{ Work Widow }

I am officially a work widow this week, the mister is sitting in the Boise Airport waiting for his flight to take him to Dallas Texas where he gets to stay at the Gaylord Texan and do "work related stuff" for the week.

Yes it must be rough... :) 

So I will be a single mom to 5 this week, well until late Saturday night. The kids and I get to celebrate Jentry's 13th birthday on Thursday and then Miss Brinley turns 9 on Sunday. 

Needless to say it's going to be a busy week and after this is all over I may need a getaway of my own. 

Wish me luck, I just may need it.

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{ Friends }

I just have to say how much 
I LOVE MY FRIENDS! 

One of my fabulous friends brought me these lovely flowers yesterday to help cheer me up as my week went to pot on Monday.

Thank you to my friends (you know who you are) for being a sounding board & a shoulder to lean on when I need a little extra support and for all your advice.

You guys truly are awesome & I couldn't ask for better friends!

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{ Simplify }

SIMPLIFY

It's my word for this upcoming year.

We had a more "simple" Christmas & New Years eve where we didn't have 150 places to be and things to do, we just stayed home and enjoyed being with each other.

 and now I'm starting to simplify my home and it's starting in the living room. 

I've did some major spring cleaning and furniture moving on the 1st and this is what I have so far. 

A Fresh & Simple living room.

Now it's onto the rest of the house, we need to finish all our unfinished projects, & even make a few furniture pieces to help clear up some clutter. 

When you have an old farmhouse with no closets, storage can be interesting at times.

Yeah, it's time to Simplify and I am ready....

What's your word for the year?

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{ Merry Christmas }

May we all have the true spirit of Christmas in our lives.

We only need to drop the last syllable of Christmas and we have the True spirit of Christ. 

 May this be something we carry with us all year through.

Merry Christmas! 

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{ Some Baseboard, Trim & A Bit Of Photoshop = Wedding Gift }

My hubby's niece Brittany is getting married this Saturday the 18th and I've been scratching my head as to what to get them. For a long time now I've had a love of the Vintage Temple Pictures that you can buy. BUT my pocket book doesn't like the $160.00+ price tag these come with. 

SO I decided to do it myself.

 *We made the Frame out of Baseboard and some trim.

*The picture, I played around with in Lightroom & Photoshop then had printed at Costco in a 12x18.

*I painted it, then sanded down all the edges and hit it with some stain.

 Total price tag...... $28.00 people!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out. 

I see a few more of these on the horizon

FONTS THAT I USED:
For the name I used Hannibal Lecter. 
For the date I'm pretty sure I used Texas Hero.
Both, I'm sure I found free via the web..

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{ A Must See!!!! }

My friend Kim and I took our Girlies to see Disney's Tangled last Saturday and it was SO STINKING CUTE!! 

I thought for an animated Disney movie this was hands down their best to date. 

We are sooooo buying this movie when it comes out on DVD.

If you haven't watched it, I HIGHLY recommend grabbing your kiddos and heading to the Theater before it's gone!!

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{ Christmas Wishes }

Remember me??  

I've finally crawled out from under my pile of stitchery's & flu infected children and I just had to share this little goodie that's just too stinking cute NOT to make.

Brinley has been dying to get her hands on an American Girl doll but..... I can't bring myself to spend $100.00 on a D.O.L.L.  Especially since she has just gotten interested in dolls in the last few months. We have spent time on the internet and found several look-a-like dolls for a 1/4 the price of AG. 

You gotta love a girl with a wish list and the ability to be frugal like her mother and able to compromise.

While looking for doll info and trying to catch up on all my favorite blogs I happened upon this stinking cute bed from Ana-White.com

Photo via Ana-White

  Which looks just like our bed that we made HERE.

If you have a little girl with an 18 inch doll how can you NOT want to make this cute little bed??? 
The plans are free and the directions easy to read. 
Plus you get to use all your scrap lumber!!!

Here is the link to her site. 

Photo via Ana-White

 All I can say is this is one 8 yr. old who hopes her wish list becomes a reality!
Have a Fabulous weekend!

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{ Holiday Wrapping's }

See these lovely HUGE spools of Bakers twine???

I bought; Brown/White, Red/White & Green/White.

 I've been eyeballing these babies for the last couple years, but a few weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and purchased some. 

Oh my head is spinning with all the gifts I can wrap with this stuff. 

I was looking all over Etsy for Bakers Twine but the prices were too steep for me for the little that you were able to get, 

I only paid $8.95 per cone, hello cheap!

If you want to purchase some for yourself the best place on the internet that I have found is from HERE ,each spool has 3400 yards on it, So I think I'm set with my 10,200 yard of twine.

Well I better get back to gathering all my Thanksgiving Day stuff together, it's a balmy -2 outside right now Brrrrrrrrr, so the more I MOVE the warmer I'll be. I hope.
Happy Wrapping!

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{ My Holiday OCD }

 Hi my name is Rachel and I have Christmas Tree OCD. 

This is where I hear everyone say in unison, 
Hi Rachel.....

No the tree is not perfect, yet. Yes this was taken today and yes I know I'm early.

They say admitting ones faults if the first sign of acceptance so I will be the first one to say that........

YES I have Christmas Tree OCD & YES I am the only one that is allowed to decorate our Christmas tree. 

There I said it, its officially in Cyber Space.

I know this makes me a terrible mother as my kids will never grow up saying that they loved the holiday tradition where we all gathered together to decorate the tree while listening to Christmas music and sipping hot cocoa. Yeah, THAT pretty much will never happen and frankly I came to grips with this fact years ago.

But I'm sorry, to me the tree has to be perfect, it's just something I can't get over. After I get the tree all decorated, I will sit and stare at it & more often then not you will find me moving things here and there.

I once let the kids help me a decorate the tree and when they went to bed and finally were asleep I rearranged the whole flipping thing 

(see told you it was ocd). 

If it helps any, I do have little Christmas trees in each of my kids bedrooms that they get to decorate themselves how ever they like. I am hoping one day I will let the kids help again maybe when they've grown. But until then this is how it's going to be.
Please tell me I'm not alone here? :)

Our tree from last year.
Well I better get back to my unfinished tree.

But first I get to go on a date with my oldest, we are going to watch Harry Potter 7!

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{ It's the Simple Things....}

Tonight I went with Jeannette & Jocelyn and watched 

The Phantom Of The Opera at Eastern Oregon University 

it was fabulous, & the cast did such a great job!! I'm so loving all the plays/shows that are put on locally! The time & effort that are put into these productions is amazing to say the least. For living in such a small community we sure do have lots of Theatrical talent living amongst us. I love it!

Thanks for the ticket Jeannette. :)

Then before I went home I ran to Wal-Mart and picked up some milk, bananas and ................GRANDMA SYCAMORE BREAD!!!

That's right I found it here!!!! 
Now stop laughing, I'm being totally serious.

I know for some of you this seems like no big deal. But I usually only get to buy this bread when we go to Utah and that's about 8 hrs from here. So finding it locally at Wally's, made this little Carbohydrate Loving Heart skip a beat!!! 

Yes it really is all about the simple things..... 

Sigh........

I think I'm going to go and make some toast and hot cocoa now... 

Goodnight. ;)

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