What if...

What if...

Wishing you all a beautiful weekend filled with many moments of joy.

Meet Heather from Beating Hearth ~ It's Inspiration Cafe Monday

Well, hello friends!  It is my great pleasure to introduce you to Heather from Beating Hearth.  So grab your favorite cup, fill it with some coffee or tea (I just might have to indulge in a frappuccino today), and let yourself be inspired to sew or quilt something cool....

Meet Heather!!!

Hi everybody! Thanks for visiting the Inspiration Cafe this week. My name is Heather fromBeating Hearth and I am the contributor who's in charge of inspiring you all to sew. I pretty much do it all, from quilting to crochet to embroidery to pillow cases and clothes. So, hopefully I can inspire you a bit to try one of the stitching arts and get crafty with your bad self.

My Crew

I am the sole non-redhead in the bunch. Yes, you can cry for me. Today I am going to try and get all you folks who are non-committal (and with good reason as getting equipped to quilt can be spendy!!) about quilting, to make a quilt. Come on, I don't want you to fully commit and get married to quilting or anything, but maybe just go on a blind date with quilting. Just see if maybe it's something you might be a bit more interested in. Quilting is quite handsome (or beautiful), and fun, and smart. Maybe a little different from what you've done before, but once you quilt, you'll never go back.

This is what I want you to make...at least it's the beginning of something I want you to make. These little beauties go by many different names, Hexies, hexagons, Grandmother's Garden, English Paper Piecing...but the great thing about them is you don't need much to make them. They're quick and easy to make and darn cute!  I am going to show you all the supplies you need and give you all the tips needed to create a beautiful and simple to make quilt. Please click here to continue reading... 

Beach Vibe Wall Shelves

I just finished two twine covered shelves for the dining room.  The twin cabinets on each side of the window needed something above them to fill the empty space.  (Shh, I know they're kinda short).  

I have a "small" collection of white ceramics...just things I've collected at thrift stores and received as gifts...and I love being able to display them.

I took two of these Plain Jane wall shelves in a cherry finish.

Nothing wrong with them...just a bit boring...

I grabbed a roll of twine and my trusty little glue gun and went to work on them.

I wrapped the twine horizontally all the way up the front and sides of the shelf and then continued to cover the top as well.  

I put a line of hot glue down then pressed the twine into the glue, keeping it as straight as possible.  When I got to the end of a row, I would simply turn the twine around and go back in the opposite direction.  Really simple.  I did this row after row until the surface was covered.  

It has a bit of a beachy vibe.

Here"s how the tops looked after adding the twine.  Cute, huh?

Then we hung them above the cabinets in the dining room.

(Actually, I tried to hang them and Scott came and finished for me.  He really saved the day because I was totally annihilating our freshly painted walls.  :)

I love them!!!  

I can't wait to play around with different arrangements up there.  For now I just threw my fish dishes up there because they went with the beachy vibe.   :)

Yummy Tacos de Lengua

Do you love Mexican food as much as I do?  It is one of my absolute favorites!  Spicy food is way up there on my list...just below chocolate and coffee.  :0

Tacos de Lengua are an authentic Mexican cuisine that you can easily make at home.

First you have to find the beef tongue at your local Grocers.  You will find them in the meat department at most grocery stores.  They may be somewhat off putting in appearance.  ;)   Sorry, but it's true.  If you haven't had tacos de lengua before try to get past that.  They are well worth the discomfort that comes from the thought!

My son likes to say something like...

"Wow, that's a HUGE tongue!  Are you really going to eat THAT???"

WHY, YES!  It's so GOOD!

Here's what you do:

Wait for it to cool enough to remove this layer without burning your fingertips!!  you might want to use a fork to help with this step.  It comes off really easy though. 

You can always add your favorite hot sauce if you like extra spicy!!

These are some of the most tender, juicy and flavorful tacos ever.  

I like to follow with a fresh squeezed margarita myself.  

Just kidding, I don't really make freshly squeezed margaritas.  I use a bottled mixer and and my favorite tequila and then squeeze a little fresh lime juice in for good measure!  

Yummy.

"disfrutar de su comida!"

Sprucing Up Our Summer Deck

Welcome to our back deck...

It's only about twelve feet deep.  It's our little fenced-in heaven.  Lol!  

Do you detect some humor?  Making the best of what we have here!

There was a little strip of lawn here when we moved in.  I love grass but it was slightly sloped and not really good for anything, except mowing.  So, when a friend ripped out their wood deck we claimed all of the used boards to create our own little deck area.  

If you've been around P3 before you've probably figured out we love to recycle, reuse, and re-purpose whatever we can get our hands on.  Not just from a save-the-universe-one-tin-can-at-a-time perspective...but our budget is pretty slim right now and we don't want to let that stop us from having a good time and enjoying our space.  

...And this is why we've been creating this little "oasis" in our teeny tiny backyard!

A blue and brass SCALE holds a couple of plants atop a chippy green tray.  

This shelf was a roadside rescue ~ I believe it was a printer stand in it's former life.  

(It may have a date with a can of spray paint eventually.)    :)

I did several things to minimize the appearance of our never-ending fence line and add some color and interest:

•  I hung an old multi-pane window, which I sprayed the back of with Krylon's Looking Glass Paint.      The Looking Glass Paint makes it look like an antique mirror.  
• I hung one of our homemade CABINET DOOR-TURNED CHALKBOARDS on one side of the window.
•  An empty blue frame surrounds a hanging flower pot on the other side.  

Love It!!! 

I am delighted with these new chair pads!  They're so comfortable.

They were made from some very inexpensive beach towels.  

If you would like to see how they were created click HERE.

Just off the deck to the right is our free Craigslist hot tub.  

BEST FREE ITEM EVER!!

It took Scott some time and energy to get it up and running, but it was definitely worth it.  I think he invested less than $200 in parts and that's it...a new heating element and some hoses.  Nice, huh!?

The blue tubing along the fence are blue rope lights.  They wrap around the dining area all the way around to the end of the pool.  They look amazing at night. 

We are enjoying the vibrant, cool blues and greens out here.

Those are acrylic plates from Freddie's...nothing fancy.  ;)

Don't have to worry about them getting broken.  :)

The gate leads directly to the swimming pool.  

It was FINALLY hot enough to go in today.  

Woohoo!!!

Speaking of the gate...it used to be somebody's front door.  

Scott salvaged it from a demo and cut off the top (window portion), then added hinges and a latch to create this funky gate.  

I caught him sanding away at the paint and quickly put a halt to that... 

He was getting rid of all of the good stuff!  

I'm going to make a cute sign to go on the front....

"POOL AREA" or something fun.

Here's Scott manning the grill while Sadie holds down the fort.  

She's never far when the aroma of BBQ is in the air!  

Oh how I love that dog.  

Don't worry...I saved her some trimmings!

What I'm Crushing On Today

To Do Lists

Radishes from our raised garden bed.

 Raised garden bed thriving.

Strawberries from our yard.

 

The buzzing of bees in the flowers.

A full truck load of scrap wood...on it's way elsewhere!

Inspiration Cafe ~ Meet Mary

It's Monday Morning and that means another edition of :



Today we are visiting with Mary,so without further adieu...


Welcome Mary!


(If you want to pin something please follow links to original post at Sweet Little Bluebird to do so for proper track back!  Thanks!)

Hi Everyone...


Welcome to my first post for Inspiration Cafe!
I'm so excited to be a part of this 
talented group of bloggers!  

I'm Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird ~ 


I'm a wife and mom to two sweet girls. 
Blogging is a new hobby of mine.  
I blog about fun things I stumble 
across in life and online.   
{You can learn more about me here.}  

   

Grab a cup of joe and let's get started!

  Today I'm sharing a yummy muffin recipe that can be made 

with or without eggs.  I have a little one with an egg allergy. 

I'm always searching for healthy and yummy recipes the whole family can enjoy.

This recipe is an adaptation from 

these strawberry banana muffins pictured below.  

I found the great recipe several weeks ago:

Banana Strawberry Muffins Recipe - EgglessCooking.com.  

Egglesscooking.com adapted the recipe from - JoyOfBaking.com.


Click the picture below to view my post for this yummy recipe:

I adapted the Strawberry Banana Muffin Recipe by using granny smith apples
instead of strawberries and adding a little more cinnamon.  
I also made mini muffins this time - perfect size!
These were a HUGE hit in our home!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup Melted Butter

1/2 cup Plain Yogurt (or 2 eggs)

1 cup Overripe Mashed Bananas (approx 2 large bananas)
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1 cup chopped Granny Smith Apples

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

3/4 cup  Light Brown Sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line muffin tin with paper liners and spray it lightly with non stick cooking spray.  I didn't have liners so I just sprayed the muffin tin.
2. In a small saucepan or microwave, melt the butter and set it aside until it cools down to room temperature.
3. In another bowl, mix yogurt, mashed bananas and vanilla extract.  Once the butter is cool, add it to this mixture.
4. In another large bowl, mix all dry ingredients {flour, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt}.  After they are mixed well, add the apples.   Make sure the apples are coated well.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter or else the muffins can become dense.
6. Fill each muffin cup with the batter (*see photo) - Recipe makes about 26 mini muffins. 
7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. 
8. Place muffins on a wire rack to cool.   
9.  Enjoy!

*I used a Pampered Chef medium size scooper,  

it holds the perfect amount for the mini muffins.

For these muffins, you overfill them - shown in the photo above.

Yummy served warm or cold!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for stopping by 

Inspiration Cafe!

Cheers! 

Mary