Too cute!

My hubby and I discovered Cheekwood here in TN over the weekend. I fell in love and it gave hubby a chance to play with his new camera. Our entire family had fun and I plan on posting about it later but wanted to share these pictures with you. I hope you get a chuckle out of them like I did. Honestly I think I might have been embarrassing my family a little with how tickled I was with these two squirrels.

They seemed to be okay with sharing a hole that was barely big enough for them to fit into. While we snapped away with our camera they both popped in and out of the hole several times. These are some of the good ones!

Enjoy and happy spring everyone!

Teaser: Light Project

I cannot tell you how wonderful is to have my craft/creative mojo back! The story of how I changed this builder grade lamp from this:

Into a modified version of this:


Is in and of itself not a breathtaking or astonishing story. A very simple change but so much better. My next post will be the after photos. We are supposed to be getting our new kitchen table tomorrow so I want to wait to take pictures then.

What really is interesting is the story of actually getting the pendant fixture installed. It involves a tornado, electricity, some foul language, blood, a lot of sweat and yes tears! :-) I think we all have had those creative moments when the odds are stacked against us and we don't think it will ever be done.

Happy crafting!

Southern Hospitality

Being in a new town, and new neighborhood I thought I would introduce myself and show a little southern hospitality to my new neighbors. I aboslutely love my Mom's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe. So much so that I find myself secretly setting aside bananas to get a little too ripe, just to make the bread. It also is the perfect recipe to make with kids, they make great banana mashers. I think my neighbors were a little startled to see me at their door with a basket of bread but they got over it when they heard what it was. In true "Vickie" style I made simple bags (felt funny showing up with a brick of alumnium foil), stamped them and created a tag. I was even called "Suzy homemaker" by one neighbor, I am taking this as a compliment. I wanted to share the recipe, my way of saying welcome to my blog since I can't personally bake a loaf for each of you! Mom's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2 1/2 cups Flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs (you can sub Egg beaters)

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease 4 6"x3"x2" foil loaf pans. In a mediumbowl, stir flour baking soda and salt, set aside. In a large mixer bowl at medium speed beat sugar, oil and eggs until blended. Add bananas and beat until well blended. At low speed beat in flour mixture just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, pour into loaf pans. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in foil pans for 10 min, remove from pans and cool on wire racks. Wrap in plastic wrap then foil and store overnight before serving.

Jewelry Display

I have amassed collected a good amount of costume jewelry which doesn't fit into my jewelry box and tends to apparently have fights with my other more delicate necklaces. The other problem I was facing was having to go on a treasure hunt for the matching earrings. What is a crafty girl that has just moved to do? Well I unearthed the two message boards that were taken down prior to putting our house on the market. I recovered these and now have my very own botique jewelry display. I am going to hang both of these in my closet. I wish that this would allow me to always be accessorized but this is pushing it these days.

This was a a relatively simple project. Message boards can be found all over, I have seen them at many a goodwill / garage sale. I actually purchased two at a garage sale ($5 for both). I love the natural look of the linen and stamped a dragonfly on each. Besides the red truck (which I do have a stamp of) dragonflies are my signature. We decorated my daughters room in dragonflies and my first mother's day gift was a dragonfly pendant. All I needed was the two message boards, about a 1 1/2 yards of Linen and one package of quilt batting. You will also need scissors, staple gun, and T-pins. 1) Place the message board on top of the batting and cut out the shape leaving about a 3" boarder around it. Leave the board ontop of the batting.

2) Stretch the batting over the edge and place a staple in the center of each side pull nice and tight, then move on to the corners. To make the corners smooth cut at an angle from the corner of the batting to the corner of the board, then cut again from the side edge to the corner of the board, removing a triangular section.

3)Once done fold, the side over and staple, fold the top corner at an angle and staple leaving you with a smooth edge.

4)Staple the remaining edges. Repeat with your choice of fabric.

This could be done on a piece of MDF, or even cardboard. I wanted the extra plush of the batting to sink the T pin into in. The T pins can be purchased at most craft stores and even at office supply stores. Happy Crafting everyone!

Paint Colors

What always seems like so exciting and enjoyable can quickly become overwhelming. Paint colors can totally become an obsessions. . . .I think I walked around with about 30 paint chips in my purse for the last 2 weeks! So here are some of the finalists.

Windy Blue Sherwin Williams SW6240

Macadamia Sherwin Williams SW6142

Of course my daughter really wanted to pick her own colors. It still totally confuses her little 8 year old head as to why her mother didn't paint her bedroom pink before she was born. She doesn't understand that in the womb she was just as stubborn as she is now and wouldn't cooperate and let us see she was a girl. So we did eventually did find out she was a girl but of course after I had picked out blue, green and dragonflies and lady bugs for a theme! :-)

Here is her choice:

Panache Pink by Sherwin Williams SW6848 I got some inspiration by the model home here in our neighbor hood but my daughter pinked the pink all by herself. We comprised a bit and I am painting one wall this color and the other walls a very diluted custom shade.

Here is a picture of her previous room.

Great way to create a keepsake.

A friend of mine asked me to make a garter for her wedding out of the lace from her Mom's wedding veil. I wished I had taken a picture of the veil, it was cathedral length and had 3" lace bordering the entire veil. It was very pretty. After making the garter we had a lot of lace leftover. The bride wasn't sure what to do with the remainder of the lace. I asked if I could do something for her. I made 5 pillow cases and a couple small pillows out of the lace from the veil, wonderfully soft broadcloth and vintage buttons.

The bride was able to keep a few pillows for herself and give some to her sister and Mom. It ended up being a great way to keep something so special in the family. Hope it inspires some of you to do the same.

During this process of making the pillowcases, my Mom taught me a great easy way to make the pillows. I am hoping to share the instructions in a post soon!

What the wind brought to Nashville.

We arrived in Nashville among the floods and tornado warnings. Yes you read that right. On Monday Feb. 28th we were among the crazy drivers heading west into the tornadoes and torrential rains. It took us over 8 hours to drive from Knoxville TN to Nashville.

We closed on the house on March 1st despite some last minute closing hiccups.

Let me forewarn those of you entering into the real estate market soon . . .it is crazy stressful. All the years of being extremely lenient has now made all parties involved overly cautious. Even one blemish on your credit and it is a show stopper. So all those financial guys saying to pay attention to your credit score and what is on it are so correct! Also realize you must have all papers ready . . .and I mean ALL. If you have pages 1 - 8 and 4 of them are blank they still need all 8!

I promise to post some pictures soon. As you can imagine moving 600+ miles away with two small kids is overwhelming stressful. I am so happy to report that both my kids are doing great and we have some sweet friends who have made the transition very sweet!

We have met two of our neighbors and hopeful once all the rain lets up we will meet more. I do absolutely love my house which is slowly feeling like home. The first two nights here I kept thinking someone was going to kick me out in the morning and tell me to go home. I still feel like a visitor most of the time but now that I am able to start unpacking my craft room it is starting to feel a little more real.

Here are a few pictures of just some of the many things I love about this house. I promise to start posting more pictures soon as we have made some color decisions! The first was easy . .my 8 year old daughter wants a pink room! :-)
We had a very modest master bedroom in Richmond but now we have a very large one with a sitting room no less! I have no idea what I am going to do with the space.

Love the LIGHT!!! I snapped this photo of the hallway. I love the light and the arch above. I am standing in the family room area looking out to the front door.

The VIEW. I still can't believe the view we have from both the front and back of the house. The above photo doesn't do it justice so I promise to post more.