GREEN WITH ENVY TOP 3

This month's collaborative Pin Board was titled Green With Envy. Here are a few of the pins I could not keep my eyes off of...

pinned by Laura from love & olive oil

Isn't this cake amazing? I totally wish I these cake frosting skills, and a slice of that delicious looking cake.

pinned by Sara from House to Home

 Green has always been one of my sisters favorite colors. The styling of this room is so fun. I would come over just to read on the couch.

pinned by Me from Annily Green

This leather bag is hand made by Annily Green. I have been wishing this bag into my hands for sometime now. Isn't it lovely? Maybe my family should make note of this!

Check back on Monday for a new collaborative board!

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SPRING AROUND HERE

While it might not be quite warm and sunny outside yet, we are deffinitly bringing the sun on inside.
When I was choosing the colors for my yo-yo garland, I wanted them to be fresh, fun, and something that matched my house. Yellow, orange or green can be found in every single room of our home.

Here are a few pictures of other ways we have brought spring, and it's colors into our home.

A few little things can easily bring a smile to may face.

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GIANT YO-YO GARLAND

With spring officially here, and Easter right around the corner I knew it was time to make this idea a reality. 

These are not just any yo-yos. They are giant yo-yos, with the biggest about twelve inches wide.

Supplies:

Fabric

Compass

Needle and thread

Doilies and paint (optional)

My doilies are from the dollar store and stiffened up with a coat of acryilc paint. I used a sponge brush to apply the paint, and let it dry over night.

Making Circles:
1. Grab a square of your fabric and lay it out in front of you.
2. Take the bottom right corner of your square and take it to the opposite corner.
3. Take the top right corner to to the bottom left corner. You will now have a giant triangle/arrow head.
4. Use you compass to draw and arc.

Cut your fabric following the line you drew with your compass.

You know have an amazing circle. This process can be scaled up or down depending on the size of circle you would like. Keep in mind that your yo-yo will end up being half the size of your original circle. My circles varied in size from ten to twenty four inches.

Once your circles are all cut, use your needle and thread to sew a running stitch along the out side edge of each circle.  Repeat process of making yo-yos until you think you have enough. Them make a couple more for good measure.

 Once your are satisfied with your yo-yos, it's time to lay them out.

 I spent quite a bit of time placing and replaing my yo-yos and doilies to balance the garland. At this point, you may need to make a few more yo-yos to get it just right.

With seventeen yo-yos and five doilies I was able to get a good size garland for my bay window.

I stitched each yo-yo and doily to the next with invisible thread. This is a pretty heavy garland. Make sure your stiches are good and strong.

MONDAY MONDAY

Over the weekend our weather was beautiful, our snow melted so the kids could play in the back yard, and we celebrated Davis' baptism. All in all, a wonderful weekend.

Fast forward to today... Seriously strong winds with gusts up to 40 mph and a random snow storm. Possible power outages. Davis is really hoping the power goes out. I remember as a kid, the power going out was scary and exciting at the same time. For his sake, I hope it goes out just for a little while. Not too long thought, Mama's got a lot of laundry and DVR to do.

Happy Monday Friends!

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HUNGRY FOR THE HUNGER GAMES

I'm not much of a book trend follower, nor am I really a fiction reader. However, with the Hunger Games movie coming out, I thought I would give the first book a whirl. And, what did I think? Well, I skipped sleep and read all three books in way too short of a time. I couldn't stop reading. I needed to know what happened to everyone.

Entropy Trading Co.

I might also add that I imagined myself as Katniss, and Mike (my husband) as Peeta. Okay, you can stop laughing now. I was so drained after reading the books, physically and emotionally, that I slept for 14 hours. That is not a joke.

Have you read the books? Are you going to see the movie?

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FAMILY ROOM FUN

We have a small sitting room in the front of our house. This room has had more transformations that any other room in the house. 

Instead of a lot of small pictures to make a collage, we wanted something big to really stand out. Poster prints are not anything new, but I have wanted them for a long time. I was kind of holding out to find the perfect picture.

Mike, suggested we print something I had taken a picture of. After digging into our archives, I decided to go with some film pictures from a hike last summer. Cactus on the left, and craw-dad on the right.

To get an idea, these posters are 4 x 3 feet. The biggest Kinko's prints in the store. The prints were 75¢ per square foot. My heart swells with happiness everytime I walk in the room.

Do you change your decor up often?

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ZION'S CANYON

Last Friday we skipped school and headed south for a little camping. Mike and I were excited to try out our new to us tent trailer. The kids were excited to be going on an adventure.

Spring was in the air in southern Utah. A few little flowers here and there, and nice 70˚ weather were just what we were looking for.

It wouldn't be a complete trip if we didn't stop at a couple of rock shops to peruse the goods and pick up a trinket for each of the kids. Tess picked out a piece of the peacock copper pictured below.

Saturday was our day to hike. Tess is a huge hiker with some serious endurance. That girl would walk forever and ever if we let her. We had to constantly yell ahead to ask her to stop and wait for us.

There is something so wonderful about getting away from the everday life, and surrounding yourself with loved ones and nature. I know that sounds corny, but it is totaly true.

Animal tracks, green moss, sandstone, and sand. Davis washed his face off in every stream of water we crossed. Waterfalls, snow, mud, and throwing sticks.

A small campfire, cuddling in sleeping blankets, reading books and laughing together. Riding bikes, shopping in overpriced groccery stores. Listening to rainfall at night, riding bikes, and finding chocolate gold coins that some leprechauns left. Trail mix, Mt. Caramel tunnel, and watching squirrels. 

This was an awesome start to spring.

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LIMEADE

In keeping with our green citrus theme, today I'm sharing a recipe for Brazilian limeade. Your thinking, that is not very Irish at all! I know, but it's so good.

Ingredients:
6 washed limes
Water
Sugar
Sweetened condensed milk

1. Choose limes that are fresh with smooth skin. The older the limes, the more bitter they are. Cut each lime into 8 wedges.

2. Drop all you cut limes into a blender. Add enough water to cover the limes plus two finger widths more.
3. Blend your limes for a count of 6. Too much blending will make it bitter.

4. Toss you limes in a strainer and catch all the juices in another bowl. Fill your blender with four cups of cold water and pour it over the lime pulp in the strainer to get the rest of the juice.
5. Add half a cup of granulated sugar to the juice. If you would like to make it frothy, which I reccomend, now is the time to add the sweetened condensed milk.
6. Pour your juice, or as much as you can fit, back into your blender. Add one quater to a half can of sweetened condensed milk. Blend until frothy.

Your Brazilian limeade just needs a cup of ice and you are set to sip away. Pebbled ice is my favorite. I buy it from a local sandwich shop. It sounds silly, but totally worth the two bucks for a huge bag.

The limeade is best consumed fresh. If it sits all day, it will turn bitter. Enjoy!

DINNER 3 WAYS

Today I've put together three food themes for a St. Patrick's Day dinner party.

First choice...

fruit kebabs | pancakes | jello cups

My kids would be over the top for a rainbow meal. We often have breakfast for dinner, so rainbow pancakes doesn't feel like a stretch for us. Do you ever eat breakfast for dinner?

Second choice...

pesto | veggies | mint ice cream

Why not eat all your favorite green foods? I didn't discover pesto until I was older. (I can actually remember my very first pesto meal, not joking) My kids on the other had have been eating it for a long time and really enjoy it. Pesto on spinach pasta would be super.

Third choice...

corned beef & cabbage | irish soda bread | bread pudding

Last year we made Corned beef minus the cabbage. It was really tasty and easy to cook up. I have never actually eaten Irish soda bread, but I remember two boys on the baseball team talking about it all the time. (I took stats for my high school baseball team, remember that Noelle?)

Our menu hasn't been finalized yet, but I am thinking bread pudding with caramel sauce needs to be made sooner than later.

Which option would your family like best?

*Visit Muffin today for a placemat download!

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FIND YOUR PLACE

 Are you in love with green these days? Well, I hope your not sick of it yet, because we have a few more days of green in the forecast. Today is no exception.

The lime place card is really the inspiration for the entire table. Today Muffin is sharing a step by step tutorial in how to make these great smelling place limes. ;)

We also took inspiration from Jessica's painted plates to create a little triangle motiff on our settings. Wilton makes a great Sparkle Gel that makes the decorating process super  sweet easy. This is also a great place to get your kids in on the action. Tess and Collin decorated several plates each with all sorts of sparkly designs.

Napkin rings are one of the extra details that can add punch to your table. With a couple of rolls of washi tape, and a button mum, our napkins went from just a napkin to best supporting actress.

Don't forget to get the full lime place card tutorial with Muffin. While you visit Muffin's blog, don't  download the placemat we used in our place settings.!

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FLOWERS IN GREEN

Flowers are one of my many guilty pleasures. I feel so rich and fancy when I have fresh flowers around the house. There are so many beautiful images of flower arrangments to be found on the web. The images always fill me with happiness. I have zero flower arranging talents, but thought I would give it a go for this weeks table.

Before we jump into the flowers, I want to show you what we are putting our flowers in. There are dozens of painted mason jar how-tos on the interweb. This is nothing ground breaking, but I wanted to share my take on it.

1. Wash and dry glass jars. Pickle jars are pretty much perfect for everything, and a hot fudge jar is super cute and little. I taped off different sections on each jar to create a striped look.

2. I wanted my jars to still be transparent. So, each jar got a light dusting of gold spray paint.

3. Let your jars dry, then peel off the painters tape. Ta-da.

With green being the color of the week, for St. Patty's day, I wanted to find some green lovelies. My spider mums are from the floral section of the groccery store, and the buttom mums (kermit variety) are from a florist shop.

A simple way to put together a floral arrangement, is to group like flowers in each jar. Both of these mums are the same hue, so I decided to do a little mixing. Don't forget to cut your flower stems at an angle. (That's about the only flower tip I know so far.)

I absolutly love that the jar just has a nice dusting for gold.

Lime green flowers are welcome in my house any day of the week.