just a swingin'

it isn't very often that i get to take a picture this sweet. her highness and the hub being as happy as can be just swinging away in our back yard. it is times like these that i realize how blessed i am
earlier that day we went and had our photo taken for the church pictorial directory. i thought you might want to see what a sweet family i have.
we spent a good portion of saturday watering and looking around our yard. there were surprises around just about every corner. here are the tulips that the monkey wanted to plant. about 3 years ago we did a bunch of bulb planting, and we will enjoy the rewards for many years.
this is one of my yellow parrot tulips. i think they are beautiful. their petals looked like they have fringe on them. we planted several different colors, but the yellow are my favorite. looking around the yard we saw that the peonies have come up. my black irises should bloom within the next week or so, and all the little trees that we planted have little green buds on them.
here are the pictures of the pizzas from pizza night. we made 4 and took them over to nini's house for pizza night. the one closest to us has pepperoni, canadian bacon, bell peppers, and onions. the next is just cheese for the kiddos. the next one is pepperoni, bell pepper, and onion. the last one is pepperoni. we tried the new dough and it was beyond wonderful. so tasty.
here is a close up of one of the pizzas. sorry the pictures aren't that great, but i only had my camera phone with me to take pics.
yes, that is buford in the back ground, but look at the rosemary very carefully and you will spot butterflies. sunday after church we went outside to enjoy the beautiful day, and what did we see? tons of butterflies flitting here and there all around the yard. it seemed almost magical.
monkey pulled out her newly acquired bug catcher and caught one for us to see up close.
we let it go, but the girls were way excited about catching it. i hope that all of you had great weekends and are looking forward to another week of spring. our local nursery opens this coming weekend, and we can hardly control our enthusiasm.

o happy day

i love to cook, but have always been intimidated by yeast doughs. this past thanksgiving i was in charge of the rolls. they were delicious and we had enough dough to make a tea ring for breakfast. to the left you can see my second attempt at yeast dough. it is rosemary focaccia. the rosemary is from my garden.
last night after the hub and i put the girls down for a nap, i started the dough for pizza night. we have been doing friday night pizza night for about 6 years now. we started little caesars pizza. then we decided to make our own with the jiffy type mixes from the store, but they leave quite a bit to be desired. then i discovered that my bread machine has a dough setting and a recipe for pizza dough. that is what we have been using for the last 5 years or so. this evening we'll be using the new dough, so i hope that it tastes as good as the old standby. i'll try to remember pics, so you guys can see how it all turned out. i hope everyone has a great weekend.
things are looking up in everyone's world today. it appears as though the problems that i discussed yesterday may actually get resolved as early as today. PRAISE BE TOGOD.

the cute little orange bag i made yesterday was quickly claimed by her highness. then her highness brought me the polish and squealed "toes please". she now has lovely pink toes and a lovely orange bag.

you are the dancing queen, young and sweet

this past week has been a little rough. my best friend, who is really like a sister to me, has found herself in the position that all parents fear. i don't want to post details because it isn't my place, but please keep her and her family in your prayers. on a happier note i have been in a horrible funk since i got the news, so yesterday i decided to do something about it. i found a tutorial for this little bag on the craft mag blog.

and now for the rest of the story. the material for this bag is very sentimental. when i was 12 my granny took me to the fabric store in pville. she let me pick out the pattern and the material that i wanted. my favorite color is yellow, and i thought this would be pretty as a short and tank top for the summer. i hadn't finished it when i went to live with my sister. she didn't like it, so i never finished it. it has sat in a box unfinished ever since. i made a pink one for big 'uns. it was so easy and so much fun. it is the perfect size for all of my gum and candy that i carry in my purse.

i was listening to abba hence the title. sure signs that it is upon us :the hyacinth patch is in bloom. they are one of finches favorite flowers, so i planted a little patch of them by my roses.


another sign that spring has sprung: the elephants are frolicking in the yard. this is our newest addition. i have named him buford. her highness is attached to him already.
i have wanted this sweet fountain for about 5 years now. we bought him last week, and now he sits in the middle of my rose garden and splashes in the water.
it could be spring if there are chicks in the garage. these are "the girls." the same day we brought buford home we brought 20 red star little girls home. in about 8 months or so we will have more eggs than i know what to do with. the girls are 1 week old today.
these are the first two tulips to bloom this year. when i went outside this morning some of my yellow ones are getting ready to bloom. when they do i will post pics of them as well.
while typing this blog i looked out and saw a robin playing in the sprinkler. it must be spring.

fat bottom girls, you make the rockin' world go round

here are some pics of the cake for zander zone's party. it was kind of a rushed job.

now some pics of our daffodils. a few closeups to show you what joy and happiness i get to see everyday in my yard.


i have some more pics that i will post when i have more time. some of our new baby chicks and some of Buford, our newest addition to the yard.

baby, you and me got a groovy kind of love

i know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting pics of something crafty. i haven't been very crafty lately. although, i did paint my nails, twice, and my toenails. i got some interesting "requests" for crafty type items, bellydancing?, trust me no one but my husband wants to see that. tatting is a type of needlework. it creates an almost lace like material. it can be done with either a shuttle or a needle. i only know how to do needle. the same can be done with fine thread and a small gauge crochet needle. food stuffs, well that is what i spent the majority of this past weekend doing. our youth was doing D-now this weekend, and i agreed to make some casseroles and muffins. apparently my husband missed that i was making 4 dozen muffins and 4 casseroles, so when the youth minister asked if we could do snacks because they still needed some my hubby agreed. friday we made 2 batches of puppy chow, 5 1/2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and 4 dozen no bake cookies. saturday we made 4 pizza casseroles, 6 dozen brownies, and 4 dozen muffins. we also went to the church to help serve the youth and pick up the kitchen. in our spare time we planted 3 boysenberries, 5 dewberries, 2 granny smith apple trees, 1 black cherry tree, 2 fruit cocktail trees, and 10 bald cypress. friday night was also pizza night, so we headed to the cowden's to chill for a while. while purchasing the material for monkey's easter dress, that is a blog in and of itself, my hubby stumbled upon the already smocked all it needs is a seam material. i whipped out 3 dresses and 3 skirts in a matter of minutes. here are the dresses below, the skirts are identical to the dresses other that i will put straps on the dresses this evening.


i thought i would hang one up so you could see how cute it is. this is the material that her highness picked out. in the background is my closet i will tell you about it at the end of the blog.
the next 3 pictures are of the wedding dress i made for my renewal in 2004. i put in a close up of the front of the top and one of the back of the top.
yes, that is boning in the front, and look at that shaping. looks good huh.
each hole that the ribbon goes through is an individual button hole. the dress was very time consuming. although easier to do than the dress i made monkey for the occasion. below is a picture of me and the hubby at the renewal.
the story of the closet. on wednesday night the hubby said "why don't we put the bed against the north wall of the room?" i asked how long it was going to take because it was already 9:30 and i was tired. he reassured me it would take no more than 30 minutes. ok, we built our bed. it has 6 drawers on each side that make up the base of the queen sized bed. our room is tiny. at 12:37 i finally crawled into my newly arranged bed with out any idea where to find any of my clothes. all of the drawers had to be unloaded so we could even move the bed. the good news is i have now gone through all of our clothes and the goodwill now has roughly10 walmart sacks and ten 13 gallon sized trash bags of our unwanted clothes. the closet doors now shut, there is nothing on the floor, and very little on the top of the dresser or the head board. although i haven't been very crafty, i have been terribly busy. hope every one is doing well. i am making a cake for the zander zone's 2nd bday this weekend, so i will put pics of it up next week.

already i'm so lonesome i could die

it's been a while since i blogged. in my defense, i have been horribly sick. don't believe me call stripes she'll vouch for me. most of you know that i moved in the middle of my junior year to caldwell, tx. friday one of my friends from caldwell will be on abc's 20/20. it is discussing the age of consent and statutory rape. please watch.

on a different subject i'm wanting to start posting more crafty type stuff on here, so if there is anything you would like to see done, that i am capable of doing, let me know. cake decorating, sewing and beading are my strongest crafts, but i'm working on my tatting, knitting, crocheting, bead making, and a quilting project that i really want to do. i'm hoping to make the girls' easter dresses this year. i'd also like to do hats, but we'll see how energetic i am. i hope everyone has a great weekend. finch is headed to dallas this evening for a conference, so i will be on my own this weekend.