Sis's recent craft projects

My sister Rachel wanted to drop by and share some of her recent craft projects with us today. She made a couple more of the dish clothes that I love. These are already spoken for but she has some more made and I've asked her to send me a couple more. I love these things. 

What a cute little bread basket liner. 

I love these. I guess I need to have her make me one of these for the refrigerator handle. 

A cute rooster dishtowel for decor. 

Her granddaughter made this potholder. I used to make these all the time when I was little. I have the weave and the loops now. My grandson Garret when through a time when he would make them for me. I need to get some more made. I love them. 

This wasn't a craft item. But I wanted to share her cupcake stand with her Fiesta Ware plates in it. 

A couple more dishclothes. 

She made one of those fleece blankets that you buy the kit and cut the fleece and tie it off to make the blanket. I have always want to try one of these. I need to make one now. She made this one for her grandson that plays baseball. 

It looks really easy. 

Then she made herself a quilt to take to the ballfield. They have some cool evenings on the late games. Especially the ones that are in early spring like now.  

She used the old fashioned process of simply tacking the quilt with embroidery thread. 

She made her granddaughter one of the fleece blanket kits as well. 

Don't you just love Hello Kitty?

I love showcasing the craft talent in my family. I just wish I had gotten some of it. Who knows, I may have some of the talent if I could ever sit still long enough to try to do anything. Thanks, Sis, for sharing with us today. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Saturday was a very busy day. I was up by 5:30 so I could straighten the house and catch up on some work before I headed out for the day. By 8:30, I was leaving to head over to my Thirty-One summer premier. It was awesome. We got the new summer catalog and mini catalogs while we were there. the front of it definitely screams Summer.

I'll be giving you a sneak peak later this week, but for now let me say I am in love with the new patterns and there are even a few new items I think you will adore. The Best Buds pattern is probably one of my new favorites. I am already planning to order the Inside Out purse and a Retro Metro Wallet in this pattern. I love flowered patterns. 

One thing I love about Thirty-One is the fact that we get a free amenity for attending. This time we got a Large Utility Tote.

Yes, that's right. Those are FLIP FLOPS! It is a new pattern for Thirty-One. Do you know how excited I am about that? The queen of flip flops who absolutely loves Thirty-One products now owns a large utility in the Flip Flop pattern. I am in love. I was also very excited because I won one of the door prizes. A Keep It Caddy in Party Punch. I had this on my wish list, now I don't have to order it. 

After my meeting, I headed back across the towns to a ball park to watch my grandson play baseball. I love watching their games and was thrilled to see my grandson get a really good hit. My son is the coach so I get to watch him in action as well. I am so proud of both of them. A sister to one of the players took this picture Saturday. She was kind enough to let me share it on my blog today. I love this picture. 

After the ball game, I went to the grocery store to pick up some things for the week. I decided to try the Sara Lee chocolate donuts. You will recall, Sara Lee has introduced a line of lunch cakes that is supposed to be comparable to Hostess. Well, let me tell you these donuts were just like eating the Sweet Sixteens that were by Hostess. They were delicious. 

I went to church on Sunday. One of my friends owns her own business. She makes candles and soaps. I have been wanting to try a bar of her Lily of the Valley soap. It is made with natural goat's milk, honey and shea butter. Her son brought it to me to church yesterday and the smell is divine. It smells so good that I had to unwrap it and use it. 

After church, I just vegged out around the house most of the day. I have had a full week and was exhausted. I knew this week was going to be busy so I decided to stay home and take it easy. I was catching up on my Facebook reading and saw this photo this morning that was posted by Coastal Charm. It is SO me that I just had to share it. 

Monday Quiz about Me

I'm joining Acting Balanced for Monday Quiz About Me on April 15th.

1. What is your best solution for getting rid of a headache?

I rarely get headaches and when I do a couple of Advil or Tylenol do the trick. 

2. Do you enjoy taking naps? 

Sometimes. If I am really, really tired on a Sunday afternoon, I will lay down and watch TV on my comfy couch...which is guaranteed to put me to sleep for an hour or so. Afterwards, I always wake up thinking of all the things I could have done if I had not fallen asleep. 

3. What was the last 'block buster' movie you saw at the theater?

This is sad, but it has been so long that I can't remember. I guess if was either Alvin and the Chipmunks or We are Marshall, whichever was the most recent...even both were quite a while ago. 

4. If you could have anyone cook you dinner who would it be?

Well, I guess I would have to say without a shadow of a doubt Paula Deen. But I would have her cook her old way, not the new healthy options. I would want something fried and something with lots of butter. Good old Southern food. 

5. My own question to you this week is this....What is your favorite type of cake that is not chocolate?

I favorite non-chocolate cake would have to be a Lemon Pound Cake. Duncan Hines has a lemon cake that has a recipe on the side of the box that tells you how to make it into a pound cake. Then I make a glaze with powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice to pour over it while it is hot. Delicious!

Faith

Ssh! Don't tell anybody.

Today is the Summer Catalog Premier for Thirty-One. I am very excited about going and I heard a rumor that one of the patterns is something that will be perfect for me. Can't wait to see what the new patterns are. It's almost time to head over for the unveiling. 

I love my Thirty-One products, but do you want to know a secret. I want to get a new purse .... and it isn't from Thirty-One. I love their purses. But I have all the ones that I like from the catalog. I need to change it up a little. Have you checked out the new Vera Bradley stuff? I adore this little mini hipster in the Jazzy Bloom.

Even though I like Vera products, I am drawn more to Donna Sharp. I have had more Donna bags over the years than I have Vera bags. My favorite purse style on Donna Sharp is the Leah bag. I have had this bag is four or five different patterns. I always like the patterns that are like a patchwork quilt. So I was really drawn to this new pattern, the Malibu Patch. I have always love patchwork patterns in quilted purses. And I had pretty much decided this is going to be the new purse I purchase. 

Until I saw Donna's new patter, the Malibu flower. I have fallen totally and thoroughly in love with this. It is a must have and I think I may go next weekend to the local Donna Sharp Outlet and check it out. I am so in love with this purse.

I got some good bargains at McKay's Used Book Store yesterday. I took back about 6 or 7 books and that earned me store credit of $8.61. I wanted to get some Barbara Delinsky books, some of her older ones. I was having trouble finding them when one of their staff told me that her older books were in a different section. So I went there and looked. SCORE! I not only found Barbara but I picked up a few Sandra Brown and even got one from Elizabeth Joy Arnold. 

The beauty of the deal was that the older books were cheaper priced. I got 15 books, the most expensive one was $1.25 and some were as low as .15 cents. When I checked out, the total price tax included was $8.80. After using my store credit, my 15 books cost me .21 cents. You gotta love a bargain like that. I totaled the retail value of the books from their original price. It was $110. Wow! $110.00 worth of books for .21 cents. It was the bargain of the year!

I had to run in Family Dollar to get some Junior Mints. While I was there, I picked up three baby bottles to send to my niece for Baby Girl that is due to arrive later this year. These bottles are adorable. They are 2 oz. bottles. I would have loved some of these when my kids were little. I always hated having to use 4 or 8 oz. bottles when they were only drinking 1/2 - 1 oz. These are just too adorable. They were only $1.00 each. I may have to pick a couple more up just to keep in the toy box for the granddaughters to play with when they come over. 

Hubby made some fried potatoes with hamburger macaroni and cheese last night. He cut his potatoes and put them in one of my Pyrex bowls until he was ready to put them in the skillet. I love when he uses my Pyrex. I don't feel so guilty collecting things that get used. 

I have been craving a spice cake with caramel icing, but Duncan Hines discontinued their caramel icing. They tell me that I can buy their Frosting Creations and by the caramel flavor packet, but I am leery of trying it. But, I got a couple of coupons yesterday to get the flavor packet for free. I guess that means I am going to have to break down and try it. 

Well, lots to do today. Hope everyone is enjoying a great weekend. 

Just some stuff for today....

We are finally into spring and I'm falling love with some of the new spring colors. One thing that I am loving this year is yellow. I don't know why, but I am becoming obsessed about yellow. You know I am changing things in the master bath to give it a beach look. I have some ocean blues and greens along with some tans for the sand. I am slowly adding some yellows to represent the sun. 

I have a friend who has had her bathroom "beachy" for years. She recently purchased new towels and rugs. She came over the other day and I showed her the changes so far. I told her I wanted to get some new towels with blue and yellow in them to hang on the towel racks for decoration only. It turns out she still had the ones she used to have hanging for decor in her bathroom. So she had me come by and pick them up yesterday. I love them. Can't wait till the weekend to have time to do some more decorating in there.

I need to find some to hang where I have a wreath in the bathroom. I saw this one and thought it was cute. I bet I could make this. 

But I really like these pictures.

And I really like these pictures of the lighthouses. 

While I was looking around for wall art ideas, I stumbled on this picture. I love the way they did their room all beachy. 

I would love to find some wooden cutouts like this. That color would be perfect in my bathroom. 

A big shout out to my brother Jack today. It's his birthday. Happy birthday, Jack. 

Here he is a couple of Christmas's ago. He is second from the left. He doesn't like to have his picture made. The far left is Andy. He's the baby of the family. He's 10 years younger than me. Then Jack is next and he is 3 1/2 years young than me. Rachel is next and she is about 13 months older than me. And that is Mom on the end. 

Hope you have a happy birthday, Jack. I love you.