CraftyHope

Growing in My Garden

I'm still working on those WIPs from yesterday, but wanted to share a happy from last week.
While the girls (our nieces) we staying with us, they helped me get some planting done. I'm so happy to have my little front porch garden all set up. (Yes, these are all on the front porch)

I let the girls each pick out a flower for this planter.

I think this is the bell pepper.

There's my basil and parsley in the front and my strawberries in the back.

Lastly are the tomatoes (back) and jalapenos (I think).

I'm really hoping these do better than my succulents that currently look pretty sad.

Yes, I'm killing succulents. sigh.

There is one plant I know is doing great in my windowsill.

It's a solar powered Daisy from my mom (I actually did kill the first one when I dropped and broke it :( )

Isn't that such a happy flower!? Love it!

New in the shop

Twist of Fate Bracelet

I totally think that bracelet has a young vibe to it. What do you think?
And, do you have any EASY tips on keeping plants alive?

BTW: Lots of WIPs

My bead table is spilling over with works-in-progress (WIPs), but I just can't seem to get anything completed. Don't you just hate when that happens?

So much to do, my buttons are laying there just mocking me.

I've got lots of blue beads for the One Crayon Color Challenge from Sally at The Studio Sublime.

As well, these luscious silk ribbons came in from DesignTalentedOne and are calling to me to be used.

Now, if I could just knock out a few designs. . . wishful thinking perhaps!

There's more Bead Table Wednesday where that came from over in the BTW Flickr Group.

"What's New in the shop?" you ask. . .

Honey Bee Necklace

Roam Freely Earrings - re-listed

Time to hit that overflowing table and see what I can knock out!! What are you producing today?

Button, Button, I've Got the Buttons

You may recall me mentioning the Button Swap hosted by Cindy of Sweet Bead Studio a few weeks back. Well, it wasn't long after partners were assigned that I received my buttons from Brenda Salzano. I wanted to make sure I showed off my snazzy buttons before I dive too far into creating with them. So check out what Brenda sent me!


Here are all the buttons Brenda sent me. . .yes, go ahead with your oooohhhhs and aaaahhhhhs

This one was handmade by Brenda

The outer buttons are some awesome vintage ones she sent me and the middle one is another one she made (it's wood!)

Check out the adorable sticker she has for her packaging!

I know Brenda has received her buttons from me, but I'll wait a little bit to give her time for that reveal if she wants before I show what I sent. However, I can't resist showing you what I sent them IN.


It's a button PUZZLE!!

Lastly, it's time for "What's new in the shop."

Dark Leaves Necklace

Are you participating in the button swap? What kind of buttons did you receive; vintage, handmade, special?? What kind of buttons would you have LIKED to receive? Are you getting worried that you haven't gotten your buttons yet? I could talk buttons for ages ;) Am I pushing your buttons. . .alright, I'll stop.
Later gators!

Monday Menu and Madness

I'm constantly amazed by how much more I can get done in the mornings when I actually wake up with/before my alarm clock!

Anyway. . .we had a busy weekend with friends celebrating 40th birthdays (it was a friend's and Pat's coming up in a few weeks.) There was lots of beer drinking and eating of these

I think I've FINALLY got all the crawfish juices out from under my nails!

Now it's time to share what meals I have planned for this week

Breakfasts: Banana bread, french toast, peanut butter toast, cereal/oatmeal/grits, hashbrown baskets, cheese omelets, waffleized monte cristo

Lunches: Chicken bacon ranch paninis, leftovers, soup w/grilled cheese, turkey sandwiches, tuna noodles, pepperoni pizza puffs, bean burritos

Dinners:

Easy pork chops with gravy (crockpot) w/field peas, rice, & salad

Chicken and rice broccoli bowl

Shrimp Pad Thai

Crockpot beef stew

I think I might be a bit ambitious with all the new recipes, but they all sounded so darn good!!
There's more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

While I was at the grocery store this morning shopping for all the goodies to make these dishes, I apparently got featured in this very pretty treasury!

I did get a new item in the shop today as well.

Champagne Dreams Necklace

It's almost time to get started on those awesome sounding paninis and put the pork chops in the crockpot. Then, it's a few chores and some work on the Button Swap and the Crayon Box Challenge. So much to do!! What's up your sleeve this Monday?

Spring Break 2012 (I get to do it twice!)

The girls have really kept me busy, but I've still got a day and a half to try to keep THEM busy. Here's just a sampling of what went down yesterday. (Via Instagram)


There was a trip to the beach in the morning

Tree climbing in the afternoon


Playing with thrifted toys in the evening

In addition, we did some shopping, baked cookies, made dinner, cleaned up, played video games, picked blackberries, and even squeezed in some crafting. I'm hoping I have more ideas for today! Eek!!

Oh, have you seen the awesome giveaway Lori is having over at Pretty Things? You really oughta go see how you can enter to win these!

Also, I re-listed this fun bracelet the other day.


Mechanical Breeze Bracelet

I've got the girls currently engaged in a little Lego Harry Potter on the Wii so I've got some time to rest while we wait for the day to warm up. If you've got any activity ideas, I'm all ears!

Menu and Suor Angelica JUNK Necklace

Let's make this a quickie okay?
Really, I guess that's completely up to me.
Ok. . .here goes.

It's Monday, so it's time for another Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts: Cereal/oatmeal, breakfast burritos, whole wheat waffles, hashbrown baskets, muffins

Lunches: Pizza quesidillas, tuna noodles, pizza (from freezer), lefrtovers, ham sandwiches, soup w/grilled cheese, chicken salad

Dinners:

Gouda stovetop mac-n-cheese w/mixed veggies & salad

Taco stuffed shells w/salad

Grilled chicken w/corn on the cob & crispy smashed potatoes

Crunchy garlic chicken w/green beans & yellow rice

Head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plan Monday.

I added another JUNK necklace to the shop. This one is to benefit Melanie's Suor Angelica fundraising.

Suor Angelica JUNK Necklace

I've got lots on my plate today and the nieces will be spending their spring break with us for the last half of the week. Soooo. . .we'll see if I'm back any this week or not. If not, I hope you understand. Thanks!

Finally Friday

I'm not just saying that because I get to head out of town to go play with one of my best friends tonight (woot!), but also because Shannon over at For My Sweet Daughter is doing this thing called "Finally Friday". Basically, she's sharing a Design Seeds palette and giving everyone a week to make something inspired by it. I've spent most of my week in front of the computer (catching up) and have been itching to create something. Shannon's 'challenge' seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of my funk and stretch my crafty wings a bit.
Here's the palette she shared.

Boating Tones from Design Seeds

I looked over the Boating Tones palette for this week and pulled together beads that seemed as close as I could get them to the colors on-screen.

The colors looked like a dark grey, light grey, light pink, dark pink, and a violet on my iPad. Here though. . .they look like shades of blue and purple. Hmmmmm. Oh well. Here's the necklace I created in any case. I'm pretty pleased with it.

The shell beads had both of the greys as well as some of the lighter pink and violet. I just needed a pop of what I thought was the darker pink. But then I wasn't quite happy. . .I needed more color. Therefore, the purple beads got added to the mix.

I played around with design ideas for a little while before settling on the layers. I liked how the layers almost looked like the water and the boat. They keyhole is just for fun since it was laying on my desk with no other purpose. It works.

Now, jump over to For My Sweet Daughter to see what Shannon created and who else played along.

Whirlwind of a Wednesday (BTW)

It seems like every time I check in here on the ol' blog I find more and more I want to say. Let's just start with it being Bead Table Wednesday. I'm finally getting stuff unpacked from the beach trip and haven't gotten to do ANY crafting since we made it home. So, the works-in-progress department is pretty weak. Anyway, here's what IS on my craft desk currently.

These are just some of the odds and ends that have been sitting on my desk waiting for the right inspiration to strike. I've got them numbered so you'll know what I've got here. 1. Some of the pieces from the grab bag I got from CapturedMoments. 2. A pair of earrings in progress made from some copper washers. 3. My single leftover bead from Sally's Colors of Spring Blog Hop. 4. The two bead tangles I made for my tutorial. 5. A keyhole from the Tim Holtz line of products.


These went with me on vacation but didn't get used. I have a project in mind for them. It's some resin-ed paper, a decorative paper punch, and a small hole punch.

These 'homeless' beads were unpacked and are just sitting in that container on the craft desk

There's more Bead Table Wednesday in the Flickr Group.

I'm dying to get some crafting in this week. For inspiration, I'm considering using Shannon at For My Sweet Daughter's Design Seeds color palette from her "Finally Friday" prompt.

Design Seeds

Those colors are pretty yummy!

Oh, I was featured in a treasury today!

There's a new item and a re-listed one in the shop (at long last)!!

Wet Grass Bracelet

Live What You Love Necklace

Lastly, I made these Pesto Chicken Paninis for lunch today and they were so very good and EASY. I just used my foreman grill on them, nothing special required.

Via Instagram

That about sums up my Wednesday. How's yours going?

March Goal Review

Since March has some to a close, it's about that time that I quickly review my goals for the year. Again, I'm using some of my instagram photos from the month throughout this post. If you're interested in my January or February goal reviews, just click over to those links.

PERSONAL

Exercise We really did do quite a bit this month, lots of walks with some bike rides. And, while I was on vacation last week I kayaked and/or rode a bike EVERY DAY. Now, to keep the momentum going.
Eat right/better This was okay. We ate out or with friends more than I had planned. And, I had some moments of weakness with Easter candy (thank goodness it's on Sunday and all that stuff will be disappearing!)
Read more books/watch less TV I did pretty good on this goal. As far as books, I finished reading ALL of the Walking Dead Stuff including The Rise of the Governor and am still working on Inheritance. My tv watching has been limited as well. Yay.
Make a real effort to keep the house clean Ehhhh, it was clean enough. We didn't live in filth, but there were days that I just wasn't feeling it. I will try not to make a habit of this!
Discover new music Thanks to Erin's Challenge of Music blog hop this month, I was exposed to some music I've never heard before. Unfortunately, my speakers weren't completely cooperative during this hop. As such, the only real new music that I explored this month was Erin's pick of Sara Bareilles. I'll keep chugging away on this one though.
Grow some plants inside and out You would think that with it being Spring, we would have taken some action on this one by now. However, the most we've done for getting some plants is TALK about what veggies/herbs we want. Le sigh.
Make my visions of my dream house and this house co-exist Like above, we've TALKED about the changes we want to make around the house, but not much more than that. However, as I'm writing this Pat is measuring the floors in the house to figure out how much new flooring would cost!! Maybe we'll make a move in that direction soon.
Declutter/organize at least one drawer/cabinet/area a week I did get two drawers in my desk de-cluttered, but that's not really much to boast about.
Have a yard sale Again, we've done nothing but discussed this goal.
Take better care of my face and skin I promised last month that I would do better on this. Yet, I only slightly improved. I think I only had one break-out, but still that's more than any person my age should be having. Will strive harder.
Go to the doctor/dentist NOPE

BUSINESS/CRAFT

Make a real effort with my blog I think I did pretty good with this, I even got a couple of blog posts out while I was on vacation (as crazy as they were).
Include more tutorials on the blog One tutorial would be MORE! My Hunger Games Necklace tutorial was short and sweet, but a tutorial in any case. Yet, I didn't let myself count one as more last month, so I guess I can't do it this month either (darn).
Keep the craft room more organized I did do SOME organizing in the craft room over the month, but I'm not feeling good about it yet.
Discover my passion I recognize that I enjoy re-purposing items, using found items, and working with wire but I don't think I've found my PASSION yet.
Get published Geez. . .this is bad. I did nothing for this goal this month. Nothing.
Create something everyday While I haven't gotten something made EVERY day, I have made more of an effort to keep supplies with me that would help me work on something. Better, for sure.
Explore other venue options for selling my jewelry This is a tough one for me. I have begun thinking about craft fairs and what I would like my display to look like, but that's all conceptual and no steps have really been taken yet.
Find a way to use what I have instead of buying more. I need less more in my life! This goal was a total balancing act all month. While I did find ways to re-use what I have, I did splurge a bit getting items for the Suor Angelica fundraising. As well, I bought some items online when the sales were good!

GENERAL

Figure out where my time is wasted and put an end to it I recognize I waste quite a bit of time playing games on my phone or iPad. Draw Something has become my latest obsession and I spend entirely TOO MUCH time on it. However, since I recognize this, it is a first step to squashing that wasted time.
Find some confidence and exert it I did okay with this. I'm pretty proud of myself for submitting my Hunger Games Necklace tutorial to a few sites, but that's not exactly what I had in mind. Needs work.
Think outside of the box I think I did pretty good on this, mind you. . not great. I used some leftover craft supplies to make some earrings and made the Hunger Games necklace (yes, that again) on the spur of the moment. These are definitely a move in the right direction.
Be Grateful I recognized my need to be grateful all month, but really just forgot to express it. Sometimes it's hard to put that much emotion into words.

Again, I'm seeing an improvement. I'm not sure if I'm just too lenient on myself or if it's really there. I know that I'm trying to be more conscious of these goals daily. In fact, I'm trying to keep up with them so much that I created a spreadsheet. It's definitely helping me remember some of the details as well as all of the goals.

I know this was boring, I apologize. I just need to keep myself accountable and these monthly goal reviews really are helping. Thank you for your patience!

Breaking out the Bullet Post and a Meal Plan

I'm sure y'all are plenty tired of pictures from my vacation. Here's just one more (for now) of what my view was most days there.

Ahhhhhh!

After a week of Spring Breaking it, I've got tons to catch back up on online, business-related, and around the house. There's all kinds of tidbits to share so this will be a bit of a scattered post. (Caution, lots of exclamation points ahead.)

~ First a funny. Pat put the location of the house we rented for the week in the GPS as "Spring Break 2012." So when we arrived there she said, "Now arriving at your destination; Spring Break 2012." It was awesome! (I'm easily amused.)
~ Before leaving for the week, I submitted my Hunger Games Necklace post to a few sites and the kind jewelry editor over at Craft Gossip actually featured it as Jewelry Inspired by The Hunger Games!! Woot!

~ While at the beach, I had some time to catch up on my blog reading (somewhat) and discovered that I had won the Art Bead Scene weekly giveaway of some Gaea beads. Hurray!
~ Jenna over at Honey Bijou named me as one of her March 2012 Hive Five. I'm on the list with some pretty impressive individuals and am blown away by this honor! Thanks so much Jenna!!

~ The Button Swap partner list has been announced and my partner is none other than the amazing Brenda Salzano of the Salzanos blog and Salzanos Etsy shop. Now to figure out what to send an awesome artist that she doesn't already have! Any ideas?
~ GIVEAWAY ALERT!! Davinia at Deez News is giving away some of the beads she picked up on her recent trip to Bali. Entering is as simple as leaving a comment on her blog!

~ Even though we're all still recovering from Sally's Colors of Spring Blog Hop, she's already announced another one; The One Color Crayon Challenge. She's only accepting 60 participants in this blog hop and sign ups are open until the 5th. Hop on board!

~ To top it all off, today's Menu Plan Monday! Here's my plan.

Breakfasts: Cereal/oatmeal, breakfast burritos, whole wheat waffles, peanut butter toast, potato bacon casserole

Lunches: ham sandwiches, pizza (from freezer), pesto chicken panini, pizza quesidillas, leftovers, soup w/grilled cheese

Dinners:

Chicken Marsala w/broccoli & pasta

Turkey cutlets w/mushroom rice & mashed sweet potatoes

Shrimp and rice pea bowl

Gouda stovetop mac-n-cheese w/mixed veggies

As always, there's more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

~Before leaving on vacation, I failed to mention these new earrings in the shop.

Beach Weather Earrings

~ I recognize another month has come and gone. I'm hoping to organize a monthly goals roundup post in the next little while (that could be hours or days, we'll see!) so stay tuned for that excitement! ;)

Sorry to be all bullets, but I've got a ton of unpacking to do and you should smell these dirty clothes after being damp all week (the beach will ensure you stay damp all week, we're not nasty or anything.) So, I'm off for now. Here's hoping you are enjoying your Monday!