Dear Dad,

I miss you.  I miss our talks. I miss the twinkle in your eyes and the way the corners crinkle up when you laugh.  I miss calling you about hummingbirds.   I miss the way you twirl your finger when talking.  I miss you telling jokes and waggling your eyebrows if it is a slightly dirty one.
I miss you telling me about a new dessert you created.  I miss you telling me to "go look in the mirror and say your daddy loves you."   I miss sending you photos of the kids and telling you to check out my blog so you can see the flowers in the yard...

Amazing how quickly one year can pass.   I love you.

Birthday apron

My sister's birthday was last week and I couldn't find what I planned on getting her.  I hate when that happens.

When she was here for Matt's graduation, she was telling me how she is wearing out the aprons I've made her so I decided to make her a new one.  

Once when she visited, she had commented on one of my Christmas aprons, liking it because of it's simplicity...so I used it as a pattern and created her one like it.
It has a double pocket and is long enough she can use it to wipe her hands on, while keeping the top half covered while cooking bubbly stuff that splatters.

It is void of ruffles and ric rac and bobble trim and such, because she doesn't like a lot of foo-foo.
BUT....I couldn't help myself and added a touch of whimsy...a little quote tape from Alice in Wonderland.

It is probably the simplest apron I've ever made...but I know it will be used and enjoyed and that is what matters most.

worth the time....

Tammy from T's Daily Treasures sent this to me last week via viber.  

I love it so much, I thought I'd share it here.  

I had to watch it twice.  Once to watch the action and the second time to read the subtitles.  Of course, once you watch the action, you don't NEED the subtitles...emotions are a universal language.

Believe me, it is worth it........

Thank you Tammy for thinking of me and for being such a great friend!

Basil Parmesan Chicken

Last week I was off for a few days and when I'm off, I cook!

Tuesday, I made a tomato sauce I found on pinterest.  Here is the link I used.
I had several tomatoes and threw in a large jar of tomatoes a friend gave me last year.  So, I added an extra red bell pepper, two heads of garlic and a couple onions.  I used more oil too....I roasted it for an hour at 425 and then turned the oven off and let it sit an additional hour. 

Oh my goodness, it is a lovely sauce and soooo easy.....after cooling a bit, I put it in the pot....

and turned it into this using an immersion blender.  No extra anything was needed...the jar of tomatoes had enough juice to keep it from being too thick.

soooo what to do with it?  I put it in the refrigerator over night to use the next day...that is, after dunking a lot of bread in it!

So Wednesday rolls around and I'm ready to use that sauce....here is what I did.
I took 2 sheets of my basil butter and melted it and mixed it with some Parmesan cheese and dunked the chicken in it before rolling it in seasoned bread crumbs.  Then I set it aside...

I heated some olive oil and fried them up 1-2 minutes each side...not long, just to brown them....and nestled the breasts in that AMAZING pasta sauce I made yesterday....

Once done, I covered everything with a little bit of shredded mozzarella and cheddar....and baked it at 350 until the chicken was cooked through (I used a meat thermometer to be sure.)

Pretty....

Matt wiped the leftovers out for lunch the next day....but I have ONE jar of that sauce left...

Hmmm..I think I need to make some focaccia bread...

Crochet for twins!

A friend of mine is having twins...VERY soon!

I made her some little things awhile ago (click here to see them) but had to stop the creating process because I ended up with a bad case of poison ivy while I was weeding.  Yay, me.   

It lasted a MONTH y'all!    As soon as I thought things were better, the dried up patches would start itching and swell up again.  Then I'd have to start back up with the vinegar and benadryl cream.  That prescription steroid cream my doctor gave me?  Meh...didn't do a THANG....I'm lucky like that.

In any event, the second my blisters dried up for REALS, I grabbed my yarn and hook and started creating.  It was a FLURRY of yarn around here because I had to make two of both things.

Amy had a pin of two hats that were for sale on etsy.  The original hats were knit and I'm not that good yet.  Instead, I used a couple different crochet patterns (1 free and 1 purchased so I can't share) and morphed them together to get these.  Similar and so cute!  I used "I Love This Yarn" for the hats so they would have a little umpf to them and stand up.

Then I made her two little photo prop/stroller sized receiving blankets to go with the hats.  I used Yarn Bee Effervesce baby yarn for the blankets for softness.
I got the pattern from lacy crochet here but adjusted the pattern to make it much smaller.  I also used two strands held together and worked a different edge.  The blankets turned out so soft and squishy.  I was planning on edging the entire thing with short fringe but decided against it at the last minute.  

 BTW, The color actually matches the hats.   I took the photos at different times because of my ongoing love affair with poison ivy and had already wrapped the hats before making the blankets. 

Her twins are going to be soooo cute in their little photo.  I am hoping she will let me share their photo here once taken.

last days....

The last days of school are closing in.  

Friends pen lovely flowers on each other's hands...

Someone sits outside after school to start on her tan....

Good friends get together, enjoying the weather and toasting the summer to come....

Flowers bloom and are cut to fill rooms with lovely fragrance....

and heavy meals are replaced with lighter fare...

Are you ready?

interesting evening...

After our wild weekend, it was back to normal on Monday.  Until that evening!  

While making a sandwich for Matt, smoke started pouring into the kitchen through the ac vents.  Something was definitely on fire.....(thankfully not much and not for long...)

We piled out of the house as I was calling 911.  Apparently, the motor to the downstairs a/c had shorted out and caught fire.  It quickly went out because there was nothing to feed it.  Other than smoke and a broken air conditioner, we were o.k.   It took two different repairs on two different days, but we are now back to normal.

I thought how lucky we were.  This happened in daylight and we were all together in one room, including the pets.  I can't imagine it happening at night with people sleeping in different parts of the house!

As you can see, Mojo wasn't concerned and went straight back to stealing cat toys while wearing this lovely "outfit."

I've decided he must love the smell of catnip as much as they do...or he missed his calling as a cat!