Celebrations and the Crafts that make them SPECIAL!

Happy Labor Day!

Are you celebrating this day like most Americans.....

Cook outs..

Parades....

Perhaps some other family gathering?...

Labor day is a celebration of  everyday 

hard working folks.

At our house....

well....

WE'RE CHILLAXIN'!!

We are at the homestead this week.  

We left city life behind for a few days.  

The first several days home were jam packed full of gardening duties and home preserving. 

So today, we're gonna relax!

Even though we aren't exactly celebrating today,

we have done our fair share of celebrating during the month of August.

My daughter had a

Ladybug themed birthday party for our little princesses 3rd birthday. 

I can't believe she's 

Photo from the internet

She loves the Ladybug Girl books!

And she LOVED her party too!

Big brother enjoyed it as well!

His face says it all!

Around here, no celebration would be complete without something crafty or homemade.  

We like (and appreciate)  homemade stuff. 

Anyone can go to the store and dole out cash for a gift (or unneeded toy),  

but handmade gifts....

gifts from the heart ....

are just extra special-don't ya think!

So grandma made the
Ladybug Girl some crafty stuff 

to make her day memorable.

A ladybug hair clip made from ribbon.
How to instructions can be found here.

An explosion box purse.
Instructions can be found here.

The purse opens up like this.  We tucked
some birthday cash inside for her college fund!

A Ladybug skirt made from tulle and pom poms.

My brother also had a birthday in August.

He turned 50! 

And I couldn't resist blessing him with a special 

Because You're 50

gift!

An adult diaper cake!

One more thing while we're talking celebrations.....

Eleven years ago this month I was diagnosed with 

Acute myeloid leukemia.  

Which means I have been Leukemia free for 10 1/2 years. 

Woo hooo!

Reason to celebrate-eh!?

September is Leukemia/ Lymphoma Awareness month. 

Many have won the battle....

But there are many who are currently fighting this battle.

And many more who have sadly succumb to some kind of blood cancer. 

One way you can help is to be a blood donor.

Blood donors literally saved my life.  

And for that I'm grateful. 

When you give blood,

you have the ability to save someone's 

LIFE!

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my ramblings...

Have a great Labor Day,

whatever you may be doing,

where ever you may be.

Trying to keep it simple....

Tammy

Happy Birthday Rhea!

We celebrated our granddaughter's birthday last weekend. 

 She turned one.

It was a simple party with family.

The weather was perfect.

The hot dogs over the campfire...the marshmallows, cake and cookies...they were all perfect too!

This child is precious...

take a look-see.

I'm sure you'll agree!

Gotta love that bib too!

Big brother Jack enjoyed himself as well....

He's precious too...

I'm not biased or anything...

It won't be long until we'll be celebrating his birthday.  He's gonna be 3.  Oh how fast they grow.

My daughter snapped this pic of my girl and me. 

(I stole it from her blog.. 

http://luckieus.blogspot.com/)

I sure hope that as she grows up, she will feel the same way about me, that I feel about my grandmother.  I loved her sooo much!  Still do.

She's in heaven now, but is sorely missed. 

 It is my hope that this grandma will also be missed... one day.... 

Not anytime soon though!!

A Scrapbook page dedicated to my grandma

Projects that have been keeping me from blogging...Project # 6 Party Centerpieces

Another project that kept me busy this spring was making these lovely little centerpieces.  

One of my water exercise students, Mary Frances, celebrated her 

80th birthday.  So when her daughter decided to give her a huge party to celebrate the milestone, our water class decided our gift to her would be the table centerpieces.

After finally deciding on what type of (easy clean up)

centerpiece we'd use, 

a few of us crafty girls got together and began 

creating!

We decided to make these lovely little tissue paper flower boxes.

Michael's has a lovely selection of coordinating tissue paper and Chinese food boxes.  They come in a variety of colors and prints.

We designed each box to coordinate
 with a specific table cloth

The result was

  FABULOUS!!

Mary Frances was totally surprised!

Don't you love how Jesus is in the background
watching over the celebration!?

Happy 80th Birthday Girlfriend!!