Toot Your Own Horn Thursday! connie, Measured By the Heart

Today on
Toot Your OWN Horn Thursday
Connie from Measured by the Heart has stopped by!!  I LOVE her blog and she is such a wealth of information!!  She has been very suuportive to me and I appreciate all of her help!!!  She is sharing some AWESOME projects!!!

Hi everyone. I am happy to be here with Randee. She is a good friend and I wish her a speedy recovery. Love you!!

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Connie and I blog at Measured by the Heart. I write about Home improvements, sewing, crochet, crafts, hair tutorials, design and book club. I also love to do digital design and you can find tons of free printables. I hope you will stop by and say hi.

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday. I LOVE her to pieces. She is the best daughter anyone could ask for. I want to share with you one of her birthday presents that I made.

{let me first say that it is hard to photograph mirror and I promise the mirror is clean. I don't know why it shows smudged in photos}

I just cut out some vinyl and put it on the mirror. I absolutely love this quote. I think reminding my girls to practice happiness is important! Plus my girls are princesses so they will love the mirror.

If you'd like this quote for your girls and don't have a mirror to use, I made a printable you can have.

Download Here

I hope you enjoy this printable and use it in your homes.

It's been great being here with Randee. I LOVE to meet new people and hope you will stop by and see me at Measured by the Heart.

Here is a taste of what you can find there:

Hair Tutorial--A surprise twist

Cute Disney Bracelets

Good Morning Sunshine Cereal Bowls

Thanks for reading,

Connect with me:

 THANK you so much for stopping by!!   Remember, if you want to be featured on TOOT YOUR OWN HORN THURSDAYjust shoot me an email at bclynx1@aol.com 

Secret Blogger Swap REVEAL

I had the pleasure of participating in a

SECRET BLOGGER SWAP

put together by Danielle over at

Framed Frosting

This was my first blogger swap and I can say that I pretty much messed it all up!! :(

I did have a lot going on and was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy in the middle of all of this so I did have a slight distraction!

I did not take a pic of the items that I sent to my  secret blogger "miki" over at What I Always Was

She LOVES her dog and likes cosmetics so I send her a box full of goodies for her dog and some new cosmetics to try!!  I hope that she liked them!!

My secret blogger was Chris from the cutest blog called
Chubbette Tales...Life After Spanx
How could you NOT love a blog with that name!!  ;)


She sent me the cutest package and I LOVED everything in it!!


I am a kitchen gadget freak and I LOVE chocolate so she had me pegged!!

Thanks again for all the cute stuff, Chris!

Mail Bin

Just a QUICK little project!!!  I wanted something cute to sit on my counter to put my mail and "junk" in so I made a cute little bin!!

I found the white container at Walmart for $5 but it had a nasty blue inside!  I painted it with lime green and then hot glued some rick rack around the outer edge!  I LOVE it and it cost less than $10!!

Fresh Balckberry Cobbler TASTY TUESDAY!!

TASTY TUESDAY!!!

Now that BLOGAPALOOSA is over, I can get back to a normal routine!!!  Today for TASTY TUESDAY I made a 

FRESH Blackberry Cobbler!

Todd planted some thorn-less blackberry bushes and this year they are going CRAZY!!  I love to be able to pick them and not get any chiggers or end or bleeding from all of the thorns!!!  

I found a REALLY easy recipe on Betty Crockers Site!!

RECIPE

2 1/2 cups fresh (drained) blackberries (do not use blueberries)

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Cream, whipped cream or ice cream, if desired  

  

• 1 In medium bowl, stir together blackberries and sugar. Let stand about 20 minutes or until fruit syrup forms. Heat oven to 375°F.
• 
  
• 2 In large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and milk. Stir in melted butter until blended. Spread in ungreased 8-inch square pan. Spoon blackberry mixture over batter.
• 
  
• 3 Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until dough rises and is golden. Serve warm with ice cream

                                        

My Own Nightmare

I had to think long and hard about this post and not sure if I will ever publish it but I feel I need to put my feelings down on "paper!"

Three weeks ago yesterday (Saturday April 21) I woke up with the beginning signs of Bell's Palsy!   HERE is a link for a complete explanation of the syndrome!  I started to put on my mascara and my eye would not close!  We were headed to Fayetteville for spring game and so we headed out!

As the day went on my eye became harder and harder to shut and my face started to feel weird!  I am a nurse in my prior life (pre kids) and Todd is a Physical Therapist in a prior life (LOL) so we knew the signs but decided to call my brother in law to make sure!  Was diagnosed over the phone and the nightmare began!

By Sunday my face had started to lose movement on the left side!  Me being a very expressive person with my face, I was quickly becoming devastated!  I cried a lot and seemed to cling to my husband more than usual!  I am a 90 mile an hour mom and wife that normally has 100 commitments at any given time, but I always need him!  He is my rock!

By Monday morning I am in the doctors office getting my steroids and acyclovir!  I am on the Internet reading any bit of info that I can dig up!  NOT A GOOD THING, BTW!!!  At this point I am afraid that I will never smile again!  It is a VERY scary and emotionally draining syndrome!! 

I basically hid in the house for the first week and a half!  A VERY hard thing for me since I am always volunteering and I am a social BUG!!

The 11th day is when it went to HELL!!  The pain was UNREAL!!  I felt like someone was stabbing me in my ear and the left side of my face had sharp, shooting pains all the time!!  They NEVER let up!  Talk about going INSANE!!  I wasn't sleeping and my face was swelling by the day!  After several days of this I am calling the doctor to try and get some reassurance that I am not losing my mind!  She tried me on some new meds but they did not seem to help at all and it only got 100 times worse at night!  By the middle of the 2nd week I am pretty sure I was a lunatic!!  I was mean to everyone and cried all the time!  My doctor made an appointment with an ENT to check me out!  

I went to see the ENT praying for some good news!  They were thinking that I could possibly have a syndrome called Ramsay Hunt and it does not have a good prognosis!  Do you know what it is like to have something like that going around in your head??  Thinking that you may never move your face again? Smile at your children??  JUST HORRIBLE!!

The ENT confirmed that I did not have Ramsay Hunt!  That was a huge sigh of relief!  He did his examination and found that I had movement in all three nerve "branches" that were affected!  That was GREAT news!!  It almost seems, that as soon as I heard his words, I could start to relax and feel some movement!  :)

Today has been 3 weeks and 1 day!  I have about 60% movement today and I am praying and believing that God will return my smile back to me!!

If I don't have faith, I am afraid that I may just lose it!!


Just a few things that the Dr's just don't tell you!


1.  It is PAINFUL!!
2.  You will gain 15 pounds without a BLINK OF THE EYE!!
3.  You will be emotionally devastated and a complete basket case!
4.  You will need a lot of support from your family!
5.  Be prepared to cry a LOT!!


I also want to apologize to all of my readers considering I have been all over the place!  I know that I haven't been organized or posting very much!  I am sorry!


UPDATE...5 weeks tomorrow and I am about 90% back to normal!  My eye is still slow to close and my smile is almost 100%!  Once again, so sorry for not being around and posting!!  I am hoping that I am back on track and posting by next week!!

Lemon Trifle

I found this recipe last week on a really cute blog by Meg over at 
Nutmeg Place!

Todd's favorite cookie is a pecan sandie so when I saw this recipe I knew that I had to make it!!!  I have made it 5 TIMES since last Friday!!  One of the easiest and best desserts I have come across in a while!!

LEMON TRIFLE!

2 pcks cream cheese

1 jar of lemon curd (found by the jellies)

1 lemon

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 pck pecan sandies

Crush the entire bag of pecan sandies

In a mixing bowl, mix with an electric beater the cream cheese and lemon curd!   I used the juice from 1/2 lemon to make thin enough to spread!

In another bowl whip the whipping cream and sugar until firm!

Combine the cream cheese mixture with the whipping cream!  

Layer the cookies and cream cheese mixture till all gone and top with a few sprinkles of cookies!!

PURE AWESOMENESS!!!!  ;0

Blogapaloosa Day 14

This is the most thought out giveaway!!  Nina from

Atir Inspired Decor has put a lot of thought and love into her giveaway!!  It is the LAST one of our

BLOGAPALOOSA so please stop by and sign up!!

Yeah, to day is my day. I am I so happy you stopped by to check out this treasure chest of a giveaway that you just might win! I agonized for days about this giveaway & what I wanted to giveaway since I have never done this before, I thought I wanted to add items that I would use & were related to my blog; home decor, thrifting, DIY, Cooking & Fashion.  Here is what I came up with:

I had this piece of beautiful fabric on hand, maybe used for a bulletin board~

A Lovely Scented Candle~

Butterfly Drawer/Door Pull~

Paper Flower for a wreath, gift or as an accent on a vase~

Small Frame, these take paint so nicely, should you care to change the color~

Cupcake Bath Salt after a day if DIY'ing

A Nice Book to cuddle up with~  

                                      

Necklace & earring set, to make you feel more beautiful than you are~

This was my thrift store find, a new wallet~

Add some bling with these~

Ball of Lip Gloss~

I believe in the written word, Note Cards~

Craft Paint & Decorative Ribbon to get your creative grove on~

Decorative Serving Dish~

So come on over to 

Atir Inspired Decor

Thank You & Many Blessings

Nina

Blogapaloosa Day 13

The winner of my giveaway will receive a $20 gift certificate to UUPP Prints Etsy shop! UUPP has fresh, inspirational prints displaying anything from a Julia Child or Jane Austen quote to an endearing message for your sweetheart! Here is one of my favorites: 

You'll find this giveaway at Inside My Present on May 18th! See you then!

And here is my button for my blog:

Blogapaloosa Day Day 12

Today is the giveaway from my friend Jennifer from 
DON'T MESS WITH MY TUTUS!!!
It is TOO DIE FOR...PLEASE let me win!!  ;)

Howdy!  I'm Jennifer from Don't Mess With My Tutus! - a sassy little place I used to use to sell custom-made children's clothing but now I keep to share my recipes, redos and realities of life!  Since becoming a full-time SAHM, I have been having fun 'junkin' in jammies' most Fridays and recently took the plunge with Resuscitation Annie - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that is!  Now this fabulous paint that requires NO PREP WORK when refinishing furniture (HUGE bonus!!) was sold to me by fellow re-decorator AND courageous momtrepeneur Rhonda McCleskey from Restored ~ Home who has graciously offered us today's prize!!



3 samples of Annie Sloan Chalk paint and an ASCP color chart, 2 chip brushes and 1 bar of handmade "Painter's Friend' Soap!!


Rhonda has such a generous spirit and I am excited to let you know that in addition to this giveaway, 'local' gals can also enter to win An Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Techniques Class at Rhonda's new store in Alvin, TX - a $165 value!!


I'm sooo excited to introduce you to Rhonda and tell you about the Grand Opening of her new store Restored ~ Home, so head on over to my blog to read all about it AND register to win!


Good Luck!

TOOT Your Own Horn Thursday!! Plumberry Pie

Today on TOOT Your Own Horn I am THRILLED to introduce Kim from

Plumberry Pie!! 

She has some of the CUTEST ideas, EVER!!!  So come take a look!  ;)

Randee, thanks for letting me join in the Chaos today!!   I was lucky enough to stumble upon Randee’s Robot Valentine at a Linky Party a few months back and have been inspired by her ever since.  She is always doing something new and it motivates me to keep moving forward too.

I’m absolutely thrilled to share a slice of Plumberry Pie with you today!  Plumberry Pie is a place where I share all the things that bring me joy and make me tick.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Since the end of the school year is upon us, let’s start with a couple teacher gift ideas.

Our school, like many other schools, has adopted the bucket filling theme from the book, “Have you filled a bucket today?” by David Messing. The gist of it is to fill someone’s bucket by doing and saying nice things to each other and not dipping in people’s buckets by saying and doing mean things.

So I thought it’d be fun to play off that idea and literally fill our teachers’ buckets with nice notes from the kids. The lid of the bucket reads, “Thanks for always filling our buckets, now it’s our turn to fill yours.”

My son has two teachers, so I grabbed two plain clear buckets from Michael’s. To personalize each bucket, I added a monogram with some ribbon. Ta-da!

We also created a fingerprint card with each child’s fingerprint creating flowers with a note that said, “thanks to you, we are in full bloom!”

Popped them both in plain white bags adorned with a white daisy and ribbon.

Click here for one more teacher gift idea!

At Plumberry Pie, I also share party ideas, like the Mystery Birthday Party we recently did for my daughter’s 8th birthday.

Or tips like how to Tame the Bed Head Beast.

And home updates like my inexpensive kitchen transformation.

Make sure to stop by sometime to see all the other fun stuff that happens over at

Plumberry Pie!

You can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest.

Hope you’ll stop by for a slice of pie soon!

Happy Thursday!

Kim


I think the buckets are the CUTEST!!!!  

New Summer Door Decor

This is my newest project for the front door!!  I LOVE it!!  I have been searching for a basket to put on the door and never knew how hard it would be to find one!!!  I FINALLY did and this is what I put together!!  ;)

This is our last week of school!  I need to apologize for me being so scattered and absent!!  I have a LOT on my plate!!!  Hope to get back to some GREAT projects this summer!!  ;)

Blog-A-Pal-Loosa Day 11

I LOOOOVE these tiles and I have a "THING" for dragonflies!!  ;)

Giveaway items from  Claiming Our Space will be a set of four hand stamped tumbled Travertine coasters along with two sets of hand stamped magnets - one set is made with slate and the other set is made with ceramic tiles. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway