Elia and James Showered With Love

Elia and Brother James are welcoming a little girl in July. 

We are all so excited we could not help but take this time to celebrate.

The proud parents to be.

Marie and I assemble handmade decorations. Little Olivia is a really good helper.

Super easy Scalloped Doily Bunting Banner with gold and pink vintage paper doilies. 

These are glued on pink and white bakers string.

Handmade paper Popsicle Stick Votive's, Tissue Paper Flowers, Popsicle Soaps and Paper Straws and Grandmas Vintage China.

Yummy food and Marie's homemade Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes. Mama to be is loving Chocolate right now. Who are we kidding. Loving Chocolate all the time, I am sure.

Elia giving the new wardrobe a fit test.

James giving some love to babies favorite new toy.

 A stuffed yellow lab that looks just like Lucy. His first baby.

We are all so happy for you guys. You are going to be wonderful loving parents. Congratulations!

P.S. Thanks for sharing the babies name. Your secret is safe with me.

Put a Bird on it and Call it Art

Hello spring! What? You can't hear me through the pounding of the rain, the blowing of the wind, the snow drifts and fog.

I remember being a little girl and putting on my snow boots with my brand new Easter dress (that mom would make for us girls every year) to hunt eggs in the front yard Easter morning. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Today I treasure Easter by collecting vintage Easter items and displaying them all year.                

This year I am all jazzed for Easter. Us siblings are all gathering to celebrate in our parents new house for the first time. New house means new memories.  Little Olivia is going to color and hunt her first Easter eggs in Gran and Grandpa's front yard in her little Easter dress. (and possibly snow boots)  I wonder if the Easter Bunny will be spotted re-hiding the colored eggs during breakfast like when were kids? Very suspicious that bunny. But it sure was fun having a second back yard hunt.  

A family get together and a holiday give me a pretty good reason to buy butterscotch chips. What am I going to do with these chips?

      Bird Nest Cookies

I found some Snyder's Gluten Free Pretzels for the nest and used these cute Cadbury Mini Eggs. I think they are super cute. I hope they all make it till Easter.

I Make Homemade Bread Now

Homemade Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I have used this recipe to make bread three times. Every time it was delicious.  Beautiful? Not so much. The first two batches (not included in the the "make bread three times") ended up in the trash. Tip #1 Use All Purpose Flour and not Pastry Flour. Tip #2 Use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water. Or you may kill your yeast and your dough will not rise as this beautiful bowl of dough did.

Look how big it is!

Beautiful Not/ Tasty Yes

Did you notice the Lodge Cast Iron Bread Pans?

lodge is still made in the USA and

I am in love!

Freezer Meal Favorites

Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Shells

I made two of these at once. Made one for lunch and put one in the freezer for dinner during the week. They were a hit and even turned out perfect the first time. A rare occasion for me.

Homemade Pizza Dough

We found this pizza stone at the thrift store for five dollars. It replaced the one that started on fire then broke in three pieces a while back. My kitchen skills are lacking. But I have dreams of doing big things in the kitchen. I will get there one pizza at a time. 

Konad- My new obsession!

Look at my Kool Konad Knit nails!

Nicole by OPI- Kloe Had a Little Lam Lam

OPI- French Quarter for your Thoughts

Konad M69

Maybe it's me

Maybe it's me, maybe it's the New Year or maybe it's Pinterest that has got me doing and thinking all kinds of crazy things these days.

Thank you Pinterest for giving me a way to organize all of the products, ideas and things I love in picture form. Now I don't have to remember why I booked marked all of those web sights anymore. Now why didn't I think of that.

I am all excited about frozen crock-pot meals right now. The idea of having hot dinner waiting for us when we get home really works for us. I got this inspiration from this blog.
                                                               MammaAndBabyLove

She does all of her cooking once a month! OMG!

First we needed a new crock-pot. I bigger one that is programmable. Would you believe that we found 5qt crock-pots on sale at Macy's for $9.99. I grabbed two crock-pots and some of Martha Stewart glass-lock food storage containers and a chocolate bar. Used my $15.00 off coupon and got my crock-pots of $3.50 each.

Crock-Pot Lasagna &

Baked Potatoes &

It took hours.

Yet, I was able to reduce a weeks worth of groceries to a mere few inches.

Now let's hope we like crock-pot food.

Happy New Year!