truthfully tracelaine

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...

Aren't these the cutest things?      I love this little pumpkin trio, but it took some imagination to get them all stacked together.  You see, mm sister and brother-in-law are building a new house.  In this gorgeous new house you will find ship lap, hardwood floors and plenty of Farmhouse charm.  My husband is building the kitchen, bathroom and utility room cabinets for this house.  So there is plenty of various hardwood scraps for me to choose from when I'm feeling crafty.      One evening, my husband and brother-in-law were in the shop planing and ripping boards to make trim for stair tread.  The excess strips of wood that they felt were unusable were being tossed into a wagon to later be hauled down to the burn pile.  The thing that caught my eye was the curved edges along those discarded strips.  As I stared at them and felt my imagination start humming, I realized that stacking them side-by-side, presented a ...

So, I don't mean to sound like a spoiled baby, but I was a little let down on my birthday this year.  I turned 44, which means that I shouldn't be so bothered by a birthday unrecognized.  If anything I am at an age where I should want folks to forget my birthday and the reminders of getting older.  But, me and God have an understanding about life and I am thankful for everyday that he gives me so....I have to love getting older, too.      This year, my kids, friends, and family were great and I know they all love me.  What more could you really ask for, for your birthday???  I think it might have been a date with my husband. We got up and got busy trying to meet the deadlines of the cabinet business.  We worked HARD all day long and at the end of the day, we were both too tired to go out and do anything.  But when I realized the day was over and my birthday had basically gone unnoticed (other than the 5 minutes of birthday cards my ...