A weekend in photos

This weekend the  weather was perfect for some fun in the yard

 Wes put together Adrians awesome Wagon!

Thank you Nanny and Papa!

 “Bye Bye Momma!”

BBQ Bacon Burgers on the grill

Whats a burger without a beer?The boys work on their golf swing.

_____

Time for our weekly trip to the library!
Adrian gets three new books for story time

This is the first pay phone I’ve seen in many years….random, I know.

We check out all the pretty flowers

We blow big bubbles for Adrian

Adrian and his daddy have boy time….

While I take pictures of my Hummingbirds.

….A wonderfully beautiful life

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did.

Xoxo,

Christine Kay

Mr. Potato Head writes a love letter.

Here’s a different and unique way to personalize some of your DIY project! Potato stamps! This is old school, I remember making potato stamps as a kid!  They are fun, easy, family friendly AND you can make any shape you want!

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner I thought I’d go with a love theme. 🙂

I used just a plain ole Russet Potato or baking potato.

Rinse it off really good and start by cutting off the ends. I peeled some of the skin off the ends but, like to keep some of it on cause its a good gripper when you’re stamping.

After that I used a small kitchen knife to carve out my shapes.

(The entire time I kept wishing I had a pumpkin carving kit, if you have one, get it out, it would be PERFECT!)

Use caution when you are carving it out and make sure to keep it steady on a flat surface, don’t hold it in your hand if you can help it.

My first shape was an outline of a heart! Then I flipped it around to the opposite side and carved some more.

This time carving the word “Love”.

(This stamp I carved for photo purposes only! If you are carving words you need to do them in reverse, that way it will be the mirror image on your paper.)

See how the potato is still very wet and starchy? After, I carved out my design I let in soak in cold water for about an hour. That will pull most of the starch out of the potato and make your carving more solid. (Same technique as if you were making french fries!)

Then you are ready to stamp! Just dry it off really well before sticking it in the paint.

I’m gonna stick with the original Valentine’s Day colors for this project! Red, White and Black.

You can make your print light by dabbing it really good or you can make it bold like mine!

How cool is that?!?

I took it a step further and made a Valentine’s Day banner out of  left over craft paper!

There’s also, some of those beautiful paper roses I made in an earlier post!

Do you remember making these when you were younger?

Try it out! Mr. Potato Head won’t mid a bit. 🙂

xoxo,

Christine Kay

 

Sip N Sniff

A few weeks ago I started drinking this Spa/Detox water. It tastes quite delicious and makes me forget all about the “bad for you” drinks that I love.

It’s simply made of  1 sliced lemon, 1 sliced cucumber and a few stalks of mint in a large pitcher of water (Mine is 2 quarts).

You let it seep for at least 8 hours before you drink it and after about a day or so you should change out the contents for new lemons etc….

To me, just throwing all of that away is so wasteful but at the same time I didn’t want to eat it. So, I started thinking about some cool things I could do around the house with it!

My favorite reuse for my spa water so far  is a house fragrance and it’s a must try!

I’ve seen a bunch of other recipes for these “simmer on the stove” fragrances and thought, why not just use my left over spa water ingredients?

That’s just what I did!

I added a drop of Vanilla Extract for good measure and it really does bring out the smell of everything else in the pot!

Lemon, Cucumber, Mint and Vanilla goodness! I’m totally doing this from now on!!

Cheers to a yummy smelling home!

Tata,

Christine Kay

I’ll dream of a dream of you.

Today is the day that my family will say their goodbye’s to my Nanny and her physical self. My Nanny passed away on the 20th of December, right before Christmas. It had been many years…way too many years since I had seen her but your feelings for a person like her could never fade or change.

Not seeing her for that long and then realizing you will never see her again is a hard pill to swallow but, I chopped the pill up and I’m swallowing it piece by broken piece.

It comes with the territory thought doesn’t it?…It comes with loss. There’s always more you could have done, something you wish you would have said, more time you wish you could have had. The psychologist in me knows it’s a process.

My family is all in Georgia and I am here in California. It’s times like these that I wish I wouldn’t have gone so far away but, you have to follow your heart and take chances.  I just wish I could have been there during this time for some closure.

Would it had given me any closure?  I don’t know…. At times I don’t even think so.

I think closure comes from within.

My twin had a dream that Nanny came to her like an Angel telling her that she is ok and she loves us.

I believe it was her.

I know that she has a lot of people to see.  I just hope one day she gets to come see me.

❤ Christine Kay ❤

The spotless house

 “A mother never really has time to mourn the passing of a loved one….she just cleans up little better.” 

~ Christine Kay