Merry Christmas!

Thanks to all of you for being so patient while I've been on a blogging break! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

Gobble Gobble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Post craft show crash

Hey friends...or all of you that have managed to stick around in my absence. It's only been, what?  3 weeks since I've posted. I've never gone that long without posting since I started this blog. The thing is, I've been so busy with everything else, I just completely ran out of time to post. Insane!

Thanks for all the well-wishes for Marty in my last post. Fortunately, he was able to go back to work a couple of weeks ago. He's had some problems after a few long, overtime days, but he's still managed to work through it. As much as I loved having Marty home, I'm glad to be back in sort of a normal routine again.

The craft show was this past weekend. The weather was cool, but good. It started off full of sunshine, but ended with overcast skies. I didn't have the best sales day, but I managed to squeak out a tiny profit for the day. But, I did have a wonderful time spending the day with my sister and brother-in-law. I am so thankful they came to spend the day with us! My space was also sandwiched between some of my favorite friends in the world, so that was an added bonus! I also enjoyed seeing many friends and family. Thanks to all of those that came and supported our community!

Here are a few items Blueberry Hill Handmade offered at the show:

There has been a couple of articles in our local paper about recent Bigfoot sightings in our area, so a couple of us took the Bigfoot idea and ran with it. They were a big hit!

If you like anything you see here, please visit my page Blueberry Hill Handmade.

I thought this was awesome. Two of my friends had their own booth and we thought it was so funny that our shirts matched!

We had to get Mr. Harmon in on the picture!

Even though I had a wonderful time with friends and family, I'm not sure I will be doing any more craft shows.  It was WEEKS of stress, planning, work, and time away from my family (and a lot of money) for not a lot of profit. Most of the things I make are personalized, so coming up with things that are "generic" is difficult. I'm not saying I definitely won't participate any more, but for now, I'll keep working and growing the business online.


For the past two days, I've wanted NOTHING to do with crafting and have tried to just spend some quality time with my family. We spent yesterday at church, then out to eat, and then to the movies to see Thor. Once we got home, we did nothing but watch cheesy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel.  Today, I didn't want to deal with anything, but ended up spending most of the day responding to texts, answering e-mails, getting up a t-shirt order, and cutting some things that should have been cut weeks ago. I'm completely in crash mode. Now I get to spend the next two days 100 miles away from home at work. Hopefully, by the time Thursday rolls around, I'll be back into the crafting groove!

I hope you all have a wonderful, no-stress week!!!  Hopefully, it won't be 3 weeks before I am back again!

Mama's Mumblings I've been away a while!

Hey friends!  The few of y'all that have stuck around in my absence.  I did not have plans to take an impromptu break. It just sort-of happened.  At the end of my long days, I just haven't had the energy or brain power to come up with any sort of decent post (if you can consider any of my blog posts decent. lol).  So, I thought I would just pop in and let everyone know that I'm still here!

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We should have known something was going to happen.  Every time Marty gets something new at work, his job or position changes and he doesn't get to enjoy his new equipment.  Well, Marty has been waiting several years for a new work truck, and he finally got it about 6 weeks ago.  About 4 weeks ago, Marty starting having a lot of pain in his hip and leg, and finally broke down and went to see someone about it.  They initially found out his hip was out of place, and after several chiropractic treatments, it was much better. Suddenly, his pain became worse than before.  After a MRI, they found he also has two bulging discs in his back.  He sees a neurologist on Friday, and may be having an epidural next week.  Of course, during this time, he's been out of work, and his poor new truck has just been sitting, waiting on Marty to come drive it.  Prayers for a complete recovery would be appreciated.

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Jameson and I went on a fantastic field trip to Stone Mountain last week.  The weather was perfect and all the kids behaved.  It was pretty much a perfect day!  We left Talladega at 6:30 that morning, and didn't get home until around 10:00 that night.  It was a LONG day, but we all had a blast!

I LOVE THESE KIDS!

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After several years of having the same schedule at work, things are changing.  We've had some staffing changes over the past few months, so I am being moved around to where I am needed the most.  I'm still doing phone triage, but am also working some out on the floor, too.  It's been a huge adjustment after sitting on my bootie for the past 7 years!  It is nice to actually be able to see some of my patients face to face now.

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Blueberry Hill Handmade has been booming!  I pretty much spend every waking hour that I'm not at my bill-paying job, working on Blueberry Hill orders.  My poor house is definitely suffering!  I could probably clean for a week and still have a ton of work left to do!  Oh well, the housework can wait, right?  Here are a couple of the fun Halloween things I've been working on.

My customer sent me a picture of this and asked me to recreate it.  I think it turned out really cute!

The pumpkin shirts have returned!  These are some of my favorite shirts ever!

My friend Katherine from Grass Stains sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, asking if I had ever thought about making reusable tote bags.  I hadn't thought of it, but decided to try making some, using Kat's great ideas!  I think they turned out SO CUTE!  I love making these!

If you are interested in anything you see here, or have something you would like for me to to make for you, visit my page Blueberry Hill Handmade.

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Speaking of Halloween, this is the first year since we've been in this house, that I have not decorated for Halloween.  I am SO BUMMED!  Since Marty hurt his back/hip, he can't get into the attic to get down all of our stuff, and my big ol' bootie ain't fitting up those steps, so I guess there won't be any witches' legs on display!  Also, our temporary front porch steps have been moved to get ready for more permanent front steps, so trick-or-treaters can't even get to our front door!  Not that we ever have any trick-or-treaters.  But those are on hold, too, until Marty's back/hip problems are fixed...and we try to bounce back financially from his not working for a month.  It's always something, right?

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*whew*  That's a lot to cover, and I'm sure there are 100 other things I meant to tell all of you, but just can't remember right this minute.  LOL  I hope you all are doing well, and I hope you have a fabulous week!

The Wisest Kid in the Whole World!

Jameson, my 11 year old son, is awesome.  He is so stinkin' clever and wise,  and I never know what he's going to say next!  This weekend, as he was running through the house, he stopped at my chair and said "You know what?  Eating dessert first never killed anybody!"

After I finished laughing, I thought about what he said, and realized he was right.  Eating dessert first never killed anybody, but boy can it be frustrating when your kids don't want to eat anything BUT dessert.

Jameson is SUCH a picky eater.  Until the past year-or-so, I honestly don't know how he survived because it seemed like he didn't eat enough calories to keep him going.  Obviously he did, but I'm afraid his "eat dessert first" mentality is the only way he did survive.  Fortunately (?), his eating has definitely picked up over the past year, but finding things for him to eat other than pizza, burgers and chicken has been tough.

This is where Campbell's and the Wisest Kid in the Whole World came to my rescue.  Campbell's Wisest Kid the the Whole World is the ultimate expert on what makes kids happy.  Through their recipe destination www.campbellskitchen.com, Campbell's gives you tons of new, kid-friendly recipes like Mini Chicken Pot Pies, and fun ways for your kids to eat tomato soup or chicken noodle soup.

I looked through all of their amazing and mouth-watering recipes, and immediately knew that their Pepperoni White Skillet Pizza recipe would be worth trying!  Pepperoni, chicken, noodles, and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup...what's not to like?

I decided to make it on a work night, so to speed the process up for me, I cooked my chicken all day in the crock pot.  (Chicken breasts and Swanson chicken broth, low, all day long).  When I walked in the door, the house already smelled wonderful, but once I started putting together all the other ingredients, the house smelled AMAZING!  Marty was as curious about the recipe as I was, and he helped me put everything together.  Once we completed the last step, we couldn't even wait for the final cook time to take several  a bite.

Photo from HERE because my picture shows off my messy cooktop.  HAHA!

OH MY WORD!  It tasted FABULOUS!  Marty and I spent a good 5 minutes just standing at the stove with forks eating straight from the pan!  I guess it's a good thing we aren't germaphobes.  Marty and I loved it, but the big question was, would Jameson like it?

Here's the big test...will he like it?

YES!  Success!  He liked it!!!  He liked it!!

Look at that huge second bite!

So YES Jameson, "Eating dessert first never killed anybody", but it sure is nice for you to eat your DINNER first, every once in a while!

Is your kid the Wisest Kid in the Whole World?  Do they say things that just make you scratch your head and then beam with pride because its just so clever?  Of course they do!  Through Campbell's Wisest Kid in the Whole World, you can share your kid's wise sayings with all your family and friends, and with the whole world!