Just in Time for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not complete without a turkey, or how about a dozen. I have tried to make these cake pops before with little success, but I am proud to say I think I found the secret. If you want more ideas go to www.bakerella.com and you will have a field day with all the things they have come up with.
To start of with my failures it is important to have actual lolly pop sticks. You can get them at Michaels. My first time trying I used wooden skewers (I am not known for my baking skills). You bake any kind of cake from a box that you like and once done mix with about 3/4 frosting. This will make it sticky where you can roll them into balls about quarter size. That was my next problem with the first go round. Then you melt some melting chips and dip the stick into the chocolate and then about 1/2 way into the ball. Let that harden.


Now melt all the chocolate and dip the ball into it.
Have all your candy ready to go.

Next use your melting chocolate as glue and stick all your pieces on. It does take some time, but how cute are they!

Beinvenidos Mexico

Todd is officially hooked on Mexico. My family has been going for years and we could not wait to take Todd here.

Here is Pepe, the man who told us about the Turtles and is in charge of the Tortuga society here in the East Cape. He said that every turtle lays around 100 eggs and only one of those turtles will make it to maturity. Pepe finds where the Mama Turtle lays her eggs and then marks it with sticks. The eggs hatch in 45 days and Pepe will go and get them and then release them into the sea. Apparently the turtle's need to find their own way to the ocean and they will always remember the sand that they came in on and will then lay their eggs in the same location. So we sent these Tortugas off and it was fun making sure they all floated away into the ocean.



That night Pepe told us that if we walked down the beach we are staying at we might be able to find a Mama Tortuga laying her eggs. We walked about a mile and a half down and was about to turn back, when we spotted her. She had dug down and as she was laying her eggs she would cover them with sand and pat them down. It was pitch black and all you could her was her patting down the sand like a drum. We stood back until she started heading back to the ocean and she let us pet her. Don't worry we have all of our fingers still!

Front Yard Reveal

Last weekend Todd and I landscaped our front yard with my Dad's design. Here is our before!

Todd picking out plants at the nursery.
Here it is all laid out.

Todd even put lighting in, I was so impressed. Once we got all the lighting in we found out it is not very common around our neighborhood. The kids in our block didn't understand why our tree's needed lights. They think it is so Todd and I can climb our trees at night! haha

A night shot. It really doesn't do it justice with my camera.

Lambliz designs

Before my Mom had us kids and took over the business side of Natural Landscaping, she was a graphic designer. Now she is back at it with some really cool ideas. She did this "P.S. I love you" vinyl sticker for us in our guest bedroom.
I asked if she would do a large "E" so I could do a custom front door mat. So if you get inspired let me know and I can put an order in with my Mom;)

All you would need for the front door mat is a solid mat, cut out letter or numbers (House number could be cute), spray paint and some tape.

Here is my layout before I spray painted it. For the "E" I just taped it down using double sided tape.When you spray it make sure you are spraying it above and not at an angle so it doesn't get under your tape or letter.

Peel it all off and you have a pretty cool custom door mat!

The Man Chair

This is what Todd calls his "man chair". This chair is all his and with all my might I left ALL the designing to him! He found this on our first yard sale hunt and has been trying to sand it down on the weekends he has home. Let's just say those weekends have been far and in-between.
So when he was gone at work I surprised him and sanded it all down. (He actually asked if I would do this for him) He wanted it to be white washed. So to do a white wash it is somewhat like applying a stain. There are several ways to do this, but I will share my method.
Mix one part latex paint with one part water. It is best if you test it out and add more water if you want the wood to show through or less water if you want more white. I brushed it on with a sponge brush and then wiped it off with a a clean cloth. Then just let it dry and add your lacquer.


Todd really wanted leather. But after he looked at the price tag he quickly changed his mind. I do a lot of minky blankets for babies and Todd has always wanted a big soft blanket for himself. So...... Here is what he chose!

Hmmmmm he hasn't changed much. Hopefully I didn't give anyone a mental picture of him now in his man chair:)

And here is the finished "Man Chair". The pillow I added thanks to seamstress Laura:)

Go Big or Go Home

We have one happy boy on our hands. In our home we have one huge inset for a TV. Needless to say Todd thought our 42" TV was being swallowed alive by the inset! So in his own words "Go big or go home." So now thanks to his parents we now are proud owners of a 60" LCD TV. Don't ask me what all that means, but all I know is I haven't seen Todd so giddy in a long time.

All the pretty things

I found these wooden planting pots at a yard sale no less:) All four cost about $1. I really liked the look of them being so rustic, but I wanted them to last a long time. So with just a little spray paint, they looked like new.

When our Moms showed up at our door they came with two beautiful pots of Petunias. So we went and bought some chains and put them in my found wooden pots.


Me supervising Todd:) He was very patient with me saying "Just a little higher Babe."

Color makes such a difference!

Visit with the Moms

Todd had a three day weekend and we were able to talk our Mom's into taking a road trip up to visit us from California. Well, we really just had to ask once and they hopped in the car and headed up.

The Blue Angels just so happened to be in Seattle and our GPS took us on a detour where we ended up watching the planes go over our car. Todd was able to park so we could all watch the show. It was so awesome to see.


Mom Allen and Mom Elrod!
Lunch at one of my Favorite seafood restaurants in Seattle.
Todd found a cozy chair while the girls shopped!

Baby Bedding finished!!!

Here are some pictures of the finished product. I am still waiting on the Mobile to get here that I ordered. Then I just have to re-do it with some silk that matches the bedding and...done!

Yellowstone

My Sister and her friend Laura came in from their Europe vacation to Seattle to go on a road trip to Wyoming. Check out their blog at worldtrippin2010.blogspot.com
My camera was MIA most of the time and I can not even attempt to write like Laura does:)


Old Faithful