August Sale at Unique Creations by Tracy

During the month of August, everything is 20% off in celebration of my daughter's 5th birthday. Enter code 5thbday to get 20% off everything. There are a lot of great handmade crochet items that would make great gifts for baby showers, birthday, and Christmas. Here is a picture of just a few things I have in my shop.

Now go check out Unique Creations by Tracy!

Dreaming of Candy

I am dreaming of candy lately.  Friday is my daughter's 5th birthday and we are having a Candyland theme party for her on Saturday.  For the last week and now this week I have been working on all the decorations and everything else for the big party.  I have never had so much candy in my house before.  The picture above is one of the two sucker bouquets in flowerpots that I made.  Once the party is over I will be sharing more pictures of the things I have been working on for the Candyland theme.

Jolly Rancher Suckers

A while ago I saw on some blog about turning jolly ranchers into suckers.  I thought that was a great idea, since I don't like my children putting that small piece of hard candy in their mouth and possibly swallowing it whole and it getting lodge. Yes, I am paranoid about some things.  We came home from our local 4th of July parade with lots of jolly ranchers and I put them aside for the time being.  Yesterday, I finally got the sucker sticks from Michaels to make the suckers. It was so easy to do.  The kids unwrapped and stuck three jolly ranchers touching each other in a row.  I then put them in the oven at 200 for 5 minutes like I had read.  When I checked on them after 5 minutes they were not melted, so I left them in for another 3 minutes and they finally had melted.  I took them out of the oven and placed the sucker sticks into each melted jolly rancher bunch, and let them cool.  Here are the kids with their suckers.

Hope Srpings by Kim Cash Tate

Hope Springs by Kim Cash Tate is probably my favorite read of this year so far.  It is a wonderful story that takes place in a small town and is full of family, friends, and faith. The town sounds like some place I would have loved to have grown up. All the families have know each other for many generations. The story starts with everyone coming back to Hope Springs for the funeral of a well respected member of the community, a pastor.  Several people did not realize their coming to Hope Springs would be the start of some major changes in their lives.  They each deal with issues related to love, family, and faith.  Kim Cash Tate is such a talented author that she had me so involved in the story that I actually felt I was right there with the characters in the book.  Some of the issues the characters dealt with were issues I had personally been through myself which really connected me to the book.  When I got to the end of the book I didn't want the story to stop, even though it ended in a good place.  I immediately looked to see if Kim had written any other books and she has, so I have another one on reserve at the library and can't wait to read it.

I reviewed this book as part of the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze Program.

Owl Pillow

My cousin is decorating her daughter's nursery in an owl theme, and asked me if I could crochet some Owl Pillows for her daughters room. I fell in love with the pattern (Pattern by Brooke's Little Stitches) I bought to make them, and plan on making some for myself. Here is a look at what they look like.

They are now on sale in my shop Unique Creations by Tracy.  They can be bought in singles or sets of 2 or 3.  I am custom making them in colors chosen by you when you buy them. They can make a great addition to a baby, child's or any other room in your house.

Marshmallow Building

One day several months ago my daughter figured out she could make things using marshmallows and toothpicks.  Ever since then her brother and her love building things with them. Here are a couple picks I caught of what they made this week.

 A made these. He was proud of his I.

M made these. She was proud of her house.

Stash Tea Superfruits Tea Sampler

Let me start this out stating that I am not a tea drinker. Even though I can't stand tea I tried one of the samples that came in the pack.  I love blueberries so I thought I would try the Blueberry Superfruit.  It smelled wonderful, but I did not like it at all.  The one plus about it was that it made my kitchen smell wonderful.  Since I knew I could not drink any of the others I gave them to my own mother that loves drinking tea.  She took reviewing these very seriously, so the following is the review on each kind of tea in the box in the words of  my mother.

Blueberry Superfruit - I do not taste any blueberries.  The blueberries only come in after taste.  The aroma is more pleasing then the taste.

Acai Berry - Did not enjoy at all.  Threw 3/4 of it down the drain.

Goji Berry Green Tea - I drank 1/2 hot and it was very pleasant tasting, good for a cold winter night.  The other 1/2 I drank like ice tea and it lost all its flavor.  The aroma of hot tea was calming, and when iced it was bitter.

Yumberry black Currant - Taste is best hot.  Armoa is light and has pleasant smell.  Ice tea loses its flavor and aroma.

Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea - Smell was horrible.  Three swallows and dumped.  Taste lasted 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.  It was gross!

 Mangosteen Green Tea - I drank the first half hot, and it was passable with a slight pear taste.  Then tried it iced and did not like it at all.

The Stash Tea Superfruits were provided free to me by Influenster in a Mom VoxBox for an honest review.