WIP Wednesday

I think one of the problems I have with keeping up with and actually finishing some of my projects is that I just have so many things in the works!  I walk into my room in the evening to do *something* and relax and really too often I can’t even remember what I’m working on or ready to do next.  SURELY this will help keep me on my toes!!!

 

I am seriously in love with this yarn!  I bought it at The Loopy Ewe when mom and I were up there in April for the Spring Fling. We were actually the first group to get to visit the store and oh my word it was like yarn overload – how in the world is a girl supposed to choose among all those fabulous options?  I did pretty good though since I went armed with a list of projects and this was one of the skeins I bought.  It’s Malabrigo (mmmm……) Sock in the Prinavera colorway.  absolutely gorgeous!

It’s going to be a Melody Shawl (though mine will be a scarf) just as soon as I can locate the project that holding my KnitPicks needles hostage!

 

This will very soon be a DARLING dress for my new American Girl doll!  I just got her and her entire bedroom set last weekend from a friend whose daughter doesn’t play with them.  I am BEYOND thrilled and pictures will be soon.  It will all stay at my house and when B comes to visit I am certain that she and I will have so much fun playing!  And fortunately I still have Lynne’s Samantha doll at the house so that there will be two to play with.  ~ very happy sigh ~

 

This will soon be what I am hoping will be something to keep me organized with my crafting!  I have some awesome friends that I don’t get to see nearly often enough, so I whined and sniveled via email that maybe we could at least share pictures of our projects. Or better yet post a challenge every now and then so it’s sorta like we’re working together – only apart.  This will be the first challenge project and I’m beyond thrilled with how it looks…in my mind. 

Brooklyn Scrapbooks With Punches

I don’t know why it didn’t even occur to me to get out some of my scrapbook stuff and let Brooklyn play with it.  But the light bulb finally went on and I pulled out some of the smaller, easier to use punches and a package of lower cost paper.

She’ll be three in July and I was so impressed watching her dexterity as she slid the paper inside the punch.  See how intent she is on the task?

The yellow one that she has in her hand was too hard for her to punch, but of course Grandma was on hand to help her out.  The other two punches you see on the table were not a problem for her, so we ended up with a lot of feet and itty bitty pumpkins.  :)

I think that I’ll be using some of the big box store coupons and buying more punches for her.  It really was fun to do it with her and next time maybe we’ll get adventurous and use glue.

Mummy Dogs

The theme for our potluck at last Friday night's scrapbook night was Halloween.  I had no idea what to bring, so figured I on bringing my Easy Apple Pie.  But then Friday morning while I did a little blog hopping I stumbled on the cutest thing - Mummy Dogs!

I could obviously use a little practice on my mummy wrapping, but I thought they turned out really cute.  They were a hit at the potluck, even though I forgot to put their little mustard eyes on when I got there.  If you do decide to make these for your crew I will warn you that it takes longer to wrap crescent roll bandages than what I counted on, so I got a little rushed towards the end.

Here's the layout that I finished that night.  You might recall our little mud "misadventure" here.  I guess my theory is that if you can't laugh at yourself, well you should!

And every single time I read the title on this layout there is a certain song that starts going through my mind.  I'm not so sure I think it's as cute as I first thought!   :)

Baby Shower Cupcakes

When friends asked me to make Pink Lemonade Cupcakes for a baby shower at work I have to admit that I was so excited. But my next emotion was a little bit of panic because I haven't done anything like that before. It's one thing to make cupcakes for my work friends and quite another to do something important like a baby shower!

I ended up making two batches because the first one only made 18 cupcakes (the 2nd batch made the same amount). I also decided that simply having pink cupcakes for a baby girl shower was not enough - I needed to make cupcake picks to put on them.

But ultimately, it's the cupcake that matters the most. I've seen several recipes for these cupcakes on the net, but ultimately I use the same one each time. It's tried and true and work friend approved!

PINK LEMONADE CUPCAKES

(adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride)

3/4 cup frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed (I use the large can to make a double batch)

White cake mix

3 egg whites

2 T vegetable oil

red food color

Mix the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil and pink lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for 30 seconds, then mix on medium for 90 seconds (batter will be lumpy; do not overmix).

Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter. Baket at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean. Removes the cupcakes and cool completely on a baking rack.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM ICING

3 cups + 3 T powdered sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

2 T lemon juice

red food color

Mix the butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and food color on low until combined. Mix on medium-high until the icing is fluffy and uniformly pink. Ice the cupcakes as you desire.

The picks were made using punches and QuicKutz dies. The paper was all StampinUp (white and pink pirouette) with a small kraft stick stuck between the two pieces of paper.

I'm really happy with how the whole thing turned out and most important of all, so was the new mama. I'm already thinking of other ideas for cupcake picks - too much fun to combine hobbies of cupcake baking and paper crafting!

Living Beyond Yourself

I really can't believe it, but my computer is ill again. At first I felt that panic in the pit of my stomach, then I remembered that we're trying to spend less time in front of screens. Somehow though it's a lot better to want to do something rather than to have to do it!

And we took our truck to the dealer tonight to get a few things fixed. Minor things, like when we were out on Saturday it suddenly started flashing lights and ringing its little bell to alert us to the fact that the brake system needed checking immediately. Of all the things that I really want to work on a vehicle I'm driving, brakes rate right up there. We explain to the super nice man that we want this stuff fixed before the warranty runs out and, silly us, TOO LATE! I wonder if they program the computers on vehicles now so that they know when the warranty is over.....

On the bright side, tomorrow night is the first night of a new Bible study, Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself. I'm sure it will be fabulous, her studies always are. And I'm excited that for the next 11 weeks I get to spend time in the Word. Somehow the little things like the computer and truck needing fixing just seem to not be nearly as big of a problem.

One last note, I wrote up my new Bible verse to start memorizing and just realized I never posted it on the blog. So here it is:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

Scrapbooking and Chocolate

I haven't shared any scrapbooking pages in quite a while....mostly because I haven't completed any! This particular layout was done during our retreat in May and is one of my new favorites. I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the pages include Brooklyn, Joe and Loni! Oh and Cheeto, James and Loni's cat, is also in one of the pictures too. He cracks me up because he will wear a costume and what cat does that???

Last Halloween Loni got the most adorable monkey costume for Brooklyn to wear for her first Halloween. Only problem was that it turned out to be one of those really, really warm Halloweens in Texas and she got pretty fussy wearing a full furry outfit! No problem though because Loni also had the all orange outfit and adorable bow, so she was still dressed up. :)

And Loni did her makeup for our Halloween dress up day at work. Too cute!

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And now for something chocolate! I had printed out this brownie recipe hoping to try and with my family coming to town it was a perfect opportunity. Michele, Lynne' and Loni ran to the store and got ice cream fixins and we ended up having these heavenly brownie fudge sundaes. Oh my word they were GOOD! And if you are looking for a good brownie recipe, click above and go print this one. Very good and very easy, so why use a mix? :)

Brooklyn Goes to Hobby Lobby

Loni and I are making Brooklyn's baby announcements! We've gotten together a couple of times and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It really is so much fun to share my hobbies with her. The little toot taught herself to knit, so we have spent time together doing that as well. The announcements are coming out so beautiful and I can't wait to share a picture of them (I figure I better wait until people receive them first!)

Last night Loni, Brooklyn and I went up to Hobby Lobby to get a couple more things for the announcements and naturally I brought my camera. I mean really, this being her first Hobby Lobby trip and all, what's a Grandma to do??? You can see in the picture though that the scrapbooking supplies didn't do much to excite her. And I should've gotten a better picture of just her since she had on an adorable little pink outfit that had a Winnie the Pooh on it, accompanied by sweet little pink shoes.

We next headed to the yarn section - naturally - so that I could pick up a couple of skeins of Simply Soft to start another baby blanket. Apparently yarn wasn't very exciting either! As many knitters as we have in this family I figure it's just a matter of time though.

All Day Crop

Saturday was time for another all day crop with friends. You know the day is going to be fabulous when it starts with meeting everybody at Starbucks - LOL! With coffee, coffee cake and cupcakes in our hands we headed out in the convoy. The hour drive was over before we realized because, at least in our car, the talking never once stopped!

We were at the crop for twelve hours and the only thing I have to show is the layout above. And, truth be told, I will mention that I already had a good portion of this finished before I even packed to go to the crop! That's ok - the fun of a crop to me is all the talking and so much laughter. It's good to spend time with Christian girlfriends.



And this is the prize I won from one of the drawings! Lots of laughter when I got this as well because I am the only one in our group without one of these bags, so we decided it was meant to be.

There were several ladies there that I hadn't seen in way too long and it was awesome to catch up. I am still amazed that sleepyhead me was able to be awake and alert for that length of time. :)

Last night as I lay in bed thinking about the day, what came to my mind was a moment last week while I was at a doctor appointment. I was sitting in my 4th floor exam room waiting for the doctor when I noticed a group of trees. They were very tall, rising above my vantage point on the 4th floor, but very narrow trees. This day a cold front had come through and it was quite windy, causing the trees to sway back and forth. What struck me while watching these trees was the tree in the middle. I do not have a green thumb whatsoever, so I can't explain why, but the center tree seemed to sway the most in the wind. With each gust of wind this tree would blow back and forth. It never toppled though, because each time it swayed it would knock into one of the other trees around it. Over and over I watched this same thing occur.

And now I know that I was witnessing something important about our lives in those trees. Many times things happen in life that cause us to stumble or sway. But the Lord places family and friends around us to catch us and keep us from falling. Even when a particularly strong "gust" might blow against us, there are those that keep us upright. And He is there with His arms around us all to keep us safe.

What a blessing to know that we are never alone.