Weekending

This is Annabelle, welcoming you to the Birthday Weekends blog post. She hung out on my couch a little bit during birthday weekend. She cute. She fine. (name that quote. here's a clue: MTV)

This is Macaroni (giraffe) and the elephant who doesn't have a name yet. The Elephant is Maddie's birthday present. Amanda is a crochet genius.

I made an apple pie. I only took one bite- the apples were weird. Everyone else said the apples weren't weird but I thought they were. Making pie crust is fun..not scary!

Amanda gave me a crochet lesson. I have a braid in my hair-inspired by twister Manda. (twister, get it "twin sister" nerdy, I know)

This weekend: Maddie's birthday party! Here is Lena all pumped up about her Leapster and Maddie chilling in her cutie watermelon shirt.

Lena...concentration. She is wearing her Halloween costume over her Sunday Best. Preshi+++

Maddie and I. I LOVE MADDIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I just saw a movie preview for a Disney movie with Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift as the actresses. Dream.come.true.

Guess what? I have an interview next Wednesday. =)

PS: I was given ~7 boxes of fabric this weekend. Tereza and I sifted through it all and consolidated to two big boxes of fabric. Jen's grandma gave it to me- sweeeeeeeet grandma Faye.

PPS: We are in Louisville looking for a place to live. All I have to say is I wish people valued cleanliness like we do. There is something out there, we know it!

family photo

family photo, originally uploaded by amandaveneman.

aren't we cute? =)

sweet annabelle

This chick loves to stretch

And sleep right here

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

craftiness

I took a bunch of my balled yarn and threw it in this cute bowl thing.  I keep the embroidery stuff in there too b/c Anna can't get up there to stab herself with the needle

 

Here is a close up of what I've done so far!  Tara taught me how to embroider this past weekend (very easy, also I only know one stitch..) 

 

Tara got me this V for my birthday and I wanted her to see where I stuck it.  Right in front of the toilet.  So everyone is forced to look at it.  Because it is cute.  And shiney.

 

**note, I am very frustrated with blogger right now because it won't let me upload pictures the way I want to.  So I'm doing multiple random blogs using Picasa.  Why multiple??  Well because the stupid thing will only post like 4 at a time. WHHHHY

random food stuff

I made a cute little lunch the other day:

 

I made whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip raisin cookies (made with applesauce, not butter):

 

recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Amazing-Whole-Wheat-Oatmeal-Cookies-203676

Anna played with a noodle.

  

Next Quiltio

I'm going to make a quilt based off the picture Amanda painted me. She is so talented and prettay. I might add some more green as I go and MAYBE some black polka dots but we'll

http://www.filminthefridge.com/2008/10/21/another-completed-quilt/
I want to base it off this style. Strips made into squares...random pattern....easy peesy? And I want to quilt it like http://myauntjune.blogspot.com/2008/12/one-of-those-posts.html this girl quilts. How neat-o. http://myauntjune.blogspot.com/2008/10/best-laid-plans.html another example of her handiwork. yippie! We have to finish wedding thank you's before I start but I'm feeling motivated...tomorrow.

2 more days til SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Weekend + pictures

We had a fun b-day weekend. At Bible Study on Sunday night I got to wear a mask and birthday cone hat. This made me very happy =)

Amanda painted me pretty pictures. She has one at home like this and I think one time I told her I wanted it.

Mom got this cutie little basket from Target, it's Orla Kiely.and it's preshi.

Sweet Becky Wells randomly sent me fabric! When I got the mail I opened it immediately and talked non-stop for ~30 minutes about how sweet it was for someone to randomly send me fabric!

Tereza provided me with some embroidery supplies so I got to work....Matthew helped!! HAHA. The LONG needle is right in the middle...can you see it? Embroidery is so relaxing and easy!
And that's it for pictures tonight! I feel like sewing tonight but as I look at the sink full of dishes I know that I probably won't do anything. I did find a really cute quilt pattern today (ZIG ZAG QUILT) and the lovely thing is that there is no triangle piecing!! Not that I'm scared to triangle piece, but I like the basics, ya know?! I want to cut into the fabric I got for Christmas....I'm so lame, I've only cut out just a teenytiny bit of 15 yards of fabric! That's how scared I am to cut into yardage. It can't be explained, just a weird thing some people experience!

Matt just called me and when he gets home we are going to eat leftover ICE CREAM CAKE. Diddlydooo I can't wait!!!

HAPPY SPRING!

Today is the First Day of Spring people.  I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER.  

Other happenings today:

-I made chocolate chip scones: http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesChocChip.html

 

-My cat is asleep INSIDE of my blanket

See the hole in my blanket? See her tail?

Sorry it is so off-centered, I took it with photobooth and I haven problems with mirror images.  Just couldn't figure out which way to turn the computer - ha!

-I'm picking up my bridesmaid dress for Sarah's wedding.  Hoping it fits like the one I tried on a month ago =)

-We're going to Owensboro tonight for the weekend!!  I haven't seen the fam in over a MONTH.  That is just plain silly.  I'm especially excited to give Tara her birthday present because it is preshi.  And thoughtful too.  I'm so clever.  

Test Post

Just testing out a feature I just figured out.  Write the blog in an email then send it to a specified email address.  Will make posting multiple pictures much much easier

6:

Guess what?  I'm going to try and grow some flowers.  I've never officially done this before.  (The time I grew the mini-plants from the Target dollar section does not count.)  (And fifth grade when Tara and I planted gigantic sunflowers in the school garden doesn't count either.)  There is no record of either anyway.  

Here are the goodies.  I've yet to decide when I want to actually sow (I typed sew first..lol) the seeds.  I don't want to get them started inside because Anna will most definitely get into the soil.  And I don't want them to get bitten by a possible beginning of May frost.  What to do, what to do.

Randomly chose these two flowers.  They're pwetty.  Luckily, after researching online, they are pretty comparable flowers in regards to soil moistness (moistness??), when to plant, life expectancy (ha, such a serious term to use with flowers - just shows how random my brain is), and they both repel insects.  These babies are gonna start in Murfreesboro, and then no telling where they will live the rest of their lives.  Kind of exciting.  

As Tara blogged about earlier, our favorite ice cream is being discontinued.  DISCONTINUED!  Life will never be the same once this stuff is gone.  I am serious.  Ask me, Tara or Jaime.  Pour milk over this ice cream, mix it and it forms these crunchy ice chunks!  Nate calls it ice cream cereal.  I get probably 5 or 6 cups out of each 1/2 gallon.  And I have 6 1/2 gallons left.  That is approx. 32 cups left.  Don't ask how I got 32 - I'm bad at math, and my methods are unexplainable.   Here is proof of my madness: 

I smile every time I go to the frozen section and they have just a few more sitting on the shelf.  Today I bought two of the three left.  The last time I bought all four.  The time before - three.  Do that math.  That is about 10 pounds gained?!?!  Whatev.

Here is something else I found funny yesterday.  This recipe is called "Chicken with Twenty Cloves of Garlic."  #1 GROSS #2 Why not Garlic Chicken??

sorry the picture is sideways. i thought i fixed it

This is what I got in the mail today.  TWO birthday cards!  A tape measure!  $5 to DQ!  Instant Coffee!!  Let me explain.  Tim Kickert broke mine and Tara's tape measure last year doing God knows what.  Can I say God like that??  I mean, only God knows.  It isn't in vain, is it?!?  Either way, he broke it and for my birthday this year, they replaced the tape measure.  Hilarious!  The instant coffee was free from Starbucks.com and since I work there I figured I would try it.  Not that I can tell a difference between instant and regular.  Don't tell Howard.  

please don't distribute mine or sarah's address.  i didn't mean to show that. 

On a completely different topic, I made bread today.  Irish Soda Bread to be exact.  Not sure where the Irish or the Soda parts come into play, but it looked yummy so I made it.  I laughed to myself when the butter stacked like this:  

Am I weird?  Here is the goodness before baked:
And After:
Sorry it is blurry.  You get the point though.  I will tell you that I forgot 4 tablespoons of sugar - which made me VERY mad for about 2 minutes.  Then I tasted a piece off the top before it was done baking and it tasted like biscuits.  Ain't nothin wrong with that.  I hope mister Nathan likes it.  He loves bread.  I love bread too.  WE LOVE BREAD!!  Now give me a good bread recipe someone.  I want a loaf bread recipe.  Preferably with whole wheat.  Maybe I'll look that up to make next.  Until then, I'm going to dig the bread mixture that is stuck in my diamond ring out.  GROSS!  

Flowers

My Matty brought me a flower from the arrangement at church. Every week there is a beautiful arrangement of flowers in front of the pulpit and they are ALWAYS perfect.
It is displayed on our table in one of Matt's many Coca-Cola bottles. This particular glass bottle is from Peru.

Have a happy week!

Stoup

Amanda told me I should make Rachel Ray's Lasagna Stoup (Stew/Soup). I had all the ingredients on hand so I made it! Here it is boiling away. Some of the stewed tomatoes are really big. I usually cut those smaller but my scissors had raw meat on them. (Rachel Ray Stoup in a Rachel Ray Stock Pot...nice)-->


Next on the list...I am making a mini-wall-quilt. They pop up on etsy.com sometimes and I loveeeeee them. It's a quick way to decorate (kinda) and it is fun. And I got to use scraps from AMH.love.

For Maddie's b-day I made her a shirt. I mean, I appliqued a watermelon on a shirt I bought at Kohls. Her and Lena will both fit into it...they are 18 months apart and the same size :) (Lena is a bit taller but they weigh almost the same) The watermelon was Matt's idea..so was the embroidery...and he picked out the fabric. Today he said he is a "closet sewer" though he has never sewn a stitch (to my knowledge!)

My birthday is in 8 days.!!!!!!!!! I made Amanda something but it's a secret so I can't show it yet. YAY!

RD Day

I'm an intern in dietetics. Tomorrow is RD Day. I felt like I should thank the RD's who have taught me so much so I made brownies and cards =) Amanda wants to see and I'm sure you do too....
Some are colored with crayons and markers, others have sewn words. So professional, I know!
I made Matthew a Valentine's Day card back in February. He was super impressed-what a sweetie.
We rearranged our bedroom. It's purdy
Matt and I went on a walk tomorrow and we saw DAFFODILS. It's almost spring :)

no sewing.....

Sorry (Jaime) that there hasn't been much posting over here. I'm almost finished with this rotation at the hospital and I have a LOT of work to finish. I am currently making a power point about protein. Then have like 10 other things to finish! Sewing has been put on hold-and will probably stay on hold until our wedding thank you's are finished (AHHH...8 months and still not done!) Spring Break is coming at the end of the month and that will probably restart my sewing :) I can't wait!!!!!! Tereza has been showing me all her pretty pretty projects and so has Kourtney and I feel sad when I can't sew.

This weekend Matthew and I went to a WKU baseball game with one of the teachers at his school and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Our noses got sunburnt! And we got to see Chel and Tim and RILEY, their sweet doggie who let's me hold her even though she is 40+ lbs. I miss Bowling Green!

Also, I'm on the job hunt! It's exciting...there are openings in Louisville so say a prayer for that. June=Louisville =)

5:

Happy March!!  It's mine and Tara's birthmonth.  We LOVE our birthday.  You will soon find this out if you didn't already know.  

I took a picture of all the dishes I hand washed the other day.  We had a ridiculous amount of dishes - I blame it on the huge scratch Anna gave me on my palm.  Such a weird place to get scratched.  Oh, how about a picture of the scratch real quick?  That chick is crazy. 

Evidence of the at least 45 minute dishwashing session. 

A couple nights ago we got SNOW!  How did I not know we were to get a few inches?  What a nice surprise =)  Some people (TARA) don't like snow.  That would be because she is hogging all the snow.  Thanks for the snow, T.
Before I went outside to take a few pictures, I had to get one of Anna being all cute in her carrier.  She is asleep there right now, actually.  

* note: i put the toy there

Here is our parking lot.  I'm thinking the wind blew a lot of snow over our way b/c the other side of the parking lot looks a bit naked compared to our side.  

By the end of the day I counted at least 10 snowmen hanging around the complex.  

Nate bought me the Crochet Today magazine for my birthday (a bit early =)  There is a pattern in there for little scrubbies.  I decided I didn't want to use cotton yarn and actually use them to do dishes - I wanted to decorate with them!  I don't like the orange or yellow circles much, but I do LOVE the navy and teal ones.  
I think they look cute on the wall.  I kind of like a bit of clutter. 

HEre is what they look like in the magazine.  I wish I had those colors. 

I've decided to finally crochet a sweater for myself.  I had some of this gray cotton from a while ago - can't remember why I bought it actually.   I found this box of crayons in the desk today.  Got them from the Veneman's in my stocking!  I love the little box - I want to repurpose it so I see it more often.   Or maybe I'll just start coloring?

A picture of the sweater made by someone I don't know.  I joined ravelry.com  a while ago, but hadn't found anything I'd like to make yet.  I'm hoping I can make this thing fit how I like.  I'm a little picky =)

link to blog with sweater

Here is a link to the actual pattern - if you're curious.  

That is all I'll share for now - it is lunch time and my belly is growling!  I made baked rigatoni last night.  Its real easy - 1 lb. beef/turkey, 16 oz rigatoni, 28 oz jar of pasta sauce, 8 oz cream cheese, 2 cups mozzarella cheese.  Mix meat and sauce.  Layer in 9x13 pan - noodles, dime size dollops of cream cheese, meat sauce, mozzarella.  I did 2 layers of each.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.   

Ok now - lunchtime.