Tea for eight

Saturday, February 20th was the annual Tea fundraiser for Someplace Safe, which is a local organization for battered and abused woman. The local Fergus Falls chapter of AAUW, which I have been a member of for 6 years, sponsored a tea table for eight at the event. I volunteered to decorate our table along with fellow AAUW member, Jo Schmidt.
The theme we chose was Easter, which allowed both Jo and I to collaborate and decorate using items we each had. Jo had beautiful sterling silverware, stemware and napkins, along with a vintage paper-mache bunny. I had an Easter wreath given to me by Aunt Syrie as well as my beloved grandma Ruth's china which features a delicate rose pattern. A few bits of ribbon, pastel bunnies and fluffy yellow chicks and the table was complete.

But the finishing touch was provided by Kristi Hastings, our AAUW Fergus Falls chapter president... a little bouquet of roses, which each of the 8 table guests were able to take home.

There were many other marvelous table-scapes to admire. Each with their own unique themes and decor.
This table featured vintage wedding photos along with gorgeous china.

I loved the pop of black, pink and white at this table.

Doesn't it look divine?

This table was themed for Breast Cancer Awareness and looked spectacular!

I loved the addition of t-shirts to dress up the chairs.

This daisy table was so beautifully set.

Each guest's plate had a little flower and lemon lift tea.

The vibrant greens and splashes of color from bright gerbera daisies caught my eye on this table.

Look at these adorable little bird's nests at each setting! Too cute!

The event was so fun, especially since I had such wonderful table mates to visit with.

Including this little beauty.... only 2 months old.

And this precocious, 5 year old... so darling!

As well as entertainment sponsored by the Fergus Falls school of dance and a vintage fashion show.

All added up to a great event for a wonderful cause. Can't wait until next year's Tea!

The odd ball

Ever had that feeling of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Of just not fitting in? Being the odd ball? The third wheel? The odd man out? I am thinking my hibiscus plant, which recently sprouted forth a couple of large, vibrant orange & pink blooms has got to be feeling a bit like that.
The blooms are absolutely gorgeous, but look very out of place in the middle of February, in our snow packed MN environment in the dead of winter.
I wonder what possessed this plant to put forth its luscious, showy flowers, now of all times? Especially given the view it has looking out the patio window of the frozen tundra...

in the backyard and of the patio packed with several feet of snow??

Maybe it can be summed up as HOPE. Hope for Spring, just a few short months away. It sure brightens my day every time I see the beautiful, brilliant color, as odd and out of place as it is. And I thank God for this Blessing... this ray of hope.

Cupcake pops and other life lessons

There was a dual purpose to getting together with Lori & Heather on Saturday afternoon at my house.

1. We were going to make some Cupcake pops, just like Bakerella for Valentine's Day.
2. Heather and I wanted to try to comfort our dear friend, Lori, who is struggling with heavy sadness as the anniversary of her beloved mom's passing was fast approaching on Valentine's Day. It is so difficult to watch someone you care so much for suffer and the only thing we could think to do was to just be there...to listen... to share... to learn... and as it turns out to laugh.

The first step was to crumble up an entire 9x13 cake, which Heather had thoughtfully colored pink. We dug in with both hands and crumbled away. Lesson: Sometimes it is fun to break the rules.
But things got really, really messy once we added the tub of cream cheese frosting to the cake crumbles. The once pretty pink color turned more fleshy colored and reminded me of raw hamburger! Lori was completely grossed out by the texture and elected not to roll the resulting cake/frosting mixture into balls. Lesson: Three people can look at exactly the same thing and see something totally different.
We were able to shape the cake/frosting into 27 very, very sticky balls. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT mix the entire tub of frosting into the cake crumbles. The dough was way too sticky, I think 3/4 of a tub would have worked better. We popped these into the freezer for 15 minutes before moving on to the next stage for shaping. Lesson: Don't be afraid to NOT follow instructions exactly and improvise.

We thought that shaping the cake balls into mini cupcakes would be easy after chilling the dough, but we were wrong... it was still too sticky. After several attempts and gut wrenching laughter, we finally found a method that worked. First coat the mini-flower cookie cutter with spray Pam, then quickly smoosh the bottom part of the ball into it while shaping a dome over the top. This is a picture of an upside-down cupcake pop. Lesson: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.... laugh, make ridiculous wise-cracks and try some more.
After chilling the shaped cupcakes again, we moved on to adding melted chocolate to the bottom half (the cup). The first attempt to coat was difficult since the chocolate wasn't warmed enough and was very gloppy. We were so distracted with getting the chocolate thin enough to work with that we completely forgot to add the lollipop sticks BEFORE the chocolate hardened. We would later find out that this is an important step. Lesson: Sometimes it is necessary to follow instructions carefully. The trick is knowing which instructions to follow and which ones not to.
Resulting chocolate covered cupcake pop bottoms with lollipop stick added before the chocolate hardened. Once the chocolate was dry, we melted pink almond bark to coat the top of the pop.
Once the top was covered with pink almond bark, multi-colored sprinkles were added and the pièce de résistance was a little red hot on top. I can't tell you how excited we were to finally have one cake pop completed... after literally 2 hours! We were CHEERING!!! Lesson: The more effort you put into something, the sweeter success is!
Our joy was short lived, as we watched the top heavy cake-pop, slide down the lollipop pole, like a firefighter answering a 5 alarm fire. Luckily, we were able to repair the resulting hole with a versatile red-hot (a.k.a man-hole cover), but not before we crumpled into laughter resulting in tears leaking out our eyes and total confusion to Abby who happened to be nearby.

We decided not all of our cupcakes needed to be pops... they looked just as cute as little mini-cupcakes on their own. Keeping in mind that coating a dense cake/frosting ball with almond bark, will result in an object too heavy for a lollipop stick. Lesson: Height doesn't define how cute something is.

The resulting tray of pop-less cupcakes.

We are very proud of our pops because although they are imperfect, they are still wonderfully sweet and cute, just like their creators! :-) These two women mean so much to me. I love them dearly and am glad they allow me to be their sister-friend.

"We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails." That defines the approach we took that afternoon and the ultimate life lesson.

Steve, Abby & Angelique thought the cupcakes were delicious.

Although, if I ever attempt to make these again, I MUST.HAVE my sister-chicks with me to help me navigate through this laborious process.

Lori's blog on our experience can be found here. Heather's version can be read here.

{Heart} Creations

The girls had a snow day on Monday, Feb 8th, so I spontaneously decided to take a snow day with them. I haven't had a snow day since I was in high school... I won't say how long ago that was 'cause that makes me feel OLD.

I asked he girls if they wanted to help me with a Valentine project, but to do it, I would have to ruin their Valentine surprise. They quickly agreed... only because they knew they got their Valentines early.

Kippy and I did some looking on-line for some Valentine hair-dos. She chose something that wasn't too hard and I managed to braid a heart into her hair. She was happy with the results and that is all that matters.
In case you have the misconception that my girls cooperate whenever I want to take their pictures, trust me... it isn't true. They are generally AGAINST taking pictures together and tend to do alot of crabbing and fussing, which is why I was not able to do a photo shoot for this past Christmas. Monday was different. I think the snow day set the tone and they were in good moods. They put on their early Valentine Day surprises (a new shirt for Abby and sweatshirt for Kippy, plus heart socks) and let me have some photo fun.

I picnik'ed a collage of some of my favorites along with a little quote "My whole heart for my whole life". Next we moved on to making something out of this.

I created a couple different sizes of the collage via Photoshop Elements to be able to print multiple copies on a 8x10 and 5x7 print. I downloaded to Walgreens and had the prints completed within a couple of hours because my home printer just doesn't have the quality I wanted for this.

I borrowed inspiration from my fabulous girlfriend, Lori, and used some scrap 2x6 that was cut into a square block 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" size. I found some coordinating scrapbook paper and my trusty matte Mod Podge glue.
I did some quick tracing of the sides and back of the block on the back of my scrapbook paper.

I cut out the paper shapes (nothing real precise) and used a very light coat of Mod Podge to adhere to the wooden block, smoothing the bubbles out with a credit card. I then sanded the edges to give it an over all distressed look. {NOTE: Distressing: is the best camouflage for imperfections and I highly recommend it}

Once the paper was glued to all sides and sanded, I added a little distressing ink around the edges and tied on a grosgrain ribbon and a heart embellishment.
The collage picture was sized to exactly 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 and Mod Podged to the front of the block just like the scrapbook paper and walla... done!

I got another block of 6x2 wood to make just one more {heart} creation. This time, I sized the collage photo down to 5"x5" so more of the wood would show. I used some black acrylic paint and painted the entire block of wood.

Then I sanded the edges of the block... love the distressed/imperfect texture... and again the camouflage.
I put Mod Podge on the front of the block to adhere the photo collage and then put another thin coat over the photo. I ended up putting two thin coats over the picture. Don't know why, two coats just felt right.

Then I drilled two holes into the top of the block and stuck some wire that I had twisted around a pliers. I printed out some "daddy" friendly Valentine quotes, glued them on some scrapbook paper and stuck them in the wire twists. "A Daughter my outgrow your lap, but never your heart." & "The greatest gift I ever had came from God; I call him Dad!"

I had the girls write a little something on the back and bada bing, bada boom... a {heart} creation for their dad is done. Abby wrote, "I knew from the start that you had my heart! A girl's first love is her Dad. I love you! Happy Valentine's Day." Kippy wrote, "I love you Dad. Happy Valentines Day! Daddy, you are the best. I love you with my all my hart." Should look nice on his desk at work, don't you think?

Treadmill Inspiration

I have spent a lot of time on my treadmill over the years. In fact, I am getting very close to 900 miles. Woo Hoo!! I have to admit logging those miles hasn't always been a big thrill for me since I much prefer running outside, however snow and ice aren't my thing, so I am forced indoors about 4 months out of the year.

I have tried a lot of different things to make the treadmill more interesting. Steve bought me remote headphones to make watching TV possible w/o blasting the TV volume up so high I risked damaging the kids' hearing. I have put together various playlists to listen to on my ipod. I have also tried reading, but can't master that while running, only if I am walking.

Two weeks ago, I found my ultimate treadmill motivation....


Can you guess what it is?



I'll give you a hint... I used something "old" in a "new" way.



Give up??....



It's my ipod, but used in a new way!

I had never done this before, but I purchased my motivation on iTunes. I got Season 1 of the Showtime series called The Tudor's. It is fabulous-ness on a tiny, tiny 2" x 1.5" screen!!! I have watched Seasons 2 and 3, but I missed the first season. I love this scandalous historical fiction based on Henry VIII. I only allowed myself to watch it while running, so 10 episodes later, I have put in 30 miles on the treadmill!

It helps that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is totally HOT. The final 4th season begins in April, so now I just need to figure out what I can get on iTunes to inspire and motivate me for the next two months, until this snow melts. Any suggestions?

All I Need to Know about Life I Learned From a Snowman

**I am borrowing this one as a tribute to my love of Snowpeople**

It’s okay if you’re a little bottom heavy.

Hold your ground, even when the heat is on.

Wearing white is always appropriate.

Winter is the best of the four seasons.

It takes a few extra rolls to make a good midsection.

There’s nothing better than a foul weather friend.

The key to life is to be a jolly, happy soul.

It’s not the size of the carrot, but the placement that counts.

We’re all made up of mostly water.

You know you’ve made it when they write a song about you.

Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize!

Avoid yellow snow.

Don’t get too much sun.

It’s embarrassing when you can’t look down and see your feet.

It’s fun to hang out in your front yard.

Always put your best foot forward.

There’s no stopping you once you’re on a roll.