Category: Blog

Another successful year for Toys for Tots donation! 🎉

I actually sorted them out this time and labeled the boxes to make it a little easier for the volunteers.

I had a couple boxes of Barbie’s I got at last years half off sale at work (SUCH a great sale!), bunch of LEGO’s again and then this year I was trying to get more toddler toys too.

Got a fantastic deal on two learning play sets (the blue boxes to the left) and was SO EXCITED!!

This isn’t everything either!

I knew that Ollie’s was an official donor to Toys for Tots, but for some reason it didn’t click until I went to look at something entirely different and saw the signs up that they were a drop off location too!

I did take this load to the warehouse directly for obvious reasons, but I also spent about $50-$60 on toys at Ollie’s too and put them in their boxes!

I’m not done yet because we still have the rest of November and December to go and guess who’s local B&N has Toys for Tots as their Holiday Book Drive recipient this year?

😁

I have a bunch of Rewards stacked up that I was going to use for toys, but I decided to use them for books instead this year!

I love Christmas time!

I will see everyone next week for a crafty post but until then, look up what charities and non-profits are in your area that directly benefit your communities and consider donating!!

Thank you to every Veteran!

I wouldn’t be able to do any of this had you not sacrificed without even knowing me!

All the crafty!

Check this one out!

By now you all recognize the tiny bookshelves I’ve been using. I decided to make a longer one to display tiny things that weren’t books.

I love the color! It’s calypso blue and the brightness is fantastic!

This was a test one for me though because I painted the individual pieces before assembly. Not a good choice.

The paint made it thicker (obviously) and so it was difficult to get them to snap into place. I wanted a nice outdoorsy theme so added fairy stickers.

Not a problem, except that when I went to use varnish and mod podge in the hopes it would keep the stickers adhered better, it instead made them wet.

And crinkly looking in some cases as the larger fairy shows.

*le sigh*

I still love the finished product and have definitely learned several things from it!

I’m working on the last of my figure paintings and hoping it’ll get done in the next week or two.

We shall see!

Toodles!!

Okay, so look.

I didn’t intend for this to happen and I completely blame my coworker who had one on hold and reminded me we had them, but!

We received a stencil kit for book page edges.

You know the prettiness that’s taken the publishing world by storm?

There’s a kit for that!(part of it ofc)

So I bought one…

It was only $6 with my discount or I wouldn’t have done it!

I wasn’t sure which book I’d try it on since I’ve obviously never done it before and didn’t want to ruin one of my favorite books.

I showed my mother though because it is exciting and she suggested I just buy a used book from one of the libraries around here and test it out that way.

However!

A better idea came to me after her suggesting! I have a couple of ARC’s at my disposal that would be perfect!

I don’t have to spend more money and it’s not like they can be sold so even if I still donate it to a Little Free Library it won’t be a problem!

I am still going to wait until I’m done with my last figure painting because after that I can take down the second table in my room and start getting the Billy Bookshelves for my books.

More space and more shelves!!

So exciting!!

Until next week my peeps, stay crafty and don’t forget to go vote!

The reason I didn’t post on time is because of a health thing… that only happens once a month for women, but has been causing problems the last couple years for me.

So I went to sleep and completely forgot.

Sorry!

I am blessed and thankful to God for my blessings.

I’ve been praying and asking for help financially and not only did I get a raise this year, but I was also promoted.

That means I’ve been able to do some pretty cool things this year. Including donating to Helene survivors.

In addition to the pads from Sam’s, I also found some fantastic throws and blankets at Ollie’s. Not what I went out for, but certainly a much needed item with the temps going down now.

A good chunk of what I donated I already had. I’d started filling backpacks with things like socks, underwear, toothbrushes, etc… and planned to donate to a local shelter.

However, I kept forgetting to email the church and ask them for help. (I had really been wanting to donate to domestic abuse shelters, both for men and women, but for obvious reasons that kind of information isn’t readily available on Google.)

The Minnie Mouse suitcase I filled up last year and then couldn’t find the info I needed to donate it. Guess there’s a reason that didn’t happen.

I had to crop the picture because there were people in it that I hadn’t asked permission to post. They were volunteers helping a Plato’s Closet sort the donations.

The owner and a manager collected from 4 different sites and had partnered with Morgan Steel and Cooper Moving to get the donations to North Carolina.

An absolutely ENORMOUS thank you to Collierville Plato’s Closet!

If y’all haven’t yet, volunteers are still taking donations and a lot are active on social media letting people know what’s still needed.

This, and the Wyoming fires, shouldn’t be swept under the rug just because time passes and there’s celebrity drama.

Please don’t forget that it’s regular people who have made the most difference in this circumstances. Helping each other is a command from God for a reason.

Thank you and I’ll see y’all next week!

Check this out!

Last month a local animal shelter I volunteer with posted that they needed more dog toys and asked if anyone had old ones they’d be willing to donate.

Y’all know me.(or do you?🤔)

I took the opportunity to check out the dollar store and they had some really good stuff!

This is about $100 worth of dog toys. There are some ball two-packs underneath and some squeaky toys too, don’t worry!

The pill bottles you see are all empty (labels taken off ofc) and ready to go. Some animal shelters take these as donations to help with medications for fosters and such.

Which is a great idea if you ask me! I initially was only using RX bottles and then I realized that regular Tylenol bottles would work too so I expanded!

I am still doing Toys for Tots (never gonna stop!), but I’ve had some fantastic ideas lately and it looks like my philanthropic endeavors will be expanding.

Considering how much I enjoy doing stuff like this I’m pretty sure this is my Gift.

If you didn’t know, Paul talked about Gifts that God gives us. Some people have the gift of leading, some prophesying, and some giving (there are more btw).

That was a very cool thing to find out.

Till next week!

I guess it’s more Bible-ish then study, but I just finished 2 Thessalonians and I have to wonder if Paul actually knew when the second coming would be.

Maybe not the exact date, if only because of the change in how we do our years, but he knew the signs that would precede Christ’s coming again.

The signs, however, are somewhat vague and could actually apply to several moments and people throughout history since then. My study Bible mentioned Tom Davies, a British writer, suggested the TV was the ‘lawlessness one’ since it advocated for violence so easily.

An interesting take if you don’t believe the ‘lawlessness one’ is a person instead of a thing. Except for the fact that Paul actually says ‘man of lawlessness’ so I’m not sure why the writer would think an inanimate object was what Paul was talking about.

Unless there are different translations or the understanding of the language has changed since then. It doesn’t give a date for Tom Davies, though I’m sure I could look it up.

Anyways, I’ve said it once and twice and a few more times! Reading my Bible as an adult is fascinating!

Till next time my peeps!

Exciting crafty things! I bought one of those crystal art kits (it was on sale for $5) because it was a unicorn…and cheap.

I mentioned it was $5 right?

Anyways, I’d seen those around since covid when it became popular, but had too many crafty things at home to do so never bought one.

Y’all.

It’s a cross-stitch in another form.

SO mindless, with repetitive movements and different colors to work one at a time.

Loved it!

My back hurt a little until I stopped slouching, but that’s my bad.

Here are the pics! (I actually got them this time!)

It’s a little hard to see, but I’m working on the second color here. The leftover from the first color is in the tiny bottle (I’ve since bought a different crystal keeper) and the color I was working on is in the little lasagna pan.

They escape too easily and I found that a slightly larger container made it easier to grab them with the applicator. It also made it easier to shake them right side up.

After taking a supper break, I ended up finishing this in about 3hrs. Give or take.

I was really happy when I finished because it was so mindless I just let myself zone out. Cleansing the mental pallet, as it were.

I don’t know about other kits, but this particular crystal one has a built in stand on the back you just pull out and slot into place.

This is now sitting on top of a bookshelf. Once I get my new bookshelves and things get reorganized for space, I’ll make sure to place it in a shelf with a unicorn book.

I actually don’t think I have any at the moment.

Thankfully!

Sherrilyn (Kenyon) McQueen has a new series coming out that does in fact have unicorns as main characters so I’ll be good!

Ta for now!!

Obviously I forgot to make a post for today. Some family things came up. Everyone is okay, but it made for a prioritization of my memory bank and apparently the post was one of the things to get knocked down the list.

Sorry!