Fabric Flower Necklace

Ok I have been dying to make one of these for a long time now and finally got around to it!!

I was so excited to show my husband and see what he thought when I was finished!! 

Well when I showed it to him, he told me

it reminded him of a medal... and not a "necklace" he is used to!

(in the nicest way possible)

Awesome

Well medal or no medal, here is my "necklace" or bib as many call them

made especially for some upcoming family reunion pictures!

I got some inspiration and instructions here

try one, I dare you... you will get addicted!!!

Can't wait to make some more!!

Breakfast Casserole

Or in our family.... it's called Christmas Morning Casserole

This is such a great recipe and one we have EVERY Christmas morning, and it never lets us down!! This would be great to bring to an 4th of July breakfast!!!

prep time: 30 min   Cooking Time 1.5hrs  Preheat oven to 300

 Cube and remove crust of 10-12 slices of white bread

Place in 9X13 dish. 

Top with 2 c grated cheese

Brown (and drain) one pound sausage, cut into pieces and arrange over cheese

Beat 4 eggs with 2 and 1/4 Cup Milk and 1/4T dry mustard- Pour over cheese/sausage

Refrigerate overnight (a couple hours works great too, believe me- I've done it many times!)

In morning, dilute 1 can of cream of mushroom soup with 1/2 cup of milk. 

Pour over pan and bake at 300 for 1.5 hr

cubed ham is also a great addition to the recipe!!

enjoy

Growth Chart

I saw this great idea here....

so I decided to try it out on my own

here are the results!!

(I started at 2 feet and will hang it that high so I could go up to 5 and a half ft instead of 4 ft)

Can't wait to get this hung in my son's room and start tracking his height!! Such a fun project

Italian Crock Pot Chicken

I am sure most of you have this recipe... and if you dont- consider this your lucky day because its

 F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S

and its in the crockpot... can't get any better

Add all ingredients together in Crock Pot and cook on low for 6 hrs

(I half the recipe for my little family of 3 and still have leftovers, well sometimes!)

8 chicken breasts

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 pkg Good Seasons Italian Drsg

fill one soup can with milk

Stir Occasionally

before serving add one 8 oz pkg of cream cheese (don't forget this!!)

Stir again

Served great with rice or noodles.

enjoy

Fathers Day Cards

Here is a fun Fathers Day card idea (Thanks to Martha) I found the idea and directions here

(if the directions confused you... don't worry, the confused me too!! Just search on YouTube for instructions on how to fold an origami shirt- there are so many out there!! That helped me)

Anyway here are some of the ones I took to a card party!!

Can't wait to give some away to the wonderful men in my life!!

here are some other fun card ideas

here,

here, 

and 

here

Rhodes Bread sticks

Here is a delicious side to add to your meal

Rhodes Breadsticks

What you need are some Rhodes Rolls loafs

(each loaf will make about 8 bread sticks)

Some melted butter

Garlic Bread Sprinkle (shaker)

Salad Supreme (shaker)

Thaw loaves

Cut in half length wise, then again and again until you have 8 long strips. 

Dip the strips in butter

Line on the baking sheet

Sprinkle with your spices

Place in a warm spot to rise- allow around 2 hrs or so

Preheat oven to 350

Cook for about 14 min

They are delicious

We just had them with this and this....... a perfect and tasty combination

Enjoy!!

Collections...

While I was at a friends house recently, I came across her huge collection of souvenir spoons. I was blown away. She had them all beautifully organized to display on the wall. I just loved them and enjoyed hearing about how she acquired many of them and all the fun places they were from. This inspired me and made me look at my own personal collections.

Throughout my life I have collected many things.

I once had a journal where after my entry, would put something from the day into it.  I was young and while many of the keepsakes were movie stubs, bandaids, leaves, or receipts (yeah kinda weird, but hey, I was little!)- I LOVED doing it at the time! It is quite hilarious going back through it now!

My next big collection during my elementary/and sadly Jr high days were pigs.(no not real pigs, but pretty much anything else). My very cool aunt collected them so I of course had to copy. Pretty soon, my shelves were filled with pig figurines, my feet were in pig slippers and I was writing notes to friends in school on "pig" stationary. Later on I added sunflowers to the mix. I remember the day when I got a lamp that had both a pig and sunflowers on it/ that was a good day.

I have had many other collections over the years

Magnets

Ornaments (my dream is to have a little Christmas tree just with

ornaments from places around the world)

Advent Calendars

Nativities

and I guess a recent collection of fabric, felt, and thread, Thomas the Train engines, and books could be added to the list!

My dad likes to collect stamps, my mom and aunt- nutcrackers, my grandpa- stones

So my question is, what do you like to collect??

Is there something you are always on the look out for?

Or a certain souvenir you can never pass up on a vacation?

I would love to know, and who knows, I may just have to copy you!!

You can never collect too many things!

Gone Fishin

This project was so much fun. Even my husband was excited about this one. 

I saw the idea at- Deck the Halls of Home with Joy

My friend and I had previously been talking about how we wanted to make a little fishing set

and were so excited when we came across this great idea and tutorial.

We got together and went to work

(I must say doing crafts with friends is so much better than doing them by yourself) 

end result:

my son LOVES these

He asks to fish all the time

and believe me

 this makes for a happy fisherman husband

Spice/Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

If you are a pumpkin LOVER like me, you will love this recipe. 

1- Because its amazing

2-Because its Healthy! (If you are into Weight Watchers, I think these muffins are about 2 points each)

3- Because its just so easy to make

Spice/Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

Prep 5 min Cooking Time 20 Min. Preheat 350

1 Box Spice or Chocolate Cake Mix

1 small can of pumpkin

1/2 Cup water

1/2 bag chocolate chips 

Mix together

Place in Muffin liners

Bake for 20 min 

Makes about 24 Muffins

so so good and moist. Pretty sure I need to make them tomorrow!

Fabric Panel Car Mat

I had been staring and wondering what to do with this fabric for awhile

I decided, last week, that it needed to be a car mat.

 My friend's little boy turned one recently and thought it (with some play cars) would be a fun gift to give. 

The process was quite simple

 Placed panel on the top

Batting in the middle 

and a layer of corduroy on the bottom

Stitched and bound together!

I was happy with how it turned out!!

Now I need to get the motivation to make my son one

He was pretty sad when we gave it away!!