Anniversary....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a great day.  I wanted to share a little story with you.  40 years ago, a little girl named Rhonda Jean was given a new life with a future full of possibilities.  She was 10 months old when she left Foster Care and was given her forever family.  A family that had a terrific Father, a loving Mother, a great older brother, and countless other wonderful relatives.  Rhonda was adopted.  Here is a picture of Rhonda on the first day with her new family.  She is sitting on the table with her new Great-Aunt Thelma (the twin sister of her new Grandmother).  They are at her new Grandparents home.

The little girl's new family decided since she was getting a "new life" she might as well have a new name too.  And in case you hadn't guessed, that little girl is me.  Thank goodness they changed my name to Holly.  I don't think Rhonda fit too well.  So thanks to Mom and Dad for adopting me!  I am thankful to them for the life I've been able to live and for a loving family.

It seems ironic to me that the home they brought me to on my first day in the family is the very home I now live in.  Life really does come full circle.  Well, thanks for indulging me on this little trip down memory lane.  Thanks for stopping by.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  I hope this finds you all happy and joining a very wonderful couple of days!

My brother and his family arrived safely on Friday.  Tonight my cousin Jason and Uncle Larry will spend the evening with us at Mom and Dad's.  We will eat and play bingo for wonderful bingo "gifts."  And tomorrow my Aunt Barb and Uncle Martin are coming to celebrate and eat dinner with us.  Then we will open gifts.  I look forward to spending this time with my family.  Here's wishing you and your family a very wonderful Christmas!  Thanks for stopping by!

Free...

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a great weekend.  Do you have all your Christmas shopping done?  I do, but then I didn't have that many to buy for.  I wanted to show you what my brother and sister-in-law found when they were cleaning their garage and sent over to me.  It's cast iron and very heavy.

It has just a touch of rust on it, but nothing that can't be fixed.

I love the little page holders that are also cast iron.

My sister-in-law didn't want it but I'll take it.  I love free stuff!  They also sent a large box of foam, so I'm all set to make some cushions!  Thanks guys!  Well, I still have a few orders to finish and then I can start in on new stuff for next year.  Hope you have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

More headboards....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  Well the weekend is almost here.  I wanted to show you the set of headboards that my Uncle Bill got for me.  It's a matching set of twin headboards and footboards.

This picture shows just the headboards.

This one has all four in it.  He got them from a guy that runs a local auction house.  He got all of them for $30.  Which is $7.50 each.  Not too bad! 

Notice the rolled edge of the center piece on the two footboards.  That exact same thing is on the headboards.  I think they are going to make great benches.  I can hardly wait to start building.  As soon as our Christmas company heads home, I need to start working on getting things made for the craft fair that I've decided to attend this Spring.  Normally I don't have a booth in the Spring, but I'm going to give a whirl and see how well I do.  But that means I only have three months to get everything done which sounds like a lot of time, but it all depends on the weather.  Have a great weekend everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.

Cream bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I wanted to show you a bench I made for a relative.  There were 12 surviving siblings in my grandfather's family and one of his sister's daughter (my mom's cousin) bought a bench from me previously for one of her daughters and ordered this bench for one of her other daughters.  Are you confused yet?  She wanted a cream colored bench like the other one she got.  So this is what I came up with.

 To me it has a more primitive look to it, unlike the other benches I make.  My uncle Bill had given me this  headboard this fall and I knew when I saw it that this is the bench it would go with.  Did I mention that my mom's cousin ordered this back in the late spring, but she didn't want it until December.  So I put it off while I worked on everything else until it was almost December.

 I forgot to take pictures of the original headboard.  I found portions of spindles to made the arms.  And I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old Ochre.

Then I waxed it with clear wax and added the saying using black paint.  I have a stencil that I used for this.  It's the same one I use on all the large benches, but since it's smaller only part of it fits.  I delivered this and my mom's cousin loved it.  I sure hope her daughter does too. 

And on a sad note, the last of my grandfather's brothers passed away this week and I'll be going to the visitation later today.  He was 89.

And today, my nephew Ridge heads out for Marine Boot camp.  I wish him the very best!  And I'll miss him!

Well, thanks for stopping by.

Snow...

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I've been absent this week.  My foot is on the mend, but it's not 100% yet.  So it's been hard to be motivated to work out in the shop and stand on a concrete floor, so needless to say, I'm behind again.  And tonight is my work Christmas party, so I'll have to try to squeeze some shop time in this afternoon and tomorrow.  We had snow Thursday late afternoon and into the evening.  So this is what I awoke to yesterday morning.  I love snow.  I love to watch it snow and how wonderful it looks right after it snows, before it gets trampled and dirty looking.  So I had to snap this picture before the dogs (who love the snow almost as much as I do) hit the yard and messed up my pretty snow picture!   

 And then this morning we had fog that frosted everything.  I loved how it looked so while I was waiting for the dogs first thing this morning, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures.

And when I turned to go back in I saw the start of the lunar eclipse, so of course I had to take a picture.  Did you see the lunar eclipse this morning? 

I promise to get back to some more projects, hopefully I have something to show you tomorrow.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Let it Snow....

Hi Everyone!  My foot is still recovering so I don't have much new to show you as I haven't been able to work on anything this week.  But I did want to show you one of the little signs I made for the last craft fair.  You may remember the window I painted with the snowman, well I put one a piece of scrap wood.

I think it turned out to be cute.  I sold it at the last craft fair and received an order for one more.  I hope you have a great weekend.  I'm going to try to get caught up on some orders this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Farewell and Good luck to my nephew...

Hi Everyone!  Well, my nephew was here.  And we had a wonderful time.  I took a few pictures of the Christmas tree at Union Station in Kansas City while we were waiting for his train to arrive.

And here is my nephew and Dad minutes after he got off the train.  I hadn't seen him in person for almost two years.  And it was two years too long.  It's hard to believe he's 18 and joining the Marines in a matter of days.

And here he is with my mom shortly after we got him home.  We had a great time.  Played lots of games.  He loves to play card games or the tile game (as my Mom calls it).  We laughed a bunch and just enjoyed having him here.  He helped Dad do some chores around their house and helped Dad and I move some farm equipment back into storage.  Which was a lot of help, especially after the tongue of the hay rack landed on my foot leaving me to hobble along.  It's not broken just bruised really bad!!  And boy did it hurt!  The swelling is coming down which is good, but it's made it difficult to get orders filled.  So hopefully this weekend I can get caught up.  Mom and Dad took him to meet my sister-in-law so he can spend time with his Dad before he leaves for Marine boot camp on December 12th.  I will miss him and wish him well on this new phase of his life.  Good luck Ridge and be safe!  I know you'll make a great Marine!