Letter Blocks

Today I am going to show you the letter blocks that are sitting on my mantel. I needed something small to go under our family picture, so I asked my husband to cut some of our scrap wood into little blocks. The blocks have FAMILY on one side, and our last name (since it had six letters as well) on the other side. Two sets in one! Gotta love that!

I really need to get better at taking pictures "during" my projects instead of always at the end. So I do apologize that I don't have the before and during pictures. I will work on that!

You want a set? Choose your wording....love, home, or a child's name. I have lots of ideas for similar future projects myself. You will need 4x4 blocks. I think you buy some precut at a craft store. However, we went the cheaper route and just cut ours from leftover scrap wood we had. The wood was not perfect, but it fit the look I wanted. "antiqued and country".

Sand and spray paint you base color. (I chose creamy white). Let it dry and spray your top coat. (mine is black). Distress the sides.

Choose your scrapbook paper. For this particular project, I wanted it to be neutral, so it's a cream and tan damask print. Glue on your blocks. Lastly, I hand panted my letters onto the paper and distressed my paper a little too.

Now, if you have a stencil or craft stencil cutters, you could easily have perfect letters to go on your blocks. Since I had neither, I just went the old fashioned way. But you know, I really like it! It looks good on my mantel. I didn't take a picture of the whole fireplace, but trust me, it fits perfect with our big canvas of the family and pictures of my little handsomes. (And by the way, don't you love that you can see my littlest taking his sock off in the picture. Yep, that's him...can't ever keep the socks on! And it made the picture that much better!!)

I enjoyed making it, and will probably make more in the future (well, not exactly the same, but same idea) ;)

Cindy

Memories of my grandmother

I couldn't help but think about my grandmother today as I sat on my couch, watching my boys play while I was breaking beans (fresh green beans from the garden!). Their little hands quickly dug in to 'help'. So, I showed the oldest how to break the ends and get the string off the bean. He did pretty good, but better at just breaking the bean in half :)...you know, without breaking the ends or stringing it. He was so cute!

I just love moments like these! And like I said, it made me think about my grandmother. You see, we stopped in to see them almost everyday when my mom got home from work. And everyday, they [Ma and Pa] were doing something--cooking or eating a home cooked meal, quilting, garden work. I remember all these things so well! And they are wonderful memories.

Lots of times, Ma would fix us a plate of her good home cooking (even though Mom would say we could eat at home). My vivid memory of her mashed potatoes makes my mouth water--perfectly whipped potatoes in the big bowl, with a pat of butter right in the center so that it would melt, and pepper spinkled on top--they were good! Mom, my sister, and I couldn't resist, so we would sit down with them lots of nights. (and then she would send a to-go meal for Dad so that he could it enjoy it too when he got home from work.)

Quilting! There always seemed to be a project she was working on, whether it be a quilt or quilted pillow. I loved sitting next to her watching her stitch pieces together (handquilting! wish I could do it like her). Pa would have his western on while Ma sit on the couch sewing. Sometimes Pa would pop us popcorn in his popcorn maker while we all sit in the living room enjoying time together.

Garden work! They lived on a farm, so there was always a garden. Some of my best memories are sitting on the back porch cutting the corn off the cob so that we could freeze it to eat in the winter! And then of course, breaking the beans part!! She and Mom sat on the couch trying to teach me the same thing I was teaching my son today! I probably wasn't that good either, but they let me help. And Mom would probably tell you today that I am still not the best at breaking beans. But I do try! She actually had to take the rest of my bucket home with her tonight to finish them off. (Thanks Mom!)

All of the things I remember most about my grandmother, are actually the things that I enjoy doing the most--cooking, sewing, and working hard at home everyday with my boys--because I LOVE doing it for them! Now I can't say that breaking beans is my all-time favorite thing to do, nor is waching dishes, but I do enjoy just being a mom and all the things that come along with that! Mom just told me last week as I was sewing her curtains for her (she does know how to sew, but maybe just doesn't have the love-to-sew sewing gene) that Ma would have been proud to see me today. She would probably be right there beside me and my sewing projects.  :)

So today, I thought about my grandmother....as I was able to play outside with my little handsomes, sew a couple shirts for them, break a few beans, cook a great breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert (my grandmother always had a wonderful dessert or treat at her house too!!), and laugh, sing, and read with them! There is nothing I enjoy more! I am blessed to have a Godly heritage and a loving and wonderful family! Love them lots!!!!

-Cindy

Frozen banana treat

My sister sent me this link today about a single ingredient ice cream. Yes you heard right, one ingredient. I liked this idea, because it is very similar to how I fix ice cream for my little handsomes, so thought I would share.

Now, I have not tried making ice cream with only one ingredient as the author of this post suggested. However, we do make dairy free banana smoothies or ice cream often with only two ingredients.

Here's how we do it for the smoothie:

freeze ripe bananas (if we don't eat them before this stage). Blend a frozen banana with rice milk or soy milk (you could use regular milk if you do not need it to be dairy free). Add liquid slowly to get your desired consistency. And enjoy!

Now for the ice cream:

(good to use if you did not freeze your bananas beforehand.)

Take 1/2 banana and mash well. A Ziploc bag works great and the little ones can squeeze and mash it, because we all know they like to help!  :)

Add 1/2 cup rice or soy milk and mix well. If you want it to be a little sweeter, you could add touch of sugar or another sweetener. Place it in freezer and mash bag to stir every 30 min-hr until frozen. We like to do this at lunch, so that it's ready for our afternoon snack. (makes one serving.)

Enjoy!

-Cindy



Let's eat Zucchini

Our garden is growing. And the zucchini is ready....lots of it! We have been eating zucchini everyday! Zucchini for breakfast, lunch, and dinner....even dessert. I wanted to share this dessert with you today.

Zucchini Brownie Cake (dairy and egg free)

1 3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups zucchini (shredded)
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 water
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (allergy friendly. We use Enjoy Life brand.)

Combine flours, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in zucchini.

In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients with a fork. Mix into zucchini mixture.

Pour into a sprayed 9 x 13 and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean (35-40 minutes). (Mine has been more like 40...just test it to get your cooking time)

Yield:  a moist cake-like brownie

Curtains are done--and have been for a while!

Ok. I know this is wwwwaaaayyyy over due!! My sister reminded me a few months ago. But we have been pretty busy around here, and since the only people who read my blog right now are my mom and sister (and since they have already been to my house to see the curtains), I just didn't get around to posting.

So without waiting another minute, here are the finished curtains.

(you can even see our art in the window too :) weekly paintings get displayed here)

I think they turned out great. Hope you may be inspired to try something for your window treatments!