Gingerbread House Party !!

Last night I hosted my first ever gingerbread house decorating party.   Step inside and I will show you how the evening went....

The kitchen was ready....

 Houses were baked and assembled, ready to be decorated....

 Candy cups at every seat....

 The houses were attached to plastic trays that I found at the dollar tree. I also found the red placemats there but I jazzed them up a bit with some ric rac.

 I made every one a gingerbread apron and stuffed in the pocket is a homemade template of the gingerbread house so that they can make one next year.

 Getting the food ready on the island....

 Hot cocoa warming in the crockpot and vegetarian chili simmering on the stove(btw, it was my own recipe and came out great).

 My youngest daughter decked out in holiday attire...

 My girls hanging out by the food.

 And the decorating begins!!!.....

A picture in their aprons...

 I joked that I was going to put each of their houses on my blog and have you all vote for your favorite, with the winner getting a small prize....  But why joke, let's do it.....  Cast your vote by leaving your favorites' number in a comment :)   Here we go, gingerbread houses on parade.....

House #1 Front

 Back

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House #2 Front

 Back

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House #3 Front

 Back

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House #4 Front

 Back

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House #5 Front

 Back

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House #6 Front

 Back

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And the whole village.....

I had a great time and I'm so glad I did this. I think everyone else enjoyed it too.  I hope you liked your glimpse into my gingerbread party :)

Have a wonderful day,

Tiff

Lots Going On...

My hubby asked me if I was on a blogging hiatus because it had been awhile since I posted anything. It was not intentional, it's just a busy time of year and we have lots going on.  (and I still need to respond to emails, so sorry if you are waiting to hear from me).

Ok, so this is a little bit of what I have been up to...

I wanted to add something to our outdoor Christmas decor, but I wasn't sure what. So I did some searching online and then pinned a couple of things.  A couple of weekends in the garage and we ended up with a beautiful wood Nativity display.  Next year we will add an angel, camel, and some other animals.

 And for the first time, I added colored lights too.  This weekend we are going to hang a lighted star in the upstairs laundryroom window and it will complete things for this year.

 Here is the porch. I still need to go cut some fresh greens to add a nice smell.

 This Saturday I am throwing a gingerbread house making party for some of my neighbors(it's a mommy only thing, no kiddos).  So I needed to make a prototype before the party.  I made the house template myself, baked it up, put it together, and royal icinged it.  I didn't have any candy in the house, so it is just icing, but I will have lots of candy for the party. My first time using royal icing and I love it!! It hardens so nicely and is easy to use.

 And this picture doesn't look like much, but there is a lot of working sitting there. The December bulletin boards for the school need to go up on Friday so I had to get them made this week.  It's a gingerbread house theme, as if you couldn't tell.

 Little miss Zoe loves to sleep under the tree. Surprisingly, she leaves the ornaments alone :)

I just finished baking the 6 gingerbread houses for Saturday, tomorrow I will assemble them and then they will be good to go for the party.  I am officially sick of baking gingerbread!!

I'll post about the party on Sunday and show you all the wonderful creations!!

Less than two weeks till we see Cameron again!!!

Tiff

Magazine Sale.....

I'm clearing some stuff out and trying to set up a new sewing area in the basement. The first round of things to go are some magazines.  If anyone local is interested in them, leave a comment. I'm selling them in bundles by type or name, need to get a little extra money for the graduation trip in December.

First group is all Country Home...9 magazines(good condition, except two that are more worn) $6

2nd batch, 9 Victoria, 1 Mary Janes Farm, and 1 Mother Earth News. $9

 3rd batch, 7 Cottage related magazines... $5

 4 batch, 13 magazines of flea market, decorating, and kitchen type ones. $5

 5th batch, 20 Family Fun magazines. $10

 6 batch , 27 Home Companion magazines, not all have the paper dolls in them. $15

 7th batch, 2 Halloween books and 5 Halloween magazines. $5

 8th batch, 3 Semi Homemade and 8 Better Homes and Garden Magazines. $5

 9th batch, 12 Christmas magazines. $5

 10th batch, 7 crafting magazines. $5

Tiff

One evening....

I thought I would do a post just about an evening in my life....so here is a piece of yesterday evening...

I first found the kitten sound asleep nestled into Mason...

 While making dinner my 6 yr old walked into the kitchen, hopped up on a chair, and asked what was for dinner.  I told him "sloppy joes".  He looked at the plate of onions, bell peppers, and celery that I was chopping, and didn't say anything for a bit.  Then he announced... "I don't like those things but I do really like sloppy joes. I guess that is a good way to get me to eat those things, isn't it?" Yes, yes it is :)

 While I was cooking I glanced over at the doorway to the gameroom (which was originally the dining room and has been a playroom, craftroom, and bedroom). We turned it into the game room months ago because I was tired of the gaming equipment and cords and mess in the family room. Then about a month or so ago I moved all the book shelves in there and put all the books in the house in that room too.  It has slowly transformed into a den/mancave/gameroom.  I didn't much care for it at first. But after cleaning it yesterday and turning on a table lamp in the afternoon(it gets dark here early now) the room is growing on me.  It's actually kind of inviting and cozy.  It doesn't look like a magazine room, but more of a room that has grown over time.

 The next tow pictures are dark because I didn't turn on the overhead light and was trying to capture the cozy feel of the lamp.

 Mason had to get in and pose...

 And looking the other direction while at the stove... I took down my Wandering Jew plant that was in the enamel bucket above the sink because the thing kept growing so fast that its tendrils attacked us while we were at the sink!  I replaced it with one of my Christmas cacti(which are all starting to bloom).  I also cleaned off the window sill in preparation for Christmas decor.

 And when hubby walked in the door from work, he had a pretty rose and card for me :) Thank you my love!

Have a lovely day,

Tiff

Baking Center...

Thank you all for the nice comments on my family room wall :)  And to answer a question, the large frame on the left holds a photo of my hubby's great grandparents.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I struggle with a side area in my kitchen. This area has been many things over the years and has always frustrated me. It is supposed to be a built in desk area, but I never liked it for that purpose...you see I suffer from "prettyvspracticalitis".  To put it simply, I hate wasted space and I want things and areas to be practical but my visual brain wants it to be pretty and pleasing to the eye more than the practical aspect(a constant struggle!).

If I knew we were going to stay in this house I would just rip the whole area out and put my hoosier back in the kitchen where it belongs, but that isn't going to happen right now.

So the solution for now came a few weeks ago.... my daughters like to bake, but the supplies were never all in one area. Our food pantry is small and we really needed more room in there, and it was hard to find the baking stuff.  With some prompting from them and the need to clean out the pantry, we came up with a baking center....(call it a modern day hoosier :) )

 Hubby's cake from last night...

 The small wooden chest contains my tea bags, and I added a covered sugar bowl and glass shaker with cinnamon sugar.  I need to find a pretty glass container for honey(then this can be a tea center too).

 I painted the sign last week after finding some inspiration on pinterest.

 And inside the cupboards.... this is the upper center one...sugar, flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, straws, mixing bowl, pie plate, and small cake cover.

 Upper left cupboard... supplies.....

 Upper right...more supplies...

 Lower right... bakeware....

 Drawers...sprinkles and stuff...

 Cupcake stuff....

 Measuring things....

 There you have it, everything in one area, easy to find and most of all  Pretty and Practical!!!

I can't wait to add a touch of Christmas to this area.  Oh, and I just realized while I was typing this, I need to add the cookie cutters to the center!!

What do you think?  Good solution to a problem area?

Have a great day,

Tiff

Family Room Wall...

I decided the bee pictures I painted were a bit small for the family room wall and wanted something more in this area.  I have been collecting oval frames for awhile now, when ever I see them cheap at thrift stores or yard sales I grab them.  I spray painted them all black to look cohesive and then I added the kids' silhouettes I made last year and put them all up on the wall. I went out to the camper and I was going to take the five that I put on the wall out there back, but I couldn't get them off the wall! So in the camper they will stay :)

So here is the wall now. Sorry for the bad pics, my camera died awhile ago and I have been using my son's, but it doesn't take the best inside pictures, especially at night.

 I will slowly fill in all the frames with pictures of the kids.

 I know these pictures look bad, it does look much better in real life.

Today is hubby's birthday, not sure if he wants to be reminded of it or not. But I will say Happy Birthday and I love you. Making your favorite dinner and a layered cake for dessert!!

Tiff

Forgotten Garage Treasures...

I thought I would share a few things that I had forgotten about in the garage.  I went out there today looking for something and found two bags of stuff tucked away on a shelf.  The first one was from the Salvation Army.  It had a bunch of stuff in it that I bought for some mini trees that I wanted to make(got the trees at the dollar store), and also some vintage kitchen items. Total price for it all $7.09.

The second bag was from Goodwill by the pound. I have only been there twice(it's kind of yucky and takes time to go through the stuff),  but you can find treasures.  I got a vintage tupperware mixing bowl(I actually have the cookie rolling sheet that matches it, my mom gave me years ago), a metal cheese grater, a bunch of pretty silverware that my daughter wants to make into jewelry,  11 old glass ornaments, a vintage wood ornament(for my tacky tree), two little sleds for the dollhouse,  a biscuit cutter, 4 tin cookie cutters, and a bunch of mini little tin mold things. Grand total...

are you ready for it?....  $1.64 !!!  Ya, good treasures at a great price, you just feel like you need a shower afterward. 

Baked cookies today for a school party tomorrow and made some big posters for it, I'll try to remember to take some pictures to share here.  Trying to decorate for Christmas but there always seems to be something else going on, just not enough time in the day. And I'm not sure how I'm decorating the main tree because of the new kitty... I don't want to lose all my glass ornaments!

Tiff