A little post for my cabin girlfriends :)

Here's a pic of Chloe crawling inside of the bag from gramma and papa...

and pics when Chloe and Lex found the Monster High stuff that sweet Mary sent for them :) They loved all of the wonderful things she sent for them!

After they finished with the presents inside of the bags....we told them there was another surprise and had them close their eyes and walk into the dining area with their eyes closed for the "big reveal"...Sarah caught this pic of the look on their faces when they opened their eyes...

and their excitement and laughter filled up the room...and made me so happy that they loved it so much!

as long as we believe in magic....
it just might keep happening every now and then.
That's all I know at this point :)
peace ya'll

Chloe Girl my little Christmas angel baking helper

Chloe came over bright and early this morning and was so eager to get some baking and making done....I cracked up and smiled so many times throughout the day with her eagerness to help and also her impatience to get-er-done.
When she told me that she needed an apron because I always wear one when I am cooking special things...I went out into the closet --found a small one---and tied it on her LOL!
Really gave me flash backs to the days I spent with Mamaw helping her with the Holiday baking...
Chloe kept chiming in how much she loved me and it was such a wonderful day...
then we got some family news that was not so happy.... but being with Chloe....just kind of got me right through it....and when she told me that she loves me bigger than 3 universes that haven't even happened yet----
that just about made my day :) and I knew that any bad news....
in the future we would ever receive-we can always know we are so lucky to have what is right in front of us and this would also make us so happy to realize how blessed we are to have so many good loving things right here in our life each and every day---
this little munchkin told me about 50 times today how much she loves me...and I guess I trumped her on that one :D

The White elephant society....

Dear sweet Mary sent me a box of her Monster High Fabulous goodies to share with the grand babies this Christmas....
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CuteWeirdFluffy


my white elephant gift came in a bag that was labeled "For Stress"...and inside.....

chocolates....
she always tells me that a glass of red wine and some dark chocolate is a winner winner for good health.
Thank you Mary.....
good friends like you and all the smiles we have shared have surely in itself added to my longevity.
Cheers to the
White elephant gang!
xoxo

9 days till Christmas doings

Hubby was rained out at work today so we got to spend some more quality time together :=)
We went out to the cemetery this morning & left some flowers .
His parents---Momma Jo and Warren..... hard to believe it has been almost 7 years since they passed...

And my Momma Linda Darlene.....still seems like yesterday when I was chatting up a storm with her and confiding everything about my day and listening about hers...I will say that this is the first time I haven't left that place blubbering with tears...I don't think missing our parents has gotten any easier......it just seems more real at this point

After that we went and did a little Christmas shopping and I have to say that people didn't seem quite as stressed or frantic this year.............and of course having my silly hubby around who compliments my own cray-cray and helps to always remind me that every day vertical is a good one.....

why else would today have not been another good one?

sending out positive thoughts and hugs to everyone out there who is missing their loved ones this Holiday Season. It's hard not having them here..and yet the wonderful thing is that we were blessed to have been a part of their lives in the first place.

Peace ya'll. 

Upcycled kids play wardrobe closet from old TV Stand

Haven't been doing much painting lately with the wet weather and all but almost finished this project today and got a couple of pics before the rain comes in again. 
Sarah had sent me a link from Pinterest awhile back with a chest of drawers that had been turned into a kids play wardrobe closet and asked if I could do something similar for the girls for Christmas..
hubby and I found this old TV stand at a thrift store recently for $19.....

So after a bit of pink and purple chalk paint..some gold glaze and a bit of glitter...some paper and fabric decoupage and some watercolors and sharpies...
I think it's coming along pretty well...

Now all that's left is for Gamma to fill it up with the rest of the goodies....
my friend Mary has this awesome shop called
CuteWeirdFluffy
she recently sent me some Monster High stuff for the girls that I am going to add in some baskets---so I plan on making this a place for the girls to do some doll make-overs as well :) I think they'll be pleased with it.

gheez just had a flash back from days gone by when the older bro decided to give me a makeover and suddenly turned into some sort of Vidal Sassoon wannabe  and he cut off a bunch of my curls on one side of my poor little head Hah!
Momma wasn't too pleased with that no-sir-ee
hee-hee.
Hope ya'll are having a stress free holiday season so far....
W-o-W
only 10 more days till Christmas and then onto a New Year. 
cheers to dat!

Photo bomber Bill Dance Jr.

There's a reason round our house we always feel like somebody's watching....
Bill Dance Jr..keeping an eye on things
always LOL!

Cheers to lemonade this Thanksgiving

So I sent hubby back to the store on Sunday.....
I had forgotten to grab a lemon to get some zest to add to the Turkey salting mix I was mojo-ing in the little blender. He came back with not one single lemon but instead with a pretty sad looking bag of lemons --- but this is not prime lemon growing season one might surmise :)
I was looking at the sad little leftovers inside of the bag tonight and couldn't help but think of the phrase
"When life gives you lemons....make lemonade"....
So I decided tonight that I am gonna make some lemonade tomorrow for the first time on Thanksgiving.
Just kind of as a shout out and homage to all the people I know who have and are going through so much adversity and yet still manage in their own ways to do the best they can and just get through it.
The only thing I have figured out at this point is that the older you get...it seems like there are a few more lemons that come along unexpectedly in that bag. And sometimes when lemons are out of season they can be extremely bitter and even more sour than usual.
So many people I know and care about have family members suffering, or have recently lost beloved family members, or are going through some drama in the school of hard knocks that life seems to have this uncanny way of sneaking up on us and throwing it down right when we least expect it.
So my sad little sack of leftover lemons is going to be some glorious lemonade tomorrow....and of course a few extra squeezes will go into that pan of turkey gravy :)
I am so thankful each and every day for a lot of different things. Yet this Thanksgiving I am thankful the most for the people who have crossed my path who continue to make lemonade out of those lemons. And who at the end of the day are simply thankful to have the lemons to make something out of.
Happy Thanksgiving ya'll.
Be blessed, be well, and most of all be thankful for everything you do have because at any moment it could be taken away from you.
Cheers to lemonade this Thanksgiving and always!

Chloe Girl and her clay nation creations

Glitter and clay and Chloe girl hard at work---who could ask for a better way to spend a Sunday?
Biggest laugh of the day for me was when Chloe told me that sometimes dogs smell like old feet.
Brownie didn't appreciate all of the FOO-FOO body spray he kept getting doused with throughout the day...but boy did Nugget soak up the extra attention! LOL!
Of course PaPa Mikie kept popping in and saying "Are you burning something?" And Chloe kept whispering "Tell him to RELAX!"
hee-hee
Chloe is getting pretty strong minded in wanting to do things her way or you can take the highway (cuz she's ignoring ya) ....but glitter and clay all over the place kind of took on it's own kind of road yesterday at Gamma's house----LOL!
Hope ya'll have a nice week ahead!

Halloween 31

Wow! Hard to believe it is the end of October already!
Here's a pic of the strange pumpkin collection hanging out at Lexie and Chloe's house...

And here's a pic of the scary crow the hubs finished up last week....

Hope ya'll have a spook-tac-ular Halloween...and remember
you are never too old to beg for candy!
(Or bacon for that matter) hee-hee

edited to add a pic of the grandbabies on this crazy weather night in bako....
hope everyone is staying safe out there!

My Crappy $10 wheelbarrow

So last Saturday....hubs and I got up early and did a little yard selling junking trip. We wound up in the Westchester area of town and I have to say that someone like me who loves old things and appreciates how they continue to thrive.... I love the old down town area in my hometown ....sometimes just going on a random drive and looking at all of the old houses that are still in their fabulous glory today...is just to me a nice way to RELAX and spend a little extra time.
So the yard sales in the Westchester area.....
what a blast!  At this point in my life the degenerative arthritis seems to keep getting worse but even on my worst days I feel so lucky to to have so many wonderful supportive friends who encourage me each day to keep on creating...I can never thank any of them enough!
Okay so Rhonda ramble back to the Westchester blocks of yard sales last week thang... hee-hee
We are at this one house and I have picked out a couple of things and then I spot this wheelbarrow turned upside down. The thing is covered in cement and is rusty and obviously has spent a good quality of time here on earth helping someone make and create many foundations sort of things......Something inside of me told me that I instantly felt a connection with this old ugly thang LOl!..So I ask the guy how much it is and he tells me that he was asking $20 but that I can have it for $10 and I tell him that I will take it.
Hubs rolls his eyes...pulls out the Sergeant Stadanko "STARE" attitude and tells me "Look I know I do not see things the way you do but we do not need this wheelbarrow no matter how much it is"
I tell him to relax that I am gonna use it to display things in and am gonna make it look purty.
So he is kind of pissed about me buying a wheelbarrow that I do not need in this lifetime or even my next lifetime.....but after about 20 minutes as we are rolling down the street with what I felt was all of my beautiful purchases packed inside of a poor old ugly wheelbarrow...he ends up telling me that it was worth the ten bucks just so he had something to carry all of my crap in LOL! I told him that the dadgum tire on the front of the wheelbarrow was worth at least 10 bucks..but went about my happy and he was whistling as well.
So Friday after hubby got home from work I asked him if he could sand the wheelbarrow for me cuz my hands were pretty sore....he ended up knocking off a bunch of the cement but I told him not to worry about the inside because I planned on putting some fabric on it.
I wish I had taken a before pic....of the wheelbarrow that had a royal blue hue with tons of rust and cement caked on it......
but yesterday morning I woke up at 4 am because my body was telling me I couldn't lay down anymore.
After a trip in the hot tub I put on the first coats of paint before it got daylight......
and it suddenly became a work in progress LMAO!
And I have to admit that at one time yesterday as I was working on this in the midst of some other projects.....
I had an old school country radio channel playing out back and suddenly the song came on...."When I Get To Where I'm Going" and I ended up with huge tears in my eyes as that is one of the songs Momma chose to play at her funeral....but at the same time I thought it was so fitting....
And at that point I did add a couple of flowers that have the words "Family" on them as a shout out to moms......
at the end of my day....
family is at the heart of everything that teaches you how to make ugly things beautiful.....and at the end of finishing up my crappy $10 dollar wheelbarrow.....all I knew about "When I get to where I'm Going" is at this point in my life I don't think I am there yet....but I am slowly learning how to disconnect with the things that prevent me from being who I really am---and am still trying to figure out that fine mess one day at a time LOL!
I kind of think I ended up with a dadgum fine arse pretty wheelbarrow though :D

New Old Hollywood glam upcycled table and more projects gettin' er done

So starting off with my fave of the ones I worked on today.....
this old table reminded me of Old Hollywood when we got it quite awhile back....it sat outside collecting dust until yesterday when I started in with the decoupage.....and I really like the new look....

compared to where it started from

I still have a few more coats of varnish to add to the top but the copies of the old Hollywood images along with a few vintage theater tickets....are looking like they are ready to glam it up in someone's new home for a few more years to come :)......and yep it took awhile to cut out all of those images and carefully place them on top of the old table....but I really think the end result was worth the time and effort.

here's a small half moon table I also did at the same time....the top of this little table was covered in glue and looked kind of harsh.....I decoupaged a piece of an old vintage map on top and think it looks pretty sweet.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased some fab vintage fabric from my buddy Robin @ Etsy any old time along with some other fabric that I have a plan for.  Hubby had made me promise that I would not paint these chairs as I originally thought of doing them up in a turquoise....

So I compromised with the hub and settled on a black stain and think that the fabric from Robin while definitely vintage....certainly gave these old chairs a new Pop!

This old Stackmore chair had some damage to the seat covering...

I left the original seat intact but covered it with some vintage light green polka dot fabric and then added a pillow I made from some vintage owl fabric that I scored awhile back...

Hubby brought this old table home the other day....and poor thing was looking quite trasherized....

but after a little chalk paint and a crown image in white chalk pen.....I think it is ready to live another regal life in someone's life :)

Looks like a bit of rain is in the forecast and headed our way.....need to get a few more projects completed this weekend ....hope ya'll have a fab one!

WTF about the old "NEW" lifetime offer @Zibbet

Come on Jono.....is it all that hard to answer the few who are still there Zupporting you?
Key phrase....
  What about all the issues on the regular site? Where does fixing all of those bugs stand? Can we please have an update?


Permalink Reply by All Earrings and Supplies (Toni) 8 hours ago
I see by the ad banners in the shop that the lifetime deal is being offered again, and those who enrolled in it the first time already have access to their stand alones. What about all the issues on the regular site? Where does fixing all of those bugs stand? Can we please have an update?
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Permalink Reply by All Earrings and Supplies (Toni) 7 hours ago
Still an error with in shop search. The search box retains the previous search terms, and clicking on a new section just brings the same results back up again from the previous search. Requires a complete refresh of page to return to shop front.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Zadrozny 6 hours ago
I agree Toni. Thank you for saying this. Very disappointing to see resources and focus shift somewhere else before the regular site issues are fixed.

Permalink Reply by All Earrings and Supplies (Toni) 6 hours ago
Just edited an item on my shop front page by opening it in a new tab to do the edits. When I returned to the shop front page to double check the edits, it gave me the Whoops! screen again. This has been happening frequently since I need to correct all the back links in my listings since the relaunch made the old obsolete.
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Permalink Reply by Sweet2Spicy (Elsie) 6 hours ago
I believe Toni is expressing how a lot of us are feeling right now.


Permalink Reply by Denise McGuire 5 hours ago
The timing is impeccable. Today my shop downgraded to 'free' from 'premium'. This was when I, and many others who joined on to Zibbet last fall, paid for an annual subscription. Seeing the shift in focus from the Zibbet collective to stand-alones was not what I was hoping for. I believe it will take much longer to recoup the lost momentum (if that was ever possible) because things will feel even more disconnected. The forums not being part of the site is already an obstacle in being able to connect with other sellers here. There will need to be money and manpower to focus on the standalones and getting them up and running.
When they said the bugs would be worked out of Zibbet, I naturally assumed that would take priority. Clearly it has not. And for the premium sellers who are about to have expired memberships, with 10 free listings, no stats, 1 photo each...the cleaner, much better designed stand alone template would have possibly kept some people a bit longer. But no, instead that will roll out in January. Remember January of last year? Yeh, me too. That's when Zibbet's momentum really shifted in a not good direction.
I didn't think I'd feel so sad when my premium status expired. I said I would give it a solid year. I went an entire year with zero sales. None. I thought it might be slow for me, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have not even a single sale at the year's end. In that same time I had 481 orders on Etsy - not items - orders. I was clinging to the hope that there was, well, hope for me here. I would do things very differently, but it's not my ship to steer. All the best to everyone!

Permalink Reply by LMRPhotography (Lynne) 4 hours ago
Denise I understand how you feel.
I bought a lifetime many years ago so I will not leave but, my 2nd shop is a yearly and I have to think about whether I want to continue with it or not.
I think there are a lot of us wondering why the stand alone sites seem to be the main focus instead of the site itself.
Kind of makes me wonder why.


Permalink Reply by All Earrings and Supplies (Toni) 4 hours ago
I'm honestly not trying to stir up crap here, I'm not angry at all, but I think this a very fair question to ask. Aside from the actual 'bug' issues that still exist here, so many of the things that you don't consider bugs, but usability issues, are costing me and others a ton of work. It really needs to be more reasonably usable, it's not hard stuff to fix either, pretty standard. It's sort of like if I insisted my customers go through the checkout one item at a time, having to go back and forth, paying individually for each item they want. That's how much work this is turning out to be for me. I can't possibly be the only one, even of those who participate here in the forum, let alone sitewide.
We've been told no one has to use the stand alones, so it's not like the shop site is going away and doesn't need to be fixed, and we're more than two months out from relaunch and almost everyone has been patient and supportive through the entire process, honestly the least complaining of any systems launch I've ever seen on any of these sites. Lots of really good things came out of the relaunch, even though some unanticipated things like the back link and very important search issues that are still ongoing, along with others.
I realize it isn't easy without major injections of investor capital, but I'd really like to believe you'd like to prove Zibbet is better than this, that you are concerned about the things your customers are still struggling with, and do the right thing by everyone. Not to mention we are still paying customers.
I am asking you politely to please finish the relaunch for the rest of us. Please?


Permalink Reply by Renate Simone 4 hours ago

Toni, this is exactly how I feel. I am really happy you brought the issue up and am really looking forward to hearing something from Jonathan beyond the usual as soon as we can line. I haven't said anything up until now because I decided to wait and give them a chance to fix all the bugs. But it looks like they aren't even working in that direction. The stand-alone sites should have been a totally different team leaving the original developers to fix their bugs. There is no way I am going to try to drive traffic to my Zibbet shop when everything on that page works against keeping customers in my shop. Fixing the white space issues and putting a link back to our shop front in a prominent place on item pages is not rocket science. Those things are necessary and should have been done long ago. Search should never have been released as it. As a Z customer with 2 premium shops, I feel totally neglected and unappreciated. My 2 premium shops still run till after the holidays, but I've pretty much lost faith.


Permalink Reply by Sweet2Spicy (Elsie) 3 hours ago
I'm not angry either. Just disappointed and really puzzled as to what is going on with Zibbet. I had so much faith in Andrew and Jonathan's goal of "building the best handmade site on the web". It really doesn't seem like it's going in that direction and that makes me sad - especially after I recently spent $300 on a bronze lifetime membership. I bought this membership in good faith believing that Zibbet would shortly be restored to a properly functioning site. Now I'm worried that this may not happen - and that this new Zibbet is what we have to live with.


Permalink Reply by All Earrings and Supplies (Toni) 2 hours ago
Oh, I do hope not. :0'
I'm left to surmise that there is no money, hence the new offer for the lifetime deal. And I think there are only a couple of programmers so not enough people to work on both. It always makes me hesitant to give someone more money when they haven't delivered on their initial promises, as it should anyone. That's not mean or angry, that's just plain common business sense. I wish it were different. :shrug:

More Lessons from Chloe and mind over matter kind of things

Had the little munchkin for a couple of days and of course Chloe was in her element as usual. This week her fave new saying was "That kind of creeps me out!"  Gamma has lots of dolls and things with eyeballs all over the place and I kept telling Chloe that they were just pretend and she was letting me know that her mind was saying something to her brain about maybe these things were really looking at her. I figured that one of the bigger kids had taught her the new "creeps me out" concept but then when we were watching cartoons later on~ a commercial break had a monster saying that he was creeped out :=)
When we woke up Sunday morning she told me that she had kind of had a bad dream. I said "Oh my goodness what was it about?"
and she told me "I was dreaming that I was falling into a bunch of strange holes here on the bed."  So I told her that I had had a wonderful dream about a beautiful garden with butterflies and fairies and two little adorable pixies. She then tells me that "Oh yah I had that dream too."  I said "I thought you had a sort of bad dream?"  So then she informs me that all you have to do is think real hard and your brain will change your bad dreams to good ones.
When we went to the Antique Mall she was not minding very well and really quite unusual for her when she is with me. Papa told her that he was gonna spank her butt if she didn't behave. So then I told Chloe that Papa must be pretty serious cuz we don't do no butt whippin' round here. She tells him "Papa I'm trying to be good...I'm just not in a good mood right now okay?" And of course Gamma is busting up laughing.
We were reading a book and her reading "routine" is that I read it then she reads it then we take turns reading the pages. (and then we start all over LOL) She gets to a page with a pic of the Eiffel Tower and says "And then the snail went to Paris." I ask her how she knew that the Eiffel Tower was in Paris (as Paris was not mentioned in the book) and she says "Gamma I have a brain between my ears that lets me learn things you know."
Then she lets me know that she saw a TV program at her house and that she learned about Paris there. :=)
Well one thing I learned at my house this weekend.....
all you have to do is to think real hard and you can change bad things into good ones. 
I think she nailed that one :=)
Hope ya'll are having a nice week so far!
October already.....wowzaa.

Today's doins revamped coffee table/TV stand sharpie pen transfer

I've had this coffee table that could also be used for a TV stand sitting around for awhile. Today....I spruced it up a  bit with some white and beige sponge paint. Then after hubby sanded the top for me I did a transfer with a Sharpie pen and then put some wood stain and clear varnish on the top.
I think the piece will enjoy it's new life the 2nd time around :)

It's cooling off a bit in Bako... I love the Fall....last year we didn't have much of one....hope ya'll are enjoying your weekend!