Bridal Shower Adventures

Last weekend was a busy one since I was involved in two prenuptial parties with a surprise 50th birthday sandwiched between. It was busy but fun since I love to host showers and teas.

Saturday morning was my favorite of the two bridal events because my fellow hostesses were the sister and a favorite friend, and not a one of us is fond of minimalism.

It was a morning drop-in shower so around here, it would be called a Coffee. I love morning events because of the food and beverage. Carbs and coffee make a powerful duo.



We chose a toile tablescape because the wedding has a black and white color scheme.

 OK…it didn’t hurt that it looked nice against the sister’s red and white room as well.

We chose our hostess stations, and in my infinite wisdom, I chose to be the greeter. This means that I opened the door and helped older women up the steps in that hot Georgia morning for two hours. By the time they remembered to take the hostess picture… which will live in perpetuity in the bride’s scrapbook… my hair was a victim of the HHH: heat, humidity, and hormones. Even the Hair Crack gave up the ghost. Oh well, it’s not about me anyway, right? right?

The best thing about a Coffee in the dead of the southern summer is that you get to substitute coffee punch for the hot stuff.

The stuff is beverage bliss.

Miss Whimsy loves it so much

 that she intends to have a morning wedding

just to serve it.

The base is a coffee extract* made by combining a pound of coffee with about a quart of water and letting it stand overnight. Then, you drain the liquid, first through a sieve and again through a coffee filter or cheesecloth.

Coffee Punch

coffee extract

1 pint whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Dash of salt

1 quart vanilla ice cream

1 quart chocolate ice cream

Combine the coffee extract and the next three ingredients. Scoop vanilla and chocolate ice creams into a punch bowl; add the coffee and cream mixture, gently stirring until ice cream slightly melts.

*On a side note: I never have to do the extracting step because we keep coffee concentrate on hand 24/7.  It's the only way that we brew coffee. We got THIS GIZMO for a wedding shower present.

 ...and have been using it ever since.

It has a filter

And plug

.
You put the water in the top and a whole bag of coffee in the bottom. Let it stand, and out comes coffee extract. We keep regular and decaf at all times.

We use a shot glass to measure out custom cups of hot coffee.  It's great for coffee milk and our summer coffee smoothies as well.

Ah, coffee bliss...

Meanwhile, back at the Coffee...

Great fun. Hormone hair and all.

Do you like to throw showers?

*****

Sharing this on Foodie Friday.

Slow down, honey, I'm taking a picture

I am a firm believer that you can not travel twenty miles in any direction without seeing a something that makes you smile.

That's why I carry the shiny red Kodak at all times.

I was delighted to accidentally capture that

While I was trying to capture this

Sunflowers might be the happiest flowers of all.

They always look as if they have their heads together...
giggling.

Now, if you venture just a little more, say thirty minutes down the road...

You might get the full out belly laugh.

Let's get a little closer...

Yep. It's moving day.

No need for one of those fancy dancy moving trucks around here.

We just plop the mattress and box springs

 on the top of a compact car...

and we hold on...

Welcome to Georgia!

Why do I have the feeling that the one with his hand over his face is the teenaged son?

What made you laugh this week?

Nothing? Go take a drive.

Fifty and Fabulous

My sister is my favorite girlfriend in the whole world.

 We’re only 17 months apart, and I don’t know a world without her.

I don't want to.

I'm the one with her mouth open...

We’re told that we look alike, but we don’t see it.
She’s tall; I’m short.
She’s thin and maintains a consistant weight.
I’m not, and I        't...           
                      d   n
                         o

She’s brunette; I’m rather blond.

She always looks “just so”; I always look just so…disheveled.
Yet we are constantly being confused.

One day, she walked into a local department store and was accosted by the annoying Clinique girl who gushed and raved about the sister’s wonderful transformation. She had lost weight! Her skin was amazing! And that hair color and style? Why… it did wonders for her. Yes, indeed, my sister had undergone The Great Makeover Miracle Adventure.

Only she hadn’t.
Annoying Clinique Girl just thought that she was talking… to me.
You know… the short, dumpy, washed out, wrinkly one.
(How she also thought that I had grown five inches and two good eyebrows is beyond me. I should worry what this woman thinks?)

I only know this story because my sister could hardly wait to tell me. That’s the kind of relationship that we have. She knew that it would make me laugh, and that I would retell it for years embellished with a little decoration.

I did. I do. And I just decorated.

Did I remember to mention that she’s turning fifty today …

…and I’m not?

Her daughters surprised her with a birthday party on Saturday with her closest friends. 

The theme was Fifty and Fabulous, and she celebrated with her three favorite things:

Family

Friends

And chocolate.

Guests were asked to bring that last item.

 She will be Sister on Speed for the next month and a half.

This could present a problem because she inherited the Duchess’s do more gene. She is the most ambitious person that I know, and I don’t think there is a thing she isn’t willing to attempt.

Except blogging.

Family, faith, and home are more important to her than anything. She walked away from a very successful career over twenty years ago to play house with me. I say with no decoration that she is one of the most gifted homemakers I have ever known.


So in celebration of her birthday, I thought I would share just a bit of her heart. Did I mention that she is a farmer’s wife?

So if you look out her front door today, you would see this.

 As high as an elephant's eye...

Or from the back

She also inherited the Duchess's green thumb...

Oh, how I wish the shiny red Kodak did it justice....

 

Her gardens border the entire lawn.

 
 

They separate it from the fields...

Which in other seasons are filled with cows.

Who are currently pasturing with the newlywed niece

Myrtles and jasmine from her laundry room window...

And that's the outside...

and only a peek.

It's even more lovely on the inside.

Just like her...

Happy 5OTH dear sister!

I want to grow up to be just like you...

only younger.  

Adventures in Hoarding: Friday Flattery

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Well, I’m about to flatter one of the readers here. Here’s an idea that I copied from Amy at ALL THINGS HOME.  Months ago, she showed a great reuse for her twenty year old wedding napkins.  She turned them into coasters by decoupaging them to simple tiles.

I flattered her with some of my own.

What do you think? 

Like so many of Amy's ideas,  this is right up my alley because as you might recall, I’m a compulsive cheapskate, hoarder, and reuser. I get my kicks out of seeing how to use scraps which might otherwise be thrown away.

I was reminded of my Amy coasters last night as I did some gift wrapping for an upcoming shower that I’m helping to host tomorrow.  For what ever reason, it grinds my grits to toss out perfectly good wrapping and tissue paper. It also annoys me to have to spend money on gift cards and bows which will probably get tossed out with the trash.

Because not everyone is a compulsive hoarder like I am.

That’s why I make my own gift tags and bows out of salvaged scraps. I make my tags out of paper scraps and plain unlined index cards which are the perfect size. For shower or wedding gifts, I use napkins from that same box of  wedding napkins.  Coming full circle with this, finally….

I have plenty to spare.

Just fold the card in half 

Separate the layers of your napkin

Fit it to the card

Decoupage your heart out and trim up the edges

Now, the bride-to-be won’t have a clue, but

I know that her gift carries an extra sense of sentimentality with it.

 I like that.

If I am in too much of a hurry for the decoupage, I'll just use a spray adhesive. It works just as about as well, especially for cards which won’t be saved anyway. You end up with a different texture.

And that's why I never, ever, purchase gift tags anymore. I have plenty.

Napkin tags…

Tissue paper tags…

Matching tags…

Ribbons, button, and bow tags...

Words on tags…

Tag gumbo…

Just me, reusing the junk I have around here. I make my own bows, too, but that will have to be another post, another day. I have two bridal showers to host this weekend, and I need to get crackin'.

What about you?

Do you reuse your leftover paper products?

If so, how?

******

Sharing  this here:


Which I just discovered gave a shout out
to my little old tea tray. Thanks, Holly!

The Remnant

I don’t often talk about the Bible lessons that I teach because, frankly, I’m a better yakker than writer when it comes to such things. Today, however, I think I’ll give it a whirl because I have a little something to share.

We just finished a several month study of that familiar passage from Ecclesiastes 3.

To everything, there is a season,

and a time for every purpose

under the heavens…

I won't summarize two months worth of study in one post, but throughout, there were three constants:

Seasons…mere line segments in our eternal time lines.

And times...fixed points of opportunity

And purposes…. A simple word,

best rendered as delights.

It’s a beautiful passage, especially for a bunch of women like the ones in my class who are, shall we say, starting to feel the effects of too many seasons. We finished on Sunday with the reminder not to be so caught up with our season that we miss the opportunities for delight  hidden within it-- to look for the beautiful things promised in Ecclesiastes 3:11.

He hath made all things beautiful in time. 

 

That's in the perfect tense.

Not… He can make

Not...He plans to make

Not….He will make

Not even… He is making

But... He has made. 

He made it beautiful before we even entered the season.

It’s finished, completed, made beautiful, and perfectly polished just for the discovery.

 His gift to us, regardless of the season, is the treasure hunt.

Sounds like an adventure to me.

So I gave my class an assignment. I asked them to take their focus off of their seasons and to look, really look, for the delights. And  I asked them to report back to me when they found one. This morning, I found one of mine, and  I have decided to share it here.

You may remember this plant that the Duchess gave me back in November.

And you may remember my brown thumb...

And the way that it looked in February.

I yakked all about it here.

Well, I never did show that plant to the Duchess. Instead, I kept on killing it day by day. It finally ended up nothing but an empty pot of soil. No, I didn't take a picture. Just imagine the one above, but even more dead.

I found one last purple twig. It had fallen to the deck so I scooped it up and kind of crammed it back into the soil the way any brown thumber would do. Then, I watered it. And since this plant is called a Wandering Jew, I named it The Remnant of Israel.

Because that’s the kind of thing I do.

Well, you can probably guess where this is going...
I didn't really want to putter in the yard this morning. After all, it's  hot, and most things are dry and wilting. But when I went to turn on my hose, I happened to glance toward a forgotten corner of the yard, and this is what I saw.

I feel the uncontrollable urge to say, "Behold!"
There, right in the middle of my dry and wilted season, I saw God's hands peeking up from the soil.  

I was delighted.

Now, you green thumbers can have all the explanation that you want for The Remnant sprouting up like this.  Maybe the cram-it-down-in-the-soil trick really worked. As for me, I choose to call it a delight and believe that God made it beautiful for such a time as this.

Because you see, I have been going through a dried up season too. Maybe it's the looming empty nest, or maybe it's that pesky fibromyalgia that makes me feel a little old and tired sometimes, but I had begun to wonder if my best days were behind me.

But when I saw The Remnant this morning, I had a radical thought:

Maybe God has another blooming season planned for me, too.

Trash Talking: Caption This Picture

My daughters tease me that I'll take a picture of just about anything.

They're just about right.

But if I didn't, how in the world would I be able to show you the treasures I discover in the Hood?

Like this one

Can you imagine the conversation that took place that morning?

Hey...you can't throw that away!

I paid an arm and a leg for it...

or...

Has anybody seen Aunt Myrtle?

You'll be glad to know that I resisted the urge to bring this baby home. I did, however, contemplate the possibilities...

Just a little bloggadoodle to kick off the week.
So, how would you caption that picture?

The Great Kitchen Demolition... and a little craft too

Have I mentioned that The Duchess is getting a new kitchen?
Well, she is, and we're tickled pink about it.
This is actually a long anticipated and auspicious event in the family that has been 36 years in the making. Mom and Dad built their home in 1974. Over the years, they added, updated, and improved just about every other area of their house.

But her kitchen, the heart of the Duchy, has received only cosmetic changes. There are several reasons for that:

1. The kitchen was built smack dab in the middle of the 1970s. This means, of course, that it reflects that era, complete with built- in oven and counter top range. To update her kitchen is no minor task, people.

2. The Duchess is fond of the big “TA DA”. She had determined that when she did renovate her kitchen, it was going to be the Big Kahuna… cabinets, counters, appliances, and floors in one big moment.

And big moments take time…
And planning…
And cash…
Well, of course.

But when she walked into the kitchen that Sunday after church and sniffed the air… and didn’t smell her ham cooking, she knew that old oven had given up the ghost. And she also knew that the she could wait no longer.

And so she sketched.
And planned.
And designed.

And Finally, we began the process of tearing out the cabinets.  I say “we” because I played a vital role in the endeavor.

I narrated.

Actually, it was Newlywed Nephew who stepped up to the plate for the big demolition.

Here he is, studying the little mess that the women had made in our enthusiasm.

That’s his new mother-in-law looking over his shoulder.

The Duchess was slightly to her left.

 I took the picture.

Because every new husband dreams of flying solo
tearing out a kitchen... 

 filled with family heirlooms,

 spectating in-laws,

and an oddball with a shiny red Kodak.

Well, of course.

We He demolished the entire room.

We kept that coffee pot going until the last possible moment.

We do have our priorities you know...

We even found this little fellow wedged between two cabinet sections.

Then we helped by lugging cabinets to the lawn for garbage men
or clever bloggers
to collect 

I wanted to take some cabinets home myself, but they wouldn’t let me.

Let’s just call it an intervention and leave it at that.

I do have to confess to returning later and grabbing some cabinet doors and hardware. I had a project in mind that I wanted to try.

You will be very proud to know that I actually did bring that craft project to completion. It's nothing special, but it's the real subject of my fabulous Friday yakabout. 

I started with this 

I had to sand all that shiny white paint from her first kitchen makeover.

Then, I just repainted it with some nice heirloom white

 and decoupaged some scrapbook paper to the insert.

And reattached some of the original handles to the side.

I really love the old handles.

And TA DA, a  pretty little tea tray. 

 Total cost: $0.42 for the paper. Not too shabby.

Now, what I’m going to do with all of these,

 I am not sure...

Shhh.

Stay tuned.

And please stay tuned for more reveals of the Duchess's Great Kitchen Adventure... which is a whole lot more stunning than my little tea tray.
Here's a little sneak peek in process...

Sharing this here.