I LOVE Green!!!

There is no doubt about it! Green truly is my favorite color!! For me, it is the new black. It serves as a neutral but also makes things "pop". And so, I am almost always giddy when I have my St. Pat's decorating finished. I have even managed to find a few new goodies this year. Still looking for some frames but not finding them at my usual haunts-maybe a field trip is in order?!

Let's start where we always start. I must apologize-I don't think I really changed up a lot in the living room this year but I like it the way it is!

I've actually stopped using some of the garlands that I have made but I still like the way this vintage card garland that I made a number of years ago looks on this tin tile mirror-and yes, I am leaving the mirror up for one more holiday. Apparently I bought this new piece of furniture not quite a year ago. I think I have wreaths to cover the wall above starting for Easter and going through the rest of the year but I discovered Valentines was lacking a wreath and now, so is St. Pats. I just don't need yet another wreath to store so...

I am still loving my leprechaun hat arrangement. Believe it or not, several years ago my blog got hundreds of hits in a day-which is lovely but not a common occurrence. When I tried to figure out why, I discovered that another blogger who features crafts for kids had featured this project on her St. Pat's site and it just went crazy. It continues to be my most widely read post to date-even when it is not where near St. Patrick's Day-it has gotten 76 hits already this week! Just goes to show you how these posts can travel!

When I went to pull out my green and white hydrangeas, I found this arrangement with the burlap bow. I'm pretty sure I made it last year and it must have been after I took all of my pictures because I can't see where I used it last year...nor, can I begin to remember! And so, because I have this burlap subway art and a lamp with a burlap shade in this room, I decided to use it in here. And, since there was already a mercury glass candle holder in this vignette, I stuck it lovingly placed it in this large PB mercury glass vase...and, I can't begin to imagine anywhere else it would look better...meant to be!!

So that is the living room all done up in its St. Pat's finery!

And, as always, as I'm looking for new decor, I'm also keeping my eyes open for holiday crafts, food and baking ideas and goodies theme related. I found a few things on my last trip out but I know there will be more to come. Stay tuned.

Can Spring Be Far Behind?

Our weather has been really perfect of late-warm days, cool evenings and just enough rain to keep everything looking green and beautiful. I am chomping at the bit to get out into the yard for a few days but I wanted to get my Valentine's put away, St. Pat's out and everything put back in its rightful place first.

We did do a bit of goofing off as our Valentine's gift to each other-lunches out and visits to places we don't get to often enough these days. Plus, we hit a few walking trails in this beautiful weather. And, of course, everywhere we went, I looked for spring flowers. I love irises, daffodils, tulips, etc. and I was lucky enough to fill my house with them for the last few weeks.

The hyacinths and stock give the house the most amazing garden fragrance and what the irises and tulips lack in fragrance, they make up for in beauty! I am always a happy camper when these beauties are here for a visit. Even my grand children asked me about the "smell" this weekend.

And so, I have been using the last few days to regroup and somehow have lucked into a happy discovery. I am always striving to be better organized-mainly because it really saves so much time. But, I have LOTS of stuff-mostly seasonal and holiday. And even though I have a fairly large house with a good bit of storage, it never seemed like I had enough room for everything to have its own place. Therefore, I played the "moving" game all of the time-move this to get to that, move that to find this...lots and lots of time wasted moving and looking. But, like serendipity, when I started to get out St. Pat's, I found I had all of the green in one spot and still had lots of empty space for the red to return. I am kind of doing a happy dance right now because I just came in from the garage and everything is in a place by color and there is lots of EMPTY shelf space for the green when it has served its time. I have been wanting this ever since the shelves were built but never achieved it. I truly am not sure how I managed to accomplish it now, but I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Now, I am off to see if I can do the same things with all of my candles...and to head to the garden to dig up some shamrocks for the holiday. Next time I post, I should be ready to start sharing the latest St. Pat's decor and maybe share some craft ideas that I am just beginning to work on. Stay tuned.

"And It's Still Not Over"

I'm taking a few minutes to get this post out before we move on to more Valentine's Day fun. Our kids' weekend at Nana & Papa's house is now over and we sure had a fun-filled time!

I seriously scored a home-run with these shirts. Presley loved that hers was a bit more "girly" than usual and the boys LOVED that they could "paintball" theirs up. They both told me they would wear them to school-as opposed to weekend or nighttime wear that usually happens with the shirts we make. Score one for Nana!

So, in keeping with my prep mantra, I bagged up the "red-hot" popcorn ahead of time. This is soooo yummy, but not something I ever do with the kids because it involves 5 minutes of boiling sugar! Then, I pre-baked two thin, red cakes for our "surprise" cupcakes. The kids could easily have done this, but we had a lot of other baking on the agenda so I figured I would get this out of the way!

First order of the day was making the shirts. These were really so easy. I just made sure and put some aluminum foil inside shirts, put small amounts of paint mixed with textile medium in cake pans, got out the cookie cutters, showed them what to do and got out of the way! The boys liked their shirts but when I suggested that they "paintball" them up, they LOVED them.

While the shirts dried, they had to prepare the surprise for the cupcakes...

...which lead to lots of cake scraps and, of course, the "need" to eat them before they even had a chance to think about getting stale.

Then we were on to baking the cupcakes. Thanks goodness this recipe called for three eggs as these kids fight over the breaking eggs job!

I planned a pretty simple lunch because we had so many other projects still to do. We did the "no-brainer" heart shaped sandwiches-and I truly know they are growing up as two of them wanted the ham and provolone and the other Cajun turkey and Swiss...no more PB & J for this gang-, fruit kabob arrows, chips and the choice of Little Debbie or Hostess Valentine snack cakes! It was actually a hit of a meal and all plates were emptied.

Next came the time to frost our cupcakes. We made the same delicious mint butter cream frosting that we used for our rainbow St. Pat's cupcakes except we tinted it pink. And, of course, we always need a taster for quality control.

These kids do this type of thing with me so often that they have the drill down pat. I demonstrate a step, pass along to the next in line and so on and so on until we have this...

With the cupcakes finished, we moved along to our photo holder project. Don' ask me why, but all three kids thought these were cool so I had their undivided attention. They sanded their wooden blocks, painted them red, and chose their vintage Valentine images that I had printed in appropriate sizes. They surprised me on this...good thing I didn't place any bets. I was sure Presley would choose the "romantic" images and the boys would go more for the comic, school swap look. Boy was I wrong! Both boys wanted the authentic and Presley was the only one who went with the cutesy look...go figure?! They put their images on with a few coats of Mod Podge and when that was dry, they twisted a piece of wire into a picture holder shape and then got to use my Dremel to drill a hole in the center. After that, we were off to take some pictures that we could put in our holders to send home as gifts for Mom and Dad.

I pulled out the props and the kids were good sports but we decided that these were just a bit too goofy...even for me!

So we went with these instead!

The kids have a favorite tradition of making pink chocolate chip cookies. I thought maybe we would forgo that tradition this year and save the supplies to try green chocolate chips for St. Pat's but they were having none of that! While Presley opted out to play with Legos, the two boys got busy and baked.  

 

We had had a busy day so it was time to get ready for dinner. We made individual pizzas-which are always good because then each one can customize to their own liking-, broccoli and "heart" strawberries. Dinner was yummy but the kids were extra anxious for dessert.

Our yummy dessert...wait for it, wait for it...

Voila! Boy were we proud of ourselves!! It's the simple things-lol.

Then we were on to an evening of games-Valentine's themed "Minute-to-Win-It", "Head Banz" and "Hidden Pictures". What fun we had!!

I decide to make heart shaped pink pancakes for breakfast - the "real" way this year. Usually I free-form them and they come out very impressionistic! I soon discovered that although this was not hard, since I only had one cutter the size I needed that this would take awhile. Plan B-one heart shaped pancake for each and just pink pancakes for seconds. This really wasn't a problem because the heart pancake was so large, only Harrison could eat seconds.

And then what we had all been waiting for for so long-the chance to meet the newest addition to our family-Hazel Hoochie Holland.

 This was truly a day of love. Our hearts are all so full with the addition of this little sweetheart. The kids are so excited. They have waited a long time.

Hubby and I also got to squeeze in a quick trip out of town and lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. We actually prefer celebrating before the big day when things are not as crowded. Then we hit a few more of our favorite haunts before heading home to get ready for the kids' visit. And now Valentine's Day 2016 is in the memory book but, have no fear, I am ready to dive into St. Patrick's Day. One more cup of coffee and I will be ready to go. Stay tuned.

Pinch Me!!

No, I'm not getting ready for St. Patrick's Day just yet-although I will admit to thinking about it, looking at last year's decor and projects and buying a few cute things already. I am talking about where I found myself yesterday!

I truly thought I had died and gone to heaven. This is the place dreams are made of-a beautiful yard full of miles and miles of granite-or so it seemed.

I have dreamed of putting granite in our master bath and our kitchen for years. Our house is 43 years old. We have updated it frequently so none of the original Formica remains but I have been wanting the granite ever since it came into fashion. I just love the look and feel of it.

Our kitchen will be a pretty large project and we are not ready to start that just yet, but it is time to do the bathroom. We have changed out everything in this room more than once except for the original blue tub and surround. I truly can't believe it is still there but it is just one of those things. I have found beautiful shower curtains that work with the color but don't emphasis it and I have been OK. But now we have a drip issue in the tub faucet and I just didn't want to buy a new faucet for this ugly tub. I thought about just changing the tub but then our kids suggested a walk-in shower for this bathroom instead. Probably not a bad idea as hubby has two knee replacements and I'm not getting any younger myself! Of course, that means new tile and if we are doing that, then how about a new vanity and then why not a new floor...well, you get the picture.

Lucky for us, our youngest daughter has established herself as quite a successful and sought after decorator here in town and she does these renos every day so she is guiding us along. She has beautiful taste but is enough of a good decorator that she knows what we like before we really even know we do. Case in point, the granite choice. I started by picking out what I "thought" I liked but she wasn't necessarily enamored with any of my choices. She explained why and before I knew it, I had honed in on the perfect piece and she tells me that was what she had been thinking of all along. So not where I started, but I love it.

The colors are off in this picture but it has bits of a soft misty green, gray, taupe and soft white. I think it will play in with all of our other choices so far. It is going to be a bit of a spa-like feel but grounded with pops of dark woods.

The cabinet is a soft white with a chocolate glaze. It is going to have lots of drawers and a cabinet to the ceiling so I am hoping that will hide all of our ugly stuff and we can have open shelving in other areas. This is not a huge space, so I am excited to see what designer secrets she has up her sleeve to make this gorgeous!

And then, daughter #1 is coming to help us work her magic on some barn doors in our family room. I have also been dreaming of this for awhile...guess maybe dreams can come true. So excited!! Stay tuned.