Lunch Bag Mini

Today's project was a little mini album made out of lunch bags. I have all ready mailed it off to my swap person and I am hoping she will like it. They are so easy to make and fun! I am hoping she will fill it with pictures of a happy day shared with someone special but that will be up to her.

The weekends Events

Friday evening we loaded up all the shutters - those completed and the remaining that had to be done and headed for our house in Cayce. Saturday I scrapped and scrapped with a scrapper that actually worked so much better than the ones in the tool box up here at the Cottage and began painting. By Saturday night I had two coats of elephant grey on all but one set of the shutters. I finished with the second coat on those on Sunday morning. 

 While I was painting shutters Scott was sanding the roof trim boards and preparing them for me to paint when I had completed the shutters. It was a bit of up and down on the ladder but he got one side and the back of the garage sanded before a glitch in the works occurred.  We decided we wanted to add some shutters to the garage windows and to the side of the house and drove to Home Depot where we found they no longer carry wooden shutters. Well the truck started acting weird and then the check engine light came on. Luckily we got back to the house that night (Saturday) and Sunday morning Scott went to one of the parts stores so they could hook the reader up to the truck to figuer out what was going on. Turned out to be the #4 coil was miss firing. So Scott replaced that Sunday morning while I painted.

 Just before we left we got two of the shutters hung back up on the house. Scott said it took a lot longer than he thought it was going to as it took a lot of time to drill into the brick even with the hammer action on his fancy drill. I think they look fantastic... only 8 more to hang. I am going to check a couple ReStores for wooden shutters as I have the sizes written down on a piece of paper in my purse.

 These two were waiting for us when we pulled into the yard. They've been named Howard and Tippy. Callie kitty showed up a bit later for some dinner. The 4th kitten disappeared several weeks ago. I am hoping to be able to catch these 3 soon and get them shots and spayed or neutered. I actually coaxed Howard inside last night but he was having none of it and spent his time in crying and trying to get back out... oh and farting a lot. Stinky boy! Ah the Natural defences that animals come up with. P-U!

As September Creeps Away

AH FALL!!! It is slowly creeping into view. It is still quite warm but we are starting to feel Mountain Breezes and seeing leaves falling from the trees and I am SO HAPPY.

Fall always gives me such a sense  of calm and I find myself reminiscing a lot.  Memories or my Grandma "putting the garden to bed". Tee Pees of  pole beans being drag to the pole barn to dry. Corn stalks being tied together for Fall displays and Apple Cider being pressed.

The smell of  molasses cookies and the beginning of "soup season" with the first batch of Vegetable Beef going on the stove as I walked through the door at the end of a school day. Grandma and I sipping tea and eating one of  the soft molasses cookies that everyone in the family remembers her baking all the time. My Grandma worked from just before sun up until lunch. After lunch she watched "Her Stories" - As The World Turns and The Young and The Restless.  After they were over she would take a nap until I returned from school.  AH MEMORIES!



Last week I did a bit of clean up in the yard here at the Cottage. You can always tell you've worked hard by the stains on your socks and the dirt on your legs at the end of the day. I decided to set some of the chairs that are normally on the porch in the area I cleared in the woods so we could sit out there sometimes.

One of our favorite Pizza places in Greenville, SC. 

I so enjoyed the "Harvest Moon" and went out and did my best to get a few pictures of it. It was just so beautiful but we had some cloud cover so it was hit or miss with waiting between clouds to get a good shot.

 Scott and I enjoyed standing in the front yard in our pajamas watching the moon dance among the clouds.

Today I created these cute little beaded snowmen charms. Super easy to make and will make some wonderful additions to some Holiday projects.

 I also got 4 out of the 10 shutters painted and am planning to finish painting the remaining 6 tomorrow while Scott is at work. These are the shutters that go on our house in Cayce.

 I will also need to get some laundry done and the house cleaned and some packages ready to get mailed and pay bills... and and and... well you get the picture. Fridays are just crazy days! See you next week!

Scratch Off Art

Here is the video I did for my You Tube Channel explaining how I did the scratch off art. It is SO EASY!

I Know I Know

What about the daily blogging? I am trying but we have had a lot going on and it is so hard to find time to sit down to write a post each day. Today is going to be a rainy day so I figured this would be my best opportunity to get a post written.

Piper makes it abundantly clear that she does NOT like us leaving her alone with Greg. Each time we go down there we find the pillows and nap afgan shifted about. Last weekend some of the pillows were even on the floor.

 The little cottage continues to have improvements made. The crew that Adele hired finished with the eaves and painting. She is still waiting for the seemless gutters to be installed and I am not sure what else they had to do.

 They installed shutters one day and I love how they look... how about you all? I think they really add to  the charm of the place.

I have made a few more cards. The top three I created my own scratch paper with crayons and acrylic paint. And the bottom three were created by cutting up a background that I didn't like and applying pieces to a black background to create the stained glass affect. The little 3x3 inch cards make wonderful tuck ins on gifts.

 And here was a nice surprise. Scott's Mom bought him a truck. It was a wonderful deal and she wanted to do something for him/us. We will definitely put it to use with all we are doing on the house. It is a 2005 RAM 1500 with the towing package and less than 14,000 original miles.

Well that about catches you all up for now and I have dishes waiting for me in the sink. Have a wonderful day!

The Rest of August

So now we come to wrapping up August on this the first of September. On Sunday the 21rst Scott and I and his sister, Adele decided to go for a walk down near the boat ramp. It was such a lovely morning and while they walked and talked I got to commune with Nature along the way. Sorry this post is a bit photo heavy .

Five Lined Skink

Nature's Dream catcher

 It was such a beautiful day!

During the week I made a few "cat" themed cards and I really love how they turned out.

One of the strays that is trying to "own" us - I call him Angel.

 This is the little cottage where we have temporary digs... Adele has paid some men to come in and do some repairs and paint. These are sort of the "before" pictures.

 The photo below was taken after they had painted the block foundation and porch steps. Currently there is work being done to enclose the eaves. Once that is completed the Painters will return to finish painting the little house.