Christmas Ornaments

I love to make Christmas ornaments!  Actually, most of the time I spend hours and hours looking for new ideas and instructions for making ornaments, and never get around to actually making them.  But I have managed to make a few, and I love them.  Some of my favorites are just super easy polymer clay ornaments made with Sculpey clay and cookie cutters!  You can marble different colors together like the angels in the photo, or you can use acrylic paint to decorate them.  I also like to use Sharpie markers to decorate them too.  The red star ornaments were painted with red acrylic paint and accented with silver Sharpie.  I wrote a lens for Squidoo on how to make them.  You can check it out here.  These are great ornaments for kids to make too since they are so easy.  And of course if you have more time and artistic ability, you can make polymer clay ornaments as fancy as you want! 

My parents still have many of the homemade ornaments my brothers and I made when we were kids. Most of them are made from construction paper, so I'm not sure how well they're holding up.  I'm going to have to get some pictures of those when I go see my parents this week!  Maybe I'll even recreate some of them.  I think that would be fun, and it would be nice to be able to make the memories last just a little bit longer for the ones that are on their last leg. 

Because Sometimes We All Need An Angel

Have you ever heard of Angel Food Ministries? This is the place to go if you are struggling with your finances and need a little help with the groceries. AFM was founded in 1994 and is now helping out over 500,000 families every month.  One of the best things about Angel Food Ministries is that there are no qualifications or applications necessary to buy from them!  You don't have to prove that you are struggling financially or meet an income limit.  They want to be able to help everyone.  And there is no limit on how many boxes you can purchase, so if you have a small family or a very large one, you'll be able to get what you need from Angel Food Ministries. They even accept EBT (food stamps)!



Angel Food Ministries has a "menu" that changes each month. There are a few different options available:

*The Signature Box contains several kinds of meat, fresh or frozen produce, shelf stable milk, and eggs, plus some other items. It is designed to feed a family of four for one week. The cost is only $30.  The value of the average Signature Box if all the items were purchased in the store would be $65.  That's a lot of savings!

*Senior/Convenience Boxes contain premade meals that you just heat up. It provides 10 meals, plus juices and dessert. Currently $28.

*Allergen-Free Boxes have 5 pounds of food - usually breaded foods like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, or cubed steak. Chosen to eliminate the top serious allergens such as peanuts, soy, eggs, milk, etc. The price has been lowered to $23.

*Assorted packages of meats. There are usually two or more choices here, ranging from mixed meat types, all chicken, or all beef for example. Prices vary but are usually $20 or a few dollars above.

*Fruit and Veggie Boxes have only fruits and veggies, no meat. I believe these are always fresh, not frozen or canned.  (But I could be wrong!)  This month's box is $23.

They also offer special seasonal options, such as for Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

Check out the AFM website to find a local host site near you.  You can order online, or you can contact your local host site to order.  There is a deadline for orders for each month, and there is one day when all orders must be picked up.  You can also apply to have your church become a host site for Angel Food Ministries! 

So if any of you out there are having trouble stretching the budget to fit in groceries, check out Angel Food Ministries.  You can get great, healthy, restaurant quality food (no "seconds" or "day old" food types) at a great savings.  And in this economy, we can all use a helping hand now and then!

Blog Hop: What Would You Do If You Were More Brave?

This week's Blog Hop theme is "Ask a Question".  What I want to know is this:

What would you do if you were more brave? 

My inner child is an adventurer.  I always imagine all the fun and daring things I wish I was brave enough to do.  Some of them I eventually work up the nerve to try, others I doubt I'll ever be brave enough to attempt, even if I'm working on my "bucket list"!  I could actually provide this question with a whole list of answers.  But I'll just name two.

Sky diving!  I love the feel of a free-fall.  Walt Disney World's Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides.  Falling is fun!  It's the landing that sucks. If I ever am brave enough to try this in my lifetime, it will probably only be as a tandem jump.  I don't want to be responsible for pulling the ripcord at the right time or "driving" the thing to the landing spot.  Plus I'm hoping landing would be easier if I were attached to a pro.  I'm not fond of breaking both my legs or bruising my pancreas.  But then I remember that news item I read about how someone was on a tandem dive and the pro had a heart attack and DIED in mid-air!  And even more unnerving?  I just pulled up the article and the instructor is from my hometown!  (Is that a sign?)  This is a bit worse than tossing a kid into the pool to make them learn to swim!

SCUBA diving!  The closest I can get to this is snorkeling. And that took some baby steps to happen too.  I just can't get myself to breathe underwater.  It's not natural!  My husband is always trying to get me to get certified for SCUBA, and I would love to be brave enough to do it.  There are so many beautiful places underwater that I'd love to see!  Seeing it in on TV just isn't the same.  But I get freaked out even imagining it.  Having to worry about all that gear, whether you've got enough oxygen, whether your equipment is working properly or is faulty, whether you're going to get your airline caught on the shipwreck you're diving and DIE, and even something as "simple" as coming up too quickly and getting the bends.


Now it's your turn!  What would YOU do if you were more brave?

MckLinky Blog Hop - Favorite Photos

Pixie, one of my Chihuahuas.  (She's missing a few teeth and her tongue tends to hang out of the side of her mouth a lot when she sleeps.  It's so cute!)

Gypsy, my other Chihuahua, who would be having a better nap if Mommy would stop taking her picture!

Now here is one of them together from a few years ago, looking cute (and young!)

And another of them together, looking just little bit wonky.  :)