Pattie's Place – Page 22 – Good Stuff from Pattie

Thanksgiving Decorating

11/18/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

This week I decorated my house up for Thanksgiving…..

Thanksgiving Decorations on the front room table

Front room end tables looked cute….

One of my favorite songs the kids sing at church at Thanksgiving time…..It makes me think of all the beauties of nature that I so love….

Whenever I hear the song of a bird
Or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face
Or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose
Or walk by a lilac tree,
I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see
The color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear
The magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:
I thank him reverently
For all his creations, of which I’m a part.
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.

Here’s my front entry table. It turned out so cute this year! I got the neat wooden sign from Tai Pan Trading with a coupon! Those brown, irredescent acorns are from Tai Pan too. So pretty!

Thanksgiving Decorating Front entry table is ready for the big day!

I made a fall arrangement of silks…in Fall Colors…

I’ve been collecting Thanksgiving decor for ages….It’s an illness…

My dining room table’s Thanksgiving Decorations…minus my cute sage green plates….

Kitchen Thanksgiving Decor

Can’t forget the counters….here is my cute platter I got from Tai Pan…The sign from Walmart for…can you believe it…$1.00!

Indian corn…candles…twine balls…turned out cute..

We’ve got a lotta turkeys around my house too….hehe…

My little pilgrim pair…I made these 30 years ago as a newlywed out of 2 x 4s!

We’ve got some ceramic Indians…and glass pumpkins…and I LOVE these lucite acorns from Hobby Lobby.

We’ve got some ceramic acorns and Pilgrims too! Linen runner is from Kohls…my favorite store!

If you want the tutorial on the cute little pinecone turkey, it is HERE at Weekday Chef.

We made pine cone turkeys with colorful pipe cleaners….Here’s my coffee table…

Cute scarecrow from Shopko….make great Thanksgiving Decorations

Fall Picture Wall decorations…cone and rod iron from RODWORKS..with cute Fall Decor.

I change the flowers in the cones and the florals on the rod every season…

Give Thanks….my cute TURKEY decorations

My grandkids’ DECORATED table…I got these cute pumpkin sippee cups from K Mart
at the Halloween Clearance at 75% off! Woo Hoo!

We had a turkey last Sunday for my son’s 26th birthday. I made my favorite cranberry salad and stuffing too. We had the full on turkey dinner because my kids are going to their inlaws house this year for Thanksgiving. I’ll be going to my husband’s sister’s house. That is always fun.
In the meantime, Happy Fall, Y’all!

Grandkids Playroom Remodel

11/09/2011 by Pattie 1 Comment

We took forever to get the remodeling done on our basement and bedrooms in the basement. But guess what? They are finally all done….(well…..pretty much done…you know there are always a few little bits we give up on before actually finishing….) Here’s the latest room we finished.
The PLAYROOM! If you want to see the finished Guest Bedroom LINK HERE.

I found this Stop Sign switchplate cover…so cute I had to have it!

Here’s the before youtube…..it was such an awful mess last spring…..I worked on it all summer, painting, painting, painting, buying curtains…painting some more….buying bedspreads….painting, buying wall art….buying furniture…..painting…you get the picture, right? Yeah….really got sick of painting all those rooms and that basement.

So you can see….we were living in a war zone for like 4 months….painting, carpeting and doing wood floors all at the same time….I really don’t recommend it! It is a sucky way to live. Dust everywhere all the time and you don’t DARE let anybody come over!

Here’s the AFTER PICTURES of the grandkid’s room. We painted it pale blue, and Johnny tore out the carpeting and put wood laminate floors down (From Costco really inexpensive and easy to snap together). They love coming over for a sleepover and playing with all our old toys from raising 4 kids. Here’s a floor to ceiling chalkboard I made them to play with. The wall art from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I think they were each $9.95 with double matting and framed in white.

I got those little bins with chalkboard labels from T. J. Max….the nightlight lamp from IKEA

Everything else was from Ikea (curtains, table, (it was only $9 bucks in the clearance bin and the red metal legs match the red metal of the bunk beds!) wall bins that say 1, 2, 3. The chairs were from Target on sale for $9 bucks! I’ve got a set of 4 for family dinners when I need more seating.

I love the little bins at the top…they match everything so perfectly! Dragon is from IKEA too.

The lamp was from Pottery Barn originally, but I got it for $25 bucks at Down Home East, which is a clearance house for Pottery Barn. It is darling. I made the stop sign myself out of some scrap lumber.
The puppets filling the dragon doo dad holder, are some of my little girls’ favorite toys.

Ikea curtains…you can’t see the red at the bottom but they are solid red…super cute!
The cute mobile is from my friend Aimee Ferre….a birthday card to me! Adorable!

I watched KSL classifieds for a cute bunkbed. I liked this style with the double bed on the bottom with the red metal frame. It just looks like kid fun doesn’t it? I got it for $50 bucks used, came home and hosed it down and sprayed it with Clorox bleach cleaner. I had brand new sheets and bedding waiting so we just needed to buy new mattresses for it.

Here’s the girls enjoying a sleepover…playing with Brucie….

My grandbabies have already shown me how much they love their new room. Why the “construction zone theme” you ask? Yeah. I get that a lot.

He keeps looking for his tennis ball….sniff sniff!

I guess I assumed I’d have grandsons, since I mostly had boys. I only got one girl in the bunch! So that was what I started buying, little tractor prints caught my eye, and this TARGET kiddie rug was too cute to pass up on sale at $50 bucks. I just went for it.

Is it here? Is it there?

And….well…..I have a HUGE collection of Legos and Hot Wheels cars from having 3 boys who loved both. So whatta ya gonna do? Yeah. So that’s why. My little girls love Legos and little Hot Wheels cars too. Who woulda thought?

I love this Down Home East lamp…so cute with all the trucks…..

cute pictures on the walls from Bed, Bath and Beyond…. Backhoe Digger….

Gotta have a cement truck!

Wouldn’t be complete without a BULLDOZER now would it?

My blank chalkboard….floor to ceiling dullness…Got any ideas?

I made the cute Stop Sign! Do you know how hard it is to cut an octagon accurately? Yeah I didn’t either!

Got the chalkboard baskets and cute Micky Mouse alarm clock from T.J. Max

Can you tell I expected boys? Lots of Tonka Truck books (and trucks!)

Cute linens from Bed, Bath and Beyond….very soft and comfy set…..

I really used this rug from Target as the inspiration for the room….oops I can see my toes here!

Cute little IKEA boxes on the shelf….only 3 for $5.00!!

Ah, I give up…I’m gonna lay down and take a nap!

So here’s the finished room. What do you think of it? I still need to put a saying on the cute chalkboard I made. If you think of anything cute…..leave me a comment. Thanks for stopping by!

Thriller Flash Mob Park City 2011

11/01/2011 by Pattie 1 Comment

We were in a mob…..a Thriller flash mob! It was a riot. We had so much fun last Saturday night!

A couple of us ghouls….baby powdered up as the undead for Thriller…..Park City Plaza October 27th 2011.

They filmed it to be part of a worldwide effort to break a “Thriller Dance” record.

Here I am in the middle….we learned and practiced the dance…..

Gouls were everywhere….

This guy scared even me!

cute goul…

newscaster interviewing some of the undead kids…

We all posed for a picture….I think there were over 100 people there…

Thriller Park City Dance 2011

My granddaughter watched with her dad and grandpa….

Me and my daughter in law and her sister and hubs.

The MJ in the middle was down syndrome…but he did a good job keeping up!

My son was on photo duty…and baby duty…what a stud!

It was fun to watch the video they put up on utube…A bunch of amateur Thriller dancers….

Painting My Front Door

10/29/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

I decided to paint my dull door today. I think it turned out pretty good, even though I’m a lazy painter.

HERE is the “AFTER” PICTURE….I LOVE IT! Mcintosh Apple Red….from Glidden at Home Depot….

I’ll have to get some corn stalks and pumpkins for the front porch too. That’ll look nice.

I used Glidden Paint from Home Depot….(my favorite paint)
Macintosh Apple…..Satin finish

The door used to be white front and back….

Here is the BEFORE picture….I wanted a brighter color….maybe red or blue….or maybe light brown?

So I got it ready and tried a tan color…..

Painted it all up…..

Took off the kickboard….yeah it was gold color anyway…so last century!

I hate painting….it’s so boring….but I love the results…

But when it was all done…in the tan color…..I didn’t really like it! But I kept it for a few weeks…just to
see if it would grow on me……but it didn’t really….

It was kinda too …..I don’t know…..BLA! Nothing special….I reverted back to my first idea….RED!

So I taped it all with blue painter’s tape from Home Depot…..

Then started in….I loved the color so much I found some clay pots and little wood bins to paint too….don’t know what I’ll do with those yet…..but hey, red goes with fall doesn’t it?

Maybe I’ll fill it with some pumpkins and fall plant pics, pomegranates and gourds?
That will be my next post….in the meantime….enjoy my front door!

I know what you are thinking….why is that pumpkin in the fall wreath you are asking…….I have no answer for you….I just stuck it there for the little trick or treaters….that never come to my house anyway…..

OH WELL, AT LEAST THE DOOR IS READY FOR FALL! AND I LOVE THE COLOR!
HAPPY FALL Y’ALL!

Yummy Lemon Bars

10/21/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

I had some lemons I wanted to use up…and it was an afternoon when I was bored….so I thought of making some really luscious lemon bars…..using some cream cheese. Here is a great recipe. I got it from my favorite recipe website called all recipes.com. from a poster named Counseljul.

A little sugar…..a little flour…..

This is what the crust looks like before baking…..

The secret is lemon zest…I added it to both the middle and top layers…..

The recipe has 3 easy layers. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes to whip together. It is to DIE FOR delicious! The middle layer is kind of lemon puddingish…and the top layer is cheesecake with lemon. It’s light and can be cut into small squares like cookies for a crowd. Here is the recipe…but I cut everything in half since we only have 2 of us to eat these fattening things! And we are a couple of heffers…..so….. (If you want the 9 x 13 recipe go to the link HERE for the basic recipe at All recipes.com.

LEMON CHEESECAKE BARS 1/2 RECIPE

3/4 of a cube of unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3/4 cups flour

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cups white sugar

1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon lemon juice and a bit of zest

I added a bit of lemon zest to the last, cheesecake layer too and added a teaspoon of lemon juice. I like my stuff LEMONY!

Blend first 3 ingredients together and press into a

9 x 9 pan for the crust. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes until just golden.

Then mix the middle 5 ingredients for the lemon pudding middle layer. Pour over warm crust when it comes out of the oven.

Then mix up last 3-4 ingredients, (adding some lemon zest and juice is optional). Then pour it over the middle layer. It’s kind of thick…smooth it on top. Bake for 30 minutes more.

Here is what it looks like baked….mmmm…..

After baking…I halved the recipe and it would easily make 12 luscious, rich squares

They are really rich so this piece was way too big….you can cut quite a few from this recipe….

I shoulda taken a side view of the layers. They are pretty. We ate it warm and it was so rich! I liked it better cooled the next day with kind of a crusty bottom layer like a cookie. It would be a great dessert anytime.

For having people over for dinner this is better than lemon meringue pie. Add some whipped cream to the top if you serve it hot like I did.

These people all thought my lemon bars were dreamy…

Dried Apple Head Witches

10/17/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

Dried Apple Head Witch Craft

Here is installment 1 of my apple head witch dolls. We are making them in my 2nd grade classroom. The trick is to peel your apples and then dip them in lemon juice, or else they will grow mold before they dry out!

Dried Apples peeled and dipped in lemon juice

I always get a lovely parent to peel the apples. i got all of these from my apple tree, which is abounding in apples this year! I get like 3 peaches and apricots and nectarines, but I get a bazillion apples! So it’s a fun thing to do for Halloween, dried apple witches!

You can see they are already starting to pucker and dry out!

The body is made from a popsicle stick pushed into the apple. The dress is just a 1 square foot of material rolled around the popsicle stick. Then I use an orange chennille stem wrapped around the “neck” of the popsicle stick OVER the material and the ends are curled for hands. Sometimes I put a plastic “ring” on one of the hands. I have found spider or skeleton rings at the dollar store. The necklace is made from a candy corn shaped foam bead. I got a mega set from Oriental Trading LINK HERE that has lasted for like 5 years worth of my classes. Every year everybody makes a Halloween necklace with the beads.

Fly Fly Witchy Witchy Fly! Freaky dried apple witch.

I usually make the witch’s broom out of raffia and a 1/3rd piece of a wooden skewer. I can usually find them at the dollar store. I use one pointy end of a skewer for the witch nose. We gouge out a 3 little impressions in the face before it hardens for 2 eyes and a mouth. They eyes are made of cloves pushed into the apple. The mouth has a few pieces of rice glue gunned on and the nose is the skewer piece. The mouth and eyebrows the kids do out of red and brown marker.

I’ll GET you my pretty and your little dog too!

Here’s a close up of my witch sample from last year. The hat we made with black felt using just a circle cut out and then the pointy part was just a cone. We glue gunned the 2 pieces together and then used a wacky green yarn I found at the craft store for the hair. I’ll post more pictures when we actually put together our witches this year. Those shrunken heads should be ready soon. :O

Grandpa’s 85th Birthday Party

10/03/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

My little doll just woke up….so sweet!

The hubs sister Robin hosted a fun dinner party for Grandpa’s birthday last Sunday. We ate and talked while the kids jumped on the trampoline.

Cousins having a jumping marathon

Then we played a game “How Well Do You Know grandpa?” made up by Aunt Robin. It was funny. Here are the highlights.

Grandpa opening presents….Robin getting ready to do the game…

The brothers hangin out……

My family (they are kinda anti social….they keep to themselves…don’t mix well)

Cousins table…

At this point in the party either my son got bored or I left my camera on the table within his reach….or both…Here he is entertaining himself with his own funny faces……snicker……

Here’s his “I’m special” look….if you don’t stop that your face will stay that way!

He’s not listening…mmmhmmm I’m so proud….

Here’s the brothers sitting together and our whole family posing for a family picture.

2 generations here…

We played this game with questions like “What was grandpa’s occupation” and Where did grandpa go to school?” My hubs had funny answers like “gravedigger” and “the dark ages”. He kept us all laughing.

Most of the family here….

My inlaws… September 2011

Happy Birthday! You’re the best grandpa ever! And don’t they make a cute couple?

Jet Skis on Utah Lake

10/01/2011 by Pattie 1 Comment

Well it is October and today was probably the last time we take the jet skis out this season. It was a 90 degree day so we went up to Utah Lake’s Saratoga Spring Marina after work and played one last time. I LOVE to jet ski. It is such a rush.

Jeff and Wendy met us there around 5:00. The water was so smooth and glassy. It was an amazing ride! I would look up at the sunshine and then follow a flock of birds over the water looking at them flying right above me as I raced across the water, beauty everywhere. Just awesome!

We rode for about 40 minutes then Jeff and Wendy came and they rode while we played with little Miss Josie. She seemed to like a little ride her daddy gave her too. Future adventure girl? Ya maybe.

John likes to get crazy and do donuts and race around me splashing me. He usually falls in at least once…..snicker…..

Grandma and littlest granddaughter…. hangin out at the marina.

We had a picnic of Jimmy John’s sandwiches and fresh salsa and chips and my daughter in law made homemade chocolate chip cookies. It’s so easy to pack a picnic and eat on the dock under the picnic tables there. And the view is gorgeous. It’s fun to watch fishermen and boaters. It wasn’t very crowded today.

Hanging with my peeps…

Well October is here so we should probably pack up the skis for now. It’s been SUCH a fun ride.

Utah Hikes (Cecret Lake, Mary’s Lake, Bell Canyon Reservoir)

09/30/2011 by Pattie Leave a Comment

This photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

We had fun hiking to Secret Lake, Dog Lake, Mary’s Lake and Bell Canyon Reservoir the last 2 weeks. Here’s some of the cool stuff we saw there. Utah is so beautiful in the fall with all the trees changing colors.

We are looking for the perfect spot for a whole family picture. I hope I find it soon! When I do I’m going to get everyone together, take pictures and have a fun picnic. Then I’ll blow it up, make a cool frame for it, and put it on the wall at the cabin.

Now if I can only choose between beautiful and more beautiful!