My next door neighbor drives us crazy!

 

In a good way.

Frank always has something cooking on the grill or in his smoker every weekend.

There is a privacy fence between us so we have no idea what he's cooking most of the time; we just know it smells delicious. On occasion, he or his wife will "throw us a bone".

A few weekends ago his wife brought over a container of pork for us to sample.

As always... it was delicious!

My mother always taught me never to return an empty container.
(You can read about Miss Amy Vanderbilt here.)

 Rather than fill the container with the same ol' thing like homemade cookies or other treats, I chose to fill it with something different.

 

 

An appropriate dishtowel!

Monday's lunch

 

It can't get any better than this, can it?

 

YUM.

 

Unless

 

 of

 

 course

 

you

 

 add

 

a 

 

slice

 

of

 

 THIS!

 

(source)

 

Hummmm...

 I'm thinking maybe - Tuesday's lunch?





My favorite place to be.

  

Lucky for me, I live 1/2 mile to the water on my West, 2 1/2 miles on the East and 3.9 miles to the closest beach to the South - all within 7 minutes or less from my front door.
I dream of living in a little shack ON the beach one day, but for now,
 7 minutes or less will have to do...

I hope everyone is having a great weekend !




Quick Southern-style baked beans

 

If you're in need of a side dish for your next BBQ these would be perfect - recipe serves up to 18 people.

 



 I found the recipe here on The Pioneer Women.

I only made one change.
The recipe calls for regular ol' pork 'n beans.
Not wanting to make a trip to the store, I used what I had on hand.
 I used 1 can of Bush's Vegetarian and 2 cans of Homestyle baked beans.

 

 I'm not sure about "the best EVER", but they were pretty darn good.

(I will definitely make them again.)

 

I made these Quick Southern-style baked beans for our 4th of July get together with the family.

There were only seven of us so I had plenty of leftovers for dinner last night.

In fact, we had a little of everything leftover.

BBQ ribs, homemade macaroni and cheese, baked beans and deviled eggs.

 

Sure beats Friday night pizza!

For the grandbabies.

 

With so many other projects going on right now, I needed to come up with something quick and easy for my grandbabies to wear for the 4th of July.

 

 

 

 

 

 I purchased the outfits and just added the applique with their names.

Quick, fast and easy!

Red White and Blue

My mother was a quilter and taught me the art of hand quilting.

Even though I have never been quite brave enough to make an entire bed quilt, I have dabbled a bit in smaller projects.

I made these several years ago when I was in my "country" decorating phase to hang on the wall.
Same pattern and fabrics - different looks.

The one on the left I quilted by hand, the other I quilted by machine.
 

Now I will use them as table mats for the 4th of July.

Happy Wednesday!


Linking today to:
http://thecsiproject.com/

~ Sprucing up home ~

Okay, I will admit it.

 I haven't been the best blogger the last few months.

I have had a lot of other things going on lately with not much time to sew.

I was thinking... rather than not blog at all, I will just start boring you with all the "other things" going on around here.

 

Like this...

 

 

My new fence...

 

 

And all the nice people I have met lately.

 

 

Yep, Dan, the FIOS repairman.

It was storming here the day they installed the fence so I just assumed my TV, internet and phone went out due to the storm.

NOT!

The fence company accidentally cut my underground cable.

(What happened to "Call first BEFORE you dig"?)

I went a day and a half with no TV, internet or landline until Dan showed up.

Thanks to Dan, I was up and running again within an hour of his arrival.

Yippee!

 

You truly don't know how much you miss the stuff till it's gone, do you?

Remembering the old days and learning new things.

 

Back before digital and all the cool photo editing programs photography was a hobby for me.

Mr. Fisherman and I even developed our own photos way back then. We never had an official darkroom, so we improvised. We would tape cardboard over the bathroom window, use the tub to line up our trays, balance the enlarger on the sink and roll a towel to cover any light coming through the bottom of the door. Sounds like a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun.

Even though that was almost 25 years ago, I can still remember the smell of those stinky chemicals we used for developing.

Digital has been a whole new ball game for me.

 Since purchasing my new camera last year, I haven't really had time to learn all about it.

I have so much to learn. Of course, aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all the same, but there are so many more options and editing programs to learn with digital.

Since I don't always get an opportunity to get out and about to practice, I took a few photos around the house.

 

 I am finding out how fun digital can be at very little cost.

In the past, we would purchase film, pay to develop, and then hope we had

at least one good photo come out of the bunch.

Even though I still have a lot to learn, I am having fun with not only my camera, but learning

Photoshop Elements 11.

Wish me luck!

 

Linking today to:

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

A house divided.

 

Yep.

My sweet little nephew, Colin, was born into "a house divided".

 

Daddy is a Florida Gator fan...

 



Mommy is a Florida State Seminole fan...

 

 

 

 

I found the FREE diaper cover pattern and instructions here at MADE.

These little diaper covers are so easy to make.

(I made a few others, but unfortunately, forgot to take the photos before I wrapped them up.)

Cutting the pattern out and sewing these cute little covers takes less than an hour to complete.

MADE has lots of tutorials on her blog you can download for FREE.

I am sure you will find something you like on her FREE tutorial page.

If you get a chance, go check out all Dana's great tutorials.

 

 

Oh, and did I mention...all Dana's tutorials are FREE?

 

 

Linking today to:

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

http://diyshowoff.com/



More baby gifts

 

All little boys need an outfit for church.

 

 

 

Other than working with a tiny little onesie, this was a very easy project.

 

I prefer no raw edges. I think it keeps things looking neat after washing.

Don't get me wrong, there are some things I love that frayed look on - just not a tie.

I cut two pieces of fabric in the shape of a tie and sewed right sides together leaving the top open for turning. I then turned it right side out and stitched it onto the onesie. Next I satin stitched the top of the tie along the neckline to hide the raw edge.

Wouldn't it be cute to make baby and Daddy matching ties?


Linking today to:
http://thecsiproject.com/

Hi Guys!



I apologize (again) for such a long absence between posts.

You know what they say..."time flies when you're having fun".

I've been busy with life and hadn't realized how much I missed all my blogging buddies until I received the following comment from anonymous.

 

Hellooooooooooooooo !!
Anybody there.???
Please comeback we miss YOU!!!

 

Thanks Anonymous - whoever you are - for bringing me back to my lonely little blog.

 

Unfortunately,  I was in such a rush to finish Colin's gift basket I forgot to take individual photos

 of everything I included.

 

Here is the finished project.

 

 

Does the basket liner look a bit familiar?

I used the same design here on Coles basket.

Funny, they both chose the same theme (Team Safari from Babies R Us) so I was able to reuse a few of the animal applique designs I had already purchased for Coles gift.

 

I reused the monkey design on a burp cloth made from a diaper.

 



I found this adorable little giraffe at Target and dressed him in a bib with the babies name on it.

 

 

I also included baby hangers, nail clippers, shampoo, powder, lotion and a baseball as fillers.

 

More to come tomorrow....