Woolie Wednesday!~ Patriotic Mug Mats

Hi friends! Once again, Wednesday snuck up on me too quickly! But, I do have a small new little project to share with you today. It really isn't new, but the design is new.
You remember the tutorial I did on the mug mats back in March? You can read about it HERE. They looked like this:

...and this.....

Well, I made them a little patriotic....

Keeping the same size circles I just made a star that had all its points touching the middle star and completely omitted the small circle. Now I know how many of us just love our stars in decorating, and these are super easy to make....Memorial Day is just around the corner! ;)
I wish I had a full stack of 4 to show you, but I sold those and now I am working on another stack!
But first I have to finish a project/gift for this weekend. Hope it all goes well, I will share it with you when it is all finished! Have a great day! Tarrah

Birthday Parties Galore!

'Twas the weekend for parties! What a crazy, jam packed weekend of fun it was though, I don't even mind that I am still exhausted from it all!
I will start with Friday......I searched all over creation for all the things that I needed on my list, hours of in and out of stores, and being on the road started making me feel like I was coming down with something. I sure did come down with something..... as soon as I came home, I spent the next 4 or 5 hours on the couch with a touch of the bug. :(
After I took a nap I was able to pull myself together to start cleaning the house for all the 10 year olds that would be here the next afternoon, and thanks to my husband, he helped me get soooo much ready too!
Saturday, we were busy getting everything ready for Gracie's friends that arrived around 2. From that point on it was chock full of birthday party fun.
We did.....tye dye shirts (which got just awesome)! Then we did sno-cones (which were just as awesome), then we did the pinata (can I say awesome again?), and then we had cupcakes after Gracie opened up her presents! And just as they finished their cupcakes the parents arrived! ;) It was such a great party! My son told me that this was the best day of his life....and it wasn't even his party! LOL!!!!





As soon as all the kiddies were gone, I prepared for round 2! Both sets of Gracie's grandparents were coming for dinner, so I started preparing the menu! Oh, it was sooooo delish. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I was really craving some steaks, and these just hit the spot!
The birthday dinner menu was:
Sirloin Steaks with a butter garlic sauce
Onion Potatoes
Crab Won-Ton Bites
Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Poppy Seed Dressing
Everything Bread
And for dessert: German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting, leftover cupcakes for kids, and MORE SNO-CONES!!!!! :)
It was a very nice evening of eating and being together with everyone......Now, for Sunday!
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Sunday, my Mom was having a small birthday party with just our family for my Dad who turned 70!!!!! So, after church, we immediately headed there for yet another big meal! Oh, and that was soooo good too, but I got a break and didn't have to make anything for it! She made sliced ham, baked beans, pasta salad, bought chicken, and all sorts of other little goodies......talk about being around food all weekend!
We all went for a walk, the kids played a lot, and then later in the evening my son had a baseball game, and that was pretty much the end of our weekend~! Whew....it was a busy one, but it was FUN!!!

Homemade Ice Cream!

Ahhhh, homemade ice cream....nothing like it! :)
I told all of you that I would give you a little review of my new ice cream maker and let you know how the new ice cream recipe turned out, and the results are in: fantastic!
I made it late one night after getting home from a ball game, and it hit the spot! I wanted to make strawberry, but 2 of the kids kind of wrinkled up their noses and said no, we just want vanilla. So, I made vanilla and just kept the cut up strawberries for who ever wanted them to throw in their own little bowls.
Here is that yummy cream mixture churning around starting to thicken:


Add a little strawberries....

And voila!

It took about 25 minutes of churning to have the ice cream....and my kids couldn't wait for it, they had to have it right away, so it is SOFT! After I dished theirs out, I put the bowl in the freezer to harden up the ice cream a little bit more.
I did make the french vanilla recipe that came with the maker, but it had such a great vanilla bean taste to it, and this is the reason why:

This is from Williams Sonoma, and I highly recommend it. I was going to buy a couple vanilla beans and split them open for all the great flavor and for those little black specks (the vanilla bean seeds), but they recommended this to me...It's kind of like a liquidie paste with such a great pure gourmet vanilla flavor! It's now a new fave! :)
So there you have my little review....Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker....It's A Good Thing! :)
Now, I'm off to get ready for a crazy weekend of birthday parties.....talk to you next week! Tarrah

Woolie Wednesday!~ My Favorite Braided Rug!

It's Wednesday already! I wish I had a new wool project to share with you, but I don't and I probably won't for awhile. Life is just crazy and the little free time that I get is spent working on my rug hooking. So, I guess I will just keep sharing wool projects that I have either made in the past, or I will be looking for some to feature on my blog that others' have made...(so if you have one that you want to share, please email me!) :)
Well, this is my absolute favorite braided rug that I have made. I just love how the blues/greys all work together so well, along with a little barn red thrown in there and worked in through-out the rug. It really looks great in my son's room.



Braiding rugs is another one of my favorite wool projects. Although it is a rather long and intense project, especially if you are making a large rug. It can be rather hard on the hands if you braid for a long period of time, but the end rewards are great! They hold up so great and look absolutely beautiful in a home, especially if you are decorating with a prim/country/farmhouse style.
I haven't made a braided rug in quite some time and I hope by this fall I will have one going, that will give me some time to get all my other projects done! ;)

Have a great week everyone! Tarrah

MY New Pottery!

Well, how was everyones mothers day? I had a very nice and enjoyable day even though the weather really changed our plans around A LOT, it was still great! We were going to take a road trip to Philly, but that will now be happening later in the month or wait until school is out.
Anyway, I told you all that I had gotten a few hints about what my mother's day gift would be.....some pottery, and here it is:

Bob made me a(n almost) matching set of blue pitchers! Everything he makes is free hand, so nothing ever completely turns out like any other piece, but that is just great, because it is all its own unique piece that way. Anyway, he knows I just love the big pitchers and I had told him before that I would like a set of 2 because of our long (10 ft) antique harvest table. (*BTW, I still have to tell you guys that story about me aquiring that table!) So, that is just what he did....he made these 2 for me and they are the largest pitchers he has yet to make.....he started with approx. 4 lbs of clay for each!



They are so beautiful....you have to come see them in person! ;) Apparently a few people saw them before me and wanted to buy them, but Bob couldn't do it.....I was finally getting my own pottery for a gift! :) The joke is, that I never get any for myself....we sell everything first, and I get the leftovers! LOL!!!!!

...And lookie what else I got!.....

No, it's not a new Kitchenaid mixer, its the ICE CREAM MAKER ATTACHMENT FOR MY KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!! YEAH!!!! :) LOL!!! I kept telling everyone that I want a nice compact ice cream maker that is semi quick and doesn't require all the ice, and all the rock salt, and after some debating this is what I chose! I must have been a good momma! ;)
I will let you all know how the ice cream turns out....hope to make some this week! :)
Now, I also wanted to share some MORE pottery pictures with you....this is something very new that Bob is going to be doing, and this was his first and only piece so far that he has tried......

....writing on the pottery! He made this as a little surprise gift for Tim and Patti at the Brickhouse Craft Shop!
It is his own freehand writing on the pottery inside a band of glaze. Isn't it cool?!



It has the shop name, with the town of Millersburg, Pa, and the year the shop was established: 2007. I think we surprised Patti and Tim, and we think they really liked it!
Well, I also put my order in for some pieces for the kids with their names and birthdates and some crocks with our school name for some gifts, and the list goes on! ;) Can't wait to get started on these pieces!
Ok, time to get started with the day! Have a great one! Tarrah

New Red Pottery!

The weekend is finally here! YEAH!!!! Don't we all just love the weekends! And this is a very special weekend then yet....Mother's Day Weekend!
Well, I just had to share pictures with you of some pottery that we just got out of the kiln......FINALLY, IT'S A RED GLAZE THAT WE LIKE AND IT WORKS! :)
In the world of pottery, the hardest glaze to master is a red....and we have had quite a few ups and downs with reds, so we are excited that this red is so far working for us and it seems that other people like it too...so lets hope IT SELLS! :)




*This is a bird bottle that hangs horizontally, it just needs a stick yet.

We also got a couple white pedestal plates done.


I will have some more pottery pictures to share with you next week.....and I have a feeling that my Mother's Day present is some very special pottery....can't wait to see it! ;) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you Moms out there! I would love to hear how you are all celebrating the day.
Tarrah

Woolie Wednesday!~ Older Rug Hookings

Hi friends! I've been away from blogland for almost a week due to the crazy parenting role of 3 very active kids! :) Everyone at this time of year just seems so busy and active with all the school activities, sports, outdoor care and activities, and planning the summer season just ahead of us!
So, since its Woolie Wednesday, I wanted to show you my two rug hookings that I did quite awhile back that I mentioned in last weeks' post.
This is my very first one:

It is a fluffy sheep with 4 log cabin squares out around it. I saw this pattern in Gettysburg years ago, and just knew that I could draw something out on some scotch burlap for my own pattern that would be quite similar to the one I saw. So that is what I did. I didn't have a lot of wool colors at the time, so the squares out around it are quite bright for my taste, but again, it was my very first attempt at rug hooking, and I was just thrilled that I did it. So Please, PLEASE don't look too close at it for some uneven loops! ;)

My next rug hooking came a year or so later and once again, it was just drawn out by me, using the hit-n-miss type pattern. I really like the look of these for some reason....

This rug isn't laying nice and flat because of all the pinning in the back....I'll explain in a couple sentences.....
Here is what the back looks like:

So simple to make! These are very good, and easy projects to do if you are just starting out with rug hooking!
Now, you can see that after all this time I STILL have not finished the backing of this rug (you can see some of the burlap peeking out around the edges on the front).

Can I tell ya that I HATE finishing things like this off, because it takes a lot of time, and it is kind of tricky! But, I just pinned it a week ago and I literally have it sitting at the exact same spot where I put it down a week ago....haven't touched it since then. The rug was sitting out on a shelf but there were some things on top of it, so it always looked finished....but it is high time that I finish it now, since I FINALLY got some black binding for it! LOL!! Again, can I use the 'just too busy' card?! LOL!!! :)
On a side note....for some of you that know me really well know that I have a doggie that isn't doing so well and realizing that her time with us is very short. She is 13, and my husband and I got her a few months before we got married, so she has always been in our lives and we are really sad to know that she won't be with us much longer. She is holding her own right now, but we have decided that we can't keep her alive through medication, especially since it really isn't helping that much. So, I wanted to share a picture of her.....my dog, Martha.


Well, have a wonderful week! Hope you all are enjoying time with your families! :) Tarrah