Category: Everything Else

Image source: Dianne

We went to IHOP for dinner the other night. The “Kids Eat Free” sign in the window drew us right in, since we are suckers for free. On the menu was Pumpkin Pancakes. Although I’m not a pumpkin or pancake eater normally, I told my family I’d try to make these at home for them because they had other favorites on the menu to try that night.

I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and tried them for breakfast this morning. The recipe says it makes 12 pancakes and serves 6, so I doubled it. That recipe made a huge amount of pancakes. We have a ton leftover to put in the freezer for some quick mornings. The pumpkin pancakes come out thick and cakey, so a couple of pancakes was plenty for each person.

They ate pancakes until full for breakfast and requested them again for dinner. Sounds like a winner recipe to me.

I’m loving it. I now have my duvet cover and I’m getting ready to start making pillows for the bed. I can’t wait to get it all finished. Next on my list is new lamps and bedside tables. I can’t wait to complete the room.

Taking a picture with those two windows is tough, but you get the idea.

I got the best package in the mail yesterday. It contained sea glass and sea pottery. I love the look of sea glass.

I didn’t know what sea glass was until a few years ago. I learned when people dump glass into the sea, it breaks and pieces of the glass tumble in the ocean and wash up on the shore. The salt water makes a nice frosty appearance on the surface of the glass. Some people call it beach glass, but that is a broader term that can include glass that washes up on freshwater beaches. I’ve never been able to find any on the beach. Some places are known for finding beach glass and other areas, you’ll never find any.

This package contained some that I think I can use to make jewelry. I’ve been reading up on what is jewelry grade and I think each of these qualify. Now I need to read up on how to drill holes in them.

I think I’m going to use these for decorations.

I also got some sea pottery and a couple of rocks. Not sure what I’m going to do with this stuff, but I like it. It’s heavy and smooth and I like the way it feels.

After getting real sea glass, I’m pretty sure what I bought at a little shop on our beach trip last year is fake. Boo to them. I may have gotten it anyway, but it’s just rude to not specify that something isn’t genuine. I did more research on sea glass and there are certain colors that are harder to find, pieces are often smaller, these pieces don’t have rounded edges and aren’t frosted. People take glass and tumble it in a rock tumbler to try to mimic sea glass, but it doesn’t compare to the real stuff. Here are the pieces I bought. See how different it looks?

I’ve made a few cakes and cupcakes for the girls over the years. Here are a few that I did and shared on here from time to time. I’m completely self taught and I have a lot to learn, but for the most part, I’m usually happy with the way my cakes turn out.

Today was my child’s 8th birthday. We had a wonderful day that included lunch at school with cupcakes to share. Let me tell you, if you want to know how it feels to be a celebrity–head to an elementary school with a container of cupcakes! Everyone will want to be your friend. I can tell that Katelyn is growing up. It’s quite bitter sweet. In years past, the cake was an elaborate part of the birthday and she planned it out way in advance.

This year she simply asked for a round, chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. She wanted me to write Happy Birthday in red and do some red swags around the side. Sounds easy enough , doesn’t it?

I now present to you her cake.

Yes that is a huge crack in the cake. The icing started to melt and slide off the cake as well.The swags on the side look like I did them with my eyes closed.

I was so sad about how the cake turned out. It was so far from what I saw in my head. I was very disappointed in this attempt at making her a cake because I thought she would look at it and be sad too.

You know what my sweet birthday girl said when she saw her cake? “Thank you, Mommy. You did just what I wanted. I can’t wait to eat it. I bet it tastes great.”

I may not have made a picture perfect birthday cake, but it put a smile on my little girl’s face and in her eyes it was perfect. You can’t ask for more than that.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Katelyn. I can’t believe you are 8.

We planted a butterfly bush in the backyard. I didn’t read the tag very well and had no clue how big it would grow. It really needs to be moved, but we haven’t done that yet. I think trimming it back would also help, but for now I’m just enjoying the view.

I have the walls painted. That was a major undertaking. It went from being a dark shade of green to a light gray. We settled on Sherwin Williams Silver Strand. The trim is white.

I’m not out to finish the rest of the room. I’m looking for bedside tables. Ours are not working for me or my vision of the room.

We have cherry furniture and I can’t find bedding I like. I didn’t realize how hard that part would be. I figured with a neutral wall, the bedding would be pretty easy, but I guess I was wrong.

This will be on the wall over our bed.

I need to get some pictures of the room as I go along!

I thought maybe getting into the Christmas spirit would help give me cool thoughts to help beat the heat. This would be a good time to start making some Christmas gifts.

We took the girls to Disney World and Seaworld earlier this month and it was their first trip to each. We had a blast!

I always have a fear of getting separated from one of the kids when we are in big crowds. Our kids know our home phone number. That wouldn’t work so well for them if we were away from home. They may also have difficulty trying to come up with our cell phone numbers if they are scared.

So I needed a way to attach our cell phone numbers  to them. I’ve seen things like wrist bands, temporary tattoos, etc to put on your kids so they always have your phone number. Those sound nice, but they can be costly and that also requires prior planning, which for people like me who wait until the last minute, that doesn’t always work.

The night before we left, I decided to drag out my Shrinky Dinks and make them an ID tag. I cut a circular tag shape, wrote our numbers on them and punched a hole. After shrinking the plastic, I strung each one on a ribbon to tie around for a necklace.

They worked perfectly. They also made it through water rides and didn’t fade, smear or smudge. We can also use them for the next time we go out in a large crowd. I love reusable!

The girls also loved having them. You can see the tags on the girls in most of the pictures  of the girls from the trip.

They were easy to tuck into their clothes.

I did find one downside to the ID tag. By the end of the trip, the girls were very disappointed that they never needed their necklace.

This year for Father’s Day, I wanted to get something for my dad that he would enjoy and didn’t involve another gift card to the hardware store. That’s when I came up with a Dessert of the Month Club idea. I gave it a cutesy nickname of mine from childhood and choose desserts I thought my dad would enjoy eating. I plan to deliver one dessert each month to him for the next year. It was fun to come up with different seasonal dessert ideas too.

I printed up the schedule, mounted it on scrapbook paper and wrapped it up.

It’s a quick and easy gift you can do at the last minute, but also spread out for an entire year.