Valentine Gifts for your Best Friend

Here are some awesome gifts for your Best Friend from video game geeks to princess' that need saving....

One of my favorites. The Pixel Heart Friendship Necklaces from LicketyCut.

You can wear it as one necklace which is a full heart, or you can share your heart and it becomes two.

Then there is the Pokemon Pokeball Friendship Necklaces.

Pokemon fans can show their love by sporting this jewel. As with the Pixel Heart Friendship pair you can wear this as one whole Pokeball or share it with your friend.

Kingdom Hearts Friendship Necklaces

Here you can give someone the key to your heart!

Such beautiful bright colors sure to be noticed.

Iron Man Friendship Necklaces

Iron Man fans unite!

Two transparent blue disks representing the Mark I and Mark IV

Iron Man Friendship Necklaces GLOW in the dark

For the Iron Man fans that like to enjoy the night :)

Pair of Portal Friendship Necklaces

Portal Fans these are for you!

"In one and out the other"

Caution- you will never know what someone might try to send to you through the portal ;)

Portal Companion Cube Friendship Necklaces

Here is another companion pair for the Portal lovers!

Don't leave home without your companion.

This set is laser engraved with beautiful detail. A 3d heart to show the LOVE of your cube.

Mass Effect Friendship Necklaces

Paragon or Renegade

Can't decide? This is the set for you! 

The Paragon is a bright transparent blue and the Renegade is a beautiful transparent red.

Assassins Creed Friendship Necklaces

For the assassin in you. Choice of shiny black or transparent red.

**CAUTION!!**

BATMAN FANS BEWARE-

I am not responsible for the excitement you are about to feel!

For the Love of Batman

I think that is pretty self explanatory!

Retro Batman Friendship Necklaces

What a lovely pair.

One yellow bat on a black background and one yellow bat cut out on a black background.

Retro Batman Friendship Ringset

What is better then a pair of Retro Batman Necklaces?

These are! Matching Rings! Don't forget to pick these up to go with your Retro Necklaces.

Batman Friendship Necklaces

This amazing pair of friendship necklaces lock together to form one necklace 

or split it with your Batman Love!

Such lovely and amazing pieces of wearable art to choose from and many. many more at LicketyCut.

Be sure to check out the other items there as well.

Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Minecraft, Mario and Legend of Zelda

just to name a few.

Time to go fill my Valentine list!

Ciao!

Let them eat cake...

Valentine's day is just around the corner. Here are a few gift ideas from LicketyCut.

Valentine's Conversation Heart Cookie Cutters

 There is a NICE set:

Be Mine, Hug Me , Kiss Me and True Love

A NAUGHTY Set for those who aren't afraid to say what they really want :)

Eat Me, Spank Me, Bite Me and F*ck Me

Then of course for the Geek in all of us...

Hey Listen!, Level Up, 1 up, Be my Hero, I Choose You!, Fus-Ro-Dah, LOL, OMG, WTF, BRB and More...

They have many other Yummy cookie designs here.

I think I need some cookies now..... 

If the Crown Fits.....

New Year Tree

How long do you keep up your Christmas Tree?

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. That has been a tradition that my mother and her mother did, so I followed it. We play Christmas music and watch Christmas movies until Christmas then I don't want to hear or see them again until the following Thanksgiving weekend. There are only so many Christmas songs and you can only listen to them so many times a year!

I know a lady that starts her Christmas about the same time places like Walmart starts putting out Christmas decorations...in AUGUST. Blah... What about Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love Halloween! I decorate for Halloween longer than I do for Christmas because it can be so different each year. Halloween in my house runs into thanksgiving. I just take the spooky stuff out of the decorations and leave up the fall looking things.

Back to the Christmas tree... This year the kids decorated the tree all on their own, completely without my help. This is the first year. Usually we start out all decorating and I end up finishing in by myself because they got interested in other things. This year I was on the couch with a heating pad watching them decorate. I so wanted to get up and help them but they assured me that they could do it and that I should rest.- I had pulled a muscle in my arm/shoulder/back area and I was in a lot of pain at the time. I was so proud of them and a little sad at the same time. They are getting so big and don't need Mama as much.

Well, Christmas was over and I was ready to take down the tree. We had company coming to stay with us for a week and I wanted to get the tree down and out of the way so I wouldn't have to mess with it while trying to entertain the guests. The kids convinced me to keep it up until after they left which was after the new year. So we came up with a good solution.....a New Year's Tree!

I printed out some clocks on cardstock and placed them on the tree. Also glued some to old cd's that I had kept for craft projects.

Our's didn't look like this but here are some cute ideas for a New Year's Tree for the future.

I got this image from pinterest. This is the blog it came from.

Just google printable clock faces and print on cardstock. Glue to old cd's if you would like.

I love clocks so I will be using them more throughout the year as well :)

JOY

We cannot cure the world of sorrows but we can choose to live in joy.

Be Happy!

Christmas is over and another year has gone. I don't know about you but this year sped by faster than I realized! Time for a new year. 2014. Wow. 2014...When I was a kid 2014 was so far away, the future. Now here it is. We are in the future.

Let's talk about New Year's Resolutions. Who actually makes New Year's Resolutions and keeps them? You make this list of things that you would like to do or change, then burden yourself with it everyday if you don't do the things on your list. Leaving you to feel guilty or unaccomplished with yourself. STOP! You don't have to do that! Make that your New Year's resolution. To stop making such a crazy list of things that takes years to do, not just one.

 I have gone from making a long list of resolutions to making one or two things that I really want to accomplish.  I can actually keep them now. This year my New Year's Resolution is to BE HAPPIER! Be Happy! Don't let things get me down, people get me down. Enjoy my life. Enjoy my time with my children. They are growing so fast before my eyes. This life is speeding by and time is so much shorter than we all realize. I want to spend that time being happy!

So, think hard about what you want for your New Year's Resolution. It's not too late. You can change your list now.
I chose mine, my one resolution. It may seem easy but it is one that I have to work hard on everyday.

Happy New Year,
BE HAPPY!

All You need....

Downtown Charlotte NC

So the day after the North Carolina Renaissance Faire we decided to check out down town Charlotte. We planned to go to the Children's Discovery Museum while we were there. We checked out of the hotel at 10 and headed downtown. There was no parking very close to the museum so we parked a few blocks away at the Marriott hotel parking garage for $5. Watch for the cost of parking because we passed many lots that was $10 and $15 parking for the day!

It was a Sunday so they didn't open until noon. So we had some time to walk around and look at the "Big City". We are from a very little country town so this was a big city to us.

 

I don't know the names of these buildings but they are MANY stories high and so SHINY!

The tallest one is the Bank of America Corporate Center-60 stories high.

Here are some more shiny things.

This one was in the front of a bank.

Here is a beautiful Door, I believe it was to the SunTrust Bank. It had so many pictures embossed into it. Look at all the symbols.

  Plaque and Crest

Next was the Il Grande Disco

Why all the Golden stuff?Here is a little history of the city:

Charlotte was founded in 1768 during the reign of King George III of England. To win favor of the crown, the city was named in honor of his wife Queen Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Germany. This statue honors Queen Charlotte, the namesake for the “Queen City".

In the center of town was four statues each standing about 25 feet tall, representing elements that have contributed to the growth of the city: commerce, transportation, industry and the future. History says the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was read by Thomas Polk on the courthouse steps at Trade and Tryon on May 20, 1775.(Here are three of them)

 

Here is a site with a little more history of the town. I will make a second post for the Random pics and Museum.

North Carolina Renaissance Faire

Renaissance....

It's that time of year again. There is a cool crisp breeze. Crunchy leaves falling from trees. Apples and pumpkins. Hay rides and corn mazes. Bonfires and Renaissance Faires. Pumpkin flavored everything.
This is the time of year that I love to bake. It warms the house with delicious scents and fills the bellies of all who enter.

We took the weekend off and headed to North Carolina. It was Renaissance time! We have been planning to go for years and finally got a chance. It was worth the wait. We had a great time. There were so many beautiful costumes and people were friendly.

The first encounter after we walked in the gates was Twig the fairy. She was so happy to see us! As we were happy to see her. We have been following her on Facebook for years now and finally got to meet her in person.

You can find her here.

As we walked around listening to the music and talking to the people we heard someone heckling us. It was this guy.

He was insulting people as they walked by. But at the other end of the fence was a big bucket of nice squishy tomatoes to throw at him. People lined up to pelt the rude dude!

Then we stopped to take in some tunes by Jennifer Mayer playing in the Jamila Lotus skeleton house band, Band of Eternal Souls.

This band plays for Jamila Lotus Dance Carnivale where we saw belly dancing with fire!

After a bit of fiery dancing we ran into the GreenMan. He was quite tall!

We also saw various shows on different stages. There was the FairHaven Theatre, Palace Stage, The Haven,CasaFortuna Stage, Rialto Stage, Dutch Door Stage and Sherwood Stage. There were storytellers, comedians,belly dancers, sword swallowing, hypnotists, juggling and acrobats.

Here is Moonie tight rope walking while juggling with fire.

After a long day of walking around we grabbed some grub. They were offering a variety of ales and drinks. Foods were bread bowls filled with chili or soup. Fish and Chips, sweet potato fries, scotch eggs and pizza. Of course we got a turkey leg- who doesn't get a turkey leg at the Renaissance Faire? We sat and ate while we watched the live jousting show at the Queen's Arena.

We sat in the section for the Blue and Silver Knight-I can't remember his name. He supposedly had rabies-not sure why, maybe in the forest too long?

We saw so much and had such a great time! We will definitely try to make it a yearly event if possible :)

Goodbye my friends-until next year!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

April Showers Bring May Flowers

This saying is very true at my house. May is very colorful here. We have the sweetest pink roses blooming right now. The smell is so wonderfully fragrant. I wish I could just bottle it up for later in they year! I am unsure of the variety, they were here when we moved in.
We also have pink, red and white peonies. Red Roses, wild roses, sweet william in a variety of shades.
The mountain laurel is in bloom along with the purple wisteria and Irises.

We have had a few days of rain and the petals started falling off of some of the flowers so I decided to see if I could capture a few in their beauty by drying them. I will take pictures of the flowers on the plants when the rain lets up.

 Sweet William and Red Rose

 The most wonderful smelling Rose

white peonies, pink and red roses and sweet williams


Hopefully they will dry nicely. Every time I walk near that spot in the house it smells like a rose garden!

April

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful women!


My lovelies made my favorite for breakfast: homemade old fashion sour cream doughnuts

Here is a link to the recipe: http://themessybaker.com/2011/10/19/recipe-old-fashioned-sour-cream-doughnuts/
 They were delicious. They even made a glaze to dip them in. There was so much glaze left they decided to glaze other things such as bacon and hotdogs. I passed on the glazed hot dog but tried the bacon, it was interesting :)

I was crowned Queen for the day with one of the Crowns I like to make. I wore the white one :)

For the Princess or Queen in your life. Perfect for Mother's Day. You can get one here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friggle-Fraggle/195896730486054

We got a movie to watch later called

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

It looks cute. We love to watch the animated movies together as a family.

Then we will have family game night and play some board games.

Off to enjoy the rest of the day with the babies. Hope you have a wonderful Day!

April

~FriggleFraggle~