Well, here we are at the last post for 2012. I want to thank everyone for all the love and support of my site. When I started my blog in February, I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if anyone else cared about what I wrote, or created, or shared. I had a goal of posting an average of one a week, or 52 posts for the year. It wasn't easy, let me tell you!
My intention for the blog was sharing all my crafting creations. Reality set in when I found out how much time it took uploading pictures, writing the post, checking out other blogs to share with, sharing to those blogs, commenting, commenting, and more commenting. And all this with slow, crawling dialup. All this adds up to no time for crafting, and nothing made to post about. This is the reason why I included blog hops, giveaways, etc.
Even so, I was able to keep my original goal of 52 posts (including this one). Let me share with you what my blog statistics show up to now:
52 Posts - 1 per week average
394 Comments - half are my replies of course
115 Followers - 11 bloglovin, 17 linky, 87 GFC
2 Awards - token I know, but I'm still proud of them
1 Featured - thanks to Marigold's Loft
6493 Pageviews - all time history tracking
2975 Pageviews - tracking posted on main page since install around June
805 Highest Month Pageviews - November (Update: December had 1060, woo-hoo)
The top referring site was SimpleandSane.com with 368 pageviews, and Organize365.net comes in second with 239. Thanks guys. You rock!
My Lotus Flower post received the most pageviews at 205.
So there you have it. It's way past my expectations. I still have a lot to learn about blogging, but with these figures, I feel I'm off to a good start.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to include me and my blog in your life. It means the world to me.
Everyone have a wonderful and fulfilling 2013!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas!
I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Times are tough, money is tight but it's gonna be a wonderful new year. I just know it. I'm going to put on a smile every morning (if you only knew how tough that is for not-a-morning-person me), and make sure it's still there when I go to bed at night!
It's all in the attitude, people. You think happy, you are happy. It's all up to you. You may not can change your situation, but you can change your thoughts. And others will see it and react likewise.
Why not try it from this point forward? You've nothing to lose.
Well, bless my little heart, I think I finally got the Christmas spirit. Can you tell?
Times are tough, money is tight but it's gonna be a wonderful new year. I just know it. I'm going to put on a smile every morning (if you only knew how tough that is for not-a-morning-person me), and make sure it's still there when I go to bed at night!
It's all in the attitude, people. You think happy, you are happy. It's all up to you. You may not can change your situation, but you can change your thoughts. And others will see it and react likewise.
Why not try it from this point forward? You've nothing to lose.
Well, bless my little heart, I think I finally got the Christmas spirit. Can you tell?
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Snowflake
I have a snowflake for you to see.
I know the picture is a bit blurred, but this is the best I could get it to take. (Hint to Santa: I need a new camera. Pleasssee.)
I got the pattern off the internet. This started as 6 square pieces of paper. You cut slits in them and curl half around to the front, and half to the back. Has anybody tried this? As you can see, my curls would not stay together no matter how many times I redid them.
I'm gonna try a couple more to see if I can do any better. If not, I won't be making these. I just thought they would be pretty hanging from the ceiling as decorations.
Anyone have any suggestions or tips to help me on the next ones? I would love to hear them.
I know the picture is a bit blurred, but this is the best I could get it to take. (Hint to Santa: I need a new camera. Pleasssee.)
I got the pattern off the internet. This started as 6 square pieces of paper. You cut slits in them and curl half around to the front, and half to the back. Has anybody tried this? As you can see, my curls would not stay together no matter how many times I redid them.
I'm gonna try a couple more to see if I can do any better. If not, I won't be making these. I just thought they would be pretty hanging from the ceiling as decorations.
Anyone have any suggestions or tips to help me on the next ones? I would love to hear them.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
A Christmas Village Collection
How many of you have a Christmas village collection? Sorry to say, I don't. I just don't have the budget for one, even if I were to buy a piece at a time. I do enjoy seeing them on display though.
Have you seen the handmade houses at A Creative Dream? Yes, I said Handmade!!! Take a look at these?
Aren't they darling? Look at that first one, the yellow and red one. Guess what? I just won it! I think it is so cute. I know it's not traditional colors or style, but I'm not very traditional anyway. As you can see from the picture, it can also be used as an ornament. I don't think so! This is my first Christmas village piece, and that's how it's gonna be used. It even has a hole in the back to insert a light.
So, I can now say I have started my Christmas village collection! And since it started as handmade, guess I'll have to figure out what I can make to add to it. Stay tuned....you know me, I'll think of something.
Have you seen the handmade houses at A Creative Dream? Yes, I said Handmade!!! Take a look at these?
Aren't they darling? Look at that first one, the yellow and red one. Guess what? I just won it! I think it is so cute. I know it's not traditional colors or style, but I'm not very traditional anyway. As you can see from the picture, it can also be used as an ornament. I don't think so! This is my first Christmas village piece, and that's how it's gonna be used. It even has a hole in the back to insert a light.
So, I can now say I have started my Christmas village collection! And since it started as handmade, guess I'll have to figure out what I can make to add to it. Stay tuned....you know me, I'll think of something.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Aloha Friday
Hello all! Today I am visiting over at What Jean Likes for her Aloha Friday Blog Hop.
I know I'm a few days later than Friday, but better late than never, right? You still have a couple more days to link up if you're interested. Take the time to check it out. Jean's blog is worth following.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tis The Season Blogaholic Community Blog Hop
Welcome to this month's community blog hop: "Tis The Season"
Here is how it will work:
The one and only rule: You must be a member of BSN. If you are not a member you can join here for free.
Once you add your blog- stop by a few other blogs on the list to follow and leave a comment, let them know you are stopping by from BSN so they know you are a new friend and can connect with you on the community as well!
Feel free to Tweet about the linkup, post it on Facebook, or even grab the code for your blog (the code is located below the linky list) a great way to fill up a post for a day ;) If you add it to your blog please copy the full post so others know the rules.
If you don't want to grab the full post and linky code feel free to grab a blog hop badge!
The blog hop will be open until 12/27/12
Happy Holidays!
Here is how it will work:
The one and only rule: You must be a member of BSN. If you are not a member you can join here for free.
Link up a post that is based around this time of year: Christmas, Hannukah, winter activities, decoration ideas, posts about traditions, Holiday recipes, Winter photos, Winter bucket list, Holiday cards and crafts, etc......anything Winter or Holiday themed!
Once you add your blog- stop by a few other blogs on the list to follow and leave a comment, let them know you are stopping by from BSN so they know you are a new friend and can connect with you on the community as well!
Feel free to Tweet about the linkup, post it on Facebook, or even grab the code for your blog (the code is located below the linky list) a great way to fill up a post for a day ;) If you add it to your blog please copy the full post so others know the rules.
If you don't want to grab the full post and linky code feel free to grab a blog hop badge!
The blog hop will be open until 12/27/12
Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Lin Handmade Greetings Card Giveaway
One of the blogs I follow is Lin Handmade Greetings Card. Here is a giveaway that she is hosting this month.
It's an embosser (as if I had to tell you that). Wouldn't you love to win this? I know I would. I'm sure gonna try!
If you're interested in the giveaway, go here to enter. You have until December 31 to enter. Of course this is assuming the world doesn't end on the 21st. :) Why take the chance? Enter today!
It's an embosser (as if I had to tell you that). Wouldn't you love to win this? I know I would. I'm sure gonna try!
If you're interested in the giveaway, go here to enter. You have until December 31 to enter. Of course this is assuming the world doesn't end on the 21st. :) Why take the chance? Enter today!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Recycled Star Ornament with Quilling
Do you make your own ornaments? I used to many years ago. I thought I would give it another try. Here is the result.
Whadda ya think? It's actually prettier than the picture shows. It kinda looks flat here. It's not though. It is very fluffed out.
The felt pieces are square alcohol pads. Don't worry, they were just used to sanitize with, then washed out. They make very good felt pieces, and sooo much easier than cutting small squares.
The quilled flower is from school papers ready for the trash. If you will remember, I also used this for my Recycled Winter Plaque.
The hanging thread is tie from a mailed package I had received.
This was fun and not hard at all.
What have you made lately?
The felt pieces are square alcohol pads. Don't worry, they were just used to sanitize with, then washed out. They make very good felt pieces, and sooo much easier than cutting small squares.
The quilled flower is from school papers ready for the trash. If you will remember, I also used this for my Recycled Winter Plaque.
The hanging thread is tie from a mailed package I had received.
This was fun and not hard at all.
What have you made lately?
Monday, November 26, 2012
Do you Listia?
Have you visited Listia.com yet? You can find it at https://www.listia.com/signup/1914318. In case you've never heard of it, it's an auction site, but it's a little different than other auction sites. There's no money involved. Yes, you heard me right. No money. Let me explain.
Turn stuff you don’t use into stuff you really want!
1) List Old Stuff
Give away stuff you don't use anymore like clothes, electronics, DVDs, toys, books... anything!
2) Earn Credits
People bid on your stuff using credits they've earned. The highest bid wins.
3) Get New Stuff
Use credits you've earned for giving stuff away and win something you want!
Everything is won with credits. How do you get credits you ask? Well it starts with your signup. You automatically get 500 credits you can use to bid on items you're interested in. You then get another 500 credits when you list your first item for auction. You can also get 500 credits for each friend that signs up from your invite (after their first listing). There are more ways to earn credits but that's the basic.
I have only been signed up since late September and have won 6 different times. Yay me. I've only listed one item, and don't bid often, so this shows how far the credits can go. I still have over 300 credits to bid with. I will say that I won 2 other items but never received them. That's still no problem (except that I really wanted them) because you can easily get your credits back if the item is not received. Listia's customer service has been excellent for me as far as that goes. I am very satisfied with them. They really have made it easy.
If you're interested in joining, go to https://www.listia.com/signup/1914318. That is my referral url. You can get more information there. Look around, check out some of the auctions going on, and see if it's something worthwhile to you. You won't regret it.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Frosty Festivities Blog Hop
Hello and welcome to all you newbies visiting from the Frosty Festivities Blog Hop. I hope you'll enjoy my site enough to hang around a little while and explore. For my regular followers, this is the blog hop that I posted about here.
If you are following the hop, then you should have landed here from Jo's site, Curly Scrapbooker. Be sure to comment on each blog in the hop beginning and ending with Jennifers Jumbles. If you do, and you let Jennifer know, then you will be in the drawing to win a spectacular seasonal prize of Basic Grey Aspen Frost and Carta Bella Winter Fun items, worth over £25!
All entries must be received by Monday the 19th of November at 10:59pm GMT. Your next stop along the hop is www.journalofcuriousthings.co.uk.
In keeping with the Winter theme, I have a neat project that I made using recycled materials.
I know it's hard to read but I couldn't get close enough and still include everything. It says "Winter, A season of 4 letter words, snow, coat, sled, cold, soup".
How cool is that!
Well, I thought it was cool.
I decided on the light blue color because it reminded me of winter, and snow, and cold.
Here is a close up of the top.
The chain and flowers are made with paper quilling. This is my first try at that.
Not too bad if I say so myself!
These are the materials and supplies that I used.
Cereal box cardboard
Kids school papers (ready for the trash)
Junk mail
Paper cutter
Hole punch
Glue
Everything laid out, glued together, holes punched, and waiting for the quilling to be finished.
The wording still needs to be cut out and put on the other side of the blue oval.
Quilling finished and waiting for final construction.
What do you think? Should I leave the pink on or not?
I hope you enjoyed my project. It was a lot of fun creating it. I will definitely be doing more quilling.
Below is a list of all the blogs in the hop in the correct order, just in case you need it. Again, the next blog to hop to after me is www.journalofcuriousthings.co.uk.
Jennifer: www.jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com
Daphne: www.dapfniedesign.wordpress.com
Kirsty: www.journalofcuriousthings.co.uk
Lisa-Jane: www.comeinsidemycrazyhead.blogspot.co.uk
Lizzie: www.lizziemade.blogspot.co.uk
Louise: www.scrapbook-me.blogspot.co.uk
Jennifer: www.jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Where's the turkey?
Have you ever had to disguise a turkey? Me neither. Until now.
My 8 year old grandson's homework was to take a drawing of a turkey, cut it out, and disguise it so that it fits in with your family and won't be killed and eaten.
Do what??? Where do these teachers get these ideas from? I don't know.
So, out come the Better Homes and Gardens magazines. Good thing I can't throw anything away:) It took going through every magazine I owned to find ideas and scraps for the project. Actually, Mason enjoyed it too much. I steady heard, Hey Grann, we can use these feet, or these socks, or this cat with his legs crossed like he's gotta go pee. But I can't use this naked lady (the longerie model) cause the teacher will get mad.
Here is what we ended up with.
Can you see the turkey?
He has a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a football necklace.
He has 2 mismatched socks, 2 mismatched boots, and a purse big enough to be a suitcase.
But he doesn't look like a turkey anymore!
I thought it turned out pretty good. Mason is proud of it too.
Mason decided to call him Aunt Connie. That would be my sister who is coming to visit for Thanksgiving. I wonder what she'll think about that!
I'll say it again. Have you ever had to disguise a turkey? And if so, how did you do it? I would sure like to hear about it.
Have a great day.
My 8 year old grandson's homework was to take a drawing of a turkey, cut it out, and disguise it so that it fits in with your family and won't be killed and eaten.
Do what??? Where do these teachers get these ideas from? I don't know.
So, out come the Better Homes and Gardens magazines. Good thing I can't throw anything away:) It took going through every magazine I owned to find ideas and scraps for the project. Actually, Mason enjoyed it too much. I steady heard, Hey Grann, we can use these feet, or these socks, or this cat with his legs crossed like he's gotta go pee. But I can't use this naked lady (the longerie model) cause the teacher will get mad.
Here is what we ended up with.
Can you see the turkey? He has a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a football necklace.
He has 2 mismatched socks, 2 mismatched boots, and a purse big enough to be a suitcase.
But he doesn't look like a turkey anymore!
I thought it turned out pretty good. Mason is proud of it too.
Mason decided to call him Aunt Connie. That would be my sister who is coming to visit for Thanksgiving. I wonder what she'll think about that!
I'll say it again. Have you ever had to disguise a turkey? And if so, how did you do it? I would sure like to hear about it.
Have a great day.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Frosty Festivities Weekend
Hello all! Are you familiar with Jennifers Jumbles? I found her site back in June when she was having an Organisation Celebration Blog Hop. It lasted a full weekend with posts every hour. I had so much fun following it and linking to the hop. Well, it's time to do it again! This time the theme is winter.
On Friday, November 16th through Sunday, November 18th, Jennifer will host a Blog Event called Frosty Festivities. Over that weekend there will be posts every hour from 4 pm to 10 pm Friday, and 10 am to 10 pm Saturday and Sunday (GMT), all on the theme of Winter, including tips, tutorials, challenges, crafts, a blog hop, and lots of giveaways. The photo above shows some of the projects and prizes. Also, this time around, there will be a Frosty Festivities' forum and even a downloadable PDF file of the projects.
Go to http://jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com to read more about this fun weekend. Jen also has a giveaway going on right now that you can enter.
Hope to see you there.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wash Day
Doing the wash is a hassle, don't you think? I mean, all the washing, and drying, and folding, and then putting up. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
There's one part though, that I don't mind doing, and that's the drying! I don't mean the appliance dryer either.
I mean the clothesline, baby!!!
Assuming the weather is cooperating.
You can tell by the pictures that I am so OCD about hanging them.
Jeans, sleep loungers, then shorts, then shirts, then socks. (Doesn't everyone do it this way?)
WARNING: The following pictures may be offensive to some viewers.
Normally I don't air my dirty laundry, but I'm proving a point. Besides, it's not dirty, it's clean.
(Pun intended)
Second line: rest of shirts, t-shirts, boxers, wrags (that's southern for rags!).
Justa blowin in tha breeze.
Boy, I hope my son never sees this. (Sorry K)
Socks all there and in order. I'm happy.
So far, all these pictures have showed you my former clothesline. It was strung from tree to tree to tree, triangle shaped. This worked good.
But now, see my new, improved, state of the art clothesline!
I feel like a modern lady now.
Believe it or not, this is genuine clothesline rope. I found out that you can't pull it tight enough. It will just stretch out again. Guess I'll have to get the wire instead.
Because of this, I have to hang half of the clothes on one end, and the rest on the other end.
So, now this means that I have to put a jean on each line to distribute the weight..
This looks all wrong!
You don't know how much this is bugging me.
Shirts on the other end, three to each line.
Now we talkin! Doesn't that look nice.
Oh yea! All the little piggies lined in a row.
What the...? Where's the mates? This can't be happening. This is so wrong. Oh no. OCD kicking in.
Gotta. Stop. Looking.
When I first started hanging out my wash, my 7 year old grandson asked me how come I don't dry my clothes the right way, like everybody else.
Ah, innocence. Whadda you say to that!
Hope you enjoyed this look into my crazy domesticity. See ya next time!
There's one part though, that I don't mind doing, and that's the drying! I don't mean the appliance dryer either.
I mean the clothesline, baby!!!
Assuming the weather is cooperating.
You can tell by the pictures that I am so OCD about hanging them.
Jeans, sleep loungers, then shorts, then shirts, then socks. (Doesn't everyone do it this way?)
WARNING: The following pictures may be offensive to some viewers.
Normally I don't air my dirty laundry, but I'm proving a point. Besides, it's not dirty, it's clean.
(Pun intended)
Second line: rest of shirts, t-shirts, boxers, wrags (that's southern for rags!).
Justa blowin in tha breeze.
Boy, I hope my son never sees this. (Sorry K)
Socks all there and in order. I'm happy.
So far, all these pictures have showed you my former clothesline. It was strung from tree to tree to tree, triangle shaped. This worked good.
But now, see my new, improved, state of the art clothesline!
I feel like a modern lady now.
Believe it or not, this is genuine clothesline rope. I found out that you can't pull it tight enough. It will just stretch out again. Guess I'll have to get the wire instead.
Because of this, I have to hang half of the clothes on one end, and the rest on the other end.
So, now this means that I have to put a jean on each line to distribute the weight..
This looks all wrong!
You don't know how much this is bugging me.
Shirts on the other end, three to each line.
Now we talkin! Doesn't that look nice.
Oh yea! All the little piggies lined in a row.
What the...? Where's the mates? This can't be happening. This is so wrong. Oh no. OCD kicking in.
Gotta. Stop. Looking.
When I first started hanging out my wash, my 7 year old grandson asked me how come I don't dry my clothes the right way, like everybody else.
Ah, innocence. Whadda you say to that!
Hope you enjoyed this look into my crazy domesticity. See ya next time!
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