Stenciling with bleach

I have seen this bleach thing on Pinterest quite a bit.

If you read my blog at all you know that I LOVE to make t-shirts for my boys, nephews and nieces.

I often make appliques, but have done stencils on many occasions.

Seeing the stencil done with bleach?

Brilliant!

A "spooky" stencil and a spray bottle with bleach.

Lil C's didn't bleach out as much...not sure why...

but with that cute face who's looking at the shirt?

My nephew sporting his.

and some girlie ones for 2 sweet little girls in my life.

This was the first go with the bleach.

I'm thinking of bleaching some designs on a few of my plain Ts.

I still have some perfecting to do...

Spooky decorations

I'm not a fan of scary.

Lil D likes to use the word spooky...

and anything related to Halloween is considered spooky.

So we go with the cute...fun...spooky kind of stuff in our house:)

I need to admit...

I thought it would be fun to put spider webs all over our family pictures...and then I was getting frustrated that the webs kept pulling my pictures all crooked...

ummm...

aren't crooked pictures "spooky"? 

Yep...they are! 

So I totally did that on purpose....

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We made lots of new "spooky" decor thanks to Pinterest!

A spider's nest

a standing ghost and glittery spider web.

And then another glittery spider web...and a little photo holder.

You can see my past Halloween decor here!

Are you ready for Halloween?

Summer is over...has been over?

Not really sure how we got to October...but it's here...has been here...

I've completely lost track of time!

This past summer was super busy and beyond fun!

My oldest sister came and stayed with me for a couple weeks.

Then shortly after she left we headed her direction and I got to be in Seattle for 3 whole weeks.

It was blissful!

Seattle will always be "home"!

We took the boys on 2 camping trips.

you could say they had a little fun!

and I turned 35.

Then we headed home, only for me to head back to Seattle for a quick weekend to share in the joy of my step-sister's wedding.

And of course a whole lot more quality time with my sisters.

(Why do they have to live so far away?)

And then September arrived...far too quickly...

and Lil C turned 1...1...crazy!

and then a couple days later I sent Lil D off to kindergarten...

and there we are...in October...school is in full swing...

the fall air has arrived and I am itching to do something...

bring on the projects!

A Shower for the Bride

One of my cousins got married this past Monday so we threw her a bridal shower brunch the Saturday just before the wedding so all of our out of town family could be included.

I'm not gonna lie, I had A LOT of fun planning this and putting it all together and I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out.

As the guests arrived, we had a table set up for them to leave Mackenzie some marriage/relationship advice. My favorite one, "lower your expectations"...

For food we had mini parfaits, bacon, 3 types of donut holes,

pineapple, mini quiche, mini caprese bites,

plain and mint oreo truffles and lemon bars.

Water and peach grapefruit to drink.

For the centerpieces I used white hydrangeas and white fresia and lemon wedges.

 For a take home gift I made blueberry pancakes in a jar with a wooden spoon attached that I had spray painted to match the shower colors.

and here she is on her wedding day...

She is beautiful...the wedding was beautiful and I couldn't be more happy for her!

Love you Mackenzie!

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Shower supply favorite finds:

Hurricane vase and apothecary jars are from Home Goods

I took one of their engagement pictures and modge podged it to a painted wood block then glued a finial to the top and tied on some ribbon.

Mini parfait cylindars are 5 oz found on amazon.com

Mini quiche are from Super Target (yum)

The donut holes are from Costco (there are so delicious)

mini plastic tongs are from the dollar store (4 in a pack)

chevron fabric I found on etsy and then made squares by hemming the edges

the lidded mason type jars are from Ikea (rest of the jars are my friends)

I rolled the plastic ware into yellow napkins from Ikea and tied them with striped bakers twine I found on etsy.

The square appetizer plates I used for people to eat on are from Crate and Barrell...they are super cute and inexpensive and come in a great storage box.

Is it a waffle...or a slice of cake?

I know waffles have been all the rage...

you can make pretty much anything in a waffle iron...so someone says.

A couple of Sundays ago I had a big fail on a crock pot dinner.

I didn't even post it because it was that bad.

I was hungry...I wanted something delicious...I decided to make some cake.

The waffle iron way.

Make a cake batter...the box kind...the regular old way.

Pour it into a waffle iron...like you are making waffles.

Top that delicious chocolate waffle cake with some ice cream and chocolate syrup.

You will thank me.

Oh...and freeze the leftovers...pop them in the toaster...even better the second time.

Next time I'm topping them with fresh strawberries and whipping cream!

For the boys...

I found this vinyl saying at a store a few months ago and knew I needed to find a place in my house for it. I love my 2 boys...I am hopeful that they will always love each other and want to spend time with one another.

I finally decided to put the saying, with a picture of the 2 of them, just outside their bedrooms...I hope that it becomes a little reminder for them each day.

It's amazing how much it "warms" up our little hallway by the bedrooms!

LOVE it!

Crock Pot Sunday: Pork Baby Back Ribs

They were this good:

There are only a few things I fear in cooking...ribs is one of them.

I fear making dry ribs that won't fall off the bone.

Well, fear no more!

If you love ribs...then you must try this recipe. We gobbled these babies right up.

After you slow cook them in the crockpot, you put them under the broiler to crisp them up...tastes like you got them right off the barbecue...

I will definitely be making ribs in the crock pot again. I'm eager to try some different rubs and barbecue sauces...but I will not change the way I now cook ribs!