Happy Flag Day

Here's a quick snapshot of our front yard. I forgot to put our flag out last night and did it first thing this morning. Hope you are having a wonderful Flag Day!

Summer Dessert #1

This was dessert tonight, Fruit Pizza. I had not made this in well over ten years. I decided the other day that I am going to try to make a fun, semi fancy, easy- dessert at least once a week. So here is the dessert for week #1.

Nothing to this. The crust is Sugar Cookie dough. I used Betty Crocker mix that comes in a pouch, added the stick (gulp) of butter and egg. After baking it on a pizza stone, I spread on strawberry flavored cream cheese and added sliced strawberries, bananas, kiwi and dotted with a few blue berries.. Very fun, quick and impressive for my five year old.

ps: There are many variations to this just do a search on Pillsbury or Betty Crocker website. You can do frosting for the spread and add candy like M & M's or marshmellows too, I was trying to be sorta healthy so I went with fresh fruit. If you make one, add a comment and include the link to your blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Visitor

It was extra rewarding to get up early this morning to water the back yard. I was surprised by a visitor in our bird bath. I ran to get the camera and took this picture from inside the house through the glass. He looks like he's having a good time splashing around. We've not had many birds around since the treeline behind our house was cleared for new development (don't get me started-- I am still upset after two years), so it was a nice surprise to see this little guy visiting. We'll be keeping the birdbath full of water from now on! Hope you are having a great Sunday.

Memorial Day

Hope you had a great Memorial Day.

We made a quick stop at Texas Woman's University as we passed through Denton. Micaela had not been to my old stomping ground before. We enjoyed walking around the campus, mainly the gardens. She had never been so close to squirrels before, I guess they are used to being fed by the students. Here are two snapshots... one of a little girl very impressed by the tall high rise building Mommy used to live in when she was attending college and of the squirrel that kept getting closer and closer thinking we would throw something her way.

Micaela at the fountain in front of library. You can see Guinn & Stark high rise residence halls in the background. I used to live on the 17th & 21st floor-- ahh the good old days...

And, Mr. Friendly Squirrel, he was just feet away.

Hope you have a wonderful day. Please say a prayer for our troops and the families who miss them everyday.

HS Graduation Gift

My cousin Alyssa is graduating from high school this week. Her favorite colors are hot pink and black so I monogrammed one of those fuzzy blanket throws. This was quick and easy and I hope it will come in handy as she goes off to college.

.Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

I am on the Teacher Appreciation Committee at both of Micaela's schools. Here are a few pictures of the luncheon we hosted for the teachers the week before last.

Some of the dishes and items are mine and some belong other belong to another Mom. We literally traded pictures of dishes through text messages on our IPhones until we came up with enough to coordinate in one theme. In the end, I think everything coordinated beautifully and we were really pleased with the end result.

Luckily we were able to set up in an empty classroom so that made set up a little easier.

Here's the table right before the teachers came in...

The menu was chicken Ceasar salad (dressing to be added), cream of zuchini soup, and homemade cornbread muffins with sun dried tomatoes and passion fruit tea. Robin was responsible for the food and she did a great job.

I've had these wicker chargers since 2003, got 12 of them at Target and this was the first time I really used them. The multi colored dot flatware was also mine, had it from a recent food styling assignment a few years ago. The dinner plates were Robin's mother in laws and they said Montgomery Wards on the back so you know they were 'vintage'. Robin made the runner from outdoor fabric purchased at JoAnns.

We tied bright orange tull to each chair and hung a pair of turquois flip flops for each teacher to keep.

The dessert table was yummy. These are gourmet strawberry cupcakes from Spoon's Cafe in downtown McKinney. These square plates are mine, purchased them at The Great Indoors many years ago and this is the first time they made it out of the box. We had a couple of other desserts, pina colada cake and fresh fruit and a chocolate sauce.

The teachers enjoyed it and we were very pleased.

Linking to http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2010/05/welcome-to-92nd-tablescape-thursday.html for the first time ever! Thanks for stopping by...

Another Gift for Dylan

Micaela's teacher is due any day with baby Dylan. (see previous baby shower post here). She actually made it to forty weeks and made it to her class's Pre-K graduation this morning. Beyond that, she made it through the Mother & Father breakfast, the end of the year show, and the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon earlier this month.

Last weekend, I was at JoAnn and saw this cute green monkey fabric that matched Dylan's baby bedding so I thought I would make one more little burp cloth & bib set for Dylan as a 'reward' for not arriving early and letting his Mama make it to all her class activities. LOL.

Here's the bib & burp cloth set. I used a different method for attaching the fabric at the bottom of the burp cloth, a tube method used for pillow cases. You can watch a video tutorial by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pre K Graduation

PreK Graduation was today. I pretty much cried through the whole thing! Can't believe our baby girl is going to Kinder in the fall!

Backyard Sprinkler Fun

It's getting pretty warm and Micaela has been begging to play in the backyard sprinkler.

She had so much fun playing...

April was a big month... Part 2

My inlaws came to visit for Easter weekend. While they were here we had an early birthday celebration for our daughter and neice. Micaela & Megan are 4 years and a month apart. My SIL got the girls matching Laura Ashley dresses and I ordered matching birthday cakes.

.

April was a Big Month...part 1

April started with a lovely Easter weekend. My 5 year old and I had fun setting the table with dishes I purchased more than 10 years ago. Believe it or not, I've had those kissing bunny napkin rings for about 18 years-- I bought them in 1991 when I was in college and should have been spending my hard earned money on things like books not decorating items I would store for more than a decade. Well, all that matters is Micaela enjoyed them in 2010!

Happy Easter Banner

A paper project! Yes, your eyes are correct. My paper and supplies have been neglected ever since I got the embroidery machine but after the baby card last week I decided to make an Easter accordian banner.

I used the Alphalicious cartridge. This was hard to photograph because it's wide (nearly 4 feet) and the colors are pastels.Here's a close up so you can see the detail in the letters.

Supplies: Patterned Paper DCWV, Glossy White, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, Barely Blush, card stock from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Easter Egg Tag

Here's an Easter Egg tag I made for Micaela. This is one of my first In The Hoop Projects. The design is from Applique Planet. We're going to put this on the handle of her Easter Basket.

Palm Sunday Reenactment

Micaela's preschool did a reenactment of Palm Sunday this week during the monthly worship service. It was so sweet. Catholic preschool is so wonderful, we are so pleased with everything they have taught Micaela.

Snow

Who would have thought we would have snow after mid March? Our patio table is under there somewhere...

Stuff for Baby Dylan

Micaela's preschool teacher is having a baby so all of the student's Moms decided to have a surprise baby shower.

This was the bedding she picked out--->>

Thank goodness we asked for a color scheme because I would have never picked this randomly. Very cute, but finding lime green and black fabric combo was tough.

The Monday before the shower last week, our spy informs us the Mom to be has changed her mind-- from black & lime green to brown & green with monkeys. A color scheme I am all to familiar with... see previous posts here. The embroidered stuff was already done but I still had time to change the other stuff I was making.

Here's the card:

I used the new Cricut Mother's Day cartridge, Chocolate Chip & Gable Green card stock from Stampin' Up!

Here's the burp cloth and bib set.

Isn't it cute? I was really pleased with how it turned out. Finding the fabric was tough but I got really lucky because I discovered a store right here in McKinney. A friend who quilts told me about the "Quilt Asylum". They have more than 1500 bolts of fabric, it's absolutely fabulous-- I went there and sure enough, found the perfect fabric!

This is my first applique bib. I've decided letters with holese aren't fun (well at least small letters)-- it's just really hard not to puncture or snag the fabric underneath. Next time, I will use black thread for the satin stitch around the letter too.

Here's the diaper cake. Nothing too fancy, next time I make one I will remember to embroider the ribbon-- The "Bienvenido" word was way too long for me to try it this time around.

Thanks for stopping by.

Signs of Spring...

Our very first daffodils ever, have started to bloom. Micaela and I planted the bulbs in January and we have literally looked at them every single day for 6 to 7 weeks. In the last two weeks they have sprung up and today we had our first full bloom. We are very excited!

Tis the Season for Birthday Beach Towels

'Tis the season for birthday parties. Our daughter has a birthday coming up next month and guess what?-- so do all her little friends. We had two birthday parties this weekend!

I learned two years ago when we started preschool that I needed to simplify the gifts and be consistent because running around for a different birthday gift every week is nuts. Last year we did Fancy Nancy books and/or name frames made with my Cricut. This year I decided we're going to put my new Janome embroidery machine to work and do personalized-monogrammed beach towels-- (I got the idea from the Pottery Barn catalog).

So here are our first four birthday beach towels...

First beach towel was for our little neighbor, Alysia. Alysia is a sweet girl and I thought the bold polka dots would be fun for her. The big A was the Curlz Applique Font from Kabo Designs and the name was done with Curly Letters from FunStitch.com
The next three towels were for three siblings. Jolie & Caleb have birthdays a week apart so they had a joint birthday party. After thinking about it, I thought it would be nice to include their older sister so I made a towel for Catherine too. All three were done with the Kristen font from 8 Paws and a Claw designs. Four towels in one weekend, I am going to start stocking up. Thanks for stopping by.

Baby Set for Lilly

One of my friends at work hosted a baby shower for a dear friend's daughter. She wanted something simple with just a fancy L. I made this three piece set using the Script Letters font from FunStitch.com.

More towels...

Here are two towels I embroidered for my dear friend Marina's daughters. Marla's favorite colors are lime green & turquois and Nikki's are shades of hot pink. This is the Vintage Chloe Font Set from Embroidery Boutique. This was the first time I used the Monogram Letters and not just the cursive. I love how they turned out.

The only suprise was how long they took to stitch, the Marla towel took 53 minutes and Nikki's took over 40. I think they were both worth the wait.

Thanks for stopping by.

PJs for Dad

Right after the news about my Dad and while making plans to fly down, I decided I NEEDED to make him something. The big question was "what do you embroider for an older man?". After much thought, I decided the best thing would to monogram some pajamas. I knew they would come in handy during the recuperation at home after his open heart surgery. So the day before we flew out of town, we went on a hunt to find flannel pajamas. Holy cow, you would think those would be easy to find 'during' winter but we actually had a hard time. Finally, after 3 stores we ended up finding some at JCPenneys! We got home and I immediately went to work.

Here are the three sets, Dad will be lounging & recuperating in style!

I had a difficult time taking these pictures, sorry they are not the best quality. Thanks for stopping by.

Crazy Ten Days

Right after posting about Micaela's Valentine Bubbles on the 11th, I received a call from my parents letting me know my Dad needed to have OPEN HEART SURGERY. Needless to say, Micaela and I were on a plane headed to South Texas on Sunday, Valentine's Day!

My Dad is nearly 80 and his Aorta valve was not operating properly. Long story short, his valve was replaced and two bypasses were done. Praise God, the surgery went very well and he is recuperating! We were gone for a full week and have been I am going through more than 1000 emails (I subscribe to alot of newsletters and blogs).

I've been skimming through all the emails trying to catch up on stamping, cooking and embroidery happenings and just got a wonderful surprise about an hour ago when I read the "You Can Make This" newsletter published by SWAKembroidery.com! Two of my projects were featured in the spotlight and I won the weekly contest!! Woo Hoo! I am so excited!

The projects I submitted were my first towel and the gardening apron shown here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love Bubbles

These are the Love Bubbles Micaela will not be giving to her friends at her preschool Valentine's Day party tomorrow. Unfortunately tomorrow has been declared a snow day. The Dallas Fort Worth area has gotten more than 6 inches of snow, so basically everything has shut down. We actually got these done early, for once I am was not burning the midnight oil making treats the night before. All along, I could have waited an extra few days. Oh well... Micaela will enjoy handing these out on Monday.

Nothing to these, (I am all about simplicity these days)....just a strip of scrapbook paper around the bottle and a tag generated on the computer punched out with the Key Tag punch from Stampin' Up! We did have to reinforce the tag and paper with clear tape because not even red stick strip would keep the tags on the bottles. Hope you are staying warm!

Gardening Apron

As I have mentioned before, I am embroidering anything that will stand still. The other day I was at Michael's during my lunch hour and in their Bargain Bins they have a whole collection of gardening items including these cute aprons with pockets and other matching items. Of course I had to get a couple to try out. I think these aprons are a deal at $3! Here is an apron and matching shovel I made for Micaela.

This was pretty easy since I already had this "Micaela" saved on my machine from the previous towel project. The font is Vintage Chloe from Embroidery Boutique. Thanks for stopping by.