Happy Fathers Day to my Husband...

Happy Fathers Day! You are a far better dad than I ever even imagined you could be!

You are my cliff talking off, amazing green eyed, best guy friend, understanding, family loving, always joking, sometimes lazy, boy playing, football addicted, put to sleeping, constantly procrastinating, road hogging, always upgrading, food loving, sub making, double buying, fellow hoarding, usually sighing, hard working, U2 loving, shoe buying, TV watching, not early rising, money smart, handsome husband. I could not have imagined myself with a more suited man and I am so glad you asked me to marry you!
I love you soooooo much!

Happy Fathers Day to my Dad...

Dad, you are my always rescuing, non-attention seaking, Mr. Measuring, up above'ing, always dependable, easy going, always giving, hard headed, sometimes jerky, keeper of things, head hitting, noise hating, car owning, antique toy loving, always right, boy loving, fixer of all things, wrestler of boys, young at hearted, ski the pants off, out spoken, car washing, family loving father.
 I love you and hope I can be there for you the way you are for me.

Teachers Gifts: Herbal Eye Packs

On a crafting kick I made a few herbal eye packs, thanks to Heathers awesome tutorial (found HERE).  I made one for Sam's Teacher, and Eben's Teacher as a thank you for making the boys first year of school so AMAZING! Thinking that they might need something to relax with after a LONG day with 20 or so Kindergartners, and also wanting them to have something to remember the boys by, I wanted to make 4 (one for each teacher, and one for each teachers aide), but unfortunately only had enough rice mixture for 2.

Rice and Lavender Epsom Salts (stolen from Mom...thanks!) Mixture

So I decided on making their teachers each one in the boys favorite colors.

Blue (Sam's) for his teacher, and Green (Eben's) for his teacher

Graduation is tomorrow, and I am going to be a mess...TEAR ALERT!

The Rock Dam

Yesterday the boys got off the bus, IT WAS THEIR LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!  Finally the weather is HOT!  So, I decided we should go back to the brook behind our house so we could cool off.  Instead of wearing their good school clothes, I stripped them down to their undies, and put their sneakers, and crocs on and off we headed complete with a generous dousing of bug spray.

Me first!

Across the bridge

Sooooooo COLD!

Moving the many rocks to make our dam

So strong!

"Look how deep we made it Auntie!"

Boat races

Thankfully no one broke any toes...look at the size of that rock!

We moved EVERY one of these rocks!  Nice and sturdy dam we made huh?

Tree canopy for shade~HEAVEN!

The beginning of Summer, and how much I am looking forward to more fun like this!

Bus Driver Gifts!

We have the best bus drivers on the planet for Sam.  "Mr. Dave in the morning, and George in the afternoon.  Get this...George used to be Julia's and my bus driver in our school years, how cool is that~full circle huh?

At any rate, I decided to make some thank you Peanut Butter cookies for them

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

2 sticks butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. chunky peanut butter (the chunkier the better!)

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F

Cream butter and sugar and eggs together, add in the flour and baking soda, then mix in the peanut butter

Roll into 1 in. sized balls, and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet

Crisscross with fork tines

 

Bake for 15 minutes, or until barely golden (I prefer them this way, but you can go darker if preferred)

Attach a thank you note, and pass along the love!

Sickness breeds productivity

Today Sam woke with the GI bug that had been manifesting through the night.  Fever, cold sweats, and then DUMDUMDUM...it came.  

So I had called into work at 2 am to stay home with my little sicko, and had no real plans for my day, until I looked in my foyer, and in my cupboards.  My mom and Julia can vouch for their state of dis-array and clutter.  I mean I had SKI CLOTHES HANGING UP FROM OUR LAST DAY OF SKIING!  WOW

Here are the after photos, the before pictures were never taken...I WAS UBER embarrassed, and lets just leave it to your imagination...OK?

The Freshened Foyer

P.S. I washed the floors on my hands and knees...I do not own a mop

Clean Cupboards

I had some cans from 2008 in the back of the cupboards...2008!  OMG...I am BAD!

Then I washed some dishes

Those glasses are my Coke Zero GOBLETS. I love them, they hold a TON!

Finally I treated myself to a donut, I started with half, and kept going back till the whole thing was gone...My mom had kindly gottern 2 donuts for my lad (they are his favorite), and Sam said he only wanted the "Sprinkled one", so not wanting to waste my mothers generosity I partook. 

Reminded me of this clip from Sex and The City...I love Miranda

Have a great day all.  Oh, BTW I cloroxed this post, GERM FREE!

0-6 MOS Crochet Dress / Tunic Pattern

Came up with another pattern yesterday.  

Unfortunately since this one took me over FOUR hours to design and make I will not be offering this one for free. But you can find it at Adirondack Patterns

There were many scratches out, many stitches pulled out, much trial and error over that 4 hours

 But in the end...I love it SOOOOO much.  Thanks for looking!

Some Beauty To Share

Yesterday I was fortunate to get done work at 5:00 pm, and not 7:00 pm., and I happened to have my camera in my work bag. 

BONUS!

The beauty on my way home is abundant and Julia and I always say

"Man I wish I had my camera with me!"

Well yesterday I did.  Here is some of the loveliness I saw.

We are so fortunate

I was tearing up watching this slideshow on Time.com about the atrocious conditions of Malaria plaguing Apac Uguanda.  The babes, the women, the working people all in turmoil from mosquito bites carrying Malaria. 

Such a simple fix...MOSQUITO NETS could manage so much, and avoid so much pain.  According to the article the average Apac resident is bitten TENS OF THOUSANDS of times a YEAR! 

 Image via Time.com

So, I did some research, and decided to make my first charitable contribution and donate to Against Malaria.

IT FEELS SO GOOD!

$5.00 buys 1 net!

100% of the proceeds goes to buying nets

So I am spreading the word. Please take part if you are so inclined.

Lala's Glazed Banana Nut Cake Recipe

This cake is warm, delicious, easy, and filling...who could ask for anything more?

Lala's Glazed Banana Nut Cake Recipe

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)

1 c. sugar

4 eggs

5 ripe medium bananas

3 c. flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.  Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs together in a large bowl.  Break the bananas into small pieces into the same bowl.  Set aside, and in a smaller bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and then mix with an electric mixer at a low speed till well incorporated.  YOU WANT SOME VISIBLE PIECES of bananas. Now fold in the walnuts. Pour into a greased 9X11 glass pan, and put in the oven.  Bake for 40-45 minutes (or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean).  

 

Allow to cool and when finished cooling apply the glaze (recipe below)

Glaze 

In a sandwich baggie, fill half way with powdered sugar, add a tsp of vanilla extract, add milk to the sugar and mix until it forms a nectar thick glaze. 

Cut a small triangle out of the baggie corner

 

Drizzle over the cake (thanks Sam!)

Enjoy!

What a great sister I have!

Look at what my twinnie made for me!

She made one for herself a bit ago, and got he pattern from Heather (HERE!). Now ladies...these two crafty Mama's are some of the craftiest ladies I know.  

Please check out their Inspring Blogs at

Adirondack Mama (Julia)

Shivaya Naturals (Heather)

So..onto my lovely gift!

Made with love...my FANTASTIC NEW CAR ORGANIZER!

Made of the most beautiful paisley print...SHE KNOWS I LOVE MY PAISLEY!

So thanks Julia for the thought, and for the great gift.  I truly love it! You are the BEST!

Lala's Easy ULTIMATE Sticky Bun Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Ahhh, ladies, I have found heaven.  Please pass it along. It is called Schnecken.  I once had Schnecken at a baby shower, and FELL IN LOVE!  Today I made my own recipe for it, and thought I would share.  It is almost as fun to make as it is to say...SCHNECKEN!

Here is my own recipe for Lala's Schnecken, also known as a cinnamon roll on CRACK!  LOL

Lala's Schnecken

Ingredients:

-2 frozen bread loaves (thawed and allowed to TRIPLE RISE in size)

-1 stick unsalted butter melted

-1 3/4 c. chopped walnuts

-1/2 c. pecans

-1 lb...you heard me right...of dark brown sugar

-cinnamon

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 365 degrees F. WHEN THE SCHNECKEN HAS ATTAINED ITS SECOND RISE SIZE

2.Roll out your dough (approx size 2 ft X 1 ft), and allow to rest

3.Grease a 9X11 pan with the butter, and then sprinkle generously with the brown sugar, and the nuts (this will be the top of the Schnecken!), now dust with some cinnamon

4.Spread the remaining butter over the rolled out dough, sprinkle with the remaining brown sugar, nuts, and then dust with cinnamon (make sure you go all the way to every edge so you can make the most Schneckens!)

5.Begin rolling the dough into a snake like roll, beginning on the long edge and rolling towards the other long edge.

6.Cut the roll into 1 inch wide pieces.  Cut as many as your roll will accommodate.  Place with the spiral side up into the pan.  Don't worry about over crowding...the Schneckens make great friends with eachother!

7. Cover with a damp paper towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. (Double Rise)

8. Place in the oven for about 30-35 minutes (or until it sounds hollow when tapped on)

9. Remove from oven, and IMMEDIATELY INVERT OVER YOUR SERVING PLATE! (I used a cookie sheet lined with tin foil)

 10...DROOL AND WAIT FOR THE COMPLIMENTS AND RECIPE REQUESTS!