Family and Friends

I'm going to post a ton of pictures and not say much. I'm just better at that. Isn't there a saying about a picture being worth a thousand words?  We went to our favorite park a couple times this past week and had a fun time picnicking and flying kites with my parents and sister. Then a few days later headed back to the park with a good friend who drove all the way from Pennsylvania to Greenville with two kids under 5 all by herself...she's my hero! I always have a great time with this little family and I'm forever trying to convince them to move back down here so we can spend more time together.

My sister and my dad flying a kite with little girl

We were struggling getting the kite to fly (I blame it on the quality of the kite and on myself for actually thinking the kite would fly after last time's failed attempt with the same type of kite). Next time, we are going to head out there with a GOOD kite. No more cheapo kites! Stay tuned for a successful kite flying venture in the near future.

And there she goes...she actually had the kite up there for a little while.

My mom and Little Man getting some sunshine

My dad pushing little girl on the swing.

My friend's oldest boy enjoying the huge slide.

Little girl having a blast in the "big kid" play area.

My friend's youngest little boy...isn't he adorable?

 Little girl having no fear and giving me visions of broken arms and hospitals. I scare easily =)

 My friend's oldest with Little Man

 Aww =)

 My sweet baby

She's such a good mommy

These two are so cute together and for the most part play really well with each other. They definitely keep us laughing. Can't wait until they come again!

Yo-Yos

Today's post is dedicated to some of my favorite little things to make...yo-yos!! My love for the yo-yo goes back to when I was a little girl and I would go to my Grandma's house and watch her as she worked on a beautiful handmade yo-yo quilt. She was also known to sew yo-yos on her clothes whenever they got stained or got a hole in them. She had one particular denim dress that had several little yo-yos sewn all over it. She would giggle as we told her it was probably time to retire the dress. Now that I am kind of obsessed with yo-yos myself,  I can totally understand wanting to put them on anything and everything...even if it is just to cover up a stain =)

I'm going to attempt writing a tutorial on how to make a yo-yo using a yo-yo maker. This is the first time I've ever written a tutorial...so bear with me as I give it a whirl! I like to use this yo-yo maker because the yo-yo always turns out perfect and it's nice for projects where you want every yo-yo to look exactly the same. Of course, you don't need a yo-yo maker to make a yo-yo. All you need is some fabric, a needle, some thread, and a circle to trace. Here is a really well written tutorial on how to make a yo-yo without a yo-yo maker.



Start by putting the yo-yo maker on top of your fabric

 Cut around the yo-yo maker leaving about 1/4th inch extra fabric.

Make sure that the lines on the bottom piece are matched up with the notches on the top piece

Fold the excess fabric down as you sew and start your first stitch right beside a line. Sew from the bottom of the yo-yo maker to the top.

Keep sewing until you have gone completely around the yo-yo maker and then go back over the very first stitch. So the first and last stitch should be the same.

Pop the bottom out of your yo-yo maker

Take the fabric off the bottom part of the yo-yo maker and start pulling the thread. 

Keep pulling until it it is completely tight and looks like a yo-yo =)

Sew a couple stitches through the back of the yo-yo so it stays in place.

Cut the thread and your finished yo-yo should look like this

Here are a few things I've made with yo-yos to help get your creative juices flowing. I love yo-yo necklaces...here are a couple of different styles of necklaces I have made using yo-yos.

A simple yo-yo hair pin I made for myself

I glued some magnets onto the backs of some yo-yos and I use them to hold up pictures on a magnetic board in the crafting/playroom.

There are SO many other fun things you can make with yo-yos. I am in the process of making a yo-yo coverlet for Little Girl's bed...maybe one day I will actually finish it so I can share the finished project on here. Yay, I needed some motivation! Hopefully, you are now inspired to give the yo-yo a try!

Rainy Days

  

We made the most out of a couple of rainy days we had this week. I have always liked rainy days and I started wondering why this could be. As I was thinking back on my days as a kid I remembered that my mom would let us run around and splash in the rain and get soaking wet and dirty and we had SO much fun. And then I remembered building huge forts out of blankets and how my mom never got upset at the huge mess that was involved in all of our elaborate tent making. So I decided to carry on the tradition and let Little Girl run around and get as wet and muddy as she wanted in the rain and we built a huge tent with every blanket we could find and then set it all up right in the middle of the living room. Hopefully, one day she will do the same with her kids =) So thank you mom for making what could have been just another boring rainy day something that I look back on as some of my favorite memories.

 

Banana Muffins

 

These banana muffins are melt in your mouth good. I went through a long phase of hating anything banana flavored, but these muffins have done the trick and officially won me back over. I have been on a crazy baking spree lately which really is not good since I am typically the one that ends up eating all of the baked goodness. Hopefully soon, I'll get back into juicing vegetables so I can undo all the bad I've been doing. But let's be honest, it just isn't as fun to juice as it is to bake.

Here is the recipe if you care to give it a try. Once again I got my recipe from allrecipes.com (I love that place) and then gave it a few tweaks of my own.

For muffins: 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

For crumb topping:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10-12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Cherry Blossoms

We have a cherry tree outside that puts out these lovely blossoms in early spring. Once I see these blossoms I feel like spring has officially begun! I try to remember to cut a few branches so I can enjoy them inside the house as well. It only takes a few branches in a vase to make a beautiful visual impact. These are sitting pretty in my dining room as I type.

Close up of the blossoms on the dining room table

These little cherry blossoms have majorly inspired me. So I decided to round up some pretty images from around the web. There are tons more out there but here are a few that inspired me!

A beautiful dessert table by Amy Atlas...I seriously want to be her!

A fun craft found over at DIY Wedding

A lovely cherry blossom necklace from vintageandglam's Etsy Shop

Cute Vintage Brooch from cirrusskooter's Etsy shop

Amazing cherry blossom cupcake by Hello Sugar

Beautiful wedding cake from Cake list's website


Now I'm on a mission to figure out how to make those Cupcakes...any ideas???

The Red Button

Little Girl has discovered how to use Photo Booth (or "the red button" as Little Girl likes to call it) all by herself. This is both good and bad. It is good because this occupies her when we are busy preparing a meal or doing other tasks around the house. It is bad because we now have almost a thousand pictures of Little Girl and we are having a hard time deleting any of them as they have given Gerald and I so many laughs when Little Girl is down for the night and we are looking over the pictures that she has taken during the day. For about a week I "hid" the red button but I felt bad when Little Girl would get on the computer all excited only to see her face fall and hear her say "oh bummer Mommy...the red button is still gone." When I finally "found" the red button Little Girl was running all around saying "yay, Mommy found the red button!" So I figure, what's the harm? She loves making crazy faces and I guess I'll worry about deleting them if/when we run out of space on the computer. Here are some of my favorites. Hope you enjoy =)