Happy Happy Birthday

I really need to get caught up on a few things  because it has been busy around here!  Since I may or may not have some OCD tendencies, I will start from the very beginning. A very good place to start. 

After we wrapped up birthday and anniversary celebrations  at our house, we moved on to celebrate with some of our friends.

Here are the pictures from the surprise 80th birthday we helped out with. Special thanks to my mother for making the mini pies.  She is the best!

Best cheese spread ever.  Maybe Laura will share the recipe with us :)

Another one of Laura's famous recipes. Harvest Munch.

 

We wrapped October up with a Reformation Celebration at ULC in Boulder.  It is always good  to see Pastor Burhop and feed the students there.  

 

 Maybe before the week is over  I will be up to date.  I still have another million things to put up here. Stay tuned...

Blah blah blah

I am definitely a list making person.  I can't function without one.  Sometimes they are just in my head and sometimes they make it to paper. 

Primarily my lists are for groceries, chores, things I need to do or things I need to take somewhere. 

Today is November 1st and it looks like people are taking each day this month to write something they are thankful for.  I think that is a lovely idea. 

I also wonder why we wait for special occasions to be thankful.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how truly blessed I am.  I have a wonderful family.  Sisters, parents, in-laws, I really think they are all the best.  I have a great husband and three beautiful girls.   I have an incredible church family and some really, really, really great friends.  I am thankful for my Lutheran heritage and my assurance of eternal life with all of these people I am so thankful for.

I think it's great to be thankful.  I just don't think I could fit all  my thankfulness in to a thing a day for a month.

That's just me.

A title is helpful :) Texas Fun

A few weeks ago, ok, really a month ago, I got to spend a few days in Texas with an incredible group of gals.  And my sisters. While my dear friend Laura watched my children.  What more could I ask for? :)

We had a lovely time shopping, eating, drinking, and most of all talking.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that pretty much sum up our time in Fredericksburg. 

If you want to see all the pictures and read what everyone else had to say about our trip, check them all out here. I highly recommend it.  These are some talented photographers and writers right here! 

Jan at Just Imagine Heaven

Heather at Last Day Ago  and also at Lark and Lola

Edie at Life in Grace

Adriane at Stet

Gretchen at Minority Opinions

DeAnn at Because I Said So

And Lauren.  Private blogger extraordinaire:)


Next blog post up should included all the birthday nonsense at our house this past week!

Friends + Cookies= One great party

I made some cookies for an ice cream themed birthday party a little while back.  They turned out just as cute as could be, as did the entire party! 

Check out the party and my friend Heather's blog  over at Lark and Lola.

Lombardi Chicken. Don't let the name decieve you .

I am not from Wisconsin.  I am not a Packers fan. Just want to get that out of the way right off the bat.

Last week I took meals to a few people from church.  For some reason, I had a hard time coming up with what to make.  I seem to be in somewhat of a rut lately when it comes to meal planning so I just stuck with a couple of old favorites. 

This recipe was featured in a little cook book called Hometown Cooking from June of 2001.  (I went way back with this one.)  It was published by Better Homes and Gardens and I don't think they publish it anymore.  It was such a fun little book that featured Midwestern towns and recipes from local residents. 

This particular recipe was from Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  Cedarburg is home to some wonderful stores like Amy's Candy Kitchen, home of the best caramel apple EVER as well as Downtown Dough where you can purchase cookie dough,cookie decorating accessories,  and every cookie cutter known to man. I hear there is Pyrex there too.

So out of all that also comes this great chicken dish that your family will love.
Here it is, copied and pasted straight from the internet so I didn't have to retype it.

Lombardi Chicken
from Hometown Cooking magazine. It originated from a cookbook in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. This is a keeper. This recipe pays homage to Vince Lombardi; coach for the Green Bay Packers

2 lbs skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves
5 T. flour
6 T. butter, divided
2 c. fresh sliced mushrooms
1 c. dry Marsala wine
2/3 c. chicken broth
2/3 c. shredded mozzarella or fontina cheese
2/3 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions


Cut each breast half in half lengthwise. Place each piece between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound with the flat side of a meat mallet until 1/4 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap. Coat chicken lightly with flour.

In a 12 inch skillet, melt 1 T. of the butter or margarine over low heat and add half of the chicken pieces. Cook for two minutes on each side. Transfer to a 2 qt. rect. baking dish. Repeat with another tablespoon of butter and the remaining pieces of chicken. Add chicken to dish.

Melt the remaining butter in the skillet. Add mushrooms. Cook and stir until tender; add wine, broth, and dash each of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; boil gently until mixture is reduced to one cup (about 5 minutes). Pour over the chicken.

Combine two cheeses and green onions and sprinkle over the chicken. Bake, uncovered, in a 375 degree
oven for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Makes 8 servings.

Help wanted. Or help needed is more like it.

Free cute printable here! Courtesy of www.overthebigmoon.com

I have been scouring the internet for the best way to organize my family photos.  After returning home from vacation with hundreds of new pictures to file, I am hoping to find a organizing method that I can use from here on out.

My biggest problem is that I have an interesting assortment of things that need to be organized.  I have photos of my grandparents, I have a few of our parents, I have some baby pictures of both Scott and me.  I have high school pictures, I have college pictures and then I have pictures of all our college friends that got married. I have our wedding pictures and our life together ever since then.  You know, two apartments, two homes and three cute little girls later, all those pictures.

Fortunately, I have some of these pictures organized by month and year or by event.  So I guess what my main goal is in all of this is to have these pictures organized AND accessible!  And from what I read, having a goal is the best place to start!



Here are a few ideas I have come across that I like so far.

Cherry at Pursuing Heart

Jen at IHeart Organizing always has good stuff.

This one is great too.

Anyone have any great photo organizing tips they want to share with me? 
(Not you Mom:) I will come help you when I am done) 

Summer Vacation

I know, it appears as if I am on a permanent vacation from blogging. 

I am not a writer.  I got a D in English in high school.  I can write some wonderful posts in my head but they never come out quite as nice when I sit down at the computer. Needless to say, this blog suffers from my inability to write and I am working on improving my  blogging frequency.  Just don’t hold your breath waiting. Please.  I would like you all to be around a while longer.

July was a busy month for us.  We took a 2 1/2 week trip to the Midwest and have now returned home just in time to get ready for school to start.  Our trip was wonderful.  We got to see all my family and spent hours playing, exploring and laughing. 

Here are a few highlights from our trip. 

 

Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and back to Colorado.  Whew!  

How is your summer so far?  Can you believe it is August already?

Eat, Drink and Be Married!

While my favorite part of Briee and Ryan's day was the actual ceremony, the reception wasn't too bad either. 

We actually didn't do any decorating at the church.  There were two vases of fresh hydrangeas in blue and green on the flower stands. The paraments remained white and that was an added bonus.  The ceremony was beautiful and Lutheran and there was confession and absolution and some wonderful hymns and it really was all good.

The reception was where we got to continue the paper goods and they all turned out splendidly.  The room came together so nicely and best of all, the guests had a great time of eating, drinking an dancing. Just like the bride and groom wanted!

Flowers for Men

The men in this wedding fared pretty well too! 

Each of the guys wore a hand made paper boutineer. It consisted of a book page rolled flower with a leaf back and a very small tree branch stem.  You would think that the smaller the simpler but not so!  Laura did all the flowers for the guys and they turned out great.  They were a bit challenging with the way they had to be rolled and rerolled and hot glued.  I am surprised Laura's fingertips are still in tact!

The groom's flower was definitely my favorite.

The best part about this picture was me holding this up and Kathy telling me to stop moving my arm around so she could get a good picture!  She is quite the amazing photographer!

Look closely and see the hot glue :)

The Bride's Bouquet

I found the page out of the Knot with the picture of the paper bouquet that Briee loved.  I don't have a picture of that particular creation but I did find the web site of the lady who made it.  She is an amazing and talented artist and I didn't see anything that she has made that I didn't like!

Her name is Eloise Corr Danch and you can check out her web site here.

Since that feature in the bridal magazine The Knot, paper flowers and bouquets have been popping up everywhere!  A search on Etsy for paper flowers produced 76,311 results.  There is everything from book pages to tissue paper to scrapbook paper and sheet music. 

For Briee's flowers we used several different papers. 

     Double sided scrapbook paper
     Book pages
     Sheet music

We stuck with primarily white  flowers and added green in the leaves and blue and green in the smaller filler flowers and trailing curls.  

I love this picture of her bouquet!

We also incorporated tulle and some small beads and beaded flowers from her mother's and her grandmother's wedding veils.  It was the most lovely personal touch to add. 

We used a standard plastic and foam bouquet base. It was a good size and lightweight too. 

All of the paper was found at Hobby Lobby, Joanns and Michaels.  Oh, and some vintage books and music  from our favorite thrift stores!  The flowers were cut using Laura's Cricut.  We experimented until we found the shape and size that worked best and  then cut all of each flower we needed at once.  We tried to make notes about which flowers were what sizes and how many  but our notes were either illegible or misplaced :)

I did also make some of the origami  flowers that you can find directions for online.  That is the only origami I will ever be able to do and I had to read the directions for each and every flower! Have I ever mentioned I am not so good with reading AND following directions?

When we had plenty of variety of flowers, (I think we used about 5 different ones)  we just started sticking them in the base and moving them around until they looked good. I wish I would have kept track of how long this all took us.  I know there were at least two days of me holding the bouquet and Laura moving and squishing flowers until they were going the direction she liked!  We covered the handle and the back very last and tried to stick the little curls in right where we wanted them when it was all done.

This was most definitely a team effort.  She would tell you that I made the bouquet but don't be fooled!  She cut, I assembled and together we came up with one of the most beautiful paper creations I have ever made.    Then we did it all over again for the bridesmaids.

Tomorrow's post, boutineers. I will give the guys a turn.

Wedding Wrap Up - Paper Style

May 18th, 2012 has come and gone and while the wonderful memories of the day are still fresh in my mind, here are a few pictures of what we have been up to for the past year and a half.  

All photography by Kathryn Dokter.  Special thanks to her for taking all these pictures and capturing every detail just as I had hoped!

Everything that could be made out of paper was!  

The bride fell in love with a paper flower bouquet and they rest, as they say, is history. 

More details and sources to come as the week goes on. 

 (It may take me a week to remember it all :)

 Congratulations again Briee and Ryan!

Rhubarb 150 Ways

Ok, not really, but if you have rhubarb, you know that you always end up with way more than you know what to do with! 

Here is my very favorite rhubarb dessert. Unlike my Dad, I don't consider eating bowls full of strawberry rhubarb jelly a dessert. This one came from my mother and I remember her making it often at the beginning of every summer.  You won't be disappointed with it, I promise!

Rhubarb Cherry Crunch

4 cups diced fresh rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup water
1 can cherry pie filling
5 drops red food coloring (I never add this)
1 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 sifted flour
pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omit these)

Place rhubarb in 11 x 7x 1 1/2 inch baking dish.  Combine sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Gradually stir in water.  Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until thick.  Stir in pie filling and almond extract.  Pour over rhubarb. 

Combine oats, brown sugar, flour, salt and butter.  Mix until crumbly.  Sprinkle over fruit mixture. 

Bake in moderate oven, 350, for 45 minutes until golden brown and rhubarb  is tender. 

Makes 6-8 servings.

 
I have added several new recipes to the rhubarb section of my cook book over the years so if you need more ideas of what to make, just let me know.