Linky Followers

I'm sure most all of you have heard by now that GFC followers will be disappearing very soon. Not really sure when since some rumors say that it's going to be March 1st and others say longer...

In any case, it's gonna be gone eventually and a ton of us feel discouraged that we have to start all over again!!

{Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way?}

Happily though, there is a replacement.  I just recently put a Linky Followers widget on my blog if you haven't noticed it yet. All you have to do is create a Linky Followers account and it will guide you through the process.  It's really simple.

And I would LOVE it if you would take a second of your time to follow Sweet Little Gals on Linky Followers.

I don't want to lose any of my readers once Google takes away the widget... You are all very special to me and I appreciate the feedback you give me on each of my posts.  I would hate to lose any of you.

I'd REALLY appreciate it.  And just so you know, if you leave a comment for me, I will follow you back as soon as I can.  

So it's a win/win situation!!

Hope your day is lovely.

Cute Centerpiece

Just wanted to show you my fun centerpiece I made.  It's kind of a mix between Valentine's Day and winter decor.  And kinda fun.  You can find my inspiration at Little Lucy Lu, thanks Bec!!  {You are always my inspiration!!}

{I also had fun making a Valentine Ladder if you'd like to see it here}

Awhile back I went to the antique store and came across a case of these darling vintage coca cola bottles.  I bought the whole case and just LOVE those little buggers!!  I really like how they look in the centerpiece.

It's really simple.  I just used some of those pretty red party straws, stuck in some holly, and tied around the bottles with turquoise and red baker's twine.  (Which I absolutely LOVE and use for everything by the way!)

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with LOVE, KINDNESS, and lots of FUN.

Turquoise Lovin' #25

Happy Valentine's Day!! 

What a FUN day to have a party!! ;)  This is one of my favorite days of the year.  I love all of the hearts and mushy stuff and chocolates and everything else that goes along with this day.

And I am SO excited that I finished my Valentine Ladder just in time for today.  It's so festive and fun to look at.

My hubby surprised me with some chocolates and an adorable stuffed monkey(I collect them) this morning!!  I LOVE this day!!!  Hopefully we can have a little date later this evening. 

Loving the features as always.  And thank you for linking up.  You know, you guys are what make this party happen!!

Love this Conversation Heart Specimen from Remodelaholic.  So adorable!

These Valentine's Day cookies  from Ode to Inspiration are PERFECT for today.  Love all of the details on them.

And adore this Cupcake Wreath from Alderberry Hill.  Love all of her decor...

Ok, time to party!!  Time to link up YOUR turquoise love for the week!!


Party Rules...
1)  Please follow Sweet Little Gals
2)  Make sure your project or post has SOMETHING to do with turquoise because that's what makes it fun! New party feature:  AND IF YOU WANT TO SNEAK IN SOME RED TOO, YOU CAN...
3)  Try to comment on at least two other posts.
4)  PLEASE grab a turquoise lovin' button on the sidebar so you can share the turquoise fun with others.

Valentine Ladder

Done...just in the nick of time!!

I have been working on this project for FOREVER, and finally finished it.  Yay!!!!!

Since I just got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas, I thought it was about time to use it.  And of course, learning how takes some time!  So far, I have made a few boxes and hearts and one banner with it.  {And a whole ton of experiments that I won't show here!! HA!}

I am by NO means an expert yet, but at least I'm having fun!

Back at Christmas time, I had so much fun making an Advent Ladder.  And I thought it would be fun to update it for Valentine's Day.

I used my new favorite color combo, turquoise/red/gray.  {grin}

I painted the ladder a gorgeous Westcott Navy {dark gray} and hung some fun hearts/ornaments from it with some different colored baker's twine.

Ally and I made the red hearts out of a salt dough ornament recipe.  Then we painted them red and hung 'em up!

I also made some pretty rosettes out of turquoise polka dot paper.  I just LOVE 'em!!

And I really like the final results.  This ladder may have to stay for awhile even past Valentine's Day.  hehe
{Pardon ALL of the pictures, I just couldn't help myself!}

Don't ya love it?  I sure do and hope you enjoyed looking at it.  Have a lovely day!

{I also would appreciate if you would take just a second of your time

to follow me on Linky Tools followers on my sidebar, directly under my Google
Friend Connect.  Leave me a comment and I will do the same for you!!}

Turquoise Lovin' # 24

It's time for Turquoise Lovin' again!  Hope ya'll have had an awesome week so far.

Each week I am amazed at how much fun turquoise stuff is out there!!  Hope it stays in style FOREVER!!  Really.  I'd be in heaven.  I'm lovin' this.  

And now....here are the features of the week.

Absolutely ADORE this kitchen redo from Retro Ranch Reno.  What a blissful place to spend your cooking days!! I love how bright and cheery it is and of course the aqua touches are the BEST.

This DIY Paint Chip Garland from Amelia Bedelia is darling too...

don't ya love it? {I'm loving the striped wall behind  it too!}

What a FUN Valentine's Day at Alderberry Hill!!  These decorations are gorgeous!!

Fun mantel...

And gorgeous decor... 

Ok, time to party!!  Time to link up YOUR turquoise love for the week!!

Party Rules...

1)  Please follow Sweet Little Gals
2)  Make sure your project or post has SOMETHING to do with turquoise because that's what makes it fun! New party feature:  AND IF YOU WANT TO SNEAK IN SOME RED TOO, YOU CAN...
3)  Try to comment on at least two other posts.
4)  PLEASE grab a turquoise lovin' button on the sidebar so you can share the turquoise fun with others.

Ukulele Fun

You'll never guess what I just got from the UPS man...I KNOW, isn't it way COOL?

...AND gorgeous?!  I can't wait to learn it.  It's a pretty fun little instrument.


{In case you hadn't heard before, I am a music teacher, not right now, but that's what I went to college for.  I used to teach music K-12 before I had my girls.}

I play lots of instruments, but hadn't tried this one yet.

I kinda play the guitar but finally decided it's time to learn it really well, since ALL of my family plays a lot better than I do.  I was feeling a bit  discouraged and thought I'd ease into it a little by learning the ukulele first.  Ha!

A little detour, but at least it's a fun one!

Speaking of guitars, my dad has a really COOL guitar story I will have to share with you soon.  You will love it!  I think this story tops ALL of the stories he's told me so far. 

Hope you're having a great weekend!  I'm going to be having some fun with my new baby!!

{Also, make sure you don't miss my German Salad recipe since you may want to make it for Super Bowl Sunday!}

Friends For Life?

I recently read the article Is that Really You? on one of my very favorite blogs, MWF Seeking BFF. 

The article (which you should read, it's really great) talks about expectations bloggers have of their fellow bloggers when they meet each other in real life.

And how many times people have met after writing for years and been disappointed that the person they thought they knew was much different in person from what they expected them to be. 

I have had a real-life experience with this type of situation when I was in my teens.  I was one of those crazy, letter writing, pen pal keeping teenagers back in the day.  Not gonna lie, I spent literally HOURS writing LONG letters to many different girls across the country.

And LOVED it.  And they seemed to love it too.

Only one thing mattered to me.  I wanted to make a friend.  No, LOTS of friends.  I have always been obsessed with making friends.  And I have absolutely NO idea why. {grin}

Except for that I'm just one of those people that NEEDS friends to survive I guess.  Good friends.  Friends that I can talk to about EVERYTHING whenever I want to.

Friends that I can lean on when I'm having a bad day.  I just plain ol' need friends.

And I'm one of those people that will do almost anything to make a friend.  Even though I am REALLY shy at times and shake out of my boots when I meet new people, the friend-loving in me takes over and makes me run over to the first new person I see as a potential friend and say hi.

That's just how I am. {I am just kinda awkward at it.  Wish I could change that part about myself}

Now, back to my original story.

I wrote to a lot of fun gals when I was a teenager.  But one in particular stuck out.  She happened to like writing as much as I did.

I was elated!!  Every time I would write back, she wrote back just as fast.  She was the only letter writer I wrote to that I didn't have to write about ten times before she would reply.  I cannot even describe how excited I was.

Here was someone as excited about making friends as I was.  Maybe she could be my BFF?

The most exciting thing was that our parents were almost as into this as we were, so they decided we should meet.  Ahhhhh!!

And we did.  And we hit it off like we'd known each other forever.  We talked for hours about our teenager dreams and hopes and promised to keep writing just like we always had.

And we did.  And we had just as much fun as we always had.  Until SHE went to college.  Then something changed.  I'm really still not sure exactly what it was.

But when she got to college, she still wrote, but there was something missing.  She'd put things like LATER on the bottom of the letter instead of LOVE.  No big deal I guess.  But different.

I happened to go to the same college the next year.  I was super nervous.  She and I were going to finally be at the same college and be able to see each other all of the time!!  We could finally be the friends that we wanted to be all along.

What could be better than being in the same dorm after all?  Seriously, I LOVED dorm life.

I got to college and excitedly as soon as I could, I ran to my friend's room and gave her a big hug!!  Imagine my surprise when she nicely said hi, but acted like she wasn't really that excited to have me there.  I could tell there was a problem from the beginning.

Immediately I thought of myself and what in the world could be wrong with me?  Was I not wearing the right clothes?  Was I not cool enough for her anymore now that she was at college?  I mean, after all, I was a college girl now too.

I was devastated.  REALLY devastated.  But nothing could be changed.  This was the way things were going to be from now on.  The momentum was gone, and my would be BFF friend was GONE.

And what was worse is that she didn't seem to care.  AT ALL.

 To think that ALL of these years I wasted writing to someone who eventually wouldn't want anything to do with me, was just plain awful.  Why didn't she tell me that she didn't like me in the first place?  I could have saved us both from all of that hurt and grief if only I had known.

To this day I have absolutely NO idea what happened.  If I did something to her that made her mad or if she decided she just wasn't interested anymore.  No IDEA.

I just know it hurt.  A LOT.

Ok, so maybe I am blowing all of this out of proportion as I often tend to do.  Maybe.

Do things like this ever worry you when you write to people in bloggy land?  Do you ever worry that if you met someone you are friends with online that they may not like you in real life?

Maybe I'm the only one.  Maybe I'm super self-conscious.  I don't know.  Maybe I get in too deep with my crazy friendship making escapades.  Ha! 

This brings up an important point in Rachel's article.  Are we really portraying ourselves as we REALLY are on our blogs?  I like to think I am.  {But then that gnawing feeling that I am more shy in person than on my blog takes over for a minute}

What do you think?  Have you ever met up with someone you made friends with online? Were they as you expected them to be or way different and just plain disappointing?

Here's another thought.  Are our expectations of people just a little too high maybe?  Do we forget that our online friends are people too, and prone to making mistakes just like our real-life friends are? 

Maybe we expect too much from our online friends and forget that it might take a little time to get to know the "REAL" life person.  And that that person may be just a little bit different than the online friend we pictured in our minds...  After all, we all put our best foot forward on our blogs and don't really bare our mistakes to everyone, right?

None of us are as perfect as we may look on our blogs.  Ummm, did I just say that?  Yep, I did.  {Or maybe I'm the only one that's not perfect.}

I would love to know what you think.  And I hope if I ever get the chance to meet any of you in REAL life, that you give me a chance.  I may not be perfect, but I would love to be friends.

That's one thing I DO know for sure.

I'm going to leave you with these quotes I absolutely LOVE about friendship.

This one is the BEST... 

Happy Friday!

German Salad

If you are from North Dakota or ever have visited anyone here, you probably know that people here eat well.

Maybe it's that most people here are German or Scandinavian.
Or, it's that the weather is often cold and people have more time to learn how to cook. {grin}
OR, it's just MY opinion that their cooking is good.

Regardless, when I married Dave and moved here, I was dumbfounded by all of the GOOD food that people cook here.

Did I say healthy?  Not necessarily.  But good, WOW!!  You've never tasted better.

And believe it or not, most of the foods here have at least SOME heavy whipping cream in them.  Whenever you ask what the "secret" ingredient is, you can be almost SURE it's gonna be cream.

Growing up, I never ever ate real cream except for once a year on my pumpkin pie.  And, I still can't bring myself to use it in my own cooking.  It just screams "20 extra lbs" every time I see it.  And I'm not usually obsessed with staying away from things with calories.

However, that having been said, we will go back to the original point of my rambling.  And that is the fact that the food here is awesome!  And I love all of the old time German recipes that I've learned to enjoy since I've been here.  Like Cheese Pockets, Kuchen, and Sweet Rice (which I'll have you know, I couldn't STAND before I moved here! The rice that is.  They know how to cook it).

So today I want to share a little of the wealth by letting you in on a yummy salad I learned to make here.  NO, nothing fancy or hard to make like the cheese pockets (I still need to learn those), but still just as delicious as any of the other recipes.

{And no, this one doesn't have cream in it!}

{Disclaimer:  If I have offended anyone by calling this a German Salad and you thought it was a, say, "Polish" salad, I am SO sorry.  I don't know what it's officially called so I named it myself!}

So here it is, my very favorite North Dakota GERMAN salad.

{It's really NOT much different from a regular salad, just a few extra ingredients.  But those extra ingredients make all of the difference in the world!!}

German Salad

Romaine or Iceberg lettuce (chopped into as small of pieces as you can)

Cucumbers, diced

Tomatoes, diced

Mushrooms, diced (can be optional, but I added these since I love mushrooms!)

Frozen Peas

Shredded Cheese

Boiled Eggs 

Mayonnaise

Salad Seasoning (I like to use McCormick's but you can use whichever you like best)

Chop all veggies into small pieces.  Add frozen peas and shredded cheese.  Add the chopped eggs last since you want them to hold together as much as possible.  Very last, add enough mayonnaise to make the salad moist.  Sprinkle seasoning on the top before serving.  Enjoy!

Note:  The people here usually layer the ingredients until they add the mayonnaise.  But since they still mix all of the ingredients together at the end, I see the layering as an extra step.  You can do it whichever way you'd like to though!! 

 

This salad is excellent for special occasions.  We like to use it for family outings and holiday dinners.  It's a great way to add flare to any dinner and I haven't met one person yet who doesn't like it!!

Hope you enjoy!!