Here is on of my baskets when I first planted them...

and here they are now! I think they're growing nicely!

I came home to spend Easter with my fam and am having so much fun! We let the kids dye eggs and then had our adult fun making these. Sharon got silk ties at good will. Cut the ties apart, tie them around the egg tightly(good side toward the egg), cover with nylons or white fabric, and boil in water and vinegar for 20 min. If you Google silk tie eggs, you'll get more complete directions.
Now, we got all silk ties and some worked awesome and some not at all... anyone out there know why that is?

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Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

What the rip am I going to do about Christmas cards this year???
I haven't even THOUGHT about them yet. The choices are: buying a few boxes (eh...), taking a cute picture of the dogs (like the "hope your Christmas doesn't stink" with Brin in a skunk costume, or "have a super Christmas" with Brin in a super girl costume- like I did a few years ago), or crafting them (like last year). I'd really rather not just get a box, but time is ticking. If I could think of another cute saying for a picture with the dogs, I'd like to do that... but my brain hates being creative at the moment. That would be fast, and crafting cards always gets so involved and takes so long. Bleh... Any cute ideas? Is another dog Christmas card going to make me the crazy dog lady???

I decided I needed to learn how to crochet, so I watched a few youtube tutorials and jumped to it... This was my first project:

He's not perfect, however, he taught me all sorts of good stuff. First of all, my ADD may be too strong to crochet something that's turns out the way it's supposed to- my ability to count and keep track of where I am in a pattern/row/increasing/decreasing isn't quite what it should be. The tentacles aren't exactly the same size as a result, this octopus isn't an octopus; it's a septapus. I could only fit 7/8 tentacles on... I was also trying to make him smirk, which didn't work out too well- that's his third mouth. I was also unsure of how to attach the tentacles. The directions said "attach tentacles". I think for my first project, he's not too bad.

We had a pumpkin decorating contest at South Lawn... I know, it looks like a three year old did it. I tried my best :-)

Our deck was horrible! It's needed stained since we moved in... Bill power washed it and we stained it a darker color. I think it came out looking pretty darn nice!

... and it's finally done!

I made a tutu for Annika's 3rd birthday and someone had to model it...

I wanted to try making a tutu, so this one's for Lexie. Way too big for her right now, but I think it looks good and I learned a lot!

This post is PG13...

Bill tricked me into agreeing to make a cake for his co-worker's 50th birthday...

The cake refused to come out of the pan, so I just put everything in the pan!

The final product- not bad for my first erotic cake :-)
...and my kitchen was trashed.

Kristin and I talked about making her wedding cake (before Mike's aunt volunteered) and we decided that we'd just make a cake for the bachlorette party... I don't know why they look so insanely dark in the pic

Looks pretty good- it was delicious!

This is what I did today instead of mowing the lawn and cleaning like I had planned...

I took a bunch of bright fabric and a free, online pattern...
...and I made a purse- I think it's waaaaaay cuter in real life! There were a lot more steps, but I got sick of taking pictures... I'm going to try some different color patterns/designs. It was fun to make!

Here's hoping...

My dad brought me a basil plant and about 13 tomato plants... I got a few big planters (I hope they're big enough) but decided to try to plant a few right by the house- no guarantee they won't be deer food, but we'll see. The deer haven't been quite as bad at eating everything lately.

Those are the ones I planted originally- my basil is doing awesome and I've used a ton of it already!

Here's one of my tomato plants right by the house- I put stakes up so I would know where they were if they get eaten... optimistic, right? :-)

I only spent $18 and I made 4 hanging baskets, 2 flower pots, and potted my basil and rosemary. I'm really missing not having a garden this year, so I'm going to start a container garden. All I really need is the herbs, tomatoes and flowers. Any ideas on where to find super cheap, big containers?

We spent Saturday working on the landscaping and it came out looking so nice- I got really sunburned and am crazy sore, but it was all worth it...
Before...

After...

Before...
After...

The dogs loved running around outside all day!

Next weekend project: staining the deck- anyone wanna come help? It'll be really fun :-)

I spent the last few snowdays making a bunch of shower invitations for my SIL's baby shower...

I ran out of the white so I used some off white- they're not as "brownish" as they look in the picture!!!Here's the outside

and here's the inside!

I still need to address envelopes- the not fun part :-(

My garden is doing really well! So far I've gotten lettuce, zucchini, chives, and hot peppers from it. Can't wait for tomatoes!

Because we'll laugh about it later...

Everything in our house seems to be going wrong. Our sump pump wasn't working for some reason, the sink in the basement stopped draining, the fountain in our little pond quit on us, our lawn mower seemed to be slowing down... and of course at Bill's busiest time! So Bill's dad came over (love the in-laws!!!) and helped fix the sink so I could use the dishwasher. While they were there, the dishwasher quit working. Luckily, that was still under warranty. Unfortunately, we still had to pay a fee to get them out. So the repair man comes out to look at it and he's stumped. He says we need to get an electrician out (thank goodness was still covered under the fee). The day the electrician was supposed to come out (between 3 and 4), I had plans to meet Shan and Kristy at the dog park in the evening. He calls and says he won't be there until later, so I was hoping it would be a quick fix. He finally gets there (when I'm supposed to be leaving), takes off the panel, scratches his head and says he better look at the wiring. We look under the sink and he says he's never seen a dishwasher wired like this (great.) can he look in the basement? (certainly) We go down to the basement and he starts laughing. (what the *** could possibly be funny???) Turns out that while Bill and his dad were fixing the sink, the dishwasher was unplugged....
We had to get a repairman and electrician to help us plug the darn thing in.

That was a bit more long-winded than I intended, but I had to get it out.

Anyway, I better get cleaning and organizing. I have a sleepover at my house tonight (with 2 nephews and a niece)! Hopefully the weather is nice. We're planning on going to the fair that's in town and having a pool party(just a little blow up pool in the back yard- so must poop scoop as well!). Our house isn't exactly kid friendly for if it rains (I'm thinking Chuck E. Cheese if the weather is bad). Also, we got a new patio set! I put it up yesterday and have been sitting out here with coffee and my computer all morning! It's wonderful! Okay, off to be productive!