I've Fallen,

In love that is.  Yes, it has happened again.
Should it have happened, probably not.
Do I have time for it, most defiantly not!
And yet, here I am confessing to you all of you that I have fallen in love with......., yet another craft.  I know, I know I can hear the gasps from here.
I try to be pretty good and not really add to my already overflowing plate but there are times that things just look so fun and interesting. I just can't help it.
Also, I may have crafting ADD.  I get bored easily.
That's why I like to make small crocheted items.  And why I choose to make a colorful ripple afghan instead of a solid color afghan.  I need the change.
It all started simply enough.  I bought some of the little flowers from pick your plum.  You know the ones I used to embellish the jumbo paperclip bookmarks.  Well I had a bunch of them left over and I didn't know what to do with them.
Enter Whoopdwhoop (shameless plug: go enter the whoopdwhoop giveaway) I thought what a great way to get rid swap some of these things.

So I made some earrings. Easy peasy little things.

And some hair pins.

All pretty harmless.  I didn't buy anything extra to make these.  I had it all on hand.  So it was a good thing,  right?  I was stash busting.
Then I had a few flowers that were to big to put on earrings or hairpins.  What was I going to do with those?
I HAD to use them.
And that's when it happened, these would make a great necklace, I thought.
So....... I bought all the things I would need to make a necklace.  Then I thought a little charm would go so pretty with it so I got some charms.  Here's what I ended up with.

Cute right.  That's where it should have ended but noooooooo.  I have continued,  made earrings out of the charms.

Bought new cabochons, made more necklaces.

And then some ring blanks. (hanging my head in shame)

With more cabochons left waiting. They'll get their turn soon.

They are all very easy compared to what some of the rest of you do.  You know who you are.  I have been having a little to much fun with it.  I even made something out of beads. 

Something that started out harmlessly has turned into a bit of a love affair. And I for one am pleased as punch about it.  Now I have to go do some crocheting.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

LINK IT UP THURSDAY #13

It's party time!!  Yay.  I am so excited to see what you all have to share with us this week.  Every week after I look though your projects, I'm convinced that you can't do better the next week.  Every week you prove me wrong.  You are all so talented!  Before we get to the party this week lets take a look at the BELLES of the ball from last week.

Angela at A Little About A Lot made an adorable spring wreath.

Ashley from Cherished Bliss made a fantastic spring wreath too.  They are so different and I love them both.

Carrie from Lovely Etc.  up-cycled the cutest kids table and chairs!

Terri from a Creative Princess made an adorable baby afghan.  Can you believe she is just starting crocheting?  What a talented lady.

Susan at The Weekly Sweet Experiment.  Made these adorable Minny Mouse caramel apples.  So much fun.

GREAT JOB ladies!  Go ahead and grab yourself a Featured Button!  Face Book Features, make sure you get a button too. If you didn't get featured here head over to Terry's and see if she featured you.

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This is a shared link party so if you link it up here it will show up on the fabulous Terry's blog These Peas Taste Funny.  We want to see everything you have to link up! Old projects, new posts, giveaways, Etsy shops, recipes, crocheting, any and everything.  If you have more than one thing to link up, even better.  Here are our very simple rules.

1.  Please keep it family friendly.

2.  Link back to our site or grab a button so others can share in the fun.

3.  Following us would be nice. (but don't feel you have to)

4. Have fun, be inspired.


If you would like an e-mail reminder about the party let us know in the comments. Make sure you leave your e-mail address with your comment. We will happily add you to the list.  

Grab a button if you need one.

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Party On!!
Click on read more, to see the links and add your own.

I want more tomatoes.

This post brought to you by Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

I'm not sure how many of you have been reading my blog since last year.  So, let me just start off by saying last spring I planted my first garden, in Texas. I must admit I was totally nervous.  The soil here couldn't be more different from Idaho.  While our garden did pretty well for being our first time.  I really want it to be better this year.  Especially my tomatoes.  They were just sad last year.

This year we will be prepping our raised garden beds with  Expand ‘n Gro™  from Miracle-Gro.  When mixed with your native soil Expand 'n Gro will improve the soil, retain water, and feed the plants for up to six months.  It will also yield 3x the veggies and flowers. This stuff is really cool.  It expands 3x when added with water. So you can use it in pots or ground beds. This clip will show you more.

3x the tomatoes, that's what I am dreaming of!  The raised bed we put or tomatoes in last year has great sun but the drainage is bad.  So I hope Expand 'n Gro will make the soil reaitain more  water  and feed my tomatoes.   Hopefully I will be eating huge tomatoes all summer long.

I would love to hear what you are planting this year.  Do you have any tricks I can use to make my tomatoes and other veggies grow better?  Let me know in the comments.

T-shirt to Ruffle Cardigan

 This is the post I shared over at Jessie Street Designs.  Here it is for you in case you missed it.

I love the layered look.  I wear cardigans or double t-shirts often.  It is starting to warm up and in the south that means no more layering.  It is to hot to wear anything as thick as a cardigan.  I was thinking that if I had a cardigan that was as thin as a t-shirt I might still be able to wear it in the summer.  Enter the huge bag of clothing my MIL gave me forever ago.  It is the same bag that this sweater dress came from.

I took a t-shirt that I like the color of and fit me okay.  It is a little shorter than I like for a t-shirt. I love working with knit fabrics for up-cycles.  They are great because they don't fray. Here is what I did if you would like to make one for yourself.

Cut the shirt up the middle with scissors.  Then try the shirt on and with pins mark how short you want the sleeves.  The material from the sleeves makes the ruffles so you want to chose a shirt that you want to shorten the sleeves.

Next cut the sleeve material into 1 inch strips.  You can use the tutorial here for making straight cuts if you need it.  After you have your 1 inch strips you are going to ruffle them.  Ruffling strips is super easy.  On your sewing machine make your stitch length as long as it will go.  Then set your tension as tight as it will go.  Make sure you leave very long strings at both ends of the strip.  Place your needle right in the middle of the strip and go.  It will magically ruffle up behind the needle.

Ruffle all the strips you cut from the sleeve material.  Lovely piles of ruffles with VERY long strings.

Straighten out the ruffles to look the way you want them to.  Take care not to break any of the thread.  Pin the ruffles on the shirt about half an inch from the cut.  Sew down the center of the ruffles.

Cut off all the strings when you are done.  That's it.  Your done.

And just in case you are wondering yes, you do get funny looks when you hang a shirt in a tree and start taking photos of it.  Oh well, at least it was just my in-laws. They already know I'm crazy.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

 I will be linking to these great parties and the others on my party page.

A Perfect Pet for Peyton *Review and Giveaway*

 I know there have been a lot of giveaways and reviews lately.  They all kind of piled up on each other for one reason or another. We will have a craft tomorrow, I hope.  Not only is there a giveaway going on here but I am giving away one of my ruffled scarves at Sunny Vanilla today too. A "Sunny" yellow ruffled spring scarf. Such a fun accessory. Head over to check it out and enter to win it.

Now on to the review and giveaway here.
Have you ever heard of  "The 5 Love Languages" a book written by Gary Chapman.  The 5 Love Languages is a marital council book.  I read it years ago.  I loved it.  The insight the book offers is fantastic.  Dr. Gary Chapman has now written a children's book about "The 5 Love Languages" and how they can be used to help children.

The Perfect Pet for Peyton is a fun heartwarming story of a boy looking for his perfect pet that can speak in his love language.    We used this book in a family night discussion about how we all understand love differently.  While the kiddos loved the story and the colorful pictures they were learning about how we all hear/feel love differently.  They especially loved looking for the hidden images in the large illustrations. This book is perfect for young children.  My youngest boy, 2 years old, like the pictures.  My oldest boy ,12 years old, enjoyed the story.  However he was able to figure out the end before we got to it.  As soon as we finished it my two middle kiddos asked if we could read it again. (the baby was in bed)  Everyone enjoyed it.  It really got JP and I thinking about what each of our children need from us.


 The publisher says this about the book:
 This wonderfully imaginative children’s hardcover book by bestselling authors Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne, featuring four-color illustrations (with hidden details!) by Wilson Williams, Jr., will help children learn the importance of love. Based on Gary’s highly successful The 5 Love Languages®, A Perfect Pet for Peyton tells an entertaining and playful story of five children who each, with the help of Mr. Chapman and the unique pets at his special emporium, discover their own personal love language. Children and parents alike will experience firsthand the power of the love languages as they cuddle up and spend precious time together reading this book over and over again.

I am very excited that I get to give a copy of "A Perfect Pet for Peyton" away.  It is a beautiful hard copy book that will enrich your family library.
I do hope all of you will enter even if you don't have kids of your own.  it would make a great gift for a child or parents of children or teachers.

This giveaway is open to everyone everywhere.
Giveaway starts March 27 2012 and ends April 3rd 2012 (midnight).  The winner will be announced on the 4th.
So, how do you win your copy?  We are going to do this the easy way Rafflecopter will walk you through what you need to do to.  It may take a minute for Rafflecopter to load.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

"The Incredible Shrinking Bully" Review and Giveaway

This Giveaway is now Closed.



I have a special treat for you today.  I don't usually post on Sundays, but I really wanted to let you know about this e-book I was asked to review.  It is called "The Incredible Shrinking Bully".  It is to be used as a tool to help children understand bulling is wrong.   My daughter and I both liked the e-book.  Especially how it taught children to stand together and to stand up for themselves.  In my daughters first grade class they have been talking about bullies and how to stop them.  Reading this book with her was a good way to start a conversation at home about bulling and and listen to any questions she had about it from school. My 12 year old read even read it and thought it was pretty good.  It lead to a good discussion with him as well. 

This is the book description from Chick-E. 

 Bart used to enjoy school, but that was before Frank the Tank began bullying him. Every time Frank bullies someone, he gets bigger. Will Bart find the courage to stop Frank, before it's too late?

This is a picture book geared toward younger kids, in hopes of sending a positive message and opening a dialogue between kids and parents, educators, grandparents, etc. about bullying. Maybe if awareness starts early, some of the problems can be prevented later.

This book is an e-book.  It can be downloaded to your e-reader or computer.  The pictures showed up well and the coloring was great.  Chick-E is offering 5 of you the opportunity to download this book for free.  How great it that!  If you have kids or know kids or are a teacher this is a great book for you to own. 

Entering for this giveaway is going to be easy peasy.

Like Chick-E on Facebook.
Follow Chick-E on Twitter.  @ChickE_Tweets
Leave a comment, letting me know who you would read this to first.

You can do one or all of these.  Please leave a comment for each entry.  If your e-mail is not connected to your profile please leave it in your comment.  Winners will be chosen randomly at midnight Tuesday March 27th. And announced Wednesday the 28th.

Have a great day and a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

Gathered in the Kitchen *Blog Highlight*

I am so excited to have Stephanie from Gathered in the Kitchen here today.  We swapped buttons and blogs today.  She is here so tell you all about her blog and I am at her blog today to tell her readers about the good ol' Double Wide.  Stephanie is such a sweetheart.  She always has fun easy recipes and her crafts are fantastic.  I am so glad she is here today.  

  Hey Seven Alive Readers! I'm Stephanie, from Gathered In The Kitchen! I was so excited when Kadie asked me to do a button swap with her this month!

My husband and I have been married for five years, we met and dated in high school. He I am a stay at home mom of our 2 sweet kids, 1 and 3 years old and three dogs. My husband and I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago but have since lived in Ohio, Georgia and now South Carolina!

My blog is my virtual kitchen. I primarily share tutorials on all of the things my kiddos and I make in my favorite room of the house...the kitchen! Here are a few of our favorite recipes!

Crispy Potato Soft Taco

Strawberry Walnut Salad with Homemade Salad Dressing

Easy Chocolate Strawberry Cake

When I'm not in the kitchen I am busy crafting, aka my mommy therapy. I have always had a passion for creating and the

Burlap Bubble Wreath

Re-purposed Headboard

Thank you so much to Kadie and all of her readers for giving me this great opportunity!

Hope to see you over at my neck of the woods soon!