Weekend in Portland

It seems as if it has been raining ( buckets of it ) for weeks now.. and it has not been that bad... not really.  Friday we took off for Portland with a stop over at my parents house.. and it did rain cats and dogs all the way there. Traffic was horrible and it took us forever.  People .. Turn on your lights if you are driving in the rain... it truly increases your chances of being seen and not ran over.  It was so grey.. and wet but the Space Needle was still looking awesome!

Finally made it to my parents and had a wonderful dinner and visited... we spent the night there and had a great relaxed visit in the morning before we headed out... in the rain.. for Portland.  We finally were able to stop and check out a log furniture store we had been wanting to see... it was a nice place.... we stopped at a lot of places this weekend that we have driven past many times and it was either too late or we were in a hurry. It was great.... found the chrome shop, it was closed, but we know we want to stop when we can.. and we found a couple of great train/hobby shops in Portland.  

One of the best things that happened was that as we drove over the river into Oregon.. it stopped raining... so we were able to do all our running around and stay dry.  Even found a little sign of Spring 

Saturday night we stayed in Salem and had dinner at Adam's Rib Smokehouse and it was so good!  Dave had the turkey and I had the ham and we switched up half way through... oh yeah some of the best smoked meat I have had in a long time!

Sunday we headed to the Garden show.. which was the whole reason for being in Portland... I had won some tickets from Linda of Steider Studios .. she had a giveaway to try to get more people to her facebook page.. so.. if you are interested in Pacific Northwest Artists.. or Beautiful glass work... this is her facebook page Here and her shop is Here  She has hand made buttons, bowls, platters, garden ornaments, bracelets and so much more! The treasure box above shows off one of the things I loved while looking at her stuff.. she explained how she draws on the glass with the gold.. it is so much more beautiful in person even. 

We saw so many things we liked and would love to work into the yard.. and we saw great ideas for lots of things we want to make :)

 Love this big bulky table and mismatched chairs

Fun Lanterns

I am really excited to start thinking about the back yard... I do understand that it will be 5 years or so until I really can start adding in things like lanterns... but.. I am still excited and making my lists :)

~Michelle

Happy Valentine Cookie Love

Last year I made these for Valentines day... this year Dave and I are over 130 lbs less than we were last year.. so I will not be making these.  When there are more than two of us in the home to help eat them.. I will make them again :)  I could not just let Valentines day go by without some cookie love though so I thought I would share these with you :)  Have a wonderful day!!

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe... well one of them! This one is really easy and always taste great.

Mix together

1/2 cup ( one cube ) softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla *you could add a little bit of another flavor.. almond is so good.. peppermint for Christmas*
1 egg

add in

2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

I put it in the fridge for a little bit ( while I get the sprinkles ready ) just to make it a little easier to handle.

Drop by spoon (small.. cookie will be about double the size) onto the cookie sheet and then using the bottom of a glass you have dipped in the sprinkles to flatten the dough with.

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes, you want to catch them just before they start to brown.


You can use a heart shaped cookie cutter.... then try the butter cream recipe from java cupcakes to frost them. They are so good! I am not used to decorating anything, having as many kids as I did it was about how many I could make and how fast.. they could eat them faster than I could cook them.. and they could care less what they looked like. So I need a bit more ( ok a lot ) practice with my decorating.

Dad uses Facebook to teach daughter a lesson

Dad uses Facebook to teach daughter a lesson: A 15-year-old puts up a Facebook post bashing her parents for making her work too hard, dad reacts by posting a video response to her grievances on her Facebook page.

This dad is awesome!! I am so disgusted with how many parents think it is their "job" to be their childs best friend. They let their children do whatever they want.. be rude and mean and hurtful. Use the cover of "expressing themselves" or some such BS. Parents who allow their children to run free on facebook and twitter and in real life. It breaks my heart to see so many children not being taught respect.. for others or for themselves. When my kids were growing up.. and still ... I have always been known as the bitchy mom... my house always has had rules...and I followed through with consequences and often my kids did not like me at all... at times they picked going to their dads where there was no rules.. but now they are all over 18... and all moved out doing their own things and paying their own bills.. and I am able to work on real friendships with them.. because I worked hard at always being their mom first.. my Job was to teach them to be adults... to be able to think and manage their own lives... to be independent.. to keep them safe.. not only from others but from themselves. When we as parents do not do the job we signed up for when having children.. we teach them a lot more than we think.. and none of it is good... our children know we quit on them.. they know we are failures... that we just did not care enough to put in the work... when you do a half ass job.. no matter the job.. it comes back to hurt you and every one involved. We as parents will make mistakes.. but we always need to do our best.. we need to teach by example.


The dad Tommy has posted some updates to the first video and you can read on his facebook page  Here 

*This is my blog and my opinions on parenting.. based on my experience growing up and raising kids .... if you do not agree that is your right.

Dessert on Sticks part 2

Yesterday I made more cake pops.. last batch here... trying out all the to see which ones will be best for sisters wedding.... These both get my vote for Yes!

I used a confetti cake mix... with a cream cheese to mix it up and hold it together. In half I added some coconut and then dipped in white chocolate and then coconut and the other half I did with no coconut and just dipped in sprinkles. I would not do the valentine sprinkles for sisters wedding.. but since I am giving away this match and it happens to be close to Valentines day I thought this would be fun. Dave said that they taste like the pink and white frosted animal cookies.. but in cake and on a stick... well they do.. and those cookies have always been one of my favorites.

So now I have made... chocolate peanut butter cake balls.. .. just chocolate ones.... dipped Oreos... and dipped peanut butter cookies...S'mores..... then confetti cake in white chocolate.. with and without coconut. I am thinking I will skip the peanut butter cookies.. the chocolate peanut butter cake balls are already a for sure...I am thinking I want to do a chocolate mint cake ball.. thinking of wrapping the cake around a jr mint... also have thought of a wrapping it around a rolo... I am thinking of maybe a fruity cake... strawberry.. maybe... I am not sure.. What flavor combo would you love??

Back Yard Oasis

Love this site www.BlueWheelBarrow.biz and anything we do not end up doing ourselves I will be calling them about.. they just do amazing work and are awesome people! They have some great information on their blog too about native plants.

The house is all finished... it is our castle now... and the shop is in the finishing stages. Was almost starting to feel lost without a new project to be focusing on. This weekend we started really talking about the back yard and the plans we have for it. We have not done much in the yard in the last 5 years... we did clean up the parking areas.. lined them with rail road ties and filled in with gravel and rock. Cleaned it up and gave it some definition.. looks great but we have so many more things we want to do. We basically have 3 sections to the yard... the driveway and parking area.... the front yard.. and the back yard. The driveway/parking area is mostly done.. needs a bit more gravel.. every 3 year or so.. also would love to get some of it paved some day.. but that is a long ways off in the future. The front yard... that is going to be a lot of grass and some work along the front of it to give it some curb appeal.. but... not in a hurry for that either. The back yard... we have big plans here.. going to turn it into a whole other living area :) Well that is our plan at least. We started with the fence.... need to get that finished.. then we will build a deck area and a patio area .. put in a new hot tub... lot of native plants and walk ways and a trellis. We are just in the planning stages of it and talking about it stages... We will start working on it.. already have started with the fence... and we need to get that finished and get the big huge monster ugly trees out of the yard this spring.... not sure how long the rest will take... but it feels good to have a new project to really start thinking about now that the shop is getting close to finished :) Now I can start collecting photos of the yard I want.. and start thinking about what plants we want in it.. want to keep it native so if we leave for a few weeks in the summer we do not need to worry about watering it or mowing it... just the front yard will need mowing. We will have lots of water features and some fire... different areas to just hang out in listen to the birds and watch the sunset... sit around a table and play cards in the evening... enjoy a bbq with friends... roast some marshmallows over the fire pit... lol doing a lot of dreaming here... not only of the back yard we will be creating.. but of spring and summer and time spent outside just relaxing and enjoying each other and our lives. If you follow me on Pinterest you will see all the photos I am pinning for my backyard plan.. if you need a pinterest invite.. just send me an email Michelle_Ballard@hotmail.com and let me know you want one..I will send an invite back :)


Found this photo on www.penick.net where there are a few with the type of look I want.