Thinking Spring

While the windchill might feel like -4 out right now, I'm doing my best to incorporate spring inside of our home.  Let me tell you though, I'm ready for winter to leave already.  Last year at this time I had been using herbs from my garden for about a month, my tulips were flowering, and the boys had played outside without jackets!  I will not be bitter though.  Or, I'll try my hardest to not be.

Happy Tuesday to you.  I'm sending warm thoughts and sunshine your way! Let's hope the weather cooperates soon, after all, spring does begin tomorrow.

A Thanksgiving Sage Wreath

If you're looking for a fitting way to decorate your home or need a hostess gift this Thanksgiving, you might want to try making a simple sage wreath.  Since many cooks use sage to season their turkey and stuffing, it makes perfect sense to incorporate this herb wreath into the celebration!  

To make a sage wreath you will need:

A large quantity of sage (10-12 big bunches)

Sturdy wire (formed into a circle) to serve as your frame

Floral wire

Wire cutters

Trim off the thick ends of your sage as well as any brown, spotted leaves.  Using your floral wire, attach one bunch of sage at a time, working your way around your wire frame until it is full.  Easy, no?

I'll be back soon with more Thanksgiving fun!

(and yes, I'm using sage again...  Can you sense a theme here?)

*****

Oh, just in case you're interested in more herb wreaths, you can go here!

Sage and Leaf Thanksgiving Placecards

Placecards for Thanksgiving can be easy, inexpensive, and elegant even when you use ordinary things from around your home.  For these placecards, I used sage from my herb garden, oak leaves, and twine.  Simply bundle together a small bunch of sage, a leaf, and wrap with twine.  Write your guests' names on each leaf and you've got yourself something extraordinary out of the ordinary.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Thanksgiving fun!

Happy Independence Day!

God bless our native land!

Firm may she ever stand

Through storm and night!

When the wild tempests rave,

Ruler of wind and wave,

Do thou our country save

By thy great might.

For her our prayers shall rise

To God above the skies;

On him we wait.

Thou who art ever nigh,

Guarding with watchful eye,

To thee aloud we cry,

God save the state!

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With a thankful heart for my country, I wish you all a Happy 4th of July!

A Perfectly Imperfect Love Letter Valentine Wreath

Seeing as how Valentine's day is only four short days away, I thought I should make some kind of decoration to celebrate.  I had been seeing those cute little stitched felt hearts everywhere and was inspired.  However, I did not have any colors of felt appropriate for Valentine's day (rats) and was forced to use some paper instead.  I printed off a love letter I found on Google images written by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  Using the love letter, I cut out some hearts, stuffed them, and sewed them up.  I suppose you could use your own love letter for this, but I didn't have the heart to cut mine up!  Plus, that Mr. Browning has some pretty fancy handwriting, doesn't he?

After I had made eight or so hearts, I pinned them to my wreath form, which I also used for my fall yarn wreath.  I hung it up on my chalkboard using bakers twine.

It isn't perfect but it was easy and romantic!  Ooh la la!

I'm linking up to:

Tatertots and Jello

Valentine's Day Cookies

This cookie recipe comes from my Mom, as do most of the other cookie recipes I use and have blogged about.  I use this recipe for every season and love it because I always seem to have the five ingredients on hand. They come together quickly and easily and aren't a fussy cookie.

Here is the recipe.

Traditional Rolled Butter Cookies

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks/1 cup)

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter.  Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy.  Add the flour in small amounts, mixing well after each addition.  Add the milk and vanilla last.  Turn out onto a board and kneed for about a half a minute.  Roll out to 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out with cookie cutters.  Bake at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Watch them closely.  They should be almost white when ready to remove from the oven.  {I almost always double this recipe}.

I typically use a butter frosting to decorate these cookies but for some reason I used a cream cheese frosting this time.  My boys loved the change, so I'll share it with you!

Cream Cheese Frosting

6 ounces softened cream cheese

1/2 cup softened butter

2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract

4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups confectioners sugar

Beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add the sugar one cup at a time and beat well after each addition.  {This was more than enough frosting to cover the doubled cookie recipe}.

I divided the frosting in half and added a couple of drops of red food coloring to make a lovely shade of pink.  The other half I left white.  Decorate the cookies however you wish!

And so, since we're in the month of love now, I would like to thank all of my lovely readers for reading this little blog and for your sweet emails and questions.  Keep them coming!  I didn't know if I would stick with this blog thing but have found such enjoyment in it and appreciate the friends I have made.  You're all pretty terrific!

Happy February to you all!

Also, thanks Mom for baking such wonderful things for us as kids!

I'm linking up to:

Decor Chick

Some Cinnamon Rolls for Your Valentine's Day

Folks, I didn't come up with this idea.  I pinned it on Pinterest from the blog Poppies at Play and wanted to try it out for my three Valentines.  Turns out, making your cinnamon rolls look all lovey-dovey and cute is easy.  Here's what I did to make my cinnamon rolls look like hearts.

Roll out your dough and cover with your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll up the dough along the length until it meets in the middle.  You can roll as tight or as loose as you please.

Slice the cinnamon rolls up and place into your pan.

Bake according to your recipe.

Frost and share with the ones you love.

Well hello there, little Valentine rolls!

Have a happy weekend!

And thank you to Poppies at Play for the really cute idea!

Thanksgiving Table Setting

Even though I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year, I still wanted to create a beautiful table setting for my family of four.  You see, we go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving every year.  I love it.  However, we never have access to those yummy leftovers that you get after the festivities have come and gone.  To remedy this, I plan on making our own "mini Thanksgiving meal" the weekend after.  I'll have all the turkey I need to make soups, pot pies, and sandwiches.  Here is what our table will look like for our own little family Thanksgiving celebration.

I started by setting out my yellow table runner along with my white dishware.  I love white dishware.  It goes with anything.  You can't go wrong with it!  I wanted to go with a yellow, brown, and silver color scheme, so I brought out my silver chargers.

For a place card, I simply took some gray card stock and cut it into strips.  I then cut a "v" in each end.

I wrote our names on the strips of card stock and wrapped them around some of my dried cone flowers that I spray painted with some Goldenrod spray paint.

I kept them in place with some hot glue.

To keep the color scheme going, I added my silver and golden yellow pumpkins to the table.

My menu card is pretty plain Jane.  I printed my "menu", which is totally fake by the way, on some more gray card stock and glued another dried cone flower to the front.  I really have no idea what we'll eat that day!


Thanks for taking a look at my Thanksgiving table setting!  It was fun to put together and I can't wait to enjoy it with my three boys at our Thanksgiving.