Party On, Part Deux

Technically we would have had to move our dinner party to Taco Bell if the fabulous Stephanie hadn’t come over and saved the day. She helped me shop for table decorations and favors AND she polished the silverware and set the table. Her husband even rushed over to the market to pick up ice and napkins and drag over a variety of last minute items from their house.

MY hottie would have probably PREFERRED Taco Bell instead of having people at our house, but he still helped by sweeping, mopping, swishing dishes and boiling the stickers off our new glasses, not to mention watching the kids while I rushed around town to my appointments and last minute shopping.

What did I do you ask? Well, I DID go to my Drs appointment and had the sweetest 3D Ultrasound. Then I ate lots of the cookies while we put the favors together.

Here’s some photos….I think it turned out AWESOME.

Here’s the table. Our table seats 8 and we expected 13. We had to squish everyone in and at the last minute we had 2 people cancel…pulling out the two extra settings helped but it was still pretty nice and cozy.

Obviously our theme was red and gold. It looked awesome since my kitchen is red and maizey-gold and my tree is red and gold and I pretty much heart read and gold. We had a mini saga when I went to just about every store and they were out of any kind of red, gold or white tablecloths and napkins. Seriously, Target had no linen napkins left. Not even ugly ones. I called my MIL who saved the day with a long, fancy, gold table cloth that we just folded down the middle and used as a runner.

Here’s the setting:

The scroll on my fancy new dishes matched the scroll on the table cloth pretty dang good, eh? And yeah, don’t ask where the napkins were….we ended up getting paper napkins at the very last minute, which by that time was perfect and I didn’t really care anymore because I wanted to do was eat all the food and sit down.

Didn’t our favors turn out cute? They doubled as place cards, we put their names on the miniature ornaments I found at Ikea. The buckets were from Michael’s dollar section and I found some good sales on cherry chocolates, Linder Truffles and picked up those cute dark chocolate covered shortbread cookies from Trader Joes. (Which are so delish and I can eat a box by myself. As a matter of fact I hid a box in my candy stash and will sudo chop any fingers who try to sneak one.)

To drink we had 3 choices: water with lemon, Mock Champagne (super easy and yummy, click for the recipe) and Strawberry Pomegranite Italian Sodas. The sodas were super tall but had lame lables on them, so I wrapped them up in gold foiled wrapping paper and tied the bow around them. They were supposed to have a cute tag on them, but like I said, I ran out of time. I should have taken a photo of the drinks because they were the exact shades of gold and red as the rest of the table.

This one shows our centerpiece a little better. It’s just a hurricane glass with ornaments, a little generic, but easy, cheap and perfect. Plus, everyone could still see everyone over it. Don’t you hate when you’re trying to follow a conversation and you have to lean into your husband to even see who is talking on the other side of a massive table arrangement? Geez, I HATE that, I like to watch lips move I guess. Anyways…We found a long strand of the funky gold covered leaves to swirl arround the base and the bead covered glass candles were a great find in the super clearance at Michaels. I had an extra spot in the frame so I put in an extra photo of the cookies that I’ll be going to eat a handful of as soon as I’m done typing here. I have a feeling the box will be gone before dinner.

Before I forget, all the digital scrap goodies are from Shabby Miss Jen who has 3 adorable new Christmas kits. I got them all and can’t wait to use them over at ScrapJunkie which has been put on the back burner with all this Christmas Hoo-Rah.

Cookie time.

Party On

‘Tis the season for Holiday Parties and for us, this first weekend of December is packed with soiree’s that need cute clothes and alas, maternity+cute+holiday-ish=disaster. Well, disaster or $98 which I refuse to spend on one shirt that can only be worn somewhere semi fancy and not to the park with the kids. I probably couldn’t even wear it eating breakfast next to my kids. Plus, there are some guests who will be at both parties so that means I need two shirts since wearing the same shirt two nights in a row would be, *gasp* a big fashion no-no.

Currently we have 8 hours until Party Number 1, which happens to be at my dinner hosted at my house and I still need a tablecloth, napkins and something refreshing and pretty to drink during dinner. Most importantly, I need some glasses to put the drink in because I’ve just realized that we have 12 guests and only 4 glass glasses that aren’t sippy cups.

There are a few bits of good news:

1. My Hottie bought us some new silverware and I didn’t even have to get it for Christmas. (Kitchenware for Christmas gifts is not romantical)

2. My Hottie bought me new fancy dishes. We’ve offically been married for 9 years and 2 days and never had nice completely matching dishes.

3. I found these super cute red berry picks on super sale and they look cute on the table.

4. The only thing I need to prepare for dinner is the ham. Everyone else is bringing dishes to share, which takes a huge load off.

5. I have a Gas Station Code Red to get me through the day. Bliss.

I have a doctors appointment and then I’ll rush off to a few stores to buy the bits I’m still needing…I’m anxious to see if things pull together by 6pm.

A Tradition Code of Ethics, Homemade Holidays and Lemon Yumminess

There are things you just don’t do.

You don’t skip the fireworks on the Fourth of July.

You don’t eat ice cream when it snows.

You don’t forget to pick up your kids after school.

And you just don’t decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving.

I think Target had decorated for Christmas before it was even Halloween this year. I can’t stand it. I like to eat my Turkey dinner, take a long nap, eat some leftovers and pie then go to bed early so I can wake up in time for some great Black Friday Shopping, after which you eat seven turkey sandwiches, a little leftover jello, take a nap and THEN put up your Christmas Tree.

It’s all about traditions, don’t you know, like a tradition code of ethics. Somethings you do and somethings you just don’t. I think putting up your tree before the Turkey Feast is just horror, oh the horror! So, look what I did before Thanksgiving this year:

I had good excuses, really I did. It was a free Saturday and there was a willing husband with a truck ready to get our ridiculous amount of Christmas goods out of the storage garage. Plus, the next 3 Saturdays already had events going on and for crying out loud, I wasn’t going to wait until the week of Christmas to put up my tree because honestly, that’s pretty much against my code of ethics and a big fat waste of my time. If you put up your tree on Christmas Eve, I think you’re CRAZY.

By Monday night, our tree was all beauteous with the boxes all put back in the garage and Tuesday morning we drove out to Arizona for a family gathering around the turkey. The best part? Coming home and having all the decorating done and cleaned up! As much as it disturbs me, I think I may have to change my code.

Now…..on to some Homemade Holiday updates!

Since the tree is all decorated and I have nothing but time on my hands (am I the only one laughing at the irony?) I’ve pulled out the sewing machine and bins of fabric to get some of those Homemade Holiday projects completed. If I would just wait to sew when the babies are in bed, I probably could be finished with everything, but instead, it takes me 8 hours just to cut fabric because I’m helping little hands stay off my dang tree all day. Crap, why did I put a tree up with 2 two year olds in the house?

Anyways, today I made some of those crayon cozies and they were SUPER easy and SUPER fast. Look how fun:

I used scraps of fabric made from previous projects to make it. It really is only 3 strips of fabric all sewn up in a rectangle. Very simple. With no little kids (or let’s face it, husbands or your cell phone) in the house, you could bust this out in less than an hour.

And last but not least, a bit of Lemon Yumminess…

I crave anything citrus lately. I think I ate an entire box of 45 clementines by myself last week. The week before that I was craving a lemon chicken dish that Dana had brought to me.
It’s so delish that I thought I’d share it with you and URGE you nicely to make it for dinner this week. It’s fast, it’s easy and even your little kids will like it. I serve mine over rice with a side of garlic and lemon asparagus. Mmm-mmm-mmm.

Here you go: Rachel Ray’s Lemon Chicken.

Homemade Holidays

Yes, I know in the previous post I said that I don’t like Christmas, but you all know it was partially a lie.

The better part of the truth is that I liked it better when Santa came and brought me magical presents and my mom had to deal with him. She forgot to mention that when I got all growed up I’d have to do the Santa bargaining to decipher what each child (and mother-in-law (JULIE!!)) wants, the present hiding, the wrapping (and remembering what I wrapped) and the good neighborly baking.

Although I love to buy gifts for my family, my friends and neighbors, I’m finding that the older (and obviously cooler) I get I gather more and more family, friends and acquaintances that I’d sure like to shower with presents. The problem is it gets expensive awfully fast – just buying for my own kids is pricey! – and I’ve decided I will not go into debt, instead, I have vowed to use my multi-bazillion dollar collection of crafting goodness that is all stuffed to the busting point of my garage to have a Homemade Holiday this year. (Okay, so I HAD to buy a few bits and pieces.)

The kids always get blankets with their Christmas Eve Jammies. The two older girls need new bedspreads, so I found this darling vintage cowgirl fabric in muted pinks and dark browns that is going to look adorable.

I’m making a few of these for the girls Sunday bags:
(If you want a pattern I have tons of them in my garage from last year’s craft show that I’d love to get rid of! Anybody? Anybody? )

Speaking of Sunday bags, Rooster and Tootsie already have cute totes, but now that the babies are 2 they ask for a tote every time we’re leaving the house for church. So I have this great fabric all cut and prepared for Totes for them.
Airplanes for Bubba and hot pink for Darling.

Here’s the Tote Tutorial. Before you comment and say the tute download doesn’t work, try clicking on each page of the instructions, they download to your computer as a word doc.

I’ve been inspired by some great blogs, so here’s a little linky love for you to browse:

These cute crayon rolls are a must for our Sunday Bag Totes too. I’m considering making them into aprons for the kids to tie around them so we can stop loosing our crayons in the pew cracks.

A wee bit of apron love since I’m addicted to aprons, which is dumb right now because my baby bump is too big to tie an apron around. Hmmmm, note to self, need a maternity apron.

Olive Juice & Co The most darling and spectacular aprons ever. I tried to duplicate the idea, started simple and here’s my apron which is in need of more embellies:

And my fabric bundle calling me to make it into an apron:

One More Moore Another fun apron that I know my little girls would love to twirl in, complete with at tutorial!

The Apronista has several great tutorials. Just scroll down and look for the tutes on the right hand sidebar.

Sommer Designs has lots of great projects to check out. I’m loving THIS BUTTON SKIRT for the Rooster. As well as THESE super simple little girl aprons.

And a few great links with lots of homemade gift ideas and links on them:
Sew Mama Sew! has a new project every day for their promo Handmade Holiday.

I Have To Say has a great collection of tutorials to browse.

Have a link or great idea? Feel free to share!

This is only part of my project list. Some can’t be posted because the gift receivers are regular readers (or at least they say they are) and they all know I’m making homemade gifts. Christmas is lame without suprises!

I’ll post my completed projects as I get them done. I need to bust them out in the next 2 weeks because once December hits my calendar is already full. Maybe I’ll just take a little nap while Blues Clues is on and THEN I’ll get out my sewing machine.

Happy Haunting

I don’t really like Christmas, yes it’s Merry but let’s face it, when you’re the Mommy/Santa’s Helper it gets a little overrated awfully fast. My very favorite holiday has got to be The Fabulous 4th of July. What’s better than swimming all day, picnics from KFC and watching fireworks all snuggled up on one big blanket at the park? Nothing. Plus it’s out of the house so I don’t have to clean it at the end of the day.

Coming in at a close second place has got to be Halloween. I heart Halloween. I like dressing up, putting fun outfits on the kids and making Fall treats and crafts and most importantly stealing all the Almond Joy, Butterfingers and PLAIN Hershey Bars out of the kids candy sacks. Let’s just be honest, raise your hand if you buy lame candy for the neighborhood and good candy for your own stash. (Don’t tell my husband I have a stash.)

The kids and I made scrumptious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies yesterday to take to friends. I happen to think I have one of the best recipes ever so you MUST give them a try. HERE IS THE RECIPE.

We also got a little crazy an unwrapped 8 million carmels, smashed up some of my Butterfinger stash and dipped our own apples.

The apples were sent off to school teachers in these darling homemade broom bags. (All thanks to Stacy who brought me one filled with candy corns and pumpkins)

Look how cute these are! (The photo just doesn’t do it the justice it deserves!)

Here’s how you make them:

Take two brown lunch sacks. Open them and leave the first alone. This is the bag you put your treats in.
The second you cut down into 1″ strips all the way around the bag, being sure to leave the bag base in tact. Place the first bag on top and put a stick inside, leaving at least 9″ sticking up above the sack top. Gather up the strips and secure tightly with a piece of twine. Voila! A witches broom bag filled with candy. (Or carmel apples in our case.)

Hope you have Happy Haunting tonight!