Crafting Homestead

Category: Family

  • Quick Change

    If you have been reading my posts, you know I have three girls living at home. They are now 16, 15 and 7.5. We wanted the oldest to have her privacy and gave her her own room. We only have 3 bedrooms so the two youngest shared. It worked well, but that was a couple years ago when the tweens hated each other. They *finally* found some common ground and often spend time bouncing around between each others rooms. #mommywin I’d include daddy, but he’s not into computers, or internet, or any other technology, he just got a smartphone 2 months ago (hand-me-down from the 16 year old)…totally old school and i *LOVE* him for that.

    Anyway, since the teenagers have been getting along so well and the 7 years old seems to get in the way I thought we should switch. I wasn’t sure the 16 year old would want to share or that the 7 year old would want to be alone as it’s not as close to mommy and daddy’s room, but much to my delight they had thought the same thing just a week ago.  AWESOME!!!

    So, no sooner than I mention it and the two girls moving start packing boxes all the details were worked out.           

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There’s always a catch, some fly in the ointment… The littlest used to *love* pink, but now she’s hot into purple and blue. CRAP! Her bedspread, curtains, rug, pillows, lampshade, desk…all pink. What’s a mom to do, I am *not* buying all new stuff because we’re switching rooms, heck we’re supposed to be moving soon anyway.  Hmmm, I can DYE the fabric stuff, paint the desk (again) and lamp…may have to replace a shade (so sad, i *love* that little lamp). Off to Wal-Mart.

    Soon all will be well. The trip to Lowe’s for paint will have to wait, not feeling*that* ambitious today. The best part: since I am no longer a huge fan of driving, but the 16 year old has her permit, she got to drive me around today…WIN WIN!  YAY ME! It’s a great day. <3

  • A new day!

    Today was the day. I have basically been secretly writing this blog. Secretly, because no one else knew anything about it…until today. Today I invited everyone on my Facebook friend list to see my blog. There’s no turning back now.  The master procrastinator bit the bullet.

    Oh wait, no, there was one person, Kim. Kim from Made in a Day. She doesn’t know me at all. I did however comment on her blog that I really liked one of her projects and that I will be re-creating it myself on my new blog.  She cautioned me to give credit where it is due when posting information found on another persons blog.  ABSOLUTELY! I would never take credit for someone else’s ideas.  She did mention that she read what I had so far and thought it was well written.  Now, since that just happened two days ago, it must be the final push I needed to make the announcement.  Prior to that I wasn’t sure I had enough content and that I wouldn’t have enough going forward.

    I will fear no more! I have been doing really well lately getting some of my fun things done. Making crafts, I love it. Sadly, the one that I found on Kim’s blog I am unable to work on today because I must buy some supplies. Until then I have been busy with a few other items.  Pictures of those items will be posted shortly AND available for purchase.  😀 At this time I will not be shipping items, they are for pick-up only. But let’s not get ahead of things…

    Something else I will be doing is including pictures of non-crafted items for sale… Hey, this blog isn’t paying for itself yet.  😉 Your support is *immensely* appreciated.

    Thank you! Warmly, -Valerie

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  • Now what?

    So, lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about our homestead. The desire to make serious progress is there, what I have is a lack of direction. When I do not have a direction for anything I want to accomplish I get totally stuck. *SO* frustrating. Another thing that complicates this is that I find myself not only being relentlessly distracted, other folks in my home seem to think they need to provide me with things to do.

    As I write this I realize that the first thing that *must* happen is decluttering!

    By decluttering my life I will eliminate the need to clean, pick up, organize, put away, trash, wash, etc all these things around me. I have seen various social media outlets talking about simplifying, downsizing, and all, and I have cleared out quite a bit of stuff since we are still planning to move, but now I am thinking bigger scale.

    What does this mean? I am a sentimental fool. I keep everything, not like a hoarder, but I do keep lots of little momentos. For instance, growing up I would wonder about what I learned in first grade or what my penmanship was like. How I did on some random spelling test. Mom didn’t keep those things. Now as a mom, I have kept nearly every paper my kids brought home from school: artwork, projects, dang near everything. Each year they get a new backpack and the previous years backpack is filled with all their papers. We have a *LOT* of backpacks… When Honey and I were dating I was travelling cross country for my job and he was able to come with me. We’d see baseball games, have dinner, go to museums…every ticket stub, program, receipt – Yep, I’ve got ’em! The intent was to scrapbook them. 🙂 Unfortunately, that is still my intent, as in, it hasn’t happened yet. There always seems to be something else to do. sigh…

    TIME TO DECLUTTER!

    We have no plans this weekend, but to prepare the house for winter (put patio stuff away into the shed, rake, bring brush to the recycling center…). Honey just got the motorhome winterized today. I’m going to hide inside and organize! Make a giant donation pile and get it to our local homeless/near homeless faith-based non-for-profit pantry. What’s going? Anything that does not fit our current decorating style, we love rustic! If it can be used for our homestead, it can stay, but it must be useful. Another credential, it must be used!!! Beyond those requirements: if it’s for my craft room, it can stay. 😉 I have already begun regretting some craft things I have parted with…like my large bin of yarn. Of course I find several really cute ideas using yarn AFTER it’s gone. drat.

    I hesitate to take before pictures…at least of my basement…out of pure embarrassment. However, I will take them. Whether I actually share them likely depends on how drastic an improvement there is. Why? Because most of the stuff there is quasi-packed and ready to move. Months ago. Now there is random clutter on top of the boxes, some of the boxes are topless (no flaps or separate top to close them – totally messy looking), bunches of empty boxes, toys galore. It’s hideous!

    I imagine while cleaning I will be considering my next post, in fact, it’s certain. It will be about our next steps toward self-sufficient homesteading. Making a list to determine what we need, how to make it, what would be most beneficial to do first.

    If you don’t hear from me in the next week, tell my family to look for me in the playroom!

  • Lemonade

    This post has nothing to do about anything, except that it makes me happy.

    No, not lemonade…

    The Geico commercial where the kids have a lemonade stand and everyone walks by saying “iced tea” and Ice T says, “no, it’s lemonade”. Hystercial. That is all.

     

     

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  • Remember me?

    OK, I haven’t been exactly regular about my posts, but I *have* been working behind the scene on the blog.  Quite busy setting up all the other parts to make sure I don’t miss anyone who may be looking for what these chats will contain. So, there is a Facebook page, Pinterest, Instagram (I don’t even know ho to use that yet), and Twitter. Before I set them up correctly (*hope* they are in fact set up correctly…), it was quite the challenge to figure out how to get the little buttons on the page so you can actually follow along on all those social medias. Geez! I feel so behind the times when I *used* to be really advanced in my computer knowledge.  There was actually a time when I was customer service for a software company, and I solved *many* technical issues. Now it seems like it’s a foreign language.

    Anyway, I’m almost completely back.  The plan is to post a project tomorrow, complete with pictures.

    Until then, be kind.  😀

  • Happy 4th of July!

    This morning my honey went to his friend’s house to get them to take our pellet stove.  Ahhh, something else gone from the house to make our move easier!  Our friend brought his friend who may be interested in our motorcycle. He is! Just has to clear it with his wife.

    By the time my honey got back it was getting a little late, Delia was supposed to have a play date at 1:00. But we had to get to Lake Compounce to get our Season Pass ID cards and clear up our reservation for the RV and cabin sites. They didn’t give us our discount. Of course, we didn’t think about everyone else who would be there to enjoy the park.  UGH. So we had a nice long walk to the park, bag search, wait in line, get pictures taken and another reason for the visit was to get Delia some water shoes for her visit on Wednesday. All other stores we attempted to buy them from were sold out. Of course, once we made it through the gate – try to keep 2 teenagers off the rides… We had some fried dough, the kids went on a few rides, we bought water shoes and finally, headed home.  Only two hours late for her playdate. Bummer, I haven’t met the family yet so I’m sure that didn’t sit well.

    Get back home and try to finish getting this blog set up.  I think it may be published, but not sure. I need to alter the home page, but it won’t allow me to edit the link. Think it needs to be junked then start it over. Maybe I should have the teenagers set it up for me.

    Delia starts her Playground Camp in the morning and Alexandra goes to her high school program, not summer school. Once again it’s late, past my bedtime, but at least it’s not tomorrow yet!

  • A family day

    Today we woke up and went to the flea market again. We had to, we asked one of the vendors to hold some items for us. We got those and a few other items. Got them home, cleaned them off, and put them on display. Loving the new look we are achieving!

    My father-in-law stopped by to visit for a couple hours.  That’s always nice, he hasn’t been by in a while.

    The little one is going to Lake Compounce on Wednesday. Since there is a water park we wanted her to have water shoes so she doesn’t have to worry about putting shoes in a locker. Trouble is…we couldn’t find any!!!  Not even the “W” store had them. We will try one more place tomorrow.

    Back home and we moved a few more boxes into the Pod, then a few more items into the motorhome. Sat in there for a few minutes discussing future plans. We do that a lot.

    Today was a really nice day. I’m glad we still have another day together. We will get even more accomplished and have fun too.

  • Technically it’s Sunday now…

    What a Saturday! After staying up until 3:00 last night (this morning), I had an activity filled day. Walking the flea market with my honey was fun. Found a few treasures for our rustic décor. Thankfully the vendors know us and held them for us since we left the house without cash!  UGH!

    I also found a lovely purple glass ring holder. Since my favorite color is purple, I though it was just sweet. However, I actually bought it for (get this…) my husbands, former co-workers, sister-in-law. We had been considering starting our homestead in Tennessee and since his in-laws live there we figured that would be a perfect place to start looking. We met them and spent about and hour and a half with them.  I just *adore* them. We visited in April and I had been meaning to send her a little gift for her perfect home. FOUND IT! I hope she loves it as much as I think she will.

    Normally I am much too timid to negotiate prices, but I had a break through today. There were just a few singles in my wallet for the flea market. This one vendor had his treasures in beat-up cardboard boxes. Peering into each one to search for just the right prize, and keeping and ear open to determine if his prices might be too steep for my nearly empty wallet. That’s when I saw it, purple cuteness. It’s tiny, dirty and hardly worth a second glance. I waited for him to notice me and I started, “Would you take a dollar for this?” and he said, “No, I don’t take a dollar for *any* colored glass.” Hmmm, maybe I was wrong, I don’t have enough on me, rats, no wait… “OK, what’s your price?” “Three dollars.” He says. That’s about when I would either say ok and pay or just walk away. I would have paid $5 and been happy, but dang, something in me said, “Would you take $2?” And he accepted. He commented that I was a good negotiator…BAHAHAHA!  ME?!? Ah, good times. I told him I was learning some tricks from my husband.

    I know I’m being ridiculous over my $2 purchase, but it was that feeling of victory. It’s a start! 😉

    The rest of the day was nice too.  We bought our season passes to Lake Compounce. We booked our first stay with the motor home. Both of these are to accommodate us and the birthday parties the girls hose to have there.  All three of them will be having their birthday party on the same day! Loving that idea!

    Then we had a few chicken wings for dinner.  Sarah came over to watch the fireworks. They were great, as usual! After that we dropped her home. I was driving and was looking forward to heading home, but Carlos had another idea.  Our McDonalds had just been rebuilt and opened on Friday. We had to check it out! We ordered our burgers (no drinks or fries) and Carlie had to try out the new playscape.  Two steps up and she wiped out. Hard. On her front teeth.  OH CRAP! No blood, but her teeth hurt.  🙁 Not cool. Her new adult front teeth are beautiful. I hoped she didn’t damage them. A couple “pink pills” and she’s resting comfortably.

    Another great day!

  • I’m finally ready to start a blog.

    I have been tossing around the idea of starting a blog for at least a year.

    What should I write about? Who would actually read it? Would anybody read it?

    ARE YOU CRAZY? When do you have time to write a *blog*???

    Yeah, there is *no* time to write a blog. However, this little life of mine is whizzing right past me and my memory has proven over and over again to not be able to keep up.

    I want to document all these happenings. Someone might find something useful about my life (hahahaha, yeah right…more like a warning).

    Anyway, somewhere in between all the craziness that never seems to stop I am determined to create this journal of stuff. So bear with me while I learn to navigate creating a blog while also attempting to keep the kids entertained and stay on top of their chores, my chores, a new motorhome, preparing the house to sell, moving, birthdays, summer camp, and starting new schools in 2 months.

    Thanks for coming along for the ride!

     

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