She Likes To Paint

What’s a fourteen year-old to do all summer long? Too young for a job…too old to “play” the day away with neighborhood friends. My fourteen year-old likes to spend part of her days painting. Her favorite things to paint are cards.

These thank you cards were made for her Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle, to thank them for taking her on a recent trip to North Carolina. Her Aunt called her today to thank her for the card and told her she didn’t even realize it was hand-painted until she flipped it over and saw “Designed by Cassie” on the back. She was amazed at how professional it looked.

She finished this Birthday card just in time for her Dad’s B-day today! (Happy Birthday Steve!) She went with a beach theme in honor of our upcoming vacation to the coast of Maine! I love how she adds an image that coordinates with the theme of the card on the back. I like this one so much, I’ve asked her to paint something similar on a small canvas for me to display.

There was also a Get Well card for her Grandpa who broke his leg last week, but I didn’t get a chance to photograph that one before it went out the door. It was cute, it had monkeys hanging in a tree with bananas and said, “Hang in there and get well soon”.

I like that she likes to paint…and so do the recipients of her cards!

A Tall Glass of Lemonade

This yellow mum reminds me of a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer day!

I love the combination of soft green and yellow with crisp white. Mother nature sure knows what she’s doing when it comes to color!

What’s For Dessert?

“What’s for dessert?”. That’s the question posed everyday after dinner. One would think it would be the children asking this question, but it’s not, it’s my husband. When we were first married, this question would irritate me. Here I had just made him dinner and now he wants dessert too! Growing up, we only had dessert on special occasions. Not my husband, his family had dessert everyday. We’ve been married 15 years and even though he continues to ask for dessert the idea of dessert everyday never really stuck with me. Thank goodness too, I’d be a very large woman if it had! Every now and then, however I “treat” him, and the kids, to a surprise dessert. This earns me points and reminds him of how lucky he is to have such a wonderful wife!

His favorite? Peanut butter pie!

This is a frozen version, not baked, making it a perfect choice on a hot summer day!

Here’s the how too:

Note: This recipe makes enough for 3 pies. Yes, I said 3! I just keep them frozen until we are ready to eat them. Besides, having a pie in the freezer has saved me on more than one occasion when company has stopped by unexpectedly.

Ingredients:

3 store bought graham cracker pie crusts. (Or try the Oreo crusts, those are good too!
2/3 C. Crunchy Peanut Butter
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 C. milk
2 C. Confectioners Sugar
16 oz. Cool Whip
Resese’s Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate syrup

Combine the peanut butter, cream cheese, milk and confectioners sugar. Fold in the cool whip, and pour into graham cracker pie crusts. Top with chopped peanut butter cups and drizzle chocolate syrup over the top. Cover and freeze at least 10 hours. Let sit for 15 minutes at room temperature before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!

Vintage 4th Of July

This photo was taken on July 4th of 1976! The bicentennial of the USA. The picture is of my siblings and myself dress-up in costumes my mother handmade for us. I don’t remember too much from that day, I was only six years old, but I can remember the town I lived in had a huge bell that they would pull through town ringing very early in the morning every 4th of July. My mom would always ask us in the morning if we heard the bell go by. I asked my mom this year about the bell and what happened that they stopped ringing it, but she didn’t know, she had forgotten about it until I mentioned it. My kids laughed when they saw this photo, then they said that it must have been fun to grow up in the Seventies and Eighties, to which I said, ” It was!”.

Happy 4th!

A few of the reasons why I love the 4th of July:

Children dressed in red, white and blue.

American flags everywhere!

Parades, sirens and candy.

Grilled food.

All kinds of patriotic desserts.

Music, glow sticks and best of all…

one spectacular fireworks show!

The Starving Crafter

Just wanted to share with you a new site I stumbled upon. The Starving Crafter calls itself “A place to find the latest opportunities for artists, crafters, designers, and makers”. Its a nice collection of resources for all you “creatives” out there. Resources like places to sell your work, social networks to talk about selling your work and how to submit your ideas to magazines. There are also links to a ton of contests you can enter to have your work recognized and possibly even win some $$$. Check it out!

Curiousity!

Remember this? It’s the $2 ring I got at a garage sale a few weeks back. I’ve worn it a few times and every time have received several compliments on it. I got a little curious about the history of the ring, so I decided to do a little research. The inside of the band on the ring is marked “Emmons”. After a very brief Google search, I found that the Emmons company is the sister company to Sarah Coventry. It’s no doubt I was drawn to it, since I’ve been collecting Sarah Coventry pieces for a few years now. Both companies were started by Charles Stuart in the late ’40’s. Both the Emmons and Sarah Coventry pieces of jewelry are considered collectible and vintage, with the Emmons pieces considered more rare. Named after Stuart’s wife, Caroline Emmons, most of the pieces were costume and sold at home parties. My piece is post 1955, since it has a copyright symbol with the name. The ring is probably only worth about $10, but the history behind the ring is what makes it valuable to me!

Crochet For Baby

If you are my sister Michelle, look away immediately! Everyone else, prepare yourself for some slightly tacky yet oh-so-cute, crochet for baby.

First up, a turkey bib. My sister’s baby is due in the fall and what kind of Aunt would I be if I didn’t provide him with something fashionable to wear to all of those fall holiday gatherings?

Speaking of holiday gatherings, here is another bib for the winter holidays. Even though my sister and her husband now live in North Carolina, where there aren’t too many snowmen, I again, would be a bad Aunt if I didn’t at least provide my future nephew with some kind of reminder of his Buffalo roots.

And last but not least, more fall inspired cuteness, an acorn hat with matching booties.

There will be a blanket too, but since I’m only on row 8 of a million or so, I’ll wait to share that one!

Intense!

The afternoon started with thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

It even did this for about five minutes!

Then as things cleared later in the day, mother nature treated us to the most beautiful…

…double one of these!

And, a very intense…

…one of these!

Birthday Boy

My “baby” turns 11 today! Happy Birthday bud! Not a little boy anymore, yet not quite a teen, I think it’s my favorite age, he’s independent yet not embarrassed  to show affection. Eager to learn, doesn’t think he knows everything. Still gets up early, no sleeping until noon and most importantly, although he thinks some of the girls in his class are cute, mom still gets the number one spot in his heart!