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...

Oh my goodness gang, I have been away too long!!  I pulled up my blog, because I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but it has been since February... FEBRUARY!!   I am truly sorry to leave you all hanging, but I can explain (a.k.a the excuses).  A lot of things have happened over the last few months.     There were some birthdays along the way. Allison turned 17.  She is gluten free, so we had root beer floats instead of birthday cake.   Hannah turned 14.  Over the last 19 years I have made several birthday cakes every year.  During that time at least 5 of my kids have turned 14.  However, when I pulled out the candles to put on her cake, there was no number 4.  So...we improvised.  Thank goodness for her wicked since of humor.   And Hayden turned 12.  My baby isn't a baby any more.  He is turning into quite the neat little gentleman.  And he loves angel food cake (wh...

Have you ever wanted to get your child's teacher a unique gift to show them how much you appreciate what they do, but just couldn't find the right thing?  I have looked through all of the cute little quotes attached to candy or coffee mugs and while I liked them, I still didn't want to give my child's teacher something that they could receive from every other thankful mama in the classroom.  So, I put on my thinking cap and tried to come up with something.  Something that they could use all year long as well as incorporate their style in the classroom.  I remembered my daughter telling me a story about one teacher who had the kids carry a hockey stick with them in the halls.  While his goal was to embarrass the child who might not have been completely honest about the reasons to leave class, I understood that there was a need for it too.  Those kids who had to carry that hockey stick, legitimately had to be somewhere else, and I guarantee that teacher a...

You Guys!!  I am so excited!  As I have mentioned before, my husband has a wood shop that he allows me to make whatever I want out of the scraps that he discards. I use the scraps, along with wood glue, staples, paint, stain, scrapbook paper, and any other trinket I find to make a unique crafty project.        Well, putting these craft projects together has been such good therapy for me. It truly makes me very peaceful.  The only problem I have come across, (besides the occasional sanded knuckles) is that eventually I run out of space to put all of my little projects.  So, with that in mind, I decide to jump in and see what would happen if I made them available for others to see and buy.  I rented a flea market booth and decided to open my own little craft boutique.     It really took a lot of courage for me to jump out there. I worried that the product wouldn't be attractive to to customers.  I worried that n...