Home Companion Magazine may return!!!

Oh my God...if any of you ever appreciated Mary Englebreit's magazine, Home Companion....she has decided to try and publish it again!!! If you would like to have that happen, please leave a comment on her blog!!! It will not allow me to link directly to the exact post, but please go to her Sept. 23 post to leave a comment.
xoxo- Julie

A Little Swimmin and Book Makin Fun

OK...here's something a little crazy for you! I was thinking I might take the grandkids down (2 hours one way, and 2hours back) to the Miami Seaquarium on Sat., but when I added up gas, admission prices, and misellaneous other things, we decided a stay at the local hotel for swimming would be much better. My friend, Karen came over and swam with us. We ordered pizza by the pool, and later, after the kids fell asleep, daughter, Karen, and I made mini books from soap boxes!  My DIL had to meet some friends so she missed out on making one. I was secretively hoping to get her crafting too!! The tutorial is:

Now we are on our way to visit the new pancake machine this hotel has! Yee-haw! :)

My best friend is blogging!!!

I called my friend, Karen tonight after I got home from work, and she said, "How come you never visit my blog"??? I said, "What blog, girlfriend"??? Of course, I really thought she was teasing me, because blogging was NEVER anything I really thought she would do....but guess what...I whipped out my phone and voila...I found it. It is called Karens Kale! She has tire gardens too...and she grew the most amazing, fantastically large kale in there last cool season! My Mom and I were very jealous of her talent! I guess her love of vegies goes right out to the plants she grows, and they just respond!!! Anyway...she has done three posts and she really shocked me with the most recent one...she is making a Christmas Village out of food boxes...OMG...you must go over and see her first completed building for the village!!! If you leave a comment, tell her Julie sent you!
xoxo- Julie

Doozey in a meadow!

Oh, goodness...is this not a cute little sugar dog? My daughter took a picture of Doozey that I had taken in the house last night, and using Gimp, she placed her in a meadow! Doozey says hello to everyone!!! Especially sending get well wishes to Teri!

Need ideas for my house shaped mini book!!!

Here is what I have gotten together so far. You may remember the envelopes that we got folded at my first Mixed Media group of women who meet at Crafts N Stuff store. It has been 4 weeks since that first meeting, and I haven't come up with much. The biggest idea I have it to make a book that reflects how my Grandma Dora, my Mom, and I are alike.

My Grandma was a farmer/nursery woman, cook,seamstress,quilter, had deep faith in God.
Mom loves being outside in her yard, sewing, quilting,and my husband says we are both hardheaded...hmmm...can you imagine.....
I and my grandma both picked out the same dishes, we both like growing vegetables with flowers, to drink coffee out of a glass mug, PLUS, I have some letters that my grandma wrote...one to my Mom which talks about me and my son, and one that she wrote to me, which I would slip into a pocket in the book.

I picked up the house shaped back and front covers that one of the members husbands made for me.

AND...I have found these cute country items at Micheals the other night. Micheals sells these cute cut out thin peices of wood in different shapes...kind of a more filagree look. They are plain wood. I asked my daughter to color it with our new collection of Copic markers, and it turned out really pretty. I think I will seal it with something to preserve the color.

Then the cut package of roosters and little cute bits, and a journal that has a front cover I would like to use in the book somewhere.

Anyway...I need ideas for what to do. I am not a scapbooker. I have to cover the envelope pages with paper of some sort...and you know me...I am wanting to use my homemade paper mostly...which I think I will for the basic pages...then comes embellishing. I don't own a cricut, or any of the cutting machines...but would prefer to make my own embellishments...like this flower I made out of a newspaper, etc.

If you guys know of any online tutorials for any good ideas, can you tell me??? I will let you see what I get done today after class, OK???

More crystal fun!

This really has been fun! One night after the whole tree was covered with crystals, I bumped it ever so slightly, and a lot of the crystals fell off...I threw them make in the tray below and added a little water. The tree grew back, just minus a lot of color! It is all full again now.


If you want to try making some homemade crystals...there are a lot of recipes HERE!

Did you know you can make some from sugar and some from Borax? I am thinking of making some rock candy sugar stirrers for Christmas gifts! Inexpensive, but really SWEET!

Growing a pretty little crystal tree!

My daughter found this little box with a paper tree where the ends of the branches had been treated with a chemical. There was a paper tree, a stand and a little tray to place saturated fluid into and then sit the tree in it. AND then you wait (not long) and crystals start forming on the ends of the branches...thicker and thicker... This photo shows the growth after around 10 hours later...but it was quicker growing, for sure! Looks like each "side" of the tree is a different color. Pretty fun. It worked so fast, it could be done during a day at a child's school, if the teacher would set it up for the kids.... It was amazingly FAST!!! If you find one at your local Dollartree...I say to go for it!
Julie

The little pianist!

I am sorry...I had published this post and then decided to make the pics larger, but I see Mandy and Cindy had left comments, and I think I have lost them now. Anyway...just wanted to tell the story of how Emily discovered this piano in the back of a restaurant, and she touched a few keys and it made sound...she was surprised. I was watching her from our table...she immediately came running over and said, very excitedly "Grandma Julie, come see this big black thing"!!! We laughed so hard.

Anyway, she charmed the manager and we had the best time watching her...she played it very theatrically (just banging on the keys)and cracked us all up!

Here are the little musicians pink toes in her newest pair of thongs!

So sweet!
xoxo- Julie

Happy Labor Day!

Today Donovan was at his cousins house, so we had a holiday with Emmie.  First she played in the zebra pool, while Grandma Julie watered and picked okra. Then I put a few natural elements together for some art fun outside. (Pics to come). We all went to the Ale House for lunch, then to get Emmie some new shoes. She got a pair of Croc- like Tinkerbell ones...purple with sparkles...and a sparkly pair of flip flops.  Then we took a nap and. ..oh...the two shots of the stump with flowers growing out were found outside the Ale House...I just thought they were beautiful...such a lovely surprise to add to our already perfect day! Hope everyone had a great weekend too! P.S. The cute grasshopper came to visit us on our balcony in Orlando Saturday night.
Xoxo- Julie

I'm in Orlando!!!

Newly refurbished Lego World one place we visited. Here are a few pics of some Lego statues outside. I drank a rum runner, and 2 beers and now my feet and ankles are swollen...I am to be up ay 7am when the pool opens. This trip is grownups only...starting early with a few laps in the pool before breakfast.