The hallway is ready to show you.....

You say, is that all that's ready??  Yes, I am afriad so.  I still have piles of boxes and things to hang in every room of the house!  My dear sweet husband, says he will not be working inside the house while the weather is nice.... while I appreciate what he is saying, that means I will have my piles for a few more months until the weather is cold.

Remember my nice long hallway in Oregon?  I had all my pictures there.  I am truly befuddled as to what to do with these 12 ft. ceilings I have!  Do I decorate up to the top?  Do I only do midway?  What?  Do I get decorative curtains?  Great, how much will those cost?  So if you know please tell me.

Here is my hallway...

It is so dark in here, I had to turn on my hall lights.

You can kind of see my wall lights, I didn't like what was here when we moved in, so I found these lights at Menards, kind of like Home Depot......you'll never guess how much they were.  A box of 2 for $5.99!!  At the end of the hall is my laundry room and on the left are the stairs to the basement.

To the right is my kitchen at the end of the hall to the right is the master bedroom.  The first door on the left is the pantry and the door right after it is the half bath.  I do have that done, I could show you that too!

So from right to left, laundry, stairs to basement, half bath, pantry...  I do like my Cotton Balls white, but I am noticing how dirty everything gets.  That goes for white baseboard and doors too.  But I love it, I would still choose white even with the dirt!

Have a great weekend, and leave me a high ceiling decorating tip, please!

Lollibag's at MaryJanes Farm Stores

I am so excited to tell you that Lollibag's are coming to MaryJanes Farm stores in Idaho!  Last year at the Creative Connection 2010, MaryJane and her daughter Meg, came to my table and bought a Lollibag.  This year Meg visited my table again and bought 2 Lollibag's. 
Soon after the event was over, I received an e-mail from Meg and she wanted to buy some Lollibag's for their stores and she interviewed me for MaryJanes Farmgirl Sisterhood newsletter "The Cluck".

If you would like to join the Farmgirl Sisterhood please go here.  I am a farmgirl sister myself!  If you have never heard of MaryJanes Farm, it is a magazine, I subscribe and love it.  MaryJane also has a bed and breakfast and a farm school.  Lauren and I went to MaryJanes Farm Fair in Idaho a few years back and had so much fun. 

So needless to say, I am super happy about this!  I will let you know when the newsletter comes out, until then, go visit MaryJanes Farm.

Creative Connection 2012....photo's

Hi, I'm home.  I made it.  I didn't think I would.  But really this year was a whole lot easier, being I live in Minnesota now!  I didn't feel the greatest but my sister came with me and stayed the whole time!  She was a huge help.  Thank you sister!!

Again, I met alot of great women.  Really nice women.  I will start with the old faithfuls, I'll call them.  A couple ladies who I met last year and they are genuine, stayed in touch with me and came by to see me again!

The first is Koralee from Bluebird Notes.  Who doesn't follow Koralee?  No one.  And rightly so, have you been the recipient of one of Koralee's sweet e-mails?  You know what I'm talking about if you have.  Well she is the real deal.  That's not fake.  And her hugs are even better!

I like the lady showing her friend a Lollibag in the background :)

Another friend I met last year is Hollie from Funky Junk.  She bought a Lollibag last year and wore it right away and in turn all kinds of ladies saw it and came over to buy their own!  We have stayed in contact this last year and I was so happy to see Hollie again this year!

A new friend I got to see this year was Deborah from Art & Soul.  I love meeting a bloggy friend.  Deborah volunteered for Creative Connection, she drove up from Iowa.  Let me tell you.... I was not expecting such bubbles, such happiness, she called me sunshine, but that was the exact word I was going to use to describe her!!  She is a ray of sunshine.  Not only has she sent me encouraging comments on my blog since I met her online, but she is even better in person!  Deborah, it was so nice to meet you and hopefully I'll see you again someday!

Holly from Decor8 stopped by my booth!!!  My sister and I chatted with her for a bit, she is very nice and she is on a whirlwind book tour.  My lands, I don't know how she is surviving the travel.  But what fun!  She said this was her favorite Lollibag...

I met the ladies from Whippy Cake... a-dor-able.  My sister and I were sitting back and just watching the people walk by.  This cute tiny pregnant girl is meandering by and sister and I both say... Oh look how cute she is!  She had the cutest dress on and her short blond hair was so stylish and she stopped in my booth and picked out 3 Lollibag's!  We found out she is from Whippy Cake.  Super cute hair accessories.  Super.   Cute.  I got a couple headbands for my girls.  They love them. (this picture is the next day...)

This year at Creative Connection there was a new booth called Enchanted Makeovers.  I had read about it before the show and knew I wanted to donate a Lollibag.  When I got to the show and read what they really do, I was amazed!  Terry Grahl, the founder and president, told me they go in to women's shelters make over the rooms so the women feel encouraged that they are worth something to start a new life.  Myself, being in an abusive marriage at one time, I knew I wanted to give a Lollibag.

So I grabbed a few Lolli's and went over to her booth and I started crying... great.  I said I was in an abusive marriage and thank you for what you are doing!  My Lollibag's will go to women and girls who have nothing and maybe it will brighten their day, maybe they can take a Lollibag on a job interview or to school and not feel bad that they are living in a shelter.  You really need to check out her website and see the amazing transformations they do.  It still brings tears to my eyes.  This is what means something!  This is what storing up treasures in heaven is, what Terry does!!  Please if you create something or can donate time or money, it is such a worthy cause! www.enchantedmakeovers.org  The photo below is a bedroom that they are donating to twin girls.  That is Terry Grahl.

Here are a few pictures I took of the event and of my booth....

 My sister, Jessica, at my booth...

My sister and I.  We get alot of..... are you guys twins?  ha ha, we think that funny, we don't see how someone could mistake us for twins.  Also alot of......OH you MUST be sisters!

I also met a lady who has a shop in Florida, she bought 6 Lollibag's for her store in Sarasota.  She said she is in the process of changing the name, so I'm not sure what the new name is but check out her website or stop in! Buy up the Lollibag's!  I hope it's the start of a nice relationship between us!

And there is it girls!  Another year gone by.  I am going to go collapse on my sofa and read a good book! 

My booth at The Creative Connection

I just got back from setting up my booth at The Creative Connection.  This years location is bigger and better.  So I got a booth instead of a table!

I have so many bags that some of them are just sitting in my vintage grocery cart.

And that is how my banner turned out.

If you are in town, please stop by and see me and The Crowne Plaza in St. Paul.

I'll post all my pictures from the event next week!



The Creative Connection Event 2011

Hi girls, I am really excited to go to The Creative Connection Event again this year!!  I had so much fun last year, you can read about that trip here.

I have been so busy sewing and preparing.  I think this year is going to be even bigger and better.  I will share all my photo's with you next week!  Until then!

Lollibag on the red carpet?!

There, can you see it?? Down to the left of her skirt, it's a Lollibag!  This is the sweet lady who bought our farm.  She was at the Emmy's and brought her Lollibag!

I gotta tell you, it kind of made my day, maybe my whole week.

Today is my son, Josh's, 21st birthday too.

It is so cliche to say it, but I don't know where the time went!  And frankly, I don't feel old enough to have a child that age.

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Remembering

Today is such a sad day.  I did not lose a loved one in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but still my heart aches for everyone lost.  I remember the day exactly.  I was 6 months pregnant with Portia, my 4th child.  I had gotten my older children off to school and was sitting on my bed, I turned on the Today show to see the Twin Towers, one with smoke billowing out of it and the other a plane just flying into it.  I was so shocked.  I wondered if I should really be bringing a child into this evil world.  It was surreal.

I still think of it and think, did that really happen?  Do you think like that?  Do you ever have a moment where you look at what your doing and think, wow how did I arrive at this place in life?  What moments brought me here?

Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about the attacks?

Praying for the families who lost loved ones.

Treasures

Today my 15 year old daughter was on facebook live chatting with some of her facebook friends.  Her and I had just gotten done talking......I said to her remember the most important thing is to share the gospel!  Ask someone if they know where they are going when they die, and then you can tell them how to get to heaven.

Now...... I said that thinking well, she probably won't do it, but at least I am telling her to and maybe someday she will!  Not so, she made quick work of it!  She immediately put her status as: Is Jesus YOUR Savior?
And then she asked a boy through live chat if he knew Jesus as his Savior.  He responded with curse words and insults and told her she was a whore and what's up with this f'ing Jesus crap...

So I showed her this verse:

Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I then explained to her that everytime she tells someone about Jesus, she is "storing" up rewards in heaven.

Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


I don't know about you, but my heart is so longing for home.  Home with my Savior.  I have lots of exciting things going on in my life, but I will gladly leave it behind to go home.  But then I think of all my unsaved family and friends and I know there is much work to be done here.

God has been whispering the treasure verse in my mind for months and months, it is always popping into my thoughts.  That tells me I need to do more, to be about His work.  I pray God will give me boldness to do just that!