Hello!

Hello, friends! I am sure that you are wondering where I've been...as a matter of fact, I've had several of my local followers check in to make sure that I am okay and to see what I've been up to.

Well, first off, I am doing just fine! Thank you to everyone that has inquired! :)



(A recent photo of me with my handsome son and hubby.)

The reason my blog posts have become few and far between is because I was beginning to feel like blogging had become just another task to "check off" my to-do list, and that is not how I want it to be. I love to share my creations, observations and ideas with you, but I had begun to feel pressed to always be creating something, and I had lost some of the joy and freedom that comes with being creative. With that being said, I decided to pull back for a while and re-evaluate.

My goal has been, and always will be, sharing ideas, humor, recipes and practical ideas that any age can enjoy. Although my posts will be fewer than what I have done in the past, my blog will continue to be a positive, upbeat and creative outlet for me to share what I love with you. Thank you for reading my posts and sharing your comments with me! I love hearing from my readers!

Be sure to check back here next week to see a cool chair makeover that I recently did at a class by The Plaster Paint Company in Catoosa, OK. Until then...enjoy the rest of the week and the upcoming weekend!

Blessings,

Happy New Year!!

Elk Hunting Trip Photos...

Good evening! As I promised you earlier this week, here are a few photos from Mike and Justin's 11-day Colorado elk hunting trip...

I LOVE this photo of my sweet hubby and son hiking up a mountain...they have always been "best buds" and have the best time when they are together!

Justin snapped the next photo while on the look-out for an elk. He noticed the rainbow between the aspen trees, and took the pic. Right after he snapped the pic, a large bull elk came into view, and he harvested it!

Here's a pic of Justin with the large, 6X6 bull elk that he took - love that smile!

Have a great end-of-the-week...just two more days until the weekend is finally here!! :)

Birthday Pie Box

Good evening!! This has been a busy birthday week for us, with 3 birthdays to celebrate! One of those birthdays was celebrated by our family friend, Ray F., who is the hubby of my pal Megan. Ray's FAVORITE pie is Dutch Apple, so I whipped one up for him. (You can click HERE for my Dutch Apple Pie recipe.)

Once the yummy pie was baked, I needed to wrap it up nice and pretty, so here's what I came up with:

Earlier in the week I went by a local bakery and purchased a cake box:

Since I baked the pie, and Merritt's did not, I didn't want their logo on the box, so I decided to creatively cover the box with scrapbook paper to give the effect of a quilt block:

I even made a coordinating tag:

I then lined the box with white tissue paper and placed the warm pie into the box:

Using some strips of red tulle, I tied a pretty bow and attached the tag:

SO SIMPLE!! I plan to pick up some more cake boxes and decorate them for giving baked Christmas goodies in as well.

Have a WONDERFUL Friday and a FANTASTIC weekend!!

Blessings,

Girl's Night Out and a Pumpkin Painting...

Hello! I hope that you are having a terrific week! I stayed home from work today with a little stomach bug, but I am finally feeling better.

Last night my pal Tracy S. and I met up for dinner and to go paint at Pinot's Palette. We tried out a new restaurant, Andolini's, which recently opened up just a couple of doors down from Pinot's. After dinner, we each ordered a different dessert to share, and they were not only delicious, but ridiculously HUGE! (They make the whipped cream in-house for the topping...I would have just loved to have eaten a large bowl of their home-made whipped cream with strawberries!)

We then walked down to Pinot's to paint a fall pumpkin canvas...here's my finished painting:

Painter's had the option of adding personalization to their canvas with their family name, but I decided to hold off on adding that element. Tracy personalized her canvas with "The Storck Family", and it turned out so cute! Here's a photo of the two of us in our painting aprons with our finished masterpieces:

We had so much fun hanging out, visiting and laughing all evening long!! I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends like Tracy in my life!

Thanks for dropping by my blog!

Blessings,

Painting With My Little Pal Heather...

Hi, friends! I hope that you had a great Labor Day weekend! I moved the furniture around in my guest room and cleaned out/organized a closet. I took a bunch of stuff to consign at Uptown Resale in Broken Arrow, and I dropped off several bags of goodies at our local Goodwill store for donation. Needless to say, it was a very productive weekend! In the near future I plan on pulling everything out of our master bedroom closet and organize/sort/donate clothes, shoes, etc. that we no longer wear/use. I LOVE it when everything in orderly, organized and in it's place! :)

On Monday morning my little crafting pal Heather, who is the youngest daughter of my friend Megan F., came over to paint a canvas with me. She is such a sweetie and loves to craft! Here is a photo of her adding the base coat to the canvas that she painted:

Here she is with her completed masterpiece, all ready for her room! She created the pink petals of the flower buds with the bottom of a small, plastic pop bottle; the tiny pink petal details with the end of a plastic coffee stirrer and the yellow flower centers were made by dipping the end of a cork into yellow paint. I love the pretty colors...so girly! :)

Well, tomorrow it's back to work, so have a wonderful and productive week! Thanks for dropping by to check out my blog...

Blessings,

Sandy's Pantry Make-Over...

Hi, folks! As I mentioned earlier this week, last Saturday I visited my SIL Sandy to help her organize her pantry. Here are a few before and after photos of that project:

First off, here is what her pantry looked like before we removed everything...lots of packages, bottles, etc.:

Before I arrived at her house, Sandy and her daughter Kari took everything out of the pantry and stacked it on the dining room table, kitchen counters and the bar:

Here's the empty pantry, all ready to be organized:

We started out by combining multiple packages of same items, such as pasta and cereal, into their own air-tight containers. This eliminated extra boxes/packaging, which takes up a lot of precious shelf space. We sorted through the spices, flavorings and food color and discarded anything that was expired/out of date. We combined like items, such as drink mixes, hot cocoa mixes, tea bags, etc. into their own bin and designated a specific area for them on one of the shelves. We continued with that method with other products such as breakfast foods, canned goods, pastas and sauces, etc.; clearly labeling the containers for easy access. We also designated areas for pots, pans and casserole dishes:

Sandy was so happy with her newly organized pantry, and I was so happy that I could help her with this project! I hope this has inspired you to go through your pantry and discard expired food goods or combine duplicate packages of foods that you have on hand. You'll be amazed at how much space can be saved in your storage area just by doing that. :)

Wishing you a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!

Blessings,

Completed Americana Lap Quilt...

Good morning! I had a great weekend spending time with my family, and I hope that your weekend was great as well. We went to Miami, OK to see Mike's sister Sandy, and she, her daughter Kari and I spent the day organizing her kitchen pantry. (I'll share that project in another post later this week.)

Here are a few photos that were taken this weekend:

First off is one of three generations of handsome Brown men; my husband Mike, his dad Logan and my son Justin. I am so proud of these fellas and love them dearly!

Here's one of me with my sweet hubby and son...yes, I know, I am really short compared to them - ha! ha! :)

I loved looking at all of my SIL Sandy's beautiful quilting projects! (She is so talented!) Here we are, along with her daughter Kari, in her sewing room:

If you remember, recently I sent some quilt blocks that I had hand cut/pieced/stitched to Sandy to put together and quilt for me. (You can click HERE to see that post.) Here is a photo of that beautiful, finished lap quilt:

Here's a close-up view of the pretty, heart shaped stitching that she used to quilt around the outside edges and on each of the red corner blocks of the quilt...I love that added detail!

Thanks for dropping by my blog today. Be sure to check back in a couple of days to see Sandy's pantry make-over and to pick up some fun organizing tips!

Wishing you a FANTASTIC week!

Summertime Bouquet...

Good morning and happy Monday, friends! The temps here in Oklahoma are unbearably hot and humid...our heat index hit 112 degrees over the weekend - UGH! I am not a hot weather kind of gal, so I am anxiously awaiting fall and the cooler temps that come with it.

Surprisingly, my knockout roses and hydrangeas have done pretty well, considering the heat. Since it's too doggone hot to sit on my back porch and enjoy the flowers, I decided to cut a few out of my flowerbeds and make a bouquet to enjoy inside in the air conditioning:

Have a wonderful week! :)

Blessings,

Happy Birthday to My Friend, Cristi O.!

Good morning! Just a quick post today with a BIG happy birthday shout-out to my dear friend, Cristi O.!! Cristi is an AMAZING lady, with an infectious laugh and a fun and bubbly personality that makes everyone love to be around her. I have been blessed to be friends with her for (GULP!) about 40 years...although I don't know how on earth either of us are old enough to admit to that - HAHAHA!! ;)

Here's the cute card that I made for her:

I incorporated lots of fun elements on this card to give it wonderful dimension and texture, such as a polka-dot fabric ruffle, a pretty paper rose, a piece of a tea-stained paper doily, feminine patterned paper, and a little touch of bling.

As I head out the door to work, I want to wish Cristi a SUPER SPECTACULAR birthday, and the rest of you a SUPER SPECTACULAR day as well!

Blessings,

Happy Birthday Card For My Hubby

Happy Friday, friends! Tomorrow my sweet and handsome hubby celebrates birthday number 49!

Our plans are to meet a friend in Owasso for dinner, so it should be a fun evening! Here's the birthday card that I made for him...I had a piece of scrapbook paper that had the number 49 on it, so I highlighted that number with the frame from a tag. (I tore the paper part out of the metal rimmed tag, which created the perfect size frame to highlight the number.) I tied some jute twine to the left side of the frame, added a strip of corrugated sage cardstock, a knotted piece of grosgrain ribbon, and a few other accents to create the perfect, masculine, "Birthday 49" card for him:

We're hoping for a cooler weekend, with maybe a little rain, which would be so nice! Have a fun and restful weekend!

Blessings,

Colorado Vacation Photos...

Good morning and happy Monday, friends! Mike and I were on vacation in beautiful Colorado last week, so we head back to work today. (How is it that a week on vacation can go by so quickly, but a week at work goes by so slowly??) Anyhoo, before I head out the door I wanted to share a quick post of our vacation photos.

First off, we were very blessed to be able to stay in a cabin belonging to our friends, the Volentine family. Their lovely mountain home rests on 78 acres that backs up to a national forest in the Sangre de Christo mountains. Mike and I had the cabin to ourselves for the whole week, and it was soooo relaxing!

This is one of the beautiful views from the cabin:

We decided that we should probably take a "selfie", so we would have a least one photo of the two of us together while we were on vacation - ha! ha! Here we are standing on the back porch at the cabin:

While we were heading town on Monday to pick up a few groceries, we spotted some antelope in one of the fields in the valley:

The closest town to the cabin is Westcliffe, and it has a population of only 565 people. It's a cute little town, with a grocery store and a few shops along Main Street...

The day that we went into town was a little cloudy and overcast, and we got a nice little rain shower while running our errands. Here's a photo of one of the pretty little churches in Westcliffe...I just love how quaint it is!

One of the little cottages that sits on Main Street had this sign in the front yard, and I just had to take a photo of it! I love the message it conveys...so much truth in so few words! (Think good, happy, positive thoughts, friends!!)

When we got back to the cabin I made a big batch of spaghetti with hot rolls...soooo yummy! The next morning I took this photo from one of the front windows at the cabin...it's the fog rolling into the valley between the mountains:

A young buck mule deer and doe crossed the driveway right in front of the cabin...they were a pleasant sight to see!

During one of our hikes, I snapped a couple of photos of the stream that runs behind the cabin. Although the temperatures got down into the 40's each evening, we enjoyed sleeping with the windows open to listen to the flowing water from the stream...such restful sleep!

Here are some of the beautiful wildflowers that were growing near the cabin...

I love all of the pine and aspen trees and the sound that they make with the breeze blowing through them! Here's a photo that I took through a clearing along the path near the cabin...

My sweetie picked some pretty wildflowers for me, and we found this heart-shaped rock while out on a walk one afternoon:

Thanks from dropping by my blog today to check out my vacation photos. Have a TERRIFIC week!