Look What I Made

Isn't it pretty? My wonderful mother-in-law spent an afternoon helping me put this together. We even attached shelf liners on the bottom for grip. That way, we didn't need to put on strings so, they look more like dining room chairs than kitchen chairs. A really clever trick:-)

I am so proud of myself because although my email address is sewing@wi.rr.com, I don't sew:-) She was very patient with her remedial student and, I am going back on Thrursday to sew the other five:-) Wish me luck!

They are only going to cost me $20 total for all 6!! Normally, 4 would cost over $100!! With the money I saved, I need to get table linens to go with it:-) Or, I could get some new home supplies but maybe I will just celebrate with a cheese and wine party .

What do you guys think I should do?

Flowering Crab

This is the view from my bedroom window.

Gorgeous, right?

Susie's Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

This week, I tackled another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge and this time it was Cheese!! Well, I couldn't pass up a chance to showcase my famous Chocolate Cheesecake and here they are:

I made chocolate cheesecake cupcakes with a chocolate truffle snuggled in the center of chocolate candy clay to make Brown-Eyed Susan flowers. I added the flowers to a window box to make:


Can you believe that people actually thought that I was Suzy from Suzy's Cheesecake? Too funny!!! Here I am in all my presentation glory:

And I say glory because:

I don't know if you can make it out but, the score board says, I WON!! First for presentation and second for taste:-) Yeah Me!! What a fun event!

The Ultimate Blog After Party

Happy Friday Followers! I love followers and it is a good thing because....

This is my Ultimate Blog After Party from 5 Minutes for Mom. What a great time we had last week! I had some many comments and so many new follwers and gave away some delicious cookie dough balls! Now, I don't know what to do with myself.

Oh wait...yes I do...I am going to pay homage:-)

Congratulations to those who won my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls in the UBP giveaway. I sent them out Wednesday so, these lucky four will be receiving these any day now:

Winning Comment #80 Tina
Winning Comment #72 Thebluestbutterfly
Winning Comment #804 Deborah
Winning Comment #959 ellie_j@verizon.net


AND....Thank you too ALL my new friends!! I hope to see you all back here soon:-)

ProudTejana

Steve Hawley

Rondi

Karen ~Georgia Angel aka ~Leah Rose's Mom

Free2bMommy

Jennifer Bryan

wacki04

NeedCoffeePlease

cindyischic

Ciprian Drăghici

Sunshine Paperie

Elizabeth

Christi Williams

nicole lindsay

lovelyritaann

MsBabyPlan

GA Mom

Michelle

Yoly @ Cuponeando

Shop with Me Mama

Missy

Dayngr

Nanny Dee

erica.stein

Becka Marsch

DeanO

Milburns'

kellysluckyyou

Velvet Over Steel

Gigi

Nichol @KiddiesCorner Deals

-K

family of 4 on the move!

Yayas Mommy

Maria Lorena

Jo's Health Corner

Lily Bean Designs

Colleen Jorgensen

I am going to go nurse my party hangover now! Until next year everyone:-)

My Bleeding Heart

...is singing:-)

Summer Day Camp Here We Come!

Happy Friday Followers! I am so excited that the weather has finally taken a turn for the better!! It means that summer is right around the corner.

With summer comes day camp and this year, I am leading a unit:-) Yahoo!! It started off with 5 of my Daisies and somehow, I picked up 6 more along the way! I had such a great experience with camp as a girl and I am so glad that I can contribute to theirs.

So, any advice out there for a first-time unit leader? I need all the help I can get:-)

I Wanta Soak Up the Sun

My tulips are enjoying the day basking:-)

Tackling Spring Cleaning

I can't believe that April is half over! I have been spring cleaning like a mad woman!! The painting project gave me the inspiration and the vacation gave the energy:-) Here is what I accomplished thus far:

• Deep clean living room carpets


• Organize daughter's craft table


• Organize daughter's room


• Launder bed linens


• Flip Mattresses


• Wash walls in bathroom


• Launder bathroom linens


• Clean Coffe Pot


• Clean Oven

And now, I am exhausted!! But, I have just enough energy to show you the Taj Mahal of Barbie Closets:



Once the living room was painted, the Barbie Village needed to be relocated. We did some purging and came up with some space in her closet. Now, Barbie has a party house with a roof-top pool and a second story that is a garage/accesory room...that's right room. And the landing in between is the paper-clip float in closet. That's right...those babies are hanging there with paper clips. I am a McGyver Mommy! It will probably look like this for 2.5 seconds but it gave me great pleasure:-)
And now, I am going over to SITs for a Spring Fling:-)

The Ultimate Blog Party 2010

That's right!!! Today is 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party!! Susan and Janice are those beautiful twin bloggers who have brought you many, many great carnivals. My favorites are:

1. Tackle It Tuesday (click here to see some of my tackles)
2. Wordless Wednesday (click here to see some of my pictures)

You can find me under these labels every week. I have found so many new sites to follow and who follow me and I just love my 5M4M!

For those of you who are new to Susie's Homemade, I have got a lot of ground to cover so, hold on tight:

• Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Susan (a.k.a. Susie) Ewing. I am a thriving stay-at-home mom of two wonderful girls (6 and 19) and a caretaker of my 68 year old live-in mother. I started this blog to support my chocolate shop on Etsy.com ( Susie's Homemade Chocolate Shop ) but, it has become so much more.
  
• Speaking of my Chocolate Shop, check out the prizes and you will see something familiar. I am giving away my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls again:-) Chocolate chip cookie dough rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate are heavenly! So, make sure you comment on at least 20 blogs to be an eligible party goer and therefore, able to win great prizes like this one:-)
  
  

• Susie's Homemade is a place that I explore my adventures in homemaking, baking, cake decorating and gardening. This blog has lead to competitive baking which I absolutely love!! Now, my long-time readers have to bear with me here. This is my favorite slide show to post but it really does show what I am all about.

• I love stalkers. Check out my side-bar for the many ways you can stalk me in cyberspace! I really hope that you like what you see here and come back soon:-)

There are so many cool prizes to be won at this year’s Ultimate Blog Party, but my top three picks would be:

39 -Be My Guest certificate ($250 value) for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn.Provided by: Hilton Garden Inn

11 – A $100 gift eCertificate to Restaurant.com, immediately redeemable online at over 13,000 restaurants nationwide.Provided by: Amy LeForge of Earnest Parenting

5 – Baking Magic for Kids mini-cupcake kit for two winners. This kit contains 12 gourmet mini-cupcakes, unfrosted, with an assortment of frostings and decorations.
Provided by: Baking Magic for Kids

…
And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the following (in order of preference):

37, 32, 34, 10 or anything else related to relaxation or free money or a vacation because as a mother and caregiver, I am in great need of all of these things.

Party on!

Snow is a Four Letter Word

I can't even bare to take a picture of it!!

Vacation

We tackled a FABULOUS weekend!! We traveled 4 hours north with a couple of friends to Harris, MI to stay at The Island Resort and Casino. It was AWESOME! The drive didn't seem like 4 hours because the company was so comfortable. The rooms were clean, the tables were entertaining and the slots were fun. We gambled to our hearts content, relaxed in the pool and tried new things. It was an all around great time:-)

It was an really good deal. We paid $65 on Thursday and $85 on Friday. For that price, we had a really comfortable and tidy room. We also got 2 free drinks, 2 $5.oo coupons for meals and $10 in cash to gamble with. We used every one of them!! We also took advantage of their player's card that offered discounts and points towards stuff in the gift shop. Check out this little number that I picked up with my points:

Isn't this cute? It is a beautiful bag made of recycled ties, belts, belt buckles and jewelry....a one-of-a-kind:-) I love that it is so bohemian and green:-) The trip was worth it just for this purse alone:-)

April is Party Time!!

Hey Friday Followers, you picked a great time to stop by and follow me here! There is all kinds of partying going on in April. In honor of my pending 40th birthday, I recently invited everyone I know (literally EVERYONE) to come and support me at the next Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Cheese Challange on April 25th. If you are in the Milwaukee area, stop by and make an old lady happy with a win:-) Hee, hee, hee:-)

In addition to that I would like to cordially invite you to a blog party being hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom starting next Friday!!! It really is THE Ulitmate Blog Party! There will be blog hopping, prizes and just an all around great time:-)

I am partying it up here at Susie's Homemade by giving away my wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. Remember these?

They are chocolate chip cookie dough (minus the egg so they are safe) rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate. Yummo! Be sure to come back here next Friday and enter to win:-)

I'll see you then:-)

Painting Recap

No gardening last week because of the painting. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to do a run-down of the project. Here is what we did:

3/14/10: We preshopped for the project. We priced out the paint and other things we needed. Also I bought new picture frames for the picture wall and the border. Daily total: $82.45.

3/15/10: We used our credit card rewards to buy more painting supplies. Daily total: $0.00.

3.17/10: We used the rest of our rewards to buy all the primer and the paint: Daily total: $ 122.27.

3/19/10: I bought some more picture frames. Daily Total: $13.13.

3/20/10: We bought a light fixtures, new outlet overs and some electrical supplies. We also rented the scaffold, washed walls and patched cracks. Daily Total: $130.74.

3/21/10: We sanded the repairs and did the final wash down of the walls. Daily Total: $0.00

3/22/10: We primed the walls. Daily Total: $5.85.

3/23/10: We started putting the color on the walls. Daily Total: $ 0.00.

3/24/10: We continued painting and did the faux. Twice:-( We also bought the floating shelves and hung them. We got the twine for the picture wall and the materials we needed to custom frame the windows. Daily Total: $ 147.24.

3/25/10: I finished the faux finish and starting on a full spring cleaning of the room. I vaccuumed, washed the fireplace, the woodwork and the windows. Daily Total: $28.70.

3/26/10: We cleaned the living room carpet and bought more hardware for the custom frame. Daily Total: $77.37.

3/27/10: We put the room back together. We also took back the scaffold and the carpet cleaner. Daily Total: $44.14.

3/28/10: We hung pictures and filled the bookshelves. Daily Total: $25.00.

So there you have it: 13 days/2 people/$676.89. Not bad!!

Now, we still need to custom frame some eagle prints that are going to run us a couple hundred dollars but, that is still redoing a dining room, a living room and a hallway for under $1000.00. Heck, I should be on one of those redecorae on a budget shows on HGTV:-)