I love plastic cups

Can I just say how much I LOVE these little $.57-cent washable cups?! I used to keep a stash of disposable cups around but I'm sick of buying them. I'm also sick of the kids getting out our regular cups only to forget which one is theirs. So I grabbed a few of these cool plastic cups at Wal-Mart (in the birthday party section) and now it's impossible for them to forget which one is theirs for the entire day! It's been so much fun not to have a bazillion cups to wash every day!!! What a wonderful world...

Lemonade Award

Well goodness! Angela from The Creative Homemaker gave me a Lemonade Award today and she totally made my day! The Lemonade Award is about "good attitude and gratitude" so thanks, Angela, I'm totally grateful! (oh, and go check out her blog - it's loaded with great stuff.) I've never received an award before, so I'm all choked up and can't see through my tears...just kidding - but I'm not grouchy anymore, so that's good, right?!

Since I don't do tags, pass-alongs, and what-not, I'll list a few random things that give me a good attitude...that I'm thankful for...and stuff...

(in no particular order)

Chocolate (okay, but chocolate is always #1 on any of my lists)
Sunshine
Colorful flowers
A great pair of jeans
New shoes
New perfume
Okay...new anything...
Finishing a project
Fresh-bathed kids (my own, of course)
A good friend
Watching those trip-and-fall videos on TV (I know, I know, it's really awful of me...but I can't help it that it's hilarious...totally makes my attitude good...not very many things make me laugh harder...)
Southern phrases like "I'll be along direc'ly", and "Happier'n a tick on a fat dog" and stuff like that - my mood always perks up when I hear stuff like that!
Quiet time with a book and my soft, warm bed
A good home-cooked dinner
Desserts that look all fancy
Kids in bed early with NO idea what to do with myself! (I love that! I'll just wander around the house smiling!!!)


Okay well my kids are killing each other...so I'll wrap this up. Thanks, again, Angela! You rock!

I know you're out there...I want to hear what puts YOU in a good mood!

I'm Getting Excited!

I'm getting SO EXCITED to decorate and do Valentine stuff! I love the colors and fun, whimsical aspect of Valentine's Day! Last night I had to make cookies for my daughter's girl scout activity and I couldn't resist the Valentine sprinkles I just bought!

And...you know...once January is over, February will be over soon, too, and we're getting THAT much closer to Spring! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! I think I need to go outside and scream!!! (but it's too cold...I'll just hold it in...)

Check It OUT!

Hey, I've been published!!! (sort of) A cute girl from Fave Crafts emailed me and asked if I would be a guest contributor and I was so excited!

So this is where it gets funny. (it can never be easy with me, huh?) I started on something really fun and exciting - a bright, cheery banner - (remember I gave you a sneak peek) and then being the typical dumb blond that I am, I got the project ALL BUT FINISHED when I realized that I had my lettering backwards on the reverse side! (I'm doing a 2-sided banner) haha! I laughed, cried, and I had to call Kadie and my mom in order to prevent me from injuring myself!!! There I was, writhing on the floor, clawing my way up to the counter in agony so I could reach a Dove Dark Chocolate! I'm totally over it now, but SO much stitching and work had been done and now has to be un-done in order for me to finish this adorable, darn thing!

Sooooooo - I have a lot of un-picking to do today but I had to get something to the Fave Crafts girl, so I put this monogram frame thing together this weekend and I love, love, love it! Here is the site for the tutorial. I hope you make a bunch! It's totally cheap, easy, and everybody loves their own monogram.

More about the felt...

I received a few emails from some of you about the felt I bought and I feel like I should warn you first before you buy some from the girl I got mine from. The felt sheets are small squares, maybe 4" x 4" - not a full sheet like you'd get at the craft store. If you have a Jo-Ann's in your area, they're having a sale on felt for .12 cents a sheet, and they have a lot of cool colors so check them out first if you can.

Sneak Peek

My somewhat time-consuming project is ALMOST done! My winter-blah, color-loving obsession has led me to drastic measures and I couldn't stop myself. I can't WAIT to show you the finished product - and, of course, the tutorial. Maybe I'll finish today since I'm hibernating.

Yummy Felt

Check it out! My felt arrived from Lupin and all I want to do is touch it and look at all of the bright colors! (see what I mean? I'm a color nerd.) I'm not real sure what I'm going to do with it but don't worry - I'll find some project to transport me from my current frozen, arctic reality. We'll see... But in the meantime, I'm going to luxuriate in the COLORS!!! This room design here is going to be some inspiration.

Happy Spring Apron

Okay, I KNOW it's not Spring yet, but I'm bored with winter already. January through April is always so hard for me and the one thing that keeps me sane is color and cocoa.

So I was at the Pottery Barn Outlet yesterday and couldn't resist these yummy, bright, happy napkins for a dollar! Lately I've been craving bright, spring colors like it's chocolate - so you can understand my joy when I found these gems. You CAN buy happiness and in my case, it only cost $1.00. Now I want to go back and get the rest of what's left because these can quickly be made into easy aprons and I can put them in my birthday gift stash! These would make a great winter get-together gift, too. Have the girls over for mint tea and cookies and send them home with one of these! (you can buy happiness AND friends...that works out nicely, eh?!)

I made my waistband using this tutorial I posted a while back. The only thing I did different was sew a 45-degree angle at the ends to make them pointy.

Do you ever get holes in the bottom of your shirt? I do - especially if I'm doing dishes, my shirt gets wet, and I rub up against the counters working. I have to wear an apron when I do dishes or else I get holes in my shirts! (I'm pretty sure my dish soap is innocent)





Ah! I could wear this every day! Maybe the colors will get me through this gray, drab winter! And I'm sure it could be jazzed up a little more, but I wanted to keep this simple since this is intended to be worn and washed a lot.

(sorry if this is a bit blurry - it's kind of hard to focus the lens when you're taking your own picture!)

Cooking 101 - Whole Wheat Bread

This bread is SO good. It's 100% whole wheat so there's not a lot of guilt involved when you eat it. I've found that if I use white wheat flour (still 100% wheat), the bread doesn't have a bitter wheat taste, and it stays light and fluffy. AND it makes a killer sandwich!!!

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

(makes 2 regular-sized loaves)

2 1/2 t. yeast (or two 1/4-oz. pkgs)

1 c. warm water

1 c. scalded milk

2/3 c. honey

2/3 c. melted butter

2 t. salt (or a little less)

2 eggs

4-8 c. white wheat flour

Optional:

a handful (about 1/2 c.) quick oats

a handful of ground flax (about 1/4 c.)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix milk, honey, melted butter, salt, egg, and yeast mixture while the mixer is running on low speed. Add the oats and flax if you're using it. Add flour gradually, 2 c. at a time. You may only need 6 c. of flour, you may need a little more, but you probably won't need more than 8 c. The dough should be a little sticky, pulling at the sides of the bowl a little bit. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Place in a well-greased bowl; cover and let rise until doubled in size - about 1 1/2 hours.

When dough is doubled in size, punch down dough. Knead a few times on a well floured surface. Cut dough in half; form into loaves and set them evenly into two regular-sized, buttered loaf pans. (The dough should sit about 2 inches below the top of the loaf pan)

Let the bread rise again for another 30-minutes to an hour. Bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it with your fingernail. Let the bread rest and cool for at least 15-20 minutes before slicing into it.

The End of a 3-Month Whirlwind

Hi All! I hope you had a great Holiday season! I guess, technically, we have one more big one left - New Year's - but the bulk of it all is over and done with and as much fun as it was, I'm so glad to be done racing around!

Oh, and the day after Christmas my computer CRASHED. Nice. EVERYTHING was lost, but luckily I didn't trust my junky Dell so I had recently backed everything up in September. I only lost 3 months of stuff but it was still painful. So after crying my tears, I picked myself up and drove over to the Apple store where they hooked me up and made me feel SO much better! Aha! Thank you, Apple for making computers that WORK.

So now that most of the holidays are over, it's back to doing what I love - projects! It seems like the three-month fog that is Halloween through Christmas has lifted and everything can settle down a bit finally. It's fun and all, but I'm ready to be done with holidays!

Until I get my act together, here's what I'm drooling over:

LaLa's Paquinos

Aren't these things the CUTEST things ever?!










Meringue Designs
I'm in the mood to do a banner similar to this - maybe for Valentine's Day, and a generic "Happy Birthday" one for any time there's a birthday around here! I'm already getting excited...




These cute Penny Pockets from Happy Zombie would be fun, too - and she gives a GREAT tutorial on her blog.


If I had any energy whatsoever right now, and if I didn't need to go to the grocery store BAD....I'd jump up and make something...haha!