What a wonderful weekend...

I had an absolutely fabulous weekend!!! We took off Friday and went riding on our motorcycle. It was the most perfect day to ride. Warm enough to wear short sleeves but cool enough not to be sweating. We rode out to War Eagle Mill. It is an operating mill that has been there since the 1800's. It is also the location of the bi-annual craft show. There is one in May and then the huge one in October. This is a picture of the mill:

This is inside and is a pic of the actual working grinder:

Here is just a tiny sampling of what they grind and sell there. We bought some fish fry breading and some cherry butter.

Upstairs they have a gift shop. Look at these cute salt and pepper shakers that were in the gift shop:

Also, on the third story they have a restaurant.

Outside is very pretty. Here is the water wheel:

This bridge is 101 years old:

And here is a picture of the small waterfall there:

Saturday was nice also. We met up with a couple of other friends that have motorcycles and went on an 8 hour ride. We had a lot of fun and thankfully didn't get rained on.

Sunday I did a LOT of spring cleaning (well I guess it is actually pre-spring training). I washed all the curtains in the house and scrubbed the bathroom. We actually took the shower doors apart and I scrubbed them and scrubbed the shower where they were. We are going to caulk them. They never were caulked by the builder and water gets underneath and gets yucky all the time. I also put out Easter decor after church and I will share pics of that tomorrow.

Today is weigh in day. Drum roll please...I lost another two pounds for a total of 15 pounds. I got another star on my Weight Watchers Chart and if I lose two pounds this week I should be at my 10% goal!!

Tile instructions

The first part of this post is for Lisa. She was wondering how I made the spring tile. Well it just so happens that I was going to make coasters last night so it worked out perfect for me to be able to take pictures of how I did it. It is really simple if you have the supplies. Here are the supplies:

You will need a stone tile (I got mine for 37 cents at Lowes), a stamp, a watermark stamp pad (I use versamark), embossing powder, a heat gun, pearl ex pigments, and fillable paint brush filled with liquid floor wax (I got mine from Stampin Up).

First you stamp your image on the tile with the versamark stamp pad.

Then you sprinkle your embossing powder on the tile,

Here is what the image will look like before heating it:Then you use the heat gun to heat the image until the embossing powder "melts":

Here is what it looks like after the image has been heated.

Next you dip your paint brush into the color of pearl ex you want to apply and paint the image:

That is all there is to it. Since I will be using these as coaster in the living room I did apply some spray enamel to them to protect the image.

Last night we also got to enjoy the company of a friend. He got a new bike and came over to have Ryan put on some new lights. It turned into a major event and took until almost 2 this morning!! We are supposed to have great weather the next few days. Ryan and I are taking off tomorrow to go ride our motorcycle and then Saturday we are meeting our friend and going riding together.

Spring tile

I love spring time. I would have to say that it is my favorite time of year. After the cold winter months getting to see everything turn green and the beautiful flowers come out again and the air turn warm is the best feeling. Last night I made this spring tile to put on a shelf in the living room.


Everything is going great so far this week on my WW plan. I haven't even used any weekly allowance points. Tonight we are having a friend over for dinner so my only challenge will be dessert.

Spring arrangement

Yesterday was a great day for me as far as mail goes. Mixed in with the regular daily bills and junk mail I also received my shirt I ordered from Megan for my niece. It is darling. Thank you Megan!!!!!

Also, Darlene, told us last week in her blog about Everyday Minerals and the free sample you could get. I got that in the mail yesterday too. I am trying them today and so far they are passing my inspection! :) Thank you for posting that Darlene.

Last night I decided to try making a flower arrangement. I still don't know how I feel about the outcome but I will share it anyway. I wanted a spring time arrangement that could go on our coffee table throughout spring. So bravely I am sharing a pic:

Tonight I plan to work on some Easter stuff.

So far this week everything is going good on my WW plan. Yesterday was hard for the opposite reason than what it is usually hard for. I have been feeling bad lately and yesterday I had no appetite really so I had to force myself to eat all my points. That usually NEVER happens.

Weigh-in and weekend update

Weigh-in day: I lost 2 more pounds. Hooray!! A total of 13 pounds in 6 weeks. Not too shabby.

I had a good weekend, despite being sick. I got to visit my family this weekend. I had so much fun and seeing my sweet niece was the best. Here she is being silly with her Aunt Lissa and reading stories with her Uncle Ryan.

My "baby"

Right now, Ryan and I don't have any children. We see them in our future, just not right now. My sis is so funny 'cause she will occasionally ask me if we are ever going to have children because she wants to be an aunt and then sometimes she will say if not she guesses she is okay with that 'cause I spoil my niece so much. In the meantime, we do have our dog. She can be funny sometimes. She hates flies (who can blame her). Well, yesterday we had a fantastically beautiful day here and as soon as I got home I opened the windows and the back door for a while to get some fresh air in here. And would you believe we already have flies!!!!!! I hate them and in the summer they are terrible here. I heard Ginger in our room making all kinds of noise and knew right away that she was after a fly. I have never taken pictures of her doing this before but she is so funny and relentless when it comes to catching one of these that I snapped a few yesterday. In this first picture she is chasing it in the window and scratching my costume blinds, uh, hello I don't think so...

so I pulled the blinds up. I am sure Ryan would much rather replace a screen as opposed to ordering me another blind for that window, actually he wouldn't be happy with replacing either.

She almost has it now...

and she got it! She doesn't eat them she just kills them and then leaves their dead carcass behind for me to clean up. This picture is not for the faint at heart. It is her victim...

Look how happy she is to achieved her goal:I love beautiful days like yesterday. I got to workout outside. Ryan and Ginger ran and I rode the bike for 3 miles. You could tell how great a mood everyone was in because of the warm, sunny day; there were a ton of people out walking and riding bikes and tons of houses had their windows open and I even smelled bbq a couple of times. AAHHH...spring is just around the corner!!!!!

What to do with scrap...

While browsing online one day I saw the cutest idea for storing scrap ribbon. It was quite a while ago that I saw this idea and it has been on my mind constantly to do this. When we went to the flea markets Saturday I kept my eyes peeled for a wire dress form and didn't find one. I went browsing at Hobby Lobby yesterday on my lunch hours and I found her for half off (minus the ribbon belt)...

Well, the idea is to make her my scrap ribbon holder and it would in turn look like she is wearing a skirt. I think she looks great and how great to have my scrap ribbon out in the open so I can see it and use it. It was stored in a bin, and you know the saying out of sight out of mind...