Tiernan Design

With a Blink of an Eye

 
With a blink of an eye, my little girl is five years old today....sassy and sweet and the love of my life.

 

She wanted me to make this Princess Cake.  I made marshmallow flowers instead of a crown. It seemed prettier than a plastic crown and the marshmallows were in my pantry.  At 10:30 at night, you have to work with what you have.  I call this design by default.  It was a scratch cake, so my mom would be proud.  I am not sure my mom ever made a cake out of box while we were living at home.  She was kind of crazy like that and it has rubbed off on my sisters and me, well at least for special occasions like birthdays....I cropped out the box made brownies sitting in a pan on the counter! 

Happy Birthday Stella, we love you to pieces!

Crazy about White Pumpkins

I love white pumpkins, gourds and autumn in general.  We went to Pumpkin Land last weekend at a 125 year old family farm in the middle of the city; Theiss Farm.  As we walked through the market to check out I came across a farm table filled with my favorites.  I thought I would share it with you.  Needless to say, I bought a few and added them to my autumn mantel.  

Here is another photo from other favorite autumn activity - apple picking. 

We went early this year so it was super hot.  I wanted to get it in before my knee surgery.......

 

I Have Become an Anthropologie Hoarder

Just like the title says, I have become an Anthropologie hoarder.  I don't throw away any catalogs.  I hold on to them for design ideas, for clothing ideas and pretty much just because they are cool.  I hide them, which makes me a hoarder.  I have mentioned this before, and it is still true, my husband HATES the amount of magazines I get and that I leave around the house.  I don't want the anthropologie catalogs to end up in the trash, so I hide them.  I hide them in the "future projects" black hole in my closet.  I started to make a sweater from last fall's catalog because I have turned into my mother and constantly say, "I can make that". Needless to say, it is still on my dress form.  It looks cute, but I just need to the time to finish it.  One of my first posts  delt with my love of Anthropologie.  The photo above is from this spring/summer catalog.  It is my favorite one so far.  Not so much for the items for sale, but just for the layout design.  Check out Hatch Show Print, the catalog's inspriation.  Here is a sample poster from Hatch.  I love all things vintage.

 

Mad Men Starts in Four Days!

Have some fun and Mad Men Yourself!

Chris Isaak - it only took me about 20 years

It only took me about 20 years to get this, but I finally got a photo with my favorite of all favorites musician, Chris Isaak.  I have plenty of autographs, every album and my little girl knows the whooohoooo part of Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing and most of his Christmas album songs, but now all is complete with a photo.  Yummy.

Happy Easter

 

"God's most blessed gift to His Family is the gift of Life. He sent us the Prince of Peace as a babe in a Manger.  I've said that we must be cautious in claiming God is on our side;  I think the real question we must answer is, Are we on His side?"

                                                President Ronald Reagan

What do Easter and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon have in common?  click  here - Glenn's Easter Essay

Happy St. Nicholas Day

     

Put your shoes out tonight! 

A little tidbit about it.  I had no idea St. Louis was such the hot bed for St. Nick celebrations.

"The tradition of St. Nick's Day is firmly established in the Milwaukee and St. Louis communities, with parents often continuing to observe the day with even their adult children. Widespread adoption of observing the tradition has spread throughout the german, polish and belgian communities throughout Wisconsin, and is carried out through modern times."

Dorothy and One Cute Munchkin

      

Okay, it has been quite a while since my last post.  Wow feels a bit like I am in Confession.  I have been swamped at work.  Our company has been blessed because we have actually been hiring people in the last few months rather than letting them go.  Anyway, I have been really wanting to get a dress form for over a year and haven't pulled the trigger.  Then I made Halloween costumes for my kids.  Stella was Dorothy and Frankie was a Munchkin.  I just kind of winged it and made my own patterns and sewed their costumes.  Now I am hooked.   I have a lot of sewing things in my head that have been wanting to get out and now I am ready.  My husband made a dress form for me last night with duct tape.  Go on-line, you will find a ton of resources for duct tape dress forms.  It is kind of weird seeing the shape of your body in a dress form.  I will post  a photo of The Silver Lady when I get it on a stand.  I will also post some sewing projects soon.  I have been thinking a lot about this blog, even thought it doesn't appear that way.  I have some new ideas.  Stay tuned.

Never Forget

Public Service Announcment

Okay, I am posting what I am calling a Public Service Announcement.  Got Poison Ivy?  Go get Fels Naptha Bar Soap (in your laundry isle). I have had about three people in the past week complain about poison ivy and I have told them all the same remedy.  After running around in the brush on my oldest sister's land, chasing her barn cats, I got the worst case of poison ivy I have ever had.  After about two weeks of trying every over-the-counter medicine I could find, nothing was working until a friend of mine told me his grandmother's remedy.  Scratch open the poison ivy blisters and scrub the area with a bar of Fels Naptha soap.  The next day, it had dried up and the itching was gone.  I have kept a bar in my medicine cabinet ever since.  While trying to find a nice vintage photo of Fels Naptha, I came across many ways to use it.  One of which is to make powered laundry soap for about 34 loads using one $1 bar of Fels Naptha.  I might put my Martha Stewart hat on and try that one....