Friday, December 24, 2010

Homemade Christmas Cards :)

I have been a crappy blogger since Thanksgiving- and now I'm putting up 2 posts in 1 day. But hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things after Christmas!  I think my time has mostly been taken up with making our Christmas cards this year haha :)  I saw a cute idea on flickr and tried to make a similar version, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It was just a little more time-consuming than I expected though!  I think I ended up making around 45 total. Here are the cards I found and LOVED:
And here's how mine turned out:

I hate how the pictures turned out so grainy, but I was pretty happy with how the actual cards looked :) Not as fancy as the ones I copied, but I still liked them. I'm gonna try to get some better pictures to post on here. 
And here's what the backside said:
It just took me forever to decide on which quote to use on the cards!  I probably could have started about a month earlier if I would've made up my mind sooner :)  In case it's too hard to read, it says:
"The Son of God became a man, that men could become the sons of God. {C.S. Lewis}
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!  Hoping that the peace and love of our
Savior will be a constant presence in your life in the coming year.
Much Love, Nick, Joy, and Copper Haser"

I do love C.S. Lewis :)  Merry Christmas!!!!

Incredibly belated Thanksgiving post

I finally finished paying off my student loan yesterday!!!! :)  What a great feeling!!  Take that, Sallie Mae!!!  So I'm pumped to mark that off my 101 list. 

{I wrote this 3 weeks ago, but am just now posting it- whoops.}
Thanksgiving was awesome.  Nick's parents came in Wednesday night and left early on Sunday.  That maybe would be stressful for most people, but I seriously have amazing in-laws, and the time went by way too fast.  They took us to dinner on Wednesday, and then his mom was so helpful all day on Thursday while I was cooking.  {Plus, she brought THE MOST amazing cornbread for dinner!!!!!!  I like just about any cornbread and usually can't tell much of a difference- but this was incredible!!!  One of her friends in Memphis got it from her nanny that raised her- so it's some true southern cornbread.  I'll have to post the recipe on here.  It really is worth it to make it from scratch!!}
Anyway, she cleaned up the dishes the whole time while I cooked, and then she and my mom took care of everyone's plates after dinner.  Then we did some shopping on Friday and watched the Auburn game (War eagle!!)  Saturday I got to see one of my bffs Lindsay and she went to lunch with Betty (Nick's mom) and me.  Then we went to dinner on Saturday night to Frankie D's, and then said goodbye on Sunday morning. 
Here are a few pictures from the Thanksgiving festivities:


{This is my attempt to recreate the garland I was crushing on here and that I mentioned on my last post}


{Please ignore the terrible looking kitchen chairs.  I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with them- either stain them darker, or use this next picture as an inspiration}

{I believe this is a picture from Martha Stewart. I love that color for the chairs!!  Hopefully I'll spruce ours up to look like that soon.}


Here's a picture of everyone together.  Just wish my Poppi had been feeling better and made it.

And here's our little family :)
I wrote this post about 3 weeks ago, and just never published it.  So it's much more fitting now to wish you a merry Christmas than to say that I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

Thanksgiving inspiration

Nick's parents are coming here for Thanksgiving, and I'm SOOO excited!!!  His parents are really the most wonderful in-laws a girl could ever ask for.  They've truly been nothing but a blessing from the beginning, and I'm so excited that we'll get to spend several days with them in just a week and a half!! :)  That being said, I need to get my butt in gear and start buying all the food (because we're also hosting my parents, my Poppi, and my sister and brother-in-law, meaning 9 people total!), AND I need to start making the house look festive!!  I know I don't "have" to do this- they'd be so sweet and appreciative even if the house was all cluttered up (as it usually is).  But I would like to add some fun little touches to make it feel "home-y" and special.  Here's one of my FAVORITE Thanksgiving ideas from Friday's child:
How adorable is that???  She used it for a fall baby shower :)  I could never have come up with something so cute!

I also would like to paint our huge living room area before they come, and do some sort of painting or staining to our table before they get here next Wednesday... not to mention about a hundred other little projects I'd like to attempt before then :)  So we'll see what actually gets done!!  Oh, and I'm also working on homemade Christmas cards this year- about 50 of them.  Geez louise.  Why did I not start some of this back in July??? 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Modern twist on a message in a bottle

I've been a terrible blogger this week (meaning a non-existent blogger), because things have been a bit hectic.  I've been trying to get some crafts finished and things ready for Nick's parents to come in town for Thanksgiving (can't wait!) 
But I did have 1 cute craft to share, that I first was inspired by here.  A totally adorable website called Ruffled had a DIY contest, and there were some seriously creative and beautiful ideas that people entered.  This one, called "Unraveling a Letter" I totally loved, and wanted to recreate.  Here are pictures of theirs:


One of my sweet friends, Stephanie, is off at Elon for college, and her bday is coming up.  Despite the fact that there are nearly 10 years between us, she's one of my best friends, and one of the most fun girls that ever lived.  She used to be one of our youth group kids at First Pres, and she calls Nick and me "momma and poppa bear" :)  I remember how much I loved getting care packages when I was off at college (and sadly I haven't been the best at sending them to Steph).  But I wanted to put some things together to send her for her birthday, and I was trying to figure out one more cute thing to include.  And this craft was it! :)  I loved the idea, and I'm so glad they shared it on the website!  Here's how mine turned out:
Just cut your fabric to fit the spool:

Stamp the letters of your message:


Glue it to the spool:


And wrap 'er up!

So simple!!  I think it will be the perfect addition to her care package! :)  I like to think of it as a cuter version of a message in a bottle :) 

Yay for "hump day"!!  And yay for Nick and me traveling to the Auburn game this weekend- aaahhh!!  Can't wait!! :)  Gooo Tigers!!!!

Friday, October 29, 2010

I whip my hair back and forth

Since Amanda is my model for this accessory anyway, I figured I would dedicate this whole post to her by naming it after her favorite song :)  I was attempting some new flowers to put on my yarn wreath the other day, and when she saw one of them, she tried it in her hair and asked if I could make her one.  It looked seriously cute, plus I still owe her some birthday love, so I whipped this little number up.  I love this fall color, and I love how it looks in her dark hair!! 

{She was chatting on her phone :)}



I'll post the new wreaths with these flowers after I finish them! :)

{On a totally different subject, I'm going to my first NBA game tonight in Charlotte and I can't wait!!  That means I can mark one more thing off my 101 list! Yesss!! :)}

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Little Miss Momma

No, this is not my way of announcing that we have a wee one on the way :)  This is the title of the new blog crush that I found today, thanks to stalking Tatertots and Jello- one of my faves :)  Her name is Ashley and her blog is Little Miss Momma.  Here's the new project I'm now obsessed with:



How cool is this victorian cuff????
She gives a tutorial for how to make it, so I may have to give it a go :) If it doesn't work out though, she has them for sale in her etsy store- so at least I have that to fall back on!  Maybe Christmas gifts?  She has some other SUPER cute things in here store:


These pillows are some of my other favorites! They'd go with so many different colors and fabrics.

She has a ton of cute rings too- but this one is my favorite, and is sadly sold out.  Hopefully she'll have some more like this one! I love all her stuff!!


Monday, October 25, 2010

Bye Bye, Miss American Pie

OK, so I must admit that I never understood what this song was talking about.  It was too long for me to pay attention to all the lyrics... but the chorus is mighty catchy :)  I HAVE to share with everyone the most A-ma-zing apple pie recipe that we made during our Cooking activity last week at my work :)  I've never been a huge apple pie fan even- but October is apparently "apple month" (although I would argue that it's more "pumpkin month"), so we thought a homemade apple pie would be a great recipe.  I usually don't like all the cinnamon-y taste in apple pie, but this has zero cinnamon- and I love it!!

I've always been intimidated thinking about making fruit pies- and now I have no idea why!!  The only thing remotely difficult about this recipe was peeling the apples- and that was only because it's time consuming, not actually challenging.  Here's the recipe I got from allrecipes.com.  It's called Grandma Ople's Apple Pie.
{I always check the ratings on websites before I waste my time making something, and this one had a full 5 stars from over 3,000 voters.  Pretty impressive- and totally deserving!!  You can go here if you want to check it out for yourself.}

Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
 1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored
 
Directions
*Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

*Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

*Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
 
That's it!!  My only pieces of advice would be:
a.) Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet, so it can catch all the gooey stuff that runs over the sides.
b.) It may be possible to make this just a regular pie crust topping, but I would recommend making it lattice.  The picture on the website had a lattice work top, so that's what we did.  And since you just drizzle all the deliciousness on top of the crust, it works best I'm sure if the gooey flavors can seep down through the cracks in the lattice strips.  {Here's a simple step-by-step with helpful pictures that we used for how to do the lattice- since we were inexperienced :)}
 
Here's a picture of our masterpiece!
I told my family I'm going to have to make this for them this week!  Grandma Ople, whoever you are, I'm so grateful that you shared this recipe with the world!! (I can now check #1 off my 101 list!)

Friday, October 22, 2010

floating flower vase

So I saw this first on a website cupcakesandcashmere.com and NEEDED to make my own :) 

It's time for me to branch out from all the wreath making, and this was another cute thing to take up some wall space.  Not to mention a super cheap project! {Except that I now may feel like I constantly need to buy flowers to put in it...}  Anyway, the only supplies I needed were:

*a small piece of wood (the guys at Lowe's seemed a little confused)
*some white paint and a paint brush
*some wire
*an empty glass jar (I used one that used to be home to some green olives- yum!)
*a drill

It's pretty self explanatory, but I just painted the wood, drilled 2 holes in the top and 2 next to the jar (Nick actually did this part- even though I was totally willing to do it), wrap some wire around the glass jar, wrap some wire at the top to hang it, and then add flowers!  Couldn't be easier!!  And I love walking in the front door to this! :)







I'm definitely jealous of the sweet peas and wish they were in season right now, but I love the purple and yellow together! :) Can't hardly wait for peonies and hydrangeas to be in season again- aaaahh!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Party like it's 1970!

My dad's 40th high school reunion was the first weekend in October (yay!!)  Dad was one of the committee members, and about 2 months ago when he was talking about it, I somehow offered to do the catering for the casual sock hop on Friday night and then to do the decorating for the formal night... and even worse, I also volunteered the services of my sweet friend, Maggie!!!! (Mags, I still want to apologize for getting you mixed up in the craziness!  I don't know what got into me!!  Maybe because, deep down, I want us to be able to start our own business and call it "Oops I craft my pants" and for people to be lining up down the block to buy whatever random craft we feel like making that day!  Whew- that was a long sentence!)  Well, I somehow thought it was going to be super simple- and boy, was I wrong!!!  I can't even say how many hours I actually spent on it- and the last 4 days before the actual event, I didn't have time for anything except work and then reunion planning. 

Part of me wanted to do it because Huntington East High shut down in 1996 and consolidated with its rival school, Huntington High the next school year.  So I got to go to HEHS for 1 year, my freshman year- the last year its doors were open.  I thought it was a great idea that the reunion committee wanted to have a sock hop in the school's gym, just like they did when they were in school.  The building is now used for the Board of Education, but the gym was in terrible condition just a few weeks ago.  I really didn't think they were going to get it cleaned up in time- but it worked out :)  There were still hundreds of boxes stacked up in the bleachers, but I couldn't even believe it was the same place that I had seen just 5 weeks before!

We didn't have much of a budget to work with ($700 total- for food and decorations), so we had to be a little creative.  It was also a little tricky since their colors were maroon and gold- not easy colors to find decorations in!  But we made it work.  Thankfully, our sweet friend, Courtney, let us borrow the cute lanterns that she used at her wedding as centerpieces on the tables- which saved us a ton of money!  So we just had to buy candles and then put a ribbon around each lantern for the formal dinner on Saturday.  One of my residents at Woodlands Retirement home had been a teacher at HEHS {and actually had both my mom and dad in class :)}, and she mentioned that she had a bunch of the old yearbooks.  So she let us borrow all the yearbooks that were the years my dad and his classmates were there for the memorabilia table.  {sidenote: one of the committee members always had some especially interesting comments and input.  He kept suggesting that we needed to put a chain through the middle of each of the yearbooks and bolt them down to the floor so they didn't get stolen. He also wore safety goggles to one of the committee meetings though.}  We tried to find some of the old uniforms to put on display {and the committee really wanted Mags and me to wear some if we could find any cheerleading or majorette uniforms haha :)}, but didn't have much luck.  They did find someone for Saturday night to play the bagpipes though- which I thought was so cool!! (Their mascot was a highlander.)  I think, all things considered, that it went really well and was a success!!  It was a fun experience, but I think it's a little too much on top of a full time job :) 

The menu had to stay casual, because they had just advertised it as refreshments, not a full dinner.  They requested that we have Stewart's Original Hot Dogs as one of the items, so that was easy enough!  Stewart's is a local old-fashioned hot dog stand where several of the people had worked in high school, and everyone in that generation loves Stewart's.  We just stuck with appetizers/finger food for the rest of the menu.

So here's what we served:
-fruit on a skewer
-veggies and dip
-guacamole salad
-ham and turkey spirals
-Stewart's hot dogs
-pumpkin brownie bites
-cinnamon bun popcorn


Here are a few pics!
{These first pictures are from the Friday informal night}

{The red cabbage wreath I made for the fruit skewers- thanks to Kim Wilson for this idea!}


{Love these letters!!  I hate how everything looks with all the boxes in the background, but we couldn't really do much about that :)}

{Somebody else put up the lights- but I loved them!}


{My favorite details- thanks to Mags!  She freestyle painted these. How cute are these??}


{Since we didn't have much money for decorations for the sock hop, we made a bunch of these baby pumpkins for the tables}

{Mags- hard at work. Drew- chowing down on popcorn :)  Nick even helped carve the pumpkins- but didn't want to be associated with crafting}

{We made tissue puff balls with ribbons and used Chinese lanterns to hang from the ceiling for the Saturday night dinner and dance}

{I'm sad I didn't take any close ups of the cute puff balls! But here's what the room basically looked like}

{This last one one is a bit weird looking, so I should probably explain :)  The tradition at East was that at the football games, girls would wear a big yellow mum with "HEHS" made out of pipe cleaners.  So the committee wanted us to recreate that.  I wish my crappy camera took better pictures and actually captured detail :/}

The great news is that Maggie and I thought this was just volunteering, but we ended up getting paid!!  What a good surprise! :)