EGGscellent Decorations

There is no reason you have to only use food coloring to decorate eggs. All you have to do is think outside the...oval.

And, I love decorating for holidays...all of them. Plus, I still love decorating eggs. So, after dinner on Sunday, we all colored eggs. Oh, we also glued and painted them.


Hope you all had an eggscellent weekend. :)

Eggs Goldenrod

Mom never believed in wasting anything. And, she couldn't afford to throw food away. So, at Easter, after she'd boiled dozens of eggs for us kids to color, she had to find a way to get us to eat dozens of eggs--without complaining. We never knew it, but she was super-sneaky and always gave foods fun names so we kids wanted to eat her specialties.

And, growing up in a family with nine kids and grandma living with us, Mom had to make cheap meals (for 12 people) and find a way for us kids to love them. Here's one of her secret recipes that we kids loved even tho' it was inexpensive food and we thought it was fancy.

We ate it every morning for Easter. It was a great way to use all the broken eggs that we couldn't use for our Easter EGG HUNTS.

Mom called it "Eggs Goldenrod", or Daffodil Eggs. (Mom called daffodils "Goldenrods" or "buttercups") and here's how she made it:

She toasted a piece of bread then she chopped up hard-boiled egg whites and made a white sauce.

She poured the white sauce over the toast and then crumbled the egg yolks over the white sauce. Her finishing touch was to sprinkle paprika into the center of the daffodil. WHOO-HOO fancy, CHEEP, food for Easter morning. We kids loved it so much we asked for it all spring long.

Try it, you might like it. :) I hope you do.

It's SEW Simple to Make a Tablecoth for Your Holiday Table

It is SEW simple to make a tablecloth for your holiday table. It doesn't matter what holiday it is, just go to the fabric store and pick out your fabric. I got this indoor-outdoor fabric for $6.00 per yard. I bought 3 yards ($18.00) but I had a coupon for 50% off. So it only cost me $9.00. And, I can use this tablecloth for picnics outside too.

First I ironed the hem so it wouldn't need to be pinned. Then I sewed the edges.


It turned out just the way I wanted it. Then I decorated the table. And WAH-LAH SEW simple holiday decorating.

Tulip Tuesday

Saturday we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon.


Besides beautiful flowers, they have face painting, bungee hopping for kids, great food and way-way more. We saw steam engines

Then we walked the fields, shared an ice cream cone, bought flowers for the house and enjoyed the sunshine.

It was a wonderful way to spend a weekend.

Cake Challenge

I wanted to get a new cake pan. My husband didn't. He said, "The cake boss carves his cakes, you can do it too."

We disagreed.

I said I'll bake one cake using my new pans and you can carve one. It will be a cake challenge. So here's how I did it my way.

I baked the cake(s), two sides, front and back. Then I trimmed the bottom so it would stand up, and trimmed the excess where the two sides came together.

Then I started icing the cake(s) with simple yellow icing (just 2 pounds of powdered sugar, one cube of butter, and 1/4 cup milk (a little yellow food coloring). Super simple.

I used fondant for the eyes and painted the orange beak with a little orange frosting - just added red food coloring to the left over yellow frosting.

After it was all done, I decorated the platter with Easter Basket grass and eggs.

I think it turned out cute. And, he was a great addition to the Easter table.
And the kids liked cutting off his head and eating him
Here's how my husband did his...he didn't even try. It was a total no-show at the challenge. He wouldn't even compete. Not fair.

Next time maybe he won't argue with me when I want to buy a new pan :)

Next time I'll use decorating cake tips to pipe the frosting feathers. I ran out of time this weekend. And, I think this would be a great graduation cake for my son, Luke. He's a University of Oregon Duck! Go DUCKS!!!

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! And you might want to celebrate by spending some time out in the garden planting some sustainable vegetables or even beautiful flowers. This is a day we should all give back a little something to the Earth.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and don't forget to stop by Starbucks (with your own mug) to get a free cup of brewed coffee or tea. :)

Answer to the Word of the Day

Axiomatic means self-evident or obvious. If you want to read more, check it out here.

And thanks for playing along :)

Word for ...Thursday

Okay I'm a day late for Word for Wednesday but I still wanna play.

Guess what the word AXIOMATIC means.

Put your guess in the comments section, then come back around 3:00 to see if you were "write" or wrong. :)

Books for Children - and an EZ Way to Help Your Community

My son's gfriend teachers at the Saturday German School. So, when I went to the library sale this past weekend and saw a few children's books in German and one about the Bremen Town Musicians, I thought I'd pick them up for her to use in class--if she could. Our county library has a few sales throughout the year, at multiple locations.

So, if you know a teacher you might want to check with your local library to see if they have any used book sales too. You might want to pick up some inexpensive books/tools for teachers to use too. It's a nice/easy/inexpensive way to have a positive impact in the community and help your library at the same time.

Frosting to Die For

This weekend was a friend's fiftieth birthday! YIKES!!! That went by fast. So, I made cupcakes to help celebrate and this frosting was super-yummilicious. I think it was the best I've ever made. Then I put the frosting in a bag and piped some roses on top of the cupcakes.

Here's how you can make it too:

4 oz of cream cheese (softened)
1 and 1/2 pound of powdered sugar
1 cube of butter (softened)
1/4 cup lemon juice

Blend ingredients until smooth and eat...YUMMMMMMMM

Flowers and Furniture

I love flowers and this weekend was the first non-rainy weekend in a long time. So, I went out in the garden and picked a bunch of flowers that were falling over to make a bouquet for the house. This bouquet has tulips, bleeding hearts, daffodils, bluebells and leaves. Isn't it pretty?

And, I just got my new chair... I tend to pick floral patterns but this time I tried to be Really different - I went with leaves.

So, I'm not very original :( oh well, I think it's pretty.

SEXY ATTIRE FOR MY ROMANTIC WEEKEND

Okay this is what my daughter's gfriend got me for my romantic get-away with my husband. They said they had some sexy lingerie for me to wear while we were vacationing in sunny Florida. So, I was thinking a little light lingerie...NOT!

I'd never seen a real-life snuggie before. But here I am decked out in my romantic-wear for that special weekend. :D

And, believe me, I don't need any help looking chubby - heck, I can do that just fine on my own. But obviously the designer of this pink plush pajama-thing must have been listening to Emeril - 'cuz this outfit kicked it up a notch! Bam!!! I went from chubby to super-sized chubbiness - not the look I was hoping for :(

EGGscellent Easter Ideas that are Earth Friendly

(These eggs are colored using only beet juice left over after we ate the pickled beets.)

I decorate for every season - no matter if the kids are grown up or not. I love to see the ornaments, garland and yes eggs hanging around the house. But when I was growing up we didn't have much money for such eggstravagant things. Still Mom found a way for us to have fun and celebrate every occasion. We kids never realized we were so poor because of Mom.

We couldn't just run out and buy PAAS to dye our eggs. But it didn't matter because Mom used whatever she had around the house. It could be food coloring and vinegar but it was just as likely to be Beet Juice or Frozen Blueberry liquid. She'd even use coffee or tea to color our eggs. And, Mom had us write on the eggs with crayons before we dyed them to decorate them with our own creative ideas.

First we'd boil the eggs - preferably in a glass pan - but we'd use whatever we had.
Then we'd soak the eggs in their own special color in their own little dishes.
It's best to have the egg fully covered so it gets evenly colored but if your bowl isn't big enough, you just need to turn it every now and then.
And Wah-Lah! eggscellent edible decorations to help you celebrate the season :D

Baby Dances to Hip-Hop

And she's a better dancer than me :)

Answer to Word for Wednesday

The Word: Concatenate
means to link together in a series or chain.

If you want to read more, check it out here.

Word for Wednesday - a Writer's Game

Word: Concatenate



Guess what it means. . . ? Put your guess in the comments section then come back around 3:00 to see if you were 'write' or wrong.

Huluing the Night Away versus Liquid Sunshine

I love Portland. I really do. But we spent the last week in Orlando and the last night at a luau. With wonderful food and entertainment, it was hard to climb back on the plane to come out of the 89 degree sunshine to Portland's pouring coldness. Still, I'm glad to be back home even tho' it sure was fun watching my hubby hulu his heart out up on stage with the beautiful young ladies who were giving him a few lessons--in dancing :)

Did any of you travel far away? Have fun doing something out of the ordinary?

Movie Review Monday - The King's Speech

We watched a couple of movies this week. The King's Speech was one of them. My husband loved the movie but, for me, it was a little slow. There were moments I enjoyed but overall it wasn't my type of sit-down and spend an evening doing (or watching) something, when I could have been doing something else.

However, my husband loved it. Thought he could watch it again. I wouldn't.

I did think the acting was done well though, which explains why it was nominated for a Golden Globe award.


Colin Firth won Best Actor for
his performance. So, maybe I'm a bad judge of Movies. Let me know your opinion. If you've watched it, let me know what you think.

Vinegar - More than Good Eats

Mom used to use all sorts of things to clean house that didn't cost much--if any--money. One of her all-purpose cleaners was vinegar. She used it with newspaper to wash the windows--or maybe I should say, we kids, used it to wash the windows. It was probably because she ran out of paper towels one day but she said newspaper cleaned better than cloth or paper towels. I trusted her and I still do. Plus, I love food and even watch shows about cooking, like Chopped, Extreme Cake Challenges, and Good Eats--so why not use something you love that's just sitting around the house to help with the work?

Vinegar mixed with water is a wonderful, non-toxic cleaner. You won't have to worry about it hurting your hands or your animals getting into the solution.

How 'bout you? Do you have any helpful hints for spring cleaning???

Talent Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

7 year-old sings The National Anthem:

You’re watching 7 year old sings National Anthem. See the Web's top videos on AOL Video

Awe...Mazing

Answer to Word for Wednesday

Ruritanian is a setting, a mythical place, a mythical, romantic kingdom conceived as the setting for a fairy tale, costume drama, comic operetta, or the like. Check it out here.

Word for Wednesday - a Writer's Game

Guess what the word means.

The word is: Ruritanian

Come back at 3:00 to see if you were right.

Tip for Tuesday - word usage

Lose v. Loose

The word lose is pronounced looze, whereas loose is pronounced loose

~ If you let your dog run loose, you could lose him.

Chose v. Choose

The word choose is prounounced chooze, whereas chose is pronounced choze.

~ They told me I had to choose a major, so I chose English.

Skirting the Issue

I'm getting ready for a vacation and wanted to have a skirt to wear over my swimsuit when I head down to the pool but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. So, I went to one of my favorite places: Joann Fabrics. I picked out an inexpensive fabric that I got on sale for 50%. Then I added a little elastic around the waist and Wah-Lah! a $7.00 swimsuit cover-up.

Here are the ingredients:

1) Scissors
2) a Piece of fabric
3) thread
4) elastic

Then I sewed a little hem at the waist and my husband helped me thread the elastic into the hem, using a safety pin.
It's easy to sew a simple little coverup without a pattern or much experience. You might want to try it too.

Boxing

Boxing is an art...or maybe I should say making boxes is an art.

See, I love books and boxes....decorative boxes. And anyone who knows me, knows I love to craft. So this book of decorative boxes was the perfect gift from my friend Caren.

It comes with the pretty punch-out papers and instructions on how to make the boxes.
What could be easier?It's kind of like origami for beginners. I love it.

Plus, I feel like I'm giving two gifts in one when I wrap a present in my homemade box.

How 'bout you? Do you make things to give your gifts in?

April Fool's Day!

Hope you have a happy one filled with good humor and a lot of laughter.

And it's not only Americans who will be celebrating today. April Fools' Day is celebrated all around the world on the 1st of April. Some people call it All Fools' Day.

This is the one day of the year when people are supposed to allow practical jokes and general foolishness.

It used to be celebrated on New Year's Day and in some countries like New Zealand, South Africa and the UK the jokes can only last until noon. If you play a prank after that, you will be called an "April Fool".

Here in America, we play pranks all day long - even into the evening.

But no matter how you celebrate April Fool's Day - I hope yours is filled with good humor.