Wordless Wednesday - Future Dinner

Product Review: Style Selections LED Color Changing Night Light with Auto On/Off

The amount of little things we had to buy to "fit" into our new (MUCH bigger) house was mind boggling... more hand soap, trash cans, toilet paper, etc. Night lights were HIGH on the list. Our old house was so tiny that a single night light in our bathroom was all the illumination we needed in the dark of night. Not so in this house. Dark hallways and stairways and bathrooms were in abundance. A very early trip following our move was to Lowes to buy night lights. We went with LED for the energy efficiency. The price has come down so far on LEDs that they really weren't much more than the traditional incandescents .

We bought a four pack of basic on/off LED nightlights for the bathrooms, a power failure indicator nightlight that can also be used as a flashlight, and this color changing LED.  We got the flashlight variety for the downstairs hall outside our bedroom. The color changing LED is upstairs in the hall between the kids' rooms. I really like the color changing one! I would have loved to have this light as a kid. While our "flashlight" night light is a bit bright for a dark hallway in the middle of the night, the color changing night light is just the right brightness for safely walking in a darkened house. And both kids enjoy zoning out at night to the slow, steady change in color reflecting off the hall walls. If you need a night light, you should go with energy efficient and you might as well have one that is pretty and fun too. Highly recommended.

Style Selections Color Changing LED Night Light with Auto On/Off

Edited to add a static picture, not just a video. 

New Etsy Listings - February 23, 2014

Burgundy Seed Bead Earrings with Sterling Findings

Beautiful Handwoven Beaded Seed Bead Bracelet

Silly Saturday - goats balancing on a flexible steel ribbon

Goats are silly!

St. Patrick's Day Front Door Decor

So last month found me throwing together a last minute Valentines wreath with random supplies I found around the house. That one turned out so well, that I decided to try my hand at a St. Patrick's Day front door piece.

Needed Supplies: cardboard, paper plate, gold foil "grass", craft foam or cardstock shamrock shapes, ribbon (for hanging), and acrylic paints: green (two shades), black, sky blue, and whatever shades you'd like to use for a rainbow. I used purple, medium blue, green, yellow and red. I really like orange too but I was OUT (OUT! as if?!) of orange acrylic paint.

Additional supplies (these are things most people will already have on hand): box blade or some such to cut cardboard, paint brushes, glue gun and glue sticks.

For this project, I measured the backing cardboard to fit the supplies I was using. I started by tracing the paper plate, then laying out the shamrocks around the plate outline to get the dimensions I needed. I marked the edges of the shamrocks on the cardboard with pencil. Once I set them aside, I then "connected the dots" on the circle those marks made. That outer circle is the one you want to cut out with the box blade. 

Cut the paper plate in half.  Use it to trace the top of the "pot" section of the center circle. Paint that section and the outside of the paper plate black. I missed getting a picture of my adorable daughter painting the paper plate for me. She did an excellent job. Next paint your rainbow. I started with the purple and painted one arcing stripe. Paint a blue stripe next to the purple, then green, yellow and red. You get the idea.  :-)  Fill in the rest of the sky with blue. 

Paint the outer circle with green. I used metallic green, which went nicely with the sparkly shamrocks. I like sparkly. 

Hot glue down the plate and shamrocks. I recommend laying out the shamrocks before you attach them so you make sure the spacing is good. Unless you're really nerdy then measure off the circumference, divide by the number of shamrocks you have and space them exactly. I like the eyeball-it method personally (even though we are a really nerdy family).  

Glue your ribbon (or cut up T-shirt in my case) to the back. Make sure your volunteer knows what you are asking when you ask if the ribbon is centered. As you can see, mine is slightly off kilter. I love you, Melanie! But I was asking if the ribbon was centered, not whether the whole thing looked good or not. LOL. Stuff some gold foil shreds into your pot and VOILA! 

Wordless Wednesday - Good Dog Abby

Introducing Foofy * Not Foofy's Newest Venture

Foofy * Not Foofy's Etsy Store

We are a crafting family. Okay, well, my son, daughter and I are crafty. My husband is good at building things but he'll say he does moose work. I make it pretty. I always liked a variety of different crafts but during and since the time I managed my grandmother's jewelry store, I started focusing more on jewelry design and creation. My best friend, Melanie, also likes to design jewelry. She does the CRAZY (to me) bead weaving. For both of us, it's our down time... our "me" time and, as often as our schedules can swing it, our "us" time. We can each only wear so many pieces of jewelry though. We are more prolific creators than we are fashionistas to wear our own designs.

So, a couple Saturdays ago, over coffee and chocolate (we'd just been to Downtown Lee's Summit's Chocolate Crawl), we decided to find a venue to sell off some of our creations and maybe fund our habit a bit. Given Melanie's bread winner status and 9 to 5 (more like 7 to 7) job, we decided I would start the store and manage it on Etsy. So... here 'tis. My two kids also hope to contribute some of their crafts. Jasper likes woodworking and will be adding some hand carved plant markers and dibblers soon. My daughter, Risa, is making catnip mice and sachets.

Yes, there is only one listing right now. I managed to get myself into THREE different volunteer efforts that are all requiring my attention at the same time at the moment. I am the cookie manager for my daughter's Girl Scout troop and Booth sales month is next month. This is the fifth year I have coordinated Downtown Lee's Summit Music in the Park and this is the time when I'm active booking bands for all summer. And I didn't RUN the other way when my dear friend Scott asked if I was willing to chair the Depot Stage at Downtown Days... Streets Alive! in June. So I'm eyeball deep in scheduling talent, etc. for that venue right now as well.

I plan to schedule a weekly post on the blog to highlight the new items listed in the store. I have a dozen items sitting on my desk waiting to be listed. I just need to find the time to get them listed while keeping up with my other commitments. Hopefully something will catch your eye in the store.