Lester returns with a friend and some Homemade awesomeness

I swear the older I get the faster time goes by. Any Who, I can't believe it is already December. The last two weeks have been CRAZY. After hitting the cow we realized it was time for a new vehicle, and so the car shopping began. I have to let you in on a little secret, I actually enjoyed the car shopping bit. My husband and I are always on different schedules and we rarely have alone time, so it was sort of nice just hanging out all day together. We test drove a lot of cars and looked at even more, had lunch, and squeezed in a little Christmas shopping. I think afterwards, we both agree that we need to do this sort of thing more often....the dating thing, not the hitting a cow and having to go car shopping thing. 

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had my mom over for lunch and then my in-laws and the missionaries over for dinner. My life is finally beginning to feel a little less chaotic. 

With the start of December we had a few visitors drop in....Lester our elf brought a friend along with him this year. You might recognize Nester from an earlier post. The kids are excited to see what sort of mischief these two will get into this year. 

I had so much time at home the last few weeks without a car that I actually accomplished quite a bit more than usual. I finished my December Daily album and I am just waiting to print pictures and start putting the whole thing together. I am going to post pictures later in the week. I also made some homemade lemon soap and apple berry lotion for our teachers this year. I wrapped the soap with old story book pages from Frosty the Snowman and covered the jars of lotion with linen, greenery, and holly leaves. I rusted up some bells and made myself a new wreath and cleaned my studio. That was a task I thought would never end. We put up some storage shelving in my basement, so that I could organize all my craft show set up pieces and the totes of items I don't use on a weekly basis. It is so much more spacious and clean. I love how just a little order and purging can make you feel like creating. 

Advent calendars are huge at our house in December. We have a Christmas movie and book countdown, a service calendar, and an activity advent. The other day I was having a craft day with my BFF and she was talking about a scripture advent and I thought how awesome is that...I want to do one too. Today, I saw this one on facebook and thought how wonderful is this. You can find this calendar on Facebook.com/Scriptures365. Last night we watched The Grinch to kick start the holiday spirit and read the Christmas book. Happy December to you all!
                                       
                                                                       Rhonda

A successful show and moo moo's in the road

I had a great show this weekend. The next few weeks I will be working on some special orders which will be quite fun. I met some wonderful people at this show. There was a couple that had a booth next to me and they were screen printers. They were helping a local artist promote his art on t-shirts and painted rocks and they had plans for pillowcases. I was of course touched by the story of this artist. He is a young guy that happened to be painting a street mural and a young boy was watching him and became fascinated by a rock he had painted. The little boy couldn't stop rubbing on the rock and was almost obsessed by it. The artist found out this young boy had Autism and since then he has been making art for autistic kids. This is where the awesome pillow case idea comes in. They are going to put textures with the art work on pillowcases. I Love the whole idea! My son was diagnosed with Aspbergers when he was 10 and at one point carried around a squishy ball in his pocket to help calm himself. Those rocks would have been awesome when he was younger. I will post some links and information on this artist when I find out more. 

My weekend started out great, but quickly took a turn for the worst. Sunday the girls and I were running fevers and I didn't have any Motrin in the house. I drove to my in-laws around 11:30pm to borrow some medicine from them. On the way there I hit a calf...no joke. My son and I are fine, but man my car is totaled. I still can't believe it! I'm not sure what the total damage will be, but life without a car for awhile should be challenging. 

I don't want to bore you with all my life drama, but this just stinks.

On a happy note it is Veterans Day and also my daughter Rachaels birthday. We are celebrating with a meal of her choice, meatloaf, baked potatoes, salad, and grilled shrimp. It sounds like an odd mix to me...we will see how it turns out. She is singing in a school program today, so I better get going and watch that kid do what she loves. 

Here are a few pictures of some more finished pieces 

Paper mache santa

paper mache elf

                                                                       paper clay snowmen

Frosty days and a few paper clay snowmen

There is something so wonderful about starting the day with a project list in hand. Today, after I took my kiddos to school, I grabbed my breakfast and list and headed to the studio. I entered my studio and was welcomed by the smells of hot glue, solder, and paint, and the sight of fabric scraps and glitter that dusted my floors. I sat down to my emails and thought about how much I have to get done in the next 3 days and my heart was filled with how blessed I am, that right now, I get to do what I love. I opened up my blinds to the sun shining and a dusting of snow on the ground. It was the perfect way to start today. All these snowmen were lined up on my desk waiting for their final coat of sealing and I just had to snap a few pictures, before they get packed up for this weekends show. Hope you enjoy! I better stay on task and get back to work. Happy Wednesday!

Rhonda

Knee hugger elf and some gnomes

I love Saturdays in the fall. Why, you say?  Well, in Nebraska, Saturdays are all about the Huskers and that means my family goes to watch the game with their grandpa. Leaving me alone for most of the day. I love my family, but I also love alone time. Today I spent the afternoon in a junk store not far from my house. I found most of my treasures in the Christmas room...Yes, this place has rooms. I can easily get lost all day looking through stuff. I am not ashamed to say that yesterday I actually listened to some Christmas music on Pandora and it probably sparked some early Holiday excitement. Photos below are of some of my favorite finds....

Knee Hugger Elf

The wood trees are a little beat up, but these gnomes are so adorable 

Tiny little wood gnomes

Happy weekend to you all
Rhonda

Halloween and Elves

I spent Halloween with the kindergartners, painting, giggling, eating treats, and I even got to walk in the school parade of costumes. Christyn's class was wonderful! I enjoyed every minute hanging out with these sweet little ones. It made my day when a little boy came up to me at the end of school and said "You have the coolest station!". I was in charge of crafts (why wouldn't I be) and we made paintings with our hands and feet and decoupaged pumpkin lanterns. Lots of laughter going on as I painted little tootsies. The day was a nice break from my everyday projects. 

Later that evening we headed to my mom's and got some take out pizza ( I think half the town was at Little Caesars last night) and went trick-or-treating around her place. We got about 3 blocks in and my kids were done and so was Grandma. So, Halloween is over and all my little ones can talk about is how many more days till Christmas. I think they are ready for a school break.

Working like crazy trying to get things ready for my last show of the year. Made this happy little elf about a month ago. I have been so busy with photo shoots I have had little time for creating. Yes, panic is starting to set in. I have one week and not as much done as I would have liked. I think no matter how much I have done I am always good at stressing over all the little things. You would think the more shows I do the easier this would get.....no such luck. I sure I will get better at a routine of some sorts, or at least I am going to give it a hard try next year.

                           

The 7 elves below were a special order, but thought I would post some pics of what I have been up to lately.

Rhonda

Saying a Fond Farewell to Summer

SORRY in advance... this post contains loads of pictures

Finally getting around to packing up our 4th of July decor. This summer whizzed right by and I am surely not ready for it to be over. Tomorrow, I will be pulling my hair out trying to get 4 kids school shopping done in one day. I usually spend a day with each of them, but that is so not happening this year. I figured, why not get this torture over with in one day? I know what you are thinking....I must be crazy? Rest assured if you don't hear from me ever again I am just residing in the local insane asylum. I mostly brought this on myself by not being better prepared. I think I am still in shock that I have less than 2 weeks until school starts. There is so much yet to get done....2 kids need physicals, I haven't enrolled the little one in Kindergarten yet, and I need to order a birth certificate. Yep, I really procrastinated this time....so not like me. Definitely in denial that summer is coming to an end. I think there are deeper issues in my brain related to this whole going back to school thing. My youngest will now be in school all day and I am going back to work outside of the house. I have been at home with my kiddos for 12yrs. My husband seems to think I can just get back out there and get myself a what he sometimes refers to as a "REAL JOB". I have most definitely been blessed with talents that have allowed me to make some monthly income. I still have orders for this year, another show, and quite a few photo shoots on the books, so it might be quite the juggling act for the next few months. 

    

So I will be exchanging the above party for some peace and quiet.

Here is a peek into our summer smash book. This is the first smash book I have ever made and it is still a work in progress. I am surprised at how fast this went together, much quicker than a traditional scrapbook and I loved working in this smaller size. I will be sure and post the rest when they get finished. As always, thanks for stopping by
Rhonda

Spring Lilacs

                                                                   Fresh Lilacs


Spring has finally arrived to this part of the country and I am beyond excited about it. I love the hot days and late nights. The kids are out of school and ready for summer. The two youngest ask me daily if it is time to fill the pool. It isn't quite warm enough for that, but maybe, in a few weeks. We are looking forward to spending some time in Omaha, Denver, and Kansas City this summer. It will be nice to get out of here for a while and enjoy some other scenes.
Rachael signed up for T-ball this year and that gets us out of the house Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  Liz has been at Volleyball camp this week and picked up a summer job, babysitting for the neighbors. Brandon is working hard to save up money for his mission in 3 years. He has been working cows for a few local ranchers. And my little Christyn is busy getting dirty, playing outside all hours of the day, and refusing to ever brush her hair. I have been on a bit of a break from the crafting, until this week. My house needed some attention the last few weeks. I did start a summer smash book a few weeks back and have been putting some of our Instagram pics in there. I'm planning on finishing up the gardening this week and then I'm ready to enjoy this Memorial Day weekend. Hope it is a long weekend, because after Monday it is back to work I go.
My oldest daughter and I have been working really hard to loose weight and doing some walking everyday. Going to get in three miles today, so I better get going before it gets dark.
Hope all of you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Rhonda

                   
                                                     Robin nest outside our living room window.
                                     My oldest daughter has named them all after her and her siblings.

Blizznado

The weather here has been the worst. Monday night around 11pm we had the tornado sirens sounding and some serious hail. I read on a facebook post they were calling it a Blizznado. Tuesday the kids got out of school early and today we have a snow day. The weather has just been plain crazy in these parts.  Just last weekend we were experiencing 80 degree weather....can someone please send it back? I am so sick of snow and ice! I really wanted to take my kids out to do a photo shoot for Mother's Day gifts, but I guess that is going to have to wait. My little monkey let me get a few pics of her on Easter break and they turned out pretty good. I got all excited about getting all my kids in one picture...it has been a while. I am always missing a teenager. 

This Saturday is my first spring show and so, I feel sorta like a basketcase around here. I have 3 more pieces I am trying to finish up before Friday and then I am taking a few days off next week for my kids' track meets. I hope the weather gets nicer by then. I really need to get back to work just wanted to post a few more pieces I finished this week. 

Be back soon! 

Rhonda