Look Mama - no training wheels!

What Mom wouldn't be proud?! My baby girl learned how to ride her bike without training wheels this weekend! She is only 4 1/2 and eager to do whatever her big brother is doing so now, he better watch out! (Yep, that's my husband right next to her, making sure she doesn't fall over. Isn't that sweet?!).

My swap from NEBRASKA!

A group of wonderful ladies got together to participate in a swap hosted by Crystal at littlebitfunky (thanks, Crystal!). My swap buddy was Amanda from Nebraska. This is what arrived today.



Thank you so much, Amanda, for my state of Nebraska box!!!! It is so full of yummy goodies (my daughter has already claimed the box of chocolates!) and right up my alley with all those great looking sauces, spices and jams! In my past life, I had gone to culinary school and worked for a catering company so all these food goodies will be put to great and delicious use! We can't wait to try popping the corn-on-the-cob popcorn! How cool will that be?! Thanks again, Amanda! Someone is bugging me now to open the box of chocolates....

Coffee cans, new cards at Dizzy Broad, gorgeous notepad and clown cards

What do you do with these?






These continue to stack up as we LOVE coffee! They are made out of cardboard and come with a plastic lid. Certainly don't want to take up room in the trash for these and I don't think they can go in the paper recycling. Any ideas? (Yep, they're from Trader Joe's!)

Here are some fun, new notecards in the shop right now! This is from SU! fruit stamp set (I think it may be retired?). I went nuts making the matching handmade envelopes using retired SU! colored paper.



And...I'm still dolling up the GIVEAWAY so photo is still on it's way!!








Lookee here! Isn't this an adorable notepad? Sending this to hadesigns for inspiration for my Dizzy Broad banner. The butterfly is die cut from vellum then I used a glitter pen to add sparkle.










Paper is from SEI Chocolat. Notepad holder opens up to reveal the notepad in the center. Can't take credit for the design though :-) Found it on SCS but I may change the design so when the notepad is all used up, you can just remove it and put a new one in (currently this design has the notepad glued to the folder so you'll have to discard the entire thing when done). If you'd like the link to the directions to make this, leave me a comment here and I'll go dig it up.






Kids and I made these clown cards (from Basic Grey's Build a Clown clear stamps) as thank you cards for all the Sunshine Clowns we met in Florida. Becca and Grant handcolored the individual clown body parts then I assembled them with brads and dimensional tape. The legs and arms actually move!










Background stamp behind the clown is from SU! - it's a jumbo roller wheel. Finally had a reason and occasion to use it!




Have a great Friday!

Blog Candy GIVEAWAY is still on! Peanut Butter Banana Muffins and Poor Annie!

Happy Tuesday! Well....not sure where today went....! I was supposed to take a photo of the Blog Candy Giveaway but didn't finish getting it all prettied up! Let's try again tomorrow :-) Remember, no need to guess correctly what these

are in oder to win. I will be picking the winner randomly. Giveaway contest will remain open for another week or so!

Like peanut butter? Here is a photo of the really yummy PB muffins we made today for snack: These have bananas, wheat germ, honey and very little oil (no butter!). Next time we make these - and we will because we have more overripe bananas - we'll put our homemade strawberry jam in the center so it would be like PBJ muffins! LOL!



Oh! I remember now what we got busy doing today! Becca got this American-style Doll from Lala (Grandma) and she has been carrying her all over the place since we got home. She came with 2 outfits that my Mom made so Becca naturally has to change "Annie's" clothes everyday, just like she has to change her clothes everyday. In addition to changing her clothes, she has also been "styling" Annie's hair and pretending to braid it (more like twisting it into a tangled mess). As we were heading out the door this morning to do errands, Becca hands me Annie so I can put up her hair. I was so shocked to see this poor doll with frizzled hair, matted beyond recognition! I immediately dropped everything and had us both go back upstairs to put on some hair detangler on the doll and I worked on that poor doll's hair for 25 minutes trying to get the knots out and trying to restore the lustre and sheen on her hair. If my Mom saw the doll, she'd probably wince! Should have taken a before and after shot of Annie...I'm sure Becca will style her hair again so I'm sure there will be a before and after post of Poor Annie's hair in the very near future!

We're Back! Plus more clowns and rhubarb recipes

Aaahhh - fresh from a relaxing to trip to Florida! My parents spoiled us all so now I'm suffering from having to go back doing the cooking, kid watching, cleaning and shopping by myself! We loved swimming everyday (most of the time, first thing in the morning and before breakfast!) so we can avoid the thuderstorms and rain. THe kids even let Grandma paint their faces and dress them up like clowns! (OK, so am still trying to decide if I'll ever posts full-on photos of us on this blog...as my philosophy has always been "want to me rich and not famous" LOL! However, I'm so proud of my kids and think they are beautiful and adorable so you may eventually see what they look like in future postings! DH says to go ahead and sees nothing wrong with it). They were also spoiled with lots of treats that we don't have in OUR house (like potato chips, real ice cream and Dunkin' Donuts - we need one of these on the West Coast!!!).

Both kids cried as we took off on the airplane - as they were already missing their grandparents and were wishing all morning that our trip home would be cancelled because of the storms. Grant kept telling me that he wished that all his relatives lived on the same street and that there would be tunnels that connected them so all he had to do was go down the tunnels to visit his grandparents. Makes you long for the days when everyone lived within close proximity to each other. Now we all live on different coasts. We'll see where the next job takes us!

Here's a photo of the strawberry-rhubarb crisp I made for my parents. We used FROZEN rhubarb and it turned out fine! For the recipe, click HERE. We also made rhubarb bread. It was delicious!! Here is the recipe (ok to use frozen too if you can't find fresh):



RHUBARB BREAD

Combine
1 1/2 c. (12 oz) brown sugar
2/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. low-fat buttermilk
1 lg. egg (or egg substitute)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, combine
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (10 oz)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
- add dry mixture to the buttermilk mixture and combine just until incorporated

Stir in
1 1/2 c. finely chopped fresh (or frozen) rhubarb
1/2 c. toasted, chopped nuts (optional)

Pour into greased/floured 2 loaf pans 8x4x2".

Sprinkle some sugar over the tops, about 1 Tablespoon.

Bake at 350 degree oven, 1 hr, or until golden brown on top (for glass pan, 325 degrees).

Tomorrow, will post the photo of Blog GIVEAWAY!!

Florida update: guess what and win BLOG CANDY; CLOWNS! and soon-to-be new Dizzy Broad addition: plastic shopping bag PURSES!!!

We are so enjoying our time here in Florida! We LOVE the 90 degree humid temperatures (I look 20 years younger with all this moisture! - that would put me to about age 9 since I'm "29" years old! LOL!!). Kids are swimming everyday and DH has come down to join us too.

Here is what we picked from Grandma/Lala's garden. Can you guess what they are? Leave a comment on this blog post and you can win the next Dizzy Broad BLOG CANDY!!:



And here is some more fun stuff: My Mom's group of clown friends! They are called the Sunshine Clowns and have names like Patches, Flowers, Cookie, Spritz, Cuddle Bear and Pearl. We met them at Steve's Place in Newport Richey and what a ball everyone had with them. All the customers and waitstaff were sporting clown "kisses" and stickers. Here they are pictured with some of the restaurant customers:


Look at these RECYCLED beauties!!! These are handcut, hand-crocheted and individually assembled by my talented Mom. All of our relatives have been saving their plastic grocery bags and then sends them to my Mom, who, in turn, cuts them into strips, strings the "yarn" together then painstakingly crochets them into these marvelous purses. We are doing our part towards saving the environment! She also uses vintage material to line the insides - some she has hoarded for 20+ years. Purses range in sizes and many have multiple pockets inside to keep your things organized. And also they zip shut so contents do not fall out! How cool is that?! If you look closely, you may be able to identify the plastic bags! I will start posting these shortly after we get back from vacation.


Happy 4th of July!! Now don't be shy and leave a comment guessing what those orange fruits are and you may be the next blog candy winner! Details later on what you'll win - I'll leave the contest open for 2 weeks to allow time for me to finish my vacation and to catch up with things at home. Happy day!

Sizzle in Florida

Dizzy Broad will be on vacation starting now through July 8th! The weather in the San Francisco bay area has gone back down to mid 60s so we're temporarily migrating waaaay south to Florida (we can't wait to see you Mom and Dad!), but only for a couple of weeks.

I will be periodically checking on my Etsy shop and looking to see if any new folks heart me! LOL!!! Sometimes a gal gets tired of talking to herself and need a little feedback :-))))).

I got more cool stuff to post here and my shop when I return (such as that one pictured above - Cami, that is also your graduation gift!). AND more great blog candy!!

Have a wonderful 2 weeks and wishing you lots of summer fun and heat!