RUN to see this movie!

For the first time in our life, we went to see a movie on Christmas Day. Baldyman, one of our daughters and my sister went to see Its Complicated last night. We laughed out loud many times thruout the movie. I have to say it was the perfect movie to see on Christmas night after all the hoopla is done and your looking to unwind.

The gyst of the movie most of you can guess or know, they dont hide it. I think they handled the ending fairly well. Alec Baldwin to me--in my humble not worth much opinion, acted his best I've ever seen in this movie..he was truly likeable, funny, whiny, and selfish but in a nice way. He also had you feeling kinda sorry for him--despite his bad decision!

Meryl Streep was great to, better yet awesome. Steve Martin--well if your a fan of his--which we are was good, but I just cant get enough of his comedy....to me he's like a Madea-I never get tired of his antics.

Sooo, if your looking for a laugh, entertainment and even some soul searching thoughts--definitely put this on your Holiday Go see List!

Twas the night before Christmas.......

Here is our little tree with all the unwrapped gifts just waiting for the kids and grandkids to come check them out. I have such a large family now that I have presents all over the house in piles because I cannot fit them under this tree. I love this last day of looking at the tree so neat and tidy with the gifts.
Take a real close look at this gift. Why? Because its MINE! Hubby placed it out yesterday thinking I wouldnt notice...now you tell me what woman does not know when a gift she didnt place there shows up? He multi-wrapped it meaning we must be low on paper--lol. NOW...I'm going to sound greedy but I'll admit that I am feeling greedy this year. I was kinda hoping for a new necklace or bracelet..but I think I know what he got. I can put my guess here because he never reads my blog. Its a kitchen aid mixer...check back later to see if i'm right! I told him I think I know what it is but then I guess all this weird stuff to steer him wrong...lol

Anyhow, I got Baldyman a wedding band. We've been married 32 years OMG its been that LONGGGGGGGGGG!!! This will be his 4th, YES 4th wedding band that I have purchased him. He loses them, he twirls them on his finger while driving, places them on the top of the car roof and forgets....you know dumb stuff. I'm thinking if he loses this one--I am done. Its pretty bad when you keep losing them..maybe he dosnt want to be married lol...

Anyhow, I hope each and every one of you has a Merry Christmas and that your family is safe, happy and warm this Christmas night. For me, I want to spend this last hours focusing on my faith and all my blessings God has been so gracious to give me,,, in such economic hardships we are doing ok. I cant imagine any better gift than being ok. Merry Christmas!

My little store!

This is my little "store" in my office. I'm trying to have a place where alot of my products are on display so when guests come by, it might entice them to buy! I have all my Scents of Candles out plus a sampling of my body care products.

I really need to make it a priority to find a bigger place this year. While I've enjoyed living in this house, I'm outgrowing it. They say as your kids grow and leave, you can shed things and scale down. I feel like I'm expanding! I dont want to scale down. I want to have a room for all my products, candles as well as a storage room for all my ingrediants. I need to get things in place so I can see at a glance what I'm low on, and what I have for stock.

Not to mention, I need an office, a guest room for kids and grandkids!

I hope to post a few pictures of all my holiday decorations soon. I've seen so many of yours and they all look so warm and inviting. I'm all done shopping, wrapping and baking cookies! Its time to enjoy Christmas movies, good food and company!

Soy Candles!

I'm successfully up to 14 Scents for my Soy Candles. These are 100% Soy, burn 40-50 hours and highly scented. I've tested them all and I have to tell you, I've enjoyed having my home have so many different scents since October. Baldyman says he misses coming home to different scents all the time. I've stopped testing for bit to get thru the holidays but hopefully maybe even this weekend I will start testing my Valentines Day fragrances and then head into Spring and Summer Scents.

If anyone is interested here's the scoop!
8Oz Mason Jars $8.00 plus shipping
6 Oz Victorian Jars $6.50 plus shipping

Victorian Jars come in only 2 Scents right now
Lilac & Transendence

Mason Jars:
Vanilla Voodoo
Frankincense & Myrhh
Eucalyptus and Ivy
Pumpkin Coffee
Hazellnut Coffee
Sultry Angel
Cranberry Glaze
Cucumber Melon
Winter Woodlands Whisper
Starry Nights
Cinnabons
Fall Leaves

If anyone is interested please let me know!

Ms. Ellie and her Christmas Friends!

Here is Ms. Ellie with her Christmas Yard Decorations that we bought for her. I wanted her to have a few things to put in the yard to brighten up her holiday. The Snowman to the right of her is roasting a marshmallow and it moves up and down over the little fire. The penquins are just a blow up decoration and then we got her a set of the Christmas light bulbs that you use to line up the walk way. She really liked the snowman.

I have to get around and check out everyone's home and decorations. We only have alittle over a week and Christmas is here. For some reason this Christmas seemed to creep up on me. I dont feel overwhelmed with anything but I do feel like it just came to fast.

I'm just about done with my shopping and baking. I hope your holiday season is going well and your finding time to enjoy it all.

Our First Snowfall!

Can we say SNOW DAY REAL LOUD? I am so happy! Today was our first major snowfall AND of course that means NO WORK! YIPEEEEE....I had Christmas Cookies in the oven by 7 AM and baked this morning. Then I made a huge pot of Chili, Taco Meat, cleaned the house and now I'm bored! I wanted to go Christmas Shopping but the power is out in many places. Not sure how much we got--but I'm guessing close to 10 inches.

My little snowman didnt fare to well with this wet heavy snow, but Baldyman went out cleaned him off and now he's standing proud. Bad thing about these types of snowfalls is by tonight we will be greeted with temps of 25-30 BELOW zero. That is hard to take.

Have any of you been greeted with Old Man Winter yet?

The best Ornament!

I saw this in the Hallmark store and couldnt stop laughing. They had a baby bib also and that to was adorable. I try to buy a new ornament or two each year, well this one is home sitting on my tree.

My first craft show was a disaster financially BUT is was a success in learning for us. We learned all kinds of things we will do next time to promote my stuff, market it better which hopefully will help things out. The crowd was not that great which didnt help. The other thing I didnt like about this one is that we had to get up at 430 AM to be there and get everything settled. I was so tired that I didnt have the best personality. Anyhow, its over, I'm relaxed and ready to begin my Christmas baking!

Christmas Tree!

Here's my Christmas Tree for this year. I decided to move my recliner out of the living room and have the tree here. This way you can view it from the dining room table as well as the living room. I like it! I never like the way I decorate the tree, but to me this is pretty good. I just feel that I dont do well at this kind of thing.

I have my first craft show this weekend and I'm nervous. I have made so many candles and body care products and I just dont know what to expect! The candles that I have sold so far everyone is loving....but still being that its my first I just dont know how the shopping mood will be. I hope it goes well!

After this show is done, I'm going back to relaxing some at night--and I hope to catch my favorite holiday shows as well as enjoy some Christmas Baking. I've got a good portion of my holiday gifts purchased already.

How about all of you, how are your holiday plans coming to pass?

Sometimes this is all you need

Its been a crazy 2 weeks for me and my family. I cant even begin to tell you how hard it is to keep going at a full time job outside of the home, attempt to build and market my body business and candles as well as try to be a good Mom and Grandmom. Some of you may already know exactly what I'm talking about. When anything happens out of the ordinary, it just throws you completely off kilter and its almost humanly impossible to keep the pace. Trying to please everyone, do a good job at work, is just exhausting. AND..I'm trying to learn how to make new scented candles all the time--and for me its not easy. I also threw in my first Craft Show to attend to market my products and so I'm trying to build a stock....Anyhow, I came h ome yesterday after a nearly 12 hour day at work just wiped out and thinking of cancelling my craft show project because I dont know if I'll be able to get my stock up. On my table were these beautiful flowers. My first thought was---Baldyman remembered to get some nice flowers for the Thanksgiving meal. Then I saw the card..it says ---Thank you..well I knew then it wasnt from Baldyman. What would he thank me for? Well theres alot I guess but I just sensed it wasnt from him. We've got alot of personal tough times going on with our 3rd son and trying to help him. He is the one who put the flowers there with a very nice card saying Thank you for all we are helping him with. I just thought after reading the card....Ya know, sometimes this is all you need in life--someone grateful for trying your best. I dont need big fancy houses, new cars, diamonds, wonderful trips all the time--I just need to know sometimes I'm a good Mom, grandmom and that I do my best. I may not be the best--but I do my best. So, I'm feeling very thankful that my kids know I try hard. Add to that, another nice letter came my way from someone that really made me smile inside so this week on top of being very physically and emotionally trying was also very heart touching.

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving meal with their loved ones and your homes are full of laughter and love. This is my most favorite meal of the year. I absolutely love it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Can Life get any sweeter?

I couldnt resist these pictures of Peschi my sons cat--(who somehow lives in our home). She was sleeping at the bottom of our bed and I just couldnt kick out of the covers when I was making it and this is how she slept.
Is she not the cutest cat you ever saw? (sorry Marvin)
And of course they have to put the paw up to make themselves even cuter.
And the Ultimate in cuteness...Genie and Peschi napping together. Now mind you, Genie is NOT a friendly sort. She acts like she will eat most humans and animals..but she has a HUGE soft spot for Peschi. I find them snuggled alot together and whenever Peschi comes in from outside Genie and her will rub noses as if they are greeting each other..heck they probably are.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend..we've had beautiful weather here all week. I dont want it to end. I'm having huge success in my candle making and actually finally have a decent stock with a decent amount of scent choices. I committed to doing a Christmas Show, my first one so I have to work hard to build my inventory for alot of the things I make. I hope it goes well. I'm very nervous. I'm also getting new customers AND orders for gift baskets for Christmas gifts so my little business is definitely moving along.

Mobile Home Tour!

I finally got around to taking a few pictures of the inside of our little mobilehomey. Here is my tiny kitchen area. Baldyman and I drove it to the beach the other night, turned on the generator and cooked up a pizza. Strange i know but we always wanted to live by water. It was very nice just sitting and watching the lake. We went at night so the glow of the homes around the lake was very relaxing.
I just cant get a feel for this camera, so this picture is dark but this is the living and cabin area. I'm thinking about getting a new camera and then taking lessons because this one just dosnt cut it for me. No matter what setting I use I couldnt get a good picture.
My teeny tiny bathroom, it has another cabinet on the left side. This home is 11 years old and in mint condition. Not even a scratch on the woodwork. I'm sure we will fix that in no time. Baldyman says he is gonna take good care of it though--its his baby. We are fighting over who likes it more.
And of course our little bedroom. Its a queen size bed which is really nice. Cabinets on each side and then even a shelf under the window for pictures and candles and whatever other pretties I want. The bathroom has a shower with a tub also!

We havent done awhole lot yet to make it ours. We plan on putting in a nice TV Stereo System before we leave on our Spring trip and then also getting the Name "MobileHomey" on the back of it. The plan is to use it for Thanksgiving for our annual trek to my cousins and then store it for winter. Around Sometime between March and May we will be taking an Ocean trip and staying on the Ocean for a week. I think all our kids and grandkids plan on coming with. That is another dream vacation for us, camping on the ocean.

I hope you enjoyed the tiny tour of my tiny home,,,it really is our baby!

Nothing like a bowl of homemade Soup!

With all the Flu going around, I came home from work last night and just didnt feel to good. I went to bed thinking how nice it would have been if someone had made a big pot of Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Sometimes you just wish you were young again and had a Mom that did this for you. So, I went to bed early, so did Baldyman and I woke up at 530 and made him a list and off he went to the store. I had my pot of Homemade Chicken Soup done by 8:30 AM! And let me tell you, it is SOOO good. I added some white wine, extra garlic and some of Paula Deen's House Seasoning, Thyme and Oregano and the flavor is just heavenly. My grandaughters are officially going thru the Swine Flu. Both of the girls are getting better so that is good. I cannot tell you how many times I've been exposed to the Flu and other illnesses in the last 2 weeks. So far all I've gotten is some mild aches and pains and just overall fatigue. Today I'm feeling pretty close to normal and gonna go enjoy a movie and some shopping for my business. Have a great weekend everyone!

Get Yours Fast!

Here ya go folks, now dont fight over them....I have 3--thats right 3 candles to sell! LOL....I just couldnt help but laugh. After nearly 2 months of testing, working, learning and playing I have 3 candles that I feel good enough to sell. Here they are. These are Vanilla Voodoo..I normally dont like Vanilla but I LOVE this Scent of it.

I've already sold 2 of them so I only have 1 in stock--isnt that hilarious? I'm just so dern proud that I actually got to this place. When I closed the lids I was very excited. I believe I'm at 4 Scents now that I can make and have ready to go. Once I get a REAL Stock I will post so just in case anyone is interested they can let me know. I'm only making 8 oz Mason Jars and 6 Oz Victorian Jars at this point. Believe me, as slow as I'm learning this , I'm not going to try another jar for awhile. I have some really nice Pumpkin Jars, Acorn Jars and Apple Jars but they wont see the light of day for quite some time.

I forgot to take pictures of our little Halloween Party this weekend--bad Grandma that I am. We had a blast until the way home. We were going down the interstate having a good ole time and POP--a pretty loud exploding noise and then some noise underneath the motorhome that scared the Devil I'm sure and I tell ya, my grandaughter jumped in my lap so fast I didnt even know she was there--my dog took off so fast he ran underneath my husbands feet (while driving) and we were all yelling! Well, turns out the tire blew up. That caused a whole lot of other things to happen to our little Motorhomie. I'm NOT happy because it turns out that the tire pressure was uneven causing to much pressure on the one that blew. We are hoping they will at least give us abreak in some of the repairs. We need a new tire, hub cap, and the tire when it blew damaged the pipes that lead to the Propane Tank so we need that fixed. The exhaust pipe also got damaged. We were stalled for about 3 hours by the time Triple A got us up and going. All the rest of the way home the girls were scared..well so was I. I told them to write a story about their Scary RV Ride..lol. One of my grandaughters said she will never go in this RV again....I told her You'll be missing out because we are going places!

Anyhow, life is just a bowl of mishaps isnt it?

Annual Halloween Party!

Its that time of year once again. Our annual Halloween Party for the Grandkids. Here is my table so far. My Menu--Brain Sandwiches, Haunted Casserole, Blood and Guts Dip, Skeleton Bones, Boo Fruit Salad, Chocolate Pumpkin Cake! I'll get a picture of the Food before we all dive in and make it messy.

Tonight by 5 they should arrive, then we plan on having dinner, going looking at some Scary House Decorations and then back here for Scary Movies, Haunted Hot Tubbin and then off to bed to dream of Ghosts. In the morning we are packing up, and taking our RV to the State Park for the day and night and having a Candle Lit Nature Walk thru the park. Should be a lot of fun. If the weather cooperates we are hoping for a campfire and then we can tell Scary Ghost Stories. The state Park is awesome, full of woods, very scenic. Its booked solid so alot of folks should be out having fun. Thats my plans for the weekend, what are yours?

Testing, Testing, Testing!

This is my life lately, well besides my daily full time job. When I come home, I light these all over my house. Each room has a different candle, different scent. I'm teaching myself how to make soy candles. Its NOT easy. I thought I could just melt the wax, toss in scent, let them harden and sell em. What a fool I was! There is so much waste I have a huge container on my stove now for all my candle meltdowns.....BUT,,,the silver lining is that once I get them right--I wont have to do this again.

I have about 10-12 Scents that I'm testing. You have to get the right wick, which is hard also, at least for me. I've been doing this about 2 months...and I think so far I may have 3 scents. Not much progress, but some. I'm not tired of doing this, but I will admit I was sooo looking forward to my first success. I think that has come in Voodoo Vanilla, which is a very light vanilla and I'm loving how my bedroom smells each night.

Thats what I've been up to folks, working during the day, and doing my home business at night. I'll be checking out your blogs to see where life has been taking you!

Do you think he likes him?

I put my Scary Monster up in front of the living room window this Halloween Season. Bugsy came to spend the night with his grandma Friday night and when he saw him--he went nuts. We had to cover him up with a sheet so Bugs would stop barking. He barked until he was hoarse.

Today, (Sunday) I brought Bugs over for another little visit with Grandma and he went nuts again. He just cant get used to this guy. When I turn the voice on,, he gets even wilder. I snapped this picture as Bugsy was going nuts. I'm wondering if he really likes him and just dosnt know it.

We nicknamed the monster Skully after our grandaughter Ellie named him that. I'm thinking of getting another monster but that might set Budgy over the edge!

RV Time!

This is it folks! I found my Rv. I gave up for awhile, even thought I might not want to do it. We surely cannot afford a big bus one and I knew after doing alot of research for us, we wanted the Class C kind. We wont be living in it or traveling much. I've made the decision that what I want to do come Spring, is to travel near the states where I live and attend craft shows and sell my body care products and my candles once I get those going. I began looking a couple of weeks ago and found this one near us. We went to see it last week and knew it was the one. Its rare me and Baldy like something together. This one sleeps 6, and is big enough for us. The inside is like new. Its a 98, was always stored indoors.
Silly me by my new baby.
We wont be picking it up until late next week. If you enlarge the picture you will see how the handle is broke, they are fixing that and then steam cleaning the carpet and upholstery as well as going over everything. The beauty of this RV,,,,for as old as it is, its only got 18,000 miles. Thats rare to find. I hope to get at least 2-3 weekend little trips in it before we store it until Febuary.

Thats what I've been up to this week,,,I will head to your blogs and find out what all of you been doing!

Happy Birthday Jason! (31)

31 years ago my firstborn was born! How can that be? You wouldnt know it by looking at me would ya? be good and agree with me.....

Isnt it amazing how time goes by? Last week when I looked at the date and it said September 28th, I was thinking-holy crap 31 years ago this was my due date.

I'll be making a Prime Rib dinner for him and his favorite dessert which is cheesecake....sometimes I like their birthdays just so I can eat good! Happy Birthday Jason.

One of the greatest Gifts of my life

Growing up the way I did, I didnt get to see my Grandparents all that often, and I know I missed out on alot. The times I did spend at my grandma and Grandpa's I remember good food, ALWAYS good Italian food, alot of laughter, alot of yelling (they were Italian) and my grandma's love of BIG Costume Jewelry. When she got dressed up--she had the biggest earrings, pins, etc. She died many years ago and I never had the heart to ask anyone for anything of hers. Years had to go by before I did finally share with my cousin Rose and my Aunt Yvonne that I would like something of Grandmas. My Aunt Yvonne gave me a Mary Statue that Grandma had in her room but I've always wondered about her Costume Jewelry.

This weekend my cousin Rose, her blog is here, came to visit. She brought along this Keepsake box of some of my Grandmas Costume Jewelry. It was a gift from my Aunt Yvonne, made with her and her daughter Paulette. I just about cried. I told Rose, I just could cry. This jewelry struck some memory cords in me, I remember her wearing it. I remember as a young girl thinking how "bright" Grandma was--and how everything was so BIG! Even her hair was down the middle of her back. She liked us to brush it. She also always had me use that Pretty Feet Lotion and get her dry skin off her elbows. This was one of my life's greatest gifts. Not only do I feel so priviledged to have this of my Grandma, but also because my Mom and Dad didnt let us out of the house that often I really feel like I was a lost child. There was no closeness for us and so our memories of our extended family are very few.

I'm happy to show you all this gift...its really special to me.

Bridal Survicor Island!

This is SOOO cool! Our daughter who is engaged and driving us nuts with her forever changing wedding plans entered this contest...and found out today she is a contestant! Go check this out for information and the $20,000 Wedding she is trying to win. She recently decided that she wanted the wedding to be at our sons new home next summer so at least we have that in place but she's been changing dates, plans, wants for about 2 years now. If she wins this--she can have the wedding of her dreams, still at our sons house, but also her honeymoon and so many other great gifts.

I'll keep everyone posted, she begins her stay on Bridal Island October 1st. I beleive there is live internet coverage of the brides 24/7. I will post all that so anyone who would like can check out my daughter. I'm so excited for her and cant wait to see how this goes. Even if she dosnt win, there are prizes given out all along, and I'm just excited that she got picked to be a contestant and have this neat experience.