Friendship Gifts

Saturday night, Marty and I were invited to a dinner party...with real grown-ups and with real adult conversation.

Yeah, that never, ever happens.

Marty and I were SO excited to be included with a group of our very favorite bloggers/tweeters. At first, I wasn't nervous at all because I already know most of them, but then I started having this freak-out that this was a "Dinner for Schmucks" kind of thing where each guest invites the biggest loser/freak they know and try to see who's guest is the weirdest. Umm, yeah. I have a problem.

Anyway, I quickly brushed that thought out of my mind, and focused my attention of bringing everyone a little token of friendship. After bouncing a few ideas around, I decided I would vinyl some cups. Simple right? WRONG!

I immediately knew what I wanted to do for Stephanie, the hostess, so I ordered the perfect cups and worked on her designs. But the other two, I had to use my stealth skills to figure out what to make. When I say "stealth skills", I mean Twitter and texting. Thanks to Katherine and Jamie for humoring me...and especially Katherine who answered my texts FROM NEW YORK. Yeah, I have no shame. I'll just come right out and text someone while they are in New York on a business trip. What's next? A FUNERAL?

Anyway, after a few trips and multiple color changes, these are what I managed to come up with:

 Since Stephanie was the hostess, she got two cups.

 I love, love, love Stephanie's blog logo. Her chicken is hysterical! Stephanie likes wine, so I thought these Vino-to-go cups would be awesome!

Back of the cup, with Stephanie's blog name, Plain Chicken.

I didn't love this cup, but hey...It's got Stephanie's name all over it...

 

Literally!  HAHA!

This is Katherine's cup.  Kat said her favorite drink is Diet Coke, so I made her a Tervis-like cup.

Kat's blog is Grass Stains, so I just had to add a little green! Well, that and she likes blue and green.

Jamie said her favorite drink was coffee, so I thought an insulated coffee cup would be perfect. 

Jamie's blog is Jamie's Rabbits, so what else would I have put on her cup?

It's just too bad that Jamie's cup decided to dive out of the car and onto the concrete when we got to Stephanie's house. :/  It survived, but did have a couple extra dings in it.

We all had a fabulous time (I mean, seriously fantastic...like I want to do it every week, kind of fantastic), but I'll have to tell that story a little later in the week!

I hope y'all are doing well and will have an awesome week!

Total randomness

It's the start of yet another week! I honestly cannot believe it is JUNE! This year is already half over!

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Our footloose and fancy free summer gets pushed to the back burner for the next couple of weeks because Jameson has Science Camp. We I will miss getting to sleep late, but am so glad that he LOVES Science Camp!

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My Mama and Chelsea went out to eat with all of my maternal aunts on Friday. They get together for every sister's birthday. This time, it was my Aunt Betsy's big day!

L-R, Aunt Nina, Chelsea, Aunt Cat, Mama, and Aunt Betsy

I love all of these women more than anything in this world!

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They make the most hysterical greeting cards these days. This is the card Jameson gave his teacher on the last day of school.

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I have decided that watching our cat bathe herself is highly entertaining!

 

Just look at that face!

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If you have been around here for any length of time, you know how much I love Lane Bryant clothes.  BUT, these choices have me rethinking my adoration:

 Where is her butt?

^ Is offered for the low price of $59.00!

 

Now I have nothing against prints, but this bold print along with the weird style of pant...well, let's just say you won't be finding these in my closet!

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Jameson and I grabbed some fast food on our way to buy groceries yesterday.  The tag on the car in front of me caught my attention:

WHY would you want a tag that says that?  And if you did have a good reason for wanting a tag to say that, WHY on earth would you put it on a "Helping Schools" tag?

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And finally, during the same fast food trip as mentioned above, we realized that a wooden toothpick fits perfectly into the bottom well of a soda cup.

Jameson didn't put it there, it got stuck in there after he set his drink down into the cup holder.

Who knew?

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I hope you all have a wonderful week! Summer is here, y'all!

Mama's Mumblings

Hey friends!

I hope you are all enjoying  this warmer weather! It seems to have gone from Winter to Summer here. No Spring for us, but that's not unusual for Alabama. I hope everyone is recovering from the floods and tornadoes that have seemed to plague so many of you!

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School is finally officially out for the summer! Jameson had a really great year. He made all A's for the year, and got several awards at Awards day.  We are so proud of how hard he works!

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Speaking of Jameson, he has easily fallen back into the summer sleep schedule. He slept until 11:20 this morning! He never, ever sleeps that late!  Of course, I am LOVING not having to set an alarm 3 days a week! That changes next week, though, when Jameson starts two weeks of Science Camp.

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It's strawberry picking time! We picked strawberries at Watts Farm for the first time last year and had a blast, so we knew we had to go again this year. We only picked 2 gallons last year and they didn't last a full week, so we picked 4 gallons this year!

Soaking in a vinegar and water bath!

4 Gallons of berries ready for the freezer with a bowl macerating with sugar for cake!

If you live in the Northeast Alabama area and want the best strawberries you've ever eaten, Watts Farm is the place to go!

 

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Marty got the Redneck Rivera swimming pool cleaned and ready for swimming this weekend. My two great-nieces came over for some fantastic pool-time fun!

Jessie flying through the air!

He's not too sure about swimming around with 4 girls.  LOL

Kacie and Chelsea decided they enjoyed watching more than swimming.

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The "Business" continues to be active, especially with Mother's Day and the end of school. My dining/craft room is worse than it's ever been, but I am hoping I'll have a chance to sort/clean/organize some now that school is done. Here are a few recent orders.

Frames are still my favorite thing to do!

Have you ever seen a pink Iron Man?

I'm working on something that will hopefully make looking/ordering things easier for everyone.

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I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Thank you

On this Memorial Day (and every other day), I am so thankful to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedom.

 

 

 Thank you for all those who have served, and God Bless all those family members and friends who were left behind.

Teacher's gift idea.

Hey friends!

So much has happened since the last time I posted.  Many thoughts and prayers to all of those affected by the Oklahoma storms!  We have a niece that lives in Moore. Thankfully, she is OK, as well as her home. She said she lives 0.8 miles from the hospital that was hit. Unfortunately, many Alabamians know exactly what they are going through.

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Yesterday was Jameson's awards day, so it was unofficially his last day of school. He didn't know it was his last day of school until this morning, when he woke up at 8:00 and thought we were running really late. HAHA!  I love surprises!

Anyway, since yesterday was his last day, we wanted to give his fabulous teacher a gift to show her how much we appreciated her this year.  It was her first year of teaching, and we think she did fantastic! All the kids love her, as did the parents. I wanted to make he something really special, that had a lot of meaning, and wasn't the typical figurine or lotion set. After weeks of thought, this is what I came up with.

 

These are the names of all the children that had been in her class at one point during the year.

On the front, I wanted to make it funny, so I put "I survived my 1st year of teaching!"  She has a wonderful sense of humor, so I know she will appreciate that.  HAHA!

Jameson and Ms. Upton

Hugging after she read his (hysterical) card and got her gift card (I did the shirt plus a gift card). I LOVE the fact that our school still believe in HUGS!

Ms. Upton after opening her shirt.

I think it was a hit (at least with some of the other teachers I know), so I'm glad I was able to figure out how to design it and make it work.

Even though it was a great school year, I am SO glad to have my baby boy home with me for the summer! Lazy days are here again!