Week in Review: February 21-27

Bubble blowing on a sunny day with my kidlets.

Going on a day trip to Cheyenne with some gal pals.

A knitting night with friends.

Crafting in a newly cleaned art studio.

Despite the pipe gushing water in the basement & the squishy wet carpet, it was a good week!

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

♥

WhiMSy love (in print) WINNER!!

CoNgRaTs!!!

...to Melissa, of the blog, Overwhelmed by His Blessings!!

Melissa is the winner of the 1-year subscription to The Bridgeport News-Blade.

A year's worth of WhiMSy love (in print)??

What's not to love?

Yay Melissa!!!

♥

I Write. I Give.

Last week I celebrated an anniversary. It's officially one year that I've been writing for my local newspaper. I know it might seem silly to mark this occasion. But I cannot believe how absolutely lucky I feel at having been given this opportunity to have such a cool job! Every week I write an article for publication in my very own column "WhiMSy love...in print". And, it's kinda weird because I feel like I'm getting my creative writing practice in----with the community peeking from behind my shoulder. I'm simply journaling, in view of the public eye. Sometimes I write made-up stories, or about a small town adventure I had, or about anything random that pops in my head.

Getting reader feedback is super fun! Mr. WhiMSy love even gets stopped on occasion when people comment about how much they enjoy my column. haha! I've even gotten some nasty comments. There was that one time I wrote about my thoughts on a recent problem our town had with its water. I mentioned the word "poo" 7 times & the word "diarrhea" once. *Scandalous!* One person commented, "A pastor's wife shouldn't be talking that way!!!".  (Guess I must have misplaced my 'Pastor's Wives for Dummies' handbook.)

I like to mark special occasions. So I'm marking this one with a giveaway! I'd like to give one reader a 1-year subscription to my small town newspaper, The Bridgeport News-Blade. You'll get to read my column every week & peek inside my world. (I also work on the advertising & layout, sometimes take photos for the paper & have reported a story or two...)

Heck yeah I'm braggin'! How many people get to say they LOVE their job? I never dreamed I'd get to use this part of my creative self. I have never gone to work with a grumbling attitude. Monday nights from 8 pm until the wee hours of the morning? I'm there! And if you only knew all the silliness that went on at a newspaper at those odd hours of the day. And how many wasabi peas or chocolate candies I have consumed in one sitting while at work. But that's another story...

Leave a comment for your chance to win! Drawing will be held this Sunday, February 27th.

**Giveaway open to US residents only--sorry my foreign friends!!**

For those interested in receiving a copy once-a-week in your sweet little mailbox, you can purchase a yearly subscription by
calling:
(308) 262-0675
 OR
emailing:

news [at] newsblade.net

Mailing address:

PO BOX 400

Bridgeport, NE 69336

The cost for a 1-year subscription is:

$28.75 (outside the state of Nebraska)

$20.00 (In the 11 Nebraska Panhandle Counties & those serving in the military)

$23.75 (Elsewhere in NE)

♥

Bubble Fun

After school yesterday, the girls came home, ditched their backpacks on the kitchen floor & grabbed their bubbles.

The happy weather had lured them out to the front porch.

Though chilly, it was definitely sunny & almost perfect.

Zoey even ran inside & said, "Mom! Being outside reminds me & Pazely of the old days!"

I believe "the old days" she refers to are last Spring & Summer.

Which, by the way, I can't WAIT for!!!

♥

Week in Review: February 14-20

Click HERE to view a photo play-by-play.

I've had a lazy, yet productive week. I'm finally coughing less, the strep throat is on the mend & I'm getting sleep at night! Yay! The art studio is almost done being purged. It feels AWESOME!!!!! Pics to come. But I've actually shown so many boring pics of the studio that there really isn't much to show. A bunch of crap. Stuffed on shelves. Not pimped out in a very creative or crafty way. But still, I'm satisfied with being able to see the ugly brown carpet once again. Woohoo!

I'm finishing up a couple custom orders this week & continuing the purging in the children's playroom. So happy for the cleaning inspiration, though I have no idea where it's coming from.

Looking forward to a road trip to Cheyenne next Saturday.....Michael's craft store!! Barnes & Noble!!

I don't get out much.

Happy Monday!

♥

out of gas...yet invigorated

I'm not one to get sick quite often. But these last few days I've been knocked down pretty hard with a severe sore throat, coughing, & feeling weak & blah. I had the 2 worst sleeps ever these last couple of nights. One night I seriously got 20 minutes of sleep. No joke. The doc visit yesterday revealed I have strep throat. After taking meds & taking it easy, in just 24 short hours I feel OODLES better!! It's hard for me to lie down & do nothing. Well, wait. I take that back. It's hard for me to do that without CHOOSING to do it. When you have no other choice BUT to do this, it's an awful feeling. Your body just shuts down & you have to rest to let it recover & heal. Your "things to do" list gets visited less & less, which means there's more & more to do later on.

I sure did learn to enjoy the rest though. I've been hopping around blogland, window shopping on amazon (.com), visiting my friends on facebook, browsing lovelies on Etsy, enjoying tunes via pandora, & sipping hot drinks the whole while as I lounged in lazy clothes. I've gotten a lot of inspiration from these liesure moments plopped on the couch. More happy ideas, more satisfied thoughts, more promising motivation. And it makes me think that I need to schedule more of those "on purpose" couch plopping moments into my week.

♥

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentines Day!!

(pattern for the knitted bow found HERE.)

Hope your day is full of lovely things!

♥

Week in Review: February 7-13

Knitting, knitting, knitting.

Valentine prep.

Baking.

Making.

Picture taking.

Last high school basketball home game of the season.

1st grade Valentine party.

Lazy 4 day weekend.

Crafty Night.

Getting a bit of the sickies.

Dreaming of Spring.

♥

(for a photo play-by-play click HERE.)

My 1st Knitted Project!

 I just completed my first knitted creation!

Even though it is full of mistakes (& this wee wallet actually started out as a mug cozy), I am rather proud of myself!! The cherry on the top is the vintage button.

I learned to decrease stitches & even add a button hole.

It definitely gave me confidence to attempt another project. Maybe I'll give that mug cozy another try.

♥

Bite-Sized Valentines

This year the girls & I made little marshmallow treats to give to their classmates.

(All my supplies were purchased at Walmart.)

Simply melt chocolate wafers (you can get white, milk or dark chocoloate. You can color the white too! Regular chocolate chips work too.), & then dip half of your strawberry flavored heart-shaped marshmallows into the ooey gooey melty mixture. Let it drip off a bit, or you'll have a runny mess later.

Then dab the tip into a bowl full of sprinkles.

I took a carboard box & poked holes all over before we started. Poke the mallow pops into the holes to dry. They dry pretty quickly.

  

And that's it! When they were dry, I slid them into little favor bags, attached a tag & tied it with red yarn.

When it comes to my 6 year old, I always have a willing taste tester.

Happy Valentine treat makin'!

♥

Crafty Night FEBRUARY 2011

 I cannot tell you how giddy I get each month as Crafty Night approaches. It's such a fun night to hang out with friends! This month we knitted. I only learned how to knit about a month ago. My friend Susan led the group, along with some help from a couple other well-experienced knitting gurus. It was a smaller group this month, but a PERFECT size for that extra attention we newbies seemed to need! 

 Everyone in the group went home with their own pair of knitting needles & a skein of yarn.

We had oodles of knitting books available to browse through too---such inspiration!

The girls & I made these yarn hearts for decorations. Tutorial found HERE.

This month everyone also went home with a felt fortune cookie. 

I handmade them. 

With love. 

Tutorial found HERE. 

(The girls' school teachers will be getting these for Valentine treats as well!)

We also ate amazing homemade soups & bread from the bakery next door. Not to mention my awesome pistachio torte.

And then, oh, we measured our heads for fun.

(Because we aspire to make great things. Like hats!)

And guess who had the biggest head of the bunch?

*sigh* It's my hair. I swear, I have BIG hair.

Crafty Night is the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

ON3 Photography • Bridgeport, NE

6-8 p.m.

Next Crafty Night: March 8th

Save your spot!

To view the entire set of photos from 
Crafty Night FEBRUARY 2011...click HERE.
♥

Week in Review: January 31-February 6

Last week I got to accompany my photog friends & get snap happy at a wedding! I got lotsa practice with my BIG girl camera. But my main reason for accompanying them was to play the part of Polaroid Girl. I clicked away on a Fuji Instax Mini at the reception & got some fun shots. Talk about having to get out of your comfort zone. The best shots are taken at fairly close range. So, I had to get all up in people's grill. It was a fun bunch of wedding peeps.

I'm gearing up for Crafty Night tonight...& school Valentine parties on Thursday....& a 4 day weekend for the girls.

Happy week!

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

♥

Week in Review: January 24-30

Well I bet you can guess the best highlight of mine last week....CRAFTY NIGHT! We had crafters show up that ranged from the age of 16 years old to a lovely lady in her 70's! (And everything in between.) Crafty Night's attendance more than doubled since moving to our new location last month too! And in the works of my tinkering brain is....our first Kid's Crafty Afternoon! I'm thinking of doing it on a Saturday & maybe do a  few of these a year. We'll see how it goes. And Zoey, my 8 year old, would do most of the teaching! (My people are currently talking to her people.) 

Next Crafty Night: KNITTING!

Tuesday, February 8th

6 - 8 p.m.

ON3 Photography • Bridgeport, NE

If you'd like to attend, message me!

(Crafty Night is the 2nd Tuesday of every month.)

I'm trying to stay warm in the great Midwest. I'm wearing layers. LOTS of layers. I'm such a weenie when it comes to the cold. I slept in my scarf & sweatshirt last night. And I've been wearing gloves around the house. It's VERY hard to do lots of things around the house with gloves on, I've found out. Like, for instance, spreading peanut butter on toast.

Other than finding creative ways to keep out the cold, on the agenda this week is: to attack my art studio with a fierce vengeance. Since having kids I've gotten more & more lax with the putting-away-of-things. At least that's the area on my timeline that I can pinpoint when my more methodical ways started to disintegrate. I blame it on the children. The fruit of my loins made me do this.

I really think it's beyond finding ways that work for me to stay on task. I've tried almost all of them.

What's a messy crafty girl to do? Will my whole life be filled with this horrible clean vs. messy battle? Orderly & arranged VS. untidy & cluttered? That's just a big fat waste of time & energy. And, yes, I realize I bring this topic up a whole, WHOLE lot. It consumes me.

I really think it's time to purge. 

The pack-rat in me is about to faint.

Yep, yep---I'm hyperventilating....Getting dizzy...Woozy...

Excuse me while I pass o-u-t.

For a photo play-by-play, click HERE.

♥