How does our garden grow...

About 2 1/2 weeks ago for FHE we had a lesson of faith and then planted some seeds. We've done something like this in the past, but this time the seeds were going to be put into our garden. Here's what we started with:

We planted a wide variety for us: cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkin, squash, beans, bell pepper & jalapeno,
This is what they looked like this morning:

The beans were really ready to be out of their little peat pots and into the ground. So I added some more soil and a bag of manure to our little garden:

And started planting! The both peppers aren't ready so they're still waiting and I also planted some radish and carrot seeds. We're still debating making another little box so we have more space for tomatoes, peppers and whatever else we decide to try. But for now this is it:

We'll see if they last. I only planted about 1/2 of the starts we had. We just don't have that much space. Plus neither N8 or I really have a green thumb and chances are things are going to die! My Grandma was an awesome gardener and my mom for sure inherited that from her. Unfortunately I didn't! But we're hoping that this is our year for more success. We know we can do tomatoes and peppers, but we're ready to branch out.

Any gardens started out there? or plans for those still buried under snow?

I love...

• Family
  
• Baking
• Crafting

This weekend my sister and her family popped in for Friday afternoon and Saturday! We always have such a great time visiting and playing games. Here are the adults and teens during a brief break from playing nerts!! The kids were enjoying a movie.
We had so much fun that this was only one of 3 pictures I took this weekend. The other two were of food!!

I love finding fun simple new recipes to try out, especially when they're for dessert!! I recently subscribed to Southern Living
I obviously don't live in the South, but I enjoy the decorating ideas and there are some really yummy recipes!! This one is for Banana Bread Cobbler!! It is super duper yummy and easy to make!!

Ingredients for batter

• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 4 medium-size ripe bananas, sliced
• Streusel Topping
• Vanilla ice cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°. Whisk together flour and next 2 ingredients just until blended; whisk in melted butter. Pour batter into a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Top with banana slices, and sprinkle with Streusel Topping.

Ingredients for Struesel

• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup uncooked regular oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

Stir together brown sugar, flour, and butter until crumbly, using a fork. Stir in oats and pecans.

Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Serve with ice cream.
(I left out the pecans and used 1 1/2 cups of oats)

Crafting is an outlet for me. I'm not very good at sewing, but I enjoy it. I enjoy starting a project and finishing it. Most of the crafts I do are not time consuming, so I see a quick result!
Recently a friend of mine saw the pictures of one of the car seat canopy's and asked if I wanted to try selling them at her hair salon. I decided to give it a shot! It gives my an excuse to find super cute fabric and sew more!! I also decided to make a nursing cover attachment. That way you can just clip your car seat canopy on and keep your self covered up while nursing. It's just a ribbon with 2 suspender clips sewn on either end.

Happy Love Day!

I wanted to be creative for my kids Valentines this year, but instead went with partly homemade and simple! I've decided, in the end the kids don't really care how cute the Valentine is, it all about what's attached!
So, for the kids friends we made heart crayons. I was shocked to find how expensive the silicone heart molds were, until I happened upon some in the cheap-o bins at Target. They were $2.50 vs. the $9-$12 for other molds I saw. They're actually ice cube molds, but they worked (monitor them closely so the molds don't melt!!).
Unwrap and break crayons small enough to fit into the molds (Don't use washable crayons). Place filled molds onto a cookie sheet and "bake" at 275 for 6-8 minutes. Near the end watch them closely if you're using the ice cube trays! Let cool completely and unmold.

We just stuck 2 in a snack size ziploc with and stapled on the kids Valentine. Like I said-simple! I didn't even get a picture of the finished ones!

For the kids teachers I made Valentine marble magnets. Just some simple Valentine vinyl, glass marbles & some magnets.

These also got stuck in a snack size ziploc and the kids Valentine stapled on!! Maybe next year we'll get more creative!

I did get around to making one Valentine craft, thanks to Kim! I had been eying those cute felt heart wreaths I've been seeing all over craft blogs. I tried to find a heart foam wreath, but was unsuccessful. Kim saved the day and found one out of town and got one for me. I use the scrap red felt left over from my felt Christmas tree skirt. The tutorials out there recommend tracing out circles on your felt and cutting them out. I would recommend no tracing!! Boy would that have taken FOREVER! I just folding the felt over and cut tons of circles out. Yes, they are not perfect and yes they are not all exactly the same size- but it doesn't matter! Once you get them all crammed into the wreath you can't tell and you saved yourself a ton of time! Other than that I followed this tutorial!

I hope you have a wonderful V-day and for those that get Presidents Day off, enjoy a day off! For my day off-I'm going shopping!!! JoAnn's-here I come!

Another iron-on transfer idea...

Here's another use for iron-on transfers:

It helps if you don't iron it on upside-down!! Oh well!! Maybe next time ;)!

The Amazing Race: Valenitines Edition 2010!!

Tonight we had an early Valentine's Day celebration and boy did we have a blast. Ronelle found a cute blog that had an awesome Valentines date idea. It was a fun group date (we had 6 couples) that was themed like The Amazing Race. It took a bit of planning, but was well worth it!
I was assigned the shirt making and here's what I came up with:

Our husbands all met at the church to begin the date. Some went knowing a tidbit of what was going on. Others were completely lied to about why they were showing up at the church!! It was there that they were given their first clue:

Then they found the 2nd clue and their shirts:

Next they were off to the local skate park, where they showed their skills on a scooter!

Then they found supplies to make each of us a Valentines Day card.
The next one was my personal favorite. A music video to Hannah Montana!! I'll hopefully get a copy of that video!
Lastly, they had been given $1.10 in pennies and were to get a gift and flowers for each of us. They were given the stipulation of not purchasing flowers and here's what they came up with!

While they were doing all of this, we were helping decorate and prepare an amazing dinner. Rachel did such a great job and it all tasted amazing! We had steak, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, bread, artichoke dip and yummy chocolate cake!

We had a blast and some great laughs. Highlights of the evening were, stealing flowers from the graveyard & getting down to Hannah Montana!!
Here are the couples and the shots of the guys and girls:

Baby gift: Iron-on transfers

This week I have discovered the joys of iron-on transfers. I have never used them before and have been really happy with the results I have gotten. I thought I would share part of a baby gift (that hasn't been given yet!). So Roxy, if you're reading this, it's coming tomorrow with dinner! It's a simple, personal, and unique baby gift!

I used Scrapbook Factory to do the design work.
And I used Avery T-Shirt Transfers:
And 2 Gerber Long Sleeve Onesies:
And here's the results! I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

And since she had a girl she get's this Car Seat Canopy!!

Another friend has asked me to make a couple more onesies for a baby shower she has. They're for a little boy. Here are the designs for those!

If you build it...

They won't get through! Or so we hope! Our poor side yard has had to become a dumping ground and consequently unsafe place for the kiddos to play. We have the wood for the fireplace, ashes (from the fireplace), dutch oven cooking stuff, etc. On top of that you can't see it from our back door. So, we decided to build a small fence to cut off this part of the yard, yet still keep it accessible (we have to get the lawn mower through!). Now N8 and I did not inherit any handy genes. So, it's not perfect, but it does the job!

It's a picket fence that I hope to get painted sometime in the future:



Our next backyard project will be with our garden. We need to get some starts going inside. We're also going to expand our garden plot. Hopefully we'll have some success this year!