Where does the time go?

I am sitting here, listening to the laughter of my daughter and husband as they relax watching an old episode of King of Queens and it strikes me that the time is going so fast. I remember the time when we first time that she laughed, I mean truly laughed from the core of her little being. Amanda was just months old and we were on a quick weekend trip with my beloved mother. Mom and I were relaxing on the bed with Amanda. We were talking to her and tickling her and then Amanda laughed so hard that before you knew it, we were all laughing until tears streamed down our faces.

There are so many times that I look at my daughter and I thank God that she is a happy and healthy young woman of 17. Before you know it, I will be crying at her high school graduation, but they will be tears of happiness. God has entrusted us to raise this wonderful young woman and for that, I will be eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father.

Denim and Burlap

I continue to have an obsession with burlap. I don't know what it is about it...the color, the texture, the feel...all I know is that I am enjoy crafting with burlap. Well, the latest creation is a table runner. Several blogs have shown a multitude of burlap runners, each so creative and lovely in their own right. This one that I made for our table is a simple strip of burlap that I have fringed the edges and then added denim flowers. The flowers are those rolled type that are all over the blog. I was just pleased to be able use up a leg of an old pair of jeans. Recycling at it's finest.

Warming Up

I enjoy this time of spring...when the weather warms up just a bit, but not too much for me to turn on the a/c to survive. The plants and the trees sprout their new growth, the people of town come out of hibernation and you begin to hear the whirl of the lawn mowers. We sat in the living room and watched our neighbor's tree burst from the browns of the winter into a thing of life with green leaves and movement in the wind within maybe three days. This is the time of spring that I enjoy. The miracle of rebirth.

Spring Banner

We are not fortunate to have a mantle to decorate with the seasons, but I have made a compromise. I decorate the top of our entertainment center. For Spring, I made a Spring Banner made of jute twine, clothespins, and tag cards. I covered the top of the clothespins with scrapbook paper, sanded and then antiqued the edges. I strung them onto the twine and then clipped an assortment of scrapbook tags that I made printing them out from our color printer and then mounting them onto paper. A great source of graphics is the Graphics Fairy who generously shares a multitude of designs. You can find at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

Decorating for Spring

I made this bunny silhoutte with the inspiration from eighteen25. Out came the St. Patrick's Day subway art and in the frame goes the bunny. With one piece of 12 x 12 reversible scrapbook paper, a hand-cut white silhouette popped off the paper with some foam dots, and four staples...here you go! A cute little piece of framed art for our entry.

Happy Spring!

Welcome Spring, and in celebration of this change in the seasons, I made this wreath for the front door. I love, love, love it! All I had to do was to purchase a grapevine wreath from Michael's using my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon (love that they will take those coupons). I made a nest using Lolly Chops Mini Birds Nest and Eggs tutorial at http://vimeo.com/19615893 I made a larger nest and the egg that I used was a paper mache egg that I had painted and splattered. The wreath definitely needed something, so I printed out butterfly pictures, trimmed them out, bent the wings where they meet the abdomen for some shape, and voila! A bit of Martha ribbon and we are in business.

Did I say how much I love this wreath?

Tie Dye Cupcakes

My dessert of choice is usually a New York Cheesecake. I will request this for my birthday year after year; however, this year I asked Amanda to make me something different...tie dye cupcakes. I had seen these done in different places, so I knew this would be something fun for all of us.

Amanda prepared the cake mix as directed and then divided the batter into five different cups. She mixed the colors using gel coloring and then added a spoonful of each color to each cupcake liner stacking the colors as you go. She baked them as directed on the cake mix box and they were perfect! She topped them with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles...yummy and fun!

Tie dye is near and dear to our family. My husband wears tie dye t-shirts on his down time from his job and they travel on vacation with us. This is always a plus because we can find him almost anywhere. In fact, the joke is, "Do you see Dad?".

Amanda meets Paula Deen...or at least the cookbook!

Today, I am very thankful for over ripe bananas. Even without begging, my daughter volunteered, you read right...she volunteered to make banana bread. For a recipe, she went straight to the boss...Paula Deen. Now I love all kinds of quick breads and banana bread is no exception. Amanda made the most delicious and beautiful bread and it sure didn't take long to cut into these loaves. Yummy!

Congratulations, Ashleigh!

My niece, Ashleigh, is a bright spot in my life. I love her dearly. Even though we have moved to Texas and Ashleigh and her family are back in California, she and I make every effort to stay in touch. In fact, she is coming out to Texas when our daughter graduates from high school and then as a special treat, Amanda invited Ashleigh to go with us to Walt Disneyworld to celebrate the graduation. But I digress...

Ashleigh graduated from her medical assisting program today and will now begin her externship. I am so incredibly proud of her. She is a lovely and beautiful young woman. Now talking about Texas, she has a heart the size of Texas! She is definitely doing our family proud. Love you, Ashleigh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I absolutely love the way this wreath turned out. There is nothing better than making something that not only you enjoyed making, but that you are proud to display.

I received my inspiration from Bosley Creative Photography at http://bosleycreative.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/a-pretty-spring-burlap-wreath/ and Tatertots and Jello at http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/03/hey-all-you-burlap-lovers.html {Time to learn to insert hyperlinks ;-) }

Have a happy, but most of all SAFE, St. Patrick's Day!

Sneezes

True, the tissue box covers have become more decorative. They change with the seasons, there are colors to match any décor, but can I tweak it a bit? Absolutely. I decided that I could make a cover using chipboard, Mod Podge, pictures from the internet, and seam binding.

You could easily purchase a wood or paper mache tissue box cover and then decorate. I just chose to use chipboard because I had it handy. I found these hilarious pictures on the internet and used them to cover the box with Mod Podge. I used seam binding trimmed with pinking shears to cover the raw edges and then it was time for silly pictures.

A trip to Sam's Club

The other day, my daughter and I took a fairly routine trip to our Sam's Club to stock up on the usual suspects...exciting things like salad fixings, toilet paper, hand towels...So we are walking down the freezer aisles, you know the ones, and we came upon this vision just too funny to not take a picture.

Although I have complete and total trust in my daughter, it never hurts to reinforce things...it was a good "teachable" moment.









During these trips, other things generally leap off the shelf and into my basket. What is a gal to do? So can I tell you that these are my new favorite 100 calorie snacks? They are so fruity and crisp and a nice level of sweet...

and I have now found that they have a blueberry flavor that happened into my basket at WalMart.

Taco

After two years without a dog in the family, we felt it was time to welcome another dog into our home. Our daughter’s friend, Marissa, offered us one of her new puppies. Born from a cross between a Chihuahua and a Fox Terrier, we visited the litter and made our selection. Three weeks later, the puppy was weaned and we brought our new family member home. Our daughter named our new bundle, Taco. You think that is bad? We used to have a male cat that our niece, Ashleigh, named Balls. Imagine my taking Balls into the vet to have him neutered. “I’m sorry, Michelle. What is his name?” Oh yes, laughter ensued…

What is ironic is that the name of a dog born from a Chihuahua and a Fox Terrier is a hybrid breed called a Taco Terrier…who would have thought?

Making Butter

When I was a little girl back in the late 60’s, my parents made the decision to move from Los Angeles to Northern California. Now, to most people, northern California is the bay area of San Francisco, but we were five hours north of San Francisco and one hour south of the Oregon border on the coast what is commonly referred to as "behind the redwood curtain". We lived in the small town of Bayside which is adjacent to Arcata…home of Humboldt State University and the Marching Lumberjacks.

The reason for the move from the Los Angeles area was so that my sister and I would be raised outside of the city. With the arrival to our new home, my mother decided to embrace her inner Little House on the Prairie. Because we mainly raised beef cattle, a mighty herd of seven, Mom would order whole milk to be delivered from a local dairy. She bought herself a butter churn along with a bowl and paddle to press the butter. So along comes the milk delivery, the cream skimmed off the top, and the remaining milk was for our household use. The cream went into the churn and my sister and I would take turns turning the crank. What seemed like forever when you are nine, the butter would form and then out Mom would turn the butter onto the wooden bowl. She then went through the process of pressing the remaining fluid out and there we had golden, beautiful butter.

The other day, I was fondly remembering things from my youth and although I do not have Mom’s butter-making supplies, I truly wanted for our daughter to experience this process. I bought some heavy whipping cream and into the trusty Ball canning jar it went with a couple of marbles.

To my delight some extraordinary things happened. One: our 17 year old daughter was actually interested in trying this and B: she formed butter.

What was to follow was the three of us enjoying toast and our, yes our, butter.

Nothing is better…until I learn to bake my own bread!

My heart breaks for Japan

When you hear the news about a disaster, one thinks, "Oh, what a shame". It is not until the images come across the internet and onto the television screen that one truly sees the damage and impact. Hundreds of thousands are without food, water, and electricity with the death toll reaching 10,000. I cannot even fathom the pain and devastation that the country is experiencing. And then you see miracles such as the man who was recovered after being swept out to sea when the tsunami hit.

I am keeping Japan, her leaders, her trained medical professionals, volunteers, and all of those who have been touched by this devastating tsunami. God bless each and every one.

Family Day



My reasons for being.



On Saturday we had a family day.  Having been in Texas just a few short months, we are trying to experience our new state and take advantage of all it offers.   We took a drive toward Fort Worth with a stop to fortify ourselves with breakfast at Mimi’s Café.  What is not to love about Mimi’s?  The food is terrific and we so enjoy the muffins.  After our fill, we were off to the Fort Worth Zoo.  Now, I am generally not a fan of zoos; however, we soon discovered why this zoo is one of the top five zoos in the nation.  The displays and enclosures are so well done and the animals so well cared for.  We took the little train to the upper area of the zoo and then worked our way down toward the entrance.  I believe we were lucky enough to see everything the zoo had to offer, we learned quite a bit about the animals, and enjoyed our time together.