Ready for Sunday?

. . .we shop at the store . . .

Asking the kids, 'do you have any homework?' on Saturday didn't include 'or a talk in church' - but I guess it should have! So Sunday morning entailed Keaton writing his talk for Sacrament meeting on Charity, making homemade bread for the sacrament because we forgot to buy it yesterday (even though we remembered 2 minutes before we pulled into the driveway last night after the boy's basketball games) & cupcakes for a birthday in my Primary class! Needless to say, it was a VERY busy morning =) Good thing church starts at 1 pm:

I have one regular sized loaf pan, so I had to make baby loaves too. We ended up with 2 regular size loaves and 16 baby loaves. It is super yummy - I wonder if anyone knew their sacrament bread was homemade?

These cupcakes were decadent - I made a chocolate cake mix and put chocolate chips in the batter - ummmmmm, YUM! I think I'll do that every time now =) The frosting was like ganache - I made up the recipe and then tasted it - I hurried to write it down so I can duplicate it because it is sooooo rich and chocolately! I made 1 big cupcake for the birthday girl:

We had a few cupcakes leftover after class and I gave one to my friend Stephanie at church, as she bit into it, her kids were begging for a bite - she told them 'no' as these were not the sharing type for 'kids' because it was that good. LoL It is true though! But I've never seen Stephanie not share what she had with her kids - that was a first! After one bite, she requested these for her birthday in February. I'll make enough for the kiddos then - haha

And some of us relax after church in ways the others would never be caught doing ;) It looks funnier in person - Brady has his shorts hiked WAY up!

Basketball Jamboree

The boys played two 10-minute games an hour apart - ugh! Still trying to figure out how to take a good motion photo.

Keaton on the far left:

Brady #15 in the middle:

Playing a High School sport is ridiculously expensive! Must have their ASB card purchase of $45 and then $95 playing fee, sports physical $40, shoes $50 (love Nordstrom Rack!), traveling gear $125 . . . then the team goes out to eat after every game (McDonalds or Safeway - which the parents fork over more $ for) AND they charge you $4 a person to watch your kid's games? I was annoyed with that last one =)  Do I secretly wish they'd gotten cut from the team?  I don't know yet ;)

Christmas Wreath

I got out some Christmas stuff today =) This is my favorite wreath - I made it 2 years ago and still love it:

I had the wreath form from the previous year that was on clearance for $3 - what a deal! Everything I added to this wreath was cheap because I waited until they were 50% off at Michaels. The 1st year I made it I was afraid to put it on my front door in case someone wanted to swipe it - funny, huh?

hApPy ThAnKsGiViNg

It was a day of birds ;)  We saw a variety of them today, a few different species of wild birds, woodpeckers, blue jays and TWO hummingbirds!  I haven't seen that many birds in our yard since September.  Did they sense I was cooking their cousin for dinner?

This is our Thanksgiving feast, most of it was prepared from scratch:

If it's in yellow, then it was homemade: brined Turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, roasted cauliflower, caramelized onions, corn, bread, veggies, dip, salami, cheese, jello, pumpkin pie, ice cream & whipping cream.

Will share recipes, just ask and I'll send it to you!  Everything was yummy - it's all about starting with a great recipe =)

Accordion Tag

I made an accordion tag centerpiece for my Thanksgiving table:

Up close, a lot of fun and a lot of work!

I hope the food gets done on time since I was busy crafting instead of cooking ;)

Thanksgiving Blessings

I am hosting Thanksgiving, so I am in the process of designing some table decorations:

I made these on the computer and glued them onto flat glass marbles.  

Here's the center of the table:

I painted some tiny flower pots for pilgram hats too:

Underneath hides 3 Reeces Peanut Butter Cups:

These were the name settings.

Cornucopia

I made this cornucopia last year, but wasn't blogging then, so here is a photo of it this year:

Is it too whispy?  Looks like it from the photo, but in real life it looks better . . .LoL

The Smile Award

Thank you Fawn for the sweetest compliments, she honored my blog with The Smile Award:

Of course there are the customary rules that go with the award.  The recipients must display the following characteristics:

1.  Must display a cheerful attitude (not necessarily at all times - we are all human after all).

2.  Must love one another.

3.  Must make mistakes.

4.  Must learn from others.

5.  Must be a positive contributor to blog world.

6.  Must love life.

7.  Must love kids or animals.

And furthermore . . . .you know there's always a catch!  Here are the rules for the award:

1. The recipient must link back to the awards creator (http://the babblingsofmere.blogspot.com).

2.  You must post these rule if you receive the award.

3.  You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself.

4.  You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere.

5.  You must post the characteristics of a recipient.

6.  You must create a post sharing your win with others.

7.  You must thank your giver.

I award these blogs:

Stacy of Six Gray Monkeys - inspired me to start a blog

Kendal of Buckley Blog - for her humor and creative posts

Jessica of Life with Jared & Jess - running with her blog from the moment she started

Desiree of The Lothyan Family - making life's trials a fun read

Cailean of Vite! Cachez-Vous! - for being real & making me laugh

Recipe Card

I am doing 3 different recipe cards for a swap (have to make 6 total) & this is one design:

I already had the girl colored on my computer from the project I did for my sister's kids Christmas Jammies.  So it was only a matter of layout.  I have to make 4 more now. . . 

Sea Foam Candy

I tried this recipe for Sea Foam - it's old fashioned chocolate covered candy - my mom loves it. I made it for Thanksgiving for her. She doesn't remember to read my blog - LoL - so I can post it here before she knows about it:

I used an 8x8 pan to pour it into so the candy would be thick:

It tastes super yummy - fun, fun! This was my first attempt and I'll definitely make this again.

RECIPE:

1 cup Sugar (I used Brown Sugar)

1 cup Dark Corn Syrup (I used Brown Sugar Corn Syrup)

1 tablespoon Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

Cook sugar, corn syrup and vinegar in heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Stop stirring and bring candy to boil and continue cooking without stirring until candy reaches hard-crack stage (300 to 310 degrees on candy thermometer), about 9-10 minutes. Do not overcook. Remove candy from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Pour into buttered 13- by 9-inch(I poured it in an 8x8 pan to get thicker pieces) baking pan but do not spread (candy wont fill pan). Let candy cool. Melt chocolate (I used 1 cup white chocolate chips & 1 cup semi-sweet) in top of double boiler over simmering water and set aside to cool. Break hardened candy into chunks and dip into melted chocolate. Place on wax paper until firm, about 30 minutes, or refrigerate. Store in airtight container.

. . . . and then Keaton was putting dishes away and 3 glasses fell and broke all over my candy on the counter =( I'm very, VeRy, VERY sad right now . . .

Vintage Card

I made a Vintage card and found awesome free graphics (from Karen) on the web:

I colorized them using burgundy and browns sepia technique.  It says 'May good fortune smile upon you'.  I am going to do a Vintage Christmas ATV (artist trading card) swap and I have to make 6.  That's doable =)  The truth about this card is I spent a lot of time downloading, sizing them, coloring and printing 8 sets out (I wanted a few extra and now I have 8 extra - haha) and then I read my swap a little closer - it was supposed to be Christmas themed - I'm a dork ;)

Bird Bath

Look what Fall did to my bird bath (of course I hadn't touched it in months and I could have chosen not to ignore its condition before this)

Rinsed:

Scrubbed & disinfected:

Painted:

I used this cool spray paint Rust Cap with a hammered finish - I love it again!

I put peanuts in it for the blue jays instead of water. I use shelled, stale (after they get that funny 'old' smell) peanuts - the unshelled ones leave a huge mess from the jays and squirrels. I have a 2nd bird bath, will try and paint that one too so the birds can have water again. The squirrels drink from it as well if I place the bird bath next to something they can climb on to reach it.

Sleepover Food

Brady & Keaton had a few friends stay the night, I made cinnamon rolls:

and strawberries with homemade chocolate ganache, cool whip and homemade granola:

And I wonder why the teenagers want to sleep over ;)  It's cause I feed them! 

Flooding

That's a lot of water!  I am always amazed at this process - how does that much water rise up over the roadway?  This happened before in 2006 and was worse because all roads were closed & Duvall was an island!

There was no school on Thursday & a 2 hour late start on Friday (no seminary those days either) this week and it decided to be clear & sunny at about 10 am - it was a beautiful day in November!  School was closed on Tuesday for Veteran's Day too - kids had a short (which really translates to GREAT) week ;)

More Work Upstairs

Window Seat progress - turned it over to Jonathan for trimming it out.  It was hurting my brain to make the cuts a certain way to fit all together ;)

Taped and mudded the 4th layer - just have to sand it down 1 last time (hopefully!):

Skylight built:

Jonathan was busy on Saturday while I was crafting......I guess I should continue helping out so we can get it done!  Sorry Baby =)

Card Candy

Miniaturized embellishment for greeting cards - these are all 1 1/2 to 2 inches big.  So cute - but perhaps too bulky?  This is my first swap for card candy, so I don't have the hang of it yet! 

I made 6 sets and will get back some sets in return.  Could be fun ;)  Way time consuming!!

Craft Box

I've seen square boxes on Splitcoast Stampers, so I used the basic idea but made my box from a 12x12 sheet of cardstock so it would fit the gift:

Nice & roomy! I used brads to hold the sides together:

This is for my friend Sarah who had her 5th baby and is having a shower tonight. No gifts were requested, so I am giving a few things for HER (anyway!). A Spa shower cap (she has really long, beautiful hair), Peach Juicie Lotion - smells awesome and some Caramel Delight lip stick.

Then I made a diaper bag card for baby Eddie:

I made an appetizer for the shower too, Jalapeno Poppers:

Super Yum!

We had some like these at a restaurant one time and I made my own concoction =)

Candlesticks

I bought these Shabby Chick candlesticks on Craigslist (surprise, surprise ;) haha

And I painted them & added beads, ribbon and spheres on top:

Took a long time and many coats of paint!

Can see the detail up closer. I used metallic paint and 2-toned a few decorative parts to accent them. Fun project =)

Greenhouse

Putting together our greenhouse - was not a very fun process (or short, we worked on it 4 1/2  hours):

The boys are super eager to help:

Sometimes we found ourselves just standing there holding up the greenhouse structure while Jonathan read the instructions.  Brady was thrilled to find a baby slug - out of boredom, we were excited enough to take a photo?  ;)  But then again, we've never seen one so tiny - we even said how cute it was (when is a slug ever cute?):

For some reason, Brady always looked at the camera when I snapped the shot, and Keaton posed in this one, but you can't see his expression through the window:

It was raining hard at this point - that's when I went inside - hehe  They stayed out there and ended up getting the bottom panels in, but not the door or window.  Good thing we've had a really warm fall, so my plants that need to get in the greenhouse will be okay for awhile longer =)

Christmas Jammie Tops

These names and graphics will be printed on iron-on paper for my sister's kids Christmas jammie tops (they'll be big enough to go across the chest) to go with the flannel bottoms she is having custom sewn:

I made matching gift labels for my sister to use - the kids won't realize they are seeing what's on their jammies until they open them for Christmas!

The black and white graphics started out like the one on the left, I had to 'cut out' each part that I wanted a different color in a computer application - time consuming, but I love graphics - so it's worth it!  I downloaded free fonts that I thought would go with each of their personalities and then customized the fonts with colors and outlines, etc.  I also colorized the graphics with each of their favorite colors.