Another Giveaway!

There's another giveaway going on!

Over at Miss Lucia's blog, From Under My Little Umbrella

She's giving away this lovely little necklace:

The giveaway ends April 18th so head on over quick and enter!

{This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, aged ten years and older.}

I know, I'm a bad blogger. =( Pictures are coming from my birthday, I just haven't really had the *want* to post about that yet. I'll get to it don't worry!

Two Giveaways!

There are *two* lovely giveaways going on right now!

One is over at (Life is to short not to) wear red shoes:

And the other is over at God's Daughter:

Head on over and enter away!

{For God's Daughter, if you found out about her blog from me, and you follow, let me know because I could get a whole 5 extra entries! Thanks!}

P.S. Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I had a great birthday and a post should be coming soon! =)

Happy Birthday Miss Bea!

Guess who has a birthday! Miss Bea you've been official hacked, for a very good cause!

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Miss Bea, Happy Birthday to you!"

Miss Bea is 15 years old today! Yay!

Fifteen years ago the Lord blessed our family's lives with a sweet bundle full of joy. She was born wide eyed and full of fun. Each day she continues to make us smile and enriches our lives with her many talents. I'm so glad the Lord gave me a sweet sister like you!

I look forward to spending the day with you tomorrow and celebrating your special day! I'm sure it's going to be full of surprises, tasty food and all kinds of fun things!

So let's hear it for Miss Bea! Happy Birthday!

Lots of love from your sister,


~Miss Laurie
Old-Fashioned Charm

Buttons

We have a button jar...it's my mama's button jar. I love our button jar....I always have. I figured now was a good time to post about buttons. ;)

This is our button jar. Isn't it pretty?

I like the sepia ones best. Which do you like?

Do you have a button jar? What kind of really cool buttons do you have? I've been thinking of starting my own...they seem to take awhile to collect.

Are we excited about St. Patrick's Day yet? Head on over to Miss Laurie's blog and look at all the fun things she has posted!

Blessings on your Sunday!

He fills my life with good things...

It's March! That said, in exactly 2 weeks there's a special day. Can you guess? I won't tell. You'll just have to wait. ;)

Once upon a time there was a girl. Excuse me, *young lady*. Who thought that her photography was awful.

Although many...people told her that her photography was oh, say, pretty good, she never thought (until now) that it was anything special. She always thought that her photographs were, well, yucky and horrible.

And even though she liked putting the photos in her scrapbook, she thought that even if somebody did sneak a peak at them, it wouldn't matter because they wouldn't like them. (This was because she didn't like them, you see.)

But then, one day, she found a little note tucked inside her scrapbook. I never got her picture of that so...I can't post it and I don't know what it said. But! I do have this:

And from then on, she learned to love every photograph she took because it was a gift. A gift that her Creator had given her, and she wanted to use her gift to give honor and glory to Him.

The end

And now, just for fun, here's a little photo shoot the young lady from the (above) story did with our cat Gertrude. Once Gertrude settled down in the sun, the photographer got some great pictures. ;)

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Alright. Vote! I wanna know which picture (of Gertrude) you like best. =) There's a poll at the top on the side bar. If you want, you can leave a comment telling why you liked a particular picture. Thank you!!

Also, if I follow your blog and you have a blog button, it's probably on my sidebar. Check it out, see if yours is there, and if it's not leave a comment to let me know! =)

Blessings on your Sunday! =)

Do you ever have one of those days?

(photo of clip art from this book)

One of those days where your computer just doesn't want to listen to anything you tell it to do. It just wants to be stubborn. You know those days? I thought so. We all have them, right? Although this wasn't one of those days for me, I'm sure I'll have one sometime. This is for those of you who are having "one of those days".

Have a lovely night everyone! =)

Okay, I know it's late but here is what I made on Valentine's Day! =)

Start with some dough: (sugar cookie dough)

And draw a heart in it:

For 2 reasons...

1. Because you want to.
2. Because that's the shape the cookies are going to be.

And put it in the fridge for 1 hr. (more if you're busy like me...)

Then go do something fun. (aka school in my case) =)

Then when you're done with..."something fun" the dough should be hard and you can start making cookies.

Oh and a note:

• ** Note **: Make the frosting before hand. Otherwise you'll be up until...o-dark-hundred in the morning frosting these things. (By o-dark-hundred I mean around 2 A.M.)

So, make the frosting.

Add some color. I used 2 colors to make 3 colors of frosting.

1. Red
2. Blue

I made red and pink frosting:

And I also made purple frosting:

And here's what they looked like

Red and pink icing in the back was for the outlines. And the red and purple in the front are for the inside (aka "flood" icing).

And put the "flood" icing in these snazzy little bottle things that you can get from Pampered Chef. This just happens to be what I used, I'm sure you can find something else.

Let me introduce you to my *newest* best friends. (left to right) Dazzling Pink "Dazzle" for short, Ravishing Red, and Pretty Purple.

Alright, now that you've met them, lets put them to work making these cookies dazzling, ravishing and pretty. =)

And now I'm going to make another note:

• This is a note.
• This is another note.
• And this is the note you actually need to read. Alright, I know ravishing and pretty probably mean about the same thing, but I'm using them anyway. ;)

Okay so, what was I rambling on about? Oh, right frosting!

Let's put frosting on these cookies!

Here's how to start.

1. Outline the cookies with your hard icing.
2. Wait for it to dry before you put the "flood" icing on.
3. Then put the "flood" icing on.

Get it? Got it. Good.

First, outline!

With pink.

Then with red.

Then with both:

Then, once it's dry (or hard) put on some thinner icing, like so:

I added dots in another color and ran a toothpick through the middle.

I'd say don't stick your fingers in the frosting, like I did to *two* of the cookies in this picture.

And, when you run out of frosting, and it's already 2 o'clock, and you're ready to quit and not clean up, clean up anyway while talking to your dad who got up for some tea. Now remember, he's laughing at you because you're not done yet, but also looking at all the cookies and pointing out the ones he likes. =) He pointed out the "I ♥ Dad" one a couple times, hehe!

And then, once he goes back to bed, and you finally finish cleaning up. This is what you make yourself as a "good job" reward.

Let the frosting spill off onto the counter. It doesn't matter anyway, just lick it off...oh sorry, wipe it with your finger (don't forget you lick your finger), then wipe the counter with some kind of cleaning product.

Also, if nobody will help, here's what to do.

1. When someone comes into the kitchen looking for a cookie to eat, ask them if they want to frost one.
2. Then, when they ask if they can have the one they frost, say yes.
3. Then, when they ask if they can have one if they don't frost one, say no.
4. Then get pictures of the one they frosted because it's funny looking and cute. That way you have proof that someone did actually help you frost cookies.

Here's my proof:

This is the cookie my brother decorated for the purpose of eating. But isn't it cute? =)

I got the idea for these from this post (Julia @ Through the Looking Glass).

Anyway dear friends, I hope you enjoyed my silly/random post, and if you got this far, Congrats!

Have a great Sunday!