Hanging Dish Towels

My grandmother has been calling everyone she knows, from Indiana to Texas, looking for hanging dish towels. You can't find them in the stores anymore. My mom and I looked at a few stores and couldn't find them so we decided to make some ourselves. I didn't have a pattern so I just threw it together and this is what we came up with. We are working on a tutorial and hopefully I'll have it up tomorrow.

I ♥ Faces Week 20 Entry

This is my entry for the I ♥ Faces week 20 contest. This week's theme is silhouettes. I took this photo on the 4th of July in 2005. It is my sister Dejah and her middle son Dylan.



Please jump on over to I ♥ Faces and check out the other awesome entries!

Day Trippin

photo by Mom

Mom got into town yesterday afternoon. After I arrived home from work we had dinner and decided to do a little exploring. We were in the mood for frozen custard so we headed down to Ted Drewes. Ted Drewes is a frozen custard stand on Old Route 66. People here rave about how good it is and we were hopeful that it would live up to the hype when we saw the full parking lot and tons of people standing in line. I ordered a Southern Delight concrete which has butterscotch and praline pecans. Mom got the Fox Treat which has raspberries, fudge, and macadamia nuts. Neither one of us was very impressed. Honestly I'd rather have Dairy Queen. There is a little custard stand called Fritz's Frozen Custard about 10 minutes up the road that I like a lot more.

This morning we woke up to the smell of sausage frying and biscuits baking. Brian was attempting his first batch of biscuits and gravy. They were delicious! It took me a few tries to get biscuits and gravy right, but he did it right on the first try.

We decided to head over to Grafton, IL and take in the scenic drive along the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway. In Grafton we stopped at a flea market and mom bought a jar of homemade salsa. It was really spicy but very tasty. After the flea market we continued west to Pere Marquette State Park. We took the scenic drive through the park and it had a few little lookout stops along the way. It was very pretty. We kept heading west on the byway and found a waterfowl resting area. We saw a few herons and a lot of geese.


photo by Mom





Just before Grafton there is a large bluff. There is a gigantic painting of the Piasa bird. There is a little parking lot where you can pull over and read the legend surrounding the painting. Very neat!




We saw a sign on the main road pointing toward a wildlife reserve. We decided to check it out. Along the way we passed a few cows. That was about as wild as it got.





On the way back to Missouri we stopped at a roadhouse called Fast Eddie's Bon Air. It is in Alton, IL just across the river from St. Louis. It is pretty famous around here. Their food is same price that it was when they began serving food 15 years ago. You can get 1/2 pound cheeseburgers for $1.29. Tenderloin steak on a stick for $3. Homemade Bratwurst for $.99. Pork Kabobs for $1.99. The food is really good and though we had to wait awhile for our food it was worth the wait. They actually served the food very quickly. We just had 63 orders in front of ours. We were there for an hour and they had served over 100 orders. It was much more deserving of the hype than Ted Drewes.



We took Old 94 back through Old Town St. Charles. Downtown St. Charles is a cobblestone street that has tons of shops and restaurants. On Saturdays they have actors in period costumes walking up and down the street. They had a juggler and a clown as well as a man playing the bagpipes. We stopped at the Old Towne Spice Shoppe and I bought some really good red pepper and garlic seasoning. We also went to a quilt store, a candy and ice cream shop, and a few other little shops.

Tonight mom and I are going with one of my friends from work to see the new Star Trek movie at an IMAX theater. I'll let you know how it was tomorrow. All in all it was a great day!

allPopart.com Canvas Art Giveaway!

Hey! I ♥ Faces are giving away a free photo print on canvas from allpopart.com
Check out their website to enter to win. All of their products look really cool!

I ♥ Faces Week 19 Entry

I am entering this photo in the I ♥ Faces week 19 "Blurb Photo Book" contest. I chose this photo because I think it is one of my best shots of my nephew Jalen. I asked him to give me a "rocker dude" pose and this is what he came up with.



"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

Awesomeness!

Well my entry into the I ♥ Faces adult category won second place! What makes it even cooler is that the winning entries were chosen by Ree from The Pioneer Woman. She's an awesome photographer and I really admire her work. The winning photo in the contest was posted by Jennifer Urbin and was gorgeous. I love the looks on their faces. You can tell they were having a blast and the photo really tells a story. Good job Jennifer!

I ♥ Faces Entry Week 18- Laughter (Adult)

I took this photo of Dejah last year at the Indiana State Fair. She rode the drop tower and at the end she was laughing so hard. I couldn't quite tell if she was gonna laugh or throw up. Either way it made for a great expression! I am entering this in the I ♥ Faces week 18 contest. Click on the link and check out some of the other great entries!

I ♥ Faces Entry Week 18- Laughter

Last year Dejah and I took Dylan to the Indiana State Fair. We had a blast. This photo was taken on the way up to the top of the ferris wheel. Dylan just laughed and laughed. I am entering this photo in the I ♥ Faces week 18 contest. Take a look at their website to see all of the other great entries!

Vegetables

I really need to get my garden going. When I started my seeds I planned on making raised beds and using the "Square Foot Gardening" method. Money is an issue these days so I will be using the "I'm gonna dig a hole in the ground and stick the plant in it" method. Buying all of the soil parts and the wood would cost around $100. I can borrow a tiller from Brian's aunt for free.

My plants have grown pretty well but I think it is time to get them in the ground. I thought I was going to lose a lot of them because while I was hardening them off it rained really hard and pretty much flattened them. But the next day they bounced back. You can really smell the basil and tomato plants when you walk out my back door. Our next door neighbor started getting her beds ready for tomatoes today. So I think I will work on that in the next few days.

Kamikaze Taliban Squirrels

Brian and I went shooting today with his dad in Columbia, Illinois. Both Brian and his dad bought deer rifles recently and they needed to sight them in. We went to his dad's step-nephew's friend's house where he has quite a bit of land and plenty of room to shoot safely. It was way out in the country and there were tons of rolling wheat fields and pretty horses and cows. I am kicking myself for not bringing my camera! The guy was really nice and he had targets already set up and we were shooting into the side of a hill so I felt safe that we weren't going to hit anyone. Brian brought along his .22 and I shot that because it isn't very loud and it doesn't kick at all. I shot a few rounds from an ak-47 but it is too loud and kicks too hard. Not to mention I can't hit the target with it.

I didn't do too bad with the .22 rifle. It is used mainly to hunt small game like squirrels and rabbits. So should any errant squirrels or rabbits bent on world domination come near me I could take their head off (or at least put a small hole in it) at 30 yards.