Fun Getting To Know You Christmas Questions

Dec 19, 2014

Fun Getting To Know You Christmas Questions

Here are some fun get­ting to know you Christ­mas ques­tions you can share with friends and fam­i­ly at a fam­i­ly gath­er­ing or par­ty. I always find it inter­est­ing in how oth­ers cel­e­brate the hol­i­day sea­son. If you don’t cel­e­brate Christ­mas you can eas­i­ly change the ques­tions to fit your hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tion. My sis­ter and her fam­i­ly arrive late tonight and I can­not wait to have some fun with every­one. You know I’m on “best week­end ever” notice for Made­lyn and Isabel­la. I LOVE being their aunt. I have a week­end of fun all planned out that includes lots of hot choco­late, s’mores, cook­ie bak­ing, hol­i­day light look­ing and presents. It’s going to be a fab­u­lous week­end. 1. Wrap­ping paper or gift bags? This year it’s all about Gift Bags.  2. Real tree or arti­fi­cial? We...

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Weekend of Holiday Decorating

Dec 8, 2014

Weekend of Holiday Decorating

The Christ­mas tree is the first item to go up in our house dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. Ans­ley designed this “Pep­per­mint” tree a few years ago and we’ve kept it since. It’s a fun tree that is easy to put up and take down and lets face it dur­ing the hol­i­days easy is the key word. Once the tree is all set Ans­ley and I start to plan how we want to dec­o­rate the house. This year it is all about lights. In the den, we decid­ed to hang three wreaths with white lights and some gar­land with red and white lights in the bay win­dow. We added white lights on the fire­place man­tel and I accent­ed it with some of my favorite vin­tage mer­cury glass orna­ments, gar­land and green depres­sion glass. I say “I” accent­ed...

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Teeny Tiny Needle Felted Terrarium

Oct 20, 2014

Teeny Tiny Needle Felted Terrarium

I’ve been in Beau­mont help­ing mom and dad with a few of their aches and pains these past few weeks so while I’m sit­ting in the evenings I’ve been doing some nee­dle felt­ing. Over the week­end, I decid­ed to give it a go at mak­ing a tee­ny tiny ter­rar­i­um. The jar for this ter­rar­i­um is only 2″ x 2″. Which means the mush­rooms and gnome house are real­ly tiny. The tallest mush­room mea­sures 1″ and the gnome house is only .75″ and I LOVE the tee­ny tiny acorn cap used as the roof. Mom and dad have some super tiny acorns on their oak tree that are per­fect for these lit­tle hous­es. It’s a bat­tle between me and the squir­rel on who gets them first. I plan on mak­ing sev­er­al more of these tee­ny tiny nee­dle felt­ed ter­rar­i­ums because...

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Needle Felted Doll

Oct 14, 2014

Needle Felted Doll

I’m in Beau­mont for a bit get­ting mom and dad tak­en care of, they are nick­named Gimp 1 and Gimp 2, at the moment. Dad has a nerve in his leg both­er­ing him and mom has a knee that wont straight­en. Between the two of them they are quite the pair. When I arrived last week my youngest niece, Isabel­la came down with a 24 hour tum­my bug so while watch­ing her for a few hours I made her a nee­dle felt­ed doll. She picked the wool col­ors and instruct­ed me on how she want­ed her doll to look. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with kids on a project is real­ly fun. She loves her doll and I was ever so hap­py to make it for her. The tum­my bug hit my niece Made­lyn, last night. I’m real­ly hop­ing...

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Ron Hinkle Glass ~ Buckhannon, WV

Sep 19, 2014

Ron Hinkle Glass ~ Buckhannon, WV

Going to see Ron Hin­kle’s glass shop is one of Mom’s favorite things to do when vis­it­ing, Buck­han­non. She has made a vis­it to see Ron’s work every year I’ve been dri­ving them to West Vir­ginia. She’s also left with a bag full of gor­geous glass to bring home too. If you are lucky, when you vis­it, Ron might be in town cre­at­ing some of his amaz­ing glass pieces. If he is out on the road sell­ing his glass items his assis­tant Richard is just as nice and loves show­ing how he cre­ates glass items of all kinds and answer­ing any and all ques­tions about hand blow­ing glass. Hei­di takes care of the gift shop and is the sweet­est. Ron Hin­kle Glass is a won­der­ful place to vis­it filled with won­der­ful peo­ple. This vis­it, I...

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Solitude Leather Bracelet

Jun 6, 2014

Solitude Leather Bracelet

I made this bracelet the oth­er night and love it so much I thought I would share a quick tuto­r­i­al so you too can make one. Just a lit­tle note… the crys­tal and pearl beads are from old neck­laces I’ve found in thrift shops or flea mar­kets and the gold heart charm and red and gold glass bead are some mom and dad found. You can find sim­i­lar items I’m sure but if you real­ly want that vin­tage charm you need to dig around thrift shops and flea mar­kets for items you can take apart. Cut a piece of 15m Suede leather cord that is dou­ble the length you wish your bracelet to be. Fold the cord in half, at the bent end about .5″ down from the bent area wrap tight­ly a piece of...

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Mountain Magick Art ~ Jeff Holoubek

May 5, 2014

Mountain Magick Art ~ Jeff Holoubek

Sev­er­al years ago, mom and dad were giv­en some geo­des by a dear friend who picked them up while in New Mex­i­co. When mom and dad found out they were going to Estes Park with me, mom dug them out of the clos­et and brought them so they could get the geo­des cracked opened at Red Rose Rock Shop & Dick­’s Rock Muse­um. If you’ve nev­er been to this rock shop the next time you’re vis­it­ing Estes Park you must go. It’s open year round and is filled with some of the most amaz­ing rocks, fos­sils, gems and min­er­als from around the world. Using this pret­ty basic con­trap­tion, Jeff Holoubek cracked open mom and dad’s three geo­des. The first two were nice but the third one, well it was REALLY nice. When Jeff saw what was  hid­ing inside he...

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Garden of The Gods ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

May 1, 2014

Garden of The Gods ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gar­den of the Gods was first called Red Rock Cor­ral. Then, in August 1859, two sur­vey­ors who helped to set up Col­orado City explored the site. One of the sur­vey­ors, M. S. Beach, sug­gest­ed that it would be a “cap­i­tal place for a beer gar­den.” His com­pan­ion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impres­sive rock for­ma­tions, exclaimed, “Beer Gar­den! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assem­ble. We will call it the Gar­den of the Gods. The row of hog­backs. The Kiss­ing Camels for­ma­tion is the near­est hog­back to the right of mom and dad. The camel’s heads are above a hole in the rock where the sky can be seen. It’s hard to see the hole in some of the pho­tos. But if you look close­ly you can see it in the pho­to above. The...

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Rocky Mountain Memories ~ Estes Park, Colorado

Apr 30, 2014

Rocky Mountain Memories ~ Estes Park, Colorado

All of last week I was in Estes Park, Col­orado with mom and dad. We had a fab­u­lous time explor­ing every inch of Estes Park and Rocky Moun­tain Nation­al Park. I loved being able to com­bine work with play espe­cial­ly with mom and dad. They are a blast to trav­el with and guar­an­tees lot of laugh until you cry moments. Through­out the week, I will be shar­ing loads of pho­tos tak­en dur­ing our adven­ture. First I have to tell you about the fun I had teach­ing class­es at Rocky Moun­tain Mem­o­ries April 25th & 26th. Cheryl Grigs­by is liv­ing my dream. Seri­ous­ly I’m not kid­ding, she has a scrap­book store, an adorable rental cab­in and a home in Estes Park. Oh how this Texas girl wants to move to Estes Park so bad­ly. I tru­ly belong...

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Observations from an Alcoholic’s Sister ~ Emotions

Apr 16, 2014

Observations from an Alcoholic’s Sister ~ Emotions

There are so many dif­fer­ent emo­tions fam­i­ly mem­bers of alco­holics feel. One emo­tion I def­i­nite­ly felt was anger. I was angry because of what I saw Richard’s alco­holism doing to him and to our fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly mom. I felt as though Richard was being self­ish and unap­pre­cia­tive of all that mom and dad were doing in hopes of him get­ting sober and it made me furi­ous. I under­stand alco­holism is a brain dis­ease but like any dis­ease most do what they can to con­trol or get rid of their dis­ease, most don’t let the dis­ease con­trol them or end their life with­out some sort of fight. Alco­holism is a beast to con­trol and I saw first­hand how strong the crav­ings were but I still felt Richard could have tried a lit­tle hard­er to gain...

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Observations from an Alcoholic’s Sister ~ Their Friends

Apr 9, 2014

Observations from an Alcoholic’s Sister ~ Their Friends

Their Friends ~ talk about a real­ly hard issue for alco­holics. I feel alco­holics need to sev­er the major­i­ty if not all of their friend­ships in order to remain sober. This is because most alco­holics have friends who are social drinkers, are alco­holics them­selves and they may even have some who are drug abusers; I know all of this was true for Richard. In order for a recov­er­ing alco­holic to find the strength to remain sober, they can­not keep the same group of friends. If the friends an alco­holic con­tin­ues to hang around drinks or uses drugs in their pres­ence I feel those new to sobri­ety are on a fast track to relapse. If you real­ly think about it, how is a recov­er­ing alco­holic just com­ing out of rehab going to stay sober while...

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10 Years

Mar 28, 2014

10 Years

Today marks the 10 year anniver­sary of my brother’s death. Ten years is a long time yet it still feels like yes­ter­day, I was enjoy­ing a fab­u­lous morn­ing sun­rise train­ing my gold­en retriev­er, Son­ny in the field. I went to my car to get us some water and noticed I had a bazil­lion missed calls on my phone. I called home ask­ing what was up and I will nev­er for­get Alan’s words,” Its Richard.” He didn’t have to say anoth­er word, I knew he was gone. I could hear it in his voice and I felt it deep in my soul, my lit­tle broth­er was gone. At that moment, my life and the lives of my fam­i­ly changed for­ev­er. Mom and Dad lost a son, my sis­ter and I lost a broth­er, my daughter’s,...

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Assemblage at Heart

Feb 4, 2014

Assemblage at Heart

I am always asked, “What are you going to do with this thing?” when I pur­chase odd items as I’m out and about junk­ing. Hon­est­ly, some­times I have not one clue but I’ve learned from expe­ri­ence if I see some­thing that real­ly intrigues me or some­thing that I’m on the fence about I make the pur­chase. My dad has a say­ing, “You only regret the things you don’t buy.” and he’s right! Today, I thought I would show you what I did with lots of ran­dom items that helped me cre­ate this assem­blage style doll. Now I know this might not be for every­one but I just love her and have her sit­ting on my shelf in my stu­dio. As you can see she is made from lots of dif­fer­ent flea mar­ket and non-flea...

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Home For Christmas

Dec 27, 2013

Home For Christmas

This year, we seemed to cel­e­brat­ed Christ­mas a lit­tle bit at a time. We had a fam­i­ly get togeth­er with Ter­ri and Laren at their loft on the 23rd then a small Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion at our house Christ­mas Eve.  Christ­mas morn­ing, my nephew Brit­tain and I head­ed down to Beau­mont to see fam­i­ly and cel­e­brate Christ­mas with my par­ents. Alan and Ans­ley both had to work on the 26th so they could­n’t come along but when I return home they’ll have a small Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion with the gifts I bring back. We arrived at mom and dad’s house in the late after­noon and every­one was ready to exchange gifts. It’s always a flur­ry of excite­ment dur­ing Christ­mas at mom and dad’s. I’ve been very blessed to always have an amaz­ing Christ­mas. Mom and Dad...

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Cyber Monday Etsy Sale

Dec 2, 2013

Cyber Monday Etsy Sale

I hope you and your fam­i­ly had a won­der­ful Thanks­giv­ing. I know I have a few added pounds from mom’s awe­some turkey, stuff­ing and desserts. After din­ner every­one was stuffed and all us adults need­ed naps except Made­lyn and Bel­lie, they were run­ning around like the ener­giz­er bun­ny and were glued to Ans­ley’s hip. Made­lyn and Bel­lie LOVE Ans­ley. After 50 years, mom and dad final­ly have a table to sit the entire fam­i­ly. This has been one of mom’s wish­es for years and I’m so glad it final­ly came true. Thanks­giv­ing din­ner was a won­der­ful way to break it in too.  From left to right are Mom, Laren (son-in-law), Ter­ri (daugh­ter), Aman­da (niece), Steve (Aman­da’s boyfriend), Dad (San­ta), Brit­tain (nephew), Bel­lie (niece), Ans­ley (daugh­ter), Me and Made­lyn (niece). Today, through Dec. 16th I’m...

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Banana Butter Bread Recipe

Nov 15, 2013

Banana Butter Bread Recipe

If you want an awe­some Banana Bread recipe this is one you need to try. When I was down vis­it­ing mom and dad last week, mom had two loaves wait­ing on the counter so we could as she says, have some­thing to nib­ble on, but it was real­ly more like devour. Oh my good­ness is this bread GOOD! Need­less to say, by the time I left there were no longer two loaves. Which is the rea­son there is no beau­ti­ful pho­to of the loaves sit­ting on the counter, but at least I did think to pho­to­graph the recipe and share it with you. This way you can have the actu­al loaves sit­ting on your counter. This recipe is awe­some, I...

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Noel Miniature Wreath

Nov 8, 2013

Noel Miniature Wreath

This is the lat­est mini kit added to my Etsy shop. Once com­plet­ed this minia­ture wreath mea­sures approx­i­mate­ly 7″ and will cer­tain­ly add a spark­ly fes­tive feel to any area of your home or hol­i­day tree. Since I ship Flat Rate if pur­chas­ing more than one kit please con­tact me so I can cre­ate a reserve list­ing for you with the cor­rect ship­ping charge. Noel Minia­ture Wreath Kit Con­tents 1 Yard Cham­pagne Tin­sel 1 Yard Brown & White Twine 24” Tan Seam Bind­ing 7 Chip­board Snowflakes 6 Self Adhe­sive Pearls 2 Wood­en Birds 1 Large Chan­de­lier Bead 1 Medi­um Chan­de­lier Bead Chip­board Let­ters ~ Noel 2 – 2” x 3” Sheet Music Pat­terned Paper Step by Step Instruc­tions with Col­or Pho­to Kit does NOT include: Martha Stew­art Crys­tal Coarse Glit­ter, Folk Art Vin­tage White Acrylic Paint,...

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Deerfield Fair

Oct 14, 2013

Deerfield Fair

While on the epic road trip with my mom and dad, one day we, along with oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers attend­ed the Deer­field Fair. This was the fair my dad, his sib­lings and par­ents went to every year. Even though it has grown quite a bit since dad was a kid the feel and events were still the same. I tru­ly enjoyed the entire expe­ri­ence as it still had that old fash­ioned non-com­mer­cial­ized feel and dad got to relive a part of his child­hood all over again. As we entered you could feel all the excite­ment from peo­ple young and old. They had vin­tage trac­tor dis­plays, log split­ting machines from the very ear­ly 1900’s that were run­ning and mak­ing music for the old timers, Fried Dough was the first thing Mom pur­chased and mine was...

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Stitching Some Time Away

Oct 9, 2013

Stitching Some Time Away

Before leav­ing on my epic road trip with mom and dad I start­ed this embroi­dery piece. I thought it would be a fun project to work on when there was a lit­tle bit of down time. Well, I fin­ished it last night and could not wait to show you the results. The aprons remind me of the kind my great great aunts would have worn while cook­ing in the kitchen of the old home­stead. I’m such a vin­tage girl at heart. And if the aprons look famil­iar well they are my Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion Stamp Set ~ Miss­es’ Apron. I just light­ly stamped the images onto nat­ur­al muslin using Cof­fee Archival ink then start­ed stitch­ing...

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Thrifty Paintbrush Holder

Oct 8, 2013

Thrifty Paintbrush Holder

While wan­der­ing around an antique store in Maine, I came upon this adorable planter. I was going to pass on it as I real­ly did­n’t need it but aunt Bren­da talked me into it as she knew I thought it was real­ly cute AND it was only $6.00. Then dad chimes in and says, “Lisa, all this stuff is about want, not need” which is so true. So now I have an adorable vin­tage planter that will be the cutest paint­brush hold­er ever! Plus, I have the added bonus of hap­py mem­o­ries when I look at it. Also, the awe­some frame around my pho­to is one from #rhon­nade­signs app. If you haven’t checked it out you real­ly need to do so, it’s amaz­ing and so...

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My Life In A Dinghy ~ Brenda Richards

Oct 2, 2013

My Life In A Dinghy ~ Brenda Richards

“My Life In A Dinghy”, fea­tured artist, Bren­da Richards. I bet you are won­der­ing how you’ve missed this artist. Well, Bren­da Richards is my Aunt! While dri­ving my mom and dad up to West Vir­ginia, New Hamp­shire  and Maine we stopped in Delaware for a night to pick her up and bring her along. As I was walk­ing in her house what did I see sit­ting on a shelf, but a lit­tle dinghy she cre­at­ed as a sur­prise after read­ing about this fun blog fea­ture. Is she so awe­some or what!? I love that Aunt Bren­da took the time to make her own lit­tle dinghy but then she’s always tak­en the time to do for and sur­prise me all my life. Aunt Bren­da’s, Life In A Dinghy Sail­ing over the ocean blue by the...

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