Cooking

I saw some amazing cookies featured on Everyday Celebrating, and when I went to check them out for myself, I couldn't believe what I saw!  These cookies are gorgeous, and I found some that perfectly match the decor of my nursery with the black and white damask and pink with black (too bad we're not sharing the baby's first initial!). 

Amber, the creator of these artistic confections, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and her degree is in baking and pastry. So, you can bet that the cookies are going to taste as good as they look!  The next time I am hosting a baby shower, I may have to send her a swatch of the baby bedding and see if she can custom create cookies for me.  I'm certain she could!  

Go check out SweetAmbs on Etsy!

So, I know that I haven't been around for a whole month(!), and I'll bet some people are wondering what in the world I have been doing for so long! When I realized how long I had been away, I asked myself what had kept me so busy. I decided to look back at my calendar from the last four weeks and see what things have occupied my time. Some things are newsworthy and others aren't, (Isn't that what blogging is all about? Some of the most interesting blog posts I have ever read are about nothing at all!) but I've decided to assume that you care about what I've been doing and create a little series catching you up on our lives this last month. Over the next week or two, you will read about eight things I have been doing instead of blogging.

One of the random things I did recently was get this great photo from above taken at church by my friend, Christy.  There's no terrific story other than to say that we needed a family photo for a women's ministry event, and she brought her camera to get one for me.  Isn't this shot great, especially considering it was in a dingy, poorly-lit gym?  I can't wait to have Christy do some outdoor sessions of our family some time!

And now, without further ado, here are numbers eight and seven on my list of "Things I have been doing instead of blogging":

8. Planning a farm birthday party for our soon-to-be three-year-old son!

Last year, when Brennan turned two, we had just moved into our house a week earlier and knew no one in Nashville.  We had a quiet celebration at home, just the three of us, but I vowed that a year later when Brennan and I both had new friends, we would do a birthday party right.  Here we are now, on the brink of his third birthday, and we are in the midst of planning a farm-themed shindig fit for a king (or farmer).  I have been planning for a long time, brainstorming decorations and food and games (I honestly think coming up with ideas is just as fun as having the event itself), and I spent days making these adorable barn-shaped invitations.   

There were multiple steps involved in making these invitations.  Besides having to cut and glue all of the parts, I also had to find the right size star-shaped brads, get a current photo of Brennan in overalls, and locate small farm animal stickers that would fit behind the barn doors.  I think the end result was worth all the work.  Several moms have told me that their kids love playing with the invitations and adore the animal stickers.  I'm so glad these beauties haven't ended up in the recycling bin just yet!

7. Learning how to decorate a cake

No, I didn't make that gorgeous cake, and no, this isn't at all related to number eight.  Although it would be awesome to put my new skills to the test on Brennan's birthday cake, I don't think his cake will have any decorate border.  (We'll see... maybe I can sneak some in.)  Actually, this was a lesson at our MOPS meeting several weeks ago.  My co-coordinator, Kristi, invited her mom who used to work in a bakery to stop in and teach us all how to handle a pastry bag and tips.  We practiced on the backs of cake pans, and it was so much fun!  It made me wish I had time to take an extensive course at JoAnn or Michael's.  I would love to add "cake decorator" to my home executive resume.

Stay tuned to see some of the other things I have been doing these last four weeks. I will not stay away that long again and keep you in suspense!

This year was our first Christmas alone, just the three of us. It was relaxing and a lot of fun. We spent Christmas Eve day cooking and making a birthday banner for Jesus, and on Christmas Eve itself we took Brennan in his jammies to look at Christmas lights.

When we woke up on Christmas morning our house was clean, picked up, and beautiful. By Christmas night it looked like a hurricane had hit, and, truth be told, it has only gotten moderately better in these last four days. You see, with Christmas presents came a whole new slew of cleaning and organizing issues. I couldn't just put things away because there isn't room. Unfortunately, I do not have the personality to shove everything into a cupboard and "deal with it later." I know I'll never do it; I have to deal with things right away. Of course, that means things have to stay messy longer because I start cleaning from the inside out.

One Christmas gift this year resulted in two big organizing projects. I have enjoyed learning to cook better in the last few years, and most of my birthday and Christmas gifts in the last year have had to do with cooking. For example, my family all chipped in last May and bought me two All-Clad pans that I LOVE!!

This Christmas I got a fabulous KitchenAid food processor that I've been wanting. I know that it has to stay on my counter or I won't go to the trouble of using it. However, counter space is at a premium in everyone's kitchens, right? Not a problem for me since I had been considering getting rid of my spice rack for a while. I had 16 spices in the rack with another 40 bottles in my cupboard, and many of them were duplicates. However, eliminating the spice rack made finding all of my spices in the cupboard very challenging.

Today I went to Target and got one of those tiered shelf things, and look at my spices now! (Yes, they're in alphabetical order!)

My "baking cupboard," as I like to call it (even though most of the spices are for cooking, not baking), makes me want to whip up something scrumptious!

While I was looking at organizational items at Target, I came across these awesome wire shelves that can be stacked on each other, or, in my case, hung upside down!!

I used them to transform my pantry into an efficient closet! We have a great pantry in that it's large, but the shelves can't be moved and the wire can be tricky. With a few of these handy dandy wire shelves, some plastic storage containers, and a well-placed piece of cardboard, I now know what items I actually need to buy at the store tomorrow! I went from this:

to this:

Getting these jobs done makes me want to tackle all of our other closets and cupboards, but, unfortunately, I still have hundreds of toy cars, trains, and alphabet letters underfoot, and I really should fold the baskets of laundry sitting in the middle of my floor. Perhaps I'll achieve more organizational bliss another day.

How about you? What crazy organizational things have you had to do since Christmas? Any projects you're putting off? Questions about how to organize your cupboards?

So, I had tons of Etsy orders this Christmas, and I was so grateful for the extra work, but I was a busy, busy girl! My house was a disaster, and I thought Jim might kill me for taking on so much! This past week has been delightfully quiet, and I have started some home projects just for me. I will write more about those when they're finished.

In addition to all of my orders, I had a couple of other huge projects going this season. For one thing, in addition to being the co-coordinator for our MOPS group, I am also the head of the craft committee (we're still a small group). Here is what we made for the moms in our group:

Babysitter buckets! Each bucket contained some small toys and trinkets for a babysitter to use with small children, as well as a ring of pertinent information for moms to leave for sitters.

I plan to add a flashlight, band aids, a pen & paper, and a snack to my bucket when I leave it for our sitter tomorrow night.

With the help of two of my friends Gina and Jenn, we created sixteen buckets, and no two were alike. It would have been impossible to do by myself, but with their help, we had a lot of fun! I think the moms really liked them. I'm thinking about possibly adding some to my shop. What do you think?

As if I hadn't done enough these last few weeks, I decided to spend nine hours on Tuesday baking and making yummy treats for friends. One of my projects was to make homemade cocoa. I found the most adorable jars to put it in, and I loved the way the cocoa looked all stacked up on my coffee table, ready to be given away. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!

I figured out a brilliant method for making self-adhesive labels, and I would share it with you, but it involves specialty rub-on paper that I purchase online, and it wouldn't do anyone any good. But the labels turned out really cute!

And now I'm done with gift-giving, gift-making, and self-torturing. We're ready for Christmas in this house!