A Busy Weekend

Mom had back surgery on Friday, October 24, 2014, what a trooper!  We're hoping and praying that this surgery takes care of and relieves all the pain she has been in. 

On Saturday, October 25, 2014, Steve and I took our annual trip to Brown County.  I've never seen so many people and so many cars.  When we got ready to leave traffic was backed up from Little Nashville clear back to Columbus.  What a great day tho, beautiful Fall weather.

 

There are no pictures to mark what happened on Sunday, October 26, 2014 but let me tell you, we ate till we were sick.  Thad and Kayla came over for a Deep Fried Fest (jalapeno poppers, deep fried pickles, mozzarella sticks, popcorn chicken, French fries and honey buffalo chicken).  I made a homemade honey mustard dressing which I will share below.

 

1/2 cup mayo

2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

1 tablespoon Grey Poupon Harvest Course Ground Mustard

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 tablespoon lime juice

Girl's Nite Out

Thursday, September 26, 2014, it has been awhile since a girl's night out.  I was really looking forward to it.  I miss spending time with my mom and sis.  We met at our usual eatery, Chili's in Richmond.  I made a BOO sign for mom and sis.  Mom made us cinnamon pretzels and she put them in the cutest "French fry" style container.  Sis made us modge podge leaf candle holder and she included a Main Stay Pumpkin Spice candle which are my absolute favorite.  Looking forward to our next Girl's Night Out!

Wreaths, wreaths and more wreaths....

Just decided to make wreaths, no rhyme or reason except that pool noodles were 50 cents at the Dollar General and well, where else can you buy a wreath form for 50 cents. I bought twelve pool noodles so I've been making lots of wreaths, none of which cost me over $4.00 each. 

Here are two of my little pretties.  I am so into felt flowers right now, perhaps because I find making them is fun (except for the occasional burn from the glue gun). 

Girl's Nite Out April 30th, 2014

Tonight was a lot of fun.  Since it is Rebecca's birthday month she got to join us for Girl's Nite Out.  Mom presented us with an explosion box that held 3 lace lavender sachets, Sis made us a sketch book complete with example cards and darling calendars.  Rebecca joined in on the fun and made us a rubber band key chain and I made mom and sis yard art, I made my darling niece a paracord bracelet and I made everyone a mini strawberry pie in honor of Rebecca's birthday (she loves strawberries). 

 

It's a little difficult to see but sis is holding the pie, the upside down vase with tea cup and saucer on top is the yard art, the box mom made is sitting there with a  brown coffee filter flower on top, the sketch book and cards from sis are in front and right behind them is the darling calendar she also made.

Explosion Box

Pink & Turquoise key ring

Lavendar sachets inside explosion box

Sketch Book & Cards

 

Girls Nite Out - April 16, 2014

Mom made explosion cards....super cute!

Sis made banana nut bread three ways, with chocolate chips, with pecans and just plain, but nothing plain about this bread, it was yummy. 

and I made a utensil caddy!

 

The New Girl

We recently hired a new employee for the front office.  This new employee isn't replacing the person retiring (Janice Cole) but she will be taking over responsibilities for another employee (Angie Davis)

 who is taking the retirees place.  Did I mention the retiree has been here 50 years, that's a long time.  I wanted to give Victoria Goodhew a warm welcome so I made her a Desk Survival Kit.  In the kit I included, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, a mini sewing kit (that I put together myself), lip balm, mini lint roller, gum (sugarless of course), breath spray and chocolates.  I hope she enjoys her goodies cause I had a blast putting it all together for her.  Welcome Aboard Victoria!

Gift Giving Spirit

I've been in the gift giving mood lately.  I think of gifts as little pieces of sunshine to brighten someone's day and with Indiana weather, we could all use a little more sunshine.  First my "You Are Sweet" soup can.  $1 is all I have in this little gift.  I recycled the can, had the paper, made the flower but spent $1 on the Andes Mints (that's the sweet part :).

Harriet the bunny.  I found this darling bunny and her 6 outfits on Pinterest as a printable and while everyone else uses magnets for the traveling paper dolls (or bunnies) I thought Velcro might be fun.  I started with a piece of cardboard, covered it with a fun paper, cut out Harriet (I named her :), get it, she's a hare) and her outfits and then I laminated them to give them some stability.  Applied Velcro to all and wha-la, I hope some little girl really enjoys traveling with Harriet.

Strawberry Shortcake

What do you get when you take cute cardstock with strawberries all over it and Little Debbie Strawberry Shortcakes?  Well, you get this darling box with a strawberry treat in it!  6 3/4" x 4/1/4" for the bottom, same size for lid but I did use a thin shim so my top would be just enough bigger than the bottom that it would not buckle the box.  I cut out a cute little butterfly on the lid so you could see the shortcake in the box.  Tied it up with a little baker's twine, topped the twine with a pop dot and the butterfly I cut out and wha-la, a darling sweet treat for your darling!

Repurposing

I turned a swing arm multi pants hanger into a ribbon holder, oh yea!  The ribbon spools roll freely on the arms so I don't even have to take the ribbon off to make a cut.

The best part you ask????  I was able to empty out 3 plastic shoe boxes that once held all that ribbon!

Girls Nite Out 2/24/14

This was our 2nd Girls Nite Out for the New Year, I'm very excited we are on track.  I am also very excited about the crafts I received last night.  Mom made sis and I an altered box, it has a Victorian antique punk look to it, which I happen to love!  Sis made us a teal feather wreath, she cut all those feathers out by hand--absolutely love the look of it!  AND she gave mom and I a little origami folding class at our table--we learned how to fold the cutest little flowers out of book pages.  I made the girls an Owl Hanging, it says "Hoot Hoot" Spring is Here!

We met at our usual spot, Chilis, where we enjoyed great food, lots of laughter and great service by Tabitha. 

Grand-daughters

On Wednesday, February 12, 2014, I picked up my grand daughters and we headed to Greenville.  I had promised them that we would make valentine cupcakes for them to eat and we'd get cards and goodies for their classmates.  As luck would have it, time crept up on me and the weather didn't cooperate so our plans were very last minute but we had a blast.  The night before I baked the cupcakes so I could take them with me so with the cupcakes and girls in tow, off we went.  We were successful in finding valentine cards they both liked for their classmates and then we went to dinner at Bob Evans.  While we waited on our food to arrive we iced the cupcakes-oh what fun we had!  After our dinner (which was breakfast food) we filled out all the valentine cards for their classmates. 

Prior to dinner, while in Walmart, I told the girls they could each pick out a book for Valentine's Day from papaw and me.  Bethanie chose one of the books in the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid while Zoe chose a Children's Bible.  On the way home I asked them to read to me so Zoe opened up the bible.  She and Bethanie took turns reading and they read all about the first six days, starting with God created the heavens and the earth.  Bethanie was reading and she said "and on the 7th day, God declared it a day of rest" and then she said "I guess that's ok, he did have a pretty busy week".  Out of the mouths of babes. 

Girls Nite Out 1/20/14

Our first Girls Nite Out for the year 2014.  My personal goal this year is to make sure we have a GNO at least once per month, that was my original goal back when we started GNO but you know, life gets in the way and before you know it two or three weeks or even a month has past.

Brooke made us a darling LOVE banner for Valentine's Day, Mom made us an adorable layered puffy heart for hanging and I made a Valentine's medallion for the door.  It was kind of neat that we were all thinking about February and Valentine's Day.