Ice cream cakes are the sweetest!

Yeah! Cake! A birthday cake I made for our daughter. It was so very yummy! This recipe can be adapted to fit many dietary needs. Enjoy!

Easy as Pie Ice Cream Cake
Making an ice cream cake at home is very simple. These easy to follow directions will have you enjoying a cool and refreshing treat very soon!
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A day trip to South of the Border

                            Hello Pedro

We recently visited the South of the Border (SOTB). The much advertised tourist stop located in Dillon, SC along I-95 offers services, food and entertainment. It is known as America’s favorite highway oasis and is home to Pedro. What started as a simple roadside stand selling alcohol to dry counties across the border continues to thrive with shops, cafes and more on both sides of Highway 301 North. This year they are celebrating 60 years of soothing weary drivers, entertaining bored kids and providing a temporary home with a motel and Pedro Land for campers (RV and tents).  Happy Anniversary SOTB!

The SOTB trip is just one of the day trips we took this summer. Visits to places that require one tank of gas and a picnic are one of our favorite treats. Those hokey small town festivals, crafts fairs and bazaars are other day trips I like and take drag the family along on! It’s good to spend time together as a family. I know this sounds really simple, but check your schedules and see how often that happens. I don’t think it’s often enough.

While at SOTB we roamed through the many gift shops checking out all of the border items. If you’re in need of a snazzy looking sombrero then this is the place for you. There are even matching ones for your pet! After shopping, we enjoyed some time in the arcade. We all like to play air hockey and Skee-ball and the competition gets heated at times. We then had a lovely lunch at The Sombrero Restaurant. The food was delicious with large portions and the beverages were very cool and refreshing as the temperature was close to 100 degrees on the day of our trip.

My only disappointment that day was that we did not get to ride the Sombrero Tower! This is one of the things I really like to do when we visit. There’s nothing like seeing the sun set over Pedro’s place. However, when we were ready to go up it was closed for maintenance! We needed to get back home..... so maybe with the next visit we will make it up to the top of the big hat! Oh, the hat shop was a real hoot! We had a ball trying on a lot of crazy head covers!

Now, some people that read this post and have also been to SOTB might say,”What?? Are you talking about the same old, run down, hokey place I know?” Yes, that would be one in the same! :) Over the years it did become somewhat run down, but now they are making changes and adding new stuff. Hopefully SOTB will make it another 60 years!

I have been stopping at the border since I was a little girl. We would be off on a family vacation to some NC mountain destination and as soon as we began to see the famous roadside signs we would get excited. Got to love Pedro’s signs! Begging cries would begin and soon either Daddy was aggravated enough or most likely...... uh..mm.....thirsty enough to stop. Of course, with a family of six jammed into a Volkswagen Bug it didn’t take much to get excited about being released from our tin can stretching our legs. So, the long and short of it is that I first saw the border as a little girl who was very bored, squished, hungry, rocking cause I had to pee and trapped somewhere near the floorboard. My heart was sold!

Next time we’ll check out the Reptile Lagoon and make it to the top of the big, red sombrero!

If you would like to visit South of the Border more information can be found here.

reading

Chesapeake: A Novel

Wondering what a day on the bay at the Steed Plantation would have been like. Bear grease for burns? What a distance we have come.

when monkey mind meets paint

What may look like a jumbled mess to one may look like a ship with her sails in the wind to another. Life is sort of like that too. First impressions are often the only thing discovered by some about others. It's a shame we don't look closer and find the talented, funny, sad or lonely soul that hides within.

This is me playing around with color! I know many of you have colored something similar as a child. :) Well, this is just one of the ways I like to start a picture. Here, it just happens that I'm painting with my mouse! I also do this when using colored pencil and acrylics.

Here I start with a crazy paint picture! I flip it a bunch and then I find the treasure that's hidden there waiting for me to unlock it!





This is the what I found in the crazy paint picture. Can you see the vases or vessels?

                                Vessels Of Three

Vessel: a container (as a cask, bottle, kettle, cup, or bowl) for holding something .

2 Corinthians, 4:7 - But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Peace! JJ

Playing with cats - The wet ones!

                    Bath time for the felines.

This is Tiger.

Before bath. She's a happy cat!

After bath. Not so happy!

Much later. Recovered and dancing to the music!

A very happy Tiger!

This is Bus.

Before bath. She is always hungry!

After bath. Hmm..not hungry!

Clean and fed. A happy Bus!

just me and a tree...

Here's a peek at the latest progress of my TreeA art project. I know it may not stand out, but there has been change. I've worked on this for some time now. Little by little this tree is growing! Art is great therapy for what ails you!

What grows...

Before

  

After 

Sunny Weather!

Oh, where have you been my friend? I've missed you so much I painted a picture of you. It's so good to see you again! Come on Spring!

Keeping a eye on you!

So, most girls love diamonds. I love pillows. This is one I made today. On the Today show they had a segment on making an eyeball t-shirt. What a fun craft it would be to make a shirt for Halloween. The episode did inspire me to make this "keeping an eye on you" pillow. It was a fun and inexpensive project. This pillow is made from old jeans and fabric paint. The reverse side of the pillow is an eye drawn in black permanent ink with the words "I love you" forming the eye. I can't wait to try another!

Goodbye Summer! Hello Fall!

Summer is bidding farewell and Fall is well on the way!

Just a few of my favorite things.

 

Outdoors - blazing heat, waving flags and shadows

 
 

 my little yellow rose, always standing tall, full of beauty

 

the beach..sand, water and loads of fun

 

As the crispness of fall arrives I look forward to Halloween, walks in the woods, fall colors and family celebrations! Good Times!

Magazine stool

What do you get when you're finished reading all of those magazines? A stool. This one is made of six magazines total ( the best paper page quality, can you guess which mag?) Trimmed with denim and topped with padding made from cotton fabric and cording. This was a fun project to make. Tiger, my trusty assistant, is inspecting the final outcome. She approves!

Wii is so much fun!

I have been busy playing my new Wii and I haven't posted anything new since getting it.

The games are great fun! Everyone wants to play, so I've been busy with a little competition. Well, blog I promise to post something new soon!