Tree Trimming Party

Shannon, a friend of mine had a "Tree-Trimming" Party this past weekend. Can I just say what a fun idea!! Why you ask... Because...

1. A great way to motivate you to get your house decorated early on (I always love a gathering to get some things done around the house!!)
B. A great reason to have the pals over
III. Outcome = beautiful Christmas tree!

We had a little craft session before the party so she would have some new ornaments to hang. This was major FUN! Shannon picked up clear glass ball ornaments and paper/cardboard ornaments (round, star & heart shapes). We used all kinds of things for decorating the ornaments. Tissue paper, scrapbook paper, glitter, buttons, ribbons and more! Shannon has an awesome craft room. Every idea we came up with she pulled it out from her stash!!

Here's our work area - yes that is a snack in the middle of the table... What?? We had to keep up our stamina! :-)

So here's what we created... What do you think???

Scrapbook paper + stickers + felt= Pure joy!!

This guy was just not finishing out quite like I wanted it to. And then all the sudden Shannon came up with the idea of putting in a fabric bag - GENIUS!


Decoupage tissue paper with accent of glitter - super sweet!

RA PA PUM PUM!!!

Is that totally precious - the toothpicks as drumsticks... hehehe!

The party was a great time! Wish I had more shots of that and the finish tree - maybe Shannon will share with us? Has anyone else had a gathering yet for the Holiday Season? Would love to hear about it!

Craft Show

A few weeks back my friends and I participated in a craft show. Thought I would show you how our table looked at the craft show. We had a nice array of products. Check out those precious hand painted onesies!! Uber cute! That's the freezer paper technique. I "lurve" doing these! Check out how Jessica at How about Orange used the same technique for totes.

Doesn't the Holiday Zucchini bread look great in the jars and you can barely see the Russian Tea Mix hiding there. Great gifts for neighbors, teachers, etc.




Aren't these sweet! They take a little elbow grease but low overhead! It's just a hanger shaped into a star and then boxwood attached with floral wire. A little ribbon at the top and you've got a precious little wreath. I've hung these on the backs of my dining chairs for an added touch to my table scape!

I am loving the Santa pot!! Isn't that adorable! What do you think about the "boo" frames (interchangeable with the "joy"). Great idea right?!?! The plaques turned out cute as well! My friends got a Cricut and have been going to town ever since!

Do you see those sweet little peg families? Wouldn't that make the sweetest gift! You can check them out close and personal over @ Three Queens and a King. I totally think she would sell you some if you're interested!!

Overall I think we did a great job for the craft show. Granted we didn't sell out completely but what's left over will make great gifts!

Score - 2 birds / 1 stone

Good Reads

I love to read; more now then ever before! I had a Barnes and Noble's gift card burning a hole in pocket, so off to the store I went! This is what I got...

I LOVE Francine Rivers. I have only read her fictional novels but had heard great things about her mixture of non-fiction and fiction books about different people in the Bible. This is depiction of 5 different ladies in the Lineage of Christ. REALLY GOOD so far!

I haven't started this one yet. It looked interesting and I read a good review on a blog. (can't remember which one now.) But I had a friend tell me she wasn't real impressed. Have you read this yet? What did you think??

This was given to me by my cousin. It's one of her favorites. I have no idea what it's about. Anyone read this one??

Now all I have to do is get my Christmas decorations done so I can relax and snuggle on my sofa with my books and read by the light of my pretty Christmas tree. That's my goal tonight!!

What are you reading? Any good ones that need to be on the "wish list?"

Thanksgiving Menu

Well I am wanting to make some new items for Thanksgiving this year. So far here's our menu...


Good Eats Roast Turkey We normally brine our turkeys - which I highly recommend! This recipe has gotten lots of good reviews. Alton knows what's what; so I say let's try it!


Mashed potatoes and gravy


Cornbread Stuffing - trying the Pioneer Woman's recipe


Twice-baked Sweet Potatoes


Lime and Ginger Cranberry Sauce


and good ol' Baby Peas (Joe's family tradition)


But now for the real question... DESSERT!!! I'm on the fence between:

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes - these are seriously good!!!



OR... Luscious Four Layer Pumpkin Cake



Now I didn't intentionally make this picture bigger to try and win over your opinion, but that does look pretty dang tasty, huh? What's your vote??

So far that's what I'm thinking. Are there any awesome recipes that you think we must try?? We are all about trying something new! Please do tell!!

Welcome to Katie and baby Mia's Shower

We had a wonderful celebration on Sunday for our sweet friend Katie. We had lots of yummy food along with a good time together. Katie isn't a big fan of games and lots of planned activities. But what she does love is... food! And we're right there with her! We had a great spread...



Then menu went like this:

• Cheese platter with dried fruits, nuts and honeycomb


• Cocktail shrimp with spicy cocktail sauce


• Tuscan bruschetta on wheat crostini


• Veggie Pizza


• Sausage Cream Dip


• Buffalo Wing Dip - Recipe (this stuff is so good they actually have a whole page on Facebook dedicated to it... wow this is serious!!)


• Bacon Wrapped Crackers - We have been making these for years. So when I went to find an official recipe for you guys I found Pioneer Woman's take on these. Ain't she funny! And she does a great job of showing how to make these delights!


• Fresh fruit with creamy chocolate dip - Recipe


• Cupcakes and cookies


• Lemonade Tea Punch

As you saw in a previous post, the diaper cake took center stage on the table. The color scheme came right out of Mia's nursery. The color scheme was soft pinks, greens and white. We used Gerber daisies and some other flower (that green flower below). Someone tell me what that is please.


I used shot glasses and bud vases for the flowers. With the height of the diaper cake it was nice to have some color closer to the table. And it required no actual arranging of flowers which is always a plus!

Here's the table half way through the shower. Those bacon wrapped crackers are a hit!! Delish!



The one activity we did participate in was painting onesie's for Mia.

Katie's God Children make some extra sparkly ones!! :-)

It was a great day to celebrate Katie's bun in the oven and the really great news is we'll be meeting Mia real soon!! Katie's only 4 weeks away from her due date!

Oh baby...

have some diapers. Thankfully the clean, fresh smelling kind. The kind that look real pretty all rolled up together and accented with pink and green. Not the "yucky" green (you sometimes see in diapers) but the pretty soft sage green. See what I mean...

Ain't she pretty

One of my very good friends is having a baby next month. We had her baby shower this past weekend. It was a great time! I thought I would post the centerpiece first and then fill you in on all the other details later. This was my first attempt at a diaper cake and thanks to a little help from my friends (doesn't that make you want to break out into song!) it came out very nicely.

So here we go...

1. Buy diapers (I used size #2 2 pkgs) & rubber bands

2. Roll diapers - starting at the top (the part that's closest to the belly) and roll to the fold

3. Assemble your layers. This took 4 hands - One large rubber band is needed for each layer. And just start shoving in the diapers til you get the size of layer you like. Then make your other 2 to make a good proportion of layers.

4. We used ribbon to cover the rubber bands. And made a pretty bow for the top.

And here's a little bow tutorial...

1. Make two loops with ribbon

2. Twist ribbon twice and make another loop

3. Twist ribbon twice again and make another loop

4. Continue until your bow is the size you want.

5. Use twist tie or pipe cleaner to secure the center section you've been holding.

6. Fluff and done

Ta - da...



Can't wait to show you the how she looked on the table!! Too cute!

Russian Tea Mix

I can mark one more item off my Fall To-Do list... I finally got around to making my Russian Tea Mix and boy does it say "Fall" in a cup!

It's super easy! The up-front cost is a little bit (who knew Tang was expensive???) but totally worth the investment. I got some small jars from IKEA and stored the mixture in them. Add a ribbon and a label and they make super cute gifts. (Hence why they made it to the craft show - more on that later...)

Russian Tea Mix
4 c. Tang
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. instant tea (you can use plain tea, lemon-flavored, or pre-sweetened, depending on how you want this to taste)
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. ground cloves

Stir all these together to make about six cups of mix. Store in a tightly covered container.

To use: stir 2 t. mix into a cup of boiling water. Stir well and sip.

So stir you up some Russian Tea, grab a good book, blanket and comfy chair and fall into this wonderful season!!!

I can finally breath...

It's been a crazy couple of weeks!! The long list of "To-Do's" is finally complete.

I can't wait to fill you in on all the fun!

So now that all the activities have come to a close,

I will be posting soon on all the happenings!

Chat with you soon!!

We Are Family Retreat

This past weekend we went to "We Are Family Retreat" (WAFR) with our church. It's an annual event that we have wanted to attend for years but something has always come up. But thankfully we were able to get there this year. There were lots of fun activities...

Bonfire with S'mores

Halloween costume contest

Pumpkin Carving

There were lots of planned activities but a lot of down time as well. We played games, fished, chatted, worshiped, laughed, hiked and so much more! It was a wonderful time of fellowship with our church. We are so blessed to have such a great "body of Christ" to worship with.

It was an awesome time and look forward to going again next year!!

Fall List

I know I have been M.I.A. for a little while. I would like to say it's because I have been working on my "Fall to-do List" Let's see how my progress is going. (Smiley faces = goal accomplished)

☺1. Carve a pumpkin - We carved some great pumpkins this weekend that I will post soon and we also did a pumpkin topiary

☺2. Make some kind of autumn inspired wreath for the front door - done... check it out

☺3. Go camping - well I didn't go "real" camping but we did go stay @ my old camp that I went to as a child. We had a blast!!

4. Use nature for some indoor decorating (I *heart* bowls of colorful leaves)

☺5. Take a Sunday afternoon hike to enjoy the fall foliage - we went on a Saturday and it was gorgeous!!

6. Eat some yummy pumpkin pie - still looking forward to that!!

7. Make and share some Russian tea mix - my favorite fall drink! Hopefully this week!!

I'm almost gotten everything checked off! You can see I've been busy, but not doing so good at blogging about my busy-ness. What have you been doing to keep busy??

I've also got some fun things coming up as well: craft show, Holiday Party, Baby shower, and "Winter Wonderland" inspired tablescape. I'll be filling you in all of that too!!