I know I have been incognito lately! I am working on the sidelines for my launch of Proverbs 31 Mama-prenuers and I am more than a little excited! Launch happens THIS WEEK! Can you believe it?!! My elves are working non-stop and my brain will not shut down! THAT'S how excited I am!

BUT today I need to share the Pick your Plum of the day! WOW is it heavy!


Your neighbor will be there before you know it! Run, go, NOW! Pick your Plum!

Today's Plum couldn't have come at a better time! This weekend was my birthday and my dear sweet husband bought me a Cameo Silohuette (hasn't arrived yet...should this week!) and I am over the moon! Main reason...VINYL! I LOVE crafting with vinyl! You can decorate blocks, walls, pictures...oh the possibilities are endless I tell you! You can use vinyl in the Cricut or the Silohuette! How cool is that?!


If you follow me on Pinterest you will soon be seeing a folder specifically for my new member of the family Cameo! AND today's Pick your Plum you have 4 different colors of vinyl to choose from! Don't they just shout CRAFT WITH ME?!! Oh and Spring?! I could see a little Summer in there too!

A quick upload of my pictures for the photo challenge!!

Day 23: Your shoes

Well my friends! Today is my birf-day so I am gonna go live it up with my fam-a-lam! Hope you have a great weekend!

February 10th I noticed a message posted from my aunt saying "All 'M' family contact each other immediately." My heart stopped for a second and I thought..."Oh no. My Grandma Kitty has passed away." I tried to call my Aunt but the line was busy. I then noticed I had a Facebook message. It read "Ben has had a heart attack and passed away." I stared at the screen for a second and typed in my status "OMG My dad is dead".

Lets take you back 30 some odd years ago. My mom and my biological dad met in sunny San Francisco while my dad was in the Navy. (He was in the Army prior to the Navy) A romance blossomed and my dad decided he wanted out of the Military. He let his Commanding Officers conveniently hear a conversation about him sleep walking. Sleep walking + Navy = big fat no! They stayed a short time in Oregon and then he and my mom flew to Illinois to live. Never married, they became pregnant with me. My dad started to disappear for days at a time. Leaving my mom alone. Things progressed and when my mom was 6 months along with me my Grandma sent her a plane ticket and she never looked back.


32 years ago tomorrow, I was born. My birth certificate does not list my father. My mom raised me all on her own.





 Working 2 jobs, struggling to get by. I dreamt about my dad. I used to think he would come and everything would be magical and we would have a real family.






 By the time I was in the 8th grade, that reality never happened. I was finally comfortable with it just being US. My mom and I against the world. She was my mom and my dad. She did everything times 10. Then I remember late one night I could hear my mom whispering on the phone. I thought it was weird and thought it was even weirder she was talking about...me.

The next day she asked if I would want to talk to my dad. That they had found each other and it was up to me if I would want to start a relationship with him. I was so excited. Scared to death, but incredibly excited! FINALLY! He found me! He wanted ME!! My dad! We used to go to Skate World a lot (I was pretty good if I do say so myself!) and we just so happened to be going there. My mom let me call him from the pay phone and I just remembered being on cloud 9! The only thing I found weird, was he told me he loved me. I remember asking my mom how could he love me if he didn't even know me? And did I have to tell him that too? She was amazing throughout the whole start of or relationship. She never said a bad thing about him. She was there holding my hand every step of the way. I used to listen to this song and felt like it was OUR song. Still makes me think of my dad.



THEN...she met...HIM! I was so angry and filled with rage. I mean come on. I already HAD a dad (finally) and I sure as heck didn't need another one! Not only that, he was disrupting OUR time. It was my mom and ME...remember! Saturday dates were OUR thing. I was a nightmare for him...the man that tried so hard. It took me years to realize that HE was my dad. My mom and who I consider my dad got married right after I finished my 8th grade year of school. I held a lot of resentment.


I was close to my biological dad all throughout high school. But had still never had a face to face. Lots of pictures, phone calls and letters (which I would later find out were written by my step mother...she is extremely sweet but it was so disheartening to find out. Literally it broke a piece of my heart that day). My 17th birthday rolled around and I received a ring. An amethyst birthstone ring for my "sweet 16". It broke my heart. I was 17. Not 16. My relationship with my dad became more and more strained from that point. He would call one day and then he wouldn't call for like 6 months. But when he would talk to me it was like no time had passed at all. It hurt. He never showed up for my graduation. And then fast forward to my wedding...he never showed up then either. I remember one year him getting mad at me for not calling him on fathers day. I was SO angry. I mean why would I call someone who hadn't even been a "dad" to me? The last straw for me was when Paul and I were leaving for our honeymoon for St. Lucia in the Caribbean. We had a 3 hour lay over in Chicago, IL. The plan was we were going to spend the time with my dad Ben. He was going to meet there and we were going to FINALLY see each other face to face. I was nervous and excited and then we landed. I checked my cell phone voicemail cause he was going to tell me where to meet him. The voicemail was there...but instead it said he wasn't going to be able to come. They were moving that day instead. It broke my heart. My whole life I wanted HIM. And he wasn't there for me. I had rejected the man who acted and truly WAS my father for all those teen years for THIS person? I was angry. I remember sitting and writing a letter to him. The letter was nothing but pure hatred and I regret it to this day. I have no idea if he received the letter but I assumed he did.


I spent 1/2 of my life staring at the pictures of my biological dad. I knew I looked a lot like him and I would try to figure out which features exactly we shared. I have his chin, his ears, his face, his skin, his teeth. But I have my mama's eyes!

2 years ago at Thanksgiving I was talking to my Aunt in Missouri (my bio dad's sister) and my Grandma Kitty we were told wasn't doing well and the doctors didn't think she would make it past the holidays. I jumped on an airplane that next weekend to finally meet some of my family for the first time face to face. It was important to me to meet my Grandma Kitty who I absolutely adored before something terrible happened. It was just Noah and myself that flew out.


I had a great trip. My family was extremely supportive of the fact that I didn't want to use this trip to have my face to face with Ben. To me it wasn't the time. Paul kept telling me I should just do it. What if I never get the chance again. I stood my ground even when he showed up at my aunts house (we weren't there). I lost my chance. I did speak to him on the phone that trip. He called while I was at the hospital with my cousin seeing Grandma. I cried and my face was beat red (Mandy said my face was completely flushed and pale the second she handed the phone to me...but I felt red hot!).

Now we come to a few weeks. I read the message and I about fainted. I couldn't breath. I was so upset, distraught and couldn't focus. My dad was dead. He was gone. I will never get the chance to hear his voice say "Well...I love you" again. I will never ever in my life get to look into his eyes. He will never meet his grandchildren face to face and I will never be able to be wrapped in his arms for a hug. I let anger get the best of me. I am not the type of person to hold a grudge. It is not who I am! I instead let the devil get the best of me. I should have instead been praying about it. I had been. But not nearly hard enough.

Ben was out on my Uncle's ranch working on some spindles he was making for their front porch. He had a conversation with my uncle 4 hours prior to his death. He sounded great. 2 hours later he spoke with my step mother. He told her his chest had been hurting, his arm was bugging him and that he decided he would go take a little rest before the 2 hour drive home. That would be the last time she spoke to him. She said his speech sounded slurred and he didn't sound like he felt very well. She tried to reach him because she noticed he had called 15 minutes prior. When she couldn't get a hold of him she called my uncle who then called a neighbor. The neighbor found my dad in the house. The Sheriff and ambulance arrived shortly after and he was pronounced dead on the spot.

My next Facebook post read: "I found out a little bit ago that my biological dad died. I have so much pent up anger towards this and him. I didn't even get a chance to say good bye..."

Today's deal is a hoot! Literally! You can get a cute vintage looking owl necklace on a chain for only $3.95! Not bad!


Hoo- knew it could be so cool?!

I am loving the bronze hair pin blanks today! They are only 12c a piece!! These would make adorable birthday gifts, teachers gifts or even perfect for yourself! I envision embellishing with stones, pearls, jewels or ooooh....fabric covered buttons!! LOVE!! Oh the possibilities are endless I tell you!


Jump, run, leap, skip! Go Pick your Plum...before your neighbor does!

I am loving the February Photo Challenge! Thinking I need to get to work on next months sheet so y'all can be prepared to join me?!! Whatcha think?!

Day 20: Handwriting (I love Emily Grace's handwriting! Even if I haven't a clue what she is writing I find it completely adorable!)

I know this is really late...but since I was not able to be here to share the Valentines and I was SO proud of them...I figured I could at least share them now. After the fact! Never too late, right?!

First off I made this by using the My Memories Suite Software (Use the code: STMMMS23061 to get $10 off of the program!)


*says: "Valentine you make my insides feel all squishy!"

I used the program Picnik (which will no longer be available for use after April 19th...bring me a box of tissues I think I may cry! I adore this program! SO easy to use! So much fun! I use it for a ton of things I do!)

Ooooh have you ever used Washi Tape? Its a Japanese tape and it is not actually washable! BUT it is gorgeous and very fun to use for crafts or even wrapping presents! You get 2 rolls for only $3.99!


Go run, skip, leap and Pick your Plum!

WOW! I need to play catch up! So here are a bunch in order!

Day 11: Something that makes me happy

 Day 12: Inside your closet (I was in St. Louis!)

 Day 13: Blue
 Day 14: Heart
 Day 15: Phone (and a picture Emily Grace drew of me and my biological dad)

 Day 16: Something new (dress)

 Day 17: Time (I was able to spend time with my Grandma Kitty)

 Day 18: Drink
 Day 19: Something you hate to do (Eat peas! So I gave them to Noah to eat!)

Sorry I have been away my friends! Those that follow me on FB have already heard that my dad passed away on the 10th of this month. I hopped on a jet plane to Missouri and just came home LATE on Saturday night. Been an emotional roller coaster which will be a future blog post! BUT for now...trying to get back into the reality of things and am SO bummed I missed getting to share our homemade Valentines with you! I will still share anyhow!

BUT FIRST! How cool are these over at Pick your Plum?? I can see lots of fun ideas with kids for these awesome key chains! Think: teachers, grandparents, friends! Oh so easy to embellish!!


Best part is the price! A whopping $1.99 each (thats a set of 4)!! So go! Hurry! Run! Pick your Plum before your neighbor does!

I promise I will be back at it this week! Heck I have a ton of "February Photo Challenge" pictures to upload!

WOW a freebie over at Pick your Plum! Go get it while you can!

We had SO much fun with these! They do take some time and will not give you instant gratification! BUT when they are done they are SO worth it!






I took my kids to a pottery place and the each were given 2 4" tiles to paint however they choose! I let them go to town! And only helped when asked! It took a few weeks before we could pick them up after they had been "fired".

We then brought them home and used some felt pads I had picked up at Home Depot for literally a few dollars!



SO easy! I mean completely kid friendly and kid made!





I told them to pick out the larger felt pieces and stick them in the corners! Then they put them on the coffee table! Voila! Homemade EASY kid coasters! They are so proud of them and its a great easy investment! Think about it...you can package them up in 4's and give as presents to the grandparents! Oh the possibilities!!



Have a blessed day!

Today I find difficult...only cause its a self portrait! Seriously I have a hard time taking my own picture! BUT here it is! In all its glory. Me. Today! Just your average mom!


Day 10: Self Portrait

Earring's are available in my shop btw! I wear each color with everything! One of my fave accessories!