My Monday Musings

Helllllo friends! Hope everyone is doing well. My heart and prayers go out to everyone in the path of Sandy.  Praying for protection and strength.

My new job is still going great and I am getting into a routine. Routines are good. I like routines. They make me happy.

As I admitted on FACEBOOK tonight, I have done zero decorating for Halloween. I love Halloween, it just kind of snuck up on me. Yes....I know it's the same day every year. Lol  I haven't decorated for Halloween, I haven't done any crafting. I could pretend like I am so overwhelmed by my new job that I just don't have time for anything else but that is not true.

Let me show you what  had my attention all weekend:

Yep, the next two books in a series I'm reading and finally the second season of Downton Abbey! I was set. There was really no use speaking to me.  Lol :)  I love the library.

 

Tonight I joined two of my awesome friends for Mizzou basketball. It was a blast and it was a blowout. Go Mizzou! :)

I am so tired right now, I need to hit the pillow! Hopefully I will get some decorating done tomorrow night, in the mean time you can check out this post from last year.  :)

 

http://amandaslittlelight.blogspot.com/2011/10/spooky-much.html

 

This is a busy week, the end of the month, Halloween and Saturday will be my birthday! :)

 

Have a great week and stay safe friends! :)

A Basket, A Bracelet and a Winner!!

Hellooooo Friends! I hope you are having a fabulous week. I know I am! I started my new job this week and I am really liking it...yes, I know it has only been a few days...but sometimes you just know ! :) 

 

I would like to thank everyone who entered the giveaway for the $25 Hobby Lobby gift card.  I really appreciate everyone who has supported me, my friends, my family, my blog friends, my new friends...:)  Welcome to all my new friends! I am so happy you are here! Thank you!! And the winner is........ :)  Congratulations Barbie!!!!

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/51503e1/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

So first let me show you my blanket basket.  I started by thrifting (of course!) my basket.  I paid $3 for it at my favorite thrift store. Then I picked the little wood frame up at Hobby Lobby when it was half off. I paid less than $1 for it. :)

 

 

I painted the outside of the frame turqoise.

 

 

Then I added my handy dandy most favorite stuff ever aka chalkboard paint to the inside of the frame.  I put some brown yarn through those holes, and attached it to my basket. My cute little basket cost less than $4 total. Yayyyy!

 

I like. :)

 

The second thing I whipped up this week was a knock-off Pandora bracelet that I saw at Happy Hour Projects.  Adrianne has an awesome blog filled with great tutorials and lots of cute jewelry ideas.  When I saw THIS bracelet I knew I wanted to make one!

 

These were my supplies

 Sorry about the fuzzy-far away pic, I don't know what happened-I need camera lessons! Lol
 

 I picked green because lately I have gotten a lot of green clothing  (like enough to justify owning green shoes-which I don't have yet ) but I didn't own any green jewelry. I do now!

 

This is my version of Adrianne's DIY Pandora knock-off bracelet. 
 

 I love it!

 
Happy a fabulous Friday friends & a great weekend! :)  Thanks again for celebrating This Little Light's first birthday with me! I plan on making this next year the best! :)

Linking my basket up (well and I guess the rest of the post...but mostly my basket lol)  with the ladies at
Keep Calm & Link Up :)

Happy 1st Birthday This Little Light & A Giveaway!

So you may know by now that I am a tad bit birthday crazy! :)  I love them! Mine, yours, any one's! They just make me happy! :)  I think any reason to celebrate is a good one! If you are just joining me, welcome to This Little Light! You can go HERE to learn a little bit about me.  I hope you stick around for awhile! :) So, with out further ado...Please enter my giveaway! :)

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/51503e1/

 

This Little Light is celebrating it's 1st Birthday this week! You have no idea how much it means to me to say that. When I started this blog, I was unsure if I would ever have anyone who wasn't related to me or worked at desk right next to mine read this. I think I cried the first time someone I had never met in real life followed my blog! :) I am thankful for each and every one of you that read This Little Light. It makes my heart happy! :)  Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ♥
 

 

Reflecting on this last year I realized even though it was a rollercoaster for me personally (I went from two jobs, to one job, to no job, back to one job, that I will be trading for a new job next week! Sheesh!) that I learned so much about blogging and I have made some wonderful blog friends.  I am really looking forward to what this next year will bring! :)

Let's take a look at my top three view posts from the last year!

 

1.) Mirror, Mirror a Before and After

 

2.) Before and After Jewelry Tray

 

3.) Bling a Ding Ding Ding

 

It doesn't surprise me that the before and afters were the most viewed. They are usually my favorite part of reading blogs too! I also really love bling, so I get that too! I'm expecting my daughter's recent Wonderland Birthday Party  will be on it's way to the top 3 soon!

 

 If you read the "About Me" (about me) :) then you know one of my favorite places in the whole world is Hobby Lobby.  I have a few other favorite places (a local thrift store, the library, my house) but none of those places offer gift cards...Hobby Lobby does! :)  I tried to make this giveaway super simple....Good luck friends! :)

  I will be back this weekend with a new project and the giveaway will go until next Wednesday (the 17th)!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

A Wonderful Wonderland Birthday!

Hello Friends! I'm back today with a Wonderland Tea Party! I told you we do birthdays big around here! I believe we brought "18" in with a bang! :)

 

I told you a little bit about how I love theme parties in THIS post and how my daughter had nixed all theme parties since she got older. I was so excited when she told me she wanted an Alice in Wonderland party for her 18th birthday!

Me & my imagination got to work. I started thrifting tea cups, saucers and unique glassware. I borrowed tea pots from my Mom (I'm lucky she collects them!) I figured out how I wanted everything to look in my head. Some things turned out that way, some didn't. Of course, isn't that how it always goes? :)

This was one of the things that didn't turn out like I imagined, but the kids liked it so it doesn't really matter. :) 

We had my daughter's party in the local National Forest. It has a big picnic area and this time of year it's not very crowded. It was the perfect place for our "Wonderland."

I served tea (of course!) put some Mt. Dew in a couple of the teapots and had little tea sandwiches. I wish I had gotten a better picture of the table :(  

 

Some of my daughter's favorite "Aliceisms" were placed all around. I just nailed this one to the tree...I'm fancy like that! Ha ha :)

 

 This little "Aliceism" was place on the table. I thrifted that frame for $ .50...I thought it looked very Alice in Wonderland. :)

 

We also had a candy bar, which was a hit. I mean, seriously, who doesn't love candy? :)

 

We also had three different types of cupcakes, chocolate, vanilla and my daughter's favorite, red velvet. I love making cupcakes, really. It makes me happy that people like them! :)

 

We had a photo booth. We took lots of silly pictures, it was a lot of fun!

!

This is one of my real life BFFs Lori! She loved the photo booth almost as much as the kids! :) 

 

All and all it was a great day and a really fun Wonderland Party!

Happy 18th Birthday my wonderful daughter!  :)

 

Speaking of birthdays.....This Little Light will turn one this week! Check back on Wednesday or follow me HERE on Facebook to keep updated for my very first giveaway! I love birthdays! :)

Linking this Wonderland Party up with the ladies at Keep Calm and Link Up, Elaine at Sunny Simple Life and Thrifty Decor Chick & Live. Laugh. Rowe :)

18....A Birthday Letter to My Daughter

Today my daughter turns eighteen. I just can't believe that 18 years have flown by so fast or that my beautiful little girl has turned into a beautiful young adult.  Excuse me while I wipe my tears away!

Today I share with you some pictures from the past and a letter to my daughter.

 

Dear Shel,

 Happy 18th Birthday. I can't even believe I'm saying that. It seems like just yesterday that I brought you home from the hospital.  I was just a  year older than you are now and I had no idea how to be a Mom, but I knew I loved you more than anything in this world, I still do, and always will. I am so thankful to God for you and the opportunity to be your Mom.

 

You have a smile that can light up a room. 

 

  

You are smart. Like super smart.  I know you aren't sure what you want to do with your life yet, but I have no doubts that you can do anything you set your mind to. God has great plans for you! I will never forget how in fourth grade you received the reading award and your teacher said she was giving the award to a student who read above a twelfth grade level. The crowd "oood" and "awed'' and I wanted to stand up and yell, "Yep that's my daughter!!!" :)  I didn't of course, because you would have never spoken to me again, but that is the kind of pride I feel about you all the time. For big things, for little things...all the time.

 

You have a beautiful heart.  In first grade your teacher said you were a "protector of the underdog." It broke your heart to see people treated unfair, or unkind.  When you were in third grade you told me you wanted to give all your birthday gifts to poor kids. We decided that you would just request donations to the food bank instead of gifts. You did that for several more years. You invited one child to a birthday party and later his mother told me that was the only birthday party he had ever been invited to. The list doesn't end there, I could think of hundreds of other ways you have shown your beautiful heart. 

 

You are beautiful, inside and out. You are an amazing person.  Being your mother is the greatest privilege I have ever had. I love you so much.

Happy 18th Birthday!

Love,

Mom

 

I'll be back in a few days with party pictures and if you hadn't already guessed we had a Wonderland Tea Party! It turned out great and we did birthday celebrating all weekend! :)

A Wreath & Some Randomness

Has September flown by for all of you too?  Mine has been a whirlwind!  Not the whole month, but the last two weeks seem like it!

 

I will start by sharing with you the one and only yarn wreath I will ever make. Seriously.
 

  This was not my favorite project. I have seen a hundred (maybe thousands) of these on blogs and Pinterest.  I loved them, I wanted to make one. So I did...or I tried to.  

Let me tell you, a lack of patience partnered with a case of perfectionism made this a hard project for me.  I had never tried rosettes or rolled flowers (whatever you call them) and it took me quite a few tries to get something semi- presentable. :)  I love how the wreath turned out, but that being said, it will be the only yarn wreath I ever make. If I say I want to make another one, someone please remind me! Lol :)

 So let me share some other things  I have been doing.

 

I attended a Christian Women's Conference. It was wonderful, just what I needed. God is pretty awesome like that. :) Three days with my Mom, my sister and other sisters in Christ was amazing. I met women from all over. Wonderful ladies from Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Illinois, and London! :)  Friday night was awesome, 27,000 women singing and praising God!  It still gives me goosebumps.  The whole theme of the conference was hope. 

 

Here I am rocking my leopard print in front of the hope sign. :)

 

I have also been super busy getting everything together for my daughter's birthday party this weekend.  If you happen to know me in real life then you know how much I love birthday parties!  My love of parties and themed parties started long before I blogged  What started out as necessity (DIY because of money!) turned into a passion. I prefer to DIY now.

 

My daughter has had a slew of theme parties, I think the best ones were the Harry Potter party, the rock star party and the Amazing Race Party (which was her 15th birthday.)  After the Amazing Race party she told me she was too old for themed parties so we have just had low-key friends out to eat parties for her 16th & 17th.  I was thrilled when she told me what she wanted for her 18th birthday.  A theme! I think I jumped up and down!

 

Any guesses what the theme is ???? :) 

 

And one last thing! I have been looking for chairs for the craft room/studio (aka as the current garage-it's a work in progress!) I spotted these chairs the other day and they were $3 each, score! You can only imagine my surprise and delight when I found out it was half price day at the thrift store! I almost hugged the cashier. For real. $1.50 each! :)  Have I mentioned how much I love thrifting? 

 

 

So this weekend is jammed pack, full of lots of friends, fun and birthday stuff.  We do birthdays big around here! :)

 

I'll be back with lots of birthday on Monday!  Have a fabulous weekend friends! :)

I'm linking this post up with Jen at Four Marrs and One Venus for her Stinky Linky Party! Ha Ha! (you know, for my pain in the neck wreath!)
 

Caramel Apple Cider...Revisited

Happy Fall Ya' all! :) 

Let me tell you a little about Missouri weather.  It was summer yesterday, it is fall today.  Seriously.  I think Wednesday was over 100 degrees, today was in the 60's.  After living in Missouri my entire life, I don't ask questions....I'm not even surprised. It might snow tomorrow, or be a 100 again.  I just roll with it and wear layers! :)

 

Anyhoo, I didn't waste any time pulling out my hoodies and cardigans and making myself a cup of Caramel Apple Cider. What is Caramel Apple Cider you ask?   I would be delighted to tell you! :)

The first time I posted this I had like four followers: my mom, my sister, Tash and Elizabeth.  I love you guys, but you have already seen this post, so go do something else productive with your time.  I'll be back later this week with a wreath you haven't seen! :)

 

For everyone else who has joined me since (I love you guys too!) please enjoy! :)

 

http://amandaslittlelight.blogspot.com/2011/11/caramel-apple-cideryummmm.html

 

 

Thanks for stopping by friends! :)