Feedback: shop re-opens mid April

HeatherFarnam1 on Mar 28, 2017

5 out of 5 stars

We love the kneeling pillows.. We can't wait for my daughter's wedding.

Royal Blue Wedding Kneeling Pillows

Fun Evening with the AC Senior Class of 2017

The lovely faces of the AC Senior class of 2017!  (Missing the Edstone crew)

 They have to be hard workers to make it as far as they have at AC, but they still have a super fun side for the lighter moments in life.  :-)

 AC also helps build physical fitness beyond the Sophomore year.  That's Emmanuel supporting another grown young man...AKA...Albert....on his shoulders as if there's no extra weight.  "He ain't heavy, he's my brother."  ;-)

 Here are a few pics that I compiled from their dinner for them and any others as a memory keepsake.  A special thanks to them and other guests for taking time out of their super hectic schedules, especially this time of year, to spend time with the Coats' family out on the "homestead"; and a special thanks to Emmanuel M. and Tim G. for helping to pull this together.  Everyone always thanks the host and/or hostess, but at the end of the day, it's the guests that make the evening; for if there are no guests, there is nothing there. 

 My niece and camera's.  She's really into them.  That's a dad's love to let his daughter play with his swanky camera.  However, I do see her mommy standing near in supervision.  :-)

 Emma and Jennifer getting some practice in on how they'll react graduation day.  :-)

 ABOVE:  I absolutely love the above two.  Nick I. and Rachel C.  They are sooooo super friendly and just fun to be around.

BELOW:  This a a visual of how super hardworking AC young men look close to the end of their 4 years of AC life...Kaleb R. and Albert C......exhausted but happy!  :-)!

 BELOW:  Looks like Jessica D. is trying to sneak in a little nap too!  :-)

 A lovely shot of Tim G., Paris T., and Jessica D.  Candid shots are so wonderful for catching real life moments.

 The food!  When you cook for others you hope that everyone enjoys it and will like it.  It was a real miracle I was able to cook everything on Sunday.  We had Italian chicken, roasted potatoes in kosher Cajun seasoning, meat lovers mac n cheese casserole and another same type casserole without cheese for the lactose intolerant, red cabbage and snap pea stir fry, and I tried a recipe for apple pie lasagna.  I was kind of disappointed with that apple pie lasagna.  It was all "melty", and a little sweet for my liking, but hopefully some others liked it.  It was all about serving them anyway, but I was wishing it had come out better.  Oh well, it's done.  :-)

 The lovely Jessie and Ariel.  They are both so talented in many different areas.  Ariel helped make the Senior men neckties for their grad this year if they want.  Since my life has turned into piano so much I couldn't have done it this year without super help, so she stepped in and got it done, and she's helping Paulette with the official grad brunch decor for grad weekend too.  We're all soooo happy to have the young Hester's around.  They are BOTH soooo helpful and kind to many.  #HesterPlug  :-)!

 BELOW:  I LOL'd literally when I saw this pic after taking it.  My brother looks like he's getting a super intense "talking to" by Jordan.  LOL!

 BELOW:  ....Sophia's expression below is priceless.  She looks like she wishes I would just put my camera down for once and for all.

 As I was sorting through the pics I realized I somehow missed getting pics of Mr. and Mrs. Jason Hensley and their sons.  I feel bad about that as I always try to get a pic of at least one family representative in attendance, or a sliver of a person in a group candid shot or something for memory sake, and I think the Hensley's are amazing in setting a great example as a family, but YEAH!...saved by the bell.  I managed to shoot a few pics with Ethan in them.  :-)

 Here's to fond memories in honoring the AC class of this year.  Looking forward to hearing Emmanuel's student body president speech and witnessing the entire special occasion in honoring all of the graduates hard work at the AC graduation coming up about one month after the Spring HD's.  It's a blessing to be here to witness that.  Spring is the perfect time for graduation...exciting new beginnings.

The Lovely Niece

 These two pics are from maybe two weeks ago.  Spending time with the niece!  I'm happy my brother and sister in law let me spend time with her.  There's a quote I saw that says "Good sisters get promoted to Aunts."  I can't say I'm good as no man is according to the big book :-), but I guess I passed the sister exam.  :-)!  Sophia is into making goofy faces (below pic) when you try to take a decent photo.  Apparently, I was like that too when I was a little girl.  I remember my mom use to get annoyed when trying to take a decent family photo, and now I'm getting paid back as an Aunt.  I'm like come on....just smile and look normal.  LOL!  I got her to smile on the pic above!  Sophia usually looks like me everyone always says....but I really like the above pic because she looks so much like her mom on that one...definitely post worthy.  The tides are turning!  :-)  Young fun!

How to Make a Homemade Vacuum Bag! -- Time Crunch Resourcefulness

This past Sunday I needed to vacuum as I clean my house from top to bottom this time of year.  Sunday's are big days when it's the only day you're at home all day, so I have to use every minute pretty wisely to have a productive day.  I opened the vacuum to put a new bag in it when....BOOM, the gauntlet fell, I remembered that I had used my last bag when it filled and failed to purchase new vacuum bags, so I was bagless!  I didn't really have time to go to Wal-Mart or anywhere else that carried vacuum bags....that would cut out about one hour of my day to do that and that was time I didn't have, so I decided to try a brown paper bag with a piece of rubber band and two hair bands wrapped around it as the holder in place.  I wasn't sure if it would work because vacuums have a lot of pressure when they are sucking, but it worked and I got several rooms vacuumed with one bag before it filled.  ....sooooo from now on, no more buying vacuum bags for me....I will save a few bucks by just using what I already have....paper bags.  I use to hold on to plastic bags....well I still do....but now I'll add smaller paper bags to the mix.  This turned out to be one of those lemons that turned to yummy lemonade.  :-)!

Here's the "how to" if you want to try......

 You'll need one paper bag....not too big and not too small.  Make sure it has no holes in it.  I used a bag the size of what would hold two wine bottles if that helps for those who prefer visuals. 

 I took a medium sized rubber band, doubled it, and put it around the opening of the bag.  (side note: if you can triple the rubber band that's better, but you don't want to accidentally break the rubber.....make sure your rubber band is not a thin one that will break easily, but also make sure it's not one of the super thick ones that you can't double over.  Medium sized ones work well.)   Next I took two elastic hair bands with no metal, just the simple ones that you can get at a dollar store or anywhere easily as shown below, and also doubled the hair bands around the opening of the bag on top of the rubber band.  Then I took my fingers and pulled the bag opening open wide enough with the bands all around it, and placed the bag opening over the opening to where you'd put a vacuum bag, and pulled the rubber band and the two elastic hair bands down tight to make sure the bag fit firmly around the vacuum bag opening as it would a regular vacuum bag. Voila,  the vacuum was ready for use.  After I ran it for a few seconds the first time, I turned it off and opened it to make sure the bag hadn't fallen off, and to make sure that the bag hadn't busted or exploded open.  It hadn't.  Whew!  All was well, and I got a good portion of the house vacuumed with my free paper bag vacuum bag.  Not rocket science at all and it's a good thrifty feeling when you throw your homemade vacuum bag in the trash!  :-)

A Fav Quote

CCoatsofManyColours!

Latest sale from CCoatsofManyColours shop!

Shipping out today.

It's that busy time of year when my shop will go on vacation mode starting this morning.  Designs will be available for purchase again mid April.  Thanks in advance!

AC Heading to Robbers Cave

There they go! ...have to make video full size to see car caravan on road.  Let the party at HQ begin.  Just joking!  Hope they have a good time, and we'll keep working hard in their absence.  :-0  Had hoped for a "silent video" but was "multi-tasking"....AKA shooting video while getting a computer issue fixed by IT...AKA...my brother.  Sorry for the voice overs.  ;-)

Real Life Piano Lesson Funnies

You know that you have small hands and had piano lessons the evening before when you wake up in the middle of the night and one of your hands is throbbing in pain from your teacher drilling you on a full octave stretch with every finger playing a key at the same time except for one finger; with a fast song repeating stretching your hand over and over to reach the notes in fast proper timing.  (My little finger is having a hard time reaching that final note...my poor hand is catching havoc in stretching.  OUCH!)  Advanced piano lessons can be described as a gym membership workout for the hands. 

Every week my teacher gives me several new songs to learn, and this week, she was playing through one of them, when I stopped her mid song....totally not thinking...just speaking.....not recommended.....and told her that I didn't like the song, didn't want to play it, and that it sounded like a song you would hear at a funeral.  She looked at me and said, "Well maybe you need to learn to play funeral songs!"  LOL  Then, she found another song for me in G flat major with SIX flats.  Yeah, my punishment...much more difficult one to learn.  I told her it's okay, after she played it, it sounded more beautiful.  LOL!  All in good "playing" fun.  :-)!

From a few weeks back......

....so I was playing this song in piano lessons super slowly b/c I didn't know it like I should have.  My teacher told me it should go a lot faster.  I looked up at the music, and it happened to be on a page where it said to ritard.  So I stopped playing and pointed to the music and told my teacher, I'm not slow, the music is "ritarded."  LOL  (For those non musician friends, in music ritard is spelled ritard and means to slow down.....