Strawberry Jam

Advantage of having a kid in home ec-she brought me home some strawberry freezer jam. It's my favorite. I took it out of the tupperware and into the glass canning jar it went. Makes it taste even better!

Thanks, Hoper. Mommy loves you!

Holly Loves Tchotchke (not Chachi)!

Yes-I love tchotchke. Just look at my window sill-it's full of tchotchke. According to dictionary.com (and believe me, I had to look up the spelling on this one) tchotchke means
an inexpensive souvenir, trinket, or ornament. Now-I know some people hate it, but well-placed tchotchke makes me happy!!!

***Did anybody get the Joanie loves Chachi reference in the title??? Probably not, but I still crack myself up sometimes.

***Mom-please note the shiny sink!!! Your daughter is not a bad housekeeper all the time, just some of the time.

Aunt Martha

Sandy (my mom's best friend and a friend of mine too) asked my mom if she thought I would want these Aunt Martha iron-on embroidery patterns that had belonged to her late mother-in-law. Well-I said-"Yes, please!" That was so nice of her to think of me.

When I get some motivation and some time-I think I'll have to make her something with one of these patterns as a thank you for thinking of me!

Say it ain't so....

Davey turns the big 4-0!!!!

Bahahahahahahahaha!

Happy birthday, Davey!

(I have a blackmail pic of my brother-out-law, and do you think I can find it??? No-I cannot. But as soon as I do, I will add it! Bahahahahaha!!!!!)

I love this gadget!!!

I don't buy very many kitchen gadgets anymore-because I know from past experience, I probably won't use them.

But this is one gadget I do use and love. I think it makes my veggies look so purdy! I usually end up taking a crudité platter veggie tray to potlucks, so it's nice to make my veggies look purdy.

I think way back when I bought this gadget from Pampered Chef, it was called a garnisher. Now it's called a crinkle cutter. And it's curved now too.

Sure, I could just use a boring old knife-but what's the fun in that?

(FYI-I'm taking these veggies to my brother-out-law's 40th birfday partay!) (I spelled that wrong on purpose.)

I'll have a skinny double tea latte!

Here's a photo of my skinny double tea latte!

When I feel the need-the need for speed (which is quite often), I make a skinny double tea latte (I just made that up). That's two tea bags in a regular sized mug with skim milk and 1 teaspoon sugar.

Isn't caffeine a wonderful thing? I sure think so.

Hey there cupcake!

One of my friends asked me to help come up with an idea for a gift for her Secret Sister. (At church, our Ladies Missionary has a Secret Sister program. If you wish to participate, you draw a name and you secretly give gifts to that person throughout the year.)

Her Secret Sister seems to like to bake, and since cupcakes are fun and festive-we went with a cookbook-Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor. I picked up some sweet cupcake papers, sprinkles-of course, and polka-dot candles. The possibilities for what you could include with this book are endless. A cake mix, cupcake pan, gel icing, food coloring-just go to the cake isle in the grocery store-so much good stuff there!

But shhhhhhh-don't tell-it's a secret!

Happiness is...

New fabric. (I see more potholders in my future!)

Ordering from the comfort of my home.

Free shipping-right to my door. (Joann Fabrics Coupon Code CCABINAPRFS9-free shipping on orders over $25.00-expires 5-15-09)

That the good Lord gave me the ability to go to the store, but I don't have to. (Not a good shopper.)

Family and friends. (Most of the time. Hehe.)

Tea and chocolate! (All of the time!)

Mommy keepsakes

My sister loves my niece's little doodles that she's always doodling, so I thought I'd make her a keepsake. Something more permanent than a drawing on paper and a cute way to display it too.

I traced these hoops with washable marker and cut them out roughly (and bigger). The material I used was some old muslin curtains I had stored away. (Hey-I'm being green again!) I took the material and some washable markers over to their house yesterday and asked my beautiful niece to draw some of her doodles within the circles/oval. I brought them home last night and started embroidering. I added some fabric and buttons. I filled the sink with water and a little detergent and washed out the marker. I let them dry some, then cut off the excess material, tightened the hoops and voilá! Mommy keepsakes!

My sister was wondering what we were up to yesterday-and now she'll know-she's one of my 10 blog readers!

Another tea towel potholder!

I came across these summery tea towels at Dollar General today. First thing I thought was-this would make a cute, summery potholder. And I think it did.

Apparently I'm obsessed with potholders. It seems it's the only thing I make anymore! I used this tutorial.

Repurpose that broken down microwave!

Make a breadbox!

Our new microwave met an untimely death and I couldn't bear to part with her. So I made her into a breadbox. She can hide our junk food and miscellaneous small items that lay on the counter. I can still stack smaller things on top of her. It will be a little inconvenient because of the way she opens, but I think I can handle that.

If I find things just don't work out, I guess she'll have to go to the landfill. But, hey, at least I tried!!!

Phewww!!!

I'm sooooo tired from all this holiday cooking!!!-she says sarcastically.

Happy Easter everybody!

I love this hymn...

Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever,
with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Mother and daughter...

Can you tell who is who? Oh yeah, I'll bet you can. Daughter is sleek and stylish and newish. Mom is chunky and frumpy and oldish. Hehe. That's okay-but isn't it true a picture is worth a thousand words? It is in this case.

(It's a miracle this photo got taken, since daughter's phone never leaves her side. I pried it out of her hands for two minutes and she started to have withdrawal symptons. You'll be happy to know I gave back her life support and she has fully recovered!)

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

My mom came over today. My house was messy and dirty (hey-I had a busy couple of days). To distract her from the filth, I wrapped her up this little gift that was in my closet for her for part of her Mother's day gift. (It's season 1 of Columbo.) I told her "Happy Easter!"

Did it work to distract her? I doubt it, but she was still happy!

Thanks Easter Bunny! Bock, Bock!

Another potholder!

I was looking for something in a drawer this morning and came across this little potholder I had stuck in there and forgot about. I didn't make this one. I bought a couple of these from the clearance bin at Joann Fabrics for 50 cents a piece. I ironed on a couple of my embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching and then embroidered on that little flap (not the whole way through). This yellow is not so practical, but it's the only color they had. Red would be a great find. I'll have to check out the clearance bins, next time I go to Joann's. Potholders-exciting stuff! No, really!

(80's country blue wallpaper, you have served me well for over 20 years. But I'm afraid it's soon time for you to go!)

The Giant Jam Sandwich

Story and pictures by John Vernon Lord

with verses by Janet Burroway
My favorite book from childhood is The Giant Jam Sandwich. It's basically about a town that gets infested with 4 million wasps and they had to come up with a plan to get rid of them. Those smart residents of Itching Down decided to bake a gigantic loaf of bread in a brick building-they're a resourceful bunch-I tell ya! Then they sliced it and lured the wasps in with strawberry jam and trapped those buggers with another slice of bread on top. Ingenious! And you wonder what happened to the wasps inside that bread? Well, the birds flew off with it in their beaks and had a feast for a hundred weeks, of course!

I did not own this book as a child, I just read it every time we went to the dentist's office. I always remembered the story, but didn't know what it was called or anything. Well-I was telling my sister about this and soon after a teacher at the school she worked at was telling her too about her favorite book and it was called The Giant Jam Sandwich. So as a surprise, my sister ordered me one from the wonderful online store that is AMAZON! (This is before I had a computer and thought the only way you could buy a book was if you saw it in a book store.) I am so thrilled to own this book! Thanks Jodie!

Here's a cute idea that my sister came up with. She was a kindergarten aide at one time and she read the kids this book and afterwards she served them bread with butter and seedless strawberry jam. I guess they really loved it. Cool idea, I think!

Pick a card, any card!

Isn't this the coolest thing? Artscow.com offers playing cards with 54 different designs. And now you can choose front and back. That means you could have 108 different photos on 54 cards. Upload youre photos, say no to the poker text (if you don't want it) and just choose autofill and voilá, you're done. These are good quality too. I saw the coolest thing on an Artscow forum. You can make a mini album by using a hole punch and bind them together with some kind of wire binding. Kind of like a cookbook. I don't know where you could find this. Probably Staples or some other office supply store. I might have to try this sometime. I think this would make a great gift.

Oh, and they run specials all the time. I've seen these for less than 5 dollars with free shipping. Yipee!!!!!

I make shower curtains

Jodie-2

Jessie-2

Michelle-2

Mom-1

Kimmie-1

Shine-1

+ Me-1

------------------

10 shower curtains

To date I have made 10 shower curtains.

About 2 years ago, I couldn't find a shower curtain to go with my bathroom, so I made one.

I went with the raggy method. I think I cut 5 or 6 inch squares of fabric, sewed wrong sides together, made it the size of my old shower curtain, cut the top off my old liner, sewed it on top of the new curtain, made holes in the fabric where the holes are in the old liner top, reinforced them with the sewing machine, and voilá-a new shower curtain. (I think that was a run-on sentence.) Then I made a little valance to match.

Pretty quick and easy, cause I don't worry about being exact and precise. It is the rag method, after all!

Dessert

I made some custard for dessert. I followed Alicia's recipe for coconut custard. But I didn't have any coconut, so I omitted it and instead of vanilla I added imitation rum extract. Kinda reminds me of the flan from Cozumel (local Mexican restaurant). Only more eggy. But I like eggy. It was pretty good.

FYI-Alicia has the bestest blog ever! Did you notice I tried to make my pic like hers??? Yes-I'm a copy cat.

Lunch

Have you seen these Premium Minis? My neighbor introduced me to these little miniature saltines. Cute little crackers! I'm thinking they must have more fat than regular saltines, cause they taste not quite as "dry". Better tasting than the normal everyday saltine. Unless it's just my imagination and I just think they taste better cause they are so cute! Go buy yourself a box today!

(This is not a paid endorsement.

Unfortunately!)

I'm in shock...

APRIL FOOL'S!!!!!!

(This is my actual positive pregnancy test from nearly 18 years ago. Yes-I threw it in a drawer and there it stayed all these years.) I wouldn't be so happy to have a positive test now-but boy I was happy then. And that's no foolin'!