Flowers, Easter and a Birthday Boy

 My honey surprised me with these lovely flowers!

Wisteria...  

makes me think of my Papa, his patio is covered in it. Whenever I go to visit I can usually find him out there. When it's in bloom there's nothing more beautiful than sharing in some good talks and listening to the gentle hum of the bees. 

A few pictures from Easter

The kids loved their bubble guns from Grandma and Grandpa

Lillian in her eyelet dress

Shane was a smiley boy on his 5th Birthday at preschool. He planted green beans that morning in the garden near the playground, then hammered nails into wood with his class as they learned about construction from another student's dad that came for show and tell. His class sang and prayed for him, we shared homemade cake pops and dad surprised him with balloons. We are looking forward to his Lego Star Wars party this weekend!

Linen Ruffle Wreath

Here is where I found the inspiration and tutorial for my wreath 

http://jonesdesigncompany.com/decorate/a-spring-wreath/ 

My thought process after scrolling through the pictures, I can make a ruffle, I can make that wreath!

 picture from

  http://jonesdesigncompany.com/decorate/a-spring-wreath/ 

 In the tutorial she uses a 10" foam wreath, I chose a 12" and added an extra ruffle. Making the ruffles was the easy part and took no time. I happened to make my ruffles separately and missed the step needed to sew them all together to make one long continuous ruffle, this probably would've been easier, but was no problem to do after reading through the directions;). The part I found challenging was getting the ruffles somewhat of an equal distance apart from each other and trying to angle them just so without having them slide, I ended up using a small dot of hot glue to secure each ruffle in place. I made a very simple bow and also hot glued it to the wreath.

I saw an idea like this on pinerest and thought it was adorable!

I used tall clear treat bags that I had on hand from packaging Christmas cookies. I tossed some cotton balls inside the sugar cones not wanting to waste my precious peanut butter M&Ms where they wouldn't be seen, so it would give me more to inhale later that night while I was up making my wreath
( those suckers are dangerous!)

I like the pop of spring cheeriness these projects brought to our home!

Our puppy Maddie snoozing away under the kitchen table.

The Lilly Magnolia tree we planted a few years ago,

is now one of my favorite first signs of spring. 

Which reminds me

Image from http://southernpiphi.tumblr.com

Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe comes from the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook. It requires a little extra work,  grating  the carrots and chilling the dough, but its end result is absolutely worth the effort! They are a fun twist on an old classic, this cake like cookie gets a slightly chewy texture with help from oatmeal, and its cream cheese frosting is just divine! I can't wait to share these tiny inside-out carrot cakes with our friends and family! 

I've linked the recipe at the bottom of the page, enjoy:).

Happy Easter!  

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.marthastewart.com/259010/carrot-cake-sandwich-cookies

http://www.marthastewart.com/282958/cream-cheese-frosting