Sum Sum Summer!

I think it's been established that I love my backyard. It really is the pride of my whole house. It's a peaceful and calm escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. Although my backyard is wonderful, one side of it it was missing something. I have a detached garage that was just dying for some decoration. The paint is worn and OMP keeps telling me he is going to replace it, but so far I have thwarted his efforts. I love the way it looks and plan on keeping it that way for as long as I can.

I tried to figure out what to put over there and finally decided to mod podge some letters and spruce it up a little.

I found these letters at Michaels for 1.49 each. They are pressed wood and about 12 inches tall. I painted the edges and used scrap book paper for the front. I'm sure you could use fabric or any other paper if you wanted to.

I grabbed my outdoor mod podge and glued the letters to the paper. I could have cut the paper out first but it was easier for me to glue the letter to the entire piece of paper and then cut it out.

After my letter dried and I cut it out, I sanded the paper and the edges. This gave it a nice worn beach look. I outdoor mod podged the front of the letter. I let that dry and applied 3 coats of varnish (this was according to the directions of the bottle)

I hung up the letters outside and have had no problems with moisture getting between the letter and the paper. 

I am so happy with the way they turned out that I will be doing all seasons in the coming months. This craft was super easy, fairly cheap and you can make it as personal as you want. Plus, you get to brush up on your spelling skills!


Oh yeah...for all of you who wanted the rainbow skittle toes....

Rainbow Painted Toes

I'm not gonna hold back, the past couple of weeks someone has decided just to grind on my last nerve. They have pushed every button that I have and it finally got to the point to where I lost it. Yep. Happy Pam turned into Smashy Pam (not literally, but I felt like it). So, now that I have stepped back, I started thinking of things I can do instead of losing my temper. Here are a few I came up with.


Remove yourself from the situation. It is never ever selfish to take care of yourself first and make sure you are okay. Walking away from the anger and the hurt feelings sometime is the best thing you could ever do for a relationship-even with yourself.

Talk to your friends. I would especially find friends who agree with you.

 Look at cute animals. Do I really need to explain this? Cute animals cure all.

Write that person a letter but don't send it. Cuss the person out, tell them everything you have ever wanted to say, then get rid of it. Release that nastiness.

Practice your hula hooping, rope tricks, stitching, cocktail mixing-something that will take your mind off the crappy person and on fine tuning your circus skills (okay, this one might be just for me)

Remind yourself that the person/situation is just a speck of dust on your road map of life. You can brush it away and continue on your journey.  Keep thinking...just one speck of dust, one piece of sand, one pebble on the road.

Last, do something good for yourself, I highly suggest painting each of your toes a different color. It works wonders and makes you smile. How can you be angry with a rainbow?

I have done all these things and I feel a million times better. I'm not longer Smashy Pam but nice, calm happy Pam and this makes a happy OMP and happy pups. Don't ever let someone upset your or make you angry. Nine times out of ten, it's their deal. They are the dust, the sand, the pebble. You are the diamond, the pearl and the world. 

Tie One On Tuesday

Hey there hot sauce! Remember on Saturday when I made that yummy coconut whipped milk and I told you to save the water because we will be making drinks with it. Well, go grab that water cause the cocktail mixing is about to begin!

The easiest thing in the world to mix up and will be super yummy is coconut water and rum.

2 oz. rum
2-3 oz cold coconut water
Fill a glass with ice, add rum and water. Squeeze in some lime and there ya go! Instant cocktail!

Another great one is a coconut water Gin Old Fashion

2 ounces gin
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1/2 ounce coconut water
Lime peel, for garnish
Place sugar cube in the bottom of a low-ball, add bitters and coconut water then muddle until sugar dissolves.
Add gin, stir and fill with ice and garnish with a lime twist.

Both of the above cocktails are courtesy of Served Raw. There are a few other drinks on there worth checking out.

I couldn't find a lot of recipes using coconut water so I started thinking, what if I froze the water and used it in my juice and it was so yummy! I got some mango starfruit juice and added the ice. It gave it just enough tropical flavor without being overpowering. You could also use this for blending other frozen cocktails.

See how we used the whole can of coconut milk. Aren't you proud of yourself for not wasting anything? Maybe my next post should be how to use the can as a windsock.......hmmmmmm.....

Happy 4th of July!

Whew! I am recuperating from the rodeo last night, so bear with me if I'm a little slow on the draw today. I'll have to tell you about it later, but right now I'm here to talk about Independence Day, The 4th of July for us here in the United States. It's a day where our pride in our country swells, and our differences are put aside in order to come together and celebrate the lives and values we hold so dear to us.

Now I could go the normal route and talk about patriotic movies, but that's been done. So today I am going to feature the alien invasion movie. Outer space aliens try to  come to our country, nay, our planet and we kick butt! Sure they have technology and fancy ray guns, but we've got pride! We've got glory! We've got crazy notions that we could win an alien attack! You mess with one of us, you crazy alien, you mess with us all!

I have talked about this movie before but it really is one of my favorite campy movies. Plan 9 from Outer Space is a classic and I don't care what you say Ed Wood is not the worst director in the world. The worst director is that guy who directed all the Transformer movies and the other guy who directed the last Indiana Jones movie. Pee-Ewww! That is some stinky directing. Now, let's see, where was I? Oh yes, Plan 9 from Outer Space. Aliens resurrect the dead, make them zombies and try to take over the world.  Guess who stops them-that's right! A red-blooded American! Not only do we out-think those stupid aliens, but we also throw in a few punches for good measure. How dare those aliens call earthlings stupid. Would a stupid earthling scratch his head with his loaded gun? Would a stupid earthling say "there" 10 times in one sentence? Would a stupid earthling...okay, the alien was partially right, but this is a fun movie that I never get tired of.

This next little gem combines two of the worst things in the entire universe. Teenagers and alien invasions (insert scream here). Teenagers from Outerspace is a delightful little romp showing that our youth of today really can make a difference. They save their small town from the horrible teenage space aliens, who, by the way, want to feed us to their monster lobster pet! One of the alien invaders loves our country and our planet so much that he decides to help us and eventually wants to stay in the good ol' US of A.

Have you ever been to Chicago? Let me tell ya, don't mess with those people! They will cut you! Okay, not really but they are a strong group of people. If you don't believe me, just ask the aliens in Target Earth. What alien, in their right mind, would go to Chicago and rough it up? The only alien dumber than that is the one from that movie Signs. Your weakness is water and yet you come to a planet that is covered by 75% of the stuff? I'm glad we kicked your butt. Now, back to the Target Earth, a group of strangers have to come together to fight off an attacking alien force and defend the United States against any further invasion. There is a wonderful plot twist that makes this film rise a bit above the normal "B" alien movie and it definitely shows how the good old American spirit of helping your neighbor is one of our strong suits.

So, what have we learned on the Independence Day? Well, for one thing, we can make some pretty bad kitschy movies but more importantly than that, when faced with adversity, we rise above our petty differences and take care of the business at hand. In a time where we seem so divided, I take great pride in today, because we can come together as Americans and enjoy a bad movie! Happy 4th everyone, don't blow off an arm.

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

My friend Bascom reminded me of a wonderful passage about our pups:

People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice. Dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.

My friend Bex recently loss her wonderful Sadie. She was a beautiful girl who took care of Bex in the bad times and relished in the happiness of the good times.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Sadie but I can tell from the stories I've heard and from the pictures I've seen that she was a lover of fine cuisine.

A great big sister.

And a wonderful best friend.

As much sadness as it brings to our hearts that she is gone, I like to think that she is up in the big dog park in the sky playing with my little man Kato and other scrappy pups that have passed on but stolen our hearts.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace."

- Milan Kundera

Whip it Real Good!

I came across this brilliant idea from the Nutty Kitchen. They accidentally stuck the coconut milk in the fridge and in a few hours they had coconut cream. Crazy! Well, I just so happened to have a can of coconut milk in my pantry and thought I would give it a try. Here's my outcome.

The site suggested keeping the can in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Well, I have no patience at all, so I put it in for about 1/2 of that and still got cream. Remember! If you are going to do this, use whole coconut milk. I'm not even sure they make low fat coconut milk, if they do-they should be slapped for the stupidity of cutting calories on coconut milk.

After 12 to 24 hours your milk will separate and the cream rises to top (ain't that the truth) and you will have coconut water in the bottom. Save the coconut water, you can use it for cocktails at a later date.

Your can of coconut milk/cream will look like this.

Of course, you can take it right out of the can and apply it to strawberry shortcake, your coffee or whatever whip cream need you have. I however, wanted a bit more flavor to it, so I added a few more ingredients. The website where I found this did not give exact measurements so here's what I came up with.

1 can coconut cream ( you will actually get less of a can)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I started with 1/2 teaspoon and worked my way up)
2 tablespoons sugar (again working my way up, you can add more if you want it sweeter)
Cinnamon powder to taste

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour on your favorite shortcake. The end result will be more pudding like, which was really nice but if you want it more whipped cream, stick it back in the fridge for a little bit to harden it up. Either way, it is wonderful and has a very light taste.  It was an amazing tasty addition to the strawberries and I can't wait to try it in my coffee tomorrow.

Feel Good Friday!

From pinterest via tumbler via...

Oh Friday! You make me so happy. You make me smile and feel like a silly 80's song.

 Picture courtesy of AlwaysInspired (because mine sucked)

See this little guy? He's MINE all MINE! Yep! He is Leopold the Lion Tamer and he is here to help me join the circus. I've got my hula hooping down (did I tell you I bought a hula hoop) and now I just need to teach the dogs to jump through it. You would think it would be easy, yeah, you would think. Anyhoo, this lovely man comes courtesy of AlwaysInspired. I know I keep singing her praises but she truly rocks my world.

I don't understand why my dad puts this out every time I come over.  PS-If anyone knows the site or who this came from, please let me know. I found it on pinterest and really want to make one for my house.

Oh puppy, have I felt your pain.


Lion tamers, rude door mats and silly puppy, Yep! My day is complete. Oh wait, I'm sure I could use one more thing...like this pink dress.

 My Vintage Studio has many more beautiful dresses on her flickr.

Ah....that's much better! Now  I can sit back, enjoy the sunset, and watch the pups run around. Yep, it's one Feel Good Friday.

Shake Your Bunt

I love banners, buntings and pennants. They are so cute and can be seem to have made a come back. They are everywhere! I decided that I wanted to do something for 4th of July and a bunting/banner turned out to be the perfect decoration. They are so easy to make! I made mine without sewing (since my machine died). I wish I had done step by step pictures to show you how easy it is to create. Trust me-anyone make one!

 Materials
1/2 yard of 3 different fabrics
1 package of quilt binding
fusible webbing/interfacing


The first thing I did was pick out the fabric I wanted to use. I wanted red, white and blue, but not the boring traditional images. I found three different fabrics with three different designs.
 
Next, I made a triangle template. Mine is 7 inches at the top and 8 inches on the sides.

Now cut out your triangles

After I've placed my triangles out to the length and placement I want. I took my fusible interfacing and ironed the triangle between the quilting binding.

The bunting looked pretty plain to me so I decided to make little rosettes for the side. That was equally as easy and only took a few hand stitches.

Easy Peasy! You have a beautiful bunting for your next holiday or just to hang around the house. I can't wait to make my next one. It is a perfect way to get rid of scraps. Now, if the weather would just cooperate, I can hang it up outside. C'mon mother nature! Work with me!

Conversations of Love

I should tell you before I start this conversation, that I bought some sidewalk chalk for the summer. No reason, I just wanted it. I LOVE my sidewalk chalk. With that out of the way...the following is a real conversation between myself and OMP.


OMP: Hey! I said I love you and I get nothing?
Me: I wrote Pam +OMP in chalk on the sidewalk, what more do you want?
OMP: You didn't write 4EVER
Me: I thought that was assumed
OMP: I'm taking back my "Love You"

The Only Ship is Friendship

You wanna know what the best kind of ship there is...it's friendship. Okay, everyone give a collective "awwwwww" Okay, now that we got that overly sweet crap out of the way, let's talk about friends. My friends rock my world! I love them so dearly and wish they were closer so I could shower them with kisses. To honor my friends, here are a few of my favorite buddy movies. 

Son of Rambow is a delightful British comedy about two young boys who decide to make a home movie based on Rambo. It's a story of how differences can be disregarded when you have a common goal, making the best Rambo knock off ever. 

One of my all time favorite movies that I can watch over again and I find myself quoting on a frequent basis is The Sandlot. A wonderful summer friendship movie about baseball, rowdy dogs and a lifeguard named Wendy. It's funny, sweet and is wonderful for the whole family. It doesn't matter if you are a boy or girl, man or woman, you will find yourself in one of the many characters. 

 Sticking true to my old movie roots, the last friendship film is more of a buddy comedy than just a friendship movie. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby did several films together but none as great as Road to Morocco. It has everything I love, Bing Crosby, singing, super cute girl with the best hairstyles and clothes (even in the middle of the desert). Of course there isn't any underlying theme here and a lot of it is tongue and cheek but it's fun-and isn't that what friendship is all about. 

Now grab that BFF of yours, a box of jujube's, one of these great movies and prepare for laughter, tears and lots of hugs-cause that's what friendship is all about. Well, that and bailing them out of jail...Now that's real friendship.

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

Holy macaroni! This weekend has been a little trying. Sometimes the world is an angry, scary place. When I feel overwhelmed by being "out there", I take a step back, breathe, and remind myself that 1) that certain people and situations are small compared to the grand scheme of life and 2) I really should adopt my dogs' philosophy of life. I'm pretty sure they have it all figured out.

 Take a step back, breathe, and reflect

Surround yourself with the ones you love (naps are the best way to do that!)

  Do something fun

 Speak your mind if you need to




Most of all, Relax, enjoy the ride, and make silly faces

Feel Good Friday!

Check out Gayana on etsy. Awesomeness!

Doing the happy Friday dance or should I say the happy Friday hula hoop! Yep! I have reverted back to my childhood and bought a hula hoop today. Let me tell ya, it was a lot easier when I was eight. Guess what? I didn't stop there-I got me some sidewalk chalk too and I've been drawing hearts and flowers all over the drive way. It's pretty awesome!


I have two friends and they are both AWE-SOME (said in my best Oprah voice), Alwaysinspired  and Digital Misfit, both of which have frequented the pages of this blog. Okay, where was I? Let's see...friends, blog....oh yeah-Alwaysinspired made Jacques for Digital Misfit and I instantly fell in love.  Don't tell OMP, but I may have to leave him for Jacques....

I was inspired by fun.kyti.me's birthday in a box, so I made a Luau picnic basket. It was so easy and you can find my tutorial on Craftster.org.

I LOVE mod podge! I think I want to mod podge everything around the house. It's a good thing the dogs are constantly moving. Mod Podge Rocks! is an awesome blog with super cool projects.

Okay you crazy kids, I would love to sit here and chat all night but I've got hula hooping to do. I figure in a week I will be an expert and the pups will be able to do some tricks so we can run off and join the circus.

picture courtesy of srslycute.com

If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.
Win Borden

Vroom! Vroom!

My dad, he's a little nutty. No seriously, he's a funny man. He also is a man who loves car racing. I can't fault him for that, he used to do demolition derby when I was a kid, and that makes him even cooler than you can imagine. So, when the cars are not racing, he is probably watching these movies.

I'm pretty sure the one thing that my dad loves as much as racing is the ladies. Oh yeah! This little 76 year old man is a flirt and he can get away with it cause, he's a cute little 76 year old man. Anyhoo, Heart Like a Wheel tells the real life story of Cha Cha Muldowney, one of the first women in professional drag racking. The movie has amazing racing scenes and Bonnie Bedelia does an amazing job as Cha Cha. It is heartbreaking and inspirational at the same time.

You don't have to worry about watching Nascar, just pop in Talladega Nights and you have the next closest thing to Jeff Gordon's race car (he's a driver, in case you didn't know). This movie has the best 12 year old humor I have ever seen. I'm sorry, but I just can't help watching it again and again. For most of us who grew up in the south, this wasn't a movie-it was a documentary.

Last on the list is Le Mans. The main reason I mention this movie is 1-Steve McQueen, ME-OW and 2-we had a Pontiac Le Mans when I was a kid that we called the Blue Goose. I really miss that old car. It was awesome. Anyhoo, McQueen plays Michael Delaney, a race car driver who caused a big wreck, killing one person and injuring himself. He goes back to Le Mans to prove he can still win and in some strange way, redeem himself.

There ya go dad and race car fans! Movies to tie you over until the next race, be it on the track or to the fridge. Vroom! Vroom!

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

Today is Father's day and so I thought I would turn it over to Pete so he can express his undying love to his daddy.

Dear Dad~
You rescued me from a world of loneliness and sadness...

You take me on walks or as I like to call them, Boing! Boing!


You keep me safe and give me a nice belly to snuggle into

But most of all, you love me, despite my barking when the wind blows, eating fuzz off the floor, pooping in front of the garage and peeing in your studio. You never gave up on your little man, and I won't ever give up on you. I love you dad, happy father's day!

Salivating Saturday

Ahhhh...good friends, where would I be without the wonderful people in my life? They lift my spirits, make me giggle and give me a shoulder to cry on. Take my friend Becky for example, she made me the cutest cowboy pups and so to honor and thank her-I'm gonna make some tropical chocolate banana bread for her. Here's the only problem, she lives on the east coast and I live on the west coast. I guess I will just have to enjoy it for her-it's the thought that counts right?

Pam's famous friendly coconut, chocolate banana bread or...PFFCCBB for short.
1 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack to middle position.
Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.Set aside.
In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon,nuts and coconut.
In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, vanilla and coconut.
With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky.(The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth.Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.)
Scrape batter into prepared pan.
Bake until bread is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes

This bread will win you friends and definitely keep the ones you have-even the ones thousands of miles away.

Feel Good Friday!

via shaderlab

Happy day after my birthday! YAHOO! I survived turning 41. I can't believe it! While I enjoy the last piece of birthday cake, you enjoy these wonderful Friday finds.

Ummm....yeah....THIS IS STINKING CUTE! A little mouse in a little pant suit. Are you kidding me? That's it, I'm dead. Feltedmice is absolutely wonderful.


Speaking of wonderful, last week I won a contest from Ruby Jean. I got all sorts of goodies from the Asian market. The best part-it came on my birthday. The very best part-It's all pink! PS-I really think I need one of her aprons. Check out her fab store.

Speaking of shopping, I love these necklaces from Lily Loves Bernie

Picture from my pinterest via sodahead.com

So, I usually fill this space with some cute little animal, but today you get happiness at it's finest. Nothing better than a friend and a silly picture to save the memory.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and thank you for the birthday wishes!

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer