Website that amaze me!

I stumbled on this website the other night and found it hard to tear myself away. The photos are fantastic. I am so grateful for the Internet. Think about it. We have so much information right at our fingertips. Some of the photos are so incredible. I am glad I got the opportunity to see these things. Enjoy!!

Starting new things

I decided this year to learn at least 3 new things. So today I learned to knit. My friend who owns The Revue Boutique has set up a knit night at her shop. So off I went to Michaels craft shop and bought myself a set of knitting needles and a spool of yarn.
Some of the people could not make it to the class which made it all the better for me. I had the teacher all to myself. I started many times.

Each time getting better but I am a little stressed according to my teacher. The yarn was so tightly knitted it was hard to get my needle in. But I prevailed in the end. I got 4, count them, 4 rows done in 2 hours. My friend J who knits all the time, just laughs. Well it can only get better, right?

Spicing things up

Over the Christmas break, I decided to get organized. I purchased this cool spice rack.

The trays pull out and you can put the spices in the groves.

And it fits nicely in my cabinet. I now know all the spices in my cabinet. Now I just need to take cooking classes to learn what to use them in!

P.J. day at work

As some of you know, I am a secretary in an elementary school. I work with people I just love. "Why?", you ask. This is why. We are always doing something crazy for the kids or a local charity. Right before the Winter Break we have a P.J. Day. Each student, of which there are just shy of 600, and each staff member (around 60) pay a dollar to wear their jammies to school. The money is then donated to the Leukemia foundation.

These photo's are of some of my friends in their jammies. Some of them asked me not to show their faces. It is not because they don't want to be seen on the Internet, it's because the jammies are often less then flattering.


This photo is of my P.J.s. I loved the sock monkeys and Christmas trees. I took a photo of them because the day got so busy, I forgot to take a picture of myself wearing them.

Nearly everyone gets involved. I especially loved the sponge bob p.j.s our gym teacher wore.

And of course no outfit is complete with out the slippers.




I did get a photo of myself and my girlfriends bunny slippers!

Wait till you see what we do next!!

New Year, back to basics

During the Holidays, we host a lot. We had two major parties,(55 or more) and at least 3 parties of at least ten. It starts in November and goes right up till the new year. The one thing that nearly everyone comments on is my Menu black board. I got it at Pottery Barn about 5 or 6 years ago. It also is magnetic. Each week I sit down with my family and find out who is going where and try to plan meals. This is quite tricky with two teenagers and a husband who is a musician on the side. So out of self preservation, I bought this chalk board. It is really big. 47 inches tall by 37 inches wide.

I plan all my meals for the week and write them on the board. I have the board right when you come into the mudroom from the garage. People laugh and always tell me what night they are coming for dinner, based on what I am having. I started this to see if I could take some of the chaos out of my life. I just wanted to have a plan so that dinner didn't take up all my nights.

When I plan the meals, I usually plan to cook at least one meal to have for two nights. Then I will cook the item ahead of time (only if it taste good heated a second time. Sometimes it taste better.) Like these meatloaves that will be eaten on Friday and perhaps Sunday. I cook at least 4 at a time and freeze them all. On Friday morning I will take a meatloaf out. Friday night we will slice it up and heat it in a frying pan and serve it on bread. I live in a house full of men. They love meatloaf sandwiches. They get to eat something good before heading out the door to have fun on Friday night. Sometimes my teenager's friends have joined us and then the meatloaves are gone in a flash.

So all this prep really takes very little time (less than a hour to make 4 1.5 lb meatloaves) but buys us so much time during the week. I am all about getting more time for fun things. So laugh if you want at my silly menu board, but remember me, lets say, Tuesday evening when you are trying to figure out what to make for dinner and I am probably already eating!

Felt friends

I started loving some of the felt things I have been seeing in stores and books. A friend of mine owns a shop here in West Chester called the Revue Boutique Gallery and gave me my first felt item. It was a little felt man called Mr Wiskers and I have him on my desk at work. The kids love him and he makes me smile. She made a few other items for our kindergarten teacher and you can't help but smile when you look at them. Here are her weather people. Each one is hand made and have great details.









I found this book in Barnes and Noble by Betz White

and I am going to try to make a bag for myself. Catherine is now setting up a knitting night at her shop and I am going to learn how to knit. I will let you know how each adventure turns out.