Strawberry Bread

You are looking at this and saying what am I looking at?  It's 3 loaves of Strawberry Bread wrapped in a shiny, foil-like paper.  {I found that shiny fun wrap at the $ store}

{Pinterest Idea} 

I bought a package of thin wooden hearts from Hobby Lobby.  Then I asked one of our coaches to drill a tiny hole in the hearts about the size of a pencil.  Final step, I sprayed the heart with chalkboard paint.  How fun is that?

Personalized hearts for my strawberry bread :)

 Then I took it to work and shared with my hungry co-workers.

If you want the recipe for the Strawberry Bread and Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread that is wonderful on the bread please let me know.

Don't forget the Monogrammed Towel Set Give-Away!  See the previous post if you are interested.

Karen

Oval Monogram for Sloan & Give Away

I bought this dress back in August and am just now embroidering it.  It was suppose to be a Thanksgiving dress, then Christmas, then Valentines.  Since I'm a bit behind it is an early spring dress :)

It is good thing I ordered the dress in a large size back in August.  I'm all about green and pink right now.  I guess it's a longing for Bunny rabbits, green grass, flowers and longer days.

I used an oval applique and then used the Fancy Font for her initials.

I want to give away a set of white monogrammed towels (bath, hand & wash cloth).  Here's what we'll do... 1 week from now I'll draw for the winner.  You must be a follower of my blog and tell us a bit about yourself.  We can use the following questions as guidelines:

1)  What part of the country are you located in (you don't have to name a town just a general area)?

2) What crafts do you like to do or hope to learn to do?

3) Anything you want to share about your family

4) Anything about yourself you want to share...hobbies, career, children.



Ok that's it.  Pretty simple.  So speak up and let us hear from you.

I'll start.

I live in the south where LSU is our favorite team along with the Saints.  We love purple and gold and black and gold and gumbo! I was a French teacher for 26 years but am now a counselor at an elementary school.  My faith, family, friends, career and embroidery are my life.  I love to embroider, sew a little bit, use my Cricut, cook and bake for my friends and family, shop and peruse Pinterest.  My two children are grown and live close enough I can see them often.  I love my grand babies to the moon and back.  My family loves to vacation in Florida (where my daughter was married) at least once a year.  The simple things in life are the most important to me and that's about it for me.  Your turn.

Have a great Monday!

XOXO,

Karen

Valentine Blondies

I saw these Brown Sugar Blondies for Valentine's Day on Pinterest.  The recipe is very easy and they look and taste good.  I would bake them the full 25 minutes next time I make them.  They are not cake-like but rather "fudgey" if that makes sense.  My husband is my taste-tester and he thinks they are yummy.

The recipe can be found.....HERE.  They have M&M's inside and on the top :)

You can see inside......not like a bar cookie....gooey and delicious.

 One of our coaches at school is going to have a great grandson soon and asked me to make him something with his name on it.  I stitched him a few simple little gifts to give.

Baby Boy Boxers

Burp Cloth

I've had full day so I'm calling it a "good night".

Have a wonderful Sunday!

I want to have a "give away" this week.  Check back tomorrow or Monday for details.

XOXO,

Karen



A Little Pinterest Inspiration

I found these Digital Stamps on Pinterest.  They are great!  They can be found ....HERE.  I saved them to my computer and then created note cards in Word.  Those of you who are whizzes with Photo Shop, I think they would be even easier to work with.  There are 4 different styles to choose from and within each style are different patterns.  I love polka dots so I choose this design.

You can choose hounds tooth, checkerboard, solid, stripes or damask.  What you choose to put them on are endless.......jar labels, stationary, paper bags or anything you like.  I added my initial using Monogram KK (downloaded free from dafont.com)  Once again you can use any font you like.  Using Word, I set my paper up in Landscape and made my paper have 2 columns.  I moved my margins as close to the bottom and sides as I could.  I think it is about .5 from the bottom.  That way I can move the design as far down on the paper as possible.  I added a text box for the initial.  It takes some playing with it to get it aligned just right for printing. Then I copied and pasted another one to the other column of my paper.  When I had two designs on my paper, I printed the page, cut them down the center, creased and folded the two notes. 

Another little inspiration I got from Pinterest is this crepe paper rose.  These are easy to make and you can find the tutorial HERE.

I tied these up with a pretty satin ribbon to give to a friend.

I don't think you can find a cuter note card at the store and it's homemade with love :) 

Thanks to all you talented and generous Pinterest ladies out there who share your ideas!  I love all the inspiration!

XOXO,

Karen

Valentine Soap

I made Valentine soap!  It is so easy.  These are the instructions that I used....here.

If I make it again I would want it to be thicker so I would use a smaller loaf pan and I would add more Peppermint extract so the smell would be stronger.  However, the recipe works perfectly. 

This is how I wrapped mine using parchment paper and ribbon.  A fun gift to share or just to have in your bathroom for Valentine's Day.

A friend at school found out this week she is having a boy.  I couldn't wait to make her a little something to celebrate knowing what the baby will be.  This is the boy version of the crown monogram.

I do like the blue and green together :)

I love Bakerella.  I use her recipes often because they are so delicious and foolproof.  These Red Velvet Cupcakes are on her latest post.  

The recipe can be found here.  She also gives cute, free printable hearts to use as toppers but I didn't want to make those tonight.  I used some "Lips" I had on hand.

My husband gave them the taste test and they passed with flying colors.  I even used her Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting.  I may use it from now on.  It makes enough to "lavishly" frost 2 dozen cupcakes.

 I hope you have a fun weekend!

I have lots of studying to do this weekend.

XOXO

Karen

Keeping Busy

Today is a very difficult anniversary for me and my family so instead of being idle I'm going to stay very busy.....all day! I just had to share the beautiful roses I picked up at WalMart.  I love having flowers around the house anytime but especially in the winter....makes me think about spring :)

This is a project I've been wanting to do for 2 years for my brother.  I finally did it today!  My brother was a Navy pilot during the Viet Nam war.  He was quit a decorated fighter pilot flying over 400 missions.  He's my hero.  This is their slogan ( have no idea what it means) and his plane.  I put it on a sweat shirt.

I wanted to do something for my sister-in-law, too.  So more white towels :)  I haven't gotten tired of them yet.  Such a clean, fresh look for January.

Towels are from Marshall's

I made these last night ....Oreo Truffles.  You all know the recipe..

1 package Oreos of your choice (crushed in food processor)

8 0unces of cream cheese (softened)

Chocolate for dipping

Mix Oreos and cream cheese and form into balls.  Chill before dipping in chocolate.

Melt chocolate and dip Oreo balls.  Chill again.

Enjoy!

These are a little heavy to put a stick in.  It makes it difficult to dip.  Next time I'd probably not use a stick.  They are just as yummy that way.

I sprinkled them with Valentine sugars and do-dads (what are they called?)

 A friend ordered this onesie for a new baby.

My all-time favorite design for baby girls and some of my favorite fabrics.

 I did a little something extra for Baby Ava

These little jackets were at WalMart last winter.  I love them and bought a few extra on clearance.

Happy a good Monday!

Valentine Door Decoration

A little paint on a canvas board, vinyl hearts, my name and XOXO cut with my Cricut!

Just a little something to hang on my office door at work.

A plate of white chocolate dipped oreos to share at work.

These are Strawberry Cream Oreos.......yummy!

I saw on Pinterest that someone only dipped half of the cookie in white chocolate.  I usually dip the whole cookie.....this was much easier ( and maybe fewer calories :)

Have a great weekend!

XOXO,

Karen

Geaux Tigers!

I am 1/3 the way through my 21 day prayer and fast.  I shared that I am fasting from so much computer time.  I could do better but I am trying to limit my time on here.  I just wanted to check in and say hello and GEAUX TIGERS!  Our LSU Tigers will be playing tomorrow night against Alabama for the National Title.  Of course we are soooo excited and are feeling very proud of our team.  We have 2 players from our home town and that makes it even more fun and exciting.  Tomorrow at school we can wear our "favorite" college shirt. So I've pulled out my LSU shirt and have it ready to go.  Also, our DIBELS Team (you elementary teachers know what I'm talking about) will be eating lunch together tomorrow as we begin our Mid-Year DIBELS testing.  My lunch assignment was to make cupcakes and they had to be Purple & Gold.  This is what I came up with.........

I made my favorite chocolate cake recipe but made it into cupcakes.  Then made my mother's yummy Cream Cheese Frosting and added a sprinkle of gold sugar on top for the Honey Badger!

(Will gladly share the recipes)

I made toppers with what I had on hand.  I have several punches that I use and cut card stock with those punches.  I used a 2 5/16" scallop punch for the gold, a 2" scallop punch for the purple and then I printed out LSU using my computer and cut that with a 1 1/2" circle punch. 

I also had a small fleur de lis punch that I used.  I glued the circles together and hot glued a lollipop stick on the back.  I had some yellow fancy cupcake liners that I put the cupcakes in after I finished everything.

So a little fun for the big game day!

I am behind on Sloan's monthly onesies :(  But I did finish #10 and will put it in the mail tomorrow.  Sloan will be 1 Year old next month!

I have made one of these for each month and we are almost at the end.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. 

I hope LSU has a great win!

And I'll see you in another week!

XOXO

Karen

 

Last Post for Awhile

I wanted to let everyone know that I may be blogging less over the next few weeks.  I am participating in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.  Our church and other churches in the state are uniting in prayer for our families, churches and communities intensively for 21 days.  If you would like to join us please do.  Our pastor encouraged us to fast in some area that we feel we may need to do so....food, television, social media or any thing that we need to cut back on.  So I've decided to limit my computer time.  I'll check in from time to time but not every day.  I'll be back January 23. So I'll leave you with a few pictures until I'm back.

I spent the day, one of my last vacation days, with my precious daughter and grand babies.  We shopped a bit, as much as possible with 2 small children, ate at Olive Garden and just visited.  I stocked up on white towels.  I have a love affair right now with white towels monogrammed with gold thread.

I stitched these for our bathroom.  The towels are from Marshall's.  They have lots of beautiful white towels and the thread color is isacord 0552.  These are the hand towels.

Bath towels

My shovels arrived today.  I saw the shovels for Valentines Day on Pinterest with "I Dig You" on them and little bags of candy attached.  I just have to do those for Gray's class.  I ordered 30 for $18.  That's a pretty good price.  I haven't decided how I want to do them yet.  I'm thinking.......

I ordered them from here.  Ok, well I have 1 vacation day left and back to work.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the week.  I'll be checking in but not every day.  I think we should have a give-away when I return....a pair of white towels with some one's initial!  Keep checking back :)

XOXO,

Karen