Go- to- Nanny's Strawberry Jello Salad

This was the day after my crafting/tv night.

I had to make something for a family dinner and I always go to my Nanny's Strawberry Jello Salad. It makes me think of family meals from when I was a kid myself. Running through her tiny kitchen and crammed into the 8x8 dining area to eat ALL together!

And the best part is that it is SOOO EASY to make!

Who doesn't love fresh strawberries...it makes EVERYTHING yummy.

This sat in my kitchen sink for ummm...two days! Yep, just keeping it real.

I love crafting, but HATE cleaning up all the mess it makes.

Anyways, back to the salad.

Doesn't it look yummy?

Here is the recipe:

Make Lg. box of strawberry jello...after adding the 2 c. of cold water pour in fresh cut strawberries. Then throw in some marshmellows. Put in fridge to let it sit. Put on cool whip topping before serving.

There was a time after my Nanny got older and stopped cooking. We didn't have this salad for a while. I made my Moma help me figure out what was in it and how we had it. I've been making it for just about everything for the past 3 years!

What are your favorite family recipes?

a favorite way to spend my nights...

My husband bakes bread...remember, he is the Bread-Maker (literally). One of the negatives to the job is that he has to be there EARLY in the MORNING!!! Like the first few hours of each new day. He has to go to be pretty early, so I have to fill my own nights.

This is one of my favorite ways to spend my nights.

Watching shows on our computer. This is White Collar...a GREAT show! We don't have cable so we watch everything on our computers. HULU is mainly the place I watch stuff.

And doing some sort of craft or painting or something to work my creativity.

I promised my sister one of these like two years ago. And finally made good on my word.

i need some new brushes and paints...badly.

Aren't all these colors together soo pretty. It's from years of different projects.

What a perfect night.

I think I have a problem.....

They always say that the first step is admitting your problem.

I'm addicted to magazines!

Over the past two year with NO MORE than $10 TOTAL in subrscriptions...I've some how collected all these magazines. My husbands tries to make me recycle or give some away.

But what If I want to look through a certain article again, find that recipe I always wanted to make, or just enjoy eye candy (houses, art, decorating, fabric, and other great moments captured in photos) over and over.

Yep, it's official. I have a problem.

Blueberries...

We had a fun day with some of our friends picking blue berries at their home and taking this years pictures of their family! It was such a blast (as it usually is hanging with them). The colors of this lovely summer night (it was soo HOT we waited until 7 pm to do pics).

Here are soo many of my favs!

they even sent us home with a bowl full of these!

We are so blessed with these friends!

Nothing better....

Home is one of my favorite places.

That is why I spend time caring about the way it looks and what is in it.

Flowers from my own flower beds are just lovely....nothing better.

Every house where love abides

And friendship is a guest,

Is surely home, and home sweet home

For there the heart can rest.

~Henry Van Dyke

Summer Blooms....

My flag is looking faded.

My mulch needs some tending! {and what does that pot think it's doing being dirty anyways?}

But oh, my hydrangeas....are glorious!

The funny thing about these hydrangea is that they came from my sweet m-i-l and were BRIGHT blue/purple when we dug them up and planted one on each corner of the front of our house. But when they started blooming this year...this is what we found. BRIGHT pink! Seriously, not what I expected. Good, but not what I expected. The only problem is that I have a serious symmetrical issue. As in, I'm OCD about only that. Seriously, I'm the most laid back, go with the flow person except when it comes to symmetry. And now I have one BRIGHT blue/purple hydrangea one one front corner of the house and then one BRIGHT pink hydrangea on the other. What's a {OCD}girl to do?

I guess stop stressing and focus on the gorgeous roses that are just fantastic. They don't have to be symmetrical so they don't have to wilt under my scrutiny. They just thrive on their loveliness!

So does this crazy little guy. or girl. What gender is a lamb's ear bloom? Oh well, it still doesn't have to be symmetrical. One because there is only one plant. two, because it's on the side of the house...not in my front landscaping!

Don't look at my mulch...it's not it's fault that it looks scimpy and left over from last year. Nope, it's the Man's... haha... just joking. partly.

But whosever fault it is...don't look. But look how my sweet little hydrangea. But don't look from the street at the whole house because if you do, you'll see one

BRIGHT blue/purple one and a BRIGHT pink one on the other corner.

I'm ok with that. For reals....No biggie at all.

grrr....

Nursery Finished Product {longest post EVER...beware}

So this was our guestroom that had one raspberry wall and the rest were taupe. It was an odd looking room really. We obviously do not know what sex or specific age of child(ren) we are getting so we had little to work with. I had always liked the idea of a vintage themed nursery/kids room because I have tons of toys and stuff left from when I was little.

So here it is ( oh some of the pictures are too dark...it was early in the morning when I took these.)

This is looking in from the doorway (our rooms downstairs are tiny like 10X10 i think). This is the LARGE window and our twin bed.

This is the bumper pad my mom made for the crib by s-i-l gave me (everything was pretty much given to us or we had).

We had extra of that soft bumpy material... so moma made a pillow out of it! I love that stuff!

Thanks Rach for the sweet little giraffe!

See how tight everything is! But it has turned out pretty cute!

The walls are this pleasant shade of yellow and then we just used lots of bright, fun colors for everything else. This rocking arm chair was my Nanny's and that little book shelf came from our church rummage sale. It's fun to think that Scott might have used that bookcase in Sunday School growing up!

My s-i-l also gave us this old armoire that looked pretty bad.

We painted it and got new knobs. We are still trying to decide if we should fix the doors or use fabric. What do you guys think?

I FELL in LOVE with this quilt when I saw it. So many different colors it is unreal! Perfect for a gender and age neutral room.

On the nightstand...old milkglass lamp that I had (iHEART milk glass) and Scott's VW Bug Night Light. Isn't it cute!

The framed pictures were just copied from our scanner/printer from an old children's book. My favorite part about them is that all the children are soo diverse in the pictures and we hope our family will be just as diverse someday!

This was my childhood rocking chair and Third birthday cake pillow made by my Mimi!

Again book case.

My Moma appliqued those flowers on that pillow.

I made the window "valance" out of fabric and pom pom trim. They turned out just how I hoped!

I'm pretty sure my Grandaddy made this stool for my brother and cousin. Isn't it darling?

I love how people used to take such GREAT care for their furniture and stuff. This chair is sooo many years old but looks new. This pillow is also old, but is one of my favorites!

The apple day shirt was scott's and the yellow dress was mine. I also put my baby bank up there, my old doll and our baby pictures.

My sweet friend sent me this hand-embroidered pillow for the door.

It has moons and stars all over it and says "Shh!"

Love it! Thanks Mer!

Well, that is it. Now let's fill it with some kiddos!