Joy Leanne

So I shared in my last post that my first project for Darby Smart went live a couple of weeks ago! This is so exciting to me and I can't help smile when I visit their web site and see my project! I have heard some wonderful feedback from all of you and now I have even MORE fun news to share! Darby Smart is giving away one of these kits for free! To enter simply click HERE. Be sure to share pictures if you make the kit. Can't wait to see what people do.

I may have been quiet lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I have actually been working on a bunch of projects over the past few months (a year for some!). In the past week a lot of things have finally come together and I can share now. It's so exciting! Craft it Now can now be purchased on Amazon!  And here is my project in the book. So fun to see my name in print. Hoping this isn't the last time! I also had my first project hit Darby Smart this week. I am hoping to do a give away in conjunction with this soon just need to figure out the details. Keep your eyes pealed.  A few days ago I received an e-mail from Wedding Chicks . Last fall I made some clutch bags for a bride and her wedding was featured on their website. Always fun to see my work looking so pretty and on another website.   Last summer a new store opened down town. Pastiche at Main has items from a number of local creatives. Starting last month I was able to put some of my dolls and ba...

  I was looking for photos for another post when I stumbled across these and realized I hadn't done a post on them yet!  It all started about six weeks ago when I was running out of my favorite tea and asked for suggestions on Facebook. Some one suggested doing a "tea swap" with other ladies. Two of my friends jumped on board and together we put on a really fun event!  Between the three of us we provided the food, decorations, and setting.  We held the event in one of the other lady's living room. She set up two card tables and has a gorgeous collection of Depression glass and linens we used to decorate. Three of us brought a few treats. The "tea" was at 3:00 pm so we kept the food light and didn't attempt to provide a whole meal (thought we basically did any ways).  We asked each of the ladies attending to bring a box of their favorite tea and a mug/tea cup for a mug swap. For the swap we did a "dirty Santa" or "Yankee swap". We had ...

I sat in the kitchen exhausted. The over head light broke weeks ago so I perched on a step stool in the semi darkness my head resting on my knees, my shoulder holding the phone to my ear.  It had been a long day, a long month, a long year. With all the snow we had my kids hadn't (and still haven't) had a full school week since before Christmas. Josh was home and holding the baby, but still, there was only one person I really wanted to talk to. Mom.  I can't really remember what we talked about. We caught up on the week I'm sure. I most likely shared stories about the girls. She filled me in on the goings on at my dads church. I had spent all day working so hard to be loving at attentive to my children only to have it all go side ways at bed time and end with every one in tears. I am 29 years old and when that happens all I want is my mom. I hung up the phone and started the dishes. Mulling over the peace that often comes from hearing my mother's voice. And it hit me...

I have been living in a state of exhaustion for such a long time it is starting to feel normal. The house is pretty much perpetual chaos, things are slipping through the cracks at an alarming rate, and I have pretty much stopped pretending that this is a temporary thing and pretty much come to accept that, for now, this is our new "normal". One of the many things slipping through the crack is writing. I miss this place so much. But, Miss Tacy has hit the baby octopus stage and grabs at any and everything in her reach so using the lap top is a luxury. The past few times I have sat down to write my brain is in such a fog that I cannot think of half the words I want to use and sit there staring at the blinking cursor till I doze off. But tonight I am powering through. Granted I'm running on the fumes of this afternoon's coffee and the sugar rush from this evening milk shake... but I think it's enough to get out what rolling around in my head. I would just wait... but...

One of my sisters writes over at her beautiful blog Lists and Letters . I adore her writing style and she has recently started a weekly writing prompt. You can read about how the "three things" came to be over here . So with out further ado... my three things... 1. Books: Old favorites and new classics. Re-reading a favorite and the discovery of the yet to be read. Worlds real and imagined. Things past and things speculated to come. Fiction, fantasy, food. On the beach, head throbbing from the glare. In the car, feet stretched out on the dashboard. On the front porch, with a glass of cold lemonade. On the sofa, curled up with a favorite quilt and a pen and paper to take notes so I can find my way back to the same place.  2. Down Town: The farmers market, the antique stores, the hodgepodge. Finding new foods to try. Discovering the perfect piece of some one's past to fit into my present. Learning, learning new things about our town and our family and who we all are and h...

I made cinnamon toast for breakfast this morning. Every time I make cinnamon toast I think of my dad and my grandpa. Growing up my grandpa would make cinnamon toast for my dad and his siblings. There were eight kids, but for whatever reason, my grandpa would always make ten pieces of toast. This presented a dilemma. Did you savor your piece of toast, or did you rush through it in hopes of getting one of the two extra pieces. We all know this story by heart because every time my mom made toast my dad would tell this story. And now, whenever one of us makes cinnamon toast we tell the story as well. As I made toast this morning I thought back to our small group a few weeks ago. We are going through the book of Mark and as a group we were discussing the fact that Jesus taught in parables. We talked about the fact that he used every day items, things that his listeners would no doubt be familiar with, to get his point across. Farming, fishing, sheep, slaves, vineyards were all things that w...