My Thought for the Day

.As I was working with my little tags early this morning, while waiting for Pop to awaken,this one little line struck a chord with me.I get a lot of flack over what I do, but I am not going to get discouraged.I love doing what I do, and it gives me peace and contentment. I love to recycle everything.Most things can be used for another purpose. As I was working with my little tags, I pulled out the garbage can,only to find a sugar bag I had tossed away yesterday,inadvertently. It was lined with brown paper which I use a lot of, and I usually save that,too, but I had accidentally tossed it in the trash

I pulled it out, ironed it, and proceeded to make more little tags.

These little tags can be used on varoius gifts.Whether it be a candle, a bar of soap, a jar of jelly,a gift bag,a plate of cookies,etc.Just a simple little verse to help brighten someone's day.They are so much fun to make and cost nothing at all.

My family all know the things I use, and they all save me lots of usable items to add to my crafting supplies.

The twine was a gift from my sister,Vicki. Thanks,Vicki.While visiting my neice this past week, I picked up a few of the tiny pine cones from her yard. I usually end up buying these same cones for my crafts, but she had oodles in her yard.Thanks, Beverly.

P.S. Beverly , Thanks to you and your husband's family for the wonderful time we had while visiting your home and town.We enjoyed our trip and will surely be visiting again. 

more little tags

It's a Tedious Job

tags from recycled materials

My manual dexterity is not what it once was, but I still get great pleasure from working with these small pieces.It's really strange how one day you can change the needle in your sewing machine with no problem, and suddenly, one day, you try it once more,only to find you cannot.My fingers simply do not work like they once did. Especially when it comes to working in close places with tiny elements.Thank goodness, my new machine,no matter how upset I get with it, on occasion, it threads it's own needle.That is, if the spool of thread is loaded properly.

I scanned eBay for labels and tags to see what others were charging for theirs.I found many large,but simple,colored tags,cut from a tag punch, selling in lots of 10, for $3.plus shipping costs. Most were made from colored paper or stock, and you know the cost of buying their supplies was unreal.My tags are all made from recycled materials.There are so many things one can use to cutsey up the little tags, at no cost,at all.The brown paper which is in great demand nowadays,comes from the inner lining of my sugar bag,and sometimes from packages that have been shipped. Many folks pack with the brown paper, and then wrap the package with it, also.I simply spray the wrinkled paper with a water mister and iron it flat.How much more primitive can you get.

folded dish cloths

I still have not come to a concrete solution as to what I will do with my dish cloths. I am not a salesman. I can't bring myself to set a price on anything. Not one in which I could make any money,anyway.Most usually, I end up giving my crafts away. That is satisfying in itself, so I really need not spend so much time,stressing myself over what to do with them.I may set them aside and have them ready for another Christmas season or any other occasion that might arise, requiring a gift.Now, that sounds like a great plan to me.

Tag, You're It!

I went online today and bid on a tag punch, but was out bid by a few cents. If only I had sat by the computer and stuck with the bidding.No matter. I was determined to make a few tags.This tag things has gotten to be somewhat of an obsession. I do not know what it is with it. I have so much brown paper accumulated, and I hate putting on yard sales.I have nothing to sell.Any time soon,anyway.Why I am so obsessed with the desire to make tags, is beyond me.I guess it is a busy,hands-on  job, it's a small project,it's using reclaimable materials,it's cost free.All of which attracts my attention.

Then I thought, perhaps, my niece could use them in her booth.She calls her creations Primitive at Heart,so I went into Word on my computer and printed out lots of the little titles in a pretty font and printed them out since my original plan to stamp the words on the tag, did not appeal to be that much.I like the font I've chosen. And then, I thought heart. That's part of the name of her creations, so I cut out a few little hearts around the wording, and glued it to the tags. I am still experimenting with the project, and the juices get to flowing after you get into a project, so maybe there is hope for this little project yet. I will continue, until I come up with a tag that suits me better, shortly,I hope.

Meanwhile,I will continue to watch  for a punch on eBay. I am not into card making, but I have lots of supplies that will work for that purpose. I may give it a try.I have been watching several videos on various craft ideas, and I seem to be more and more fascinated with the card making.The supplies they advertise are so expensive, I know I can come up with a few cards,using my reclaimed supplies, that are just as pretty,and not nearly as costly.I'll put that on my long list of "Things I Want To Try".

Waste Not! Want Not!

Waste Not! Want Not! is a good motto,  anytime of the year.This particular motto comes to my mind every Christmas Season, although it should be practiced daily. I feel if you teach your little ones from the get go, they will carry this motto with them, throughout their lifetime.Of course, there is always the exception to the rule.Those who will not.

So many children are bored to tears when and if they do not have a computer game of some kind in their hands,every minute,or some one tending to their every beck and call. It saddens me to see such children, and I am so sorry to say that my two Grandchildren and growing up to be in this very category. My only prayer is that they grow out of it,and soon.Nothing saddens me more than being around a person who is constantly complaining they are bored,when there is so much to do in this great big glorious world we live in.Most women of my day and age,can tell you that they can see something to do, every minute of every day. It may not always be what you want to do, but we can still see that it is there waiting for someone to do it.Then there are the things we see daily, that we would love to do, if only we had the time.

This particular craft is one of those projects that I love to do when I have time.So many times in a day, I run across some tiny little thing that is really good for nothing at all, but simply too pretty to throw away. I end of putting it in a box somewhere,usually among lots of similar items I have stumbled across in the past. Then one day, when I have a few minutes, I get out my handy dandy glue gun and go to work. I make these tiny arrangements that can be used for different occasions. Christmas time is a wonderful time to use up a lot of these tiny jewels.As you can see here, I have a tiny assortment of items, but stored away in boxes somewhere are thousands of other similar tidbits just waiting to be assembled and used.Making name tags at Christmastime is a good way to move lots of tiny bits and pieces out of the house. I wonder lots of times,after giving a gift, with my special tags on them, if they throw out the tags. That gives me a pain in my stomach to think anyone would toss out something so pretty,but it happens. Not everyone saves everything,like I do,thank goodness,but hopefully, they will pass it on to someone else on a gift or the like.

Wallah! My tag.There are so many variations one could come up with. I love assembling these tags from all the remnants that have fallen to the bottom of the Christmas decoration storage boxes. You know the bits and pieces that have fallen off and end up in the bottom of the box after you have set out all of the decorations for the season.Isn't it great to come up with something so pretty and useful from nothing. Now all I need to do is punch my hole and add a ribbon and my names to the tags and it's on it's way(out of my house).

I ended up giving one little tag,neatly labeled and tied to a red dish cloth, to a childhood friend the other night at the viewing of her Mother, at the funeral home.It was so pretty on the red cloth.Even her husband commented on it. Linda said it was so pretty, she was tempted to wear it as a corsage.That made me feel so good that they liked it.

Today is Monday, the 26th, and I have decided to complete this post that I started last week.

 I spoke to Mom early this morning. She was feeling poorly, so since I felt she had caught the "bug" from me, I felt I needed to go and spend the day with her. I arrived to find she had only slept crooked and was aching more than usual. She puttered around and worked out the kinks, while I busied myself making a few more of the cute little tags to be attached to the dish cloths I had made for her to hand out to her close friends. Mom has always tried to make handmade gifts herself  for her friends, but she is no longer able to do so. Since I had accumulated several of my little dish cloths I had been making, I decided to donate them to her to use as her gifts. We borrowed the neighbor's glue gun, since I had not planned ahead to make the tags.It just happened on the spur of the moment.I managed to complete several and even delivered a few of them for her. It really cheered her up that I had come to spend the day.She seems to get more depressed each day, and we are seeing signs of dementia more and more.We must watch her more closely than usual nowadays, and her neighbors and church friends keep a close watch on her for us,too. Today,when she complained about being such a burden to everyone, I told her it takes a whole community to help care for an aging parent,kinda like it takes a village to raise a child.It makes them feel good, too, to know they are helping watch out for her.One never knows when it might be you, needing help with your parent or loved one.

Happy Holidays to all of my Blogger friends.