Leah's Favorite Things

This is helping me smile today. What an awesome teacher.

Thanks TBTL!

Tonight’s homework club craft.

I got the idea from here. As always, can’t wait to see what the kids come up with.

I’m having one of those days. Ya know…one of those you don’t really feel like yourself days. I’m anxious today…Please Lord calm my heart.

I’m so ready for summer!

oh what a night! We celebrated my dear friend Leah as a bride to be on Saturday. Of course I can’t show you all the “intimate” details…

but I did take a few pictures of the cute girly decorations!

Girly and pink was the theme.

I totally recommend these Stirrings drink mixes. We did the non-alcoholic versions. Just add club soda and call it a party! They were really yummy and come in lots of different flavors.

I made these Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers. I love them. I am not looking forward to taking them down but it’s just a little too much pink girlyness for the husb. He better watch out if we end up having daughters…he doesn’t even know how girly it can get Right Dad?

Anyone want pink flowers to hang in their little girls room? I don’t think I can bear to throw them away.

I’m probably breaking all the bachelorette party rules by sharing this picture.

It’s a cute one though! Plus I love that you can see Esther all curled up in my “bear” blanket in the back! It proves what a wild crowd we are

What a great Sunday we had! Poor husb worked through the night…so we slept in. After lounging around the house we headed to Molly Moon for some ice cream.

Balsamic strawberry and salted caramel…both were very good!

The sun was out so we were able to cross the street and eat on the side lines of the athletic park. We just sat and people watched…there were lots of “interesting” people.

Then I had to pee. Surprise to all that know me I’m sure.

So we walked a few blocks to visit my alma mater…Seattle University…for a bathroom break.

Brought back memories of walking to and from class. Memories of walking through campus with husb before he was my husb.

Here is the admin building. I had many a class in this building. It has a great old college feel to it.

This is the Chapel of St. Ignatius. It is supposedly “a world-recognized architectural landmark”. In the two years I lived on campus I never even went into it. I guess I should put in on my to do list.

Then we headed to church. We sang “How great thou art”. I love that song!

Our last stop of the night was for hamburger and fries!

However, before we left the house to do all these things I ran into this little guy.

He was eating grass with his mom. They are often in our yard and I have hundreds of pictures of them. I just can’t help myself! However, this is the best picture I’ve ever gotten. He was very interested in me today…walking towards me and acting kind of playful.

I think I could have gotten him to come closer…but I’m not one to underestimate the power of a mother deer. I am a little scared that she might decide to trample me!

I hope you had good Sunday!

Tara asked for more specific instructions on how to make the desk skirt that I mentioned here. If you aren’t interested in this project or reading weird confusing directions…please feel free to skip this post.

Here goes my best effort…please don’t laugh!

Well, I started with…sorry to say it IKEA… an ugly desk. Since I wasn’t afraid to harm the ugly desk I used tacks to nail the fabric to the edge of the desk. I think I’m getting ahead of myself though.

• Measure the dimensions of your desk (at least the parts that you will be covering with fabric). I used a tape measurer and got a rough estimate…if your smarter than me you probably own one of those flexible measuring tapes. If so…use that.
• Go get you some fabric. I used home decor fabric but you can use whatever you like.
• Next you need to wash the material (I forgot to do this part…so if I ever need to wash my skirt it will probably shrink and look funny)
• Get out your Steam a Seam and hem the edges of your material. If you can sew…hem then the normal way. I don’t sew, I steam a seam.

• Now you need to get a package of sewing pins and pin pleats into your fabric. I have no idea how to explain this as I didn’t take pictures while I was making the skirt. Here is a close up so you can try to make sense of it. Sorry.

• Next, you need to iron the pleats. Iron a crease about half way down the material…you want the bottom to be kind of billowy so there is no need to iron all the way down.
• I applied my skirt in two pieces so that there is a slit in the middle where we sit. This way our legs aren’t pulling on the material when we sit at the desk…it just opens and flows around our legs. Make sense? Not really? Check out the picture.

• Next, get out your ribbon. I used a brown silk ribbon and steam a seamed it to the top of the skirt…the part that will get nailed into the desk.
• Have a husband or friend hold the skirt up to the desk while you start tacking away. I used brown headed upholstery tacks…they might also be called decorative nails.

You should be all done! Stand back and be proud! If you are scared to poke holes into your desk…I’m sorry. I don’t have much advice for you. I tried gorilla gluing snaps to the desk and to the material as to not harm the ugly desk and make for easy removal. It didn’t work…it caused the skirt to stick out from the edge of the desk and just looked goofy.

I’m sure this has all been clear as mud. If you have specific questions feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll try to help.

Tara…I’m sorry if you lost hope in me ever getting back to you with directions and went out and bought a cute desk that doesn’t need a skirt. After you read these directions you might actually be thankful that you gave up hope though

Friday T and I went to IKEA.

I did great…only bought things we really needed. Okay, well they aren’t necessarily needs…not like food is a need. However, the point is I didn’t buy any cute knickknack decorative stuff. Which if you have ever been to IKEA…you know cute things tend to fall into your basket.

I got these two big metal bins with lids to organize underneath the kitchen sink.

It makes me quite mad that I don’t have a before photo for you. Lame! Just take my word for it…it wasn’t pretty.

I also bought this sweet casserole dish and replaced our drinking glasses.

When we got married I bought drinking glasses from Pottery Barn…I still think they are beautiful. However, they are so narrow I can’t get my hand in to clean them. I can’t stand it anymore. I’ve moved on to $.79 IKEA glasses.

I also spend $2 on some fabric…the same fabric my pillow covers are made out of…to line the inside of the entertainment center windows.

Yes, I own the whole series of Everybody Loves Raymond…what’s it to ya

What else happened Friday?

Oh yeah…

G got HER FIRST CAR!

Thanks for coming over Gretta!

DAD!

Here you are showing off your pizzas! If I could scan pictures onto my computer I would have put up a different picture…probably an embarrassing one. Like from back in the day when you had long hair and wore funny clothes

I’m sorry that you aren’t feeling well today. Let’s do breakfast when you feel better.

Love You!

That’s what we played with last night at club. The kids have WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning…aka…a big test)  this week so we were releasing stress by squishing goo.

I learned how to make goo when I worked at a daycare…my first real job. I’ve found that it is an important life skill…goo making. Goodness, how many times can I write goo?

Mix 1 cup water with 1 Tablespoon Borax

Mix I cup water with 1 cup Elmer’s glue and two drops of food coloring

Mix the two mixtures together and your done!

I made two colors this time.

It’s slimy to the touch…but not wet. It’s just a little gross…

perfect for the kiddos!

to share with you! It is a Pioneer Woman recipe. If you don’t know who Pioneer Woman is…let me introduce you to her! You will thank me.

Anyhow, I made the Penne a la Betsy and it was WONDERFUL! I am going to make the sauce for lunch today minus the shrimp.

Do you have a favorite Pioneer Woman recipe?

I hope you all had a great day! I am just very thankful for my Lord and Savior this week. I think I appreciate the meaning of our Christian holidays more as I get older.

A few quick pictures of our Easter.

Mom making greens

I was making dipping sauce for our bread. But I look like a character out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding…Opa!

Don’t you love that I’m wearing sweats and no make up or wedding ring. I know…what a mess! I just want to let all the women out there know to beware of facials. I had one almost two weeks ago and am still getting over a major breakout! What the heck!

The men talking about pirates and guns.

My sisters were over too…but they got here after I had put the camera down.

I made my Mema’s sour cream pound cake!

Mmmm…the yummy golden top is the best part! I made chocolate ganache and lemon icing to go on it. Not together of course. Gab and I had chocolate. Mom, Meg and Husb had lemon. And Dad…well he prefers his pound cake naked. We are a demanding bunch!

Dad brought lamb. I’m not a fan…but I did taste it and it was pretty tasty.

Well, like I said…I didn’t get any pics of the girls cause I put the camera down and forgot to pick it up again. Because of this I also didn’t get any pictures of the ham I made or any of the yummy veggies! Such is life.

He is Risen!