Domestic Anarchy

PE Design Text Function

2012-01-28T19:47:00.001-05:00

Click on photo to make it bigger

Dear class,

I was not even half way home when my mind finally unlocked the fact that you have to hold down the CNTRL key and touch the ENTER key at the end of each line of text in order to be able to do multiple lines of text.

Hope that makes more sense!.. Sorry for my in class brain failure!

Love,

Zip-It Tool - Best Friend of a Long Haired Girl

2012-01-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Zip it Clog Remover

So.. if you have seen me lately you know that my hair has gotten pretty long.. and I love it. It took almost 4 years to grow my hair out from the VERY short cut I got after my father died, so this long hair thing is quite the victory to say the least!

On the not so positive side it has been VERY hard on my drains. Long hair gets stuck in drains and makes for some VERY slow moving water. Slow draining water means a dirty bathtub and more work.. which means I have to give up time from brushing and fawning all over my hair to scrub a tub... not good! ( yes I am kidding about the fawning but not the scrubbing)

Enter the Cobra Products 400 Zip-It Drain Cleaning Tool ...yes you did hear angels singing, and yes I love it that much that I am devoting blog space to it. In fact if I could I would send one to ALL of you ( hmmm maybe I can talk them into a giveaway???) it is just that amazing.

With this little tool you can save yourself a good chunk of money and a visit from the plumber. Now don't get me wrong, I happen to think my plumber rocks, but given that this tool is less than $3 bucks and it could save you well over $100... well it is sort of a no brainer!

I have included affiliate links to where you can get it online ( Amazon prime folks.. this is a steal of a deal for you!).. but maybe you want to find it locally. While this display makes it easy to find it is often hung in less than obvious spots around the plumbing department so you might have to ask for it but that is a small price to pay for a tool that will pay you back over 50 times the first time you use it!

The zipitclean website has a bunch of videos on using the simple tool but quite frankly the stuff pulled from these drains make me a bit queasy so watch at your own risk.. it is a VERY effective tool.

The Zip-it people have NO idea who I am .. I just love their product and wanted to share it with you. The links are affiliated through Amazon, so if you get it there.. thanks!

Counting Down to Blissdom

2012-01-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

I am going to be there.. will you be?

If you will please drop me a note or comment so we can find each other!

p.s. Did I mention that I have exciting news?... Domestic Anarchy ( the blog) is going to be having a "wicked" little baby!.. keep watching.. more news as we count down to Feb 1st!

Cinnamon Cookie Sweater Re-do

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

Totally inspired by the sweater re-do at Tea Rose Home I got to work on my own version using a sweater that had been laid to the side due to it being ITCHY!....really is there much worse than an itchy sweater on the list of little piss-ant things that can make you really crabby?

It was late at night when I got started on this project.. evidenced by the AWFUL photos.. be excuse them. First thing was to cut multiple steeks into the sweater. What?... Don't know how to cut a steek?.. well look here How to Cut a Steek and live to tell the tale

Here I am sewing up the guidelines for the steeks. I used my fancy dancy feed control on my Bernina, lacking that DO use a walking foot so you don't distort the sweater fabric.

Lots of help was had- This is Brag, not because he is awesome, but because he was found at Bragg Park as a tiny kitten

After the steeks were cut I inset fabric triangles- this is where a serger is the BOMB! The fabric is voile. I like how the soft floaty nature contrasts with the sweater.

I took some inspiration from both the Tea Rose Home sweater and this book - SEWING BITS AND PIECES.. love this little book... I think you will too! Here is a direct link to buy if you feel so inclined!

I did little covered buttons at the peaks of each inset - LOVE me some covered buttons!

I could not be happier with this sweater rescue.. from a pullover I never wore to a cardigan that I love to wear!

My goal for the new year is to double my readership.. you can help by reposting this article to FB or tweeting it out if you enjoyed it!

Valentine's Day Magnet Craft- So Easy

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Image from the Graphics Fairy- Of course!

Ohhh be-still my heart.. I finally had a chance to do a bit of Graphic's Fairy Crafting after a long hard day. I am crushing all over this sweet little clown image and I have sized it to fit perfectly on 2x3.5 inch business card size magnets.... get it.. STUCK ON YOU??? The image is from Karen, I added the wording.

I mean really.. a sweet and usable little gift.. who would not like that!.. Alas my camera is refusing to upload so I can't show you a picture until I get that sorted out. What I can do is share this PDF file ( 8 images per printing!) with you!.. sooooo if you too would like to make some of these magnets it is SUPER easy..

You will need-

Cream colored cardstock
Colorprinter
Business card size craft magnets ( I got mine at Office Depot but have seen them at the craft store)

Download my Valentines Day Magnet Craft Printable , print it out on a nice cream colored cardstock.. cut apart and then pull the adhesive backing off the magnet and stick it on. Use an exacto knife to trim things up and TaDa!. you are done!

Homeschooling Myths - It takes all kinds

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Just another homeschooling mama! No matter how shocking that might be.

For once and all let us put to bed the myth and legend that seems to be the unshakable bedrock of homeschooling.. a bedrock build on shaky soil and faulty myth for sure!

Homeschoolers are not all alike, we are as diverse as the menu at the Cheescake Factory ( ever been there? 24 pages of food, 200 + items. crazy!).. the ONLY thing that really binds us is that we homeschool..and even that is dicey since we all do it in very different ways.

Some are religious, go to church all the time types
others are free thinking atheists
the rest are somewhere in the middle

Some are white, married and live in a tidy housing community
others are multi-racial and live on a boat
the rest are everything in between

Some families are two moms
some are single dads
some are a grandmother and an aunt schooling 5 kids from three different families
the rest live somewhere in the middle

Some use curriculum so canned and so boring in would make a nun weep
others fly by the seat of their pants with a prayer in the wind
the rest choose what is best year to year, child by child hoping to find what is best

Some are doing it as a deep calling
some are doing it out of desperation
some have no idea what they are doing but it has to be better than what they left.
they all have moments when they are scared and need support.

Some are straight laced, and jean skirt wearing
others can be found online in a pair of fishnet stockings

It takes all kinds! I celebrate each and everyone one of you!

School is Dead - Just My Opinion

2012-01-17T11:01:00.002-05:00

I get asked quite often why I don't "let" my kids go to school. And while "let" might be too strong a word I have done my darndest to make sure that home education way way better, way more engaging and suited for their learning style(s) than school due to my honest belief that schools kill learners.

Yes of course you will find you schooling success stories but these days they are few and far between when compared to the ratio of so called failures. The system is broken and I have given the last 20 years of my life to my children in hopes of finding a different way.

I am on the tail end of my homeschooling parent journey. If all goes as planed my youngest who is now 10 will start college in 6 years. 6 more years to free minds and spirits to know that they can be anything without the constraints of a classroom to hold them back. I don't shun education.. I think knowledge is power. What I shun is the k-12 institution that boxes, molds and turns out kids in batches. I want something better for my kids, I want something better for your kids, for all kids.

I believe that there are spectacular little children out there being lost each day to a classroom that insists they sit and look forward when at the very moment there is a great painting being created in their heads, or a work of music in their hearts and all they want it to run in circles to feel it whirl through them in greatness. But what they get instead for squirming in their seats is time-out and possible no recess.

I believe that there are middle-schoolers that have more to teach us about compassion and pain than you will ever see while hanging out and watching Dr.Phil but they are deep with worry and anxiety brought on by the cattle car system we call school. With enough of this stress and peer pressure that they turn to sex and drugs and alcohol or they just dive deep in themselves in depression and do not let us in.

I want something more for all children and while homeschooling is one answer I don't believe it's the only answer but I know for sure school as it stands now the the opposite of any ideas I can bring to mind.

I Pick Passion is DONE!

2012-01-16T11:58:00.002-05:00

Next time I will leave my double chin at home!

One of the best parts of getting my stash under control has been to finish up projects that have been lurking around for quite a while- can you see it there on the other post? ~I pick Passion~ is one of those projects.. I finished the quilting on it and then bound it.. so YES!.. 1st project of the year is DONE!

Thank you to Martha S. for taking this photo when I stopped by Sew Bee It quilt shop to share what I had been up to! As some might remember this is actually part of a three to five part series of mini-quilts that I designed well over a year ago.. I have not even started the next one yet.. maybe later this year ;-)

What have you been getting finished in the new year?

Organized Sewing Projects

2012-01-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Lest you think that all I do is stand around in my fancy undies and put on makeup all day I have some sewing organization to show off - so there!

hanging my head, lordy what a mess it was!

A couple of weeks ago I got all haus-frau and tackled my fabric storage armoir. It was an unholy mess having just come off holiday sewing and me getting all my class samples done.

After some SERIOUS destashing ( 3 lawn and leaf bagsfull!) and refolding I was left with this.. much better..no??

The last part of the equation was storage of projects that were mid-project. Mid cutting, mid piecing, mid-anything. For that I have been thrilled with these Iris Scrapbook cases which I can regularly find on sale for $3-4 bucks each. I also use them for my craft supplies but where they really do the work is when it comes to holding blocks as I piece them and to gather fabrics as I am putting a new design together. The scrapbook cases have strong latches and being that they are clear I rarely need to label them and that saves time and frustration.

I often get asked how I get so much sewing done.. doing things bit by bit really does work.. and these storage cases make it way easier to make sure I don't loose anything in the process!

I also will toss out there that we use these for our homeschooling supplies to keep project supplies, papers and workbooks together by theme and by child. That way if we are going to be out for the day the kids just grab a box or two to bring along.. they are large enough to function as a lap-desk making them perfect for car-schooling!

How's that for dual purpose!...and now if you will pardon me I going to go try the new lipstick I just bought :)

One of my goals for the new year is to double my readership, could you help me with that?.. all it takes is sharing this post or others that you like via Facebook or Twitter. And if you have not joined please think about joining my Domestic Anarchy facebook page on the left upper part of your computer screen-- Thanks a Million!!!!

Boudoir Session Reflections

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Photo by Risque Boudoir 519 - The skin is all mine!

Last Sunday was my scheduled boudoir session with Meredith and Risque Boudoir. I scheduled this session about 2 weeks before that actual shoot, so VERY last minute. No time to loose 20 or 50 pounds, get my breasts lifted or my tummy tucked. There was time to do my nails and put a rinse on my hair but little else and that is probably for the best.

I arrived at Meredith's a bit before 1pm and was greeted by her sweet and sassy self and felt comfortable within minutes. After a bit of chat we got right down to looking at the clothing I had brought and deciding on what might be best for each of the three "outfits" I would be wearing. I use the word "outfit" loosely since as you might imagine in the photo above I am wearing little more than a draped sweater and a smile! ( as a note this photo has been radically cropped by me for the sake of just about everybody.. I can already bet that I will not be welcome at the next local homeschooling convention that is for sure!)

Soon enough Staci Gibbs the makeup artist blew through the door with her happy energy and more makeup than I have ever seen! Her set up was quick and in no time I was seated and getting made up. As I mentioned in a previous post Staci introduced me to a wonderful new foundation that has a forgiving amount of coverage that made my skin look fantastic and was a great match for my over all skin tone. We decided to go with hair down for the first shoot so no muss or fuss was needed there.. it was one of those days when my hair looked good despite me.

This photo comes from the end of the first outfit session.. luckily I managed a non-chronic bitch face smile.. but boy was that hard. Really... when I smile like this I feel like I am smiling like Ronald McDonald!.. thank goodness Meredith is quick on the camera and caught this smile before it went away!

In the next session change I got to rock an amazing set of fishnet stockings and a piece of black floral lace. I am anxious to see how these came out! Staci boosted my makeup and wrestled me into a pair of false eyelashes.. that was crazy amazing .. more about those in the future!

Session part 3 had me in a set of thigh-highs and a hot pink and black waist cincher and a pair of 5 inch heels that threatened to give me a nose bleed! This also called for a change of hairstyle.. and Staci did a wonderful organic up-do that was amazing!

From beginning to end is was an amazing experience that I will not soon forget. I can't say enough about it and I encourage any woman to do this for themselves and see how fantastic they can look. I also encourage you to contact Risque Boudoir to see about setting up a session. Meredith is one of the warmest sweetest people.. you can't go wrong with her and her amazing talent.

Makeup Matters - Boudoir Afterglow

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Got to love an iphone photo

I learned so much through this boudoir photo process and I am putting some of this new found knowledge into practice!

While I have been a rather regular makeup wearer for many years now I am also not the sort of person who refuses the leave the house without makeup. I do think I look better with it but you will not find me stopping to put on mascara before taking my kid to emergency care or leaving the house due to fire.

Makeup is icing on the cake and I do feel better about myself when I take the time to put it on so it is part of my morning routine. Now up until this point that meant a bit of mascara, some blush and a my increasing obsession with lipstick ( really I should have seen this change coming)

During my make up and hair session for the shoot I was able to have the ever wonderful makeup artist Staci Gibbs try multiple colors of foundation on my face to find just the RIGHT color for me.. not only that she introduced me to a FANTASTIC foundation .. Revlon Photoready foundation AMAZING stuff.. and so lightweight.. hell, look at my skin in this photo.. that is with NO photo retouching - it is crazy amazing stuff. Best yet I learned that my color is ~Shell~. I am always perplexed when it comes to picking this stuff and SO happy to have such a good match for my skin shade!

Why is this such a big deal?... you see due to very fair skin I am "blessed" with some under eye darkness that tends to have people asking if I feel well even when I feel just fine!.. Do you know what a bummer it is for people to assume you are peeky and them tell you so on a regular basis... no fun! With good color and coverage on my face I have already had a couple of people tell me how well rested I look.. that makes a big change in the way I feel - shallow?.. maybe.. truth- for sure!

Coming soon.. my burgeoning obsession with false eyelashes!

I love it lots when you share my posts.. thanks!

Valentine's Hair Fancy - Embroidery Machine Magic

2012-01-11T09:53:00.001-05:00

OK.. coming back down to earth for a moment to get a go on Valentine's gifts!.. Love me some V-day gifts with all the glitter and ribbon and crafty goodness but it does not happen on it's own. First on the list is a project for those with embroidery machines! Today- a ~Lovely Hair Accessory ~

Using re-purposed leather or wool felt this design is perfect for pulling up hair off the neck or for securing a low pony tail with holiday style. For the securing stick I have used a very thin dowel rod which I clipped using garden pruners and then used some sandpaper to round off one end and smooth the finish.

This design will be up in my store in a couple of days but before that ~~I have THREE copies to giveaway~~ All gone! to the first three people with embroidery machines that ask! ( It will not do you any good without an embroidery machine but the same idea can be hand made)

As a note.. the leather I used was recycled from an old purse .. I will make a few wool felt ones today and get them posted up as well.

There will be a VERY limited number of these for sale in the finished form.. so watch the store for those also.

What are you making for Valentine's Day?

Hot Comes in All Sizes - Sexy legs

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Hot comes in all sizes ( and no that is not me)

One of the things that has been driven home to me by this Boudoir experience is that HOT comes in all sizes. From size 2 to 22 it is ALL in the attitude and while I have been traveling this path for a while it is now so crystal clear to me that body size has nothing to do with the ability to be confident, sexy or sexual. I have met women who are a size 2 and have the all the personality of a piece of spaghetti but I also know women who are 22's and wear it like fat is a sin.... it's not size.. it is what is in your head and your personal baggage that keeps you from releasing that fantastic person you are... take time to find her no matter your size.

And while attitude is everything the way you ice the cake with clothing, hair and sexy underthings makes the process even more enjoyable and exciting.. after all you want to express what you feel and that is hard to do with lumpy bumpy over sized clothes with all the sexy of a potato sack.

While I am not longer technically "plus sized" my legs are still very muscled with calfs of steel and thighs of jello, finding leg wear can sometimes be a challenge.

Both SOCKS DREAMS and HIPS AND CURVES came through for me on some VERY sexy thigh-highs and fishnets in larger sizes that fit my curvy legs!

But what I really might be missing are these Opera Length black gloves - meow!

What rocks your sexy?

p.s. might actually be some embroidery going on here tomorrow .. who knows!

A Fantastic Day with Very Little to Wear

2012-01-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

Post- Boudoir Shoot Glow, on my way to have dinner.

It was AMAZING, I feel like a GODDESS, I am TIRED

A HUGE thank you to

Meredith and the Risque Boudoir team for making it amazingly easy to stand around and get my photo taken in nearly nothing!

Complete details, reflections and afterglow later this week!

Huck Toweling and Making Your Own Dish Towels

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Anybody know the name of this floral fabric? - I want more!

While I can sew anything.. from jeans to couture clothing I really like simple sewing best. I find it very zen and happy so that is why I love doing dishtowels. So simple, so fun and so practical!

While sometimes I start with pre-made towels and just gussy them up I do like to buy Huck Toweling when I can find it to make my own. For those not in the know- Huck toweling is a white cotton fabric with a distinctive weave and bound length ends making it perfect for custom length cuts of toweling to decorate as you choose.

I always wash my huck 2x in hot and dry on hot to get out all the shrinkage.. it's tough stuff.. go ahead and use it for real!

There are about a million ways to do dishtowels-

Adding a fun Monogram to a dishtowel

Scrappy bunting dish towel

Ribbon dish towels - swoon!

Adding a crochet edging for a hand made look

Ruffle and thread art- what more could you want from a towel?

Really the choices are just about endless and they make perfect gifts so you can feel totally guiltless about make a whole stack of them real soon!

How are your dishtowels looking?

Hemming Jeans and Getting My Look Back in the Game.

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

After last week's rather dismal show on the dressing front I got back in the game today with some dark-wash jeans and a plum colored silky blouse with a waist tie and 3/4 sleeves.

Alas these jeans a too big ( yeh I know pooor me).. but really I don't want to buy more jeans but I am going to have to. My loss is going to be your gain because I am going to open these suckers up and see about taking them in and I am going to do a post about it in the coming weeks since I really do sort of crush on these jeans and would still like to wear them.

Do you know how to actually hem jeans?.. I am 5'6 but it seems my legs are on the shortish side so sometimes I have to hem my jeans.. a real pain, but you want them to look right and not "my mom hemmed these with a stapler sort of look" you need to know some tricks.

There are a couple schools of thought on hemming jeans -

The cheaters method - Easy jean hemming by Cardigan Empire

Pretty official method - Canadian Crafter's Jean hemming method

Pretty much professional - Sew for Dough hems jeans

So there you go.. pick your method and hem on my dears ( or grow longer legs, which ever is easier!)

Boudoir Photography - Down to the Wire Checklist

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sock Dreams - sexy no???

Details, details, details... a good photoshoot is all in the details for both me and my photographer, but I have every confidence that Meredith has her end of this act together so I am going to concentrate on mine! So for me that means making some lists and then checking off the tasks as I get them accomplished.

First hair -

Mid-color - no makeup - looking glam!

Last night's adventure was with a box of L'oreal semi- permanent hair color in order to wash out those irritating gray hairs that keep springing from my scalp (and why are they kinky wavy like misdirected pubic hairs??)

Ohhh a bit of "Chronic Bitch Face" going on here I see!

So here we go with the after only blown-out hair, the bitch face and the iphone photo - I obviously have no shame.

Next up - nails, some serious leg shaving and deep moisturizing of the skin.

Are we having fun so far???

How to Kill the Love of Sewing - Just My Opinion

2012-01-05T12:17:00.000-05:00

A lot of people bemoan the loss of home-ec from the class listings of many high schools around the nation. Cries from the creative community ask "how will our children learn these age old arts without these classes" and yet in my very unscientific poll about why people fear sewing Home-ec teachers were often mentioned as total creativity killers and the ones who made so many girls ( and some guys I assume) shun sewing like a bag full of steaming puppy-poo on a cold winter morning.

To be sure there were some good Home-Ec teachers out there but even in my own schooling with the exception of one the others obviously lived with a seam gauge shoved where " the sun don't shine" because they were not fun or creative or inspirational, and they were a we bitty pissy that I knew more about sewing than some of them. I had one who insisted that a hand picked zipper was the ONLY way ( wrong, nice but wrong) - one who I think got her jollies off of making students rip out seams so many times that the fabric would shred and then she would count points off for shabby fabric- crazy making for sure!

This cadre of uptight mirthless women who cared more about a perfect 5/8th inch seam than the creative joy filled process of sewing were perhaps the downfall of Home-Ec as we know it. In their wake leaving the whole generation after those who had been traumatized with no place to learn and no one to learn from. Sure maybe there was a grandmother or two out there willing to teach but for the most part this was the great die off of sewing for our culture... The Sewing Dark Ages.

But like all low points in history we are now in a sewing and creativity renaissance . A time that invites those who were burned by bad Home-Ec juju to come back and try again. And for those who think they might want to sew to try it without fear of being shamed or mocked. A time full of creative people expressing themselves with thread, fabric and fiber and passing their love on through classes, article and online tutorials. It is a good time to sew people.. join the party.

Boudoir Photo Session - The What to Wear Edition

2012-01-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

Via Pinterest and the Vintage Rose Garden

Yesterday I talked about getting my head in the right place when it comes to doing my Risque Boudoir Photo shoot. I received so many nice notes- thank you!

Today I thought I would talk about another part of getting ready - What to wear.. or what not to wear, or how little to wear, or how much to wear. Best of all what to wear to look amazing no matter your size!

By it's very nature boudoir photography implies that at least to some degree I am going to be showing some skin. How much skin is a discussion between me and my photographer. Finding the comfort spot for both of us is important. While skin can be very sexy so can intrigue and implied nudity. The mind is a pliant place, with some simple tricks I can come off looking very sexy all while showing very little skin if that is my choice.

What I choose to wear will have a big impact on the feeling of the photos, from " girl next door" fresh faced sexy to down right smokin-hot dominatrix in black leather and a vicious set of heels,..oh so may choices!

Via Pinterest and dita-von - teese .org

For my photo session we will be doing 3 different outfits and I am working my through how I want them to look. I plan on doing a largish canvas for our bedroom so I do want them to go with our room at least to some degree. I also want some that will not totally scandalize my children if I put them on my site but the rest of the shots, .. I plan those to be wildly hot so they can just close their eyes and not look at the those!

Now finding these items to wear has been more of a challenge being that I am bigger than Victoria's Secret seems to think is proper ( crazy really seeing that I have a bunch of money to spend- they are SO missing a huge market-pardon the pun!). At a size 10/12 in jeans but a 40dd chest I often have to turn to on line sources for really nice/sexy/unique lingerie. One of the best place I have found is Hips and Curves. If you have others PLEASE leave them in the comments section!

In the end I think that emotional comfort is the key when doing a intimate photo shoot, but some of that can be gained by feeling good in what you are wearing.

hips and curves.com

Sexy boy shorts are great for helping disguise stretch marks and uhhh flaps

hips and curves com

Fishnets make scars and veins on the legs just disappear!

hips and curves.com

A well fit corset makes your waist worries a thing of the past and gives your breasts a real lift!

So far in my bag I have packed:

lacy-racy panties from little more than dental floss with an attitude to some great boy shorts
My amazing-gravity defying .. gorgeous push up bras from both Lane Bryant and Intimacy ( Atl.)
Stocking, garters, hose and hot heels
bustier - hot pink and black lace.. ohhh la la
Sexy lacy sweater
length of STUNNING black lace

I have no idea what we will use and what we won't.. Meredith is great and when we get there she will help me pull together 3 distinct looks that will make the most of our time together... I am going on one more shopping trip before the shoot .. wish me luck!

I am so excited I could just squeal!

How to Get Ready for a Boudoir Photo-shoot - Get Your Head On Straight

2012-01-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

Well here we go!... I am counting down the days till my photo shoot with Meredith and Risque Boudoir of Atlanta.. I will not say that I am not at least a little bit nervous but mostly I am really excited to be doing this.

A lot of people have told me that this is something that they would love to do ( Others think I am bat-shit crazy) but then they go on to list the reasons why they will not do it now, the reasons go like this:

I will do it when I loose 10-15-20 pounds

I will do it when my hair grows out, I get it cut, get it colored, I wake up with someone else's hair

I will do it after my parents are dead otherwise they might kill me ( from a grown woman)

I will do it when the kids are grown

When I get my boobs lifted

I will do it after I have been working out for a year

I will do it when I have the money

I will do it after..... { insert your own reason here}

Here is the deal.. for me now is the time since when you think about it.. I have had most of this baby-weight for 22 years, yeh there is a bit less of me now but I still weight somewhere between 177 and 180 pounds and I am not sure that is going to change.

I am almost 44, chances are my hair is not going to get much better and if it does.. whoo hooo, maybe I will do another photo shoot when I turn 50!

My stomach - well there is not much to say ( and yet everything), is it lined with well over 100 stretchmarks that indicate both my fair skinned European heritage and the fact that I had some VERY big babies ( ever pushed out an 11 pound baby?.. I have!). My belly has a flap of skin that would require surgery to remove, not a roll, a FLAP.. I am talking lots of skin here people.. 6 big babies worth of skin and it is not going anywhere.

Do I want my flap and scars focused on?... NO ( I am not mental) and I do trust Meredith to shoot photos that make the least of it.. but to be honest it is part of me, part of my years, and my 6 beautiful children. It will not come as a shock to my husband, he sees it every day and loves on me without a thought given to it from what I can tell.

My boobs- again they have served me well over the years, from strutting around in a rainbow striped bikini so small that I could wad up in my hand at 18 to over 10 years of breastfeeding ( take a moment to think about that.. 10 years of feeding someone exclusively from my body.. I did that!).. yes they have served me well. For sure they are not what or where they used to be..but that is ok.. they have also been part of my journey and I can live with that. ( I also have a killer sexy push-up bra collection.. again.. I am not mental)

In the end this all does sound a bit grim.. throw in a dowager hump and I might be able to get the part of the bell ringer in the Hunchback of Notre Dame - but here is the thing.. those flaws are all little bits of me.. in fact I would say bits of any woman as she ages, but they are not the whole me.

I am the person who loves, who grooves to music on the radio, who jumps her husband's bones as often as possible, who laughs, who snarks, who cares, who mothers. All those things that each of us as women do.. those are the things that make us beautiful and for that reason.. I am doing this photo shoot now.. since in the end.. time is wasting, life is passing and it does not get better than this.

Oh 44! - Happy Birthday Month to Me!

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

ohdeedoh.com - Yarn Artist Heather Drum

Oh yes it is true, this very month I will turn 44 years old... more to the point I will have accomplished my 44th year and be making tracks through my 45th year!.. 1/2 way to 50! Over all I am feeling pretty good about this, and thought a month of celebration and merry making would be just the thing to go along with that!

One of the big things I am going to do this month is have a photo session with the loverly and talented Meredith from Risque Boudoir of Atlanta! This is a fantastic gift from my ever so thoughtful husband.. and I am SO excited to about it and to share the process with you over the next few weeks.

I am going to tackle all the issues that go along with the shoot. Picking what to wear, body issues, social implications, technical bits plus hints and tips from Meredith to make the most of any photo of yourself!.. everything... it should be a wild ride for sure!

Of course all play and no work makes Maddie a bit short on pocket change so after almost all of December off I will be back to teaching! Multiple software classes as well as sewing and embroidery at both my private studio and at Chattanooga Sewing.

January also means time to purge my studios of projects that did not make the cut and excess fabric I no longer need. I will be posting up boxes full of crafty goodness that can be YOURS for just the price of postage.. watch for that!

With Valentines Day just around the corner it will be time to start working on those projects... maybe a couple of banners, some suggestive pillow cases and a couple other sweet nothings to share with those you love.

It is going to be a busy month!.. I hope you join me here and on Facebook, I can't wait to see you!

Slimming Neckline Makeover - Make it Sew!

2011-12-31T15:03:00.001-05:00

Whoa!.. those glasses help me see and help you see my wrinkles!

As we enter the New Year one of my goals is to be more deliberate in what I wear and making sure it looks the best it possibly can on my particular body type. While I am thrilled to now be wearing a size 10 jeans I still have a wide back and chest that tends to make me look even bigger than I am in certain clothes.

The biggest offenders are traditionally cut t-shirt and turtlenecks. Put either of these on me and I instantly look 15 pounds heavier.. and who wants that?

She looks great in this, I did not!

Now I should have known better but tend to loose my head in the face of a terrific sale and that is the case when I saw this J. Jill dress marked down from well over $100 to $25. I LOVE my clothing from J.Jill and clicked the BUY button before my head did some serious thinking about this dress. So like all great tales of woe the dress came, I danced around at my good luck and then I put it on.. it felt great, the knit fabric was hefty and soft and I looked like a well dressed block-chested prison matron - sigh.

Luckily my superpower is sewing so I knew what to do..

The first step was to pull the perfect t-shirt from my closet- the t-shirt with the perfect neckline for me.. a nice scoop that show some skin and a bit of cleavage but not so much that I risk looking like a homeschooling hussy.

The next step was to make a template of the neckline by tracing it onto a sheet of tag board ( you could also use paper) I use one template for both the front and back scoop.

I save the template ( thus using tag board) to remake the neck of many garments. Just fold it in half and tuck away with your patterns for storage.

The next step was the cutting away of the excess neck material

Laying the template on the neck I used a chalk wheel to easily mark around the neck scoop for the front.

Then before cutting I took the dress to the sewing machine and I stitched a STRETCH STITCH on the line in order to stabilize the knit from stretching.

After that I cut very carefully just to the inside of the stitching so that the stabilized part stays as part of the garment. ( and yes, even after all this time I still hold my breath making the first cuts :)

Same deal for the back, once the front of the neck is cut away lay on the template and mark in line for the back and then sew a stabilization stitch.

Seems that I really need to clean my cutting mat, the spray adhesive build up is taking over!

Ok!.. half way there! At this point I starch the neckline a bit to stabilize it further and let it dry.

At this point I was torn. I had originally intended to finish the new neckline with some plum colored stretch velvet that is great for this but as luck would have it the turtleneck that I chopped off left me with enough fabric to use the same fabric on the neckline ( not usually an option!)

Oh I dithered, but in the end my mind was made up due to the fact that I did not have a perfectly matching thread color for the plum - how that is possible I have no idea given the amount of thread I have, but such is the deal so I went with the matching fabric and some nice heather gray thread.

After that it was just about sewing the trim on wrong side up.. then flipping it over and then using a tiny zig-zag to re-sew from the top to secure the fabric to the back side. NOTE: use a walking foot to minimize stretching of fabric! Edit: I have been asked to expand on this rather sketchy bit about how I put the trim on the neckline. Seems that sometimes I do things that my head skips right over in the replay. I have decided that it is a bit much to shoe-horn in here so will do another post on it.. but in the mean time offer up a similar techniques Store Bought Look Neckline Treatment and I will get right on an expanded tutorial to show you how I do it!

Of course as usual I missed a spot due to getting to hasty.. but no worries.. thus put it back on the machine and catch that spot.. no one will be the wiser .. well, with the exception of you all --shhhh! This is also the time to do any trimming and adjusting that needs to be done to make it took fantastic!

All done!.. but with all the manhandling the fabric might be looking a bit wonky.. so give it a good misting with water or Best Press and then a light steaming with the iron and let it dry.

This same technique of remaking can also be done with Fold Over Elastic and here is a great little article on how to do just that! Using Fold Over Elastic to Finish a Neckline

So what do you think? Do you have clothing that could look better on you with just a bit of adjustment?Remember, it's about fitting clothes to your body, not your body to the clothes!

P.s. I would love to get this post out far and wide, would you mind sharing it or tweeting it out there for me?

30 Days- Rekindling the Sexy in Your Marriage

2011-12-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

It is never too late to put your marriage first.

Well over 10 years ago I read an article in Redbook magazine that suggested that one of the keys to a very happy marriage was having sex every night. (Which by the way was the advice of a 85 year old woman who had been married longer than I have been alive!) Given that I was reading this while laying on the exam table in the O.B.'s office very-very pregnant with our 6th child it gave me a chuckle and made the O.B. blush when I read it to him. Never-the-less the sex advice stuck with me and putting my marriage and marriage bed first has been a really important part of my bond with my darling man.

The author of the article (now long gone it seems, I have searched high and low for it online) went on to say how a 30 days of sex challenge was the jump-start her marriage was begging for and how other issues that had once been weighing so hard (sorry) and heavy on her marriage started to become mere blips on the radar of life. The flat out fact was that her "ok-nice husband" became the man of her dreams with just a few uncoaxed and unbegged for rolls in the hay. What it took was HER being the one to initiate sex.

As I remember she said her secret plan went something like this.. Night 1 he was thrilled and speechless, night 2 suspicious and grateful, night 3 he acted like some one had just given him a new golf cart and night 4 he got up and walked their teething baby for 3 hours letting his wife sleep and then he made her breakfast and took out the garbage without being asked.... and on it went.. She fell in lust with her husband again and he remembered the hot woman he had married.

Now don't get me wrong.. great sex even freely given will not solve serious problems but there is no doubt that daily sex and affection help smooth over a lot of the bumps and scrapes of marriage. Men want and need to be adored just as much as women want to these things.

The evidence is not just anecdotal, science is even on the side of regular sex showing that men who have sex on a regular basis live longer and have healthier lives ( they also deal with workplace stress better!). Women gain numerous benefits including surges in crucial hormones that keep us younger feeling and sexy. There are no downsides* to good sex.

I mean really.. not exactly brain surgery here.. after sex people sleep better, they glow and they have been even been known to send spicy text messages to each other in anticipation of the next chance to jump in the sack.(Ahem!) Good sex begets more good sex and positive feelings towards each other.

So.. what would happen if you took up a 30 days of sex challenge.. your own little secret plan to see what your life would look like with more sizzle?... January first is Sunday- just sayin.

* OK, one down side, if you are doing it like bunnies after a long time of not even thinking of sex you can end up with Honeymoon Cystitis a bladder infection caused by lots-o-sex. Just remember to pee before and after and a little real cranberry juice each morning never hurts!

Orgasms Inc. - The Selling of Sexual Dysfunction

2011-12-27T12:46:00.001-05:00

Due to an untimely ingestion of a Coke Zero at 10 pm I was not all that sleepy when it came time to hit the sheets with Doc last night ( and oh how I love to hit the sheets with that man.. even 15 years later- what a lucky girl I am!), so while he snoozed I took a bath and watched a movie. ( Yes, my life is decadent in small doses)

Searching through my Instant Que I noticed that I had not watched the documentary Orgasm Inc. which had been on my list for a while now. Ok.. here is your time to jump ship if you are the squeamish, easily offended or the prudish type.. if not read on about my reflections on this documentary.

Orgasm Inc is a 2009 documentary dealing with the time period when the major pharmaceutical companies were in a billion dollar race to be the first to get a climatic female drug to market to deal with the newly named disease made up just for the occasion! - Female Sexual Dysfunction or as they like to call is FSD, since that is shorter and cute! (gah)

FSD came to be after a small study found that 43% of the women who were in the study had some type of sexual issue in the past month of the study. Issues ranged from being too tired to have sex, lack of lubrication, to failure to climax during intercourse.. and thus was born FSD.. after all if 43% of women had these issues it must be a billion dollar condition, or so said the brains of these huge pharmaceutical giants and " big medical". (Other reasons included, sexual taboo and abuse history)

You don't have to be a clinical researcher with all that much savvy to begin shooting holes in this study.

From the point of being tired - well yes raising kids is VERY tiring, add to that work and family stress and even the best libido will take a beating but this is not dysfunction this is exhaustion!

Lack of lubrication?- yep, it's true as we age natural lubrication can be harder to come by ( breastfeeding, and childbirth both which tend to dry up our natural ability as does menopause) but with the wide range of sexual lubricants on the market this is not so much an issue of dysfunction as choosing the right product to make up for this very real but not dysfunctional fact of life.

And then to the "big one" - pardon the pun! - Inability to climax during intercourse - This honestly is where I feel this issue firmly rests ( on very unsteady ground to be sure!) and where this documentary did a great job is of pulling the issue to the surface by following the sub story of one woman who had spent many years and untold dollars to "figure out what was wrong with her".

Pills and creams, shots, funny suction devices and finally having an electrical probe (The Orgasmatron) fed up her spinal canal in order to to achieve this holy thing she thought she was unable to do like the "rest of the world" - and none of it worked.. not a one enabled her to climax during intercourse . And you know you what?.. she is not alone ( as she found out) nor is she defective in the least.. not even a bit ( as she also found out)

During the course of the filming it was reveled that she could indeed have natural orgasms through manual stimulation, but as she thought.. "not in the regular or right way" i.e - intercourse. She is like well over 70% of women need direct and continuous stimulation of the clitoris in order to achieve any orgasm. This sweet woman and oh so many like her had been beating herself up, suffering from depression and going through medical procedures with possible dangerous side effects and more due to her lack of knowledge about basic sexual function.

To see her joy when it finally made sense to her that she was normal, and there was nothing wrong with her as a sexual being was a fantastic moment and points to where comprehensive sexual education is a must in our society, if only to help women ( and men!) understand how their bodies work so that when something that is REALLY wrong possibly crops up that they will be able to deal with it. Good gracious people know your parts, the vagina is not the be all end all of the sexual experience.

Don't get me wrong, the vagina is a great thing (some of the best women I know have them!), but the real action is north in location and centered on the clitoris. This little jewel has well over 8000 never endings in an area the size of a pea.. so much from so little so to speak and yet there are still women who think that their big-bang should come from vaginal penetration ( missionary position only of course!) and a partner when this is actually only true for a small percentage of women and yet here are huge companies trading on a false fact made to make us feel disfigured or dysfunctional and in need of their drug when what is really needed is frank education in many cases.

By now I was bit chilly and a lot pruney ( 60 minutes in a vat of hot water will do it to you) and needed to get out of the bath and into bed with my handsome Doc. I had a lot to reflect on.. expect more posts on this topic as the days go by. But until then I leave you with two resources and a question.

Women's Anatomy of Arousal - A sexual and anatomical road map that helps you stop at all the good locations :)

Sex for one - Learning what does it for yourself so that you can then be able to share it with the one you love. I think of this one as learning to write your own owners manual.

What is the biggest bit of sexual misinformation that you think still lurks out there passing as fact?

Sewing is My Superpower

2011-12-26T14:06:00.001-05:00

Flaunt your superpowers.. and sew on! No more hiding your light under a barrel or being demure about your outrageously cool ability to sew.. time to be loud and proud about your skills!

I am hosting this for free download for those who want to use this image at home - Sewing is my Superpower

And for those who are too busy sewing .. for you I have sent the image to Domestic Anarchy Cafe for your click and go shopping pleasure!

As always thank you to the Graphics Fairy for the image and her time to post it up in some great colors!

P.s. -What is your Superpower?

Hair Tinsel - A Fast and Easy Teen Girl Gift!

2011-12-23T13:19:00.000-05:00

Just popping in real quick to leave a little quick gift inspiration. I have a couple of teen/pre-teen girls in my life that I wanted to gift with a little something so this year I have decided to make them each a packet of hair tinsel.

Do you know about hair tinsel and Hair Flair? Well take a peek here at the HairTinsel page.. it's hot with this pre- and teenage set and better yet it is VERY easy to make. No salon trip involved no matter what they infer.

To make my packages of Tinsel I used multiple types of glitz and glitter threads from my collection of quilting embellishment threads. I used small plastic zippy bags made for beading and some card stock.

I cut multiple pieces of each color to 48 inches long and neatly laid them out (ahem.. note - do not turn your back when your cat is in the room to help)

I cut the card stock to size to fit in the bags and then used a circle punch to cut out a nice scoop for the thread to rest in when wrapped around the card.

I slid the wrapped cards into the bags and tucked in the penguin gift tags. On the backs of the packages I put the link to Hair Flair Instructions and Hair Tinsel video

I figure that each small gift cost well under 50cents each.. and am thinking that a red/pink/silver combo might be just right for Valentines day! And given how fast it was I was able to make quite a few in less than 30 minutes today.. hurrah! and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Holiday Pillows - Fast and Fun

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

You know.. right?... Graphics Fairy

I was not quite sure I was going to be pulling off a Graphics Fairy project this week. Been lots to do, some deep things to think about and then a very unexpected Kidney Stone ( OUCH!) on Saturday have put me a bit off track!

Miracle of miracles I woke up on Sunday not feeling all that bad, achy lower back, and sort of wrung out but itching to be out of bed for sure. This is when a very good crafting and sewing stash comes in handy. Without even a trip to the store I was able to create this cheery little pillow as my very LAST project of the holiday season. ( Wish now I had done some piping.. such is life)

The elf and squirrel image is from the Graphics Fairy and I added the text. I then used a piece of Artist Transfer Paper and ironed it to a piece of quilting cotton that was already over printed with text. I really love the way the text came up through the red image!

I sewed it up as a pillow cover that can then be easily stored away after the season, but since it was quickly adopted by the king of the family ( Koko) you might be seeing it well into Spring... who knows.

So.. here is the deal.. I have not hosted this image for download (all night kidney fun has left me more tired than I would want to admit) but if you are wanting it for a quick project let me know and I will send you a file via email.. ok?

Things will be pretty quiet around here until the New Year.. no worries, just regrouping and getting set for a fantastic 2012.

I wish each and every one of you a most joyous of holiday seasons.

Hear Buddies - Ready, Set, GO!

2011-12-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

At less than 4 minutes stitching time per Ear Buddy, this IS a project that you can pull off before the Holidays arrive. I spoke about these the other day here on Domestic Anarchy and I know I have folks waiting for them so with no more fanfare get yourself over to the Domestic Anarchy store so you can be stitching as soon as possible.

As an added bonus I am thrilled to tell you that I was able to make a little time to design custom gift tags for this exclusive version.

The tags come in PDF file format for easy printing and are NOW included with the design files.

The normal price is $5, but through the end of this weekend the price is set at $3- you can't beat that!

Happy Stitching!

Picking a Pillow - So Many Choices

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Such a happy pattern- Pillow Ticking

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you might remember that last week one our our cats went rogue and decided to pee all over a pile of laundry and then for good measure the offender graced my pillow... MY PILLOW. My just right, broken in, ~~feels~~ felt perfect pillow.

My pillow was is referred to as "The Weeny Girl pillow" due to it's lack of structure and body. The floppy feather factor hard to come by in new pillows for sure so I was VERY sad to dump it and go searching for a new one.

A bit like Goldi-Locks, there were ones that were too hard, too fluffy, too big, too bouncy and most all of them filled with foam or poly fil. I wanted a feather pillow that did not cost more than a nice dinner out but they seem to be hard to come by.

On the upside I learned a lot about pillows:

Pillows are generally divided up based on what they are stuffed with.

Down/feathers- highest price, but lower priced ones tend to have lower quality down/feathers and COVERS
foam bits- tend to be lumpy but lowest price
wool- heavy, hold heat well,
buckwheat- very malleable but can be heavy and a bit noisy
memory foam- HEAVY, but wide range of contour models
poly fill - inexpensive, varying density, long lasting
cotton- heavier than poly, old fashioned feeling but not very squishable
and even water- For those who sleep "hot" these are suppose to be great - I don't know.

Each of these choices have their advantages and price points.

After that you have shaped or contoured pillows as well as choices about hypoallergenic covers and more.

As a tummy sleeper a flatter malleable pillow was and is my best choice so that I don't get neck strain. Side sleepers often do really well with contoured pillows to support the arch of the neck. Back sleepers seem to have the most choices and can use those big fluffy pillows but I was interested to learn that if snoring or breathing is a problem that going with a flatter pillow can make a huge difference so might be worth a try for those who snore like freight trains in the night :)

In the end I did find a down pillow that was pretty wimpy and just right for me but quickly ( first night) encountered a problem that I should have guessed from the price point ($40). The cover of the pillow was made from a quilted cotton but not from ticking fabric. {sigh}

Next time I will tell you all about my Pillow Ticking adventure!

Do you have a favorite pillow?

Hear Buddies - Embroidery Machine Goodness

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have just FLOWN by and it had nothing to do with the holidays and everything to do with getting all my classes ready for the new year. I have classes, on top of classes, on top of more classes for between January and April. Add to that a writing gig with Sew it All magazine and it has been a recipe for CRAZY. Super duper excited about it can you tell???

I feel really blessed that so many want to come learn from me.. it just happens to mean a very intense time of getting all the project samples done, instructions written, and photos done.

But now comes the fun part.. sharing my projects with you over the next few weeks.

I spend a lot of my time working to come up with effective inexpensive gifts that can be made with the embroidery machine and am tickled pink with my new ~ Hear Buddies~ Ear Bud Wraps. With little more than 2 layers of Stiff Felt and thread you end up with a fun and functional little gift that most grads can use to keep their technology safe and sound. Bundle it up with an I-Tunes gift card and you have a gift that will move you into their top-40 for sure! ( oh how I date myself!)

The Bear, Frog and Butterfly are exclusive to my upcoming class and will not be released for general sale until after that point but with small holiday gifts in mind the Gamers Edition will be released and up for sale the end of this week, just in time to whip up a couple for holiday giving.

If you want to be ready to make these here is what you are going to need to have on hand:

Super Solvy or Badge Master
Easy Felt -Stiff felt ( kids crafting section) - regular felt will NOT work
Silver Book Rings ( Office supply store)
Black woven pony tail elastics ( the type they will not pop or break- but not the thick ones)
Heavy duty hole punch - Crop-a-dile Big Bite or similar model

Wish me luck on getting a video done in time!

T-Shirts for Everyone

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you SO much for your warm words and sweet requests when it comes to the t-shirts I have been creating for my boys ( of all ages).

I am always thrilled to provide you with free printable graphics so you can make you own shirts at home and in addition to that I have now opened up a Cafe Press shop where you can purchase these same images already printed on t-shirts and such without the hassle of doing it yourself!

Currently the only stock is of the totally inappropriate SIZE MATTERS t-shirt but some of the designs for younger (and more proper) guys will be uploaded very soon.

DOMESTIC ANARCHY CAFE

To be totally above board I make something like $1 per item ordered so needless to say that Aruba vacation will still be some time off, but if you need a sassy t-shirt I am happy to hook you up!

I would also like to give a HUGE shout out to the wonderful Karen at the Graphics Fairy for the hard work and care she puts in to preparing the images and hosting the graphics I choose to work with. I can't say enough good things about her and her site. Having such a consistent quality of images to work with makes creating so much easier and more fun.

What To Do With A Plain White T Shirt

2011-12-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Let me start off by saying that I know this is REEAALLLYYY wrong, but it makes me laugh so hard ( pardon the pun) that I am going to do it anyway.

My #2 son is a college art student with a very sly sense on humor so I am thinking that he might really like the t-shirt I am making him for Christmas (he NEVER reads my blog, so you don't tell him OK?)

When I saw the newest Graphics Fairy image of the artist paint brushes ( sans wording of course!) I just HAD TO DO THIS.. I am compelled by the forces of George Carlin and every other racy comedian I have ever listened to.

Please forgive me Karen!

I will be using Artist Transfer Paper and a white t-shirt to make this happen. If you want to know more about using ATP check out this video.

And if you feel the need I have hosted the image for free download so you to can join in my obvious lapse in judgement by clicking on the file name.

SIZE MATTERS T-SHIRT IMAGE

Want one but are not crafty?..... look what I have for you! Domestic Anarchy Cafe

Glitter 101 - Working with Fairy Dust

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Glitter is one of those love it or hate it sort of things.. I happen to love it for the holidays. I suspect it is the latent show girl in me.. the one complete with sparkly tasseled nipple cups.. but I digress..

Come the holidays I am all about adding the glitter and shine and today's victim is this cute Nordic style Santa I found at HomeGoods for $5- cute but no sparkle! Easy enough to fix!

I started with the beard.. a bit of Matte Mod Poge as my "glue" and..

Some coarse glass glitter.

Over the trash can, a large piece of paper or outside, liberally apply the glitter to the wet glue areas and then let it dry. As each area dried I did another.. which on this Santa meant only doing white and turquoise blue.. easy peasy

I thought about doing the boots.. and still might.. here he sits as he dries. (Don't you just love my late night photography?)

The best part about glitter is that it can bring new life to some of your older and dated holiday decorations and I hope to share more of that this coming week. In the mean time here are a couple do's and don'ts of working with glitter.

Glitter is a MAJOR irritant if you get it in your eyes, be careful using it with children
Some of the best glitter is ground up glass, beautiful on a craft- hard on a stomach - keep away from pets.
Let the glitter fall where it may- fussing with your wet glitter will make it look worse- go with the flow
For items that you are going to totally cover in glitter, use spray glue.. it is much faster and easier than painting with Mod Podge.

Do you love the glitter or does it make you itch just thinking about it?

Elf on the Shelf - Not A Fan

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

After yesterday's laundry confessional you would think I would have felt my heart pure enough to go on..but it seems I might have one more thing to get off my chest.

I HATE the Elf on the Shelf. There.. I did it. Click "unfollow" if you must but I have said it and there is no going back.

There is something about it that skeeves me out. Pushing the idea of a small pixie sitting with a silent but watchful eye all day and then zipping back to the pole at night to report on the good and bad doings of children across the land.

I don't feel comfortable abdicating my parenting to a gumby limbed elf who models himself and life goals on the Watergate years and don't want my kids being "good" for a mythical thing of any sort. So banking "goody-gum drop points" so that Santa will bring them extra holiday swag really sits wrong with me. What kid should have to go through the month worrying that the extra cookie they snitched will be their holiday downfall... don't we have enough guilt?

But most of all it's BOGUS - since lets face it.. what if the kid is a total pill the whole month, are you REALLY going to cancel Christmas or give them just a lump of coal. And to flip it around, maybe they really have been bad.. but you have not found out about it ( thinking about a young boy I knew who had been drilling holes in his wall with his pocket knife and then hiding it.. only to one day break down and confess in tearful angst and fear that we would not love him anymore)... so they have now gotten away with it.. the pasty little elf did not rat them out... so why not keep on being bad.. you still get the toys anyway... no thank you, I am not interested in any of those dynamics I have enough drama already by having 3 teens at once!

I know.. it is supposed to be fun... call me a Grinch and be happy loving on your elf and tending to his nightly adventures.. it is just not my thing.

Me and my cold, shriveled up elf hating* little heart will make cookies instead :)

Luckily I am not alone-

Check out what the Gentle Mom had to say about her dislike of the little dude.

* I also HATE clowns- possibly more than even the elf. BUT I do enjoy ELF the Movie.. do you still love me?

p.s. This confession stuff is really wearing me out, tomorrow - less angst, more glitter!

Clean Laundry - Household Confessional

2011-12-07T11:18:00.001-05:00

I come to you hanging my head in shame.. and whisper my deep dark secret.. I went back to commercial laundry detergent .. There.. I said it.. yes I have gone back to the dark side, the soft side, the fluffy side and I will NOT go back.

It's not really something I can lie about or hide, my "downy freshness" is a dead giveaway, so is the fact that my clothes are no longer loaded with enough static electricity to generate power for a small village.

You see for the last 2.5 years I have wavered between making my own laundry soap and using an eco-sensitive, scent free, chemical free and it seems softness free detergent that I had to buy via the internet (name withheld to protect the company and not get my arse sued) but last week we ran out.

The 50 pound bucket was E-M-P-T-Y and since it needs to be ordered online, and then transported across the U.S. by their courier of choice it was going to be way more than a week until I was going to be able to do laundry again.. NO GOOD!

Thus begins the sorted tale of my conversion back to the ways of softness and pretty smelling laundry... and oh how much I have missed it!!

p.s. I think the kids missed it too- today the young one said.. "wow, my underwear is soft and does not scratch my butt anymore" -- there you have it.

Bookcase Organization and Display

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Does this owl make me look smart?

I am going to go out on a limb and say that I think bookcases are for books. I am not a fan of this new notion of books put in backwards so you can't see the spines or limiting the number of books ( or hiding them away) so that there is more room to show off a burgeoning collection of one sort or another.

I bought this old wreck of a house for a couple things- fantastic cut glass doorknobs and lots of built in bookcases. Life was much more civil when homes came built with the knowledge that you wanted to acquire knowledge and thus needed a place to put it. Yes I know I can Google and there is the library.. I use both all the time. I just happen to find something special about owning books.

12 feet high. I need a library ladder to get to the top!

Mind you there is too much of a good thing and just recently I repainted our bookcases and took the time to clear out the stacks, rearrange and display some very carefully selected treasures. I was a long hard day of work painting and re shelving all the books. As a note I did not paint the actual shelves- only the back and side walls, I don't think painted shelves and books get along very well so decided to leave them natural in order not to damage any of our books that made the cut and got to stay.

This book shelf process can seem like a very daunting task so I offer this help-

Cull - It is not "Thee who dies with the most books wins". It is.. does this book enhance my life?, is it useful ? and will I ever need it again? This time I removed well over 200 books from our collection.. most all went to friends and family who were thrilled to get them. Others have gone to Book Crossing.. do you know about them?

Sort- Like with Like. Don't mix up your books making it hard to find the book on roses when you need it because it is mixed up with the books on herbal medicine or do it yourself roofing. My broad categories include, DIY/Home, Craft/sewing, Reference, Nature, Medical, Classics, and Sex ( you knew that right?)

Arrange - Place books in a way that makes sense. Our classics and more fragile books are up high, the reference and daily use books down lower and easier to get to.. it just makes sense. While some people like books in tidy rows I do like to break things up a bit with some in side stacks and adding items of interest when appropriate.

Keeping it real- yes that is a jar of dog treats on the green dresser.

Accessorize - Lesser used shelves are a great way to show off a LIMITED number of cherished family items or collectibles. We have a couple of pieces that are special to us since they have been in the family for a long time. The tiny ceramic birds belonged to Doc's mother, and the teddy belonged to the man himself. The vintage camera was my father's and the vase belonged to a little old lady I knew.. it makes me smile.

As a small note I would like to say that the bottom two shelves now both hold baskets , 1 for magazines that need to be read and other is a basket for our library books so they don't get mixed into our main collection.

So what do you think, are you ready to tackle your bookcases before the new year?

Altoids Tin Project and Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

My love of the Graphic's Fairy images is not exactly a secret but sometimes the images are even better than fantastic.. I felt that way about this little fox so decided to use him on the cover of an Altoids tin that I have been wanting to redo into a small purse sized thread keeper.

I did a little graphic editing to make make this little guy a bit more thread related by adding the ad-rific FOXY THREAD est. 1935 to the image.. but even without this image and it's colors were perfect for the top of the Altoids tin (you do save yours don't you?)

I glued the image on with spray adhesive and then used Mod Podge Dimensional Magic for the first time. I ended up with a bubble right in the middle that came up after I went to bed so I need to learn more how to work with this stuff, but over all I really liked it. I know know that my BIG mistake was shaking the bottle as I was walking through the house on my way back to my studio.. shaking is a BIG NO-NO when it comes to DM. If you want to know more about this I dug up a little video for you that you see here MODPODGE DM or at the end of my post I have put an embedded copy to make it easier!

I went pretty simple on this project and used a self stick magnet in the cover to hold my needles and then since I am ALWAYS losing my itty bitty boxes of Thread Heaven I actually glued it into the box in hopes that I can keep up with this one! The rest of the space is just enough for a small pair of snips and some embroidery floss - have supplies will travel!

An Organized Vacation

2011-12-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday was my last class of the year.. today is my first day of a vacation that lasts all the way to next year! I am way more than a little bit excited about this and feel a bit like a kid in a candy store.. albeit a kid with lots of plans to get things cleaned out, organized and ready for the new year.. but a kid all the same!.. I love this stuff.

Call to action for today, decorate the front porch for the holidays!

The Right Shade of Makeup

2011-12-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

When I go to buy makeup I can never quite remember the right brand or shade. I am sort of stupid that way.

So now to make sure I come home with makeup that makes me look neither like George Hamilton or Morticia Adams I take a photo with my phone of my preferred brand and shade number for easy reference when I get all confused in the middle of Ulta. Once again, saved by technology.

Tin-Type Letters- Craft Fail

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know that you can try a craft up to 6 different ways and they can all be failures of one type or another?.. well you can.

You can pick the wrong material - tin/wrong, cardboard/wrong...

You can pick the wrong paint- let's just leave it at that

You can pick the wrong project - that would be this one!

Ballard Version

Really, I thought these would be fun and easy, next time I will re-roof the house instead. The Ballard photo is so sweet, and funky-junky that I knew I would have so many ways to use them ..but let us just say I did not get much further than this.. the balsa cracked, I nicked my finger.. lets move on shall we??

Like a good craft-fail as much as the next person?.. don't miss a one.. click LIKE for Domestic Anarchy on Facebook!

Maddie Looses Her Cool - The Laundry + Cat Edition

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

So I might be the roll with the punches type of girl most of the time. But it seems that when the cat pee's in a whole pile of freshly washed laundry including two quilts I become the type who curses at the top of lungs and tosses the forsaken and smelly pile out on her back deck into the driving rain.

Let's file that under - Keep'n it real

P.s. All since has been resolved and cleaned up, and the cat has lived to tell the tale.

Sex Education Starts at Home- Here is Some Help

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wicked Wednesday

Celebrating Being a Sexual Mama Between Loads of Laundry

{ A Distinctly Differnt part of Domestic Anarchy}

Ah the ~birds and bees~.. " the TALK".. just the idea strikes fear in the hearts of many parents leading into mumbled conversations referring to flowers and bees and "pollination", or worse yet leaving the whole subject up to the school system and it's politically-correct, not going to offend anyone presentation of the "facts" as they think your child should know them.

Well screw that.. pardon the pun. By the time your child's 5th grade class gets around to talking about periods and wet-dreams there is a pretty good chance your child has already seen porn via internet, copped a feel or been copped, or at the very least has been given some VERY sketchy information via their well meaning but equally mis-informed friends.

Sex-education is a life long process, from the day you give them the correct body part names up to the day and beyond when you talk to them about date rape, sex toys and staying safe both physically and emotionally in the context of a sexual relationship. It is not one talk, it is a conversation that spans the years.

I am going to go so far as to stay that you should not even teach about the "birds and the bees" as much as you should teach about the Dolphins and the Bonobos ( like a small chimp). You see birds and bees procreate for one purpose, to make more babies, but Dolphins and Bonobos are unique, they are like us, they like to and want to get it on when and where they are able. Mind you they don't have a pending tax bill and a lack of sleep getting in their way so this makes things easier for them.. but otherwise they are very much like us all the same.

Sex is fun and telling your kids so is not a sin. Be clear, I do think there are very good reasons not to have sex with another person before you are ready, just like I don't think you should be playing with a gun without knowledge/lessons .. in both cases you never know "where that thing will go off!"

Now I am not saying that your third grader needs to knows the particulars of your personal sex life.. hell I don't think anybody does I am just saying that sex goes way beyond the talk about where babies come from and you owe your kids the whole story ( lube and all) at the right time(s).

Luckily there are some great factual books and sites to help you get past the lump in your throat and terror in your heart when it comes to this matter. (click on book for expanded links and reviews)

For the younger set 4 and up-

It's Not the Stork, is part of a growing series of books that take a factual but easy to digest lighthearted approach to a serious subject making it fun to share with your child. The images are cartoon like but anatomically correct without over load. This book is great for sharing both about body parts, and how babies are made (sex) but from a broader look than most books of this nature delve into.

If you are just needing a book on how babies grow inside of a mommy and how they get out (and a bit on how they get in) I would suggest

In the same style It's so Amazing tackles the topic of babies in a not-so scary way that like it's sister books uses cartoon style drawings that are factual but not freaky to talk about the miracle of birth. I do suggest this book and It's not the Stork be bought together for the most comprehensive education for your young child ( yes even if they say ewwwwwww)

Moving right along, by the time your child is in third grade It's Perfectly Normal is the book you need to be cracking open, leaving in the bathroom or actively sharing with your child. Covering topics from menstruation to masturbation this book leaves no stone unturned but does so in such a sweet natural way that it makes topics that seemed untouchable a more accessible part of your child's sex education.

Yes this book talks about homosexuality, and sex with disability, and a whole bunch of other things that are making you cringe right now ..but you know what.. your kid knows these things, or more to the point knows half truths about these things. Start by getting the facts straight and then talk to your child about your personal or religious beliefs. These topics will not go away just because you are not talking about them I can promise you that.

Are you still with me?... if so.. lets jump up to the world of teens and sexuality. It is a hormone driven wild ride that only frank education will make safer and saner since here is the deal.. you mom ( or dad) are not invited for the trip so the best you can do is help them pack the right information for the journey.

I have posted this link so many times should be some sort of referral fee.. but the opposite is true, I support Scarleten with my dollars since I think they do a superb job of putting out factual information for the teen with a sex question. Send your kid this link. Read here for yourself.. sit shocked that teens are writing in to ask if it's safe to have anal sex, how to know if they have had an orgasm and more.. real teens, real questions.. best of all real answers.

Better yet ( and with!) They have a book.. a great book -S.E.X. I would buy this book for every person I know with a teen. This book is for boys and girls, Dolphins and Bonobos. It will shock you.. it will teach you and it will help your teen be safe and healthy and happy as a growing young person deciding when and if they will have sex.

You see withholding information will not keep your teen from having sex, it will just make it all the more likely that it will be a damaging or dangerous experience.. not what we want for any of our children is it.

Please note that the links and photos route you through my Amazon store. I appreciate when you order with my links they enable me to continue to bring you top notch content and not take up some sucky job flipping burgers for a living :)

Handmade Christmas Ornaments- A Tutorial

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Most of our extend family celebrates Christmas so we like to join in the fun by making them meaningful gifts of the season as a family project. This year as I had mentioned before we are doing our best of have a crap free holiday but not at the expense of losing traditions that are dear to us.

Making and selecting ornaments each year is a big part of the joy for my kids so this year on Thanksgiving we took some time to make ornaments for the Aunts and Uncles, with an eye to me getting them into the mail early so they can be enjoyed on THIS year.

This is a fantastic project to do with both the young and the young at heart. You will need:

Plastic or glass ornaments that open at the top ( not the split open variety)
Craft paint- feel free to control the color selection as you see fit. Old paint works great for this since you are going to need to water it down a bit so it flows really well for a good marbeling effect.

Important enough to say again - Make sure all the paint you are going to use flows free. Some of mine was OLD.. so I put in a bit of hot water and shook them up to get a nice smooth flow, like that of heavy cream. Cover your work surface with a drop cloth ( I did not and had to scrub the table before we put the food out!)

Take the little silver caps off all the ornaments and then start adding paint.

Swirl in the color not putting in so much that it covers all the inside. You want room for 3-5 colors.

This is my handsome oldest son who came home for the holiday, giving it a go.. poor thing I have been ~~forcing~~ encouraging him to do crafts every holiday since the dawn of time, he is very patient with me :)

It was not my best planning that I set them up in the formal dinning room just an hour before dinner but what they hey.. to have all my guys there crafting with me was SO worth it.

Sam took the relaxed approach, good thing that craft paint comes off of gold velvet pretty well.

Greg was careful and studious as always mixing his colors for the perfect balance that pleased his engineer self.. Did I also mention that the sun was shining through my french windows in a blinding way?? .. I love the afternoon light in this room but wow it made it hard to take photos.

We missed having this beauty with us, but she was celebrating the first half of T-day with her boyfriend's family but did catch up with us in time to have some Turkey and a bit of pie!

Ok.. back to work - After everyone was thrilled with their swirl of colors we took the ornaments over the trash and shook out the extra paint. Then wiped away smudges on the outside and let them sit to dry. After that it was easy to pop back on the little silver caps and be done!

I will add ribbons and hang tags this week and out they will go with all of our love to family far away.

The shiny nature of the plastic or the glass makes any paint look fantastic, so feel free to give it a try with whatever you might have!

Now it is your turn to share.. Do you make ornaments as part of your tradition, if so tell us about them!

4 Square Gift Basket - Crap Free Christmas

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

FOUR SQUARE
You need: A gym floor with 4 squares ...or mark out your own court with chalk
1. The player in square 4 serves the ball by bouncing it in his square and tapping the ball into another square.
2. The player in that space must tap the ball (after one bounce) into another kid's area, and so on, until someone misses the ball, lets the ball bounce twice, or sends it out of the grid.
3. The player who misses the ball steps out and the remaining players rotate up through the numbered squares.
4. If you are playing with more than four players, a new player enters the game at square 1.
5. The player who is out waits in line to re-enter the game once square 1 is open again.
Whoever is now in square 4 serves the ball to resume play.

Instructions gleaned here

4 square is one of those games of my childhood that is making a big resurgence as only an underground movement can do. It is sort of the Occupy Wall Street of the outdoor games movement, but with more showering and rubber balls. Some kids know it and love it and others have never heard of it. Making a 4-square gift kit is a great way to pass on this terrific sport and get kids away from the TV and outside into the fresh air.

For full rules and videos I suggest looking here at the national Foursquare site since there are a lot of rather bogus videos out there with some.. ~creative~ rules usage. In some ways this is sort of regional but best to start with the real deal before going all "fish in the toilet" ( that will make sense when you learn more about 4 square :)

To make a FourSquare gift kit you will need the following -

1 rubber school yard ball of about 8.5 inches in diameter - check your local school supply stores. You want the rubber type, not the plastic type which weigh less and don't bounce well. ($8)

1 tape measure to lay out a 4 square court grid. ( $1 Dollar Store)

Side walk chalk - for marking and numbering the grid ( $1 Dollar Store)

Portable ball pump - nothing worse than a flat ball to ruin a good pick up game at the park! ( $6 sports store)

Duffle bag or basket to hold the supplies and tote them to the park

Rule card - I have made one for you.. get it laminated and then hole punch it and tie it to the gift for easy reference. Download it here

I think this gift has potential to make a lot of kids really happy and bring back a lot of memories for some who are older so watch out.. you might need to make two kits.. 1 for the adults and 1 for the kids!

Holiday Weekend

2011-11-26T10:38:00.001-05:00

A quiet post holiday weekend.

I hope you are also spending it with the ones you love.

Lot's of fun and thought coming up in the new week I hope you will be joining me for the adventure!

Black Friday Blogs I Love

2011-11-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

So it's Black Friday, and I am home, I am working and I am NOT out battling the madness that is this day. So if you happen to be home too ( high-five for being sane!) I thought you might enjoy a bit of a blog tour through just a couple of my new favorite ways to use my time on a lazy after holiday-I-am-so-full-of-turkey sort of day.

So.. I want you to meet Chloe, she is a want-to-be brazen woman ( honestly I think she has this one nailed) with a fantastic blog that she is now nurturing on a regular basis much to my delight- She is The Chloe Chronicles. Sometime so funny that I cry with mirth, others so real that her truth is universal.. I think you will like her ( that is if you don't hate the hell out of her for looking so good in those jeans!)

Oh the eye-candy, the sweet, the happy... bliss. A Spoonful of Sugar makes me happy on even the most blah sort of day.. and how MUCH do I love that it is run by a mother-daughter team? Check out the post of what you can do with last year's holiday cards to make the the cutest part of this year!

Looking for a reassuring voice on raising happy well adjusted kids from an expert on the matter?.. then you want to visit AskDocG From raising 4 boys of her own and running a medical practice she has become adept at answering awkward questions and making it look easy.. I also follow her on twitter and FB , you do the same ok?

For my modern quilting friends it does not get better than this.... Oh the color, the fun and the style. Every time I visit Cluck Cluck Sew I want to race to my local quilting shop and then home to my machine.. I am sure if you love modern quilting you will love it too!

Happy blog touring, now go make a turkey sandwich {wink}

Grateful Gobbler Goodness

2011-11-24T12:11:00.001-05:00

Possibly one of the best photos ever of the two of us

It was a fantastic morning at the Grateful Gobbler Walk here in Chattanooga. A clear cold morning, hard rock music and 600 of our best friends made it a fun walk for local charities before heading home to put the bird in the oven and then relax ( fixed the rest of the food yesterday!)

Tomorrow on the blog I am featuring some of my favorite blogs as an alternative to being part of Black Friday and then this weekend I will show off a family friendly craft you can do on this lazy holiday weekend.

Later next week I will have a very special guest blogger.. my son Sam!

Things gear up after that and we launch into the holiday season. Around here it is going to be holiday-lite. A pressure free zone where it's not all wrapped in tinsel and glitter, some thinking towards the new year ahead, getting the house in order and dare I say it.. scaling back instead of adding more??

Yes, but without a grinchy moment.. more about fresh starts, new directions and always.. Thankfulness.

As always.. love from Doc &

Happy Thanksgiving/Thursday!

2011-11-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

To all of my readers who may or may not celebrate this day as one of gathering and family. Looking past the somewhat skewed history of the day with it's funny looking hats, big buckled shoes and controvesy. I want you to know that I give thanks that you come visit me here in Anarchy and wish you a very happy holiday ( or a very happy Thursday.. take your pick!)

Happy Thanksgiving/Thursday!

Giving Your Desire a Kick Start - Best Books on Sex

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

Wicked Wednesday

Celebrating Being a Sexual Mama Between Loads of Laundry

{ A Distinctly Differnt part of Domestic Anarchy}

How long has it been since you surprised the hell out of your husband and initiated sex? Not acquiesced to his begging, not grudgingly agreed or at the very worst agreed that he could have his way but you were going to try to get some sleep? ( Don't say you don't know what I mean) - When is that last time you knocked him over, took his breath away and left him not knowing which way was up?

If you have to count the days on two hands you might be in trouble, if you are now taking off your shoes to count toes or more we need to talk. You see it's not that I don't understand, I just combat it as actively as possible- a hormonal war to win for the sake of my marriage if you will.

I know you love your man ( if you don't we need to have a different type of talk).. you love him, at one point he made you so hot that you thought you would go out of your mind if you were not able to get it on with him.. so what changed?

Well, a lot. We had kids, we go older, we got busier and our hormones are shifting. Luckily this is not the be all end all that is sounds like and can look like. This is not a problem for everyone, but to quote a mom who shall be nameless and blameless "My husband wants sex 4 times a week, I would be happy with 4 times a month, where did the horny me go?" Better yet, how do we get her back?. Yes get her back.. she was fun, she was hot, was was spontaneous and she lead her man around like a puppy with just a glance. Now he is more worried that a look from you means that you want him to take out the trash.. not good!

How to find Your Lost Naughty Girl

Find her in a book - Books on sex range from the clinically boring to the obscure and freaky and I will admit that trying to find time to browse the shelf at you local book store can be hard when your kid wants nothing more than to play with the Thomas the Tank Engine Table and it seems wrong to bring the Modern Karma Sutra into the kids section. So with that in mind I give you my top picks via my Amazon shop ( you can also try your local library). Not that anyone would be surprised but my collection is sort of extensive in this genre so this is what I like and for what reason.

( Full disclosure - each photo is an Amazon Affiliate link through my storefront, but also links to other reviews of the books I am suggesting, proceed as the adult you are.)

Deep in your baby years?

Love in a Time of Colic

This book rocks, the straight scoop on the changes for both of you that happen when baby makes three (or more). I think this one is even better to read before so you will know what to expect, but still a ton of fun and inspiration after the fact. Think of this as a great baby shower gift- in the right circles!

Confessions of a Naughty Mommy

Along the same lines but maybe a bit farther down the track, this books helps you get a handle on where your groove went and how to coax it back and why that is really important for your marriage!

Past the baby stage and trying to remember how to strut your stuff? ( yep at one point I totally forgot how.. painful stuff that)... I LOVE this book.. it is actually quite a serious look at how to find your sexual self through sexual expression. Carol Queen is a top notch writer and this book has gotten top marks from me for years now

Exhibitionism for the Shy

Best Women's Erotica

Sometimes lighting a mental fire is all it takes to stoke up your own passion and just about anything that Violet Blue edits is going to do that. This book is an anthology of fantastic erotica writers who come together each year with their best offerings. Not everything will light everyone's fire, but it is one smoking hot book that is for sure.

She Comes First

And last but not least a little something to tuck on his side of the bed after you read it first.. and you will want to since it is written in a way that that makes the most subject at hand. I really like the tone used in this book and that it was written by a guy for guys.. priceless.. totally a great read.

That should get you started... more next Wednesday!

Graphics Fairy for the Retro Steampunk Baby

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

I think we are all pretty clear about how I feel about most of the t-shirts on the market for little/young boys.. they make my blood boil. They are stupid or insulting or tacky and I refuse to let my boys wear them ( lucky for me they also do not like them) But no little boy can live forever in a button down and khakis so t-shirts are a must sometimes. So over the course of the past year I have been creating Geek-smart-shirts for my smart young men and offering up the printable files for you to use at home.

I have made extensive use of Graphics Fairy images for these shirts and my boys get a lot of very positive comments on them. The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth Main Men More Geek Wear

Today I tread into the world of baby wear. Not because it is so heinous, in fact for the most part baby wear is cute, but it's a bit expected, bears for boys, pink for girls. Very sweet but not a lot out there for the parents with a more hip and retro spirit.

Once again the GF came to my rescue with her newest upload of adorable and rather steampunk-alicious little ride toy images which were PERFECT for this project. ( Sometimes I think she reads my mind.. weird huh?)

As usual I have edited and tweaked the files for printing and have already flipped the image and have set it on page with two sizes. One for smaller baby onsies and another a bit larger for a young toddler.

I also offer you this transferring hint. When using Artist Transfer Paper ( the only product I recommend) trim up to the design but not so close that you compromise the image during ironing. Leave a little buffer space for best adhesion to your project.

Ready to make a cute project?.. sure you are! You can get the file here This is my Ride Transfer . If you can't get the file to download drop me a note and I will send it to you via email!

Please also consider signing up for my blog via-email ( top right of page) that way you will never miss a freebie!

Penguin Bath Mitt Class

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Who could resist this face?

A little something for all my machine embroidery friends out there.. this class is finally ready to roll just in time to make some quick holiday gifts. I have an Early Bird Special posted up for the class here in Chattanooga and the file(s) only will go on sale next week ( or sooner) after I get the tutorial in hard copy finished.

This guy is cute x2 since he can be made in the jumbo hoop (6x10 or bigger) which makes an adult sized mitt or he can be made in the 5x7 hoop as a child sized bath mitt or a soapbuddy.

December 3rd 10 am @ Domestic Anarchy Studio in Chattanooga TN

The class limit is 6 students

Squashy Washy Class sign up here

Chocolate Place cards for your Thanksgiving Table

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Let's make this fast since I know you are looking at your watch and counting down the hours left until you have to have the house cleaned and decorated, the bird out of the oven, the side dishes made, the kids dressed and make it all look like you did it without a bit of effort. ( ha!)

Where is everyone going to sit?.. How will you make sure that your aunt who is a vegan does not have to sit next to your second cousin the big game hunter?.. Easy, you use place cards! And not just any place cards.. Chocolate Place cards! I used.. ok.. say it with me.. A Graphics Fairy File.. fiddled with it a bit and it is now ready for you.

This is fast and easy, but there is a small hitch, you have to get the right candy bars. I have designed these to fit on the 1.4 ounce size chocolate bars from Aldi Grocery. To check if you have an Aldi near

Uh, yeh that is a REALLY bad photo

you try this link Aldi Grocery Store Locator The Choceur chocolate is very good and the price and size make it just right for this project. I suspect this might fit on other small bars but have NOT checked so your mileage might drastically vary.

Choose the file with the open band and then write in the name of your guest for use as a place card or if you just want to give a little parting gift of the day, make is easy and print out the file that says Happy Thanksgiving.

It could not be easier to do, print off as many images as you need ( they are set 4 per page), cut them out and then wrap around the bar and tape closed. Heck, let the kids do it!

See.. fast and easy!

For Place card candy wrapper file click here

For pre-printed file with Happy Thanksgiving on it click here

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Printable and More!

2011-11-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

The weekend is here and I am working on a super little printable gift using this vintage turkey to help celebrate Thanksgiving in style and think it will be posted on Sunday- think chocolate! In the mean time did you miss anything this week?.....

Started out the week with the Christmas Candle Tutorial with the free printable.

Confessed to not having super-powers, only an awesome day planner

Got all down and dirty and talked about being more sexually confident with the right support from SexCies

Took a spin through the kitchen and confessed my small Crock Pot Obsession

And ended the week with a cathartic giving away of the shoes that make me feel like a toad on a stump.

Now, tell me about your week!

Saying Goodbye Mary Jane- My wake up to the way of shoes.

2011-11-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

As I have mentioned before I am spending more time on myself and my wardrobe this fall in an effort to regain my sexy that seems to keep trying to scamper off when I turn my back on it for even a little bit. So in order to make things easier I have been culling the ugly, ill fitting and unflattering out of my wardrobe so that only the best remains, leaving me with only good options when I drag myself up in the morning and walk into the closet to get dressed.

As I try on things and wear them I reflect on how they make me feel. Even if something fits well and is comfortable I have found that certain items give off a certain vibe that makes me feel less than confident and sexy, they makes me feel "cute". Cute, like fuzzy kittens and hello kitty. Cute like an 8 year old girl with a basket of puppies. I have figured out that I don't feel good when I am "cute".

Perhaps I have crested the age wave that can wear cute as a look and pull it off, I don't know but what I do know is that I feel about as powerful as a limp dish cloth when I wear certain items. Case in point- shoes, in fact the "cutest" shoe of all.. yes.. the Mary Jane.

Perfect for little girls, possibly doubtful for grown women.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MJ's with all my heart. On little girls they break my heart every time. On teen girls they look fresh but on myself.. well they make me feel sweet and cute and powerless and slightly asexual. I am closing in on 44 years old .. and I am not sweet and cute. I am a lot of things - hot, sexy, maturing, powerful,curvy and dynamic but not cute.

It took me a while to figure it out and it dawned on me the day I put on a sweater dress and tights and then slipped into a pair of brown suede MJ's that sat on the floor of my closet.. I looked like a school girl, a cute overage school girl .. it felt wrong. I took them off and pulled on some boots.. much better. In fact by just pulling on the boots my posture changed, how I felt shifted.. it was weird and a VERY powerful lesson.

A few days later I got the chance to be out and try on some shoes just for fun so played with the idea trying on what was a more childish style and then something more mature/sexy/ industrial.. anything other than cute. It proved true each and every time, I was swayed by my shoes.. oh what a footwear sheep I am!

After that I pulled a lot of pairs of Mary Jane's to compare.. I pulled these which are very similar to some Clarks I own..

Yep.. I felt like a dud in the them. They were indeed comfortable but left me feeling rather "meh" in the power, sexy and confidence department. .. and so it went.. pair after pair with some being a bit better but most not rating more than couple seconds on my feet until they were returned to their box.

I did have more success with this style.. a bit of a heel, some retro vibe but still a technical MJ. They put some pep in my step and some swing in my hip and were amazingly comfortable but are indeed a bit of a heel so while it is a height I can wear daily they are not right for trip to the park with the kids. Guess that is where I will wear my boots!

So, you might now think I am crazy.. or not... do yo have clothes that are perfectly decent but bring up weird stuff for you.. so much so that you really can't wear them and feel good... tell me.. make me feel less weird!

Picking the Right Crockpot Slow cooker

2011-11-17T04:00:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a church supper to give you a chance to look at a whole bunch of crock pots and either feel smug about your really cool one or cast a wistful glance at the really cool one the new bride just brought in the nifty insulated carry bag ( oh yeh- I was green with envy) No matter if you call them crock pots or slow cookers they are a staple of a busy, time efficient kitchen and I try to make 2 such meals a week. (Believe me I am trying!)

I pulled out my big crock today to make Crock pot chicken and dumplings and must admit I might have a problem.. it seems I actually own 3 crock pots, and that is down from the 5 I did have! So while not the queen of crocking by any stretch here is what I know and like. (Each photo should link)

Let's start with my big one-

I like to call him "speedy" since for the very reason others are not so fond of him. I embrace him for his ability to get hot enough fast enough to take a large pork tenderloin from fully frozen to a delish dinner in 5 hours (ever forget to pull out the meat from the freezer the night before.. uh yeh). He is also big.. 5.5 quarts so well big enough to make a hell of a lot of anything you would need. The crock part is ceramic and easy to clean.. tall, dark and handsome.

This is the senior crock in my group... and it is still going strong after 24 years. When I got mine it did not come with the carry tote.. so feeling a little gypped but 24 years of service is not a bad record to say the least. This one divides between the griddle heating base ( on which you can also make the worlds smallest pancakes!) and the metal crock with glass lid. This one has a small dial with infinate heat setting adjustment so is very good for making things like heated dips or toppings in the oven and then keeping them on the base to keep them warm.

This2.5 quart little cutie was bought to melt chocolate for a fondue party and we have been together ever since. Just right for a single person or dips for Sunday afternoon snacking with my best ever low-brow chili-dip. 1 can chili ( no beans), 1/2 of a small brick of Velvetta ( don't judge!).. melt.. enjoy with corn chips!

I don't have this one but might have to change that very soon. I got to see this one just the other day at the church potluck. He had me at handle lock top and his other features made him look pretty fine there on the buffet table. What can I say.. it was evening.. outside and his digital display glowing in the moonlight made me all giddy. He comes with his own probe ( ahem!) and his lid fits tight with a locking gasket (no more slopped out soup!) What's not to love?? ( he also comes Very well rated- Amazon, sort of like a mama-crockpot internet hook up.. I should probably feel dirty)

So what do you say.. do you have a crock pot that you love .. want to add it to the list?.. leave a comment!

P.s. those links are mine and do run through my Amazon store making me upwards of 12 cents a day! {insert my eye roll}

SexCies - Postpartum and Beyond = Sexy Support

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-05:00

Wicked Wednesday
Celebrating Being a Sexual Mama Between Loads of Laundry

{ A Distinctly Differnt part of Domestic Anarchy}

One of the best part about being an active and engaged part of the Internet is meeting some of the most fantastic people that I would not have met otherwise due to distance at the very least. I find that each day I am a bit more thankful for them.

Lookin good Suzy!

Today I would like to introduce you to one.. her name is Suzy Mac and she is the owner of SexCies. Feel free to prowl around her website. Ogle her hotness as she models her oh so very sexy invention of the SEXY-C-sections support garment which was birthed (sorry bad pun) from her listening to women and their feelings about their mid-sections after c-sections and other abdominal surgeries.

As a mom who has had 2 c-sections and many very large babies who have laid ~~waist~~ waste to my belly I can't say enough about the idea of a sexy support garment that allows for intimacy but still supports the scared area, muscle structure and makes you look freaking hot at a time when getting back in the sack with your man can be sort of hard due to post baby body issues, leaky boobs and a sore belly on top of all of that. I am 10 year post-c-section and there are times my scars still hurt and to be brutally frank I have a serious amount of extra belly skin due to having so many babies that were so big. So the use of SexCies keeps on rolling ( bad word choice!) past the postpartum days. This photo pretty much sums it up for my tummy :-)

Yes, in the best of all world we should feel amazing about our bodies after we have given birth.. we did it.. we made a baby, we birthed a baby.. we ROCK! and truth told some women do feel that way but a heck of a lot of women don't. And that "don't" is keeping them from resuming a healthy happy sex life with their important other. This lack of feel-good sexual connection leads to some very rocky months and yes sometimes years after the birth of a baby. (So even if your baby is 6 or 16 SexCies might still be for you) When sex happens at all it means lights out and don't even think about touching my belly-I would rather die sorts of thoughts. Lest you think I am telling tales, get a bunch of new mom's a drink or two and ask them about their bellies and sex and what they do to hide ... it is real, raw and the reason Suzy created SexCies.

Since here is the thing, having sex makes you feel sexy and looking and feeling sexy leads to wanting sex.. it is all circular like that. Nothing is better than a good roll in the hay to put a spring in your step and help you see what an incredible creature you are, even if 30 minutes before you were not quite feeling it. The more you feel good and sexually connect with the person you love the more you will come to understand that it does not matter about your stretch marks and scars and that extra skin that is not going to go away. But you have to be able to make the first move and if feeling hotter and sexier and supported does that... then more power to you, go rock those bed springs!

Well knock me over... I just got a sweet note from Suzy.. and she is offering my readers a 40% discount!.. uhhh hello??? how fantastic is that?.. That brings the price down to a very cool $77 ish dollars ( if I have done my math right!)... To get the discount just drop Suzy a line and she will get you all fixed up. suzymac@sexcies.com

* This is a non-monetized post, I really believe that each woman deserves to feel like the fantastic sexual being that they are and this is one way among many of doing that. This path is different for each person so if this is not the path for you that is ok. My goal is to create a safe, honest Wednesday environment where everyone feels supported. Your thoughtful comments are appreciated.

Planner Pads are my Secret - You Just Thought I Had Super Human Powers!

2011-11-15T04:00:00.000-05:00

Absolutely no one who came to my house would call me a clean freak or even wildly organized to say the least, but one thing I can be counted on for is to be where I say I will, not double or triple book my family or miss a dead line. I am pretty much known for being early to everything and I am going to share my secret.

Everything lives in my planner. The reason I think most people fail at being on time or even where they say they are going to be is due to making things or systems too complex or difficult and often using multiple calenders is part of that nonsense. .. If multiple calenders work for you and you don't miss anything, and you are on time then rock on!.. but you are in the minority I can tell you.

After trying a lot of different types of planners over the years I have been loyal to Daily Planner Pads for a while now and could not be happier with them ( Doc also uses one!). These interior style is simple and direct, no kittens or pretty scrolls which is sometimes sad since I like pretty.. but I don't like pretty more than being on time! ( I also sew a pretty cover for mine .. so that helps)

Using a top--> down method for weekly organization this product offers a flexible frame work for looking at your week that also offers a two page per month spread for looking at your month in total. Such a comfort to know it is all right there.. one less stress.. you know what I mean?

Really I could be a spokesperson for Planner Pads.. I love them that much Hear that Planner Pad people??.. Bill Crosson, come knock on my door I would love to talk to you!

Christmas Candle Tutorial and Printable

2011-11-14T04:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas Vigil Candle Craft

Well it is Monday so you have to know that I busted out the crafting supplies over the weekend to work on a Graphics Fairy craft. Really I am just about helpless when it comes to using her images for some relaxing crafty time and this week I fell in love with her sweet angel boy and thought you all might like a printable. I wanted to do a candle wrap of some type so this seemed like the perfect go together!

Candle Wrap Supplies
Glass Vigil Candle
Image printed onto frosted label paper (vellum type)
Glittering glue
Glitter (or as my kids call it- the herpes of the craft world- I am sure this makes me a bad mom since this makes me laugh each time)

This could not get more easy. I started with a dollar store glass vigil candle. These are a bit thinner than some at 7 inches around and about 8.5 inches tall. The wax is poured to about 5.5 inches high on average so I scaled this printable to be inches wide and 5.5 tall. If your vigil candle is bigger you obviously shop someplace better than I do so will have to adapt your printable. I would square it off after printing and then just stick it to the front of your candle glass. In my case it wrapped totally around.

How to Make the Candle
I used 2 different GF images for this printable. I merged and tweaked them in Photoshop so they would print as a soft sweet image that the flame would glow through over time. Print off the image which I have hosted HERE. You will need to print it onto vellum-type full sheet label stock It can be hard to find so check the link* so you will know what you are looking for.

After printing I cut to the image to size, released the backing paper and carefully smoothed onto the clean glass. This can be a bit tricky, just go slow and smooth as you go.

After that it's all about the glitter.. and as the queen of " just a little bit more" it can be hard to know were and when to stop. I tried to be conservative on this one and and just went with some "snow" around the top of the image and a bit of color to hi-light the details.. but you can go wild here.. you have my blessing! The glitter glue will dry clear but it seems I am also little-miss-impatient and took these photos before that happened.

Remember, that for safety you should only burn vigil candles down to 1/2 inch after that the flame can over heat the glass and it can crack.

If you liked this crafty tutorial please think about sharing it via FB or tweet via the bottom of this post -- thankyouveryveryverymuch!

I Might Have a Sock Fetish

2011-11-13T04:00:00.000-05:00

"Never leave the house in ugly sweats,

you must always be ready to meet a dashing stranger

or your worst enemy"

Currently crushing on these fantastic thigh high socks from Sock Dreams

Perfect for wearing with sweater dresses and boots everyday!

Honestly sweater dresses and boots, they look fantastic and are just as comfy has wearing your pj's all day long.. you MUST try it.

How about you?.. what are you crushing on this fall?

Talking About the Penn State Horrors with your Children

2011-11-11T19:43:00.000-05:00

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is

that good men ( and women) do nothing.

I have started this post something like 5 times in an effort to put into words the disgust and pain I feel having to do with the whole Penn State situation. The gross amounts of negligence and true evil  on the part of so many so-called adults in these matters is mind blowing and while a sexual act was involved, the subject is rape and child abuse.

If you have been living under a rock ( and good for you, this stuff make me want to crawl under a rock right next to you!) you might not know of the extensive and ever widening scandal involving Penn State's head Football coach, his subordinate coach and uncounted numbers of other people who covered up, turned a blind eye and willingly let young boys be sexually abused by one sick individual in the name of all-mighty Football. You can Google for more details, since there is no shortage of them out there with each detail more horrific than the last I can assure you.

I want to talk about your children in all of this.. your children, my children . You might think they don't know, you might think you have snapped off the news quick enough or turned down the radio and shielded them from this sick news but I can assure you that they know, or they will know soon enough. If they go to school they might have even heard about it before you did.. the kid grape vine is pretty speedy ( but often misinformed) when it comes to such gruesome stories.

Problem being .. if this is mind boggling in detail to adults how is a child's mind supposed to process this amount of pain and detail. Were the details shared full truth or half embellished?.. who knows and that is why it is now your turn to sit down and talk with your child about this Penn State travesty in words that are real, helpful and hopefully in the end comforting to your child.

In the case of my children I ran into the store (with them being well of age (10&13) to wait in the locked car) and it was a story on NPR. I returned to a very quiet car and knew something was up right off. Usually they have broken into a fight while I picked gallon of milk and I return to shouting and accusations of wrong doing, so the quiet was deafening to say the least. My ear quickly picked up the tail end of the NPR story and it became very clear what all the quite was about and I knew it was time to start talking.

Actually I think the car is a fantastic place for some of life's tougher conversations since the general lack of eye contact gives the kids their own personal space to digest some of the harder details of life and ask questions that they carry deep within. So with that I threw out my first volley- "Hard to understand how someone would hurt kids that way isn't it"   At first it was tentative one word replies gauging my response to their response, I move a bit further- "I think sometimes they forget kids are listening and use words that kids might not know, like "sodomy" - "Even some adults don't know what that means" It means....   and yes I told my children what it means I told them the truth, yes the whole truth. The truth that a grown man who was suppose to be there to protect children hurt those boys by turning a sexual act into one of pain and aggression and that many other adults knew about it and did not act.

We talked about what rape meant, how it can happen to boys or girls, men or women and that it was not sex. That sex was a consensual  act between two people and rape was a forced sexual act. They asked questions and we talked some more. I drove the very long way home since I was pretty sure that when we pulled in the driveway they would be ready to be done for now. But that is ok.. there are always other car rides and more discussions to have.

For further reading can I suggest you pop over and read a companion post series about picking a therapist for your child and how to know when they need professional intervention ...it is written by my husband and you can find it HERE

Crap-Free Christmas Wrap Up - Jumping off the Crazy Train

2011-11-11T04:00:00.000-05:00

Shiny Brites from Oodles and Oodles

Looking for the Pashima and gift Certificate drawing winner? look HERE

Well..what did you think? .. It was a week of crap-free ideas to hopefully make your gift giving a bit easier without making your wallet much lighter or your house more filled with crap.

Today I thought I would wrap up with a list of resources, tips and tricks for jumping off the holiday crazy train. As I mentioned yesterday it takes a bit of spunk to fly in the face of the highly consumeristic nature of the current holiday and do your own smaller and more personal thing, but it is possible.

First off -some books ( check your library!)

The 100 dollar Holiday - With the though bestowed by the Grinch himself.. " That Christmas came from no store" the author asks us to rethink our holiday agenda while getting our families and kids in on the act. - This book is a great little read.. and dare I say it.. it might make a good gift (Diane, here is an idea for you!) for those relatives that you can't quite make understand why you would want to jump off the crazy train.

Unplug the Christmas Machine This book is great for parents wanting the make the leap and intend on taking their kids with them. This can be huge.. a bit scary but the payoff is everlasting. This book has been around since 91. Things have gotten no better in those years and the advice still holds.

Next- some advice

Only hang out with people who support your new way of thinking. Don't "do" your holiday with those who are out to undermine you and yours - stick to your guns!

If dialing it back on the gifts dial it up on the experiences and memories and traditions new and old.

Be prepared for a bumpy year- all new things take time to get used to, people can and will make the transition. Rest in the comfort that you will not owe big bills come January and that life will go on if your kid does not get EVERY Harry Potter action figure- they will survive.

Live by example- Don't go getting yourself or your husband/ partner some huge bad-ass gift for the holiday, be simple. My husband I only exchange "stocking gifts".. simple heartfelt items that can fit in a stocking, for years our limit was $20 each.. I will admit our limit is now $50 each.. but the thought it still the same.

Fun traditions to add to the mix

Like I said.. if you are dialing back the gifts dial it up on the experiences. Here is a list of holiday experiences that I have gathered from friends and my own family.. feel free to steal them and add to your happy holiday home!

Making a thermos of really good hot chocolate, bundling up real warm, and driving around with the windows down looking at the pretty house lights. Key here I am told is the hot-choc and the windows down.. oh and holiday tunes on the radio. Two favorites- first the kid's-

and mine...

Making holiday cookies - Ok.. this can be a pain if you get all Martha Stewart about it, but save that for another time and just let the kids make some freakin cookies ok? Start off with some store bought dough even and get creative. Great ideas here and for making and decorating from premade dough look HERE

Make a Gingerbread House - my kids still love this- and my heartfelt hint to you is.. Set up the panels the night before ( alone), assemble the house and let it dry overnight, don't try it while 3 little people are begging to start glopping candy on. Oh and if you are the hyper controlling type, get a house for yourself and let your kids do theirs the way the want.. really.

Christmas Eve start doing something fun. Maybe new Pj's and board games till bed time?.. How about a new ornament for the tree. Reading out loud The Night Before Christmas or watching a classic holiday movie. Pick something and then do it.. then do it again next year.. unless it's a complete flop- uhh homemade snowglobes anyone?..geesh..never again!

Egg Nog French toast casserole for breakfast

Going to the movies together on Christmas afternoon

A simple dinner of warm and delish beef hash with a fried egg on top

Sneaking up and planting plastic candy canes in the yards of your friends and leaving a note that says... You have been elfed!

So there you go... the time is right... are you ready to jump?

Crap Free Christmas- The Relative Edition

2011-11-10T04:00:00.000-05:00

Family gifts can be difficult, the whole issue is fraught with tensions, feelings and individual expectations that bubble like lava under the surface only to show up in a snarky holiday letters or passive aggressive comments from one distant family member to another (or maybe that is just my family?)

I have spoken with dozens of people about this and found multiple levels of family angst when it comes to jumping off ( or staying on) the commercial holiday bandwagon and what to do about. Grandmothers who are offended and assert they have a right to buy the grand kids as many toys as they want to Grandparents who feel like they are being held hostage for the big tickets gifts for grandkids that the parents can't afford to give but have promised to the little tikes. I could fill a book with these stories!

I don't have the answers, my own foray into jumping off the crazy wagon was met with such an aggressive backlash that parts of the extended family did not speak to us for years ( seriously) and this was really painful when my only intention was to add more meaning to the holiday. So be forewarned that changing things up might cause you to get a lump of coal in your stocking!

SO.. where does that leave us you ask?.. Maybe you want to give a bit of something to family in your extended tree but you want it to be usable and meaningful. Some opt for the classic tower of treasures from place like Harry and David's but this has gotten a lot more tricky over the years with more people on special diets. Heck the cookie tower I used to love getting ( it was a corporate gift) now makes me weep in frustration due to us not eating sugar or grains. So at the very least make sure you know the dietary needs of the family before you buy one of these treats!

On my part I am going with one of two gifts this year-

The first is a VERY old school choice, but oh so comforting on those cold nights- The Hot Water Bottle

This is a quality German version that is quite nice but since I like to add a bit of a handmade touch I am going to be making my own covers but still needed bottles ( hard to find!).. so am getting these

I am doing something similar to this to make the covers CLICK HERE

My second gift is also old school ( guess that is my theme this year)... A Firewood Carrier

This style is perfect for embellishment or monogramming and at this price I am buying not making!

Up next.. a couple of fun kits you can make that will get used and will not break the bank.

Crap-Free Christmas for Teens

2011-11-09T04:00:00.000-05:00

Lets face it, teens are easy to shop for.. they want gift cards to their favorite stores but this can be a bit lack luster for the giver so I like to kick things up a crap-free notch by at least adding in a little something else that can be used by the teen and not just end up as more clutter in an already cluttered bedroom ( or maybe that is just my teens)

PICK PUNCH
For the guitar player in your life this is the MOST awesome gift ... really I am so excited to get it for a couple of my hard-rockers and see what they come up with... what could it be you ask???

A die punch to make your own guitar picks! PICK PUNCH For Amazon Prime folks use this link so you can get the free shipping HERE I am giving this punch with a gift card to the small local music store so not only a cool gift but shopping local.. can't get better than that!

SUPER SOCKS
Are you hip to the sock revolution?.. glorious, fancy, warm and fantastic, socks are for showing off and being on the cutting edge of style while keeping warm and looking great. Locally really cool socks are much harder to find that is why SOCK DREAMS is my go-to location for these fantastic foot styles.

For teen girls the thigh-high and over the knee styles rule the day so when giving a gift card to their favorite clothing store I like to roll it up in a pair of these fantastic SOCK DREAMS socks. And if you happen to have a hard core sock lover on your hands SOCK DREAMS even does their own gift cards for your giving pleasure. ( And yes if you are wondering what to get me I would love one of their gift cards too!)

GAS CARD
For the young driver nothing beats a gift card to a local gas station.. but why not add in something to keep them safe on the road. My choice is a car safety kit by AAA. Everyone needs one, few people have one. Be the angel that puts this in their car and teaches them how to use it.

Tomorrow.. Crap-Free relatives!

p.s. Wicked Wednesday will resume next week... just you wait!

Charming Penguin Embroidery

2011-11-08T17:27:00.000-05:00

From me to you to celebrate all the winter holidays

Penguins for all!

With just a bit of black polar fleece and white felt you can whip up this in the hoop project in no time. Create them with a hanging loop for a package topper or ornament or get really creative and fill them with plastic pellets and use them for juggling.. so much fun!

I think this would be a totally great gift if you packaged three of the little penguins made for juggling with a copy of the book or the movie Mr.Poppers Penguins.. but that is just how I roll :)

This design fits in the 4x4 hoop and the zip file contains the design in multiple formats as well as PDF files for the instructions ( make sure to print those!)

If I get enough time I will try to make a little tutorial movie, but don't hold me to that since there is more fun headed your way in the form of a much bigger penguin. This time made out of terry cloth and working as an adorable bath mit! ( Also totally made in the hoop!)

In the mean time down load this little guy HERE and start to celebrating the season!

Crap-Free Holiday Part 1.5

2011-11-08T04:00:00.000-05:00

I hope that you enjoyed part 1 of the Crap-Free holiday series and am loving the comments and suggestions! Today I thought I would talk about the slightly older child while drifting even a bit teen-ward where things can get sort of difficult if not expensive!

For those in cold weather climate I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest a creative basket filled with stretchy gloves. Enough to keep the hands warm through many a snowball fight! Fill out the basket with all types of hot-coco mixes and some marshmallows for a super cute winter-themed gift that will really get used!

These gloves are so easy to find right now at as little as $1 a pair, ( Target has some nice ones, the Dollar Store pairs are a bit more iffy) making this a very thrifty gift. But maybe you want to go a little further.. add some establishments to some of the pairs. For teens girls THIS is sure to be a hit. For the little people here are some adorable ideas.

You can't beat these for texting teens, and I have already ordered a dozen pairs ( easy at $3 for 3 pairs) for the texting tweeters in in my life and I will be offering up some embellishment ideas for them as soon as they get here so watch for that! ( oddly this year I can't find this finger less style locally- weird)

For the brain child in your life I can't say enough about Brain POP "animated, curriculum-based content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement"- which is just a fancy way of saying that it is FUN wrapped around and woven through top notch educational content. There is quite a bit of free trial offer but I went straight for the good stuff with a year long membership. Just think.. answering all those questions you are a bit fuzzy about.. like what defines a polygon or how many phyla in the invertebrate family..uhh yeh.. I know you are scrambling, but it's ok since Brain POP does know and presents it in a way your kids will understand. I think this is a fantastic Grandparent gift.. or maybe a from a favorite aunt or uncle. No muss, no fuss and 1 whole year of amazing content--can you tell I like it??

This is the gift that you could have knocked me sideways about how popular it is around here. Two of my kids have them and the others want them. For reading in bed they are fantastic and despite the rather dull photo that Amazon if offering on the first style they do come in some cool color that you can see after you click. Not to mention the fuzzy one that I think would be faboo for a soft snuggle in bed. If you are an Amazon Prime person I believe that your shipping is free on these so you can't beat that! If you don't do online shopping I have found these at Bed, Bath and Beyond on occasion but the price was closer to $50

So what do you think..have any of the ideas so far sparked a crap-free gift giving idea for you??

Want to give your family a subtle hint?.. just click the Facebook link at the bottom to share this on your wall.. maybe they will get the hint!

Yep, still have affiliate links, thinking I might be able to keep the good shampoo this month!

Crap-Free Holiday Gifts for Kids

2011-11-07T03:00:00.000-05:00

Photo credit

The season is here.. the seasons is here.. and I know it because just yesterday there were 12 catalogs in my mail box, where usually there is a just a water bill. Toys and food gifts and lots-o-plastic-crap oh my!

Might I be so bold as to suggest that we take this year to jump off this crazy ride and bring some sanity back to the gift giving ritual? No more crappy plastic toys to clutter the landfill next year. No dolls that do disgusting things or action figures centered on killing. How about some positive, educational gifts that are low on the plastic and the clutter?

This is part 1 of a growing list.. check back over the course of this week as the list grows!

1) Boomerang Audio Magazine - With a new issue every 6ish weeks covering topics as diverse and complicated (but interesting!) as a kids level look at the economic collapse to funny jokes and puns this is a gift that keeps on giving since kids can listen to it over and over. We have been BOOM listeners for years.. in fact my dad got the kids hooked on these so long ago that they used to send us cassette tapes! ( ages 6 and up)

2) Go big and give them a kid friendly MP3 player with grown up style but a down to earth price tag for listening to the Boomerang and lots of other great kid friendly programming. After making some costly mistakes I give two thumbs up to the Sansa Scan disc for both music and books on tape (WARNING- don't get a shuffle-only style player if you pick some other brand or the book chapters will not stay in order- ask me how we learned that!) (ages 6 and up)

3) Let them remember you every month with the fantastic magazines from Carus Publishing. My kids have grown up on these fantastic magazines made just for kids who are bright and inquisitive and appreciate learning fun facts about the world around them. At one point thanks to my wonderful father my kids were getting each and every magazine published by Carus so weekly there was always a bit of sunshine in the mailbox, no matter if it was MUSE or Click or my favorite - DIG the archaeology magazine the kids were thrilled to see what we received each week and I was so happy for them to be reading quality content that I never worried about- priceless

4) Do you have a young butcher, baker or candle stick maker on your list?.. How about creating them a kit full or REAL items to pursue their hobby. Children as young as 5 can use a simple sewing machine so why bother with with a toy? OR do you have one that loves to bake?.. avoid the dreaded Easy Bake oven fiasco and make them a gift basket full of real cooking utensils that are just their size. The Toysmith set is the real deal and quite well made. I have linked up some of my favorites that I think are worth the money. I especially like the mama and me baking book and live to give it as a gift with the Paula Dean Kit... I also like to do embroidered aprons with this gift.. so sweet and both boys and girls just love them!

Ok.. that is my first 4... check back during the week .. I will be adding more!

Some of the links included run through my Amazon store.. the pennies they drop in my account each day from the links I host pay for a total upgrade in my shampoo from Suave to Aussie.. so I ( and my hair)appreciate each time you use one to do your holiday shopping!

Picking Colors , I am a Color Girl

2011-11-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

I love color, I love it in a big passionate "kiss on the mouth" way that leaves you swooning for hours afterwards. And I love how Pinterest has helped me hone in on the colors for my living room... I can see a pretty clear trend in these pins and that is a big help since I was still totally flumexed as to what colors to use in my living room.. but this has given me the boost I needed to get my colors picked.

While the ~Big P~ can be a time suck I think it can have some really productive uses.. If you would like to follow along with me for this color adventure just click the follow button on the left side bar and you will get to see what I am pinning these days!

And for those wondering.. here is my final and somewhat tinkered with color card for my Living room makeover..

Oak and Acorn Necklace

2011-11-05T03:30:00.000-04:00

Pin It

I don't get to make jewelry as often as I would like but sure had fun with this project! As you might remember I started with a Graphics Fairy image of the oak leaf cluster and this oval bezel. I prepared that and let it dry. ( You can see all of that HERE)

Then life got in the way for a few days but bit my bit I began to ensemble the leaf and acorn clusters that I envisioned on the chain. This was made all the slower by the fact that no matter where I looked I did not have any small silver jump rings ( note to self- buy some!) So after doing all the headpin work I ended up making all the jump rings since it was late at night ( oh for a 24 hour craft store!)

After that things were pretty darn quick and I added the jump rings ladened with the little bronze beads that I thought looked a bit like acorns and the dark pressed glass leaves and tada I was done... well just about. I need to solder all the connections for a long lasting finish but otherwise I am very happy to have this ready to wear on Thanksgiving!

Of course.. now I am thinking about something for the winter holidays...

Pashima Rescue - and a giveaway!

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

My roses are loving this fall weather!

I love my rather ~~ridiculous~~ extensive collection of Pashmina scarves. I have them in everything from the real deal cashmere to the highly affordable viscose rayon. I wear them all year round and enjoy giving them as personalized gifts with the addition of embroidery monogramming.

I get all my gift pashminas from Susan at All About Blanks and everyone who has receives them seems to be thrilled to pieces. Last year I did them for all the review nurses on my husband's team.. 20 very happy women let me tell you!

Alas into every life a little rain must fall and while embroidering this one it got caught up under the machine making a rather a mess of things and no longer being gift-worthy. I hated to just trash it so I took a strip of some of my very favorite voile ( light as air and that color!).. I cut a strip wide enough to cover the boo-boo front and back and then sewed it on with a rather sweet but naive looking running stitch along the top and bottom thereby saving the scarf and making it one of my favorites!

Mind you the fact that I always keep a stock of these and other embroiderable blanks around makes it very easy to whip up a quick gift at a moments notice. Right now I am starting to think about the holidays in a BIG way ( are you?) So these are a few of my favorite All About Blanks items to have on hand for those holiday hostess gifts-

Handtowels - always appreciated during the hectic holiday season when laundry never gets done fast enough ( or maybe that is just me?). Add a monogram or design to fit the kitchen of the hostess and you have a really nice gift.

Cocktail parties are still all the rage in the wake of the MadMen tv show.. so cocktail napkins are in demand and these are so much more swanky than paper that is for sure! I love these with a witty phrase or but embroidery in the center

And not to forget the little girls in my life ( I will admit boys are harder). These headbands are quick to embroider or embellish for last minute birthday gifts with a price point that cannot be beat.. Susan so knows what she is doing on this point!

So.. guess what?... I think you need to stock up on some of these quick to embellish items too!.. and to that end I have a two things for you.

1) Susan has been so gracious as to offer my readers a free shipping code anywhere in the U.S. on any size single order ( hint hint to those of you with small embroidery biz's or lots of people to sew for -time to stock up!) The code is "sisters" ( without the '' of course), put that in and hit recalculate and it should remove your shipping!.. yippee! START SHOPPING HERE

2) Susan and I want to get you started on your shopping! She is offering a $25 gift certificate to one of my readers just because you are so great! So we are going to make this simple ( I hate complicated). Leave a comment with a quick note about something you are doing to get ready for the upcoming holidays and if you are a No-reply sort of person please leave me a way to contact you if you win! I will draw for the certificate on Friday the 11th

Bonus - if I end up with over 50 comments I will draw a second name for their very own pashima out of my stash of gifty goodness! So pass this on via facebook and Twitter so those comment numbers climb!

WOOT!.. we have a winner(s)........ via a drawing using the 29 numbered entries via the comment form on this post the winner is comment 26 which was made by SHERRY who said "'m currently shopping for a new sewing machine so I can finish up my patchwork Christmas pillows"

And since I can't leave well enough alone I drew for the Pashima ( nope.. did not get 50 comments but what the hell, it's the holidays!)

The winner there is number Ami who said "Love what you did to rescue the pashmina! Genius!

To prep for the holidays, I'm starting to get ready for a card-making blitz. My goal is to have them all done within the next week or so so they don't hang over my head longer than necessary. "

Ladies, please contact me at maddie6@bellsouth.net within the next 48 hours to arrange to get your prizes!!

And everyone please remember to thank Susan at All About Blanks and remember to use that free shipping code that is good on one order placed before the end of the year!!

~ As a note- Susan is just a darling friend and I love showing off her business since I believe in her and her products. I am not compensated for this post or giveaway

Getting the Sexy Back - Wicked Wednesday

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

The Fed-ex guy said I did not look like a "homeschool mom" - good!

I keep loosing my sexy, one moment there it is.. I pay attention to it.. it rocks, I rock, the planets are in alignment and the angels sing.. but the second my back is turned getting all busy with kids and cat-boxes, dead car alternators and leaky toilets it goes and sneaks off, no card or letter.. gone. I actively have to go find the damn thing and drag it back. I am happy I do each time but dang it's easy for it to slip away and then for me to feel like total crap.

If this has not happened to you please feel free to continue on your way.. since there is not going to be much else here for you today ( but do check back tomorrow!).. but for the rest of us I am going to throw down my top 7 tips for finding your sexy when it goes off and hides.

1)Ban the sweatshirt-

Simple.. there is NO WOMAN who looks good in a sweatshirt. Worse yet one with frolicking big eyed kittens or a college or football teams emblazoned across the boobage. I don't care if you are 18 or 82, get those things out of your wardrobe. Instead for really casual times choose a cute hoodie and a scoop-neck t shirt* Want to rev-up a plain hoodie?.. I did a little video.. check it out HERE

From J Jill

2) **Dont's wear Mens style t-shirts
Men's style t-shirts have neck lines that are much higher than women's style. These are not flattering on most any woman. Take the time to get a t shirt styled for a woman. It will take off 10 visual pounds!

3) Take Some Time to Find Your Own Style-
While you don't have to be on the cutting edge of fashion or spend tons of money spend some time looking around out there to see what is new and fresh that you might be able to or want to wear. Take some time to go through your wardrobe and pull out the items that while they might be "comfy" don't leave you looking your best. Be ruthless and get rid of anything that makes you feel crappy. If it leaves you with 6 pieces start from there. This season I am LOVING sweater knit dresses. They are easy to wear each and every day with a pair of tights and some boots.

And please know these options are not just for the reed-thin among us. I am 177 pounds and while I can't rock the bear leg anymore I would totally wear this dress with tights or leggings and encourage you to give it a try too. These dresses are SO comfortable!

4) Take care of the Personal Grooming - 'Nuff said HERE

5) Get some sleep -

sleep makes you sexy. I need 8 hours, yes, more than some but less than that for more than a few days and I am a real witch.. witches are not really sexy or confident.. just saying

6) Spend money on yourself - I think as mothers and especially homeschool mothers we are really guilty of spending way more on our kids than on ourselves. We love those crazy kids and want the best for them so cheat ourselves thinking we can " get by" with last years t-shirt (it's just a little stain) or that no one will care that our hair looks like we did it with a mix-master.. but you know who cares?.. your kids. And while they might not say much they are watching everything you do. What sort of message of self worth and value are we teaching them by not caring for ourselves?

7) Have Sex - Yep.. there it is, have sex to help you feel sexy. The health benefits of sex are numerous and well documented. It relives tension, helps you sleep, burns calories and more. What's not to like?

But most of all know that you have great value and worth, you are amazing and so very deserving of good self care and rockin' the gracious creature you are.. now get moving!

I welcome you to add your own tips here or on the D.A. Facebook page!

Little Owl Button

2011-11-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

Ever make something that makes you totally happy just looking at it?

Still love this little button 4 years after I first made it

Still smiling

Creating with Graphics Fairy Goodness

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

At the risk of being labeled a Graphics Fairy groupie I thought I would answer a question a got the other day from a friend. "I see all those pretty images but have no idea what to do with them, how do you come up with your ideas?"

I will totally admit that this took me aback since my head is full of about 1 million projects that I will never have time for. I also get that not everyone's brain is the messy creative jumble that mine is but they do want to craft at times so with that in mind I though I would walk through my process out loud- so to speak.

So while this is a tutorial of sorts is might be a bit light on some details, if you have a questions just ask!

My process began with seeing this cool jewelry bezel at Hobby Lobby, it's unique shape called to me and I knew I was wanting to make a new fall necklace.. so far so good. With the shape in mine I took a stroll through the fall themed images at The Graphics Fairy until I found this sweet oak leaf and acorn image.. can't get much more fall then that!

I sized the graphic in Photoshop with the bezel in mind - actual size of this piece is 1.75 wide and .95 tall, so not that big at all!

Next is cutting out the image. I used the bezel as a template knowing that I would have to cut smaller but also knowing it would give me the basic shape.

I then trim in thin little bits until I can get a perfect fit. With small fine pointed scissors this really is not so hard. I also used a bit of distressing ink on the image to give it a bit of age.

Next I pour a tiny bit in and smooth it around (photo missing) and then insert the image and pour on a thicker but not too thick layer of the glaze. In this case I used Triple Thick since it's easy to use and easy to find at most craft stores- oddly it is usually in the paint section. Squirt the stuff on slow and easy to avoid air bubbles. Don't mess with it but do use a thin straight pin to pop any bubble that appear. I actually like a single bubble or two but if you mess with it a lot you will get lots of bubbles that will mess up the image.

Now I wait.. the first layer of glaze takes 3-8 hours to dry so I put it away and try to forget about it since messing with it always ends in disaster..

Later this week I will post part II of this adventure. If you want to get it delivered to your mail box sign up in the box at the top right of the page. I will also be posting it to Facebook so join the D.A. page at Facebook if you want to catch it there ( link on upper left of page)

Hair Styles Over 40 - My Favorite Long Hair Resources

2011-10-30T12:06:00.000-04:00

Super attractive bathroom mirror shot!

A couple of years ago I put in place my personal plan to "get my groove back". I had lost my groove (once again) and had to spend some time digging around for it. Part of that plan was paying more attention to my hair and learning hairstyles for longer hair since mine was changing as I aged and I was not keeping pace with the change....my everyday pulled to the back ponytail was not a style, it was a desperation cop-out for sure. I had to be able to do better than that!

What once was a mass of thick, fast growing locks had slowed down, thinned out and gotten dry no thanks to my funky thyroid. Luckily I came from a people with an obviously high follicle count but what was once a fist full of hair that took the extra big hair elastics now had me twisting those hair elastics 3-4 times to have them grip in my hair at all- ugh.

I was not ready to go into that good dark night of hair I could not love and had to cut short to manage so had to learn tips and tricks to make the most of what I have. This means learning new hair styles and hair product, (sometimes 2-3 of them) to have hair I love and get compliments on (yes I am shallow, I want my hair to look so good that I get compliments on it- do you hate me now?)

The internet is a fan-freaking-tastic place to find about a million zillion hair tutorials with some being better than others. I thought I might share a couple of my favorite long hair resources with you. But in a nut shell-learn how to tease that hair for natural volume and get a teasing brush!

I am going to start with my favorite for long hair girls. Natalia at Ma Nouvelle Mode is beautiful and has rockin hair and some of the best most friendly tutorials out there. I would also like to mention that her husband is wildly handsome but try to tear your eyes away from him and watch the videos.. In fact my Mini-twists (which are actually little buns) were totally inspired by a tutorial she did last week.

Keiko Lynn is fresh and fantastic and about the age of my oldest child but I love her hair and really like being inspired by what she does and this sweet hair tutorial.

And for those who love braid of all sorts plus easy and fast do's ( me me me me me ) I give you Hair Dresser on Fire

So what do you think?.. I suspect the world of hair tutorials is saturated enough but maybe I will do a couple over the coming weeks, and maybe you would want to watch??.. after all.. would you really want to give up the chance to see me like this?

Needle Felting in Chattanooga

2011-10-28T23:29:00.000-04:00

Interested in a Needle Felting class here in Chattanooga TN?

Click here for last minute information!

HERE