i left the room and...

I went to change the baby and came back to this:
Tallulah looked at me with a big smile and said "we're PRETENDING, Mom!" Thank goodness for that!

happy mother's day!

Hope you all are having a fabulous Mother's Day! I have been showered with many handmade card and gifts (those are the best kind) and flowers and lunch out with the family. Now it's time for a Sunday afternoon nap! But first I wanted to share the pictures of our Mother's Day craft from Regan's Sunday School class.

This tutorial was my inspiration.

The felt flower is a pin that comes off the card and can be worn- a Mother's Day corsage of sorts.

I just cut two slits in the card and pinned the flower onto the card.

And here are the girls showing off their cards (there are no boy's in Regan's Sunday School class!) I loved all the color combinations the girls made- gorgeous flowers!

more baby blankets

I made two blanket sets for a friend this week. I love the flannel I used for these two sets.

Especially the monsters, aren't they fabulous? I have a few yards of this that I am saving to make more pajama pants for the boys next winter. I also think I will have to one of these to go with the pj's.

On this one I decided to round the corners and now I am wondering why I never though of it before!
I've got to get back to those Mother's Day crafts for Sunday School tomorrow- we decided to combine the flower pin and the card idea and the kids will make pins that attach to the cards. Hopefully I will have some pictures tomorrow!

new toys

My iron officially bit the dust last week. It's been touch and go for awhile now- sometimes needing a few whacks to get it working- but last Wednesday evening, no amount of hitting and wire jiggling (I know, I know, pulling off the base and messing with the wires while plugged in is dangerous- but what's a girl to do when she's in the middle of a sewing project and her iron won't turn on!!!) would get it working. I guess it had just been knocked off the ironing board one time too many.

As providence would have it, Phil's had some extra work recently and I was able to not only pick out a super fancy new iron, but a new ironing board too! And not just any ironing board, but an extra wide one with a built in iron and beer spray bottle holder!

i made cheese!

Tonight I made fresh ricotta for the first time. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but it turned out to be pretty simple and not nearly as time consuming as I thought it would be to make my own cheese!

Here is the recipe:

3 C Whole milk
1/2 C buttermilk (I used the powdered kind you find in the baking isle and it worked fine)

Put milk and buttermilk in a heavy sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. (this takes awhile)
Remove from heat and strain in colander lined with paper towel or cheese cloth.

Put milk solids into a bowl, add salt to taste and mix.
I did not measure, but I would guess it made 1/2 - 3/4 C of ricotta.
I served it over pasta with sauteed zucchini and tomatoes and it was yummy :) (The recipe came from the May issue of Cooking Light).

april showers bring may flowers

Regan's Sunday School teacher asked Regan and I to come up with a Mother's Day craft for his class next week. These are a few of the ideas we've tried so far... Seems flowers are the theme of the day.

This was an idea we got from a Crayola video tutorial (I'm not sure where it is, so I can't link up, Sorry). I am thinking the bucket should be filled with Dove Dark Chocolates :)

You can find the tute for this card here.

And this flower pin is based on the same flower from the card above.

I also loved this idea too, but I think it may be a bit too time consuming for a Sunday School craft.

Do you have any great Mother's Day craft ideas for 3rd-5th graders?

i'm still here...

Addie is sitting beside me squealing- like she's just discovered her voice. She lets out a loud squeal and then has a look of surprise (like "did I do that?") on her face quickly followed by a big smile.

So I know I've been MIA lately- I feel like life is going 100 miles an hour and I can't keep up! My list of things to do is beyond reasonable but there is little to nothing on it that can afford to go undone (for a day maybe, but not indefinitely anyway). And now I find myself sitting here unmoving b/c I have no idea where to start!

Hopefully I can get some things done this evening and have something of significance to blog about tomorrow- I have not been taking many pictures lately- we actually went strawberry picking yesterday (first time of the season) and I forgot my camera! Okay, so now I am just rambling- I'm going to go eat some strawberry pie and then clean something!