spoiled rotten.

The average child laughs about 400 times per day, the average adult laughs only 15 times per day. What happened to the other 385 laughs?

The red.neck Step-Daddy spoils me rotten...

Forrest!

I say (after eye-ballin' "the Mama's" wooden box): "I want a box"!

The next day? I have a box!

J.R.R. Tolkien

Do you know how much fun I'm going to have switching things out in my box?! I might even put it up on cinder-blocks...



comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I figure the red.neck Step-Daddy built me a box for my dining table so I wouldn't go shopping at his house and purchasing "the Mama's" box using my five-finger discount... he likes to keep the peace 'round his neck-o'the-woods...

Memorial Day

Perform, then, this one act of remembrance before this Day passes - Remember there is an army of defense and advance that never dies and never surrenders, but is increasingly recruited from the eternal sources of the American spirit and from the generations of American youth. ~W.J. Cameron

Have a wonderful day...

"It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle." ~  Norman Schwarzkopf

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide...


P.S. Just in case you were wondering... hee-hee... the winner of Annie Selke's/Pine Cone Hill giveaway is Michelle who said: "I LOVE IT! It's too cha cha for words!"


Thank You to EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of you who played along - I loved reading your stories about eyelet!!!!! Congratulations to Michelle!!!

make it!

Mama Debinator and I were talking a few weeks ago - running ideas back and forth between each other like 2 squirrels on a phone line... ideas concerning bed-skirts...

She screeched to a halt at one point and said: "table runner!" Sew... I made an eyelet table runner! Out of a bed skirt!

It's easy: rip the skirt portion off of the body...
(something about that sentence doesn't really sound right...)

press it flat. Then place the eyelet - face to face - and stitch it up! I used just one side of the bed-skirt because I always keep my dining table at it's smallest... but for a longer runner just use both sides of the bed-skirt.

Press the middle seam flat, then flip the whole thing over and stitch some small eyelet trim right down the middle.

Hem the ends and... Voila'!

You have one bed-skirt table runner. Isn't Mama Debinator brilliant? Bed skirts are all kinds of fun - I use them for... well... all kinds of things OTHER than making my bed.

Oh... hey! If you serve breakfast and you're using this table runner under your fine china - would it be "breakfast in bed"?!

This is a simple - fresh - SUMMERY table runner - kind of like Annie's/Pine Cone Hill's eyelet duvet cover, pillow shams and napkins that you still have a chance to win! Go HERE on my blog to sign up - and hurry 'cause all of the eyelet fun ends tomorrow at 8am!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where you should hear Mama Debinator and I on the phone... she's a Trash Talker with squirrel moments, THEN she gets ME climbing trees and runnin' around like I'm a squirrel! 37 subjects in less than 4 minutes..
.

eye'd wear...

this dress:

and eye'd like to say eye'd wear the eyelet dress with these boots (after a spray tan... or a magic marker... i wonder if krylon paint will work?):

but chances are eye'd wear it with THESE boots:

and then eye'd sparkle me with some leathery fun:

and add a happy daisy ('cause that's how i do things):

and eye'd top it alllllllll off with this glamorous piece of plastic and sparkles:

where would eye wear this you ask? *snicker*

To come see you and remind you to sign up for my giveaway HERE because you can't have enough eyelet and you SURE can't have enough Annie Selke/Pine Cone Hill eyelet!!! Deadline is Friday morning!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where eye really think eye need those sunglasses... they could be part of my "super red.neck" disgeyes....

eye spy a giveaway!

Last week one of YOU went to visit Annie Selke and cheer her on as she re-launched her blog!

While cheering Annie on - she  WON a GORGEOUS Eyelet duvet cover, standard pillow shams and four eyelet napkins from Annie and Pine Cone Hill!

CONGRATULATIONS jaybird and - THANK YOU!!!

Because you told Annie I sent you - I WON TOO!!!

(operation: "Clean Your Bedroom Robelyn so you can find your bed and then make it" is now under-way.)

This story gets EVEN BETTER though...

YOU can win THE SAME SET from Annie and Pine Cone Hill because Annie is letting me spread her AWESOMEness to you too!

Yep - tell me what you like about eyelet - right here, right now - and you are entered to win! That simple!

I'll get the ruffled eyelet trim rollin':

When I was little, I was a tom-boy with a penchant for eyelet, lace and ruffles.... lots of ruffles. "the Mama" made all of my little red.neck fashions and EVERY DRESS had eyelet, lace and/or ruffles on it. She would even make me short sets with - you guessed it - eyelet, lace and/or ruffles. HA! Because my Grandmother and I shared our birthday, "the Mama" would make us matching shirts each year, so Grammy wore eyelet too. (She was also my age each year... youngest Grandmother I ever knew of!)

On Easter each year "the Mama" would hide our Easter basket and we would have to find it in the morning before going to church. Mine always had something fabulously lacy and ruffly and girly mixed in with the Easter eggs to wear to Easter service. When I was 8 I found my basket behind a big rocker in the corner of the den, and there was an eyelet blouse folded in to it. It was snowy white with little tiny buttons running all down the front... ruffles on the sleeves and around the neck... it was the most beautiful blouse I had ever seen!!! To this day, I remember standing there looking at that blouse and wondering how many days in a row I could wear it - I remember touching it over and over, holding it up under my chin and gazing down at it imagining all of the places I could wear it. I think it was the only thing I EVER hung up in my closet. I think I even let "the Mama" fix my hair that Sunday morning. (if you know me at all you know i have the whole bed-head thing down to a science... and have for many many years...) THAT is how impressive the eyelet blouse was!

So - what I like about eyelet: the stories and feelings and fun that each piece holds!

Annie's question was: "what's your go-to breakfast in bed"... my answer was Pop Tarts. Yeah... I'm a junk food junkie - BUT! Pop Tarts are the breakfast of red.neck champions world wide!!!

I will be all ears for YOUR story - or whatever you would like to say about eyelet - through this Friday (May 25th) at 8am!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I could out-run those stinky boys any day of the week... ruffles and all Even in my shoes that had bows and sparkles on them. hee-hee

sew...

My FB status the other day:

It's like this: I have to move stuff out of my sewing room in to my yard in order to clean my sewing room. My sewing room has to be cleaned so that I can move stuff out of my photo room in to the sewing room. The photo room has to be cleaned so I can move stuff out of my living room. My living room has to be cleaned so that I can move stuff out of my dining room. I'm going back to bed.

It kinda wore me out just TYPING all of that!!!

i pinned it

I would like to report that I have made great progress... but as of right now there are tubs in the yard from where I had to load them up in order to move stuff out of the sewing room/lab.or.a.tory so I can clean it... and half of my lab.or.a.tory is...

well...

uhmmm...

I Pinterest searched and I GoogleImage searched for inspiration...

i pinned it

And I found some inspiration...

i pinned it

but my mad-lab will always look like I'm a bomb maker.

shutterstock.com

On the upside - I found my sewing machine about 2am.

AND!!! Oh my gosh - Today Annie is talking about TONY McCRAY!!! PLEASE go here and read... Tony is an AHmazing man - an AHmazing artist... I would have been in CREATIVE OVERLOAD had I been standing in Tony's tent when he and Annie were talking!!!

read about Tony HERE

You can win one of his magical creations!!! Tell Annie I sent you and if you win then I can win a little piece of Tony's mind right along with you! AND! We will get another chance for you to win - right here!!! How do I know this? I will give you some fun details tomorrow...

comin' to you LIVE from the back 40 where I'm knee deep in.... stuff. How is your creative space today?

hey ya'll... checkiss out...

i pinned it.

I'm going to make some cookies. These cookies:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt 

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, mint and lemon zest. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt; mix into the batter until well blended. Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten to about 1inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 1hour. 

2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Cookie stamps will work well on these too. Place on cookie sheets. 

3. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.com 

One of two things will happen. I will have some very tasty cookies to send to Sweet T (since she activated my lavender likin' taste-buds) or I will be moving due to the whole "you can't live in a single-wide if you burned it down" thing.

I'll be back.

While I'm possibly burning down the single-wide or becoming a baker extraordinaire, you should go see what Annie is up to!!! She's giving away a $500 Pine Cone Hill gift card RIGHT NOW!!! *swoon*

enter to win HERE!

Yet another reason I stalk Annie Selke... she's renovating a 50's home. I would put an Eichler home on axles and then cinder blocks given even half of a quarter of an eighth of a chance.
Go see - Make sure and leave a comment! IN your comment would you PLEASE tell her that you know of a single-wide desperately in need of her mad decorating skillz? She should have a single-wide in her portfolio, right? I think so anyway...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I have to figure out how to zest lemon. Or grate lemon zest... or zest a grate lemon... this should be really interesting. Ohhhhhh... I wonder if Annie can cook? hee-hee

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you have a BEAUTIFUL day full of grins and giggles - great fun and LOVE!

This guy makes me smile on Mother's Day... 17 years later (almost 18 *AUGH*) he still makes my heart catch...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide... where I'm thinking I should make the Resident Teen clean my sewing room or something. At the very least he should eat the toast I accidentally burned and refrain from making sarcastic comments... heehee

gettin' down to business.

Remember when I lost my job in February? I freaked out, I panicked, I had my head buried under as many pillows on my couch as I could find for a while... and I spent an insane amount of time bent over my sewing machine. When I panic – I sew!

I thought “okay Robelyn, you needed extra time before your show at the beginning of March, and again to prepare for Warrenton”. And here the time was – handed to me on a cutting table!

In my mind that was trying to figure out my next step - where I was supposed to be going and what I was supposed to be doing - I thought that between the two shows I would figure out where God wanted me to be.

Well... no such luck. Ft. Worth/Funky Finds was a good show, but not my best. Warrenton was a good show... but again, not my best. Did I REALLY start to panic? Yes.

My numbers were down, my spirit was low and my duct tape roll was running on “e”... and STILL I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing with my life right now. This moment.

I’m not the type of person that thinks God’s plan is going to be sent in a direct Memo to me – but I AM the type of person that believes he intervenes when I’m doing something stupid and slaps me in the forehead saying: “you goober – pay attention and do this”

I was not getting smacked in the forehead. So... I thought maybe I wasn’t active enough in finding my place. I drove around looking at buildings thinking I was going to open my “red.neck Chic” mercantile and that was my next step. Nothing was right – either the dollars were right but the location NOT right, or the location was right and the DOLLARS not right. I did drive-bys around businesses trying to figure out if I was supposed to walk in there and ask ‘em if they wanted to hire a maniac. None of them looked maniac friendly. And so I kept checking my inbox for a memo from God.

A few weeks ago David (part of the dynamic duo that owns Hillsboro Antique Mall where I have my space) called me. He started talking about the changes they had been making in the Mall, the plans that he and Pam (his wife and the other half of the dynamic duo) had for the Mall... you could hear and feel his excitement over the phone. I got excited! They were moving things around – revitalizing – revamping – reinventing – modernizing – bringing more fun and excitement in to the Hillsboro Antique Mall... and I was going to be there – and I was getting to be a part of it!

I processed everything I was hearing, thought about it... went to drool over Zac Effron in the movie theatre and gaze lovingly through the windows of the Kate Spade shoppe...

and thought about it some more. And left hand and nose prints on Kate's windows... *sigh*

Then it hit me. (I'm really not very quick...)

I already have my mercantile. It’s just part ‘n parcel of something bigger than me – a place greater than I am... a location that is perfect for me – complete with a couple of cheerleaders, aka: the Dynamic Duo.

David and Pam are making MAGIC happen in Hillsboro! They shut the mezzanine down then knocked some walls down in the front of the mall – shifted inventory, brought in some new – sold some old! David has been painting and fixing and painting and fixing some more... Pam has been twirling around making her magic happen... it is AHHHMAZING! Not only are they making some of their plans, dreams and goals happen now... but they have even BIGGER plans, dreams and goals...

AND I GET TO BE A PART OF IT!

I’m going bigger with my space. The Dynamic Duo has been working night and day (David even worked by the light of the moon a few times and photo-journaled it for me!) to prepare for my duct tapin'... I'm taking in more inventory: a whole lotta junk, a whole lotta creations – a crazy amount of fun!!! I’m going to have red.neck Chic pocketbooks, and Saddle Tramp re.fashioned fashions; Splat Fine Dining and Thunderbird Linens; red.neck SUDZ and red.neck Glam, some “lamplighter's un.plugged” – plus the addition of my “burn it” candle stuff, my “write it” paper stuff, red.neck Chic t-shirts and... who knows what else I come across or think of! My brain is on over-drive and I can’t really keep up with it! Am I embracing running around on over-drive? You better believe it.

I have sew much fun with my brain sometimes.

When I get fully set up and my MUCH bigger space filled up – I will take you on a personalized tour!!! This is big stuff for me – my next chapter... complete with a new roll of duct tape, the "dynamic duo" cheering me on and some serious fun heading my way! I am thrilled to have you along with me. YOU make me smile and work harder and try harder and just... be more red.neck Chic. Thank You for you.

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide... no... comin' to you LIVE from Hillsboro Antique Mall where my space was the Taj Mahal before... what am I going to name the grown up version? Oh... I know... the mercantile! hee-hee


p.s. While I'm off wreaking havoc in Hillsboro this week-end, don't forget to go visit Annie!!!

from Annie's blog post here

Today Annie and Pine Cone Hill have some AWESOME color she wants to send to you!!! Tell her I sent you so she knows that just 'cause I'm messing with duct tape that doesn't mean I'm not still lurking around and being inspired by her each second...

Annie Selke ROCKS - part 1

annieselke.com

I'm off wreaking havoc today - but I CAN NOT let you miss this!!! TWO WEEKS of Annie Selke awesome as she re-launches her design blog... can you feel me jumping up and down - bright red - with excitement?!!!

Here's what she says:

We’ve been having a blast bringing you a weekly dose of Annie’s shopping and product tips, entertaining ideas, how-to’s, decorating advice, and inspiration. So we’re pleased as a spiked summer punch to announce that there’s plenty more where that came from—plus all-new features!—when our newly redesigned blog launches next Monday, May 7. Stay tuned to Fresh American for all the topics you’ve come to love and even more design-insider tidbits, including a weekly column on the renovation of Annie’s new house!

But wait! There’s more . . .

To celebrate the relaunch, we’ve got—count ’em—two weeks’ worth of giveaways planned. You can snag everything from brand-new tote bags and table linens to an entire Pine Cone Hill bed set and amazing Dash & Albert rugs, and gift certificates to both online shops. Come back every day to view the prize and enter for your chance to win!

I'll be back to go on and on (and stalk) Annie Selke in a totally red.neck way... but while I'm wreaking havoc country-wide, will you go stalk her and tell her I sent you? You won't be sorry... I promise!!!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I should tell you... this is not a paid advertisement. Annie Selke is just my rock-star (I walked in to a store this past week-end and had my hands all OVER her Dash & Albert rugs!!!) and I can't keep her to myself!!! ;-D


point - shoot - click...

cowhide footstool and a leather jacket...

For the past year I have had an insatiable desire to find the perfect camera bag. When I say "insatiable" I mean...

a suede skirt and re.cycled bag handle...

I have studied and looked and touched and studied some more a thousand camera bags. At least.

I have EVEN considered buying one.

*gasp*

there is a pocket on the back that is cell-phone size... it was original to the leather jacket I used!

I am apparently verrrrrryyyyyyy picky and I find myself - 1 year later - trying to come up with/find the perfect camera bag.

I drive myself nutz. Which in reality isn't a long drive...

I spent days hours on this one and I'm gonna give it a try.

It's like this: I require a certain number of pockets so that not only can I carry my camera body with one lens, plus a second one I like to use, my filters and hood... sometimes my flash. I then want to be able to drop my keys, ID and phone in it. A cross-body so I don't have to worry with it slipping off of my shoulder. And... I don't want a suitcase size bag. ALL of this...

stolen from "the Mama" fabrics.... sssshhhh....

and it has to be cute. And versatile. It has to blend in on the days I wear ruffles and lace and floaty things as well as the days I wear ripped up jeans, my favorite T (it's SpongeBob screaming "leave my brain alone!"... it cracks me up!), and flip flops that should have been retired 10 years ago. Maybe 11 years ago.

I took my "JBEarl" pattern which is a MANbag messenger (I don't think I've shown you that yet... hmmmm...) and adapted it... made it narrower, grew it a hair taller. Girlyfied it with some happy daisies. *grin*

I'm gonna take the bag and my "new-to-me" vintage camera strap and explore new things this week-end. While I'm judging my own bag (I'm SUCH a bag critic - this should be interesting!) what do you like in your camera bag?

Do you go for structured or soft? Big, small or medium? Do you like certain pockets and where do you like them? How much padding do you prefer? Cross-body or handles? Ruffles or leather or fabric? Anything I'm missing that you need/like/want? Inquiring minds (and a pocketbook maker) wanna know!


comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I keep walking around and around and around my bag studying it... think it has a complex yet? hee-hee