Lake Weekend

I usually don't post personal happenings on the blog, but this is the only place I could get this video uploaded! I used iMovie to put it together. It is so easy to use, its just hard to find a place that can host large videos.

Grandma Cleo Quilts

My grandma Cleo loved sewing.  She would make a quilt for every baby that was born in the family. Once grandma passed away, this became my job.  While, I am no Grandma Cleo, I TRY to make as many as I can.  All of my cousins that have Grandma or Aunt Cleo blankies treasure their blankies.  They are so soft, and large, so you can still snuggle with them when you are older. The sleeping teddy is our favorite!

 I started to fill her shoes in high school, in my sewing class. I remember one of the first ones I made was for baby Madeline.  Her mom only wanted to hang it up and wouldn't let her use it. These blankies are meant for use!!

I have made them for both of my god sons, Shaun and Lucas. I have even used some fabric from Grandma's house and her sewing machine!

Now that I am counting these, I have probably made at least 10 Teddy Blankies.  Some are in a box tucked away to be treasured, some are still being used today! Mine gets pulled out when I need a light weight blanket on the couch! 

Friday Funnies: Little Boy Humor

Tattle: Miss Cremer, he said he was going to cut off her wiener!

A little boy was holding himself like he had to go to the bathroom, so the teacher asked him, "Do you need to use the restroom?" He replied, "No, sometimes my peepee just sticks to my leg and I had to get it unstuck!"

Pantry Make Over

I loved the color I used on my mom's laundry room.  I wanted it in my house. I thought about where I could put it. My pantry was the perfect place.  I spent an afternoon painting and adding a few details.  

Before: 

                  

After: I'm still working on the organization factor of the pantry. I wish it was bigger. So, I'm not going to show you the whole thing!  

Floor boards!! Yay! Before, the walls were just bare and dirty! 

I already had the chalkboard in my pantry.  I used chalkboard paint to tape off the size of my frame.  My frame was a thrift store frame, that I spray painted green. 

I made labels using the Cricut for my trash, recycling, and glass recycling. I also bought and labeled sugar, flour, etc containers. 

I made a plastic bag holder. I sewed a rectangle, and then added elastic at the bottom and then sewed it into a tube shape, and added a handle. 

Shaving Cream Clouds

Sometimes when you teach, its the ideas that come at the last minute that the kids love the most. In science, we have been doing a lot of book work.  The kids are used to doing an activity, experiment, or both at least 2-3 times a week.  Partly because it is the end of the quarter, and partly because we have an upcoming field trip to the Aquarium, I am rushing the end of this weather unit.  Today we only had 30 minutes for science.  We had to learn about clouds. I had a worksheet ready to go where we were just going to draw the clouds, write one fact, and label them. BORING, but they got the information.  I didn't want to drag out the glue and the cotton balls, so I thought of my messy closet.... SHAVING CREAM!

You would have thought they died and gone to heaven.  I heard over and over today how this was the best science ever!

First I reviewed with them on this cloud website the different kinds of clouds.  We also played the memory game.

Then I left the image of the different kinds of clouds up on the screen and gave them a squirt of shaving cream.  I had them create each of the different kinds of clouds.  Then I had them make any of them and let their neighbor guess what it was.  Finally, I let them PLAY and get the shaving cream off the desk!

After they were cleaned up they had to draw and label 4 kinds on the worksheet. 

Spaghetti Bread

Every Monday during "Bachelor" seasons, my girlfriends and I get together for the show, dinner, and wine! It was Megan's turn to host.  She couldn't decide what to make.  I had recently pinned a Spaghetti Bread, so she decided to give it a try with her own twist.

Ingredients: 

• 1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough, thawed to room temperature (this takes 2-3 hours, plan ahead!)
• 6 oz spaghetti, cooked
• 1 cup Ragu thick & chunky spaghetti sauce
• 12 oz. Italian sausage
• 8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 –inch cubes or shredded
• olive oil
• Italian Seasoning

Directions: 

Roll loaf into a 12x16-inch rectangle, on parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 10-15 minutes. Brown Italian sausage, and drain. Add cooked Italian sausage to spaghetti sauce. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and let cool slightly. Remove wrap from dough. Mix spaghetti, sauce, and cooked Italian sausage together. Place on the center of the dough. Add cheese cubes, or shredded cheese. Make cuts 1 1/2-inches apart on long sides of dough. Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. Then braid strips left over right, right over left (see photos).  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake at 350°F 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and slice to serve.

Adapted from http://rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/braided-spaghetti-bread 

Mom's Bathroom

Way back when I was in 7th grade. I thought this wallpaper and color was cool.  I talked my mom into painting the bathroom and we put up the border together.  We didn't have enough, so we had to improvise and cut out the little shapes! Now, 15 years later, the border was peeling off, and the bathroom had seen better days.  Not to mention that awful gold mirror and flower rug!

 

Deciding on a paint color.

After Bob passed away, I decided it was time. I emptied out everything that was in there, and started taking down the border, painting the trim, cabinets, and the walls.

Originally, we had planed to just put up a chair rail and leave the bottom painted white. But my mom found this cool bead board wallpaper from Martha Stewart.  It had really good reviews, and you can paint over it.  However, you had to order it online. 

So after it was all painted, mom put up the wallpaper. She is good at that, most of our house has had wallpaper at one point. I swore I would never put it up again. So she did it. But it looks awesome!

Finally, we painted it and added the trim and decorations.