Mystery Supper

We hosted the 3rd Annual Mystery Supper a couple nights ago. It was once again a success! For those of you who don't know what a mystery supper is - it is a supper where we create a menu with code names, including the utensils. Our guests then get to decide the order of their meal, hopefully matching up the utensils with the food that requires them! It's lots of fun! This year for appetizers we had egg rolls, fruit salad and butternut squash soup. For the entree - sweet and sour chicken drumsticks, potato wedges and broccoli and for dessert we made ice cream sandwiches.
Here is the menu, can you decode it? :)

As requested, here is the menu in the proper order, with the proper names!


Appetizer # 1

- Southwestern Egg Rolls - Mexican Poncho

Appetizer # 2

- Fruit Salad on a skewer, served with dip - Pogo Stick

Appetizer # 3

- Butternut Squash Soup - piscine d'orange
- Soup spoon - Canoe Companions


Entree

- Sweet and Sour Chicken Drumsticks - Keeping the Beat
- Sweet Potato Wedges - Crescent Moons (we should have called these Full Moons, since we changed the recipe but the menus were already printed!)
- Broccoli - Deciduous Wonder
- Fork - Twisted Sister
- Knife - Smoke Stacks

Dessert

- Ice Cream Sandwich made with Double Chocolate Chip Cookies - Hockey Puck


It is really not hard to do, just come up with menu that possible to eat without utensils and give everything a crazy name! The more creative the better!

Advent Calendar

Last November I came across this Advent Calendar on Pinterest.

I decided then I was going to make it for my kids for next Christmas. The thing I really liked about it was that the nativity characters were made with Shrinky Dinks. I had some Disney Shrinky Dinks when I was a kid. I thought they were the neatest thing ever. I had completely forgot about them and certainly never thought they would still be making them. Of course, I found the plastic at Michaels. You can find everything there!

Making this Advent Calendar completely slipped my mind until a month ago but I really wanted to get it done before December 1, so I got to work on it.

Since the above link isn't a complete nativity scene I used the characters from this site.

I made mine a little smaller and put it on the fridge with magnets instead on of a canvas. For the first 11 days I put in little ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree.

Here are my awesome Shrinky Dink people ...

The finished product, and a close up of what it will look like on Christmas morning!

And it hanging on the fridge!

Christmas Cheer for the Bathroom!

I've always wanted a Christmas shower curtain. Don't ask me why! Maybe because the bathroom always gets skipped in the Christmas decorating, and changing the shower curtain is the only way to make it more festive. The only place I've ever seen them is in Jysk and I could never bring myself to buy one. When I asked my husband what he thought of the whole idea he said something like "I really don't see the point". Regardless, this year I was determined to get one. I found some online that I really liked, but wasn't prepared to pay $70! That is when it struck me - I would make my own!

On a trip to Fabricland I found some panels in the bargain bin that were perfect, picked out some fabric for the borders and then proceeded to the cutting tables where I waited and waited and waited and considered just leaving but really didn't want to give up after I was so close to having my shower curtain. People really need to learn fabric-buying etiquette. I did finally get my fabric cut, and headed home. A little measuring, some cutting, about an hour of sewing and my curtain was done! All I could find for eyelets were actual curtain sized ones, so that is what I used, but it turned out great! The bathroom is now the only room in the house decorated for Christmas!

Our bathroom is a little small, so it is hard to get a good picture, but you get the idea! Now I'm inspired to make one for every season!!

A Stocking for Anthony!

I've been working on Anthony's Christmas stocking for about a year and yesterday I finally finished it! I actually had a very productive weekend - finished another project and started a couple more. I'm going to have to make the most of my time if I'm going to get everything done before Christmas!

The Last Penny

Since this is the last year the penny will be minted my Dad decided it would be a great idea to make a giant penny cake and take it to the coin show in Regina. He wanted me to use the biggest cake pan I have, which is 18 inches. It doesn't even fit in my oven. I had to go over to the in-laws. My husband was around to give me a hand this time; which was great because we had to paint on copper glitter dust with tiny paintbrushes. It took a while. There was copper dust everywhere. The end result was pretty good - it looked like a penny!

Dad also got me to make a silver dollar cake for one of the guys at the coin show. He visited during the summer and gave us all a silver dollar, so this was thank you cake. He also climbed Castle Butte, which is quite a feat for a older gentleman! I tried to pick the easiest silver dollar to duplicate, although they all are quite detailed.

Dad was quite happy with the two cake and carefully loaded them up (along with a picture window and 10 gallons of honey) while making jokes about being caught with counterfeit money! I talked to him after they got home and the cakes were a hit. Everyone really enjoyed them and thought it was a great idea!

Seth was quite disappointed that he didn't get a piece of the penny cake, so I told him he could make is own cake and paint it with the copper glitter dust. That cheered him right up. As soon as Grandpa left Seth was busy decorating his cake.

I helped him spell the names right, but he did the rest. Not to shabby for his first attempt!

Little Misses!

One of my good friends had a baby girl a couple of months back, and so I decided I was going to make her a blanket. After some consideration I decided to make a large rag blanket. It didn't very long, just a few evening. Even snipping the seams went quick since I bought spring loaded scissors! What a great invention.

The top...

and the back...

and up close!

I also bought Mr. Men flannel a while ago that I'll have to make that into something. It was just too cute to pass up!

200 Cupcakes

On Saturday one of my husband's very good friends was married. My husband was best man, and I was asked to make the cupcakes, so between the two of us there was a lot going on! Luckily the in-laws took the boys so I didn't have to worry about them snitching!

The task of making 200 marble cupcakes with cream cheese frosting seemed daunting. I've never done that many cupcakes before. It took hours, but most of the time I was waiting on the oven since I could only bake one pan at a time. If I ever build a house it is definitely going to have 2 ovens!

The decorating started off a little rough - turns out you can't beat the cream cheese too much if you want it to stay on a cupcake! I got the second batch right, thank goodness! I got these boxes from work. They were perfect for transporting. 23 to a box, 9 boxes, 2 trips!

They looked pretty good and everyone enjoyed them. Hard work, but well worth the time put in.

One More Quilt Completed!

I am happy to say that I have finally finished Anthony's Mickey Mouse quilt! It took me longer to quilt then I thought it would. I had a really good start on it in the spring, but then summer happened and it sat untouched for a couple of months. But it is done now, and just in time for the cold weather. I forgot how my basement looked with out quilting frames taking up all the room!

And, on his bed... please notice the amazing bunk beds!

This up coming week is all about cupcakes, and then Anthony's Christmas stocking takes priority.

And on a completely unrelated topic -- Tomorrow is the start of Pumpkin Pie Blizzard month! Which reminds me, I need to cook those pumpkins for pumpkin pie!

Our Summer Projects

We had quite the list of project to complete this summer, and thanks to two of my brothers, the major ones can now be cross off! It started out with building bunk beds for our boys. I thought I had a good picture but I don't, so you will just have to believe me when I say they are amazing! My bro drew up plans and within 24 hours - minus the staining - they were done! Complete with stairs at the end. The boys love them.

Then in preparation for what became Project #3 we had to tear down our old shed and build another one in a different location. Believe it or not, it was the shingling that took the most time - because my brothers left that up to us! It took us a couple weeks to get at it; they would have had it done in 10 minutes!

Moving on to Project #3 - a play structure for the boys. A ship. Quite ambitious, I agree, but it was made possible by my brothers who were more then willing to help build it. Barely even a challenge for them since they started building forts as soon as they were old enough to swing a hammer. Their forts consisted of multiple rooms, sky-walks, underground tunnels and trap doors. No lack of imagination there!! We started building the ship a few weeks ago, and put the last coat of stain on last week. Just need to add glass for the port holes and my brothers want to add a trap door. It turned out great! My boys love it! We got the pattern from Creative Homeowers - Ultimate Guide to Kid's Play Structures and Tree Houses.

25 Years Later...

My aunt and uncle recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary - congratulations to them! For a surprise my cousin asked if I would remake their wedding cake. She sent me some pictures, and I did my best to duplicate it.
Their original wedding cake ...

It doesn't show the front, but it is the only picture that shows the detail. I thought it was probably made of fruit cake, but apparently it was fake. I guess that was the thing to do back then!

Here is the cake I made for their 25th anniversary...

I decided it would have been easier to cut stairs out of styrofoam! They still had the topper and bride and groom. They seemed pretty happy with the surprise, and as a bonus, this cake they got to eat!

Fuzzy Wuzzy Hearts

A couple months ago I wanted to get some different ideas for baby blankets so I bought "The Little Box of Baby Quilts". It is a great collection of 20 different patterns all printed on their own card.





Fuzzy Wuzzy Hearts is probably my favorite pattern but that might change as I make more! I love the flannel - turtles and frogs! I think I have just enough to left to make one more.

Another Cake!

I asked my son what he wanted on his birthday cake and without hesitation he said "Lightening McQueen!" I wasn't about to make the actual car, so I cheated and bought one, along with Mack. I borrowed Mater from my 2 year old! Luckily he didn't mind! I had some trouble coming up with a design but with a little help from the internet I was able to throw something together. And Seth loved it!

Mickey Mouse Cake

Anthony's birthday has come and gone. We had such a fun day. It is hard to believe he is already 2! His cake turned out pretty good. The Mickey Mouse did end up breaking. I'm not sure why but it didn't dry out like it was supposed too. Still usable though!

I won!!!

So super excited...still!! I entered a draw at Fabricland in PA a couple weeks ago for one of three prizes and on Saturday they called to tell me I was a winner! I so rarely win anything! It is a good thing we made that trip to PA so I could enter. I won a $100 gift certificate, a quilting frame, 4 different kinds of batting, sewing scissors, and other odds and ends. Good thing I finished a project last week (I'll post it next week!) so my ban on buying fabric is lifted! :)

My next project to finish is Anthony's quilt. I have it ready to put on the quilting frames. This week, however, is all about Anthony's birthday! I just finished making the Mickey Mouse for the top of his cake. I just have a couple touch-ups to do when it dries. I only made one so hopefully it doesn't break. It should be okay; I usually have good luck with colour flow.

Cake Time!

We had our first family birthday of the year! My husband turned 30! To say that he loves fishing is an understatement. Since I've never actually made him a fishing cake, I decided to give it a whirl. It turned out not too bad. What do you think?

What's new?

Well, let me tell you! Yesterday I machine quilted the rag baby blanket I started in February. I just have to bind the edges and it will be done. I absolutly love this pattern, and the fabric I picked! And I think I have enough fabric left over to make another one! Here last rag blanket I made, before it was washed. It is still in a drawer waiting for the next baby boy!

I also finished the top of Anthony's quilt, and have been cross stitching on his Christmas stocking. I really need to get it done because I just ordered a couple more cross stitches from Mystic Stitch! I shouldn't have I know, but the cross stitches that have are so amazing. If you cross stitch you should definitely check out their site.

Being Productive

Last weekend was an extremely productive weekend! My sister and brother-in-law were visiting and whenever we get together we have a list of things to do. We made bagels, egg noodles, ice cream, bath salt, and started a rag blanket (and got the top done!) I'm certain there were a few other things on that list as well, but it is upstairs and I'm not going to run up and check it. I do know that by Monday everything on the list was crossed off. We even fit in 3 movies!

This weekend wasn't quite as productive, but did I almost finish the top of Anthony's quilt. I need to get it done if I ever want to step foot in another fabric store again. My husband has officially put his foot down. He told me that I couldn't visit a fabric store until I finished a project. I'm not worried. In 10 hours I could have that baby blanket I started a *while* ago quilted, or I could finish the rag blanket I started last weekend. Not that I blame him! I do need to start using up my stash -- there is always cute fabric to buy and I need to make room!

Valentines!

So, Valentine's Day has come and gone. Usually I try to make a few Valentines, but just never got around to it. Last Saturday we did make some cookies and the boys painted a bit. I made some cute little boxes for Valentine treats. It was mostly a ploy to keep them from fighting, since they were both in a grumpy mood! It worked pretty well and I only had a little paint to scrub of the table!

Then I decided to try to make heat/ice packs. It was something fun that Seth could help with and a way to get rid of the sticky rice I accidentally bought. They were quick and easy to make. Really they are just bags of rice that can be froze or microwaved for sore muscles or cold feet!

Finally, I made a Raspberry Strawberry Sponge Torte. I'm really surprised I ended up with enough strawberries since everyone kept stealing them! It was pretty good, would have been better with whipping cream. I didn't think you were supposed to serve torte with whipping cream, but really considering how amazing whipping cream is - it should be served with everything!

It's Done!

I've finished my Crazy Quilt!!! I started working on it shortly after I got married, over 5 years ago. In my defence it was a lot of sewing of lots of squares! I wanted to used up some of my scraps, but ended up buying more because I didn't think I had enough variety. You can't keep me out of Fabricland!! Now I probably have enough scraps to make a couple more of these quilts, but considering how long this one took me I think I'll used them for something else!!

Crazy!

I just finished putting my Crazy Quilt on the quilting frames. I'm a little out of practice but after a few sighs of frustration and lots of pins it is ready to go! And I only knocked over the pins once! The last full size quilt I did was in the fall of 2010 for my cousin. He is a huge...

... Pittsburgh Penguins fan! I've done a few baby blankets since then, but I use the smaller quilting frames for those. I've been working on this Crazy Quilt for about 5 years now, so I'm really excited to get it done. Any guesses on how long it will take me to quilt it? :)

This blog cracks me up! If only all guys thought like this!

www.handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com

This one is my fav...