My next adventure....

is going to be making some of these!

I went with some friends out to dinner the other night and then to a little "Grand Opening". (more of that in a minute) At the Open House they served some yummy food...and all of it was displayed in such an adorable fashion! I loved it. We tried the little pies on a stick or pie pops. They were delicious and looked pretty simple to make. Definitely on my next party list.

They also made the little cakes in mason jars. This has been on my party to-do list since the rootbeer floats that I made for the birthday party. I was thinking strawberry shortcake, but really the sky is the limit. You could layer any type of cake in the little jars & display them in such a cute way.

So the little "Grand Opening" that we attended was for Urban & Ivy She had some really cute jewelry on display. She uses lots of different colored stones & wire. She is just getting her website up and running...so there will be more added as time goes on. She is young and has quite the entrepreneurial spirit. I am sure she will be successful!

All in all it was a fun evening!!

Would you like fries with that?

Father's Day this year was pretty low key. Just perfect actually!
At the last minute I decided to try these cute little burgers & fries that I saw online at bakerella. The ingredients looked pretty simple so I thought....hey, why not give it a try. :) And it worked! I am so excited that they turned out!

I set the table in the usual Father's Day theme...tools. I have done this for years and I really like it.

This year I added the cute little coffee cans that belonged to my dad. He kept them in the storeroom full of nails, etc. It just made me smile to set them on the table. Of course flowers from John's garden finished it all off!!

Just another shot of the surprise dessert. My husband thought it was actually a hamburger in there. haha Actually it is a yellow cupcake, brownie, frosting & sugar cookies! So happy that it worked!!! Still smiling. :D

Twisted Twelve x Twelve Class

I am excited to offer another class in my home! This one is called Twisted Twelve x Twelve! We will be creating a 12x12 album filled with 20 pages (10 front & back). Not your normal scrapbook...we will be twisting it up a bit. We will be stitching, painting, carving & stamping! Class will be Saturday June 18th from 11 am until 4 pm. With lunch included!

The front of the album will be covered & decorated. There will be different fabrics, paints & stamps available to alter the book & make it your own.

Below are a few samples of the pages we will be creating.

Most of the pages can be easily changed to match the theme that you want for the photos in your album. Your album will be uniquely yours!

It's going to be a fun day!! I can't wait!!

A Little Birthday Fun!

This weekend we had a combined birthday celebration for my boys! Sometimes parties come together quickly and easily and other times they are a little harder to pull together. This one took a little effort. :D But in the end it was a blast!! Wahoo!

These are a cute little idea that I found online. Chocolate dipping sauce from the fruit section of the grocery store & a microwave...you are ready to go. Dip the marshmallows into the chocolate & roll in crushed graham crackers. Smores on a stick! So cute and really delicious! I will definitely do this one again.

The nice part about having parties in the summertime is all the fresh fruit available. Yum! We also purchased BBQ Pulled Pork from Joe's Real BBQ a favorite around here! I put together small sandwiches with some bake & serve rolls from Sams Club..oh they are delicious. Lots of side dishes and of course the boys favorite Pretzel Salad. And you have a party!

This is the dessert table. We had cake, the Smores, zucchini bread ( gift from our neighbor) and wonderful cherry cinnamon rolls that my daughter-in-law made. I also served rootbeer floats. That was a hit! Who doesn't love a rootbeer float! Serve them in cute little mason jars...even better! So fun!

I found a cake pan at Michaels that I fell in love with. So with coupon in hand, off I went to buy it! So worth it! Such a fun little pan to use for parties. It says on the packaging that it requires 1 cake mix but I recommend 1 1/2 as the top section didn't quite fill completely. (I hid that part with frosting) ;) When you are finished you have an oversized cupcake! So cute!

Oh and I used my little upcycled candle holder to display the giant cupcake! I purchased it at a consignment shop for $6 and hung some crystals on it. I want to add a little more to it but that will come with time. I do love it! I plan on using some of these ideas again at other parties.

We ended the party with some swimming! It was such a nice day spent with family celebrating my boys! So worth the extra effort it took! I love my family!!!

Altered Apron Tutorial

I received this cute little apron made out of a ticking fabric when some friends & I served at the rehearsal dinner for our good friend's son's wedding. The food was catered and we played the role of caterers/servers. It was so much fun and a great way to help out our dear friend! Soon after that my mind started spinning with ideas to alter it!
Well fast forward a few years....yes, it took me that long! Another friend owns an adorable quilt shop here in Arizona called The Old World Quilt Shoppe. A mutual friend Cyndi and I took a trip over to Dee's shop and I decided that it was a good time to purchase some cute fabric for my apron make-over. I knew I wanted some bright fabric so these are the colors that I chose.

Next up I decided on ruffles....just simple ruffles, but with the bright colors I knew it would look good. So I cute a strip of fabric for the first ruffle, folded it over with the wrong sides together & ran a loose stitch on my machine across the top. (At this point I really should have either pinked the edges or ran a zig zag stitch along each edge but I didn't. I was too excited and jumped ahead.)
After pulling one string and gathering the ruffle to the desired fullness I pinned it to the apron and started stitching. I was so excited at this point with the look! :)

Next up...the second ruffle. I chose a bright orange and repeated the process that I used on the first ruffle. I need to add here that after you cut your fabric and fold it over it works best if you stop and iron your ruffle. It just gives it a crisp look and also makes it easier to work with while you are sewing.

Repeat the process for the third ruffle. I just love it so far! It was quick and easy and really changed the look of the apron.

Since I was so excited to put this together I left the edges unfinished and needed to hide that so I grabbed a piece of ribbon that I had been hoarding..I mean saving, and decided to stitch it right over the rough edge of the top ruffle. As I stitched I gently bunched up the ribbon so that it would have a more ruffled look itself. I am very happy with the result!

Originally I had planned on adding homemade flowers to the front of the apron but looking at it at this point I decided it needed something more. So I chose pockets! After all they would be very useful while teaching classes in my new apron! So I used the leftover fabric from the first ruffle and cut out pockets. I tried it with one large pocket but didn't like the look so ended up with two pockets. Simply cut the fabric a little larger than you want the pocket to be & fold the edges over twice so you have a nice clean edge & stitch. You could at this point sew two pieces of fabric together to make a stronger more durable pocket but knowing this would be used more for looks than actual storage I opted for a single cut of fabric. And of course what pocket is complete without a ruffle! I used the leftover orange fabric for the little ruffles making sure to turn the side edges in and stitch so that they would have a clean line. Also for these ruffles I chose to stitch them under the bottom edge of the pocket so that none of the rough edges would be visible. Measure where you want your pockets on the front of your apron and stitch down. Of course leaving the top open for use. :)

My original idea of handmade flowers using the fabric from the ruffles just didn't look right so I opted for a gerbera daisy from Michaels. I simply cut the stem off and hot glued it to the front of the apron.
Here is the final product! I am in love with it!!! So proud of myself for FINALLY finishing it!! Wahoo!
So grab a plain apron and alter it...you will be amazed with all the possibilities you can come up with to make it uniquely yours! ENJOY!!!

From the Garden

Came in on Memorial Day to find these on my counter!! What a great guy!!