Black Raspberry Jam

One of the other things that we did when I was home was go and pick black raspberries. My dad has a woods that is over by my parents house. Along the edge of the woods is an entire patch of wild black raspberries that happened to be ripe and ready for picking the week I was home. Amanda, my sister in law, Bailey, Clara, Ethan and I all took the 3 wheelers over along with a gallon ice cream container and picked berries. We ended up filling about 3/4 of the container. My mom then turned our berries into delicious jam! I ended up coming home with a jar of jam and some poison ivy. It was so worth it though. Recently the blackberries have come into season and Amanda and the kids have picked those and made jam into those as well. I am so jealous and although not as sweet as black raspberries I wish I was there to enjoy that too!

Timbales

Bailey, my niece, making timbales

One of my favorite treats growing up were timbales. When I went home this time I asked my mom about the timbale iron and the recipe for how to make them. They were just like I remembered. It was so funny because timbales are kind of touchy to make and my mom was just like I remembered. She is not known for her patience and she freely admits this fact. She gave up pretty freely and left me and my niece alone in the kitchen with the irons. We just let her enjoy the timbales we cooked which is what usually happened with my grandma and I. She really does hate making timbales but I love her for even trying. Here is the recipe if you want to try but you have to order the irons. Our irons are pretty old and are an old holiday making set. They are very light, flaky and delicious!

Pool Noodles

This project really was a joke but turned out sort of cute. My friends Jenn and Dave just bought their first house and requested pool noodles as a house warming gift. Jenn is very artsy and she said wouldn't it be cool if the pool noodles had bling on them. I got to thinking about it and thought pool water and glue just won't mix. I got to thinking though that I could sew beads onto the pool noodles though and that would work out great. I brought the noodles over to their house for the 4th of July bbq and they did hold up in the water!

Love Birds with Jenny Hernandez

My love birds are on the left and Mandy's are on the right.

In May I drove to see Mandy in Arizona. It was such a fun weekend driving around and going to all of the little cute boutique stores around town and the jewelry supply store that actually sells real metal working supplies. We had a great time! One of the fun things we did was take a class at Mystic Paper with Jenny Hernandez aka the Polka Dot Pixie. She teaches a class on working with paper clay where everyone made these cute little love birds. Jenny was so very generous with her time and supplies. I would recommend her class to anyone looking to learn more about paper clay. Downtown Mesa, AZ is also a blast. They have all of these cute sculptures and art around. Check out our pictures with Charlie the pig. We both fell in love with him! I also had my very first ever hot dog on a stick this weekend complete with lemonade and cheese on a stick. It was delicious. Mandy also showed me the trailer for the movie the Human Centipede which we later watched at my house when she came to Vegas to get her hair done. That movie is like a bad car accident. You really don't want to watch it but you just can't help yourself. Watch trailer at your own risk.

Studio

One of my grandmother's old mason jar's with dog tax tags from the 1950's that my dad used to play with when he was a little boy

An old coffee can that I used to keep my crayons in when I was a little girl

It's official, I've been neglecting my blog for quite some time but it's not for lack of exciting things to post. I've decided to start with the most current bit and work my way back just a little and then keep moving forward. This last weekend Mandy came into town from Arizona to get her hair done and ended up staying with me. It was so good to see her and get a chance to visit with her I miss her so much! On Saturday before she left she helped me organize my studio room. For those of you who know Mandy she is a master organizer and decorator. I was so lucky to get her help. There were so many times when I just would've opened up a box and just quit organizing all together but she kept me going and I am so glad she did. I have an amazing studio room that makes me so happy. On Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to organize and decorate some more! Oh what fun, I look forward to going into my room every single day!