A Kinder, Gentler Halloween

Bank situation solved: 2 empty Polaner All Fruit jelly jars (it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it...can you send sypathetic thoughts to hubs? sometimes I think I drive him crazy when the grocery list has more do-not-buy notes on it than actual items I'd like to purchase for us to eat) washed out, de-labeled, slots punched in the lids. I decided I wanted the girls to see the money in their banks and thereby perhaps be motivated to save it. Homemade banks working for now!

Actual conversation between...um...our "friends" this weekend. Yes, our friends related this story to us. This in no way, shape or form happened in our car...you believe me, right??

Person #1: You do realize you put a plastic bag on a 7-year-old's head?

Person #2: You do realize you left a 7-year-old with a plastic bag on her head in the car while you picked up the hot-n-ready pizza and Crazy Bread at Little Caesar's?

Person #1: ...shutup...no more pizza for you

So what had happened was...S was Snow White and we used some of the Halloween hair color in a can to make her red/orange hair black. And, while this hair color seems semi-permanent on skin and bathtubs, it sits on hair like a fine powder threatening to "poof" off at the slightest provocation.

So in order to keep it under control on the car ride home from the fall festival at church one of the adults in her life may or may not have given her a Bi-Lo grocery bag to put over her hair.

And the other adult may or may not have left her and her 5-year-old sister (a red and yellow sunflower) in the car while picking up dinner at Little Caesar's. I have it on good authority that they were alone all of 10 minutes...and that they are both alive and well today...

Please don't call whoever gets called about kids alone in cars with plastic bags over their heads...my "friends" would be so bummed.

The Ghost of Christmas (Presents) Yet to Come

(Picture: aMacHan)

I've been thinking ahead to Christmas...which is only 84 days away!

We don't always get S and C stuff for their birthdays and Christmas as they have so many toys already. In the past we have avoided giving stuff by giving experiences. One year we took them to Monkey Joe's; last year we took them to the Georgia Aquarium; I still owe S a trip to a tea room for her 6th birthday...and she turned 7 this past August...it's official: I'm the worst sister-in-law ever.

Anyway, I've been brainstorming what to give the girls for Christmas, and I think I've got it: a trip to see The Nutcracker Ballet!

Its in early early December, and it might be just the thing for S & C! They love all things pink and princess-y and The Nutcracker has all that plus some excitement, too.

(Picture: daviduweb)

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I mean, just look at this picture. What pink-princess-loving little girl wouldn't be beside herself with delight at a night of ballerinas in tutus?!?

I was introduced to the story of The Nutcracker very early in life, and I love the story, the ballet, the music, all of it to this day. I can see us getting all dressed up for the ballet and going somewhere for hot chocolate and dessert before...I would have loved that as a little girl! Shoot, I would that love that now as a big girl.

On the other hand the SC Children's Theatre is putting on the play Dear Santa, and it sounds pretty cute...and it could give the ballet a run for its money...

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But I'm just so excited about the Nutcracker!!

Easter Egg Garland Swap

Jennifer of Artrageous Afternoon hosted an Easter Egg Garland swap several months ago, and after a great and yet-to-be-posted experience with a Valentine card swap I jumped at the chance to trade more paper art. We each decorated 5 eggs and sent them to Jennifer who shuffled them up, put them into banner form with a ribbon and teeny clothes pins and sent them back.

By Amy Wald

Who made this one?? It wasn't signed! And they went all out decorating side 1 and...

Side 2; lovely!

By Melinda of Melinda's Fabric Fancies; here's her post about some of the eggs she made.

By Joanna of Sweet Finds; here's her post about the eggs she made.

Who made this one??

Here are the eggs I contributed to the swap.

I had to make a 6th one for me to keep of course! As you can see I tend to be pretty precise in my paper art; I'm working on being a bit more relaxed and free form. It's a process, and I'm excited to see where I end up!

I wish that all the artists had labeled their Easter eggs; as you can see there are couple that were blank, so I have no idea who to thank.

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This was such a fun swap and now I have a wonderful piece to add to my Easter and spring decor. Thanks to Jennifer and to each of the talented ladies whose lovely Easter eggs I received!

Mother's Day 2009

Before I start this Mother's Day post I need to recognize today, May 22, as a very special day and say Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Now on to the Mother's Day Brunch 2009 recap!

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The brother, the mother, me

This past Friday saw another yummy Mother's Day brunch and a very fun day for my mom and me.

We had:
Half and Half with Lemonade Ice Cubes
Blueberry Maple Breakfast Bake
Cardamom Citrus Fruit Salad
Kale with Pinto Beans and Roasted Red Peppers
Sage-Mustard Breakfast Sausage
Ricotta-Mascarpone Mousse with Balsamic Strawberries


It was all delicious! My notes for next time:

--The lemonade tea was a bit tart for me, so I would increase the simple syrup by another 1/4 to 1/2 cup. I didn't leave enough time for the ice cubes to freeze, so they were a bit liquidy. Next time I will make the lemonade and the ice cubes a day ahead.

--The blueberry maple bake was SO easy, SO delicious and looked very impressive; I assembled it the night before and put it straight into the oven an hour before lunch. I want to try it with whole wheat bread next time.




--Instead of cutting up all the fruit for the citrus salad I took a shortcut and mostly used drained canned fruit: citrus salad, red grapefruit and mandarin oranges. I did actually section one navel orange myself. The salad was great; yay, canned fruit! Next time I would make the salad the day before.



--This kale dish is SO good. I made it for dinner a couple weeks ago and both hubs and I liked it. I am always looking for ways to make our vegetables interesting and yummy, and this recipe is GREAT. Mom likes veggies, so I thought she might like this (she did!).




--Sausage was easy and yummy. I used powdered sage as my local store didn't have fresh sage. Next time I will either make the meat mixture a day ahead and cook the sausage right before lunch, or cook the sausages a day ahead and heat them up before lunch.

--OH MY GOSH...ricotta-mascarpone mousse + balsamic strawberries = HEAVEN. Absolute heaven. I had some of the left over strawberries and mousse for breakfast Saturday AND Sunday...so ridiculously good. This is a simple dish, and it looks all frou frou and impressive. And in case I didn't say, its delicious.





--Each time I host a dinner I see myself improving. From absolutely wigging out and darting around getting not much of anything done to this time working steadily without wigging out, I'm getting closer and closer to having the food on the table when I want to with an absolute minimum of stress. This time I made a timeline detailing when to do each step in the whole process, but I didn't plan enough time in for prep work (chopping things, etc...I chop really slowly), so I will give myself more wiggle room in my next timeline. I also left myself too much to prepare the day of the brunch. Next time I will prepare as much of the food as possible the day before, so that the day of I have very little to do and can spend more time on the details (presentation, table decoration etc).
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The little brother ("little" as in he turned 22 this year) came a bit early and hung out as he had to race back to work. Sadly Dad had to work, so he didn't make it to lunch. Hubs, mom and I had a relaxed time over our lunch talking about all sorts of things. Hubs took mom on a tour of our two vegetable gardens. Mom and I talked and looked at my blog; I let her read the entire first page before I told her no more, she could read my blog at her house, we had to go have fun now :) I presented her with a little gift bag containing a Mother's Day treat, and she wanted me to take a picture before she opened it, so we ended up outside on the front stoop. She wanted one of the pots of begonias I had planted to be in the picture, too (I swear, she's just about the cutest woman you will ever meet...she really takes delight in the small things like a pot of begonias her daughter managed not to kill), so she ended up sitting on the front stoop next to the pot. After a couple pictures I came and sat down as she opened her little treat (chocolate covered cherries from Italy! she loves choc covered cherries).


There we were sitting on the stoop looking out over the yard that is luxuriously shaded with not 1, not 2, but 3 of the cutest trees you'll ever see. The sky was blue with a few puffy white clouds, the birds were singing and a breeze was blowing. Cue another one of those moments where you just have to feel grateful for all God has given you.
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After we tore ourselves away from admiring the lovely day, I introduced her to Schwartzentruber's Bakery here in Abbeville; we left with danish for dad, wheat bread and slices of homemade cake (I got pound cake with lemon icing...it was soooo good). Then we trolled through our local video place and after much consideration we came away with Twilight (she hadn't seen it and wanted to). After a short drive around Abbeville we made one last very important stop: the ice cream shop. Can it really be girls' day without ice cream present? Ice creams in hand we headed home and settled in for the movie before she headed home. It was a lovely, lovely day! I don't remember the last time we spent time doing whatever we wanted without much of a deadline. I think she really enjoyed herself, and hopefully she felt very loved and celebrated.
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Here we are; and the begonias, too :)

Mother's Day 2008

This will be the 3rd year that I will have a Mother's Day brunch to honor my mom. I say "will have" because this year it hasn't happened yet. We spent Sunday with the hub's mom, and Mother's Day Part Deux will be this Friday.

Two years ago I made all the food, packed it in an elaborate system of insulated bags with cold packs and hoped it would make it through church (I was helping with the children's service, so I couldn't skip it) and the 35 minute drive to my parents' house. It did! And it was delicious. I took much of the menu from Food Network's suggested Mother's Day Menu 2007: Strawberry Bellinis, Fresh Fruit and Mint Salad, Orange Glazed Blueberry Scones, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Frittata, green salad using lettuce hubs grew, maybe roasted asparagus (can't remember...) and I think there was a dessert, but I don't remember what it was...in any case Mom felt very special which was the point of the whole thing.

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So this past year I thought, "Why not run that play again!" except this time I worked it out for Mom to come to me...it was a huge endeavor to transport all the food, and thankfully she didn't mind making the hour drive if it meant she didn't have to cook, wash the dishes, or wait in line for 2 hours at her favorite restaurant.

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I had recently discovered Tracy's delightful blog Notes on a Cottage Industry, and I just loved all of her tablescapes and cute banners, so I set out to do something really cute a la Tracy for my mom.

I set the table and printed the menu and place cards the night before, because I knew having the table ready would be a great comfort when I was freaking out trying to get all the food done (not to mention all the last minute house cleaning) the next day. Pretty much I dealt with the food and hubs scurried around getting the house all squared away: THANK YOU, BABE!

My inspirations were two pink scrapbook papers from the Martha Stewart collection at Michael's: a cream and light pink toile and a sparkly, deep pink. From those I pulled together a pink, white and silver table color scheme punctuated with plenty of sparkly glass. I used a plain white table cloth and white plates as the backdrop. The bouquet of gorgeous pink tulips (Mom's favorites) at the top of this post was the main attraction with candlesticks, silver Christmas ornaments (use what you got!), silver votive cups and a collection of vintage pearl and rhinestone earrings providing the rest of the table decoration. I rummaged through my jewelry to find several bracelets that fit the color scheme to serve as napkin rings and put placecards printed on that gorgeous sparkly pink paper at each place.

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Even Mom's gift had a dash of fuchsia.

The menu card was printed on the toile paper.

We had:

Champagne Lemonade

Tuscan Salad

French Toast Casserole

Chicken Sausage (although I think I used turkey instead of chicken...)

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Strawberry Salad Ring (It's actually called Strawberry Mold...and I just couldn't type that on my beautiful toile menu card. And of course I decided at the last minute to make it in a square dish instead of the ring, and no way was I reprinting that menu card :) )

Chocolate Mousse

Cause I'm mean and want to show you pictures that will make you drool, take a look at the French Toast Casserole.

Oh, yeah...it was even better than it looks. It's a Paula Deen recipe, so you can be sure it is going to be sinfully good. After it was all said and done the dish was scraped CLEAN.

The final touch on the whole shebang was this cuuuuuute (if I do say so myself) "Mother O' Mine" banner fashioned after one that Tracy made for her mom. I alternated the two inspiration papers and strung the letters on a black ribbon.

Mom loved her event! She is just about the most gracious guest you will ever find, and she oohed and aahed over everything and just made me feel so good. We two plus Dad, brother and hubs had a great time eating some great food (thank you, Food Network!) and celebrating our mom/mom-in-law/wife.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

Vintage Spring Sweetness Swap

Linda at A Swap For All Seasons has such fun swap themes, and I was so excited to participate in the Vintage Spring Sweetness Swap she organized recently. Thrifty Homemaker Angela was my partner, and she absolutely spoiled me!



She sent a box stuffed full of sweet spring goodies: candy (chocolate, marshmallows and Chick-O-Sticks), vintage goodies (detail below), lace ribbons, spring tags and sticky notes, Easter ornaments and a potpourri sachet.

Love the little vintage towel, saucer and postcard!

Angela, thank you for such a great box of surprises!

Here's what I sent Angela:

Vintage homemaking magazines, pink Peeps (Peeps have been around since the 50's, so they fit the vintage theme quite nicely), vintage spring-themed playing cards, a vintage hand towel from the Etsy shop Lilly's Cottage, an ornament that looked quite vintage to me and a spring banner I made for Angela. Our challenge this time was to try not to spend more than $10 and I had such fun searching for just the right items that I thought Angela would enjoy while sticking as close as I could to the swap parameters (total spent, vintage, spring).

Angela mentioned that she likes vintage homemaking magazines, so I thought she would enjoy these magazines from the 70's and the old farm cook book.

I found these vintage playing cards in the Etsy shop Frivolous Whimsy...and they were so cute I almost kept them :)

I am pretty proud of this banner; is that vain? I really enjoy making these, and I hope it adds some spring sweetness to Angela's home.

Linda had several drawings for cute spring-y vintage items for those of us in the swap and look who got the very last one!

I can't wait to find just the right use for this little charm.

Thank you, Linda, for a great swap and thank you, Angela, for my wonderful goodies!

Valentine's Swap

A Thrifty Mrs. hosted a Valentine's Swap and paired me up with Rosey from Agapanthus and Goldsworthy. Rosey lives in Australia and makes the cutest softies which she blogs about at I Cant Sew and sells in her Etsy Store I Cant Sew Creations.

Look at these lovelies Rosey sent me!


- Penelope the softie bird (bigger picture below)...look at the beautiful pattern and colors of that fabric (um, yes she can sew)
- Softie heart (more evidence of ability to sew)
- Sweet cherub
- Dressed up chickie
- Candy and vegemite! The hearts (there were more...that have been consumed already) were made in Melbourne, Australia, and the other chocolates have been made since Rosey was little. She said they used to be wrapped in foil, and the kids would try to collect all the designs. And vegemite! I was so excited to see this as I've heard of it before ("Land Down Under" by Men at Work, anyone??) but never tried it. Rosey recommended a very thin layer spread on buttered toast, so that is what we did for part of our breakfast this morning.

Verdict: It reminded me of a beef buillon cube: salty and meaty (yes, I have eaten one of those before...in middle school I was curious and went through my mother's spice cabinet trying all manner of things; she was gone at the time as I'm sure she would not have condoned the wanton eating of random spice cabinet items. Yummy = packet of Equal poured into a spoon with a chocolate syrup layer on top. And Fruit Fresh crystals are yummy all on their own. I bet she wondered where stuff was disappearing to). Hubs sampled the Vegemite and said, "Very salty" and "If I didn't have any meat to put on my sandwich...".

Look at cutie Penelope! She came with a little card telling her story. You can get a wee softie like Penelope in Rosey's Etsy shop, I Cant Sew Creations. You can't see it, but Penelope has a ribbon attached to her back for hanging in some cute little nook.

This little bird makes me laugh...I pecked at hub's cheek with it when I took it out of the box. So CUTE!

Click here to read Rosey's post about the swap. What a sweet box of lovely items; thank you so much, Rosey!

I sent Rosie:

- Softie kit: Sewing tin, fabric, thread, ribbon, buttons, crochet hearts (from Etsy seller Annie Design)
- Edible love notes: edible paper and edible ink...how fun is that!
- Stained glass hearts from Etsy seller LdyIsis
- "Love" banner I made: Rosey's favorite color is yellow and for Valentine's she chose pastel pinks.

I have to share my adventure with this package. When I took the package to the post office it weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces and the lady said, "Postage will be $45." It was like one of those cartoon moments where your head whips around and your eyes bug out...

"$45...seriously?!?"

"Seriously!" she said all cheerful like.

"I-I-I can't DO that...", so I found out how much postage would be at 2 pounds and 3 pounds and I went home and ripped open my snug little box and took out a big ole vanilla candle that weighed over 2 POUNDS! I know this because my repackaged goodies weighed 2 pounds 0.7 ounce and postage was under $20: I can DO that. Learn from me: research international postage rates before you get all attached to everything you've packaged up...it hurt me to take that candle out of that box. Rosey likes flowery scents anyway, so I think it was all for the best.

Thanks to Thrifty Mrs. for hosting this swap and thank you, Rosey, for my lovely Valentine's treats! They are so sweet!

Pink Saturday: Ornament Swap

This weekend I am bringing you pink in the form of an amazing ornament.

(Photo credit: Gillian of I Heart Crafts)

This is the non-pink ornament I sent Gillian of I Heart Crafts for Pampering Beki's Ornament Swap. Gillian mentioned she liked robins, so I was very excited to find this vintage postcard to send her along with her ornament. Update: Here's a link to Gillian's post about the ornament

For this swap I sent stuff to Gillian while Peggy was assigned to send stuff to me. I knew it was going to be good when I opened the package to see my surprise wrapped with this beautiful pink ribbon and tag.


Look at this ornament! It is beautiful! Thank you so much, Peggy! (Peggy, do you have a blog??)


This ornament was perfect for my first ever pink tree...TA DA!!

Love it!

Oh, the pink stuff on this delightful tree: garland from a yardsale, starfish from Pom Pom Interiors...(a green strand of white lights, but we're going to ignore those until I can get a white strand, aren't we)

Flamingo!!

Ice cream cone!

Pink crystals!

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That pink tree made me so happy! Happy Pink Saturday!

MommyHolly's Snowflakes and Sparkles Swap

One of the most fun perks of blogging is the opportunity to participate in swaps. I love getting boxes full of stuff for me!! (Wow, does that sound selfish...keepin it real, as they say) Mommy Holly hosted the Snowflakes and Sparkles swap in December; thanks Holly!

Here's what my sweet partner Britta of Marky Mark's Funky Bunch sent me.

Look how cute the outside of the box is!! I am going to strive to make the outside of my boxes look fun like this one. Thanks for that added touch, Britta!

I'm so excited!!

Look at all the loot!

-Canister of cinnamon hot chocolate (um, yes, that is definitely almost gone)

-body glitter roller

-bath beads

-yummy lotion

-cashmere fragrance candle (don't know what cashmere smells like?? Me either, but this candle is heavenly!)

-glittery "Peace" word decor

-garden decor stake shaped like a present

-snowman door hanger made of jingle bells

-huge glittery snowflake ornament

-Christmas music DVD

-little Christmas hand towels (forgot to get a picture of those)

You can see a bit of the silver tinsel that was part of the packaging; love it! Thank you so much for a great box of goodies, Britta!

Here's what I sent Britta. She mentioned that her Christmas decor is mostly red and white with touches of silver; well I took that red and silver and boy, did I run with it:

-red glittery cone tree

-silver tinsel tree

-red tinsel garland (I almost kept that one...)

-silver wire garland, disco ball ornaments

-glittery silver "Merry" sign hanger

-glittery red "Merry Christmas" sign hanger

-red mercury glass-look candle stick

-peppermint candle

-"Jar o' snowflakes and sparkles"

-garland of 6 felt and fabric paint snowflakes I made (one each for Britta and Mark and their kids)

-some candy treats

Shiny!

This was full of confetti (red and silver stars and white snowflakes) that I thought Britta could use for craft projects.

Yes, I did realize after I made this banner that my snowflakes had 8 arms while real snowflakes only have 6...Britta, I am truly sorry that I stuck you with anatomically incorrect snowflakes :)

Gotta have some chocolate!

What a fun swap with a great partner. Thanks to Holly for hosting and to Britta for all the great goodies!