A recipe just for you.

Creamy Strawberry Dessert

1 1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers (about 40)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 pkg. (3 oz. each) strawberry jell-o

1 cup boiling water

1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 oz.) Cool Whip

In a bowl, combine wafer crumbs, sugars, and butter— press into 9 x 13 pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in strawberries and condensed milk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until partially set. Fold Cool Whip into strawberry mixture. Spread over prepared crust. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Cut into squares and serve!

Some of you requested our fluffy-pink-delicious-strawberry-dessert-recipe so…. here it is!! Just a little tip— we like to add a little bit more of all of the crust ingredients so the crust is a bit thicker. It's soo yummy.

We wanted to let you all know that we're expecting some nasty weather starting tonight, so if you don't hear from us for a few days we may be out of power. Hopefully that won't be the case! If so, we might just be cranking our sewing machines by hand. (We can't stay away too long!)

Keep Warm~

xo, us

a vintage birthday.

A piece of vintage blue luggage as the centerpiece, on a table decked out in old tablecloths.

Old dishes (garage sale find), with the perfect chippy edges.

Brown paper packages, with vintage pattern front embellishments.

And fluffy pink strawberry dessert. A successful party for a special girl!

love from here~

the Long ladies

smore day is every day…

Well. if it isn't. It aught to be!

lots of love, the Long ladies

temari love.

For Christmas this year, we wanted to find a really special gift for mom. (Because she is so special, of course.) When we found our dear family friend, Julie, on Etsy last year, we knew exactly what we wanted… some of her beautiful Temari embroidered balls. They are so gorgeous and creative! And Julie made them especially for mom, in some of her favorite colors. (They came packaged in the cutest-ever Chinese take-out boxes.)

If you've been looking for a lovely home decor item, stop by Julie's lovely store. We love her Temari. And we love her too! Thank you, Julie!

xx, the Long ladies

mmmmmm cheese bread.

We're bread crazy around here. (Thanks, Paps, for passing down the love for bread! We love & miss you!) That being said… well, do we need to say any more? From pizza #1 to pizza #2 to pizza #3 and then our breadsticks. We love our bread. We stumbled upon this recipe after a short time. And it's a big hit!

Garlic-y Cheesy Cheese bread

-1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

-1 cup warm water

-1 tsp. sugar

-1 tsp. salt

-2 Tbsp. olive oil

-2 1/2 cups flour

-garlic salt

-Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the rest of ingredients, minus the garlic salt and Mrs. Dash seasoning. Dump mixture onto a floured counter. Knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle, (we dump!!) garlic salt and seasoning onto dough. Knead in well. Roll out and place on greased pizza pan. Top with little slabs of stick butter and a mixture of cheddar, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes (until the bottom is a little golden brown and the cheese is bubbly). When it's still hot, spread stick butter lightly over the top. Lightly sprinkle garlic salt over warm, melted butter.

Now. that's a good snack! Or meal.

lots of love, the Long ladies

twenty-one.

And just like that, she IS. Twenty-one years old.

Happy, happy birthday to Achaia! We love you so much. Thank you for all you do for our family! There's just no one like you. Not only are you amazing and talented and beautiful, but you love the Lord with all your heart. And you show it. We can't imagine life without you!

xoxo, us

Ps. On top of all that, you have the most perfect timing for saying witty things! You have adorable style. You keep things around here organized. You have a gorgeous grin. AND you're lots of fun to be with!

Let's all wish Achaia a happy 21st birthday!!!

flower-girl.

When there isn't a flower to be seen out-of-doors, you can be sure Achaia will have one in her hair. (She likes to bloom where she's planted!)

Hoping things are warm and cozy wherever you are~

xo, the Long ladies

snow day recap

*Yesterday we got our first little bit of snow

*It was wasn't much, but it was still snow

*Blayde is standing guard at the front door

*We decided to have a little party

*Complete with pizza, cheese bread (best friend-style), and a movie marathon

*For fun we watched all old Roy Rogers/Dale Evans westerns

*We hadn't seen them in a long time

*It brought back memories

*And we loved it!

*Because of said snow we haven't shipped packages yet

*We're so sorry and hope we can get out them out tomorrow

*We've been doing a little bit of extra fun sewing lately

*Several of them are summery dresses and tops

*Sorry, no pictures for a little while yet

*Too cold!

*Some of us are making quilt tops to hand quilt

*Maybe we can talk Dad into reading us a good book while we stitch

*It was so great to see how many agree with our Chick-Fil-A assessment

*That is Abiah in the picture

*Those cute fingerless gloves are from Target

*Have a wonderful night!

*Much love~ the Long ladies

YUMMY

Who doesn't like Chick-fil-A? In one of our brother's words– YUMMY– in all capital letters!

happy new year!

The happiest of New Years to all of you, dear friends! Twenty-eleven. How exciting is that?! We're thankful for a new year. It's like a fresh start – but with all the good memories of last year. Another year to serve, another year to smile, another year to sing. And we're looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us! Because His plan is always perfect.

With lots of love from our home to yours!

xo, the Long ladies