Smiles !

On Friday Annie at A Stitch in Time  offers  us to post a photo that makes us SMILE..we all need that

And today mine is my little granddaughter, out " Pickin"  lovely flowers and sometimes she adds other grasses to make her bouquet complete.

  I miss her so, she was 3 in April and they are in Germany on assignment.  Have a wonderful weekend.

IT'S ATC EXCHANGE AT WOYWW4

Well the time is here 4 years Ms. Julia has gotten more and more bloggers to share their workspace. Each Wednesday  it's WOYWW..  (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday..) and because it has been four years she is having an ATC Exchange once again.

My desk has a few ready to be sent off, hidden of course under the colorful cards. I made several ahead of time and stored them in my tiny Lone Ranger lunch box for safe keeping.   If anyone wants to exchange I've a few left to exchange.  Just make a comment below.

If you need more info you can stop over to  Julia's  STAMPING GROUND  blog and share in the fun.

I've been MIA,  but
I think my LIFE is returning to somewhat normal.  Settled the 2 garage sales out well 2 wks ago,
plus Mother's Day and time with my brother who was visiting to help out.

This week spent a few days with family, my only living Aunt died and we had the wake and funeral Friday and Saturday. She was 96 and had a very good life. Was so good to see all of her 9 kids and their families, as most live away from our local.  Mother and Dad were doing well so they were able to attend also.

Then I had my husbands birthday this Saturday and my granddaughters 8th on Sunday. We went to visit and had a lot of fun despite our weather.  RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.  the State of Iowa is under water. Our fields all have huge ponds. If it's planted, it's in water, If it's not planted, it no doubt won't get planted. Sad state of affairs.

Thanks for stopping by, have fun with your ATC exchanges. And I hope we all post them next week to see the unique designs.  I love ATC's... quick, simple and fun to put together. Have a great week.

Smiling Friday

The simplest things can make you SMILE.  

My little great nephew "Maddox" enjoying the outdoors with a friend.

Over at A Stitch In Time Wipso shares "Smiles"

I thought this was a great summer fun one.

And a great way to start my day.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

                  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ONE AND ALL

              I'm so Thankful for being Blessed with a most wonderful MOTHER all these years.

        Love you so much MoM.

Wonder if I can Adopt these 2

JUST THINK THIS IS THE CUTEST!!!!

Sharing it with A Stitch in Time  as she has things on Friday to Make You Smile...

Have a lovely weekend

May 2nd..SNOW IN IOWA

Well  Mother Nature stopped by.  Schools are closed, Businesses cancelled 1st shift work, some have no electricity, and here on the farm, we are buried in 10 or more inches and high drifts.

                            Our big evergreen, and its broken branches, behind it is my garden shed

                           This little field truck has never seen snow, we always store it in winter

                                                    Not a happy camper driving this rig

                                                      May 2nd 2013 in front of our garage

What can I say?  I'll get some fried potatoes cooking, bacon and eggs and maybe he'll come back to reality. No doubt will have to go into town to access the damages and clean driveways. But I really think the hiways are closed.

It's MAY DAY

Memories of childhood and being the mother of 2 sons revives the memory of  fun filled  May Day.

Grandparents and neighbors use to give little tokens of love by some homemade paper box, cone or basket, filled with homemade goodies. In most cases you leave the little token and run away. No one really knows who left the little goodies.

When my sons were growing up, in our new neighborhood, May 1st started very early in the AM our doorbell would be ringing...go to look and no one...to my amazement when leaving for the day, our front steps were filled with assortments of goodies. One for each of the boys, decorated cups of popcorn, little paper decorated sacks of homemade cookies, baskets of little goodies and sometimes (I know it was my across the street neighbor) a basket of flowers for your home. As they got bigger, a week before we shared craft time making our containers and figuring out who they were going to surprise.

Here are a few pictures from Pinterest to rekindle the fun.

 Made from little nut cups and covered with crepe paper. This was the 50's era of what we made when I was a child

 I have several of these from little treasure hunts, my grandmother had a few of them

 This was used before the 40's, Paper plate filled with flowers and tied with a ribbon, How cute

 Kinda how my neighbor made me feel like someone cared

 This was always a favorite of my sons , cupcakes or homemade cookies, no doubt from the same neighbor

                            http://thealexandersut.blogspot.com/2010/04/may-baskets-for-you.html?m=1

                                                                A Cheerful little Cone

The May Pole still goes on in Amana, Iowa   http://www.festivalsinamana.com/maifest.html   with a big festival for all to attend.  I sure hope they don't have HAIL and SNOW., but are blessed with SUNSHINE and FLOWERS.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the photos.

It's MAY DAY and #204 at WOYWW

Happy MAY DAY to one and all! A post to follow on that at http://littletreasures-sylvia.blogspot.com/2013/05/its-may-day.html

It's WOYWW  #204 at Julia's STAMPING GROUND pop over if you new to this.   I have a minute since our weather turned on us. It's 40 degrees and dropping. Snow forecast up to 3 to 5 inches.  Have been getting ready for a garage sale the past 2 wks. at our home on May 10th and also the 3 of us sisters are cleaning out the Big House some evenings and doing one there also.   EXHAUSTED.

Consider this my Workspace the past 2 wks.  My poor studio, I haven't even seen my desk for 2 wks.  and family room have been taken over by rubber maids and JUNK.  Moving it upstairs to this area, and next spot is the garage. Haven't started out there yet as with our weather I want our vehicles inside.  Don't need HAIL, SNOW, RAIN upon them    And I can do the terrible job of pricing in the house.

                                                        My helper Baxter the big cat 20 lbs

                   They follow me everywhere and have to be in the midst of all the action. Here he's in a closet.

Then Bailey the small cat at 11 lbs took guard on the next phase of moving these out to the garage. They both love to be as high as they can get. With one leap and they are at their desired level. The only reason I've remained sane is they listen to me, groan and moan.

Thanks for stopping by, one more week and I should be free and clear of  some old unused STUFF!!! What don't sell is off to goodwill.

Treasures from JUNK BONANZA

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.  What fun we had on our little trip to Minneapolis Wed and Thurs.

We left in pouring down rain, with Stops in St. Peter and Jordan visiting fun little shops and Antique stores.

I had a free room at Mystic Lake's Casino and after a little relaxing in our room , we had a nice evening, playing slots and having supper. Needless to say we both slept very well.

Early morning we had breakfast, played a few more games and when my cousin's wife won her $400 jackpot we packed up and headed to "JUNK BONANZA" about 2 miles west of our hotel.  Very cold and windy weather, but the event is held inside at Canterbury Park's big building.

                                                        A FEW OF MY PURCHASES

                                 Some vintage clip on Christmas candle holders, and silver molds

                                                     Golden napkin rings to be re purposed

                      A 1940's doll, and I had one just like this way back when  and this was only $5.00

                       These tiny pink felt baby shoes just jumped at me, isn't the tiny little embroidery adorable?

Two German Books,  the left one is a BIBLE  from 1877 published in Waverly, IOWA !  not that far away from where I live.The one to the right is in a hard cover box and published in 1912 and being German I think it looks like a Daily Prayer Book, published in St. Louis, Missouri.

                                  A few old wooden spools, will look great with some vintage lace

                                                         An assortment of more molds

                                          And a little jar that contained many plastic game pieces.

I wanted some old children's play cupboards but they all had "SOLD" tags on them from the "Early Bird" shoppers,  I also was looking for some unique metal flower frogs. But the price on what I found were way over my limit. This event is so well organized and I think there were 200/300 vendors with anything you can imagine in the line of  Antiques, Vintage this , Old that, and Fun Junk.

When we heard it  raining ice pellets we decided to quit a little early and head home. A normal 2 1/2 hr drive took us 4 1/2,  highways were slush filled and rain, snow, ice pellets lined our path. After seeing a few "in the hurry drivers"  slide into the ditch, we took one break to help with my stress by eating a quick lunch at McDonald's.  Top speed was 45 mph if you following the road equipment, We were thankful to be home safe and before dark.

We have not yet received SPRING...it's windy, cold and some snow, that melts quickly or heavy rains.  And the forecast has no good reports for this week. Mother Nature is mixed up for sure.

Now to get busy and create a few things with my "Little Treasures".. Enjoy your week.

It's #202 at WOYWW

It is time for the WOYWW fun once again, with Julia at the STAMPING GROUND, pop over she has all the details on her side bar. You'll enjoy the adventure.

My desk, I almost forgot how to find the area, after traveling for a funeral, birthday party, and shopping

 No time for any real creations, purchased  2 sizes of paper doll rubber stamps  off ebay, and the remains of a few birthday tags, in previous post.  I'm scheduling this post, as a cousin and I are heading to Mpls to attend the spring "JUNK BONANZA".  We are 2 more people who really don't need anymore Junk!!!
But it is a passion, of course SNOW is forecast for the whole area, so I am hoping somehow this is just a weather mistake. It is the middle of April, and we need some sunshine and warmth.

If you missed my husband's "APRIL FARMING SNOWMAN" you can see it here http://littletreasures-sylvia.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-husbands-winter-fun.html   It was melted away by afternoon.

Have a wonderful week, thanks for stopping by, I'll be visiting but it will be late in the week.

Sylvia

Monday, Monday

First off, my heart goes out to the people of Boston. What a tragic event. Well wishes to all of the people who were injured and prayers to all of the families who lost loved ones and are dealing with this horrible act.

Welcome, trying to get back into the swing of things. Traveling to a funeral, birthday party, shopping, church and mostly eating out has wore me out. .  I'll be on a diet all week with all the junk food. I truthfully think my age is getting to me. I just really ENJOY being at home. This cold, rainy weather has gotten the best of my laughter.

Created a few tags for a couple of the birthdays, don't tell anyone (it's a secret!!) but I had to buy a few cards, just too many at one time in my disorganized and interupted life.

 A fun loving cousin celebrated her 8oth birthday. We attended her party and was so fun to once again see all the  other cousins too.

 This is the reverse side, I found this tiny little clear envelope and popped in a bouquet of flowers magnet

And this little cloth tag is for a gal who helps out with my DH father-in-law. Just layers of lace and a crocheted flower. She does beautiful crochet work and crafty cards. So I thought something homemade was in order.

I'll be away from my blog a few days, a cousin and I are traveling to MPLS to the spring "Junk Bonanza." Have found a few antique shops on the way, maybe a shuttle to the Mall of America from our hotel and again I'm sure some good food will be involved. (Salads!) Hoping the forcast for SNOW will divert to the very north instead of the path we must take.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week, hoping for sunshine and flowers.

ATC SWAP

My dear friend Kimberly at ArtJOYstuff  has been having weekly fun with ATC's. If you'd like to participate hop on over to her blog and read the details. You'll enjoy the visit. She is a wonderful designer, so much variety and unusual Mixed Media.  I'd love to see her studio!~!~!
                                                                   
                                                                         A great idea.

I was able to get to be  the exchange of #25. I'm behind on creating as "Life" as some things I needed to do.
So will mail off Kim's ATC, no doubt Monday, the weekend is here and our P.O. is only open AM hrs.now   I'll post my ATC photo after she receives it.

But this is what she has created for me and I received it yesterday

I love it.  The image reminds me of a book I loved to read as a child, The Adventures of  Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  I think it was the Tomboy in me, but I secretly wished I was with them on every adventure. Pretending to be independent, getting wet from fishing and dirty from the adventures of seeking out new spots.

This was some of the packaging I was so happy to open. The ATC has so much detail, a cloth Alpha seam tape with a tiny little feather attached with an old metal tab. Some little sparkly on the stamped fun circles. Mr. Sun placed in a tin frame, fun old gold decals on the top and right side. An this adorable male image of a young adventures boy, wearing some great colored clothing. And  Isn't it the cutest of caps! (I gave one to my dad and hubby a few years back)  DETAIL, DETAIL, it all makes for a "Little Treasured" ATC.

 THANKS SO MUCH KIMBERLY. I love your blog and all the fun you have provided with the Swaps.

My Husband's Winter FUN

I think my husband is reverting back to his childhood.  OH to be a KID again~~~!!!

 This corn planter was all ready to plant corn in a few days.

Frosty April wonders if he'll be having to move out of the way..but he knows he'll just melt away and the farmer here will then get to wait for a little ground dryness before he can plant his corn.

Taken from our front window the cats are permanently perched looking out, there a lots of little birds taking cover under those pine branches.  With schools delayed, and winter driving tactics once again, we are all waiting for Mr. Sunshine so we can get on with April.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day and May you have some SPRINGTIME in your life.