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...

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...

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...

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...

     I know that you're not supposed to tell a lady's age, but somewhere along the way I passed my mother and she is now younger than I am.  Now, I understand that as women have more birthdays something happens, and they stop aging.  But since she had actually become younger than me, I thought it was time to celebrate with a pretty cool gift.  She had been eyeing a laundry sorter that I had re-purposed out of an old dresser, so this November, for her birthday, I made her her own laundry sorter.   You may notice the cute little bee on top, telling everyone to "Bee Happy".  This was purposeful.  My parents raise bees and sell the honey once a year.  They love their little free range bees.  ( We all love the honey!!)  So if it goes in the house, it needs a honey bee.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  It has also freed up alot of space in her laundry room and made life a little more organized.  Plus, she reall...

Everywhere you go...  especially if you're going to be anywhere near my house, yard, or shop.         You see, around the middle of September, I really put on my thinking cap and start coming up with the coolest homemade gifts that I can think of.  It all began when my nieces and nephews were little.   We started a tradition at my Mom's house allowing all of the Aunts to fill the stockings with gifts for each little one in an effort to save grandma a little time and money.  When we started out, we were all buying little $1 and $2 dollar gifts because they were all so little that a pack of crayons and notebook were more than enough.  However, as the kids got older and our family grew, we had to find a way to continue buying for everyone and still picking out something unique that they would like.  In short they started testing our creativity, because the pocket book wasn't stretching any further.      ...