Forget the Winter Weather with Fresh Flowers!

                                                                                        

Don't you just love how happy fresh flowers make you feel?  You don't have to spend a lot of money to have pretty flower arrangements.  I am going to show you how to make several simple arrangements for about $15 or less.  Start by going to your local craft store and buying some floral foam.  You want to get the kind for wet arrangements, if your not sure which one to buy ask the store clerk.  


On your way home stop at the grocery store and pick out some pretty, bright colored flowers.  Gently press on the top of the flowers and see if they feel firm, this is how you tell if they are fresh.  If they feel soft and wilty, keep looking, they won't last very long.  If you want roses squeeze the base of the bloom between your thumb and finger and see if it feels firm, if it is mushy don't buy itdz.  I picked miniature carnations in pink and red and white daisies.  


When you get home you want to "work" your flowers and put them in water so they can get a good drink. What I mean by "work" is to put your flowers in slightly warm water, with the floral preservative that came with your flowers. This does not mean hot nor does it mean cold, if you shock your flowers they will die sooner than if you care for them properly.  Remove all leaves that will be below the waterline, because these leaves cause bacteria to grow in the water.  Now, cut your stems off at least 2 inches at a 45 degree angle so the stem can take in more water.  Ideally roses should be cut under water, to do this you would fill a container with water and put the stem down in the water before you cut it so air does not get trapped in the stem.  Mums and daisies have a woody stem, so after you cut the stem take the handle of your scissors and lightly hammer on the end of the stem to crush it for a total of 1" on the end.

Now that your flowers are in water take a walk around your house and decide what you want to put your flowers in.  It doesn't have to be a traditional vase or floral container.  I started out with  a prep bowl from my kitchen for this small arrangement.   It might be hard to tell because I have it sitting on a glass pedestal.  


Once you find your container cut your foam to fit snugly.  Then soak the foam in the water with the floral additive.  I have my arrangement on the pedestal because I have a glass dome that I want to put over the arrangement and I want to make sure it will fit.  


When making an arrangement you want to establish your height and width first.

If you will look closely at the picture on the right you will see where the carnation splits, I am going to use the bloom on the left and cut it just above the "Y", leaving the other bloom on the stem for a larger arrangement I will make later.  I will do the same thing with the daisies, leaving the longer stems for another arrangement.  Don't forget to use the smaller blooms, they are great for filling in.  Continue to fill in with flowers, turning your arrangement as you go to make sure it is not lopsided.  













Because I was trying to save money I didn't buy any greenery at the store.  Instead I am going to go out in my yard and cut what I have.  I know it is January, but you can always find something.  For example, look at my holly!!  It is waiting for Spring to get trimmed, so that is an option, but I also have ivy in my backyard that I want to use.

Once you get your flowers in place, fill in with the greenery.  Make
sure you cover up your foam with the greenery.  Sorry, I thought at the time I was taking a lot of pictures of the arrangement in the "process", but apparently not!!  So here are my finished products.  I bought 3 bunches of flowers for $12 and was able to make two arrangements and 4 bud vases.  If you will look closely you will notice that one of the "vases" is actually a Starbucks bottle that I removed the labels off of.  

So, go brighten up your day or someone else's with some beautiful flowers.  Don't be afraid to try, if nothing else, start with just a vase.  Maybe next time you will make an arrangement.

Have a great day,

Jani

GIVEAWAY UPDATE!

Last week I told y'all, in honor of my 50th birthday next month, that when I got 50 followers I would give away a prize.  So, here it is...... 

It is a Valentine themed magnetic memo board.  It reverses to a solid color of your choice so it can be used year round.  I am including 3 monogrammed Valentine conversation heart magnets.  

Now it is time to tell your friends about the giveaway.  To enter all you have to do is publicly follow my blog.  Once there are 50 followers I will draw a winner.  Of course, at the rate I am going it could be way past Valentine's Day before this happens!!  So, spread the word!


Jani

Motherhood 27 Years Later

My oldest child turned 27 in November.  It seems like yesterday that she was born.  I went two weeks and two days past my due date and the date was set for November 3 to induce.  On the morning of November 2, I went into labor. We lived an hour from the hospital which was in Lawton, OK.  So, as you can imagine, my husband was anxious to head that way. We got there in plenty of time for Blair to eat breakfast AND lunch.  Shortly after 5 that afternoon I gave birth to a 7 lb, 6 oz baby girl!


I'll never forget Blair asking the doctor if he knew what he was doing when he got out the forceps!!

Our middle child was also late, but just eight days.  This go around we lived an hour and a half from the hospital!  So you can guess how nervous Blair was when I went into labor.  Again, we got to Lawton, OK in plenty of time to shop and meet all my in-laws for dinner.  We went to Blair's sister's house until about midnight (we were nice enough to wait for the nurses shift change) and then headed to the hospital.  On the morning of April 4, about 7 am I gave birth to a 7 lb, 9 oz baby boy.

After moving to TN child number three came along.  This baby was in a hurry to meet his sister and brother and came about a week EARLY on November 14! Luckily for Blair we lived a lot closer to the hospital.  We barely had time to drop Whitni and Riley off at a friend's house and get checked in at Baptist East before our third child, another boy, came into the world at 8 lbs.  

It was actually kinda funny when the admissions clerk came into the room and told me if she had know how close I was to giving birth we could have saved the paperwork until after the baby was born!  You see, Skiler was born within 30 minutes of us arriving at the hospital!



There is anxiety and pride in raising children and I must say that is still the case 27, 24, and 18 years later.  From their first step to graduation; learning to ride a bike to learning to drive; leaving home to attend college to living in another state on their own and learning how to make ends meet; as a parent you never stop worrying about your children regardless of their age.  I know they get tired of Mom giving unsolicited advice and I try to limit that with the two older ones, Skiler is still in high school so he gets all kinds of "guidance".

I've been told that being a grandmother doesn't even compare to the feeling of being a parent.  I'm about to find out if this is true!  Riley and Sarah are going to bless Blair and I with our first grandchild in August.  I am very excited!  I have already been busy looking for patterns to knit little caps and booties.  I am trying to change my ways and not procrastinate.  Hopefully I will have all kinds of sweet baby things made when the little one gets here.

Grand baby at 8 weeks!

Silhouette Give Away

I am sharing a link with you to The Shabby Chic Cottage Blog.  She is giving away a Silhouette machine which if you don't know is like a Cricut machine.  Click on the link and enter to win!  GOOD LUCK

http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2011/01/silhouette-giveaway-and-ah-maz-ing-deal.html

GIVEAWAY

As I posted on Facebook; In honor of my 50th birthday next month, when I get 50 followers I will have a giveaway.  So encourage your friends to sign up.  As soon as I decide what I am going to give away I will post it here on my blog.

My Connection With the Red Dirt Chronicles

As some of you know, Whitni, my daughter, and I take turns writing a weekly post for the Red Dirt Chronicles' blog.  This is how we got into that.


A college sorority sister of mine, Julie Allgyer, also writes a weekly post on the RDC and sent me a link to her stories.  Being from Oklahoma, red dirt country, I became interested in the blog and started following it.

Sometime last fall, Kelly (aka Red Dirt Kelly) the blog's creator, put out a call for someone to cook through a cookbook.  More specifically Stockyards City Cookbook, kind of like a Julie and Julia type thing.  After several weeks Kelly still didn't have any takers, so I tried to talk Whitni into doing it since she is in Oklahoma City.  She was hesitant, afraid she wouldn't have enough time.  So I told her I would contact Kelly and see if she was interested in the two of us sharing the responsibilities even though I no longer lived in Oklahoma.  Kelly seemed happy that we were willing to do this project and said it didn't bother her that I didn't live in OK because I had ties to the state.

Kelly, Whitni, & Jani

So in October, at an Oklahoma State University football game, Whitni and I met Kelly for the first time and  got our cookbooks.  Kelly is a sly one!  If I figured right, at one recipe a week, it is going to take us almost three years to cook through the Stockyards City Cookbook.  I have to admit I am enjoying it and I am pretty sure Whitni is too.  My family likes it because they are guaranteed at least one home cooked meal every two weeks!!  Almost all the recipes I have prepared have been easy and good.  I have only had problems with one recipe and you can read about that here.  I still haven't figured out what is wrong with that recipe!

Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

Amazing Asian Salad Toss

Cowboy Tortilla Soup

I want to invite you to check out the Red Dirt Chronicles and some great stories written by those "with connections to the great state of Oklahoma".  

Jani

Reupholstery Madness!

I think I probably talked about reupholstering the two love seats I have in the living room for a couple a years before I actually did anything about it.  There is nothing like having people over to get you motivated!

BEFORE

When my Bunco group started back up last September I got the fever to redo my living room.   My goal was to finish before my turn to have Bunco, which just happened to be in November!  As you can see from the picture the fabric was very faded and rather threadbare on the seat.  After I got into the project I realized that this furniture was 10 years old!  We had gotten a lot of use out of it but the frames were still in very good shape.

I had never upholstered furniture before, but I figured if worse came to worse I would gather up all the parts and pieces and take it to a professional and let them finish the job for me!!

Luckily I have two identical love seats.  I started taking one apart, leaving the other intact for reference.  I took a lot of pictures as I went.  I carefully removed the fabric, saving it for my pattern and labeling it with a sharpie as I took it off the love seat.

I cut out my sections, being careful to get the design going the correct way.  There is a tiny little tulip on the new fabric.

Then I started stapling the new fabric back on the frame.  There was very little sewing involved besides the cording until I got to the seat cushions.  The cushions are attached and the love seats are recliners, so that section had to be sewn and fitted to the cushion.  There were very few options as to where the fabric could be stapled to the frame and since I was working with a partially assembled piece of furniture I basically did the best I could. 

If you think you might want to try to upholster a piece of furniture there are a few tools I would recommend.  First if you have a pneumatic staple gun or can borrow one from a friend I highly recommend it.  Then you will need a hammer, a flat blade screw driver (great for helping pull staples), needle nose pliers (also great for pulling staples), possibly a glue gun (I used mine to glue on the cording where the fabric was too thick to staple it securely) and of course scissors to cut out your fabric.  As you get into the project you will figure out what kind of wrenches you will need, if any.  Go to YouTube and watch videos before you get started, do your research.  Finally, make sure you have a good assistant.

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of ALL the staples I took out of these love seats!  If you decide to tackle a project like this let me warn you, you will be pulling a lot of staples!

AFTER

Thanks to Vicky for her moral support when I bought fabric and to Patti for traveling down this road first!

Let The Baking Begin!

As a child I remember my mother spending hours making homemade candies to give to friends as Christmas gifts.  The local International Harvester dealer always had Christmas albums for sale during the holidays.  For some reason I think they were only a dollar or two each.  Anyway, Mom would buy Christmas albums and use them as a tray.  She would bake a loaf of sweet bread in a one pound coffee can, remove the bread from the can and place it in the middle of the album.  Then she would surround it with homemade fudge, bourbon balls, divinity, candy strawberries, and other confections.  Finally she would wrap the entire thing in cellophane.

After I got married I would make candies and assemble trays for Christmas gifts as well, but about 5 or so years ago I abandoned the candy making for a tradition of my own, Cinnamon Swirl Cakes.  The best I can calculate I have been making this cake since I was about 15 years old.  My family discovered this recipe when our church published a cookbook.  One time when we were kids my sister ate so much Cinnamon Swirl Cake she made herself sick!

Cinnamon Swirl Cakes are made in a Bundt pan and if you only have one pan and several cakes to make this can take several days.  In 2009 I decided that small families probably didn't need a whole cake so I got busy looking for half size bundt pans.  I had seen some ceramic ones at a craft show the year before and regretted not getting them.  Luckily I was able to find some pans online and was able to get them in time for my Christmas baking.  This allowed me to bake twice as many cakes in about half the time.

I am flattered to say that my daughter and daughter-in-law both make Cinnamon Swirl Cakes to give as Christmas gifts as well.  So, this year they got half sized bundt pans for Christmas!







Here is the recipe, I hope your family loves it as much as ours does.

CINNAMON SWIRL CAKE


1 Box Yellow Cake Mix
1 Box Small Instant Vanilla Pudding (3 3/4 oz.)
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
3/4 Cup  Water
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 tsp. Butter Flavoring

Mix cake ingredients and beat with mixer for 8 minutes (8 minutes! I never do this).  Pour 1/3 of batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan, (for sanity's sake I use Baker's Joy).  Sprinkle 1/2 of Cinnamon Mixture over batter, layer with another third of batter then with second half of Cinnamon Mixture. Top off with the last third of cake batter. Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean.  Ice while hot.

CINNAMON MIXTURE


1/4 Cup Sugar
2 tsp. Cinnamon

Make sure you don't over cook your cakes or they will be dry.

I like to poke my cakes with a fork before I pour on the icing.  I have no idea if this makes the cake any moister but I tell myself it works.

                                                            

 ICING
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp. Butter Flavoring
1/4 Cup Hot Water

I like to use my wire whisk beaters to mix the icing.  It does away with any powdered sugar lumps you might have.

                   

                                                                 

 Ready for delivery!