Dana

New items in my shop!!!!!!

I just posted a ton of new things in my etsy shop. I plan on really trying to make a go of the whole etsy thing in the months to come. Wish me luck. Here are some pics and a link to my shop!!!!!!!!!

31Summers...

Soooo, alot has happened...........

Alot has happened in the past few weeks to me. A little background..... I started having leg issues in September and the pain was coming at night. I was only sleeping about 3 hours per night which makes Dana a grouchy girl!!!!! I finally went to the doctor in January which led to and MRI which led to a nurosurgeon which led to back surgery two weeks ago. I had a ruptured disk that had a piece actually broken off and lodged in my sciatic nerve canal. They got it out and cut away the rest of the disk and now my leg is a thousand times better. I can actually sleep.

I have been home for a couple of week and did some crafting.........

First is this cute bird bag. I appliqued the bird and tree and embellished with seed beads. Then once I was out of bed and could sit in my sewing chair I made it into a bag from one of my own patterns.

The bird and tree were drawn cute out and applied while laying in bed or sitting up very gingerly immediatly after surgery.

I will post more tomorrow. This desk chair still bothers my back a bit, but I know that will go away soon enough.

More beading and twisting wire....

Have I told you lately how much I love beading and wire working?????? Well I do love it.

Here are some other things I have done...........

 

This is a five strand necklace I made to compliment the gorgeous handmade glass bead (which I did not make). The necklace is a mixture of seed beads and swavorski crystals. I haven't worn it much lately because it looks so much like spring to me, but guess what is just around the corner.......SPRING!!!!

This is a bent wire bracelet that I wired the beautiful orange tone beads into. This is one of the easiest things in the world to make and very attractive (if I do say so myself).

This is one of my favorite pieces I have ever made. It took a lot of wire but the end result turned out even better than I expected.

"House of Summers"

Well I thought I would give everyone a little more detail about what has been going on in the "House of Summers".

First off there is Casey and me, we are still going strong after 16 years (in one week) of marriage. I thank God for him almost everyday. LOL He is still managing Advanced Auto and I am at a new veterinarian's office now and love it. My new place is Tri-City Animal Clinic and the Dr. there is absolutely the best. She is even paying for my vet assistant classes, she also gives me free range to learn and try anything I want to.

I have picked up another craft addiction. BEADING and WIREWORKING!!!! I love it and can't get enough. I made friends quickly with the owner of local bead shop, her name is Kelly. I look up to her so much she is so talented. I have picked up pretty quick and have become pretty good at wire work so I teach a couple of classes per month there. Just enough to fund my addiction. Here is the link Off The Beaded Path These are some of the first things I did when I picked up this great hobby. I will show you more of the new stuff when I can get some good pictures.

 

The girls are doing great. Katie is now 14 and gorgeous. She is in the 8th grade now and is president of her school Student Council as well as secretary of Beta. Her can see her here modeling an apron my Granny made. Please ignore the mess behind her, we were making dinner and had been cooking all day. I made her do the dirty work, she is chopping the onions.

Sarah is also doing great, she is now in the 5th grade and almost (next month) 11. My baby is growing up. She has grown taller, leaner and stronger so fast the past few months. She is changing rapidly and it scares me. Lol. She has really come into her own and now loves to read and is doing well in school. Here is a pic of her just tonight after skating all evening with her friends.

What I have been up to....

Oh my goodness, I am so glad to now be back and have time to blog again. I have been so busy the past 6 months or so, I won't even go into it all. I will just say I am happy to be back and hope to get back in the groove of the blogging world.

Here are some new pics of the family........

Me and my oldest daughter Katie.

Me and my sister Lacy

Casey acting crazy!!!!!

(My sweet hubby)

More of what I have been up to...

Thanks so much for all the hello's since I have been back, I just love the blogging community!!!

So as for what else I was up to during my hiatus. I discovered Food network and all the wonderful chefs such as Rachel Ray, Giada, Paula Deen and so many more. My Mom now lives right next door and we cook a lot. Here are a few pics of our one of our cooking days.

This was our wonderful pannini and lemon cous cous from Giada, it was so good but the meat used in the sandwich is outrageously expensive so next time we will probably go with just a regular smoked ham rather that pancetta.

This  is Paula Deen's minty lemonade. I will post the recipe later.

This is fried pound cake with a berry sauce on top. Definitely a diet killer but so delicious.

Ok, so I am easing back into this. I thought I would get to post the other night but life once again caught up with me. I am going to show you guys some pictures of what the things I have made and the related events that go with them. Hope you enjoy this show....

All of her friends love them and the teachers are starting to ask about them!!!!!!!!

I love making these little bags they are so much fun, I plan to do several for Christmas.

This was a custom order, my sister in law bought the fabric and I made this cute diaper bag for her friend. I love this bag, it took a while to come up with the pattern but it turned out great, I am adding a couple of pics of the details because I am so proud of it. I know that is lame but I didn't have a pattern and just had to figure it out myself.

 

This is my new nephew, he was born in September. Isn't he gorgeous. This is my Mom holding him when he is about 3 weeks old.

This is his bag I made for Cameron (my new nephew above) and his Mom, Iva. She picked out this great blue and green paisley print. It is a mini corduroy and soooo soft. 

This bag was fun to make also, someone called me who had seen one of my bags and told me they had a friend having a baby boy they were naming "Gunner" and he was destined to be all boy and his dad had specified no teddy bears, hearts or any other related "sissy" things. So he is getting a camo diaper bag.

Ok, I must take a break and fold some laundry but there will be another post later in the day. Keep an eye out!!!!!!!

Katie has a set of twins who had a birthday party and of course they had to have one my bags, which are becoming very popular at the middle school. This is a good thing!

Sorry to have been gone so long.........

This is going to be like starting a new blog, I have been gone for so long!!!!!!!! But I am ready to get back in the swing of things. There have been lots of things going on around here, school starting back, my new love of cooking, my continued love of sewing and crafting as well as Casey having changed jobs. I only have a second to post now but I promise more will come tonight along with some pictures showing some of the things we have been up to. I am off now to visit a few of my favorite blogs that I haven't been to in a while. It will be like visiting old friends.

Dana

Beach!!!!!!

We just got back from the beach. We had a great time, we went to see the La Grande Cirque at the Palace Theater and had the best time. The girls got really embarrassed because Casey and I were pulled up on stage to help with a skit the ring master did. Casey had to dance and I was the ring masters latest love interest and he kissed me twice on the MOUTH!!!!!!!

Here are the girls outside of the Palace!

We also visited the Pavilion for its farewell season. It will not be there next year!!!!!!

We played on the beach alot. The girls loved their boogie boards and rode the waves for hours, thanks goodness for sunblock.

Casey was the only one who got a little crispy while we were there. On the last day he said "No, I don't need sunblock. I have a good base, I will just tan." Well guess what he didn't have enough of a base and got a good burn in just a couple of hours.

These are just some random photos from the trip that I thought turned out great.

On our last full day there we went to Nascar and then ate at Planet Hollywood. This was Sarah's first time getting to drive a go-cart and she was so nervous that she wouldn't remember in the heat of the moment which foot was gas and which was brake so I labeled her knees for her. She had a blast and drove like a champ.

New items in the shop

I have put a couple new bags in the shop, 31Summers. These are both what I consider storage bags. Either would be great to hold knitting, crocheting or small sewing projects. They also both feature vintage sheets I got at the local GoodWill.