Etsy Shop

YEAH, I finally got my Etsy Shop opened. Check it out here. I have posted my first item but will be posting more later on today so check back later. I'm so excited to be able to get my creations out to the buying public. How FUN!!!

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Have been meaning to show you the wall I constructed with all mirrors. It looks pretty cool. I got the idea from Tracie over at The Cottage Industry blog. Thanks Tracie for a great idea!! My living room has no windows in it. I know sounds kinda weird, hugh? And to boot, one wall is dark paneling, uuuggghhhhhh! There is a huge window in the dining room that is in the front of the house just to the right of the living room and lots of windows in the family room on the back of the house and the living room is lost somewhere in between the two. It's rectanglular and the front door opens to the south end of it. The family room is off the north end but there are no windows on either of the other two walls. So.....................I was surfing blogs one night and came across this one where the lady had adorned one whole wall with different shaped mirrors. She's an antique dealer and hers were all antiques, mine are some antiques and some just plane ol' garage sale finds. I have done the whole wall for less than $40 though, pretty good hugh. The long one on the left side was a Christmas gift from one of my sisters a few years back, but the others have been since then. It still needs a little work, I think they need to be closer to gether or maybe a few smaller ones thrown in to close up the gaps. It definitely looks better than it did and now some light permeates off the two rooms that do have windows.

August 2010 Tea Party

This month we went up to Spring Hill to enjoy one of the tea rooms up north. It was called Magnolia Terrace. It was nice, good food and the atmosphere was friendly. The place didn't have many decorations but there were a few. She had a small corner with "for sale" merchandise and a couple of cute things in there but very expensive. The high tea we had was comparable in price to most of the others but her merchandise was truly expensive.

Magnetic Message Boards

I have made another one. This one is for another of my tea ladies. I am slowly catching up on the birthday gifts I wanted to do this year. I hope she likes it. It has a tea party theme and she really likes those so I'm sure she will like it. I tried to deliver it to her today but she wasn't home when I called. I am going to be adding these to my Etsy Shop soon so keep checking back for the Grand Opening.

4th of July Layout

This is a layout I did for my daughter's album. She was just a baby then, oh so many years ago, and scared to death of fireworks. The layout was when I had just started learning how to scrapbook. It looks a little barren to me, I may have to add some more "something" to it.

July 2010 Tea Party

This month we decided, well actually I decided, that we would go to Mt. Dora to the Windsor Rose Tea Room. Mt. Dora is about 2 hours north of Tampa so it was a bit of a jaunt. I have wanted to visit there for a long time so I finally convinced a couple of tea ladies to go with me. Actually one original tea lady, Beth, in the brown and a new tea lady, Sandra, in the white. It was well worth the drive, I thought. It is a lovely little town, lots of country charm, victorian homes, cool places to shop and sleep, etc. It sits on a huge ass lake (a private joke there, lol) Far as I can tell that is Lake Dora. There are several lakes right in there so it was hard to tell on the map. A bit on the expensive side but it doesn't cost much to sightsee, right? It was a lovely place to visit. We even stopped at the Russell Stover Candies shop along the way. Dangerous place here, let me tell ya!!! We are talking some serious chocolate here and any other kind of sweet you could possibly imagine. I found some Walnut Fudge (yummy!) and some Anise Squares, two of my favorites, love that black licorice flavor. Good thing we had a little cooler full of ice in the truck, we could all have been a chocolate mess. We had a great lunch at the tea room and then walked around until we found "The Stamping Station". You know if there's a scrapbook/stamp shop any where within a 100 mile radius, I'll find it, lol. It was a quaint little two story building with lots of charm and lots of scrapbooking stuff inside. And a big bonus inside, was air conditioning. It was so hot outside, 103º it said in my truck, that we were very glad to be inside again. We were melting. Here are a few other sights along the way!

We also spotted a cute little OLD yellow Thunderbird along the road on our way up to Mt. Dora. We decided we would take a picture of that on the way back. Well, when we got back to that place, it was a little roadside bar, there was also a old red truck sitting there beside it. We made a u-turn and went back for pictures. They looked so cool sitting there together.

We had a great time and so glad we made the trip. It was well worth our time and energy. If you ever get the chance to visit Mr. Dora don't pass it up. (and just in case you are wondering, I have spent the last two hours trying to make these pictures line up and the words correspond with the correct pictures and it won't let me make it look the way I wanted it to but I'm tired of messing with it so I GIVE UP! Still don't know what's up with the bold underlined print either, that's still a mystery too.) Have a great Sunday, HUGS

Tall Ships

A co-worker and I went to see the "tall ships" at the Port of Tampa last week. Those huge boats have always been fascinating to me since I moved to Florida in 2004. I have driven by the Port of Tampa for all the years I've been here going to work and coming home on the crosstown (upper deck). You can see for ever when you are up on the upper deck of the crosstown (more on that later). There were three ships that were here, one was from Uruguay and one was the US Coast Guard and I don't remember the other one. The one we saw at the port was the US Coast Guard one called the Eagle.You can kinda see the "eagle" head on the from of the ship. Find the yellow building on the right side of the photo. Just off the left tip of the roof is a small and I mean small little spot of gold, do you see it? That's the front of this ship, it's that long. Here's a shot of the "eagle head". Oh and that's my co-worker Sandra, say hi!! It was awesome to see up close and personal. Here are a few more shots of it.

MoJo Monday #146

This is the first MoJo Monday card I have done in a long time. My friend, Beth, came over to make cards with me today and so I decided to try my hand at the "mojo" again. I was off today and it was another rainy dreary day here so was a good day to have a friend over and stay in side. Beth even brought some goodies for us. Besides lunch she brought the fixings to make two blueberry pies. One for us to eat and one for her to take to some other friends. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!! She even brought some peach ice cream to put on the top. Didn't think I would care for the combination but it actually was really good. Hope you have a great evening. It's back to work for me tomorrow. (NOTE: I have no clue why the words are underlined up to a certain point. Another blogger mystery, I guess)

Happy 4th of July

I thought this video was quite fitting for today. It gave me goosebumps! Hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July. Please remember freedom isn't free!!!

A Gift

It has been a rainy dreary day here all day today so I have been busy inside creating. I have gotten way far behind in my gift giving this year. The move sat me back for quite a few months. I was quite disappointed in my the little house that I rented. The property manager was very dishonest with me about the whole thing so I am stuck here until my lease expires next Feb. Am trying to make the most of it. It runs along the same lines as most of the other luck I have had in my life, if it weren't for bad luck, I'd wouldn't have any at all. Am trying to be thankful to just have a roof over my head and a job with which to keep it up. My latest creation is a gift for one of my tea ladies. I had made a resolution at the beginning of the year to not only remember all the ladies in my tea group on their birthdays but to gift each one as well. I have fallen way short of my resolution. I still have three more to "create" for but at least I'm crafting again. This is a magnetic message board made from a cookie sheet. The lady it is for has redone her kitchen in black, red and white, as well as rooster motifs. She is in to wine and cooking as she owns a catering business called "Special Thymes". I hope she likes it.