Recycled Cake Stand

Last Fall I went to a craft show at one of our local high schools. It is an annual event that I have never attended in all the years that we've lived in this area. I was mostly going to scope out the competition and determine if I might want to get involved this year and try my hand at selling some items.

It was a HUGE event! And I'm glad to report that I didn't see any items like those I have been thinking about doing. One of the coolest things I did see however--and there was a line of people waiting to buy--was a booth of recycled cake stands. This woman was a genius. Minimal cost, minimal effort and apparently a great return on her investment judging by those waiting in line to buy.

What she had done was to buy some mismatched decorative plates at a thrift store of varying shapes and colors and then glued those to various bowls, candy dishes, etc. to make a "new" cake stand. And she was only selling them for $5 apiece.

Well, I decided to try my own hand at it. I went shopping at a local thrift shop and came up with this beauty.

I had actually found a matching candy bowl to go with the plate. (The lady at the craft show didn't have any that appeared to match per se, but those she had made sure looked great.)

So then the next step was to decide which way to attach the two together. ...like the above pic, or the one below.....
I chose this option.

You just need to make sure you use an Epoxy adhesive when putting one together. I used one from Super Glue®.

Now that "cake season" is starting at our house--the first birthdays of the year at our house are in April--we'll be ready in style.

St. Patrick's Day Dinner Ideas

One of the traditions at our house growing up was that during particular holidays we would have a "color" dinner. For example: on Valentine's Day Mom would make our RED dinner meaning anything she could serve that was red she would: i.e. red Jell-O, some sort of red punch, spaghetti, etc. At my house we've made lasagna, or chili. For St. Patrick's Day the same applies, only anything green. This one is a little more difficult, trying to find a green main dish, but we aren't above adding food coloring to mashed potatoes, or to homemade bread in order to maintain the green theme. You can also make a little Shamrock Cake (white cake mix tinted green with white or green frosting and some sprinkles) for dessert--that would make the kids happy. Or a Key Lime Cheesecake--which would make hubby happy.

However, when it comes to St. Patrick's Day Shindigs we just had to spotlight our cousin, Annette, and her family. Traditional dinner, green attire, custom family board game, Irish Jigging, Pot 'o gold, green Jelly Bellies! They go ALL out and enjoy the season!


Click HERE to learn what their day usually includes and HERE to see their last year's St. Patty's Celebration. It makes me want to be at her house just for this occasion alone.

Annette's goal: To have fun together as a family. Each year she says they also learn fun facts about St. Patrick's Day. Those you can get online by doing a search for "St. Patrick's Day trivia". There are TONS of sites and info out there. You might even want to make your own St. Patrick's Day Trivial Pursuit game.


Here are Annette's recipes for their St. Patty's dinner as shown in her post.

Kerry Cottage Soup
1-1/2 c. chopped cabbage
4 T. chopped onions
4 T. margarine
2 can condensed beef soup
2 soup can water
1-2 cans corned beef
dash of pepper

Sauté half the cabbage and onions in the butter until tender.
Add soup and water.
Simmer.
About 15 minutes before serving add the rest of the cabbage.
About 10 minutes before serving add the corned beef.

HINTS:

Annette says: We usually vary the amounts of cabbage and corned beef. We all like more cabbage than the recipe says and I usually do 1 1/2 cans of beef. This recipe made enough for 5 of us but 2 of us ate cold cereal last year! It is not good as leftovers because the cabbage and beef get a little gross!


Irish Soda Bread
4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
4 T. butter
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
1 egg

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt.
Cut butter into the mix.
Combine buttermilk and egg and add to mixture.
Knead on floured board until smooth.
Divide in two pieces and place in greased round cake tins and press down to fit.
Cut cross in top with scissors.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serve with honey.


Blarney Stone-Kissed Cookies
1 c. margarine
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat margarine, sugar, egg and vanilla until well blended.
Mix remaining ingredients together and add.
Divide dough in half and place on waxed paper.
Roll a log about 7" long and 2 1/2" wide.
Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate 8 hours.

To bake, cut into 3/8" slices.
Bake 15 minutes at 325 degrees.
Cool slightly then remove from pan.
Cool thoroughly.
Drizzle glaze (recipe below) over top and immediately put an unwrapped Hershey kiss on top.

Glaze:
3/4 c. powdered sugar
3-4 tsp. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
3 drops green food coloring

Thanks, Annette, for letting us borrow you

and your fun family tradition!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!

Halloween Party People

This all started with Leslie's party people post and her second party people post. I wanted to try those decorations and so now we'll add the Halloween version of party people. My kids are so excited to have the Halloween decorations up. The sign letters you can print yourself can be found here.

I found my printed tissue paper in the Halloween/Seasonal section at Wal-Mart. They had candy corns, Happy Halloween, Polka-dots (I think I am going to go get some more of those), and others. You can probably find them at any party supply place too. I am not sure how I feel about the 2 different colors together, but I thought I'd try it out. Also, the patterned sheets don't always come in 8 sheets, usually only 5. So I cut them in half width wise and then stacked them and followed the directions. I kind of like that smaller size too.

Let your imagination run with it. The kids will think it is a party all day, every day. Thanks, Leslie for finding this fun and easy idea.

Party People continued....

I just had to show how cute these Martha decorations look. They are still hanging (and might linger even longer) because I love them so much. I MUST make pink ones for L's bday in December.




and you can see my plate wall...I've been gradually adding to it. If you see any great finds in these colors let me know. I ended up using dessert plates in 5-8". They just seem to be the right size.

here is the garland:



(after viewing this photo I suddenly have the urge to clear my refrigerator of the mess/storage. U-G-L-Y! )

Fabric Garland

We have seen these fabric garlands all over the place, but when we were planning our summer party (that didn't happen) this was one of the decorations we were most excited about using.

Here is my "Cherry Party" themed garland! (The light yellow fabric has cherries on it!) I tried to make it more random--without a specific pattern to the triangles.

Since I've really no idea where to put it until next years party, I've decided to hang it in my sewing room until further notice. It makes me happy to go in there and see cheery things!

Leslie has been getting ready for her husband's birthday in October and made this masculine color-schemed garland for him.

The triangles on her garland are a bit bigger than the cherry one with each triangle measuring 7.5" wide and 9.25" long. ( The cherry ones measure 7" wide and 7" long finished.)

detail view


this shows her pattern repeating

Simple directions for your own Fabric Garland:

Cut a template to the desired size (fold a piece of paper in half to achieve symmetry).

Use a rotary cutter and quilters ruler to do mass cuttings faster.

Sew down two sides, leaving top open.

Turn right sides out and iron, make sure your triangles have a good point.

Lay triangles edge to edge inside the entire length of double fold bias tape (don't forget to pin!)

Sew and you're DONE!

Feminine Apron

I made this apron last night for Simple Girl and I's upcoming summer cherry party. (Simple Girl has a cherry tree in her backyard). We originally had this idea for last year, but the cherries froze so, alas, no party. But it's given us plenty of time to refine our ideas. Let's hope this year the cherries flourish because when Simple and Modern collide...it's a beautiful thing.

I had this fabric laying around from this. I'm going to pair it with yellow wellies (except I'm getting the cheap version from our local farm supply store) and tap into my downhome side. I am from the midwest after all. The truth is, this modern girl can't wait to get country chic.