Why my house is a wreck

Please don't come visit me this week. I mean, I love each and every one of you and I'd love for you to come see me, but my house looks like a tornado hit it. Stuff laying around everywhere, abandoned wherever it happened to fall. It's pathetic.

Sure, I have a million excuses.

- We just got back from a big trip and we've been desperately trying to get back in the school routine.
- I've had tons of papers to grade, lessons to plan, worksheets to create, and records to get up to date.
- We're in the middle of softball season and we've had games or practices most days.
- L had an extra day of dance to make-up for missing 2 classes.
- Mr. at Home has had to work from the office all week as well as a couple of evening commitments.
- When he's home, I've had evening commitments.
- Dentist appointment.
- Science class.
- K's birthday.

You get the picture. Normally, we're pretty laid-back around here, but everything has kinda stacked-up all at once. Not to mention that the weather has been gorgeous and it seems criminal to waste it being inside.

But honestly? Those are just excuses. I mean, it's all true, but I've been a bit preoccupied with other things. The truth is that pumpkin that I posted below and that little house collage that I made at my art club has ignited my crafty flame and I've been ignoring the cleaning so I could do a little experimenting. Between a blog giveaway featuring Etsy shops and another blog showing off some crochet creations, I've seen a few things I was just dying to recreate.

Dying.

Who doesn't think that's a good excuse to ignore the mundane things like cleaning?

My first creation is a picture frame. Well, it's more of a big block of wood that's been decorated and outfitted with a clip to hold a picture.


I love the way it turned out. Of course, since I had a fall colored frame, I had to have a picture with coordinating fall colors. The girls happened to be dressed (kinda) right today and we drove past a pumpkin "patch", so we stopped and took a picture for my frame.

My second crafty attempt meant that I had to make sure I even remembered how to crochet since I hadn't touched my yarns since early spring. I grabbed my crochet basket as we ran out the door to science class. While K was learning about electricity and L was tracing her letters, I did a few practice stitches and started my project. After science, we went to the park where I kept going round and round, then after church tonight I finished it. It took a few times to unravel and re-knit parts and a couple of kludges at the end to help shape it, but here's my crocheted cupcake.


You could tell it was a cupcake, right? Right?

You want to know what the absolute best thing about both of those projects is? I didn't spend a dime to make them. They were made with stuff I already had in my stash, except the scrapbook paper for the frame. I went to buy that one sheet and got to talking with the owner of the shop. K happened to give her the idea to host a show-and-tell night and the owner liked it so much that she gave us the sheet of paper.

Friday night we're having K's birthday party. She's having a friend spend the night and I'm taking them to Cajun Canvas to paint a picture of a cupcake. Hence the whole reason I just had to make that little crocheted cupcake. The incredibly nice owner even lined up a tea party company to bring in tea and cupcakes. It's open to everyone if you'd like to join us. Just go to cajuncanvas.com and register.

You can see us there. Not here. There. Because I make no promises that I'll have my house presentable by then.