'Matos and Cheese

Since my hubby is part Italian, he loves Italian food. It's what he grew up on and what he eats. Tomatoes and cheese are his bread and butter! While looking over Joyful Abode's website, I saw a recipe for Tomato Pie. Thought it sounded like it could be a great meal to try out. Did make some modifications, used half whole wheat flour half white flour for the crust. Used oregano and basil as the spices and subbed ricotta cheese for the mayo.

Turned out pretty well, but I bought too many tomatoes. With the extra tomatoes, figured I'd make some stuffed tomatoes to eat with a ham steak last night. Took four medium tomatoes, cut them in half and took out the seeds. Since we had some portabello mushrooms in the fridge, used one and diced it up along with 2 cloves of garlic. Sauteed it in a pan with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and some oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Once that was done, put the mushrooms in the bottom of the tomatoes and covered with some sliced parmesan and shredded mozerella. Stick it in the broiler for 5-10 minutes (till the cheese is golden) and viola! My hubby loved the tomatoes, he did say he wished it was more filling, but it's not really a meal on it's own. Enjoy!

Aqua blue

A treasury made by bethjt features Homefrontiers and a beautiful scheme of aqua. What an eye!

Memorial Day

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day. Take the time to think of those that this holiday celebrates. I don't have many words of wisdom to share with you, however there are a few blogs I can turn you to instead. Homefront, Ella Bear, as well as TerryAnn wrote some great things on the holiday.

My daughter's response on the holiday came from making these. You can check the Homefront site to see what she said :)

As for a recipe, it's a simple cinnamon and sugar baked apple! Slice it cut out the core. Mix cinnamon, brown sugar, little wheat flour, ginger, nutmeg and a tsp of butter in a bowl. Reassemble each apple in some tin foil and fill the center. Stick it in the oven (350) for about 10-15 minutes and you're golden!

Lemon Drop

So it was requested awhile back that I try to make a lemon purse. Kristina from 1MaddieandMe asked that I make her one to remind her that whey life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Finished it this weekend and she's since picked up her purchase. Thought I'd show a pic of it.

Next request is an apple. Should be fairly straight forward. But a fun fruit to try to recreate as well! If you have any other fruits or shapes you'd like, let me know!

Berry's around the world...

Hoping for total domination. Well maybe not domination, but an invasion :) I've sold all the berrys available at my shop! Of course, I'm working on some more since I do so love the little berrys. And it seems so do you! Anyone who'd like one can contact me or check out what's coming in the shop. Here's the ones that have found new homes for now.

Funny to look at the pics... can you tell which were with a lightgbox?

Treatment no. 2

Starts today. After Sunday, we're 1/6 of the way done. Although my husband said we shouldn't talk in fractions till he's under the halfway point. So if we were talking in fractions... that's where we'd be :) Today was supposed to be zoo day, but the weather did not cooperate! It was spittin' most of the day. And since the zoo is an outdoor sort of thing, we went shopping instead. Mostly things for around the house, but did pick up some beads to play with with the kids. So our fun thing while daddy was sitting in the hospital was to make necklaces with their names. My son isn't quite old enough to get the beads so he tried to sneak a few to eat. Never quite made it in the mouth. He does like his necklace though. It was a quick crafty thing to do. Although I have to figure out the better way to join the ends. Will have to ask around to those Homefront gals who do beaded jewelry

Also picked up a new teddy bear for my daughter. She wanted a pink one (of course) and so got a CareBear. Which is fitting since it's the one that is special for her to go through her book from Kids Konnected. Figured we'd look through that this weekend with her, now that she has the bear and daddy is once again getting his medicine. Sharing all with your feelings with your bear is what the book is about. And since sharing is caring :)

On the way to pick him up, the kids fell asleep in the car, but my girl woke up on the way home. She looked at me and said "Mom, it stopped spitting" I just like that description of a little rain. The picture it brings to mind of the heavens spitting on you is amusing.

Birthday Parties Can Be Fun

So today was the day of the birthday party. My daughter requested that I make a purse that matches Lily the Pig and give those as presents. I also put together her book completely. Took awhile to cut everything, the printed labels as well as the posterboard (seemed to work well, and will be durable enough for a 3 year old). Now I will have to get our kids' books done sooner rather than later since I'm sure there will be requests after seeing Mack's book! At least I already have the supplies and some practice!

Here's a pic of how the final presents look, outside of the bag. I know the colors are interesting for the purse, but it's what she chose for the purse!

It was a fun day, just a few kids... about 10 ages 3 and under. And sugar! Always makes for a fun time right? Needless to say, I relaxed the rest of the day :) working on some new stuff) Her mom did get a jumpy castle so that was fun to see the kids bouncing about. They enjoyed the day, haven't spent all too much time with Mack lately so it was a good day. My daughter didn't even want to come home! But all good things must end. We'll have to setup more playdates.

And the winner is...

The envelope please... Across The Pond! Of course, she's really from here. But you can learn more about that on the post What's in a Name. She has a beautiful shop and since you've all seen what she won, (quick reminder)

I thought I'd showcase something simply stunning from her shop! Take a gander :)

Thanks for all the entries! I wish I could give you all a prize... but not sure that would be good business sense! However, you can see a complete list of winners as well as something a little extra for those that entered on the Homefront Blog.

Giveaway Done

Just wanted to say thank you to all who entered! I will be letting the winner know who they are soon. Gotta pull out my trusty hat and write down some numbers!

In the mean time, I've been working on an ABC book for my daughters friend. It's her 3rd birthday this weekend and so figured it was a good time to give it to her. I found directions here, instructions to make your own board book. This is the little girl who I used to babysit. So while she was here, we'd take pictures of different things to make a book! Got pictures of my own kids as well to do their books. So once I get hers all together, I'll get theirs done.

I think she'll really enjoyed it and it'll help to learn her ABC's since it is all about her.

I'd love to see how any of you decide to put together books too!

Whirly birds in the sky

We went for a walk to the post office today and there was a jet that flew over head. My daughter looked up at it and then at me and began to say, "that's really loud" and of course it was, so on the third try it was far enough away that I had stopped asking her to repeat what she was saying. "Yes, it was loud, it was a really loud jet." I told her.

What that leads me to, is the sounds we hear on a daily basis. We live near a Naval Air Strip, helicopters are constantly flying about. It's a sound that you tend to not hear after awhile, but is strange when the sound stops during the week. My husband works on helicopters and so the kids do enjoy when they see them. His last deployment, it was fun to go for walks around the block and see the birds in flight. My daughter loved to see them and would point, "Mommy Helicoter!" I leave you this pic my SIL took while she was here last, visiting my hubby at work.

I made a treasury today, in honor of the whirly birds we hear, there were some really great choices to include!

It's Done!

Yippee! Treatment no. 1 is officially done. 11 more to go. The homecare nurse was super nice on Friday and was very friendly with the kids. Also got some information from a charity yesterday. It is called Kids Konnected. Found it while looking on google to find information for the kids. Since they are young it's hard to know exactly how much information is good or exactly how to tell them things.

The package came complete with a hand made quilt (I'll have to contact them again and ask about donations of blankets and bears), teddy bear and a booklet for the kids to look through. We gave my daughter the quilt and son the bear. Which means we need to pick up another teddy bear for her, since the booklet is about sharing your feelings with the bear. He took to his bear right away and loves to carry it around.

Special order pink baby girl blanket is done as well! However it took a bit of sewing. Each square is about 2" and there are only... 169 of them. Not an overly large blanket but the perfect size for a stroller, car seat, cuddling blanket. Hubby helped me put it together last night, early this morning. He recommended the white bead of yarn. I really like the way it turned out.

Now it's back to work on some flowers, purses, notebooks... whatever else comes to mind! I have an idea to make a blanket for my husband, but may ask family who work with yarn to help. Maybe we can all do some squares and then put it together and see how it comes out.

It's Friday

Let the ride begin. Treatment no. 1 is today. I'm going with this time and will bring a book. Or maybe a hook and some yarn. But something to do when he sleeps. He didn't sleep much last night and so will be sleeping much of today to get the day done. The rest of the 12 he knows he'll be on his own and the kids and I will waste some time at the zoo. Nice that it's so close to the hospital!

We've discussed how the kids may like that daddy's sick and needs to go to the doctors again. Every other Friday will become Zoo Day! The pic is my monkey with his monkey on one of our last trips to the zoo.

Thinkin' Pink

A beautiful treasury by EllaBear is here! It's all about Military Spouse Appreciation Day, they're all beautiful and would be great for Mother's Day as well. Thanks for featuring me!

And here's another lovely treasury (I'm partial being it's Navy of course) of soothing blues by TulipTreeBaby.

M.I.A.

It's been a week! Sadly it's only Wednesday so there is more to go. Not too bad of a week really. Reorganized our entire house. We have a 3 bedroom with 2 kids, 2 adults, 2 computers and a cat. We were sharing a room with our son, and the computers had their own room. Well, he's ready for his own room now, which means the computers had to find new homes. And the computers had the larger of the two rooms, so our daughter got their old room. Son got her old room! The plus side to reorganizing as well as gaining our own room back, I had a chance to put all my supplies in the same place!

It was good timing overall. The week will continue to be busy. I have a baby blanket to finish as well as Mother's Day presents for my own Moms. Oh and chemo starts this week. Between my husband and I, we have a doctors appointment each day the rest of this week! Today, his port, Friday his chemo starts. Thursday a teeth cleaning for me. Will have to drop off the bags of clothes and stuff we pulled out for Goodwill during the reorganization. Always nice to feel like the house is a bit decluttered!

On a completely different note, wanted to share this picture a friend sent me. It's from the website sonnyradio.com. Looking at it though... wouldn't it be great to just hold the sun up a little bit longer to add to the hours in the day? This one is my favorite shot.

New Items!

Store has been updated a bit. A new berry purse...

Custom order initial notebook...

As well as some washcloths. Changed up my banner too. Always a good time for a change right? You'll have to stop by the shop to see what you think. Feel free to let me know!

Treasuries everywhere!

So a few of us Homefront gals snagged some treasuries! I made one, which I've not done in awhile. It's such a diverse group it's fun to look through and try and find what fits into your title. Since that is what you have to put in first. You can always plan out exactly what you'd like to put into a treasury and then wait for one to open and try to snag it. Or just wing it! I've seen some truly beautiful treasuries where I'm sure more thought is put into them. However, it was just fun since the treasury was open to showcase some my fellow Homefrontiers. You can view the treasury here.

You can go through and look at the other treasuries here, here, and here. I'm in a few of those as well, which is kinda fun. Thanks to FrayBaby, ScarletDgn, and BadCat for picking some interesting themes and beautiful items to showcase!