Temple Picture

My dear friend just celebrated her 13th birthday. Her first and most wanted gift was a framed copy of my temple picture. Made my day to hear that. So we set off to make it for her. I had an old frame. We took the picture out of it and added trim of our own so we had a chunky frame.

I used metalic spray paint to paint the mat from blue to gold.

The frame was a bit uncooperative but we got it to work out.

The great thing about shabby chic look right now is it hides any imperfections in the building process.
In the end we loved it. Glue the trim all together, rough up the edges, finish off with a sealer and

Voila!

Oh, and Ms. Katlyn loved it too! Happy Birthday Katlyn!

Gardening lessons....

There's peas and lettuce growing....slowly...I planted them several weeks ago.... I spy.....well....uhmm. Dirt? Yeah, there are suppose to be beats, bean, and carrots peaking through......  Learning to Garden in new soil lends itself to a certain learning curve. I have been watching my precious seeds for signs of life. They are coming albeit slowly. We added compost to the garden last year and again this year. Wondering what was going on I started my search. I found this great site "In the Garden Online". I wanted to pin it but you have to have an image. They have tables on seed germination. This is a sample of those tables. I wanted to keep track of it so here it is with the link so you can find it too. Seed Germination time...

Crop	Germination Time
Basil	7 to 10 days
Bean	7 to 14 days
Beet	10 to 14 days
Broccoli	7 to 10 days
Brussels Sprout	7 to 10 days
Cabbage	10 to 14 days
Cantaloupe	5 to 7 days
Carrot	10 to 14 days
Catnip	7 to 14 days
Cauliflower	5 to 7 days
Chervil	14 to 28 days
Corn	5 to 7 days
Cucumber	7 to 14 days
Dill	10 to 21 days
Eggplant	7 to 10 days
Fennel	10 to 21 days
German Chamomile	10 to 15 days
Lettuce	4 to 6 days
Mint	12 to 15 days
Parsley	21 to 28 days
Pea	7 to 10 days
Pepper	7 to 10 days
Pumpkin	7 to 10 days
Radish	3 to 5 days
Spinach	7 to 21 days
Squash, Winter	7 to 10 days
Tomato	7 to 14 days
Watermelon	5 to 7 days

Of course my strawberries are doing beautifully. I have berries already turning. These are the everbearing....I hope my June bearing plants take off this year...

 Happy Gardening!

Angry Bird Birthday Invites

Mom to dad..."Ok, we have this and this and this going on this weekend."

Tyler...."yeah, and then next week is my birthday!!"

Mom...running to the calendar...."Oh, crap! How did that sneek up so fast? I thought I still had another week!!!"

Ok boys time to gather the troops. After a bit of trouble shooting I managed to throw together a cute little invite for Tyler's buddies. Get the troops together and set up the assembly line. Ok boys, here are your asignments.....

Gotta love that! It didn't take long before the cards were done....

                                         Rather cute dontcha think?!

We got all of them done slipped a typed note about the party into them and got them out in the same day. The best part was having all the supplies already on hand!

Birthday Cake- FAIL!

Mr Tyler wanted an Angry Birds party. Pinterest has lots of great ideas for games and cakes.

They all look so simple. Before long I found myself saying, "I can SO make that", "Piece of cake"! So off to the store I ran. Picked up a few yummies.....

I had to plan ahead because I still had to work at the hospital. So Josh got to practice his baking skills and help me out. We started with 2 different frosting recipes...buttercream and cream cheese. They were both yummy and Josh felt like he was entering Cupcake Wars.

Uhmmm, hold that thought son. The frosting turned out great...the cake...not so much.

So, it's not terrible but after playing with it I was running out of time and had no idea how to get those cute little birds and pigs. I found some marshmallow fruit shapes and just made a go at it.

Yeah, this was just too much for me. I find myself able to do lots. I craft, sew, build, garden, scrapbook...you name it. BUT....cake decorating is not my forte!

Tyler loved it. My sweet hubby knew right away what it was and thought it was great. Me...well it just didn't measure up to what I had pictured. We have 2 more birthdays over the next month.....

Time for a call to my own personal Baker....well, not my OWN baker but still a fantastic baker. Shelly, owner of the Cream of the Crop cupcakes! I made a call to her that day. Placed my orders for a Batman cake and a Lego cake. Now I have made a Lego cake before but the price of NOT worrying about it is SOOO worth it.....

Stay tuned for a fantastic Batman cake for Mr. Matthew!