MONDAY RANDOM RAMBLINGS

Hi there :o)
Hope ya'll had a fabulous weekend!

Thought I'd post a little summin' to at least let ya'll know I'm still alive.  Can't say I've mustered much more motivation to get things done . . . I'm trying!  

I have the day off today, and I'm home alone, so I'm planning on getting some stuff done.  Guess we'll have to wait until the end of the day to see if I've accomplished any of it!

We drove Son No. 1 to the airport last night :o(  His Spring break is over, and it was time for him to return back to school in Charlotte, NC.  

He won't be home again until the end of the school year in the middle of May.  

For John's last days here this past weekend, I baked some of his favorite sweet treats ~ banana bread {using this recipe} and chocolate chip cookies.

Planning on spending some time today relaxing and getting caught up on a pile of magazines.  There's three months of Country Living that I haven't even glanced at.

The latest issues of Victora and Romantic Homes.

And two issues my new subscription ~ Phyllis Hoffman's Celebrate.

I'm also going to try to, hopefully, finish up work on my eggs for the Easter Swap I'm participating in at Thimbleprim's. 

LOVE Amy Butler's fabrics!

Oh, and I have to share Hubby's new toy.  We've been having some slight vehicle drama 'round here the past month or so.  Poor Son No. 2 was in an accident about a month ago.  His beloved red hot Monte was totalled. Thank God he was not injured, but naturally he was devistated the car was beyond repair.  It was his first car, and he loved it.  It was truly a sweet ride.  He's been driving our pick-up truck which pretty much never gets driven, except in the warmer months when I'm running around buying mulch, manure, plants, etc.  And because it doesn't get driven much, a few fairly major {and costly} repairs had to be made.  Needless to say, Colin's on the lookout for a new car.

Hubby decided this was a good time to get a new second vehicle.  He found a pre-owned Cadallic CTS {2005} in immaculate condition with super-low mileage, and a very, very fair price. 

It's one of his "dream cars".   Not sure how much I'll be driving it.  I think, for now, I still prefer my Honda Pilot SUV.  It'll be nice, though, when we want to go out,  just the two of us, for date night and ride in a nice, shiny luxury car ;o)

I'm hoping to be back tomorrow to share some fun things I've been working on the past few weeks!  In the meantime, have a great Monday!

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CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT SWAP

Wanted to share a few ornaments I sent out to my partner in Marsha's (Sassy Mini Dolls) ornament exchange.  

I had sooo much fun making these ornaments for my swap partner, Nerina.  Creating these ornaments really helped get the Christmas prep juices flowing.  

wooden ornament decoupaged with vintage santa image.

wooden ornament packaged inside CD mailer.

Nerina and I corresponded a bit to get to know one another, and to find out each other's likes and styles. In one of the emails, she mentioned she was finding herself really drawn this year to vintage-looking, sparkly, old-fashioned ornaments and Christmas decor.  

simple star ornament jazzed up with paper pinwheel, vintage image, bling and glitter

a sweet phrase printed on cardstock edged in glitter

this little guy was inspired by one i saw on web somewhere last year.
can't remember where.  isn't he adorable?

In turn, Nerina sent a huge box of wonderful goodies to me.  Several styles of ornaments, items for creating ornaments and crafty projects, all kinds of cool things.  I plan on sharing pics of my goodies from her tomorrow.  Didn't want to drown you all in tons of snaps tonight!

this was actually a store-bought ornament.  i cheated just a bit ;o)

another cheat store bought ornament. the front.

the back.

On December 1st, Marsha will set up a linky party so we can all go and visit each other, and see what lovely ornaments others in the swap exchanged.  She's also creating a virtual tree that will be adorned with all our ornaments.  Can't wait to see that!

Check back tomorrow so I can share all the great goodies Nerina sent to me!

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TRICK OR TREAT!

This year I joined in on some grown-up Trick or Treating hosted by Christine at

A Work In Progress

What a fun swap this was!  We were to send two "treats" and one "trick" to Christine.  Two items were to be handmade, one could be store bought {I choose to make all three}.  Christine asked that we not label our pieces with our names, keeping them anonymous, only labeling which two were the "treats" and which one was the "trick".  Once she received everyone's goodies, she randomly put together two of the treats and one trick per person and sent them back out.

We were to take pictures of the treats and tricks we were sending out so we could post them on our blogs today as well.  Silly me, I totally forgot to take pictures of what I made,  so Christine kindly took a few snaps of my items when she received them.  But when I downloaded them from Christine's email, and tried to upload them here, I kept getting a "server refused" message.  Anyone know what that's about?

Now, here's where the fun starts.  Once we all received back our tricks and treats, we had to wait until today, All Hallow's Eve, to post pics of the ghoulish goodies we received.  Then, we go to Christine's blog where she has all the participant's links posted and we visit each other's blogs, "Trick or Treating", seeing who received the items we sent out.  Pretty neat, huh?!

I received some really great things!  I was like a kid on Christmas morning when my box arrived.  Pulling each adorable little goodie out . . . oooo'ing and ahhh'ing over each one.

And if coordinating, distributing and hostessing this swap wasn't enough, Christine included a gorgeous Halloween vintage-image pendant necklace as a thank-you for participating.  Oh, Christine!  It's so adorable.  I've loved wearing it.  And it's us who are offering you a big thank-you for putting this swap together.

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GOODY SWAP SNEAK PREVIEW

I joined in on Kathy's

(Creative Home Expressions)

Goody Blog Swap.

It was a fun, easy swap. Simply take a container - one that you would normally toss - and fill it with any type of goodies that would fit to send off to your swap partner. It could be little trinkets for crafting, decorating, self-indulgence . . . whatever.

So as not to spoil the surprise for Kristinia (her blog is Loving Heart Mommy), I'm sharing just tiny glimpses of some of the goodies I put together for her.

As Kathy suggested, I used strawberry containers.

As usual, I'm late mailing out my swap to my partner. I was to mail it out for her to receive by August 31. Well, that didn't happen!

No surprise for me. ;o)

I emailed her and told her I'd be a bit late getting it out in the mail.

It went out Priority Mail today, Kirstinia!

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