February 14th's Photo!

Valentine treat bags filled with candy for the neighborhood kids when they get off the bus today!

 

Have Fun!



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Happy Valentine's Day!!!

 

Curtis told me the other day to pick where I wanted him to take me to dinner tonight for Valentine's Day. He then asked why I was looking at him with a strange look. I told him that he knows I don't do holidays in a restaurant. After working in them for many, many years, I don't find spending today or any other holiday in a restaurant relaxing and enjoyable.

 

I'm sure my restaurant family understands.

 

We have a day trip planned tomorrow so I agreed to a special lunch somewhere.

 

However, I don't think I should cook today either!

 

So I'll be surprising my family with a Papa John's Valentine's Heart Shaped pizza! 



 After all, it's not where you go for dinner or the presents you receive today...it's about spending time with those you love and those who love you!

 

Have Fun!



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Valentine Wreath Revisted & A New Favorite Movie!

Yesterday was day 5 of Allison having the flu so we decided to have a lazy Saturday. Curtis rented Disney's Brave movie for the family to watch. I'll admit, I stink at watching a movie at home . . . especially one that I didn't pick out. It's not that I don't want to watch it, I just usually fall asleep. So, in order to try and stay awake. I decided to do a craft while the movie was playing.

Our Mom's craft group made the Ragamuffin Heart Wreath 4 years ago for a craft. My original wreath has faded over time since my front door gets full sun during the day. It was time to replace it. However, I still love the wreath and decided to make another one instead of finding a new Valentine wreath for my door. Lucky for me, I had bought extra supplies when we made the original ones so everything I needed was on my craft shelves. It also came with a bonus . . . the fabric was already cut into the strips! Yay! 

Click here for the original post with all the details for making the wreath yourself. This wreath is the second most popular post on my blog and has received over 20,000 visits so far! Amazing! I am truly blessed to have been able to touch that many people with my little old blog!

 

 The Disney movie didn't last as long as I needed to complete my wreath and after it was over my family left me in the family room by myself. Thanks, family!

Since my wreath wasn't done, I decided to throw in another movie while I finished my wreath. 

A friend had surprised me with a gift bag of goodies at our last craft group and it included "The Help" which I had not seen yet. OH. MY. WORD. Can I just say, it was EXCELLENT???? Seriously, I had always wanted to see it but never got the chance. Shame on me!

It is honestly now added as one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies!!!

If you haven't seen it, you must rent it. NOW!As I said previously, a friend presented me with a gift bag of goodies. Look at all the fun stuff she included in the bag! She is too kind! This is a friend who is a sister-in-law to my best friend. I didn't know her on a personal level until we started Mom's Craft Night Out over 4 years ago. 

Yes, we make pretty things during our craft time and have a lot of fun doing it. However, the friendships and the time I spend with an amazing group of women are what I cherish the most!

Those few hours a month are truly good for my soul!

Have Fun!


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A Girl Scout's Thank You!

Allison sold a TON of Girl Scout cookies this year! I wanted to be sure to thank everyone individually but I couldn't see her writing out 44 thank you cards!

I put my Mom thinking cap on and decided to adjust an idea I saw for Valentine's Day cards on a blog last year. I saw the idea here after the holiday and saved it in my files for this year. I ended up using them for Allison's Valentine's cards and the G.S. thank you cards. Hey! When I find a great idea, I tend to run with it in as many directions as I can!
Thanks for the inspiration Alissa!

I had trouble getting a good picture because I kept getting a glare but you can click on the image to enlarge and get a better look. I probably should mention here that Allison doesn't like the pic of herself. She said she was squinting too much. Hello! I took this outside just after our blizzard of 2010 and the sun was reflecting off of the snow! I think she did pretty good!

Here are the Valentine's Day cards Allison shared with her classmates.

A close up . . . sorry about the glare . . . it's almost impossible to take a pic of a pic!

Here's the actual jpeg file so you can have a better look.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

May your day be filled with Love & Sweetness!

Here's my little hippie child. When Aunt Alesia was visiting in December, she took Allison shopping and out of the blue, Allison asked Aunt Alesia to buy her a tie dyed shirt. Where that came from I have NO idea! There wasn't any in the store and I am pretty certain that we have never looked at any at anytime. It just popped out of her mouth from that overly cluttered brain of hers!

Anyway. This is the first time that Allison has asked Aunt Alesia for anything specific and of course, Aunt Alesia is not one to let Miss Allison down. So...about a week ago a package was delivered here from some tie dye shop. I was instructed to add it to the stuff that Alesia had given for me to give to Allison on Valentine's Day. I ended up giving it to her yesterday because I am working today.

Well. Let me tell you! She opened it and freaked out! She was so excited! She said "I am putting this on right now!" I only let her take off her top shirt and made her keep the turtleneck on with it because it's a little chilly today. As you can see in the picture, she loves it!

Thanks Aunt Alesia!

By the way, we had some errands to run last night and when we were on our way home she said...

"Isn't it crazy that your daughter got her first tie dye shirt today? You KNOW I'm wearing this to bed tonight!"

My response was "You are?" to which she replied...

"Yes! I am wearing this for 24 hours, 7 days a week, 30 days a month, 12 months a year and 100 years a century!"

So...I guess the shirt was a home run!

Thanks Aunt Alesia!

Hmmm, if all she had to do was ask Aunt Alesia once for a tie dye shirt and it shows up in our mailbox....maybe I should encourage Allison to ask for an old farmhouse in the country with a little land that her Mom could fix up!

( : : : wink, wink Aunt Alesia : : : )

Have Fun!

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The Moms Tie One On!

A couple of months ago my best friend, Susan and I started what we call "Mom's Craft Night Out" for us and a bunch of our family and friends. You can read more about it and our first get together here.

We skipped the month of December because we felt it would just be too busy with all the stuff Moms get added to their to do lists that month.

This past Sunday we resumed our planned time away from our family and responsibilities to get together and have some fun! We relaxed, laughed, crafted, reminisced and tied one on!

Now, now. You better not be thinking that we sat around and got sloshed! This group of Mothers would be more likely to be at the front of MADD to prevent people from "tieing one on" in an effort to protect their children. When I said "tie one on," I meant that literally.

I was inspired by The Nester whose blog the Nesting Place I love! She makes these cute Ragamuffin Garlands out of all sorts of materials. I took her concept and put it around a heart wreath and our "Ragamuffin Heart Wreaths" were born!

Here's the sample. Isn't it cute?

You can click on it for a better view.

Here are some of the fabrics I picked out for the wreaths.

My wreath is made out of the top fabric.

I had picked this fabric up last year around Valentine's Day because I loved it and I'm so glad that I found a use for it.

Here's a another view. It was so hard to get a picture of it's true color.

Here's a close-up. We used the fabric cut in strips of about 1/2 inch wide by 6 1/4 inch long. You just put it around one piece of the grapevine wreath and tie it off. Some of the wreaths are tight but you can pry it apart enough with a flat head screwdriver to get a corner of the fabric in between the vine. Then use tweezers to pull it through. After we put the fabric around the whole wreath and filled in areas that we thought needed it, we added red and hot pink satin ribbon for an added pop of color. These were so easy and so fun!

Busy, busy, busy.

We had one future Mother with us this month. Her parents went to the Pittsburgh Penguins game and one of the Moms were watching her. We made this one exception to the "no kid rule" and she did an excellent job making her wreath and was well behaved! I also have to mention that these two were our Pittsburgh Steeler fans. The last big playoff game before the Super Bowl to see who was going to the Super Bowl was that evening. Yes. The Steelers won and they are going to the Super Bowl! Go Team!
Our two generation gals!

Sisters-in-law.

It's coming along beautifully.

Almost to the end...Yippee!

"I love craft night! What are we doing next month?"


This month's group with our finished projects. Left to right are: Nettie, Marissa, Dawn, Susan C., Susan D., Sandy and Me with my wreath that blends in with my shirt!

If any of you make a "Ragamuffin Heart Wreath" please be sure and drop me an email with pictures. I would love to see how yours turned out!

Go see more Valentine ideas at...

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St. Valentine's Day Recap!

I wanted to post this last night but I just tired out! It was a great day and I had lots of fun! Feel free to click on any picture to get a close up. I've never claimed to be a photographer so be warned that a couple of the pics are a little blurry.

Curtis, Princess and I snuck a vase of 3 pink carnations into Allison's room overnight so she would see them when she woke up in the morning. She did and was so excited. She came down the stairs carrying them and said "Mom, look what I found in my room! I just turned over in my bed and they were there!" Yay! First mission accomplished!

I told Allison to go on the couch and cover up and I would make her a special surprise Valentine's Day breakfast. She asked a couple of times "Is it ready yet?" I was hoping I would deliver a breakfast that was equal to her anticipation. I made her pink heart pancakes topped with strawberry syrup, fresh strawberries, whipped cream and red, white and pink heart sprinkles all served on a pink heart plate. Her beverage of strawberry milk was served in a vintage pink and clear wine glass. I called her in and as she turned the corner she said "Ohhhh, this is the best breakfast ever!" Then she said "The kids in school are never going to believe this!" Yay! Second mission accomplished!

Yum! A breakfast for a Valentine Princess!
Here's the pancakes without all the stuff on top. I used my Wilton heart cookie cutter. I held it in the bottom of the pan and ladled in the pink pancake batter (red food coloring). I held it there until it was just about ready to turn over. The first one I filled too high and it puddled over when I took the cookie cutter off. Live and learn.
Allison in her Valentine's Day attire. I don't know if you could tell but she has hearts embroidered on her jeans and a rhinestone heart on her turtleneck.
Check out those socks...but ignore the shoes! I should have polished them before the picture! It so hard to keep up on them with all the winter snow!
She had me take a pic of her hair. Isn't she just the little model? Her ponytail holder had strands of red plastic hearts dangling from it. She picked out the red heart barrettes and the pink flower barrettes to add to the theme. She said the flower ones were okay because her shirt has a couple of flowers it so it matches. I'm thinking that I might be having a fashion diva on my hands here!
Posing with Princess! That cat is too huge for being only 10 months old!
Whoever said girl cats are smaller obviously didn't see this pic! I've seen full grown dogs that are smaller!
Allison gave her teacher and her helper each some chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered pretzels. I found these cute plastic chinese takeout containers at Michael's for a buck each. Aren't they cute?
Yum! I should have made extra cookies! I could go for one right now!
I did the same thing this year for Allison's classmates as I did last year. Different school, different kids...works for me! I made pink heart shaped rice krispie treats. This year instead of using regular marshmallows I bought their pink strawberry marshmallows. I added more red food coloring because they weren't dark enough. Sorry the pic is blurry!

Here they are all packaged up and ready for delivery!
I volunteered to make the cupcakes for the Valentine's Day party at school. I also volunteered to help at the party. So MUCH FUN! I only wish I could do it all the time! Anyway, I wanted to make a heart cupcake cake so In my mind, both sides of the heart would be even and then I would need one for the point. Hmm, how was I going to bake that one extra cupcake without putting it in the oven all by itself in pan all by itself? I know! I'll make a cupcake pan for one! I used heavy duty foil, layered it 3 sheets thick and molded it in the regular cupcake pan. I trimmed the edges and voila, a cupcake pan for one!
Okay, here's the cake. I'm not as happy with it as I thought I would be. I actually needed 4 more cupcakes to round out the top of the heart and another one for the point. I set my perfectionist self aside and made due. I just told myself that they are 6-8 year olds and they don't care about the shape fo the cake! Now if it was a bridal shower cake or something like that, I would have made more cupcakes and made it perfect! Seriously, the thing the kids enjoyed most was being able to pull apart their cupcake from the cake!
Here's a pic of Allison at her desk at school. I took quite a few other pictures but I am not comfortable posting pics of the other kids without their parent's knowledge.
Allison's gift from Curtis and me. I LOVE the bag and the tissue paper. I found them at The Dollar Tree! $1.50 for the whole thing! Yes I know everything at The Dollar Tree is $1.00 but I only used 1/2 of the tissue so I still have some left over for next year!

My Valentine Sweeties!
Keep an open mind here! Curtis offered to take us out to dinner for Valentine's Day but I delcined. After working in restaurants all of my life, a restaurant on a holiday is the LAST place I want to be! Instead I made a special dinner. I made heart shaped mini meatloafs, pink redskin mashed potatoes (food coloring) and sugar (because of the sweet holiday) snap peas. Allison loved the pink potatoes...even though she thought I put strawberry syrup in them. Curtis commented they were good. I think he was surprised. The color didn't affect the taste it was just strange eating them I must admit. I sent leftovers in Curtis' lunch today. Who wants to bet that he'll be eating in his car today?
Here's my secret to making perfect heart meatloafs. I used the Reynolds Fun Shapes foil cups for baking. They were $1.00 at The Dollar Tree for a box of 24. I doubled them because they are really thin. You have to kind of build the shape. If you put a blob of mixture in it and spread it out it distorts the foil cup.
Here is the last pic and I am so sorry it's really blurry. I just had to share it with all of you! I made Curtis' plate up to take the picture and then called them in to dinner. As I looked at the table I saw this! The butter had melted a little and the solid part that was left was in the shape of a heart! How romantic!

Have Fun!

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Valentine's Day continuted...

I'm back! As promised, here is the basket of treats we made for Allison's class.

They are pink heart shaped Rice Krispie treats. It was so easy and a fun activity for us to do together. I saw it in my Family Fun magazine and here is a link of it on their website. They have such cute ideas in their magazine and website, you should really check them out if you have kids. You can go to Magazines.com and pick it up for $9.95 a year and if you are a member of Upromise you will get $5.00 off and 25% of the $4.95 will go into your Upromise account. However, to get this discount and rebate, you have to link Magazines.com through the Upromise site and the discount code is UPMAG07. I don't know if it would work without linking through Upromise but you could try it. I find myself always tearing something out of the magazine or printing something from their website and putting it in my Holiday Binder.

In other news from yesterday, we had to dig our cars out because the plow truck plowed us in. Here is a picture of Allison and our neighbor and babysitter, Audrey, getting ready for the challenge. I am so glad it stopped snowing because there is no place left to put the snow!

Have Fun!

"Let every man shovel out his own snow and the whole city will be passable."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Happy St. Valentine's Day!

I know it's been forever since I've last posted. Curtis told me about a week ago that I needed to update my blog. I guess my blog does get read by someone other than me. Anyway, for those of you that really know me, probably already know that not posting on my blog isn't because I've had a lack of things to say. I usually always have something to say! :) It's just been a very crazy month and I really haven't had time or the energy to sit at the computer and recap the day. I just kept on going and figured I would post "tomorrow." Well I guess my tomorrow is today.

So, Happy St. Valentine's Day to all of you out in blogland! How is it where you are? Pittsburgh and it's surrounding 14 counties including us up here in Butler are under severe weather warnings. We have been since Monday evening and it is yucky outside! School was cancelled yesterday and of course today. Yesterday I took Allison to work with me, worked a half day and then it took us forever to get home. The roads were AWFUL! Fortunately I am off on Wednesdays so Allison and I are having a Mommy & Me day. I am glad that I had the good sense to stop at Giant Eagle on our way home yesterday and did some speed shopping. I didn't have my grocery list with me so I forgot some things and I also didn't have my coupons with me so I spent about $40 more but we are safe in our warm home today and that is all that matters. As of right now, there have been 741 closing or delays reported to our local news channel. This includes schools, colleges, meals on wheels, meetings, humane societies, gyms, community centers, Salvation Army, libraries, shopping malls, museums, government offices, churches, performing arts centers and more. The list just goes on and on! The "T" is not running in Pittsburgh along with some buses. The Northbound lanes of I-79 are closed which is what I travel so I am glad that I am at home today! It wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't snow ALL day yesterday and then turned to sleet in the evening. When Curtis was walking out this morning to scrape the ice off of his car, his feet was crunching through the snow that was on top of the ice that was on top of the snow. Here is a pic of this morning at 7ish. Notice the mound of snow to the left of his car. That snow is just from yesterday morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon.

So, any big plans for St. Valentine's Day? Allison and I are going to make treats for her class party that I am guessing they will have tomorrow if they go to school. I'll post a pic later when we have them completed.
Since we are stuck in the house today, I thought I would make it fun for Allison so for starters I made her this Valentine's Day breakfast. I used my Wilton heart shaped cookie cutter. The pink heart plate and heart acrylic glass are from Target. I picked them up on sale a couple of weeks ago. Everything was a big hit. She ate the whole thing. Hmm, maybe I should make all of her food heart shaped!

Here are the cards Allison received for Valentine's Day. Do you see a pattern here? You wouldn't be able to tell she likes kitties by the front of these cards, would you? Speaking of kitties, we may be getting a kitten at the end of the school year. I am not sure I am ready for another one but I can't see denying Allison of a childhood pet. She has been asking for one for a while now and we told her that if she continues to bring good progress reports home, then she can have one. I guess I am kind of excited to get another one but to be honest, no cat is ever going to replace my Pooki. He was the best cat ever. Even my Mom grew to love him and let him sit on the couch by her while she petted him and she is not a cat person or a pet in the house kind of person. He definitely was a special little buddy.

One more picture and then I have to go. This picture was taken on Monday night when I came home from work. Please excuse Allison's wild woman hair. Curtis had gotten her all ready for bed and let her stay up until I got home so I could see her open the box my Mom and Dad had sent her for St. Valentine's Day. She has the wildest curliest hair until I tame it with a little mousse.
Have Fun!

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."

~Author Unknown

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