Hello friends! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.
We certainly did. I've been away from my blog a bit lately enjoying being with
family during the holidays and during my nieces show on Saturday. Whether you
have a shower, a party or any kind of get together coming up, I thought
I'd share some ideas with you. You know I love crafting .. and the other
things I love is making something old, new again and a great deal! So in this
post I'll share some of those things also:)
First of all this is my Niece Neely. The bride to be. The wedding isn't until May but with her living in LA, we decided having it how while she was back for Christmas would be the best plan. I love her with all my heart. My sis has always shared her with me and let her be the girl I never had. She is pretty darn special to me.
I might as well start at the beginning .... here are the invites I made for the shower.
I had the sign below hanging on the door when you entered. The frame and also the frame below for the other sign are from the Crafty Secrets "Creating with Vintage Patterns CD"
Here are the two pretties who helped me with the shower. My beautiful daughter in law Kate ( on the left) and Neelys brother Ryans sweet girl... Erin. ( on the right)
I wish I had them for helpers all the time!! Wow I loved that :)
We had Neelys shower at the same clubhouse my sister Jan had hosted Kates Shower. It's very nice and works out so well.
Neelys colors made it so fun to decorate. Totally fun and whimsy!
I used lots of apothecary jars and filled them with candy's in pinks, oranges and aquas.
You would be surprised how many different candies the Dollar stores have! For the large jars I got colored popcorn. I ordered it from "Moms Popcorn" in Fremont. It was delicious and matched the colors perfectly. If you live near I totally recommend this place!! Normally they mix it half sweet ( the colored) and half salty, so I set a large bowl of the mixed out for people to eat, but in the large apothecary jars on the mantel I left them all colored. That way the color would stand out more.
On all the end tables, the jars of candies sat with little containers and little tongs and scoops for people to help themselves. I also had little bags out with these signs. Hoping people would take some candies home with them so I wouldn't have to toss them all. Guess what? got rid of them all! It was so fun!
I wanted to tell you a little more about the jars. Glassware like this is pretty inexpensive at flea markets and sales. I use these containers for things in my studio, so I've been collecting them for some time, but they are defiantly not hard to find.
I have some really nice glassware but I really didn't want to take the chance that it might get broke with all that I was packing along. ( OH.. you should have seen my little car... PACKED) lol Anyway I wanted to show you a easy inexpensive way to make your own. I needed some pieces that had large openings so that it was easy for people to get candies out with a scoop. I went to the Dollar tree and bought separate glass pieces and used E600 glue to put them together, like the ones below.
The bottoms were $1 candle sticks and the tops just glass contains. So many different things you can do this way.
Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and work around things..... and make the best of it. Of course .. it was Christmastime, so there were still decorations up. Went we went to look at the place I saw that where were navey blue balls on this tree and that just wasn't going to do :( When we got there, we did a little revamp, by using bows I had cut with my AccuCut BOW DIE
Oh.. and a A and an N for Neely and Alan, from Hobby Lobby, covered in pretty scrapbook paper.
I wanted to share a new recipe that I had tried for the first time .. it was a hit.
Very yummy.
Apricot Cream Cheese Canapés
Lemon Pepper Cream Cheese
This is an easy spread
to make. It goes well with any kind of fruit, especially dried fruits.
Ingredients
· 1 cup cream cheese, softened
· 1/4 tsp. salt
· zest of 1 lemon (about 1 Tbsp)
· 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
· 1 tsp. lemon juice
Instructions
1.
Combine all ingredients in a small
bowl
Apricots with Rosemary and Maple
This topping
made of dried apricots has such a delicious and intriguing flavor. The
sweet apricots with sweet maple turn a bit savory with fresh rosemary and
walnuts. It really is a lovely flavor combination.
Ingredients
· 1 cup dried apricots (about 26-30)
chopped finely
· 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
· 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
· 2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
Instructions
2.
Combine all ingredients
in a small bowl.


click here
Ever need Aqua punch?
Tidal Wave Lemonade
Blue Punch Recipe 1 pkg. blue raspberry kool-aid 1 can minute maid frozen lemonade 2 liter bottle of sprite water ( I couldn't find the blue kool-aid so I used Blue typhoon Hawaiian punch) Floated sliced oranges on top
Cherry Limeade Punch
- 1 can frozen limeade concentrate
- 1 2-liter bottle of Sprite (or 7-Up)
- 1 jar maraschino cherries
- 2 limes
Directions:
Place frozen Limeade in punchbowl. Stir in bottle of Sprite and juice from cherries. Add the desired amount of ice. Float cherries and sliced limes on top.
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On to the bottled water. Labels off.... strips of pretty scrapbook paper added, with white stickers and matching markers for writing there names on them.
I made the little cupcake banner with scrapbook paper also. Little flags on toothpicks for each cupcake and a special one for the bride to be. Oh.... I used up the patterned paper scraps by punching out circles of confetti's to lay on the table.
**Oh... also the square 11.5 x 11.5 scalloped pieces the cupcakes are sitting on are also cut from scrapbook paper. They are AccuCut die SQ704
Remember the trees I was bleaching and dying HERE? Well, here is how they were displayed. The varied shaped round mirrors I plucked off my wall as I went out the door. ( made really good "lakes") Get creative ... make do with what you have!
I made Neely and Alan and set of dated forks to be used to eat cake at their wedding, like the ones I did for Jarad and Kate. Instead of putting them in a shadowbox I used this frame with pretty scrapbook paper for a background... ( no glass). the forks are just wired in so that she can take them out to use them for the wedding and then put them back in as a keepsake afterwards. The background paper can easily be changed any time she wants to fit her décor.
I used a number of the little bits of ephemera and frames on the Crafty Secrets CDs for things at the shower. Here I made a little "Reserved for the Bride to be" sign for the chair.
The pillows I made from Muslin draw string bags from State Line Bag Co . So easy! Just stamped them with foam stamps and acrylic paint, stuffed them, stitched them up and added trims.
I was a great day, with weather was so nice ( especially for Dec in NE) and we had a fantastic turn out.
The chalkboard you see on the mantle in the orange frame was found at a thrift store some time ago. It usually hangs in my studio. The frame is actually plastic and the back is a mirror. I just painted the frame with spray paint and flipped the mirror to the back. Painting the back for the mirror with chalkboard spray.
The garland of circles is just punched circles or scrapbook paper glued together with string in the middle.
The banner is cut from scrapbook paper, using AccuCut die Pennant Flags PI317
Neely is such a sweet and genuine person. She was so happy to be surrounded by friends and family. So many people she doesn't get to see that much now that she lives in LA . I don't know how I didn't get a photo of my sis and Neely together. That makes me kind of sad, but I know there were tons of other photos take by others. Between my camera and my phone, I actually surprised I snapped as many as I did. When your hosting something, it's hard to remember to stop and take time to do that.
But it really was just a happy day all around! Neely said she was smiling so much her face hurt. That makes me happy!
She's pretty special!
Next up.... wedding. lol
We have a few months.
Thank you sis for sharing this sweet girl with me.
Vic