The Change has Begun!

Yay! I changed one thing about my blog today. I am so excited! I learned about labels and how to use them with my blog. I actually removed my pages and will just try using labels for awhile. I tried reading about how to do this, but finally found a video on You Tube that helped. Now when I post about my different crafts, I will be able to organize them by type. I still have a long way to go, but this is a beginning. I am definitely smiling right now.

Headbands

This week, I tried a new craft. During last year's Christmas holidays, my daughter and I got into making flowers. We used old t shirts and ribbon. My daughter actually made a few headbands to give as gifts. This past week I made a few headbands. I think I am going to post them onto Etsy, but I need to get better pictures first. So my blog will be the first place that I post the pictures. When I put them on Etsy, I will put the link on here.

The headband above is a felt purple rose. I made the base of the rose similar to the way that the t=shirt flower below was made. Then I made the bud by rolling a felt spiral and using fabric glue to glue the pieces together. I think this is my favorite of the three headbands I made. It was so much fun to make, and I can't wait to see somebody wearing it.

This headband is made with a yellow t-shirt. It has been fun getting on Pinterest and seeing all the different ways to repurpose old t-shirts. My daughter and I learned how to make these t-shirt flowers over our Christmas vacation last year. I made a blue chain crochet flower for the base.

This is the third headband I made. This headband is a felt flower I made with a button center. All of the headbands were fun and I am excited about the way they turned out.

Here are all three of my headbands. I am excited about them. I made a shamrock hair clip for my daughter to wear to work tonight for St. Patrick's Day. I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I will get my daughter to model it for me and post a picture later. I look forward to making more of these, and am excited about my first Etsy adventure. Hopefully more will get made this week. I will post pictures if they do. Have a great week and share what you make. I would love to see pictures.

Fun Frames

I have always enjoyed doing crafts since I was married years ago. I am thrilled that my daughter is learning to love making things. She recently decorated a picture frame for a friends birthday present. We found an old frame at a thrift store, and old costume jewelry pieces that were around the house and in thrift stores. Brittany had fun arranging the pieces on the frame. Before she placed the jewelry pieces around the frame, we took a little black acrylic paint and brushed the frame to "antique" it. We loved the outcome, and her friend loved the present. Hopefully, we will post more gifts that we make in the coming months, especially with Christmas coming!

Blogging!

I have been playing around with this blog thing for a few years now, and have gotten nowhere. Thank you to Ginger Snap Crafts for your post on blogging. This blog has inspired me to set goals and really get to work. As she said in her post, you can't start a blog and just sit back and expect it to grow on it's own. It makes perfect sense. After all, you have to water flowers. So now it is time to water my blog. Ginger Snap Crafts said to have a purpose. This is definitely one area I am weak in. There are three areas I feel very passionate about right now. I love crafting, teaching preschoolers, and really want to get into writing. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time on crafting, so this will be the direction I will take my blog. Maybe I will start a new blog on teaching preschoolers, but this will be down the road. For now I will keep my blog's focus on one thing. Hopefully, I will work on writing skills as I build my blog.

I am going to set goals for my blog. My first goals I will be working on will be building an attractive blog. This means that I will probably be playing around with my blog and it may go through several changes. Please leave comments. I welcome constructive criticism and if you see something you like, let me know. My second goal is to start a facebook group. Ginger says that she is a part of a group. So here is a link to my facebook page: http://facebook.com/dmneubert. If you would like to join in the group and work on your blog, send me a friend request. We can all help each other. We will keep the group to about ten. This was the suggested number, and I think it is a good one. My third goal is to join a link party. I have been looking at these, but I am going to join one during the next week.

So I have a lot of learning to do and hopefully growing. So again, thank you to Ginger Snap Crafts for your post and blog. I know I do not have many readers right now, but if you find yourself reading this blog, please go to her blog and check it out. It is wonderful!

Happy blogging everybody!

First Try to Share a Link

Ok, so I am still learning about blogging and am having so much fun looking at and reading other blogs. Today I am going to share a link to a blog you should go look at. It is called Babblings and More. I am going to post their link. They have a lot to share and a cool give away. So head on over and look today. Enjoy!!

Life's Goodbyes

We got the call this morning that my husband's mother had passed away in the early hours of the morning. She had been sick the last few weeks and just placed in hospice care the day before. So we knew it was coming, it just happened quicker than we were thinking. However, this morning while I was sitting and working on crafts, I kept reliving the past years in my mind that I had known my mother-in-law. I think because she was so much on my mind, that the phone call was not unexpected.

I could not have asked for a better mother-in-law. I hope that when my turn comes, I can be the kind of mother-in-law that she was to me. From the very beginning, she made me feel like one of the family. I never felt like an outsider at any time. My husband and I were young when we were married. We had not worked for years to save for a big fancy wedding. Both of our families worked to provide us with a wedding that we look back on with great memories. My mother-in-law got the ladies of her church to make finger foods for our reception. A lot of the finger foods set out at our reception were made by her.

This was just the beginning of the past twenty-nine years. When I gave birth to my first son, she was so excited. She arrived at my house the day after we got home from the hospital. What a help she was. Being a first time mother, I was worried about everything. She just jumped in and helped, and showed me that babies really do not fall apart.

Since that time, we have had three other children. Elsie always wanted to know how they were and worked hard to give them goodies while they were growing up. I remember my older two boys wanted a television to have in their room to play their nintendo games. Elsie saved aluminum cans until she had enough to cash in to be able to buy them a television. Davey and Chris shared that television until Davey was well into his high school years.

My children loved her cooking. My daughter was so excited that cookies were actually made by scratch and didn't come out of a package. I remember a trip a few years ago where Brittany just sat on a stool in the kitchen watching her cook. Elsie knew that my youngest son Adam loved her stuffed shells. She always made a point to make those whenever she knew that Adam was going to be with her. Chris loved her cheese cakes. Our last visit to see her, Chris was not able to go with us. Elsie mad him a cheese cake for us to take back to him. Of couse, she always had crab cakes for us. There was nothing like her crab cakes. My oldest son is a Marine and he loved her cowboy cookies. Whenever he was deployed, she always made her cowboy cookis and sent to him while he was in Afghanistan or Iraq.

These are just a few things  that will always be in my memory. She was always an encouragement to us. What a great teacher she was in her quiet way. I am sorry that we lived so far away and did not get to be around her more often.

The last few months were filled with pain for her after a painful surgery. We know that now, she feels no more pain and is in a better place. We have shed tears today because we will miss her and her presence in our lives. As I look through pictures and think of her grandchildren, not just our children, but all ten of them, I think of the legacy that she has left behind. She will not be forgotten. This week as we prepare to say our earthly goodbye to her, I only hope that through the years, that we can carry on and pass  the life lessons that she taught us to those younger members of our family. Even these last few years when her health was beginning to go down, she would sit in her rocking chair crocheting blankets to donate to cancer patients. What a legacy we have to live up to. So to Grandmom, we say thank you for your never ending love and service that you gave to all of us. We love you and will miss you.

This is Elsie with four of her grandchildren. This picture was taken about a year and a half ago. We had just picked up our son, the Marine at the airport. He was in the process of moving to a new duty station. Elsie took us all out to dinner that night. Even though it was a quick trip, we had so much fun that night. 

Proud Mom

I have to say that I am so proud of my youngest son Adam. He auditioned for and got a solo in this year's half time show with his high school band. I cannot wait to see the first performance. He is being so secretive and will not tell me the name of the song he is playing. He loves making me wait for these things. I am still so excited and proud of him. Way to go Adam!

This is Adam playing for one of his games last year.

Happy Birthday Alyssa

It was my niece's birthday this past weekend. I had so much fun making her gifts. A friend of mine has recently introduced me to making paper beads out of recycled paper. I made Alyssa a pair of comic strip earrings using a newspaper comic strip. I then made her a bracelet using the comics out of a newspaper. The bracelet did not turn out as colorful as I would like, but I am learning as I go. I also made her a letter with her name and decorated it. My husband actually cut the letter out of wood for me. I got the idea for the letter off of Pinterest. So overall it was a very productive weekend. However, my living room is a mess. I have also been making lots of paper beads while watching the Olympics. So maybe lots of bracelets, earrings, and necklaces coming up.

This is the bracelet with the comic strip beads. The beads did not turn out as colorful as I wanted, but I am still pleased with it.

The letter that my husband cut out for me. He builds furniture, so lots of scrap wood around. I modge podged scrapbook paper on it and just printed the letters off of my computer. After I had everything glued on it, I put three coats of modge podge on it.

These are the earrings that I made out of pictures cut out of the comic section. So much better than just throwing it away and taking up landfill space.

After School

Well I have finally graduated! Actually this event took place a few months ago, but I am so excited that I finally have completed my degree. It just goes to say that you are never too old to go to school. I am still teaching preschoolers, and I have to say this year has been a challenging year. I have students who just turned three before school started and students who are five going into kindergarten next year. They are all very active. This class really has to be kept busy with no down time. I am constantly on the internet looking for new ideas.

So now that I have graduated, I am enjoying getting back into crafting and spending lots of time with family. I also have a house that I feel never got cleaned during the time I was in school. So lots of catching up with house work (or not). I am also going to work on this blog. I really want to create a blog that I am proud of. I am definitely going to try to post at least once a week.

I still have two children at home. My daughter graduates high school this year and is frantically in the process of deciding what is next in her life. My son is enjoying his high school years. We had a great time getting together with family during the Christmas season. It was great seeing family that we haven't seen in few years at a wedding and visiting my husband's family over Thanksgiving. Now that we are into our second month of 2012, we are really deciding on our goals for the year. I saw on a friend's blog that she went to a couples event at her church and learned about setting goals with your spouse and doing things together. This could be planning a garden togethe, a vacation, or maybe just planning meals together. I really believe this is great even for those of us that are not young couples. I find now that our children are older, we really need to work on just being a couple again. So I believe this will be a big goal for me during 2012. Just learning to enjoy being half of a couple and finding common ground again.

Well I hope everybody has a great weekend and hopefully many of you have long weekend. Get out there and have fun!

This is a picture of an ornament that my class gave me that I student taught in. I will treasure this through the coming years.

This is a picture of our family at a family wedding over the holidays. It was great seeing family members that we haven't seen in a few years. We really shouldn't wait for major life events to get together.

Thanksgiving

Well it has been a few months since I have been on here. It is the week of Thanksgiving and we are making a trip to visit with my husband's family. We are excited about the trip and seeing everyone. I also am in the last few weeks of schooling. I have to finish my teacher work sample and professional portfolio. I feel like there is so much to do and so little time. However I will graduate on December 10th. I am so excited! It is a life long dream to get my college degree and I am almost there. You are never too old. Hopefully, after I graduate there will be more time to give to this blogging. Well I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoys their family and friends!