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...

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...