Little Family in the Big Woods

We are slowly working to complete my daughter's four color bedroom.  A few days ago, I blogged about how we have painted each wall a different color. We somehow managed to find a comforter with all four colors...turquoise, gray, lime green, and purple. We are slowly adding accessories and doing away with all the "pink". My daughter made the little animal on her bed from an American Girl kit.  She has one more larger one to make before she goes back to school...which is only a few days away!!!

Surprise...surprise...and surprise again. The surprise lilies are here. You never know where they are going to appear, and you never know when. I love these lilies, because when they appear... I think about my Grandma.  I truly had the world's best Grandma. She had these lilies in her yard, and when I was a little girl, I loved it when they appeared. Do you have surprise lilies in your yard??? Everybody needs a little "surprise" in their lives.

Next week, I will be working with one of my fellow Sixth grade teachers to present a Mathematics training for a group of teachers.  The recipe I am going to share with you today is one he shared with me a few weeks ago.  It is a favorite of his teenage daughters. You will need: a pizza pan pizza crust mix cornmeal pizza sauce mozzarella cheese cheddar cheese cooked bacon pepperoni cooked sausage Spread a small amount of cornmeal around on your pizza pan or pizza stone. Prepare the pizza crust according to the package directions.  Spread out on the pizza stone. Bake for 5 minutes, remove from the oven and let the crust cool for a few minutes before you begin adding other ingredients. Spread pizza sauce to your liking. Begin layering toppings. I chose sausage, pepperoni, and bacon with lots of cheese in between. If you like, add just a small amount of cheddar cheese to the top. You can vary the...

I love finding new crochet patterns that are easy, creative, different, and fun to make. This one is definitely going to be added to my favorites stash. These scrubbies are made from cotton yarn.  They can be used to wash dishes...similar to a cotton dishcloth. Making these scrubbies is a great way to use up scraps you may have of cotton yarn.  You can find the pattern here:  scrubbie pattern You can go to this link to see some great pictures of scrubbies:  scrubbie photos This is a video that might help:   I tried out my first scrubbie to see if I would like using it when washing dishes, and I thought it worked great.  Fun to make, fast to make, and works great!!!

We love to make homemade ice cream during the summer months here in the Big Woods.  This easy chocolate ice cream is definitely my family's favorite...and I am thankful, because it is super easy to make. You will need: 1/2 gallon chocolate milk 12 ounces cool whip 1 can evaporated milk Begin by mixing together the cool whip and evaporated milk. Slowly add the chocolate milk and continue mixing.  I usually do not add all of the milk, because my bowl is not big enough.  I will pour this mixture into my ice cream freezer, and then I will add the rest of the chocolate milk, stirring it all together with a long spoon. I always set my ice cream freezer in my sink while I am pouring up the mixture...just in case I have a spill. You can see here that pieces of the cool whip have risen to the top that did not get mixed in well...this will not hurt a thing. Add your dasher and lid and prepare to freeze. We have a very large sink in ...

Look,look,look... It is my good friend... Playing "Mrs. Davy Crockett"... In Lawrenceburg Community Theatre's 35th Anniversary Production of Gentleman From the Cane. Wow...she looks like a real actress. Tonight was opening night for this very special play.  I remember when I was a little girl, I loved going to see this play.  At that time, it was performed outdoors.  I remember being envious of the actors and actresses, because they looked like they were having so much fun.  Going to see this play was definitely a highlight from my childhood. Gentlemen From the Cane was written by a local resident of Lawrenceburg, Dolly Leighton.  It tells the history of our town.  There is singing, dancing, and laughter.  It is a great play. This year, the play is being performed at the Historic Crockett Theatre in downtown Lawrenceburg, TN.  The dates are: July 7-9 July 15-16 July 22-23 My friend's husband, daughter, a...

When my daughter came into this world, her bedroom was a pale yellow.  As soon as she learned how to talk, she let me know that she did not like yellow walls, she wanted pink. So... for most of her life, she has lived with pink walls.  Until now... We decided it was time to give her room a more grown-up look, now that she is thirteen. After much thinking and planning, she decided to paint each wall a different color.  The colors are teal, gray, lime green, and purple. It is very hard to photograph 4 different colored walls.  And I am not sure that these picture show the true colors.  We will share more pictures after accessories are added.  I have to say, it is a nice change from the "pink".

A few years after we moved to the Big Woods, I began planting ground covers.  The idea actually came from my husband, who suggested I plant things in circles around the trees in our front yard.  After actually seeing this done in a yard where a friend's wedding took place, I came home inspired and began cleaning and tilling to make circular beds. We have four different kinds of ground cover. Each one was given to me by friends. This one spreads very quickly and has a large purple bloom in the Spring. This one is a little more decorative and has a larger purple flower that blooms on the tips of the vines. This is Vinca Vine with a little Ivy mixed in.  The Vinca has lots of small purple blooms in the Spring.  We also have a couple of beds of just Ivy. We mow around the beds to keep the ground covers from spreading too far.  There is no grass to mow...just moss between the beds that give us a path for walking. The gr...

Sometimes, I need a little lot of motivation to help me clean my house.  It helps when I finish a room, if I can arrange a small bouquet of flowers to brighten it up.  This is my screened porch bouquet for this week...all picked from our yard in the Big Woods. This Kitchen window bouquet is from a dragon wing begonia.  The nice thing about this bouquet is that the pieces will root, and I can set them out in pots to have more flowers in the yard. This bouquet was placed in our bathroom after cleaning...another dragon wing begonia is in this arrangement. Yes, stargazer lilies will grow in the shade.  I had to put this arrangement on the screened porch because the fragrance is sooooooo overpowering. Now, if my house would only stay clean for as long as the flowers will stay pretty.