This week's event was a little tea party with a new member at our Church.  It was a great time so I thought I'd share pictures of it here.  Enjoy!


Here we have mini-cupcakes (from Sam's Club), an assortment of cookies, Pear Bread (like banana bread), Cucumber Sandwiches and Green Apple/Cranberry Goat Cheese sandwiches, Caprese Salad, Devonshire Cream and Raspberry Jam, milk, cream and sugar. 




My fruit stand with grapes, strawberries with a vanilla marscapone cream dip, and some Cranberry Orange Scones.



Chicken Curry Tea Sandwiches (which were awesome!)

 

We served everything with a black tea from Africa (my SIL provides it and it's great!), espresso and Turkish coffee.

This was a lot of fun to host and the company was priceless. 
What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

If you know me then you probably know I like all things relating to fire.  I burn incense, dh and I used to love driving out into the Wyoming country side to light bonfires and most of all my house is usually filled with candles.  Candles can be used for a lot and we light them for religious reasons as well as aesthetic ones.  Adding a few drops of essential oil also makes for a nice scent if the candles aren't already scented. 

While we have tapers up around our home altars, votives and various pillars accenting the living room and such we actually light tea lights most of the time.  To an extent the rest is just for looks though they are occasionally lit (hey, candles can be a pricey habit!).  Tea lights are cheap, easy to find and are handy in so many ways but I've found storing them to be tricky.  We usually buy them in bulk in a bag of on hundred or so and typically have at least two hundred on hand.  Because I use them in most rooms throughout the house I found myself tossing a handful in this drawer, adding a bunch to that drawer, even stashing them behind my fake plants just for easier access. 

But all of this hiding and stashing tended to get in the way.  No one wants to put her hand in a basket to pull out spare change only to come up with wax under her nails.  I had to empty the candles out just to get to the items that the baskets/drawers were originally intended for.  Eventually I got a little fed up and brought out my prized Martha Stewart Organization Ideas book.  This book is full of pictures and details on how to create what you see.  It serves as a wonderful form of inspiration.  First I decided to create only two or so areas to store the candles for easy access.  One was in the kitchen and the other was the living room.  Any other room wasn't too far of a reach and those rooms don't typically have candles lit unless company is coming anyhow. 

In the kitchen I decided to store the candles in my junk drawer. 

Yes.  I said it. 

Junk. Drawer.

Come on, everyone has at least one of these little beauties, right?  The drawer where you throw any little thing that doesn't have a specific home?  Extra pennies, a screwdriver, push pins, pencils, string...  You get the idea. 

Well a junk drawer for storing candles brings it's own issues.  Because, well, the drawer is just full of junk.  And...it's full.  But it was the only place that was going to work.  Didn't want candles in the silverware drawer.  Nope.  And not the knife drawer.  How about the rag drawer?  Probably not a good idea either.  See what I mean?


So a quick little project about storing tea lights for easy access turned into a much bigger project, but it was a project who's time had come.  I emptied the drawer, I measured, I categorized and was able to see what it was I kept in there.  In the end I was able to create six main categories but I still had some misc. junk that I needed to keep on hand.  After looking through and seeing just how much of what it was I had I went back and flipped through God's...er, I mean Martha's book again.  (I'm joking!  sheesh!)  I decided boxes would be my best bet and I headed to Micheal's the next chance I had.  While browsing the store I wanted to get a good idea of what kinds of boxes/bins/etc. they had and I eventually stumbled upon pencil boxes in various sizes for $2 or less (that's how they are always priced, btw!).  They were plain, covered in white and they were perfect.  Bingo.  After doing some measuring to make sure they fit I decided on a drawer set up.  I took my tape measure and paper and went to find an empty shelf (there is always an empty-ish shelf somewhere!  If not, make one!).  On that shelf I laid out my measurements for the size of the drawer (using any small handy knick knack) and then laid out the boxes to see how they'd fit.  I had enough room for just a bit more so I found a bead storage box (the clear, segmented box in the pic) and I knew I had a little wire metal bin at home (it was from BB&B, actually).  In the end this is what I came up with:

The white gives the drawer a clean look and it was easy to label.  The small plastic bead box served the purpose of storing lots of the little stuff (nails, dice, metal tags, keys, etc.) and my little metal bin caught all the rest.  It's been over a year now and this system still works great.  It's nice to know where my extra batteries are and it's even better knowing that I can access them quickly without having to dig around forever. 

I wish I had taken a before pic of this drawer.  It didn't start out as a junk drawer project but it inadvertently became one simply because I needed a handy space for my tea lights.  (Oh yeah, that's what we were talking about. :P )  These boxes work great, btw.  I have them positioned so that the lids lift clear of the top of the drawer (the Misc. and Tools boxes open towards me and the four other boxes open away from me) and while each box still has stuff just tossed into it it is still much easier to open the Tools box and find my mini-hammer or screwdriver, etc.  

The Candles box is special however.  I don't actually have them just tossed into the box.  I came up with a handy system.

I sectioned off the box using the cardboard from an empty matches box.  I stacked the matches in so they would all fit, thus the matches facing two different directions.  The candles are three candles high so that this little space holds thirty six candles in all.  And on the lid of this box I decided to tape up the "striker" from the cut up match box.  That way I can grab a candle and light it all in one place.  Handy, huh?


For the living room I chose to do the same thing but instead I looked for something that would fit the decor.  I found this little number at Wal-Mart for five dollars.  It should be just as easy to find something like this in a Hobby Lobby, too.
 

This matches the decor of the rest of my living room and no one would guess what is inside:

 

The lid was recessed so it made holding the matches and striker an easy little project.  If the lid has just been flat the box would have simply just held candles but now it's nice to know that I have matches handy in the living room as well.

If you've been paying close attention you might notice that between the two boxes there is no way I'd fit two hundred tea lights between them...and you'd be right. 

My herb cabinet came to my rescue in this case.  I have three spots amongst the shelves and storage bins that house candles (see this post).  One shelf has my long beeswax tapers, one bin has my regular tapers and votives.  But one drawer is solely dedicated to tea lights...



Hoard much?

Hello.

I'm Nicollette and I have a problem...

ETA:  I swear I've edited this blog twelve times to correct spelling.  I do proof read, I'm just not very good at it.

Since I'm about to place an order for more herbs I decided to retake my inventory.  While doing the inventory I thought I'd snap a few pics of the cabinets to show you what we've got.  So far I've got seventy herbs with another seven waiting to be ordered.  I've also got lots of incense, candles, smaller glass jars/dropper bottles, and other miscellany tucked away in the boxes and drawers beneath the jars.  Enjoy!

It's only been 13 weeks since I've last updated.  Things have been super busy around here since coming back from MS.  Unfortunately my pain has gotten a bit out of control so with that and two little girls things have been a bit rough and tumble.  This semester has also been the semester from hell for some reason, though dh is getting straight A's.  At this point I'm so far behind on blogs that I don't think I'll be able to play catch-up with comments, so I apologize!  I'll try to stay up to date as things allow.

Here's just a bit of what's been going on from July to now:

• Get home
• Take a month to unpack (this is so me)
• Take three months to enforce a schedule (and you thought I was organized, right? LOL)
• Help Dh get back into the groove of the semester
• Pop Excedrin Migraine like it's nobody's business
• Resurrect the Herbal Cabinet from oblivion...er I mean the basement, in time for Ladymass (FOT Assumption)
• Take some time out for fun with friends
• Start a new project
• Begin Piano Lessons (and am actually doing really well!)
• Dream big
  

Of course that's not all but it just seems like the small stuff is much bigger when seeing straight isn't an option (migraines).  This month in particular has been an evil month.  October, usually one of our favorite months of the year took a downside for us.  Dh turned thirty! Yay!  But in the midst of that our girls developed ear infections, one of our girls began having night terrors (scary!) and while the ear infections keep coming back dh decided to come down with a case of swine flu and be out of work for a week. o_O  He's back at work today and surprisingly I was able to accomplish a lot while he was home even though he was sick.  I finally tackled my long time arch nemesis, laundry.  He always sneaks up on me and waits to trap me for a few hours in the bedroom by tossing clothes all over until I can't see my floor.  Well, this time I got him!  Heh. 

Of course it helps to tackle a project like mountains of laundry when someone is willing to occupy the girls.  That and I actually threw out half of the clothes because we never use them.  (Ok, I didn't toss them but instead put them in a bag for Goodwill.  It's mostly baby clothes anyhow.)  :D  I'm not sure the girls are over their infections although they've both been on medication for most of the month.  I'll be taking them back in to see the doctor next week.  Anna-Sophia has been particularly susceptible to them, as was my sister at her age.  We're keeping a close watch on it as my sister's chronic infections eventually left her hearing impaired and actually legally deaf for about a year until she had tubes put in.  While sign language is a great thing to know (and I did have to learn some basics with my sister's issue way back in the day) I'm hoping that it doesn't become a necessity due to my own little girl developing hearing problems.

Since we did get the herbal cabinet back up and the flu has now hit us I thought I'd actually stock up on herbs for flu.  Ha!  Better late than never I guess.  We've got some boneset on it's way, being shipped from Kansas and I'll be adding several new herbs to my repertoire this year (boneset being one of them).  Let's see... here's my list:

• Elecampane
• Boneset
• Osha
• Usnea
• Echinacea
• Meadowsweet
• Burdock
• Galangal

I'll have to wait to order everything but the boneset from MRH when I save up enough but once I've got them I'll have a nice little arsenal for flu, among other things.  For now I'm sipping on my adaptation of Gladstar's Sore Throat Tea. 

Well, that's all for now.  I'd better go save the girls from themselves since it sounds like they are playing "nice".  Ha! 

I hope everyone's October went better than ours and here's to a nice new start for November, eh? I hope everyone enjoys our upcoming Days of the Dead! (All Hallow's Eve, All Saint's and All Souls days!)

Pax!



*Edited for clarity. 

Well...I think it's obvious that the quality isn't nearly as good as my little detachable video camera.   :/  LOL

Hope your having a fun summer! 

That, my friends, is my first attempt at a topsy turvy cake.  (My userpic above is also a topsy turvy cake).  I love the whimsical style and the fact that it isn't supposed to look perfect.

It's a three tier chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and a chocolate fondant.  I took the easy way out with this one by buying the cakes pre-made (and pre-frozen) from Sam's Club, along with the buttercream.  I picked up the fondant and other needed supplies from Create a Cake in Flowood.  (What an awesome store!!!  We really need one of these back home.)

While the idea of picking up the cakes pre-made from a bulk supply store may make some cringe I have to say it was convenient.  It saved me hours of baking ( I have access to only one cake pan and needed to make eight cakes of various sizes) but it also saved me a few more hours because the cakes came frozen.  It's easier to work with frozen cakes when it comes to carving and frosting them.  And for pre-made store bought cakes they came out really well.  It tasted great in the end.  Except for the fondant which, in my opinion, never tastes good.  It merely serves the purpose of looking fabulous.

I could really do this more often.  Talk about a major creative outlet.  Too bad I only had one color of food dye (pink).  It would have been so much more whimsical in more than one colour.

So in my research to make this cake I found lots of fun cakes for inspiration.  I also will post a couple of nice instructional videos explaining how simple it really is. 

Some of my favourite TT cakes:



Well, I hope that was a fun trip down topsy turvy lane!  Enjoy!

Ok.  So updateage likely isn't a word... 


It's been about a month and things are now starting to slow down a bit.  We did indeed go to Wyoming for the ten year high school reunion and it was great.  I really enjoyed seeing the people who showed up and enjoyed staying with family. 

We left late from NE and had to stay the night in Laramie with my sister, which worked out great.  We had hoped to go over the top (take the scenic route from Laramie to Saratoga, WY) and our pit stop in Laramie made that possible.  We stayed the night and then packed back up and hit the mountain for a beautiful, albeit cloudy and cold, drive to Saratoga. 

In Saratoga I got to catch up with my old employers and friends.  They are doing very well and I was glad to hear it!  We nixed the vegan end of our diet on the trip for the most part and enjoyed some of the foods of our past.  We went to Stumpy's and had a fantastic veggie pizza and then went to Lollypop's (an oldfashioned style ice cream and soda parlor).  I do believe that our little Anastasia may be a bit lactose intolerant as she didn't do so well eating the ice cream.  She got very fussy and had cramps about an hour after her dessert. 

After our day in 'Toga we headed into Rawlins.  After setting up "home base" we met my  Father at the local Thai restaurant and had some wonderful Thai food.  (Did I mention that I love thai?)

Our BIL hosted a bbq a couple of hours before we were due at the reunion in which some very good food was served.  For ourselves we brought some marinated veggies to grill and feasted on the corn, home made salsa and the guacamole.  Then the reunion festivities began, most of which were held at a local bar  We stood around for a couple of hours and caught up with a few people from school before calling it a night. 

The next day we had our friend Angie over for tea.  She was my sponsor when I came into the Church and we don't get to see her often enough.  It was a very lovely visit with someone who is very dear to me. 

After tea we headed to the reunion picnic with the girls and enjoyed Washington Park in the beautiful sunny weather.  After the picnic we took the girls back home and got them ready for a nap and grabbed a coffee and ice cream at Huckleberry's.  (Such cute coffe/ice cream shops in small towns!).  Then we headed home and got dressed for cocktails and dinner.  Over all it was wonderful.  I'm really glad I went. 

Sunday we went to Casper to see some friends that we haven't seen in about five years.  What a long time!  First we had brunch with the D. family.  Nick was actually one of my dh's math professors in Casper that we eventually befriended.  Boy have we missed having them around!  It was so nice to hear Michelle's voice and to see how much the children had grown.  They have a daughter named Nicole and she is just beautiful and they have a spunky little boy named David.  We spent about four hours catching up with them and then we headed out to see another friend before we needed to head back to Rawlins.  Our friend Brad seems to be doing very well and it was great to see him again.  He's the Mac guru that eventually convinced me to try an Apple computer and I'm still thankful for his badgering...er,  advice. 

Inbetween all the festivities we spent as much time with family as we could.  Dh went fishing with his Father and I spent time sitting around the house with my SIL and her children. 

Eventually the time came to pack up our things and head our separate ways.  I loaded the girls into my Father's truck and he, my sister, the girls and myself started our trek to MS.  All in all the trip wasn't that bad.  We turned a three day trip into a two day trip and eventually found ourselves in Jackson in time to celebrate my sis's 27th birthday.  I even made a cake to celebrate.

There have been a few bumps in the road here and there but nothing that we didn't get around.  I'm hoping to accomplish a few things while I'm down here, one of which is losing a bit more weight and seeing how that affects my pain, learning some things from my Mother regarding rearing small children and spending lots of time with family. 

Not only is this a really cute video but it also showed me how to actually pronounce the word meme and explained what a meme actually is.  I thought it was "me-me" and pronounced it more like "meh-me".  Oh well.  LOL

The Sister Salad girls also have a great video on grammar that I think would do me wise to listen to more often. :P  Enjoy!



Edited to add:  I thought I'd just toss in the other video as well.  It's so funny!  Any English Majors out there will definitely appreciate this one. ;)