No Cake Plate? No Problem!

After (attempting) to make a cake for Joe's big day, I realized I did not have a pretty cake plate to put the finished product on. I've seen tons of cake plates I have liked, I just have not purchased any because they take up too much space in the cabinet. I like to be able to stack things and the pedestal on the cake plate makes it hard to stack.

Something I have tons of is pretty glass plates and other dishes that catch my eye when I am at garage sales. Thankfully I was able to come up with a quick and easy fix for my lack of a cake plate.

All you need to make one of your own is: a pretty plate (that is large enough for the cake to fit on), a glass or ice cream sunday type dish (pedestal not required but its a definite plus), and a hot glue gun.

Note do not use a painted plate or glass.

Place your plate upside down.

Place your glass in the center of the plate (the bottom side). Determine how the glass fits best (it may work best upside down like mine did).

Put hot glue on the plate where the glass will go. I put it on the plate instead of the glass because my aim is not that good. If you have better faith in the sturdiness of your hands, by all means apply the glue directly to the glass.

Place the glass on the plate and push down.

Add more hot glue to any spot that looks like it may need it.

Let the glue cool, then turn the piece right-side up. Wa-la you've got a plate for a cake!

Make sure when you move this plate around that you hold the glass as well as the plate portion of the cake plate, I don't really know how strong hot glue gun glue is.

The finished product. Please do not judge my cake. It looks pretty rough!

Once you are done with your new cake plate, you can unassemble by gently pealing the glue/ glass off the plate.

Only in Conroe

This afternoon while working at the house, I was interrupted by the doorbell. I was met at the door by a lady who promptly said "Howya like livin' here?" My response - "its great... whats going on?" She then introduced herself as my "down the road" neighbor. After telling me where she lived she said she had a baby goat in the back of her truck that she needed to get rid of. FUN!

She went to the truck and pulled out the cutest goat in the world out of a dog carrier - yes a dog carrier.

The little guy was less than 2 feet tall and was on a leash.

He loved my grass. I loved the way his knees wobbled when he walked. It was a match made in heaven.

As much as I wanted to call this adorable four legged guy my own, my sensibilities kicked in and I told the lady no...

The cute guy was loaded up and carted off to the next house. I now want a goat. Maybe next year.

Arbor Day Came Through!

Recently, I got to enjoy my Arbor Day trees in a very tasty way. My peach tree produced some running down the chin juicy fruit. I got exactly 7 yummy peaches.

This is quite amazing to me because it was only a year and a half ago that I scoffed at the twigs that came in the mail when I ordered trees from Arbor Day. While my complete tree order did not survive, this tree makes the entire purchase worth it.

I did not take this picture but the trees I ordered looked exactly like this one when they came in the mail. Pretty rough right???

In fall 2009, the tree was barely taller than my 3ft garden fence (you can kind of see it behind the tub with herbs in it here) .

This spring I got pretty peach blossoms.

Almost there....

And the most lovely of all, ripe peaches!

And I must give credit to another Arbor Day tree - a red maple that is growing REALLY fast! This was one of the free trees that they sent. Its already over 6 feet tall!

Peep Peep!

About a month ago, I decided I wanted to let one of my broody hens sit on some eggs so I could have a baby chick. Charlie started sitting on them for a couple of days and then I had the bright idea to go to something called Conroe Trade Day. Conroe Trade Day takes place twice a year and it is NOT at all like Canton Trade Days. Instead of cute stuff for the home and yard, you will find all the country people out selling random animals to the other country people that show up.

On the way to church I saw Trade Days were going on and I mentioned to Joe that I really wanted to go look for some Ameraucana chicks. These are the types of hens that lay blue and green eggs. Joe just nodded (and I am sure expected me to forget about it by the time church was over). I left church with visions of green and blue eggs in my future so reminded Joe that I really wanted to "just go look". After some convincing that I just wanted to look and a promise that I would not want to get any other animals except maybe one or two chicks Joe was on board to go with me to the Trade Days.

At Trade Days there were loads of animals, country folk, and more. After winding our way through, I finally found 1 booth that was selling a type of chick that would produce the colorful eggs for the low cost of 4 for $10. How could I resist? We got all 4 (it would have cost more per chick to get only 2) and headed for our traditional after church bbq with peeping chicks in a box on the console.

Once at home, I put the chick in with Charlie (who was sitting on eggs) because Charlie was in a protected cage area. The set up was only supposed to be temporary but it ended up lasting a couple of days. By the time I got around to moving the chicks Charlie had morphed into a mother hen protecting her flock. Instead of separating mother and children, I moved the eggs to my other broody hen named Pomp.

Pomp sat on her eggs diligently in the corner of the coop. She did not leave her precious eggs for a second. Then Friday night I went to examine her eggs and saw that one had started to hatch.



I heard peeping, saw the beak and with all my willpower, put the egg back under Pomp and went inside for the night. I went back out at about 2AM anxious to find a new chick and still nothing... The next morning I woke up and went straight to the coop to find the cutest little chick in the world.

Adorable right?

Now I have never had any animal under my watch have a baby before and so this was a huge moment. I did a song a dance in the coop and ran inside to grab my camera.

Both of the mother hens are bantams (bantams are about 1/2 the size of a normal chicken) and the chicks they are raising a full size chickens. Basically the chicks are quickly going to be bigger than their mommas which is pretty funny to watch.





Now I have 5 chicks in the coop, 0 roosters that I know of (had to get rid of the 2 after they were mean to my chicks), 2 WAY protective momma hens and several other hens that are happy to teach the new arrivals the pecking order.

Happy (late) Birthday Uncle Bob!

My (great) Uncle Bob Blackstone celebrated his 80th birthday recently with a big party at his house. Family and friends from far and wide ventured to his house in Huntsville to celebrate the big day with him.

Uncle Bob is my Grandma (right) and Aunt Josie's (left) youngest brother.



Uncle Bob is known for his great sense of humor, handyman skills, and warm personality.



Along with a big water slide, they brought out a wooden rocking horse for the kids to play with. Uncle Bob made this horse and another one that he gave to my brother. My brother's horse is in storage at my parents house waiting for babies to come around to play on it.



A Blackstone party would not be complete without a game of 42.

The fun party ended with a huge fireworks show put on by my cousin Ben.

Again, happy birthday Uncle Bob, we love you!