Just Make Stuff

Fabric wreath...

One of the tasks on my graduation party prep list was the guest bathroom door that had an empty hook for month and months...and probably a few more months than that. I took a pile of fabric scraps and stitched together 1x6 inch strips end to end to wrap around a foam wreath. And then I moved onto much more important party planning tasks like food and stuff.

The very, very end...

At the beginning of the month, I passed on a file box, a stuffed binder and fifteen other boxes of cheerleading supplies to the new cheer booster president. However I had not finished the littlest, biggest thing yet. I needed to pass on all the electronic files on a flash drive.

I wanted to clean out the duplicates and non-essential files and then take the time to write up "how-to" notes for meetings, fundraisers and events. I finished last Friday afternoon...it was just over 1,000 items including around twenty single-spaced pages of notes...that was longer than writing up the final project for my master's degree.

And then I needed to craft a little chain of wood beads for it, right? I loved these keychains made with leather cord and this tutorial for painting wood beads is a brilliant idea. I was all sentimental that this was my last time crafting with school colors...where did the last four years go?

So this is it...the very, very end of the high school cheer. Thankfully we have a new set of school colors and more cheerleading in our future.

Dear Mac Graduation Gift...

Sometime early in Mac's senior year, I decided I would ask our family, friends and his teachers to write a note to include in a book to give him for graduation. 

In early April I printed "Dear Mac" notes on card stock, put together a letter explaining the gift, and asked a friend if she would be willing to have all the notes mailed to her house. Each mailing envelope had the blank note, the letter, and a pre-addressed and postage-paid return envelope inside. For Mac's teachers I went to the school and asked to put them in their mailboxes and everyone else's was mailed to them.

My original plan was to have them all printed into a bound book, but there was a delay with several of the letters, so time for that ran out. Instead I purchased a binder and stack of page protectors. 

The notes from everyone were all so incredibly sweet. I put them all together to surprise him when he got home from the graduation ceremony. Then, after we took down the "Mac Wall" graduation decoration, I included all the photos in the book too. 

Mac Wall...

I only planned one homemade-ish decoration for Mac's graduation party. No banners, no crafts...just a bunch of mylar gold star balloons from the dollar store and covering the empty wall in our dining room with photos from Mac's high school years.

It went from his first day of high school to his last day of classes senior year. That nervous first day photo in the corner still makes me want to reach into it and hug that kid.

I gathered forty favorite photos from the last four years, edited them into black & white squares and had them all printed as 8x8 photos from Costco. while I arranged the order of the photos on the dining room table, Sean made sure a long piece of blue painters tape was level on the wall so we had place to start, and then we stuck each one up with more painters tape on the back.

Mac was less than thrilled, since he decided several of the photos were, "Sooo embarrassing, Mom!", but I knew it would be fun for all of our friends and family to see. 

All the photos were then tucked into the other only idea I had for Mac's graduation that I'll share tomorrow.

Not the usual thank you notes...

Mac's graduation party was the largest celebration we have hosted in four years and the largest by far that we have ever cooked a meal for. Mac requested a spaghetti and meatball dinner, so Sean and I made the sauce, meatballs, salad dressing and croutons, garlic bread and assembled ninety desserts. We started prepping on Tuesday and worked every day until Saturday, an hour before the party, when the electricity went out.

As we went outside to see if it was an isolated incident at our house, we heard the transformers blow at the local power station.

Uh oh. (except add bad words)

Saturday was the start of a heatwave and apparently everyone had a little too much power going. 

Sean went to the grocery store to get more ice and I started pacing on our front porch as I made phone calls. My sister and her husband, our friends, Mac's dad, his sister and brother-in-law and my brother all came to our rescue. Thankfully all the food was cooked and just needed to be warmed. We had already borrowed several crock pots to serve from, so if we could get them plugged in we figured we could still feed everyone. We gathered a generator, a gas can, an extra ez-up, more coolers with ice and extra hands to help.

Then the power came back on just minutes before the party was supposed to start. My brother helped Sean and I get everything ready to serve, Mac and his dad greeted everyone as they showed up and we had ourselves a party. 

Up until now, I think our best worst party story was when the police showed up several years ago. No electricity and almost sixty people to feed now wins the nightmare hosting story contest...may it never, ever have more competition. 

I made notes to send to everyone who helped us. Hopefully you'll never need these, but just in case, here's a sheet you can print...electricity thank you notes.

The graduate...

It's amazing to get to the end of a day and know that it will be one of the very best days I'll ever have as a mom. 

Love you so, so much Mac...congratulations!

Until 2020...

Mac graduates this Thursday so we are in full party-prep mode for a celebration this weekend. This card isn't for him, it was actually for our neighbor who had a college graduation party last weekend. I copied the super cute idea from Kiki and Company and just added school colors. This will officially be my graduation gift for every party until 2020. 

Here is the file if you still have grad gifts to give...graduation card.

Thank you...

I would have never guessed that sharing about my recent blogging education going awry, that I would get the chance to read such kind words. Thank you so much for taking the time to say something. I have no intention of changing a thing.

Well, I take that back, I like changing lots of things (it's another one of my one hundred hobbies), but any little change I would make, now or in the future, would be just for fun.

I just wanted to get rid of the neurotically, self-induced "this isn't a purposeful blog" guilt and get back to complete and total sporadic, random details, like the a BLT with the first ripe tomato of the summer.

Oh and sharing good projects too...I just have to finish them.

Hobby Blogging...

I have developed a guilty pleasure. Listening and reading about blogging and creative business. 

My favorites are... Elise Gets Crafty, Being Boss, Melyssa Griffin, The Blog Market, & Elle & Co. 

However, I have absolutely no aspirations to have a creative business or to put the efforts into a thriving blog with a significant following. 

Actually, the few hundred people that follow along on here are really significant to me already. 

So, this new little learning more about blogging past-time has completely backfired. After 11 years of having a blog, I have been feeling as if I am doing it completely wrong.

I am supposed to have a catchy title for each post, I am supposed to use keywords for SEO (still don't totally understand all that stuff), I am supposed to teach you something with long, informative posts, I am supposed to focus in a niche, and I am supposed to build an email list of followers. 

Over the years, I have genuinely enjoyed making little blogging-focused improvements like banners, organizing the sidebar, trying to take good photos or having an "about page" because when I find a new blog I love heading to their about page. This is all just a hobby for me though...add it to the list with card-making, cooking, crocheting, scrapbooking, gardening, planners, house decorating, and gift-making.

Not going to lie, seeing a project you crafted up being pinned more than 135,000 times is pretty cool. But, I would never be able to crank out projects with a goal of popularity in mind. In fact, that usually ruins my mind. I will also never be consistent...sometimes there might be one party, organizing idea, or craft project after another. Most of the time it will be just one inane detail after another with just a handful of words...a leaf changing, photos of tomatoes growing or a photo of my desk buried in schoolwork.

I've wanted to write about this for a couple of weeks now...to acknowledge that this little tiny blog will never have any purpose in this great big world. Yet, it's always been purposeful in my world. It's one of my favorite hobbies and, no matter what I learn about how it should or could be, it will be a place where I just make stuff....occasionally. 

Happy weekend...

We use these lids over and over each week, but especially now that we are home all day and there is plenty of iced coffee to sip on...and endless mason jars of cold water too.

This week flew by. Five small house projects are each about halfway done. We have Mac's graduation party next weekend, so all the party prep ideas we have need to start real, real soon.

Not much to share...

But I figured colors and patterns are more fun to look at than an Ikea aisle. The triangle fabric is being used for a project in our upstairs hallway. The paint samples are for a piece of furniture downstairs, although I decided to go in an entirely different direction. And the other fabric has no purpose other than I just couldn't resist it when I was shopping for the triangle one. 

Happy weekend...

Here's a hint on what's going on around here. I'll be back...