Yellow & Grey {mops}

The annual MOPS planning retreat has once again come to my house and I had so much fun planning and preparing for this event. One of my favorite jobs as coordinator is finding ways to bless my steering team. . . and do it for fairly cheap! This year, the retreat took place on 3 consecutive Monday's and so the decore has been up for a few weeks. . . it is super fun to look at each time I set up! This Monday, is the final meeting (and most fun. . . if you ask me!). I found my inspiration from here and here.

I was going to do more, but decided to go with the simpler version since it was not a 2 day retreat, but spanning over 3 Mondays. I used this paper pad to make everything for the retreat (when they are on sale at JoAnn's, it is an awesome deal. . . cheaper than buying individual pieces of scrapbook paper at a scrapbook store).

The bunting is made of scrapbook paper. I used MS word shapes and made a diamond as my template and traced it on the back of my 12x12 sheet of paper. I was able to get 4 flags out of each one. My string was crochet yarn and I used double stick tape to adhere it to the yarn.

I found an amazing selection of yellow candy between Target and Powell's Candy Store. I used lemon meringue salt water taffy, Dove chocolate with caramels, Butterfingers, yellow M&M's, yellow and white candy sticks, Vanilla Oreo cookies, lemon drops, and cream puffs.

The first night, I made meringue cookies (recipe to be posted later) and pretzels dipped in white chocolate with a yellow drizzle. The second and third nights, we had white cake balls with yellow sprinkles (to be posted later).

We also had a lemonade bar, with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. It turned out delicious!

It was so much fun doing this yellow themed retreat! I look forward to sharing with you other things from the retreat! I am really excited about our Theme verse for the year. . . 1 Timothy 1:7, from the message. Go check it out. . . I will be talking about it a lot soon!

cake Pops!

I did it! I made my first batch of cake pops. I must confess that we are hooked! The toddler is hooked. . . the husband is hooked. . . I guess I am too! They were so easy!

I have already made another batch and will probably make many, many more!

Peanut Butter Pie

In many ways I feel like I am in a funk. Well, maybe I am. . . this week, anyways. It's been a crazy week, but I think we are recovering nicely. I am currently in the process of getting the 2011-2012 MOPS year started. I think I am going to have a great steering team (all of them are new to leadership this year). I also have quite a few things on my to-do list, but they are little things . . . so are quickly marked off (hooray for that!). I have been so tired lately, but that's because we have had several late night's in a row combined with an infant who has started to roll over in his sleep and then wakes up crying and my husband's cough (thank goodness for antibiotics!).

So, due to the lack of motivation, the exhaustion, and the strong desire to just be lazy, I am going to share with you a recipe I found awhile back. I made this pie for my friend, Stephanie, and her family after the birth of their little boy, Tanner (Weston now has a friend!). It was so yummy! I know her mom had mentioned she wanted the recipe and seriously, I forgot. . . until now. So, here's to peanut butter and summer! (this is great, because no oven in required!)

This pie is so creamy and yummy! I cheated and didn't make my own crust. Keebler started coming out with deep dish already prepared graham crusts and that just saved me some time and came with it's own pie dish. . . perfect when making a meal for someone else!

Peanut Butter Pie

adapted from Baked Bree

Ingredients:

1 deep dish Keebler graham cracker crust

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup peanut butter

4 oz. cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips (I used mini)

Directions:

Whip whipping cream with electric mixer. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Use your electric mixer and cream together. Add vanilla. Fold the whipped mixture into the peanut butter mixture. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and pour into pie crust. Refrigerate for about 4 hours and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

ramblings

I don't know what happened. Suddenly things got VERY busy and then things slowed down. I don't have a picture of anything to show you right now, my husband his diligently working his second job right now and I am sewing (well, I am done for the night and now blogging). All week, I have looked at the computer just longing to sit down and write some words down. . . now is the chance. So here is what is going on in my semi-crazy head right now:

: staying up til midnight last night cleaning the office was nice. . . paying the consequences today. . . so tired and it's only 10:30!

: But, the office is clean. . . oh so clean! Let's see how long it stays that way! (I did manage to lose a stamp set in the process, so in the words of the toddler: "stamps, where are you. . . stamps where are you?).

: I am really enjoying the book 1000 Gifts, by Ann Voskamp (sp?). . . I think that I will write a whole post about that soon.

: Ethan and I are working our way through the alphabet and having so much fun doing it! I can't wait to post some new Toddler Time activities to go with our Letter of the Week. . . I am not using any sort of curriculum right now. . . completely coming up with my own. . . must get organized, but loving that I am using my degree for something.

: Have recently discovered craftgawker and have done substantial gawking. Must find time to finish already started projects so I can start new ones.

: Getting the MOPS year ready . . . sometimes it's a bit frustrating. . . you can pray for me if you want.

Okay, those are some thoughts that are bouncing off the walls in my head. I will hopefully be back tomorrow with a yummy recipe. . . or craft. . . depends on what I do. Enjoy your night and Welcome to your weekend!

Another Notebook Cover

It's hot. Really hot. I should be packing up stuff and cleaning, but I am not. Like I said, I am hot. The air is on and I am still sweating. . . sheesh, who turned on the humidity? Anyways, I am going to do a quick blog post in the last few minutes (yes, I said minutes) of quiet time (a.k.a. the toddler should be waking up soon).

I should have posted this back in May, but I feel like I have really been a slacker. . . it comes and goes. . . sorry. I made this for Breaunna, an amazing college student who comes and watches Ethan while Jon and I go to our Sunday Night Life Group. She is such a huge blessing, that we really wanted to say thanks! So, I made her this stylish notebook cover and stuck a Jamba Card in it to say thanks!

The striped and green and yellow interior pocket fabric is Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane and the polka dotted fabric is Amy Butler's Love. I didn't have enough of this striped, so I had to improvise. . . I really like the outcome! I kind of wish I would have thought about this before, oh well. Maybe next time.
So, thanks so much to our babysitter. . . she is such a blessing!

Monday?

Nope. . . it's not. . . it's Tuesday. Man, am I off! 3 day weekends always throw me off. . . especially this one, because it was a 5 day weekend for us! The hubby took Thursday off to let me sleep off the bug that hit me hard on Wednesday (so very thankful for him!). After a late night last night, it was back to the daily grind this morning. But, I was really excited because I was able to meet with the a new MOPS coordinator at another local church. I love any excuse to make something new, but I really feel that inviting someone into your home, making them feel welcome, and having something for them to eat is a way to serve others. I love hospitality. I love serving others in this way. I think opening up your home and offering food and conversation is a great way to show God's love.

Last night was a late night and my scone idea went out the window, because I was too tired to grate my butter and make a mess. I went to bed instead. Yep. . . the bed was calling my name and I wasn't going to fight it. So, I got up this morning and made these muffins. . . and boy, were they yummy! I wish I would have gotten a picture of Ethan licking the cinnamon and sugar off the top! He even went to get another one, to eat more of the topping.

Cinnamon-Buttermilk Muffins

adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

7 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbs cinnamon

6 tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

:: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

:: Combine butter and sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well until pale and smooth.

:: Slowly combine dry ingredients (the original recipe calls for sifting the dry ingredients together, but I like to make minimal mess and muffins are pretty good being made in 1 bowl). and mix together. Add vanilla and nutmeg. Be careful to not to over mix your muffins. . . you don't want dense muffins.

:: Scoop batter into muffin cups (mine made 12 muffins) and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for a bit. Melt butter in a small bowl. Combine sugar and cinnamon.

:: Dip tops of muffins into butter and then cinnamon sugar mixture.

Eat. . . enjoy. . . invite someone and practice hospitality.

What's your favorite thing to make when having someone over?