Wordless Wednesday

Linked up at Miller Racing

My daughter's colored pencil drawing of Po's castle from the book Graceling by Kristin Cashore.  She titled it Castle on the Cliff but I knew which castle it was as soon as I saw it. We love to read and it's fun to discuss books with her.

It's an excellent book and we highly recommend it!

I wish the pictures captured how pretty the original is.

 

 

Things worked out great with my Sis, and my 20th anniversary is in 15 minutes!

Thank you to all who provided suggestions for telling my sister about the wrong date on the plate.  I just didn't want her to be sad!  She is going to have it fixed.

If she was sad, she hid it very well. We both laughed about it. : )  She is such a wonderful sister.  Both of my sisters are the greatest!

It looks lovely on my woodstove. 

Happy 20th anniversary to my hubby (and me too)!!

How to Hurt my Sisters Feelings... Kindly?!?

So my sweet dear loving (sincerely... no sarcasm) sister sent me a lovely 20th anniversary gift.  It's a big beautiful personalized ceramic serving platter with a nice display stand. I love it! 

There's just one problem... it has the wrong date on it.  Permanently kiln-baked on. Now if it were up to me I would be glad to tell her thank you and never correct her because the last thing I want to do is make her sad.  But I KNOW there is no way that I can keep this a secret from her for the rest of our lives.  I figure the longer I let it set the worse it will be.  I just don't know how to tell her.  Sigh.
I'm also pretty positive that it was her mistake because she sent me an ecard on the same day that she had printed on the plate, so it's not like she can get her money back.


It's been a crud day!  I also received a letter from the college I'm attending telling me that I've been permanently removed from my classes because I didn't provide proof of immunization.  However, I DID send it in!  No answer on the phone line provided either.  I'm sure it will get worked out but it's just another thing that I have to deal with. I'm declaring a homework strike!

Any suggestions on how to break this to my sister?  Oh and to add another layer of difficulty we're on opposite sides of the continent.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I will try to as well.  Thanks for listening. : )

Wordless Wednesday

 I'm linking up at Miller Racing

Two Paintings my daughter made when she was fifteen.

Concrete + broken glass + metal = Jewelry? Pretty Jewelry?

I came across the Etsy shop DrCraze yesterday and I was blown away by this original jewelry!  It's so pretty and interesting.  And there must be something metaphorical about a concrete cloud.  : )  Or is it an oxymoron?

The pink earrings below are my favorite.  I love that they're made from such industrial materials and yet they're lovely and delicate.

I was so excited about this discovery I just had to blog about it.

Have a great night!

Karla

Here's the description for the cloud (I like the nod to Bob Ross):

"This happy little cloud features white concrete accented with clear crushed glass bound with recycled stainless steel. Pendants include a 16" sterling silver chain.(If you would like an 18" chain simply specify in checkout.)

The finish is ground to expose the colored matrix of the glass/cement mix and diamond polished to a lustrous sheen.

The dimensions are 1" by 5/8"

Contains 75% post consumer recycled glass. We collect almost all our glass from our local beaches"

Disclosure:  I have received no products or compensation.  I don't know DrCraze, but did get his permission to use his images.

My New Bracelets

About a month ago I won a blog giveaway for some jewelry.  I LOVE to win jewelry because I don't normally buy it for myself.  I buy it for my daughters and as presents for others but I just don't buy for myself (it's a mom thing.)

So I was super excited to win this giveaway and I was able to pick out two pieces of jewelry from the Etsy shop Rainbow's End Jewelry.

The first thing I chose was the green and silver "hand flower" shown in the first picture.  I've never had one before but I've always thought they were cool.  I love it!  I wear it around the house just for

fun! : )

The second piece I chose is the red and gold bracelet in the second picture.  The pic doesn't do this justice, it really sparkles and catches the light.  My favorite part of this bracelet is the two oval beads.  They are red glass outlined with gold.  Very pretty!

What have you won that really excited you?










Disclosure:  I won these in a random drawing giveaway.  There was no request or expectation to provide a review.

Confession Time

One of the Moms that coordinates things for the school approached me on Friday at one of the kids soccer games and asked me to bake 3 dozen cookies for the school Open House (tomorrow).  I agreed because I like to help out.  I had every intention of baking delicious home made cookies of various kinds.

Well, guess what? I just pulled the last cookie sheet out of the oven and everyone of those cookies was made from store bought dough.  Between working full time, being a mom, and taking college classes time got away from me.  I do feel a bit bad about it but the cookies are pretty tasty! : )  At least it's done and it's one less thing I have to worry about.

Now I need to look at the 6 different fundraiser pamphlets from 3 kids and the 3 book order pamphlets. It's only midnight, I've got plenty of time!

Have you had to cut corners on a project?  I'd love to hear about it!

Karla

p.s. I got an 84 on my first Pschology test today.  Not as good as I was hoping but it could have been worse.  I've been out of high school for 20 years so I guess I'm rusty!

Follow me Back Tuesday

Thanks for following!  I look forward to reading your blogs!

(Easy) Homemade Hand and Body Scrub

I love getting hand and body scrubs but I hate spending $12 or more for them.  I like them for my hands and my 9 year old has very dry skin and rough elbows and knees so scrubs are great for her. I've been on the lookout for a recipe for quite a while but the ones I found all required specialty ingredients that required a trip to a special store or mail order. 

That's why I was so excited when I found Pam's recipe on her blog.  It called for things I had around the house!  I made up a jar the same night and it works great and smells delicious.  My husband said it smelled like cookie dough. : )

The next day I made another batch for a friend's wedding shower.  I used 1 tsp orange extract at first and it had a strong sharp orange/alcohol smell so I added 1/2 tsp vanilla to it.  That did the trick and it mellowed out to a very pretty orange vanilla scent.  I'm excited to have an easy inexpensive way to make a pampering treat for myself and my friends.

The talented and helpful Pam over at The Thrifty Things blog posted this recipe for

Homemade Vanilla Hand Scrub

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup kosher salt

Mix all ingredients together and store in a glass container. If you don't like vanilla use another extract or essential oil that you prefer. The choices are endless, lavender, lemon, orange, peppermint, your choice!

Kindle Giveaway

My daughter REALLY wants me to win a kindle for her.  There's a giveaway at this website http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=30336 that I'm entering.  We're a book loving family. : )

Soul Food?

I was having a discussion with my son last night about how his 2nd day of school went.  He's 7 and in 2nd grade.

Me:  What did you have for breakfast?
Wylie: Oh, you know, the usual.
Me: Cereal and milk?
Wylie: Yeah and a Pop-Tart
Me: Oh Bud, you shouldn't eat those.  They aren't good for you.
Wylie: Why not?
Me: They're full of sugar
Wylie: No, they're full of delicious filling!
Me:  They may TASTE good, but they aren't good FOR you.
Wylie: Well, they're good for my soul!

Huh, how do I argue with that one?  : ) 

A Spicy Innovation

I came across the neatest shop on Etsy.  It's called Cook Outside the Box and they sell spice kits for different styles of cooking as well as tea kits.   I'm in love with this idea!

I always want to try making new recipes but when it comes to Indian, Thai or other exotic dishes I never end up doing it.  What happens is I come across a recipe that sounds fabulous, then when I look at the 6 or 7 exotic spices it calls for, I realize 1) I don't know where to find them 2) Even if I do find them, there's no way I'll be able to afford to buy them all at 7 or more dollars per jar.  So I give up!

I haven't decided what my first purchase is going to be but I can't wait to try one.

This is a picture from the shop of the small Thai spice kit.  They also have Chai kits (I love chai tea!), Indian, Chinese, herbal tea kits and others.  This kit is only $14!

I was in no way compensated for this post. It's just my opinion.

(My First) Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking this at Miller Racing Family, head over and link yours up!

Pics from our trip to New England Aquarium in Boston

Chicken stories and picture testing

Several of these adorable chicks are the naughty roosters in my last post.

I'm sure it's apparent that I'm new to blogging.  I'm trying out adding pictures now.  This is a picture of one of our hens that went broody this Spring.  We tried to let her hatch some eggs but nothing ever happened (well except for some very stinky broken eggs) so I stopped at TSC and picked some chicks up for her.  In the middle of the night we moved her to a cardboard box and I stuffed the babies under her. She was such a good mom!  She took right over and it was adorable seeing how she cared for them. 

She's unfortunately named Fatty because as a Buff Orpington she's very "fluffy" and because she's always the first to come running (at a swift waddle) for treats.

The green thing on her face is a Pinless Peeper which we put on the chickens to stop them from plucking each others feathers.  Thankfully it worked because 1) Naked chickens are Ug-Ly! and 2) They never would have made it through the Winter w/o their feathers.

This handsome boy was the aptly named Katie's Rooster. He was a Partidge Cochin that I gave to my oldest daughter in a failed attempt to make her more fond of the chickens.  She put off naming him for quite a long time and then she decided that she would make his nickname official.  He was absolutely gorgeous and was a very good boy.  Definitely our favorite.  Unfortunately he was killed by a predator.  Stupid predator!

On that happy note, I'll say goodnight. : )

Schoolwork and bad roosters

I started college on 8/23 (only 20 years after high school).  I'm taking English 101 and Psychology 101. My first grade has finally been posted.  It was in Psych and I got a 50 out of 50.  Woohoo!  I was very nervous when I turned it in. I feel much better about my ability to pass these classes now.

We currently have 4 newbie roosters and 1 older bantam rooster.  My poor hens!  We need to get rid of some of these guys.  They're rough with the girls since they don't really know what they're doing.  That's the last time I buy straight run chicks.  I don't want to kill and eat them... well I wouldn't mind eating them I guess, but I don't want to get them ready to be eaten.  I'd be happy to give them away but how do you find someone that wants a couple of dumb roosters?  I just like to have plenty of eggs.

Kids go back to school tomorrow!  I'm going to print out some lunch labels from Mariah Demarco Designs.  They're so cute!  3 notes for 3 kids. I'm thrilled they're going back since I'm mighty tired of the bickering but I'll miss them too. I love the little monsters.  Hmmm one just said "fore!" and the other yelled "you coulda broke your window!"  Time to go...