Bigger than life roses.

I love fabric roses on things for little girls. I love them on dresses, headbands, t-shirts, skirts. I tried 3 smashes roses for this dress for Evan Grace. Then I found an online tut on a way to make soft ruffled roses. Instead of sewing a rose to scale I made mine large enough to work with easily so I could learn the technique before I sized it down for actually use. I didn't have any plans for the enormous flower. Evan Grace, on the other hand, did. I left it on the table after sewing it up and after she played with it for a few hours (apparently all Princesses, love and need to carry large roses) she asked me to put a stick on it for a headband. Not sure why she called it a stick, maybe she was thinking plastic, I don't know. But I sewed up a headband for her, with an enormous rose on it. She's in heaven.

Just this side of nasty.

Homemade Marshmallows. Sounds interesting and kinda yummy doesn't it? I was excited to find this recipe, even more excited that the reviews for this recipe were great and had people gushing over this being the best recipe for homemade marshmallows they had ever tried. My kids were going to love these!!!!

Start by dumping 3 envelopes of Gelatin (which is the same as 3 TBS) into 1/2 cup of cold water. Let this bloom, (or sit around) for 10 minutes.

In a medium sized pot, pour in 2 cups of sugar, 2/3 cup corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water.

Bring this mixture to a boil and let it boil for 1 minutes. Or if you have a thermometer you can let it boil until it reaches 250 degrees. (I only had dark corn syrup on hand so the color was a little off on the marshmallows at first).

While you're waiting for this to boil, grease a 9x13 pan with spray butter/oil and then powdered sugar.

Drizzle in the hot sugar mixture into the blooming gelatin and mix at a low speed until all of the sugar mixture has been added. Then turn your mixture as high as you possible can without spraying yourself with 250 degree sugar and let this whip up for awhile.  ADD 1/4 tsp of salt.

Once the volume of the marshmallow stops increasing,  add 1 TBS of vanilla extract. Let it mix a few seconds and then turn the mixer off.  Pour the white ooze into the greases and powdered pan. (If you spray Pam on a sheet of cling wrap and press this on top of the marshmallow you can get a smoother top then with your spatula.

Let this sit overnight or at least 12 hours without a cover or lid.

Once the marshmallows are set, sprinkle powdered sugar over a hard surface.

Turn the block of marshmallow onto the powdered surface and cube with a pizza cutter or large butcher knife.

Dredge each piece with powdered sugar and store in an airtight container for a few days.

Do you want my honest opnion on these marshmallows? I mean really? Of course you do our you wouldn't have read down this far. They wer HORRIBLE. I could not believe how bad these tasted. The texture was the only thing that was somewhat similar to an actually marshmallow. Other than that....gag me. Mackenzie and I both ate one and then threw the rest away. I'm so not sure what all the great reviews were about. Maybe what I expect from a marshmallow is not as mature as those that made these and loved them. Ewwwww.

Wordless Wednesday

Yes I know it's Saturday, but I'm behind this week!

Don't let him fool you.

My dad turns 60 today. In 1992 he suffered a horrible heart attack, he totally changed his lifestyle afterwards and became uber healthy. Then two years ago he had to have bypass surgery and came through it very well. For someone that could have left this earth too soon I'm thankful for every birthday I get to spend with him. Happy Birthday Dad. Some of my family and I took him to his favorite Mexican restaurant this past weekend for dinner. Isn't he handsome, doesn't look a day over 45 does he??? Such a handsome man. This is the first birthday I've gotten to spend with my dad in 7 years. I've missed it.

His mother came, she's not a fan of Mexican but she asked her only son to help her order and I think she was a trooper. :)

Of course my sister and her hubby came with us. She's the life of any party, full of stories, jokes and all around silliness.

Cousin Connor and his mom, my aunt Judy came as well. They had never been to this place and had a good time trying it out. Not the best picture but they were watching some kind of video my sister had on her phone.

Here's a picture of my mom and Mackenzie enjoying Fried Ice Cream.

Of course Evan Grace and Isaac spent the entire time goofing off and stuffing their faces with chips and cheese dip.

Who doesn't love a good birthday dinner?

A week in review.

I'm sure everyone has weeks where they get a lot accomplished. I'm sure everyone has weeks where they didn't necessarily get a lot accomplished but stayed busy with life. This past week was one of the latter weeks for me.

My handmade journal from Austria finally arrived in the mail.

Can't you just feel how soft this leather cover is? I love the flowers and the gold squiggly clip thing. :)

And the hand torn, stained pages....ohhhhh I think I just drooled a little looking at this picture. Can't wait to write in it.

I put together a makeshift tea part for the two younger kids and their great grandmother when she came down to visit. Daisy wouldn't let her join in the tea party though and that was okay with great grandmother because she doesn't like tea.

 

We were gifted with a few warmer days last week so the kids and I spent some time watching the sheep in the farm behind the house.  The sheep weren't too happy with the audience...you'd think for country sheep they'd be a little nicer.

I made Lemon yogurt!!!!!! The very first time I actually flavored my yogurt before it was heated and set. Very tasty.

To make the Lemon Yogurt I used Lemon Gelatin that I picked up from the best store in the world on a trip into town. I could seriously spend all my money in that store, isn't that sad?  I don't care about shoes or clothes, let me get gelation and organic cocoa, and cloves and arrowroot in little plastic containers!! I'm pathetic.

So not only do sheep graze at the farm behind my house but unbeknownst to me, it's also a helicopter landing pad!! The kids and I about flipped out when we heard the blades whoop whoop through the air so close to the house. Then to have it land 40ish feet behind the house was another flip out.  Below the farm, over the hill (no this is not a song) is a small rock quarry. Apparently a pretty big race car driver owns this quarry and was in town due to the Bristol race this past weekend. Seems he didn't want to drive the hour from Bristol to check on his business. No, he wanted to be flown in by Helicopter; by all means Mr. Famous Race Car Driver.

Not one day though, but two days this guy flew in, jumped out of the helicopter and dashed over the hill to his quarry. Ok, so maybe I got a bigger kick out of this than the kids did, it's just not something you see everyday.

Amidst all of this fun I managed to paint the chalkboard plate as well as get some sewing done, though nothing I'm happy enough with to picture and post here yet. Who knows what this week coming up will shape up to be?  

Squares and Chalk.

I picked up this plate for $3. Such a cute plate, and the back says it goes from Oven to Table with no problems. :) I didn't really want to use it in the oven or on the table as a plate.

I used painter's tape and taped off the outer edges, down against the middle square. I tape it off really really well and you should to if you do this project for yourself. Trust me.

Then I shook up the chalkboard paint, popped it open and my eyes started to twinkle.

I used two coats of chalkboard paint on this plate, but I let the first coat set up for about 4 hours before applying the 2nd coat.

I used a butter knife and cut a line on each side of the square where the tape met the chalkboard paint. So that when I peeled it back it wouldn't pull and tear at the paint that was suppose to stay on the plate as bad. Then voila! instand chalkboard. (I still have some touch up to do on the bottom edge there, nothing a butter knife can't handle though)

You can use it as a message board for your faulty memory. (I do enjoy lunch with Cosmo!)

Or for a quick grocery list. (I'm no artist, so keep those snarky comments about my milk and mayo drawings to yourself!) I know you wanted to see more goofy pictures of Evan Grace so I didn't crop her out this time. You're so welcome.

Now I'm looking for a plate wall hanging thing that will hold this up that I can attach a stick of chalk to so I can actually use this in the kitchen. Anyone know where I can find one of those?

Dog walking.

Not only did the kids and I house sit for my sister a week or so ago, but we also signed up to walk her dog Oscar while there. Oscar is a big old Beagle that just kinda lopes through life. Not much phases this dog except a walk. This is when he really comes alive. The kids love going on walks, be it a nature walk or just around the bend for some fresh air. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can take more walks together. Here's some snapshots of our walk with Oscar, oh and our dog Daisy.

Mackenzie decided to take charge of Oscar while on the walk, while I took charge of a crazy Daisy that decided to have an asthma attack every 5 steps, and she doesn't even have asthma. Makenzie got the easy part of this walk. :)

Isaac on the start of our walk. He was very focused; on what I'm still not sure.

The only thing that Oscar every really acknowledge on our entire walk. He actually stopped, leaned towards her as far as the leash would allow him and whined for a bit. She whined and even wagged her body right back at him. I think it was love.

 

Our walk turned into a nature collection for Evan Grace. Rocks, leaves, and a long stick all came back to the house with us. She was very pleased with her stash.

Mackenzie had to tie her shoe lace so we took a quick stop to let her lace up and to let Daisy try and recover from another asthma attack..jeesh....some of the neighbors that were out washing their cars had started looking at her at this point.

Though you can't tell it in this picture, Isaac took along a waterbottle that came with his back pack. Every few steps he would stop to sprinkle water onto grass, plants, sometimes a mailbox, claiming that he was helping things grow again. He was very busy and committed to bringing things back to life.

We saw a pretty Siamese cat on our walk. She/He didn't much care for us, hence the looking down at her paws as we pass by and take her picture. So snotty.

It was a fun walk, the only one that seemed to be done in from all the activities was Daisy and I think that's simple because she wanted to turn the walk into a drama fest!! She's such a princess.