Never Take Life for Granted

Sitting here at the hospital with Dad Watson and the rest of the family and thinking about how much we need to hold the ones we love so close. If you want to let them know just how much you love them.....do it. You never know what a day may hold. I've been so stressed over all I have to do, Thanksgiving coming, Christmas, I want this done, that done, etc etc. and now........None of that means anything when you realize just how fragile life is.
You know what......all those things will be there later, I can let some things go and probably most would never notice that I did. I keep thinking that I'm eventually going to get it all together and be this organized person that has her house just so, crafts made in a timely manner, blog on a regular basis, and on and on. I may just need to accept me for who I am and quit stressing about it. Now to just actually be able to do that.

I read something today that I really liked..........
When you write the story of your life make sure no one else holds the pen!

What works for me

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 17 years ago. I was 25 at the time and had went through the horrors of thinking I had cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, or who knew what. I actually wondered if they really didn't have any idea what was wrong with me and just made up a name. lol Then on top of it.......I have/had OCD. My daddy broke his back and was paralyzed from the waist down. My uncle had passed away 2 weeks earlier. Life was so out of control and so the dr says.....That was one area I took control in and I cleaned like a fire out of control. I cleaned so much that I was literally making myself ill. I felt like I was going crazy and didn't know what was wrong with me. Thank God, a friend called and read part of an article out of Reader's Digest about OCD and I was like.....that's me! Wow, this could go on to be a book, and I'll add more as time goes on but to make a long story short.......There were more bad days than good and some where I could hardly get out of bed and didn't. I tried so many remedies, herbs, health food things to the point that I was pretty much skeptical of anything. They would give me pain killers but those things scare me. I've seen first hand what they can do. My daughter, Brooke, had asthma so bad that I would sit up and hold her so she could sleep at night and she would have to have treatments several times a day and night. Rev. Beers told me about a product called Juice Plus that had helped one of his grandchildren. If I ordered it, she would get it free for entering a children's study they are doing. I did it! (she no longer uses and inhaler or treatment by the way, and I can't remember the last time she has been sick) I now take 3 tablets a day and have more good days than bad and actually have a life again. I met a lady, Cindy Hartly, who is absolutely amazing. She has MS and a good day for her was getting out of bed and sitting on the couch. When I met her I was only taking one tablet a day and she advised me to go up to two. I couldn't believe the difference it made. I wish I could tell you all about it like she can. I think she should write a book! Basically, in a nutshell.........If we could get all our fruits and vegetables in a day, foods that hadn't been picked before ripe and lost nutrition, that is the best thing!! But, this is not a perfect world and we can't! So to bridge the gap, Juice Plus takes fresh fruits, veggies, and berries and dehydrates them, and puts them in a capsule form. What's funny is I've been taking this for years and now it came out on TV today. Below is a link that will explain so much better what I am trying to say.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2097567154343

https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/Home.soa?site=ew46914

Homemade Dog Biscuits

First of all, I caved. Me, with my OCD and having said I would NOT have a dog in my house......I ate my words. And Chloe has stolen my heart. She is, of course, the cutest, smartest, most adorable dog ever. lol Here she is wanting a treat! :-) She will now sit, lay, and walk on her back legs for a treat and definitely knows what "treat" means.


I have found that dog treats are quite expensive, especially if you're like me and want them made in the USA. Surfing around on blogs I found the neatest little blog and this girl had a dog, that I think is blind and deaf and she shared the cutest stories and pics of him. Anyway, I got this recipe off of her blog and now........I can't find her blog. I thought I had saved it. :-( If anyone knows the blog, please let me know so I can give her credit for this.

Dog Biscuits

4 C whole wheat flour

1 C cornmeal

1/2 C parmesan cheese

1/4 C milk

1 1/2 C water

2 eggs

1/2 C canola oil

Preheat oven to 350. Oil or spray 2 baking sheets. Combine all ingredients till mixed well. Roll out dough to 1/4 to 1/2 thickness. Either cut into squares or rectangles. (I used cookie cutters.) Bake for about 20 minutes or until biscuits are hard. Let cool. I found that you should really make sure they are completely cool and dry before you put them in anything. These are not to be sealed in a container. Just put them in a bowl or something without a lid. Chloe absolutey loves these and we shared with my friends dog and she loved them, too.

Cooling doggie treats

All arranged in a bowl my father-in-law made and sitting on my buffet. :-)

Update: I found the website.

http://www.jenandcoblog.com/homemade-dog-biscuits/

Tip Me Tuesday

Loving Tip Junkie's! Tip Me Tuesday sure does have a lot of great ideas!

With school starting and going out of state for a family reunion I haven't gotten a lot of crafty things accomplished. I did do 9 scrapbook pages and started on my cards for a card swap I'm in. I'll have to post some when they are completed.

Pinterest Addiction

I find that Pinterest is one of my very favorite sites these days. I "am" trying make it a good thing, tho. I have made quite a few of the projects that I have found and yesterday I made a new recipe. It must have been good because tonight Christopher asked what it was I had on the stove and told me it was so good he had 3 pieces. lol I'm hoping it'll motivate me to get some gifts made for Christmas. I did finish one day before yesterday and it was an idea I pinned. I'm loving the cake stands and have made one for me and one for a gift. I guess rather than just telling about it, I should just put pics up. I think I'll do that tomorrow. (Well, later today) I just realized the time and should really get some sleep. :-)

Zucchini Butter and more

I am so glad it isn't so hot anymore! It's sad when you think 88 feels good! :-) Hoping tomorrow will be a good day, too, since I work for Nancy. At least it's enjoyable to work for her. She spoils me. ;-)

I'm hoping to run across someone sick of zucchini! I made zucchini butter and it is soooo good! You would never know it isn't apple butter.

Zucchini Butter

4 cups cooked and blended zucchini (peel & remove seeds)

4 Tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 cups sugar (I use brown sugar)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice (I couldn't find allspice, I really thought I had some, soooo I used pumpkin pie spice lol)

Boil zucchini til tender,

drain and then puree in blender.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients & put in crock pot or oven. (If crock pot, on low. Neither recipe told me what to put the oven on)

Cook til desired thickness.

I cooked it all night. It is delicious! My hubby and momma both loved it!

Put into jars and then hot bath to seal.

1000+ free sewing and craft tutorials

http://everythingyourmamamade.com/its-all-about-the-free-tutorials/

I haven't gotten a chance to go through them but am looking forward to finding more projects I want to add to my looooonngg list! lol

Make your own Babylegs

How to make a crib / toddler bed sheet

How to make a Pack ‘N Play / playard sheet

Gathering with a serger or sewing machine too!

3-in-1 T-Shirt Dress / Tunic Top/ Skirt For toddlers to adults!

A Personalized Little Girls Apron!

No-Itch Twill Tape Tags & Clothing Labels

How To Use Bento Egg Molds

My Scarf Dress

Free NICU Smock Pattern

Bookmark clean-up! 1000+ free tutorials, patterns & websites FULL of patterns that I have had saved in my bookmarks . (These are not my own tutorials, but links to others I admired & would love to try in the future)

170+ Bags, Purses, Pouches & Backpack Tutorials

78+ Kids Gift Tutorials

80+ Girls Clothing Tutorials

20+ Boys Clothes Tutorials

43+ Maternity, Nursing, & Expecting/New Mom Tutorials

77+ Infant & Toddler Tutorials

36+ Tutorials for MEN & Women!

36+ Tutorials for Women!

47+ Womens & Juniors Clothing Tutorials

98+ Apron Tutorials

84+ Tutorials For The Home!

10+ Quilts & Quilting Tutorials

11+ Crochet Patterns

354+ Edible Gifts (Like jar mixes)

24+ Techniques, Modifications & Alterations!

12+ Sites for free patterns & tutorials

Items I have made from others free tutorials (with the tutorial link of course )

Nylon Chiffon Girls Pettiskirts

Womens Azalea Dress

Emma & Emmy (Or Eddie) The Earthworm

These are not my tutorials but have some links to other great free tutorials & patterns…

Burda Open Source Sewing

Lots of free great tutorials (good for beginners too)

You can also buy & instantly download great patterns from YouCanMakeThis.com. They even have smaller patterns that you can download for FREE as well!!!

Making a skirt from a pair of jeans

I had done this years ago for some of my girls at church. It seems it's all the rage now. :-)

I did find some tips to make it easier, tho.

$5 find at Rue 21

Learned that if you want the frayed look just cut along the inside seam instead of taking

all that time to rip the seams out. Love that idea! :-)

My daughter wanted her skirt really long and she's pretty tall so I didn't have

much from the bottom of the legs to work with. I noticed the skirt she had on

was done something like the one above so I was able to fill the front in and part

of the back.

I used some striped jean that I had and sewed strips together to fill in the back.

This is the 3rd skirt I've done recently. I have many more to do thanks to my sons

girlfriend for the jeans to make them with. :-)

Spiced Hot Caramel Cider

The first time my hubby took me to Starbucks and bought me a Hot Spiced Caramel Cider I was hooked. But.......the price was enough that I refused to spend that much money even tho I loved it. I had a coupon for Starbucks so decided to get something. I watched the girl behind the counter make one of the cider drinks and thought......I can do that at home. So.......here is how I did it. It's great with apple cider but you can use apple juice and it's not as expensive.

Simmer your apple juice and mulling spices using the amount it tells you to on the package.

If you can't find the mulling spices you can get the spices ground and mixed in a little carton

at most little markets.

I used sugar free Caramel ice cream topping. Put plenty in there. :-)

Stir well and put whipped cream on the top. I have little caramel sugar sprinkles that I put on top, too! My hubby loves this and has even taken it in his thermos when he goes hunting! :-)

I know it's summer and this is not when most people are wanting hot drinks but........it gives you plenty of time to find any ingredients you may not have! :-) Enjoy!

How to make marshmallow fondant

This is probably the easiest way I've found to make the fondant. But....I add 1 tsp of vanilla and 1/8 tsp of almond extract. You can add the coloring in at anytime.

Marshmallow fondant cupcake toppers

Brooke has a new hobby of making miniatures with polymer clay. She is so creative and does a great job. When my bestie asked for a shopping themed cake or cupcakes for her daughter, making fondant mini shapes came to mind. It was a lot of fun and even more so when Brooke helped me make some of the toppers.

Shopping bag with mini receipt.

Shoe with price tag that Brooke made.

Purse with matching wallet.

Sooooo, after the fun with this, I saw an idea for our 4th of July cookout. Cupcake grills with shish kabobs, hamburger/cheeseburgers, and hot dogs. I did find out that I want a pasta maker for making small rolls of fondant. lol I resorted to making the grill from icing after rolling so many from fondant.

A good blogger.......I am not!

I so love reading other blogs and getting ideas! I love the tutorials on how to make things and have used so many of them but alas......I'm just not like those other people! lol I kind of got myself so busy that if I could sit down at the computer I didn't want to have to think about what I'm writing, upload pics, etc. That seemed like work! lol (also, went thru one of the worst years of my life and really didn't want to put that kind of thing on a blog.) Cleaning houses, taking Brooke to school 2 days, homeschooling, spending time with momma, etc. sure didn't help me get "our" house cleaned! :-( So....I have decided that a huge deep cleaning and getting rid of lots of stuff is the answer. I am on my way but soooooooo slowly that it is somewhat maddening. lol 2 weeks and school is out and I think I am almost as happy as my girl!!!!

I have learned so many new things craft-wise and I really want to share. I think I will link to some of the awesome people that I have found online that have taught me so much!!!

Well, Happy National Scrapbooking Day from the girl who hasn't scrapped all day and probably won't. That's ok! I will and got the cards from the card swap I was in and loved them and also made my momma pretty happy. I joined extra groups for her and that was a gift from me to her!

LIFE

You know, as a little girl I dreamed of growing up, getting married, having children, and having a fairy tale life and everything just going great! Well, I wish the rest of the world had gotten the note so it could have happened that way. lol I did get part of my dream, tho! I have a great husband who is a wonderful daddy, 2 awesome kids (most of the time) that I wouldn't trade for anything, a home where everyone loves God and attends church and we love each other. Throw in the fact that my son's girlfriend loves us and enjoys being with us and that makes for some happy times!

But...........sometimes the rest of the world isn't so happy and then our lives are kinda miserable. I wonder why people lie when it's obvious to all around that they are lying. Do they truly think we're that stupid or have they convinced themselves???? I so wish I knew how to help them. It's sad when you love the people but fear being around them because you never know what will be told about you.

Sometimes I think it would be so awesome to move far, far away and take my little family with me and hide out from the world. Then I start to think about how I'd want to take momma, then my sis, and couldn't take her without her hubby and daughter and family, then my besties, then I'd need to take their families..........and the list goes on Why must I love people so much? Why do I care so much when others are hurt? It would be easier if it was aimed at me.

So, I guess I'll just muddle along and keep asking God for wisdom to know how to deal with all that life has thrown me this last year. It has been one of the worst years of my life but yet some of it has been the best, in spite of the bad! In the end, one thing I know.......God is Good!!!

Homemade Magic Shell

Look what I found???? I am so happy! Chris and well, Brooke and I love magic shell. I prefer the Reeses and so does Chris. Brooke likes the Heath. I plan on trying this soon!!! (Well, when we run out of all Chris got for Christmas!
This is the blog I found it on --------->http://showtellshare.blogspot.com/
Homemade Magic Shell
Who does not love Magic Shell? This week I came across a recipe, that is super easy and we already had the 2 ingredients in the cupboard. Coconut oil and chocolate chips. We tried it out tonight. There are many recipes online, some add a dash of sea salt, and the ratio of the coconut oil and chocolate chips are a bit different. We used 1 c coconut oil and about 2 1/2 c chocolate chips. Mix them together over low heat. In a few minutes we had Magic Shell ready to try. It was delicious and hardened just like the real Magic Shell.
And if you feel like being creative, you could try peanut butter chips, vanilla chips or add toffee bits...
I clean for 3 people tomorrow so I'm hoping for a good day! Trying to fight this bug I caught. Friday and Saturday, I get to be home!!!!! Clean house and make cards/craft! That's what I hope to accomplish! Well, along with facebooking, blogging, etc. lol

What a change a few months can make

Life has had so many changes and thrown so many things at me that I've never faced before. 2010 was probably one of the worst years I've faced. In spite of that......there were lots of good things. Momma going to Israel thus fulfilling one of her dreams and her starting college was another. Now.....she is on the honor roll and received a small scholarship! And yes, I am very proud!!!! She'll be 75 next month and walks circles around me. She sure inspires me to do more!!!! If you were to ask her......she wouldn't take the credit, tho! She'll tell you that God has helped her all the way! I am learning to rely more on God than ever since this past year!

A few more positive things.....Brooke is homeschooling 3 days a week and goes to school 2. I like it and so does she! :-) I am doing better physically and now clean houses 2 days a week! Who would've thought that OCD me would be cleaning other people's houses. lol

I've been doing a lot more crafting and have accomplished a lot on momma's Israel scrapbook that I'm making her. Altering boxes/containers has become one of my new favorite things to do! I need to post some of the new things that I've learned......just in case someone might happen upon my blog and find it of interest. I think I mostly do this blog for me. It's an outlet! Just a way to get things out without someone having to listen to me ramble on and on. :-)

So..........I decided to focus on the good things instead of posting the bad. Things are getting better in some areas, worse in others! In spite of it all........I find I am very blessed and have a lot to thank God for! Perhaps I'll end on that note and blog more when I'm not so tired and feeling lousy from whatever bug I have picked up!