Around Here {my kitchen table centerpiece}

Once I added a chandelier above my kitchen table, my current center piece didn’t work anymore.  It wasn’t in proportion.  So of course I had to fix that. :)

My re-do started out with this before and after.

The glass jar once held tall twiggy greenery, but when I hung the chandelier the twigs were too tall.  It sort of just evolved into the after.  I love when that happens!  I knew I wanted to put old book pages inside.  I just randomly grabbed a book and started tearing out pages.  I actually did this whole project while talking on the phone.  You can’t see it, I forgot to take a close up, but the edges of the paper are stained green.  That’s just how the pages came, but you could easily ink the edges.  It’s the perfect extra touch that just happened to be a bonus for me.  I noticed it after the fact.  Once I added the book pages I decided it needed more, so I added the twine.  I didn’t glue it or anything.  I just tied the end and beginning of the twine in a knot around the top and then kept wrapping it around until I got to the bottom and then tied it in a knot again to end it.  I thought I was done after this and then walked back into the room and decided I wasn’t. It needed an extra whimsical touch.  Something out of the ordinary, since the chandelier is out of the ordinary.  So I decided to experiment with stamping #’s.  I was a little nervous since I really do love this glass jar and I did not want to ruin it, but I am so glad I took the risk and went for it.  It is one of my favorite things!  Side note:  I did this same technique on a frame in my bedroom and the ink would wipe off the glass with Windex, but this glass is different and will NOT wipe off.  Luckily I didn’t mess up and I absolutely adore it, but if you try this, maybe test it first in an unnoticeable spot if you aren’t sure.  I used a regular black ink pad, nothing special and some # stamps I had from my paper scrapping days. 

At one of my Hobby Lobby runs I found these 3 bottles and had to bring them home with me. 

I sanded the two pictures to make them look more vintage.  They looked too new before.  Then I tore some more book pages and stuffed them into the center one and tied some twine around the top. 

I decided I wanted to go with a glass look for my table.  Something light and airy, but it wasn’t finished with the 4 things I had.  Something was missing.  So I pulled out my glass cake stand that had been tucked away in my cupboard. 

I didn’t have any homemade treats :(  no time for that, but I ALWAYS have a stash of Oreo’s!

Here was my finished product…for a couple of days.

 

I really liked it, but I still felt like something was missing.  Sometimes I have to live with things for a couple of days.  Then I remembered my thrift store .99 bargain. 

Here is another before and after.

 

I wrapped the bottom with burlap and tied twine around it. 

I found this nest printable here.

I printed it out onto cardstalk.  I decided to make it into a tag and embellish it with glitter.  I was dying to try this new glitter.  I have had it for a couple of months and it was time use it!  

This glitter is another one of  my new favorite things! 

German Glass Glitter.  SO much better than the average glitter you get at the store.  It is so easy to use and much better quality.  I love the fact that it will tarnish and look even more vintage. I got it at a boutique while shopping in McKinney, Tx.  I glittered up the edges of the tag and added a bit to the birds.  Once it was dry, I tied it around the topiary with some black vintage ribbon I also purchased at the same boutique for .50 a yard.  And that finished that!

 

So much better, I think!

It needed something to break up the glass.  By this time I DID have a homemade treat in my cake stand. :) 

The recipe is easy and yummy.  Definitely a treat to make when you are in the mood for a treat, but have NO time.  Super fast.  I am so glad a fellow blogger shared this.

And here is the final product.

I am contemplating a table runner.  I love how simple and clean it looks like this and I really don’t like dealing with more than I have to on my kitchen table, but I don’t know.  For now…I am done! What do you think?

P.S.  Did you notice that half of the cookies are gone in this picture compared to the one above it?  My kids loved them!

Fall Harvest {Activity Days}

Wow!  It’s been a long time since I’ve done a post.  I’m not going to waste time listing excuses of why I’ve been away from my computer, instead I’m going to get to the point and share with you ONE of the things I have been happily busy with.  I hosted a dinner for the Activity Day girls at my house this past week…all 20 of them.  I am either really brave or really dumb.  Either way, it turned out great and the girls had so much fun!

On the menu was sweet chili, homemade french bread, fruit jell-o, pudding cups with whip cream and peppermint chunks, chocolate oatmeal cookies and chocolate covered pretzels.  It was yummy!  I would say the most popular item was the french bread.  I could not get it on their plates fast enough!  Some of the girls asked to take some on the road with them.  I thought that was funny!

If you are still looking for table setting ideas for Thanksgiving dinner, maybe some of these ideas will get your wheels turning.  Easy and inexpensive. 

I used burlap for my placemats.  I cut them into the size that a placemat would be by measuring one of my old placemats.  I gathered every single dish I had in my house and mismatched them together.  I loved the eclectic look and cozy feel it gave. 

The glasses are just plastic wine glasses I picked up from Dollar Tree.  6 for $1.00. 

I guess for Thanksgiving dinner you would want the real thing, not plastic. :)

Each girl had an assigned seat.  They thought it was fun racing through the tables (all 4 of them) to find out were they were sitting. 

 

I just folded a square piece of cardstalk in half and wrapped ribbon around the one side.  I googled “leaf shapes” on my computer, found some I liked and traced them onto different colored cardstalks.  I ran them trough the computer to put each girls name on one and then glued it onto the card with a glue stick.  Easy, easy.  One of those little tiny things that is so worth the extra effort.

After wrapping the silverware up inside the napkins, I tied a different leaf cutout around that. 

These were used for our Thankful Tree.  I forgot to get a good picture of it, but if you scroll back up to the top you will see twigs as the centerpiece.  That is the beginning of our thankful Tree.  Maybe some of you might remember this post.  Every year around Thanksgiving time, I gather twigs and use them as a centerpiece.  Then we write what we are thankful for on leaves and hang it on the tree.  It is one of our traditions.  I thought the girls might enjoy this, so each table had their own Thankful Tree.   

This was one of my favorites that one of the girls wrote.

So simple and true!  I am thankful for everything too.

I went to the local scrapbook store and bought several different festive papers to use on top of the burlap, but underneath their plates.  It just added a little more color and texture to the burlap.    

 

I loved the bird and the bird cages. 

 

And how could I not get one that says celebrate!?

Of course a pumpkin.

I have had so much fun with these plate stands this fall.

Besides sitting pumpkins on them,

 

I also stacked cookies on them for each of the 4 tables.  Then the girls didn’t even have to get out of their chairs for dessert!

  

I enjoyed putting my mason jars to use too.  For the dinner they held the chocolate covered pretzels, but earlier this fall they held candy corns. 

 

If you are looking for a great french bread recipe, you have to give this one a try.  It is so, so yummy!  In my old neighborhood, some of my really good friends did a recipe exchange.  We scrapbooked together so it was only fitting that we would scrapbook our recipe exchange.  I have this amazing cookbook that is completely adorable with my friends tried and true favorite recipes.  This is still one of my favorite cookbooks and I pull it out all the time. 

French Bread by Tallie Geddes 

This recipe is done completely in a mixing bowl, no kneading.

1/2 cup warm water for yeast

4 tsp. yeast (2 yeast cakes)

2 cups hot water

3 Tbsp. sugar

3 tsp. salt

5 Tbsp. shortening

6 cups flour

Dissolve yeast, mix remaining ingredients, except add only 3 cups flour and beat well.  Add yeast. Beat.  Add balance of flour, stir well.  Leave spoon in batter and let dough rest for 10 minutes.  Stir down batter and let rest again.  Repeat the stirring and 10 minute rest period 3 more times.  Divide dough in half, roll out in rectangle shape (approximately 9x12 inch) and roll up like a jelly roll.  Brush tops with beaten egg whites, sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Cut diagonally about 3 times across loaf and let rise until double in bulk.  Bake two loaves on cookie sheet at 400 for 35 minutes. 

Enjoy!!

We {Love} our Teachers!

This week is Teacher Appreciation for my kids schools.  I have been a little MIA in my their classrooms since having Ady.  I decided to help my kids make something special for them so they know how much we (I) sincerely appreciate all that they do.

I think every teacher should be proud of their name.  Their name is everything.  They hear it all day long, just like we hear “mommy” all day long.  So we celebrated that by making them a monogram.

   

I picked up the 4x6 frames at Walmart one day.  I had the burlap at home.  I printed their monograms on white cardstalk in a kid friendly font.  Stuck that on the burlap with glue dots, then hot glued ribbon around the edges of the cardstalk.  The flowers are 3 circles cut out of felt and stitched in the center and put into place with a glue dot.  The kids asked their teachers what their favorite color was.  That is how we chose the colors for the felt.  I had them make each teacher a homemade card (they each have 2 teachers).  This was our Family Home Evening on Monday.  We came up with a silly little saying for each one, like…Mrs. J (we wrote her whole name, but since this is the internet I can’t do that :) Mrs. J – you are Just plain cool!  Mrs. M – You are the Merry best!  Mrs. D – You are Dynamite!  Mrs. K – you are Kickin’!  and others like that (the last one was Jake’s btw!)

We had a lot of fun putting them together.  If I was a teacher I would love to have something cute like this in my classroom, but I’m not a teacher so I don’t really know. :)  Either way, we want them to know how special we think they are and that they should be proud of all they do.    

All wrapped up and ready to go.

I am linking up to Just a Girls Show and Share Day.