Take a Walk With Me....

I am no professional photographer, I'm sure you have already figured this out, but I do LOVE taking pictures. I really love taking pictures of flowers....for obvious reasons :  you don't have to bribe them to be still, you don't have to make silly noises to make them smile pretty, and they don't talk back or whine when you tell them "Just one more picture and we are done." (I don't actually talk to flowers...I promise)

Anyway....my camera is a pretty basic "point and shoot" not a lot of bells and whistles. It's a Nikon coolpix L110, Ashton Kutcher told me to buy it...so I did :)

Now...let's take a walk around my yard and see what's blooming, and don't worry, there will be lots of breaks to "stop and smell the roses"

I wish I could tell you the name of this beauty...but with a lot of searching I came up empty....I got some of these from my Momma's yard and they just keep coming back

These beautiful blooms happen when we don't trim the hedges...I kind of like them...my hubby wants them to go!

I'm looking forward to lots and lots of black berries this summer...yummmm

Quick  story about our roses...our house was built in 1945 and we are the second owners. Because of this we know so much of our home's history. This rose bush was planted by the original owner. She passed away many years ago and her daughter still comes to check on "Mother's rose bush" a few times a year. It is always in full bloom on Mother's day so that she can bring a few to the cemetery where her parents are buried

Looks like there is another photographer on the scene....

This is the picture he took...nice composition don't you think?

Cicada's ......please go away. You are really freaking me out! (they are every where you look!!)

Oh, Peonies how I love thee.....

These Lilies make me feel like I should be on a tropical vacation...hmmm a girl can dream, right?

I hope you all enjoyed our walk together! I feel like I've been on a trip to the botanical gardens...without leaving my yard :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Linked to:
Fresh Cut Fridays at Rose Vignettes

A+ Teacher Thank You Gift

How about a cute, super easy teacher thank you gift??

 I love pinterest and came across this absolutely adorable teacher gift. I then followed it to this amazing, new to me, blog. The Rachel Berry Blog is full of great projects....she shared this teacher gift a few years ago and I know I'll be using it a lot!

All you need to make this relaxing little gift:

A magazine

A beach towel

snack ( I used candy fruit slices and lemonade mix)

pretty ribbon

Simply bundle up all of your goodies and add a note! How easy is that?

And, here are just a few of the reasons I am soooo ready for summer to be here:

1. I miss my little girl everyday when I drop her off...I won't have to feel that way for 8 weeks!

2. No rushing to do ANYTHING in the morning, I might even get to finish my coffee before it's cold.

3. Movie nights and Pajama days....so relaxing :)

4. Lightning bugs, roasted marshmallows, homemade ice cream and days spent by the pool!

Don't Worry.....Bee Happy

There are times when I can't sleep because a project will be dancing around my head and I can't stop thinking about it. I keep a small journal on my bedside table for this very reason, I can usually draw a picture and write some notes and it's off to dream land for me!

This is one of those, "I can't sleep...better make this soon...project"

I started with a 16x16 piece of wood

I painted the entire board with some oops Valspar paint I bought at Lowes for $1.25, not sure the actual name of the paint...I'll call it oatmeal. I googled an image of a bee, printed it on regular printer paper...and used a little Mod Podge transfer trick to put him on.

Look HERE to see how I did the transfer on another project.

Then I used my Cricut to cut a stencil and added the words in black acrylic paint. I sanded it all down....now I have to decide where to put it!

Total cost for this one of a kind artwork : around $5.00!!!

I'll be linking up at these fun places:

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BOY was I wrong & Baby Room Inspiration......

As much as I would like to think my "mommy intuition" is always right.....BOY was I wrong this time....we are expecting to add one more to our family in early October and yesterday was the 20 week ultrasound. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I just knew it was a girl....and this isn't my first rodeo...I would know these things right???

So, when the ultrasound tech said very sweetly, "would you like to know the sex of the baby?" I smugly said "Sure..." (I just wanted her to confirm what I already knew of course)

"Well, there are his boy parts!" Wait a minute, "boy parts??"

I love how God always knows what we need...when we need it...and always with perfect timing. My 6 year old daughter, who had been not so secretly hoping for a sister, told me before she left for school yesterday, "You know I really do hope it's another brother...little boys sure are sweet to their sisters."

I kissed her sweet face and told her we would know soon enough and either way we were going to be so happy. So as shocked as I was that I wasn't right, and had been secretly hoping for her to have a sister too, I am amazed at how quickly my thoughts of all things girly turned to another little guy in our house with a smile just like his daddy's. I love him so much already and I know there will be lots more times that I will be wrong....but when it comes to this one, I am so happy to have been wrong!

I really had to change gears when it came to a room for this sweet baby.... I had been planning on birds, blooms and a pale pink shabby chic room. I don't think that plan will work anymore!

So here are a few things I found and quickly pinned to my inspiration board on Pinterest

I just fell in love with these fun colors

 

Source: landofnod.com via Carmella on Pinterest

I still got a couple of birds in there too!

              

Source: poshtots.com via Carmella on Pinterest

How cute is this wall art??

                        

Source: landofnod.com via Carmella on Pinterest

This was just a start...I'm going to have a lot of fun this summer making over our "TV room" to baby's room! I will be sure to share all the fun projects I come up with!



First Birthday Cakes.....and My Foot in My Mouth??

Do you ever say things before you give yourself a little time to think...you know, use your brain filter? This seems to be a problem I have alot, sometimes it gets me into trouble!

When my friend's precious little girl's first birthday was approaching, she told me when the party would be and before I knew it I said....."Oh! Can I make her cake???" 

There I go again, saying things before I think. Oh, what's the big deal. It's just a FIRST birthday cake...you know, the one that has about 100 pictures taken of it because the cutie pie that's eating it is actually encouraged to "go ahead, make a mess!" No pressure, right?

The wonderful thing about this friend is she is my biggest encourager and generally thinks everything I do is great even when I know it's really NOT (everyone should have a friend like her) and no matter what I brought to her sweet little girl's party, she was going to be happy....

So let the cake decorating begin! I was lucky enough to find a great blog earlier this week and even though I have made cakes in the past, I learned so much from her tutorials. Lavender Clouds is the name of her wonderful blog and there I learned how to bake and ice a cake like a professional...well, I'm sure there's a learning curve.....

I followed her instructions and.. TAA DAA......this is what I came up with

I made the fondant for this cake using this super simple recipe.....

Marshmallow Fondant

8 oz mini marshmallows (4 cups not packed)

4 c powdered sugar, plus a little for dusting

2 T water

Food coloring and flavoring, optional

Put marshmallows and water in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until smooth. If you are adding flavoring, stir it in now. Add powdered sugar until stiff, and hard to stir. Dust rolling surface with powdered sugar and knead the food coloring into fondant. Roll out to desired thickness and cut out your shapes.

I was so happy to have been a part of such a happy day for her! She loved her cake!

Kid tested, Mother approved....whew...thank goodness :)

A Place to Hang Your Little One's Art

Like many mommas out there, I have an artist in my house. She is 6 and the world is her canvas. She can produce no less than 10 pieces of priceless art in a matter of minutes! As much as I would love to save and display them all, I was really running out room to hang them...solution : An Art Gallery Board!

I started with this scrap of wood I found in our "project shed".....I really love that we save everything, because it seems I can always find something to do with it

I then rounded up some paper cutouts from my scrapbook supplies (I don't actually make scrapbooks, but I sure do have a lot of supplies!) and a few wooden clothes pins and layed them all out

I then went to my never ending supply of acrylic paints and picked a few out to achieve the color I liked. I mixed "lemonade" with a touch of "leaf green" to get this color

Then it was time to Mod Podge the paper cutouts onto the board...I love how Mod Podge makes me feel kind of like a superhero, like I can do anything as long as I have my Mod Podge handy!

After the Mod Podge was all dry (takes about 30 min, I did a lot of coats) I used my other favorite, Gorilla Glue to add the clothes pins

After the entire piece is dry, it's time to hang!

My little artist loves her new wall gallery, the pictures have already been changed oh, maybe 50 times since we hung it in her room last night

I love that I didn't have to leave my house to buy anything for this project...every thing was right here :)

Total cost: $0!!

So, now I challenge you to go and be creative with things you have right there at home....save the shopping trip for another day :)

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