Milliners are underpaid (or "How to make a pill-box hat")

My in-laws celebrated 40 years of wedded bliss last weekend.  My mother-in-law, Donna, wanted a simple pill-box hat to match her dress.  Armed with the knowledge that everything that IS was made by someone, we set out to create our own.

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Win Gold Canyon All-Natural Homeology Cleaners!

As you may know, Homeology cleaners were inspirational in my decision to become a Gold Canyon Independent Fragrance Consultant!  I excited to share this opportunity for you to win it for free!

Home Grown Families is hosting their annual Green Gifting Guide.  You can enter here to win a free full-size cleaner and wasteless refill of your choice.

These all-natural cleaners make an excellent green holiday gift.  Not only is the product environmentally friendly, but giving a gift that is consumable is green!  For less than the cost of a sweater that they may just re-gift, you can give the gift of aromatherapy and clean fresh spaces!

Who would most appreciate this gift?  I'm tempted to say anyone with a nose, but I guess that wouldn't be super-helpful!  Here are a few suggestions:

A newly-wed couple.  Remember when you got married?  You got all those expensive pieces of china, flatware, crystal stemware... You had matching towels, throw-pillows, placemats...  You had an iron, blender (or 3 blenders in our case!), coffee maker...  And do you remember the first trip to the store?  The "stock up".

Yeah - that's the one!  When we got married (nearly 16 years ago) ours was $86 - YIKES  (that was a lot of money when you consider our rent on the apartment was around $450)

College Students.  I remember the shock when I discovered that I had to clean my own dorm room.  I don't know why, but I kinda envisioned it as a hotel.  I was sadly mistaken, there was no maid service!  I usually bummed cleaners off of the other students (who probably got it as a dorm-warming present from someone else!)  I had to save my money for more important things, like late night runs to Taco Bell and new shoes books!  I didn't even buy toilet paper some weeks.  I "borrowed" it from the lobby bathroom (sorry mom).

That person who has everything.  You know who they are.  There's not something they haven't tried.  They've been there, done that, got the T-shirt.  You started giving them only things that they could hang on the walls, but that's even not an option anymore!

Anyway - if you win it, you could keep it for yourself or give it as a gift.  Why not throw in some super-cute gloves like these:

Nice Hands Household Utility Gloves - $10.50 on Etsy

An inexpensive organizer tote and some eco-friendly cleaning cloths:

Crocheted Cleaning Cloth Eco-Friendly Rainbow Stripe Shagg Ragg - $7.50 on Etsy

Either way, your purchase supports Small Businesses in a BIG Way.  Watch for my Small Business Guide - coming soon!

Small is the new BIG!

Small Business Saturday

31 Days to Clean Challenge: Day 1

I'm excited to be participating in the 31 Days to Clean Challenge over at Joyful Mothering.  You can get a copy of the e-book on Amazon
(just click on the picture on the left!)


Today's task was to figure out WHY you want a clean house.  I giggled when I read this, because I had just done this exercise with the kids last week!  We had fun coming up with the reasons.  I also added some other columns of how each item would save money, be environmentally friendly, benefit our family's happiness and save time.

As you can see, all these things add to the happiness of our family!  So to turn this into my personal mission statement:

I want my house to be clean to reflect my appreciation for my blessings, to honor my husband, to enjoy my children and to be able to offer hospitality without grumbling at a moment's notice. 

I've made this reminder to put on my computer desktop as my background.  That way when I'm tempted to waste time on the internet instead of clean, I'll have a personal reminder!



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If your friends pay more than $49 a month for their cell service, you can MAKE money with Solavei

So ANGRY!

He he, not really!  But we DID make Angry Bird Plushies from the tutorial over at Obsessively Stitching!

Of course we had to put a recycled spin on it - we used outgrown clothes
(scavenged from the to-be-garage-saled box)

We used a mechanical pencil to turn the feathers

While tearing t-shirts into strips to use as stuffing, Calvin felt like Bear Grylls in the dessert.

The one on the left is Jordan's, the one on the right is Calvin's.  They did most of the work themselves!

Today was an unschooling day for sure...

My day started at a little after 3:00. AM.  While I snuggled happy baby Aaron in my arms, our toddler (the Gavin-monster) burst through the bedroom door.  Wide. Awake.

William took him back to bed and returned to our room.  By then Aaron was awake and hungry!  I started feeding him and almost drifted off to sleep when... the Gavin-monster was back!  I got up and took him back to bed again.  I explained that the sunshine was still asleep, so he should stay in bed.  then I rubbed his back until he was almost asleep (and so was I, although I was hunched over and my head was on the wall!)

I tip-toed back to bed, slipped under the covers, snuggled up with Aaron and then 20 minutes later, he was back!  I gave up and let him get in bed with us, where he proceeded to talk loudly, poke William ("daddy - you asleep?") and kick me in the back.  After about 10 minutes of hoping against the obvious that he would magically fall asleep, I got up with both Gavin and Aaron so William could sleep.

It was 4:20 AM!  I fixed 2 waffles and a glass of Vanilla Soy Milk and settled into the living room for North and South, a BBC drama on Netflix.  At 6:00 I made macaroni and cheese, by special request.  At 7:45 he excitedly proclaimed "the sunshine's up!" right before he pitched a terrific fit that daddy was leaving for work.  At 8:00 I dosed him with benedryl and put him down for "nap".

He slept until nearly 10, when I tasked Jordan (big sister) to watch him so I could catch a few more zzzz's.  So my day officially began at 12:15 PM, when I walked into the living room to find him naked, save for a wet diaper, standing in a pile of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (which he later salvaged from the floor and ate one at a time, dipping them into a mug of water saying "I having my coffee" while I pumped milk for Aaron.)

Fortunately we had received 2 educational DVDs from Netflix, so I decided that would suffice for school today.  We watched a science video on cloning, then I caved to the craving for Sonic Happy Hour.  When we returned home, the mail had arrived, bringing a Chasing Fireflies catalog.  Now, Jordan and I love this company - they have so many fantastic things!  If I ever loose my sanity and gain a fortune, I'll order one of them.  There are a few styles in particular that she really likes, so I had her cut them out and make a collage. We are going to use it as inspiration for her next dress.  Notice I didn't say "Easter Dress" - I'm not making any promises!


Calvin had been busy with Legos in his room, he came in and announced that he had completed his Architecture lesson!  He made a house, table and bench.  He wanted to make a soda fountain for his Star Wars Lego men, but ran out of pieces.
When he saw that Jordan had an art project, he wanted one too.  I asked him what kind he wanted to do, and he went and got the Paper Making kit.  With a little help from this Papermaking Recipe, we made several, umm... sheets?  Calvin decided to go free-form!

Now Jordan is making paper, chicken nuggets are in the oven, and I've got to be at the church in 45 minutes to meet someone to pick up the garage sale leftovers.  Then a rush back home to make a Finance Committee Meeting with my very own "free-spirit" financier.  We're going through Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" with our church.

So, to all of you who wonder "how does she do it all?"  The answer is, I don't.  I haven't cleaned, washed dishes or laundry, there is no food in the house, the living room floor is crunchy (and not in a green-organic way).  The ECI therapist will be here tomorrow to work with Aaron (for his Down's Syndrome), my mother-in-law will be here later this week and my house is a wreck.  I trying desperately to work out a positive note to end on - I don't like leaving you all hanging and depressed. (Perhaps that's a little dramatic!)

OK, here's the positive note:

....

....

I got nothing.  sorry!

Some giveaways you should visit :)

Home Grown Families is doing a HUGE Christmas Giveaway!


Ending today:

Baltic Amber Teething Necklace and more!

Organic Plushies

Ending Soon!

$25 gift card

Wooden Toys

Raising Homemakers is gving away an Audio Book series:

Audio Book



10 Million Miles is giving away 2 great books (great for Homeschool or Christmas gifts!)

Win it! 

Good Luck!

SoftBums Cloth Diaper giveaway

Most of you know I'm pregnant with #5, due in January!

I've really been considering cloth diapers this go-around, and I think I've just been convinced!  Take a look at the SoftBums OMNI Diaper:


The main objection to cloth diapers has been affordability, but this just blew it out of the water!

You can visit Home Grown Families' blog to enter!

Search Amazon.com for softbums

I'm a Curator!

I've just created my first Esty treasury! 
Here's a sneak peek:

Wondering how those fit together?  Visit my first treasury to see!

FREE Udder Covers Nursing Cover!

I am looking forward to nursing my 5th child when he or she arrives in January.  There are so many new and fun things now that make public nursing more comfortable.

When I was nursing my first child, 11 years ago, I was comfortable nursing in public, but worried that that little recieving blanket would be kicked right off!  I often tucked a corner into my bra strap for an extra measure of comfort!  With my last child, I decided to give one of the "nursing covers" a try.  WOW!  What a difference it made to have a secure nursing cover that allowed me to have eye contact with my baby!

I had given that cover away, as I thought that we were "done" (I'm learning that we may never be "done"!  LOL).  Right after I found out I was pregnant, I started to panic a little that we didn't have much baby stuff left!  We had sold or given away much of it, just a week before!  I was on one of my morning walks with my Father and He assured me that I would not have to purchase anything for this pregnancy or for this baby.  I'm still not quite sure how all of this will be accomplished, but I trust Him!  So far I've had plenty to wear with my existing wardrobe and a few things my mother-in-law bought for me at Goodwill and sent to me from her closet!  When I came across this coupon code, I thought "wow, something else for free!"

I chose the "Porter" Nursing Set

Which includes the nursing band bracelet and reusable nursing pads (can you say "GREEN"?  I knew you could!).  The extra best part?  The gift set is on sale for $37.00, so with the coupon for $32.00 off, it was just $5.00.  The shipping and handling was $9.95, so the total was $14.95.  I am reasoning the expense part as I will give part of it as a gift, so technically, the nursing cover is still free.  I feel comfortable with how that fits into the assurance that we wouldn't have to buy anything for this pregnancy or baby :)

So - here is the coupon code for you:

FAMILY2010

I have no idea how long it will last :)

This coupon came to me from my Planning Family membership, which was free.  The sign-up process was long, and they called with a follow-up which was even longer!  I wasn't sure this membership was going to be worth it; this coupon changed my mind!

Little Blue-Door Schoolhouse (aka "Giger Academy")

Here's what I did on my way home today:

This has not been a banner week for my homeschool either.  Monday started pretty good, Tuesday things started sliding, by Wednesday we were in full skid and today we just gave up.  Well, that's pretty dramatic, but I guess it wasn't really all that bad, I just didn't live up to my expectations.

I guess that is the problem though, "my expectations".  I know how I want it, I know how my husband wants it, I know how we planned it.  The problem is getting that "Vision" to "Reality",  We've been reading Andy Stanley's book The Principle of The Path with our church's small group. 

Pretty much all of us have wondered "how did I get here?" Maybe it's a relationship, maybe finances, your career (or lack thereof).  The basic premise of this book is that Direction (not Intention) Determines your Destination.  Wow, that seems pretty simple, but it's much harder to apply to our daily lives!

We applied this teaching to our finances, cracked down, had a $900 garage sale (yikes!) and with God's help, a cashed out IRA, and our IRS refund, we are DEBT FREE!

I've been working this week to apply this to our homeschool.  I have to stop for a minute and admit that I am a reluctant homeschooler.  I'm not one of those gung-ho, "it's the only way to go", hard-core, public-school hating, types (not that there is anything inherently wrong with those views, except maybe the hating one!).  I did not WANT to do this, but with our options here, it was the best decision. The more I see, the more glad I am that we made that decision!

This is our first year back to homeschool. We HS'd for Kindergarten for our oldest, since we were in Dallas ISD and then did a charter school for his 1st-4th grades. He did very well.  My daughter was at the charter school for Kindergarten through 3rd grade. She is a kinetic-auditory learner, so she was always in trouble for being out of her seat and talking :)

We use Swtched-on-Schoolhouse from Alpha Omega Publishing. It is a computer-based curriculum that starts at 3rd grade (after reading and writing are firmly established).
 
I hope that as we continue the HS journey I will get better and better. The good news is, my kids learn much more on accident than I could ever teach them on purpose. As long as I keep my eyes open for learning opportunities and sieze them, I'm happy.  My hubby is more of a "6 hours around the kitchen table" type. So we are compromising with the core curriculum (Bible, Math, Language Arts, Science, History & Geography) supplemented by lots of "found" learning (i.e. "ooh - that's a neat spider, I wonder what kind it is? How do they get their webs to look like that" inspires a trip to the library and a few hours of hanging out, looking at books and talking about it.)

Yesterday we went to "Bodies, The Exhibition" at Dallas West End, spent about 45 minutes walking around, bought a book and then I am having them each write one page on it. I have other anatomy "stuff" to follow-up with them later.

One thing that I did accomplish this week: I made a school house!  Well, actually I repurposed my dining room by placing the dining table in the kitchen, and moving the smaller round table to the dining room.  To make sure it was ECO-chic and ECOnomical, I took 3 bulletin boards (picked up by thrifting, off course!) and spray-painted the frames the same color.

(sorry about the lawn honey!)

Then I covered it with a fabric that complemented my rooms and finished it off with nail-head trim. 

The shelf in front is our old changing table from the nursery! In the corner is a blackboard that our neighbor gave us, in the front is my lovely daughter, working on her laptop. This was Wednesday, right before the slide - LOL.

So, I guess we ARE moving in the right DIRECTION, and with God's help, we will arrive!

Spring Cleaning? I want your junk!

You'd be amazed at what I can make out of junk!  Just a few months ago I saw this broken cabinet door sitting on my neighbor's curb:

A few days later, I got a call from a client, she wanted me to do a custom piece with some heirloom photos and pages from her great grandmother's bible.  Here's how it turned out:

What do you think? 

Here's what my client said (in an e-mail to our entire networking group!): Noel just delivered a custom art piece I had her do for me - it is beautiful. She used my great-grandmother's old Bible (the pages that were falling out, some of the doilies GGM made, a peacock feather tucked in the Bible, old photos I had, etc. I was thrilled. See the photo of it below - she used an old cabinet door that had a glass face for the frame.

If you are cleaning out your closets and attics, garages and basements, please take a look at this list!  Plus, you can save up to $10.00 off of your [ReDeemed] purchase when you recycle the following items:

• 3x3 or 4x4 natural stone or terracotta tiles – 50 cents each
• Wood serving trays - $1.00 - $3.00 depending on size
• Vintage wrapping paper - $2.00
• Vintage wallpaper (pre-1980) - $2.00
• Old hymnals (pre-1950) - $2.00
• Backgammon games (not plastic pieces!) - $3.00
• Framed art (11x14 or larger) - $3.00
• Canvases (any size)
• Broken or old jewelry (rhinestones are great!) - varies
• Cork rolls or tiles - varies
• Vintage fabric (pre-1960) - varies
• Broken watches, parts, small gears, etc. - varies
• Hand-written letters (vintage and/or foreign language are even better!) - varies
• Wooden boxes, crates, old dresser drawers, etc.
• Cigar boxes
• Old windows, doors, cabinets
• anything rusty :)
• Old paper, notes, reciepts, broken spine books, aged and waterspotted even better!
• Just about anything - just ask!

Limits: up to $2.00 off minimum purchase of $10.00, up to $5.00 off minimum purchase of $25.00, up to $10.00 off minimum purchase of $40.00 or more. May not be combined with any other offer.

Fantastic ECO DIY Portable Spice Solution

The Handy Hausfrau: Portable Spice Kit for Camping or Travel

Check out this great project from The Handy Hausfrau!
I'm thinking this will be a must do project before summer and fall vacations!

My hubby loves to cook, so whether we're staying with friends or in our timeshare condo, he's always whipping up something. The problem is that he can't always find the right spices in their cabinets or at local stores. This is the perfect solution!

A great way to [ReDeem] those extra medicine containers!
check out the FB fan page for [ReDeemed] unique art!

Home and Garden Show

I've been a busy bee preparing for the first show of 2010!

I'm participating in Arts Alive, the Wichita Falls, TX Home and Garden show.  Last year's show drew 200,000 people!  I'm all set up and ready to sell it all - I don't want to bring anything home except cash!  LOL

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know what I was up to.  If I get a chance to wander tomorrow, I'll share pictures :)

The finished closet!

Honey put in the giant "plate rack" to hold all my previously loved artwork that is waiting to be ReDeemed!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Eco-Chic Valentine's Gifts: Flower Hairclip From Scraps (Tutorial)

Here's a project to treat the littlest Valentine this year!

This hairbow took only about 30 minutes and was effectively free, since it was made from scraps an on-hand materials.

Remember this?  Well, I had material left over and decided to make a hair clip to match!

I started out by putting the two materials wrong sides together.  Then I sewed tear-drop shapes free-hand on my machine, each approximately 2 inches long.  This could also be done by hand, but it'll take you a long time!  After making 10-12 of these, I cut them out, leaving aproximately 1/4 of an inch around the stitches.  I also made one circle about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

I played around with the layout until I decided on 4 petals for the bottom (because they were larger) and 7 for the top layer.  I stitched each layer together with the sewing machine and a heavy zig-zag stitch.

I chose to turn the layers in opposite directions for contrast, but you could also layer them the same direction.

Next, I used a 4-strand of thread on a hand-sewing needle and assembled the flower bottom-up:

Bottom Layer

Button (to provide spacing)

Top Layer

Circle

Decorative Button

I passed the needle through twice then tied the threads off securely.

Last - I hand stitched the flower to a hairclip (this one happened to already have a pink ribbon glued to it!)

Clip it onto the ribbon and it doubles as a package topper!

Thanks for checking out my tutorial!  If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment and consider following!  Thanks!

Eco-Chic (&free!) Valentines Placecards - A Tutorial & FREE download

This is a quick project that cost ZERO dollars, made completely from materials I had on-hand, basic office supplies, a corner punch and recycled magazines!

I took index cards and used a corner punch to decorate the edges.  TIP: when using a corner punch, use it upside down so you can see exactly what you are doing!

Next, I used a red felt-tipped pen to outline the edges.  I didn't try to do it perfectly, my vision was that they would look more home-spun and charming.  I followed the lines of the punched corner, then drew a straight line down each side.

Next, I leafed through my stack of magazines that I use for my business.  I love the "ransomed" look and have even used it to make a few of my Fender Washer Necklaces:

but I digress!

After I had selected all the letters and my lovely assistant, Jordan had cut them out - I grabbed some scrapbooking papers left over from a previous project (I don't throw anything out, much to my husband's dismay!)

I trimmed the scrapbook paper into roughly 1 1/2 inch squares (again, NOT perfect!) then applied the ransom-cut letters.  Next, I grabbed my corner punch and gave them a trim too.

Then Starburst (our cat) came to investigate.  She's always ready to be a part of a project!

Last, we attached the scrapbook square to the punched index cards with a glue stick. I finished them off with a heart sticker in the lower right corner for visual balance.

Violia!  Valentine's themed placecards!

(The silver heart with wings?  The heart was a pendant and the "wings" are a pair of vintage shoe clips.  I'm planning to make a [ReDeemed] necklace out of these soon, but I couldn't wait to share them!)

I'm using these for my BUNKO group - it's my turn to host so I asked each lady to bring a dish that started with one letter from VALENTINES.  These will be placed in front of each dish with the title/description.

Here is a free gift for you! Please use it as you wish!

Please click on "Follow" or "Subscribe" to the right so you don't miss out on a Valentine banner to match, or tomorrow's hairbow tutorial!

(And I love comments - so bring 'em on!)

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If your friends pay more than $49 a month for their cell service, you can MAKE money with Solavei