min-myinnersoul

It's DONE!!!  I am so glad to have one of my Cultural Arts entries finished:o) Remember the other day when  I gave you a sneak peek and asked you to guess what I was making? One of you smarty-pants, and I'm not naming names;o) said it was a Smurf....well I would have to agree that it is the same color scheme as the Smurfs.....but, um, NO..it's not a Smurf:o) Would you have ever guessed that this Smurf-looking thing, would have been this? Definitely NOT Smurfette;o) On the way home from Orlando I decided that S.R. needed a quilled Cinderella...don't ask why:o)  Anywhoodles, I used this picture of Cinderella as my guide. Me likey:o) And so does S.R.!! Now I need to get it framed so that it doesn't come apart. Poor S.R. won't see this again until Christmas morning. Participating in: This has been featured at:

I hope you all had a great weekend. Things around here are slightly less than crazy but truly bordering insanity;o) I have been busy with projects and being a homemaker:o) My best bud from high school sent me some pics the other day of a quick travel pillow idea she whipped up for her son. They had a long road trip ahead of them, so she needed something to keep her little man busy.  She hot glued a clipboard to a travel pillow. Super simple!  I love that it opens up. Perfect for storing writing utensils and extra paper.  Nift-o nifty, eh? She really needs to start her own crafty blog! She always has clever ideas...maybe we can talk her into it;o) I hope to share a Batman Cape table runner with you guys within the next day or two. I just need to take the time to make pictures:o) Happy Tuesday...what's left of it;o)

This blogger freely admits to being severely sartorially challenged. The words fashion, smartly dressed, even, nice shirt, are outside his lexicon. It is therefore entirely appropriate that a learned treatise on the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week features as this Sunday post. For those unacquainted with this earth shattering event, it is the premier event in India where impossibly thin human beings (mostly female) walk with a funny walk, looking like having descended from outer space and get ogled at by a horde of notebook clutching "experts". This is India. This blogger has eloquently expressed his opinion on the clothing tendencies of the Indian female here .  Now, compare that with the presumably "hot" outfits on full display at the aforementioned fashion event. Have you ever seen anybody dressed like this ? Or like this ? Can you imagine Rajalakshmi like this Or even like this ? Alas, this is no longer a feminine preserve. There seem to be metrosexuals wh...

Can you tell what this is?  Or what it will be? I am trying my hand at quilling. I have been working on my entries for the Homemakers' Cultural Arts Fair scheduled for the end of September. Qulling is one of the categories.  On our way back from FL, I decided I would make S.R. a picture using the art of quilling. It is very time consuming, but it makes beautiful art....let's hope that my first attempt looks like what I want it to;o) Have a great weekend!!!

The other day I saw the cutest tutorial on how to make a hair bow holder using ribbon and a picture frame. I thought that I had bookmarked it, but apparently not. I can't seem to find it anywhere. It was so cute!! So I definitely cannot take credit for this idea...if any of you know who created it, let me know so I can do a link back, please! Anyway, we were having an issue with S.R.'s hair bow holder. We were running out of room. Here is what I made for her to fix the problem. This project was of no cost to me. I had all of the materials on hand. A friend of mine gave me this picture frame a few months back. I am slowly becoming the person who everyone wants to give their junk to, and I secretly LOVE it!!! Hubs...not so much;o) Any-whoodles, she was a sad little frame:o(  She needed some love, so I painted her with Krylon's Premium Silver Foil Metallic Spray Paint. It was the only full bottle of spray paint I had:o) I have a ton of ribbon my mother gave me, so I used coord...

Here is an example of how corruption starts. Anti corruption sentiments are high in India these days , as any Indian reader would know.  This blogger, trying to be apolitical, steers clear of any comment on the movement launched by Anna Hazare. But an instance of how a warped economic policy breeds corruption would be entirely appropriate for this blog. The state of Andhra Pradesh is the largest beer market in India.This would not be surprising to readers with some knowledge of the state. Its is a large state with lots of people. It is also "blessed" with one of the hottest climes in the country. Naturally a cold beer would be very welcomed by many. Unfortunately the neta babu raj is very much alive and kicking in the beer industry in Andhra Pradesh. The government decides what brands of beer you can buy, from whom and at what price. A very worthy organisation called the Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Ltd  exists staffed by Ramamrithams of all shapes and hues. They tend...

I have some new things to share with you all this week, but no pictures yet, so stay tuned to see what I have going on. I have a presentation for Homemaker's Club on Tuesday.. .25 Ways to be a Cheaper Housekeeper . Sounds exciting, huh?  Anyway, I like to have a little something to give to everyone to take home. I decided that I would make chore charts as hand outs for the girls. Most of them are grandmothers at this point, but I knew that a lot of you guys were still just mommies, so I made two different versions. This is just a little way to break up the everyday cleaning that we do as keepers of our home. I know that I usually try to do everything in one day, and then I become crabby from pure exhaustion. This is a tool to make things a little easier on us all.....who doesn't want that:o) If you will notice, I gave you "The Lord's Day" off;o) Click on the links below, to download your chore chart. Mommy Chore Chart Chore Chart 2 Hopefully this can ease the frus...

I headed out to Publix this morning after dropping my sweets off at school to score some deals. I have been couponing for about 6 months now, and it has cut my grocery bill in half. It is so much work, but it has really helped out These are my items I purchased: 2 packs of Chinet Napkins 2 Boxes of Uncle Ben's Rice 2 packs of Knorr Pasta Sides 4 packs of Seattle's Best coffee....this is the hubs favorite!! 1 Box of cake mix...for E's b-day party coming up in 4 weeks! 1 tub of icing 3 containers of Resolve Spray and Wash  And this was my total: I was pretty stoked:o) I am not an extreme couponer, or the total would have been 63 cents:o) Those people have a sickness!! Anyway, I attend church with a girl who has her own coupon website. It's called  She is always posting great deals, whether it be grocery stores or online sites. You should definitely swing by her way and check out what deals are going on. You can also sign up for emails which is a great way to stay up to da...

Today we have guest poster, Deanna, from  Just Deanna . She is a mother of 4, and is always up to something crafty. Deanna is sharing with us how to make some cute backpack buddies. Take it away Deanna! Hello!  I am Deanna of Just Deanna. A little blog with sewing and crafting tutorials and lots of other miscellany.  Glad to be here visiting Crystal's great blog.  :) This summer I hosted a little craft club for my kids and their friends.  At our last one, for a fun back to school project, we made these fun backpack buddies with shrinky dink paper. They are super simple to make and the kids seem to really love them.  You can use them as a key chain as well. Supplies we used: frosted shrinky dink paper, colored pencils, scissors, and a hole punch. For this project I printed up a bunch of fun characters and other shapes for them to use.  They traced around the picture and colored in with colored pencils. You should color on the rough side of the pape...

We have been M.I.A. for a week because we were vacationing in sunny Florida. We decided on a whim that we would drive down at night. That was the QUIETEST trip we have ever taken:o) We arrived around 10 a.m. and hit the beach. The hubs and I were completely zonked, but knew the kids wouldn't be able to wait to see the beach. This was the view from our balcony:  Not too bad, ehh? Here are my sweets getting their piggies wet.  After 3 days on the beach, we headed to Orlando. We did a character dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming. Here is S.R. with one of her favorite princesses.  E was actually very excited about meeting Prince Charming.  S.R.....not so much:o)  Step sister #1  Step Sister #2  There were kids all around us who had these great looking cupcakes. We found out that they were for birthdays....they felt sorry for our little ones and let them have one to share....E's birthday is in a few weeks, so that's how they justified it:o)  We...