Mr. & Mrs. Fox

When my husband and I were first married we lived in the DC area.  On the weekends we liked to drive around seeing the different sights.  There was one little down in Virginia that we especially loved to drive through.  I especially loved seeing this one house that had these statutes of Mr. & Mrs. Fox sitting on their front porch steps.  I knew that when we bought a house that I wanted to have my own Mr. & Mrs. Fox statues sitting on my front porch.  We lived in the DC area for around 4 years before moving back to West Virginia.  It was our 5th Anniversary when my husband said let's see if we can find a Mr. & Mrs. Fox statute for your present.  I went to a lawn statue place to see if they had them.  They didn't.  I was so disappointed.  My husband took me back and asked if we could have them special ordered.  Sure enough they were able to do that.  So we special ordered them.  The picture they had of them they were wearing pink and just looked strange.  I told them they were supposed to look like the Hunt Club type of theme.  They are a play on the people in the Hunt Club that rides the horses and they let a fox out that they chase down.  The fox chase is what it's called.  The foxes are supposed to be in disguise by wearing the same hunt clothes as the hunters.  I think it's cute and just love them.  I told them how to paint them and they turned out great.

Here's a picture of them with my young lady when she was around 2 years old.  I have them sitting on the corner stone that came from the old barn that was on our property.  The years went by and the weather beat them pretty hard.  The paint kept chipping away and they just looked pitiful.  The statue places that I bought them from is no longer in business.  I decided it was time to paint them myself.  I am very pleased with how they turned out.  I bought the outdoor paint at Hobby Lobby in the little bottles where you buy regular crafting paint.  I scraped off as much of the flaking paint as I could.  It took me a little longer to paint them than I thought it would because of the different angles and trying to get them as perfect as I could.  Once I got them painted the way I liked them my Young Man carried them to their corner stone bench for me.  They are very heavy.  He then spayed them with a sealer so they will look good for a long time. 
 

Penguins and Igloo

Christmas Eve my husband had to work some of the day. He took the kids with him to work as a special treat for them and for me. While they were gone I made some cute party foods for us to have for dinner when they came home. I made BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, bacon wrapped little smokies and a cheese ball in the shape of an igloo with penguins.
Everything was delish! The kids just loved seeing the penguins with the igloo. If you'd like to try to make the igloo and penguins yourself just go HERE!


Here's a closer up view of my penguins. They are so cute! I do have to give out a WARNING here though! DON'T leave your cream cheese out too long waiting for it to soften up! I believe that I am suffering from food poisoning from eating some of the cheese ball. I was the only person in the house who ate it and got sick. I'm glad too! I had a rough night last night. I'm feeling much better today. Hopefully I'll be fully recovered from it by tomorrow! I want to do some after Christmas shopping you know!

Angela

Guide to Animal Tracks

School will be out on Tuesday! Now that the kids will be home for their Summer Break I have a lot of different activities planned that we will be doing. One of their favorite things to do in the Summer is to look for animal tracks in our yard. I found these nifty Guides to Animal Tracks that I printed out for them to help them to identify the animal tracks they find in our yard. Please feel free to print them out yourself as I found them on a webpage that is designed to do just that.

Won't you join me Tuesday for Tuesdays' Show & Tail and post a picture or two of your favorite pet or animal around your house!

Angela

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have had this recipe to make Homemade Laundry Detergent for months. When I first found this recipe on a few blogs I wasn't able to find all of the ingredients in my local grocery store. I would find one of the ingredients at one store and another ingredient at another store. I finally found one of the hardest to find ingredients in my area, washing soda, and I am going to give it a try.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Use 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup per load

2 Cups Borax

2 Cups Washing Soda

1 Cup Baking Soda

1 Bar Soap ~ Shredded ~ Ivory, Dove or just about any soap you like

Has anyone tried to make this before? Did it work well for you? I'm just hoping that no one will be allergic to it. There are 3 of us in my house that have had allergic reactions to laundry detergent in the past which is why I have been hesitate to even make it.

Angela

My New Purse ~

I can't wait to show you what arrived in the mail today! My new purse! Not only is it beautiful, but it is a very special purse to me. Some of you may know Monica at Expressly Corgi. Monica has an Etsy Shop where she sales some of her crafts she makes, antiques and primitives. Monica had a purse that she had made a few months ago that had chickens and roosters on it. It was beautiful! I kept thinking about that purse. I wanted and needed a new purse of my own so I contacted Monica to see if she could make one for me and she did. Now, trying to figure out what material I wanted for my purse did pose a little bit of a question of how to do it since she lives in another state than I do. So we did what was easy. Monica asked me what type of fabrics and colors that I liked and we went from there. Below is a picture of the fabric I chose.


Isn't it just gorgeous! I can't wait to show you my new purse!

I know, enough of the daffodils already..... I couldn't resist! It is Spring after all isn't it?

I just love the style of this purse. Monica even made a pocket inside that has divider in the middle for my cell phone. She used the floral fabric on the inside of my purse for the pocket. It is really sweet looking on the inside! I even noticed that the magnetic snap is Made in the USA!!!! Way to go Monica!

Monica is truly a gifted and talented seamstress! Right now Monica has another really cute and beautiful purse that she made in her Etsy Shop. It has little black and white birdies on the front and black and white music notes on the inside. I would hurry and get it if you want it because I don't think it will last long! You can also go here to see more about it and see another picture of my purse in one of her recent posts.

You've got to take a look at all of the different things that she has listed right now. There are flip and fold bandannas for your favorite pet. There is also an assortment of Corgi note cards that she has in her shop. One of the note cards even features my favorite corgi Jazz!

Thank you Monica! I love my new purse! You did a wonderful job making it!

Angela

Family Tree Chart

I thought that since I put up a lot of family tree information on my blog that I should start putting up a few charts that you can use for your family tree if you like. Just right click and save or click to enlarge and print. This is one of the fancier ones that I have found. Hope you enjoy!

Angela

Lace Snowflakes ~ Bows ~ Get R Done Friday

It's Get R Done Friday over at ClassyChassy's! If you have a project that you have finished or are working on a project you can join in on the fun. Everyone is welcome! Thanks ClassyChassy for hosting this weekly event!

Today I want to try to explain to you how I make lace snowflakes for my Christmas tree. I found this quick and easy craft a couple of years ago in a kit on sale after Christmas and bought it. This year I decided that I would like to make some more lace snowflakes for my tree, so I was on my search for the things I needed.

To make a lace snowflake you will need:

Lace that has big holes at the top edge to weave in and out of a ring ~ 9 feet x 3/4 inch

1 package of Cabone Rings by Wrights ~ these are located in the yarn section ~ 15 rings; 3/4 in

Glue gun

Makes 15 lace snowflakes

Go here to see a picture of what my lace looked like on the spool and the rings.

The first thing you will want to do is cut through the ring with a pair of scissors. Then take your lace and weave through the ring. Mine took about 7 inches of lace to make. You will want to just weave it through the ring to see how it looks and then cut it. Then I took it back out and measured it to come up with the right measurements to make one snowflake. Next step would be to use a glue gun or regular Elmer's glue to glue the ring back together. You can either sew up the ends of the lace or leave them. Now you are ready to hang your lace snowflake on your tree!

Finding the supplies was not an easy task though. WalMart had the lace, but they didn't have the rings that you weave the lace in and out of. I found those at Magic Mart and a local craft store in Teays Valley.

Here are the finished lace snowflakes that I made. The type of snowflake that you end up with is determined by the pattern on your lace. As you can see I found 2 different types of lace that had the big holes at the top.

Next I would like to send you over here to see how easy it is to make your own bows for your Christmas packages or other special presents. I haven't tried to make them yet as I just found this link yesterday. It looks like it will be easy to make and they are frugally beautiful.

Angela

Snowflakes ~ Kirigami

I was finally able to upload those wonderful snowflakes that I posted about last Friday on my Get R Done post hosted by ClassyChassy at Expressly Corgi! Click to enlarge! I do hope that you are able to print them out. If not, let me know and I will try to figure out something for you. Like I said in my post last week, I like to cut out as many of these as I can and I hang them in my windows. I have a colonial with 11 windows in the front of the house and these snowflakes just make my windows look great. I actually leave them up until the Spring!

Angela

Snowflakes ~ Get R Done Friday

UPDATE: I finally got the other snowflakes to upload. I put them on another post here.

It's Get R Done Friday! ClassyChassy is our gracious host of this weekly event. Please visit Expressly Corgi to see all of the others who are participating in this weekly event..

I have a quick and easy Christmas craft to show everyone how to do this week. Christmas is right around the corner and it is almost time to start decorating. I got a jump start on decorating my blog this week ~ Get R Done!

Below is a picture that I really hope that you can somehow print it out on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. Then just follow the directions at the bottom. It is really easy to do. I've been making them for years. I live in a white Colonial house with 11 windows on the front. I like to put at least 3 of the different snowflakes in each window. I just use tape. I just love how they look from the road. You can see them really good in the day time which is great.

I am unfortunately having some technical difficulties at the moment. I have at about 3 more snowflakes that I wanted to share with you but I can't get them to upload at the moment. I will try again tomorrow!

If you should have a project or something that you just got done you should go over to Expressly Corgi and sign up with Mr. Linky and join in on the fun!

Angela

Fall Leaf Craft

As promised! Here is the fall leaf craft that I was talking about in a previous post! I found the following books at my local library a few years ago.

Look at how cute this butterfly is!

I have a really cute craft project that I want to share you with! I have been doing this fall craft with my kids, kids at church and school for the past 3 years. My kids just love this craft and so will yours!

What you will need to do is collect and press as many fall leaves as you can. You will want to collect all shapes, sizes and colors. I press mine in my phone book for at least a week prior to doing this craft.

Once your leaves have been pressed for a good week and they are completely flat it's time to get out your glue sticks, black construction paper and your leaves and let the fun begin!

Angela

Fall has Arrived ~ Wordless Wednesday

It's Wordless Wednesday! Please visit Heather to see all of the others who are participating in this weekly event and join in if you'd like! I also want to mention to everyone that would like to do a fun fall craft to start collecting and pressing some fall leaves. Different shapes, sizes and colors are what you will want to get ready. I'll post later what you will be doing with all of your pressed leaves!



Angela