Headline: Girl from Orange County makes Orange Dessert

I haven't shared a recipe in a while. Well, this weekend I'm sharing a yummy recipe tutorial for Orange Margarita Squares on Cindy's blog, Retro Revival. It's a fun alternative to all the pumpkin desserts this Fall.

Me in my kitchen with my cute orange sandals.

And, while you are there, you can enter to win the pillowcase apron that I made using the 10 Minute Pillowcase Apron Tutorial. I love the deep pockets.

I used a really fun pillowcase and added some cute details. Good Luck!

American Flag Collage

We are very patriotic at the Grow Home. Maybe you've seen how we decorate around here for the 4th of July here or here. This year my sister completed our newest American decoration.

It's a 40" x 30" collage made up of 50 stars made from items like seashells, dominos, and buttons on a blue sea of ribbon, cutlery, and paper, 13 stripes of torn patterned paper with silk flowers, beads, dice, Christmas ornaments, game pieces and more.

My mum wrote a fun little I Spy game to go with our custom collage. You can enlarge the above picture or look at the smaller photos to see details and play along.

I Spy 4th of July

I spy a mouse, a rabbit, a hog

an elephant pin and a print of a dog

I spy a knife, a spoon and three more

2 pencils, a sword and two closed yellow doors

 

I spy the queen, her guard and a bus

a bridge and a crown of silver for us

I spy santa, 2 stockings, and a present that’s blue,

An ornament, a tree and a gift bag for you

I spy a strawberry, and a measure for heat

a Band-Aid, a lion and 2 shoes for your feet

I spy a crab, a pepper, a button shell

cotton candy and a blue devil from hell

white stars against a blue night sky

bottom left

top right

bottom right

Let me know if you play along. For more fun I Spy fun, check out this website.

OWH Memorial Blog Hop

Welcome to We Grow By Our Dreams. I made a fun card for the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Sketch Blog Hop.

I love making buntings, especially out of vintage sheets so I was so excited when I saw OWH's sketch #101. I made my card out of lots of flowery papers that remind me of vintage sheets.

Thanks again for stopping by We Grow By Our Dreams today. Check out all the other wonderful cards created using OWH sketches. Just click below.

Minnie Mouse Party For Grown Ups

No one represents fun and youthfulness like Minnie Mouse. I spent the day with her and her friends at Disneyland then had a Minnie style party at home.

I made tissue puffs, Martha Stewart style to hang over our food table.  The red, white, and polka dot tissue paper are from Target. I sewed a couple easy table runners from black and white and red and white polka dot fabrics all from Joann. Then I made a matching bunting to hang beneath the puffs.

I served red, black and white food. I found the Mickey Mouse bowls at Target a couple weeks ago.

 Fresh strawberries, red suckers, huge olives, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella balls.

For our main dish we had Minnie Mouse bows with Puttanesca sauce and garlic bread.

We had black and white cake aka Nabisco Famous Chocolate Refrigerator Roll. I found the Mickey and Minnie figures at the Dollar Tree.

 The cake is wonderful alone but the strawberries fit with our color theme. I've also made a chocolate version.

We had water from a clear pitcher with ice and frozen cherries. I also had red and black licorice on the table. Yum!

I found some cute red and white polka dot napkins at Target too. And, of course, now that my party is over I'm finding all kinds of Mickey and Minnie stuff. Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Feel free to leave a comment.

I'm playing along at

Super Bowl Open House

Super Bowl Sunday is a special day for our family. It's a lot of food, some fun commercials, family time, and oh yah, there's is a sporting event on the tv.

The Decorations

I made 3 more team pennants. I've made almost 20 now. Welcome Bengals, Dolphins, and Cowboys.

The football field banner is decorating our kitchen window.

The usual football field platters, football plates and bowls, felt football coasters, as well as our football cheese spreader and bottle opener all make a comeback this year.

The Food
Specially brewed rootbeer (regular and diet) from Brew Bakers in Huntington Beach.

Giant Football Calzone

Pretzel Sticks from Brewbakers with homemade marinara sauce.

 Knock-You-Naked Brownies from Pioneer Woman's Recipe.

 Peanut M & Ms.

 Jell-O Jigglers Helmets in sugar-free lemon and strawberry banana.

The Entertainmnt
We are playing Bingo during the game this year. I found these fun Super Bowl bingo cards online from Parade Magazine

and of course a lot of cool commercials. :)

I hope that you have a wonderful day. Thank you for vistiting We Grow By Our Dreams.

Sterling Pear Photo Shoot

Sterling Pear Gold Christmas Tree Skirt

About two weeks ago my friend Janet, the co-owner of Sterling Pear asked for my help styling a photo shoot for her of some of the new products including a gold quilted tree skirt, stockings and table runner. She wanted gifts to go in the stockings and around the Christmas tree. Our friend Jeannette had picked out the most lovely gift wrap and gold silk ribbon and she needed my help wrapping the "gifts."

The papers were beautiful colors, thick and textured with multiple silk-screened layers or flocking. I wrapped each gift and then tied each bow a different way. I even used the Easiest Bow Ever Tutorial on the big present on the left. The ribbon only came in one width which would have overwelmed the smaller boxes so I cut in half lengthwise.

Sterling Pear Gold Quilted Stocking

The pictures came out lovely. Be sure to check out all the other unique items from Sterling Pear including mantle clips, keepsake storage boxes, and hand painted ornments.

Welcome December

It's all about the advent around here. My mum put out her beautiful advent calendar today. Every morning the niece opens a door to find a piece of the nativity and a treat.

The niece opening the first door this morning. She found an angel and a chocolate.

This is what it will look like on Christmas Eve.

And, we started a new tradition this year. Dana from Made posted about wrapping up 25 Christmas books and having her kids open one every day until Christmas. So, I raided my mum and sister's bookshelves and found 25 Christmas-themed books for my niece to read.

Some are fun

 Some have a good message

And some tell the true story of Christmas

I have a few favorites

 I wrapped them up and put sticky letters and numbers on them.

 Every day the niece will choose a book to read. I'll let her choose if she wants to start with 1 (the calendar day) or 25 to count down to Christmas.

Some are a little long so I put a shorter book the following day so the niece could finish the previous book. I tried to alternate the fun with the more faith-building so there is a good mix. The niece loves to read and open presents so I think she will enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you have time, stop by my other blog, The Vintage Sheet Blog, I'm doing a little gift guide and giveaway link up party.

Vintage Sheet Love

Exciting news: I'm the new leader at the Vintage Sheet Blog! I've been a follower of the blog for a long time now so when I found out that Jen was moving on to pursue other things, I immediately raised my hand and sent her my ideas.

It's been a busy but fun project. But, I love vintage sheets as seen on these projects posted here on this blog:

Owl Bags

Pink Bunting

Green Bunting

I also have an Etsy store filled with vintage sheet fabrics pieces and pillowcases.

It will be fun juggling two blogs but I have a plan. We Grow By Own Dreams will still have recipes, holiday decorating, papercrafting, and non-vintage sheet sewing projects as well as the occassional random post. The Vintage Sheet Blog will have my projects and tutorials made with vintage sheets as well as link parties and other vintages sheet fun.

So, stay tuned because I still have a coule recipe tutorials as well as Harry Potter party details to post about here, on We Grow By Our Dreams. Thanks for stopping by today.