Where did the summer go!?

I know it was here, somewhere. I have tan lines to prove it. It appears that summer has left the building. This weekend was the beginning of the fall chores, that will culminate when the snow stakes are set in the driveway.  So far the air conditioners are out of the windows. Two windows are cleaned and plastic is attached in the hopes of keeping some of the winter chill out. The living room set and the front glass is cleaned, screens have been stashed in the basement. Did you know that if you live in a northern climate where the winters are bitterly cold that taking the screens off your windows and giving the glass a good cleaning lets in more sun, allowing those warming rays to enter your house impeded?  I'm attacking this monumental task a few windows at a time. I have to clean the north windows, and two sets on the south side and I'll be all done! What a difference it makes looking through clean glass to the beautiful fall scenery.
It's amazing the variety of views that God grants his people throughout the year. Even the desert has it's seasons. I found while doing some digging in the good book, a verse that should help when you feel the winter blues coming on and when things seem to get worse and the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Don't be down hearted for God promised us right from the very beginning, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22 Let that also be a warning to us, that we should all do our part to help keep the earth safe. That's why I love trash to treasure projects so much! We can do our part, and make something beautiful out of it. I plan on going to the Restore in the next day or so, I believe they have glass blocks and I found some really cool holiday projects on pinterest that I'm going to give a try. However the holiday to get ready for now is Halloween and Thanksgiving! As I was digging through stuff I stumbled across some old squished, dusty old tired looking fall wreaths. Let me tell you if you have something like that, don't through them out! Why do you want to go out and buy all new stuff. I forgot to take pictures while I was in the process of revamping them, but I did take pics of them afterwards. I took these two floral decorations and completely dismantled them, put in new oasis and then wrapped new stakes around the flowers and stuck them back in. With all the handling I didn't even have to clean the silk flowers. Put fresh new bows on them and waalaa! My fall wreaths reborn!

 So don't be afraid to destroy those old wreaths, buy some new ribbon, and flowers and go to town! You picked out the wreath from because you loved it. I don't think that ever changes in floral decorations. I love my oval grapevine wreath and my less than perfect cinnamon broom that never smelled to begin with. If new scent is what your after you can buy cinnamon sticks, eucalyptus twigs, or even essential oils. The main thing is be creative and have fun! Until next project!

Headlong into the dog days of summer Project Organization Continues!

Colossians 1:10 So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

What a wonderful inspiration. Yet here I sit, at home, on Sunday, not in church. I feel guilty. I know it's necessary to go to church and fellowship. I am on my own personal journey, trying to grow in the knowledge of God, working on becoming a better person. I love helping others, and my struggle is that I have to remember that sometimes I need to take care of myself. We blur the lines of personal journeys when we are in a family. After being married for over 20 years you sometimes take advantage of the fact that your best friend is right there, and sometimes you forget that you are not "us" that it's important to remain and grow as an individual. Then you get busy in your daily grind and forget that you need quality time together so that "we" become stronger. Life is a great elipse that changes in shape with your days. It flexes, brings some people closer sending other people further away then rolls and changes shape, sending those people away and bringing others closer to the center that is you. You grow by touching others, helping others, inspiring them to grow. Sometimes clawing our way up the hills, and sometimes taking the ride with joy, but always working to make it better. I know it is impossible to attain perfection, but God has given me this wonderful life to make my own, and gave me the power, through him to improve upon myself daily, and although I sometimes suffer with depression, I will always work to improve myself and help others on their journey. With that let's continue with organizing the mess that is my house. Growing in this project and making it flexible enough that I am continuing to make things more efficient without actually effecting the physicality of the structure. We have been approved for a VA loan and are looking for a place of our own. We are still unpacking from prior moves. So condensing and making our house comfortable is still important, but sharing the limelight of our attentions is the endless hours of searching the internet, talking with our real estate agent, and emails. Let's not forget it's band season soon, and within the next month I will be leaving the house to continue my career in call center work outside the home, with an awesome company that helps veterans. The balancing act gets more complicated, and the board of life becomes a little narrower however I have faith that my journey will continue with rich rewards because: "Through God all things are possible."
Today along with laundry I'll be redesigning my master binder. I've made up a new "to do" list and I'll share it and the many sections and individual pages of the binder soon.  For now I had better get to work instead of sitting here putting thoughts to print.

It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, here it goes. Lately I've been concentrating on improving our situation in life. We've been approved for a VA home loan, so now we have to find a house. I have been offered a job, doing something I love (helping people) for more money than I make now, better benefits, and advancement opportunities! God is good! The garden is taking a lot of our extra time, the weeds are growing big and strong! Can't wait for the veggies to start offering up their bounty. I have several tasks on the back burner, and I need a bigger stove! I still have to finish some of my gardening decorations, I have flowers still in their temporary store containers, I have a carpet cleaner sitting in my dining room full of yucky dirty water, and a grumpy husband because apparently I lack inspiration in the cooking department. I sure would appreciate some input there.
On the bright side, I have recently completed editing the next installment of the Bekka of Thorns Chronicles. What an awesome young readers series this is. I love Steve Shilstones imagination! Learn about this great kids series at wildchild publishing. Now I'm working on judging some really good books and I'll have more info on that later. Have a wonderful day y'all! Talk to ya soon!

Bedroom Closet Solution for Renters

 

The problem with my closet is, instead of one long bar at normal heighth and a shelf which I could have worked with. The landlord hung two bars, one about shirt heighth off the floor and the other up so high I had to get on a step stool to hang shirts. Dresses, even the shorter ones of todays style did not fit on either bar. So what do you do? I went online and starting looking up closet organization systems. I really wanted just a plain old set of shelves and 3 bars, 2 on one side for shirts/pants and 1 on the other for longer items. They run a respectable $150 or so for fairly decent ones. Now this is where my husbands voice of reasons starts entering my brain. We live in a rental, so anything I spend of course I would like to take with me when I leave. Therefore, those cute little closet organizers are out of the question. Walking up and down the aisles of my close favorite one stop shopping place I stumbled across those cheapy metal shelves. I wonder..... Ok, there was a chrome bakers set of 5 shelves. You know the ones you see in Sears now in the kitchen area. Chrome is cool, you wouldn't need to dust it very oven because it was very open and airy. Price can't be beat ringing in at a nice $59.99. Size was a little bigger than what I wanted but shoot, my closet is 9 ft wide, I can give up a little space for some nice shelving. Sitting just a few feet away were the cheaper version of "Gorilla" shelves. They're heavier duty, work wonderfully in the garage or basement, and $10 cheaper. This would work! Afterwards when we find a house this one can go just about anywhere. So I picked up this shelf, and knew the next stop was containers. I opted for the cheapy steralite ones, (8) shoe boxes, (3) 6 qt, (2) sweater boxes later and I was skipping to the register with a system that would look nice and cost less than $100. Check it out for yourself! The only thing you have to remember is, if your leaving the bars in the closet during this reorganization, you need to assemble the shelving inside the closet. ;)




I even tackled the problem of not having
 any closet doors.
 

Top rack houses coats and seasonal clothing
items, bottom rack is my shirts.

The second closet in my bedroom had all shelves and since I needed more room to hang things in the bigger closet since I took up all the room with the shelves, I decided to put my husbands shirts in the smaller one. So, I removed all the shelves but two, using the top one as the hanger, and the bottom one for misc items such as overalls, and thick bulky sweaters he never wears.

Quick summertime timeout is over! Game ON!

So had to take a little while off to tend my beautiful daughters graduation. It turned out wonderful and thank you to all who were able to come, and those who sent well wishes. I appreciate my family, blood relatives and extended you are all terrific!
Putting away the empty bowls, leftover decorations in anticipation of Cody's graduation in 2 years, and trying to find all the stuff that I stashed in out of the way nooks and crannies around the house. (if I can remember them all)
Time to straighten up my closets that I worked so hard on. Remember that when you do a major reorganizing project that it's important to go back, straighten it up and maybe change what's not working.
I'm finding that I'm really not too happy about spending more of my check on healthcare and getting mediocure service at the doctors office. I think we all need to stand up against that famous reschedule in 3 months and seriously asking if it's necessary. You'll get the weirdest look from the doctor, but then really they don't know how to answer it. If medically there is something that they need to check in 3 months than by all means do it. However, if, like me, you have an issue that they can't really help with (tremors) and they just want to know if you want to be medicinally treated or if it gets worse then don't waste your money.

Here is the dragonfly I made for the "Restore" what a great place to get craft supplies!
 

So I went to the local Restore by Habitat for Humanity here and talked to the manager about craft ideas. I asked if I had a good idea if I could run it by him and he liked it, then he would supply me with enough items to make two, then I'd bring one back to him for the store to display. He loved the idea and this is the first thing I made for him. Now I have to finish a pet bed out of a drawer! With the weather being so great though I've been working outside a lot, trying to save on money in the long run from our veggie garden.
The garden is just about complete, there are some plants that need replaced and a few more empty spots to fill but it's getting close. Now weeding is a completely different subject, we'll be doing that until well into harvest. What a great workout every other day or more! I'm forever asking friends, would you like to come over and do some squats and finger dexterity exercises? Alas, none take me up on it, but I'm ok with that because this chick is going to have awesome glutes and one heck of a tan by the end of summer.
The beginning of the summer has seen the death of some of our beautiful chickens, I'm sorry to report we are down to eleven. The coyotes are absolutely horrible this year and I am putting a chicken tractor into the planning phase. Along with that project I need to add to my honey do list a compost bin made out of pallets and a chile roaster for harvest. If any of you have ideas shoot me a message.
Still at the top of my list is getting closer to God because I believe that a closer relationship to him and our own development into caring, kind, and loving people is the reason we're here. With that I bid you farewell for now. Until next time! 
Take care all.

This is going to be a real quick post to show some friends of mine my version of some stuff I found on pinterest. I have detailed pictures of the progress from start to finish that I will post in a later blog. But here they are, enjoy!

  This trellis was shown in Lowe's Creative magazine but on a grander and much more expensive scale. This one is a miniture that cost me about $10 the paint I already had on hand.

The topsy turvey planter I found on pinterest and had a blast making. The colors I think will really pop once all my flowers start blooming this summer.

 

Spring cleaning or succomb to the throes of malay?

Hello friends, I'm back on track again. It seems as if my life goes in and out like the tide along the shores of Lake Michigan. I'm jamming along getting things accomplished then all of a sudden something gets me off track then before you know it a week later I'm going, "What the heck happened?" This time, however, I know exactly what happened. My cousins wedding was last weekend! Oh boy, oh boy, what a shindig it was. My feet still hurt from those heels I wore. Congrats Justin and Jamie!
It looks as though the weather will keep me from my walk/run today but as I have some errands to run I'm good with it.
I really have to attack some boxes before Friday to clean out some old kitchen items for the silent auction at the craftathon at church. Then after that I'll be able to return to posting my projects.
If any of you have any helpful hints on Graduation Party Planning, can you leave a comment please. Ter's graduation is coming fast and I have to get some plans in the works.
Meanwhile found some really cool planter projects that I'm in the midst of, here's some pics to inspire you, springs upon us!


cheapy pots from Big Lots!



After a few modifications.

I was looking for some urn pots for in front of the door and really didn't want to spend $20 a piece for ones I was pretty sure were way too big for my porch. Then an idea hit me and I ran with it. Total cost for 4 pots was less then $10 a piece, paint and bolts I already had. WAAALAAA  custom urn pots! $6.98/ea for little trees and I have the beginnings of a really nice looking front door.