PW's necklace

**************UPDATED**************

Here's mine all finished.I'm in love.

I haven't been to The Affair of the Heart since McKinley was a baby. After my mom's death and my inheritance of all her possessions my home decorating changed from country/artsy crafty to traditional. But this year McKinley was invited by a friend and because of an event at church I ended up having to take her late and staying myself. It was still a lot of the country stuff but I did find a few things worth my money. But what I found the most of were ideas. Thanks to a tall friend and a cell phone I was able to get some pictures of some things I knew I could make.

I decided to make the first for The Pioneer Woman at her book signing.

I learned quite a few things to do wrong and a few things to do right.

Here we go.

You'll need:scrapbook paper, silver charms (size and shape of your choice), rhinestones, Mod Podge, a paint brush, and glitter.

And if you could please have some permanent pumpkin pieces (say that three times fast) on your floor, I'd appreciate it.

My paper had a sheen to it. It was pretty but meant that it took 2 1/2 years for the ink to dry. Well, not exactly. But I will say that I ruined about four before I got it to be smear free. Next time I will print in the morning and assemble at night. I found a pretty font and printed out the initials. Font size 72 is one inch and by measuring my charm I figured out that 14 would work best for me.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures but I get started and forget! I also had Mod Podge from my fingers to my elbows and was afraid to touch my camera.)

After it had an appropriate time to dry, I cut the letters out leaving a bit of space around each one. I then carefully held onto it and ripped around it so that it had rough edges. I covered the charm with Mod Podge and stuck the paper on. I Mod Podged around the edges being careful not to get it on the printing because it will smear. (Don't ask me how I know that.) While it was still wet I used tweezers to place the rhinestone and sprinkled the whole thing with glitter. I set it down to dry and later shook off the excess glitter. The last step was going to my local do-it-yourself jewelry store and buying a chain.

Here it is all finished and boxed up. Sure hope she liked it!

Now, who wants to make one for me?? I'd like one for each of my girls. An M, K, and R.

Anyone?

Oh fine.

Guess I better get busy!

Ree & Me!!

Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

How much fun did I have last night? I don't think a word has been invented that can describe how much fun it was to meet The Pioneer Woman.

Because I assumed there would be a massive line I went to the bookstore as early as possible. For me that meant picking up the girls from school at 3 and getting to the store by 3:40. I was the first one! The very first. The, no one in the world was going to have their book signed before me. Yes, that one.

I was there for 45 minutes before my friend Phyllis came to join me. A bit after she got there a new friend (whose name I never found out. So sorry!) joined us and we had a wonderful time talking all things Ree and Facebook and blogs.

Soon enough the line was growing and we couldn't see the end anymore. But I was at the front so who cared?!

The camera crews and photographers started talking and getting their lenses pointed at the door and in came Ree, Marlboro Man, their four children, Betsy, Elliot, and I think Gaga. What a family reunion!

I had a hard time getting non-blurry pictures of them as they walked in but I did get this.

Hello cute boots! For someone that lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, she has style!

My friend Debbie took my camera and I stepped up. I handed her a little gift I'd made her and started talking. She apologized to me for the long wait! I told her three hours was nothing since I got to meet her!Question? Who looks like the country bumpkin in this picture? Um, yea, the one on the left does. It's okay, I can take it. But still...I had my picture taken with The Pioneer Woman!As she was signing her boys asked when they'd get to sign one. Marlboro Man said that this was for their mom, not them. I told them I'd love to have them sign mine if they wanted to. Yes, I feel special:c)Since Marlboro Man was standing right there I asked if I could have a picture with him. He said sure and I got in place. I will kill the friend who said something funny and made me laugh just as the camera snapped. I need to figure out how to Photoshop a better face on there and make this a better picture. Until now, please look at the man, not the goofball.The boys didn't last long and soon were at the little cafe having drinks. Wish I could have joined them.Her beautiful (and very tall) daughters made me want to have her genes. And jeans for that matter.Isn't Betsy beautiful? How about those genes?And as I left I couldn't help but notice who was parked next to me. Hello white Suburban! Of course I had to touch it. I do believe that I have officially achieved stalked status. But I'm done. They have left the town and I am done. But what wonderful memories I have of the day.A local restaurant had planned a Pioneer Woman meal that was supposed to start at 8 with her getting there soon after. Four of my friends and I headed down there to wait.

We could choose one of two appetizers-Black Bean Soup or Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing.

One of three main dishes-Linguine with Chicken Thighs, Grilled Ribeye Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce, or a shrimp thingy. No, that was not the exact name. I think it might have been this one.

For dessert there was only one choice. And one was all they needed. It was Pastor Ryan's Monkey Bread. Warm from the kitchen. Hello delicious.

We all ate to our stomachs content and chatted all things Ree. We all agreed that there was no way that she'd be there by 8. We had seen the line. Did someone actually think that she would tell the people in line, "Sorry, it's time for me to go." We all knew that she'd stay there until the very last person was gone.

I drove two of my friends back to their car at the bookstore but instead of getting in it they started walking back into the store. I yelled at them to wait for me and parked way too fast. Can you believe 3 hours later the line was still as long as when she started. Marlboro Man was walking down the line signing books for people! Such a nice husband. I could have run out to the car and gotten mine but I told myself it wasn't necessary. I had a picture with him. A bad picture of me of course, but still a picture.

So at the end of the night I was so happy that I'd braved my crowd fears and spend a wonderful evening with new and old friends.

And thanks to Ree for just being her. Real, genuine, and gracious. And a true beauty inside and out.

And just because....http://newsok.com/multimedia/photos/gallery/501778 .....here are the pictures of me from the newspaper. Number 14 is my personal favorite:c)

I'm giddy!

I have never had a celebrity crush.

I have never felt the need to go to concerts to scream at some cute band guy.

When interviewed for the radio once I was asked what famous person I had a crush on. Feeling under some pressure to say something I mentioned a local sports man because I really couldn't think of someone else.

But now....I have a little non-sexual crush. And I'm going to meet her tonight!

I am going to The Pioneer Woman's cookbook signing with about eight friends! One friend went ahead and bought the books so we'd be sure to get one. I plan to go at 4 to save places because we know by the time it starts at 6:30 there will be a big crowd. Wish me luck when people start giving me dirty looks when people join me.

I have made her a little gift and my camera is charged and ready to go. My clothes are laid out and all the plans are in place.

She might have a court order in place by the time I get home tonight.

But I can't wait!

Pictures, and I'm sure a good story, are coming soon!

Why I Love Texting

Thursday night I was out with 14 friends celebrating our friend Lisa's birthday. She celebrates every day of the year but we only give her presents for one of them. Since I'd left the girls at home for a little bit before Shawn got there I had my cell phone on the table next to me.

Oh who am I kidding, I do that no matter what. I need to always be connected! Someone must have known that fact about me since I received this text.

Is my wife with your group? If so, tell her to bring me home some carrot cake and to answer her cell phone;) ~john

I passed my phone down the long table full of friends and we all had a laugh.

I sure hope John got his carrot cake:c)

Done!

I finished my monogrammed permanent pumpkin last night. Shawn finally showed me how to add fonts to Word and I got everything set up.

I printed our name out and cut the letters apart. I taped them in place on the pumpkin and played around with the spaces and angles.After using the tool to cut out the letters I tooth picked the inner letter pieces back in place.I put in on the porch with two little flicker lights and Shawn and I admired my handiwork. He although didn't think it was enough light so soon we had a work light inside of it. The massive amount of light coming out the bottom is not to my liking so we're still on the lookout for the perfect light.But for now I think it's looks cute just sitting on my porch.

Now, on to another project. Stay tuned!

Apples to Apples

Have any of you played the game Apples to Apples? It is one of our families absolute favorites. We have the kids and the adults versions and play them both no matter what the ages are of the players.

To play, each person is given five red cards that have a word on it and usually a funny sentence to go along with it. Examples are: Monkeys, Flip Flops, Sand Castles, Pickles, and Cereal. The dealer takes out a green card that has a word and three descriptive words to go along with it. Example:Flimsy-rickety, fragile, wobbly. Each player, except the dealer, chooses the card in their hand that best goes along with that word. Sand Castles would be a perfect choose. The dealer takes each players cards, not knowing who put in what, and reads them out loud and chooses the one they think goes along best. It is great fun to see what people put in and how the dealer thinks! If your red card is chosen, you win that round and take the green card to show that you've won. The player who gets to 10 green cards first wins. After our last big family game we were looking to see who had gotten what and found that several went along with personalities.

My mother-in-law-Hmmm...Dangerous? Well, maybe before I knew her.

My husband-He's all of these! Well, maybe not Insulting and Delicate. And how did he get crazed?? That is my word.

Me-I am NOT aged, no matter what the cards say. All the rest...sure, at least one time in my life.

My brother-in-law-He is not dead though....but he does annoy me sometimes.

My sister-in-law-Well, maybe some of these are a stretch! She might have a different take on that though.

If you haven't played this before you need to! Put it on your shopping list!

And let me know what words describe you.

I can't wait to hear:c)

My front porch...

...is being taken over!

I love this time of year because of it. I can't wait until my favorite plant store puts the Ornamental Sweet Potato out for sale. I am such a cheap person way down deep inside and only five plants gets me a ton for my money.

And five little plants that look like my flower bed swallowed them turn into this.When I took these pictures, which was a month ago, it was spilling over the front side of the planter,making its way down onto the driveway,and getting up close and personal with the bench.Of course, the pumpkins and the candles also take up some room. McKinley is less than thrilled because this is her favorite homework spot.

Soon enough the first freeze will hit and it will be a disgusting brown stringy mess.

Luckily these pictures will be ready and waiting for me right here on my little blog:c)

Permanent Pumpkins!

I was introduced to a new craft idea at a Girlfriends' Craft Night recently. What I lovingly refer to as Permanent Pumpkins.

I showed up at my friends house with my pumpkin, a drill, five different sized bits, and an idea in my head that I'd seen somewhere on the internet. Everyone else used the little pumpkin carvers as I tried to remember how to put a bit on the drill. I finally did it and started drilling. The first hole made a mess. The second one made a bigger mess. By the time I finished about 40 holes, I (and everything around me) was covered in permanent pumpkin pieces. My friend Kristi pulled out her vacuum and the two of us (the vacuum and I) had a very intimate moment that didn't last long enough. I then begged to please clean up a little more. It was quite a mess.But the mess was worth it! It looked just like the picture in my head.

Here are a few of the others created.I went to Hobby Lobby the next day and bought another one. It's twice as big and will soon have our name carved into it in some cute font.

But for now I have this one. It looks better on my porch, trust me. My kitchen cutting board doesn't do it justice!

Think she missed us??

We just drove in from our 12 hours of driving and 50 hours of visiting with family over Fall Break. After spending those 50 hours in a house with 2 cats (one that meowed for half of it), we were very happy to see our little Jackie 'O'.

As the girls were getting in bed they noticed that all their stuffed animals were missing.

Kennedy knew just where to look.15!! 15 stuffed animals! I don't know how she fit in the bed with all of them! She must have been lonely while Shawn was at work. Poor thing. She is now cuddled in upstairs with one of the girls. And all 15 animals have been returned to their owners.

Until the next time we go out of town...

Okay, I'm warming up to Texas

We've discussed before that Texas is not my favorite place in the world. But I have found myself here again. I'm a sucker for family togetherness.

We took off early this morning for some bonding and cousin time and headed over to Lubbock. We also had to rub in the fact that we get a Fall Break and they don't:)

Leaving at 5:15 in the morning meant that by the time we crossed the state line it was still dark outside. Well, dark and foggy. I lost sight of the end of the hood on about six occasions. But after passing through Amarillo the sun was out, the fog was gone, and the clouds were clearing. Well, ending. Did you know that the clouds just abruptly end? We didn't either.Soon enough we were back under some. At home we'd just ended seven straight days of rain and cloudy skies so this bright thing shining through was odd to us. My lovely assistant and navigator wouldn't get my camera out so I used my phone to capture these. Not bad for a 2 mega pixel camera.See why I was having trouble with my navigator? This is how she spent most of the trip. And speaking of trouble, could someone please tell me why this picture won't enlarge? Here I have this whole trick figured out, I'm even showing if off to my aunt right now, but this one is being persnickety. And I bet spell check will be all over that last word.

Oh well, I think you get my point, right? Okay state, amazing sky, great family.

That's it.

Goodbye.

*Update-I spelled 'persnickety' right! Can you believe it? But I honestly just typed 'believe' wrong three times.*

And now that's it.

Goodbye.

Forever.

Magnets

Almost a year ago I got a wild hair, hare...which is it? Hmmm....

Anyway, I decided to make some magnets. I had an old humongous frame that I wanted to use as a magnetic bulletin board in Shawn's office. I painted the frame black and bought a piece of sheet metal that lucky for me fit perfectly. I had no desire to cut sheet metal.

For the first set I needed letters so the girls and I scoured magazines looking for everything. Can I just say that there are not enough K's in magazine headlines. We needed three. Finding the letters was hard, but Mod Podging them on and hot gluing a magnet on the back took all of 30 minutes. That was mainly dry time. They ended up costing a little over ten cents a piece.

After we'd made the names we also cut out some cute patterns or pictures.I ended up making another magnetic board for the girls room.After those turned out so well we decided to use some leftover scrapbook paper and made more.I ended up selling quite a few at a home craft show and even to a friend that came over this summer.

Now I just need to make a magnetic board for me. My magnets have to live on the refrigerator. I guess waiting for someone to make a board for me isn't going to work out.

Oh well, at least I have a cute fridge!