Sentimental Sunday #24 My Yard

Sentimental Sunday this week is all about my yard.

I woke up this morning to this beautiful fog all over my yard.

When I saw it I knew I wanted pictures so I grabbed my camera a ran out the door.

No, sd card, grrr

Back inside get the sd card, now I can get busy.

My dad planted these crepe myrtle trees after the apple trees that were here did not make it.

I love the way they line both sides of our driveway.  In a few weeks the daylillies will bloom and the colors will make me smile. 

These trees have been here my whole life, even before me.  I love that these same trees are the same ones my kids are running around under.

That barn, many hours of my life were spent in that barn.  I grew up riding horses, I still can't go in there without being reminded of that time.

Then there is is garden.

I spent lots of time learning valuable lessons on this soil.

I am not sure I thought the lessons were valuable at time.

Today

 Those lesson are special and I love when my girls are working in the garden learning the same lessons.

This garden is a family affair

by that I mean my dad planted it.

The water comes from our house though, ha.

We do help out later with picking----

pretty sweet deal, huh.

What are you sentimental about this week?

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I Need Your Help

Hi sweet friends!

Today, I am here to ask you a favor, YES YOU!!!

As you know I have started my Etsy shop

Girl's Bible Memory Verse Pillows

Cha Cha's Treasure

Boy's Bible Memory Verse Pillows

You have all been such great cheerleaders for me, thank you so much.

So I am coming to you lovelies to help me get the word out about my shop.

I have done a few giveaways and ad space a few places and have been thinking about what I wanted to do next......

That is when it hit me, why not have you get the word out for me,

don't worry it is not all work and no gain for you.

Here is the the deal

I want to give you a pillow cover to review and let you do one as  giveaway on your blog (sorry, right now folks with a blog only) and as a bonus I will also offer your readers a discount code.

Yes there are strings attached,

I will need you to write about it when you receive it and also after you have used it.

So if this sound like fun to you leave me a comment with your email or email me @ sitrelaxandread@gmail.com.

** You lovelies have hit this one out of the park, Thank You for all you support.  I have closed the comments for now and will reoffer this in the future.  If you are interested you can go ahead and email me about it and we can set up a future time.**

Sentimental Sunday #23, My Girls Making Biscuits With My Grandmother

Well Lovelies it is Sunday again

and you know what that means!!

That's right it is time for

Sentimental Sunday

This week I am sentimental about my girls learning to make my grandmother homemade biscuits.  A few weeks ago my grandmother came to stay for several days.  While she was here she taught my girls how to make her world famous biscuits.

My oldest daughter has been asking to learn how for over a year

 so this was a special day for her.

She measures nothing, it is all done by sight and feel....hmmm to be that good.

(Notice my grandmother's sweatshirt, she refashioned it herself!!  Now you know who I get it from.)

Learning to roll out the dough is an art form in it's self.

It gets a little sticky from time to time

and not every one turns out pretty.

Success

Warm-Yummy-World Famous Biscuits!

So what are you Sentimental about this week?

Grab the button below and link up.

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Behind the Scenes at the Craft Fair

DON'T FALL OVER FROM SHOCK!

Yes, I am back with another post today.

Yes, this is the 5th one this week.

We have lots of catching up to do,ha.

Today

I just wanted to share a few pictures from the craft fair, it should be titled

 "What Kids do to Keep Busy While Stuck with their Crazy Momma at a Craft Fair for 3 Days"

but that seemed a little l-o-n-g

Grace was the model for this company.

They style girls hair crazy (for a fee) and then give them info on their website.

They did her hair and she went around and showed it off for the day, sending girls to their booth.

Me with my crazy haired girl.

Like my Bloom Pin?  You can get one in my shop, Cha Cha's Treasure

Faith and her friend played under my table.  It was their club house.

Grace spend all three days with me, open to close.  She would take breaks from the sun and crowds under the table and read and dream up items to make for her own booth one day (she really is so much like me).

Then there was this little guy, we will call him Mr. Chalupa.

Mr. Chalupa sort of had a thing for my girl, he walked her around and held her hand most of the day.

At one point he was on his knees holding both of her hands, I think he has a thing for older women.

He had many things to talk to her about.

Then in true guy fashion he showed her his wheels, it really is a sweet ride.

In the end he just gave up and had to be rescued by an even older woman.

Thanks Mr. Chalupa for making our day so much fun.

His mom had a booth also you can check out her super cute stuff at

Sewtastic Stitches

I have one more post to do on the craft fair, I hope to have it up on Monday.

Family Room Makeover Part 2

Good Morning,

Thanks for all the sweet emails and comments yesterday about the beginning of our family room makeover, if you haven't read it you can Family Room Makeover Part 1.

So let's pick up where I left off yesterday,

I found a traditional enough sectional sofa at

Woodstock Furniture Outlet

I brought home a picture and the measurement to show Hubby. He liked it but didn't seem overly excited, so I didn't let myself go crazy thinking about it.  The next day when he came home from work he ask if I had gone and bought it, when I had not he was ready to do it himself.  So he and my Dad (thanks Dad) went and got it while I stayed home working (I have a "real" job and work from home, we will talk about it one day, pinkie promise).  After they picked up the sofa they move the old stuff to the basement and set up the new.  I did not finish working that night until 9:30 and was to tired to have an opinion about it when  I came in the room.  The next morning however......

when I walked into the room with this,

I flipped out.

I did NOT like it!

It felt way too modern and uninviting,

OH NO
what am I going to do.

I panicked, my adrenaline was pumping,

so i jumped up and got busy doing what I do.

1. Get rid of the toppers on the drapes, there were far too many horizontal lines.

Better but not enough.

2. Change the pillows from the super modern ones that came with the sofa

to the ones I had on our old sofa.

I am slowly starting to feel better about the room.

3. I brought in tables and lamps

Now suddenly it was starting to feel more like us, more like home.

4. Bring in a chair from another room.

Finally I can breath

5. Commit to cutting the tags off

6. Break it in, HA

Even though I did NOT like it in my home to begin with, I knew that it was what my family needed.  So instead of buying the perfectly scaled and designed sofa for the room, we bought the perfect sofa for the people who live here.  Really isn't that what it is all about, the people not the design.  I truly believe that if I can make this sofa look like it belongs in my home you can make the same thing happen in yours.  Beautiful design is wonderful but even better is design that works for your family.  I want my kids to look back and remember home as an inviting comfortable place they wanted to be in, not a pretty place they were afraid to live in.

Soon there will be new drapes and pillows and the chair will go back to the bedroom and we will buy one for this room

and maybe just maybe there will be a table in the middle of it all.

This room had already gone through some changes before the sofa and I plan to do a recap of all of those soon.

Thanks for sticking around for my rambling and watching my family room makeover.

Family Room Makeover Part 1

I love to spend the day going to look at model houses.  Do you?  I walk around in awe of the designer's vision and creativity.  I always have my camera ready to record my favorite finds and a pad of paper and pen to write down paint colors and fabric details.  I scan magazines and the Internet doing the same thing.  I also sit around and dream up room designs for my house and friends houses, this is by far my favorite hobby.  In my dream world there is an unlimited budget, no conflicting opinions and most of all the room only has to be pretty, not functional. But I do not live in a model house, I live in a home......

(yes that is a large pack of toilet paper in the background, remember this is NOT a model house)

A home that has to be lived in 24/7 (remember the girls and I are here all day long everyday).  Everything in this home has to be comfortable and it has to function for our lives.  So it pushes me to make decisions that would not be made in my dream world, decision like buying a sectional sofa. EEEKKK I said it, don't freak out but that same room also has a ceiling fan.

The pictures above are what our family room looked like before.  The couch we bought 13 years ago, just before our wedding.  It was our first major purchase together (I am a little sad that it is listed on Craigslist right now).  It has been a great couch, we lovingly call it the sleeping couch because if for what ever reason we were having trouble sleeping

we could go to the sleeping couch and it would snuggle us in and put us right to sleep.

I spent two pregnancies on this couch (I am very sick when pregnant) and brought home two beautiful healthy babies to hold while snuggled up on it.

The rooster chairs I bought just after we moved in to this house, which this fall will be 6 years ago.

That is so hard to wrap my brain around, where has the time gone.....I had a 2 year old and a 6 year old when we moved here.  Back to the chairs, I think they are pretty and they are very well made

BUT

they are not comfortable

AT ALL.

No one ever wanted to sit in them.  Then we had the problem of not enough seating.  We have a great home for a large party,

open rooms lots of seating.

BUT

when it was just a few other people there wasn't room.

Once the 4 of us had a seat there was maybe room for one more.

So the decision was made to look for new furniture.  I started out think I would do two small couches and two chairs, but there were not many options and the ones we found were not comfortable to snuggle on.  Then I saw a modern sectional at Ikea and thought I liked it, so we loaded up the truck and went to look at it.  Well, we are not modern. You are shocked I know.  So the next week was filled with looking at every furniture store in driving distance.  I ended up back at the same furniture store we had bought the sleeping couch from and wouldn't you know it, they had our next couch also.........

Okay, I have to run for now.
Come back tomorrow to see part two of the story.

BTW if you are looking for new furniture in the north Georgia Area you should try
Woodstock Furniture Outlet

Souffle'

  Are You Hungry?

I promise you will be after you read this!

I found this recipe before Easter last year on my friend Kellie's Blog.

It has been a favorite since.

I changed her recipe up a little today, because I was making it more kid friendly, but if you don't have to worry about that.... do it Kellie's way, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

Will here it is.

Ingredients

1 lb grated sharp cheddar cheese

10 Eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

8oz salsa

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 pint low fat cottage cheese

crack eggs into a bowl and beat lightly

In a separate bowl add flour and salt and mix together

then add all the other ingredients and mix.

pour into a greased 9x13 pan

bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

then

bake at 350 for 20 minutes

 Now enjoy!

Hope you love it as much as we do.

I am linking at

Transformation Thursday