Vintage Mama's Cottage

Creative inspiration for your home and family

It’s been a rainy autumn day

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We had a lot of fun on our family getaway, even though it rained a couple of the days we were in our rather rustic cottage in the woods. One morning we got up and it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the lake which was just down the hill off the deck outside the kitchen door. It wasn’t cold, so even though it was raining we took a couple of day trips into a little town with an amazing old-fashioned Dime Store, the kind I used to shop at when I was a kid.

Not too far from where we were staying there were a bunch of covered bridges (no, not the Bridges of Madison County, but still . . . . ) so we drove around in the rain to look at a few of them. We drove down winding dirt roads, through cornfields and woods. “Mom, next time can we go somewhere that looks different than it does around our house?” Well, of course, but then we would probably have to go farther away than just 100 miles from home, in a different state. But she was right. It did look an awful lot like the cornfields and woods around our house, but it was a fun adventure searching through the dreary, misty afternoon looking for those rather dilapidated covered bridges.

Actually, there is a rather large man-made pond right across the road from our house with a beautiful covered bridge. It is not for driving on, but it is quite lovely to look at. Especially on a rainy autumn day. So we had a good time just hanging out together, playing Trivial Pursuit every evening, and doing a bit of exploring. One day we drove into Terre Haute, Indiana where we found the CANDLES Holocaust Museum which was amazing! The girls were really interested and we learned so much about the woman who started the museum:

 In 1995, Eva Mozes Kor opened the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, with a mission to prevent prejudice and hatred through education about the Holocaust. Thousands of people, including many school groups, have visited CANDLES since it opened. In 2003, the museum was destroyed by a hate-filled arsonist. Eva vowed to rebuild, and with the help of a generous public outpouring of support, the museum was rebuilt and reopened in 2005. 

It was such a moving story of how one woman’s experience of terror and tragedy was turned around into a story of forgiveness and kindness. If you would like more information about the CANDLES Holocaust Museum, you can visit their website HERE.

So, even though our little family getaway wasn’t all that exciting, we had a lot of fun together. It was too rainy most of the evenings to have a bonfire, but then we can do that here at home, out on our deck, when the evenings are dry and cool. We did get to check out a few local restaurants which were OK, but I would have to say that the best part of the whole time was just being away for a few days, with no expectations or responsibilities, with time to relax and have fun. I think we need to do that again before another year goes by!

Today, however, I had a lot of work to do! It has been raining most of the day, so it was rather dark and gloomy, so in the afternoon after teaching in the morning and then grading papers and working on an editing project, I decided to get away from the computer and watch a movie. With a cup of tea, a cozy blanket, and a time to relax. Some days it’s OK just to take a break from all of the busyness of life and take time for yourself.

I hope you have time to do that once in a while. I know it is really challenging when you have a family to take care of (my girls came home later and now one is at work and the other one is doing homework so I have a bit of time to catch up on my blogging projects!), but if you can find a few minutes to catch your breath, you’ll find that it is good for everyone in your life. Give it a try, maybe tomorrow, even if it isn’t rainy at your house. You’ll see what I mean!

But don’t forget to join us for the Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party . . . just link up your latest blog post and while you are relaxing with a cup of tea, pop around and visit some of the other bloggers that have joined our weekly party. You’ll meet new bloggers and make new friends, I promise! Hope to see you there . . . .

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Favorite Things: Family Get-Away

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We are really excited about our autumn family getaway later this month! We’ve been talking about this for several months and it is almost time for us to take off for a few days to a rustic lodge on the shores of a lake in central Indiana. We don’t take time off for a vacation in the summer because all we would do is stay inside where it is cool . . . none of us do well in really hot, humid weather. So the month of October works great for us. A few years ago we went to northern Michigan and stayed in a little cottage by Lake Michigan and we were able to climb the sand dunes, walk on the beach and hike out to the lighthouse.

It rained and was misty and foggy for the whole time we were there, but it was still fun. We played board games and did a jigsaw puzzle, and just stayed together without TV or any other distractions. It was great! This time we didn’t want to go so far away because we didn’t want to spend so much time driving, so we found an old fashioned lodge where we will be able to go fishing, have a bonfire at night, walk on the beach or along the trails, or just read a book and play games. And it won’t be hot and humid!

It might rain, but that’s OK with us. We bought a couple new games we are going to play, along with some of our old favorites, and we are planning on just having a fun time together, just our little family. We’re looking forward to our upcoming getaway, and I’ll be sure to share photos with you when we return. In the meantime, I hope you will join us for this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. I’ll do my best to stop by and visit as many of you as I can! Thanks for visiting Vintage Mama’s Cottage. Hope you are having a good week.

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Favorite Things: Bible Journaling

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I guess it’s true . . . . what is old becomes new again, sooner or later. Or, sometimes it’s referred to this way: “What goes around, comes around.” And if you live long enough, you will discover how many times that will happen in your lifetime. One of the things that I’ve realized is a “new” trend that lots of people have been doing for a really long time, is what is now called “Bible Journaling.” That’s a catchy name and it is a great way to encourage people to get creative with their study of the Scriptures.

My poor old Bible is pretty much in tatters. But when when the cover started to fall off a few years ago, I couldn’t bear to part with it, so my family bought me a Bible cover to hold it all together. With a pretty pink, black, and white quilted cover, a zipper, and a handle, I can still use my familiar, favorite Bible, probably for the rest of my life. I’ve tried using a new Bible. I even have several other Bibles that are very nice and they are brand-new. But they are not familiar, like my old Bible. I know where verses are that I’ve underlined, circled, and starred over the years. I have notes that I wrote in the margins during times of study, and times of great sadness and despair. It’s like an old friend who knows all my secrets, and a new one just wouldn’t be the same.

With all those notes and squiggles and underlines and circles, I’ve found that my Bible is a precious treasure that reminds me not only of God’s love, faithfulness, promises, and holiness but it also reminds me of the places and times where He carried me through some very dark days. So writing in my Bible was just kind of a natural way of recording those memories of time of joy and times of brokenness. But it never occurred to me to color in my Bible. Until I started reading about all of the “new” ways of Bible journaling. And then I realized that I had been doing that for many years, just not quite so boldly or creatively. I guess it’s time to step up my game!

Medieval Illuminated Manuscript

And then I recalled all of the beautiful illuminated manuscripts that I studied once upon a time when I was doing my academic studies in Medieval Church history. The beautiful drawings and embellishments that were used in those books, hundreds of years ago, are still a testament to the devotion and loyalty to God by the only people of that day and age who could read and write. The monks in the monasteries would write out the Scriptures and other prayer books, by hand, and they would include beautiful colored drawings to help the people understand the story of God’s love and His gift of grace through Jesus. Because the average person back then could not read the words, so the pictures were the best way to tell that story. Bible journaling in the beginning of God’s story of redemption. We continue to tell that story, and we also can bring our own love of God’s Word into our own Bible through journaling the pages of His Love Letter to us.

I guess it is time to begin my own, more colorful and creative, spiritual journey through the Bible and start doing some doodling, drawing, and even painting and coloring in my old Bible. I hope it will hold up for another few years because this it the one that I just can’t part with. Have you thought about Bible journaling? I would love to see what you do with your designs in your Bible. I’ll show you some of my pages as soon as I get up the courage to start adding some color to my drawings, underlines, circles, and starred verses.

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Favorite Things: Family Game Night

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When our girls were little we played really simple board games with them. We also like to do jigsaw puzzles together, so for a long time we had puzzles with 100 – 150 pieces. These were really fun because the pieces were big enough for little hands to manage.  We started with games like Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, and we even had a game that was based on the American Girl dolls and their stories. We played Scrabble and Uno and Monopoly (although that one never ends!), and the girls loved playing a silly game called “Headbanz.” That’s a fun game where everyone has a headband with a little slot in it to hold a card that you pick from the pile with an animal, or food, or household object on it. Of course, YOU can’t see what’s on the card, but all the other players can see if you are a horse or a butterfly or a bicycle or a hamburger or a pickle.

You put the card, facing outward so all the other players can see it, and then each player tries to guess what card they have by asking questions. But the questions can only have “yes or no” answers. It can get really funny, with both kids and parents laughing hysterically when mom is a hot dog or dad is a mosquito! When on of the kids is a bottle of ketchup or a soccer ball, the questions become so silly that everyone has great fun. Another game the girls really love to play is Spoons. It’s kind of an old-fashioned game that we all played at summer camp or church retreats, but it is still a lot of fun, especially when everyone grabs a spoon and Daddy keeps on playing, not even noticing that all the spoons are gone. Then the “laugh at Dad” commences while he remains clueless. But he sure can beat us all at a game of Gin Rummy!

After summer camp this year, we discovered a new-to-us game called Dutch Blitz. It’s a pretty fast-paced game, and you have to be paying attention the whole time or you’ll miss your opportunities to get rid of the cards in your Blitz Pile. This one doesn’t leave too much time for talking to one another because if you do, you’ll miss something and then someone else will win! So we play this game for a while, and then we switch it up to something else so we can have a conversation while the playing commences. We have also advanced to puzzles with more pieces than we started out with, but a few weeks ago we started one that Mom thought would be challenging at 1,500 pieces. It was challenging, alright!

We always start out trying to find all of the edge pieces so we have an outline to give us some direction. Well . . . we couldn’t find ONE of the edge pieces. We left that puzzle on the dining room table for close to two weeks, all of us taking turns looking for that ONE edge piece every day, and we never found it! But even though we could not conquer that challenge, we will be back at it as the days grow colder and we set up the table in the family room, in front of the fireplace, and start a new puzzle. I hope we find all the edge pieces this time.

Even though our girls are both teenagers now, they will still ask for family game night on a Friday or a Saturday, often times instead of going out with their friends to school events or just to “hang out.” I’m grateful that we started this family tradition with them from an early age. Life gets pretty crazy-busy when the kids grow up and have all of the busyness of the teenage years, so we are doing our best to stay focused on family, together, in the midst of an ever-changing world around us. Home truly IS where your story begins and we continue to write our family’s story day by day, week by week, and year by year. We are now looking forward to a little family getaway in early October, and you can be sure we’ll be playing some games at night after the camp fire dies down and we get our jammies on. Home is where we belong, and family is our “tribe.” I hope your family can find time for building traditions together.

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Favorite Things: September is just around the corner!

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Hooray for me! I’ve been working hard on several creative projects, with RUBY magazine being just one of them. I always create a fun calendar to share with you all here at Vintage Mama’s cottage as well as in the RUBY magazine each month, and I try really hard to get it finished early enough so that you can have it before the first of each month. I’m not always able to get it done on time, but this month it is ready before September 1st!

You can upload this pretty calendar to your blog or website, or you can print it out to use any way you want. I always print mine out to use in my art journal calendar so I have them all in a book throughout the year. I also like to use mine here at Vintage Mama’s Cottage, as well as in the RUBY magazine and on the RUBY blog. If you want to use this calendar for your blog or website, just right click on the image and “Save as picture” to your computer. Then you can have fun with it!

I’m also finishing up the September issue of the magazine this week so it will be ready by the first of the month, AND . . . . I have one sick kid home from school (happens every year, about two weeks after school starts) and the other one is starting to sound rather congested, too. So, I just might end up with both girls home from school for the rest of this week. That’s my life, though, and I love it! I’m so glad I get to work from home so that I can be here when they need me. I am also grateful that I have the opportunity to participate in some blogging parties each week! I hope you can join us for this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party, sponsored by Katherine’s Corner and some of her bloggy friends. It really is great fun! Would love to see you there!

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Scrapbooking the Old-Fashioned Way

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I’ve been scrapbooking for a really long time. When I first got started, I thought I would never be able to get everything organized and I honestly felt really overwhelmed by it all. That was back in the day before the girls came home, and I was quite content to work on my quilts. You know . . . taking pieces of fabric and cutting it all up into little pieces and then stitching them all together to make a new design. I love quilting! I especially love the part where I can sit and hand stitch for hours. Well, that didn’t last long once we had a toddler and a preschooler running around the house again!

But I do remember that one of my friends, Joy, was really enthusiastic about scrapbooking, but she was pretty sure that she didn’t have the patience for quilting. And I was convinced that scrapbooking would make me crazy. So we talked about what we really, really liked about each of those crafts, and before long . . . Joy was a quilter and I was a scrapbooker! That was many years ago, and scrapbooking was WAY different back then. Well, actually, many years before that, if you were making a scrapbook it was just that – a book that you filled up with scraps and bits and pieces of paper, letters, tickets, and other momentos. Kind of similar to what junk journals are like now.

If you had a book for photos well that was a photo book. But the idea of combining photos with words and other fun momentos was not something I had ever thought about. Until Joy showed me her scrapbooks. I was hooked. So for a few years after that, I was taking pictures of EVERYthing. Every event, every family activity, every holiday gathering, every, every, every thing that happened. And I filled up a whole bunch of great big scrapbooks. Which my big kids love to look through every time they are here. So it was worth all that time, money, and work. Plus it was fun. It was a good diversion for me at a rather difficult time in life.

Well, now that our girls are growing up, I’ve been kind of busy. Just doing the regular mom stuff, plus working, and all the other activity that comes along with family life. So I haven’t been keeping up with their scrapbooks for quite some time. One of my goals this fall and winter is to get caught up with their scrapbooks, but here’s another thing that is WAY different from when I was making scrapbook memories back then . . . . we used to have to take a roll of film into the pharmacy or other store and have our pictures developed. That way you never really knew how they were going to turn out until you got them back. So our supply of photos was somewhat limited by cost as well as just the fact that they didn’t all “turn out” good enough for the scrapbook.

Nowadays we have about a gazillion pictures on our phones and computers, and we have the ability to delete the ones that didn’t turn out, edit the rest, and then . . . .leave them sitting on our phones or computers for years and years and years. Too overwhelming to even know where to begin. So, today I decided to start. Just start. Get them organized by year in folders on my computer, and then I’ll do one of two things: I might do it the old fashioned way and have them printed so I can play around and make my own page layouts OR I could try to figure out this whole digital scrapbooking thing. But I probably won’t do that because I don’t have time to mess around with all that fancy stuff.

Since I had so much fun doing it the “old fashioned” way, I think that’s what I’ll do! Get started organizing the photos on my computer, and then upload a batch to Walmart and have them printed out. It’s pretty cheap that way, too! Then I can use the stash of scrapbook paper and embellishments that I’ve collected over the years and set some goals for getting caught up this winter. After all, I will have a graduation party to plan in the spring and having those scrapbooks ready by then will be a good motivation for me to get going. Right away!

Do you have scrapbooks of your family? I would love to hear about how other people are doing this these days. Sometimes I think that the “old fashioned” way is still OK, but if you know a better way, I’m open to suggestions. In the meantime, I hope you can join us for this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. See you there!

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


. . . and then the internet broke, too!

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Broken Internet

After the anxiety-producing events of the previous week when I tried to update my plugins on my blog and having my whole blog disappear, I finally was able to get it fixed and back up and running, but it cost me $80. It’s a good thing I have been working at my online teaching jobs to help pay for stuff like that! But then . . . . last Thursday when we got home from our little day trip before the start of school, our internet was out. No problem, I thought. Usually if we just do the “modem regeneration” (or whatever they call it when they tell you to unplug the modem, wait 10 or 15 seconds, and then plug it back in) it comes right back online. Not this time.

I decided to call our internet provider and see what was going on and see if they could fix it. That usually works, too, because they can remotely do the “troubleshooting” and figure it out. After being on the phone until almost 10 p.m., we had nothing. Except a tech repair ticket scheduled for Friday. The NEXT Friday, more than a week out. Really? I can’t be without the internet THAT long, I told them. I work online. I teach online. If I can’t go to work, I might get fired, I told them. I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills or feed my kids, I told them. A week from Friday. That was the best they could do.

Friday morning I called again to see if anything had changed, and they told me that they had discovered an area-wide outage in our neighborhood, so the canceled my tech repair appointment for a the following Friday. Great! I guess that means they are going to fix it right away since it is affecting lots of people. I canceled my Friday morning and Friday night classes, and remained hopeful. Saturday morning we called again to see what was going on. Well, now it is the weekend so no one is working and we won’t know anything until Monday. Great.

We finally figured out how to use my phone as a hot spot so at least I could get online . . . but that meant a massive drain on data, which bumped our data over limit, so we had no choice to upgrade to unlimited. Except we discovered that “unlimited” (at least with Verizon) doesn’t REALLY mean “unlimited,” it means that you can use data to around 22 gigs and then the system will slow you WAY down. Well, that won’t work if I’m teaching online. Plus it was adding $35 to our monthly bill. Which is already  more than a car payment.

But at that moment I had no choice – I HAD to teach my classes or risk losing my employment. So I taught my online classes by hotspot on Saturday night and it went fine. Sunday I received a text from the internet provider that my tech repair appointment had been rescheduled for Monday. Not the next day Monday, but a week later Monday. Really? A company this size can’t repair internet service for a week and a half? I was rather annoyed. Or worse.

I taught my Monday morning classes via hotspot, and then called again. By this time they had apparently figured out that a whole bunch of people in our area were without internet connection  and they might just be almost as annoyed as I was. They told me that a repair tech would be out to fix my internet by noon on Monday. THAT VERY MONDAY! Yay!!!! I was so happy . . . until she got here and told me that they had determined that there was nothing wrong with our modem or our connection, but a cable had been cut at the other end of our neighborhood when the utility company was working on some water pipes. Great.

Back to work

But, she said, they had a call into their cable repair department who would have the cable repaired by noon that same day. OK! We were on our way out the door to do some school shopping, and I was really hopeful that it would be back online when we got home. Finally, around 8:00 on Monday night we finally had our internet restored. That was five days of exasperation, annoyance, frustration, and a bit of anxiety over losing my jobs. Unfortunately I didn’t even get to relax and read a book or sit in the sun or walk in the rain or play in the puddles during those five days without internet . . . because I was so busy trying to figure out the problem, figure out how to work, and figure out when it would be fixed.

What would I do for five days without internet connection? Well, if I planned for it and rearranged my schedule so I didn’t have to worry about all of the things I wasn’t getting done, I probably would do some other stuff. But this time – it was rather stressful. I’m back online now, and hope to stay connected so that I can do what I need to do every day. How about you? Have you ever had to go without internet connection for a period of time? How did you handle it?

For now, I’m grateful to be able to participate in this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. I hope you can join us too! It’s lots of fun and you’ll meet new bloggers, learn new stuff, and you might even make some new friends along the way. Hope to see you there!

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom

I broke my blog today . . .

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I broke my blog today

Do you ever wonder what might happen if you just “click here” when you are working on your blog? I didn’t really give it much thought, because every time I had ever “clicked here” before things just always did what they were supposed to do. I think. But since I’m not a tech genius, I assumed that whatever happened was what was supposed to happen. And then I could go merrily on my way, doing all the fun stuff that many of us do in a day, fixing up my blog, creating new posts, uploading pictures and new little “widgets.” I like to make my blog pretty, and since I’m not a professional blogger or even a blogger who really cares about all of the statistics (I really just do it for fun), I’ve never really given much thought to all of the tech talk that is out here.

Well . . . yesterday when I decided to “click here” to do some updates to the plugins (see, I kinda-sorta understand elementary tech talk), I suddenly see a completely white screen that gives me a string of indecipherable words, supposedly explaining to me exactly what happened. Of course, I can’t even figure out WHAT happened, much less HOW to fix it. So that ended my adventure in blogging for that day. Too bad, because we had to be out of town two days in a row which didn’t leave me very much time to try to sort it all out.

Last night when we got back home, I called GoDaddy to see if they could help me fix it, and of course . . . . they COULD fix it! Yay . . . except it would only cost $80 to hire one of their tech gurus to go in to the back side and sort out all of the broken code, that apparently broke when I “clicked here” to update on of the cool new Twitter plugins. It wasn’t compatible with some other code, so in order to fix this problem, they had to update the code for the whole blog. Which of course means nothing to me because I couldn’t find the “code” to update even if they told me how to do it.

So I paid the $80 (which actually gives me two additional “tickets” that I can use the next time something like this happens), and overnight the technology magicians fixed my blog! I’m grateful to have it fixed, and I’m also grateful that I had the funds to hire them now that I’m working part-time from home. So it’s all good, as the kids say, and we’re back in business. So even though I actually tried to get ahead of my schedule by having this blog post written and scheduled on Tuesday night, here I am on Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. trying to get this ready to go . . . while I’m waiting for my first student to show up in my little online classroom.

Then we’re off again for the day, taking a few last minute fun outings together before the girls go back to school next Wednesday. It will be fun, and I’ll feel much better knowing that my blog is no longer broken. I hope this has never happened to you, but if it does, just take a deep breath and call someone. Just call someone who speaks tech-ese (“That just means ))&*)Y  )_(^^^  __%%% . . . it says right there )(*&^ @%%$#$@) and if necessary, hire someone to fix it for you. It’s worth it!

In the meantime, I hope you can join us for this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party – I’m getting in here at the last minute, but at least I’m here! Hope to see you at the party!

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. It’s time to party my sweet bloggy friends. You can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once. Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us. – Inlinkz has implemented a new policy when you add your link to the list you need to click the little square boxes about their policies on the bottom right.

TFT Hostess Collage AUGUST 2018

Please subscribe to ALL of your hostesses blogs

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Pam- An Artful Mom


Favorite Things: RUBY magazine for August has been published!

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AUGUST RUBY magazine AUGUST 2018

The August 2018 issue of RUBY magazine features inspirational articles, poetry, devotionals, book reviews, recipes, and kids’ activities that will be a great resource for you and your family on these late summer days. Thinking about the changing seasons that is just around the corner, the August issue of RUBY includes an article on back-to-school saving strategies by Jehn Kubiak, a collection of great blueberry recipes, a book review of Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan, reviewed by Carol Peterson, and an inspirational poem, “My Daughter Gave Me the Moon,” by Joan Leotta. And so much more!

We are now accepting submissions for the September 2018 issue of RUBY magazine, and we would love to hear from YOU! Send your submissions or inquiries to us at editor@rubyforwomen.com for all the details, or visit our submissions page for more information.

AUGUST Submissions for September 2018

 

And don’t forget . . . . you are invited to join us in the RUBY online community, too! Come on over to our Facebook group where you will discover groups where you can share prayer requests, tell us about your latest blog post or your current work in progress, share a recipe or a craft project with us, or just hang out in the RUBY cafe! We would love to connect with you there . . . come on along and join the conversation in the RUBY neighborhood.

AUGUST RUBY Neighborhood Ad

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once.

Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us.

 

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode

Welcome to TFT aka ( also known as )The Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop Link Party!
A party for Blog Writers & Blog Readers.
Start sharing your blog links on Thursday’s at 7 am (MST) continue until Saturday at midnight (MST).
Please read the rules before participating, it will be a much more satisfying party.
Thursday Favorite Thing blog link party
Please follow All of Your Hostesses
Please link to your post not your blog main page
You can link three blog posts all at once Or one on Thursday one on Friday and one on Saturday
Please leave a comment with your post number, most features are selected from the comment list.
Please go to the source of a photo to pin it so that the original blog gets credited.
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By sharing your blogs and blog images with us you are agreeing that the photos are yours or that you have permission to use them and that we may use your photos to feature your post on social media, pinterest or as a feature on our blogs.
Have fun and thank you for joining in the party!


Favorite Things: Summer Crafts for Kids

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It’s hard to believe, but my girls only have about three more weeks of summer vacation before school starts up again. We’ve been busy having fun and getting tons of projects completed around here, but I still can’t seem to find a craft project that really, really, really fits the specifics that I’ve been looking for. We made some of the cute little painted jar lanterns, but Miss Perfectionist took three days to get around to painting polka dots on an empty jar with a QTip . . . . because they might be the wrong color, or they might not be perfectly round, or they might be too close together, or they might be too far apart. FINALLY, I convinced her that we were really striving for the “shabby chic” look and the polka dots are not supposed to be perfectly round or exactly the distance apart.

They actually turned out pretty cute, but now I need to get a bag of sand from Hobby Lobby to put in the bottom of them. We actually bought some of that new yogurt that comes in those really adorable little glass jars, just so we would have a few for making our lanterns. Well, the yogurt is pretty good, too, so I guess we’ll have a few more cute little jars in the near future. I also found a package of those tiny battery powered tea lights at Walmart, and along with some twine I had in the sewing room for the handle, they will be perfect for decorating her room this autumn. If she ever finishes painting those polka dots!

So the first requirement for a craft project around here is that it needs to be something that this particular kiddo can do on her own. With her Cerebral Palsy, her left side is much weaker than her right side, so I’m always looking for something that will get both of her hands working together. It can be a challenge, as she would rather use just her right hand, but then that doesn’t work out very well for doing crafts. Or most other things, which is why we are always on the look out for opportunities to get that left hand involved.

Another requirement when looking for craft project ideas is to find something that she will actually use in her room or at school or really anytime at all. So we typically stay away from the paper plate, popsicle stick, or construction paper projects. We’ve already got about a hundred or more of those kinds of projects from elementary school days, so now we are on to more “grown up” kinds of DIY projects. That’s what I was looking for this week and I think I found a few that we might be able to do together, and maybe we will gradually stop worrying about everything being perfect and just have fun! Here are a few that I found that are “kid approved” for fun as well as for decorating her room. I actually can’t wait to get started tomorrow . . . as soon as we take a quick trip to Hobby Lobby!

DIY Birdhouse from Delineate your Dwelling

We already have a lot of pretty scrapbook paper that we could use to embellish a little cardboard birdhouse. This would make a really cute decoration for her room which happens to be painted in the colors on this birdhouse: coral and turquoise. This looks easy enough that I could make sure the base of the birdhouse is sturdy and then she could cut and glue all kinds of fun stuff to it.

 

Popsicle Garland from Play Ideas

OK so I said no more popsicle stick crafts – but this one really is different. I’m thinking she could spend a whole afternoon cutting, gluing, and embellishing these cute popsicle cutouts. Then with some string or ribbon, we would have a cheerful and bright garland to hang across the top of her bed or over her dresser. This just might be the one we do first!

 

Pineapple Button Necklace from Raising Whasians

Well, we already have jars and jars filled with buttons of all shapes, sizes, and colors, I’m pretty sure she could spend another afternoon sorting through them all to find just the perfect buttons for this cute pineapple necklace. A few snips of green felt and some yellow or green yarn . . .  and this is so adorable she might even want to wear it to school!

 

Embellished Flip Flops from DailyWT

There are about another million ways to use flip flops to make cute summer DIY projects. I’ve seen them strung up on ribbon to make a colorful garland, or just decorated for the kiddos to wear outside, or even a summer wreath / door hanging. These bright colorful flip flops have been embellished with all kinds of fun stuff and would make a great wall hanging inside, as well. So many different ways to use the plain, ordinary flip flop!

 

DIY Twinkling Flower Light Garland from Inspired by This

I know, I’m pretty sure that making a DIY project using cupcake liners wasn’t at the top of my list, either . . . . until I came across this idea. Since we already have a string of little paper lantern lights in her room that she uses as a night light, it didn’t occur to me to make something – until those tiny lanterns burned out. Now no more pretty pink lantern night lights for her! But look how cute these are! They are just made from a string of white lights (like Christmas lights or summer outdoor lights) with fringed cupcake liners tucked in behind each little bulb. The tutorial is HERE if you want to make your own Twinkling Flower Light Garland.

DIY Decorated Birdhouses from Ye Craft Ideas

When I came across these cute birdhouses I couldn’t resist adding them to this collection of fun summer crafts for kids. These designs are a bit more “kid” friendly and could be painted, with designs drawn on with markers, or painted, or even glued on gems or other embellishments. It could even be as simple as using card stock which is really easy to work with, and then make a whole little village of baby bird houses to display on a shelf in her room.

Well, now that I’ve found a bunch of fun projects that might (just might!) keep the creativity flowing for the remaining days of summer, I guess we’ll get busy tomorrow working on something – which one should we do first? I still think we’ll begin with the popsicle garland because I already have everything we would need to make that one. I’ll be sure to let you know! I hope you are having a good summer and that you will take time to join us this week for the Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. Hope to see you there!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once.

Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us.

 

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Amber- Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode


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