My Little Valentines

Yesterday was our Homeschool Support Groups Valentine's Party.  I had recently found some Meyer Lemons (love them!) and decided to use them to make the lemon bars The Food Librarian made here.  Myer lemons are a cross between a lemon and an orange.  It’s skin is thinner than a regular lemon and it has a milder, sweeter flavor too. 

I cut these smaller than The Food Librarian did.  I wanted them to fit into mini cupcake wrappers.  I just love tiny desserts:

Cute + Portion Control = Awesome!

The first thing we did at the party was decorate our bags or boxes. 

Everyone brought whatever supplies they had and we shared.

Later, after we ate, we lined the bags along the wall in the hallway. 

We got in line.

And we put a Valentine into each bag.

When that was done, we went back to our table and checked out the loot.

For the party, and many other kids we know, Liam and Sophie gave store bought Valentines.  But they also handmade a few for some family and friends.  I’ve said these are the Valentines to make people think I’ve got it all together.  Because, surely, if she has time to make those, she’s got everything else under control.  Feel free to think that if you wish. I’ll allow it.

For this cute owl, I printed the text and glued it and the body of the owl onto a 4x6 unlined notecard.  Sophie then glued the parts on.  She decided to use two patterns for each owl, which gave us several combinations.  To make the pattern, I drew the owl pattern pieces on a blank piece of paper. Then I just trimmed my scrapbook paper to fit my printer and scanned the pattern onto the backs of my scrapbook paper.  Then I cut the pieces out, (no small feat!) Sophie did a pretty good job gluing if I do say so myself.

For Liam’s Valentines, it couldn’t be more appropriate than to use the sign, “I Love You”.   To make these, just trace a hand print onto flesh colored paper, cut out and glue the middle and ring finger down.  You could fold the paper at the “knuckle” but I just let it bend slightly.  You can glue these to whatever heart shape your heart desires, but store bought paper doilies was the easiest thing for me to do.  After cutting out all those owl bits, I was ready for easy!

The kids are learning Sign Language from Pop and the Old School Sesame Street books you can find here and here. These are the same ones I had when I was a kid, and I found them used for a great price.  The kids are enjoying learning to sign.  Pop is an interpreter, so he is a great teacher!  Liam is really picking up on it and loves to sign, “I Love You.” 

Hope you are having

a lovely

Valentine’s Day!

 

Sophie In Wonderland: Menu

 

Our Tea Party menu was a mix of some things you would find in a traditional Afternoon Tea, and some things that you would find in an Americanized type of Tea.  For example: Pink Lemonade.

We just had to have something in little “Drink Me” bottles.  It would not have been right to skip this little nod to the movie. These tags were printed on cardstock and attached with glue dots.  It would have been a lot of work to tie these to each bottle, but the easy glue dots give the same effect when you place them at an angle.  FYI: These are Starbucks Frappuccino bottles.  These are so cute with homemade labels.  That wouldn’t work with the “Drink Me” labels, maybe next time.

At the main table, each place setting included the lemonade and a plastic tea cup.  The plate holds a small cup of Strawberry Bisque, a prepared scone and an Egg Salad Sandwich.  If we had wanted to be more authentic, the crusts would have been cut off.  Sorry.

The center of the main table held a towering display of Cream Puffs and Mini Éclairs.  Yum!

Cake stands held the cupcakes at both ends of the main table.  You shouldn’t be surprised that they are The Best Cupcakes Ever!  These are topped with blue Sixlets bought at Party City.

The buffet table held all the same treats as the kids’ table, with the sandwiches being traded for mini quiches. 

There is the tea, of course.  Oh, and there are some Easter M&Ms tucked in there too!

The center of the table showcased the little scones, “clotted cream”, strawberry jam, and lemon curd.  This allowed the adults to make their scones as they liked.

You can find the recipe for my Strawberry Bisque HERE.  It’s served in a punch bowl Nana has handed down to me.

Classic Scones This recipe was given to me by a lady in Scotland. Makes 24 2-inch Scones

Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups Self-Rising Flour 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder 3 Tablespoons sugar 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, cold 1 Large Egg 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 2/3 Cup Whole Milk, (You will not need all of it)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.  Add the cold butter and rub with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbles.  Stir in sugar and salt. 

Break an egg into a liquid measuring cup and mix with fork, add enough milk to measure 5 ounces. (That will be just under 2/3 cup total.)

Pour egg and milk mixture into flour mixture a little at a time, mixing lightly until the dough just comes together; you may not need all of the liquid.

Gather mixture and place on a lightly floured surface, knead very gently, just until it holds it’s shape.  Flatten with palms to approximately 1/2 inch thick.

Cut into 2 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter and place on a greased baking sheet, (I use parchment.)  Lightly gather remaining dough and repeat cutting.

Brush tops with any leftover egg/milk mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes or until they are pale golden in color.  Serve immediately.

Notes:

I find the dough works better for me when it’s just a little more moist that I think it should be. I use a very gentle hand when patting it out, you don’t want to overwork the dough.  Keep the dough very cold the whole time.  If the butter starts to melt before going in the oven, the scones will flatten and spread.  If things start getting warm, place the dough in the fridge just long enough to cool things off.

Clotted Cream is a beautiful thing.  If you’ve ever had fresh clotted cream from South-West England, you know what I’m talking about.  There’s nothing like it.  Unfortunately, if I want clotted cream here in the states, I have to either buy it in a jar, (above), which is kind of expensive, or make it myself. 

I’ve yet to try making it for real.  That’s something I hope to try soon.  For the party, I used a recipe found HERE.  It uses mascarpone cheese and heavy cream.  It isn’t quite like the real thing, but it worked well enough.  I would recommend it in a pinch. (Note: I did not use the optional zest.  It seemed unnecessary to me.)

If you remember from the last post, the guests had a sweet take-home treat. 

These cookies are my favorite cut-out sugar cookies from Nigella Lawson.  They hold their shape when baked and are very reliable.  The trick for me is to take them out before I think they are done so they are still a little soft.

The icing is Wilton’s Royal Icing recipe.  I kept it thick to outline the cookie then thinned the rest with water and about 1/8 tsp. lemon extract and filled in the cookie.  I don’t know how many of these I had, I was a little addicted. 

I placed the cookies in little goodie bags, (Hobby Lobby), folded them and closed them with a little sticker.  I used Avery 3/4 inch diameter stickers stamped with a little clock face from a cool cling sticker collection from Hobby Lobby.  It kind of has this Steampunk-ish vibe going on.  I'm looking forward to using all the little stamps in the future!

Next post: How to plan an Alice party.

Sophie In Wonderland: Invitations

Where have I been? It’s Mid-April and it’s my first post of the year!  Well, without going into all the details which could possibly bore you, 1) We’ve had some computer problems that had us sending in the laptop, not once, but twice. Not having a computer kind of makes it hard to get much done.  2)  I’ve been working out with trainers and eating better. That’s good for me and good for you, because I’ll be posting some healthier recipes in the future, (Don’t worry, I’ll still be making some tempting recipes as well, just enjoying them in moderation.) It has taken time to grow accustomed to being so busy in the evenings (when I go to the gym) which is the time of day I normally write my posts. So forgive my absence, I hope to get back into the swing of things now.

So to kick things off this year, how about a party?  My sweet daughter’s birthday is April 1st.  Now of course, you all know that is April Fool’s Day, which is a cool enough birthday to have, (we’re gonna make sure she knows all the best pranks,) but how cool is it that her name Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom.  Pretty awesome, right? 

Sophie wanted her 4th birthday to be an Alice in Wonderland party.  We ended up planning it for April 14th so it was actually an Un-Birthday party.  I was really excited about this theme because I’ve been wanting to plan a tea party for a while.  This gave me the opportunity to pull out all the stops and make a fabulous party.

First things first: The Invitations.  I put these off until the last minute because I was hoping to get our computer back to make them.  It was not to be, so I borrowed a laptop and did the best I could with what I had.  I found this really great blog Vintage Disney Alice.  It has some pretty cool stuff on it.  But then I followed link on the sidebar to the blog Animation Backgrounds.  Jackpot!  I snagged an Alice background to use for the invitations.

Of course, this is the rabbit hole through which Alice follows the White Rabbit.  Since I didn’t have my Photoshop, I was desperate for a free photo editor with a magic wand tool to cut out the background of this picture of Sophie.

I finally came across paint.net.  I used the magic lasso tool to erase the background.  It took a while, but I did it while watching TV, so it was a two-birds-with-one-stone kind of thing. 

Here is the end result.  It isn’t perfect, but I was pleased with the outcome.

I added some instructions.

I printed these as 4x6s at a one-hour photo in the neighborhood. 

Then using either Microsoft Power Point or Word, (I can’t remember),  I made the rest of the invitation. I used different fonts and colors to achieve the quirky look.

I made them just smaller than 4x6 then printed them onto an Avery 8 1/2 x 11 sticker sheet.  I was able to fit three invitations on the page, then I cut them out and adhered them to the back of the photo.  Wal-Mart had pastel invitation envelopes which were perfect for these invitations.

These were super cute invitations and suitable for framing too! While I was in the mood, I also did one more picture of Sophie, this time IN Wonderland.

We framed the first picture and this one as well and used them to decorate at the party.  You’ll see that soon enough.  Check back later this week for more posts about Sophie’s Un-Birthday Tea Party.

A Hoppin’ Party: Lily Pads

 

If you remember my post about Sophie’s birthday party, you may remember these coffee filter flowers I made. These inspired me to make some lily pads with water lilies for Liam’s froggy birthday party.

Coffee Filter Water Lilies and Lily Pads

Supplies:

Five white coffee filters for each lily/lily pad

1 white mini muffin baking cup for each

Washable markers in green, pink, yellow and purple.

Twist ties or 2 inch bits of pipe cleaner

Hot glue and glue gun

Scissors

First, decide how many lily pads you want and count out that many coffee filters.  Take a green washable marker and scribble all over the filter.  It’s ok to have some blank spots.  Next, spread the filters out over a cookie sheet.  Spray with water from a spray bottle until the filters are soaked.  Put them somewhere they can dry.  I put mine in the oven on the lowest setting until dry.  Set them aside for later.  Do the same with the mini muffin cups using a yellow marker.

Next multiply the number of lilies you need by four.  Decide how many you want of each color.  I did some in white, yellow, pink and purple.  For the ones with color, follow the same directions above using the colors you want, using four filters for each flower.

Once dry, take four of the same color and make a stack.

Next, scrunch them in the middle and tie with a twist tie or bit of pipe cleaner.

Separate the layers, below is what one side will look like.

Here’s what both sides looks like.

Take each baking cup and make little snips all around, following the folds already in the cup.  It is also helpful to make a few longer cuts that go almost to the middle.  These will make it easier to put them in the flower.

Now you are ready to put the lily pads together.

Glue the yellow baking cup into the middle of the flower and fluff.

Finally, position the lily onto the lily pad at a bit of an angle and close to the edge so it looks as if it is coming up from the water below and resting on the pad.  Make a small triangular cut in the lily pad to finish it off.

Placing the lily pads on a blue tablecloth looks nice.

Some were placed on green tablecloths.  Here we find a little froggy resting on the lily pad. 

This was a super easy project and would be great to do with kids!

A Hoppin’ Party: The Invitations

Our little Liam is growing up too fast!  This weekend we celebrated his first birthday with a hoppin’ froggy party.  It was so much fun!  I’ve been very busy the last few weeks with planning and preparations, but it was so worth it; you’ll soon see what I mean.  I’ve got a lot to show you, so I’m going to spread this out over several days.

I’m also using this week as a way to introduce you to a new section of my blog: A Girl In Her Kitchen Crafts.  It just so happens that I do a lot of non-cooking projects in my kitchen.  It has great daytime lighting and LOTS of counter space.  This week’s craft posts will be duplicated in the crafting blog.  In the future, they will, with few exceptions, be found only in the crafting section.  You can follow the crafting blog in blogger or with Networked Blogs, (see the right hand side of the craft blog.)  Or you can just pop in from time to time to see if I’ve been up to anything new.

We’ll begin with the invitations to Liam’s birthday party.  I made them using Microsoft PowerPoint. 

First, I scanned into my computer a few pieces of scrapbook paper in blues and greens.

In PowerPoint I arranged the paper to where the front of the card would be.  I used more paper to create 3 little rectangles where I then added black and white photos of Liam at different times during his first year. At the bottom I wrote Look who’s turning one!

Here’s a peek at the inside.  I found both the frog and the poem online.

The back of the card (not shown) also had his monogram for a nice little touch.  After printing, I stuffed them into light blue envelopes. 

These were easy to make and so cute.  If the guests were like me, they displayed their invitations where they could bask in the cuteness.

I’m sharing this project, literally, by making it available in Google documents.  Hopefully, you can edit it there for your own little one.  Or you can write me for it at emcook17[at]comcast[dot]net.     

Tinker Bell Birthday Party

 

This weekend we celebrated Sophie’s 3rd birthday.  It became obvious to me a few months ago that Sophie’s obsession with Tinker Bell would provide the perfect theme for this party.  Our colors were Lime and Lavender to match just about every Tinker Bell item Sophie owns.   It was so much fun to plan!

We had the challenge of turning our church fellowship room into “Pixie Hollow”.  First let me show you “the backdrop”.  I had originally dreamt up something different, but it wasn’t going to work out.  My sister-in-law, Leigh, whipped this backdrop up the morning of the party to give a nice scene for opening presents.  Those are “fairy lights” aka white Christmas lights leftover from our wedding (they are used elsewhere too), a blue sheet and purple and green tulle tied with ribbon.  Leigh used thumbtacks to hold everything up.  This turned out so much nicer than what I had planned.

Hanging above is a “wreath-a-lier” that I made.  It is a Styrofoam wreath form (14”) with crepe paper roses hot glued all over and hung with ivory ribbon.  Don’t ask me how many roses! This was definitely a labor of love.  I wish you could all see it in person as these pictures do not do it justice.  Good news is that I can use it to decorate for spring, so we will get a lot of miles out of this thing.

To use as table centerpieces, I bought six of these little $1 birdhouses from Jo-Ann’s Fabric.  Then I painted them brown and hot glued green Spanish Moss, also from Jo-Ann’s, to the roofs.  On three of them I made “Fairies Welcome” signs made from stuff from my yard.  The other three I left blank.  And that’s scrapbook paper they are sitting on. Now that the party is over, I’m using the scrapbook paper to make a mini Birthday Party scrapbook using a small photo album. The kids got to take the birdhouses home along with their goodie bags.  The girls got the ones with signs and the boys got the plain ones to be “bug houses.”  I meant to stick some flowers in the moss, but left them at home.  Oh, well.

Speaking of goodie bags, here they are.  They are just brown lunch sacks that have Tinker Bell and friends printed on the front.  I can’t remember where these were bought, but I’ve seen them all over.  Behind them are more fairy lights with flowers attached. These were made by dying white coffee filters in water and food coloring.  After drying, I stacked four filters of the same color and pinched them in the middle and tied a twist tie around the pinch.  Then I fluffed the flowers and attached them to the lights with their twist ties.  It’s super easy!

The kids made necklaces with “Fairy Treasure”. 

The food table was a challenge. As you can see there is a plain brick wall behind the table.  Leigh and I hung streamers and white paper lanterns over the table.  More fairy lights grace the table behind the food.  Aside from the food I’m about to mention, we also had a fruit and veggie tray, dip and chips, and Starburst Jelly beans, which just happen to be the best jelly beans to be found on this Earth, just sayin’.

We served lemonade out of this cute dispenser bought for 6 bucks at Walmart.  It has a lovely pattern on it too, which worked well with the theme.  Behind it are the napkins I fanned into a wing pattern, don’t know if anyone noticed but it thought I was clever.  Punch cups for the adults and Tinker Bell cups and straws for the kids.  Leftover lanterns rest in a wire basket.

Our choice of cookies were Oreos, to cater to a child with nut and egg allergies, and these cute flower shaped sugar cookies made using Nigella’s recipe and Wilton’s Royal Icing in Lavender to match our theme.

I wanted to serve Tinker Bell inspired cupcakes, so I sketched a few ideas and settled on these two.  In the yellow baking cups (both ruffled baking cups made by Wilton) are Yellow Cake (from a box because I haven’t found my perfect yellow cake recipe yet).  The purple cups hold the most amazing chocolate cake ever (from Pioneer Woman).  Both are toped with That’s The Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had.  The chocolate cupcakes are iced to look like grass with purple wildflowers.  The yellow cupcakes just scream ‘Tink’ to me.  On top of the green swirl rests a pearlescent gumball from Party City.  It’s pretty and tastes good too!

I brought Sophie’s Tinker Bell costume which she had to wear for singing to her, blowing out the candles and opening presents. 

We’re blessed to have a playground at the church building, so the kids got to play.  I think they had a good time.

Sophie had a great birthday party, she’s still talking about it.  Now we just have to sit back and wait for a fairy to take up residence in our little fairy house. “Come on Tink, we’ll even share our jelly beans!”

Linked to Made It On Monday, Bear Rabbit Bear and Muffin Monday.