen before and just look at the things he had kept and wonder why he kept them.  Going with Mom through some of Dad's things helped me grasp more understanding of who my Dad was....

Anyway, I know he is no longer in pain and he is with his heavenly Father, so that is very comforting to me.