Made It Hap-Pin! ~~ Balloons Two Ways

Today's post is about a Pinterest pin (or two, actually) that I tried over my blogging hiatus.  We had a small surprise dinner for my Mother's birthday.  My brother was in charge of the food (which he rocked!) and I handled the decorations.

In truth, there wasn't much to do yet I wanted to add some fun and quirky touches around to birthday-up the place.  We also wanted something the children could help with (my niece is an awesome balloon-blower-upper!).  So, I logged into to my handy "Party Ideas" board on Pinterest and two balloon pins caught my eye.

The pin to create the flower balloons is HERE, but in the interest of fairness, I believe that this lady also made hers from another site, which she links to on her post (see link in pin).

The second pin, I didn't get a photo of finished project, but it was to create a string of balloons and can be found HERE.

* ~ * ~ *

So, were they worth the Pinspiration?

Totally!   

For the flower balloons, I confess that I eyeballed the size instead of making the templates.  I did end up with two sizes of balloons by accident (9" royal blue, 9" yellow and 12" baby blue).  Because I tried to keep them the same size, the 12" balloon flower came out "puffy".  We had to put tape between the "petals" to keep them together.  On reflection, if I have two different sizes again I will simply make the 12" balloon flower larger so they hold their shape better. Otherwise, we did as she instructed and the flowers came out so cute.  My brother had fishing wire which we used to hang the balloons, and I taped the wire to one side of a balloon petal to keep the balloon flower upright.  If you count blowing up the balloons, it took approximately 15-20 minutes to make each flower.

If you're looking for a great way to hang a bunch of balloons at once or "between" posts, etc., I heartily recommend using your needle and thread (or fishing wire)!   That said, next time I will sew the fishing wire through the actual knots.  I put the needle through the ends of the balloon just past the knots and the balloons slid back and forth a bit too much.  Made it easy to place them, but they wouldn't stay where I put them.

So, these two pins are keepers and I will definitely be using them in the future!


Have you made a pin hap-pin lately?  Please, blog and share in the comments below so I can check it out!

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

My Little Life - Five Question Friday for 10/5

It's 5QF time again!  Yeah, two posts in one day, but it's gray and rainy and my motivation to do much else has fled and is probably hiding in the pile of laundry that you are pretending you don't see (or is that me?).
 

In case you aren't familiar with 5QF, every Friday My Little Life puts up five questions.  Bloggers answer and then link up. The most important part of this process is to have fun!

1)  What album/cd/download are you embarrassed to admit you have?  Oh my.  I just cleared out the cds and albums so there is nothing in that.  Downloads?  You might just have me there since we have one account for the family.  You might think it would be my daughter's music  but I think if I had to narrow it down to a single choice, it's a download that another family member wanted, an entire album of Adam Ant. 

2)  What's the one thing your spouse does better than you?   ONE THING?!?  There are so many, but I will own up now that when it comes to waking up at half past O'dark to handle a child's problem he has always been better at that.  Besides, daddies make better nightmare-slayers and good night prayers, don't you think?  Which is wonderful because he looks so much better on less sleep than I do.  Talk about scary!  EEK!

3)  When do you start buying Halloween candy?  I don't, for various reasons.  Used to start getting it as soon as it came out though, one package or two each paycheck.  We never did figure out how come we still had to purchase more the week before...(scratching head)...

4)  Family closets - Yay or Nay?  Um, no.  Developing a headache even thinking about it.   Seriously though, congrats to those who can do it, we just aren't gifted enough to handle it!

5) Which home/cleaning chore do you hate the most?  Why?  Ha.  Ha ha.  Hahahahhaha....  Okay, in all honesty, I don't mind doing some (translation - I don't hate them), but if I had to answer going by the thing that I struggle with the most, it would have to be the dreaded putting-the-laundry-away chore.  I don't know why.  Perhaps it's because I fear it's all a dream and that there is no truly clean laundry and I want to savor looking at it to cherish those few, brief shining moments when it's clean. 

Speaking of laundry, time to go see if my pesky motivation really did burrow into that pile waiting by the machine.  You all have a great weekend!

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Feeling Beachie Four Fill-In Follow Friday ~ 10/5

I figure that I'll ease back into blogging by following some prompts. There are some great link-up parties out there and Pamela over at Troop Petrie always finds interesting ones so am following her lead today.  (Psst...If you haven't visited her in a while be sure to go read about her weight loss and new hair and give her a big congrats!)

Each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for bloggers to fill in (if you don't have a blog, leave a comment!).

This week's statements are:

1)  I am very precious.  Confession:  I was going to write "undisciplined", but I am taking a Bible study class on what it means to be a daughter of the Most High God and am trying to remember how He sees me instead of constantly looking at my flaws because He is sanctifying me daily.

2)  I am most comfy in my jammies!

3)  You will never believe what I saw on my way home from work one day.  It's been quite a few years since I've worked outside the home so am trying to remember...one of my most clear memories is the Flood of '93, when I saw the water from the Mississippi up to the Arch stairs.

4)  My morning don't start until caffeine happens.

And there you go, my four for this Friday.  :)

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Five Minute Friday - STRETCH

It's  Five Minute Friday and we're linking up with the Five Minute Flash Mob at Tales from a Gypsy Mama

GO!

Today is my birthday.

Tonight, my husband, children, family and friends stretched my heart to overflowing with love and kindness and just such wonderful blessing I could cry.  But this week wasn't all roses and it reminded me of other ways that I need to stretch myself.

A burned out oven and six dozen cookies waiting to be baked can make one frazzled.  A screen door requiring a special spline which is only discovered AFTER you've taken it apart can make one frustrated.  A package that was not mailed and discovered weeks later can make one feel like a screw-up.  Etc. Etc.

Yeah, I did the whole condemnation scene, until I remembered that there is no condemnation in Christ.  There is correction and learning, and that's what I needed most.  There is love and humility and there is grace.  Grace.

God reminded me through these circumstances that I often neglect to extend mercy and grace over my own mistakes and that is why sometimes they get the better of me.  He reminded me that I do need to learn from them, but most importantly that they are there oftentimes to remind me just how much I need Him.  He's strength to my weakness.  He's grace to my condemnation.

So, tonight, I felt that grace and that love abounding and I hope to carry it into the next week, no matter what.  To model for my precious children that no matter what comes my way, my arms and heart will stretch out for the One who can give peace, understanding, healing, forgiveness, correction and that wonderful, wonderful grace!

STOP!

Frugality in the Fridge ~ Dairy

With the drought hitting over half the country and the disasters around the world, we've all begun to see the prices of foods go up.  I hope to continue to provide you with frugal ways to save money around the house, and this particular post might help give you just a few ideas to save some money on dairy products.  Take a moment and consider what would work for you and your family and perhaps use it as a springboard to come up with your own ideas. 

NOTE:  I am not including instructions.  There are videos on YouTube, and all kinds of sites out there offering the how-tos of some of these suggestions.  I encourage you to seek out these as best you can.

~ If you don't already, consider using powdered milk for most of your cooking needs and use fresh milk for drinking, coffee, etc.

~ If you preserve (canning), consider freezing or canning butter.  It can be done if the butter is clarified.  You can get it when it goes on sale, save a few pennies.

~ Consider mixing your butters with healthy oils.  You can purchase a butter/oil mixture, but did you know you can make your own?  It would stretch the butter by halving it with the oil.  We use the olive oil mixed butter and you cannot tell the taste difference from butter.

~ Make your own ice cream.  Healthier for you plus you can make it special with things to please your family.

~ If you haven't already, switch to lower fat milks or fat free.  They do cost less than their red-capped/blue-capped counterparts and are better for you.

~ Maybe check into nut milks (almond, etc.) and see if the cost will be beneficial.  We don't use them so I don't know about the cost involved, but know people who do and enjoy them.  You can also make them yourself.

Do you have some tips to save on dairy products?  Please be sure to leave a comment and share with us all!

Hugs,
Tamara

Garden Update ~ Container Garden

Now, this is where I feel most comfortable as I tried it last year and had some marginal success.  I did opt for larger pots this year, hoping that will help.  I also tried a different potting mix and made it more like the mix I used in the raise beds.

For my pots this year I used a mixture of potting soil, peat hummus, mushroom compost and vermiculite, using organic whenever possible.

We have a selection of plants, and here's where most of my heirlooms are right now.  I currently have my jalepenos up here, but am debating moving the pots down closer to the beds.  At any rate, we have two kinds of grape tomatoes (red and yellow), a larger tomato called Black Pineapple, a special cucumber plant we wanted to try call Dragon's Egg (they are white), some some red and yellow onions and a few garlic.  Here are just a couple of early morning pics (sorry, didn't get the tomatoes or dragon's egg cucumber yet)...

onions

jalepeno, one bloom

And that's the garden so far...will update in a few weeks or when the first bits of harvest come in!  Hope you have a fabulous day and if you're growing something, be sure to let me know where you blogged about it so I can check it out!

Hugs,
Tamara

Garden Update ~ Raised Beds

This year, after 15 years of living in this house we just discovered that one of the trees on the side of the house is a white mulberry tree.  That was a thrill this summer!   Back by this tree is also one of the only mainly sunny spots in our not-front-yard.  This area is where I put in the two beds.  After viewing Back To Eden film, I decided to give it a try only make it into a square-foot garden.  When I got going, I decided to make two beds, based on the "walls" I had that were "preset" size.  One bed ended up being 5'x5' and the other ended up being 4'x4'.

In the 5'x5' bed I have some radishes, zucchini and cucumber.  They are doing wonderfully and I was so excited to see the zucchini blooming this morning and watch a big ol' bumble bee come and buzz around the cucumber flowers.  

Upper Two Pics:  Cucumbers.  Lower Three Pics:  Zucchini Squash

In the 4'x4' bed is watermelon and okra.  We are struggling with these two this year.  Originally direct-sowed 3 watermelon and 6 okra.  Only two okra came up.  So, started seeds in pots~ 3 watermelon and 4 okra.  Only one watermelon germinated and while all four okra germinated, three were killed in transplant.  So, we are down to limited numbers and lots of space left in this bed.  I'll use this bed for spinach/lettuce/cabbage later this fall.  Something has been eating the leaves of the okra plants, so praying hard that they manage to come up and survive. Because of couple weeks delay in germinating, these are not as large as other plants yet, just made the cut on seeding.

Malali Watermelon

Okra

And now we finish up on the deck!  See you in a few...

Tamara

Garden Update ~ Front

We tore out some monster shrubs last year that were in front of our home.  When deciding what to replace it with, we knew we wanted a ground cover.  I remembered a landscaping show I had watched that talked about using strawberry plants as ground cover in place of ivy or something else.  Since I love strawberries it was a no-brainer.  Last year I planted ten, and then in an effort to kill the snails/slugs that were eating the fruit, I accidentally killed most of them.  :(  Four or five came back (though a couple have since died), and so I purchased three more from farmer's market.  It will be a couple of years before they "cover" the area intended, but until then, they still look awfully nice out there.

June Bearing Strawberry

Also in this "bed" area, I have a few plants called "Mole Fear" which I picked up from local Farmer's Market.  Last year our neighbor had some moles going through their yard.  I thought it wouldn't hurt to try.  These plants have an oil in their roots to keep moles away.  I will say, they must have worked because the moles did not come over into our yard (and there is no fence to prevent them).  That said, it doesn't work on other types of critters, like ground squirrels.  They are supposed to be annuals, but two of the three plants came back this year, and here's one of them, bolting (flowering).

Mole Fear, in bloom

Over to the side, we have three huge planters and in those I have Roma tomato plants.  They have been flowering for about a week now and I just noticed our first Roma tomato growing (this morning!)  Can you see it?

Our first Roma!

Oh!  I also have some very delicious smelling basil growing in one of the Roma pots, and a second one growing by itself in a pot on the front stoop.  This one is Cinnamon Basil.  The only problem is that both plants are starting to turn woody too quickly.  I'm wondering if the crazy temperature cycles are doing it (one week 90s, one week 70s, repeat.)

Cinnamon Basil

And finally, I couldn't wait for my tomato seedlings to grow, so I gave in and purchased and Early Girl Tomato plant.  It will probably be the last year I do this since I'm trying hard to switch over to all heirlooms and organic (non-gmo, etc.).  But this little plant has been a good producer.  We've had over half a dozen tomatoes from it, lost about 7-10 when it kept getting knocked over, but there are still a bunch on the vines, as you can see.  This plant also sits on my front stoop (don't want the tomatoes out front to pollinate with my heirlooms in back).

Early Girl tomatoes 

And that's the garden update for the front of the house...onto the back!

Tamara

GARDEN UPDATE: May 29th

Well, you all might or might not know about my attempts at gardening.  If you were a follower last spring, then you know I was determined to grow at least one little carrot (well, not a carrot, but one little something...anything!).  It was a big learning year.  We managed to eek out a handful or two of strawberries, got a couple of cucumbers (most didn't pollinate right), and a whole slew of cherry tomatoes and a few hot peppers and tiny bell peppers.  Not too shabby.

This year I wanted to try again, and after watching this documentary (Back to Eden), I was inspired to give raised bed gardening a try, combining it a bit with square foot gardening since there aren't many areas in my back yard that get a substantial amount of sunshine each day.  I also decided to stick with the tried and true front little "bed" and my container garden on the deck, though I did buy bigger pots this year.  With this method, I use a lot less water because the natural mulch holds in the moisture longer another plus for our budget.

I am trying to switch over to all heirloom, but didn't get to this year.  I did support my local farmer's market though and purchased some plants from there.  Hoping next year will be a straight heirloom year.

BTW, if you haven't already watched the above-mentioned documentary, it's really chock full of information and just good fun about God's covering and how this man came to garden the way he does.  My favorite part is when he tells a man that he needs to "ask his mentor" about something, then he goes inside and prays.  I think we often forget God is everything to us.  That just tickled me when he said that though, lol.  :) 

Okay, back to my garden.  Since this is the first time sharing with you, have some pretty pics and it might get a little long.  To break it up and make it easier to digest (pardon the pun), will separate the areas into separate posts and include the pics there.  :)

What have you planted this year?   How is your garden doing?

Slacker Blogging

Okay, first off, giving a shout out to my girl (you know who you are, J!  LOL) who reminded me that I've been slacking when it comes to the blog!

<hanging head>

Of course, she's correct but in my defense I have been very busy in real life so at least the blog slacking has not been in vain.  It's been a whirlwind of activity around our home for the past two months.  I hope to catch you all up soon with photos, memories and fun.

Missed you all much!