Are You Ready for Halloween??

When you live in town on a busy street, it is a must to be ready for Halloween.  We have to plan on between 200-300 trick-or-treaters.  They start to converge upon us beginning at 5:00 pm and they keep coming even after curfews sometimes and we have to tell them we are out of candy.  The boys are quite excited about going trick-or-treating, especially Nicholas.  Bless her heart, but Rachel called to say she would be home tomorrow and take the boys trick-or-treating.  What a peach!!!  :o)

Bradly returned to school yesterday after staying home for three days as he had the flu.  Wouldn’t you know that about 10 am yesterday, the school nurse at Nick’s school called to say that he was in her office sick, could we come pick him up.  When Steve got there he was all covered up and anxious to go home because he didn’t feel good.  We were afraid he would have a cow about coming home early since they were dressing in their costumes and having their Halloween party and a parade in the afternoon.   He was fine about leaving, but when they go home he was in tears and wanting to wear his costume.  He has a clown costume and I saw no reason that he couldn’t wear it, so he did and was happier than a pig in mud.   By 11:30 am he was feeling great and asking for a piece of pizza.  He has been fine ever since and was actually quite hyper and irritating for the rest of the day.   He had almost vomited 2x in school so everyone assumed he had the flu also.  Evidently something just hadn’t agreed with his tummy.  We are very glad that he doesn’t have the flu.

The kids have no school today as our school district is having a staff development day.  I have a teacher book/tote bag almost finished and am hoping to finish it and list it in my shop today.  I also have two men’s barbeque aprons finished and I am hoping our buddy Robert next door, who is a senior in high school, will come over and model them so I can take some pics and then list them also.  Bradly has some more ornaments  ready to list also, we just need to take pics of those too.  Anyway, I think I have a busy day ahead of me and hopefully it will be a good one.  Here is a pic of my newest listing…a zippered teacher pouch.   I also just listed a cute little “Dora the Explorer” purse for a little girl.  :o)

Recycling Newspaper

I am frequently impressed with the ingenuity of the crafty people that sell items on Etsy.  I have seen so many creative products made from recycled materials.  I ran across this shop today called “reuse2recycle”  .  Even the name of the shop is a clever play on words, and leaves no doubt in your mind that they use recycled products to create new products.   This seller is looking for some feedback on her shop as sales are not going well.  Take a look at her products and if you have an opinion, please let her know.  Here is her addy and I will add a couple of pics.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8278996

Flu

Yes, it happened…Bradly has the flu.  His school has been inundated with it for the past two weeks, so I guess it was inevitable.  He went to the Dr. Sat. and the diagnosis of “flu” was confirmed.  He will be home for most of the week according to the Dr.  He is definitely feeling better today than he did Saturday, so that is good.  We have been cancelling appointments for this week and I still have one more to cancel for tomorrow.  We are hoping and praying that the rest of us do not contract it.

My BF, Peggy is coming back to NY today with her hubby…they live in Virginia.  Due to the flu, she won’t be able to drop in for a visit.  Peg’s mom  was diagnosed a few months ago with Leukemia, and she is finally home .  Peg will be staying there, and the last thing she would want to do is take the flu bug to her mom who of course has a much lowered immune system due to the chemo she has endured these last months. Her mom will be going back into Roswell every other day for treatment.

I got an order for one of my “Doggie Travel Bags”, but made into a back pack.  I have never made a back pack so I am a bit nervous about it, but I think I know how I want to do it.  I also have an order for a leash I need to get made before Thursday.  :o)

Let’s Encourage

I met an Etsy seller yesterday who is really discouraged and thinking of giving up her shop.  I knew if I mentioned her on my blog, that some of my wonderful followers would give her some encouragement.  Being a seller right now is tough with the economy the way it is, but customers still enjoy having the option of buying something hand made as opposed to something bought in a store.  I am hoping this fellow Etsian will hang in there and see if she doesn’t get a few sales with Christmas on the horizon.  Here is her shop…take a look and if you are of the mindset, please give her some encouragement.  The shop name is hisjamilynn.  :o)

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7913881

Agility Training Snack Pouches

I have been busy making 10 agility training snack pouches.  My niece Elizabeth had the idea that these might be a good item to add to our Mutt Mania Etsy shop.  I talked to our dog groomer who has our collars and dog booties ect. on sale in her shop.  She is actually an agility dog trainer as well as a groomer and she thought the pouches would probably sell well.  I make adult and kid sizes.  Two have already sold and I do enjoy making them.  I need to place another order for hardware as I have used all that I had.  Here are a couple of pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a pair of Camo shorts that Nick has outgrown and repurposed them into a cute purse.  I don’t think I want to tell him that the bag used to be his shorts or he will want it to play with and pack his toys into it.  He loves bags and packs them full of toys and hauls them around the house or into the car.  Here is how the purse turned out. :o)

 

Snow

Unfortunately we got up to snow yesterday morning and it is still here today.  In my opinion it is way to early for snow.  I think if we had snow from Dec. 15th until Jan. 2nd that would be just enough..LOL  Living in western NY does have its drawbacks.  Of course Nick wants to go out and play in the “snow” and trying to make him understand that under that thin layer of snow is mud just isn’t cutting it.  I am sure I will hear about it all day.  :o)

I want to congratulate my niece  Nicole and her hubby out in South Dakota on the birth of their baby girl very early this morning.  I am still waiting for all the details, but I received a pic. a little before 3 am today and of course she is just beautiful.  This makes my brother and sister-in-law grandparents for the second time and I bet they are thrilled beyond words.  :o)

I wanted to share an awesome shop I found on Etsy this morning.  The shop is called “Oddsandends4u”, and they have recycled so many items into awesome products.  This would be a great shop to pick up some teacher gifts or stocking stuffers for Christmas…gifts too.  This is the link…  and here are a few pics of my favorite items.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7041847&page=1

 

 

 

Divide and Conquer

I finished four trivets yesterday, plus I made three eyelet mop caps for a friends mom going through chemo.  I made the three way leash attachment that Mindy (our groomer) had ordered.  I felt like I actually accomplished something yesterday.  Anyway, the trivets smell amazing as they are filled with raw rice, whole all spice, whole cloves and a few drops of cinnamon oil.  I am thinking these would make great teacher gifts too.  I have included the pic today as I promised.

Well tonight we are going to divide and conquer.  Brad has an appointment in Warsaw at 6 pm and Nick has an open house at school that he has been talking about all week.  We never received a note from school at all, so we thought he might be confused.  After calling the school this morning, we discovered that he did indeed know what he was talking about.  This is the first time that he has cared about an open house so there is no way we can miss it. 

Crazy Busy Day

Today is going to keep us on the run all day long.  At 12:30, Steve and I have our “Crisis Management” class, then Nick’s skill builder will be here working with him.  At 5:30 the boys have “Horse Therapy”.  When we leave there it will be 6:30, so we will stop and buy a pizza, come home and eat, do homework,then showers and bedtime.  Whew…I am pooped out before we ever start..LOL

We shipped out the order for two different kinds of dog treats to a man in Oregon yesterday.  I also finally got the dog collar made and got that order sent to Canada. Mindy called this morning to say that she had sold another collar too.  Rachel called last night to ask me to take the peace sign purse off because her room mate when on my shop to buy a purse for a gift and fell in love with this purse and bought it for herself.  Rachel is coming home this weekend, so she can take it to her and save her the shipping charges.  We have certainly been blessed with sales lately and we hope it keeps right on…LOL  :o) I am working on some scented trivets now, and do they ever smell fantastic.  I mixed raw rice with whole cloves and whole allspice…added a few drops of cinnamon oil and this mixture goes into the fabric trivets I have sewed. The cool part is that when you use one and set a warm pot on it, it makes the smell come alive.  Plus, if anyone is like us, we keep our hot mats in a drawer in our hutch.  These would also act like a sachet.  I will take some pics when I am finished and post them. 

Our little great nephew is already going to be a year old tomorrow.  He is so cute and has been such a blessing to my brothers family.  I just want to say “Happy Birthday Elijah”.  :o)

Columbus Day

Today is our Columbus Day and Canada is celebrating their Thanksgiving.  It is rather interesting that the powers that be made it so that two countries that bordered one another got a holiday and no work or school on the same day.  Works out good for our family since we have  a daughter and son-in-law who live in Canada

We now have almost half of our 2 bushels of apples made into apple sauce.  Maybe we can get the rest made and in the freezer today.  Steve has worked on applesauce for the past two days while I was doing other things.  Yesterday I mixed up a double batch of “snickerdoodles”.  Bradly rolled the cookie balls in cinnamon and sugar for me which was a big help.  I must say though, it felt like I was never going to get them all baked.  They are so yummy though, that I have decided it was well worth the effort.  :o) 

While visiting another blog yesterday I came across a promotion for a really cool shop which is geared around animals and animal rescue as well as the promotion for getting your animals spayed or neutered .  The shop has pages and pages of buttons, key chains and magnets dealing with these subjects.  I thought I would give their shop a feature today.  Here is the addy and a couple of my favorites.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=21445

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Friday

It feels good to have the weekend upon us and it is a three day weekend at that.  Of course, by Monday, I will probably be ready for the weekend to be over and the kids back in school.  LOL 

Rachel is going to the Keith Urban/Sugarland concert tonight, and then she is heading up to Megan and Scott’s tomorrow to help them celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.  We wanted to get up to see them before the winter weather sets in, but we haven’t gotten our enhanced licenses yet. 

I wanted to let everyone know that Brad is doing very well.  We cried together over his loss of Grandma Nancy and then we talked about the good memories and ways we can remember her since there isn’t going to be a cemetery plot  for the boys to go to.  Brad is thinking of what kind of shrub, tree or plant his grandma liked and we will plant one in the spring in her memory.  Today his skill builder worked with him and she had a small bottle with a cork.  She had him write what he would like to say to his grandma and then he put it in the bottle.  He was very excited about that and showed me what he wrote.  I appreciate all the prayers, and I know that is what has made the difference.

I finished four purses today…all out of recycled clothing.  I will post them so you can see what you think.  Enjoy your long weekend.  :o)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadness

We have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  We found out yesterday that our dear friend had lost her battle with cancer.  She had been doing great after beating breast cancer in 2008 and then that went into brain cancer this past spring.  She was doing great and then started feeling dizzy and ill.  A spinal tap showed that the cancer was all through her body and her body just could not handle any more treatment.  This beautiful, generous and loving women came into our life when Bradly and Nicholas did.  She is Bradly’s paternal birth grandmother.  She became part of our family and all of our kids called her Grandma Nancy. As well as becoming a grandma to all of our children, she became a very good friend to Steve and I. She was only 9 years older than my hubby and she was so good to all of us.  She always treated Nicholas as her grandchild too and he doesn’t have any idea she was really just Brad’s grandma.  The hardest part is yet to come.  After school today, we have to tell the boys.  We are so concerned about how Bradly is going to take this news.  Grandma Nancy has been the one constant person in his life through all the upheavals and trauma he has endured in his life. It will hurt him terribly and my heart just breaks for him.  Any of you who believe in the power of prayer could pray for wisdom for us and comfort for Bradly. Your prayers would mean so much.

Grandma Nancy is the red head in the middle back behind Brad and Nick.  Nancy’s mother is in the pink shirt and she is lovingly called “Cookie Grandma” by all of her grandchildren.  My mom, Grandma Hubbard is in the blue slacks.  This photo was taken three years ago at the boy’s adoption.:o)

Davey

Nicholas and Bradly will be starting “Horseback Riding Therapy”  this coming week. This will be Nick’s third session and Bradly’s second session. Each session lasts for 6 weeks and they are quite excited about getting to ride again.  The hard part is that Nick’s horse “Davey” is being retired as he is old.  Davey will be going to live at the home of a girl with special needs whose horse passed away a while ago.  It will be a good life for Davey and this girl, but it this news left Nicholas devastated.  He cried so hard when we told him.  The head of the program had suggested we bring Nick up to say good bye before classes began and before Davey was moved.  In the midst of his tears Nick said he didn’t want to say good bye.  I told him he didn’t have to say those words, that he could say “hi” I will miss you.  He perked up and decided to go see Davey and take him a few carrots and an apple.  Judy, who heads up this program, is just wonderful with the kids and the horses.  Judy talked to Nick about her first horse when she was a kid and how, after all these years she has never forgotten that horse.  She told him he would never forget his first horse either.  Nick did very well and is wondering which horse he will be riding this week.  They match the kids with a horse…the horse chooses the child.  The really cool part is that these horses have all been rescued and some had been very abused.  If there is a child in the program that has suffered from abuse, those horses always pick one of those children, because they seem to be able to relate to the child.  I think that is so wonderful.  This is a pic of Nick when he went to say his good-byes.  :o)

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Yesterday kicked off the official “Breast Cancer Awareness Month”.  I was impressed to see that even the NFL jerseys as well as many other items have been made up in pink and that the players will be wearing  to show their support for this special month.  Of course, the way those football players are built, they would look masculine in pink or any other color.  :o) 

We are heading out for a fish fry lunch with my parents.  We have not had one in so long, I can’t even remember the last time we partook of a fish fry.  Our 29th wedding anniversary is on Sunday, Oct. 4th, so we figured this would be our only chance to go out to eat without kids, so we better take it.

Today is my brother James 47th birthday.  Wow, it is hard to believe he is that old, but then I remember that I am 4 years older than he is…ouch!!

I thought in the spirit of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I would put up the pics of the few items I carry in my shop that promotes this awareness. :o)

 

 

 

Zippered cosmetic bag

 

Patchwork Bag

 

 

 

 

zip change purse