From the Mind of Christine McConnell

This woman is beyond inspirational. She's not afraid to tackle anything and she's got the skills to back it up. If this video impresses you, do yourself a favor and watch others on her channel. She's amazing!

It's What I Do

 

Happy Easter!

Yeah, I know its early, but if you're going to make things for a specific day, you have to make it ahead of time, right?

Most of the kids I know now are basically adults, or at least too old for an Easter Basket. But there are still two young kids that I can make baskets for. I looked all of the typical stores looking for baskets, but they all looked cheesy to me for the prices they were asking. And all definitely throw-aways. So, I decided to make them myself.

I think most of us have seen the paint stick baskets on Pinterest. They all instruct you to use embroidery hoops for the rings. I wasn't overly fond of having the screw brackets as I'd never use that portion of the hoop for anything else, plus I couldn't find them in the sizes needed. So I went searching and found both the large and small wood rings without them. I also purchased a package of wood rounds to use for the bottom. Most of the instructions I found on Pinterest either used foam core board or had no bottom at all. I opted to stick with wood. Should I make these again, I'd use a slightly larger wood round though, and just not have it placed all the way at the bottom. I added wood cubes - one every other slat - to the inside so the round had something to sit on. These I already had as they were left over from another project.

I used hot glue to glue the slats to the smaller hoop and applied wood glue afterward. I stapled the slats to the larger hoop near the top and also applied wood glue afterward. Wood glue. again, to attach the round to the cubes.

That's pretty much it. It took 16 (sixteen) 1-gallon paint stir sticks to make it around the hoops. I added a jute rope handle and dangled a couple of carrots with some jute twine - all obtained from the Dollar Tree - and used some gold metallic heavyweight scrapbook paper I had on hand to wrap around the rope join to finish it off. Added 3 bags of green shred, some candy, and done!

I like these a whole lot better as mom can use the baskets afterward to put fruit in once the candy is gone.

 

Catshit Bob

Once upon a time, I lived in the perfect place. It was in the hills surrounded by a ton of oak trees with a creek running through the property. Various critters would come down and drink from the creek and you never quite knew what you'd see when you walked out the door. I had a huge covered patio that I would sit in to drink my morning coffee and I'd listen to the world wake up. Without fail, there was a family of quail that would walk by and over the footbridge that took me to my neighbor's house. I had a huge country kitchen where I learned how to can and bake all kinds of goodies. I sure miss that place!

I was married to a construction worker at the time and came to know a lot of single men as a result. One year, my neighbor and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for all of them as most had nowhere to go for the holidays.

Most of the men were well-behaved. Well, except for one. Bob. He was pretty much a jerk and would always drink until he fell down, but since he was a friend of the others, we decided to tolerate him for the day. Since the weather was particularly nice, we decided to hold dinner outside on my patio. It was large enough for everyone and it would keep the house from being turned upside down.

So as we were finishing the food prep, everyone else was outside yapping and having a good time. Bob was pounding down the beer as usual. We have a great dinner and then Bob gets up as he has to use the bathroom.

Now there were steps leading up to the back door and you had to step up over the threshold to get through the door and into the service porch. That is where I kept cleaning stuff like the vacuum cleaner, brooms, mops and so on. It's also where I kept the cat box.

As Bob staggered up the steps, he evidently didn't notice that he had to step up and over the threshold. He tripped and landed face-down in the cat box. And yes, the cat had used it. Needless to say, we laughed hysterically and from that day on, he was known as Catshit Bob. The nickname suited him well.

And that is the Catshit Bob story.