Sweet Simple Nativty

I am under my annual crunch time to make crafts for a craft show I go in.  It is this Saturday.  I have managed to make 18 of these amazing, sweet nativity ornaments so far.

They were so easy to make,  The hard part was finding this type of clothes pin.  I actually found them at a locally owned little dollar store.  Although, I did find them for the same price in packs of 100 on Amazon.
I had to cut the bottom part off 1/3 of them to be baby Jesus.  I glued 2 together, one just a little higher than the other for Mary and Joseph. I tied a raffia bow on all the baby Jesus', then glued Him on an angle across the front.
These rusty stars were from Ebay. I twisted rusty wire trough the star, then glued it to the back of the ornament. You can see it in the picture below.  The twine hanger is also glued in the back.  I used Goop glue for the gluing because I find it is so strong and won't fall apart.

They turned out so adorable!

God bless you and thank you for stopping by.

Crocheted Pumpkins

I found this pattern on Pinterest for these cute crocheted pumpkins.  They are so quick to make and fun.

 I added some embellishments, such as, little keys, tags that say fall, old little curly-cue bed springs. And I glued some of the bigger ones onto a bed spring with a doily under it.

I made them in 4 sizes. The smallest only takes about 1/2 hour to make.  It was fun using different colours of yarn and it was a great way to use up yarn scraps.

You can find the pattern here.

Thanks for stopping by.

This post is linked up to :

Talk of The Town
Vintage Charm Adirondack Girl
Make it Pretty Monday
Dagmar's Home Link Party

August

August was quite fun and full!

First of all we had our county fair.  Between myself and all the kids we entered over 100 items.  We always have fun, but we all are quite competitive and hope to do well.  We all did do well. The boys had lots of positive remarks from the judges and ribbons. Rebekah and I both received High Point in our division and I received Best of Division for my butter tarts as well. That was a huge surprise!

I was so proud of Rebekah. She entered her strawberry jam in the adult division and won against me! Awesome.

Best of Division award on my butter tarts.

Ben won 1st on his bread against Rebekah. He is so talented.

I love this Christmas button wreath Jacob made and won 2nd.  I want to make some of these this Christmas. 

August we celebrated Jacob's 10th birthday.  All my kids are getting so old!  We went to our local corn maze and had a blast.

We brought along one of Jacob's friends.

God bless you and thank you for stopping by.

July

July was actually a fairly quiet month for us.  All of our company left after the first week and we worked at VBS at our church for a week.  Jacob also attended soccer camp for a week in the evenings.  I really liked that camp because they served a delicious supper to all the families every night! Bonus, no cooking.

We did get a chance to pick some sour cherries at a local farm. It was 50/50 picking. Which means the farm keeps have of what we pick and we keep the other half for free. We managed to pick 6 ice cream buckets in about an hour.

Rebekah and Ben picking.

I canned 16 pints of cherry pie filling. Larry loves his cherry cheesecake!

Larry and Jacob worked on a small project one day too.  They built a little front deck on the house.

I didn't get a picture of the finished project, but it turned out really great.

July wasn't the funnest time for the kids and I. Our house ended up getting very invaded by bats while Larry was out of town for 5 days.  We knew we had lots of bats in the attic and they could make their way into the house and we were trying to fix the problem. But it seemed we actually made it worse.  We ended up running out of the house in our pajamas at 5:30 am and slept in a hotel until Larry made it home.  We think we have all their entry points sealed now.  They have migrated for the winter. But, we will see next May when they return to have their babies in our attic if they can get back in.  I have a feeling they will find a way, but hopefully not.

So, that was our July. Thanks for stopping by!

Time to Catch Up

The last several months seem like a whirlwind.  We have been enjoying life and all it's wonderful business.

This post, I think I'll go ALL the way back to June.  In June we had the great fortune to go on a family vacation to Vancouver Island for my niece's wedding.  It was so wonderful to get back on the island. I grew up there and have not been back for 12 years.

Exploring the amazing beach in Parksville

Jacob spent a lot of time with the sea lions in Victoria

Rebekah's selfie on BC Ferries

We had such a great time there. But we still had fun waiting for us at home.  We were only home a few days until Larry's parents came for their annual visit and Rebekah and I were geared up for the local stampede.

Larry's parents and the kids

Rebekah and the Zebra that was part of the half time show at the stampede this year.

There you go. I'll be able to post about July next time.

Garage Sale Needlepoint

I think I might be weird. But I love old needlepoint pictures.  When ever I see one at a garage sale or thrift store, I am SO tempted to buy it.  When I saw this one at a garage sale a few weeks ago, I knew I needed it.

Sorry about the weird colours

Somebody did A LOT of work to make this and I love it! The lady gave me a deal, because she knew I would love it. She sold it to me for $5.00.

Thanks for stopping by.

This post is linked up to;

Thrifty and Vintage Finds Link Party

How I Earn Free Merchandise

I have to tell you of how I have earned $220.00 of free Amazon gift cards, which I have used to buy DVD's, collagen and other THM products.

I found this website called Swagbucks.  It is one of those survey websites and you can spend some time to answer the surveys, but you can also earn money by shopping online through their website.  I don't know about you, but I shop online at places like Amazon and Walmart quite often. If I shop through Swagbucks at these websites, I earn money.  I also found that you could earn money by booking hotels through their website.  I wish I'd seen this earlier because when Larry is working regularly, he stays about 10 nights per month at hotels.  That would equate to $75 of Amazon gift cards, or you could choose from lots of different gift cards, including PayPal.

So, just by booking a hotel through Swagbucks, I earn about $7.50.  They have hundreds of stores you can shop at and earn money. Such as, Expedia, Old Navy, Cabela's, Staples, Sears just to name a few.

If you want to check it out click here.  I would appreciate if you did go through this link, as I would receive referral Swagbucks and if you do it soon you could earn an extra 300 SB ($3.00) as well.

My Amazon shopping cart is full of items waiting for me to earn enough Swagbucks to redeem them for a gift card. I can't wait to place my order.

God bless.

This post is linked up to:

Monday of Many Blessings
Welcome Home Wednesdays Link Party
Wake Up Wednesday Linky Party