Happy Easter!

Ha ha...as I was putting up my Christmas posts, I noticed I never posted this one from Easter that was sitting in my blog list.  oops!

So...anyway.  Happy Easter from Buffalo!

Our power went out half way through cooking Easter dinner this year, so we had to get creative.  We cooked the rolls in a warm bbq outside, and the rest of the food on a camping stove in the kitchen.

It all turned out delicious, and I was glad to know that in a pinch, we could still have a hot dinner!

Preschool Program

In December, Linsey and I did a craft show at the elementary school.  It wasn't as busy as they thought it would be, but we sold some stuff and had a fun time.

Our table was packed about as full as it could get.

Stephen (green tie) and his choir performed a few songs for the shoppers too.

Before Christmas, Berkeley's preschool had a super cute program!  Her teacher pulls out all the stops and does an amazing job!  The kids worked so hard all month to get everything ready for the big show.

They each made a cute candy house to display.

There were a lot of fun decorations to take home afterward too!

And I thought these table centerpieces were adorable.

The kids performed almost 10 songs and did a great job on all of them!

They even used props for most of the songs.  It was really awesome!

And, they even had a special visitor stop by at the end.  The kids were all pretty excited about that.

Our ward had a Pancakes with Santa breakfast.  We all got to say hi to Santa and eat some yummy  breakfast with a lot of fun people!

Thanksgiving Fun

Living close to home again means we get to spend a lot of time with all of our family.  We love it!  It does, however, make for some pretty long days at holiday time.

For Thanksgiving, we had lunch and pie at one house, snacks and hanging out at another, and dinner and more pie at a third.  It was long, but we loved all of it!  It is so nice to be home and have most of our family so close by instead of a couple thousand miles away.

There is always a lot of yummy pies at every house, so I thought I would do a different dessert too.  So instead of making pie, I made something easy for little guys and girls to get and eat without making much mess.  The kids helped me pick, and we decided on owl cake pops.  I don't always have good luck with cake pops though, so we did big marshmallows. 

We stuck chocolate chips to the top for ears, then dipped them a few times in different candy melts and stuck on some candy eyes and sprinkle beaks.  They were gone quickly, so I think they were a success!

This was the kids' table at my Mom's house.  I thought it was really cute.

The kids all thought they were pretty fancy with their china plates and crystal goblets (all from the thrift store!).

The adult table was pretty nice too, but I really liked the kids table!

We had such a fun Thanksgiving!  We were moving around, visiting, driving, eating and playing so much that I forgot to take any pictures of anybody...Oh well, maybe next year.

Sweet Home Craft Show

I did a craft show at Sweet Home High School on Saturday with my friend Kait.  It was so much fun!  Stephen even came and helped for the last few hours.  I had a lot of people ask if I had all my items online for purchase.  They are now!  I have updated my inventory and it is all under the store tab at the top of this page. Thanks for the great weekend!

Vintage Suitcase Redo

I found some old suitcases at the thrift store last year that were half off and I couldn't pass them by.  They were nothing special, but for $1 and less, how could I not buy them?!  

The sides of one was a little scratched, but other than that, they were all in pretty good shape.  I liked the color of them too.  This medium grey matches with a lot of the fabrics I already have, and the white stitching around the band was a cute accent.

I recovered them all with a pretty easy process.  I cut some fabric a little larger than the case's top and bottom, then used Mod Podge to stick it on.  I put another coat on top of the fabric also.  I used a little butter knife to stick the edges under the band and let it dry over night.  The Mod Podge made it a bit scratchy, so I smoothed it lightly with sand paper.

I was going to recover the inside too, but these were in really good condition inside as well.  I might end up doing it later anyway, but for now, this will do.

Right now I use these mostly for sewing storage.  I also take them with me to craft shows.  I can fit most of my inventory in them, then I can also use them for displaying all my stuff.

They certainly aren't perfect, but not bad for a fist try I think.

Valentines

Most years for Valentine's Day, my kids want to go to the store and pick out which ones they want to give their friends at school.  This year however, they all wanted ones that I couldn't find...anywhere!  So we looked online and found some that they were each okay with.  

Berkeley had four days where she was doing valentine exchanges- yes four!  The first one we skipped out on, but the other three she really wanted to bring something.  

For school, we went with some crazy straws.  I got them in the party favor section at Walmart, but saw some after at Target that were a little shorter and would have fit better in the bags.  The straws were cheap, and so were the bags.  I used pretzel bags from Wilton that I found in the cake decorating section.  

I printed some tags and just stapled them on.

We went to our annual Cafe Rio Valentine's party with our playgroup, which was awesome!  Tanner's contribution was little cups of fishy crackers.  I thought the little containers were a perfect size for a snack.

Berkeley brought skittles butterflies for playgroup.  We didn't have time to finish them.  They were supposed to have eyes and cute paper on the bodies too.  Oh well...

 Stephen wanted Pokemon valentines, but we couldn't find any, so we made some little ones.  He put them in bags with hearts and a Pokemon card.

Brady liked some whistle valentines we saw online, but these horns were too cute to pass up.  He has a really small kindergarten class, there are only 15 kids, so we could do a little more for his valentines since I didn't have to make as many.

We still have to make some for Berkeley's dance class, but other than that, I think we are finally done!  

Tuesday we had a recognition night for the Activity Day girls at church.  I made 72 cupcakes, and forgot to take pictures before they were all eaten.  I managed to salvage a few to bring home, and this was the only one that made it long enough to take a picture.  There were six different kinds: lemon poppy seed with blueberry yogurt frosting, vanilla with vanilla frosting, chocolate with cookies and cream oreo frosting, chocolate with caramel toffee frosting with almonds, triple chocolate, and this one was chocolate with dark cherry frosting.  It was a good night, the girls did a great job! They all showed their talents and crafts that they have made.

Tiny Pies

So...I love tiny things.  For some reason, they just make me smile.  Tiny jars, tiny sandwiches, tiny ice cream treats, tiny shoes, tiny anything really!  So when I was making pie the other day, I thought "why not make tiny pies too"! I love pie, but don't always want a whole one.  Sometimes I do, but not always.  So this is what I came up with.

Berkeley helped me make some easy pie dough, and we mixed up some fillings.  I didn't have a lot of one kind of fruit, so we did three different kinds.  We mixed the dry ingredients for the filling, and separated it into three bowls.  Then we added the fruits- blueberries, peaches, and apples.

I made small dough balls and flattened them out to about 5" circles.  Then I just put a spoonful of filling in the middle and added another circle of dough on the top.  You pinch the edges together, and kind of squish them in to make the circle a little smaller and puff up the top a little.  Cut slits in the top, or vent by cutting the top layer with a small cookie cutter.  On some of them, I brushed the top with a beaten egg to make them golden and shiny.  I sprinkled all of them with some sugar crystals before baking them.

I had some dough and filling left, but didn't want to wait for the pans to be empty, so I did some in my muffin tins too.  They were some of my favorites.  They are just so tiny and cute!  Those ones didn't need a top piece of crust, just make the circle a little bigger and then fold it over the filling.

I gave some away and froze some too so I wouldn't eat them all.  It's been hard to resist such tiny, cute little things that taste so good, but I am trying.