Family Weekend

This weekend our son celebrated his first communion. All the children looked adorable in their white communion dresses and suits. We were having a little get-together after the ceremony so it was time to get in gear and tidy the house (and then some).

It feels great being able to accomplish a chunk of my"To Do" list in a 3-day weekend. Aside for the regular cleaning, there was the decorating and prep. No time to waste so I jumped right in starting with a trip to the craft store to pick up some silk flowers.

My first task was to create a new flower arrangement for the hall bathroom (I never did replace the poinsettias from Christmas). Before actually assembling the arrangement, I had to paint this galvanized can to match the bathroom. Here is what it looked like before painting:

Here is it after painting, along with the flowers I choose to use. While the colors are really fallish, the actual flowers bloom in spring so I thought it was worked well. The woody twigs included really add to this arrangement and pull it all together. Trust me, it took some time to figure out what to use to fill in the gaps so it all looked full. Painting that bucket really made a difference.

Here's a close-up.

Now that the arrangement was created, it was time to move on to some food goodies for the get-together. Dessert was the only thing I had to created. We opted to order trays for the main meal from our local Portabella's (BIG YUM) to save time.

Originally a cake was in the making, but after stumbling across a Pillsbury quick recipe magazine I opted for a Strawberry/Kiwi Tart. It's been beautiful outside for the past few weeks and I thought this dessert would be light and great to enjoy outside.

I discovered a trick for cutting the kiwi for this dessert. Very thinly sliced kiwi were required. After skinning them and trying to hold them to cut I found it to be very, VERY messy. It wasn't until I cut the 4th kiwi that I discovered I could hold the fruit secure but not peeling off all that skin. The knots on either end of the kiwi are strong and if you just peel it back and hold it then you can get a firm grip. To scoop the skin away from the kiwi, just insert a spoon inside between skin and fruit and slide it around. The skin will loosen, then you just peel back in sections.

Images below to help you out.

Here is the outcome. It was D-elicious!

For those of you who would like to try this on your own. The recipe is simply 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup vanilla yogurt and 1 small box of vanilla pudding. Mix together and distribute. Pie crust is the Pillsbury. The only thing I didn't have was the tart tray for making this but it worked out find. Here I used my cheesecake spring form. You'll want something that you can release the bottom out of.

Have a great day!

Melanie

Research Rose Garden

Here are the more images of the roses I capatured during my visit to the Burden Research Center.

I'll start first with this bright and cheery yellow rose. There were quite a few yellow roses, but this one seemed to be the hardiest. It's it amazing how the leaf color works together with the colors of the rose.

Here is the lavender-mauve rose I had one of the boys go back to get the name. Sadly I can not remember. I believe it was "Parfume Mauve"? Hum. I just might go back and write the name down. Since visiting this garden I've decided I'd like a rose garden of my own in the backyard. Keeping up with anything else is to time consuming for me (personally) with all that I have going on in this household. OK...back to roses.

NOW, here's my favorite "color" rose (since visiting the center). It's called "Tuscany". How appropriate! Those multi-tones immediately remind me of a Tuscan sun hitting those stucco homes. Shades of Yellow, Salmon, Orange, Peach. What else is in there?

Here are two of my favorite shots that really show off the colors. It looks as if there are some pinks and reds in this rose. These colors are so summery, it reminds me of a fiesta.

This is a nice back view of the rose. The white of the sky silhouettes this rose nicely. Which photo do you like more, the one above or below?

Thought I'd share one more photo, of brotherly love. I was trying to get a photo of the boys but the little guy had something on his mouth and his big brother was trying to clean it. How rare is THAT?! I don't ever remember cleaning the face of my siblings, LOL!

Have a great day!

Melanie

Spring Flowers

Two weeks ago I took the boys to the LSU Burden Research Center here in town. The facility has rows of bedded roses. Our original goal to the center was to take the nature walk currently under construction; but there were so many mosquitos we decided to just walk the isle of roses (secretly this was my original plan...only they didn't know that).

You can see here how far back the rose bed goes. There may be close to 10 rows or more. It was rather hot out so we didn't stay long, just enough for me to enjoy their beauty.

Here I sent one of the boys to the back of the row on the right to find out the name of the lavender-mauve rose that had the light perfume scent. He was NOT a happy boy.



While there were quite a few roses in bloom, they weren't at there peak. I might be a little to early in the year to see them in all their glory. Still, I managed to get great shots of some real beauties. Don't ask what the names were, I only remember two. Here are some of my favorites.

Look at the layers of colors on this rose. Isn't she just lovely?



Here's another view, with some buds faded in the background. Look at way the layers of petals encircle each other. This particular rose reminded me of our Louisiana camelias.

What's more delicate than a soft pink rose?

THIS soft pink rose. What's most attractive about this particular variety, are the dark green leaves against the pale pink petals. Notice how the lower petals fall away to allow the center of the rose to stand more upright. Just beautiful.

After 20 minutes of taken photos we had to hit the road. The little one was hot (as you can see from the sweat dripping on his face).

The roses they are smelling are some of my FAVORITES for color. I have photos to share, but you need to relish the ones I've posted above, so I will wait and share the remainder of my photos tomorrow. Until then....goodnight.

Spring Occasions

Hum. Almost 2 months since posting. I'm not giving up on my blog, just tired of fighting the kids for computer time. The husband also decided he likes/needs to spend more time on the computer since he decided to join Facebook.

It was enevitable. Things change over time. I just need to figure out what to do so "I" can get on this box when I need to. The solution I beleive is to get myself a laptop. It's not in the finances right now, but maybe the IDEAL Mother's Day gift, hummmmm.

This past weekend I offered a Spring Occasions workshop at the house. I think all the projects came out nice and each was so different. Here's a sampling of what we did.

The butterfly die cut below took quite a few steps, but the extras really add to the overall card. Three glue dots were applied to the bottom left of the card and sprinkled with glitter.



Embossed butterfly card with the Manhattan Rose impression plate. The yellow and regal rose chalk was applied using a finger dauber.



Below is a matchbox I created using the exclusive SU! matchbox die cut. Wouldn't this die be great for creating advent calendars in the Winter!

In other news. I've signed The Beast up for dog training classes. My goal is to have him come when called and to NOT jump on me when I get home. At the end of the day, I have no energy to support the weight of a 108 lb animal.

There's also the unusal habit of drinking running water from the faucet when someone decides to take a bath, use the John, wash their face or brush their teeth. You walk into the bathroom and he's right on your heels. Sometimes you can walk by the bathroom door and see this:

It's getting late so I'm off to get the wee ones settled so they're up on time with me tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Melanie