World of Pinterest

A while back I got an invitation to join the website Pinterest. Pinterest is basically a site where you can have your own virtual "pin boards" to keep track of online ideas you see or other items that you like or that inspire you.

I went ahead and joined, but my boards sat empty for months. I didn't really understand the point and didn't really want to take the time to get too involved with it. After some prompting from friends I decided to log in again and just browse. There was a idea/project I had in mind that I wanted to do and I pretty much knew what I wanted it to look like, but I did want some help with inspiration and direction. I didn't know at first that you can search Pinterest for specific ideas--not only see the popular pins among your friends. This was cool.

I wanted to make some sort of small, pretty wreath, so I searched for that and many fun and pretty ideas popped up. Many of them were actual tutorials on how to make the wreaths myself (even better). I pinned a few to remember what I saw and which ones I liked. This was fun!

Once I decided on which tutorial I wanted to follow, I bought the supplies and got to work....

 1 yard of fabric (the tutorial said you needed on yard. I should have bought a little more, but it worked out in the end).

 Foam wreath form wrapped with strips of fabric and secured with a bit of hot glue.

 The beginnings of my flowerets...made simply from strips of fabric I cut, folded and pinned directly onto the wreath, one right next to the other (to cover the pins).

 Finished wreath.

 Awhile ago a friend gave me an old window pane that was just sitting in her garage and it's been sitting in our shed for months...probably over a year actually and I had just never decided what to do with it. Kane helped me by tacking the ribbon to the back of the window before hanging it on the wall.

 My dear husband always makes sure everything he hangs is perfectly centered and leveled. This is one of the many reasons I love him. His accuracy in math helps to make our home beautiful! Thanks, Babe!

 Finished result---it's simple, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

And now that empty spot on the wall is no longer empty....thank you Pinterest!

 (If anyone would like an invitation to Pinterest, I'm happy to send you one. Just let me know!)

Tuie's Asian Green Beans

I made these Asian style green beans last night for the first time and they turned out great. They were really easy to make and very tasty. I plan to make them frequently in the future so I decided to share the recipe.

This is my mother in law's "recipe".

Tuie, they were delicious! 

 

I used 1 bag of whole frozen green beans (I bought the Steamers bag, which allowed me to steam them in the microwave before finishing them on the stove). 

1) Steam your beans, either on the stove top or in the microwave.

 

2) In a skillet heat 2 tsp. sesame oil with about 2 Tbls sesame seeds. (no beans in the skillet at this point). 

3) Once oil and seeds are heated and sort of sizzling, add your (already steamed and drained) beans, 2 Tbls soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and about a 1/2 tsp minced garlic (more if you like garlic) and saute in the skillet for about 5 minutes. The soy sauce should soak into the beans so they aren't "swimming" and as you toss the beans the sesame seeds will sort of coat the beans. 

Easy. Simple. Yummy. Enjoy!

Art Party---for our 6 Year Old!!!

Today we celebrated Mara Kate's 6th birthday even though her actual birthday was this past Sunday. She is completely and totally into all things creative these days, especially drawing with pencils, crayons, markers, paint and cutting and pasting with felt or fabric to make pictures, so we decided the most appropriate kind of party would be an "art party' or an "artist party". She has been waiting over a month for the day to arrive and this morning she got to hang out with some friends and a some family she got to paint and she got to share and eat her cake---it was a fun morning for her! And, thanks to the help of Crissy Ward at Created By You, everything on my end was pretty stress free as well!

 

So before further ado...here are pictures...

 

Yes, it was a bit tedious to make 6 different colors of icing for such a little amount used, but it was totally worth it for my girl!

The artist with her cake. :)

Example painting Crissy painted for the kids to use as their example. Mara Kate was able to design what she wanted to paint and this is what she came up with!

Kane with Papa Dog

Mara Kate with sweet cousins Grant & Olivia.

Mara Kate with Tuie

Little sister, Evelyn hung with Papa Dog for most of the party...they even did a little shopping in the mall together. :)

Ready to PAINT!

The beginnings of their hot air balloon painting---they sort of resembled Mickey Mouse at this point. ha!

Sky done, working on her pastures.

Kids hard at work on their artwork.

Olivia with her "zebra" hot air balloon!

Other paintings---each one so unique and original!

Present time!

Evelyn snarfing down some cake with our dear neighbor and friend.

More cake!

Finished products! I loved them all!

Girls' artwork

Boys' artwork.

Mara Kate's finished painting already hung on the wall!

 

It was a great day!

November

Life seems to remain in fast forward as we stay quite busy with home life, school, my part time job, Kane's job, travels and everything else in between.

So, here is my attempt to post about all our past month through pictures...I'm sure I've missed some of the happenings, but here are some November highlights. 

We packed 2 boxes for Operation Christmas Child---something we try to do every year!

Finished our first soccer season with Mara Kate...she loved every minute of it!

Team Picture---Go Strikers!

MK with her friend MK (or MK squared as Kane calls them)...celebrating the end of soccer season with supper at Steak N Shake.

Beautiful tree in our front yard...loved the shadows on the ground this particular day.

Christmas wreath with added lime green berries to coordinate with our lime green front door. :)

GA Aquarium field trip with one of Kane's classes from Shorter.

With Deepo the aquarium mascot.

Attempt at a decent family shot...this is the best we got.

Evie loved seeing everything...even these colorful tropical fish.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in Knoxville I got to spend a little time with a dear childhood friend---it was great having a chance to catch up!

Kane's mom (Tuie) with her 3 grandchildren...snuggled together.

Nephew Brendan--3 months old. He is growing so fast!

MK creating a masterpiece while wearing her new artist's beret I made her for her b-day.

Mara Kate all bundled up after watching the Christmas parade in downtown Rome.

Evelyn warm and toasty too in her cute coat and hat. :)

Posing in front of the tree. I asked her to stand still and smile---was completely surprised she actually did it! :)

Checking out the ornaments.

MK's first felt art....she did this completely on her own...she sure does love doing anything creative!

Mom & Me Painting Class

There is this really cool gal here in Rome has her own art/painting business. She holds classes all over North Georgia. She hosts private parties for children, adults---really anything you want to do, if it involves painting on a canvas, she's probably open to it!

Well, for several months I've been wanting to sign up for her "Mom and Me Painting Class". We finally found a date that would work and we were excited about the picture she would be painting so Mara Kate and I signed up to go.

In the meantime we have also decided that this is what we wanted to do for Mara Kate's 6th b-day party and after our painting experience with Crissy, I'm even more excited now. Here are some pictures of our morning together. It turned out that we were the only participants signed up for this particular class, so we sort of got to have a private lesson, which was really fun!

As part of the "package" the painter gets their own free drink from the coffee shop the classes are held in. Mara Kate chose a cherry frappe. :)

Getting started on our pumpkins. Mara Kate was really excited to be painting with a "real artist" since she wants to be an artist herself when she grows up.

We were both really happy with how our picture turned out.

In action!

Almost finished.

Already has a prominent place on our wall...if you look closely you can see our initials in the bottom right hand corner.

This was definitely a great way for me to get some one on one time with Mara Kate. She had a blast and came came home with a really nice piece of art too. We hope to do it again sometime and Mara Kate can't wait to paint along with a few of her friends to celebrate her 6th b-day too!