On The Wall

I've been meaning to show you guys a couple of things I got for Christmas.  I just recently got around to hang them up on the walls and I love the way they look, so why not share?? First, on the fridge, is this calendar that Santa brought.

Sure, it doesn't look like much in that picture, but let me tell you - this is better than just a regular ol' calendar.  For starters, it's a 17 month calendar so you don't have to throw it away after just a year.  It comes with a magnetic strip and a hook for easy hangup wherever you want to put it.  It has a large grid so you have plenty of room to write in things and a little pocket at the bottom where you can stick notes or a pen or whatever.  And - my favorite part - it comes with 196 stickers.  Who doesn't love stickers??  It's called a Plan-It Calendar and there's a version designed specifically for moms, so if you like to stay organized, you should check it out!

New to my dining room is this church painting done by my sister-in-law, Beth.

I picked out the picture below and asked if I could commission her to paint something similar to it for me.

Didn't she do an awesome job?!  Of course I love the version that she painted much better (it looks so much neater!), and I LOVE the way it looks hanging in my dining room.  I have several blue pieces of pottery in our hutch and the colors in the painting seem to just tie everything together.  Thanks, Beth!

And last but not least, is a picture frame collage I received from my mom.  You may remember it from my Christmas Wish List.  This took me the longest to get hung because I needed Doc's help with the anchors, and because I had to pick out and order pictures.

It's hanging in the hallway that leads to our half bath downstairs, and I love the way it looks there.  I debated between full color pictures versus black and white, and so far I'm pleased with my black and white decision.

Sorry it took me so long to share these!  I'll be back soon with another wall that I need your help with...

Bunco Night

Last Monday night I hosted my bunco group at our house.  We try to play on the last Monday of every month, and oh do I look forward to this girls' night every month! Even though I had the month of January, I decided it was close enough to Valentine's Day to go with a heart theme.  I used my red and white dishes.

The dining table was decorated with a new table runner I made, heart-shaped bowls of candy, and the felted flowers I made.

The kitchen table held the money pot.

As my guests arrived, I had heart-shaped chips and dip for them to munch on.

For the main course, we had soup, salad, and breadsticks a la Olive Garden.  I cheated and purchased the salad and breadsticks from the restaurant, but I found the recipe for their Pasta e Fagioli online and Doc helped me make it (ok, really he did it).  The recipe is pretty comparable to theirs in the restaurant, the only difference is that mine had heart-shaped noodles.

Throughout the evening, anyone that rolled a "big bunco" (three sixes) got the honor of wearing the heart headband.

Laura got it first:

She passed it on to Megan...

...but then Kendra stole it from her.

I'm pretty sure there were a lot more "big buncos" because I heard lots of hoopin' and hollarin' but I was busy in the kitchen getting dessert ready.

Dessert = chocolate croissants on top of a chocolate syrup heart, with a strawberry and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.  Yummy!

I sent the girls home with (hopefully) full bellies and a lucky few also had full pocketbooks.  The countdown's on til next Month's bunco night!

DIY Heart-Shaped Chips

We're just a couple weeks away from Valentine's Day so it's time to start thinking about hearts!  For my bunco group that I hosted this week, I decided to make heart-shaped chips to go with the dip I made.  They got great reviews, and were really easy to make! All you need is corn tortillas (must be corn, NOT flour!) and some cooking oil and salt.  I purchased two different sized heart cookie cutters from JoAnn's and they easily cut through the tortillas.

I tried to arrange the hearts to look cute for this picture. :)

While I was cutting out the hearts, Doc was out on the patio heating the grease in our Fry Daddy.  If you don't have a Fry Daddy, these can be made in a skillet on the stove but your house may smell afterwards.

Once the oil gets good and hot, just drop the tortillas in.  They should float (if they sink your oil is not hot enough) and bubble up.

You may want to flip them over at least once while they're in there.

There's no exact amount of time to cook them, it just depends on how crispy you want them.  You may need to test a few before you start dropping a lot in.

When they're done, lay them out on paper towels so the oil drains off and they dry off.  We sprinkle ours with salt but that's completely optional (but really you should put the salt on, it makes them so tasty).

And that's how you make heart-shaped chips!

Now you know how to make them with plenty of time to prepare for Valentine's Day.  These would be great at a party or stuck in your child's lunch box.  We store ours in a big ziplock bag and they always last at least a week.

Enjoy!

DIY Felt Flowers

[gallery link="file"] Like my new felt flowers?  Would you like to make some yourself?

I'm here to show you how!

Step One:  Purchase 100% wool yarn.  You can pick any color you'd like but it MUST be 100% wool.

Step Two:  Roll yarn into tight balls.  Make the balls the size you'd like your flowers to be.

Step Three:  Securely tuck the ends of the yarn into the ball.  Make sure they can not get out.  Trust me, I had several unravel and it was a pain to roll them back up.  Tuck the ends tight!

Step Four:  Place balls of yarn in a pot of water with just a little bit of soap in it.  Bring pot of water to a boil and let the balls soak for 45 minutes to an hour.  Do not mix colors as the yarn may bleed.  Occasionally stir the pot and squeeze the balls with tongs to agitate the wool.

Step Five:  Throw the balls of yarn into the dryer and turn it on high heat.  Let the dryer run a full cycle.

Step Six (Optional):  Repeat steps four and five.  I did this because I didn't think the balls looked felted enough, probably because they kept coming unraveled.  After the second time, they looked great.

Step Seven:  Remove from dryer.  My dryer turned red but it was easy to clean up.  I soaked a towel and threw it in the dryer - it cleaned it right up.

Step Eight:  Add stems to your felted flowers.  I used wire stems from JoAnn's, but you could use the stem from a fake flower.  Just pull off the existing flower and stick the wire through the ball.

Step Nine:  Arrange your colors and stick your new flowers in a vase.  I added rice to my vase so it wouldn't look empty.

That's it!  Less than ten steps - super easy.  I made these as table decorations for hosting bunco, but I love them so much I think they may find a permanent spot somewhere in our house.  I think they'd look great sitting on a desk, too - maybe as a gift to your kid's teacher?  Who wouldn't love a vase full of cute flowers, especially ones that won't every die?

You may have noticed...

...that things look a little different around here.  Don't worry, my favorite IT guy is on the case.  Apparently if you don't renew your subscriptions with Wordpress, they'll just magically take away all of your formatting and layout in the middle of the night.  No warning or anything!

That's ok, though, because we're going to be migrating to a new site soon.  And by "we" I mean my IT guy.  I'll just do what he tells me to do.  You guys just keep reading and bear (bare? behr?) with me and the blah layout while we make the changes.