S'more Birthday Party

My oldest daughter turned 15 this year! 15! I can't believe she is that old.  Where did the time go?  It seems like just the other day when she was a cute little toddler in pig tails, standing on her makeshift stage (her little tea table) singing to us.  I miss those days and that adorable little version of her, but I am also enjoying this stage of her life.  It is so much fun to always have a buddy to go shopping with and she is such a help to me in so many ways. I am so proud of her and grateful that she is a part of my life. 

Anyway--we did a fun party for her birthday this year.  She originally wanted a bon-fire in the back yard, but we scaled it down and did a  little camp fire and a fun buffet table with different items to build s'mores (I didn't know there were so many different options for marshmallows!) and hot chocolate. 

I set up this table outside, under our deck.  Our theater room in the basement has an outside entrance that opens up to this area.  It was perfect for the party because although you can't tell from the pictures, it was freezing  and super windy outside.  They all eventually ended up in the theater room watching movies.

This banner was super quick and easy to make.  I just cut the letters and the scalloped circles on my cricut , and the triangles were cut from a piece of burlap I already had. I used a tape runner to attach the circles and the letters to the burlap.  I cut the triangles just a little longer than the size I wanted them to be so I could fold the top over a piece of twine.   I just used hot glue on the very top edge of the triangle and folded it down about a 1/4 - 1/2 of an inch.  I was careful not to use too much glue, because I needed to create a sort of pocket to thread the twine through. After threading the twine through, I centered it over the table and stapled the ends of the twine in place. 

 We had a few different options for s'mores. 

Peanut Butter S'mores were reese cups, graham crackers and marshmallows.

Caramel S'mores with Rolo's. 

and just the traditional s'mores.

A few different kinds of marshmallows were on the table as well.

These marshmallows were huge!

Caramel marshmallows

Coconut marshmallows.

And more marshmallows for the hot chocolate.



You can't have s'mores without a fire.

This is my husband, who may or may not have singed his hair while starting the fire! LOL!

(Don't worry, the baby was safe inside the house with me while he was playing with matches!)

 A few of the kids braving the cold!

This party was quite in-expensive, and it was really quick and easy to get it all pulled together.  Besides the banner, the only other thing I made was the little signs for the baskets on the table.  I simply cut the size I wanted from a paper sack, crumpled up the pieces, laid the pieces flat and inked the edges and the front with scrapbooking ink, wrote the message with a black sharpie and clipped them to the baskets with tiny clothes pins I found at Wal-Mart.   And that's it, just a couple of simple little projects like that added so much to the party!

Thanks for visiting.  Come back soon!

Busy Life!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything!  I have been crazy busy with..... just life I guess. Since I last posted, we have been spending a lot of time doing this:

And this:

and filming new episodes of Style Made Simple! 

 

I had one of the craziest weeks I've ever had last week.  Between baseball, the show, cake orders, teacher appreciation week, my computer crashing as well as my edible ink printer, setting up a backdrop and decorations for a wedding and getting Mother's Day gifts made and delivered, it was chaos! I survived, but I wasn't able to get anything posted!  The worst thing was my computer crashing, and the timing couldn't have been worse.  I had to get a new computer and they are still working on my old one.  The tech guy at the computer store is trying to extract anything he can from my hard drive.  Actually, the latest update I got (yesterday) was that they could probably save almost everything!  Whew, relief!  I can't tell you how many hundreds of pictures are on that hard drive that I haven't backed up anywhere!  I guess that was a good lesson on backing up my computer, or at least my pictures! 

Anyway, back to my blog!  Over the next couple of days, I will be doing a couple of posts showing some of the things from Style Made Simple and my daughter's S'mores birthday party. Keep checking back!

Mother's Day Brunch

We filmed a Mother's Day show where I got to invite my sister, DeDe,  to come over and help me prepare a brunch for our mom.  It was so much fun!  DeDe and I demonstrated how to make a Fritatta and a Ginger and Raspberry Trifle.  We also personalized some cute treat jars for our mom and both our mother-in-laws.  It was a really great show!

This is the Ginger and Raspberry Trifle.  This is one of my mom's favorite desserts, so it was a perfect choice for a brunch honoring her! 

It is really quick and easy to make.  The cake used is just frozen pound cake "from your grocer's freezer". (that sounded just like a commercial, LOL!)  Sara Lee is my favorite.

I love ginger in anything. In this dessert, it is the star.

If you've never used fresh ginger, you're in for a real treat.  It is so fresh and snappy tasting, it's great in any spring recipe!  I peeled and chopped the ginger root, and used it to make a ginger-infused simple syrup.

 

 After the syrup had steeped for 20 minutes, I simply brushed it onto the sliced pound cake.  

 

Fresh whipped cream is a welcome addition to any dessert around my house!

Building the trifle is as easy as

One....

 

Two.....

Three....

How could you go wrong with fresh whipped cream and raspberries?


Here is the recipe:

1 frozen pound cake, thawed
1 piece ginger root about 3" long
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2-3 cups fresh or 1 bag frozen raspberries

Peel and chop ginger root.  Place in a sauce pan with 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Let steep in covered pan for at least 20 mins.  Drain syrup and reserve, discard ginger root.

Slice pound cake into 12 slices.  Brush both sides of cake with ginger syrup, repeating until syrup is gone.


Whip heavy cream with powdered sugar just until peaks form, taking care not to over beat.


To assemble trifle, layer cake, whipped cream and berries.  Repeat layers as necessary, ending with whipped cream.

Wire Baskets

Anything old and "farm" looking, especially if it's made of wire, is all the rage in home decor right now.  I really like these wire baskets, but again, I don't like the price tag attached.  I came across some great ideas for DIY wire baskets here, and a really good tutorial here.  You'll have to check them out.  I especially like the lined one, on the first link, above her fridge. As soon as we get a new fridge in our kitchen, I am going to make one of these!

Besides one on top of the fridge, I had another great spot for these baskets, so I followed the tutorial and made a couple for my teenage daughter's bathroom.

This is the finished product.

When I first started this project, I wasn't super confident it would turn out.   However, it was actually a lot easier than I had anticipated it would be.  It only took me about an hour and a half to get these done once I had all of the supplies gathered. I bought a roll of mesh wire at my local hardware store for just over $5.  I already had the floral wire I used to "sew" up the seams of the baskets, and the wire cutters, so I didn't need to purchase either of those things.  The mesh roll also came wrapped with a long piece of wire that would have worked for the seams on one of the baskets. I chose not to use it because I wanted both of the baskets to look the same.  Now that they are finished, I really don't think it would have mattered.  You can hardly see the wire I used.  I still have enough of the roll of mesh wire left over to do a couple of smaller baskets or something else.  Not bad for less than $6!

At a fraction of the cost of the inspiration baskets, this was a very satisfying project to do.  It is always fun and rewarding to turn raw materials into something functional.  Especially if it will help my teenager stay neat and organized!  Now that her bathroom counter is under control, what can I find to help her bedroom floor?

Eggs-tra Tasty Eggs for Easter!

Today was a super laid back day.  I didn't have plans to do anything or be anywhere, so I decided to play in the kitchen.  These eggs were so much fun to make and they are seriously one of the best desserts I've ever tasted!  They are made with a milk chocolate shell and a white chocolate mousse filling topped with a dollop of lemon curd.  SO GOOD!

I started out with a kitchen full of kids and these:

How did I turn kids+balloons into super yummy chocolate Easter eggs?  Let me show you.

Dip the balloons in chocolate, or in my case, let your kiddo's do it!

After the chocolate hardens, with the help of the fridge, pop the balloons and remove them.  Super simple and fun!  While we were doing this, we had one pop just after we'd dipped it and set it on the tray to dry.  Chocolate splattered EVERYWHERE! The kids thought is was so funny, so did I until I started cleaning it up.  It seemed like the more I wiped, the more there was to clean up still.  It was all over me, one of the kids, the floor, the walls and the fridge.  Thank goodness none of it made it to the ceiling! lol!

Once the shells are hardened and the balloons removed, you could fill them with any number of things.  I think they would be cute filled with an assortment of candies or really anything you can think of.  I wanted these to look similar to a Cadbury Egg, so I filled them with white chocolate mousse and used lemon curd for the "yolk". 

Here are the recipes I used:

White Chocolate Mousse
from Food Network.com

7 ounces white chocolate, chopped very finely
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

In a large glass bowl, place the chopped white chocolate and set aside.
Add the egg yolks and sugar to a small bowl and whisk until pale in color.
In a saucepan, over low heat, bring 1/4 cup of the cream to a simmer, and slowly add the cream into the yolk and sugar mixture to temper.  Pour the creamy mixture back into the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of it.

Pour hot mixture into a fine mesh sieve placed directly over bowl with the chopped chocolate.  Stir until completely smooth.

In another bowl, whip remaining 1 cup of cream to almost stiff peaks.  Fold half the whipped cream into the white chocolate mix to lighten and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Refrigerate until set, approx. 1 hr.


Lemon Curd
adapted from allrecipes.com

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup butter (room temp) cut into small pieces

In the top of a double boiler, whisk eggs and sugar.  Stir in lemon juice and lemon zest.  Cook over simmering water for 15 mins or until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in butter until completely smooth.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill.  Put the plastic directly on the lemon curd to avoid a skin forming.


So, the egg shells are super fun, easy and very kid friendly.  The mousse and lemon curd are a little time consuming, but well worth it!  I love home made lemon curd.  To make this quicker, you could buy the lemon curd pre-made as well as replacing the mousse with an instant pudding.  If you are not in a rush, you will not regret the time you spend making these recipes from scratch.  They are really, really good!

Enjoy!

Quiet Book

I am always on the look out for things that will keep my little one quiet and happy during church.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother going because all I do is chase her around, and I don't get much from the meetings.  So, when I saw this project I knew I was going to make one for her.  We haven't had an opportunity to use it during church yet, but I sure hope it will give us the congregation, a few minutes of peace and quiet!

I used pictures of our family and people that are important to her, as well as pictures that have meaning and importance to our church.

It was quick, cheap and easy, three things I really like about a project!   I bought name badge holders from Wal Mart.  I paid $1.50 for a 12 pack.  The size of the opening in the name badge thing was approx. 2.5" x 3" so I used a photo editing program to re-size all of my pictures just a little smaller than that.  I printed out the re-sized photos on photo paper because I happened to have some on hand.  If I hadn't had the photo paper, I would have just used white cardstock.  After that, it was as simple as cutting cardstock and decorative paper to the right size, adhering my pictures, and slipping them into the name badge holders.  After that was all done, I twisted each name badge holder onto a key ring that I already had on hand.  Using book rings for this would have been a little easier, but I didn't have any and the key ring worked just fine.  After getting them all on the key ring, I simply added a few pieces of ribbon for a little embellishment. 

It was so easy, I even made one for my nephew!



Sea Shell Bathroom Decor

I finally finished some decor for my guest bathroom.  This is what I had in there before.

Sad, I know.  I am so glad I finally changed it!  In our previous house, I had the main bathroom decorated with seashells and this print was one of three that I had.  When we moved here, I wasn't sure what to do with this tiny bathroom, but it really needed something on that bare wall behind the toilet.  The other two sea shell prints I had got lost, or the frames got broken, I'm not really sure what happened to them.  So, I just hung this lonely one.  I knew it didn't look that great, but it was better than nothing, and I didn't want to spend the money to get something new.   While I was blog hopping the other day, I saw some framed sea shells that inspired me to do this. I couldn't wait to get started.  I remembered I had a whole bunch of sea shells from the bathroom in the other house, and I have a stash of old frames that I have stockpiled for years, so I went and pulled a few out.  Everything I needed for this project, I already had on hand.  There is nothing more satisfying to me than doing a project that doesn't cost a dime!

 The two frames on the ends are solid oak, and the one in the middle is plastic.  I knew the oak frames would be perfect for what I had in mind, but I wasn't sure how the plastic one would do with the paint/stain treatment I was about to put it through.  I primed it with a spray primer made for plastic and then I spray painted all of the frames with Krylon spray paint in Ivory.

I wanted the frames to have a weathered/aged look, so after painting them I sanded them a little to scuff them up and stained them with a dark mahogany stain.  Again, I wasn't sure how the plastic frame would do, but it came out fine.  It was a little more time consuming to get "just right" than the wood frames.  It also took longer for the stain to dry on the plastic frame, but it was well worth putting in the extra time.

After all the painting was done, I covered the backs of each frame with burlap using spray adhesive.  I then hot glued the sea shells in place, and that's it!  

before

after

It was that simple to create these works of art!  Who knew it could be that easy to fancy up your bathroom?