Valentine Yum!

Chloe needed Valentines cards for her Girl Scout meeting today. So, this weekend, trying to think ahead, I asked her if she wanted to head to the store for Valentines or if she wanted to make some. She waffled back and forth and decided to buy some. That's fine by me.

Before we left for our trip to the store yesterday afternoon, I receive a newsletter from a scrapbook store that I had made a purchase from. They have a little cupcake book in there and though the idea is absolutely cute, it's just not something I will ever make. The wheels in my brain starting turning and I came up with an idea based on the cute little books. Chloe liked the idea, so we stayed home and crafted.

Here are the little "cards" that we came up with. We added a loop of ribbon on top, so that her friends can hang them up if they want. I want to hang mine up---well, if we had made me one I would want to hang it up.






These last two we made for Victoria's sweet girl. I think they will be perfect on the pink tree in her sweet room.



Obviously not a cupcake, but this was so much fun, I couldn't stop.



The backs of all of the cupcakes are covered in a solid paper where she can write a Valentines note to each of her friends. Maybe she will change her mind before tomorrow afternoon and want to go buy some of the cheesy, but ever so fun paper cards and tiny envelopes and I can keep all of the cupcakes.

Just in case anyone is interested, we just free handed a cupcake holder and the icing and made a pattern. We used glitter, scrapbook paper, hot glue, elmers glue, beads and ribbon. Basically free valentines, but so much yum.

Christina

In the mood for LOVE

Thought I would share a couple of my Valentine decorations. This is only the second year that I have ever decorated for Valentines Day. I guess having a child does that to you! :)



My take on decorating for Valentines Day is to use anything in my house that is white, red or just looks "Valentiney" to me. This includes an old spool of red polka dot ribbon.


A handmade napkin with a red border that I chose as my Christmas gift from a Ladies Tea when I was 17 (loved vintage even then!).


I made this little "love" sign today while my Sweet Girl was making a craft.

Left over Christmas licorice.


LOV in some snow in my favorite Apothecary jar. I picked this baby up on my 11th anniversary trip with my husband to a small town in Ga. It was $8!!! I love it because it is huge, old and has meaning to me.



I'll share Sweet Girl's Valentine tree next week, along with a couple of cute crafts we've made.

If you really are in the mood for love, hop on over to Home Sanctuary where Rachel Anne's small thing for today is to do something that makes you feel like a woman. Feeling like a woman is sometimes just what we need to get us in the mood for love. ;)

~Victoria~

A Little Crafting

If you are like me, you have newspapers, junk mail and old papers around the house. In fact, in the intrest of keeping it somewhat real, here is *one* of my piles of paper.


So today I gave in to a moment of creative craziness with another pile. This pile was a local newspaper that no one had read and never will get around to reading. I started wadding some into a sphere shape. I then covered it with a sheet of aluminum foil to keep it together.



I then hot glued some bay leaves all over it. Perfection was not my aim, just a nice little green sphere.




Added a little bling to a candlestick and a small pile of newspapers becomes much more attractive.



Actually the one below was my first attempt with another bit of paper and glue, but I think it looks like a head of broccoli that is going bad. :0 Well, in real life it doesn't look nearly as bad as the picture, but still.



Christina

Victoria's Randomness & a cake

So Christina posted her 7 random things long ago and now it's my turn.

1) I sometimes eat ice cream in the morning for breakfast but only when my husband isn't around to roll his eyes at me. I have also been known to eat pizza for breakfast, a fact which my husband finds extremely weird!
(Photo courtesy of Edy's)

2) I started in one college basketball game and managed to trip coming down court and fell flat on my face. From there I watched the other team scoop up the ball and make a lay up.

3) I met Jimmy Carter on our airplane the last time we flew home from New York. I woke the guy up next to me because I didn't want him to sleep through meeting a president. He thanked me later.

4) I was homeschooled and had to wear coulottes. Yes, even in the winter!


5)I absolutely LOVE to travel. I have been to San Fransisco, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Denver, Boston, Ontario, St Louis, Washington DC and the Bahamas.

(Hubs and I riding horses in Pikes Peak National Park)

6) When I was a teenager I had to break up a mating cow and bull when my Dad was out of town.
(Baby Sis took this picture, isn't it great?)

7) I was on the Today Show (ok, in the crowd, but I did make it on tv!) the morning I found out I was pregnant with Sweet Girl. Al Roker was the first person I told I was pregnant besides my husband.




And the cake.......
When I was shopping for Sweet Girl's Christmas presents I came across a darling apron on Etsy that I loved!



The apron gave me a theme for her Christmas so I picked out mini cake pans, a pink breast cancer awareness spatula (thanks Christina for the idea!), a small whisk and rolling pin for my little helper. We had not used the cake pans until a couple of weeks ago my husband was out of town for a conference so the day he was coming back my Sweet Girl made him a mini cake to welcome him home. I forgot to take a picture of it before it was half gone.


Hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend!

~Victoria~

It's the Little Things

Thanks for all of the lamp love. I enjoyed reading all of the comments and had so much fun with the re-do.

Today is a great day for the next installment of "It's the Little Things."

This hot tea.


A plate of sunshine and Vitamin C.


Our fruit bowl.


Oh my, have you ever had Pepperidge Farms Peach Turnovers? They are really yummy and honestly could be a great winter dinner party dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


This plate looks certainly looks like summer and is a bright spot on a dreary day. We received the smaller peppers in a co-op shipment and the large peppers in the back wait for my hubby's delicious stir fry.


Oh yum. Strawberries and Fage (pronounced fay-ah) greek style yogurt.


My daughter making oatmeal packets for her daddy to take to work. And some for us too.


We are having this for supper tonight.


I made it up up as I went along because we wanted tons of veggies and this bowl of comfort food is just what we wanted.

Choc Full of Goodness Shepherds Pie (Is that how to spell Choc?)

1 pound of lean ground beef browned (I used venison)
1 medium onion chopped
1/4 to 1/2 head of sliced cabbage
2 to 4 cups chopped spinach
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large carrots shredded
1 to 2 cups frozen peas
1 can tomato sauce
1 T. Rapadura or Sucanat (I'm sure brown sugar would work too)
2 T. flour
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup water or more

Brown your ground meat until almost browned. Add in next six ingredients and cook until all ingredients are soft and cooked down. I will add in just a little olive oil and or some water and turn on low heat, stirring frequently.

After your veggies are cooked down, add in your tomato sauce and Rapadura and stir.

Sprinkle the flour over your meat and veggi mixture. Add in Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup water. Stir until thickened. You may want to add more water if this gets too thick.

Make mashed potatoes as you usually would. Spread mashed potatoes on top of filling and bake at 350 degrees until slightly browned.

Serve to happy and hungry family. They will love it, and you will know it is full of things that are good for them.


It really is the Little Things. And I'm so thankful for them all.

Cozy Lamp Light

This weekend was busy and fun. I had two photography sessions with a bride to be. One for a few shots in her wedding gown and the other session was for engagement pictures. Busy, busy. But the good kind of busy.

Little work was done on my lamp until today. Last week I did get it painted black, the base color I chose, so I could try to mimic a weathered zinc finish. Sorry, forgot to take a picture at this point. It took me awhile to decide on the zinc idea, so I kept procrastinating.

A few years ago I found this burlap covered lampshade at a thrift store.



I often buy lampshades that are interesting shapes, and sturdy with potential to be recovered. It is just so hard for me to pay as much as you have to for new lampshades. More often than not they are more expensive than my lamps. I had every intention of recovering this one. At that time the burlap didn't interest me, but now---I love it.

Out came the rusty trusty glue gun and some leftover black ribbon to add some umph to the shade. Also wanted to cover up a sort of old fashioned looking gold edge. I enjoyed this project while catching up on my DVR log.

I added some creamy paint with a wet and then dry rag until I achieved what *might* kinda sorta look like weathered zinc. : )

Before:



After:



Lovely cozy lamp light. It's just right.

Put a Little Love in a Frame

Just a little project.
Here's sneak peak before we begin.



Print the word "love" using letters from here.


Get a frame, or even just a piece of thick cardboard the size you want.
My frame(12X21)came from the thrift store more than a year ago. When I bought it it was stained with a redish stain and had a bird picture in it. Soon after it came home with me, I sprayed it with white primer while doing another project. It has since languished in storage (another word for leaning against the wall in a corner).



I cut out my letters and used some adhesive to affix to some of the same canvas fabric that I used for my bench project.





Place in frame and enjoy.





Some of my inspiration for this was pure accident and some came from these pillow cases. I can't stomach paying $56.00 or so for these, so this framed picture will have to do.

P.S. I have started working on my lamp. I have two conflicting ideas and can't decide which way to go. Have to decide!!!