I've Been Published Times Two

Long time no blog. Sorry. Hey, but I have some good news. I'm in two publications this Summer. One crafty, one not-so-much.

The first is Just Cards Magazine. They published a baby card that I sent them in a bundle of ten cards over 2 years ago. This is the third card from that bundle that has been published. That reminds me I should send them more cards. :)

Next, totally-nothing-to-do-with-crafting-but-still-cool, I wrote an article about remembering September 11th. It was published in our Police Officers Association publication, Justice for All. I was honored that they wanted to print it, especially since they usually only print articles written by fellow officers. It's on page 4 if you want to read it. And, look, they even printed a picture of me (the officer authors don't have that!)

Thanks for letting me toot my own horn. I'm currently trying to create the best sugar-free coconut cream pie recipe. I'll let you know (by way of a tutorial) when it happens. Let me know if you have any tips on coconut cream pie.

Memorial Weekend Blog Hop-Miss You

Welcome to the We Grow By Our Dreams hop along the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Weekend Bloghop. Hopefully you came here from Ky's Bunny Nest. If not, you can start at the top of the hop by clicking the above graphic.

I'm in love with the yellow/white/gray color combo and the ruffle technique that I learned from Sandy, our fearless OWH leader. So, I made this card for someone serving in our armed forces to send home to a loved one. 

I hope that this card will help someone at home to feel very loved. That is why I make cards for Operation Write Home.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Please leave a comment so I can know that you were here. :)
Next hop: Deborah from Thoughts of a Grasshopper

A Royal Tea

We love any excuse for a party around here. And, like most people we anxiously awaited the nuptials of Kate Middleton and Prince William.

  We wanted to celebrate with the British people. We live in California so that meant watching the wedding live at 3 a.m. We didn't dress up. Hey, I was lucky to get the fam up that early. But, when food is involved, the family can't resist.

Of course we had our herbal tea. Our favorite is chocolate coconut (very non-British but yummy.)

 

Actually, we started our party early by having Fish n' Chips for dinner. Then, woke up to the rest of the goodies. For some reason, we had no problem having another huge meal at 3 a.m.

We bought the scones and some of our other treats at Bristol Farms. In fact, they were ready for us with a whole section dedicated to the Royal wedding. We enjoyed the scones with clotted cream and marmalade.

I made some cucumber and egg salad sandwiches. The cucumber are then niece's favorite.

Welsh cheese with crackers. Not only are we Welsh but this was our little tribute to William's mother, Princess Dianna.

I made an English trifle with blackberries, angel food cake, lemon pudding and whipped cream.

For dessert number two I made chocolate bread pudding.

For dessert number 3 we had a small grooms cake. This was another Bristol Farms purchase. It was a chocolate cake with crushed cookies and dried fruit with a ganache frosting and dusted with gold.

That's the end of the food. Ha ha ha. I decorated the dining room with British nick knacks and I covered a bulletin board with a map of London and other London postcards, photos, brochures and souvenirs.

We loved the wedding. But some of our royal guests could care less. This is Moses (aka the Prince of Egypt)

 And, this is Kinsey, she is a corgi like the Queen's dogs.

I wonder if the Queen's dogs sleep in this position.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Sorry I didn't get these pics up a couple weeks ago. And, sorry the picture quality is poor. We don't have a lot of natural light at 3 a.m. :) I'll have another post this weekend. For sure.

I made a hat

 I loved seeing all the fabulous hat creations from the Royal Wedding. So, this week when I received the invitation to a Derby Party, I knew that I had to wear a cool hat. I really don't know where I would go to buy a hat so I chose to make one myself. I went with the "fascinator"style which, as described by wikipedia is, "a delicate, slightly-to-very frivolous head decoration worn almost exclusively by women."

 How I made my hat:

1. Covered a headband with pink grograin ribbon.
2. Rolled orange meshy fabric (it's stiffer than tulle and the holes are larger.)
3. Sewed the orange fabric together
4. Sewed the pink flower to the orange fabric
5. Attached big green leaf to headband with florist tape
6. Attached the orange fabric to headband with hot glue (and sewed a little just to be safe)

That's it!

It was fun seeing the other hats at the party. I might be a little obsessed with hats now. Or, shall I say, fascinators?

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I'm still working on the pictures of our Royal Wedding Feast. 3 o'clock in the morning isn't the best time to take photos. LOL.

Cherry Tea Party

I love throwing parties. When I heard that my dear friend Danielle was dreaming of having a tea party similar to one she attended with loved ones a year ago when she lived on the East Coast, I knew that I wanted to recreate a version of that for her. And, because Danielle is bravely fighting stage 4 breast cancer, we also used the party as a means to raise awareness and money for her treatments.

Danielle and me

The theme I chose is Cherry Tea. I love the way it sounds like charity which is defined as the pure love of Christ. Danielle is full of that love. I  took a little creative license and changed up the scripture 1 Corinthians 8:1 which says in part, "charity edifieth" to "Cherry Tea edifieth." This was on our invites, little picks, and thank you notes. Danielle's friend Kathy designed them beautifully. On the back of each pick (shown standing in a See's chocolate) is an uplifting quote or a breast cancer fact.

The menu was somewhat traditional English tea which included:

• Scones with whipped cream, butter and jams
• A selection of herbal teas (coconut chocolate was very popular)
• Cucumber, tuna and egg sandwiches
• Cookies, lemon tarts, chocolate-dipped cherries and mini cheesecakes

 I made two party buntings: one for our hostess, Suzanne and one for our guest of honor, Danielle to keep.

The table was decorated with very colorful Fiestaware teacups and saucers as well as fun spring teapots and nick knacks.

We had three tea times to accommodate the most guests. It was nice because it kept the groups small so we could visit more. The noon tea time had three little girls. They were adorable.

the niece and her  friend using their manners

Our hostess, Suzanne with two happy guests

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all the guests. I was busy refilling teacups. :)

Janet, the other co-hostess with our friend Susan and my mum

It was a fun and successful event. Danielle's sister is planning on throwing an East Coast version of the Cherry Tea party.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I  have more tea pics coming up from the Growgirls royal middle-of-the-night bash.

If you want to learn more about Danielle and her fight with breast cancer or to make a donation for her treatments, go to supportdanielle.org . Thanks so much.

Lotsa Love for Locks of Love

I did it, again. This is the fourth time I've donated hair to the wonderful organization, Locks of Love. Two years ago I wrote a tutorial on donating hair to Locks of Love. Really, it's totally easy.

1. Grow your hair out
2. Put it in a ponytail
3. Cut off the Ponytail
4. Fill out the form and mail it in with the ponytail

Here is a picture of my hair just before I got it cut off. 

 I love the organization Locks of Love. I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to help in my little way.It's funny, I get a lot of the same comments from people. I will address two of them:

• "Your hair must grow really fast!" Actually, my hair grows the average 1/2 inch per month. I usually donate 10-12 inches every 24 months so that's how the math works out.
• "I could never do that!" The first time I donated it was a little hard for me. But, now I always think of my hair in terms of how much longer it needs to get before I can donate it to a child in need. Change your perspective and you can do a lot of impossible things.

I've copied the organizations mission statement below. I think it is beautiful and inspiring. For even more inspiration, go to the recipient web page to see children with their hair prosthetics.

"Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need."

Thank you for visiting We Grow By Our Dreams today. I hope that you will consider donating a ponytail to Locks of Love.

 I have lots more projects and tutorials on my other blog, The Vintage Sheet Blog.