Caleb turns Five

Caleb celebrates his Fifth Birthday * August 31 *
He is a true blessing from the Lord and the apple of my heart.

Caleb and his Batman Cake

This is the card I created for Caleb. Click here to view instructions.

This Inspires me to Create

Mimi Kirchner is an incredible Etsy seller and looking at all she has created offers tons of inspiration. Her excitement is contagious and very motivational for anyone who loves to create. I really like her Tatoo men dolls.

I am truly amazed at her creativity and loved listening to how she finds inspiration.

Monkeys on the Bed Giveaway

My lovely daughter Andrea who is expecting her third baby on March 2010 loves bags and this includes diaper bags. This one is the Monkeys on the Bed current giveaway. I know she would really benefit from it. The bag is also very stylish. If you want to win this bag too, why not enter this giveaway?

More and more, I find myself shopping online. CSN Stores claims to be a mega online store with super low prices. I'm going to check out the CSN Return Outlet for more deals.

Square Shape Baby Hat Tutorial

This is a fun and very fast baby crochet hat. You will love the knobby texture that is created by combining the single crochet and treble crochet.

Click on this link for this pattern:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19127705/Square-Shape-Baby-Hat

Wordless Wednesday

Taking a walk along the Pamlico River, North Carolina

On the Road to Delaware

My daughter took this picture while I worked on a crochet hat. It looks like I was sewing the side seam. She is an amazing photographer. Do take the time to visit her site. I am fortunate to be able to do this during long trips. The trip from Williamston to Delaware is 5 hours and it sure helps to keep occupied doing one of my favorite things. I took a book just in case, but I did not read.

I completed four of these square shape hats during this trip.It was made with my favorite cotton yarn, called I Love This Yarn. It is available at Hobby Lobby.

This one is so cute extremely cute in the variegated fall colors.

So what do you like to do during those long road trips?

5 Day Vacation

Took five days off work to spend time with Andrea, Travis and the grand kids. The direct trip to Delaware is painfully long so it's much better when we stay at Andrea's overnight and then continue the journey to Delaware to visit Cliff's parents.

Cliff was delighted to join his family to celebrate his Dad's 88th birthday.

Took the kids to Bethany Beach but for some reason they just ended up playing in the sand and were not interested at all in the water. I don't blame them, the beaches up north are not the same. Let's just say the water is a few degrees colder.

Taite loved picking up the sand and running around.

Caleb could not get enough of this....wore his Daddy out.

Got lots of loving from this little guy. He steals everyone's heart. I never thought I would ever have a blue eye blond grandson.

Taite on the Board Walk at Bethany Beach.

Caleb has gotten so dark this summer. He was not his normal self around these northern waters according to his daddy. I guess he needed to be around his friends to enjoy the water.

I Used my Sewing Machine Today

This is my new dresser.

I had a thought about making the liner for the drawers using fabric. I already had the upholstery fabric and did not want to spend much more money or lots of time in this project. I read about taking cardboard and covering it with the fabric. I did not have any cardboard and thought it would be nearly impossible to come up with the right size and free. Cutting all the cardboard would have taken a long time.

So.....the light bulb turned on during my visit to the Dollar Tree.


One roll of Non Slip shelf liner was enough for two drawers. Cut the liner to the length of your drawer. The shelf liner was not wide enough to cover the width of the drawer.

Cut your fabric the length and width of the drawer plus 1 inch for seam allowance.

I had some Stitch Witchery and I used it to hem the long end of the fabric. I'm not really sure this saves a lot of time. Turn 1/2 inch and sandwich the stitch witchery in between. Iron on wool setting for 10 seconds.

Turn 1/2 inch and sandwich the stitch witchery in between. Iron on wool setting for 10 seconds.

Put the non slip shelf liner on the wrong side of the fabric. Turn 1/2 inch of the short end of the fabric and make sure the shelf liner is sandwiched in between.

Use the Zig Zag stitch of your sewing machine and stitch the short edge of the fabric. There is no need to stitch the long edge of the shelf liner to the fabric.

Here it is the fabric drawer liner with a non slip surface.

It worked, the liner stays put on the bottom of the drawer.

Coffee Cozies

Coleen, the owner of the Dilworth Coffee House, where my knitting group, The Knit Nuts meets asked us to knit or crochet cozies which she could offer her customers. The cozy would replace the cardboard one and fits well the paper cups.

Here's a flat view of the cozy. The cozy wraps around the cup and is fastened with a button. This cozy was crocheted using a diagonal shell pattern.

The Cozy fits small, medium and large cups.

Bumper Crop of Tomatoes

We are harvesting tomatoes daily. Most of the times I just eat them fresh in salads or tomato sandwiches. I decided to try a tomato pie and followed a recipe from Allrecipes. It turned out good but as I suspected a little watery. This might turn off some people. Still the cheeses do add to the flavor. You can really use just about any kind of cheese. I made my pie with a mix of Colby and Monterrey Jack and Parmesan cheese.

For the crust I used the Pillsbury refrigerated Pie Crust. I did make a change and cut back on the amount of mayonnaise and added Lite Sour Cream instead. I added a generous amount of fresh chopped basil. Some recipes tell you to brush the bottom of the pie shell with an egg white before adding the fillingg. I made the mistake of placing a piece to foil and dry beans on top to weigh down the dough while pre baking. Do not do this the foil will stick to the bottom of the pie shell. Major disaster. All you need to do is really pierce small holes and if you desire brushing with te egg white, but I really don't think it makes much of a difference. This is a pretty wet and soupy like filling. Not something everyone likes. As I said if you don't like the runny consistency of this pie, you many not want to try it.

I could not resist playing with the vegetables. Tomatoes might be considered a fruit....Not sure.

Another funny face....

Happy Birthday Andrea

My beautiful daughter turns 26 today. Happy Birthday. She was super cute as a two year old.

She is a wonderful mommy...doing a super job. My prayer is that the Lord would continue to bless her and continue to guide her in everything she does. Happy Birthday sweetie! This picture was taken during or March 2009 visit to Panama.

Thankful Thursday

This is the beautiful tree, that I see out of my kitchen window along with so many beautiful sights - the work of my creator, God most High.

The squirrels are fun to watch and think they own the food on this path.

Look to the bottom right corner of the picture and you'll see one of the chipmunks who likes to eat the corn, but the squirrels give then a hard time. We currently have two chipmunks who run around this part of our yard.

The rabbits have overcome their shyness and get pretty close to the path. They have been eating the leaves from the Black Eye Susan and love the corn as well.

The Bossy Squirrel

An Amazing Product

I recently received my first order from Heidi. I learned about her after reading a review on Monkeys on the Bed. I went to her shop and placed an order. I was pleasantly surprised when she wrote back immediately letting me know I was her 1,000 customer so she would give me 40% off my order. I got so excited I order once more and she was so kind to give me a 40% off on my second order.

I love aromatherapy ... her products will leave you smelling wonderful and feeling soft. Your shower experience will be a delight. Just like she said...all you need is a quarter size amount on the scrubby that comes with the body whip soap. That small amount creates a large amount of lather. You won't want to come out of the shower. I ordered three of her products in the Lavender and pumpkin pie scent....yum....

Speaking of scrubbies - this is my version of a face/body scrubby. I wanted a scrubby with a loop to hang.

All White Newsboy Cap

By a special request, I've completed another newsboy cap. The cap looks oversize on this doll but it will fit a baby 6 to 12 months.

Another alternative for the button accent that I think would also look good is the felted wool material I recently ordered.