Such a surprise!!!

I think it's time I make a comeback!!

I checked my email this morning and was so shock and surprised to find out... I've been featured on Tip Junkie!!

Please stay tuned...

Enjoy, Amanda

Most exciting day of my life!!

I'm going to keep it simple!!!

We settle today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone has something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!! I know my list is long this year!!

Enjoy, Amanda

Christmas Flavored Kisses

Imagine my surprise when I was out shopping with my mom Monday night and came across these tasty looking treats....

Has anyone else seen these?? I unfortunately didn't purchase any but has anyone else??

Enjoy, Amanda

Progress Plans Progress Plans

So our lives are almost all packed up... well let me retract that statement... MOST of Jeremy's life is packed up and some of mine is. I cannot believe Settlement is only one week away!! I feel like my "ToDo" list just keeps getting longer and longer!! But it's okay. I just keep reminding myself all of the stress is totally worth it and we'll be out of the apartment and into our new home by mid-December.

We got to go check out the basement and bathroom over the weekend!!


All of the dry wall is up and it's starting to look like a real space!!

Over the weekend we also went out and checked out some sofas. Unfortunately, the original sofa we picked out is WAY TOO BIG! So I think we're going to opt for this one instead. The only problem is the color. I like brown and Jeremy likes green. Which do you like??? [Please don't hold my horrible photo skills against me!!]

The new bathroom sink and faucet is installed and looking great!!

Now we just need to find a new mirror and some lights to complete the update! I've been keeping my eye open for a mirror but haven't found the perfect one yet!! I'm also undecided on a paint color!?!

I think we've also decided on the paint color for the dining room!! What do you think?

I'm undecided on the exact color for the living room but I know its going to be in the tan family. Oh and I saw this picture on Rocky Bella's site and automatically fell in love!!!! This will be in my living room... or well some version of it!!

So many decisions!!! So many decisions!!!

Enjoy, Amanda

It's a big day in Blogland for Scribbled Sentences!

One of my absolute favorite craft websites is Dollar Store Crafts and can you believe me surprise when I checked it out today and saw that I was featured in a post on Sunday for my Makeup Bag Tutorial!!!! This is a huge personal accomplishment. It gets even better!! Joanne from Ready, Set, Craft! used the tutorial to create her own makeup bag!!



Doesn't it look great?! I love the fabric she used.

Has anyone else found the tutorial helpful?? I'd love to see pictures of your finished products!! Be sure to leave comments and become a follower! [We all know how much fun it is to get a new follower!]

Thanks to those of you out there reading! I hope you all find some inspiration and entertainment in my blog. If you have any suggestions on how to make it better I'd love to hear them.

Enjoy, Amanda

Overwhelmed?! Stressed?! Anxious?! I'm ready to move already!

I've decided I don't want my blog to be put on the back burner while this new and amazing part of our lives is happening. And more importantly the fact that this weekend I'll be packing up all of my craft and sewing supplies and they'll be sitting in boxes for who knows how long is making me a bit nervous!! I still need to be creative and the fact that I've been consumed with paperwork and thoughts of the house and not sewing/crafting is starting to drive me nuts!

This week I dove head first into the blogland of interior design and furniture refinishing. I have high hopes that our new home will one day be as nicely decorated as some that I've seen this week. Although, reading posts and looking at pictures has me more and more anxious to just get settlement over with so I can be moved in and making our new house home.

Thankfully, the next few weeks are packed full of plans [and my BIRTHDAY on November 21] so I won't have too much time to sit around and day dream. We found out earlier this week we will be settling on November 25th [keep your fingers crossed nothing gets pushed back]. Then it's Thanksgiving, Black Friday SHOPPING, our first annual "Friends Thanksgiving Dinner" [hosted by Vicki], Raven's vs Steeler's [thanks for my birthday present Vicki], and then it's packing and moving!!

I'm actually super excited for this weekend. Tonight should be nice and relaxing. Tomorrow morning I'm waking up bright and early to go shopping with my mom. Later in the afternoon Jeremy and I are going over to the new house to drop off our ceiling fan to be installed and check out the bathroom and dry wall.

I know I know... I didn't give you too many details in the last post so you're probably wondering why we have to check the bathroom and dry wall out. Well, the sellers are being super generous and did some upgrades to the bathroom and basement for us. [If you're reading this before I get home from work I apologize I am uploading pics when I get home. I unfortunately don't have my camera cord with me.]

The bathroom had a slight leaning issue... it seems the floor kind of leaned down towards the sink and toilet. It gave me vertigo instantly. Well the sellers tore up the flooring leveled it off and put in a new sink and faucet for us. I wish I had taken a picture while the works was going on to share. Well we got word it's all complete so I can't wait to go see it.

The basement was in the very beginning stages of being finished when the sellers decided they wanted to buy a new house. Lucky us, the sellers told us they'd finish the basement for us!! Tomorrow we get to go over and see the finished product!!!

I hope to have more pictures to share with you since this is pretty lacking!!

Enjoy,
Amanda

BIG things have been happening!

A girl can dream, right?

Please excuse my extended absence. Big things have been happening in our world. It looks like we're buying a HOUSE!!! This has been the quickest decision I think Jeremy and I have EVER made, not to mention the BIGGEST decision we've ever made. With that being said the past two weeks have been consumed with signing many many many papers, writing checks, having inspections, and catalogue browsing [my favorite part]!!!

I hope to continue blogging. I have tons of projects in my mind for the new house [one that has already turned out as a big fat failure] that I want to share with you. But please excuse my lack of crafty blogs... it looks like my craft supplies will be packed up soon. Maybe I can go back through my archives and come up with some projects I haven't share yet.

So back to the exciting news!! If everything works out as planned. Jeremy and I will settle on the 30th of November and be happy homeowners!! Our new home is a 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, finished basement [well half of it is], end of the group town house!! I'm so excited to decorate!!

I hope to share more with you soon!!

Enjoy,

Amanda

Halloween Hershey Kisses

A friend of mine passed along wonderful news.... Hershey's has come out with not only Candy Corn Kisses but also Pumpkin Spice Kisses!!! You should be able to find them at Target.

Has anyone tried these yet??

Enjoy, Amanda

Owl Embroidery

Of course it's beautiful and sunny out today!! We did not get lucky this weekend as far as weather is concerned. Our entire weekend camping was spent under a tarp, freezing!! Fortunately, we were able to make the most of it [unfortunately, I don't have a single picture to show for it due to the constant down pour].

Knowing it was going to be cold this past weekend, I thought it would be nice to have an extra layer to wrap around me while sitting by the fire. I didn't have much time to throw something together so I decided to buy a blanket from the store and embroider it with a fun looking owl. A girl can't just use a plain green blanket!! I had to make it unique somehow!!

Seeing how it was so simple I thought I'd share how I made it with you. Sorry ahead of time... I did most of this while at my bowling league so I don't have many pictures to show!

To start...

1. Buy a blanket and find an image you'd like to use. I just googled a couple key words... originally I wanted to do a tent of a fire but couldn't find anything that I really loved so I scratched that and searched "owl embroidery image." Once I found it I printed it out. Gather the other supplies you'll need: embroider floss in various colors, an embroidery ring [I think that's what it's called], and an embroidery needle.

2. [The next two steps could have probably been done in a much better way... so if you know of a better method please share!! Like I said I was on a time crunch!!] Iron medium weight interfacing [stabilizer] to the back of the blanket on the area where you plan to embroider your image.

3. Put your blanket into the embroidery ring and trace your image onto the blanket. To do this I place the paper print out onto the blanket and traced over it with a pen until the pen broke through to the paper. [Like I said there has to be a better way to do this!!]

4. Decide what colors you're going to use for which areas of the image along with which stitches you'll use. I decided to outline the owl in brown using the back stitch and filled in the eyes and wings using the satin stitch.

5. Now get to work!!!

If anyone has done their own embroidery, leave me a comment. I'd love to see your work!!

Enjoy, Amanda

Shrimp Skewers

In honor of camping I'm sharing my favorite camping dinner with you!! It's both delicious and super easy to make because you do most of the work before you leave the house!

Ingredients:
Shrimp
Bacon
Veggies- I use onions and peppers
Grape Tomatoes
Teriyaki Marinade
Wooden Skewers


Directions:
1. Cut up veggies into good size pieces to be poked through with a skewer.


2. Put veggies, grape tomatoes, shrimp, and marinade into a plastic bag. Give it a good shake and throw it into the fridge/cooler until you arrive at the campground.


3. When you're ready to cook dinner, start with precooking the bacon in a frying pan over the fire. Also, soak skewers in a pan of water [you don't want them catching on fire!!].

4. When bacon is halfway cooked remove from fire and begin to wrap shrimp with bacon.

5. Stick veggies, tomatoes, and bacon wrapped shrimp with the skewers and place on the fire.

6. Cook until shrimp is pink, bacon is done, and veggies are the texture you like.

7. Enjoy eating your dinner!!!


Enjoy, Amanda

Camping Checklist

I'm a bit of a self confessed control freak with OCD tendencies. I make lists for any and everything. It's a habit I don't ever see breaking. It gets even more obsessive when I'm planning trips!! Camping is no exception.

I've just made it easier on myself though! I've created a masterlist of everything I need for a camping trip. I've laminated the piece of paper so I'm able to write on it with dry/erase markers. I keep this list attached to the lid of my super-duper tupperware container!! This container holds EVERYTHING [well almost everything] needed for a camping trip!! It's great to have everything in one place, both convenient and easy to restock.

I'm sharing my list with you to download and printout. It's a big help keeping yourself organized!!

Click here to download Camping Checklist

Enjoy, Amanda

Camping Roundup

I decided to do a search of the Internet to see what it had to offer as far as crafting and camping go! Below are some of my favorite photos and some great How-To links and some awesome Etsy finds!!


Although I tent camp I kind of love all of the following campers... maybe I can talk Jeremy into one of these cuties instead of a house??

[Courtesy of Flickr user jenniferrt66]

[Courtesy of Flickr user mtseay]

[Courtesy of somewhereelse.com/au]

[Courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com]

Here are some basic How-To's related to all that is camping!!

Decorative Camping Paper and Writing Set

Camping Bag... I can't wait to make this!

Firestarters

Canvas Camping Chair

Peanutbutter Jar Lantern... I think I might try this one too.. I have all of the supplies at home.

I found all of these on Etsy and love each and every one of them!!

Campfire S'More's Bracelet

Eco Friendly Flatware

Camp Out Paper Bag Album

The Silver Bullet Necklace

Outdoorsman Thermal T

Enjoy, Amanda

Skyline Drive and Camping

What an amazingly beautiful weekend!!! Jeremy and I decided to take off on Saturday morning for Skyline Drive in Virginia. It was such a good idea.

The scenery was so beautiful. It is definitely fall around here. All of the leaves were shades of red, yellow, and orange. The only downside of the entire trip was when we arrived and I went to take my first picture and the battery icon was blinking and said there were only 20mins left on the battery!! Lucky for me I had my old camera so I made it through the weekend able to take lots of pretty pictures!

We entered Skyline Drive through the northernmost entrance at Front Royal, VA. We didn't travel all 105 miles but we made it about halfway. Jeremy and I stopped off at many of the overlooks along the way [we even took a nap at one on Sunday].



Instead staying at a hotel in a town along the route we opted to camp out for the night. What a better idea!! Camping has got to be one of my favorite things to do [besides craft]. We started off with a little trouble trying to find a campground that wasn't full but luckily we found Outlander's River Camp. It was a great campground that just opened on Labor Day. We were the first ones to ever use the fire pit on our site!! If you're ever in the Luray, Va area I highly recommend you stay a night at one of their riverside primitive campsites.

The view from our site was awesome... a corn field straight ahead and mountains all around!!

The Shenandoah River was a short hike from our site.

After a very CHILLY night we spent the following day exploring the town of Luray and attending the local Heritage Festival. It was right up my alley... tons and tons of homemade goodies!

Since it was so nice out we continued to sight see along Skyline Drive.

I really wanted to see a waterfall so we stopped off at Dark Hollow Falls and took a 1.4 mi hike down the mountain to the falls.

Unfortunately, when we arrived I was a bit disappointed. It was more of a trickling stream than a falls... not to mention the hike back up the mountain was a bit strenuous [maybe I should take that as a hint it's time to get back to the gym!!].



It was an absolutely perfect weekend. It couldn't have been better!!!

Now it's time to start getting ready for next weekend's camping trip to Greenbrier State Park. With that being said I think I'm going to keep this week's posts focused on camping!! There's nothing more fun to do in fall. So if you have any good camp recipes, campgrounds, or anything that you think is worth sharing please be sure to leave me a comment or email me!!

Enjoy, Amanda

Cheesy Chili Salsa Dip.. or something like that

Last night at bowling we were celebrating yet again another birthday and I wanted to bring something new! This recipe was given to me from a friend [not too sure where they got it from]!

Ingredients:

One jar of salsa

One can of Hormel Chili [no beans]

Velveeta Cheese [1lbish]

Groundbeef [1lbish]

Bag of Tortilla chips

Directions:
1. Cook groundbeef, heat Hormel Chili, microwave Velveeta Cheese on 50% power stirring occasionally.

2. Combine all ingredients.

3. Serve and enjoy with Tortilla chips!!


Enjoy, Amanda