truthfully tracelaine

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...

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 ...

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.      ...