Baking

I love to bake, however, I would never consider myself a baker. Why? Because of people like this. Seriously. Bakerella is super woman. I am not.

And then there is Gourmet Mom. Check out those cupcakes. Genius. Will I be making them this year? Not a chance. Of course, if I win her awesome giveaway I just might be persuaded for next year. Maybe.

Thank you!

Big huge thanks to everybody that voted for me over at Gourmet Mom. I won! Woohoo!

Slideshow

Back in the day, when our first year anniversary rolled around, I decided to put together a little slideshow of pictures to document that fabulous year. It has since become a yearly tradition. We have our first three years done. Right now I am working on the fourth year slideshow and we will be celebrating our fifth year of marriage in August. Not too far behind.

Moving on. The fourth year has proved to be more of a challenge than the previous years. We added our daughter to the family which increases the photos exponentially. I am having such a hard time narrowing down the pictures to fit in a 12 minute-ish slideshow.

One fabulous solution has been to make some digital scrapbook pages. Thanks to Jamie for inspiring that idea!

The best part is that I am killing two birds with one stone. These pages can be used for future scrapbooks, too!

Credits. Mostly. These aren’t as detailed as I know they should be:

Templates by mandagirl. Paper from Happy Go Lucky, Vintage Florals, and Sweet Sprinkles kits by Shabby Princess. If you are dying to know what fonts I used leave me a comment and I’ll look for you.

Happy Monday!

Catch Me If You Can

Mandy’s leprechaun challenge over at Gourmet Mom on-the-Go inspired our St. Patty’s Day fun today.

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After the leprechauns had turned our breakfast and our lunch green we knew that something had to be done. We set a trap with a magically delicious treat.

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The sneaky little rascals escaped, but left behind a treasure hunt as compensation.

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After drinking a bit of leprechaunized milk the treasure hunt continued.

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The leprechaun let me in on a few of his secrets. Shhh … don’t tell him I told.

• The “pot of gold” was inspired by Erin over at The Sister’s Cafe. Who knew leprechauns were bloggers.
• The “rainbow” is a rainbow sherbet/angel food cake.  I, uh, he layered slightly softened sherbet and cubed angel food cake in half of a spring form pan. After letting it set up in the freezer for a bit he stood it up and frosted it with Cool Whip.
• The rainbow decoration was created with Fruit by the Foot.
• The clues were created with the Happy-Go-Lucky kit from Shabby Princess.
• And the likeness of Mr. Leprechaun himself is courtesy of Gourmet Mom on-the-go.

The Unveiling

of our happily ever after. (Check out the before here) Nothing too drastic. Unless you consider red walls drastic. My grandma thinks I am scandalous for them. Love that lady. And drastic or not, my kitchen makes me super happy!

I am going to owe the hubby big time for posting this. Alas, it is the best shot I have of both walls.

For the record …

… I have sewn a bit recently.I couldn’t bear to let my sewing machine feel too neglected.

One project was the valance for the kitchen window. Look for more details on this! This is definitely a perfect project for any level of sewing experience and the end product is fantastic.

Project two is skirts for my Grandma-in-law. Sorry no picture. It isn’t anything too fancy. Just a simple skirt she bought years ago and loves, but can’t find anything like it in the store. She commissioned me to come to her rescue. The one she has is purple. I am making a three more in red, blue, and gray.

And because I’m not any good at geometry (just ask my Dad, he’s the reason why I passed  in 9th grade), I bought the wrong amount of fabric for grandma’s skirts. I am brainstorming ideas on what to do with the extra. This fast and easy skirt was some of it…

 

My stomach is growling ...

This is a total deviance from any crafting. Sonora Grill has a major giveaway going on right now. Check it out!

My Favorite Little Space and a Small Preview

This is my favorite place to look as I take in my newly painted kitchen. The main reason is because it is one of only two spots that have any accents, but even if it wasn’t, I am pretty sure it would still be my favorite.

This is also your little preview. I still have a few finishing touches before the entire kitchen is picture worthy. It’s coming soon. I promise. I am sure you have been losing sleep over this, right?

Oh, and remember what I said about getting the “everything-is-exactly-how-I-want-it-and-I-wouldn’t-change-a-thing” after? Even this space isn’t there yet. I need to buy something like this green decorative ball  for the candlesticks (I feel funny calling them candlesticks. They look more like vases, but they aren’t hollow. Whatever. Oh, and if you want to know where you can find that ball,

it’s at Save On Crafts.) And the adorable picture of my baby girl is going to be replaced with this adorable picture of both of my kids.

Colores!

A couple of friends and I started a little preschool group for our sons. It is small and low key. A little something to get start gearing them towards preschool in the fall. Each week we take turns having it at our house and do a one hour lesson. I kicked off the first week and have to share the fun idea I got from Everything Preschool.

Theme: Colors

As I googled ideas for the theme and tried to find songs and art projects I realized that what these boys would love is a science experiment. Everything Preschool provided just that!

You will need ice trays, medicine or eye droppers, water, and food coloring. Fill four spaces with water and die each one a different color (red, blue, green, and yellow). Give the boys a dropper and let them have at it.

The real purpose is for the children to experiment with color mixing. These boys were content just to figure out how the dropper worked and then move the water around. I probably could have just left the water clear and they still would had a ball. Easy and fun. Let me know if you give it a try!