Yarn Wreath Craft Night

This past Saturday night I was invited to a craft night at my friend Brooke's house.  There were two crafts that you could pick from; one was a berry letter and the other was a yarn wreath.  I chose to do a yarn wreath, I let my mom pick out the materials.  Her birthday is coming up and I am giving the yarn wreath to her as an early present :)  Instructions on a yarn wreath are HERE.  It was a good project and I had so much fun, but be prepared, putting the yarn on the wreath takes some time.  The best part was decorating with the Christmas stuff that my mom had picked out.  The wreath turned out really cute and I think I am going to make two more for our back door.  Here is my wreath, and yes my mom loves it :) I could not wait and gave it to her early.

Also for the craft night we were to bring a Pinterest recipe.  I chose to bring Pumpkin Bars, they are so good.  There was also Buffalo Chicken Dip, Pumpkin Dip and Skinny Puppy Chow.  (F.Y.I. these are the links for the pins on Pinterest, if you click on the picture of the pin it will take you to the recipes.)

Many Thanks to Brooke for inviting me, I had so much fun.

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Billy Currington Concert

Well the State Fair is finally over and we had so much fun.  Our last concert was this past Saturday night and Billy Currington was awesome.  He sang all my favorite songs including, People are Crazy and Good Directions.  His stage was the coolest so far with stairs and lights that flashed different things related to each song he sang.  My favorite part was when he brought his bog on stage, so cute.  The only bad part was that there were smoke machines going which made my pictures come out a little weird.  But that's only a minor thing.  Ashton and I can't wait till next year so that we can go see some more concerts at the fair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Jason Michael Carroll Concert

So my Fair concerts have continued (3 of 4) and Wednesday night we went to see Jason Michael Carroll.  It was the best so far because of our seats.  We could see so well and walk right up to the stage area to get photos, Ashton even got to shake Jason's hand.  She was thrilled :)  We had so much fun and holy cow can he sing the low notes it was crazy how low his voice got.  My favorite moment was when he brought up a little girl from the audience, she was so cute in her cow girl hat.

Jason sang one of my all time favorite songs, Alyssa Lies, it makes me cry every time.  He also sang, Livin' Our Love song, Meet me in the Barn, and I can Sleep when I'm Dead.  I had so much fun and tonight we get to see Billy Currington :) I will let you know how it goes.  Here are some more pictures, and yes that is him signing a boot (lol).

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Scotty McCreery Concert

 

Wow what a couple of nights I have had.... Two nights ago I went to the Scotty McCreery concert at the North Carolina State Fair with my two best friends, Ashton and Dennys.  We had so much fun the concert was my second of four that I am going to and it was sold out.  It was crazy seeing all the people at Dorton Arena it was completely packed,  I wish you could have seen all the young teenagers there screaming, it was so funny. They were so excited to see Scotty and what I found the most was that while I was not screaming I was just as excited as they were :)

 

 Scotty was a great performer, one of my favorite parts was when he called a "lucky" fan onto the stage.  It turned out that it was rigged and the girl's boyfriend was waiting to propose to her. It was so sweet, and really cool to see, she of course said yes. Then there were all my favorite songs like, I Love You this Big, The Trouble with Girls and Water Tower Town. Here are some of the pictures I got. By the way if you get a chance check out Scotty's new Christmas album he sang two songs from it at the concert and they were really good my favorite was Christmas in Heaven.

This video is from the NC State fair but I did not take it, it's from YouTube.  The user who posted it is Scotty Streett and they have some good posts check them out.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Shania's Baby Shower and Buckeyes

 

Saturday was my friends baby shower, and we had so much fun.  Shania was recently married and this is her first child; it's going to be a boy.  Shania and her husband Derick got some really good presents for Cameron and they had some really fun games to play as well.  We played four games total but my favorite was the candy in the diaper to look like poop, LOL, I won the prize for this one when I got 4 out of the 6 candy's.  My other favorite, believe it or not was tasting baby food, Ashton won this one she got all of them right.  We had a really good time.

A few weeks ago as the baby shower came closer I had asked Shania if there was anything I could make to bring.  Shania had no preference so I decided to make Buckeyes.  If you do not know what a buckeye is, it's kind of like a homemade Reese's Cup.  They are so good and very easy to make, although Ashton will tell you differently :) she did not like rolling them into little balls.  Here is the link to the recipe I use, it is a Toll House recipe, Toll House Buckeye Candy.  I hope you like them.

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Jake Owen and the North Carolina State Fair

 

The North Carolina State Fair started this past Thursday and I have been waiting my turn to go.  This year I am going a couple of times because I am going to all of the country concerts with my friends Ashton and yes Dennys (we talked him into going to the Scotty concert).  Last night was the first of four concerts.  We went to see Jake Owen, he was excellent and while I do not know a lot of his songs I knew a few and really liked some of his newer ones.  Jake Owen is on his first headline tour right now, you can check out his website for tour dates.  His new song Pass a Beer was my favorite but I also really liked Heaven.

Jake Owen was really awesome on stage he brought up some of the NC State football team and announced that they had beat his favorite team Florida State.  There was a ton of cheering, it was awesome especially since I am a Wolf Pack Fan :)  He also brought a little girl on stage and danced with her and gave her a few freebies, she was very cute and the whole thing was just a sweet as it could be.  I can't wait to go to the other concerts.

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

*State Fair logo from NC State Fair website 

**music video is from YouTube

Pitch Perfect (PG-13)

Last night I went to see Pitch Perfect with my friend Ashton, and it was so good.  The movie is about a cappella groups competing to be the best.  The main actors are Anna Kendrick who you might recognize from Twilight and Skylar Astin who I did not recognize, but who was awesome none the less.  The movie is really funny and there is also a little love story in it which I was not expecting.  Also, not to give anything away but The Breakfast Club plays a role in the movie which was great, I love that movie and its theme song.  I really can't wait to own this movie and who knows I might just have to go see it again :)  Just an FYI don't have a heavy meal before you go see this movie, you might regret it.  One of the girls in it throws up and it's pretty gross.

5 out of 5 stars
Good Girl's night out movie
Would definitely go see it again.



Enjoy,

Tabitha

*movie poster from IMDb

**video from You Tube

Las Margaritas

Thursday night was time for BFF Night Out.  This month it was Ashton's turn to pick out the restaurant that we were going to.  She picked Las Margaritas in Wake Forest, NC.  All I can say is we had so much fun.  The restaurant is in a basement location which I thought of as a little weird but let me tell you what it was one of the best times that we have had.  The only bad part was that I forgot to take pictures of the food :(  I got the Pollo Ranchero  it was only $8.99 and super yummy it was a chicken breast with cheese on top and it came with rice, lettuce, sour cream and flour tortillas.  I cut up my chicken and mixed everything together then put it on the tortillas.  YUMMY! Ashton and Dennys got the two taco plate which also looked good.  I got the picture above is right outside the restaurant, check out their website http://lasmargaritaswf.com/  and if you are in the area stop by to try their amazing food.  I have not tried one of their Margaritas yet but I have heard that they are as good as the food.

Enjoy,

Tabitha

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences BUGFEST!

Bugfest is a yearly event held at the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.  I had never been, but had heard that its a lot of fun.  This year it happened that I was babysitting on the Saturday that it was held.  So I decided to take the two little boys that I was babysitting.  We had so much fun, the museum and other companies had all kinds of booths set up inside and outside for kids.  There was a bounce house, face painting, and a giant caterpillar to craw through.  For adults there was also a lot of information about different environmental problems and ways to help prevent them.  All the booths were really neat and the boys and I definitely learned a lot.  For the brave adults and kids you could also try different foods made with bugs :/ we did not try any :)

 

 

This booth above had injured animals that they were helping to rehabilitate and release back into the wild.  It was really cool being so close to the little owl in the picture the boys thought it was really cool too.

When we went inside the museum they had even more booths set up where you could hold different bugs.  We held a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and one of the boys held a walking stick.  There was also a tarantula that you could hold we tried but she had to be put away after being held for too long.  you can see a brave soul holding her below.  Did you know that they eat the males after they have babies.  ewwwww.....  There is also a picture of a praying mantis, this years bug of the year was the praying mantis.

 

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures in the museum, if you live in Raleigh or are visiting you should check out the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  Even if you have been there before you should go again, this past April the museum opened a new wing, when I go I will post about it :)

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

My mom has been begging me to make cookies again :)  And a friend of hers and mine made these Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They are my new second favorite chocolate chip cookie, with Toll House still on top :)  These cookies are amazing, I usually do not make chocolate chip cookies with the nuts but I decided to this time and yummy.  I hope you go out and get your self a bag of Ghiradelli Baking Chips soon and try these cookies, I used the Semi-Sweet chips because they are my favorite.  Here is the recipe, you can also find it on the back of the bag of chips or on the Ghirardelli web site.  BTW, check out Ghirardelli's website they have some awesome looking recipes.  The Dark Chocolate Cupcakes look really good, I might have to try them.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 bag (12 oz.) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Stir together dry ingredients, set aside.
Beat butter, sugar together med. speed until creamy add vanilla, then eggs one at a time on low.  Gradually add in dry mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Saturday Morning with my Mom :)

        Every once and a while I go to farmers market with my mom on Saturday mornings.  Today we went to get some of the last tomatoes of the season.  We had so much fun, here are some of the things we enjoyed.  The Raleigh Farmer's Market is located on, 1201 Agriculture St. - Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, and is open Monday thru Saturday 5:00am - 6:00pm and Sundays 8:00am - 6:00pm.

 

 

Annelore's German Bakery was our first stop, they have the best soft pretzels and cheese bread you can find.  It's a must shop at the Farmer's Market.

 

 

Next we took a look around and my mom spotted the tomatoes that she wanted, they were from Tart's Farm, in Dunn, North Carolina.  They also had some yummy looking cucumbers and yellow squash.

 

 

 

 

After we paid for our tomatoes we came across some beautiful peppers at the stand for Walker Farm which is in Franklinville, North Carolina.  These peppers were so pretty I wish I knew some recipes so that I could have bought some.  I really loved how they displayed these, the colors are amazing :)

 

 

Next up we had to have some more peaches, unfortunately we are getting to the end of peach season :(  However, that means we are also close to the start of apple season. YUMMY :)

Our peaches came form Johnson's Farm in Candor, North Carolina.  I can't wait to eat some, we get peaches from this stand at least once a year.  They are always the best of the season.  As I said it is the just becoming the start of apple season so while we did not get any apples today we will be in the near future.  I think we are going to try some from Perry Lowe Orchard's.  They sure do look good.

As we were checking out all of the veggies I saw the flowers, they were so pretty.  I wish I had flower money today. There is always a stand selling fresh flowers when you go to the Farmers market, I have gotten a bunch in the past and they brighten up any room nicely, watch out for the bees though you are outside :)

After we checked out the outdoor vendors we headed to the indoor area to see if they had anything we wanted in there. Sure enough my mom and I have a sweet spot for fruit slices. So we stopped at The Berry Patch to get some.

 

 

 

 

Then we headed over to the Lu Mil Vineyard, they have Muscadine Cider Slushies that are o so good. I am not a wine person but I bet anyone who is would love this stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures from the Farmer's Market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. If you have never tried Moravian Cookies you are seriously missing out.

 

 

Last but not least we finished our morning by stopping by the Krispy Kream store on Person St. It is Krispy Kream's 75th birthday this year.  The donuts were soooooooooooo good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha