Churchill Downs!

We got to go to the historical Churchill Downs!

They move the gates for certain races, and these ended up right in front of us!

At horse races, the better seats are those higher up!

(I guess it makes sense, although it seems the opposite)

We went into the gift shop and I looked into buying a hat however, I am not about to pay $90 for a hat!

Seriously, this place was MASSIVE!

We left when it started to rain!

Looavul, Luhvul, Loueville...Whatever you call it!

One week ago today, (except for a few hours), we were officially on "vacation".

I use quotes because:

1. Is it a vacation if your husband has required meetings at 8am every morning?

2. My list of prime vacation spots doesn't really include Louisville; or Kentucky at all, for that matter.
(for the record, Louisville is awesome and totally changed my mind about there being "nothing" there!)

Anyways, last Wednesday night we started our "vacation" off by going to see Tarzan at the Muny.

Any time we go we sit in the free seats with our snacks and drinks from home, so the only true expense is gas. We call this Five-Dollar Date Night.

The best part was since we left early due to the heat and an early start the next morning, we didn't feel guilty about wasting money on tickets. (Seriously, free Muny seats are probably one of my favorite things about an STL summer!)

Bright and early Thursday morning, we took Dolly to my parents' and we headed to Louisville.

Chad had meetings so I took a walk around the block of the hotel, and then we had opening dinner.

After that, we headed down to 4th Street.

Our hotel was a block away from 4th Street Live!

Hanging out at the piano bar!

More meetings for Chad on Friday morning, so I went out for coffee and saw this gem!

We went out to lunch with a few other couples and we had the iconic "Hot Brown".

Holy calories, that was DELICIOUS!

After this, the EJ family loaded up and headed to the Louisville Zoo.

Chad took his very first carousel ride at the Louisville Zoo on Friday afternoon!

We also took a train ride around the zoo. And saw a total of ONE animal.

I'm totally biased, but the STL Zoo is MUCH better.

{New post coming next about spending Friday night at Churchhill Downs!}

On 4th Street, there was a free concert Friday night!

I had such a good time hanging out with Hubs and listening to Dan + Shay.

Saturday night, EJ had a closing banquet.

It was so nice getting dressed up and spending time together!

After this weekend, we are SO excited to be a part of the EJ family!

There is truly nothing like it, and we are VERY blessed to be a part!

It was a great weekend!

1000 Gifts....(And Being a Big Loser...)

...AND I WAS THE BIGGEST LADY LOSER!

Now, most people don't cheer about being a loser, but when it comes to weight, its TOTALLY worth cheering about.

Much more than the cash, the richness has come from setting a goal and meeting it!

So what changes now?

Not too much.

I definitely don't intend to gain back the weight.

What will change is the focus from weight loss to full-body heath.

How?

Well, I joined a gym so that I can start gaining muscle.

I intend to stick with smarter food choices, portions, and snack times.

I am setting my plans in order to get outside more with the garden.

And possibly the most important, I am working through a challenge from this book:



We are doing a Bible Study on this book, the premise of it being to learn "Euchristeo" which basically means living thankfully.

The tag line from the book is "A dare to live fully, right where you are."

And if you know me, you know that this is

I am a very "project oriented" type.

If I don't have some big event/project/whatever to work on, I drive myself crazy.

If I don't have something big to be scrambling around for, I feel bored with life.

In reading the book, I'm forced to ask myself the hard questions...

Why do I feel the impulsive need to be busy?

Why do I always feel like I need a "project" to work on.

Am I so busy being "busy" day to day that I forget...

...to be thankful?

...to stop and enjoy the small blessings that are passing so fast?

...to just sit back and maybe, rest?

As I have been kicking these thoughts around in my mind, it seems I am not the only one.

Friend and fellow blogger Hayley has some things to say about this too in one of her latest posts.

So, moving forward, how will life look?

Will I struggle through it?

Most likely.

Will it be worth it?

Absolutely.

(As of today I am at number 49 out of the author's challenge to list 1,000 things we are thankful for.)

4 Days Away!

We are FOUR DAYS out from heading to China...

...Which means, let the cookoo, looney, and strange behavior!

For example, instead of packing myself or my donation suitcase,

What did I do today?

1. I went washer/dryer shopping on my way to the grocery store.

Why did I go to the grocery store if I'm leaving in 4 days? (ONLY FOUR DAYS!)

Because:

2. I picked up the items to make blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, and peach freezer jam.

One third of which I made this afternoon, and the other two thirds I'll make tomorrow morning.

I have no idea why I got the idea into my head to do this stuff this week.

Maybe its some kind of weird and twisted nesting-like thing since I'm leaving the Hubs for two weeks!

(He's gonna be with his parents, he's gonna be fine.)

I'm weird. I know.

The neurotic behavior coupled with the cookoo China nightmares is not fun.

For me or for my husband.

FOUR DAYS!

Okay. I'm done now.

Easter Wreath Time!

This is probably the cheapest Easter wreath you can make.

No, seriously.

I calculated my total cost to be less that $5.

That isn't counting the spray adhesive I had at home!

I took the other half of plumbers pipe fitting and secured it into a circle. ($.49)

Then I spray painted it green (the whole can was $.94 because I bought the cheap kind)

And let it dry.

Then I took the spray adhesive and coated what I decided to be the front (how much does that stuff cost? I don't know. I bought it so long ago that I forgot)

**crafters note: the spray adhesive is nearly impossible to get off wedding rings and glasses. You may want to remove them first!**

Then I took the green Easter basket stuffing and stuck that to the adhesive ($1 and I didn't use the whole bag)

Then another coat of adhesive to get it all to stick.

After it was dry, I took my bag of small Easter eggs and my E-6000 glue and started gluing them on top (Eggs: $.70 for the bag and I didn't use them all, and I don't remember what the glue costs. A little goes a long way and I'm pretty sure its not more than $2-3)

I let that dry and then added a ribbon bow that I made and a ribbon to hang it with ($1 bin at Michaels!)

And then I ended up with this:

Excuse my lack of photography skills.

Total Cost: $4.13

I think its cute and worth all the scrubbing needed to get the adhesive off my hands!

Zebra Print Cupcakes

My little sister celebrated her Sweet 16 this week, so I was asked to do her cupcakes.

I jumped at the chance to do anything super-girly :)

Cue the animal print cupcakes!

I took my cupcakes (red velvet on bottom and pink lemonade on top) and buttercream icing and went to town.

I then set up several icing bags with the 1M Wilton tip (the cupcake tip as most call it).

Then I took a cheap paintbrush and my black gel food color (you must use the gel, if not the color will run)... 

...and painted stripes up the sides of the bag. 3-4 stripes work best.

**hint: set your decorator bag in a cup and roll the bag down a couple of times to get it to stand up steady and be easier to paint!

Then I just iced the cupcakes like normal, and ended up with:

please excuse my horrible photography skills!

Each icing bag you set up will color about 8 cupcakes before the color fades away, as you can see here:

I then added some black stars to the top of each one to add a little extra something :)

"March"-ing Through 2012!

It's March already.

No. Way.

My spring break is in a week.

Thank you, Jesus.

And a new month, well of course that means a new wreath!

In honor of St. Pats, I did a fabric tie wreath in all greens, using this original pin:

It didn't have complete directions as far as scrap length, but I'd venture to say I used 1 inch by 10 inch scraps.

I'm not much into that whole "measuring" thing.

And you know what?

It turned out just fine!

I know, I know, the scraps in the top left could use a little fluffing, but I've gotta be at work soon, so this is what you get!

I had bought this "R" on a sale and had planned to use it the whole time.

(Yes, I am loving this whole "new last name" thing!)

But then I realized it needed something else...

So when I found this little guy at Michaels yesterday, (on sale no less!) I knew it was perfect!

It is actually a pick, so I cut off some of the wire and then just stuck it down into the foam. Easy.

I'm actually really liking it!

And it will be especially good for next year because the lovely town I am moving to celebrates St. Pats on the same level as Christmas!

Happy March, y'all!

Today's Crafty-ness

So, today I should have been doing laundry and studying for either one of two tests I have this week.

But of course, the DIY bug bit again, thanks to a package arriving at my house this afternoon.

The package contained about 150 wine corks, which I used to make this:

Its a trivet for pots and pans, and it was SO easy that I made two of them (this one turned out better) in about 20 minutes!

Here's how:

Get out all your non-synthetic wine corks. 

Heat up your hot glue gun.

Grab that $1 wooden frame that has been collecting dust in your craft supplies pile and go to work!

I laid out the corks to make sure I could get the right pattern/fit because corks slightly vary in size.

And then I glued them down.

 The End!

Happy February!

Well, It's February, which means...

Time for a new wreath!!

Okay, so this is it:

And this is how I got there:

I took a length of plumbers' pipe insulation that I got at Home Depot for 97 cents and cut it in half.

(It will be saved for the next wreath)

I then took out all my pink and red and white fabric scraps and cut them with pinking shears into 1x9or10 inch strips.

I then took them and started wrapping the wreath using small straight pins to secure them.

(The benefit of using this pipe insulation besides being cheap is that you can pin into it without it poking through and it holds better than any glue!)

In the interest of using less pins, I used the same one that ended the previous strip to start the new one.

I then picked the side that had the least pins sticking out of it and attached the big bow.

For this I used a dot of E600 glue (That's miracle stuff!) and then pinned it in place using 2 more straight pins.

It looks good now, but it will look better when it's hanging on the door of my own house!

Caking It...

I made this cake for the nephews' dedication.

I used 2 8x10 sheet cakes, trimmed them and then cut the first one longways to make the middle section.

For the second one, I cut 4 5x5 inch pieces for the horizontal piece.

The last 3x8 inch section was added to the bottom of the first piece.

I used 2 recipes worth of Wilton's basic buttercream recipe for the icing.

I dyed it nephew's favorite blue, (you can use whatever color)

Use the icing as a kind of "glue" between all intersections and layers to keep the cake all together.

I then took the smaller package of fondant and divided it into thirds; left one white, the next dyed tan, and the last brown.

Then I rolled them and cut them with my set of 3 circle cookie cutters.

I guessed on the amounts of each, but I will say that the smallest side needed the most cut outs.

I did about 10 of each size, then cut out of those with the smaller circles (about 5).

I used water to attach them to the cake top and sides. You can also use clear vanilla or egg white.

I then cut out their initials out of white fondant and put them on the horizontal part!

It was a hit!

Not to mention the cuteness of blue icing on nephew's face!