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!

Wedding Bells

You might say I have been around flower shops on and off for most of my life.  When I was a little girl my grandmother worked at a flower shop.  I loved going to visit her at work and today the smells of a flower shop can conjure up those memories.  When I was in high school I worked after school at a flower shop,  in college I took two floral design classes and my mom bought a flower shop during this time.  After I was married and had two small children I worked for her for several years.

Bridesmaid's bouquet 

Although I have not been around a flower shop in over 20 years, I occasionally make arrangements for events at church, rehearsal dinners, and various other things.  On Sunday, October 10, 2010, the son and daughter of two very dear friends, Connie and Pam, got married.  I was honored when the bride asked me to make the flowers for the wedding.  

Fresh flowers on the cake

Brooke, the bride, and her mother Connie, were able to order the flowers from the floral department of our local grocery store.  They brought the flowers by on Saturday morning for me to get started.  Brooke had chosen green hydrangeas, green cushion pom pom mums, orange gerbera daisies, white mums, orange and white alstroemeria, orange and white miniature carnations, and white cremons.  I have to admit I was a little nervous!

Flowers ready to be made into beautiful things

A mutual friend of mine and Connie's, Patti, came by to "assist" me.  Patti was  great help, she wired all the flowers that needed wiring and went to Hobby Lobby for last minute supplies.  She also was my sounding board and chauffeur.  I did everything I could on Saturday, saving the brides bouquet, mother's bouquets, and the grooms boutonniere for Sunday morning because they all had hydrangeas in them.  

Jani, Brooke, & Patti

On Sunday morning Patti came by and we took all the flowers that were ready to the wedding site.  There was a large arrangement that I had to hold while Patti drove about 15 minutes to the location of the wedding.  

Large arrangement for reception

When we got to Heartwood Hall to deliver the flowers I discovered there were some smaller containers like the large one I had made the arrangement in.  I brought part of them home with me to use the remaining flowers in for the reception.  In the meantime I still had the wedding flowers to finish up.

  

About 1pm Connie called wanting to know where the bride's bouquet was!!  Yikes, I had forgotten it needed to be there early with the other flowers I was doing for the wedding.  Luckily I had just finished with them and was able to send them with my son, Skiler, to Heartwood Hall.  Patti and I neither one had thought about the flowers needing to be there early for pictures!  Thank goodness Skiler was here to save the day!

Skiler

On to the reception flowers I took on at the last minute!  I put Patti to work taping the tops of the containers and putting greenery in them.  I soon realized that I would only have enough time and flowers for two arrangements if I was going to make it to the wedding!  

Arrangement for reception

Patti and I arrived at Heartwood Hall and with her help, we were able to get everything set up for the reception with time to spare.  

Aisle markers

The bride and groom were radiant and it turned out to be a beautiful day for an outside wedding.  Denise, the owner of Hartwood Hall, was calm, cool, and collected, not to mention a wonderful host. I had a great time working with Brooke.  Here's wishing Josh and Brooke a blessed life.


Jani

Brooke & Josh

Seize The Moment

A few weeks ago a group of ladies went to the beach for our fourth annual beach trip.  We go every year on the Tuesday after Labor Day and come home on the following Saturday.  It is a great time of relaxing on the beach, reading, shopping, eating, and fellowship.  This year there were 12 of us who went, where as last year we had 16 go, which was our largest group so far.  Oh, forgot to mention "Kim on a Stick" was with us as well!

The highlight of our afternoon was to sneak into the "lazy river" at the Phoenix West next door to our condo!  We justified this by telling ourselves that two summers ago when they were building the Phoenix West we got woken up every morning about 6 am by the construction noises.  They also have a water slide and last year one of our ladies bravely went down head first only to entertain everyone with a swimsuit malfunction!  I'm not sure if she went down the slide this year or not.  

As we were floating on the tubes enjoying our "girl time" I was watching parents play with their children.  I thought how I wish I had seized the moment when my children were little.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I swam with them, but most of the time it was on my terms;  "don't get my hair wet, don't splash".  How I wish I had just had fun playing and swimming when they wanted to spend time with me.  They grow up too quickly!  What is 30 minutes of drying and fixing a thick mop of hair compared to spending precious moments with my children?  If only foresight was 20/20 we would have it made!


Until next time, Go Pokes!
Jani