creative juices flow....

the creative juices have been flowing!!! which is a good thing and also a bad.
good because i LOVE being creative, bad because then i want to go all crazy with creating things.....but then lack of money stops me.
so need a job to support my "habit"

i will be attending my bff's wedding later this month!! which i'm SUPER excited about on so many levels! i'm her maid of honor and will be wearing a beautiful dress a color called "clover"...now finding green shoes that don't look like i pulled them of a leprechaun or gold shoes that i pulled off a hooker...is very hard. BUT with some creativity, i solved my problem. i went to the fabric store and bought as close to my color swatch as possible green material and made these shoe clips.

shoes bought from payless

it took several tries, but i'm really happy with how they came out, and so is my bride. and by the way....these heels are AMAZINGLY COMFY!!! just amazing. and this is a TON coming from someone who HATES wearing heels.

when i get back from the wedding, there will be pics galore of my adventure.

i also recently made these earrings....


i found these beautiful resin cabochons at the craft store and fell in love!!!
bought some earring backs, used some special glue and POOF! lovely earrings were made.

there was also a headband i made and i'm also thinking about how i can use my failed attempts of the other shoe clips into other crafts. i'll post some pics of those once i figure it all out.

i've got some knitting projects on my mind as well....i plan on making one of these, some more washcloths (because they're so simple and who couldn't use a washcloth?) and also some wrist warmers are currently in my needles, and i would love to make this.

if you have any ideas for me, please let me know!

xoxo, manda

and the Winner is........

comment number 2 from Last Mom!!!!!

"Woohoo!!! I love prizes! I, of course, follow you. I linked to your blog on my blog post this morning. (Last thing. It's a long post today!) Picking a favorite book would be hard! I'm not one to read books again and again, though I think I could with the Hunger Games trilogy. I also really love the Traveling Pants series and look forward to reading them with L when she's a little older. I really loved a book called "Toyer" by Gardner McKay. It's a psychological thriller and I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting. "

Leggs picked a number 1-3 and the number was 2!

Congrats Last Mom! email me your address and i'll send them off to you!!!

the power of "choice"

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself." Lucille Ball


a dear friend of mine recently posted this quote as her facebook status
on what would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday.

i've thought a lot about that comment since then,
even posted it up on my computer screen's background.

i've got a few things that i'm stressing about and getting discouraged over but when i stop and REALLY think about it....

those stressful thoughts.....aren't that stressful.
getting discouraged is a way of life,
it's the getting back up that's the hard part.


it's how i handle the situation is what makes the difference.
it's the "choice" I can make about how I choose to handle it.

i can go sit in my room and pout and cry....
but that will only lead to a runny pink nose, throbbing headache and the loss of time.

i could yell and scream, rant and rave till i'm blue in the face....
but that will lead to no voice and turning blue in the face, and tho i do look good in blue,
no one really wants to listen or see me that way.

yesterday i called a friend and vented about a situation that's going on right now...
a situation that I KNOW i'm doing my very best to make happen, but i was getting discouraged about doing everything and just wanted to give up
and even tho i want the very best to make this situation the best possible thing...
i needed to step back, take a deep breath, and realize that YES i am doing a great job
that YES it's difficult, but can be done
and that NO i can not please everyone all the time.
i needed to look at all the positive things that i had gotten accomplished.

last night was the first night all week, i slept soundly. without waking up.

we've been given an amazing gift of "choice"
it's up to us to sit back, take deep breaths, and make a choice about how we're going to handle things.

i'm choosing to stay busy. to look at things a different way. know that whatever happens, it will all work out to be ok.

to those who really know me....this is HUGE. i usually always plan for the worse, then am surprised by how great things turned out. now....i'll be planning for the best.


and when things don't go as planned....i know i'll have choice to make on how i handle it.

i'll choose to smile.

such a cute giveaway!!!

source

there's a lil'lovely lady named Em and she has a blog called And Nothing Else Matters which can be found with a simple "click"

she's got a really cute giveaway going and you should go here to go check it out
now go!!! go enter!!!!


cause i did :)

Meet Legs

Meet Legs.....she's 9 going on 18 sometimes even older....she's the love of my life and the

most amazing person i will ever know.

she makes me smile every single day, several times a day.

she is completely her own person and i don't want to change a thing about her



i stole this pic of her while visiting my parents while in FL. she's very creative

{wonder where she gets that from? ;) }

Legs tells the funniest stories,
has the biggest bestest laugh,
sweetest smile,
biggest warmest heart,
super caring about others,
amazingly smart,
and i could honestly keep going......

she's the best part of me. she makes me be a better person.

she will be entering 4th grade this year. she's got her worries and concerns, as do i.
but i know, we'll both get through it together.

this picture was taken 4th of July with our Max
aren't they just the best?

i love you, Legs

i got nothin....

i am not being a very good blog-ess right now....yes i'm here with a quick little drop in post, but i've got such a raging headache and i'm trying so very hard to keep breakfast down, that i do not have an announcement of who won my first give away :( and with only 2 people entered, i'd feel bad it wasn't much of a fighting chance.......so with that said.........let's go another week! same rules which can be found here...only i'll announce a winner on AUG 17 :) now off to battle this bad boy of a headache and you're off to blog about this contest! ;)

FIRST EVER GIVE AWAY!!!!

isn't this the cutest!?!?!?

these are hand made by ME!!! washcloth/face cloths that are made from 100% cotton yarn that are just so soft and great to use to wash your face, body, dishes, anything!!! and the best part!! completely machine washable and totally reusable!!

there are 3 in this bundle.

it's something small that i thought would be great for a first give away! and the colors are great!! totally reminds me of the ocean or a super pretty blue sky

now here's how you can enter to WIN!!!

1) you must be a follower of my blog
2) you must Facebook or Blog about this give away
3)you must recommend your favorite book to me and why you love it so
4) leave a comment letting me know you did these with a link to either your blog post about this or Facebook post :)


see....4 easy peasy ways to win!!! on August 10th a winner will be announced! it will be completely random who wins! your names will be written down and a winner will be picked by little a!

good luck!!!