My Easter Challenge

Here it is, my challenge entry for April. I hosted Easter dinner at my house this year. I worked very hard getting the house cleaned, meal planned and planning my table. Here is how it turned out.



I went with a nest theme. I made individual chocolate cakes and decorated them like a nest with chocolate robin's eggs in the middle.


I found a tutorial on folding napkins to look like bunnies. They would have turned out better if my napkins were a bit bigger.

In keeping with the nest theme, I also made a pillow with what I hope looks like a nest on it.


Here are a few more random pics!




I look forward to next month's challenge!

My BFF is FAMOUS!

Imagine my surprise when I opened my dashboard today and the first thing I see is Rumor (or maybe it was Reese) and it wasn't on Jill's blog! I am so proud of you Jill! You are so creative! Love You! Check it out here http://mammatortilla.blogspot.com/2010/04/4-party-ideas-from-1-fun-mamma.html

What's for Dinner?

I never get tired of hearing that! Well, maybe I do..... but, anyway..... after working sometimes 12 hours at the beauty salon, the last thing I want to do is try to figure out what to cook for dinner. Last year I started a dry erase board with the menu for the week and all the kids' activities on it. I did good for a while, but finding the time every week to sit down and do that planning was hard and eventually, I just stopped. A while ago, I saw a news report about a woman that plans her whole year's worth of meals at a time. WOW. I know I could not handle that, but I did decide a month at a time would be better for my family. So I sat down with my Taste of Home magazines and mapped out the month. Now, I should be able to shop just once for the month with the exception of the stuff that would go bad like milk and bread, but I can pick those up at Wal-Mart since I seem to go there every week anyway!





You could also take it a step further like my bff did and cook for the month too! Check out her ideas at http://bonkersfortwins.blogspot.com/2010/03/dinners-ready.html

A quick baby gift

My husband's boss and his wife found out that they were chosen to adopt a newborn baby within a few days of the delivery so this past weekend I worked on a few things to give them.

I found these fleece blankets at Wal-Mart for $2 a piece and thought that would be easier than trying to crochet one real fast.


I crocheted a border around it and added some satin ribbon.


I also took a couple of burp rags and made them pretty with some "boyish" ribbons.




I love to make these burp rags and they are always a hit. These are made with just the regular cloth diapers but I bought a different kind to try something a little different. We will see how that goes!

Pop a Top

A while ago, I bought some vintage soda bottle caps on ebay to use on some hairbows for my girls. My family and friends then started giving me all kinds of bottle caps and I now have a shoe box full! So, I took this old lamp and lamp shade



and made this bottle cap lamp shade.



I started by drilling 4 holes in each bottle cap. I tore apart the old lampshade and then started to string bottle caps on the lampshade wires from top to bottom first and then went through the side holes of the caps. I painted the basket black and filled it with some vintage spools and now it looks lovely in my sewing cave!

Allow me to introduce myself....

For my first post I think I will start by telling you a little bit about myself. I am married with two kids from my first marriage and two step kids. I work full time as a beautician and own a beauty salon with my mother. She has been doing hair for over 40 years and I have watched her my whole life but didn't decide that was what I wanted to do when I grew up until I was 32, divorced, re-married and looking for a fresh start. I have been sewing and crafting my whole life. My grandma (dad's mom) is quite the seamstress and taught me how to sew and crochet. My other grandma (mom's mom) taught me how to cook. She was an AMAZING cook! I wish I had gotten some more of her talents! I will be posting some pictures soon of some projects I am working on.