Its been a while since...

I actually posted an entry other than videos so I thought I would sit down a do so. I went a while there only doing crafts for swapping in groups that I belonged to and it got a wee bit overwhelming so I have decided to do a little less swapping and a little more crafting for fun (and for my shop that I have been neglecting like crazy!)

Today I created a group on yahoo for crafting called Creative-Crafts.


I want this group to be a nice chatty, successful group of crafty friends. I had a ning site that I was really excited about but its A LOT of work and cost money that at the moment I do not have. Sadly that site is closing.

We have also decided that by the end of September/beginning of October we are relocating back to my home town (Concord). I want to be closer to our family and friends. Country life is great, but there are a lot of negatives to living this far away from family and friends, as well as not being able to get out and do things, or even work. We live about 30 minutes from even a grocery store, and if you don't coal mine, well the job selection is slim to none (unless you want to travel at least an hour one way.) It will be good for us to be close to everyone, for us to be able to get out more, and especially for me to find a job. Its been 4 years since I actually worked somewhere outside of the home! Not cool.

Our cat Stormy had 3 adorable kittens a few days ago! I'm not sure their sex yet but they are healthy and Stormy is an excellent mother! I need to get some really good pictures to share :)

Tomorrow PeeWee and Zoey will be going to their new forever home! TOGETHER TOO! We are super excited about that because those two are really close, they've grown up together. I hate to see them go but I know they will be loved and thats all that matters to me!

I've been crocheting and working on my junk journal a lot lately. I've done a few entries but I want to finish up a couple of entries I have been working on before I take photos or make a vid about it. I'm really enjoying it though. I finished a crochet purse on Thursday that I still need to take photos of as well. I will be posting those soon too!

Other than that, not much has been going on. Its the same old stuff, just a different day! Oh and our garden is doing fantastic! I'll share some pictures of that in an upcoming post as well! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

(ps saying a little prayer and sending big get well hugs to my bestie Ginger, she has bronchitis this week :( Feel better soon girlie!)

Just Blogging...

I'm tired of drama, especially family drama... why can't I watch a soap opera to get my drama fix, instead of having to deal with stupid stuff like who bought what for who and when. UGH. I get so tired of drama, greed, bitterness, jealousy....etc etc.

Isn't our Zoey soo cute?! I took this picture of her today, she is a camera hound for sure :) I've gotten REALLY attached to her already. I thought that once we found homes for her brothers that she would sort of be lonely and look for them but she is happy and hasnt acted differently. Maybe even acting better! Who knew lol. I am SOOO happy that we found good loving homes for the other 2 puppies and that they are together in the same home, with kids! yay! Turns out that the family that adopted them are really nice and their son has had some issues with swelling in his brain, he is pretty sick and has had a lot of testing done recently, so they adopted the puppies to sort of cheer up everyone especially their son. I hate that he is sick but I'm so happy that we could offer them a puppy to brighten his days. Oddly enough the father works with Tim and his name is also Tim, AND his wife's name is Andrea, AND she's also originally from NC. TALK ABOUT COINKEDINKS! Tim really gets along with them and so we are hoping that maybe we can get to know them and maybe be friends. They would be our first friends to hang out with here which I think would be nice.

On a damper note, Tim's great aunt Alma passed away on Wednesday night and the funeral is Monday. Unfortunately, we can't make it because its in Florida and Tim has to work, and we just dont have the funds. :( Tim's a little down about that, but his mom is taking a flight tomorrow down so that she can be there because it was her Aunt and so she is going to send our condolences. I never met her but from what I've heard she was a wonderful lady and there are many fond memories of her. May she rest in peace.

If you havent noticed, I have changed up this blog a bit. I'm really happy with the new layout and everything. I'm trying to make this blog a bit more personal and less 100% focused on The Longest Yarn. Yes its a BIG part of my life, but there's a lot more going on that I would LOVE to have an outlet to talk about.

Me and my bestie, Ginger, are on chapter 7 of our Eclipse re-read. We have a book discussion blog called Dixie Book Diva's where we are talking about the book as we read. We would LOVE for anyone to join in with our discussions. We will be reading & discussing Eclipse this month and next month we will be reading/discussing 'The Sweet Far Thing' by Libba Bray. Any and everyone's welcome to join in at any time.

I'm working on several crochet projects that I will be putting up in the shop soon. There's an afghan (that i've blogged about before), a messenger bag, a few more mary jane slipper sets, possibly a few more coaster sets, and I'm thinking a few more headbands. Not only that but I have 2 commissioned drawings, and a request for a travel bag (for toothpaste, toothbrush etc)... I'm going to be busy busy busy!

Aren't our roses beautiful?! I was sooo happy to go out today after several days of rain, and take pictures of the beautiful roses that have blossomed. I need to figure out what I can use for the pests that are eating the leaves.. so annoying. I went out today to check on our apple tree as well and it has big black ants all over the leaves... so I dont know if they are possible eating on my tree?!? I didn't know they did that! lol.

Tonight I watched the movie 'Brothers.' I thought it was a good movie. I'm not a big fan of Toby McGuire but I really like Natalie Portman. I was surprised at how good of a job TM did in this movie. He did a great job at being 'crazy' basically lol. The ending left a lot to be desired, but I like that it was sort of a 'happy' ending rather than he just 'offing' himself, ya know? But thats just my opinion. :)

I think that pretty much sums up everything I have to talk about for now. I think I'll try to read the ending of my current read 'Rebel Angels' by Libba Bray. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Here... again

Its been a long while, and I dont really know what to say... I used to blog here consistantly... I used to make cards, and atc's, tags and scrapbook pages and some how I let all of that go and focused all of my attention on my shop, knitting and crocheting. I havent drawn or painted anything in what seems like years... until a few days ago.

My brother, his fiance and their son are coming up for Thanksgiving! It will be the first time since our move to WV that any of my family has visited, so I am super excited! I havent seen them in a few years too, soo you can imagine! I just know we are going to have fun, just hanging out, enjoying each other's company, taking lots of pictures and sightseeing!

I decided I wanted to go ahead and give them their gifts for Christmas while I had the chance in person, that way I dont really have to worry about shipping and if the items would make it safely and things like that. So I got out all of my drawing supplies and for the first time in months I drew!

My brother loves Tigers, so I drew him a Bengal tiger.... and his fiance loves wrestling and her favorite wrestler is Jeff Hardy, so I drew her a picture of Jeff Hardy.... I like how they turned out, of course photos never do artwork of any kind any justice.... so they look more vibrant in person :) I really hope they love their pictures =]

I rejoined Scrapbooking & Crafting Friends, and I plan on working on some paper arts in the near future... before I really get tired of knitting and crocheting and never want to pick it up again lol. I love doing it, but when you have done it every single day for the 6 or more months... sometimes you just get tired. ya know? Hopefully I will be blogging here more frequently. I am going to update everything today and will be posting my new creations, including knitting and crochet items when they are created. I'm also going to try to put in a little of my everyday life here as well, like I used to.... Im sorry I abandoned my friends like I did... life just got in the way and I miss you guys so very much!

Wishing everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Been Busy, shop updates!

We've added many new items to the shop this week, and we are also working on more! Today we will be posting 8 NEW items! A fine art drawing, 6 sets of stitch markers for knitting and crocheting, and another cool little handpainted wood sign. I've got so much to post and catch up on its insane! I havent been here in ages it seems. We have a blog for the shop http://homespun-creations.blogspot.com/ and we are also on Facebook, you can become a fan of the shop there, just type HomespunCreations in the search bar and you'll find us! We made a treasury of all of our favorite Halloween Creations on Etsy as well... Check it out, you wont be disappointed. There's a variety of items. You can leave comments on the treasury too, it stays open until Monday. The link to our Witches Brew treasury is... http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=78685
I've also been working on a knitted baby blanket for my brother's baby Adam. He is due on Dec. 14th and we are all sooo excited! I will be a first time Aunt and my brother has asked me and Tim to be Adam's Godparents, so I am super humbled and doubly excited to meet the little guy! I will have to post pics of the ultrasounds they sent me and share pics of the blanket and things. Its only taken me 2 weeks to do 1 panel lol. I have 2 more panels to go, and finished panel 1 at 1 am last night haha. Good thing I have time huh? Im just so excited! I want to make a complete set of booties, a blanket, a hat, and maybe mittens or something for him since he will be here in the winter. I have some other things to share that I've created and been doing for the months that I've been away. I will try my best to post all of the new things soon. I just wanted to share a little of whats been going on. Hope everyone's doing well!

Neglecting my blog :(

I know I've been MIA for a while. I cant believe its been almost a month since I've really posted anything and I have all these pictures of things I have been wanting to share but no time to do it! Sheesh! It seem's like December is always so hectic, theres no time for me to work on anything or blog really. Me and my husband are really active in our church, and so its just been super crazy busy there. We are in the Christmas Play, and thats this Sunday! Tim's helping the other men at the church today to get the Christmas food baskets together for all the needy families in our community. Tomorrow night is the 36th anniversary Christmas Caroling at the church and Tim and I are going to join the carolers! I've never done that but it sounds like a blast and I cant wait! Then Sunday morning is our special Christmas sermon and secret santa gift exchange and Sunday night is our Christmas play. Then Monday Tim are high tailing it to N.C to spend time with my family and then we are high tailing it back home on Wednesday to spend time with his family .lol. Its insanium in the cranium!! I'm not complaining, I'm just explaining where I've been and why I'm so busy. I did sit down today and update the look of the blog because I forgot to after Thanksgiving and was shocked to log in this morning to turkey's LOL. Then I also updated the look of my etsy shop. I actually sold 2 items in the last week, and got a special request on my shop and then got a request at church last night too-woo hoo!- I was on the verge of throwing in the towel with that. In all honesty I felt like I was wasting my time. I dont know what else to do to really get my shop out there and more active. I would love to add more artwork but I have noooo idea what I should create.... I know what I like and what my family and friends like but when it comes to whats popular and what would sell.. I havent got the slightest idea. But I feel like there is still hope for my shop and I'm not going to give up yet. I'm just gonna get back into the game and work my butt off. Maybe not so much this week and next week... but after the holidays I'm all in!


I did want to share a few things that I have been meaning to...



I made this ornament a few weeks back and thought I would share. I actually used the inchie cube template but enlarged it so that my cube was 2 1/2 inches. I used the same rubber stamp on all sides and colored them with colored pencil, but I used different background papers and embellishments. I made a template for this but Im not sure how to do the whole adobe pdf thing, so I'm at a loss with that .lol.

I made this little guy for our Thanksgiving center piece :) He's made of 2 styrefoam balls that I painted brown and hot glued together. Then they were covered in brown and black buttons of various sizes. After it dried I took 4 fabric leaves and glued them beside one another and placed googly eyes in the center. I took one more fabric leaf and folded it in half for the beak and gobbler ;) Then I added different colored feathers, green fiber and a round tag for a necklace. :) It was really easy and would be a GREAT craft project for kids to do.. [just dont let them use the hot glue gun alone! :)]

And finally... I found this great plain white ceramic plate at Michaels on sale for a few bucks and thought it would be really neat to try and alter it :) I had some really pretty wallpaper of The Sistine Cherubs by Raphael. Its one of my all time favorite paintings and when I saw the wallpaper way back when I HAD to have it. The entire painting would not fit so I cropped it so that at least one would fit and I glued it to the plate with E600. I used the handle of a paintbrush to make sure there was no bubbles or anything. After I allowed that to try I took tacky glue and gold leaf and very carefully edged around the image so you wont have to see where the image ends and the plate begins. It sort of covered the crease and everything and added a pretty sparkle to the plate. After that I just clear coat sealed it and let it dry for several hours before adding a second coat of sealer. :) I was so happy with the way this turned out that I decided to keep it. I am seriously considering creating more of these decorative plates but with other themes as well. If anyone would be interested in one in any sort of theme please contact me by commenting here or emailing me at redrose4384@aol.com and let me know. This could be a new item in my shop if I get enough positive feedback etc. ;)

Thats all for now. I truly hope that everyone is having a blessed Holiday Season. If I dont post until after the holiday, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

God Bless,

Alot of catching up to do....

It has been such a long time since I updated my blog. Eeesh. Seems like everytime I get the chance to sit down and type something up or share a new creation, something else pops up and I get side tracked. *sighs* But I've updated my blog look (finally) and I happen to like my little Thanksgiving theme, even if it will need to be changed in a few weeks again *lol* I have been creating things like crazy and will blog as many of them as I can today and the coming days so that I can catch up. I've really just been focusing on Christmas and the Holidays. I always get into a festive mood right after Halloween. Its my favorite time of the year, and I really enjoy making my greeting cards, and other crafts/decorations etc. I've also been really active in our church and with the holidays coming up our church is super busy with a Christmas play, fundraising, and other things. I joined the Ladies Aid of our church and this Friday we are having a 'Fall Bizarre' where we are going to sell our arts and crafts, and baked goods etc. to raise money for the Church and we use the money to create food baskets & toys for the needy families in our area. So that will be really nice. I've been creating tons of Holiday themed items for the Bizarre and will be busy mid-week baking and cooking. Eesh. Its fun and I really enjoy being active in our church. I also caught a terrible cold last week and I was really feeling aweful, but today is the first day that I have been feeling a little better. At least I can smell and breath out of my nose, even if I do have a cough still. I'm hoping by mid-week or the weekend it will be gone for good. I always get sick at least 1 time when the season's change. I guess its just the weather change. Ok well, thats just a tiny update from me. Stay tuned for tons of art creations :) Hoping all are doing well and had a fun Halloween. :)