Catch a Lucky Charm

 We're having another bit of a rainy day so I'm staying inside catching up on a few things before I sit back and just enjoy Fri-yay! Let's head into the kitchen and see what luck we can find.

I love the carpenter's box all full of St. Pat's goodies and I'm glad I brought the little Irish cottages back out this year. I still don't have a spot to display the beautiful Irish themed bone china that my dad gave to my mom many years ago. The last time I had them out, I was dusting and couldn't see all of the shelf that they were on. I lifted something and the saucer that was under it fell to the ground and broke in enough pieces that all of my jerry-rigging talents couldn't begin to help. I was so sad to think that my mom had kept them safe oh so many years and then I had to be the one to break a piece. I immediately got online to see if I could find the same pattern anywhere but I wasn't able to. I'm thinking it's been long enough that maybe I will have to try that again.

The little shamrock cutting board is so cute-wish I could find a larger one somewhere. And this is where the $Tree Mason jar makeover found a home. I thought it was appropriate for it to land in the kitchen.

I laugh every time I bring out that picture of my grandson in that hat. He was supposed to be an Irish "gent" for his school's "Around the World" parade. And, he looked absolutely perfect when that silly green hair was tucked up into the hat-the only one close to what we needed that we could find. But, a friend of his spied some hair kind of sticking out a little and this is what we got. Let me just say that this was an event that parents and grand parents were not invited to or we would have caught this before they marched. Everyone thought he was supposed to be a leprechaun-which I guess is fine but that was not our goal. Lol

This is where the new little shelf sitter ended up-on a shelf. Lol

So that is the kitchen for this year.

I've had a fun and busy weekend this week topped off by our trip to Gainesville for grand daughter #5's first official lacrosse game. Since it was in Gainesville, lots of the family was able to attend and we had quite the cheering section-especially after Presley scored the first goal. Her dad, who is a coach on the H.S. boys' lacrosse team had to leave early as they had a game across town at another school. And, it was so sweet of her older brother, who is in college in CT, made a face-time call to congratulate her right after he heard about the goal and the win!

I think she has found her passion. She has tried many other things but none of them struck the spark in her like this has. Maybe it's because she has all of the equipment in their backyard and she has been playing for years with her brothers. I'm not sure, but I am so proud of her. She is a bit like me and doesn't always thrive on competition so just the fact that she is out there makes me so proud of her...and, I must say, she is scrappy-as some of these action pictures taken by my sister-in-law will show. That girl had the ball a lot and when she didn't, she was doing everything in her power to get it! Lol

Hope to be back soon but I have a list a mile long for the weekend and then on Monday we are going to the Livestock Show where grandson #2 will be appearing with the steer he has been raising. He won't be able to actually do the showing as he still hasn't been fully cleared after his surgery but he has found a friend who knows lots about cattle and he will be able to show the steer for him. This is a new one for me. I don't know a lot about FFA and what all it entails but he seems to be enjoying it so we will see what there is to see. If I get any photos, I will be sure to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.

The Wearin' of the Green

 I'm back after a busy number of days. Daughter #2 was here on Friday and even though we were doing a bit of a belated birthday celebration for her, she came bearing gifts for me. She stopped at the Fresh Market in Gainesville and brought me all of my favorite foods (we don't have one here in Ocala) and then went to The Upper Crust-an incredible bakery in the same plaza-and brought me pastries in my favorite flavors...and the of course, spring flowers. And just in time too as my other ones were beginning to droop a bit. The pussy willows from my brother and sister-in-law are still fine-as a matter of fact, when I am done with spring flowers I will dry them and you will see them many more times-so another beautiful bouquet is on my bar where I see it often and I have even been known to carry it with me when I'm going to be in another room for awhile. Spring flowers just make me so happy.

And then I started to take down Valentine's Day and put up St. Patrick's Day. We had a rainy weekend so it worked out perfectly. This is more of a swap out than I remembered because everything red is OUT and in comes all of the GREEN...including all of the candles. But, I got it done (except for packing up all of the Valentine stuff) so I thought we could at least start our tour.

Lucky for me the clover plants grow wild around here-even in places where I don't plant them. I used to dig them up from the gardens for the holiday but this year they filled almost every urn that I have-all on their own. Some of them bloom with white flowers and others have a violet colored blooms. They are so delicate and pretty.

This is where the new image on the dictionary page landed.

I still love the leprechaun hats that my grand daughters and I made many years ago to give to the family as gifts.

And this is where the faux tile shamrock ended up.

So that is the porch and living room for this year. Not really much change-just a few new crafts added to the mix.

And, I got the picture from grand daughter #5's first lacrosse game. It was cold and we were all bundled up-don't know how those girls could stand it in short sleeves and shorts-guess all of the running around helps! It is an interesting story about how she got to play this year. When she was in middle school, she played on a co-ed team and wanted to play in high school but her high school doesn't have a girls' program. She goes to a private school and our county has a plan where children who go to private schools and their schools don't offer a sport that they are interested in can play at a public school that does. As it turns out, this is the school she would attend if she were to go to public school so she knows lots of the kids and is so happy that she is getting this opportunity!

This is definitely lacrosse season for this gang. My oldest grandson just started his college season on Saturday-and actually got in for a few plays which was a surprise to us because he is just a freshman. Always fun to be watching the games on TV and see him on the screen! And then my son-in-law is coaching the high school boys' lacrosse team where grandson #2 is a player but out for the season because of an injury and surgery. That has been hard for him but hopefully he'll be back to full steam soon.

So, that is it for around here. Thinking I will begin to tackle some of the leaves later this week but I'll be back as soon as I can. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Hippity Hop Again...Backwards

 We're hippity hopping again today but this time we're heading back to St. Pat's. My last few crafts have been for Valentine's Day but since my next decor swap will be to St. Pat's, and I had time on my hands, I found a few more "green" things to try.

I was in at my computer trying to stay out of the way of the "window guys" who were here to fix a broken ballast or something in one of my large living room windows. I was scrolling through Pinterest when I saw a cute little St. Pat's shelf sitter made on an old, large wood thread spool. I had been gifted a box of spools many years ago so I kind of liked the idea. But then, of course, when I looked for the spools, I remembered that my grandchildren and I had made family gifts using all of the spools many years ago. But now, of course, I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

And so I hit my craft closet and found a few left over wood cubes from another grandchild project and thought I could make it work in place of the spool.

And, by now I was watching a craft blogger on my computer and this seemed like a simple project so I decided to stay put and craft right there...hence the even worse than normal lighting. Lol

I printed an image I liked, cut it out of card stock and backed it with more card stock to give it more stability. When I held it up to the cube, I felt like the proportions were off and that the image would need something to make it a big larger.

That's when I grabbed a large unfinished shamrock. I painted the back and ModPodged some scrapbook paper on the front. While those were drying, I painted the block and then distressed the edges.

It was at this point that I decided I needed to move out to the sunroom table because there would be some drilling necessary and, I had come up with another simple idea.

 If you look carefully, you can see that I glued the shamrock and the children together and added two short pieces of a bamboo skewer to the bottom back. I marked the cube and drilled two holes.

 I love my Dremel so much but I especially love it for its drill attachments when I am crafting. It is so much lighter and easier to control than trying to struggle with my full size drill on this kind of a project. I got lucky on guessing which size bit to use-the image actually fit into the holes perfectly-and tightly-and I didn't even need any glue.

Then, I played around with how I wanted to embellish it. I ended up using green moss and some more of those little shamrocks that I have. The cube looked a bit empty so I just used a shamrock 3-D sticker that I had in my scrapbooking stash.

And, as I was scrolling, I saw an image of a shamrock wreath impose over a dictionary page. I actually have something very similar but I like this image so I simply printed it out and added it to a frame that I had. Not sure where it will go but St. Pat's is one holiday where I can always use another decor item or two.

 My craft pile is growing...it is time to decorate and use some of these goodies. I would normally be doing my swap starting tomorrow but daughter #2 is coming down for the day on Friday and, since I know the transformation will not happen in just one day, I don't want her to have to climb over Rubbermaids and move things just to find a place to sit. Lol And so, I will wait until Saturday.

I'm off to enjoy this gorgeous Valentine's Day! I'm running a bit slower today because we had another lacrosse game last night and I was out later than usual. There's a picture out there but it is still on my very busy daughter's phone but, when it makes its way to me, I will be sure to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.