make ahead meals

First

a trip to the market

followed by 

LOTS of 

chopping,

dicing,

&

mincing

next

bagging,

labeling

&

finally freezing

and don't forget

composting!

 After I finished chopping all of the ingredients needed for 5 different recipes, I assembled the meals in freezer bags that I had marked with recipe name, date and instructions. I then put all of these make ahead meals in the freezer for later use. They'll come in handy on busy days when there is little or no time to cook. Just take one out of the freezer, empty the contents into the crockpot and let it cook. 
easy peasy!


Go here for these 5 new slow cooker/crockpot recipes I made yesterday.

french tile

My sister gave me this wonderful french tile last week.

It's one of my new 

"favorite things"

Happy Saturday!

tea party CROWN

It has become a tradition to give a theme related tea party crown to our guest of honor
~our Mother~
at our special mother/daughter events and this year was no exception.  

I made this crown with cotton lace and silk flowers with rhinestone buttons. I painted it Champagne Gold to match the brown paper and burlap I used on the table and for the invitations. I also like to make the crowns adjustable for a custom fit.

To see more of
"My Favorite Things" 
tea party
go here for party details
here for tea party food
here for hydrangea cupcakes
and
 here and here for invites.

"My Favorite Things" tea party treats

These were

 a few of our favorite treats 

at 

our mother/daughter tea!

The smörgåstårta {Swedish sandwich cake} was a new addition to our tea party menu. It was very fun to make and tasted great. I made mine with three layers of homemade bread that I baked in round loaves. My fillings were sliced ham and smoked turkey with two different cream cheese spreads. 

To see more of "My Favorite Things" tea party

go here for party details

here for hydrangea cupcakes

and

here & here for invites

I continued my tea party tradition of making  a theme related

"Crown"

for our guest of honor which I will be posting tomorrow!

"My Favorite Things" tea party

Saturday was our annual Mother/Daughter Tea 

and these are 

"a few of my favorite things"

from our party.

 Our centerpiece on the table was a flower pot I painted and filled with cuttings from my "favorite" pink rhoddies in our front yard. Originally I had purchased a beautiful blue hydrangea plant, however, that plan suddenly changed when I realized that the one I bought was waaaay too tall. I didn't want to give up on my first idea but after a couple of unsuccessful last minute trips to multiple stores in hopes of finding something else, time was running out. So, I quickly switched to the rhoddies and was very happy with the size and color of the new arrangement. In fact, they were the perfect substitute.  

For the placesettings I layered four different sizes and textures of placemats and then placed a linen napkin tied with a "blue satin sash" along the bottom edge of each. In addition, I printed silhouettes on brown paper, made a template with a scalloped edge to use for tracing and cutting and centered one under each glass plate. I wrote each guests name with chalk on the black chalkboard placemat. I used some leftover burlap I had from another project to  make a narrow tablerunner the length of the table which matched the color of the brown paper. Remember those hydrangea cupcakes from this post? I placed a hydrangea cupcake in a small hand painted flower pot which was personalized for each guest and then placed one at each spot. 

I made a simple, festive banner by folding large paper doilies over blue ribbon which matched the invitations, lacey placemats and "blue satin sashes" tied on the napkins. I also hung my new Happy Mother's Day banner in the entry. 

At each end of the table I placed a little flower pot full of chalk which we used along with our chalkboard placemats for one of our games;

"My Favorite Things" pictionary. 

I shared a new "favorite" essay about motherhood called

Sensible Shoes written by Emily Baer. 

Our playlist included "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music soundtrack as well as our favorite mother/daughter and tea party songs. We also had "My Favorite Things" sheet music displayed on our piano.

Tomorrow I will share "My Favorite Things" tea party treats!!

You can see more of "My Favorite Things" tea party

here & here invitations

here hydrangea cupcakes

here tea party food 

&

here crown 

● ● ● ● ●

linking to:

DIY by Design

● ● ● ● ●

from my list of one thousand gifts

::mothers and daughters and sisters::tea parties::brother and sister working on homework project together::quiet time::playing games::improvising::

Happy Tuesday!

hydrangea cupcakes

are a few of 

"My Favorite Things"

I made these fun cupcakes for

"My Favorite Things"

 Mother/Daughter Tea Party 

on Saturday. 

I tried to color the frosting to match the invitations as well as the actual live hydrangea I bought to use as the center piece on the table. I served the hydrangea cupcakes in little flower pots that I decorated to match the party theme. You will see these edible flowers in some of the tea party photos that I will be sharing over the next few days.

linking to:

at the picket fence

"My Favorite Things" invites

These are the invitations I made for my

Mother/Daughter Tea Party 

this year. 

The theme is 

"My Favorite Things" 

so I made my invites with "brown paper.... tied up in strings".  

For the envelopes I made a template the size that would hold the invite and then I traced and cut them out of recycled grocery bags, being careful to work around the printing. I lined each one with paper lace doilies and then ironed them to make the folds crisp.  

To continue the theme I designed the invitation with vintage graphics and fonts and used recycled wrapping paper liner which is the same brown as the paper bags, just not quite as thick or textured, and printed the party information on that. I wrapped a "brown paper" band around the middle and then a paper lace doily around the invite and used "string" to tie it all together before putting it in the envelope. 

Below are the templates I designed for the front and back of the invitation which also match the "Save the Date" e~postcard which you can see here.[A few of the graphics I found here.] 

Coming soon....

"My Favorite Things"

tea party details!

linking to:

Crafty Scrappy Happy

●●●●●

from my list of one thousand gifts

a hummingbird playing in the water coming from my hose as I watered the plants::a new song composed by our youngest son::coffee with a friend::amazing meals prepared by my family

extra special dinner

prepared by my family

for 

Mother's Day!

♥

Dinner

Grilled Salmon

Oriental Cabbage Salad

Fresh Corn on the Cob

Passion Fruit Iced Tea

♥

and for

the Grand Finale

{dessert}

Coffee~Chocolate Layer Cake 

with 

Mocha~Mascarpone Frosting

made from scratch

by 

our daughter

♥

The recipe called for chocolate curls to decorate the top but she made the chocolate treble clef for the garnish instead. 

The frosting alone took 2 hours to make 

but it was 

soooo worth it!

♥

::the menu{lunch & dinner}~our daughter::grocery shopping~father/daughter::salmon~caught by our middle son::grilling~Ron::

all other meal prep and cooking~our daughter::

clean up~father/daughter::

Mother's Day highlights

For starters,

a beautiful handmade banner and flowers. 

Lunch on the Patio!

 Crab Cocktail made with crab Ron caught at crabfest and homemade Passion fruit iced tea just like Starbucks®. So refreshing on such a sunny, warm day.

In between 

our appetizer and lunch I enjoyed the company of my family while we watched humming birds feed on our flowers which was quite entertaining.

next...

Panini sandwiches with marinated grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella cheese on focaccia bread. So delicious!! 

Everything was amazing

and 

there was still more to come!

Tomorrow I will share photos of my 

Mother's Day dinner  

and 

the incredible 

Grand Finale!

"save the date" e~postcard

{tea party sneak peek!}

❀❀❀
It's that time of year again for our annual Mother's Day, Mother/Daughter Tea Party. This year I decided to do something a little different to announce our Tea Party and added "save the date" postcards which I emailed to each guest. I made a postcard and then personalized each one with the guests name and address before sending via email. I will follow up with traditional invitations and send those USPS.
❀❀❀