Wedding Reception

I was a bridesmaid this past 1-2 weeks. The happy couple was married in Arizona and then came out a week later for a reception in Utah. Their colors were teal blue and chocolate brown and it was fun to see how they could completely transform a church gym twice in completely different ways. Some fun things that I loved:

1. The paper lanterns strung across the ceiling. Fishing line and a ladder can do wonders! These are flower eyelet lanterns by Martha Stewart.

2. In chandelier in the Arizona reception. It was beautiful and charming.

3. The matching aprons. The grooms grandmother had made these for all the kitchen help at both reception. They were flirty, super cute and matched!

4. The "he said, she said" signs. They were decorating a table with pictures at the Arizona reception and then they were strung up above the signing/video table at the Utah one. So fun for people to read.

5. The fantastic dessert at the Utah reception...shaved ice, fresh berries, vanilla icecream, and whipped cream. Gotta love it!

Arizona specifics: They had little chicken salad croissants and chocolate fondue for dessert served with marshmallows, brownie bites, strawberries, angel food cake. Lots and lots of dancing. cute scrapbooked guest signing pages (that was my responsibility at the table). Darling necklaces and orchid corsages for the bridesmaids.

Utah specifics: Little rose bouquets for the bridesmaids, chocolate and caramel dipped pretzels as a thank you gift, tulips and roses everywhere, my new favorite shaved ice dessert, chocolate cake everywhere including in these adorable tiny cake stands that had long fluted stem stands.

The march madness extravaganza!

For March Madness food go here. Or you can make a homemade pepperoni pizza with the pepperoni as the lines to make a basketball.

Ideas for the final game party.....
1. lots of food
2. lots of fun
3. make buttermints in the colors of the teams and mix with peanuts
4. Make cupcakes and decorate as basketballs
5. Play basketball the board game
6. Basketball pinata anyone?
7. finish with a basketball movie...
-Glory Road

• -Coach Carter

• -Finding Forrester

• -He Got Game

• -Basketball Diaries

• -Hoosiers

• -Air Bud

• -Space Jam

• -Hoop Dreams

• -White Men Can't Jump

For more ideas look here.

mmmm, cake.

For my birthday a few years back one of my friends made me this swell cake. I love basketball and this was perfect for me, and is now perfect for a March Madness party...

Bierochs

This is a delicious dish my neighbor Teresa made for us everytime my mom had a baby. I have always wondered what it was called, and how to make it and I finally got the recipe. They are a meat filled pastry of the German/Russian influence.

Here you go:

Bierochs (or Bierocks)

Bread dough (Rhoades rolls, regular or texas size are the easy way to do it)

Ground beef or turkey

chopped onion

sliced mushrooms

shredded cabbage

pepper

Grated cheese

(there are no quantities, because this is a as much as you want or don't want type recipe)

Brown the meat, add onion, mushrooms, cabbage, and pepper to taste.

Thaw and flatten bread dough after it has doubled in size.

Put some shredded cheese in the middle, and scoop some meat and cabbage mixture on top.

Pinch the ends together to close the roll.

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake according to bread dough directions, generally at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown.

Enjoy!

For an alternative recipe with dough and measurements go here.

pay it forward gift style

The Deal:



The first five people that respond to this post will receive something made by me to you!!! It will be my choice and made especially for you. Just so we're on the same page here are the details...



What I create will be just for you. It will be done sometime soon. You have no clue what it will be...cookies, a photograph, something scrapbook or cooking related...etc. It may be some other random thing that I am capable of doing or making that would be enjoyable to you. I may bake something and mail it to you...who knows? NOT YOU! That's for sure! I reserve that right to so something extremely strange.



The fine print: You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first five people who do the same on their blog. When you get your lovely homeade goody from me, post a picture on your blog so I know my love arrived without a hitch! And to make a spin on things this will be on both blogs and facebook. so.....get on it!



Thanks Elise!!!!!

heading to...

Reno for the WAC tourney...

March Madness ideas to follow!

St. Patty's Ideas

Some (17 to be exact) fun ideas for St. Patrick's Day...

1. Make these or have kids make these to give to other people.

2. Make a fruit Pizza in the shape of a rainbow...I envision it was a giant rainbow shaped sugar cookie, frosted in delightful cream cheese frosting with rows of fruit filling in the colors...Strawberries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries... and then you make 3-6 round sugar cookies, topped in the same good frosting, and sprinkled with coconut to arrange as a cloud. I am going to make this, and then I will post a picture. Here is a basic Fruit Pizza recipe.

3. attend a St. Patrick's day parade and sing an Irish drinking song.

4. Make a pot full of gold candy for a fun treat and decoration

5. check out a local concert featuring bagpipes (yes I know they are Scottish) and/or Irish step dancing

6. hide cute leprechaun pics and shamrocks for kids to search for and win prizes about

7. learn more about what St. Patrick's day is all about...

8. Obviously you can dye just about any food green... Easy ones are Green eggs and Ham for breakfast, mashed potatoes, green drinks, green bread. For Green snack Ideas go here.

9. Or make something more traditionally Irish. All-recipes has a great list of Irish food ideas and recipes. Or check out this list.

10. Wear GREEN. easy.

11. Go here for other kid friendly St. Patty's themed crafts.

12. Watch a movie...like "Darby O'gill and the little people" or "Riverdance"

13. Mint is good. super good. Stephanie's Kitchen featured this AMAZING looking cookie/brownie...

14. Learn a Gaelic game.

15. Learn some Gaelic language.

16. Eat some lucky charms

17. Try to catch a leprechaun or find a 4 leaf clover just for the heck of it!

Quote books

I discovered this site, which I will definitely use for scrapbook inspiration, and even better it has a great cache of quotes. Thus I am working on a new quotebook. A "365" quote book. I'll post a pic when it is done.

march madness....

I love March. Some great holidays occur.

1. St. Patricks Day
2. March Madness

Today I want to post about some delightful snack foods to eat while watching march madness...

Candy mix:
As you can see it contains as much or little as you want of the following: Peanut M&Ms, Chocolate covered raisins, pretzel sticks, swedish fish, goldfish crackers, regular M&Ms etc...

* This recipe inspired by Toni's mom, Teddy.

Crab dip:
1-2 packages cream cheese
1/2-1 bottle shrimp cocktail sauce
1-2 packages imitation crab

Chop and mix cream cheese with crab. It is supposed to be textured not smooth. Pour over and stir in cocktail sauce. Serve with crackers.

*This recipe was inspired by Dan during a game night at Niki's house.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!!

Today is Dr. Suess' Birthday. (and mine)

I love Dr. Suess a lot, and always will. I also love cookbooks inspired by books. Last year for my birthday I recieved this book:

It has a wide variety to fun things to make and eat inspired by his books.

Being a birthday one I want to share here is... Cat in the Hat birthday Cake, essentially here you go:

Cat in the Hat Birthday Cake

1 angel food cake
1-2 cups fresh strawberries
1 container cool-whip

Blend most of the strawberries with the coolwhip in a mixer.
Pour over angel food cake.
Cut rest of strawberries up and decorate cake.
Enjoy!!

This is super easy, and super fresh.

scrapbook sites I love...

just wanted to mention a couple of the scrapbook sites I love.

First is a new site, that I don't love completely yet because it is so new, but I am definitely in like with the idea. The scrap review. This is a wonderful idea. It is a website dedicated to reviewing all of the latest and greatest in the scrap world digi or traditional. Plus this week are a lot of free giveaways...

One of the creators of the scrap review is Emilie. She has a delightful blog full of fab ideas, and quirky moments. I was introduced to this blog through one of my other fav scrap sites....

Pencil Lines. Pencil lines posts sketches (almost daily) along with a variety of completed layouts inspired by the sketch. I love working from sketches and have really enjoyed using this site for ideas. --For all you digi-holics they also have templete downloads of each sketch.

here is an example....

Sketch by Emilie on Pencil Lines...
My Layout...
sorry about the quality...please click to enlarge.