The Year of the Snake...ugh!

The picture that I posted on Facebook yesterday coincided with the last day of the celebration of the Chinese New Year. We have often had our own little celebration during the Chinese New Year to expose the kids to other cultures and to break up the winter dull drums that often happen in February. The black and red on the doors went along harmoniously with the color scheme that was going on inside our Family room since red is the color of the New Year.

2013 is the Year of the Snake. "How do you know that?" you ask. Our youngest son who turns 12 this year and has been participating in these little celebrations for all of his years now is a snake. Not literally, but in the Chinese Zodiac and this is HIS year! He has seen each one of us have "our year" since the last time it was the year of the snake was the year he was born. It is really fun to figure out what animal you are due to your birth year and then comment on wether or not you truly exhibit the personality of those animals that have been ascertained eons ago in the zodiac. So it is finally his year and we are celebrating! (even though I cannot stand snakes...probably goes back to the day when I was 14 and we were cleaning out a huge pile of straw that had been left in the vacant barn for 3 years prior to us moving in. Have you ever dug into a pile of straw with a pitchfork before to uncover nests upon nests of black snakes???
Could have been a horror movie. So I am scarred for life and my youngest child is a snake.)

Sorry to digress. I have collected over the years, decorations from a variety of sources for an abundance of holidays. (I think that I have already revealed that I am a self confirmed holiday freak!)

The party stores, after the holiday's have passed, are a great place to collect these goodies. Online ordering sites like Oriental Trading has a wealth of supplies and novelties at inexpensive prices that you can use from year to year. It truly takes no more than a half an hour to assemble your goodies, hang the kids past art work (if they have any) and call for take out! I usually have red plates on hand from Valentine's Day or gold from Christmas as well as cups so they go on the table to complete the look. Ask for Chop Sticks if your local chinese restaurant does not give any with their orders as well as the paper place mats that they usually have. Often times these place mats depict the Chinese Zodiac and the banter that these bring forth is entertaining in its own right. Most Asian restaurants give you Fortune Cookies with your order, so those are really fun to open up and read after dinner!

Hit your local Dollar Store or Five Below to grab some Asian goodies such as the rice paper candies...

and the Japanese sodas. 

Not traditional, but a fun touch never the less and one that I would normally not indulge in so the kids look forward to it.

In that box of goodies labeled "Chinese New Years" that I keep with all of my other holiday boxes, I find the least inexpensive decor of all for the festivities....the kid's past art work and projects that coincide with the holiday. I try and hang them up where they will be seen and they always elicit the most amusing comments!

Happy Snow Moon to you all! It is the last of the 12 full moons tonight and they call it the snow moon. Not sure who "they" are ...but it is another little factoid that might be a cause for celebration??

Another little factoid: Ancient Chinese wisdom says that a snake in your house is a good omen because it meant that your family would not starve. Okay, if I find a snake in the house it is bad because I will scream really loud.

Night! Night!

Meg

Valentine's Day Treat

I got a little text last week that read like this, "Mommy, you are going to send me a Valentine's Day package right?" You can probably guess who that was from. 

My 21 year old oldest son?

NO...

My 17 year old next in line son?

NO...

My 14 year old son from his bedroom?

NO...

11 year old son from the next room?

My 19 year old daughter...love the way she called me mommy...have not heard that in awhile!

You know how girls get once in college?? They usually eat Dominos pizza late at night or swear off Dominos pizza late at night. My daughter is the latter of the 2...well sometimes. Lets just say that she loves her healthy food. So with that in mind, I racked my brain for what homemade goodie I could send her that fit the bill of a healthy food. 

Hmmmm...she loves oatmeal. How about homemade oatmeal in a Ball canning jar? I had heard somewhere that you could just add boiling water to the mixture, shake and there you have it. I have plenty of canning jars so I looked up the idea online and found tons of recipes. I went with a very simple one from the website www.amybites.com (loved the site!) and added my own mix ins. 

Instant Oatmeal in a Canning Jar

For each 8 oz. canning jar fill with:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats that have been pulsed into little pieces in a food processor

Flavor Add Ins:

CRANBERRY ORANGE

2 T dried sweetened cranberries

1 T slivered almonds

2 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. grated orange zest pinch of salt

APPLE PIE

1/4 cup freeze dried apples

1 T chopped toasted pecans or walnuts

2 T brown sugar packed

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice

pinch of salt

CHOCOLATE LOVERS

1 T unsweetened cocoa powder

1 T almonds

1/2 T chocolate chips

3 tsp. sugar

pinch of salt

DATE COCONUT

1 T chopped dates

1 T chopped walnuts

2 tsp. coconut butter

2 tsp. brown sugar

pinch of salt

I used the above recipes but did not have all the ingredients so I fudged and made up my own as well. I used freeze dried blueberries and raspberries and added brown sugar and pecans. I also added chia seeds to that one. You can basically make up any combination of flavors that you like!

You can pretty up the package and make sure to put the preparation directions on the jar. The preparations are the following:

Microwave Prep

Add 3/4 c up to 1 cup water. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir let cool a little and adjust sugar if needed.

Traditional Prep

Add 3/4 c to 1 cup boiling water. Stir and let sit until desired consistency is reached. Adjust sugar to taste.

I topped the lid with a white heart doily and wrapped a piece of bakers twine around the jar. I also used the removable labels so that the jars could easily be used again. (It took me way too much time to scrub off some of the labels from past recipes)

I did throw in some chocolate covered pretzels for the chocolate binging that definitely is a part of a girl's college existence!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Meg

The table is set...

What to do with a dinner party where 37 people need to be seated for dinner?

 Why... move down two very large tables and as many chairs as I could from the barn after emptying out most of the furniture from the family room onto the back patio. (Good thing the family who added on the room in the late 1800's felt they needed a bowling alley attached to the kitchen.)

 Conversation went something like this between husband and myself:

 "Honey can you help me move the big tables from the barn?"

"Move them where?"

"To the family room. "

"Why?" 

"Because we need to have seating for everyone coming to the dinner."

"Didn't you rent tables?"

"Why would I rent tables and chairs when I have them in the barn?"

"Because when you rent tables, THEY bring them to you and take them away when you are done."

"Hmmm...good point but I could not achieve the same effect from rented tables."

"Does that matter?"

Can you imagine my reply? 

One of my absolute favorite things to do in the whole wide world is to come up with a theme or design for a party, event, dinner or family gathering and put all the pieces together to bring it to fruition. Hopefully, the result will be what I had envisioned in my mind. It started with my children's Birthday parties and morphed from there. I was fortunate enough to host a dinner this past weekend for one of our children's schools. To thank a group of special people who give freely of their time and expertise to enable the school to perform at its best. 

After looking through my house and the barn, I collected items that I thought would work together. The colors would also need to work with both a brown dining room and an orange family room. Yes, that is right, I did say orange... 

In came the burlap. Love that humble material for it is inexpensive, you can buy a whole bolt of it and cut off what you need. No sewing involved, just pull off the edge strings and it frays. 

Besides using the burlap I used a variety of some of my favorite materials.

 CAKE VINTAGE

I lined the tables with the burlap and then covered that with a layer of the Cutlery Table Runner from Cake Vintage. It is one of our favorite lines that we carry at our Barn Sales for they have beautiful print work and designs on paper place mats and table runners.

RECLAIMED ROOF SLATES

I topped the runner with a slate at each place that were taken off a very old house in our area. We carry these at our sales too and I love them for a variety of purposes...place mats, chalk boards, and cheese boards to name a few.

FLOWERS

Produce Junction is a produce market in our area that has tremendously priced flowers, if not the freshest. You just have to be flexible with what they have when you go and buy them very close to when you actually need them.

CANDLES

Old spindles turned into candle holders. They too can have a multitude of purposes besides holding up a stair rail!

Here are some shots of the finished product. (Please note, photography is one of those skills on my list that I would like to perfect...a few more hours in the day would help that)

I had a leftover roll of boxwood from Christmas that I had kept outside so I added that here and there. Did you know that you can spritz it with water and it will stay green? If you do not, it turns that lovely shade of sage green.

I filled a hurricane styled candle holder with dried moss, added a candle and some more boxwood and this became the center of the coffee table located in between the two long rectangular tables.

Onto the table came the RENTED coffee pots,

and the cute little place card holders that I like to make from flower pots and old silver. 

The dining room table got treated a little differently in that I have a very large ivory table cloth made out  of an old damask curtain. I switched the order of colors here and put the ivory underneath and the  burlap on top in the form of napkins.

It was a lovely evening and I hoped the guests had as much fun attending as I had putting it together!

Please share some of your favorite things when setting a table or planning a party!

Now, all we have to do is move it all back to the barn. It looks too pretty...does anyone want to come for dinner?

Enjoy your celebrations!

Meg

A little grey in my day

I just finished my first larger piece using Chalk Paint. I had used this type of paint for a couple of frames that I was making into chalk boards but had yet to tackle a piece of furniture. 

 Here is the before ...

and here is the after. I am thrilled with the results and I think the woman who ordered the piece is too!

I loved the fact that there was no priming involved, just a very light sanding on the inside of the piece. I coated it with 2 coats of Annie Sloane graphite (except for the top which is going to be pulled off for the piece is getting a granite top to be turned into a bathroom vanity).

I then topped the graphite coat with a coat of French Linen and pulled off some of the paint by using a rag.

A little light sanding here and there and a coat of wax and viola'...it was ready to be picked up.

The woman who ordered it has a great sense of style and had already purchased a beautiful French mirror at our barn sale. It is going to be hung over the vanity and she promised to send me a picture when it is all finished. I will most certainly pass it on to you.

Got to go get me some more chalk paint!!!

If you are tackling any projects using the paint, feel free to send me your questions.

Best~

Meg

Totally decadent!

I took a total walk on the wild side yesterday afternoon and went to see a movie at 4:15 in the afternoon! I felt like a giddy school girl cutting classes...not that I have ever done that... but that is how I probably would have felt. Shirking all of my responsibilities and doing something totally self indulgent in the middle of the afternoon? Never mind that it was during the bewitching hours after school encompassing pick ups, homework and dinner (it's a long movie) but I was not bringing my family with!  It was just me and a couple of dear friends who agreed to go along with this decadent activity.

You should try it! It took me 21 years...don't wait so long...

Fabulous emotional movie...much more so than when seen on stage.

What has been a totally decadent outing that you have partaken in???

Meg