Birthday celebration

In a few days, Dave's mother will celebrate her 75th birthday. Since we knew we wouldn't be going there for Easter, we thought it would be nice to get the family together and take the parents out for dinner. We made reservations at a place called the Machine Shed. Nineteen members of the family were able to gather.

As you can seen in the background, the Machine Shed has all kinds of old signs, farm implements and tools. Outside, they had some larger toys .


In addition, the siblings got Mom a bouquet of roses and a corsage.


Dave bought his own card for his mother, but I gave her my first attempt at making a 3-dimensional flower. They're supposed be Bachelor Buttons based on a tutorial at Crafters Kitchen, but mine aren't as nice looking.


Overall, we had a good trip. Here's a priceless picture of Barbara's expression when she saw the birthday cake they brought out at the restaurant. They actually brought two of these - and they were more than enough to feed all of us!!)

Winter smores and cupcakes

Last weekend Dave stopped at a local ice cream/chocolate shop. When he came home, he had something that looked like a smore-on-a-stick. He offered it to me, and it wasn't until the whole thing was in my mouth that I said "Oh. Di you wan sum?" "Uh - not anymore!" Oops. Actually, he really bought it for me so I could see what it was and try ourselves. We had fun making these - he'd dip one and then move off to roll in graham cracker crumbs while I started to dip. In no time, we had 30 of these done (don't ask me how many are left!) It took close to a whole bag of milk chocolate chips to make this many. I think ours may have ended up with more chocolate than the originals, and comparing the flavor, it almost seemed like theirs was the non-choc confectionary coating. We'll definitely have to make these again.


I keep saving ideas for awesome cards, but I need to start trying some of them. The idea for this card came from Inspirational Tips, Techniques & Tutorials. The site had templates to cut out the cupcakes layers, but i had a foam circle that was smaller than her cherry, so I decided to free-form my layers but using the pictures as a guide. This card really gave me a chance to try out several Cuttlebug embossing templates. I really enjoyed making it, and it went together much quicker than I expected.


This was for a friend that was turning 40. Dave thought her card should have been black and somber or something on that order - but I figured that she could easily get even with me when my big day comes this summer. Plus, I'm sure her daughter would enjoy seeing this card more.

Is it Spring yet?

I’m sick of winter, so this weekend’s warm weather feels like HEAVEN! We brought some of the deck chairs out so we could sit outside and enjoy the weather. I spent most of the time crocheting and Dave brought the laptop outside so he could listen to bird songs – both on the computer and in real life! We even had a robin calling back to the computer .

We had a couple of birds check out the old bird house, but apparently the “wife” wasn’t pleased with the location or interior because they didn’t stick around. I can’t remember the last time I saw a bluebird around here.

While sitting outside, I was finishing working on finishing testing a scarf. The pattern was developed by SmartCat (Tandy Imhoff). She's selling the pattern on Ravelry (you need to sign up on the site first to view it). I think this was one of the most difficult patterns I've ever done, trying to determine where the stitches went into the previous row. But it worked up beautifully! I made it with Caron Simply Soft yarn, so it's wonderfully soft and silky. Not sure what I'll do with it now... my model, Cindy doesn't get to keep it.



In other "news" - check out how many flowers are on this African violet. I took this plant to work last fall because it was looking rather sickly and I now have an east-facing window. A few weeks ago it actually had 10+ flowers all blooming at the same time. I decided to bring it home and take a different "sickly" plant back to work. (I'm running out of east-facing windows at home!)


I've decided maybe I should start show-casing some of the cards I make. But I might have to wait until the recipient gets the card to post it . I also hope people don't get jealous of each other's cards.
This used one of my favorite Stampin Up! sets with the miniature stamps, and I also used Creative Memories punches to make the bigger squares. This was made for one of my uncles.

Giraffe afghan

I took a couple of days vacation last week – partially to work on finances and taxes (didn’t finish) and also to finish this afghan:

I was asked by the pattern designer if I would like to test it for her.  She no longer has the pattern on her website to purchase because she’s trying to get it published, but she has other cute patterns at http://www.donnascrochetdesigns.com/.  Her version is pictured here:

She used Caron’s One Pound yarn almost exclusively.  I had a tough time finding all the “right” colors and Donna said she wouldn’t mind seeing it different colors.  So the background is the same Caron One Pound in Lace (although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the pictures, would you?)

The rest of the yarn is Red Heart Super Saver in Carrot (orange), Cafe (taupe) and Coffee (dark brown).

 

I made up all the spots to go around the edge (see all the spot pieces?!), but when I was finishing sewing them on this weekend I decided I’d rather do a simple border around the edge.  Without the outer spots, the afghan isn’t very big – but it’s quite heavy with all those layers!  Not sure what I’ll do with all those spots I have left over – maybe I’ll add them to the afghan later, but I think I need a break!

 

It sure felt like spring arrived this weekend – temps in the 40’s and 50’s, and bright, warm sunshine!  Gotta love it!  Dave de-winterized the trailer to make sure everything was working.  He discovered the pressure valve was broken – again.  But he found a relatively inexpensive replacement at Fleet Farm.  It should at least get him through the job he has today.  He slow-cooked ribs on the grill last night as a tribute to the weather.  We even ate outside.  I can’t wait until we start doing that every night again!

Busy birthday weekend

Saturday was my godchild's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe he's that old already! He loves to talk, and talk, and sing, and talk... Isn't he cute as a button?



As you can see - we had a wild and crazy birthday party!!

I learned that spending the weekend with three (and at times, five) rambunctious boys can be tiring... but also tons of fun! (that's Ethan, Levi, Jonah, Sam, and Caleb from left to right)


I had planned on only driving down for the afternoon, but how can you say no to such cute faces when asked to stay overnight?! So I did just that - stayed, played board games, hide-and-seek and Wii and went to church with the family this morning. It also gave my good friend Kristi and I a chance to catch up and spend time together. I am very proud of myself - we went to two different stores today that had yarn, and I didn't buy any!

Dave brought a new addition in our house today - temporarily. This is Rocko, an Australian Shepherd. We're taking care of him for a couple of days while his new owner has surgery. He's much cuter in person - his eyes look odd because of the flash. Today was his first day away from mom and siblings, so he's a little overwhelmed. But I think once he gets adjusted, he'll be a wonderful dog.