Before & After.....A Work in Progress

Before.....

During

After

Still a work in progress. I have a hard time drawing the line between clutter reduction and not enough decorations in the room. A decorator I am NOT!

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

This weeks "Tell The Truth Thursday", hosted by the Redheaded Riter, is about Crayons. What color would I be?

This is an easy question for me because of a gift my girls got when they were very young.

My sister, Karen is a food broker. She is a "middle man" between the grocery stores and the companies that make the products. When the girls were young, she was a representative for the Crayola Company. That made her an especially fun auntie when it came to gift giving!

One year the girls each got a really cool wooden box with a blue crayon in it.

This crayon was personalized!

"You're My True Blue Hero"

"Katy Barber"

"From Auntie Karen"

This is a loooooooong story to tell you why I would chose to be a True Blue Crayon! :-)

Dear Blog: I'm sorry I've been ignoring you......

Dear Blog:

I'm sorry I've been ignoring you this week. It's been very busy around here. So far this week I have cleaned out the shed, washed my new car by hand, designed and created 35 invitations for the preschool department at church, created, designed and put together 400 matchbook mint wrappers and now I am painting the livingroom. Well, I haven't actually been painting. I have been assisting Katy while she painted. Tomorrow is haircut, shopping, lunch day so you will have to wait again. I promise when I get the house back together I will try and do a better job of keeping up with you.

Love, Marlene

Shopping with a friend....

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I went into the city. We spent the day at a big consignment/antique store. My only "find" for the day wasn't an antique at all. This little book case was only $14. It is in perfect shape and matches some bigger ones that we already have. I thought I would use it as an end table by our sofa and get some extra video storage at the same time for our family room. Turned out the bookcase was too high and the backing showed above the arm of the couch. I decided instead to add it to the end of an already existing video bookcase. I was surprised when I realized that it not only was it oak but the color and style were exact!

I think the finished product is pretty good and you can't beat the price.

These are a few of my favorite things.....

I love to shop! I loved to shop even as a child. Don't get me wrong. Growning up we didn't have a lot of money to spend. Didn't cost anything to look! My mom used to do her grocery shopping at a store called Fedmart. Fedmart was kind of like Wal-Mart in that it carried a large variety of goods. I would hang out in the shoe department while mom was buying groceries. I tried on all of the shoes I wished for!



In my younger years, I bought a LOT of shoes. In fact, for about 20 years I bought a LOT of shoes! These days I am careful to only buy shoes that make my feet feel good.



I live in a smaller town. Until recently we didn't have much name brand shopping. I am really enjoying all of our new stores. Almost NO reason now to have to fight the traffic in the big city!

Love Kohl's. Love all their discount coupons! Hate the fact that you have to use a Kohl's charge card to get them!

Target is SO much fun! Home of disposable decorating! Also have you checked out their grocery section? They don't have everything but what they do have is usually cheaper than the grocery store.

Ross is my favorite for clothing. They have a nice section for "not so petite anymore" moms. I have lots of $5.99 tops from there!

Ahhhh Marshalls! Great for purses and unique, nicer, but still cheap housewares!

It used to be a 30 minute trip to do a Michales run. I don't need it every day but when I do, it sure is nice to have it here.

August 19, 1978

I'm Turning Into a Yoyo!

Yesterday I spent most of the day making yoyos! Why, you ask? Ok, you didn't ask but I'm going to tell you anyway. ;-)

My daughter, Becky is the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding. We are planning a shower for her. The bride has an Etsy shop where she sells headbands, hair clips, ear rings, etc. made out of yoyo "posies". We thought it would be fun to create an assortment of these hair accessories in the shower colors to use as favors.

Shower is going to be "Shabby Chic" so lots of muted greens and pinks. The bride LOVES green. I think you can tell which posies I like best! I made lots of green pokadot with pink striped ones! Now I need to find a deal on headbands. :-)

Playing catch up in the church library!

I am the church librarian. I love to read so it is a perfect volunteer job for me! It means I get first pick of the books as they come in! I love to order new books....I do, however have a hard time keeping up with processing them! Do you know that there are 19 steps to processing a book once you get it? Today I spent 5 hours and worked my way through one of those tall stacks of books. My goal is to spend a few hours every morning until I get them finished.

I love our library. I think we are really blessed to have it! It is L shaped and used to be 3 very small Sunday School rooms. They were mostly being used for storage because of their small size. A re-model was done and the rooms were connected. My desk is in the corner and these 2 pictures look out both directions from my desk. A senior adult ladies class meets in there on Sunday.

Just thought I'd share a little about where I volunteer. :-)

"Vacation"

About a week ago, we had a mini vacation. Actually my husband was conferencing and the girls and I tagged along. He has this same conference every year at the same resort so we have memories at all stages of life at this resort. I've had morning sickness, babies, preschoolers, school age kids and now "kids" that are nearly grown ups!

This is the view looking out my room. I enjoy taking my coffee and a book out on this patio and reading while the girls sleep in.

When they finally get up, we head out to the pool. I find a shady spot for some more reading and they usually swim and lay out in the sun. I know they will be pleased that I posted a picture of them with no makeup, not smiling and in their swimsuits. LOL!

We tried ordering lunch out by the pool one year.....it's just too stinkin' hot to enjoy it out there!

When lunch time rolls around, we get dressed and head out to eat and shop. These days there are no school supplies or back packs to buy. Kind of sad for this old mom! We did manage to spend plenty of money on new clothes!

This "little guy" was walking across our path on the way to the room the last night! While I know tarantulas are not dangerous, they sure are scary looking! Picture is a little blurry because by the time Katy (the only one brave enough to go back) went back to take it, the little guy was trying to escape over the wall.

I love this vacation. Laid back. No schedule. No long drive. Instead of spending money to travel somewhere, I say "yes" to some extra clothes shopping. Fun for them. Fun for me. :-)

Bragging Rights.....

I am a reluctant sports fan! Only this year have I really started to pay attention to the games. Why? Because my daughter is an intern for the AZ Diamondbacks this year. The truth is, I really don't watch the games for the games.....I watch them to see if I can get a peek at my intern! Here is a short clip of the "Legends" race. Am I watching the Legends guys? Nope! I'm watching the girl in the red polo in the background in the bull pen. That's my girl! :-)


http://www.foxsportsarizona.com/pages/video?PID=yzXsSmvtc7WKpjFPCwfFvLva_HNAkdCN (Fox sports seems to have taken the link away....sorry about that!)

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

I LOVE a good rain storm! Especially in the summer when it is so hot!

This little storm made about a 10 degree difference in our temperature!

After about 30 minutes the street was running up to the top of the curb!

Looking forward to August. Hot hot weather and afternoon thunderstorms.