Come Back Giveaway

If any of my blogger friends want a chance to win my brother's CD, Come Back, HERE is your chance!

Butterfly Bananza!

A few days ago, my eldest sister got me some more fabric paint... oh yea! I'm lovin this :). And Mary (11yo) had a yellow spotted shirt that she wanted me to paint to cover up the spots.

It's kinda crazily nutty, but I had to make sure I got all those spots.

Have an awesome day everyone!

Taco Casserole...

Yup. I'm going to share a recipe with y'all entitled Taco Casserole. It is very simple and easy to make and yet awesome-ly tasty.

Taco Casserole:

-1 & 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey

-1/4 cup McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix

-1 15-16 oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

-1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce

-1 11- oz. can Mexican style corn or whole kernel corn, drained

-1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

-1 cup coarsely crushed tortilla chips

-Assorted toppings: sour cream, sliced green onions, shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes (optional)

+Preheat the oven to 400* F.

+Brown meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain off the fat.

+Stir in season mix, beans, tomato sauce and corn. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer for 5 minutes.

+Spoon the mixture into a 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and tortilla chips.

+Bake for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted

+Serve with assorted toppings, if desired

-->Makes 12 servings.

Before baked:

After baked:

I'm digging in folks!!

Credit:

{Costco Wholesale, Home Cooking The Costco Way, Seoul, David W. Fuller, 2009. Print.}

Photo Contest...

Grace @ A tinge of blue, a speck of red, a patch of green is hosting a photography contest. The theme of this contest is 'simplicity'. Here is the simply-simple photograph I am entering...

Stylish Squares

Do you want to know how to turn an ordinary white t-shirt into something with pizazz? Well, today I'm going to show you how you can restyle any shirt within your reach, using an awesome technique using freezer paper, an exact-o knife and fabric paint (I get butterflies in my stomach every time I think about it!!). Here is what you need:

Freezer paper, fabric paint, paint brushes, an iron and ironing board, and

a cool design.

Step #1: Trace your design onto the non-shiny side of your freezer paper. I added some embellishments of my own... make sure you get creative and add your own flair to it.

Step #2: Cut your design out with an exact-o knife. While doing this, I found that it is easier to cut with a downward stroke.

Make sure you save any bits of paper that you cut out your design because they will be used later.

Step #3: Make sure you iron is on a 'no steam' setting and heat it up to the 'linen/cotton' temperature.

Step#4: Slip a piece of regular paper into the shirt you will be working on... if you don't do this step you will end up with blotches of paint where you don't want it.

Step #5: Lay your design, shiny side down, on your shirt. Make good and sure that every thing is straight and that the shiny side is laying directly on the shirt fabric!! If the shiny side is not facing down, then you will end up with a design stuck on you iron... not cool :D.

Step #6: Lay the heated iron directly on top of your design. Iron away and make sure that all the sides are sealed.

Step #7: Remember the cut out pieces of your design I told you to save? Now they come in handy! Arrange the cut out pieces where you want them and iron them on.

Step #8: PAINT TIME!! What type of paint do you use? Well, I used Tulip fabric paint. However, I'm thinking that any machine washable, permanent, fabric paint will be fine. Anyhow, pick out you favorite,snazziest color and squirt them onto a paper plate. I had to mix my paint so if you are mixing make sure you do that now.

Step #9: Now it's time to get happy! Paint away, girl. When painting, begin at the edges and pull the paint in toward the center... this will help the stencil stay down and make sure your paint doesn't go places you don't want it.

Keep painting!

And painting!

Step #10: Now begin to peel you stencil away. This was the first time I ever attempted freezer paper stenciling... so, at this point in the process, me and my sisters were squealing with delight because it was turning out so well. I was soooo delighted!

Step #11: Now that the outer stencil is off it's time to pull the inner stencils away. Get some tweezers out and begin to pick them things away!

Step #12: Dance around with joy at the awesome, cute, and peppy shirt you just created!!

This project turned out soooo well! I was extremely happy with myself and my sister Ann (stylish squares is her shirt) is crazy over it. I now have three more requests: Patrick wants me to make him an American themed shirt, Alva (10 yo) wants a soccer themed shirt, and Grace (4yo) discreetly made me bend down so she could whisper into my ear, "I would really like it if you made me one for my birthday." Gotta love the honesty of kids, right? Haha! Much love to my followers...

A Shaweeet Giveaway!

Grace @ Grace's Garden Walk is having a c00l giveaway.

Isn't this headband peppy and cute? Well, if you're thinking the same way I'm thinking than I think you should think about going over to her blog and entering the giveaway. If the latter sentence was confusing I'll boil it down... gO chEck iT oUt!!

Snakes and Geometry

So I just thought I'd share some pictures of my day with y'all. Enjoy!

Sammie... she's not supposed to jump up but I encouraged her to knock me over so I could get this picture. I cheated :D.

Here is the snake I mentioned in the blog post title. Part of the fun with this snake was watching Joy (7 yo) get all dramatic over him. Haha! I don't think she appreciates the reptile family very much.

We are having awesome weather!! Green oak trees are so beautiful in the spring... even though they drop their annoying pollon cases around this time of year.

Ahhh! Geometry! I have decided that I am not naturally logical, but can learn to be logical.

How do y'all like my new blog design? I think I'm finally satisfied and won't change it to terribly much for a while... but don't count on it. Also, I changed my blog URL to www.moethesoutherngal.blogspot.com

Everyone have an awesome rest-of-the-day!

A cuuuute addition to our repertoire of animals

Do you remember this dog? 4 months ago, she had to be put down because of cancer :(. Yea, I know... so sad :((. We buried her in the back of our property.

But, on a lighter note, my oldest sister got the most adorable, cute, energetic, poodle puppy EVER! His name is Trevvor, by the way.

I told you he was squishibly cuuuute!

He is rather proud and loves to pose. But, then again, what poodle doesn't like to pose?

Uncovered No More

Well, I have another surprise for y'all... my mom wrote a book entitled Uncovered Not More (thus the title of this post) and it is being published by Tate Publishing! HERE is her website if you want to check it out...

Many events have taken place before Uncovered No More could even be written... it's not so simple as how my brother's CD came about. For that reason, I can't really give a 'background' of this book. My sister did, however, write a small testimony concerning what occurred in our family in 2008. HERE is my sister's blog, and HERE is the testimony she wrote. Now, if you read her testimony or Uncovered No More you will probably be wierded out. I understand where you are coming from (imagine what I was thinking when everything was happening)! However, as God is my witness, everything that my family testifies too is true. Also, I know that some of y'all will not agree with our views on some things... that's ok! I don't expect anyone to see eye to eye with me. Everyone have an awesome evening, ok?!

Come Back

Needless to say, I have been gone for a long time. But, I am going to start posting again, Lord willing. However, today I have some exciting news for you!!

Patrick Coffey is my oldest brother. He has played the piano since he was 5 years old, began writing songs when he was 8, and started playing guitar when he was 11 or 12. As he got older, his piano and guitar skills improved and he began to use the talent that God gave him. God provided Patrick with a good, affordable Yamaha keyboard and he began to mix different instruments, thus creating full fledged songs. God kept providing the right tools to help Patrick create high quality music tracts. One of those things was a Mac computer. Stop. Gotta tell a story here. Before Patrick got the Mac he had been using our clunky Windows computer upstairs (don't ask what the version was, cause I can't tell you!) where he had set up a studio in the living room (because we're redneck like that lol.). Thanks to me, I blew the sound card for him. Totally ruined the sound card, and because of that, he couldn't record anymore music tracts. Patrick was really nice about it, but he was momentarily put down.... until we went to the thrift store a few days later. There, Patrick found a mac computer for 20$. Yup! Pretty amazing, huh? Ok, to be totally honest, it actually ended up costing 200$ because of needed parts etc. Still a good price though. Anyway, after that Mac broke down God provided another Mac :) along with numerous other equipment. Around this time, Patrick began listening to Casting Crowns (just to clear this up, we really, really like that band :) and heard their song "It's a Slow Fade". Patrick went around belting that song out at the top of his lungs for the loooongest time. He got to where he knew all the voice techniques used in the song and could sing them with perfection. Now, he's got a good singing voice (Thanks to Casting Crowns and other Christian singers). He kept on perfecting his songs and now, with the help of Tate Music Group, he published his first album entitled Come Back. Here is his WEBSITE, his BLOG, and FORUM... if you want to buy one of his CDs they are available wherever music is sold.

Now, I know that since I am his sister my opinion is biased ;). But, you can listen to snippets of his songs on his website to check it out a little. Have an awesome evening y'all!!