Create a Critter Cricut Baby Shower Favor's

Create a Critter, Cricut cartridge. Gable box made from an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock. 

Married People Night Out! at River Ridge church

(The food table after the event)

I was tasked with decorating and cooking for the Married People Night Out events at our church with Kacie. This is the second event that we have done so far. I came up with an idea for the centerpieces for the 15 tables I had to decorate (and the small cafe tables in the food area). I didn't want to spend a lot of the church's money so I took a look around my house to see what I had a lot of. I had been collecting bottles to make a wine bottle chandelier but never got to it. And, I had bought around 60 framed mirrors from the Dollar Tree to make the Chippy Window Pane mirror from the Pottery Barn but never got to that either! So, I decided to prime and paint the 23 bottles in chalkboard paint and make easels out of the Dollar Tree mirrors. I went online searching for an easy cheap way to make the easels but couldn't find anything. I am posting here what I ended up doing to make the little easels for my church. (And the chalkboard bottles)

My idea board for the "LOVE" theme:

The "LOVE" sign I made out of silverware:

The smaller chalkboard bottles I made for the small cafe tables in the food table area:

I was so busy that night I never got a picture of the centerpieces on the big tables but someone had taken this and posted it to Facebook:

I had added these little metal bait cages (for fishing) to hold the chalk onto the larger bottles which were on the he larger tables in the sanctuary.They were there to write love notes on the bottles by the attendees ;) I had bought them at the 100 Yen store while living in Japan. You can buy them here: Metal bait cages

These are the Hobby Lobby Bottles:

Hobby Lobby Chalkboard Bottles

To make the Cheap and Easy Chalkboard Easels

You will need:

2 Dollar Tree 8x10 framed mirrors 

Spray Primer 

Chalkboard paint-for small jobs

Chalkboard Paint-for bigger jobs

Paint brush

Glue gun/ Glue sticks

Shims

Velcro straps

Stapler/staples

Card stock

Thegirlcreative free printable art

The next Married People Night Out event theme possibility...."Let Love Grow" Spring theme 

Peek at Idea board??

Lil David's 18th Birthday Party-Epic Meal time Mega Burger!

David with his "MegOreo" birthday cake:)

I baked 2 boxes of devils food cake mix in a 12" Wilton cake pan. When it was cooled I cut it in half horizontally to make a top and bottom. 

Directions:

2 pkgs. devil's food cake mix

2 pkgs. (4 oz.) semi-sweet baking chocolate

1/2 cup butter

2 pkgs. (8 oz.each) brick cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

4 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

24 OREO Cookies, coarsely crushed

Instructions

HEAT  oven to 350ºF.

PREPARE cake batter according to boxes and bake in a greased 12" round cake pan. Cool cake in pan 10 min. Invert onto a wire rack; gently remove pan. Cool cake completely. Cut cake in half horizontally. 

In a double boiler melt chocolate and butter. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in whipped topping and crushed cookies.

PLACE cake bottom on plate, spread with cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining top cake layer. Spread top with chocolate glaze; let stand 10 min. or until firm. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and toffe pieces. Keep refrigerated.

Our New Years Eve Dinner Menu

Garlic Prime Rib

Au Jus

Romano Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Corn and Crab Bisque

Asparagus

Winter fruit salad with Lemon poppyseed dressing

Crescent rolls

Molten Lava Cakes

Masquerade Sleepover Party

Easy Sweet Cornbread Recipe

My sister gave me this recipe from her step daughter. Super fast and easy to put together. It's very sweet but so yummy:) you can cut down on the sugar to your liking. I have posted this recipe to Pinterest.

-Sweet Cornbread- 

2 Boxes of Jiffy Cornbread 

1 Stick of Butter (melted) 

2 Eggs 

1 Cup of Sour Cream 

1 Can of Cream Corn 

1 Cup of Sugar  

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Melt Butter. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Thanksgiving 2014 Menu

-Drinks-

Sparkling Apple Cider

Hot Tea

Coffee

Hot Pumpkin Cider

-Appetizers-

Carmel Apple Cream Cheese Dip

Marinated Cheese

Gorgonzola Artichoke Bites

Variety of Crackers

-Main Course-

Fried Turkey

Giblet Gravy

Cornbread Stuffing

-Salad-

Roquefort Pear Salad

-Side Dishes-

Green Beans and Shallots

Carrots and Bacon

Streusel Sweet Potatoes

Potato Shitake Gratin

Cranberry Orange Relish

-Breads-

Homemade Crescent Rolls

Pumpkin Bread

Creamy Honey Butter

Apple Butter

Pear Butter

-Desserts-

Apple Pear Crumble Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Candy Apple Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Rolls

Pumpkin ooey gooey dessert

(We love pumpkin...can you tell?;)

"EAT" pennant framed chalkboard

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Joanna Gaines inspired chalkboard coffee bar:

I outlined the banner in the chalk marker so it will be semi permenant and the "Thankful" I used regular chalk. I can easily erase the chalk and write in something else. For Christmas I am having a cookie exchange and would like to change it to "Cookies For" and Santa underneath the banner. 

Chalkboard Coffee Bar

I was so inspired by HGTV's Fixer Upper, Joanna Gaines, when she made this coffee bar for a client. 

Episode 2, The Gatecrest Story:

http://magnoliahomes.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_6962x.jpg

I LOVE her style and her creative spirit! I am always looking at our AWESOME local Milton Flea Market and our Habitat for Humanity re-store site to find items to fix up, repurpose or just enjoy just the way it is! I was visiting the re-store in Charleston, West Virginia and found a 6' x 4 1/2' whiteboard for $40! I threw it in the back of my truck and brought it home and fixed it up! This is what it looked like:

I sanded it all down and primed it with a spray on primer that adheres to plastic.

I did another light sanding and wiped it down to get ready for the chalkboard paint.

This is what it looked like when I was finished painting:

I hung the very heavy chalkboard with 2 OOK hanging bars from the Home depot. They were around $14.00 a piece. Just one of them holds 200 pounds. I just felt better having 2 to hold it up because of it's length. It made it very stable. I made some floating shelves from barnwood I had bought from Bob our gracious neighbor who was getting rid of it all. 

I attached them to the chalkboard.

The fun part:) I loved the way Joanna did her chalk art so I free handed the art with a chalk marker from Michael's craft store.  The chalk marker gives a much crisper, whiter line. Love it! 

I decided to change her banner though. I just thought for what I want to use it for the banner I'm using would be nice to just change out the words. This is the banner idea I chose from an ornament my BFF showed me she bought for Christmas: 

It will say "Coffee Bar" until December 1st when I will turn it Into a "Hot Cocoa Bar".

More pics will be posted soon:)

I made these to look like hers out of a large branch I had in my yard and some smaller twigs that I hot glued yellow/rust color balls to the ends. I didn't think the green Moss she had used on hers would go with the colors I was using so I went to my garden stash and found some sphagnum moss and it worked great.

Thankful Banner

Halloween 2014