Rainy Days and Thursday

My decorated cake from class.

Hi Everyone,

Today is a rainy day here in Vandergrift, PA.  I don't mind though I love being in the house, it has given me a chance to do something I never did before.  Today for the first time I dyed fondant and rolled it out and made flowers for on top of my cup cakes.  It was a lot of fun.  I went on ebay and ordered some different shaped fondant cutters, so when they come in I will be doing more shapes.

I am having such a good time in my cake decorating class.  On Tuesday we cut, iced and decorated a 2 layer cake, that also included filling.  The icing we were to make at home.  That was something new for me to do.  But now I  know how to make my own buttercream frosting.

I will be posting on my kitchen blog a recipe that I learned from a lady at a local plant store.  It is how to bake roma tomatoes.  Jim and I have had them two days in a row.  Of course I change the recipe and did it the way I wanted.  So check out my kitchen blog for pics and the recipe.

Well I am going to close for now.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting, you are always welcome here, stop by any time.

Love, hugs and God bless you,
Janet (Kristy, Abby, Dulcie, and Ngan's Nana)

PS  Recipe for the cupcakes will be on my kitchen blog.

Yellow and Pink Cupcakes

Happy Mother's Day

My pink azalea in our rock garden is blooming so well this year.

Hi Everyone,

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and grandmothers,

It is such a beautiful day here in Vandergrift PA.  Jim and I went to church and heard a great message.  We came home and I made us dinner.  We had Jim's favorite potatoes au gratin, fried ham, green beans and homemade herb and cheese biscuits (served warm with butter melting everywhere).  We will have our dessert later, cupcakes.  After wards I filled the dishwasher and anything that didn't fit Jim washed and then cleaned up the kitchen.  He is so good to me and I am truly blessed.

Jim and I are just relaxing right now and enjoy a quiet afternoon here in our cozy home.  Later we will probably sit outside and have our cupcake and enjoy the beautiful day together.

I hope all of you are having a great Mother's Day.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting here in Nana's Parlor. Stop by anytime you are always welcome here.

Love, hugs, and God bless you,
Janet (Kristy, Abby, Dulcie, and Ngan's Nana)

Me and my precious granddaughter Dulcie.

Three generations, my son Jimmy, his daughter and my granddaughter Dulcie and me.

My husband Jim and me with our precious Dulcie.

My son Jimmy with his wife Brittany and dulcie.

The Mating of the Peepers

The trail around the lake.  It is a beautiful walk.

Northmoreland Park Lake is a a man made lake that is stocked with fish and people come out and really enjoy the day fishing, walking and just relaxing.

Hi Everyone,

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday but I want to tell you about my day.  It was beautiful.  Jim had trapped a bunny in our garden so we took it out to the local park to release it.  while we were there we decided to go walk around the lake.  The lake has a beautiful trail (1.1 miles) around it.  The walk is wonderful and good exercise.  I took some pictures that I will post.  While there we heard this loud noise and couldn't figure out what it was.  There was a man and his wife passing us on the trail and we asked what it was that was making such a noise.  The man said the spring peepers were mating.  Well let me tell you they were letting everyone know about it.  Jim and I really enjoyed out walk and just being in the park together. We are planning on doing it again real soon.  Jim said that he can fish while we are there and I can take pictures.  I also plan on taking some embroidery to do.  A picnic lunch will also be part of the plan.

Well I am going to close for now.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting me here in Nana's Parlor.  You are always welcome here.  Stop by anytime.

Love, hugs, and God bless you,
Janet (Kristy, Abby, Dulcie and Ngan's Nana)

Ducks on the lake.

May flowers and their apples scattered around the park.

Beautiful bluets carpet the ground.

Spring peepers relaxing near the lake shore.

The trees blooming in brilliant, bright pink.

Cake Decorating Class and Cupcake Holders

I love all of my cupcake holders, but this is my favorite, after all it is pink.

Hi Everyone,

I hope all of you are having a great day.  It rained here in Vandergrift this morning, but it is sunny outside now and getting warmer.

Last night was the first class for cake decorating.  They start you out decorating cupcakes.  It was a great class and a lot of fun.  We all laughed and had a good time learning different techniques.  This past weekend I worked on some cupcake holders.  I really like them and so did my friend who is taking the class with me.

Below are some pictures of the cupcakes and the holders that I made.

I love this pink cupcake holder.  

Below are my cupcake holders with the cupcakes I made in class and at home.

Well I will closer for now.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting me here in Nana's Parlor.  Stop by any time you are always welcome here.

Love, hugs, and God bless you,
Janet
(Kristy, Abby, Dulcie and Ngan's Nana)

Cake Decorating Class this Evening

An orchid from the orchid room at Phipps Conservatory.  Pic taken May 3, 2014.

Hi Everyone,

Tonight my friend and I start the cake decorating class that we signed up for when we took the Crazy for Cupcakes class.  I am really looking forward to the class.  We start out doing cupcakes and work our way to cakes and other treats.

I have made some cupcake holders and I will post pictures of them tomorrow that way I can show you how they will look with the cupcakes in them.  I have also dome some altered bird houses that I will post tomorrow as well.

The weather is beautiful today, sunny and bright.  The birds sang to me this morning as I was waking up.  I got up earlier to see the meteor shower, interesting.  Our garden is coming along quite well.  We have onions and lettuce in, Jim will be planting in the next couple of weeks the tomatoes, zuchini, eggplant, peppers and herbs.  We love having a garden with fresh things to eat and of course I will do some canning at the end of summer.

Jim and I are so proud of our granddaughter Kristy.  She is an official member of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and she was also elected to the leadership board as their historian for the 4-H group she belongs to and she is only 11 years old.  Both her and her sister are very active in their 4-H group in a variety of activities.

Well I will close for now.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting me here in Nana's Parlor.  You are always welcome here, so stop by anytime.

Love, hugs, and God bless you,
Janet (Kristy, Abby, Dulcie, and Ngan's Nana)


Below are some of the other orchids from the orchid room at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA.

I love orchids and the brominleads are also beautiful.

Crazy for Cupcakes

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I didn't get back sooner.  I hope all are doing well and having a great week.  I did take the Crazy for Cupcakes class and had a great time.  My friend and I had so much fun that we signed up for Course 1 of the Wilton Cake Decorating class which starts this coming Tuesday.  I will post pictures.

Yesterday Jim and I met with my friend Jackie and had breakfast, then Jackie and I went to Michael's to pick up our supplies for the class.  Well needless to say I bought more that just supplies.  I also picked up some things to make some table gardens  One thing about making table gardens you can use just about any container.

Wednesday Jim and I went to the local thrift store and yes I picked up some china, mugs, a mini watering can that will become a table garden, a pink vase for my dining room table, two bags of lace and two bags of fabric ($1.00 a bag) couldn't pass up the deal.  I have a few ideas for those.

Well I better close for now.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting me here in Nana's Parlor.  You are always welcome.  Stop by any time.  Check out my cupcakes.

Love, hugs, and God bless you,
Janet (Kristy, Abby, Dulcie and Ngan's Nana)

This is me at the class.

These are some cupcakes I decorated at home after the class.