Adventures in the Kitchen: Hodgepodge and Graduation Caps

Hi there, friends!
How does Joyce think of such a great hodgepodge of questions every week?!? 
I love answering them...have you ever played along??

1. It's National Bike Week...do you own a bicycle? When did you last ride a bike? 

I do have a bike, and I love riding it! This past Saturday I rode to my girlfriend's house one town over. 

2. What's something you learned in school that wasn't part of the curriculum?

I learned how to get along with people that I don't necessarily like. 

3. What's a food you've never tried, but want to try? What's a food you've tried and will never try again?

I can't really think of a food I've never tired that I WANT to try...maybe some kind of tropical fruit that is not available in the States. I would be perfectly happy never trying any kind of sea food ever again. (I am not a fan of any type of fish or seafood). 

4. Have you been more demanding on yourself lately or less? Why? Do you think that's a good trend?

No, I don't think I have. I really trying to enjoy life the way it is, where I am. And not stressing over little things left undone. 

5. Who is your favorite book, movie, or TV show villain?
Oh, gosh! There are just so many people I love to hate!!! 

Any other Bones' fans out there?!? Christopher Pelant (real name Andrew Leeds) is one villain that I love to hate. He is horrible. Smug. Tricky. Slippery. And just wont go away! 

(source)

(Just seeing this picture make me a little bit angry!! He is such a bad guy!) 

6. How concerned are you about identity theft? 

Honestly, not as concerned as I think I should be!! 

7. I saw this last question on Dawn's blog a couple of week's ago and asked if I could share. Everybody hop over and say hi, but first answer this...would you rather have an ordinary home in an extraordinary place or an extraordinary home in an ordinary place? 

I TOTALLY answered on Dawn's blog last week...hands down, ordinary home in an extraordinary place. Like a small cabin on top of a mountain...

(source)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

About this time of year, I start wanting to make these little guys...

These little treats may look complicated, but are SOOO easy to make. No cooking involved (just a little microwave melting action).They are perfect to bring to one or all of the graduation parties you are invited to this spring!

Here is how you make them...

For more detailed, step by step description of how to assemble these treats, 

click the link below.

Graduation Cap Treats

Adventures in Baby Shower: Gender Neutral Baby Shower Decorations and Food

Post #2 in this little Gender Neutral Baby Shower series is all about 

Decorations and Food.

(If you missed part #1 about the theme and invitations, just click HERE)

Now, if you have spend any time at all around this little blog, you know that I am a DIY girl, and this shower was no exception. I made all the decorations and food all myself...and I had a horrible nightmare the night before the shower about the food (but more on that later!)

I tried to stick with the colors yellow, blue, and green from the invitation, and snuck in a bit of purple too. Using circle cut outs I made this little sign for the living room that is pretty much the first thing someone sees when they walk into our house. The little bumble bee is made of card stock and his wings are made with vellum paper (a translucent paper found in the scrapbook paper section of any craft store). To cover up the green frog tape I used to hang the sign, I made some flowers out of colored card stock. 

I used streamers throughout the house. I like to make streams a little extra fancy by sewing 2 colors together, slightly overlapped, and scrunched a little as I go with the sewing machine with just a regular straight stitch....Does that make sense? Would anyone like to see a video tutorial on how I make these? Just let me know in the comments! 

(Here is my attempt at being 'artsy' and taking a photo of a streamer on the back door)

I had some regular flowers to decorate the lunch table with, buy my favorite touch are these flower pens on the table! To see how I make them just click {HERE}. These little pens are perfect for decoration, useful in games that require pens, and are also what I use as a gift for each of the ladies at the shower to take home with them at the end of the event! When each guest used the pen at home, it is a reminder for them to say a little prayer for the Mom, Dad, and Baby.

This next detail is both a decoration and an activity that we did at the shower. It is a Baby Shower Prayer Wreath. I decorated an empty wreath with some flowers, ribbon, a bird and some little bees. During the shower I have each of the guests write a short prayer on a colored strip of paper and then I weave those papers into the wreath. There are several prayers from ladies who could not attend the shower in person but who will be praying for the new baby, Mommy, and Daddy! 

I am all about activities that also serve as decorations, so I made up this little calendar for the ladies to take a guess at the date the baby will be born! But that is an activity...and Activities are on this post HERE. 

Just like I am all about activities serving as decorations, I love when food serves as a decoration as well!! I did not have time to take tons of pictures of the food, but here is what was on the menu for the shower:

Appetizers: 

Fruit and Veggies with Dip

Chips and Salsa

Oh, and my Grandma's chick feeder filled with peanut M&M's 

(you can read about the chick feeder HERE)

Drinks:

Virgin Mimosas 

Lemon Water

and Boy/Girl Punch

Since we did not know if the baby was a boy or a girl, I thought it would be fun to have "blueberry boy" punch and "red raspberry girl" punch so people who vote for what they thought the baby was by the color of their punch! For the punch recipe click HERE.

Lunch:

Pulled Pork Sandwiches on Hawaiian Rolls

Pasta Salad with Chicken

Cranberry Apple Cole Slaw

Deviled Eggs 

Dessert:

Coffee

Mini Muffin Brownies

Sugar Cookies

And now for my nightmare...I woke up EARLY Saturday morning after having a bad dream about the pulled pork. We had smoked the meat ahead of time and put it in the freezer (in real life, and in my dream) but in my dream when I went to take the bag of frozen pork out of the freezer and put it in the crock pot the morning of the shower...the bag was filled with potatoes, not pork. And there was no pork to be found in the whole house!! I was so upset because there was no pork to serve at the shower!!

Back to real life ~ When I work up I had to go straight to the freezer to double check the pork! Don't worry, it was pork, and not potatoes. 

Up Next: Activities!! 

Adventures in Baby Showers: "Birds and the Bees" Gender Neutral Baby Shower

Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for my sweet friend Sarah!

I had a blast planning, crafting and making this little shower happen and I have been bursting with excitement to share all the details with you! I wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out, so this post will just be on the theme and invitations, and next week I will share about the decorations, food, and games (oh, and my horrible nightmare I had the night before the shower!!) 

But here is a sneak peek...

Sarah and her hubby decided to let the gender of their little bun in the oven be a surprise. Picking a unique, fun, and gender neutral theme for the shower had me stumped for a bit!  She did pick out a super cute rug for the baby's room that has a "forest" theme to it. So I started my idea search there...I did a bit of pinning on Pinterest (I made a gender neutral baby shower board to keep all my ideas together) and came up with the theme of  

"The Birds and The Bees" 

(cute, right?!) 

Combining a few different ideas, I made up these invitations:

I just used regular, old Microsoft Word to type the words, printed out 2 invites per sheet of white card stock. Then drew on the tree and bumble bee with colored pencil. The little bird was cut from blue felt and embellished with some silver puffy paint. I backed the white paper with brown to give it a 'forest' look. 

Check out the Decorations and Food Here 

and check out the games we played HERE!!

Adventures in Crafts: Personalized Wedding Gift

Even though I don't get to participate in the "Handmade Gift" round of So You Think You're Crafty, I still had a great project all ready to go, and I wanted to show you!! 

With wedding shower season in full swing and wedding season right around the corner, I decided to make a handmade gift that is useful and special for all brides and grooms!

Making personalized cards is one of my most favorite things to do. And personalized stationary when you are just starting off with a new name is such a special and exciting gift! I used the colors on and style on invitation for inspiration on the design of the cards. Daniel's cousin Andrew married a wonderfully beautiful bride (Debbie). So the "H" is their last initial. A for Andrew, and D for Debbie.  

If the bride likes the color teal enough to include the color on her wedding invitation, it's a safe bet she will love to receive this set of cards! I made 50 of them, and tied them up with a bow. Perfect shower gift, or wedding gift!

Do you have a favorite Handmade Gift that you have received?

Or given? 

I would love to hear about it!! 

Adventures in Blogging: Pamper Me Pretty

You all know that I love swaps! When I saw the

I decided to sign up,

and I am so very glad that I did!

I got paired up with Taylor from Pink Heels, Pink Truck

and boy did she pamper me!

Spoiled is more like it!!

Take a look at what she sent:

Body wash, lufa, eyeshadow, lip gloss, 3 nail polishes and 4 face masks (my favorite!!) 

Not only did I get a totally amazing package, 

I also made a great new blog friend!!

Taylor writes a life style blog called

If you like the color pink, books/book reviews, vlogs, make-up, fashion, or getting to know a sweet lady, you will LOVE her blog!!  AND she runs this great little blog called Here is a description from Taylor about what Airing Your Dirty Laundry is : Airing Your Laundry came about after talking with several bloggers who all mentioned how they wished sometimes they could just vent on their blog. But due to who might actually be reading their blog, they don’t tell all. Now’s your chance. This is a blog where you can air it all.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!!

Adventures in Life: Flowers, A Sneak Peek, and Muscle Cars

Did you have a good Mother's Day weekend? 

We had a jammed packed weekend, full of fun times with friends and family. 

Daniel and I both got to spend time with our moms yesterday! 

We picked up some flowers to plant in the front flower planter box we made last year.

I threw (what I consider to be) a successfully fabulous gender neutral baby shower. 
(here is a sneak peek...more pictures and details of the shower to come!) 

And thanks to our transmission going out on our vehicle, we got to drive around in this all weekend...

A Dodge Challenger!

Normally, I am not a muscle car girl, but this ride is sweet! 

It's a rental. 

Our philosophy is if you are going to have to rent a car, it might as well be fun!! 

What's the most fun vehicle you have ever driven? 

Happy Monday!! 

Adventures in Life: Showers, Mothers, and a Lesson Learned

Well, friends. It's official. My time on So You Think You're Crafty has come to an end. I am trying to be positive and think that 4th place out of 10 crafters is not bad...but my inner competitive woman is having a bit of a hard time with it!! I have been learning the lesson that life is not always fair, and the only thing I can control is my own actions. (Stay tuned for more thoughts on that lesson.) 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to go and vote!! 

I totally love my garden stepping stones! And I can't wait to use them to stand on while weeding my garden. 

I will show you how I made them next week! They are so fun and pretty easy if you have the right supplies. 

But this weekend is a busy one. I'm throwing a baby shower for one of my very best friends today. And I've been crafting up a storm to get ready for it...don't worry! There will be a post about it next week!!

And then on Sunday we are driving 4 hours to meet my parents half way in the Wisconsin Dells for Mother's Day brunch! (They live in Minnesota, so the Dells are half way between us.) 

(My mom and I...at our wedding, if you couldn't tell by my dress!)

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!