Personalized Gifts

Woo hoo I finally got these done. A project I embarked upon last spring when I saw Judy's tutorial on what I thought was an easy project. Turns out it was. Judy's instructions from My Front Porch was just what I needed to navigate through this. I can sew a little so this was definitely a doable project for me. What I find attractive about this is that I can personalize these for special gift giving.
A good friend of mine has a new kitchen with brown granite and her favorite kitchen theme is chickens.
A new bride to be has a black and red kitchen and she loves coffee. The coffee towel was on her bridal registry. How fun is that?
I have lots of people in mind for these as birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. Simple, affordable, personal! It's a good thing. Thanks Judy!

Puddin Toes & Sweet Pea Update

cherub face
sassy two year old face

Sistah's

Momma's got her hands full
with her perfect little angels :D

Inspiration woo hoo

Well it looks like this was a timely post. I to want see all your closets now???? Especially those of you that are light years ahead of me. Jill, I have to see the shoe thing? And yes I think the sleeve length thing will be incorporated into my system . I am trrrrrrying for more color too Maree. I actually tried on two burnt orangy tops....ehhh no go. My skin turns yellow with orange. So I did this fun thing and bought a scarf with all the lovely fall colors and tied it to my purse....

I was looking for a new purse, but just couldn't find anything in MY PRICE range that I loved. So I am recycling and old one out of my closet. I can't believe I am admitting this on the WWW but I have been lugging a brown purse around straight through fall, winter, spring, and summer. I kept thinking I should do something about this....but it never got to the top of the list =] Now I am back to fall again, and oh well at least I changed the style and the shade of brown lol!!!

Closet Organizer

That sounds like a sound bite going around the media these days Community Organizer. I swear this has nothing to do with politics. I am just frankly amused at myself.

Yes I am completely amused. I don't spend a lot of time or money on cloths. It is a task I just try to deal with in one big swoop on a seasonal basis. Usually in one day I purchase what I need for the upcoming season. I hit the sales and a few stores and I am done! It may be prolonged for a day or two, if when I come home and retry on my purchases I decide something was a bad decision. I will trudge out another day with my returns and pounce on something else and be done with it. Unless a special occasion arises or I have overlooked a particular need. I do not like to shop especially at the mall for any prolonged time periods. Cloths shopping for entertainment value is just not my thing. My daughters how ever have spent their teenage lives trying to drag me around and around the malls to simply buy one shirt or one dress or one pair of pants or their fall wardrobe. I finally made them do all the trudging and put things on hold. Then in one big swoop I would go with them to make their purchases and pay the bill :) Shopping is just not entertainment for me.

I am leading into something here....the closet. Just as I have not paid much attention to my wardrobe I have not paid much attention to my closet. I just kind of pick and chose from a current section of my closet usually where my new seasonal purchases are hung in the middle. While non current clothing gets shoved to the sides. Once in a while...maybe twice a year I go through stuff and pitch. Well this year as I was switching from summer to fall, I had this obsession come over me to color coordinate my closet. Once I saw a closet that was color coordinated by a young man in the youth group. When we were invited over for a party. All the other room mates were anxious to show off this guy's closet. It looked like this!!! Only it was three times the size. I was completely stunned. I thought it was very obsessive compulsive behavior. Who does this????


Well here I am 50 something and just figuring out that this is really the most practical time saving way to deal with the whole clothing thing. I cannot believe it took me this long to catch on! One thing I discovered after I completed this task sometime around two in the morning (ha, when true genius moments hit ) was all the cloths I didn't realize I had. Especially when they were grouped by color. How many white shirts do I own? Hehe more than I knew.

Our closet looks something like this with my cloths on the top rack and my DH on the bottom. We have one side with shelves, and another side for long items and hanging shoe holders.

The first thing my husband said when he viewed my amazing task of organization was that was easy, you only have white, black, brown and blue in your closet. Another light switched on, I am such a neutral lover! So easy to deal with. It is now actually fun to go to my closet to dress for the day. And pretty easy to figure out if I need to go shopping for anything. Maybe I should add some color...hmmmm

Yes I am amused!

Whoops....ladies these are not my closets...but this one is. I apparently do have a few pinks and one burgundy top haha...DH :) Notice he has a lot of blue and his half is not color organized lol!

Oh How He Loves Us

This is what I call a retread post. This is one of my very favorite worship songs at the moment and thanks to Maree I now know why. She posted this for Sunday along with the back story. A very special friend of mine and my family on the East coast have recently lost loved ones. Listening to the story behind why and how this very powerful song was written I hope will bring some comfort to those I love! It is about how a young man responds to God when he gets to heaven.

Listen to the song above, then listen to the story of how this song came to be!

I love how Kim Walker/Smith sings this powerful song. I met Miss Kim when she was engaged to a local boy who is friends with two of my kids. She is very quiet and kind of shy in person. Then when she opens her mouth to worship it is just well...wow! Here is a link to my original post if you want to follow it. Skyler and Kim

Baking Anyone?

I know some of you bloggers out there are way into fall already, but I am just starting to think about it. I still have the air conditioner on tonight. When I last checked it was still 76 outside. We have long glorious Indian summers here, and fall just comes on slow for me. I know I am getting a little into it when I notice my activities starting to change a bit. Things like cooking, and book reading come to mind.

Have you all seen the movie Julie & Julia yet? I think I mentioned we went when my cousins were here for a visit. I loved the movie and as a hostess gift they purchased the new anniversary addition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for me. I just got through reading the intro by Julia Child herself and she mentioned her all time favorite cake ever...Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Cake, on page 677. That is now on my list of recipes I will be trying from the book :D

In the meantime I have been baking up a few of my own concoctions I think might be worthy of sharing.

This is a take on my mom's muffin recipe. I love this recipe and nothing compares to it for me. It was originally Jordan Marsh's Blueberry Muffin recipe. I love to experiment with all kinds of fruit in this one...raspberries, black caps, apples, peaches, apricots. A couple of weeks ago I had some banana's getting too ripe. So I whipped up this recipe and was really surprised at how good it was. Banana bread has met it's match!!!

1/2 c melted/soften butter
2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 milk
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp. almond extract

2 bananas cut up into small chunks NOT mashed.

cream together butter, sugar, add milk, eggs, extract, lightly mix with dry ingredients.

sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar before baking

Bake 375 20-30 minutes... don't over bake

I think it is the chunks of banana that rocks this out of the park for me :)

When we were in Seattle a few weekends ago I decided to try another one of Starbucks treats. When I first tried their Cranberry Bliss Bar last year I had to find that recipe. It is now a definite holiday redo. I also like there low fat Blueberry Cake. I will be tracking that recipe down one of these days. My new love re the Seattle weekend is their Raisin Oatmeal Cookie. I came home and had to figure out this recipe. What is lovely is how moist they are. They have raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, and butterscotch chips.

The secret I believe is soaking the fruit in the eggs for one hour...I am telling you it works! And produces that oh so deliciously moist cookie.

4 eggs beaten....soak 3/4 c raisins 3/4 c golden raisins 3/4 c dried cranberries for one hour

1 tsp vanilla into egg mixture

1 c butter softened

1 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1 c white flour

2 3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour....I know this is weird you can use all white as was in the original recipe I tweaked I would cut it down to 2 1/2 cups... I have just found that I like this even in my chocolate chips cookies...you can't taste that it is in there...honest. I feel it gives my cookies a better texture.
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups rolled oats

(now I haven't actually tried the butterscotch chips in mine yet, I would think 1 cup would do)

combine eggs, vanilla, fruit and let stand one hour

cream butter w/sugar

add dry ingredients with liquids

I dipped the top of the balls into washed raw sugar before I bake

Bake 350 14 minutes...for my oven which I suspect is on the low side

You don't want these over done...still a bit chewy on the inside

I found the sweetest little book for P.T. when I was away and one of those kiddie rolling pins at World Market. I had a chance while babysitting tonight to read this to her, and at the end is a cake recipe we are going to have to try together!

I will give you a peek at my reading list later on in the week. It is so very eclectic I must warn you. Random brain waves over here :)

A Country Wedding

We drove and drove some where out in the country to "The Little White Church on the Hill" in Silvana WA.

Simple but charming


The church was built in 1890...such a beautiful place to have a "Country Wedding."

The wedding had a fifties feel about it

Can you believe the mother of the bride on the right...she looks so young and charming!

The bouquets were simple country chic

We drove and drove again to this amazing venue called "A Country Location" in Smokey Point, WA. It was such a perfect day and such a perfect setting.

Now you know me, I fell in love with all the different centerpieces. Each one was unique and designed by the bride her self. Here are a few of my favorites.

This was a self help Candy Shoppe designed by the bride and built by the groom...yummy!

The bride with her flower girl

Cutting the cake

now for a look around this wonderful place

Boating anyone?

As the sun was setting I couldn't help but take a few last shots. It was a very good day, and a wonderful celebration.

Oh Those Wonderful 2's

I couldn't resist posting this for the weekend. I stole this from Megan's blog

We made it to Kirkland this afternoon, and now we are having a nice rest in the hotel room till after Jenna gets off of work when we will take her and one of her roommates out to dinner tonight. Two hours out of Seattle at 12:00 this afternoon we saw heavy traffic coming at us. All the folks escaping the big city for the weekend. We were definitely going the right way. Hope we can time the traffic patterns for the return trip on Monday morning. Tomorrow we head up north to Marysville to attend a wedding which my son will be a candle lighter in...how sweet is that =) We are expecting a good time reconnecting with lots of old friends. Sunday we will be hanging out again with Josh, Jenna and their friends. This is our first time over here since we dropped Jenna off last spring. Ssshh...can't wait to see what condition her room is in!

So here is Megan's story of her sweet little Puddin Toes :D


So as I was putting on makeup this morning I noticed a lull in Eden’s jabbering. I enjoyed the silence and continued grooming… when I was done I looked down to find this…..I knew the silence was too sweet. When I showed her in the mirror what she looked like she started crying saying “Scawry makeups!!!”

What really cracks me up is I think she did a pretty good job. She at least knew where the make up was to be applied...eyes and mouth. Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!!!

The Remains of the Summer

Sometimes we want our cake but can't eat it.... see last picture =)

I must apologize again to all my blogging friends, as I have not been able to get around to your blogs very much this last month or so. I have been trying to live my summer to it's fullest...and I am afraid summer has caught up with me. I still have a good full week and weekend ahead of me with many activities. I could use some prayer for endurance and health to my immune system. Just too much going on. I do hope and pray September will be more relaxing

So the hoopla for this weekend was Puddin Toes Princess Party...

Of coarse I had to go silly at the last minute and try making a princess dress. The ones in the store were generally too cheesy and too expensive. So on Friday I get this brilliant idea. ( and I must lay a little blame on Nana Trish...lol...you got me started watching "Project Runway") I bought a skirt and a shirt at Target on the sales rack. Then I went to Joann's Fabric...oh boy. All of Saturday I was stitching together this rather freakish foo foo dress...like a tinker bell prom dress with too much foo foo magic. Hahahaha....it is Eden's favorite, and that's all that counts =D
The Princess Box


and all things princess

becoming a princess


is that me





Auntie Jenna made it home for the weekend!
Princess Heidi making an appearance (a friend of Megs dressed up in an old bridesmaid dress)
Eden was in such awe she tried to give her the princess cake...so cute!
P.T. trying to eat the plastic barbie head...lol!