Home-made English Muffins

Yes, you heard that right. I made my own English muffins. They are as easy to make as pancakes only so much cooler. I found the recipe on Baking Bites blog. I substituted white flour with whole wheat pastry flour and they were amazing. I served them with butter and my mum's homemade sugar-free plum jam.

Happy 4th of July

To continue with my tradition of posting a tour of my home on every holiday, I present you with Independence Day. First off, a picture of my house with my flag out front.
Just inside the kitchen is the banner that I sewed using vintage and recycled fabrics and bias tape.

And, as promised, on the living room coffee table lies the coordinating table runner. It's reversable. It has the red bandana/centinial fabric on one side and colorful flip flops on the other.

I didn't really go all out of decorating the house this go around because I've been busy planning the church 4th of July Breakfast. We are having pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipping cream.

I also made 150 of these Mentos "firecrackers." I used up a bunch of paper and ribbon I wasn't crazy about. I will put these on the tables as the decoration.

Basic instructions: Remove paper wrapper. Replace with 2" x 3" piece of paper (I ran my adhesive runner up one side and then just rolled the Mentos over the paper). Tie knot in 3" long piece of ribbon and adhere with a small glue dot. Repeat 149 times. LOL.

And, finally, every year the girls in my family (aka the growgirls) wear matching Old Navy t-shirts. This is my uniform for this year. I'll wear it with a skirt and a flag bracelet

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. Happy 4th to all of my American friends. Thanks for stopping by.

A patriotic banner

I just love making these festive buntings. I made this one a little different. I used a lot of vintage fabrics (I love the bicentinial one) plus some fabric samples. I used red and blue vintage bias tape on the top. And, it's a bit longer than I usually do so I had to swag it. It's hanging over my kitchen widow that looks out to my flag.

I'll be back in a couple days for an Independence Day tour of my home, including the table runner I made to match the patriotic banner.

There's No Place Like Home

I haven't done much crafting lately except for plastic lollipops, silk flower bouquets and other props for our church production of the Wizard of Oz. My niece is a munchin, my sister is painting scenery, my mum is a director, and I'm the stage manager and prop master. I also get to operate the 8 foot tall Wizard who comes complete with beaming yellow eyes, smoking nose, and moving mouth.

And, I also helped design our publicity. Here is our poster:

If you are in the OC area this weekend or next, come see our show. To get tickets, send an email to: tamiwalkoz@aol.com I think the Saturdays are almost sold out so you might want to hurry.

Easter Open House

Continuing with my tradition of posting a holiday tour with pictures from around my home, here are some pictures showing Easter at my house. First up, I made hot cross buns on Good Friday. We made bunnies out of plastic grocery bags at work this week. I found the fun idea on the makeandtakes blog.

Here are a couple pictures from my front yard. The geraniums are around all year. The pink flowers come up every spring.

Now, we'll go inside my house, starting with the wreath on my front door (it's store bought.)


My niece made a whole series of wooden block decorations in Kindergarten. There's one for every holiday.

Here are a few pictures from my kitchen. We have three cupboards with glass doors. They each get decorated along with the shelf above the kitchen sink window. And, the egg garland I made this year goes above the windows that look into the front yard.

And, finally, these are the eggs my niece and I dyed today. I displayed them in a wooden egg holder I found at an estate sale.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Easter!

Egg-cellent

I've been crazy for bunting lately. After I made the heart one and hung it in my mum's kitchen, she fell in love with it and asked me to make her a banner for every big holiday. So, here is the Easter bunting.

I designed the shape and used all types of mismatched fabrics that I had. Some were scraps leftover from the baby buntings. Others were from old sheets. Most were from fabric sample cards that I bought from a flea market at the fabric store.

I made this one the same way I made the heart one. I zig zagged the front piece to a piece of white felt, used my scalloping scissors on the edge and attached all the eggs with double fold bias tape.

The next holiday banner will be for the 4th of July. I have some really great fabrics already picked out, including a vintage bicentenial fabric.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter.