Flowers and marriage.

My good friend Caryn and I sometimes design flowers for special events.  We work mainly through referrals so are often amazed when anyone contacts us cold.  But thanks to several lovely comments on boards like Indiebride, we get a regular stream of interest--it's quite honestly as much as we can handle considering our other commitments.

Today we did the flowers for a wonderful bride named Holly.  We love fall weddings and the palettes that they inspire.  I'm also more than a bit biased because nine years ago, on a beautiful Columbus Day weekend, I married my wonderful husband.  I didn't do flowers then so it pains me a bit to look back at our photographs and see what our florist designed.  I went classic with all red roses and touches of pepperberry.  I do still love that look--and the bouquets photographed beautifully--but now that I know so much more about flowers, I would have added more variety and texture.  And although I'm not usually the biggest fan of yellow (I think it has something to do with my mother's obsession with yellow.  And the ruffled, floral, yellow canopy I stared at for untold hours as a child), today's palette is a favorite.  It reminds me of a sunset.

I'm headed, as a guest this time, to another wedding tomorrow.  I know some may not want to spend their anniversary weekend at another's wedding.  But I actually like it.  I love thinking back on our special day and there's no better place to do that then when I'm sitting in a pew, squeezing my sweetie's hand, and watching others take their vows.

As my mind wanders over the details of our wedding, it's funny what comes back so vividly.  I've always been crafty and so I think most everyone was braced for what I'd pull out for our wedding--programs, name cards, embellishing my own shoes with silk roses, etc., you know how it is.  But I think that even my parents--who have witnessed my craft frenzy first hand longer than anyone else--thought I'd overshot  it when they found me in my kitchen one morning resurfacing my table with a tile mosaic.  I hated the finish on that table.  And it didn't concern me at all that it was three days before our wedding and just two days before our open house bbq that all guests were invited to.  (BTW, I got it done.  It was gorgeous and made me smile instead of wince and it's now the table I sew on in my craft space). 

Happy Columbus Day!

Little treasures.

Just a quick post to say happy weekend to everyone.  It was a good though hectic week here.  One of the highlights was seeing my parents.  They recently moved permanently to our area and just bought a house not too far away--45 minutes to be exact.  We are an extremely tight-knit family, so I'm over-the-moon to finally have them so near.  Their last address was in Texas!

When I was at their new home, I spied some of my grandmother's glass bakeware tucked away up high in their kitchen cupboards.  And since my mom isn't much of a baker, guess who took some pieces home?

Here are some buffet plates shaped like apples.  I freaked when I saw them.  So perfect for fall!  And I don't even care that I don't have the matching teacups (see the little spot to hold your cup?  So, so sweet.)  I think they are darling and will break them out the next time I host something.  Anything.

And this lovely faceted, covered glass dish.  I'm not exactly sure if it's a baking dish, serving dish, or both.  Or maybe it's for a big vat of butter?  Unclear.  It's slightly smaller than a bread pan, but I suppose it would be the perfect size for a teacake.  I'm a little nervous to bake in it though.  It seems awfully delicate.  I think it'll be the perfect home for our fresh baked treats--the ones that get gobbled up in a day flat so there's no real need for air tightness.  I love it so much.

And last are just a few of her glass pie plates.  My grandmother was a terrific baker and taught me to bake my first pie.  It will mean a lot to me to use her plates. 

 

I hope you find some things to treasure as well this weekend.  Happy Friday!

 

Halloween treat bag tutorial.

I was in the craft store a few days ago and saw a kit from Martha's line for cute favor bags.  They were designed to look like witch brooms and I thought they were adorable.  But I didn't want to spend any money on them since I knew I could do the same thing with items I already had at home.

Here's what you will need (per treat bag) if you'd like to make some, too:

• 2 brown paper bags
• straight edge
• exacto knife and cutting surface
• twine
• twig*

Directions:  

Flatten one of the bags.  The picture below isn't the best because I didn't take one with the sides smoothed out.  Basically, you want two layers to cut through so push out the sides and flatten.

Leaving about a two inch border of the bag uncut at the top and bottom, cut lines through both layers in the center portion.  No need to be too exact, it's a witch's broom after all. 

Place your goodies in the uncut bag and place within the cut bag. 

Shmoosh down a bit and gather both bags at the top.  Insert your twig* and tie with twine. 

I think these will be perfect to package our Halloween cutout cookies this year.  I'll use the sugar cookie recipe and frosting technique I posted about here.

*If I were making these for children, I'd probably use a pretzel rod in lieu of a twig (maybe a cellophane wrapped chocolate-dipped pretzel rod, hmm...).  Generally speaking, I'm against equipping children with a pointy, small, stick.  Especially when they're in a group.  And sugar is in their near future.  I'm just saying...

Works for me Wednesday, cleaning tip.

 

I'm participating in We Are THAT Family's 'Works For Me Wednesday' and this week's theme is cleaning tips.  

I have a quick and simple tip about how I clean and polish our stainless steel kitchen appliances.  When we first got them, it drove me crazy how every little hand print and smudge showed up.  And many of the recommended cleaners I tried left ugly streaks.  Then I found out what store employees use to keep stainless steel appliances looking snazzy:  baby oil.  And because a showroom floor and my kitchen get roughly the same amount of traffic, I decided to try it.  You only need a couple of drops on a soft, lint-free cloth.  It's really worked for me so I hope you'll give it a try.

Muffin tin Monday.

It's unusual for me to post twice in a day, I know.  But I've wanted to participate in the Muffin Tin Monday carnival for ages.  And I finally did.  This week's theme was "all about you."  I didn't do a full tin for Will because he's going through a challenging phase where, if more than one thing is placed in front of him, he uses both hands to sweep everything off and onto the floor.  My friend dubbed the move The Zamboni.

But here is Leo's lunch tin.

I chose our heart-shaped muffin pan because Leo, our middle son, is pure love.  He is our cuddle bug and still manages to fold all 44 pounds of himself into my lap at least seven times a day.  I filled his tin with some of his favorites:  broccoli and carrots with Ranch dressing to dip--Leo loves broccoli because it's his favorite color; turkey and cheese skewers on green and yellow picks (yellow is his 2nd favorite color); an apple popover we made from the apples picked over the weekend (Leo is my most prolific little U-picker); and goldfish crackers--a perennial favorite but even more so now that he has a new fishing pole and is practicing his casting for his next fishing trip with Grandpa.

For more of this week's Muffin Tin Monday meals, be sure to check out Michelle's wonderful blog.  It was really fun and Leo absolutely devoured his lunch--even more so than usual as he's our eater!

Ma'am. Step away from the contact paper.

 

Could someone please, please, come over here and put away this roll of vinyl?  I really do have some other stuff to get to.  But I couldn't help myself yesterday when I started decorating for Halloween and decided that our pictures looked a little out of place.

So I held up a sheet of acetate over the pictures to get a sense of scale.  And I drew a mustache here, a cape there...a few masks.  Then I traced everything onto contact paper (excuse the drawings--18 month-old on lap while attempting). 

I topped them with another sheet of vinyl and did some trimming and some sticking (more on Con-Tact paper crafts here and here).  Now the pictures are ready for Halloween.  

I saw a clever post last year where you use a grease pencil to embellish your pictures.  That was my original plan.  But then I realized that drawing directly onto my picture glass would absolutely guarantee a 30 minute Windex frenzy right before guests arrived for Thanksgiving dinner.  So this works for me--after Halloween, I can just peel off the cut outs.

More Halloween stuff coming up--Happy Monday!

Apples.

We went apple picking today.

Well actually, just the older boys and I went apple picking, as Charlie stayed back to let Will nap.  We picked a full bushel...lots of Golden Delicious and Empires, a few Courtlands, Red Delicious and Rome Beauties as well.  And of course, Granny Smith and Fuji--I think those are our favorites to eat raw.  And eat them we did.

I hope to put up pie filling tomorrow or later in the week and will post what canning recipe I settle on.  The one I used last year was pretty good but I think I can do better.  I also hope to can a nice surplus of applesauce.  I saw an interesting recipe for applesauce on a wonderful blog I just discovered called by little hands--you roast the apples.  I think this will bring a nice depth to the flavors so I'm anxious to try it.  I just love homemade applesauce.

I'm also excited to try Katie Brown's apple brownie recipe.  And for breakfast tomorrow, we're having apple popovers--can't wait.  Hope you are enjoying these beautiful fall days as well.

On a roll.

ETA:  Hiya.  For some reason a picture that's not meant to appear in this post is appearing in lieu of the intended photo (see the flowers down there?  And if you don't see flowers maybe it's resolved).  I've tried to fix it but that just results in another picture swapping in another post.  So I'm sending a Q to the super helpful folks at Squarespace tech support.  Hopefully they can help--pls pardon it in the meantime (I want to leave up the misplaced photo so they can see what I'm talking about).  xo, S

 

We're not quite finished making reading labels, so the Con-Tact paper roll is still out.  And it's a good thing because an impromptu neighborhood playgroup had to duck inside due to a sudden rain shower.  So I let them loose on the materials for a quick craft project.  We made vinyl stickers--here's how: 

 Have the little ones draw on the contact paper, leaving the backing on (I like to tape it down because it curls up when it comes off the roll).  We tried to use normal markers but they wiped right off.  Instead, use permanent markers (note to self:  get more colors!) or crayons.  Top with another sheet of contact paper and cut out.  Little hands will need help peeling the backing off as it can be a bit fussy.  And on the crayon drawings, the top layer will not want to adhere to the waxy image without some extra rubbing.

These work great on windows.  And they hold up much better to the abuse a one-year-old can dish out (at least compared to the gel stick-ons we've previously used). 

I think we'll do a whole bunch of Halloween decorations next.  (ETA:  Did some, see this post).  Have a great weekend!