Telling On Myself

Patsy from Fairview, Texas has a great blog

called Pattycakes In The Kitchen. 

I have enjoyed reading her cooking blog and

gleaning recipes that have been passed down

to her by previous generations that she is now

generously passing along to us via her blog. 

Patsy was kind to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger

Award and I thank her very much for that honor.

When you are nominated for the award, you are to

tell seven things about yourself so here goes:

*

I am so happy to be attending the Haven Bloggers

Conference in Atlanta on June 21st and 22nd.

*

Today is a Friday the 13th.  Last May on a

Friday the 13th, I bought a package of illustrated black

cats to begin my quest to design a blog background for

my blog "Miss Kopy Kat".  I'm not so great with computers

so it took me a long time to get it just "OK" looking.

I have recently had my first blogiversary so I am giving myself

the gift of having someone who knows what they are

doing to re-design my blog for me...I'm excited.

*

I work full-time as a Registered Nurse in a

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (premature or sick babies).

My shift starts at 7pm at night and I work until

7am in the morning.  I am actually a "morning person"

but for several reason I like working those hours.

*

I am on husband #2. 

We both had been married for over 20 years to our spouses

when they unexpectedly left us for other women.

A mutal friend got us a blind date. We have been

married for eleven years now and are very happy.

*

I have three wonderful children.

(sorry I look like I have a "bumpit" in my hair...it was windy on the beach)

My oldest son lives in El Paso, Texas, with his wife and

daughter. My middle son lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

My daughter is back in Montgomery (for now) after

having lived near Los Angeles, California for several years.

I love this photo of my son and his daughter,(the only grandchild for now)  Lilly.

Tom Kat with his son and my sons playing "Muscle Beach" for the photo.

Fun jump photo of our children with their significant others.

*

Every couple of years, my family rents beach houses and try to

get lots of the extended family together. 

For this year's reunion, I hired a photographer to come take photos of the family.  Actually, I had to

hire her for two separate shoots because not all of the family could be there at the same time.

Some of the family (mostly men) were not too happy about the photo shoot but I told them

that they would enjoy looking back on the pictures in coming years.

Lilly was not happy about the photo shoot either and did an "on purpose" face plant in the sand.

My brother-in-law muttered "I feel like doing the same thing."

*

My parents have been married to each other three

different times!  They are in their eighties now so

hopefully there will be no more divorces.

(Just as a side note: as much as Lilly was fussy during the photos, when the photographer was

packing up and getting ready to go, Lilly came up beside her and started posing.  To

the photographer's credit, she took back out her camera and got some really cute shots.)

Thanks again, Patsy, for the Versatile Blogger Award nomination.

Easter Parade

An Easter Parade is going on right down the

center of my dining room table.

Instead of different vignettes according more

to "like" objects, everybody is together in one place this year.

Some of the Easter items are refined,

some of them are cute,

some of them are paper,

some of them are twigs,

and some of them are stone.

Some of the Easter items in the parade

are good enough to eat.

I am so late decorating for Easter this year that

I almost didn't but I felt guilty not letting the

Easter decorations out of the attic at least one

time for the year.

The faux spring branches deserved to

come out of the attic too and be admired.

Here's a little "behind the scenes" of the

Easter Parade:

The peeps vases that I had seen on Pinterest this

year were so cute. I attempted a couple.  The hardest

part for me was finding the containers

that would work together to be just the right size.

The center vase is actually too tall but it was the best I could do with what I had.

It worked out OK since I was using faux flowers and could bend the stems.

Just tear apart the Peeps and slip them between

the glass containters. This one worked out needing

three packs of Peeps.

This is the shorter vase with Peeps.  It only took two packs.

These cute sheep were at Pier One.

Since I wanted one facing left and one facing right,

surgery had to take place.  The decapitation and

recapitation went well.  The only blood that was spilled

was mine when I cut my finger trying to

shorten a toothpick to use to stick the head back on.

One trick I used in the vignette was to make a grid

of clear Scotch tape across the top of the vase to

help the stems stay in the center and not all

fall to the sides.

Another trick was to use a glass jar to help fill

the center of this wire basket up so that less

Easter grass would be needed.  It also held up the

heavy little rabbit so he didn't sqaush the grass.

Wishing you and yours a blessed Easter holiday!

Fresh Flowers For Your Door

Although most of us (myself included) use

faux greenery and flowers in wreaths and baskets

for door decor, there is something special about

having fresh flowers on your doors occasionally.

Recently, a friend asked me to make fresh flower

arrangements to use on her front doors for a

bridal shower that she was having.  I took pictures

of the process to share with you for such a time

as you might want to have fresh flowers for your door, too.

If you want your flowers and greenery to not wilt,

you will need to get floral foam specifically made for fresh

 flowers. Look for words like "oasis", "fresh",and "wet".

You will soak the foam in water before beginning.

 Beware of words like "desert", "silk",

"dried" on the foam packaging...they will not soak up water

and will not keep the cut ends of your stems wet.

The door hanging containers that I used for this

project were metal baskets that I had purchased at

Hobby Lobby last year and painted over the previous

 blue color with whites and creams to use for a wedding.

Trim the wet floral foam to fit in your container...it is very easy to cut.

I like to leave some of the foam sticking above the rim of the container

so that I can angle some stems down slightly and their stems still be in the foam.

Baskets made for hanging on your door will typically

be flat on one side and have a handle. Woven baskets

are also pretty on doors. If you use a woven basket to hold

your flowers, you will need to use moss to hide floral foam.

With so much blooming at this time of the year, you

might have plenty of flowers and greenery in your yard

to use in the door basket that you can just cut.

 My friend wanted roses, etc. so I got the flowers at Costco.

I did cut some greenery and bridal wreath (spirea) from the yard also.

With the daisy mums, I cut them at a spot on the stem

where it doubled the amount of stems I had to work with.

The resulting shorter, bunchier flowers were used in the

front of the arrangements and the remaining longer stems

were used for height at the back of the basket.

Always cover the visible wet floral foam with greenery

and/or flowers.  Here I am showing the foam in the

 back of the basket being covered also since she had

beautiful glass doors and the arrangement would be

seen from both sides.

When you are sticking the stems in the foam, make sure

that you do not push the stems through the foam.  The

end of the stem needs to be within the foam to have

a water supply and be able to stay fresh.

We hung the baskets on her door with decorative

door hangers from Michael's.

I had some flowers and greenery left over from

the door baskets so I also made a quick vase

arrangement for the shower.

This arrangement is not that special but I did get some

nice shots of the bridal wreath spirea from my back

yard that was used as greenery with the roses.

My friend reported that since the flower baskets did not get

 direct sun on them, that they looked pretty for several days

outside on her door.

Fresh flowers look great on our

front doors any time of year.

I am sharing this post over at

CSI Project blog for the Gardening and Flower Challenge