10 things to be thankful for

I'm sitting here waiting for Jim and Haley to get home from softball practice and I remembered I wanted to blog about some things that I am thankful for. Tis the season right?

1. My husband and daughter
2. Our health
3. Both Jim and I having stable full time jobs.
4. Being able to have what we need to live.
5. Our extended families
6. Our furry family!
7. Our friends
8. Being able to provide my family with home cooked meals. I love to cook.
9. Being able to stay warm in our house even though my husband is the thermostat nazi!
10. My Cricut!

This morning I made a little crafty sign.

I turned this Dollar tree sign (originally red) into a family sign. I first spray painted it lightly with a metal primer and then painted it with 3 coats of black acrylic paint.

I then used white contact paper for the name and the words and year. Turned out nicely, except that I didn't gage the space between established and the year correctly. I should have moved the year out a bit more..

Oh well.. it will look nice somewhere!

Using Freezer Paper as a stencil

I sometimes frequent the Cricut Boards I like to see what everyone else is making with their machines. This past week, I was lucky enough to view a great idea. This gal took a 4$ throw blanket and personalized it with Freezer Paper, her cricut and fabric paint! I thought to myself this is a great Idea! I have done a couple of these blankets this past week and one today so I thought I would put up a quick tutorial of how I did it.

The first thing you need to do is find the image or name you want to cut and then cut that out with your Cricut using freezer paper. Cut it with the Shiny side on the sticky part of the mat. I used an image that someone so graciously sent me called "Volleyball".

Next, you will want to weed your phrase or image. Then iron the shiny side down on your item. What I do is press down and then pick up my iron and move it to the next spot until it is sticking to my fabric. Then I just run it lightly over the entire phrase or image for about 10 seconds.

This is my image without the insides… The parts of the letters that need extra pieces, the O, B and A.

Make sure that everything is how you want it and iron it down!

I applied a coat of white fabric paint because I wanted my glitter paint to have a bit of white tint to it. Here is my first coat of paint, in real life you can still see the image under the paint. Since my "V" was so close to the bottom of the freezer paper, I used a bit of blue painters tape so that my paint wouldn't seep into my blanket.

Also, to make the paint dry faster ( mostly because I am super impatient) I used my blow dryer to dry it in between coats.

I put on one coat of shiny white Tulip paint and then 2 coats of Glitter white Tulip paint and dried with the hair dryer in between each coat. I recommend you let it dry several hours after your last coat and overnight if you can. However, since I am really impatient, I weeded the design after I blew it dry for about 15 minutes.

In hindsight, I wish I would have put another coat of just plain white on it and then followed it with the glitter paint. But, since this is a prototype of what we are doing for some gifts for my daughters friends, it will be just fine.

I hope this helps anyone who might be having a problem visualizing how to do this.

Julie

Vacation, all I ever wanted!

Ahhh, Vacation... finally here... Time to relax, time to finish up my holiday decorationg, time to get the food ready for our Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday, time to make a list for Friday's shopping excursion... Wait, didn't I say it was time for Vacation?

Oh well, I love to be off work and at home during the day. There is something just so peaceful about it! I love to just do things at my own pace without someone bothering me to go hear or there, or do this or that! Ahhh the feeling of freedom!

I tried to capture "the look" of Christmas with this shot, however it did not turn out how I wanted it too... I love the glow of the lights though... makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Apple Pie Squares

I found the absolute best recipe for Apple Pie Squares on a blog this week. They are in the oven right now and my house smells heavenly! This said blog is written by a chic named Edie! I have loved that name for a long time and secretly wished I had named my own daughter that! I was so taken by this blog that I read almost the entire thing! And she has been blogging for a while! It was very interesting!

 

The recipe from Life In Grace's blog:

 

{glazed apple bars}

First you combine 4 C. flour, 1/2 t. salt and 2 C. sugar.
Then, cut in 3 sticks of butter. The mixture will be crumbly and Meg recommends you use your hands. I wholeheartedly agree. I first tried my mixer and it didn't work well. Press about 2/3's of this crumbly mixture into a jelly roll pan.

Peel, core and slice 4-5 Granny smith apples and layer over the shortbread mixture.
Combine 1/3 C. sugar and 1 t. cinnamon, sprinkle it over the apples.
Crumble the remaining flour/sugar/butter mixture on top of the apples.
Bake it at 350 degrees for 50 - 60 minutes...until it is crispy on the bottom.

After it bakes, let it cool.
Make a glaze with 1 C. powdered sugar, 1 t. vanilla, 1 T. water.

 

I highly recommend that you try these… just from the smell alone I know I will not be sorry!

 

We are going to be going to a bonfire this afternoon for Haley's softball team. They get to meet their new little sisters today so I hope that will be fun for her! I like this aspect of the softball organization she is with. They do a lot of community service and they are all about family and it really is great! We are blessed to be a part of it, not only because they are a very successful organization but because of their focus on the things that really matter! So, we are going to pack a lunch well dinner I guess and sit around the fire and play games and have fun! What's on the menu?

 

• Haley's new favorite sandwich! Hawaiian Bread (you know the circle shaped one) a layer of ham, white American cheese, and another layer of ham, cut into 8 wedges!
  
• Either chips or cheese popcorn
  
• Apple Juice or sprite
  
• And of course Edie's Glazed Apple Bars!
  

Yummy!

 

Later tonight, I really have to get a good grocery list going, I am almost out of flour… that is insane because a person who bakes as much as I do should never ever run even close to being out of flour!!!

 

Alright off to make the sandwich and get ready for the bonfire!!

 

Ok, so I haven’t blogged in forever again.

You know it is funny… I also want to blog, I want to write… but I just never make time for it. I think facebook has taken over my life. Truth be told, I was going to switch from blogger to word press, even made a blog a few months ago over there. But I never went back. I do that a lot. With a lot of things in my life. I am a starter… I love to start things, new things, old things, all sorts of things. But I am not a strong finisher, I get bored easily and then I slink off to try something new!

Just like today, I am trying something new. I am writing this post from Word. I have wanted to try it for quite some time but I just haven't had the time. So, while the cupcakes are in the oven and I have a few minutes. I thought I would try out a test post. I have to figure out how to post pictures straight from here though and not have to save as a draft and go into blogger and upload the photos… Ha! It kind of defeats the whole purpose.

Since, I last wrote… summer softball ended, summer volleyball began and ended, fall softball started and ends tomorrow, High School Volleyball started and ends on Thursday… That's a lot of stuff… Have you ever noticed how I never really write about myself. Only my daughter really. Nothing that I want to do or accomplish. I just noticed that I now I find that odd and a little boring. Hmmm… Interesting.

So, Here are a few things that I am currently interested in. I will not include anything that Haley is doing as it should be obvious that I would be interested in that.

1. Baking.
   
2. Cake, cupcake and cookie decorating.
   
3. Decorating and home improvement
   
4. Contemplation of going back to school.
   
5. Saving money
   
6. Cleaning my house
   
7. Starting to knit again
   
8. Would love to read the twilight series. I know I know.
   
9. Getting my Christmas shopping done. I really would love a low key Christmas this year.
   
10. Wondering if my job will survive the recession.
    

You know what that was actually quite hard not to include anything that was related to Haley.

Well, the cupcakes are done and I need to get them out of the oven, so lets see if this posts right!

back from a hiatus?

Well, softball is winding down, in fact this is our first weekend off in almost 2 months! We have one more tournament and the championship game of another on Monday and then we are all done and we go back to Volleyball! When is the rest! But, I have to tell you, I love it and I wouldn't have it any other way!

We are still working on paying down our debt and living frugally, well we were until softball that is. All the travel in the summer leads to alot of me

als out and sometimes all three meals in a day out so it really did do a number on our budget. We are back on track now with eating at home at e

very possible time!

We have our garden in 16 tomato plants, 6 jalepeno peppers, over 100 green bean plants and 20 cucumber plants! No onions or potatoes this year... it has been so wet and rainy here that I didn't have time to get it all in! I can't wait until we can start eating garden fresh produce! Yum!

Here are a few pictures from our summer of softball :)

Runner up in state!

Well, now that the excitement of Junior High volleyball is over... we can get back to our regularly scheduled life for 1 week. Yes, you heard me... 1 week. In one week track meets start, club volleyball tournaments start and travel softball is still practicing. Nuts I know.

Here are a couple of pictures from the state championships.