Grayson's Coming to Bella's!

Grayson is coming to spend the week with Bella & Papa Asa.  We are so excited! Grayson is old enough to attend Vacation Bible School this year so he and I will go every evening.  He is going to have such a great time at VBS because his teachers are the most wonderful ladies who love working with little folks.  Of course we will not spoil him one bit, but if he happens to want to eat while watching TV I personalized a bright red lap tray for him :)  He can color or eat on his tray.  I used polka dots and "Girls Are Weird" font for his name.

In the mornings before VBS, Gray will be learning to swim.  A good friend has a pool and her daughter will be teaching him basic swimming techniques.  I can't wait to see that little guy in the water.  It seems like yesterday that I took his mom and uncle Clint to swim lessons.  He has to be a champion swimmer because Bella and Papa Asa met each other while working as lifeguards.  We worked every summer during our college years as lifeguards so it's in his bloodline to swim.  (Hehe) 

I also made Little GrayMan a personalized tote for all of his cars, books, Legos or whatever he wants to put in there.  Once again I used "Girls Are Weird" font and added stars.  I used my Cricut and vinyl to personalize these things.

I saw this adorable activity chair on Pinterest and then found it online at WalMart. I had it delivered to our store....so easy to do.  Thank you WalMart for making it so easy to order online. (However, it took me over an hour to put it together) Won't he be soooo cute sitting in it and drawing a picture or coloring?  Ok, ok enough of being a typical grandmother....sorry.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

Karen

Memorial Day Weekend

I've had these pickles "marinating" for a week and decided I couldn't wait any longer to put them in jars.  A friend made these years ago and shared a jar with me and I have been wanting to try them since then.  Last weekend I did it.  Now I've got the best way figured out so I will be making them again soon and the second batch will be even better.  I want to share the recipe with you and will put it up next week.  I cut 7" squares of fabric to put a finishing touch on the jars, added ribbon and made a label in PSE (very simple label I must say).  I ran the labels on whole sheets of label paper and used a 3" scalloped punch to cut them out.

(I think I misspelled pickles but I'm not doing the labels over...hehe.  Maybe no one will notice)

Last night I finished a couple more shirts for Little Cash Man.  You have seen his surfboard shirt before but the "Wave" and the "Star Patch" are the new shirts.   All of these designs are from Applique Market and she has everything on sale for the holiday weekend.   Cash is having a "water" birthday party so he needed a "wave" shirt to be the Star of his 2nd birthday!

I'm off to spend the day with relatives who are in from Atlanta.  I got to meet my great-niece Ella for the first time.  Oh my, what a doll she is!  We are all hanging out at the pool today.

Have a wonderful, wonderful Saturday!

Karen

Last Day of School!

 Banana Pudding

Tomorrow is the last day of class for students and teachers and then school's out for summer!  I will continue to work off and on during June and July but I will be at home a lot, too which I love.  After our students leave at noon tomorrow we are having a faculty lunch.

Our principals are providing crawfish and burgers (for those non-crawfish eating folks) for the big celebration.  Our job was to provide the desserts.  Remember the Paula Deen magazine from the last post?  This is the cover recipe.  It looked so delicious and sounded easy so I gave it a try.  My "taste-tester (Aka-husband) gave it the "it's really good seal of approval".

I had enough left over that I could make him a mini banana pudding.  It has cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, 4 boxes of pudding, milk, Cool Whip and sour cream....it has a few calories in it :)

Remember the plain mugs I showed you a couple of posts back?  This is the finished gift.  I put permanent vinyl stars (cut by my Cricut using the  Plantin SchoolBook cartridge.  Then I made Bunny Bark but I am calling it Red, White & Blue Bark. I used red, white and blue candies and sprinkles.

The only Oreo cookies that I had on hand were Mint so there is a touch of green that really messes up my color scheme :)  Anyway, I put the bark in large treat bags and tied them up with more red ribbon.

These are going to school tomorrow to give to special friends that have helped me through this year.  I'm thankful for those friends at work, for a good year..... no great year (our school district is ranked 6th in the state!), for a safe year and for all that I have learned this year about children.  I hope that I have made a difference in one child's life because that's why every teacher I know teaches, not for the money or the fame or even thank yous but because we love children. 

Hugs and Kisses to all the teachers out there and for the difference you make every day!

Happy Last Day of School & Memorial Day Weekend! 

Karen

Summer Salad

I picked up this magazine while in the grocery store the other day.  It had several recipes that looked interesting.  I got all the ingredients today for the Black-Eyed Pea Greek Salad.

I love to cook with fresh vegetables in the summer.  This salad is very flavorful and quick and easy like the magazine says.  I also fixed a pasta salad, grilled chicken and buttered French bread.

Yum!

If you want the recipe please let me know and I will share it.

Enjoy!

Karen