Last minute fun

Can you believe our summer vacation is almost over. My kids start back to school MONDAY!!! They only get a 2 month summer break ...during the school year they get a 1 week break every 6 weeks. I actually love this schedule, it's just a little sad getting them ready to go back. So, yesterday we came up north to Buford, Georgia, still the Atlanta area but over an hour from our house. I use to think this was hillbilly country....boy was I WRONG!!! This is where The Mall Of Georgia is and the best scrapbook store I have ever been to in my life. The McDonald's we went to had white columns and chandeliers. This was all Steve's idea to bring us on this little getaway. He has always been a spur of the moment kind of guy. One time back in 2003 while living in Germany and a few days before he was about to be shipped to Iraq, he had come home from work early with a rented Jag. We quickly strapped our 2 little ones in the back and off we went traveling in style around Europe. He has always done these things and I need to make sure I appreciate him for it. Anyway here we are now living it up again. Yesterday we went to an Atlanta Falcons practice(NFL training camp) right by here in Flowery Branch. Today I went to my scrapbook store and we went to Lake Lanier. Tomorrow we are going to another Falcons scrimmage.

The kids got a few good autographs.

Thank goodness for computers...something to do while I am sitting in the dark so my kids can get to sleep.

Almost Fried Chicken

This recipe came from my friend Leslie. It's one of my families favorites!

She gave me this recipe a long time ago and I never wrote it down, but here is what works for me:

3-4 chicken breasts

2 cups rice krispie cereal

1 tsp. paprika

salt and pepper

In a large bag crunch up cereal with seasonings. Dip chicken into egg then roll in cereal mixture. Bake on a lightly greased pan at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. MM good!

These are two of my favorite books EVER!!! I don't do a ton of reading...but I do love to read these, over and over again. Alexandra Stoddard writes beautiful books. They have really helped me. I only own 3 of her books. My mom has them all. She is the one who recommended them to me. Under the title of Living a Beautiful Life it reads: 500 ways to add elegance, order, beauty and joy to every day of your life. Under the title of Creating a Beautiful Home it reads: From starting fresh to freshening up-Creative ideas to help you turn your house into a warm and welcoming home.

kitcheny stuff...

I love to watch TV at night. September can't come soon enough as far as all my favorite shows coming back on. My rule is, whenever I watch TV I either have to be cleaning up, stitching or doing some type of crafting. Well last night while watching my favorite Sunday night show Army Wives, I made these most beautiful apron cards. I had seen them on a few different blogs and they have been on my wish list of things to make since the beginning of the summer. Here is a link to a tutorial http://zanynotcrazy.blogspot.com/2008/04/apron-tutorial.html.

Over the weekend we had family visit. I love to cook and always like to have some kind of homemade dessert to eat. Well this time I just didn't have enough time for much, so I made my favorite/the easiest cookies in the world...rice krispies treats. If you just add a fancy toothpick and some silver they look stunning!

One of my husbands favorite desserts is banana pudding and vanilla wafers. Last night after dinner, we had these cute and yummy little pies. My kids of course thought they were the coolest thing...they loved getting a whole pie. :)

TGIF!!!

Phew, the week is over and I am tired but love having my new blog and thought what the heck I might as well get on here. I need to be cleaning or doing something other than being on here...my Mother-in-Law, her mom(Great Grandma) and my sister-in-law and her kids are coming up for a visit this weekend. We just got home from the State Championship game for the Little League for the state of Georgia....Warner Robins took it again for anyone else who gets excited over that stuff. Our Governor, Sonny Purdue played on the Warner Robins team when he was younger. He was there tonight watching the game and shaking hands with anyone who went up to him...I thought that was cool.

Yesterday we went to The Plum Tree to drop of the pillows I had made.

Both my mom and Steve's mom celebrate their birthdays during the first week of Aug. They both love when I make them stuff, so I had to come up with something for this year...Explosion books! My friend Bethany, who was one of my neighbors in Germany made one of these for me and gave me the directions too of course. They are fun to make with bright papers and pictures too. I just thought both of our moms might like these. I am really into sepia and black and white pictures right now.

enjoying the lazy days of summer

My kids have been eating breakfast outside. Making forts to play in and to read their Magic Tree House books in.

Madi has even been doing a little baking herself:)

Today I have been busy sewing some pillows together for the Plum Tree.

Here is my new favorite picture of my kids. Last month our Target was running a little special for some all-American/military pictures. Look at Madi, Steve's shirt is a HUGE dress on her.
I really seem to luck out getting good pictures from Walmart and Target. Well I have never used Walmart for pictures here in the United States but in Germany they did a great job.

Hurry Hurry!

Hurry hurry, it's only today the 22 of July. My super creative friend Amber is being featured today on Tip Junkie. To win her Americana homemade crafts all you have to do is leave a comment on the Tip Junkie blog...good luck!
Here is the link to Tip Junkie.
http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com/2008/07/20-day-giveaway-amber.html

Monograms and weekend fun

This monogram idea comes from Shannon over at Bless our Nest. She did a post on framing things other than pictures. One of her ideas was to print out your monogram and to frame it. I LOVED the idea. After printing mine out of course I stitched it before framing it. Here is the link so you can see her other fun ideas . http://thedavisfamilynwa.blogspot.com/2008/05/frame-it.html

Here is a monogram t-shirt I made for Madi. It is just a $3 tee from Walmart and about a whole 3 cents worth of thread. She loves it and I love the idea I made it for so cheap.

This weekend we went to watch a few games of the Little League Baseball state finals in Decatur. Of course we watched the 2007 Little League World Champions....from Warner Robbins, Ga play and win, in hopes of going far again this year. Ben and Madi enjoyed watching these kids they had watched on TV last year beat Japan for the title. In their book they are celebrities. We stayed for 5 hours and still had to pry our kids out of the ballpark. They are Steve's kids!

Card group and cards

Yesterday my card group cards came in the mail. It's like Christmas getting to open that big envelope every month. For about a year now I have been having fun making cards for this group. There are six of us girls and we all live in different states. At the beginning of the month we are given a theme and an ultimate challenge to work with and then they are due by the end of the month. Everyone mails the 6 identical cards they made to my friend Amber, she divides them up and mails them out to each of us, so we all get 5 new cards with super fun ideas.

This months theme was to make a baby girl card with the ultimate challenge being to add lace. Here is a picture of what I came up with.

Here are some of the cards the other girls made.

The other day I started working on my Halloween cards because I had gotten some neat paper from Rusty Pickle at the Expo and couldn't wait to start them. My kids LOVE to make cards, both of them. Here is a picture of the card Ben made using his new paper.

And last but not least...here is a yummy card I made last week. Thought it would be fun to tie to a candy bar and viola you have a cute little gift.

Whistle Stop Cafe

Can I tell you how much I love Georgia! The whole state is beautiful...we have mountains and lots of rolling hills, lakes and rivers, big cities and little cities, more trees than I have ever seen in my life and the beach. Today we took the prettiest ride on the back roads to Juliette, Georgia, the backdrop to the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and home to the famous Whistle Stop Cafe. This quaint little town, I mean teeny tiny town is only 40 minutes from our house, I can't believe it took us this long to finally go visit. It was so fun, I loved it there!

Since we were so close to Macon we called the kids cousins to see if they wanted to play. Hunter was at his friend's house, so we just picked up Haley and DeeDee. We had stopped at a gas stations for a snack and the kids picked up these candy cigarettes. This picture cracked us up. All those kids do are giggle together anyway.



We ended up going to Warner Robbins AFB to eat and then did a little shopping at their BX. Madi and Haley got 2 matching shirts that they are planning to wear on their next get together. Girls and their clothes!

Almost famous

When I first moved to Georgia, I fell in love with the best little antique store. After going in there so much, I quickly became friends with the owner. After a few months of friendship Cindy said it would be great if I tried selling some of my homemade cards in her store and I was thrilled. Well one day some girls who work for the Scoop Magazine(Atlanta magazine) were in The Plum Tree and saw my stitcheries and cards and liked them enough to ask me to be their featured artist for the June\July issue. This has been so cool for me. Thank you Cindy for opening this whole world of fun for me...it's just a dream come true!

good memories and good food!

When I was 12 and in Young Women's we did a lot of recipe swapping. I am so glad we did. I still have all my handwritten recipes and love to use them and laugh at my handwriting from back in the day. Actually this recipe comes from my Aunt Terry. These beans have made me famous in the baked bean business all over the world...in all the states and countries I have lived. Per my friend Susy's (everyday gourmet) request I am posting the original copy of the recipe. As far as the recipe goes it's 1 large can or 2 small cans of the B&M beans. My only alteration is to add 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Bake at 350 for 1 hour with the lid off.

Ice cream anyone?

Love, love, love this paper. Someone out there has a blog that shows the cutest card they made with this same paper....so when I saw the paper yesterday at the Expo I had to snatch a few sheets. I had so much fun staying up until midnight last night making cards.

Okay everyone knows to stay clear of the commissary on a payday but what was up in there today?!? I went to Ft. Gillem today and when I walked into the commissary the line to check out was from the front to the back of the store, wrapped around the milk and cheese area, then down the row of meats to produce and then down that isle all the way to the deli by the front door. Can you believe I still did my shopping and then waited in line for 70 min. To tell you the truth it was actually a little fun. I had some really fun people standing in back of me and also the people in back of them joined the party too.

Atlanta Expo

I think I may have the sweetest husband. Today he chauffeured me to the Atlanta Srapbooking Expo an hour away from home. Not only that....he dropped me off for 3 hours of the best shopping, while he played with the kids and took them to McDonald's. I can't wait to get busy with some of my new goodies. It was amazing to see how many people love paper crafts.

Of course I had to stop by Rusty Pickle...they were my favorite stop last year.

Hey there is my friend Marsha working at the Expo.

These people had beautiful Halloween displays.










After all that shopping I was starved. So off to Dave and Buster's we went for some good food and all those games.
What a fun day! Now I am off to go look at my new paper and other gadgets.

Oh What do you do in the summertime?

Swim!!! Ben and Madi have been swimming almost everyday this summer. Whether it's at swimming lessons, a friends house or at 'our pool'. Our pool we have to share with our entire neighborhood but it's the kids favorite thing about our new house here...our neighborhood pool. Sometimes there are lots of kids there and sometimes we get the whole pool to ourselves. Last week my dad came for a visit. He rode his motorcycle all the way here from Washington DC. I think playing in the pool with Ben and Madi all weekend was his favorite thing to do too.

Mr. Patriotic and Ms. Independent...they can't get enough of PaPa's bike. PaPa did take them both for a cruise around the neighborhood.