Beaded Shoes

I was on craftgawker and found the cutest blog about beaded shoes.  Check out these lovelies and the tutorial on Aunt Peaches blog.  So the next time I'm at Goodwill, a thrift store, or a garage sale, I'm going to look for some old, funky, groovey (Kate, that's for you) jewelry and some sandals and start creating!

Have you been to craftgawker yet?  There's also foodgawker, dwellinggawker, and weddinggawker - or you could just go to gawkerverse and check them all out. 

Happy Memorial Day!  Spend it with someone you love <3

Cube storage

How cute is this?!  I was recently at Hobby Lobby with my mom and sister, and we saw this storage container that is a Rubick's cube. 

Lego Bedroom

A friend sent me this link from HGTV and this would be so super cool for my lego-loving son!  We have lots of legos and some of these green squares at home...maybe a small portion of a wall would be better. :)

To read the complete article at HGTV, click here.

Bedroom Redo

I feel like Carl and I have been working on this project forever.  It was been one year since we started it. Even though our bedroom has been finished for at least six months, it was not totally finished.  I really wanted some vinyl wall art and once I got my Silhouette cutter, I thought I would be finished.  Well, shortly after Santa (Carl) delivered my Silhouette, my computer crashed, then it was finished the time, then it was fear....how do I use this thing?!  Well, now I've figured it out and I'm ready to start covering everything in vinyl or using it on every scrapbook page, and I haven't even thought about heat transfer projects and temporary tattoos.

Getting back to the redo, our bedroom was a bland yellow with a red floral Waverly bedspread...ummm, it was nice back in the day, but we were both ready for a change.  I had been really like this quilt from JC Pennys and we decided to paint the walls a silimar blue with brown accents.

Another silhouette project. 

I tried a new paint technique on my ceiling which meant I didn't have to worry about getting blue paint on the ceiling. :)

Close up of the ceiling.

I was going to put more vinyl words around this picture using my silhouette, but now I'm not so sure.  Maybe a small picture or two around it.

So that's the bedroom redo.  I'm linking up to My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday and My Repurposed Life Catch as Catch Can.  Hope you can join me!

Fruit Salsa, Tortellini Salad, and Meat & Potato Casserole

Who is tired of all the rain?  I know my family is tired of all the dreary days.  And I'm tired of turtle necks, long sleeve shirts, and huddling under a mound of blankets.  Lately I've been wishing for sun, warmth, grilling...all the fun summer stuff.  Some day.....

 I have three recipes to share today - Meat and Potato Casserole, Tortellini Salad, and Fruit Salsa with cinnamon chips.  You can click on the recipe title to view the recipe and picture on the original site. I've made the meat and potato casserole for the last few years and it has always been a hit at our house.  As a matter of fact, my youngest son ate almost a third of it by himself last night.  I wonder if he's growing??

Meat and Potato Casserole
Recipe courtesy of Country Ground Beef Cookbook and Tasteofhome.com

3 to 4 cups thinly sliced peeled potatoes
2 tblsp. butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen corn, thawed (I used 1 can of corn, drained)
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tblsp. chopped onion
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
parsley, optional

Directions: 
Toss potatoes with butter and salt; arrange on the bottom and up the sides of a greased 12 x 8 x 2 inch casserole.  Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender.  Meanwhile, in a skillet, brown beef; drain.  Sprinkle beef and corn over potatoes.  Combine soup, milk, garlic powder, pepper, onion and 1/2 cup cheese; pour over beef mixture.  Bake at 400 degrees, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Remove from oven; top with remaining cheese.  Return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Garnish with parsley if desired.  Yields 6 servings.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Recently I was at a scrapbook event where the next two recipes were shared at the pitch-in and I was surprised at how much my family like both of these when I made them at home.  Honestly, we couldn't stop eating the fruit salsa.  So yummy!!

Hearty Tortellini Salad

Recipe courtesy of TasteofHome.com

1 pkg. (19 oz.) frozen cheese tortellini

1 c grape tomatoes, halved

1 c chopped zucchini

1 c chopped yellow summer squash

4 oz. provolone cheese, cubed

1 pkg (3-1/2 oz.) sliced pepperoni

1/2 cup prepared pesto

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

Cook the cheese tortellini according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Drain tortellini and rinse in cold water. Add to vegetable mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Yield: 12 servings.

Fruit Salsa
Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com

2 kiwis, peeled and diced

2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced

8 oz. raspberries

1 lb. strawberries

2 tblsp. white sugar

1 tblsp. brown sugar

3 tblsp. fruit preserves, any flavor

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas

butter flavored cooking spray

2 tblsp. cinnamon sugar

Directions:

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray. Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

** I think the beauty of the fruit salsa is that you can put whatever fruit you like in it.  I didn't put the preserves in my recipe, but I did add red raspberries and some grapes. 

I hope you enjoy these recipes.  I'm linking up with Wow Us Wednesdays on Savvy Southern Style.  Please take a moment to look all the great blogs linked there.  And, stay tuned if you would like to see another Sillhouette project - the bedroom redo is almost complete.

Snappy Bag

Sorry if you've already read this post, but I'm reposting since I lost it last week when Blogger was down.  I just hate that - I have a hard enough time coming up with the right words to say the first time around so my posts don't sound too boring or lifeless. :)

To get back to the story, here is a picture of the snappy bag purse that I made last week at Sew Vac Central.  The pattern name is Snap Happy and you can click here for more info. From two fat quarters, Kelly made three super cute bags and everyone in class made the large bag (which really is about 7" x 5").  This pattern is so easy to follow and adapt to whatever size you need.  I think the next one I'm making will be a small eyeglass case and I'll use a smaller tape measure for the "snap".  If you make this, I challenge you to not snap the bag open/close more than two times.  Seriously, two times only.  It's so addicting that I lost count of how many times I opened/closed my bag :)

This next item is a little gift from my friend Mary Jo.  She makes the cutest cards and paper crafts.  If you have time, please check out her blog Me and You + Two. Mary Jo designs for a few publishing teams and is always coming up with something cute and fun!  Last week she gave me this little mother's day milk carton filled with some chocolates.....my tummy was happy.

Check out that cute little bee on a mini clip.  How adorable!



In the next day or two I'll be posting another Silhouette project that is part of a bedroom redo, but for now, I'm enjoying the sunshine. 

Silhouette fun

Now that I've actually figured out how to use my Silhouette machine there are all kinds of crafty ideas running through my head.  Yesterday I cut out some letters and shapes to use in my scrapbooks and then I decided to use my vinyl.  This really isn't my idea, I just can't remember where I saw it before....I think it was on House of Hepworth's blog.  I have two glass containers on my counter for flour and sugar and wanted to dress them up like the blog post I saw somewhere out in blog land.  I used the SNF Classy Charm font, black vinyl, transfer paper, and made sure my glass was clean and dry.  Here is the end result....and I know my words aren't even, but those r's and the g were difficult enough the first time around :)

See ya next time!

Pam

Happy Mothers Day!!

Happy Mothers Day to my mother and mother-in-law.  Carl, Kyle, Ryan, and I hope you have a wonderful day!



Happy mothers day!