Happy Anniversary to Me!

Our 10th anniversary was Friday the 12th.  I had hoped to surprise Darren by getting into my wedding dress for the occasion.  I was 4lbs away from my goal, which was enough that the dress wouldn't zip.  It appears that I'm a completely different shape now too.  But with 5 children in my mommy trophy, that's nothing to be surprised about.  Finances helped us choose to be creative about our celebration.  My parents took our children overnight (except for the baby.)  Darren told me to clean up the kitchen and he would come back with something for dinner.  I surprised him by slipping into a formal my cousin gave me, setting the table with candles, stem ware and sparkling grape juice.  It was a great evening and I hope for many more!

Darren

Veil 

Wedding dress 

10th Anniversary 095

 

Cooking With Briana

My new Mary Kay friend, Briana, drove an hour through a snow storm to spend the day with us Tuesday.  I feel so honored!  Bri is a special gal, very cute and fun and on her way to the top with Mary Kay.  We made her an apron for her day of domesticity and by the end she was scrubbing my kitchen floor on her hands and knees so I could host a facial there in a few mintues.  Bri is a hard worker and a great friend.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day with her and hope we didn't shock her too much with the work, mess, and chaos a family like ours can pack into an afternoon :).  We made molasses cookie cutouts, and peanut butter reindeer cookies.  The kids ran in and out in the snow and we enjoyed homemade hot cocoa together. 

Cooking with Bri2 

Briana and Caleb cutout cookies

Cooking with Bri 

Heidi's special Christmas apron.  Peppermint stripe godets make the skirt swingy and a flannel lining makes it great for getting messy!

Blueberry Sweet Rolls

These would make a nice Christmas breakfast treat!  The girls on the Grocery Shrink group were so nice to help me find blueberry doughnut recipes for a special brunch last Saturday.  After all that, I decided sweet rolls would be less trouble.  This recipe is partly a Better Homes and Gardens Cinnamon Roll recipe with my own changes.  They are for a special Mary Kay training brunch tomorrow so I’ll have to let you know how they taste. If looks are any indication, they will be delicious!

Blueberry rolls 2

The dough recipe:

1 C milk

5T butter

1 T yeast

1/3 C sugar

3 eggs

1 t salt

5 cups flour (I used 2 Cups white and 3 cups whole wheat since this was for guests)

Combine milk and butter in a class measuring cup and microwave until butter is soft or melted (about 120 degrees.)  Pour mixture into an electric mixing bowl.  Add yeast and stir until softened.  Add rest of ingredients and stir until a soft dough forms.  Add more flour if necessary and knead for 8-10 minutes.  Let dough rise until double.

Combine 3/4 C sugar and 1/4 C flour.  Cut in 5T butter until you have coarse crumbs.  Fold in 1 C wild blueberries, thawed and drained (I got mine at COSTCO)

Divide dough into 2 balls.  Roll each ball into a 12 x 8 inch rectangle.  Spread half of the blueberry mixture on each rectangle.  Roll up lengthwise.  (Roll should be 12″ long.)  Use dental floss to cut into 1″ pieces.  Place in a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Let rise until double.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Frost with milk and powder sugar glaze.

P.S. They WERE delicious!

Peppermint Hair Clip Tutorial

In time for Christmas, is a sweet little tutorial for your little sweetie!

You wil need:  1 Alligator clip (mine was double.); 3" of 1.5 inch wide white grograin ribbon; 7.5" of 3/8 inch wide red grograin ribbon; a 2.25" circle cut from red and white stripe fabric; white thread; red embroidery floss, a candle, and a glue gun.

1.  Start by preparing your alligator clip.  Hot glue the 3/8" ribbon all the way around the clip.  Lining the inside also helps it to stay put in the hair.

Hair clip 7

2.  Fold the white ribbon in fourths lengthwise.  Clip both ends at an angle and seal the cut ends with a lit candle.

Hair clip 1 

3.  Using 3 strands of red embroidery floss, stitch a running stitch 7/8" from the end of the white ribbon.

Hair clip 3 

4.  Pull the stithes tight, gathering up the end.  Wrap your floss around 3 times and push the needle through the center to the back and tie a knot.

Hair clip 4 

5.  Repeat for the other side:

Hair clip 5 

6. Make a yo-yo from the circle by folding under 1/4" all the way around and stitching a long running stitch close to the edge.  Pull the stitches tight and knot.

Hair clip 6

7.  Glue the yo-yo inside the ribon wrapper and then glue your candy to the hairbow.  Enjoy!  These would make cute package toppers.

Hair clip 8

Still time for the giveaway

I have extended my giveaway to give time for everyone to get throught the long list at sew mama sew.  So keep those comments coming and I will draw a name tomorrow afternoon! Thanks for all the lovely things you've said :). 

Giveaway Day!

I have been dreaming of all the great posts I would put up, and you can see they aren't here.  I've been so happily busy being a Mommy!  We've called winter recess on school for the month of December and now we are playing all the educational games I couldn't find time for when we had to do"school".  This is definitely giving me new perspective on how to organize our educational day and I'm so happy for the break.  This morning we are going to the Nutcracker ballet–what fun!

GiveawayGrocery-shrinksm  

But I digress.  The point of this post is to announce giveaway day!  I've tossed back and fort  h on what to giveaway and finally decided on a free Grocery Shrink E-book and Lifetime membership.  If you already have one, you can choose any pattern from Blessed Designs.net! The following pictures are just a few of what we have to choose from.

Sweetblossom_finalBd2300_final Bd2100_final Bd2400_final

To enter, please write a comment to this post and include your e-mail address.  I will draw a name from all the comments and e-mail the winner to get your mailing address.