truthfully tracelaine

Recently, my sister-in-law, Jessica, asked me to create a cute little sign for her to give to a friend of hers as a kind of going away gift.  See Jess was offered a job and after much contemplation she decided to leave her current job and take the new one.  She was troubled by the move because she loved the job that she had and she loved the people she worked with.  So, she decided to give them gifts to remember her by, hoping it would make the move a little easier on everyone.  One of the ladies she worked with has a last name that starts with the letter 'K'.  Jess had seen some of the monogrammed signs I had made in the past, and thought it would be perfect.  Together we came up with this rustic design and when her friend saw it, she was soooo excited.  She even exclaimed, "I know just where I will put this!"   The best part of making things in the woodworking shop, is getting to hear someone's excitement and see the smile cross t...

When the kids were small, we had a tradition of taking Christmas pictures.  Living near Springfield, Missouri, we would get all dressed up and go down to Bass Pro to take beautiful Christmas pictures in front of the awesome decorations.  We made a deal as soon as we walked in the door, "You give me ONE great picture to show people and you can take as many goofy ones as you would like".  It worked every time!  It was such a fun time and a happy memory, but time passes and kids grow out of matching clothes and Christmas pictures.  I'm sad that the time has gone but thankful for the time together and the memories of how those happy days felt.   Christmas time, is an emotional time of year.  It seems to effect everyone that way, most people are excited and find the season thrilling, although some may be anxious or saddened by the season.  It is a roller coaster that seems to start sometime in October and tosses you about until after celebrat...

This project is for the birds!!   Just kidding, I have actually had a really great time creating these Christmas bird ornaments.      Recently, I had a great response to a post I had shared on Facebook about my latest crafts.  From that Facebook share I got a few orders and my first order was for Christmas bird ornaments.  I am loving that I get to create these cute little things.   Partly, because it is exciting to find out that someone is interested enough in my creativity to place an order.  But even more importantly, I was able to spend some quality time with my family, getting the order put together.   See, the birds were a hit, but I had only made about ten for the booth.  A friend of mine saw them and thought they would be perfect for her staff at Christmas.  She needed 25, so the "special order" got underway.  After a quick shopping trip, for scrapbook paper, trinkets and do-dads, we called in rei...

I try to get in to the flea market as often as I can, but with work and family, it is not always easy to find time.  I had stopped by not long ago, to check out my booth and see if it needed some attention.  It looked like a few things had sold, but it was still full of Fall and Christmas decor.  As I stood there, I wondered if I needed to create some more Christmas treasures or if it was time to figure out "what's next".  It was time to put my imagination to work again. As I stood in the middle of the wood shop I wondered, "what needs to happen next"?    I had a stack of lumber scraps, chalk paint, and twine, all that I needed was to toss in a little creativity.    Then it came to me!  With Christmas so close, this would be a great time to make some gifts for our teachers and show them some love.  They spend so much time with our kiddos and have such influence over them.  They spend days teaching, growing and loving our ch...