Fun weekend!

Today my daughters and I took advantage of a rainy day to thrift shop. Salvation Army stores in our area had clothing items on sale for 88 cents each and Goodwill stores had half off everything. My oldest got a beautiful, full length wool coat, a suit for interviews, three blazers, a pencil skirt, a dress, a pair of khaki slacks, 3 casual skirts, a sweater coat, and several tops. She also got a pair of shoes. Middle got a new fall/winter jacket, 4 skirts, 3 tank tops, 1 pair of capris, and 14 tops. I found 3 pair of capris, 2 skorts, and several tops.

Yesterday we got most of the vegetable garden planted. It was large last year but this year's garden is even bigger. So far we have cabbage, sweet and hot peppers, peas, several varieties of lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, green beans, onions, tomatoes (6 varieties), cucumbers, eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, crook neck squash, pumpkins, asparagus, horse radish, rhubarb, raspberries, and the first of several plantings of corn. We still have to plant watermelon and some winter squash. If all grows as well this year as last, the pantry will be overflowing by the end of harvest. :-)

Saturday we celebrated our oldest's college graduation. We had a dessert and snack buffet for family and close friends. The weather was beautiful and the food was good, too. We experimented with a few new recipes and discovered at least one new favorite.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!

Challenges

 My oldest daughter graduated from college last night. She faces challenges almost daily due to chronic health issues. We are so proud of her for pushing through despite several setbacks and earning her degree. (I now have two children who are college graduates - where did the years go?)

 The second challenge was to make a mini scene depicting your favorite book and/or movie. The Small World forum I belong to has started doing challenges rather than contests. In this challenge, we all tried to guess the book/movie and the artist who made it. My all time favorite book is Gone with the Wind. I read it every summer from about 12 years old until well out of college. The green velvet dress came on a doll I got at a garage sale. I kept it when I redressed the doll. I didn't know why until this challenge came around, lol. I embellished it, made and dressed Mammy, and made the display from scratch.

Disaster!

This is the first thing I saw when I went to check out the crash. At least there was a bit of humor in the mess. :)

Well, I enjoyed having all of my children home for lunch today to celebrate Mother's Day. That is, until middle daughter's cat decided to climb the shelf I made from old drawers in the craft room. The shelf was loaded with several room boxes and all of my beads and buttons other craft supplies.The thundering crash was terrifying. The cat is still a bit jumpy. I was in tears until my daughter started crying because she thought it was all her fault. I comforted her and then both daughters helped with clean up. Surprisingly, damage was minimal but I am still missing a chair and a couple of very tiny things. The positive to all of this is that I now have a brand new, very stable, shelving unit that holds even more supplies and all of the rooms.

New toys

 I found this at a garage sale for 50 cents yesterday. I think I can turn it into something really cool. Fingers crossed. ;-)

Then Again got a mail box today. Just a piece of craft metal folded into shape with paper holders glued on the back. I am happy with the results.

Mini Thanks

 The teacher in whose classroom I work is celebrating a birthday tomorrow. I wanted to make a little something to show her that I appreciate all that she does. This mini living room shows what many teachers' evenings are like.

 She teaches third grade so all the papers are examples of work the students actually do in her class. The top in each stack has answers written in although the multiplication facts answers are only scribbles as the numbers are too tiny to read. You'll notice the poor dog waiting patiently with his leash and empty bowl.

 The sandwich is an inexpensive pre-made mini from years ago. A friend made the apple and the cup and plate are from the teapots I used for ornaments this past Christmas.

 The math text book is the one we actually use at our school. A little detail that I'm excited about is the recliner handle. I recently acquired the small circle beads and with a carved piece of cocktail fork they make a very realistic handle.

I had a tiny scrap of school themed fabric. I used those apples on several items to carry my teacher theme throughout the tiny room.

I had a lot of fun making this project. I hope Mrs. M. enjoys it!