Lillian's Headband Bar

It's been awhile since I have posted anything that I have been doing. Got busy with life.

Since my last post, one of the major thing that has been going on in my life is awaiting the birth of my first grandchild. My daughter is expecting her first child, a daughter. So like all good grandmothers-to-be, I have been doing baby showers, helping with decorating a nursery and of course buying lots and lots of cute girlie things. My husband would tell you I have gone overboard with the girlie things....like headbands for babies.  I have gone crazy for them and purchased a whole bunch of them. So many in fact, that storing them became an issue. So, I looked around the house to see what I could come up with to solve this problem.

After about an  hour of search through closets, cabinets, drawers,craft supplies, and the garage, I found this...some clothes pins and an old board.

So I got to work on the board with the sander. I took the clothes pins apart and took a sanding block and sand paper to smooth out their rough spots, then went to work the a can of spray paint!

It never ceases to amaze me what a can of white spray paint can accomplish in craft projects.

After letting everything dry, I got out my pancake compressor and pin nailer.




The hardest part of the project was figuring out the spacing for putting 25 clothes pins on a 45" piece of 1" x 2", but that's what I have the hubby for! He not only helped me figure out the spacing but he created a little jig for me out a cereal box flap. So all I had to do was put the one side of the clothes pin down then the jig and nail it into place.



The second hardest part of this process was figuring out how to reassemble the clothes pins when half of it was attached to the board. After I got one half of the clothes pin attached to the 1" x 2", I put the metal piece on the attached half of the clothes pin and slide the other half back into place on top of it


I was really pretty happy with the project at this point. But when I started putting the little headbands on it....my first thought was  that the bar was just too plain! I couldn't have a plain thing like that bar holding all those precious little headbands, soooooo.... Of course I had to make it cute!

Next to spray paint, ribbon has got to be one of the greatest crafting inventions ever for going from plain to adorable. I just wish I had something other than tan walls for the backdrop because it really is cuter than the picture looks.

 Now we just need that little girl to be born so we can let her wear them! Also, I am working on little diaper covers and onesies to go with the headbands.

Florence - the flower of Italy

The last three days the Pavish's invaded Florence (Firenze) Italy. It is a beautiful city. There are teaming, narrow streets jam packed with pedestrians, bicyclists, motor cars, busses, Vespas, and motorcycles all vying for the same space on the roads. We saw many haute couture shops like Gucci, Chanel, and loads of others around Piazza delia Repubblica, one of the most expensive Piazzas in Italy.

We went to the Galleria degli Uffizi, and saw The Tribune, Botticelli's - Birth Of Venus, art work of Michelangelo, Leonardo di Vinci and many many others.

We experienced Michelangelo's David, and it really can't be described with words, at the Galleria deli Accademia. The Accademia houses thousands of religious art works from many artists over the centuries. I got entranced with looking at all the different faces of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. One of the displays explained that once a work was commissioned, the artist would use the mistress of the house as the face of the virgin or the patron as the face of Jesus. So there are many baby Jesus with the face of an old man. I really couldn't get over it.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Rome, which is a good thing because Florence kicked our butts and our pocketbooks! :0)

Venice

We made it to Venice!!! I didn't know before we got here that Venice is 115 separate islands and each one has it's own church, piazza, and well. That means Venice has more Roman catholic church per capita of any city. We were there for three full days, but you could easily do the city islands for a week on their own.

One thing we have noticed is Italy is very expensive!!! A Coke costs around $3.50-$4.00 each. Ice and air conditioning are rare also. Talk about cultural differences :0) Internet is also on the expensive side, so I'll try to post tomorrow. I'm exhausted and I need sleep :0)

July 4th, 2012 Ok...thanks God for good friends. My family and I are less than a day away from leaving on our trip to Italy. I was wondering how I would be able to do a barbecue and entertain people while my house is a mess with luggage, electronics, laundry and the millions of other items waiting to be packed for the trip. Then out of the blue, Sherri Fuller called and invited the my whole family to her place to celebrate the 4th of July. What a wonderful lady she is!

While in the midst of the trip prep, I noticed yesterday that my ancient cat, Pookie, is not eating or drinking. She is such a tiny thing anyway, that I am not sure she can survive a hunger strike for long. At 19 years old, she really is pretty amazing, and I worry about leaving her with the neighbors. I can't decide if she just knows we are getting ready to leave and showing her displeasure, or if she really has something wrong. I am putting this in God's hands and hoping for the best.

I haven't ever blogged from my iPhone, but I am going to try to do that on this trip, so I hope this works out. My next post should be from the airport tomorrow, as the Pavish Invasion of Italy begins.

ITALY HERE WE COME! David, the kids and I are less than 7 days out from our trip to Italy. This is my treat from the inheritance I received from my mom and dad. They loved Italy and now we are going to go as a family and see what exactly it was that mom and dad fell in love with.

Mary's March Madness

Ok...I don't really care for sports at all. I know it's almost un-American to admit that, but I just don't get the appeal of watching someone else get physical exercise.

That being the case, I am giving my own twist to the concept of March Madness, Mary style!  Since cooking is my sport of choice, I have decided to try different twists to recipes that I usually make for other holidays, but do them with a twist for spring.

David loves the rice noodles for the canned chow mein. Chow Mein is his kick back to college days, or in other words, when he was poor and had to cook for himself. Since we always seem to have Canned Chow Mein, we almost always have the noodles that goes with it. So as I was drinking my coffee late this morning, I was watching the birds at the bird feeder on the patio, something I do a lot and brings me joy and pleasure. I noticed that there was a robin in my live oak tree that has a nice sized nest in progress. That got me to thinking....what could I make that would represent bird's nests.

I couldn't help but think of my mom who made the chow mein candy at Christmas for gift boxes that we delivered to the doctors, nurses, patients, neighbors and family each year. I really loved the chocolate covered rice noodles, and sometime she added nuts to the melted goodness that she then spooned out into heavenly bites of winter wonder. It's funny but I don't associate that candy with Halloween as many do, since the candy does mildly resemble spiders. To me, the chow mein noodle candy is definitely Christmas.

The results of this afternoon's candy making

As I sat there looking out the window I realized that while I didn't have chocolate chips, I did have the Reese's peanut butter chips and white chocolate chips in the kitchen cabinet, and that if they were milted together would sort of resemble wooden twigs. I had also picked up a package of the Cadbury  Mini Eggs that are available in stores at this time of year, and that was all it took.

I took 1 cup of white chocolate chips and melted it into 1 cup of the Reese's Peanut Butter chips, then added half of a bag of the Chow Mein noodles. I just spooned the gooey mess by spoonfuls onto wax paper, and topped with some of the Cadbury eggs.  They really turned out looking cute and they taste heavenly. I think the guys at BP in Texas City that work with my husband are going to love getting these goodies tomorrow when he goes to work.

So this morning I was having my coffee and looking out the window in the living room and realized that the Carolina Jasmine just decided to burst out over night. I love how the jasmine frames my little Charlie Brown lemon tree along the back fence. It is almost like we planned the view for an overcast Saturday morning in March. I couldn't help but smile at the bright yellow blooms that seemed to be trying to defy the dreary start to the day.  I think they succeeded.