Old Stuff, New Stuff

 

I know a post containing photos of my Christmas decor is weird in March.  But I neglected to post in December and I like to be able to look back here to see it.  I won't include commentary to go along with it, but here are some key parts of it. 

 This kind of sneaked into the middle of these.  This is a gingerbread house on display at the Seattle Sheraton.  We attended this annual event for the first time this year.

 

 

I also neglected to take any good pictures of my Valentine's Day decor.  Here are a couple photos that give a glimpse of it.  I made the tablecloth and absolutely love how it turned out.  You would think I would have taken a better picture. 

I snapped this in the middle of our Valentine's party.  Behind our friends you can see the fabric scrap garland I made this year. 

 

Thanks for humoring me.  Now for the new stuff.

 

So much to say...

 

Most of the new stuff will (hopefully) get posts all of their own.  But I want to mention a few things now.  Since I last posted I have made my own laundry detergent.  Our rental house is on a septic system.  In the interest of minimizing the amount of chemicals in our septic and on/in our bodies, I decided it was time to take action.  So not only am I making my own laundry soap, but I have completely switched over to homemade, chemical free cleaning supplies.  Actually, not completely.  I am in the process of completely switching over.  I will post soon about how that is going.

 

I have also begun making some changes in the food we eat.  I definitely have plans to write a post about making as much as possible from scratch using whole, unprocessed foods.  I have a lot to say on the matter, but for now, I am now making all of our bread and have begun making granola in the hopes that eventually I can wean my kids off the packaged, sugar and preservative-laden breakfast cereals they are addicted to.  The basic recipe I am using is made with honey and no refined sugars.  I have been tweaking the seasonings to get it just how we like. So far, the kids love it, and it only gets better each time!

 

And one last thing that, again, I will post more about later, is our family reunion.  I am, by choice, quite heavily involved in the planning of our family reunion this year.  This year would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday, so our reunion will be a celebration of her life.  I am busily creating bunting decorations and working closely with my Dad to organize lots of fun activities and make this an extra special event.

 

So c'mon back for more details on all this stuff.  I'm ready to be more present here again, now that we are feeling more settled in our new home.   

 

Valentine's Day Leftovers

Today I want to share a few things that I did for Valentine's Day but I never got around to highlighting until now.

First off, I gave you a sneak peek at the pom-poms I made for our party the other night. Here are some more pictures of those. I didn't manage to get a good picture of the table all dressed up, but these are pretty good.




Seriously, these pom-poms are so easy and fun. I used this tutorial, and just adjusted for size. The big ones are full sheets of tissue paper, like what you buy to put in a gift bag. The medium ones are 1/2 a sheet, and the small ones are 1/4. Pretty simple.

I also made these little little pom-poms for my tree out of cupcake liners. I used 5 for each one. Two opened just a little, two opened a little more, and 1 opened all the way. Then I used a needle and thread to do one stitch in and back, cutting the thread long for hanging. Again, easy.


This morning Jesse's preschool class had a Valentine's Party. I just wasn't feeling like baking, after doing three cakes, party desserts, and birthday cupcakes since the beginning of the month, and having a couple more cakes still to go before the end of the month. In fact, I put off planning anything until it was almost time to go. I figured I'd just stop at the store on my way. But I didn't really want to spend the time or money to stop, so I looked in the pantry to see what I had. Here's what I came up with:


Graham crackers with frosting and Valentine's sprinkles. Quick, easy, and still kind of cute!

You may have noticed my "Be Mine" blocks in my hutch. I made those a couple years ago with some scrap wood. It's all freehand. They have turned out to be one of my very favorite Valentine's decorations.



Another is my "Love" pennant style banner I made. Scrapbook paper, jute twine, and empty cereal boxes were used for this. They remind me a bit of conversation hearts.


And one last thing, remember when I bought my huge enamelware pitcher and I said it would look great with peonies in it this summer? I think these pom-poms look a lot like double cotton candy colored peonies and I was right. I love them in it!