Baking with the Babies

Whenever we visit with the babies, we always try to find some sort of activity we can do with Little Bird and Little Hoss.  Himself is the baker of our family, so we decided to bake cupcakes with the kids. 

 

 

Not being totally crazy… we used a mix since they are so young. 

 

 

We put the mixing bowl on a chair so they could be right in the middle of it.  I broke the 2 eggs into glasses so each child could add one to the mix.  The oil I did myself.

 

 

And soon all three were stirring it up!

 

 

Next step was putting the cupcake liners in the pan. 

 

 

 

When it came time to fill the tin, Himself had them take turns pointing to which one he would fill next. They were filling them every which way!

 

 

 

Little Bird got a bit excited with the process while Little Hoss was checking out the box to see if there were any more in it.

 

 

Hot out of the oven. 

 

 

 

And into tummies as soon as they cooled off enough!

 

 

Yep… they sure were good!!!  And using the mix made it very easy to include the kids… even tho they are only 3years and 2 years old. 

 

Bargain Vintage Finds

During our trip to “The Northlands” (MN and WI) we made a couple get-out-and-stretch stops at some antique/junk shops and a ReStore.  Making a game of my browsing, I decided to look for things I could use in my creative projects… but they could be no more than $1 each. 

 

For that price I found…

 

 

These doilies.

 

 

Door knob plates,

 

 

And some antique hinges.

 

 

(love that detail on these decorative ones!)

 

 

Found the door knobs too!

 

 

And a few old yard sticks. 

 

My self imposed spending limit made the hunt more challenging and a lot more fun!  I’ve already gotten a few ideas (several from the barn sale I wrote about yesterday). 

 

Do you like to ‘hunt’ thru antique/junk stores and what are you looking for?  What has been your best find?

 

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

A Little 'Chic' Fun

Yesterday morning Himself and I met Best Friend at a fun ‘barn sale’ out in the country.  The cool weather made it a bit chilly but it was so worth it!

 

 

All the photos were taken by Himself… as Best Friend and I were busy shopping!!

 

And there was a lot of shopping to be done!  Here’s a bit of eye candy to enjoy…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few of the vendors really stood out to me.  They were:

 

TraChic - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/TraChic/202570165030?fref=ts 

 

Artistic Works by Lu - http://www.facebook.com/#!/MyVintageGlam?fref=ts 

 

Kellie Montana Art - http://www.meandmycanvas.com/ 

 

Blackberry House - http://www.blackberryhouse.net/ 

 

 

 

Home Organization 101: My Linen Closet

Now that I’m back home I can rejoin the Home Organization 101 challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons.  I’ll catch up at the end those projects I missed during my traveling.

For this last week, the challenge was the linen closet.  That’s an easy one for me as we don’t have much of a linen closet.  It wasn’t too bad but it did need a wee bit of attention…

 

I had too many old towels and the crock pot sure doesn’t belong in there!

In just a few minutes it was looking much better!

Towels were culled (the excess downstairs where they can be used for cleaning).  I refolded so it looked neater.

On this shelf I now store my hospitality basket (sample size toiletries in case a guest forgets something) and the toothbrush holder for guests.  In front is a basket to hold cleaning cloths.  And the tray holds soap, etc.

This is the “bad back” shelf.  Everything VERY easy to get to!  LOL

And on the floor is a bit of extra storage.  I’m planning on adding in one more shelf so I can get the vitamins up off the floor.  The notebooks are instructions manuals and that is the best place for us to keep them. 

Much better now!

http://organizeyourstuffnow.com/wordpress/

http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/10/home-organization-101-week-7-linen.html 

My Artful Friday

For the last couple of weeks we have been traveling – so I haven’t had many opportunities to work on my creative pieces.  I’ve mainly worked with photo challenges.

 

 

However, I did do this little sketch of a wren while Himself was talking family history with one of his cousins.  I’ve been working on my sketches and I’m actually feeling like they are getting better.

 

 

I photographed these mushrooms for a photo challenge on 52 Photos.  We were to photograph “orange”.  The babies and I made a little game out of finding orange… I’ll tell you more about that later.

 

 

 

And finally, these two photos were for Word Art Wednesday.  I’m working on building up a collection of photos to turn into note cards. 

 

So while I didn’t get a lot done, I’m pleased what I DID get done.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.atthepicketfence.com/

Straw Potato Results Are In!

Remember back the beginning of June when Himself and I put in ‘the world’s smallest potato garden’?   http://teri-gonewalkabout2.blogspot.com/2012/06/pinterest-inspired-worlds-smallest.html  

 

The straw was about halfway up the cage when I stopped piling it on.  And recently it was time to find out what happened under all that straw!

 

 

And it wasn’t much!  Five potatoes.

 

 

Five tiny potatoes.

 

 

Really tiny potatoes!

 

 

But for the sake of stubborn  ~LOL~  we cooked them up! 

 

 

I couldn’t believe that ALL of them could hide under one pat of butter!

 

 

However, they were the tastiest little potatoes we’ve ever had. 

 

OK, we’re not sure if the whole principle of ‘straw potatoes’ is a fail or if the brutally hot and dry summer was the reason.  There were NO potatoes up in the straw section; those five were found in the dirt area we set the potato starts on.

 

But we are going to try again next year with more cages and different planting methods.  In fact, I have several gardening experiments to try next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/

 

 

http://www.cornerstoneconfessions.com/

 

 

http://www.craftberrybush.com/