Happenings & Childhood Toys...

I know I haven't been much of a blogger recently- just been too busy running around, taking care of sick ones, and now it's VBS time... Ah yes, it is. I am the Preschool Crafts Captain (aka "Squeaky Beakers" Captain). So, I've spent many hours planning, shopping and such for the big event on June 16-19 at Valley Creek Church in Flower Mound, Tx. The theme this year is Group's "Power Lab -Discovering Jesus' Miraculous Power!". It's going to be a really fun time... if you're in the area, you should join us! Click on the the VBS theme to take you to Group's site and learn more about Power Lab, then click the church's link above, to register!

Now, I DID have a moment or two to take a look-see at a few other blogs, and ran across some that had joined in Scrappy Jessi's Favorite Childhood Toys Party... I missed it last week, but she added me to her list anyways, so I'd better get to tellin' ya! ;) Thanks, sweet Jessi!




Oh, I had many favorites.... Baby Alive- without the modern, overly-large head... (remember, she ate "real" baby food, then "pooped"!) LOL- Okay, gross... but I had fun changing diapers...and let me tell you I'd so rather change those diapers than the kind I have to now! EEeewwww! I remember this oh so cute pink halter dress! I just love it!

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Then there was my Shaun Cassidy doll. With his "secret decoder" guitar! OOooooo! He was waaaaay cuter than Ken! (Though my sister didn't think so.)

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My Barbie Townhouse! Okay, it was shared with my sister ;).... it was so much fun, 3 stories high( It was taller than either of us-or so I remember!). It had an elevator and the best view Barbie could eva want!

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Spirograph and Tomy Fashion Plates: The fun I had with these... I hung up lots of graphic circles and shapes all over my room. You could tell I was headed into the world of fashion photography-turned-artist, since I made numerous clothing catalogs with my fashion plates. I still have the original colored pencils and box! I even got the "More Fashion Plates" set! (Have you seen how much fashion plates are going for on Ebay!???!) Check these out... I spent hours and hours of fun creating:

Notice the title of the far right catalog! It's not just fashion, it's a
FASHION FASHION FASHION Catalog!

Swimsuits and shorts...

Skirts, shirts, pants- in different colors. Love that brown and yellow ensemble- NOT!

Spring fashions...

Shoes and boots...

Even HAIRSTYLES! lol! Notice the girl on the right page-
"Buy em!" she says. ;D

If you remember there was also a cheerleading catalog. Yes, I was a cheerleader/pom pom girl/flag girl. The flag ensemble was inspired by our high school flag girl uniforms, right down to the flag. Um, what age was I?

One of our pom/cheer uniforms.... right down to the knee-hi socks!

And our pant uniform...

Here are the ones that were ready to be published in another catalog or two.... guess I figured out how old I REALLY was... ;) What can I say? I loved to be creative...

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Moving on to more toys....

Paper Dolls- oh yes, I loved my paper doll collection. Oh I wish now,I still had them! My grandmother gave me some really fun ones. If you like paper dolls you should check out this PAPER DOLL BLOG...

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Super Simon & Merlin! Remember those electronic games? This was waaaaaaay before XBox, Wii, Nintendo, even Atari...oh yeah- I had loads of fun with Atari too... but I remember hiding under the covers of my bed with Merlin and Super Simon (hmmm.... sounds a little racy, uh? lol), hoping that I wouldn't get caught playing them late at night! lol

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I briefly had a Dressy Bessy doll, until one of our dogs decided it was his, not mine. :( I was very sad. So then I got Holly Hobby Doll! I then had Holly Hobbie purse, pants, shirt to go with and a Holly Hobbie Oven! (Easy Bake Oven, in Holly Hobbie form) It was a blast! ( I know, baking by a lightbulb... what in the world?) I'm thrilled it still works!

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Little People! With the house that had a doorbell! My sister had a sesame street set with Ernie, Big Bird, Bert, Mr. Hooper, Gordon, Susan... and my brother had a tree house set that had a swing and a slide in the trunk. It tree top "popped" open when you pushed down on it... I cannot remember who made it, and I have never seen it since I was little- but it was cool! OH and remember Weeble Wobbles... but they don't fall down!?

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Roller skates! My sister and I would skate all day long out in the quonset (a big corrugated steel building that housed tractors, combines, trucks, even our car... what can I say? It was the biggest garage by far in the county!) We would use the shop broom to "pave" roads to roller skate on or ride our bikes on. Oh man, those were the days...

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My sister and I would play "school" alot. We had a huge chalkboard on the wall in our "toyroom". We even had two of the "old school" desks from grade school, the ones you had to open the desk top to put all your supplies in)! Again, many hours of fun that was!

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I also spent a ton of time drawing and coloring in coloring books with crayons. I love the smell of Crayola Crayons upon opening a brand new box of 64's! Every year we would get a new box for school... Where all the old ones went, I'm not sure. But there's nothing better than the smell of crayons and opening the box to see shiny, pointy crayons all in a neat row! (I know, I'm a little insane...)

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Oh, and I mustn't forget our kitchen set. It was of the METAL INDIVIDUAL PIECE kind, not the molded plastic "all-in-one" kind. Those don't compare to the each individual appliance. A stove, a frig, a sink, and a hutch/cabinet/counter-top combo. They were avocado green... so in case you didn't know what era I'm from, now you do. We had real aluminum pans, dishes, cookie sheets, cooking utensils, and ironing boards! OH, what ever happened to those? FUN, FUN, FUN!!! Jessi and I had nearly the same set... you can check it out HERE. Scroll down a bit... isn't she a cutie?

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And ya know- I guess judging by this picture, that a Mr. Potato Head accessory, a doll trunk, and a plastic honey bottle playing a TV news anchorwoman with my sister was some good old fashion fun, too! (I have no idea what the honey bottle was for, nor what my sister is doing in the background... ;) )

Okay, I've probably over-killed this post... but it's been fun reminiscing childhood memories. Tammy(my sister), do you remember all those fun times? (I said FUN, mind you.) ;) I love you!

OH what memories.... Hope you had as much fun as I did! ;) And if you get the hankerin'... tell me what favorites you had as a child. I'd love know!
Hugs to ya!

Thank You Surprises!

Guess what came to me over the weekend? My absolutely fun and wonderful new friend, Nancy (My Crafty Little Page), sent a little surprise and thank you to me and the kiddos... It is to be part of my swap package from her, as well as, a little thank you for being her swap partner. I just love my new little individual serve dish! She had to wait and get it in Round Top, because she had a hard time finding it anywhere around her. It's the first "little" dish to my collection! How fun! Every thing was sweetly bundled in the green felt container.

I love the vintage word cards...

And my lovely new dish and some sunshine yellow pom trim...

Some fabulous vintage fabric... OOOooooo!

And three cross necklaces for my three little blessings to put together...


Thank you SO much, sweet friend!
Hugs to ya!


And THEN, my long-time friend, Elizabeth, sent me this cute thank you card she made with her new Cuddlebug die cut machine...Adorable! (A few other friends and us go in together to make a big order of clear envelopes and mono adhesive every so often to save money.) You can also check out her card & cake business blog here.


I feel so blessed to have so many friends around me, here in Texas, as well as many other states, countries, and you- all my blogging buddies! You all are wonderful! I HUG you all! ;)

Old Fashioned Fun...

"Happy Day, Happy Day!" is what McKenna has been singing over and over for the past two weeks... Oh yes, our baby girl turned two on April 13th. We had planned a party at the park with close family friends, but instead came indoors at
the church because it was just a little too nippy and windy to hang outside for that amount of time. We went with an old fashioned ice cream and cake party theme. Most the kids were older than McKenna, so they all had fun choosing toppings for their ice cream, and loved the ice cream cone cakes I made for everyone. We played limbo to some fun, "old-time" music, as well as danced the Hokey Pokey, The Chicken Dance, The Twist, and even the Name Game song. Fun was had by the 2 year olds to the- well, us older folks. The kindergarten room at church has a big indoor slide, too, that the kids went down over, and over, and over and over....






She was scared to death by the candle flame that singing "Happy Birthday" didn't go quite fast enough for her! (poor thing) But I guess it's not every day we have candles lit up in front of us! She had a ton of fun, loved every last crumb of cake, and every drop of ice cream, and I feel most blessed by this precious little girl...

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY, MY SWEET MCKENNA FAITH!

Extraordinary Sunday...

Well, well, well.... so happy last week is done, and I'm on to a new week! I know it's the time of year that things just speed up a little, but I wasn't ready! ;) Nothing too significant, just busy.

My kids have been saving money instead of spending, which I've been very proud of them doing. Well, (fairly) recently, they had seen a sign at a store advertising WEBKINZ: 2 for 1. And did that excite them to no end! We were not able to stop the day they saw it, and they have not let me "forget" about it ever since.... that was one month ago.

Today, after church, Bailey asked if we could go. I really didn't have a reason not to, so after lunch, we headed on over to check it out. My fear was that they would be disappointed because the 2 for 1 sale would be over. However, mama wiped her brow and gave a silent yeehaw! when they noted the sign was out in front of the store. And I was ever so proud of them when they decided to work together, save some of their money, and each buy one , only costing them half of one (which was higher than most places- but oh well). Not only did they not spend as much, but they are saving money and not adding to the overgrown "stuffed-animal pool".

Sooooo, here is what they have been doing this afternoon...

A WEBKINZ EXTRAVAGANZA PLAYGROUND! Complete with monkey bars, swing set, slide, trampolines, and rock climbing (plastic boxes in background seen in video). What little Webkinz wouldn't want this fantastic little Tinker Toy playground? ;) That's what I love on a Sunday afternoon- no tv, no video games. Just plain, good old-fashioned fun- together. They insisted that I take a video, so I did. (though I am having troubles getting it loaded- sorry!)

Which brings me to this... my friend Tara over at Days Missed on a Hammock has invited me to play the Six Word Memoir that represent your life's motto.... The rules are:

1. Write your own six word Memoir.

2. Post it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who tagged you.

4. Tag 5 more blogs with links (leave a comment on their blog with an invitation to play).

Whew! This took a little thought, but here is what I have come up with:

See the extraordinary in life's ordinary.


This one comes next:

Please, Mom, just one more time!

So after I kinda rolled my eyes at the request of my presence in the loft to "see" what my kids had been doing, I had to stop in the moment, smile, giggle, and see that the moment was extraordinary in what would have been life's ordinary moment. ;)

Here are some others, not one's that I had come up with, but one's that I have collected and have found humor in or just find worthy and true... ;)

I think, therefore I am late

What does this button do? Oh.

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me.

Don't procrastinate now - do it later.

Live well, laugh often, love much.

For God so loved the world...

Live like there's Heaven on earth.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. -Albert Einstein


I now will invite: Elizabeth (you have nothing better to do since you can't walk!-lol), My Crazy Life, Gingerbread, My Crafty Little Page, and Counting Your Blessings... tell the world your 6 word meme!

Three Little Chicks...

Once there were Three Little Chicks sent to me one fine spring day....

Sweet, sweet and creative Nancy, over at My Crafty Little Page... Just look at what she sent me for Vintage Indie's "I Dream of Spring Swap" ! Miss Nancy has a way of packaging everything oh so cute, don't you agree? There is so much goodness in there... the vintage Dick and Jane flashcards are soooo cool- perfect for my three cute little chicks! And the chick pick is sooooooo cute in her little vintage storybook lined pot! ( It's a bummer I don't have a close-up of it) :(
So, that is mama chick, then she sent 3 little flocked chicks (thus, my three little chicks- are ya getting the theme here?) and she even sent one of her oh-so-cute handmade button arrangements she was making for a local women's group in her community! She wrapped the wooden spool with a strip of a vintage children's storybook page, and covered the top and bottom too... even with chicks on them! And just look at the beautiful embroidered and crocheted hankie... oh I just love this!

And get this.... she loved and was inspired by the pictures of my three little snow chicks when we had our snow day in Texas back in March, that she made a little scrapbooking ensemble, a tag for each of them with their names, ALL set on vintage Dick and Jane cards with the letter of their first name! And a "Snow Day in Texas!" tag- OH it's just so creative! I love them and can't wait to use them! And to the left of those, are three little Mary Engelbreit book tags! Very springy! They say, "That's What Friends are For"... and that's exactly what she is, a new found friend! Thank you so much Nancy!
She was such a joy to shop for as my partner in the swap... she said that I was psychic or went to her house at night and made notes for what she would like- LOL She has apparently liked what I had sent her:


I just loved the little plastic teapot napkin holder... and the crocheted trivet was beautiful!

It was really fun! Go look and see the matching "sets" she ended up with!
Then check out all the group photos on Flickr.

Sweet Bliss...

Isn't this a picture of pure sweetness? I just love my 3 darlings! I just had to share this moment with you...

I also want to share this... look what I received from Barbara over at Oodles and Oodles! She was having a blog giveaway and had 11 of these cuties to share with 11 lucky people. I happened to be one of them. I had shared that I love embroidered floursack towels that my mother, grandmother and great grandmother all used to embroider... but I had never seen an apron like this one. So, so cute. Barbara has a really fun blog. You should go and check it out. She even shared the embroidery pattern on the apron for all that wanted to reproduce it! You can get it here.
Oh the memories this brings back... ;)
Thanks for stopping by!

(picture courtesy of Oodles and Oodles)

HOPPY EASTER!

Have a warm & springy Easter! May you be blessed in countless ways...

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Let Israel say:
“His love endures forever.”
The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!
The LORD’s right hand is lifted high;
the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”
I will not die but LIVE,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-17


A cheery Easter Day song from a 1950's Jack & Jill Magazine: