Ladies Only: Craft Night!

With the exception of December, I’ve been holding a craft night on the third Friday since school started.   It has been a really fun excuse to get some girlfriends together and just work together on our many projects.  I’ve also had fun thinking of different ways to “tweak” my spread.   Here are the different months of what my spread looks like.  August is the first month and I went a little nuts with the food and had so much left-over that I have since scaled back on the treats.

AUGUST

 

SEPTEMBER

 

OCTOBER

 

NOVEMBER

I really love having an excuse to use the season as a theme for an “event”.  I’ve just had the ladies bring their own projects that they need to work on, but I’m wondering if I should have the option of a pre-designed craft for those ladies who don’t think that they are as “creative” (though we all know that’s not really true).  What do you think, would you rather go to a free-for-all craft/scrapbooking night or something where a specific craft is taught?

Heart-Shaped Valentines Place Cards!

I am getting really excited for Valentines Day!  My awesome neighbor next door and I are going to put together a Valentines dinner for a few friends, and their children (in the next room over, of course).  I’m so happy to finally have a girl who likes to craft and host parties like me for a next door neighbor!

I’ve been putting together part of the table arrangement and I’m really excited about the place-cards that I designed.  They’re super easy and cute too.

   I made a template so if anyone wants that, just leave a comment with your contact info and I’ll send you a pdf or jpeg.  Your choice.

Safe-Keeping for Next Christmas…

Every year on the four Sunday’s proceeding Christmas, we celebrate “Advent” which is a German holiday where we light a candle (first one on the first Advent, two on the second…etc).  We enjoy singing carols and then we like to have a special snack or treat.  In our family, I made it a tradition to give the children who are present, a gift to help them feel the spirit of the season….which usually ends up being a beautifully illustrated book.

As I have so many seasonal books, I have been looking for either a crate or something to keep them in so that they are more special when I pull them out along with the decorations.  I was so excited last night when I found this beautiful big, square, basket; even big enough for the largest books!

This is now going in my closet where the temperature is controlled (an important thing when storing books) and where little hands and eyes will forget about them for about eleven months and they will be more magical because of it.

Thanksgiving 2010

I had a great Thanksgiving this year!  It was extra special because one of my best friends, Dayna, came with her new husband Jeff, from Las Vegas to celebrate it with us in our new home.  We had a blast cooking all morning and then taking a break and relaxing and then finishing up at dinner time and having our Thanksgiving Feast together.  We decided that cooking Thanksgiving and having it possible to eat in the afternoon has to take more than one oven.  It really was okay that we had it about 6:30 pm with me.  In fact, I think I was less likely to stuff myself since I had eaten all my meals at a normal time that day and not held off because of the big meal.

Here’s an awful picture of Me and Dayna after cooking all day….right before I ran off to take a shower and freshen up…only to realize that I hadn’t found the box with my blow-dryer in it yet!

Here’s my husband carving the Turkey at the island.

These are my kids waiting pretty patiently for their meal (I gave the baby some faux gourds to play with).  I also am in love with her cute Turkey bib from Carters!

Speaking of faux gourds, I was really proud of myself for noticing some on the bottom self at Joann’s the Monday after Halloween.  They were 75% off and about the same price as gourds from the grocery store but the best thing about these is they will never fade, rot, and are pretty tough.  Love them!  Perfect decorations for a fall flavor.

This is Dayna and Jeff as he is trying to get the “oysters” off of the turkey.

 

My boy, checking out all of the food on the island and hoping to eat soon.  Really, I think he’s eyeing those sweet-potatoes that are my grandma’s amazing recipe.   They are so yummy.  When Dayna and I were figuring out what we wanted to serve for Thanksgiving she mentioned that she and Jeff both didn’t really care for sweet potatoes and I said that we HAD to make my grandma’s recipe and they would be converted, I was right (most people call them yams but I hear that’s technically incorrect so in order to try not to confuse those who call them sweet potatoes and have had really yams, I’ll just call them sweet potatoes).  Jeff went back for more sweet potatoes than anything else during the meal and even got more in the morning with his breakfast he liked them so much.  They are super easy.   Here’s the recipe:

My Grandma’s Sweet-Potatoes (or Thanksgiving Yams)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Wash 6 sweet potatoes and pierce with a fork.   Bake Sweet Potatoes on a cookie sheet for 1-2 hrs until soft…just keep an eye on them, it really depends on the mass of them and how dense they are how long it takes but they start smelling sweet when they are getting softer.

2.  Let baked sweet potatoes cool.  Peel off skins or scoop out pulp.  Place pulp in a bowl.  Add melted butter, salt, and milk to desired consistency (just as you would make mashed potatoes).

3.  Grease a 9x13x2 pan and spread sweet potatoes out.  Sprinkle with marshmallows (about 3/4 of a package).  Bake in a 350 degree oven until marshmallows start looking toasty (about 25 minutes).

4.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Serve and enjoy.

 

I’m so Thankful that we got to have our great friends join us for the holiday.  It was lots of fun, even if I was feeling a little nutty after moving a week and a half before.  It was wonderful to have them!

Patriotic Treats

Mostly due to my cake decorating class, I have decided to volunteer making desserts for everything that I can.  Our ward had a Patriotic Party last week and since I will be out of town for July 4th, I thought it would be super fun to actually make something patriotic.  So, I did cupcakes and a cake.

 

I kind of went crazy and did any patterns I could thing of with the frosting I had left-over from my class and other practice sessions (thus the strange blues I used).  My very favorite ones are the red stripes and the dots.  If I had two 12’s I might have done just dots and stripes in both colors rather than doing everything that entered my mind :).

 

I also decorated a cake so that I could practice getting the frosting on smoothly…I think I’m getting better though the uniformity of the dots on the border could use a little more practice.

 

Here’s my little boy doing the “hover” around the treats once he woke up from this nap.

 

Valentines Dinner

I decided to start a new tradition of making a Valentines dinner for our family.  I had some incredibly (corny) funny ideas of what to serve.  First we had a salad with hearts of Romaine, then I had two Cornish game hens with rice stuffing with sautéed mushrooms and car(e)rots  with dill and to give a nod to cupid asparagus spears.  I know terrible huh?  It was great fun. 

   

Advent Stocking

We celebrate German Advent at our house.  If you don’t know what that is, it is basically the four Sunday’s preceding Christmas where you light a candle on an Advent wreath and say a little poem in German.  The first week you light one candle, the next two, and so forth as you say the poem.  Afterwards, we have a child open a gift of some sort (we usually have it be a book or something about or related to Christmas) and then we have some sort of treat.  It’s a fun tradition that my husband’s family started when they lived in Germany (where my husband was born).  Here’s the poem that we recite.

 

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt,

Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,

dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.

 

Roughly translated it means:

 

Advent, Advent, a candle is lit,

First one, then two, than three, then four

the Christ-child stands at the door. 

 

The first year we were married, Jared was very adamant that we “Do Advent”.  I searched high and low for an Advent wreath to buy.  I actually ended up thinking I’d have to create one myself and found one at JoAnn’s that came equipped with candle holders and everything.  So, basically, anything Advent always interests me when I’m looking at new ideas of things to do.  I love the Christmas Advent Calendars that “countdown” until Christmas (It might just be my love of Chocolate).  But I found this fun stocking pattern for an Advent stocking and had to try it:

 

 

This is from the book:

The Ultimate Christmas Book: Over 240 Holiday Craft, Food and Decorating Ideas by Editors of Reader's Digest

It’s a really great book with all kinds of ideas for Christmas and even New Years including gifts you could make (that don’t look home-made.  I love it!

Halloween Costumes Plus

11After some convincing (okay begging) from my son, I broke down and made him a musketeer costume for Halloween.  I also made some extra pieces to go along with the doublet and breeches of his musketeer costume so he could dress the part when he plays prince.  When I finished my son’s costume, my husband thought it would be really cool to have us all go as musketeers since this is the last year there will only be three of us.  I agreed that this would be really fun though I had my reservations at making yet two more costumes.  Well, since my husband was willing to fit the bill, I made two more hats as well as two more tabards.  I didn’t make all of the pieces such as the doublet or the pants but I felt like it still turned out quite cute.

 

Christian the Musketeer… 

 

 

Prince Christian…

 

 

 

The Three Musketeers…

 

I think they turned out well…though I feel like I look like “the brains of the operation” with my big belly.  So, technically, there are 3 2/3 Musketeers in the picture…