Old Friends & A Great Lunch!

 My Mom Has Been Getting Together With The Girls She Grew Up With. Every Other Month They Take Turns Hosting A Lunch In Their Home. This Past Month Was My Mom's Turn & I Wanted To Share With You How Cute It Turned Out!

She Wanted To Do A Picnic Theme, So She Turned To The Internet & Found Some Cute Baskets At Save On Crafts.com To Put The Lunch In.

She Served Smoked Turkey Sandwiches with Blue Cheese and Red Onions Which She Found On BonAppetit.com, Pasta, Which She Served In Green Solo Cups She Found At Target, Chips, Which She Served In A Brown bag She Found On Think Garnish.com & Coke In A Bottle, Which She Found At Target. 

How Cute Is That?!

These Are The 3 Friends She Grew Up With, Jan, Sandy & Wanda (left to right).





That Is My Beautiful Mom Suzanne On The Left

And Of Course....Living On The Wild Side they Liked To Do Everything Together, Which Included Riding A Motorcycle!!

(L to R) Sandy, Wanda, & My Mom

Here Is Silly Wanda Demonstrating How To Get The Party Started!!!

One Final Photo Of My Mom, Wanda & Sandy

A Long Thread Of Memories that Connect these woman and the new ones they are creating have Become A Gift For Them Every Time They Get Together.

In Addition, These Lunches Have Been An Opportunity To Share Each Other's Creativity.

How Fun...And Inspiring!

*** Update - Our Vegitable Garden

I Just Went Out To See What Else Is Going On In Our Garden Since It's Been A Few Days & It Looks Like We Have Tomatoes!!!  YUM!

 

 

These Are Yellow Pear Tomatoes & There Are A TON Of Them!!  If You Look Closely, You Can See In The Upper Right More Coming!

 

These Are Regular Red Tomatoes & Roma Tomatoes, Which Are My Husband's Favorite!

 

 

This Is What I Picked So Far!  Can't Wait For More!!!

 

Our Vegetable Garden

This Year I Decided Would Be The Year I Finally Grow A Vegetable Garden & So Far, So Good.

Here Is How It Looked When We Started ....

 

 

Now Look At It!!! Sun, Water & 1 1/2 Months Later.....

 

In The Picture Above I Have 3 Types Of Tomatoes, Eggplant, Squash, Parsley, Oregano & Cilantro. I Planted Basil In The Pot To The Right Of The Flower Bed (next to the Plumeria)

 

 

In The Photo Above Is The Zuccini & Cucumber

 

 

I Can't Believe How Well The Cilantro Is Doing!!!

 

 

Here Is A Tomato Still Growing 

 

Here Is Some Squash Getting Ready To Be Picked!

 

 

 

 

And Here Is Some Squash We Already Picked

& Can't Wait To Eat!!!

Yum!!!

 

I Didn't Know It Would Be So Easy.  My Father-In-Law Helped Me With Placement As Well As With Making Sure The Irrigation Was Placed Right & And It Looks Like He Did A Great Job!!!

 

Thanks To Peter Chobot For The Tip To Use Steer Manuer!!  It Worked!!

 

 

***** UPDATE *****

 

We Have More Squash & Now Cucumbers!!!

 

 

 

DIY Clean/Dirty Dishwasher Magnet

For The Past 7 Years, My Husband And I Have Guessed On Weather Or Not Our Dishwasher Had Clean Or Dirty Dishes In It & Luckily We Have Only Made A Few Wrong Guesses.

So, While Thumbing Through My Favorite Site, Pinterest, I Found This Clever Idea On Etsy....

 

 

And Instead Of Purchasing It, I Created My Own...

 

 

 

I Purchased These Scrabble Letters From Joann's Fabric For $10. It May Seem Like A Lot, But We Don't Have A Hobby Lobby Close & It Beats Paying For Shipping If I Ordered Them Online!!

 

 

I Then Took Some Magnet Strip That I Had & Lined Them Up Along The Sticky Part Of The Strip.

I Did This For Both "Clean" & "Dirty"

 

 

Next I Trimmed Up The Sides Of Each Word.

 

 

Taking Some Super Glue I Had, I Ran A Thin Strip Along Each Side Of The Strip (just for extra hold).

 

 

Finally, I Added Two Short Magnetic Strips So That Each Word Would Be Held Together.

 

 

And....It's Done! Now We Don't Have To Guess Weather Or Not The Dishes Are Clean Or Not!

 

Hallway Decor: An Update

A While Ago I Posted My Pallet Decor & I Showed You The Wall I Took All The Family Pictures From To Put On The Pallet....Well, I Finally Updated That Wall....

 

 

Here Is The Wall Before The Update (but after the Family Pallet was created).....

 

 

Here It Is Now!

 

 

 

The First Thing I Just Had To Do Was Repaint The Whole Hallway. We Hadn't Painted It In 7 Years, So It Was Time. I Originally Wanted A Gray/Light Blue/Off White Color, But When It Dried, It Was Baby Blue!

That's My Fault, Not Martha Stewart, Which Is The Paint Color I Used. Salt Glaze To Be Exact.

 

I Had This Shadow Frame Already, So Using My Handy Cricut, I Created This!

 

 

This Awesome Subway Art Was Given To Us By My Mom A Few Christmas' Ago. She Found A Program That Took The Words/Names Of Your Choice & Created Them Into This.

You Can't Really Tell In This Photo, But My Creative Mother Printed This Out Onto Burlap!! 

She's Amazing!

 

 

This One I Created. My Husband & I Were Married In 2005, Which Is When I Consider Our "Family" Was "Established"!!!

 

 

I Used My Cricut To Cut Out The Lettering Because I Couldn't Find A Font I Liked On Any Program I Had On My Computer.

I Then Put The Letters On A Piece Of Cardstock I Had Measured Out To Center The Frame I Was Going To Use.

Cut Some Burlap I Had As The Background & Put Them In The Frame! Easy As Pie! 

 

 

I Think It Turned Out Great & The Best Part Is That I Used Everything I Already Had, So It Was Free!!!

 

 

Happy Creating!

DIY: A Gift For Dad

I Made This Gift For My Husband's Birthday A Few Months Ago, But With Father's Day Coming Up, I Thought It Would Be Great To Share It With You All....

  

I'm Sure You Have All Seen This Saying Before, But Usually It Also Says "A Son's First HERO." Since Our Son Is Still Growing In My Belly, This Seemed Appropriate For Now!


I Had This Piece Of 2x4 Leftover From A Previous Project, But I Still Needed To Smooth The Edges With Sandpaper.

 

 

The Next Step Was To Stain It, So I Grabbed The First Can I Could Find.

 

 

Using A Sponge Brush, I Applied The Stain & Let It Dry

(I did not wipe the stain with a rag, just left it as is) 

 

 

I Then Created The Sign On My Computer (using Microsoft Word) & Printed It Out On Cardstock

 

 

 

I Trimmed The Sign & Then Measured It On The Center The Wood Block & Trimmed It More.

 

Mod Podge Time!

 

 

I Applied One Layer Of The Mod Podge Onto The Back Of The Sign To Adhere It To The Block & Turned It Upside Down To Dry

Once Dried, I Applied 2 More Layers Of Mod Podge, Letting It Dry Completely In Between Applications

 

 

Next, I Took Some Carpet Tacks I Had Left Over From A Previous Project & Hammered Them Into Each Corner Of The Sign (just for decor)!

 

 

 

 And Ta-Da! Project Complete & Ready To Give To Daddy!!!

Baby Diaper/Wipe Strap

I Was Thumbing Around On Pinterest & Saw This Fabulous Idea!!  If You Have Little Ones In Diapers, You Know That Your Diapers Are Just Floating All Around Your Diaper Bag & The Wipes Are Somewhere Deep Inside As Well, So Why Not Sew A Strap To Hold Them Both Together?!

This Is Such An Easy Project! I think It Took Me About 1 Hour To Bust Out 4 Straps! If You Can Sew A Straight Line, You Can Create These Straps.

The Original Idea Came From http://cally-cruze.blogspot.com/.  All The Measurements & Instructions Can Be Found On This Blog.

I Grabbed Scraps Of Material I Had & Found Matching Buttons To Go With Them

How Cute & Practical Is This Strap?!

Apparently, My Daughter Found Another Use For These Straps ;)

Happy Sewing....