Black and White Movies

I stayed up late the other night watching The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on pbs. I have heard of this movie before but I think I was a bit put off by the ghost idea. But there was nothing on and before I knew it i was pretty well sucked in. Gene Tierney was so pretty and sweet and Rex Harrison was actually pretty fun as an old sea captain. I really quite enjoyed myself! So it got me to thinking about old black and white movies and now I am really in the mood for some more. My friend Tif always has good recommendations so I requested a few of hers. But I am wondering, what is your favorite old black and white movie?

Button! Button! I've Got Some Buttons!

I discovered through one of my google reader feeds(still loving that!) a new blog I really like Sugar sugar . She is having a fun button day today so I thought I would play along. I love buttons. I love pretty much all old things. Ever since I was a kid, whenever I would visit my any of my grandparents or great-grandparents I was always eager to bring any little old thing home, this probably drove my mom nuts. As a result I probably have more of their little treasures than most of my cousins. It didn't matter if it was the little old journal my grandpa kept as a kid(loved reading all the little entries-delivering papers, getting clinckers out of the furnace!), little bits of costume jewelry, or left over craft supplies. If it was old, I loved it and still do. It probably had a bit to do with the love my grandparents shared too. Anyhow, I have a lot of my grandmothers buttons. I don't even remember how I came to have them all.
I think this funny tin full of buttons she gave me herself when I was visiting one day. She knew I sewed and you always need a button or two when you do that. My kids love playing in this old tin. I'm not even sure what was in this tin originally, mop polish I guess. I should take them out and put them in pretty bottles as I have seen others do, but I can't take them out and put them in something else-it is old after all!
These are my most precious grandma buttons. Aren't they gorgeous. I think part of what makes buttons so fun is that each has such stories they could tell. don't wish that pretty copper colored metal one could tell us where she has been? I think it must say something that most of the buttons in my grandma's collection are dark. Of course, being a child of the depression she saved everything and there are a lot of white shirt buttons she cut off before turning the shirt into rags!
And a few months ago I was lucky enough to win a button giveaway Sarah was having! Aren't these the prettiest?! These have lots of colors!
So there you go, a huge post on buttons and my need for more and more old stuff! So if your grandma is throwing out stuff, think of me!

The Glass Castle

I just finished a great book my friend Circe reccommended. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I really enjoyed it, which was sort of mysterious to me. I know that sounds weird, but it was not necessarily my kind of book. It is the story of a family, I don't know whether to call them disfunctional or just bizarre. Now I do like biographies and auto-biographies, but I don't like I-had-an-abusive-childhood-poor-me-but-now-I-am-great books. I think it is the abuse in them I just can't take, I could never even muster interest in A Boy Called It or that sort of book. But I loved this book and I have really thought about why. I think it is because as bizarre and the parents are, and even neglectful, they do love their kids. The author, the daughter writes with honesty, humor and affection. I have to say if you are a mom and are having a day when you feel like you might not be the greatest mother in the world,this is a great book to be reading. Hey at least no one set themselves on fire while making their own hot dogs or fell out of the car without my noticing today!

My little birdhouse!
Well here is my contribution to Karla's parade of birdy homes. She is hosting a blogland party featuring all sorts of houses for the the little tweeters! I had a lot of fun making this. As Karla said in her post it is one of the fun things about blogging, trying new things you just might not have thought of on your own! I am really in the mood for bright colors so I painted the roof blue and white and papered the outside in bright papers. Then of course I had to sprinkle some glitter! I made a little blue bird to live in my little house and we just had to see what it would look like in the blooming apple tree. Matthew thought we should leave it there but I am afraid it wouldn't last! I think I will see if birdy and his new home can find a new housing development, besides the apple tree. They are both for sale for $14 including shipping. If you are interested send me an email and I will send you a paypal invoice. Thanks so much for visiting!

Thanks too, for the support of my little shop update yesterday. I haven't really done it that way, listing several dolls at once and it was fun!

The girls are ready!

The girls are ready and looking for new homes! They will be in the shop today at 1 pm. pacific time. You can see how happy I am with how they turned out, they are taking over this blog! It isn't very often something in my head turns out as well as I saw it and these did!


I really love these toile girls! The black and white one is already sold to my friend Circe I think, but if you love her too let me know. I think I am going to have to make more of the toile girls, I love how they turned out!


And these are the Springtime girls. don't they look like sisters?


I managed to finish a bluebird made like my little nesing dolls and they will be in the shop too.

Is anyone else having weird blogspot problems?

New Discoveries!
Okay, I know these two items I am going to post about are wonderful new discoveries to me but probably not the rest of the world. I am very technologically challenged. If it were not for my friend Tif who kept telling me I should blog and then guided me through out the whole process. She still does! So she was telling me about how great google reader was so I decided to try it. It is wonderful! I feel justified putting more blogs on my list than I used to read because I don't waste time looking to see if anyone has new posts. So go over to google then look under the more tab to find reader and check it out


My second new discovery is Pandora radio! I have had the loveliest afternoon listening to a great variety of music while I finished up the little gingham girls (thank heaven for sunshine luring my kids outside!). You just go here, register, type in an artist or song you like and it generates songs by that artist and others similiar to it. I typed in Michael Buble, cause that it the sort of mood I am in, and have been listening to him, Harry Connick Jr, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. How cool is that!Especially since I have not been able to justify the purchase of new cds in a looooong time.
!
And your baby can jam out like mine!
You probably all knew about this stuff, but you can share my joy!

Oh, and the dollies are done and will be in the shop at 1 p.m. pacific time tomorrow!

Here come the girls!

I have been working on a new batch of girls! Even though they are still missing their stuffing, skirts and little details, I had to share them with you. I have learned a lot through the creation of my little gingham girls. I have finally figured out four is the perfect number in a batch. It is not time effective for me to only make one, but the times I have made more than four I tend to lose interest and they stop being fun.
These girls are heavy on pink! I love pink, wish I could have pink hair too. I have previously used fabrics I already had in my stash when I have made gingham girls. This is the first time I have bought fabrics just for them, and I love them! I want skirts made of each of these, in fact my Easter skirt was trimmed with the same fabric as the second one from the left is wearing.
I love seeing all those little sausage legs, and lots of stripes and polka dots!

She is trying to wink at you, it is hard when you have no stuffing in your head, to tell you all these girls will be in the shop on Wednesday by noon pacific time. Hopefully with a new nesting birdie or two!

More Easter Greetings!
Here are my kiddos this morning before church. As you can tell the sun was in their eyes and Joshua is easily distracted! I still think they were a good-looking group!

I finished the skirt I was trying to finish for Easter. TI was sort of trying to match my cute girl there with her pink polka dots. She definitely out-cuted me though!

And Matthew and Brittany each wanted to send you a Easter greeting.(Hey, it kept them quiet for a little while during church!)

This one is from Matthew

And this one is from Brittany.

Happy Easter everyone!

An Easter Greeting!

I hope all of my wonderful blogging friends have a wonderful Easter Sunday filled with peace and joy. We are trying hard to remember today at our house the sacrifice that makes this such a beautiful day and time of year. It is hard though when there is also the magic of pretty colored eggs and loads of chocolate to enjoy! I hope everyone finds a great balance and has a wonderful day! I will be back later with pictures of the kids in all their Easter finery but I couldn't wait to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday to the best Mom Ever!

You will have to excuse me today. It is my mom's birthday and since I can't be there I wanted to post about her. I know you all my think you have the best mother, but I am sorry you are wrong. When I was little my mom used to tell us that there were children lining up waiting for her to be their mother. I am telling you this probably was true! ( She does have a great sense of humor by the way!)

Look how pretty we are on my first Easter! Does she just look like she is going to be the most fun addition motherhood has ever seen?!


And this was Easter when I was three years old. Apparently my Dad was great at taking Easter Sunday shots. My mom made these two cute dresses we are wearing, I think. The readers of my blog have mentioned that my house seems to be quite creative. Well I learned it all from my mom. She always encouraged me to make all sorts of things and since I am quite messy now, I am sure I wasn't very tidy then either so it had to be a bit of a sacrifice! Of course she was a super housekeeper and taught me everything I needed to know to keep my house looking good--if I would just do it! She is the person I always want around if I have the redecorating bug too. She is great at rearranging things and making them look really good.

There were three girls in my house including Mom. Poor dad and Mickey the dog were the only boys(don't worry there will be a whole detailed description of why my dad is going straight through the pearly gates for living with us on his birthday!). As you can see, even while going through my homely stage, around 12 I think, I wanted to be just like my mom. Notice the matching plaid skirts and blazers? Of course my little sister Tiff is looking sweet. My mom was great growing up at finding the balance between being our friend and being a great parent. It was never more important to her to be our friend than to make sure we were growing up to be the people we should. However, she was so much fun and we always knew that being with up was one of her favorite things to do and so we always were and are the best of friends.

The best Grandma ever! I have even had my friends tell me they think she just might be the best grandma ever. This picture is really outdated, Abby is no longer our baby and Joshua hasn't even made the scene, but I love it because I think you can see how much my mom enjoys her grandkids and they adore her. She comes up with all sorts of things to do and pretend with our kids. I mean you should see the mandatory fashion shows that go on at her house. When my parents built their dream house a few years ago one of the first things on the blueprint was the kids playroom. My mom truly loves kids and kids all around her,not just her grandkids, know it!

So, if you don't mind, have a daisy cupcake in honor of my mom's favorite flower as we wish my fabulous mom Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday Mom, we love you!

Cupcakes!
Loads of cupcakes at our house today!
I decided that it would be fun for Matthew to take Easter cupcakes to his class party tomorrow. Yes, this is right after we did the St. Patrick's Day of fun. I have no idea how the date of Easter is determined. I think it has something to do with the phases of the moon or something. All I can say is I am so glad that according to Martha Stewart whom Iactually got watch while folding laundry for a minute the other day, Easter will not be this early again for 150 years! Hooray! This is a total pain to have Easter the same week as St. Patricks Day! In addition my kids get out for spring break on Thursday. And Spring break is TEN days long here! Since we are not going anywhere this is not good news to me. Anyhow, in typical Michelle fashion I decided to make cupcakes and then realized I needed two batches as they are combining the morning and afternoon classes for the party. They are supposed to look like little grass nests of eggs.


LOADS of cupcakes later my boy is happy with his offering for tomorrow. They do look pretty cute all lined up.

And just in case all those kids cupcakes aren't enough, yesterday I discovered a new treat for me. I like Angel food cake in cupcake fashion. I have posted about this before, but yesterday on the box it suggested you add 1/3 c. cocoa powder to the dry angel food cake mix before you add the water and combine. Then I just dropped the batter in muffin tins and baked them for about 15 minutes. They are so yummy and low-cal and low-fat-for cake anyway!

I hope all of your pre-Easter preparations are going well. I have done it to myself again. I still would like to make myself a new skirt for Easter Sunday, mail a couple of Easter packages that probably won't make it in time, find Joshua new church pants, dye the eggs, and it would be nice if the Easter bunny could visit a clean house. Oh well, I am constantly doing this to myself but it almost always turns out okay!

Some new books!

It is funny but we have been reading two books at our house that tell more of old stories that we loved. Both are newly published too! First I have been reading Before Green Gables. This is a prequel to the Anne of Green Gables series. Now understand I LOVED Anne of Green Gables. I own the entire series and most of L.M. Montgomery's other books too. So I wasn't sure about this. One one hand I obviously can never have enough Anne. On the other it almost seemed a sacrilege for someone else to try and write about her. Like a counterfeit. So I tried to keep in mind that this was someone else's idea of what her life might have been like before she came to Green Gables. All of that said, I would have to say I have enjoyed this book. Of course, it is not quite as good as the original, but since I didn't really expect it to be I was still able to enjoy it.

Then we have Happy Birthday Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. My family has practically memorized the whole Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series and if you haven't read it with your kids you just have to. So again, we were very excited to find more stories about one of our all time favorite literary characters. This was written by the author, Betty MacDonald's daughter. One chapter apparently was begun by Betty MacDonald. We have had a lot of fun with this book . It has been a fun bedtime read for the last couple of weeks. But it doesn't have quite the magic that the originals have.

Lastly I have received a you make my day award! This is very exciting to me, I haven't received one of these before and I love to think my funny little blog made someone's day. So thank you Tascha! I love Tascha's blog, she is so lovely and talented. I get to pass this on too. I love all the blogs on my list over there, you are all my friends and make my day every time I visit. And everyone who leaves me a little comment makes my day by validating this blogs existence! But I am going to give this award to my childhood friend Circe. I am giving it to her because she always makes my day and I want you all to go over and visit her because her great wit, heart and writing will make your day too.

Top 'O The Mornin' to Ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! We had a lot of fun doing crazy Irish stuff this morning and looking for leprechauns. !




I found these great sparkly tattoos for the kids to wear to school this morning. Aren't they cute and sparkly? No one will be pinching us today!





Brittany had to take my picture wearing my new shamrock pin that I made following Vanessa's pattern and directions. She is having all sorts of fun on her blog today so go visit her. Matthew is watching to make sure Brittany takes the picture right!



Here is a close-up. I figure I should leave a nice trail of glitter everywhere I go today! That is my robin nest necklace that I had to try after I seeing Natasha's great creation. Not quite as great as Natasha's, but it makes me happy.



And I thought these hill really looked like Ireland on my way home from school this morning. Now, this is what I was under the impression this area looked like all the time! We came to look for houses this time last year and I thought everything was so pretty. Then we moved in July and it all had turned BROWN! So pretty today though!



Hope you have a fun St. Patrick's Day. I am not a drinker so there won't be any pubs or beer here, we will just be happy with our gold chocolate coins!

Some funny bunnies

I finished some funny little bunnies to day and am going to put them in the shop. You can't quite see how cute they are, you have to see them in profile but I didn't really realize that until tonight and now it is too dark to take them again. I will fix it tomorrow. But they will be in the shop. Actually just one listing for now and you just tell me what color you want cause I am too tired tonight!

We had a great time today making Easter stuff. Brittany made a whole little house for the Easter chicks, I finished these and Matthew worked on an egg ornament(not with great enthusiasm!).

And we watched Swiss Family Robinson. That is one of those shows that I remember being amazing when I was a kid, I mean who didn't want to live in that tree house. You know what, it still is fun! We had a great time and I would recommend it for family movie night. I really need a grown-up movie soon though. What is everyone watching this weekend?

P.S. I am just a little bit proud of myself for succeeding in getting an Easter type banner on here! All the little items on there can be found in my shop until Tuesday for Easter. After that I don't think they will make it in time, but they will probably still be there!

I think I am losing it folks!

This was a very interesting afternoon. I got some great mail. Look at these dotees I received! I signed up for a swap-bot swap for bride and groom dotees. My nieces Libby and Abby are really into brides lately and it reminded me of them. Well, mine came today all the way from Cleveland, even though I haven't even started mine yet! Look at these they are just amazing! I mean look at her little bouquet an his ruffled shirt! Thanks Tracy!

So after the mail came we decided to do a little baking. Brittany has been wanting to learn how to cook so she had a torte lesson. We really are on a torte kick around here lately, now we need to get on an exercise kick to combat it!

Of course Matthew had to bake too because it's just not fair if he can't do what Brittany is doing. So he made gingersnaps. Don't be too impressed, they were the Pillsbury variety but he rolled them in the sugar himself. (Man does that boy need a haircut-put that on tomorrow's list!)

And that was the end of my productive streak. Right after we made cookies I took Matthew to karate. Sounds easy enough but William came home to find I had left the front door wide open. Not just unlocked but wide open! While Matthew was at karate Brittany, Joshua and I went to the library. I loaded the kids in the car and then unknowingly left the bag of books in the parking lot. After William got a call at home from the library to let us know they had the books he called to make sure I still had all three children! We all agreed I should not leave the house for the rest of the night.

More dolls and a teaser
I finished a couple more dolls for a sweet lady who has ordered them for Easter. She asked for a set in purple. They aren't quite as purple as they look in this photo!

And she had a really great idea to make a set of Easter eggs. I had a remarkably hard time deciding what colors and patterns these should be.

And really quick here are some wrinkled samples of things to come. After my sale last week I really didn't think I would make more dolls for awhile. But the pink haired girl was rather popular. I don't think I had sold that type before and now I want to make some more pinkies. Then I made the mistake of going into the one really good fabric store in town. It is a quilting shop, and if you sew, you know they have the yummiest fabrics around as a general rule. I couldn't resist buying more fabric. Won't these make the cutest girls? Some with black hair and some with pink?

But not until after Easter and the nesting doll phase I am in has passed!

A nice Spring day!

Last Saturday was so lovely! We were able to do lots of things outside we haven't done much of lately. Like mow the lawn (thanks Honey!). William even planted a tree. So how many members of my family does it take to plant a tree? All five if you include the mom with the camera! You may notice that for the rest of us however, it is a spectator sport. That is my pretty camillia plant behind William.

The kids even had fun on the swings and Joshua passed another milestone. He doesn't want the baby swing anymore! The "big" kids were supposed to be really careful. What do you think happened?

There was also some bike riding going on. Of course if you aren't yet two and don't have a bike what do you do? You chase the people who do have bikes!


This little guy was just going for all he was worth! And who can say he wasn't having just as much fun as the other two. Oh, and by the way, we do live in a cul-de-sac, I didn't just tell them all to go play in the street! Hope the sun is at least shining were you are!