Tag IN/OUT Coalminer Necklace

Hey all you Junk Gypsy Fans out there, I just copied a great ideal from their website.  I seen this necklace and thought, I can do that!  Well close to that anyway.  Kris just happen to bring his in/out brass tag home with him on his last day at Big Run Mine.  Here's the one from Junk Gypsy.  Retails for $40.00.

Here's mine, no where near $40.00.

May not of cost much to make but means a lot to the both of us.  Kris has spent the majority of his mining career at Big Run and it always felt like home to him.  This is the tag the mines use to identify who is above ground and who is underground.  The Lord seems to always bring him home to me.  And I am so Thankful!

Super Sunday!

Karson's TKD Instructor Mr. Johnson invited us to Sunday Morning Worship at his home church where he shared his testimony of God's Healing.  If you remember back in the Spring I had asked my followers, friends and family to pray for this man.   It was a beautiful testimony of how God gave him the strength to overcome his stoke and how all the prayers played a huge part in his healing.  Doctors gave him a very slim chance to live and  said that if he did manage to pull through he would most likely have brain damage and eventually loose his limbs due to blood clots.    But as you can see, here he is  standing strong with Karson & Matthew.  He never stop believing or praying.  

Thank You Mr. Johnson for being such a positive role model for our youth.  We appreciate you so much!!! 

This afternoon my niece Isabella came to visit.  We decided to get the sewing machine out and make a super hero cape.  A girly one.

Sewing machine broke down, but luckily we have a mine mechanic in the family.  Josh had never worked on a sewing machine before, but he fixed it!  And we were up and running in no time.  Thanks Josh!

All Finished...... Super Isabella!

I love spending time doing crafts for the kidos in my life.  Not my best work but good enough for a 4 year old super hero!

Lighting of Marquee, Retirement & Kris' Shoulder Surgery

Last week was the Lighting Ceremony of the New Palace Theatre Sign.  If you been following my blog, then you know how excited I was to share it with you.  Here it is.......

Here's the whole gang, except for mom & dad.

Here's a video that AJ put together from the beginning to the end.  Hope you enjoy!

As I said before, Mom & Dad were out of town.  Actually they were on their first retirement winter get away.  They were in Florida for most of the month of January with some friends.  We missed them at the ceremony but as you can tell they were having a blast!

Also last week the hubby had surgery on his shoulder.  Surgery went well,  doctor fixed 3 problem areas, and he should be good as new before we know it.

Lets not tell him that I posted this :)  Have a great weekend bloggers!

For the LOVE of Baseball Mom's

A few years ago I made a bag to carry to the ball field out of my kids uniforms.  I get several compliments on it.  I'm not very advanced with my sewing machine, so easy is about all I can  accomplish .  And that usually requires my Mom's help (by the way, my mom is so much better than what she gives herself credit for).   Okay, so  I'm getting ready to make one for a friend and I thought I would share this project with you as well.

I tried to use everything in the photo that I could.  I used both of the boys All-Star Jersey's and the pinstriped ball pants.  I also used the patches off of the sleeves and added a few that I found at a local fabric store.  I purchased about 1- 1 1/2 yards of 3 different coordinating materials that I found.  I also used a thin sticky back batting between the front & back sides of the material to give the bag a little more thickness.

Now if you are decent with your math skills and can sew squares/rectangles, then this is going to be so easy!

I basically decided on the bag size by measuring  the size of the Jersey's and Pants.  I used the Jersey's for  outside of the bag.  I used the coordinating material for the inside of the bag and  to add to the top of my Jersey's (allowing the size of the bag to be larger).

I don't really have a pattern, I just made it up as I went along.  Measuring the straps to fit me.

I added the patches from the Jersey's to the side of the bag.

And used the pocket side of the pants for an outside pocket on the bag.  Some could use this as a bottle holder for a diaper bag.

You can also add lil pins & stars.  Whatever you like...it's your bag!

Added a few square pockets inside for my cell phone, etc.

Very basic bag.  All you need is a little imagination.  Cost very little make.  Imagine doing this with any kind of uniform.  I think it's a Grand Slam!

Preparing to Sell.....and Living Our Dream!

This past summer the hubs and I decided it was time to move on with what we've always called "just dreaming". We've been here, on our 3 lil acres since the day we got married.  Its been good to us, it's been our first home, our children's first steps were taken here.  We enjoyed having family and friends visit us, stay here with us as well for the past 16 years.  We started out here in a 2 bedroom trailer.  We purchased it from a friend, and it was just a lil doll house.  Kris was 20 and I was just 19 when we came upon the place.  13 years ago, we decided to build a house which has become our home.  We have lots of great memories here and it will be very hard to leave.  There are several images that pop up in my mind here and there.  Memories of building snowmen, Great Pa riding the boys on the lawn mower until they pass out, Kris throwing baseballs to the kids.  The struggles of being married young and building a home together.  And the joys that seemed to override every heartache.  I remember Lane was just 3 years old when we built the house.  He didn't want to leave  his room behind in the trailer so he asked his dad if he would cut his room out and put it in the new house.  I am worried at some point everyone will have a hard time leaving but we know that that our needs and wants have changed.  We love our home, we have wonderful neighbors.  We just know this isn't where we want to "land" for the rest of our lives.  We see a whole new world out there.   One we've been waiting for, just waiting for the time to be right.  So I'm painting and making a few updates in the house.  Cleaning up and hoping the housing market picks up real soon.  We aren't in any hurry to sell.  But we are excited.  We've been looking for some land.  We want about 40-50 acres so the boys can hunt and run wild.  And for us.  We are thinking of downsizing our home from our current 1950 sq ft to about 1300 sq feet!  Kinda crazy, right?  We are thinking about getting rid of clutter and putting our time and money towards more things that we enjoy.  Living a more simple life.  Living more "off the land".   I'm kinda tired of cleaning.  And everyday I realize that my time here with my kids are limited.  So I need to enjoy every moment with them.  Maybe a country store, a tee-pee, a lot of outdoor living.

We've been collecting photos and ideals of what we want.  I know it all won't come at one time.

We want more of a rustic style timber home.  I love a beam & post home.  Probably not this big, jut a tad bit smaller.

Love this, so cozy and warm.

I'm sure some of my family will remember the swing my mom & dad had for me when I was small.  It was just like this.  And in the center of the living room.  I will have one for my future grand babies one day!

I am so in love with this!  Refurbished barn wood is so popular these days.  It will be a must have!  To seat 8-10 please.

And I so love this too.

Farm house sink, yes I think I will!

I need to be on the look out for some great painted crates.  How wonderful are these!!! 

Or maybe I'll have my dad to paint me some.  That might be even better.

And I am so diggin' these sliding doors.  The hardware isn't so cheap but the look and the space it will save is fantastic.  And downsizing to a smaller home, I'm going to take all the space savers I can get.

More outdoor living for us!  A place like this to share a bottle of wine with family & friends.

And a place like this to sit with that special someone :)

And I have to have one of these. I bet you could fit 6 kids on this.  Maybe even camp out on it under the stars.

We enjoy our fire pit we have now, so I'll have to have another.

Once we have more land we can dream about the future.  Here's my dream.  Having a place to host parties, weddings, family gatherings!!! I've always wanted the Hostess with the Mostess award!  I love throwing a fun shindig, gathering family & friends, great food.

And I'll need one of these to get around on!

The Hubs and I dream of having our on lil Coal Company/Country Farmhouse one day.  Maybe sell some good wine, specialty foods and gifts out of.  A place sit, listen to music, watch the kids run and play.  Enjoy each other's company and share with more friends along the way.  

Oh I so want one of these to sell pumpkins out of.  Oh I didn't mention I was going to have a pumpkin patch did I?  Yes, its a maybe.  Or maybe watermelons & strawberries.  Look for me and most likely my mom on the corner in about 10 years selling goodies out of the back end of one of these.  Ok, so I might have to go with red or black.  The hubs may not agree to drive a pink truck around town. 

Maybe start collecting some vintage neon signs like my dad, to hang here and there.

Call me crazy, don't really care if you do.  I take it as a compliment.  That means I'm willing to go after my dreams.  I've always wanted a tee-pee.  I mean a real tee-pee.  After seeing the Oprah's special addition with Ralph Lauren and touring his ranch.  I fell in love, in love with this!

So mine probably won't look this great.  Considering Ralph Lauren most likely does not have a budget.  But it will be so much fun making road trips to antique stores, gathering old furniture, second hand items.  Maybe just some Junk to fill this place up.

Well as you can see, we have lots of dreams.  It all won't come at once but we are making a lifestyle change so that we can one day have a place to build our dreams.  Small home living won't be easy but I don't plan on spending all my time in the house.  I want a more simple life and a place to enjoy time outside. And all the lil "extras" we dream about.  

A place for us and our children to call home once again.

The Boy and His Hats - Pinterest Hat Rack

As long as I can remember Karson has always had a liking to funny hats.  Never was one to wear a ball cap much unless it was during a baseball game.  

Here's a few.

Panda Bear

Pirate Goofy.

I have no ideal, but he likes it.

So all these hats keep piling up in his room and I'v been looking for something to display them on.  I started searching for a hat rack on amazon, but the cheapest one that I liked was about $50 bucks plus shipping.  Yuck! I knew I could come up with something so when all else fails......I go to Pinterest!

Here's what I found!

Here's the Link.

I started wondering what I could hang the ribbon from.  And I remember all my friends with girls always had letters with ribbon hanging from them.  They would clip their lil hairbows on it, so I thought why can't I do that with hats????

Here's what I found in about 10 minutes.

1.  Old letters from Kohls (paid $5 each about 2 years ago)  Just so happen all the boys in my house share the first and last initial.  What luck, right?

2.  Ribbon I found on the clearance isle at Wal Mart (paid $2.50 about 1 year ago)

3.  Metal clips from the office (paid about $2.00 for them about 3 years ago)

I used the toothpaste trick to find where I need to put my nails in without having to use a tapeline.  I put no serious time into this, eyeballed it and moved on.

I took the ribbon and doubled it up for extra strength.   I used 3 small nails to hang it from.  I slipped it under the bottom letter where the unfinished ribbon wouldn't be seen.

Found these clips in my office, they'll work!

Used the clips to attach all his hats to the ribbon.

Here's what I got in about 20 minutes.  Now his hats are displayed and not cluttering up his room as much.

Cheap and Easy!

If you're not on Pinterest yet, its a "must" if you like to craft.  So many ideals!!!

Happy Pinning!