Decoupaged Easter Eggs

Hello hello happy spring. Let me tell you This girl is more than ready for some spring weather.

Over the weekend I felt especially crafty. Sometimes when I get really stressed out about work and things. I need to get out of my head for awhile. It seems like nothing helps me more than creating something new. I think I went a little crazy with it. I made a lot of things this weekend including more lotion bars but more about that later.

My niece Amy R. told me about some gorgeous decoupaged eggs she had made. They looked so pretty I just had to have some too. They are really simple to make just a little time consuming.

So here is what you will need.

1. Plastic eggs. You can buy these at Walmart in the Easter section, they are like $1.98 for a dozen.

2. Some really pretty 2 ply napkins that have a nice pattern that you can cut into small sections. I found that the smaller pieces were much easier to place on the eggs and decoupage them. The shape of the eggs make it a little tricky.

3. Modgpodge.

4. A small paint brush

I cut the napkin making sure to get small flowers and figures and leaves that would look pretty when placed on the eggs.

Tear the back off of the napkin or the two ply I should say. You will want to cut them before removing the two ply back because they are easier to cut that way. It is easier to cut several at one time.

You will then take your egg and mod podge the pieces of napkin onto the eggs. Again I found it easier to do small bits of the pattern of the napkin and let that dry and turn the egg and add more. Don’t worry about a few wrinkles or how the egg looks because when it dries it will be beautiful.

I actually left these out on my counter over the weekend while I worked on them and drank coffee. Such a relaxing project.

There finally comes a stopping point when you have to be done. Amy gave me these napkins. I would love some black and white ones. The next time you are at Home Goods or one of those specialty stores and you see an awesome pack of napkins grab them, just look what you can make with them.

The finished eggs

This little project cost less than$10.00. Less than that if you already have Modpodge.

Love your day your way!!!!

A Quick Trip to Orlando

Hello hello, how are you?

I had a quick trip to Orlando last week for work. I left on Monday. My flight wasn’t until almost 2:00 pm. This wasn’t by my choice. I usually like a really early flight so that I can get to where I am going and check things out. I couldn’t get an early flight so I was stuck with the 1:50 flight. I had to fly through Atlanta where I had a layover so I didn’t get into Orlando until about 6:30. I discovered having a later flight is not that bad. I didn’t have to rush to get out of the house. I had time for breakfast and an extra cup of coffee, plenty of time to pack, I did a load of laundry and even made a pecan pie before I left. I felt so un rushed. It was great. I may have to rethink my early morning flights.

However that did get me to my hotel kind of late. I gave the driver the address to the hotel and he was not familiar with it. Turns out it was a new hotel. He asked me to put the directions into his phone in Google maps. Always an adventure. I was meeting a group of cavers for our semi annual board meeting for National Caves Association. This is the first time we have had our meeting in Orlando. For many years the winter meeting was held in St. Louis. It was always cold and sometimes travel could be tricky. We are now spoiled by the wonderful warm weather in Orlando. We stayed at the Springhill Suites on Millenia Lakes Blvd. And just across the bridge from the hotel was the Millenia Mall. Although we didn’t have a lot of free time I did manage to make it to the mall where Macy’s was having an awesome clearance sale.

The hotel was very nice and the customer service was outstanding. There was a complimentary breakfast and it was great having that every morning and not having to go out and find breakfast. I hate to say it but it rained most of the time. It was a warm rain so it wasn’t that bad.

On Tuesday night we went to a restaurant called The Capital Grille. One of my favorite things in the world is Sword Fish and of course not a lot of restaurants around me have that. I ordered the sword fish, blackened, and it was amazing.

The sauce around the edge was a mustard vinaigrette and I wasn’t too sure
about it. The waiter assured me it was on the side. But it was great!!! It totally made
the dish.

The Cheesecake Factory was right next door to the Capital Grille and we did have to pass it on the way back to the hotel so we decided to stop in for some cheesecake to go. Can you believe they put the calories on the cheesecake so you know how many calories per slice. WHAT???? If you have decided to eat cheesecake then why oh why must you know the calories? Most of us got a piece of cheesecake to take back to our rooms. I ate some of mine the next day. I did not eat the entire slice. Those slices are huge!!!

Try not to drool. I am having some wonderful flashbacks.

Of course I always have to take knitting along with me. I took a scarf and a hat to work on. I finished both of them and as I am sitting here typing this I happened to think I haven’t seen the scarf since I have been back. I will have to run upstairs and look for it. I hope I didn’t leave it behind.

This is the scarf. I love these colors.

And this is the hat. I took this picture after I returned to work on Friday. Colorful wouldn’t you say?

I had an early flight going home on Thursday and I was back in town by 2:30 pm. Because of Marks crazy work schedule Scruffy had spent a few days while I was gone with my sister-in-law. I went by to pick him up and he was so glad to see me. At least I think he was. My sister-in-law spoils him like crazy when she has him. He always loves to stay with her.

All in all a good trip. I went back to work on Friday with a lot of new ideas. I had to play catch up on some things.

Friday evening me and several of my coworkers went to a beautiful wedding of a sweet young lady who works with us, Christan. The wedding was held in a barn, which is all the rage now, it was a country setting with a huge stone fireplace, very laid back and beautiful. Instead of having a traditional wedding cake they had……Cheesecake!!! You know how I love cheesecake right?

Isn’t she a beautiful bride

It’s always nice to get away but there’s nothing like my lake and mountains. And my Molly of course, look she slipped into the picture just before I took it. Perfect timing Molly.

P.S. I found the scarf. Whew!!!!!!

Love your day your way

February You May Be The Cruelest Month

T.S. Eliot proclaims April to be the cruelest month but I may have to differ with him. Our reasons for the cruelest month are different. His has to do with blooming flowers in April. Mine because of, well, events. I have lost several loved ones during the month of February. My mother died on Valentines Day in 2003. My brother died last year on February 13th. I wrote a post about it here. It is cold and wet and dreary. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. There have also been some wonderful things happen in February. I’ll tell you about those in a minute. But I guess losing two people who meant the world to me makes those two days of the month especially sad.

February 2019 has also been a month of sickness for our family. Mark and I both had the crud. No sooner was I getting over that but then I pulled a muscle in my back. I spent most of last weekend lying flat on the floor on my back with my legs in a chair. Try not to get a mental picture, it’s not pretty. Scruffy laid beside me the whole time. Because of the back issues I missed a Memorial Service of the mother of a good friend.

We have had rain, rain and more rain. Rain almost every day. The ground is saturated and flood warnings are issued almost every day. Our local schools closed yesterday and today because of heavy rains and the threat of flash flooding.

So a lot of things in February to be glum about. My back is better and that is good. I can stand up straight again without having back spasms. I did a lot of knitting and reading over the weekend.

We had a brief moment of sunshine Wednesday morning.

But we knew the rain was coming again.

Anyway now some really good things about February:

1. It is almost over and spring is on the way!!!!

2. Valentine roses from my hubby

3. A group of us taking a co-worker out for lunch and mani-pedis for her pre-wedding gift.

We also did the Escape Room in Knoxville. Have you done one of these? It is so much fun. You are put in a room for one hour. You are given a topic and you try to find clues that will help you get out of the room in one hour. We did not escape. It is really hard!!! But we had so much fun. https://breakoutgames.com/knoxville/ check it out!!!!

Happy Birthday to my blog it turned one year old this month. It’s hard to believe I have been blogging for one year but I have!!! I have so enjoyed sharing with all of you. Thank you for following me and sharing with me.

The last thing is: Baby Kay Day!!! this is coming up on February 24th. this is the day I donated a kidney to my husband. This happened in 2011. One of the best days of my life. We named the kidney Baby Kay and we try to celebrate every year.

I post this picture every year on Baby Kay Day this is a picture of me and my husband leaving Vanderbilt Medical Center after the kidney transplant in 2011. It is one of my favorite pictures. You can read more about it here and here.

So maybe February isn’t so bad. I am going to Orlando FL on Monday for a meeting and I plan to get some sunshine and sunshine and sunshine. I will keep you posted.

Love your day your way

I Have Cabin Fever!!!!

Hello hello how are you? The sick bug has hit our little family. Mark was sick all weekend before last. I was hoping I wouldn’t catch what he had but being in such close quarters almost makes that impossible. I should have known something was going on last Tuesday when everything I did seemed to be crazy. Well crazier than normal, you know me. Have you ever felt that way? I got a late start at work and then everything just seemed to go down hill from there. It’s like everything I did was strange like I was walking through a fog. I had a weird day at work where nothing seemed to go right. I went to the Post Office and left my keys in my P.O. Box and when I got to my car I couldn’t figure out where my keys were, I went to Walmart and the self check out messed up after I had already rung everything up. I went through the drive through at Sonic and they brought me the wrong order. I totally forgot about a million things I needed to do because it seemed like I had a permanent brain fog. I should have known something was going on.

By Tuesday night I started to get this little tickle in my throat and then by morning I was coughing my head off and sounded terrible. But me being the me that I am, thought I could still handle going to work so in I went. Of course everyone there looked at me like I had the plague and gave me that “why do you want to come to work and infect us” look. I don’t blame them I would have been the same way about them. I felt really bad and I left at noon and went home. I went to bed and I didn’t leave the house until Sunday morning when I decided to venture into town to get a few groceries. Mark had to work a looooong work weekend but he was on the road to recovery. I grabbed a few groceries and went home. I knew I still didn’t feel right and sure enough I had developed a sinus infection. Finally after starting a round of antibiotics yesterday I am feeling much better.

So lots of days off. How nice was that you might think. It was, except that I didn’t feel like doing anything. I laid on the couch and in my bed and read (that was nice) and knit that was nice and cuddled with my fur babies (that was really nice) and ate myself into oblivion (not so nice) and read a lot of books and watched a lot of TV (really nice) and wallowed in being sick. Sometimes I think you may need those sick days to just give yourself the time you need to recuperate and regenerate from everything that life is throwing at you. I guess that is where I am in this scenario called life. I have enjoyed it but I AM READY TO GET OUT!!!!! I HAVE CABIN FEVER!!!! I actually did go to work today. I am starting to feel normal again.

I Knitted this toboggan it really has more of a pink color than what
it looks like here.

I also started this scarf

With me being home for several days Kitty Kitty and Scruffy were right there with me trying to make me feel better and clamoring for a spot on my lap.

These are a couple of really good books I read.
Check them out.

Do you love these conversation heart candies that appear near Valentine’s Day? You either love them or you hate them. You probably noticed you haven’t seen as many of them this year and there is a reason for that. These hearts have been in production for more than a century before Necco, the company that made them, filed for bankruptcy last year.

The rights to produce the hearts was purchased by the Spangler Candy Co. in Ohio, which will return them to production after it receives permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But this could take at least a year. So only a very few were left to sell this year.

Some people find these disgusting, this includes my husband. But he knows how very much I love them. I could eat them all year long. Probably a good thing they are only around at Valentines. So when my husband discovered that they were hard to find in the stores, even Walmart, he got on line and ordered me a two pound bag to munch on. Yes it’s true folks you can get anything from Amazon. I think that’s pretty darned nice of him.

I hope you are having a wonderful week and the sick bug stays away from you.

Love your day your way!!!