*cough cough*

Okay.... I have a confession....

I've kinda sorta abandoned you all....

And gone on to greener pastures....

Now they're not really greener, I guess.... It's missing YOU!!!!

I've started a blog for our storefront, so that's where my few free minutes have been going!!! To make it up to ya'll here's the link!!! http://www.mastershandcandles.blogspot.com/ Does that make up for my non-posting-habits??! Now you have 2 blogs of mine to read.... Which.... Might mean that you'll have to endure twice the abandonment!!! Yikes! :o)

No really.... I'll try to do better on this front! :o)

P.S. I've got a brand new blog layout for y'all..... Does that make you feel better too? I know if does for me!!! :o) lol!

***NEWSFLASH*** -- New store

Hey ya'll!!!

Things are coming together... We're SCRAMBLING!!!

And...

***DRUMROLL***

We have our open house this weekend! If you're in the area, be sure to stop by!!!

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE

at

Master's Hand Candle Co. & Gift Shop

(Just south of Tekemah on HWY 75-- Old Nordstrom Bldg)

Saturday, Dec. 6th

2-6 pm

Door Prizes... Refreshments... Live Music... and Amazing Sales!!!

We'll have Face Painting and Balloons from 2-4!

Come see first hand how things are looking around here!!! I'll be posting pictures of everything after it's all over!

*** Hobby Lobby NEWSFLASH ***

Yesterday afternoon Hooby Lobby went 90% off on all fall/Thanksgiving stuff!!!!

Don't walk... RUN! :o)

Want a tour??

Alrighty! I'm in Branson MO this week.... but thought I'd post this quick!

So... if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being bored to death... And if ya have 12 minutes to kill... And you want to spend it checking out our new building.... Here's a "tour" Gracie recorded the day we closed on the building! :o)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaIwzrabpq8

September 9th...

Okay... I looked... **gasp** September 9th was the last time I posted. That's almost 2 months ago.

TWO MONTHS!

May I beg your forgiveness? Plead, perhaps?

In my defence, a LOT has happened since September 9th!!!

Namely... WE BOUGHT A BUILDING!!!!

A GI-NORMOUS building!!! In fact... At home, we had our candle stuff in several rooms. The combine sq. footage of those rooms was approx. 800ish. Want to know how big our new building is??! OVER 10,000 SQ. FEET!!!! Lots and lots of room to grow!!! No more carrying 60 lbs. boxes of wax dooooown the stairs.... And no more carrying the finished candles uppppp the stairs! We're all on one level and can roll pallets of stuff around... Back around to the back door and load the truck right there... It's fantastic!

We'll have a storefront where we can sell our candles, my JUNK, ect... (It is in the process of bring completely gutted and redone! LOTS of fun but I'm supposed to have it done by the weekend before Thanksgiving! Besides pouring thousands of candles! TONS of fun... but... YIKES!!!)

A WHOLE room just for my workshop and beloved tools! Yeah baby!

WE'RE EXCITED AND LOVING IT!!!!!

More details to follow! :o)

P.S. Sorry Rachel.... I know I said I'd post last week, but my computer charger diiiied!

Just got it fixed! YAY!

I'm back!

After a brief reprieve... (And not one that I wanted... the camera just wouldn't upload the pictures for me! And who wants to read a blogpost of mine without pictures??!)

Want to see a bit of what Caleb did for the fair??

Remember these bottles?

Well... Caleb made a "bottle bug!"

Isn't he cute??! Oh what you can do with a bottle... a little copper wire... and a few beads!

And... Do you want to see what he made for the "Recycling" class??!

The thing that got wow's everywhere it went??!

The thing that the judge said was the most creative thing she had ever seen entered in the class??!

The thing that won RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION??! (Yay Caleb!! 2nd year in a row, baby!)

Prepare to be amazed here people!

So what do you do with...

A spindle....

A cast from an unfortunate event this spring...

A very thick medical book, drill, gorilla glue...

And a sock and some stuffing?

Why, with a little imagination and work...

Make a LAMP of course!!!! :o)

Way to go Caleb!!

What exactly do I do, anyway??

Okay... someone asked what exactly it is I do at the fairs on weekends? Well... here goes... A look into my summers!


Our family owns and runs a "family entertainment buisness" called Sonshine & Company. We do...

SHAVED ICE

CAPPUCCINO FREEZES

FRUIT SMOOTHIES

WILD ISLAND SLUSHIE DRINKS

BLOOMIN' CARAMEL APPLES

MINI MELTS (Kinda lke Dippin' Dots only better! :o) lol!)

COTTON CANDY

And we also have a moonwalk bounce house... train rides... baseball radar throw... face painting... occationally balloon animals... ummm... I think that's it. I loose track! ;o)

So there's a reader's digest version of what we do!

What else have I been up to this summer?

Well... as you may haave guessed... Fairs pretty much summed up my summer. However last week, Grace, Alatheia, and I all went down to my Grandma's to teach a Bible club.


It. Was. A. Blast.




We had WAY too much fun!



We went from 7 kids to 14 kids. The water balloon fight the last day really upped attendence. ;o) lol! Sadly, **cough cough** I had a wedding shower afterwards, so I couldn't get wet. Aww! lol!

Aaand... we had a blast on our "off time" too!

The mighty headhunter!

The bearded women!

Yeah! We had a blast!

Oh, what I'll do for my brother and a few bottles!!

Okay... So Caleb and I have spent the last 2 days getting ready for his 4-H fair. He's been brainstorming and coming up with brilliant ideas! Well... a few of his projects involve bottles. Oh yeah... bottles. I love bottles!! :o) (I know, I know... call me weird!)

Anyway... He found this spot down by the creek last fall where someone dumped a bunch of bottles. So we got the brilliant idea to got get some. I didn't account on 2 things.

Mosquitoes and nettles.

OUCH!!! By the time I got down the creek bank and was looking for them, I didn't want to go back. So... I thought I'd just keep going. That was a mistake! As much as I love bottles... It wasn't worth it!!! lol! By the time I got back, I was itchy all over and had over 50 bug bites!

But that all said and done... Caleb and I found 48 bottles. Some are cooler than others... But oh the memories we'll have of them!

And yes... We got them all cleaned up... They look so much better now! :o)

I'll post pictures of what we did with them later! :o)

TOP 10 REASONS WHY I DIDN’T POST DURING THE MONTH OF JULY:

I know... I know... Excuses, excuses!! But here's mine!!

Remember… In July there are 31 days. Out of those 31 days:

1. We had events booked every single weekend.
2. Actually… We had only 11 days in which didn’t have any events scheduled.
3. Each one of those 11 days at home was spent preparing for the next events.
4. We had 16 separate events ranging from 2 hours to 6 days long.
5. Which makes an average of 4 events per weekend.
6. We had 3 county fairs. (They’re harder as they generally last 5-6 days each)
7. I got to wear the Sonshine & Co. red t-shirt and denim 20 times this month.
8. We had events ranging from Kansas to Nebraska to Iowa to South Dakota.
9. I’ve been stretched WAY out of my comfort zone! Nearly every weekend I took a trailer by myself to talk to the big person in charge at the event, find out where to set up, get everything ready to go, and work it all weekend with some great helpers. Not my usual cup of tea!
10. So therefore… To summarize… I’ve been too busy!

Don’t feel unimportant though! There are other things that got pushed to the wayside this month along with my blogging. Vital things like cleaning the house, pulling weeds in all the flower beds and gardens. (I actually just got done with weeding some of the flower beds. Some of the weeds were as tall as I am. Amazing how fast they can grow!) taking care of my poor herb garden, (Haven’t spent much quality time with “Herb” lately) Cooking any “real” meals, riding horses. (Haven’t done that all summer come to think of it! Want to come out to my house, anyone??!)

But on the upside… I now have a new perspective on what “busy” really means!!! :o) lol

Hopefully I can start blogging a little more now that July is over! July was the INSANE month… August is just BUSY! :o)

I'm a faaaaailure!!!

Okay... okay... I know I haven't blogged in forever... and I'm well aware of the fact that I always say that.... But if you don't know about it already, let me tell you about bloglines. Go to www.bloglines.com and you can make a free account. It let's you type in all your favorite blogs and will let you know when they update them! Cool, huh? (And now I can be a sporadic blogger without a guilty concience! Nice!!)


Now that we have that covered... Here's a very quick overview on what my life has entailed lately!

My cousin, Zachery graduated last week and I got to do his cake! Yay! :o)

It was a 2 layered white cake with raspberry filling in between! Yum!! And in spite of neither layer coming out very well, it turned out not looking too bad!

Last weekend was the Omaha Ren Faire... Always way too much fun. We did our consessions and stuff... Florentine Snow (Shaved Ice)... Ye Olde Cinnamon Glazed Nuts... Faerie Floss (Cotton Candy)... King's Court Slushies (Wild Island Drinks)... Fruit Smoothies... Cappuccino Freezes... and more! Alatheia had an outfit to die for! It was SO cool!!

The mad Scotsmen we there again this year! I love those guys... They are absolutely hysterical!!

We had a baby!!! The most adorable little fellow you ever did see! Doesn't have a name yet, any ideas, y'all?

Aaaanndd.... Mom and Caleb got turkeys... Goodness, they're ugly little things! I'm not even joking!! But Caleb's enjoying them, so we'll see how they survive! :o)

There's been more going on around here, so I'll just have to blog here more shortly! Like redoing the dining room floor... and re-painting the walls... and giving the ceiling fan a mak-over... and well... I'll be back! Honest! :o)

Wondering where I've been?!

Hey y'all!




Have you been wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth?! Well ALMOST!!! It's NCHEA time! (Nebraska Home Educator's Association)


As most of you know, I have been homeschooled since 1st grade. Growing up, mom and dad always went to the NCHEA conference where they had a curriculum fair, speakers, ect... They always either had to leave us kids with Grandma and Grandpa or only one of them would go.


Well... The past 4 years now, we've done a "Kid's Conference" that runs concurrently with their conference and it's a TOTAL blast! I am one of 8 core staff that spends from about Sept-April planning and organizing this amazingly fun weekend! We had over 250 kids this year!!! It's been absolutely AMAZING to see it GROW!

This year's theme was "The Legacy," in which 5 orphan children travel throughout Europe to find the inheritance that their parent's left them during WW II.

We had 4 countries represented... Germany, Holland, Italy, and FRANCE! I was, of course, the one in french attire. :o)

Boy, was it fun! (Besides the fact that I've developed a hatred for heels!!!)

Been watching everyone else's blogs for pictures and here's what a few of them posted!

• Here's a slideshow that my brilliant cousin, Ruth put together!

• My AMAZING photographer of a cousin, Bethany has the storyline of the drama in pictures as well as some other fun pictures of the whole time! How many pictures did you take, Bethany?? 941?!

• A good friend from church, Anna B. (AKA "Louise") posted a few pictures too!

• UPDATE: Another family from church, the Grady's also posted some fun pics!

• UPDATE: Another friend that I've know from CYIA forever, Kristin T. has lots of pics too!

• UPDATE: And ANOTHER friend from church, our own AMAZING Alatheia: Props and Costuming Coordinator, has more pictures!

• UPDATE: The Ulmer's also posted pictures! We've know them for years and years!!

I'll add other's names once they post any pictures too! (It's a popular theme this week, it seems!)

And now starting on a few of the finishing touches...

And yesterday I also put everything back on the mantle. It's very cute now! Want to see it?

In the center there is my mirror that I got on a garage sale a few years ago for only $2! I was very happy!! It's already distressed and everything.

I got this sign at Goodwill about a month ago. I thought the color would work in the livingroom and got it just in case it fit in anywhere. And it did!!

I bought the star after Christmas... 90% off, baby!! The empty picture frames were from an auction... Got those free! :o)

These are for the curtains... I saw them on clearence at Menards. They used to be 25-something... I got them 1$ for each pair! Whoohoo!

They were a very light oak color, but I spray painted them with cream. After it was dry, I decided that the cream was too stark, so I rubbed stain on it. What I wasn't expecting was for it to distress the areas when I rubbed the stain in harder. They turned out SUPER COOL!

Don'cha just love when that happens?! :o)

Another new experience!

All right... I was going to post what else I've been working on, but it wouldn't let me post any more last night! Silly thing!!

I've tiled the hearth in front of the fireplace as well as a new hearth pad in the corner for our new wood stove. It's been another new thing I've never done before... But tiling is really a LOT of fun!!! :o)

This is the hearth pad for the wood stove...

I was just laying them out to get an idea of how I wanted the tile to go.

My new wet saw for cutting tile... You know how I feel about saws, and this is no exception! I love this thing! It's totally cool!!!

This was the fireplace hearth... Those red things were so nice! they kept them spaced so well!!!

Finished laying the hearth pad tile...

Then a few days later came the grout... That was interesting!

And messy...

I'll post pics of the finished product soon!!!

The floors are done!!!

Hey!!!
I am still alive!! My camera cord was lost and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE! Have you ever noticed how things just seem to loose themselves when you're remodeling?!

Anyway... Now that I found it, there's an awful lot to catch up on! I am SO excited with how things are turning out!!

I finally got the wood floor installed...

And stained...

And finished!!!

It turned out BEAUTIFULLY! I am totally sold on wood floors now! Love 'em!