cute idea

I thought this was the cutest idea! A homemade lunchable! I took a muffin pan and put portions of food in each cup. The kids thought it was fun to eat out of it. I'm thinking of making one a taco theme with each section taco toppings, or a sandwich wrap with deli meat and cheese. It's great for vegetable portions and dips. I'll have to get creative and maybe try baking a section with meatloaf and corn and then fill up the rest with a roll and a dessert. ( like a t.v. dinner ) What would you do?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for so many things this year. I was on a roll of having a stress free Thanksgiving until about 45 min. before everyone arrived. That's when I decided to peel the potatoes and put all the peelings down the disposal. All the sudden the other side of the sink filled up with yucky water. I turned everything off and waited for it to drain. It started coming up the other side of the sink. I turn the disposal on again......the other side of the sink fills up with yucky water again. We ( you know I really mean Troy ) had to tear out the pipes under the sink and clean out all those potato skins I peeled. He didn't get too mad at me, he always tells me what I should not put down the disposal. I guess potato peels are on the list now :)


We started off the day with homemade cinnamon rolls. The recipe is actually called, "clone of a cinnabon" and it's right on! The kids LOVE them! Look them up on "all recipes web site."


Had beautiful weather, we ate outside on the back porch. A great Thanksgiving!


I finished my red blocks last night........




love these!

These are just too cute!

Next are red ones that say, "Let it snow".

Happy Thanksgiving!! I better go clean and put my crafts away :)

four-T-one

I'm officially in my forties!

And no better way to celebrate than with 3 little kiddos who love me dearly! Every time I turned around they would tell me, "Happy Birthday!" Dylan kept asking when everybody was coming over for the party. :) I told him, we're all here!

Since Troy had to help a friend build a deck, and I had some things to get done, we will celebrate after Thanksgiving. ( with a cake ) Notice in the picture a candle in a pizza. Caitlin wanted to light a candle and put it in her mashed potatoes.....

Can't say I'm excited to be 41, but, very thankful to get here. Let's see what this year has in store.....

Job 14:9

This is the only thing left in the garden. This one lonely tomato. I haven't watered it, or moved it to get the best sunlight, I haven't fertilized it or pruned the plant for months. In fact, this plant was from Troys upside down garden he had started. The plant died out months ago. We took it off the post and just left the bucket by the fence. We cut off all the dead branches and that was that.

When the plant started growing from the dried out, cut off twigs that were left behind, I would say to the kids, " should we let this plant know it can't grow here?" Then it started to flower. I thought there was no way we could get a tomato. I don't water it and it hasn't rained in forever! It was even in the shade of the fence.

At the scent of water it will flourish

And put forth sprigs like a plant.

Job 14:9

This is now more than a plant for me. It's God telling me, " Look what I can do with nothing." What I see on the outside as dead, dried up, and finished (aka my life sometimes) God took with just a scent of water ( aka a prayer? a little faith? ) It will flourish. ( notice it didn't say, might flourish, could flourish )

Now I have to say, to me, this is a God thing, because I have tried to root very healthy plants last year with absolutely no success. I couldn't make it happen on my own! Leave it to the Lord to show me such a valuable lesson in leaning on Him right in my own garden!

I no longer joke about telling the plant it can't grow where it did. I now look forward to seeing this little tomato ripen up.....right where God put it!

Consider it all.......

O.k as you can tell I'm getting into this whole shabby chic thing.

This time, it's with some scrap wood that was going to be thrown away.

The first thing I did was sand it down a little. Then I spray painted it white and distressed the edges with sand paper. I didn't take a picture of the step where I covered the white paint with some stain and wiped it off. It kind of warmed up the white. Then I stenciled the letters on in black.


This picture is two stories in one. I put my blocks outside on my front porch on this rod iron corner shelf. This will be my next project. Troy found this at the thrift store a couple days ago and surprised me with it. He actually said, " I thought you could shabby chic it". I was totally floored by his comment, but happy with his great find of only $4.00! You bet I'll shabby chic that up!
So I have been wondering what this shelf would hold. then I saw this picture....

http://thecreativecrate.blogspot.com/2009/11/thakful-blocks.html

I would have loved to do that, but, it was all about what I already had. This project cost nothing. I had everything on hand. I really like the way they turned out too. I'm thinking a little greenery and some votives and I have a cozy little welcome at my front door.

DIY #3

I take terrible before pictures. I'm just so excited to start I forget to do that step. That said....

This was a dresser that Troys Grandpa gave us a while back. It has two drawers on top that I took out. I sanded down the grain and painted it white (of course) and painted the handles that were bronze, a hammered black color.

This is the almost finished project. I want to line the back board with burlap and add some of those cute Pottery Barn lined baskets. I really wish I took a before picture with all the drawers in it. This looks much better! It took a couple cans of white spray paint, the black we had all ready, so I just used it. Total cost about $6.oo. It's going into the boys room.

Fun stuff

http://thepinkblueberry.blogspot.com/

DIY project 2

Troy found some shutters on craigslist for free. I wanted to make Caitlin a headboard out of some of them. (weeks go by) and we finally got around to painting them and getting them up.

Here is what they looked like before

We painted them white and then I distressed them a little around the edges with sand paper. Troy put some wood on the back to hold everything together and then he hung them on the wall.

I love the way they turned out!

It's not completely done. I have been making pillow shams out of her old crib sheets and I don't have enough pillows. ( can you really have to many pillows? ) The pink pillow in the center is one of them.

So total cost was just a few dollars for spray paint. Shutters free, wood free! Happy MOM!!

Shout out of thanks to my husband who made it all perfect!!