Tonight our ladies small group from Indian Creek, Gardner had a super time of cooking fun. Instead of doing our normal Bible study, we got together and had a cooking demonstration. My friend Debra came and showed us how to make some delicious hors doeuvres just in time for our holiday party planning. We made a Chili-Lime Pecans (these are the best!!!!), Savory Cheese Cake, and Spanikopita. I will definitely be making these for the holidays. Its amazing how well our small group has gotten to know each other in such a short time and how much each of our lives have been changed by being a part of this group. Just last Spring we did not even know one another's names. I love these gals and look forward to continuing on our journeys together in the future.
This morning I read a devotional and the key verse was:
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrew 11:6
I understood something today that I had never noticed before, not only do we have to believe that he exists but he is also asking us to believe that he will reward those who are seeking him. Hmmmm, I had never noticed that I am suppose to "believe", really "believe" that he does reward us for seeking him. I don't know that I "really" believe that, I know that this verse states that, and I know in my heart that the Bible is the word of God, but do I truly believe? Today I am choosing to believe that the reward I have been waiting on will be mine today!
Funfetti Cookies are just the best. We made these this past weekend not only are they easy peasy, they are absolutely delicious. Lindsey made these for a meeting that she was having, where nobody showed up, but that is another story. So being my daughter, she "had" to eat the cookies herself. But because they were soooo good she was willing to make the sacrifice. Funfetti Cake mixes are out all year long and there are different ones for each holiday. Here is the recipe:
| 1 | (18.9-oz.) pkg. Pillsbury® Moist Supreme® Funfetti® Cake Mix |
| 1/3 | cup oil |
| 2 | eggs |
| 1/2 | (15.6-oz.) can Pillsbury® Creamy Supreme® Funfetti® Vanilla Frosting |
|
Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness. Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting. Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container.
| |
I bought these cute little pumpkins and gourds from our local dollar store a couple of weeks ago. They are great and everything, but I wanted to snaz them up a bit. So after thinking about this for some time and being inspired by my recent ironing board project, I decided to use some of the leftover dictionary pages and my handy Mod Podge and give these little guys a makeover. I had some black glitter that I had used for a Halloween costume and put glitter on the stems and then glittered some leaves too. Here is how they turned out. I love them! I think they could work at any black tie affair! Okay, so I am not sure how black tie and pumpkins go together, but who knows.
The first Indian Creek Gardner Trunk-or-Treat was more than I could have ever imagined. Jesi, our Kid Alive director, and I had been planning this but quite frankly had no idea how this event would turn out. We thought we had all of our "i"s dotted and "t"s crossed but when it is a first time event, you just never know. As the trunkers started showing up with their trunks all decorated with lights and in costume I knew that something was up. Now I don't want to over spiritualize it but I had been praying for the success of this event all week and it turns out God does care about reaching out to a community through something like a Trunk-or-Treat event. Because we served over 500 children and there had to have been double that in adults. The newspaper even showed up to take pictures. Thank you to all of the people that helped out and especially to those "trunker missionaries" from the Olathe campus that came and trunked with us. And most of all, thank you Jesus for caring about our small Live Out event and making it more than we could have ever hoped for! I know, it's just the kind of God that you are and help me remember that.
Leaves of Fall!!!!
This is a lamp shade that I have had around for a couple of years. I have two of these lamps with this pink shade and they have been very happy in Ryan's room. Okay, I know that it is not Ryan's room because he does not live with us anymore but I just cannot bring myself to call it a guest room. So I think I will always call bed rooms by the name of the child that occupied it, perhaps Ryan's Retreat, Lindsey's Lounge, and Anna's Escape. I don't know just a thought. Anyway, I decided that the shade need a redo.
I took the fabric off of the frame and this is what I started with. The first time I went into Urban Arts and Crafts, I fell in love with the lamp shades they have hanging above their cash register. They had made them using sewing pattern pieces. I knew that someday I would make one of my own and decided this was a great lamp shade frame to try it on. I began with sewing pattern pieces and Mod Podge.
I started delicately painting the Mod Podge over the pattern pieces and overlapping the pattern pieces as I went. I folded the tissue over the top and bottom wires and carefully Mod Podge the back side. Once the tissue is covered in the Mod Podge it tears very easily as it is wet. So I tried to get a coat on and then not go over again.
Once the first coat had dried completely I put a coat of Mod Podge on the inside and then when that dried, I coated the outside with a second coat. The result makes the shade feel like plastic. It was not nearly as fragile as I had imagined.
I added trim along the top and bottom edges just to snaz it up a bit. Besides the edges were a bit rough and I needed to cover them up, and you can never go wrong with a great beaded trim. Trim scrapes in my studio are a perk of my job and you can bet I save every little bit. You never know when you will need a dab of trim.
Here is where the lamp now lives, in the Stitches by Sturman studio. I love the golden light that it gives off. I have not deceided what to do with the pink bubbles, you can see the one at the top and there is also one on the bottom. But that is for another day. I think I will put it on a timer so that I can leave it on all the time and will not have to worry about turning it off and on.
This is our master bed the way it looks from March-ish through October-ish. We have a wide variety of pillows and if it were up to me we would add some Euro shams behind the shams you see here but Jeff has put his foot down and says there are too many pillows as it is. (Like he makes the bed and arranges those pillows on a daily basis.) But being the compliant wife that I am (ha, ha), I have let the Euro shams go for now. (I do have some fabric set aside in my"fabric closet" that will do very nicely as Euros someday, shhh, don't tell Jeff.)
When the weather starts to turn chilly I want a more cozy look to our bed. So I just make a couple of changes. I add another down comforter with a velvet duvet cover and the shams are change out to match as well. The matelasse cotton throw is folded up on the end for an extra blanket if we need it. And wal lah, a cozy bed for winter cold nights. When the temperatures get even colder I have some fun brown and blue snowflake flannel sheets that will help take the chill off of those cold sheets.
Trunk or Treat!!!!!
This is the old ironing board that I found a couple of weeks ago and paid $5 for. The legs were broken and it did not really stand up very well. But with some wood glue and a couple of screws, ta da, it stands up just great and I decided it would make a perfect table in my studio. And look, the legs were already red so no spray painting needed. After looking at it for some time, I felt it needed a little spiffying up. I took an old dictionary and decided to decoupage some of the pages on the top of the ironing board.
If you look closely, the edge of the pages of the dictionary were red and the Mod Podge made the red bleed slightly. I ended up putting several coats of Mod Podge on the top so that it would be smooth. I need all the help I can get on cutting down on the dust bunny collection. I love how it turn out!
Thank you for coming to my Halloween party! As you can see by the pictures above we are decked out for the season. I have to say that Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I so love all of the colors, the candy and treats that go along with this holiday are not so bad either. If you want to check out other Halloween parties, go on over to A Fanciful Twist where there is a huge party going on.
This is a recipe that has come highly recommended by a couple of my friends. Last week during the Pumpkin Run Sheri was telling me about this Chocolate Chex carmel stuff that she had made the day before and could not stop eating it. She had tried it when our friend Cathie had brought it to a party that they had attended a couple weeks before. She said it was easy and yes, she was right, easy peasy, and super good. ~WARNING~I am not responsible for how much you eat of this recipe. If you tend to be like me, you won't stop eating until you are sick.
| 8 | cups Chocolate Chex® cereal |
| 3/4 | cup packed brown sugar |
| 6 | tablespoons butter or margarine |
| 3 | tablespoons light corn syrup |
| 1/4 | teaspoon baking soda |
| 1/4 | cup white vanilla baking chips |
Into large microwavable bowl, measure cereal; set aside. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper.
In 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter and corn syrup uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth. Stir in baking soda until dissolved. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Microwave on High 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Spread on cookie sheet. Cool 10 minutes. Break into bite-size pieces.
In small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla baking chips uncovered on High about 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth (bowl will be hot). Drizzle over snack. Refrigerate until set. Store in tightly covered container.
Last week while I was in Minnesota, my Mom and I gathered some moss. I use this in my baskets in the spring that I plant flowers in. I also have a couple of ideas in my head to use it for some things I want to make for Christmas decorations. We gathered quite a bit and laid it on my Mom's living room floor to dry. We sprayed it with bug spray just in case there were some unwanted bugs that may have come along for the ride. After laying in Mom's house for two days we wrapped it in newspaper and then put it in two large trash bags and I then loaded it in my car. We brought it home and I put the bags of moss in my studio to unload latter. Well this weekend I started to unload the moss, because it was still a little moist and I wanted it to dry out before storing it for use in the future. As I was laying the moss out in my basement, I had unloaded one bag and went to get the other bag and what did I find on the floor by the other bag . . .
this creepy half dead salamander. Okay, so now I am a little creeped out that I have a basement floor full of moss that is drying out and wondering if there were any other stowaways with my moss. Creepy, creepy, creepy!!!!!!!!!
So it was freezing cold this morning but we had all made a commitment to our friend Haley to run in the 11th Annual Pumpkin Run. We were at the very first pumpkin run eleven years ago and I cannot believe how big it has gotten. What is really fun about it, is that a good number of the elementary schools in town have running clubs just to train for this event. There were over 3,000 runners out on this cold morning.
Today was not about what time we got but just to have fun with Hayley and make her first 5K an experience to remember.
We were all about taking time to take pictures along the way.
Hayley set our pace and decided to how fast we would run, when we would walk, and if we would run again.
Had to stop and get a picture of this fan because Hayley was sure he was rooting her on.
Hayley heading for the finish line.
The joy of being able to say, "I ran 3.1 miles today, what did you do?"
So Sheri is a sucker for a cute cow any day.
Beauty of Autumn
One of the tasks that we needed to accomplish this week at the lake was getting the docks ready for winter, and up north that means lifting them out of the water. First we have to take all of the dock boards up. These are in sections which isn't too bad. But then you need to realize there are three docks needing the boards taken off and stacked in order so they can be easily replaced next Spring when the operation is reversed. Once the boards have been taken off the "A" frames need to be raised and then the wench attached. For the two small docks we use a hand wench. Which does not seem that big a deal but believe me, it is a lot of work when you are raising the dock one small chain link at a time.
Okay, so I totally posed for the camera here. But I did click it a couple of times for maybe two minutes, it is really hard!!!!
This is how high the docks have to come out of the water. The frozen lake is really not the problem for the docks, it is when it comes time to thaw in the spring when the damage happens. As the ice beings to thaw it moves back and forth across the bay with the wind and can wreck havoc on anything in its way. Although Jeff did most of the work, Dad was there to supervise, and Mom and I for all of that moral support.
We also took time for a photo on top of those dock boards we just removed. I am not sure how it is that work just doesn't seem as much work when you are at the lake, or Jeff is around to do most of it for you.
This is my newest project. I was inspired by sister Lori who told me she was making some pumpkins from old sweaters. So I kept my eyes open for some pumpkin looking sweaters at our local Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. I do frequent these two stores often as I regularly find unexpected treasures or something that can be made into a treasure. I picked up two sweaters, the orange one was a ladies small that I was able to make one large and two small pumpkins out of and the amber colored one was a mens large that I was able to get two large and three small pumpkins. Here is a quick how to: I went out to sewing.about.com and found this pattern and instructions.
Cutting out the pattern pieces.
Sewing the eight sections together to form a circle.
Sewing the ends together after all eight pieces had been sewn together.
After filling the form with stuffing, I used a piece of a stick that I had found out in the backyard and cut to about 5". Sticking it through the opening and closed the top around it by gathering with thread and secured with hot glue.
Using very strong thread, I used an orange cotton yarn, to go up through the top and through the bottom along the seam lines all the way around to create the ribs.
I then added some brown wire and leaves and there you have it, sweater pumpkins.
Fall up in the north woods is so pretty. I never realized until this trip that I have never been up north in the Fall. You cannot help but recognize what a creative God we have. The colors are so vibrate and the contrast from the deep greens of the pine trees, golden leaves of burch, and the brilliant reds of the maples are more than I expected and the people are saying that this year's colors have not yet hit their peak. This is the back porch and what welcomes you when you arrive at the lake house.
This is the scene across the lake from my folks' house.
We are up in the north woods this weekend visiting my folks. Amongst all of my Mom's other fall decorations sat two bud vases one with a yellow rose addressed to my Mom and an orange one for my Dad. The note card on my Mom's explained how it would be a little strange for another women to be sending my Dad a love letter but she had to do it anyway. The letter to my Dad was from a gal in town that my parents have become friends with she and her husband and two girls. She told him how much he meant to her and how much impact he had on her life since they had moved to Cook, MN. She went on to say that it has been because of my Dad and his guidance that she and her husband had made decisions regarding their business, as well as getting their life where it needed to be spiritually as well. She said she had a very short list of people that she could say have truly made a difference in her life and she wanted my Dad to know that he was one of them. She is sure that my Dad's heart condition is because he has given so much of his heart away that he forgot to keep enough of it to run his body. Wow! It is such a blessing to have my Dad and Mom for parents and to know that others love and care for them too. But to actually have someone take the time to let my Dad just how much he has meant to her and her family, was something a lot of people don't often get to hear. Makes me know I need to let those influencers in my life know how much I appreciate the part of their heart they have given to away me.
Here is my kind of coffee table book. I was in Calico Corner the other day and saw this book, but for $40, I just walked away, but not before I wrote down the title and author, to do an internet search later. Even with the paper jacket cover off this book looks good. I have always been one of those folks that buys my books according to the cover and this one certainly fits that standard. Not only does it look great on the outside but the inside pictures are to die for. I do have a special love for design and textiles and this book is filled that. My own particular style does tend to include a lot of different patterns and textures and there are lots of examples of that. This books has already inspired, in my head, several different projects. Here is just a small sampling of the what you can find inside this book.
Here is another of my trash to treasure crafts. I took this drink holder and put a coat of spray paint on it to cover the labels. I used a tan color and only had to do two coats to cover the writing.
I than added a ruffle of fabric that I cut with pinking shears. The fabric was 2" strip and then I ran a large basting stitch and pulled the string to make the ruffle. Using my trusty hot glue gun, I attached the ruffle to the top of the box.
I then took 1" strips of paper that I purchased at the dollar spot at Target, and sewed them with a zig zag stitch overlapping them slightly. I just kept adding 1" strips until they were wide enough to cover the sides of the box. Again, the handy dandy hot glue gun helped me attached them to the sides of the box.
I then cut circles with my Cricut and put the tag board letters, also purchased at the dollar spot at Target, on them. To give them a little dimension I attached them to the box with adhesive foam squares. The tag was also cut with my Cricut and the pumpkin was part of the tag board letter set. Add some curly ribbon and you have a great gift box. That cost next to nothing.
This past weekend we spent Saturday at Pittsburg State University for family day. I cannot believe this will be the last family day at Pitt State where we will actually be considered "family". This is Lindsey's senior year and from now on we can all attend as just alumni as both Jeff and I went to Pitt State as well, go Gorillas!!!!!! I just love the atmosphere of a college campus on game day. I think because it takes me back to when I was a college student and maybe just for a minute I can pretend that I am a student too. And then reality hits, and again I am reminded that I am a mom of a college student, and two college students at that, with one that graduated a couple of years ago, yikes, we are getting old.
Here is my current front porch. I am looking forward to changing the screen door for the glass door so you can see my great fall wreath better. But with the way the weather is, I love the fresh air that the screen door provides. The pumpkin topiaries are ones that I made several years ago and spiffed them up a bit last year, but I still think that they need something else. I am not sure what they need but they are just not right.
Here is the bench that has sat on our front porch for 20 years now. Jeff and his dad built it for me when we had no furniture in our house. I had a cushion on it with pillows. But as soon as we had a front porch, this is where it has lived. I have to keep things on it or someone might notice how rotten it is. I mean seriously, there are mushrooms growing out of the seat of it. That might be attributed to the fact that I always have pots or baskets with flowers in them sitting on it so it stays wet pretty much all the time. And here you see the mums that. are always on that bench in the Fall. Can you see the amber one. Why is it I can keep the other colors looking good, but my amber mums always look sad? Maybe amber mums don't like to sit on rotten benches, just wondering?
Road less taken
I purchased this chair at a garage sale a month or so ago for $3. I know not a dumpster dive that I am used to but I thought for $3 dollar, not too bad. If you look closely there is small tear in the seat, so I knew that I would be recovering the cushions.
Once again out comes my colonial red spray paint by Rust-Oleum. I really like this color! It works in a number of rooms of my home, but most of all it has become the main color of my studio. I then sand a little of it off to give it a little bit of character.
To recover a piece I always remove the current fabric. It makes the final fabric lay much nicer and you use the different parts as pattern pieces for cutting out the new fabric.
You will want to be careful when removing the seams so that the pieces can remain in the same shape to make the most accurate pattern possible. This, at times, can be very gross, as who knows where this furniture has been.
I found a scrape of this fun toile type design in my studio and knew that it would be perfect for this chair makeover. Sewing the pieces back together is the fun part as your new piece of furniture begins to emerge.
One more garage sale find that was taken from junk to a stylish little chair that is now in my studio next to my other dumpster dive makeover chair.
I would not call myself a "good" cook but I do like to make "good" food. Some people like to cook gourmet, things that take a lot of skill. My specialty happens to be good food made easy. In fact, one of my favorite web sites is called Dinner Made Easy by Betty Crocker. In light of the Autumn season and the abundance of good apples around, we made this Easy Apple Crisp for dinner Sunday night. I found this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen website another of my favorites. Can you tell that I really like that swirlly brush on my PhotoShop?
Jo's Old Fashioned Apple Crisp
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Use a pie dish. 10″ deep dish works best for one this size. Peel and core apples, layering them alternately, Cortland- McIntosh, until all apples are in the dish. Soften butter slightly and mix with the sugar and flour until crumbly. Sprinkle cinnamon, more or less than specified amount according to your taste, over the layered apples. Pour the crumbly butter-sugar-flour mix over that. Put in the hot oven for 30 to 45 minutes, checking with a knife. It should easily go into the deepest part and come out clean. Cool, or eat while still warm. Serve plain, with real whipped cream, or ice cream.
On Friday night, Jeff and I attended the Gardner High School football game. Never before have we experienced a high school football game with so much team spirit. Not only was everyone dressed in blue, but we even saw adults with their hair painted blue, oh, and one was a co-worker of Jeff's, ha,ha. There were 230 elementary school girls there to cheer along with the cheerleaders for the 1st quarter and they were all sporting their "Raise Her a Blazer" t-shirts. Before you entered the stadium there was the booster club selling Gardner Blazer gear, 50/50 tickets,
and thunder sticks. Okay, then you enter the stadium. You can't help but notice the large blowup in one of the end-zones. As the excitement of the game heightens, you see the team start to enter the field, but before they do they all fit inside the blowup and as smoke starts to billow out of the large football helmet the teams bursts out. It was the best team entrance that I have ever seen at a high school game. If you want to get the experience of a small town totally behind their football team check out a home Garden High School game.
Here are some more shapes of Fall that I love. And look how fancy I got with PhotoShop. I am still learning but I love playing with the different brushes. I just download a couple of new ones and wanted to try them out. This is a metal basket that I have just filled with gourds, apples, mini pumpkins and look one lone lemon that I will be using in some tea later. Have a great Saturday!!!
In a group?
With the cooler weather, I am getting into the Fall season. I spent the last day or two getting our house into the harvest feeling. When you enter our home there is no doubt what time of year it is. I am a little partial to Fall decorations, I am not sure if it is the bright orange, amber, and gold colors or the shape of a pumpkins and sunflowers that I fancy. But I do like Autumn. I was inspired by a blog that I saw some time ago with a wreath that featured a large letter in the middle and thought that I would make one for our door for Fall.
Here are the supplies that I used. I purchased them all at JoAnn Fabrics for 50% off!
This is what the "S" looked like as I painted a nice chocolate brown.
I am no floral designer I just cut the flower stems apart and just start hot gluing things down. I have to say, I am never sure when I am finished and just try to remember that less is more thing.
Here is a close up of the "S". Sorry the picture is not the greatest. After painting it brown I used a metallic gold paint pen and just kind of doodled on it. If you have ever been with me when I am taking notes of any kind this doodling is all over my notes. Then I sealed it with clear spray.
With Ryan moving back to Kansas City this past Spring and the girls home from school for the Summer, we had a full house. It was fun having all three of the kids around, to occasionally have a meal together like in the old days and all the activity that comes with young adults sure kept the place hopping. Last month, the girls both went back to their respective schools and Ryan found a cute little old farm house that he moved into this weekend. His house is just a couple of miles south of us in the country with the highlight of the property being that he will have access to his neighbor's farm pond. Needless to say, we spent the weekend helping him clean and move into his place. Wow, it is already very quite around here.
Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment to get a hair cut. On my way over I began to think of how long I have had the same look and decided that I would ask my hair stylist if she could suggest something new. I told her that I was wanting a new look and to keep in mind that I was over 40, nothing too short, but I defiantly wanted sassy. I told her to surprise me. Now, I have been with this gal for a couple of years now and I do trust her, I mean how could you not she is a cute as she can be, and is always wearing the latest style herself, however, I don't think she is much over 25 or 26. So here is what she has come up with and I really do like my new look, but I think it is very close to the hair cut that Lindsey has, oops. I have been told all my life that when someone copies you it is the best form of flattery. So, Lindsey, I really like your hair cut.
Here is a shot of the back too. Now can I just say how hard it is to take a picture of yourself in the mirror and not make it look like you are taking a picture of yourself. Young people that take pcitures of themsevles have a talent for it because I just don't seem to have the knack. I not only wanted to get the front but the back of my hair in the picture as well. But I really did not want my back fat to show either, so needless to say this is the best I could get and that troublesome back fat is cut off. I wish that was all we had to do in real life to eliminate those areas that we wish we could forget about but still need some work.
Generosity -- your choice!
This past Sunday's day of service was so fun! We had a good turn out in Gardner and the best part of the whole day was the contacts that we had with the people in our community. I had the great privilege and fun of going to each of the sites to capture some pictures. I like to call myself the "supervisor" but that might be assuming too much. Being the armature photo journalist that I am, I missed several great photo ops. Like the whole group worship and prayer at the beginning of our day, and after looking at my pictures after I got home, I did not get a group picture at each site. I am teachable and will not miss those next time. The purpose of our day of service was not so promote Indian Creek Community Churchbut to "be" the church to those in our community. In talking with those that participated, many had ideas of how we can continue to live a life of service to those in Gardner. I am inspired to intentionally find ways to "Live Out" and put into action what I truly believe. "The church is only the church when we are being the hands and feet of Jesus."
The biggest job in the 20 year history of Stitches By Sturman in almost complete. I am in the home stretch and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have been working on an assisted care facility, Sweet Life, in Leawood that included 369 window treatments. I am down to around 20 left to complete and yesterday delivered all that I had done so far. The installation has begun and now I just have to keep my eyes on the prize see that a month ago seemed so far away. 369 valances seemed so daunting at the time but just one window treatment at a time and you can get through them. Now from a business perspective, the cash flow has been a real bummer, and I also realize that unless I can find another job as big as this one for next year my numbers will be down, but for now, I am ready to be paid!!!!
I have been going to Sonic Drive-In happy hour (all drinks for half price) a lot this Summer. So needless to say, I have accumulated several of their drink holders. I knew that there was something cool to do with them I had just not figured it out yet. Well, I finally came up with something. A gift box. I took strips of paper and sewed them together for the sides and then used my Cricut machine to cut out the "Time 4 Fun" letters. I then tied some bows here and there filled it with tissue paper and some shred and there you have it. A very fun gift box. I love to make something out of nothing, it always makes me feel so accomplished.
The Government Can!