Great Garden Things to Buy.

Hi everyone!  Today I am linking with the lovely Susan for Outdoor Wednesday.  Please visit her blog for other inspirational outdoor participants. 

I went to (you guessed it) Hobby Lobby this week because I had a little free time before picking up my boys from school.  This time I took pictures of some great garden finds!  Oh the things I saw!  Ok, I want everything!  Look at this!  I can picture it in a garden full of roses…..or any other flowers.

I love this sweet garden sign.

How about this?  Love it!

I can picture this in my garden. :) 

Look at this sweet fairy!  I have to buy one soon!

And this fairy is sooo cute!  Ok, I want this one too!

I hope you enjoyed these beautiful garden pieces.

Thank you for visiting my blog, sweet friends.  Have a wonderful Outdoor Wednesday. 

Sandra

Name Plaques.

I’m linking this post to DIY DAY with Kimba.  Please visit her blog and visit the other participants. :) 

I don’t know if you guys have started your spring cleaning (like I have) or not?  I may have jumped the gun but I’m ready to welcome spring!  Oh my!  Hubby is off these few days so I am taking advantage of that!  He hung these letter plaques for me.  I started cleaning in my twins’ bedroom and I thought I was never going to finish!  Whew! I made it though!  Thank the Lord for that!  I went thru all of their toys and threw away old toys that they no longer play with.  I also went thru their clothes and got rid of some that didn’t fit anymore.  I organize everything in the closet.   I still have some things to hang on the walls but I wanted to share with you all a little project I made for them.  :) The color on the wall is Benjamin Moore, Wedgewood Gray.  It is a soft blue.  Love the color.  I intend to paint another bedroom in this color. 

The back part of each letter is  made of wood plaques.  I found these at Hobby Lobby but I do believe I saw them at Walmart too. The letters are also made of wood and I found those at Hobby Lobby.  I used scrap paper and Mod-Podge.  Love that Mod-Podge! 

For the blue, I did use the same paper on both names.  For the black and white , I used different paper but still in the black and white colors. 

And there you have it.  I am also going to make a little valance for that window.  I’d like to find a black and blue fabric though.  I am changing their room to a blue and black theme.  The boys told me that they don’t really care what theme their room will be, as long as it’s for boys. :D  I’m planning on looking for some posters or pictures that are black and white.  Hmm?  I might just make a couple of their pictures into black and white and then frame them.  Oh my brain is working here.  hee hee

Well I hope you guys liked this little project.  I’d like to finish that room this week.  I have so many projects going on right now but I like staying busy like this. :)  I don’t think we ever finish making our house look spiffy, do we? *wink*

Sandra

 

Decorative Towels

Hi everyone. Today I am linking with Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for Met Monday

http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/

 Kimba at DIY Day Tuesday.

I made another set of decorative towels for a friend. This time I used white towels. I added fabric using my sewing machine. Let me tell you that I am not experienced in sewing at all. lol I added some trim by using this glue. So easy peasy. :) If you use glue, let it dry at least 24 hours before handling whatever you used the glue on.

They looks so much better embellished, don’t you think? So pretty and feminine.

I really hope my friend likes them. They were made especially for her. :) She loves roses too. I’ll let you know what she thought about them.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday.

Sandra

Faith

As we go thru different obstacles in our lives, we must have faith that we will get thru them. 

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
-- Saint Augustine

Don’t You Just Love Getting Special Cards From…

Your kids? One of my twins (Alex) made a special card for me. I love love it when they makes special cards for me. My precious twins are nine yrs old but you would not be able to tell that they were born prematurely. Alex weighed 3.9 lbs and his twin Austin weighed a hefty 3.12 lbs. :) My boys spent time in Special Care so that they could be monitored and they needed to gain weight. Those were the hardest days for us. It was so hard to go home without my babies. Oh I cried and cried! I visited them everyday.

Today I’d like to talk about my Alex. He is such a special child. :) I really think he’s gifted. He can draw with such detail. He is also very talented in math. I think they all have that special gene from my husband’s side of the family. The math gene that came all the way from their grandpa. :) Grandpa used to be soooo good in math. He could figure out any math problem in his head. I never did like math so I know they didn’t get that from me. LOL

This silly child had me laughing and laughing! It is very windy here and he found a huge tumbleweed! All of a sudden, I see him running across our front door with this huge tumbleweed! As he was running, he was yelling “I can’t stop!” Oh my gosh, I was laughing!

The tumbleweed is taller than he is. He decided to be brave and ask me……

“Mom? Can I keep this tumbleweed in my room?” Guess what mom’s answer was?

“No you cannot, sweety!” :) Mean mama. *wink wink*

*Sigh….I love watching my kids. :)

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed this story about my twinkie Alex. God Bless.

Sandra

Adieu to an old friend.

Hi everyone.  Today I am linking up with the lovely Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.  Please visit her blog and take a look at the other bloggers’ posts. :) 

This tree was the enjoyment of my boys when they were smaller.  They loved to climb on it and pretend that they were in a world of their own.   You brought much laughter to my young ones so I couldn’t help but to feel a little sadness as we had to say good-bye to you. 

In your place we planted two Live Oak trees.   My little one in that picture is now older as shown in the picture below.  Someday his kids will want to climb these two little trees. 

Someday these two little trees will big and proud.  They will take on the job of making our future grandkids want to climb, laugh, and play just like you did.

I look forward to the day that these two trees will be big and beautiful.  :) 

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I do hope you have a wonderful day! :)

A Weight Watcher Recipe

I am linking this post to Foodie Friday hosted by Michael of Designs by Gollum  Please visit this wonderful blog full of inspirational recipes that so many other bloggers share. :)

Today is my official day!  You ask “Official Day of What?” LOL  I  will officially start to eat healthier and much more controlled portions of meals.  Oh gosh, I know I had already talked about making vegetable smoothies before, but the beets sure did turn me off.  I know they’re good for you and all but I’ll skip them.  *blush*  I might try eating a much smaller portion of them.  So with trying to eat healthier in mind, guess what I found underneath my bed?  I bought this amazing cookbook  oh about a year or two ago?  Oh the things I buy and then forget!  So I started going thru the recipes and my boys had asked to eat taco salads today.  And guess what I found?!  A Taco Salad recipe!  I was soooo happy!  I went thru the recipe and went to the grocery store  to buy the ingredients I needed.  I have to tell you that I had my doubts  that the dressing it called for was going to be just as delicious as ranch dressing.  Omgosh! I give it a double thumbs up!  I loved it!    I’d like to share the recipe with you. :)

1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fat-free sour cream

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 1/2 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

4 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 pound lean ground beef (10% or less fat)

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato paste

1 cup water

4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce (I also added spinach to it because it’s good for us) :)

1 carrot, shredded

4 (6-inch) corn tortillas, lightly toasted and cut into 4 triangles each

3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

1.  To prepare the dressing, in a small bowl combine the yogurt, cilantro, sour cream, crushed garlic, and salt, let stand 30 minutes.

2.  In a large non-stick skillet, heat the oil.  Saute about two-thirds of the onions and the minced garlic until the onion is translucent, 6-8 minutes.  Add the chopped carrot, bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and cayenne; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes.  Add the beef, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon.  Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and water; bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the beef is cooked through, about 20 minutes.  Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, about 15 minutes longer.

3.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the lettuce, shredded carrot, and one-fourth of the cilantro dressing; toss to coat.

4.  To serve, divide the lettuce mixture among 4 plates; top with the meat, then surround with the tortilla triangles.  Serve, sprinkled with the cheese and remaining onion and drizzled with the dressing. 

Per Serving (1 salad) 357 Cal, 12 g Fat, 5 g Sat Fat, 1 g Trans Fat, 395 mg Sodium, 33 mg Chol, 44 g Carb, 9 g Fib, 23 g Prot, 347 mg Calc. 

POINTS value: 7

I’m so happy to announce that next month will be my first year of blogging!  That means that I will be having a giveaway soon!

OOPS! I Did It Again!

You all remember that song from a while back? Well….I changed my layout again. I thought I'd tell you because I didn’t want you to visit my blog and wonder if you went to a different blog, my sweet friends! This time I decided to go with a vibrant color. What better color than red? I am a red kind of gal anyway. :) Hope you all like it. Let me know. And next month will be my first year as a blogger! Where did time go?? That means I will be having a giveaway! Oh what to give? February is the month of love….Valentine’s Day is February 14th. It is one of my favorite holidays….being a romantic at heart here. I will be thinking hard as to what my giveaway will be.

In the meantime, dance like no one is watching! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

Sandra

A Project I’m Working On.

What a beautiful day today was!  Our temperature was in the upper 50s.  Aaaah, I am looking forward to spring. 

Today I will be linking with Susan @ Between Naps On The Porch for Met Monday and Kimba @ http://asoftplace.net for DIY Day Tuesday.  Please visit their blogs for other participant’s inspirational photos. 

So today I decided to take out my sewing machine and do some sewing.  I had to dust it off a little because it’s been a while.  It’s been a while since I’ve used it.  *blushing here*  A sweet friend suggested to me that I should buy the Janome 405 sewing machine and that’s the one I bought for me. :)  I really need to put it to more use though. 

I am changing the colors in my front bathroom and went shopping for towels.  Decorative towels can get expensive, can’t they?  I got this bright idea to make my own decorative towels and found some inexpensive towels at Target.  The colors I chose are Brown and Aqua.  I don’t think this picture is showing the true colors.   

I found a beautiful fabric at Hobby Lobby that matches the aqua towels.  So I cut some strips and sewed it on to the edge of the towels.   

I may add a decorative tassel to the bottom of the towels.  Hmmm?

Don’t look at the stitching close up please! I am a newby in the world of sewing. :) 

I need to look for a shower curtain and some accessories for the bathroom.  I think I will make a little valance in the same fabric as well.  What do you think?   Oooh!  I will be sewing like a pro before you know it. :) 

To everyone that follows my blog…who read my blog. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.   Thank  you for stopping by my blog.

Blessings,

Sandra

There is a Mantel Party!

Hello! Welcome to the 2nd mantel party hosted by http://bethcrabtreehunter.blogspot.com/. I just found this lovely blog and decided to join the party. I hope I’m not late.

The finials used to be a gold color when I bought them last year. I decided to paint them a soft white and then yesterday I applied some Rub N Buff. Those are just a few books I like to read. I purchased the little bird on top last summer.

I am not please with the pink magnolias so those will come out.

I just bought these two jars at H.L. yesterday. They were a solid black and so I decided to apply a product called Rub N Buff. It made a huge difference!

Please visit http://bethcrabtreehunter.blogspot.com/ to see the other participant’s mantels.

I hope you all taking time to relax by the fireplace. :)

Blessings,

Sandra

Come Shopping With Me!

Hey everyone! I went to Hobby Lobby today and then remembered that some of you have never shopped there. Come along with me as I show you some of the products they sell. What i'm about to show you is just a fraction of what they carry. I can easily spend an hour or two there. I love shopping there. lol Currently, they have some items for 66% off. For those of you that like decorating with blue and white. Look at these pretties! I don’t decorate with blue and white but was so tempted to buy a vase.

What about decorating in black and white? I should have bought that plate.

These brown and gold pieces are beautiful!

How about just white?

I thought of Melissa when I saw this plate! Isn’t it pretty?

Love these candlesticks!

These keys are huge. I thought of buying one of these but I didn’t. Oh so many choices! I wanted everything!

Well I hope you enjoyed our shopping trip! I was laughing to myself every time I took a picture. You should have seen me being sneaky with my little camera. :) See how special you guys are to me? :)

Tomorrow I will be sharing what I finally did buy. You all have a wonderful day, sweet friends!

Sandra