LETS GIVE AWAY A HAT!!!!






Here is the hat that one of us will get :)





The SJC Flapper Beanie....you can pick the size...from infant to pre-teen :)



I'm going to give you LOTS of ways to enter:

Each is one entry:

1) Leave me a comment. Say whatever: Tell me how cool you think Jenel is. Tell me something that you have crocheted. Tell me who you would like to teach to crochet and how you learned. Tell me why you'd like to learn.

2) Leave a comment on another of my posts.

3) Follow this blog.

4) Add my button to your blog:



<<center><a href="http://www.handfulofellers.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" view¤t="blogbutton.gif" = alt="blog button" src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c392/ellerfam/blogbutton.gif" target="_blank"/><img http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c392/ellerfam/?action/></a>/></center>

5) Blog about this giveaway.

6)Here is my FAVORITE!!!

Go to Jenel's site and contribute. She needs $1.00 for supplies for each hat. I will give you 1 entry for each $1.00 you give. Come back here and tell us why you gave.


Enter at will. Giveaway will end July 8th, in honor of my little man's first birthday!!

Come Meet My New Friend!!

Do you make a friend and then run home and call all your other friends to tell them about her so you can all be friends? Ya uh...me neither....

BUT! I stumbled upon an amazing blog/person that I think you should meet!!

Jenel at Simply J Crochet






So you get how cool she is, right? She makes incredibly hats on her Etsy...Oh no she is cooler still, she has three BEAUTIFUL little boys and guess what she took on:


She is making 250 hats for the premature newborns staying at Ronald McDonald House...you can read about her project here.




Jenel has offered to let me host a giveaway!! BUT I am head over heals with everything she makes!!! Will you do me a favor and head over to her Etsy:



and tell me what you think should be the object of my giveway?

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY!!!








Nathanael Andrew.
My first baby. My risk taker. My first joy of parenting. My first son, my first teen. We have told you that you are not going to be a teen. Nothing will change this year and that we won't tolerate "teen" behavior." Yet there is no denying that you have been alive for 13 years. That is a fact. A black and white, numeric fact. Teen is in there. Yet we can see the man that you are becoming and are so proud of who that is.

You are so many things.

You are gentle. You are such a good big brother and do well by your younger siblings. Remarkably well. I dont know how you can follow a toddler around all day and not be annoyed. But, you can.

You are genreous and thoughtful. Beyond belief.

You are strong. You have shown such character in relationships. You forgive so easily and don't hold a grudge. I admire your ability to extend Grace. You are a great friend always willing to extend a hand.

You are impulsive and we are constantly on you for it. But with that you are spontaneous and always up for anything including hard work. A mom once told me that if you can have one friend over, you want it to be Nate because then it is an instant party.

You are discerning about people but so quick to offer Grace and not judgement.

We tease you about being over dramatic. You are, BUT, man if I had to choose one person to be on my cheering side. It'd be you. I KNOW you'd be heard from a far and mean it from teh bottom of your heart. And one person to cry with me. You'd gladly cry your eyes out. Because you care like that.

We tell you often that you overdo things. And you do. BUT what fun you can make out of nothing. You don't just paint in art, you cover yourself too. You can't just feed the ducks at Waller park. Somehow you end up in the water. The smelly dirty water. You enjoy life. You don't sit by and let it come to you, you run at life and attack it.

Projects at My House (A Reality Check)

I don't compare myself to others. Honest. I'm just not competitive. But, I do WANT to be MY best. If you have a secret to making amazing dinners then I want that secret. But, if your secret is that you have a full time cook...it is good for me to know that and know that I can't afford to do the same and move on.

I see these amazing home projects on people's blogs and I am in awe. Melissa pointed out that it, at times it takes her months and months to get it done and that we don't see the in between. Kristen told us that the secret to her amazing kitchen redo was sanding during nap time and painting until midnight every night. Edie said that her kitchen WAS a big deal and she also worked along side a hired professional. I get that. My rose colored glasses are off.

I got these pictures from someone on freecycle.......Floral prints. Matted and framed in peach wooden frames. Circa 1980 Home Interiors.

I had these amazing pictures of my boys from a photographer friend.

And I have a very plain bathroom: no decorations, not even a towel bar.

I asked my husband to paint the frames. He said, "you can't paint when it's windy." It is ALWAYS windy here. Seriously. I laugh out loud every time someone comes to visit and says, "Gee, it's windy TODAY." I finally learned to smile and say "Yes it is." Then I remembered Kristen saying that when she redid her amazing kitchen she sanded during nap time and painted until midnight. HEY!! We have nap time! I am up past midnight!!

Sooo....I took TWO days worth of nap times (Yes, that IS kind of like a "month of Sundays." It took that long just to get the frames separated from the prints and matting and glass. Then I sanded. I also went to buy spray paint. I dis ask the hardware guy if I needed a special kind of paint. he was convinced that I didn't want black spray paint. I am not 13 and needing to be talked out of an EMO phase, honest. I bought black. I contemplated buying the little plastic nozzle attachment. I didn't though.

So, I painted. I had originally planned to paint in a cardboard box but I forgot about that when it came teim to paint. no big deal. Just two quick frames.... In retrospect I am glad that I chose the grass and not the garage floor. I checked the direction of the wind. Checked and rechecked. Yet, my feet and calves are now speckled black. Noticeably. And my hands--did I need to know that my hands couldn't indeed get uglier? Wouldn't have believed it.


AND. I thought that I could just place the pictures OVER the matting. NOPE there are funky cut outs....and 12x12 scrapbook paper didn't work either........

Why do seemingly simple thigns always ahve to get sooo complicated? I'm full of energy and eager and a hard worker. Why is nothing done?

I was going for HGTV, DIYer..not I LOVE LUCY. Yet here we are :) You want to see the finished product? Yeah, so do I.















o

"Don't Judge Me"

I really do have great kids. We don't tolerate name calling or allow bad language. ANY. (what does happen here is subtle and we jump on it) They are kind and nurturing to their younger siblings and look forward to spending time with them....Then comes a toddler. They are an unruly people. We were worried that our little man wouldn't talk. He now screams during hymn singing at church, "No sing Mommy. You can't sing." He has picked up some words that he did not get from me. Little boy potty humor words. Hmmmm? He is wild and takes a lot of patience. But he is sooooo funny. He says the funniest things but they are usually naughty :)

His newest thing. In his cute little toddler voice is to look you straight in the face and say "Don't judge me!"