Waffles for dinner

Because sometimes when Daddy's gone, you just don't want to cook :)

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

Wire wrapped gemstone tutorial

As I mentioned yesterday, we just got back from a relaxing vacation to Asheville, NC. While we were there, we also visited the town of Chimney Rock, which happens to have some of the cutest shops with killer deals, including these amazing new moccasins that I've been trying to wear with every outfit I own. One of my favorite parts was gem mining, where we got a big bucket full of sand and gems that we sifted through to find our treasures. We were total tourists, but it was a blast. Especially when we came back with bags full of these:

Of course, I couldn't just let these pretty gems just sit around, so I thought I'd show you a quick tutorial on how to turn rough (uncut, unpolished) gems into great little charms for necklaces or bracelets. Please keep in mind that I've never done this before and I'm sure there's a much better technique, but it worked for me! Also, this works best with gems that have rough edges to catch the beading wire on.

Supplies:

• Rough gems
• 20 gauge (or more) beading wire
• Round nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Jump ring
• Jewelry glue (optional)

Start by placing the end of the silver beading wire on the middle of the back of your gem. Begin carefully and slowly wrapping the wire around your gem, making sure to overlap the end of your beading wire. Once you feel like you've secured the gem properly, cut the end of your wire roughly 1 1/2 inches from your gem with wire cutters. Twist your wire up through your last row, and use your round nose pliers to create a loop. Snip extra. Finish by adding a jump ring. If you want to be extra careful, dab a few drops of jewelry glue where the wire meets the gemstone.

You could leave your charm by itself, or add other embellishments like feathers or beads. Have fun turning your treasures into jewelry!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Asheville, NC vacation

We're back from our crazy awesome trip to Asheville, NC and man is it hard to get back to real life! We had such a great time hanging out with family for a week, it was just so nice to get away from all the stress of "real life" for awhile and enjoy the gorgeous mountains (which Memphis is sadly lacking.) 

Our trip started out pretty rocky when our GPS misguided us up a VERY windy mountain, which caused both of my kids to get carsick (one in the car, which is my very least favorite thing in the world btw.) After we slowly made our way back down the mountain and finally got there, it was nothing but r&r as we settled into the lake house for a week. We did a lot of shopping, pontoon boating, and LOTS of hot tub time. Consequently I've decided I need a hot tub in the very near future (husband, if you're reading this take notes.) Nothing major, just a nice big hot tub. With cup holders for my wine, because hot tubbing becomes super classy with wine.

Of all the things we did all week though, my favorite thing was the gem mining. It gave us all instant gratification - you buy a bucket full of sand with gems buried in it and sift the sand out so you always get gems in your bucket - and it was SO much fun for all of us, me included! You just dump shovels full of sand into the little sifter thingy (there has to be an official title for it, but there you go) and just sift all the sand out until you find your treasures. Connor even got into the fun, but we had to rescue several of the rocks from being eaten. We got a lot of great gems, and I plan on posting a tutorial soon on how to make jewelry out of some of the gems we found!

All in all it was a pretty great week but it went by way too fast. I guess vacations are like that though, aren't they?

Week in Pictures and A Winner!

1. Happy birthday to my husband! 2. A little weekend crafting 3. MIB ice cream at Baskin Robbins 

4. Enjoying some ice cream 5. Haley's new froggy friend 6. Yummy donuts

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone's week has been wonderful, and that your weekend is even better. As you can see from my pictures, we did a lot of eating this week! My parents were in town, so that's my excuse :) We balanced all the fruits and veggies we bought from the farmers market with a lot of junk food. The kids got spoiled, and so did we. My husband also celebrated his birthday yesterday, which was a great excuse to get a double decker cookie cake. And yes, it was as good as it looks :)

So now onto the winner of the Designed Beginnings wall decal giveaway! Thanks to everyone who entered, I wish I could give a decal to each of you :) After plugging all the entries into Random.org, the winner is.....

Lucky number 4, Jackie!

Congrats to the winner, an email has been sent. I will be taking a little time off this week to spend time with family. See you all in a week or so!

P.S. Happy National Donut Day!

Wall Decal Giveaway with Designed Beginnings

 **This giveaway is now closed**

Decorating a room can be one of the most fun (and sometimes most frustrating!) things. Before my son was born, I knew he had to have a Steeler's-themed room because my husband is pretty much a fanatic and he would have written it into the marriage contract if he could have. The problem is, there isn't a lot of Steelers-themed baby stuff out there and I was too tired and pregnant to paint something permanent on the wall, so I ended up using thumbtacks to pin pennants all around the room and called it a day.

Fast forward almost 2 years later, and there are plenty of things I would have done differently, including getting some decals to help me out of my decorating funk. Ragan, the owner of the Etsy shop Designed Beginnings, has a great selection of children's and nursery wall decals including growth charts, monogram decals, and other super cute decorative decals. Wall decals are a great way to enhance the look of any room without the pressure of the decorations being permanent (AND you can avoid a nursery full of thumb tacked pennants like me ;) I had a great time browsing through all of the different designs - and there were too many I loved to narrow down a favorite!

I obviously need to get this Football Decal right away before Connor grows up and sees the shameful state of his nursery:

Sun and Clouds

Numbers and Animals

Windy Cherry Blossom Tree

Owl Decal

And even if you don't have any kids, you could always get your last name in vinyl

as a great addition to your living room:

Now for the fun part, I get to give one of these awesome wall decals away! Designed Beginnings is offering one of my readers a decal of their choice up to $50.

For 2 chances to win, do one (or both!) of the following:

1. Like Designed Beginnings on Facebook and leave me a comment that you did

2. Visit Designed Beginnings on Etsy and leave me a comment with which decal you'd pick if you won

Please make sure to include your email address if it's not linked to your profile.

Even if you don't win, Ragan is offering my readers a 20% discount on all items in her shop when you use the coupon code "myownroad" when you check out. This discount expires on June 5th.

The winner of the giveaway will be announced here Friday June 1st. Good luck! 

The farmer's market

My parents were in town for Memorial Day weekend, so we had some fun picking strawberries and exploring one of the local farmer's markets. Haley was in her element. I have 4 small strawberry plants in my garden but we're rarely able to salvage any of the berries before the birds get them. When we do manage to find one or two berries, I make a big production out of it and let Haley pick, wash and eat them. At the farm though, she was surrounded by rows upon rows of strawberry bushes with fresh, plump berries. She was giddy with excitement.

Grandpa had to guide her a few times to make sure she didn't pick berries that were a little too green, but for the most part she knew exactly which ones to pick. By the end, we had a whole bucketful waiting to be used for topping cereals and ice cream.

 

After strawberry picking, we browsed one of the local farmer's markets that opens up each weekend during growing season. There were so many fruits and veggies to choose from, it was hard not to buy everything. My mom and dad loved it. As a kid, I have many memories of my dad dragging my brother and I out to some farm hours away from the house to get fresh produce and enjoy some country air. 

One of my favorite memories as a kid was driving out to a farm owned by a Mennonite family an hour or so away in the countryside. They raised cattle and other livestock on site, and my brother and I would wander around the grounds looking for baby kittens in the barns. We were usually able to find a few unfortunate kittens that wandered away from their mothers, and we carried them around with us before my mom and dad made us pile in the car for home. My favorite part of the visit though was always the homemade ice cream made with fresh cream from their cows. Mmm, as I sit here writing this, I can still taste the creamy scoop of coconut ice cream that I would always get.

They didn't have homemade ice cream at the market, but they did have plenty of everything else. Everywhere you looked there were vendors from local farms offering the pick of the crop or jars of homemade jellies, relishes and baked goods. by the time we headed home, we had several bags worth of blueberries, beets, fresh corn, and one giant watermelon perfect for Memorial Day.

Make sure you come back tomorrow, I have a great giveaway for you!

Week in Pictures

1. Making zucchini chips 2. Baby Mozarts 3. Shadow play 4. Strawberries from my garden that we got to before the birds did 5. Waffles for dinner 6. Weekly ride on the merry-go-round