Waffles on the Weekend

During the week my breakfast consists of Greek yogurt with granola and coffee.  Sometimes a piece of fruit if I'm really hungry.  I'm not really a breakfast person unless it after 9:00.  I don't like really sweet stuff for breakfast and I can't eat cereal in the mornings.  I would love to have bacon every morning for breakfast but I don't.  I probably have bacon about once every 2 or 3 months.  So all and all my breakfast is pretty much the same everyday.  Except on the weekends . . .

I'm off on Friday's so I include this day in my "weekend" breakfast change up.  I say "change up" but it's the same thing every time.  I LOVE waffles on the weekends.  I know I just said I don't like sweet stuff for breakfast but I don't use a lot of syrup.  Just a little bit.  I use a little bit of butter and a little bit of syrup and enjoy my waffles with my coffee. 

I'm also completely obsessed with the British version of Antiques Roadshow.  This happens to come on Friday morning at 8:00 on Ovation.  This means that on Friday mornings I get nothing done!  I make my 2 waffles and a cup of coffee, sit down on the couch, turn on AR and stay there for about 2 hours (because they usually show 2 episodes that are an hour each).  Anyway.  If you know me though, you have probably have guessed that after I finish my breakfast I'm not just sitting on the couch on front of the TV for 2 hours.  Nope.  I most likely have some craft going on . . . embroidery, crocheting, quilting.  My husband doesn't understand why I just can't sit and watch a movie without yarn or thread in my hands.  I JUST CAN'T.  It's not possible.  I can't go anywhere without a ball of yarn and a hook or a book in my purse either, least I have to wait somewhere with nothing to do.  If you are a crafter, especially a knitter or crocheter, you know what I'm talking about.

Back to the waffles . . . I just want to make one thing clear.  I did not "make" the waffles.  I don't have a waffle maker.  I think I might like a waffle maker but really I'm more of an instant gratification girl when it comes to my waffles.  Eggos it is. 

I'm not the only girl in the house that enjoys a waffle on the weekend . . .

What is something that you only do on the weekends?

Natalie

Mother's Day and Sugar Scrub

I'm at home with a sick girl today so I thought I'd write a "little" post about Mother's Day.  I know, I know, Mother's Day was a few weeks ago but it really seems to be the trend that I write about things that happened 2 weeks ago.

So here goes!

Let me start with the fact that I totally missed teacher appreciation day at school.  I don't know how that happened but I guess I had my focus elsewhere that week.  So I decided that I would make some lemon sugar scrub for the teachers, my Mom and MIL for Mother's Day.  This actually worked out well and the girls took the gifts to their teachers on the Monday after Mother's Day. Not too late!  Adrianna helped me make the sugar scrub and I failed to get pictures of her doing that.  Another example of my absent mindedness.  But here are the finished products!

Don't they look pretty!

I got the sugar scrub idea from Pinterest.  I have pinned several different versions of the sugar scrub but didn't follow any one version by exact directions.  The ingredients I used were:  Sugar, Olive Oil, and lemon juice.  I started by measuring ingredients but found that I needed way more sugar than called for.  I ended up filling the jar up to about an inch from the top with sugar then adding olive oil (again, no measuring) and about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice.  I basically went by looking for the consistency I wanted and feel.  Adrianna's job was to stir it up then we put the top on and tied some twine around it.  We had so much fun making these that we made 3 more for the ladies that I work with for Mother's Day gifts for them.

If you want to see the sugar scrub versions I went by from Pinterest, you can click my "Follow me on Pinterest" button to the right.  I think I pinned all of the sugar scrub ideas to my "make" board.

For my Mom, I decided that I would make her a set of 8 cotton dinner napkins and embroider something pretty on them.  I decided on a Celtic knot "S" for her last name.  I started by cutting my cotton fabric into 16 - 13"x13" squares.  I transferred the "S" onto 8 of those and got busy.  It didn't take me long to hand embroider those and as soon as I finished I sewed them all together.  The only problem was I didn't have matching thread for my sewing machine and I wanted a pretty border around the edges.  No problem, just hand stitch the border.  That's all fine if you didn't wait until the week before the big day to even start on these things.  I searched ideas for hand embroidered edging and decided on the fly stitch.  It looked pretty and is a fairly easy stitch.  It is an easy stitch but as I found out, very time consuming.  So with all that being said, I was able to complete 5 of the napkins to give to my Mom and am still trying to finish those other 3.  I'll get them done, I promise. 

The finished product!

All eight five napkins wrapped and ready to go!

Mom loved the napkins and was understanding about the ones yet to be finished!  She and my MIL also loved the sugar scrub :)

To celebrate Mother's Day, we went to my Mom's to hang with the family and cook out.  We were excited about a spur of the moment visit from my sister and her family!!!  But before they got there, my kids had to test the pool out.  Just to put this in perspective, it was not a pretty day.  As a matter of fact it was a gray, cloudy, rainy, overcast day.  Also, the pool temp had not warmed up yet.  No stopping these girls . . .

After they turned blue, we made them get out.  I'm joking!  They weren't all the way blue.  We had a great time.  After lunch, we had ice cream and played outside in the sprinkling rain. 

Noah and Isaac getting their ice cream.  This is the best picture I got of them.  They aren't still long enough!

Mom and Ava also played their instruments for us as Clara danced . . .

Mom playing the Mandolin and Ava playing the Violin

My niece, Clara, dancing

Badminton, anyone?  In the rain?

Or how about a game of air hockey?

Me, Mom, Jenna

We had a great time at Mom's for Mother's day.  I forgot to take a picture of the gift Adrianna made me.  I'm actually wearing it in the above picture.  It's a medallion with her finger print pressed into it and strung onto a necklace.  She made it at school and it is so precious!  She also made me not one but TWO cards :)

This says "You are the best Mother.  You are nice.  You cook good."

Awww, so sweet!  She thinks I'm nice and I cook good.  Those are such great compliments!!  Ava also gave me a card and some flowers she planted.

I took this last picture with the iPhone app instagram.  If you have a Droid or an iPhone, this is an awesome camera app to have!  I'm a little obsessed and like to document my life in instagram photos.  You can follow on instagram, search @nataliebg. 

So that was Mother's day.  It was a great day spent with my family :)

Natalie
 

Fro Yo and Lonely Boy

It was a great day in the Glancy house :)  Both of the girls had a friend over for a little part of the day.  Adrianna had a friend spend the night last night so they woke me up early for waffles and coffee.  The coffee was for me.  The girls played a little while then I took Adrianna and her friend shopping and to lunch with me.  After dropping her friend off at her house Adrianna and I went home.  Ava's friend was already at the house and they were playing basketball and having a good time.  Adrianna was a little jealous so I distracted her by asking her if she wanted to work on some embroidery projects we have going.  The answer was a quick "Yes!".

She is embroidering a tea towel.  See her little tea pot and cup?  So cute.  Her stitches are getting to be pretty good for a 6 year old.

I just started a tote bag from Sublime Stitching.  I can't wait to get it finished!

 On another note, Adrianna scored her first goal in soccer last night!!  Whoo hoo!  I didn't get a picture nor was I recording it.  I decided after her first game that I wasn't going to take my camera to every single game because I thought the pictures would mostly all look about the same . . .  

 I did get a pic soon after with my phone.  Here she is - with pink hair of course!

After Ava's friend left, I started dinner and the girls made videos of themselves on my computer.  They are so funny!  Ava tends to do more book report videos and Adrianna makes a bunch of faces and noises.  On one of the videos that they made together they reminded me of the alien Muppets - the Yip Yips.  You know, they said "Yip yip yip" and "Nope nope nope".  Well, if you don't know what I'm talking about, look here.  I hope you laugh like I did when I watched it!

After dinner Aaron Took us out for frozen yogurt at the Purple Penguin.  We love this place.  They always have a great selection of fro yo and tons of toppings!  It's serve yourself so we have to watch the kids, they will fill their cups all the way to the top if you aren't watching.  Not only would that be too much for them to eat but it can start getting costly since you pay by the ounce.  Which is the discussion we had over our fro yo, why is "lb" the abbreviation for pounds and "oz" for ounces.  I was thinking "it's got to be Latin" but Aaron said "it's got to be Latin" so I looked it up on my magic phone and yep, they are both abbreviations for Latin words.  Of course since Aaron actually SAID what he was thinking and I only checked my facts before I spoke, he thinks he is a genius and so do the girls.  Oh well.

I think the best part of the day was the drive home from getting fro yo and coming back to the house.  Here's why . . .  One of our new favorite music groups in our house is the Black Keys.  We all like their music and sing along to the songs.  This is what we were listening to in the car.  On the way home Aaron had me look up the music video for the song Lonely Boy and let the girls watch it.  Check it out on You Tube if you haven't seen it.  So when we got home we decided to pull it up on the computer and all of us dance like the guy on the video.  It was so silly but it was so much fun!  Look out You Tube!  You may have a new video coming soon!

Things I Love

Here are a few things from the past week that I love  . . .

1.)  Vintage finds . . . 

Some wooden spools of thread from my Grandma . . . Inspiration!

Check out that price on the spool on the left.  15 cent.  Love the colors :)

2.)  Finding little pieces of paper around the house with notes on them . . .

 

This made me laugh.  Adrianna must have been pretty upset with Ava to write this! 

3.)  The bare patches under the swings in the back yard.

  I smile every time I look out of my kitchen window and see dirt where grass once was under those swings.  I think about those little feet that made those bare patches and I find this is one of my favorite things about my yard!

3.)  Yoda watching over our house . . .

He sands guard over the back yard.  Placed just so he can watch over the swing set.  "Watch over the kids, I will."  May the force be with you!

4.)  Family time . . .

A rare moment :)

5.)  Visiting with my Grandma . . .

And my Mom :)

6.)  January bike rides . . .

We had a beautiful weekend so we spent some time outside.  

7.)  Trips to the library . . .

It's one of our favorite places to go!

8.)  Sister time . . .

They really do love each other!

9.)  Books and crochet . . .

10.)  Having breakfast with my family . . .

Priceless.  Even if I did have to get up at the crack of dawn in order to fit in breakfast at Biscuitville with my family before school.  It was totally worth it.

My favorite quote of the week came from Ava.  She had a friend over this weekend and we were sitting down to eat dinner.  Someone mentioned how quite and peaceful it was at the time.   Ava said “It’s peaceful because it’s home.”  So true my deep little thinker.  So true.

Natalie

A doughnut truck, hot chocolate, and embroidery . . .

I saw this on my way to work this morning.  I snapped a pic (at the stop light!) and sent it to Aaron :)

My rear is still hurting.  I'm still using ice but it makes my whole body cold when I ice it.  Another trip to the chiropractor today helped!

I had some time after lunch before my appointment so I went to my two favorite places.  Hobby Lobby and Barnes & Noble.  I want to make a few sets of cloth napkins to use at home so I went in search of some fun material to make them out of.  I wasn't feeling very inspired as I was shopping.  Not that HL doesn't have some really cute fabric because they do.  It's just that I really want to paint my kitchen and Aaron and I have yet to decide on a color and I want my napkins to coordinate.  I did get some red gingham . . . since the red from my cabinet is growing on me I thought it would make some cute napkins.

Then I went into B&N to kill some time before my chiropractic appointment this afternoon.  I really wanted a good coffee or something so I stood in line forever at the Starbuck's in B&N and ordered a Skinny Salted Caramel Mocha.  I love salted dark chocolate or salted caramel.  There is a candy store in the mountains we like to visit that makes and sells gourmet chocolate.  They have a chocolate covered caramel candy with sea salt that it swoon worthy.  Using deductive reasoning and common sense, I decided that this was the drink for me.  I.  Was.  Wrong.

It.

Was.

Disgusting.

I don't know if the girl who made it just really messed it up or what but I couldn't drink it.  As a matter of fact, I gagged.  Never again will I step out of my caramel latte comfort zone and try anything different at Starbucks.  I poured my $4.55 down the drain.

I was really disappointed about missing out on a fancy drink so after my chiropractic appointment I went home and made some real hot chocolate.  You know with milk, Hersey's Cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla.  It was wonderful and much cheaper.

 So I sat down (on a hard chair and with some ice) with my hot chocolate and computer to catch up on some blogs I like to read.  Then my hiney starting hurting so I got up and finished up some things I started for my craft room that still does not exist. 

I stitched this dress makers form using a Sublime Stitching pattern and framed it in a metal hoop that was my Grandma's . . .

and this cameo which is also in a metal hoop from Grandma's . . .

and I embroidered embroidery in this wooden hoop (not vintage) . . .

All to eventually hang on a wall in my craft room . . . sometime . . .

A few weeks ago I found a pillow case that Ava and I had started a long time ago and never finished.  She had almost finished one of the birds :)  I finished up the other bird then made a second pillow case for Adrianna.

Here are the two finished pillow cases.

Just for fun, here are some pretty vintage spools of thread that belonged to my Grandmother.

Aren't thy pretty!  Coats and Clark 15 cent.

*all embroidery patterns are from Sublime Stitching

Natalie

Weekend pics

 My weekend in pictures . . .

My to do list for Friday. . . I wrote my list out Thursday night then stared at it for the longest time Friday morning.  I know I was tired and in pain from my fall but I could not figure out what that last thing on my list said.  Did I even write that?  Nope.  That last piece of scribble is a note that Aaron tacked onto my list.  It took me forever to figure out what it says.  In case you are wondering it says "Borrowed $4".

No pics from the Chiropractor!  It was lunch time when we were finished there.  I gave the girls some choices for lunch.  I was wanting Chick-fil-A or lunch at the Co-op.  Adrianna's friend was on board for the Co-op but Adrianna didn't think she would like it.  Wendy's won.  We could all agree on that. After lunch the girls wanted to go to the park for a few minutes.  It was a pretty day so I thought that was a stellar idea :)

They had so much fun running around and letting loose some energy.  Although I really don't know where that energy came from.  I used all mine up the day before skating then getting to bed late.  Hmmm . . .

 

These trees thought it was a pretty day as well.   They are a little confused. . . 

I needed a few things from the Co-op so after I pried the girls from the slides and swings it was our next stop.

Look at all those beautiful veggies!!

There is always a basket of fruit for the kids at the Co-op.  

The girls helped themselves to an apple.

 

I picked up some bee pollen while I was there.  We all have crazy seasonal allergies around here.  The "seasonal" allergies Adrianna and I suffer form seem to be all year round.  So I've been using local honey as a sweetener in stead of sugar in my hot tea.  Instead of coffee, I have been drinking a lot of hot tea lately.  If you know me you know that I LOVE coffee.  The no coffee thing hasn't been all that hard and I do have a cup every once in a while.  Anyway, my point was that I have been adding a teaspoon or so of local honey to my tea every day (sometimes more than once a day!) and it seems to have really helped.  I also love a piece of toast with butter and honey as a snack.  I may eat that a little too often . . . Anyway, I read on one of my favorite blogs about the benefits of bee pollen so I thought I'd pick some up.  Here is the blog post about the bee pollen.

I've been putting it on my oatmeal in the mornings . . .

After shopping we met my friend at the book store to trade kids.  She had Ava and I took one of her kids back home with me.  The local used book store, 5th  Street Books, was having their monthly .25 cent sale.  Yes, I said $.25, 25 cent, one quarter, how ever you want to say it.  Their everyday book price is $.99.  You think you can't beat that price then they have a 25 cent sale!  Paperback and hardback.  There are shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books at his place.  If you are a book lover, this is the place for you.  You can't really go in there looking for anything specific.  I mean you can but you may not find it.  But if you love to read, that really doesn't matter, you'll find something that catches your eye. 

I came home with these and a few others that Ava picked out . . .  I have already read the one on the bottom, Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory, but I really liked it and for a quarter, why not?  I also have not read any of the Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich books but I want to.  I know the movie based on the first book is coming out soon so I need to read it.  The only Janet Evanovich book that they had was Fearless Fourteen.  I have a lot of catching up to do to get there but what the heck, it was $.25.

I had ordered a set of embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching and some Thread Heaven.  It's a wax that you pull your thread through before stitching.  Makes such a big difference!  The thread moves so smoothly through the fabric :)

I finished up several pieces of embroidery this weekend.  I'll post pictures another time . . .

Saturday was a Tom's kind of day . . . I love my Tom's!  They are so comfortable.

My Mom gave me a massage on Saturday.  I so needed it!  My back was hurting before I fell but after I fell I really needed it.  I went over to her house without the kids for once.  I knew I wouldn't be able to relax with them there.  I felt so much better after my massage!  Thanks, Mom :)

I believe the long weekend was getting to the kids . . .

Mustaches and goatees are the thing to draw on your face when you are a bored kid at my house.  My kids know how to make me smile!

See, even in her sleep this one makes me smile!

Natalie