Made By Smree

Happy Valentine's Day!  I seriously intended to post this long before now, but...well I forgot, okay? But hey, better late than never, am I right?  Right.  Moving on!  I decided to do a little something special for my friends this year, and I found an adorable idea on Pinterest . I decided I wanted to fancy mine up a bit more than what these were.  I snagged a heart outline from here , and then jazzed it up in Photoshop to add the color and text. All that was left then was to simply cut them out and paste them onto the socks! The brand I found had a cardboard topper, so it was perfect for what I had in mind. Aren't they adorable? I love how they turned out! And in case you want to use this idea for yourself, here's a printable version of the graphic I used!  To be honest, I can't remember what size I saved it as, but I'm thinking it's in the neighborhood of 2.5x3? (Or maybe 2x3.5? I don't k...

A new year means new goals. One of my goals for 2015? Pay off all my credit card debt!  I made pretty great progress through 2014 on paying it down, but this year is THE year it's going to be gone, gone , GONE . I saw the $5 savings plan idea floating around Pinterest (Link goes to the blog post I originally saw & pinned), and decided it might be a good way to achieve my goal a bit quicker.  Really the only rule I've set for myself as far as this plan goes is that when I find myself with a $5 bill, it HAS to be saved. No cheating. Period.  All is going well thus far (I've only saved a few, but I've only been actively doing this for a week or so now). It's almost been exciting, getting a $5 in change from somewhere and thinking "yep, this is going in my jar!" Well. I stopped at a local convenience store recently to buy a couple drinks (it's the only store around here that stocks the 20oz Sprite Zero). I was s...

I finally did it.  I finally broke down and made myself a Facebook Page . This is all part of my nefarious plan to brand myself, in a way. I've renamed my Etsy store, and have developed new packaging for my crochet goodies and such to make everything a bit more consistent. The Facebook page is all a part of this as well, and I'm looking to someday set up a functional website where people can purchase through that (as an alternative to Etsy). But all in good time. My little Facebook following is a bit small right now, but I'm hoping to grow it more as time progresses. I usually post updates as to what I'm working on/etc for now. I'm hoping to eventually post links to blog posts, especially patterns and the like.  So...if you've nothing else to do, and you'd like to.. .head on over there and give me a like ? I promise you won't regret it! :)

 I have such great intentions, I really do. I have all these great ideas for blog posts: patterns, tutorials, just random nonsense to share, and I even go as far as to toss ideas/photos/etc into draft posts, to edit before posting.  .....Aaaaand then, as always, stuff happens. Isn't that always the way? So here's a post that has been buried in my drafts folder since....oh, June or so? :P This is another 'as seen on Pinterest' post. A super, amazing, marvelously easy pin though. I even debated posting it at all because of it, but then figured, why not!? First, here's the original pin. <a data-pin-do="embedPin" href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/225180050093668448/"></a> <!-- Please call pinit.js only once per page --> <script type="text/javascript" async src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script> I was looking for a cute way to package up money for a couple gra...

Stories from Arisa - Volume One by Davis Ashura My rating: 5 of 5 stars I LOVED these short stories! The Prank was an especial favorite, and The Missing Diamond was a close second, but the rest were just as great. Received Wisdom and A Lesson Learned were fabulous companion pieces to A Warrior's Path, and helped to add a bit of back story/history, in my opinion. Hopefully this won't be the last of these stories we'll be seeing! View all my reviews

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a delightfully quirky book! I was a bit ehhhh on the photos at first, but they really did add a unique twist to the story. Can't wait to read the sequel now! View all my reviews

A Warrior's Path by Davis Ashura My rating: 5 of 5 stars Let me begin by saying that Mr. Ashura was gracious in gifting me a copy of this novel, with the only request being that I review it once I finished reading it. I have been incredibly lax in upholding my end of this bargain (so sorry!), but that all changes here and now. Right. So let's begin. I will be perfectly honest here; though the book takes off running and immediately transports the reader into the well-developed world, it took me to just under 100 pages into the story to feel like I understood enough to fully be involved in the goings-on. The world created within this novel is incredibly detailed and complex, and the cast of characters are rich and vibrant...it just took me a bit to catch up to them, so to speak. This is a very 'meaty' novel, and honestly the best comparison I can find for it is that it is very Tolkien-esque in it's style, given the level of detail. The h...