Mommy & Me Photo Shoot

My Sista-in-Law and her little girl came over Sunday for a mini photo shoot. I had so much fun snapping pictures of the two of them. Thought I would share some of my favorites.

Love these Ladies. So blessed to have them in my life!!

Ruffle Cake

Growing up my Grandma always made the same cake every year for her birthday. An angel food cake with whipped cream frosting tinted mint green. It wasn't my favorite, not sweet enough. A fact I think I was more than vocal about on several occasions.

 

This weekend I made a cake with mint green frosting for my mother's birthday. I used a butter cream not whipped cream - I still partial to the sweeter frostings. As my family and I sat around the table enjoying our desert we reminisced about Grandma's mint green cake. I would love to be able to try it one more time. I know I would like it now and I would love to be able to tell her that.  

 

 

 

Peter Rabbit Baby Shower

I've been off the radar for a while, like a month. Yikes! You see I've been putting the vast majority of my creative energy in planning and putting the finishing touches on the most spectacular baby shower for an amazing mama-to-be, my little sista. 

 

 

 

 

Side note - see that corsage, those are itty bitty baby socks rolled up for the flowers! The little bump's daddy has some creative sisters.  

 

This shower has been in the works since, well, Easter when we first decided on a theme - Peter Rabbit. And found these invitations. Then the pinterest board was created and the ideas started flying. I love how all of the details came together to create a stunning event.

 

 

 

 

We were blessed with beautiful weather last Saturday - good thing, the shower was outside.

 

 

 

 

See that bunting hanging in the trees. I thrift some old sheets and my mother and I spent an entire afternoon sewing 225 feet of it. She ironed every single triangle - crazy I know. We also placed her in charge of chairs. Rather than getting the metal folding ones her and my aunt managed to wrangle dinning room chairs and benches for all of our guests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm in love with the details of drink station - with it's labled pitchers and mason jar cups. Let's not forget the paper straws! Mama lovers her Arnold Palmers, half iced tea half lemonade. So naturally we had both available. Oh and for us non-expecting ladies strawberry basil infused vodka.

 

 

 

 

A light lunch of chicken salad and cucumber sandwiches along with a few salads and fresh fruits and veggies was served.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there was a plethora of deserts. There isn't a thing as too many desert options. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful afternoon to celebrate a beautiful lady and her soon to be bundle of joy. I feel blessed to have been a part of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the Many Reasons I Heart Mr. B

I know the title of this post might be a little on the cheesy end. I shy away from public professions of how great (or not so great) my relationship is. I normally find those pictures on FB of the flowers that your guy sends you at work a little irritating. Perhaps that’s the jealous part of me, it’s been years since I got flowers at work; Mr. B. is just not that guy. But last night reminded me that there are gestures far sweeter than flowers at work or a romantic weekend getaway.  And so this post is what I hope is an entertaining story for you and a reminder for me.

A little back story on the duck situation.

The ducks were evicted from the house this past weekend.  For the past few weeks they have been spending the majority of the day outside it the “play pen” we constructed last year. However, up until last weekend I was bringing them back inside for the night.  Saturday they spent the evening outdoors, in the “play pen”.  Why not the coop you may ask. Well, the duckies are still small and I don’t completely trust the geese with them yet. Everyone will need to be put in the pecking order, I’m just afraid it might be rather violent with the ducks being so much smaller. So the first few nights outdoors went well. I cleaned out the mud room and got rid of the wet duck smell.  (They won’t be making candles in that scent anytime soon!!)

Ok now that we are all up to date on the duck situation – I can tell you why Mr. B is truly amazing..

Last night we got home from work just after a storm had rolled through with more to come. It was still drizzling of course I had to check on my babies. They were stressed!! Poor little guys, they needed to get someplace dry and out of the rain. I know how ridiculous that sounds they are ducks, but they are babies and don’t have all their big feathers yet! The geese BTW seemed unbothered by the rain/storm, but they are used to it. But what to do? Where to put them? I had reclaimed my mud room and put away all the brooding supplies. The geese don’t like them so hanging in the coop over night was not an option. Perhaps if I put a partition in the coop to keep the geese from them…

I’m scouring the shed to find something that will work. By now it’s raining again and Mr. B has collected the duckies in a wash basket and they are in the shed out of the torrential down poor.  I found a piece of fencing that would work, but the geese would be able to see the ducks and would probably heckle them all night. So not ideal. Mr. B finds some plywood two long pieces about 18inches high. Not high enough, the ladies can jump that. So Mr. B quickly devises a plan and sends me to the house for the tools. Mind you it is still down pouring, the dirt floor in the shed is all wet and mucky, there is crap for light, and no decent work space. But he is going to MacGyver a partition out of what we have.  And that is exactly what he did. Using the ATV as a work bench and me holding the spot light he cut and built the partition.

The duckies were tucked in and happy to be out of the storm. They were all asleep within a few hours. The geese put themselves to bed at dark and didn’t even notice the babies on the other half of their house. Or at least I don’t think they noticed. There was no commotion in there last night.

A happy ending to the duck situation - and that my friends is better than flowers at work.

My Almost Ticket

Earlier last week I had a hair appointment. The salon I go to is in the ‘big city’ and there is no parking lot. I have to park on the street. Which is no biggy with Giselle, the only car that I’ve ever been semi-decent at parallel parking.  So I normally end up parking a block or two away. Well this there was an open spot right in front of the building. OMG Score!! This never happens to me, my lucky day!

I’m sitting in the chair, it’s been about a half hour by now. We’ve discussed the plan for the color and she’s applied the dye to my roots. Now I had worn pin curls to bed the night before, so my hair had some body to it. Well she had to brush it out to apply the dye. And you know what happens when you brush culries – bring on the frizz.

So I’m sitting in the chair with the dye in, just on my  roots so my frizzy hair sticks out like an afro. I have the black cap around my shoulders that they put on you to keep any dye and hair off of your clothes. I’m skimming through my people magazine catching up an all the celebrity gossip listening to the beauty parlor chat. The one stylist goes oh look someone's getting a ticket.

The gentleman next to me asks if it's the BMW. No not that one. Then I ask is it the MINI. Looks like it. It's parked in the handicap stall. OH CRAP. I run out, mind you I still have the cape on and my hair is frizzy craziness, to plead with the parking attendant. I didn't see the sign I tell him, I was just so excited about the great parking spot. I didn't see the sign hiding behind the tree. I say I'm so sorry; I'll move it right away.  

He tells me go ahead and move it. So I run back inside and grab my keys. The nearest spot I can find is two blocks way. I have to do the walk of shame back to the salon with crazy- dye-in hair. I get issued a warning.

Orange and Blue Churn Dash

 

I’ve wanted to make a quilt using the traditional churn-dash block for a while now. When I found out my cousin was expecting a baby boy I knew that it was the perfect excuse to do it. I just love the combination of blue and orange for little boys; especially with the bright white for a background.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of making this quilt from fabric selection, the repetitiveness of piecing the block (cut sew press trim repeat), and the quilting. Ok not the whole process I’m not a fan of basting never will be. If anyone out there likes crawling around on the floor putting in handfuls of safety pins let me know – I got a job for you!

Once again I used the Juki to straight line quilt in a grid pattern using the seams as my guide. This has become my go-to quilting method lately. I haven’t given up hand quilting completely – I have one in the works right now. Maybe I’ll show you some teaser pictures of that tomorrow. But for now enjoy the simplicity of the churn dash quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're Here!!

So much for the New Year’s Resolution, you know posting twice a week. It’s been three weeks since I wrote anything new. YIKES! And it’s not like there hasn’t been things going on. Oh my goodness there has been house projects, gardening, crafties, egg incubating, just to name a few.  That’s just it I get so caught up in crossing things off my to do list, I don’t have the energy to stop and share them with you. Just want to sit on the couch and veg out. Season three of Game of Thrones is out on DVD, need I say more.

Last time we talked I was telling you about the bestest mother’s day present to date: the incubator and eggs. I’m sure you can guess form the title of this post that they hatched. Saturday morning we woke up to three little peep-peeps fresh out of their eggs. The other seven followed by the afternoon. The days leading up were rather intense, I was so impatient to meet them and hold the little fuzzies. First we could see the eggs wobble and we could hear them peeping. Then they started to crack. We could see their little beaks trying to push out of the shell.

I am amazed that all ten hatched. I mean this is our first time incubating and I wasn’t sure we transported them right and there were so many things that could have gone wrong. 100% hatch rate on our first try, impressive. I was hoping for  5 to make it. Mr. B was a great ‘duck daddy’ (his words not mine) monitoring the incubator and rotating the eggs.

The past few days I’ve been enjoying the babies. Right now they are still staying in the house with a heat lamp. It gets too cold at night form them to be out by themselves. The other fur babies seem to be adjusting well to the fuzzies. Gus is in love with them, but jealous if I seem to give them more attention them him. Erwin has been banished from the mudroom. I’m afraid we would want to play with them, with his claws out.

Monday night Mr. B and I brought them outside so they could help me in the gardens. Somehow I managed to be the one to turn the soil and do all the planting, while Gus and Mr. B laid in the grass and played with these cuties.

 

 

 

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably have seen the super adorable video of them in the tub. OMG I almost died from the cuteness.