More of the kittens

I just LOVE these blue sparkly eyes on him!

Seriously...a picture of me poopin'?

Kittens in the Wood Pile

 So on the 27th of June - our little cat, Tigger had 3 baby kittens! Oh, they are cute! 3 little tiger striped babies! She is being such a good mamma! After not sure what to do with her 1st batch of kittens a few months ago and losing all 6 from that batch, I was worried how she would do this time. But she is definitly surprising me on how good she is!

BUT, the next evening while my husband was going through one of the wood piles, he found a few more surprises! We used to have this stray cat who sorta ended up permanent. We suspected she had babies but never did see her bring them out. She disappeared about 2 weeks ago and kind of forgot about her kittens being we never saw any sign of them & we were suspecting that they should be about a month or more old.

Low and behold, in the exact wood pile we thought they would be in, my husband had heard some meowing and then this is what he found.  A very pretty white fluffy bunny looking kitten with bright blue eyes and 2 orange kittens! They were a little timid at first, but after some coaxing with some canned cat food, I was able to "rescue" them and put them in the shed with the other kittens! But man, they are sure cute!



Peek-A-Boo!



"If you get any closer, we won't come out!!"



I looked at a reference book and I am making an educated guess that the white one and the bigger orange one are males and the little orange one (the one peaking out of the logs by itself) is a female. We've come up with Bunny for the white one and Chubby for the boy orange...just not sure what to call the girl one yet. And as for Tigger's kittens, I am guess ing all boys, but its a little harder to tell with them. We'll wait until they are a little bigger and can tell for sure what they are before we come up with a name!

Any suggestions for the girl orange one?

Nature's Best

I just love all the natural beauty that summer has to offer. There is so much peace and simplicity in some of these things and it makes me stop and think. Stop and thank God for all that I have and that I am able to experience all that he has to offer every day. I am blessed to be able to enjoy the following beauty's and I hope that you can enjoy them to...and remember to stop and smell the roses...or lily's, or iris's or chive's...and be great full for all the good in your life!

Happy Summer!

Scalloped Potatoes & Bacon

I'm trying to think of new or uncommon ways to use up our potatoes from last fall's harvest (which really, isn't too hard to do). We do ALOT of mashed potatoes and fried potatoes with bacon and onions, but sometimes I want to do something different. Scalloped potato dishes aren't an uncommon food in general, it's just something we don't hardley make (honestyly, I remember only 1 other time before this)! I found a recipe...and of course, had to modify cause I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. Here is what I came up with...and they were actually pretty good!

4 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup bacon, cooked
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1 can cream of celery soup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix potatoes, garlic, cheese and bacon in 9x13 greased baking dish. In a seperate bowl, mix the cream, milk and soup. Pour over potate mix and bake for about 1 hour, or until potatoes are tender, stiring occasionaly. And BadaBing...you have some nummy potatoes that make a complete meal (or mostly...could use a pretty green veggie to go with these!)

Zebra Cookies

These were soo fun to make!  I got the idea from, where else, but Pinterest! We have a surprise 30th birthday party that I wanted to make cookies for and I thought these would be fun to make...and I was right!!  Super easy, too! Just take your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe and add food coloring (the gel kind). And instead of rolling the cookies in white sugar, roll them in the coordinating colored sugar and BaDaBiNg!!! And then as soon as they are done baking, plop a Hershey's Hug into the middle and let them cool completely (if you move them before they are set, your hug will start to run...oh so fun! Here is the pin that inspired me! I so cannot wait to make these in a rainbow of colors next time! Yea!

Bedroom Make-Over

Paint Bedroom Project = FINISHED

These pictures are not very good, but it at least gets you an idea. I really need to find our real camera (or some how convince Hubby I need my own - DSLR!)

Yes - I MADE those little shelves myself! I was nervous about using the nail gun because of a previous incident from my teenage years, but I did it! And they cost literally nothing! I pulled some scrap wood from pile of wood for the wood stove in my husbands shop and chopped 'em and nailed 'em to my liking...slap on a coat of paint (which I guess I did pay for, but I had it for the walls already - and even that was cheap) and PRESTO CHANGO - Shelves for the bedroom! GO ME!!

**Giveaway** Funky Junk Interiors is having a Home Depot Giveaway

Go here and read how to enter for a chance at a $50 Home Depot gift card

Winter 2011-2012 Project List

Way back last fall, I started thinking of a bunch of projects I wanted to around the house during the cold winter months when I couldn't be outside. Needless to say, it's been so mild, that it was hard to get into the "winter" mode and get my projects done. But I have finally started...and have even FINISHED a few of them! Here's what I have...

Paint our bedroom

Finish our wedding scrap book

Paint cream cans (which I am actually really liking them as they are...so this may not get done)

Meet weight-loss goal (I gotta LONG way to go on this...this has REALLY proven to be a battle...but I WILL get there...for SURE by bow hunting season!)

Organize our office

Create a new filing system

Paint spare bedroom on main level

Gather information and organize papers for opening a day care (if we decide to pursue this route)

Go Christmas shopping with mom (we never made it "Christmas" shopping, but have a shopping weekend planned in a couple weeks *SMILES* that I will count)

Have a Christmas baking day with my brother (or LONG weekend)

Draw up garden plans for summer

Re-Organize upstairs closests & toys

Re-Organize the pantry

Organize and sort thru stuff to put on a garage sale

Make venison jerkey

Organize recipies (IN PROGRESS)

Organize and label stuff in the freezers

Start a BUNCH of annual flowers for spring (with this mild weather, it's hard not to start them TOO soon)

Make an assortment of greeting cards

Clean & polish all wood work in the house

Go sledding (this one is looking sorta out of the question...but I'm TOTALLY okay with that)

Start/Finish our honeymoon scrap book (I cheated - I did a photo book on Shutterfly...but hey, IT'S DONE)

Make new curtains for the whole house (yikes...winter will be done before we know it...and I don't even know what colors I want for the rooms)

Make shelves for the Barbie room so the dolls don't all have to sit on the floor

Aquire a summer purse (I've done that...and then some!)

Make decorative wreaths for all seasons (which has ALSO turned into a cross for all seasons...and the more I think about how I'm going to do each season, I find that I want one for each month...)fall wreath and cross, winter cross, Christmas wreath, Valentine wreath and cross

Do a puzzle with my hubby (it just needs to be glued together and hung in the garage now)

I think I may have overdone it on this list, but I'm feeling a little more motivated lately and just maybe will have ALOT of these done by spring...maybe next years list won't be SOO big!

♫♪Deck the Halls♪♫

Yea for Christmas time! I LOVE the holidays: The music, the lights, the decorations, the feeling you get when you give a gift, the magic and the sparkle (this is the only time of year that it is totally okay for grown adults - with no children - to decorate their home with GLITTER)! Here is some pics of my decorations. Not worthy of a magazine cover, but fun to share!

There are stockings hung on nearly every door!

Most of the deer are sporting their holiday spirits!

Mr Elk and Mr Deer are adorned in their holiday gear!

Mistletoe!

This year, I got to decorate the porch in - what else - but PINK & SPARKLES!!!

Being the porch is our "John Deere" room, all the little tractors each got a bow!

The air plane, too!

All the plants got some type of pink, sparkly adornment too!

Windows are all trimmed with pink and silver sparkly ornaments!

AND THE TREE....Ahh, I'm IN LOVE

And even the light fixtures!

Mr Snowman that sits on my kitchen counter!

The red/snowflake garden in the entry way

My "snowflake" cross. I made a leaf cross for fall and really liked it, now I want one for all seasons...and this is the winter one!

The yarn-wrapped vase I made with some foilage from the gardens (yes, there is glitter on the flowers, why wouldn't there be?!)

The mantel...garland is a tish crooked, I see, but oh well!

The painted candle sticks with pine cones

We got these for a wedding present and I LOVE them. They were hanging from the mantel originally, but fell down and this is where they sit. I don't know if they'll make it back up or not! He he!

Barbie and her snow babies!

MY MR MOOSE!!!!!!!!!!! We got this on our anniversary trip to Grand Marais. Barney said my eyes lite up like a kid in a candy store when I saw this. Nothing better than 2 of my favorite things in 1 -- Moose and GLITTER!

This poor plant...I hope it makes it through the holidays! Not sure if this is the best thing for it, but I like it!

My christmas fabric flower wreat that I made! I made one for fall too and also felt that one wreath for each season would be fun!

My table and center piece. All the left over ornaments that didn't make it somewhere else went here along with some candles and a few pine cones.

Ahh, the SNOW! So far, this seems to be all we'll be seing for snow this year! Cotton balls stung onto fishing line and (of course) sprayed with glitter! Fun!



Our wedding cake topper/first ornament as a married couple!

The little "normal" tree in the kitchen!

Like I said, there are so many reasons to love this time of year, but we must not forget the real meaning of Christmas~~Jesus. May you all have a Merry & Blessed Christmas!