Straight Talk with Pinterest: S'mores

S'mores made with chocolate chips and golden graham cereal

I am not one to pin food. I think because when I got into the pinterest thing, I wasn't feeling so hot because I was early pregnant with my now 7 week old. So some of the food photos were great while others, not so much. You feel me? But this is one of the few I have pinned and I felt the need to give a review. It was super easy and my 3 year old and I made it together. You have to act quickly! The marshmallows begin to harden again if you don't mix it all together and put in the pan fast enough. This is one of those things that is better the next day. It was a nice treat. For the price and time spent on it, I say good!, and I would make again.  To see the recipe, click here.
*Thank you to Country Cleaver for this recipe. Since writing this post, I have now found other recipes I want to make and decided I need a donut pan!

And the winner is...

We have a winner! Sally A. won the necklace titled My Grandmother's China. Thank you to all who entered. I am into this giveaway thing. We will do more soon!

Ladies Luncheon

I had a delightful lunch last Monday. A sweet friend of my familys and a dear friend of my late grandmother, THE Governor's daughter, hosted a wonderful ladies luncheon. I wish I had taken pictures while I was there but I am going to do my best to recreate it.

For starters, there was such a great view from where we ate our lunch. Her yard is heavenly and so inviting. There were birds picking at bird seed, squirrels chasing one another, flowers blooming in the sun, green grass standing tall ( but not too tall, she had just mowed!), hummingbirds feasting on pentas, and so much wildlife to look at and enjoy and marvel at Gods creation.

And, oh the food! We dined on chicken salad, the ultimate ladies luncheon food. It was delightful. It was superb but my favorite was the lemon mousse. I could eat it right now. It had raspberries on top and it was served in purple china. Why didn't I take a photo?

Lemon Mousse: Click to find out recipe

It was a special time with special family and special friends. At one point during the lunch, our hostess talked about trying to live up to the idea of loving thy neighbor well. Over the years, this woman has been such a sweet friend to our family and so very thoughtful. She brought me a broom when I moved into our new house, she brought my sister a Pink Perfection Camellia when her daughter was born, gave my daughter a beautifully illustrated book about Jesus for Easter, visited me at necklace shows and the list goes on and on. Our hostess is the embodiment of Love Thy Neighbor. Thank you Charlotte!

* And remember, to win My Grandmother's China, visit this post. Giveaway goes through Monday.

2 more days to win FREE necklace

There are 2 more days to win My Grandmother's China. To enter the giveaway, visit this post. Actually, we had a tea party the other day with my grandmothers actual china. I will have to post that soiree. It was really special and all the kids sat for a long time and nothing broke. I was so impressed!

UpDaTe: A Free Necklace Giveaway

Ok, I hate to admit it, but I am new to the giveaway thing. I don't hate to admit it, I just haven't known what I am doing. But! Now maybe I do?!? I didn't add the raffle thingy( yes raffle thingy) to the page so that you are able to win. Duh. Go to this post to enter to win a free necklace! If you have already submitted a post and joined my blog, there is one more step so please go back and visit this post. Otherwise, you have not really entered the giveaway. Please forgive me. Maybe I will go it right next time?

A Free Necklace Giveaway!

My Grandmother's China

We are doing a free necklace giveaway! We, being The Governor's Daughter and Pure Joy Events. The above necklace, called My Grandmother's China, is up for grabs!

In order to enter the giveaway, you must follow the directions in the table below...



a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway starts Thursday, July 26th and runs through Monday night, July 30th. Yay!

Update! The lady I like

Simple Life by Suzanne Connor

Bird in Hand by Suzanne Connor

I don't know why I didn't write this early or type this earlier. My last post, Beautiful Paintings: Lesli Devito, I wrote about how Lesli reminds me of this other lady. This other lady is an artist as well and a great storyteller and a great artist. In my opinion, when you get those two giftings together, bam! Its good. She is Suzanne of Fire Fly Evenings. Isn't that a great name? She has done a few paintings that are in my girlies rooms and they are so sweet. And I don't think I added her room on my blog. Duh. That's for another day. It is on Project Nursery and I did a quick post about it this day and the painting Suzanne did is on top of the green dresser. Enjoy!

Beautiful Paintings: Lesli Devito

I have been following this womans blog, MY Old Country House, for several months. She, Lesli Devito seems so down to earth and nice. She doesn't know me from Adams house cat, but I appreciate her sense of style and her love for color. Plus, she reminds me of this other lady I know, and I like that lady so I must like Lesli. She is having a giveaway of one of her amazing pieces of art, so not only do I want to win it, I am happy to share with others the good news. To enter the free giveaway, go here. And look at her wonderful other paintings as well as her welcoming home. Enjoy!

A Party of all Parties

I am trying to get organized on my blog. Me, organized? Its quite the opposite but a girl can try. I put all of my parties in one spot on my blog. So, if you need a quick idea for your next celebration, you can check out my PARTIES AND CELEBRATIONS page.

The night is not over until I have had cake

cake from eddieross.com

Yes, the night is not over until I have had cake or any other dessert for that matter. Tonight it was a chocolate chip cookie! But I love the look of a cake and decorating it. Anything I can decorate, I am into it. I have a pinterest board called Paper, Parties and Cakes. So, if you are looking for ideas or want to be inspired, go check it out.

She had me at Anthropologie Window Display: My New Friend

While searching for party ideas, I came upon this grand blog called Pure Joy Events. She had me at Anthropologie Summer Window Displays. The above picture shows garlands she made from an Anthropolgie window display seen below. She has many more tutorials! She teaches you how to make cute things for your parties, shows off her great events and writes for other blogs. Go check out her work!

I need a clever title, but I got nothing

For our latest party, I got a few ideas from Pinterest, which is a huge wealth of knowledge. I found the top photo and thought it was so clever. Now, I must say, after I uploaded my photo, it looks sad. But the party was certainly not! I painted our animals to match our rainbow them ( go here to see the whole party.) I later thought, if we had a Noah's Ark party, and the animals painted all sorts of colors, would be in keeping with Noah and the animals and the rainbow. Get it? I liked it. And as far as the title of this post, I wanted to have a clever title, but I got nothing!

Something Borrowed...

http://vivafullhouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-thanksgiving.html

Our rainbow version

more rainbow circles

My something borrowed is an idea I found on Pinterest. That is the point of it, right? ( or just to waste lots of time?)  But for my latest party, All The Colors ( check it out here ) I lined my table with cut out circles in the colors of the rainbow. I found the idea on pinterest a few months ago and the original idea came from a blog called Full House. You can see her blog by clicking here. What a wonderful idea! I always have lots of paper and its the same size circle I use on my Governor's Daughter necklace tags. With not having 2 hands   (because of a newborn) to do anything, I can cut out circles with my free hand and hold baby in the other! Makes me think of what other things I use cut out circles for...

"All the Colors" Birthday

My baby recently just turned 3. I have a new baby, a 3 week old at the time, so planning a birthday party seemed overwhelming. With that in mind, I decided to have a family birthday party. I have come to learn things about myself as time goes on and one of those is that I do the same amount of work for 5 people coming to my house as I would 50, just less food! But I do love to decorate for a party so I got into it. I was cutting out felt circles when my new baby was one week old. On to the party...

We had a rainbow/ "all the colors" birthday party. My daughter is into art and painting and we love color in this house. I lined my dining room table with white banner paper and used glittery foam in 8 1/2 x 11 size for the placemats. I spray painted small trophies I found at Hobby Lobby and filled them with crayons for drawing at supper. I also used some yellow cut glasses I have as well to hold crayons. I cut out circles from cardstock and lined the table in the Roy G Biv style ( red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.) The flowers are from my yard.

A shot of my table with the decorated chandelier, cake in the background, and felt circle garlands in the doorway.

My mini table for 2. I used the trophies, circle cut outs and small plastic animals painted in different colors. 

My chandelier was decorated with Martha Stewart color swatches. My daughter added the paint brushes. We tied the paint swatches with polka dot grosgrain ribbon.

The doorway( there are 2) had felt circles glued to blue and pink grosgrain ribbon. Behind the garlands, I hung paper lanterns in the kitchen and living room. 

The cake! My daughter and I made a fudge cake together. It was really fun and a special time I will always remember. I used zinnias to line the outside of the cake and used Fresh Market M and M's to make a C on the cake. ( Her name starts with a C.) My dad thought it was actually a rainbow and kept turning it. Duh, I never thought about that until he showed me. 

The birthday girl admiring her cake. 

The birthday girl blowing out the candles!

No Night Night with a Newborn

With a newborn, there is no time for crafting or sleep. Funny that they go hand in hand to me. I did manage to have a family get together for my 3 year olds birthday but I will post on that as soon as I download the pictures:)  So for now, I dream of a long nights sleep in any of these beds. To see more of my picks, check out my pinterest page here: http://pinterest.com/thegovdaughter/