Random Projects

We celebrated a very special birthday this weekend...my mom's.  She is too special to even try to tell you about her so I won't try. This is just part of her family.  This represents two of her children and our families and her other son and grandchildren and great grand children live in Atlanta and Ohio.

We grilled, played a ball game {part of one}, visited and opened presents :)

I saw a beautiful ombre ruffle cake on Pinterest and asked our local "cake wizard" to try to recreate one like it.  I think she got pretty close.  The best part was the taste of this cake....out of this world.  She called it White Velvet.  It was delicious.

{excuse all background stuff we weren't thinking about taking perfect pictures}

A young mom that my son works with asked for a birthday shirt for her little guy.  She gave me an idea of what she wanted and this is what I did for her. 

 1st birthdays are so special it always makes me kind of nervous to do birthday shirts but I do a lot of praying when I stitch these shirts.

Happy Birthday Cael!

Another teacher shirt....pink apples?

Who says an apple has to be red? :)

A teacher that I worked with at my previous school has a new home.  While I plan to monogram she and her husband white towels I just had to stitch a little something for her boys.

A few years ago I stitched them Christmas throws so I thought they probably needed some new ones for their new house.  These are the mascot where their mom teaches.  I wanted something fun and age appropriate for them.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend.

Ours has been busy but fun!

XOXO,

Karen

I'm Home

 I arrived home from Atlanta yesterday afternoon and I had a wonderful flight home.  The skies were sunny and no rain in sight.  Atlanta weather was absolutely gorgeous while I was there.  After the cool front moved in it was low humidity and temps were in the low 80's.  Just right for enjoying a short vacation with family.  We always spend a lot of time just visiting and catching up on family news.  We swam every day, shopped a little, cooked out, watched the entire Season 5 of Mad Men and oohed and aahed over my great-niece, Ella.

This morning I made a snack for our Bible Study Luncheon tomorrow.  It is July 4th Bark.  You can find the recipe Here.

Before I left, we finished this little project.  I saw it on Pinterest and just had to have one just like it.  I have a good bit of brick left over from building our house 25 years ago. 

We used some of that brick and placed it in the ground on its side.  Then filled the center with river rock.  The hardest part is getting a perfect circle.  I googled how to get a large perfect circle in order to find the best method.  I used a piece of string with a golf tee tied to each end.  If you want a 5 foot circle make your string 2.5 feet long. I put one tee in the middle and stretched the string out to find where each brick should be placed.  Yes, it took some time but I wanted it perfectly round (as nearly as possible).  I really want another one like this in my yard with pink begonias in the center.  How pretty would that look?

I told you I would share pictures of Atlanta but I didn't want to carry my camera with me so no pics of Atlanta.  However, I can share pictures of the great deals I found there.  I had been searching for garden stakes just like this one.  I found them on ebay for $25 each and almost ordered one.  I'm sure glad I didn't because I found the same one at Tuesday Morning for $9.99.  What a deal!

I found this one also.  I love fleur de lis.  It was $7.99

I don't think I'll ever pay full price for anything.  I'm going for the bargains :)

My sister-in-law loves Home Goods and so do I.  If I'd been in a car it would have been full of pretty things.  But when you fly you can't buy much extra.  This rode home in my lap.  Simple white serving pieces are so versatile.  I'm thinking salad dressing, maybe orange juice in this little pitcher.

We went to another Tuesday Morning near Buckhead Saturday.  I found these adorable polka dot pillow cases.  I will monogram some little girl's name on these.

And last but not least, I stocked up on more burlap.  I have several more things I want to make out of burlap.  There are 3 different colors...natural, cream and white.  At least I have a choice of colors now.

It's good to be home again!

Have a great Monday!

Karen

What A Week!

I've had a busy, busy week with VBS, Summer Bible Study and Grayson but it has been a great week.  I will share my week with Grayson later.  Right now I want to show you who also came for a short visit this week.  Sloan and her mommy came to check on Grayson, help with Bible Study and VBS.

You can see who really liked the activity chair.  Grayson sat in it once I think and climbed on it a couple of times but Sloan loves it!  So it is her chair now.  She had a cracker break and watched a little Yo Gabba Gabba.

My two favorite girls

Sloan's mom put her hair in pig tails...little bitty pig tails I must say.  If she leaves it down it looks like a mullet....no mullet for my baby girl.

Lemon Cake

One morning when Grayson was busy watching Disney Channel, I was able to bake a cake.  I saw this recipe on Pinterest and wanted to try it.  It is a light recipe if you follow the directions.  It calls for low fat buttermilk.  I had regular buttermilk left over from another recipe which I used so mine is not exactly light. 

 It is a delicious cake and the recipe can be found HERE.

 I also made pickles that morning.  These are called Fire & Ice.  My husband and I love them.  They are so easy to make.  I was able to get 4 pints with the recipe.

Fire & Ice Pickles

2 jars (32 oz each) dill pickle slices

4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic for each jar

Drain and discard juice from pickles.  In large bowl, combine pickles, sugar, pepper sauce and pepper flakes; mix well.  Cover and let stand 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Spoon pickles into 4 pint-size jars; add a clove of garlic to each.  Cover and refrigerate 1 week before serving.  Keep refrigerated.

They are hot, sweet and yummy!  Bet you can't eat just a couple :)

We're about to take Grayson to meet his mom and dad.  I don't know that I am ready to give him back. (Tears)

Have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

Karen

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend

I have been blessed with 2 healthy children and 4 grandchildren, 2 of which are step grand-children but I consider them my very own.  Mother's Day Weekends are very special to me.  I do not need any beautiful gifts or flowers.  Just to have my family in church with me is the greatest gift I could wish for.  However, my  husband and children think I need more so I did get some beautiful flowers.

Ok I was a little bad. This dispenser is my Mother's Day gift to myself. Last week when I went to get my hair done, my stylist offered me cucumber water served in a dispenser like this. I knew immediately I had to have one and the cucumber water was sooooo good and refreshing. I didn't know how my family would react to cucumber water so I played it safe and made lemon/lime water. Oh my goodness I will be making "spa waters" all summer. I can't wait to try other combinations. I did learn it is best to put the ice in first, arrange your fruit and then add water. It is a great way to encourage your family to drink more water. Grayson loved turning the spigot so we watered plants with lemon/lime water :) If they grow really big and green we have discovered a secret plant weapon.

 I'm all about beverages right now.  The ladies at my church gave me a gift certificate and this is what I got with part of it......a beautiful carafe.  I made Almond Tea and put it in my new carafe....perfect.  One of my girlfriends has a great Mint Tea recipe that tastes yummy, too.  Perhaps she will share her recipe with us. 

Cauliflower Salad

Best salad ever....that's all I'm saying :)

I also prepared Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti ( I forgot to take a picture of it).  I usually use a friend's recipe but I decided to branch out and try a new version.  It is a keeper.

A little chocolate cake never hurt anyone.

So that is the meal I prepared for the weekend.  I will share all the recipes later this week.

Of course I had to monogram a few things....like a headband for my daughter

and running shorts for Sloaney.  Even baby girls like monogrammed sport shorts :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful week.

XOXO,

Karen

Judah James

My son needed a baby shower gift so I had to get busy and sew some things quickly.  I bought this design before Easter and now had a reason to use it.  I see moustaches everywhere on blogs and Pinterest.

They are very popular right now for little boys.  I made Judah a set of moustaches.

Then I made him set using my favorite crown design.

Judah James....what a great name.

JHJ

I taught his mother for 2 years and his dad works with my son.  He also has a big sister who can't wait for her little brother to arrive.

A Happy Easter picture from a handsome couple......

my son and his girlfriend.

We are 6 days away from Spring break!

Every teacher is on the count down mode.

Hurry, hurry Spring break! 

XOXO,

Karen

Wordless Wednesday

Have a wonderful Thursday

XOXO,

Karen

Catching Up

My husband had meetings in Grapevine, Texas so I decided to take off and go with him.  His meetings were held in the most beautiful setting, The Gaylord Texan which is a sister hotel to the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennesee.  I didn't need to leave the hotel for it has most everything you could want.....boutiques, resturants (that's all I need).  I didn't have my camera or plan to take pictures so all I had was my phone camera.  This is the atrium.  This picture doesn't do the atrium justice.  It is gorgeous.  It has one wall that looks like the Alamo and several typical vintage-like Texas oilwells.  The theme at this time was trains so there were miniature train sets all over the atrium.  When my daughter was there in the fall the theme was Alice in Wonderland.  How fun for children who visit! 

The atrium was also filled with freshly planted hot pink geraniums.  I can't wait to plant spring flowers.  If it wasn't for all the traffic in the Dallas area I could be a happy Texan :)

I was hoping to attend church with my mother Sunday so I wanted to fix her a little surprise to take along.  I printed out this scripture and put it in a frame (added a big bow)

 .

I found a site on Pinterest that has free printable scriptures. 

I also stitched her a couple of kitchen towels.

I didn't get to surprise her by showing up at church but I plan to visit her this week. 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

XOXO,

Karen

Valentine Treat Bag

I saw this idea on .....yes of course Pinterest!  It was a Merry Christmas bag so I decided to turn it into a Happy Valentines Bag.  This is a project that is soooo simple. 

I typed my message in Word and centered it for an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper.  I used Chocolate Box Decorative font for {Happy} and Giselle font for everything else. I downloaded both of those from dafont.com.  I made the wording very large- 72 point font size.  I used the larger size brown lunch bags which measure about 6" x 12". 

I placed one lunch bag centered on a regular sheet of printer paper and lightly taped both sides with small piece of tape.  For my printer I placed the open end of the bag at the bottom of the printer paper.  I just ran the bag through the printer and it worked beautifully.  You may have to experiment with your printer and paper and see how it works best for you.  I then used a hole punch to make 2 holes in the top.  On one I used a 1.5" x 15" strip of fabric ( and trimmed a bit) and on the other a piece of ribbon.  I think either way is cute.  It is a fun way to package your Valentine Goodies, Birthday treats or Christmas goodies  The bags can be customized to fit any occasion.

I couldn't resist showing off my sweet babies.  I got them in front of the Christmas tree this afternoon.  Sloan loves her new "ride".  We push her around one end of the house to the other.

Although Grayson has his own red Cozy Coupe, he likes to take his sister's new one for a spin around the house.  We had a parade going around the house all afternoon.

I hope you and your families had the most wonderful Christmas full of memories, good food, laughter, and time together. 

XOXO,

Karen