The Reason for the Season

Yes, it truly IS the reason for the season.  The wreaths and bows and trees and packages and cookies and candies are great.  Shopping isn't too bad either (it gives my wife and I some 'alone' time).  I enjoy all the Holiday songs too. And the family get-togethers.  But...the real reason for the season is because God sent his only son to Earth to save us from our sins.  Now THAT'S a gift.  The greatest gift of all.

Nativty set by JimShore.

I hope you are enjoying this special time of the year.

It's the Bee's Knees

I've been working with an Etsy customer for the past several days on a special order of twelve (12) tissue holders. I shared the sample with her last night and she approved! Excited? Yes...I'm very excited to start on her order.

Here's what she ordered:

Twelve Tissue Holders Comin' Up!

Okay. Gotta run. Busy day ahead. Hey: don't forget to sign up for my Freebie Friday book giveaway.

Hope you have a great day,

Sometimes the Simple Things are the Best

Indeed: sometimes the very simplest of dishes are the tastiest. Case in point is my wife's chicken and noodles. It's a family favorite. And mashed potatoes on the side. Oh yes...a match made in food heaven.

She's been making this hearty combination for several years. However, she's been adding something new lately. She adds a couple tablespoons of Watkins Chicken Soup and Gravy Base. And I kid you not, it has made a good thing even better.

Along with mashed potatoes, I like my chicken and noodles topped off with sweet corn (frozen or canned). Yum-O!

December's "Freebie Friday" Announcement

Freebie Friday Coming Up!

The December "Freebie Friday" will be another book (yes...I like books...and I hope you do too). This is a brand new copy of Eduardo Xol's Home Sense -- simple solutions to enhance where and how you live. Photography by Doug Myers. The ISBN is 978-0-06-124976-1 for those of you that might be interested. Eduardo is the designer from ABC's hit show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Some photos of the inside of this beautifully-photographed book.
[Click on the image to get a better view.]

So...how do you enter? It's easy:

STEP 1. Make sure you're signed up by using the form over on the right-hand sidebar of my blog. I just need your name and your email address. That keeps you in the running for the Freebie Friday giveaways;

STEP 2. Leave a comment on this post.

The fine print:

The deadline for the drawing is midnight EST on Friday, December 18, 2009.

The winner will be drawn over the weekend of December 19 and 20.

The winner will be announced on Monday, December 21st.

Since it's the 'most wonderful time of the year' everyone is invited to join in the fun. Whether you live in the US, Canada or anywhere else in the world. Sign up. And Good Luck!

Speaking of books. What are you reading these days. I recently re-joined the Good Cook Club and got four books for $1.00 each. And..I bit the bullet and bought a fifth book for 1/2 price. ('Cuz I'm a sucker for a good deal.) Here's what has my attention:

Currently on my night stand.

• Alton Brown's Good Eats [ISBN: 978-1-58479-795-1]
• Diane Phillips: Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever [ISBN: 978-0-8118-6657-6]
• The Deen Brothers: Ya'll Come Eat [ISBN: 978-0-696-23397-5]
• Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten): Back to Basics Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients [ISBN: 978-1-4000-5435-0]
• Elizabeth Yarnell: Glorious One-Pot Meals [ISBN: 978-1-60751-581-4]
• The Ellie Krieger book, The Food You Crave [ISBN: 978-1-60085-021-9] was a gift from my wife. (Thanks Honey..I love it!) She bought it at the Cleveland Clinic when she was there a few weeks ago for a follow-up visit with the neurologist (for the horrible headaches and sharp pains in the right side of her head.)

In between the One-Pot Meal book and the Food Network magazine is Bon Appetit.

I also subscribe to Food Networks magazine. Mmm, mmm, good.

I guess you might say that food is on my mind these days (every day people, EVERY day!). But... honestly...my wife will be going back to her five-days-a-week work schedule after the Holidays. So...one of my New Year's resolutions is to help with dinner. It's tough for us to figure out what we're going to have for dinner some nights. I thought some fresh ideas might get me in the mood for helping out. We'll see how it goes.

Hope you have a good week. Remember: do something crafty!

P.S. Sorry about all the different photo formats. I was having fun with Picnik today.

The 2009 Crafty Dad Family Christmas Tree

At last count, there were 1,200 lights on this year's tree. This photo does not do the tree justice. I think I need to figure out how to change some settings on my camera!

Watkins Introduces New Aloe and Green Tea Personal Care Items!

Check it out!  Watkins has introduced a Green Tea and Aloe Body Wash and a Green Tea and Aloe Shampoo.

You can purchase them at my Watkins web store.

It's Going to Look Like Christmas

Happy Black Friday! (Oh...I truly don't like how that sounds.)

Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one. The Crafty Dad family made the annual pilgrimage (no pun intended!) to Auburn, IN for the big feast. A good time was had by all. Lots of food, fun, family and laughter. My favorite combo-package.

After we got home, Crafty Mom made her way to the basement to supervise in the traditional "carry-the-Christmas-decorations-upstairs" event. The boys helped out as we made several trips up and down the stairs -- good exercise after eating so much turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, etc., etc.,

A foyer-full of decorations.

Riley is not sure about all this!

Today is the day: decorate the house. It's become a tradition. And I enjoy bringing the house to life with all the decorations. My mom was a HUGE fan of Christmas and always make the house look so nice. She passed away 14 years ago...and I miss her. Especially during the Holidays. I'm guessing she's looking down from heaven and smiling as we do what she did for so many years. Miss you Mom!

The tree will be decorated tonight. Jennifer and the boys wait for my help on that one. I am the official tree light guy. I started wrapping each individual branch of the tree with lights a few years ago. Wow! Talk about a brightly-lit evergreen. I think it looks great and we continue to wrap lights from year to year.

I'll share some photos with you later this weekend.

In the meantime...hope you find all the bargains you were looking for today. Don't forget the ONLINE sales. Speaking of which, my Etsy store is having a 25% sale on tissue holders -- that's $1.00 off the regular price!

Have a great weekend,

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey bloggers!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Seems there's always something to complain about -- road construction that forces us to go miles out of our way (always in a hurry, aren't we?), 'fast food' places that are really not 'fast' and sometimes not even 'food', pharmacies that put our prescriptions back into inventory too soon (that just happened to me today). But...we have SO much to be thankful for, don't we? Like a job. I love mine. And I love the people that I work with. Family? Oh yeah! Tops my list. [Love you guys!]. A place to call 'home'. A wife that puts up with all my 'craftiness'. Yep. So much to be thankful for.

Be safe and have a great holiday.

The Grist Mill at Bonneyville Mill Park

Sale Continues in my Etsy Shop

The 25% off sale continues.

Book Giveaway Winner

And the winner of the book giveaway is (drum-roll please.....)

HARBOR HON

Number three (3) was picked out of the hat. And number three (3) belongs to Harbor Hon.

Seasons at Seven Gates Farm

I'll be sending her an email message asking for her mailing address so I can get this great book on its way.

Thanks for playing.

There will be more giveaways in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

Book Giveaway

I'll be drawing the winning name for the book giveaway later this weekend.

Was planning on doing it yesterday, but had to take my wife to the eye doctor to have a cyst removed.  Ouch!

She's doing okay, but the pirate eye patch makes it tough to do things.

I will keep you posted.

Have a good day.

Etsy Shop Update

Hey bloggers!

As promised, my shop has been updated with some new items.

Big Holiday sale going on now through the end of December on tissue holders. Regular price is $4.00; Sale price is just $3.00. I'm trying to keep the store stocked with good stuff so YOU can take advantage of great prices and I can move out some inventory.

Here's a sneak peek:

More updates later. Gotta get busy.

Have a great day.

P.S. Make sure you sign up for the book I'll be giving away this Friday. Just enter your name and email address in the sign-up form (over there in the right-hand column) and you're all set.

GCC Rocks!

Saturday:

• Cleaned up the yard again. Those leaves are still falling and blowing around.
• Whipped up some new tissue holders to put in the shop (watch for an update tomorrow morning).
  
• Had lunch: turkey sandwiches and soup. Yummy.
• Made a trip to Woodwind & Brasswind. Mr. Teenager is going to switch from Alto to Tenor saxophone. Bought him an early Christmas gift. (He LOVES it!)
  
• Went shopping for poster board: Little Guy is doing a project on John Dillinger next week.
• Stopped at McDonalds for a quick snack.
• Went to church. The current series is on Relationslips. As always great content. Fantastic music and media. Last night we had a special guest. She is awesome.
• Had dinner at Culver's. Good stuff and easy on the budget.
  

Granger Community Church

Now we're off to a cousin's birthday party.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

It's the Weekend!

Hey bloggers!

We made it through another week. Hope yours was a good one.

I recently changed my mailing list service here on the blog. If you signed up on the old one, I'll (hopefully) be able to add you to the new one. But....just to make super-sure you're on the list for giveaways and other cool stuff, please use the new form (over there in the right-hand column). You just need to enter your name (first and last please) and your e-mail address. It's that easy. You'll receive a confirmation e-mail. Follow the links and you're all set up.

As an incentive to add your name to the list, I'm hosting a book giveaway next Friday. It's only open to those of you that have signed up (US residents only). So...hurry over to the form and enter your info. It was a thrift-shop find so it's not new, nor is it in perfect condition. However, it is in VERY good condition (a couple small tears on the dust cover). Beautiful photos, and 223 pages. I think you will enjoy it! Here are some shots of the book.

Country Living
Seasons at Seven Gates Farm

Natural Crafts, Old-Fashioned Gardens, and Homespun Holidays

ISBN: 0-688-14466-7

Oh..and there's a 25% off sale going on over at my Etsy shop. Take advantage of some great prices now through the end of December 2009.

Have a great (crafty) weekend!

Family Photo Op

Hey bloggers....Wow..three posts in the same week.  That might be a record for me!  LOL!!

We were at one of our county parks the other day for a little outing.  Unfortunately, we had so much rain the past few days the walking trails were so muddy it was impossible to use them.  Fortunately, the sun was shining and I had my camera (never leave home without it).

A little bit of editing via Picnik (I really like that program) and voila, we have a photo:

Crafty Dad, Crafty Mom, Riley,
Mr. Teenager and Little Guy

Here are a few more:

Hope you're enjoying the Autumn season.

Take care!

I Have Two New Brothers!

It's true -- I have two new Brothers. And I love them both very, very much.

There are several years difference in their ages. One was born in 1965, the other in 2009. They are both handsome and very strong. I get along with both of them. No sibling rivalry here, folks.

In all seriousness...I found the vintage machine at the thrift shop today. You know I'm a sucker for vintage machines...especially the ones that are in pristine condition. I hit pay dirt today by golly. Brought my new (old) Brother home. Gave him a dose of oil and he was off and running. Like a well-oiled machine. Well...he IS a well-oiled machine now isn't he? [Sorry I couldn't resist.]

Here they are in all their glory.

Click on the image to get a better view.

Holiday Sale

Hey bloggers!

With the Holidays rapidly approaching (and my quest to move inventory OUT of the house) I am having a sale in my Etsy Shop.

Check it out.

There will be more items listed soon.

Not So Fast ...

Hey bloggers...it's the crafty guy again. You know--the one with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Just to keep you REALLY updated, I've decided to cool my jets on the Stampin' Up career (for now anyhow). My wife (bless her heart -- love you honey!) reminded me that I have about 1,452 things going right now and adding any more might put me (or her) over the edge. And...nobody likes the 'over-the-edge' thing. So. I'm going to behave and deal with what's currently on my overflowing plate.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Mike and Mary (SU! demonstrators) for their kindness in answering so many of my questions. If YOU are looking to get involved with Stampin' Up, I highly recommend you get in touch with them. They are THE BEST and although I've only known them for a very short time, I can tell that they are wonderful people and would do just about anything to help you along in your Stampin' Up adventure. And...even if you're not looking to become a SU! consultant, check out there websites for some of the most creative card-making you'll find on the web. Truly amazing. And...make sure you check out Mary's craft space (there's a link on her blog). OMG...it's so great. A beautiful place to create. I'm jealous. :-)

So where do I go from here? Well...I'm going into purge mode. I really MUST get rid of some stuff. I don't really want to give it all away...so I'm going to try to dedicate maybe one night a week where I can list some items on eBay and try to make a buck or two. Hey: let me know if you're in the market for a cover stitch machine. I just happen to have an almost brand new one from Janome. It's only been used about fifteen (15) minutes. I bought it thinking I just HAD to have one (wrong). So...my loss will be someone's gain. If I remember correctly, I paid almost $300.00 for it. Yikes! But it's just taking up space in my craft corner...so it's time for it to find a new home. Let me know if you're interested.

Enough of the ranting already. I'll leave you with some photos (click on them for a better view) I took a few weeks ago as we were closing up the park model. I've never seen Canada Geese on the lake...but they must have decided to take a break and wow...there were tons of them on the water.

Early Autumn at the lake

More geese...and beautiful Autumn colors.

An empty campground.

Have a great day!

Switching Gears

Hey bloggers! Trying to keep my blog alive..thought I'd better get another post in this month.

I've been in a craft funk for the past several weeks. And...I'm seriously thinking of changing things up a bit lot by changing craft medium. Seriously.

Not sure what happened, but I think I've been bitten by the card-making bug. Several years ago I attended a Stampin' Up! event and had a great time. I bought several stamp sets, ink pads, fancy scissors, glue dots..the whole nine yards. Making cards became an obsession. My SU! demonstrator was just getting started and as she was doing her demo, I kept thinking to myself (shamefully?), "Hmmm, I could do this with so much more enthusiasm than she has...it would be really fun to teach people how to make things." Then I snapped back to reality and glued my orange strip of cardstock on the front of the Halloween card and moved along with the group.

Some of you know that I am somewhat ADD when it comes to crafting. My wife calls it the 'flavor-of-the-month' syndrome. And she's right...I am a lot like that. I've got so many craft supplies, our basement looks like a craft store warehouse. Oh well. I have fun and I think that's what counts. Crafting is sort of like therapy for me (although a trip to the psychiatrist might be cheaper than buying all this craft stuff!).

Anyhow...fast-forward a bit. My oldest son is a freshman in high school this year and my wife is (smart lady) starting to pull photos together so she can make a scrapbook of his school years so she'll have a wonderful memory book for his senior year and graduation. She's been talking about it and worrying about it for a long time and she's recently decided to really get moving. She bought some scrapbook albums, a bunch of 12 x 12 paper, several packs of stickers, etc., etc. So...now she's getting ready to find a semi-permanent place to put her stuff so she can get started.

LIGHT BULB COMES ON! So...the ADD Crafty Dad decides that (ahem) maybe it's time to put all that fabric-related stuff in storage (or give some to Goodwill, or sell some on eBay, or SOMETHING). That would give my wife some dedicated craft space for her project(s). Cool. And...since she's going to be playing with paper and scissors, perhaps this would be a good time for me to dust off my card-making supplies and play along with her. Besides, we really need some 'together time' and this might be just the ticket.

Okay, so sorry for the ranty, long post, but I wanted to get you updated on what's happening. I've also met some wonderful Stampin' Up! people on the internet. They are some of the most creative people I've seen when it comes to card-making. And they have big hearts and have been super helpful in answering all my questions about the possibility of me joining the SU! family. Don't tell my wife yet, but I am thinking about becoming a SU! demonstrator. [You knew that was coming, didn't you? -- LOL!] But...if I'm going to dive into this new craft realm, I really need to make room for my new adventure. We'll see how it goes.

Any of you folks into card making? Any SU! people out there? I'd love to hear from you.

Stay in touch...I'll try my best to keep my blog fresh with new posts so you know what I've decided.

Take care,

See what happens when you get REALLY busy???

You keep thinking, "Geez...it's been forever since I've written a blog post."

Yes, it bothers me that a whole month goes by without a post.  There's tons of stuff I could tell you, but to have the time to sit down and DO IT.  That's the problem.  After all, TIME is a four-letter word.  Some days it ranks right up there with the "S" word and on REALLY bad days, it's comes close to the dreaded "F" word.

But hey, enough of the self-pity ranting already.

Behind the Eight Ball!

The past several weekends have been filled with Saturday Band invitationals and contests.  Mr. Teenager's band is on its way to Semi-State this coming weekend.  Congratulations to him and the rest of the Blazer Brigade.  They have done a fantastic job this season.  Braving the cold, rain and wind...they are fantastic!  We've been dropping Nate off at the high school at about noon and then driving to various performance sites.  Crafty Mom, Little Guy and I have driven to Lafayette,  and Ft. Wayne (twice) Indiana to cheer them on.  Their performance times have been late in the evening and we don't get back home until well after midnight.  Wow....it's a long day for everyone.

On top of that, Matt (my Little Guy) has been in YMCA Soccer and has soccer meets on Saturday too.  We've been stretched a bit thin trying to make it to both boys' events.  Yes...it's been somewhat wacky the past few weekends.  Oh, and we had to bring the golf cart home from the lake.  And...we had to 'close up' the park model for the winter.  And. (yes there's more) Nate called me from school last week.  He said he did something to his neck and he couldn't move his head.  Great!  Crafty Mom and I high-tailed it school to see what happened.  Seems the 70 pounds of books that he's been carrying around in his backpack (every day since the beginning of school) has taken a toll.  Crafty Mom took him to the doctor.  A pulled muscle for sure.  Rest and some muscle relaxers were ordered.  And...he had to miss a few band practices, much to his dismay.

Soccer is over now so we will have a little breathing room this weekend.  The band travels to Indianapolis to perform in the ISSMA Semi-State contest.  Yes...we're headed south.    We're planning to plan our schedule so we can take in a bit of shopping while we're there.  It's been a while since we've been to a Trader's Joe...so that's No. 1 on our list if we have time.  Too bad they don't have one are here.  [Note to self:  You would think with the University of Notre Dame here in South Bend, they would have a TJ's.]

So....what's up with you?