Just a Fruit Tray

A friend of mine was having a party, so I asked what I could bring. She suggested it would be great if I brought some fruit. And that is how this began....

I started making jokes that I was going to make the greatest fruit tray ever; so, I started looking at fun ideas to bring a fruit tray, and got pinterest-spired and it snowballed. I saw a really great pin about how to make a watermelon pirate ship, which I obviously concluded would be the coolest thing EVER. But, then I saw a tutorial for apple swans. Well, I had to make those as well. What other opportunity would I have to do so?! And hey, swans and ships are both in the water... so it could work right?

I enlisted a friend to help...and hubby stated that this was my project, and he wasn't helping. My friend bought all the fruit at costco and brought it over for me. We had put the kids to bed already, so it was about 8pm when we started. The party was after church the morning, so it had to be done before bed.

I used  this tutorial for the pirate ship. Hubby quickly came over to assist me (as he almost always does). We didn't to put a skull, because part of the party was for a baby dedication, so we ( I mean hubby, because really he did most of this part) cut a cross on the mail sail. We (I mean my friend) used a melon baller to get as much out of the watermelon as possible We used some of the watermelon to make waves at the bottom as well.

 

As pieces were done, they went in the fridge overnight and were just fine the next day. 

We also cut out letters out of the watermelon. I had seen this posted somewhere.. like this, and they used cantoloupe I believe, which would have been easier because it is harder. Watermelon was finicky. We cut out flat slices of watermelon and used little letter cutters (that I use for fondant).

Lastly, we (I mean me) carved apple swans. Now, this looked like the most difficult part, but was really simple. I followed this video here.

Doesn't it look fun?! Everyone was very impressed. It was a great project... unfortunatley, now my kids always want their apples cut into swans before they will eat them...
Oh well.. What can you do...

Summer fun

I would say that summer is officially over now. Not only is it getting cold (it's only 11c today), but, I am also back in class (my last year of university). I haven't blogged much, for 2 reasons; the first, summer was crazy, the hotel, that we call our house, was busting at the seams all summer. And 2, because I wasn't at school, I wasn't using my Laptop and blogging on the iPad is a bit of a challenge. But, now I am attempting to use a new app to see if I can more easily and efficiently blog.

So, back to the summer; other than lots of guests and mini-trips, we spent a lot of time outside in our garden. We have a lovely rainy summer, so we ended up with quite the harvest. Apples, tomatoes, peppers... It was great. However, it all seems to ripen at the wrong time.

This summer my little harvest began just as some friends from Germany showed up. That means one lucky guest got to spend days helping me can. (thanks t... Hope you still enjoyed your working vacation :) )

We spent days making apple sauce, apple pie filling, salsa, dill pickles and bread and butter pickles. I enjoyed it and now have a cupboard full of jars for the winter. And don't worry, I sent T home with some as well.

I even made my own labels for all the jars. I bought Avery labels and made a simple design using their templates. I learned that if you are looking for cute backgrounds, the best search option I found was "fabrics." this way they had a bit of texture and were generally cute and simple.

Anyways, here is a little picture summary of the canning project. I will update the blog soon with some other exciting projects I have completed recently!

Summer Centerpeices

For my little Dude's birthday I wanted to make some centerpeices for the tables outside. My initial thought was simple vases with spring flowers. But, I thought maybe something a bit more kid friendly was in order. Little Dude had gotten a tiny pinwheel from my inlaws (who live overseas) in their last care package and he loves it. They look simple enough to make, so I googled a few ideas. It turns out, it is pretty much as easy as I had thought.

I have a ton of scrapbooking paper with pretty designs that I have had for years, so I decided that this would be a perfect use for it. Other than that I used chopsticks (save the wooden ones you get when you order chinese food) and a thumb tack. I used the directions here.... Well, actually, it was the day before Little Dude's party, so Hubby put them together for me!

One they were together, I took the jars that I had made (check them out here), filled them with a bit of sand from the sandbox and stuck the pinwheels in. Any jar would work though, or even a bucket from the sandbox or a glass.

They were a cute addition to the party, and everyone had fun playing with them afterwards.

Label Spring

Recently, I decided to take a stab at gardening. I had tried last year and failed miserably. I attribute it partly to my cat and the other part to the mosquitoes that prevented me from doing doing anything outside. Last years attempt was somewhat lacking, I never really put a lot of effort into it. However, since then our backyard had been redone and I had the perfect place for a garden. The whole yard looks so nice and I didn't want little plastic markers in my garden ruining it. I searched the Internet for ideas for garden markers. I found a great site here with lots of ideas. I really liked the spoons, but don't have any antique spoons.

So, Hubby helped me work out a new idea. At work he cut me little brass tags. We got a little metal stamping set for about $15 at Princess Auto. You just hold it in place and hammer it. I practiced a bit first, but it was really simple.

We bought a big long wooden baseboard for about $12, and I (yes all by myself, with a saw and everything) cut it like this...

I cut along all of the red lines. This way I had a point to stick into the ground and there was very little waste. I tried to get them all the same length. I was relatively successful, however, you wouldn't notice when you push them into the ground anyways.

I sanded the rough edges off, and stained them. I think they would look great painted, or left natural looking as well. Hubby sprayed all the stakes and copper tags with a protective spray, to keep them nicer outside. They definately aren't perfectly coated, but this will allow them to slowly weather. I want them eventually to look a bit antiquey (If thats a word...). He then took some cooper wire and wrapped it around a few times, and hung the tag on it. You can find the wire at any home improvement store.


They look so cute in the garden.

They were easy to do, but a bit time consuming.

On a side note - my garden is doing great. I already harvested my first bit of Rhubarb

I'll keep everyone updated on the progress of my garden!

Happy Gardening Everyone!

Pièce de Résistance - The Cake

This year, I had big plans! I wanted to make cake pops. I spent hours googling pictures and getting ideas for different kinds of cake pops. However, my one concern was that they would be too sweet for everyone- the traditional way including rolling icing and cake crumbles together. My mom had seen this cake pop maker and bought it for me one day. This way they would be fluffier and lighter.

I assembled the troops Saturday, the day before the party. I recruited everyone who was home at my parents, my mom, sister and Grandma and Grandpa who were visiting from Ontario. We started by mixing 3 seperate batters that are found in the recipe book included: chocolate, vanilla and lemon. Vanilla and lemon made really thick batters, so I poured them in a freezer ziploc bag (it needs to be the heavy duty ones or it will break on you) and cut the corner. This allowed me to pipe them into the machine quickly and with much less mess. The chocolate one was much runnier, so I put it in a measuring cup; This made it easy to pour into the machine. The trick I found with all batters was to pour as much in as possible without it spilling over and don't open the machine for atleast a minute. One baked I placed the cake pops in the tray provided with the machine to keep them round, but ran out of room quickly. I found that putting them in egg cartons was almost as effective at keeping them round. Then we let them cool for a few minutes.

If you don't have a cake pop machine, then you could always use these directions here. This shows the traditional way to make them, and you don't need any special tools.

After they were cool, we needed to put the sticks in. I used the lollipop sticks that came with the cake pop maker (you can always find some more at Michaels) and long wooden skewers, because we needed some on longer sticks (and we had those lying around). We dipped the sticks in chocolate and stuck them in the cake ball. Then they went into the freezer for about 15minutes. This makes them easier to work with and ensures that they do not fall off the sticks.

Then it was time to dip them in icing. I used the recipes here from the book that came with the cake pop maker. We did chocolate icing and vanilla glaze. Both were extremely easy to work with. The only challenge was finding the best consistency. Too warm and it dripped too much, too cool and it wasn't smooth.

Right after dipping they were decorated with sprinkles, nuts, toasted coconut, toffee bits...pretty much
whatever we had. I bought some cool sprinkles at Bulk Barn, but not nearly enough. It worked to roll the pops in the toppings, but sprinkling some on the tops also looked neat. I left a few with just plain chocolate, and later I melted blue candy melts (from Bulk Barn) and piped on designs with a piping bag, using the smallest tip I had.

We needed space to have the cake pops dry. They had to stand straight us so they didn't have an indent on the top. Using egg cartons, we poked holes in the top and filled the bottom with rice (to ensure that they didn't tip over). They then went in the fridge for a few minutes to make sure they were good and set.

The next challenge was transport. I had made them at my parents house because they have much more space. But, the party was at my house. My Step-Dad came up with the great idea of placing styrofoam on the bottom of a giant cooler and poking the cake pops in. This kept them upright and cool. It worked perfectly and they all survived the 20km trip home.

Once home I made the display. I had already bought a flower pot and floral foam (can find both at the Dollar Store). I filled the bottom of the pot with the floral foam and then started sticking the cake pops in. I was going for a "flower arrangement." Basically put the longer ones in the middle and used shorter ones as I went around.

Here is how it turned out.... Like?!

I also made a cake just for Little Dude. I baked a small cake directly in a flower pot. Once it was done baking I crumbled the cake a bit to look like dirt. I then added a few gummy worms coming out. Cake Pop in the middle, candles and viola! I wanted him to be able to blow out the candles, which he couldn't do on the big arrangement. Here is his little cake!

Lastly, I needed to have something to serve extras. So, I wrapped a peice of floral foam in brown paper, tied a ribbon around it. I secured the ribon with a thumb tack I found at the Dollar Store. Then I just stuck in a few cake pops.

It was good I did because the cake pops went fast!

Overall, the party was a success and the cake pops were a hit! Everyone loved them and they are perfect for a kids birthday party. No forks, plates and clean-up later...well maybe a bit of laundry...

Hydrating and Feeding the Guests

This year I did a spring/garden theme. It was Mother's Day and a 2 year old birthday, so I needed it to fit both occassions. Spring could be a girly theme, so I made attempts to make it better for a little boy. One thing I have wanted to try out for a long time is old fashioned lemonade. I looked everywhere for a recipe I liked landed on this one - here. It's sparkling raspberry lemonade. It was festive and fresh, for the hot day we had.

I also spent the week making ice cubes (I only have one ice cube tray). I froze raspberries and lemon in ice. I used fresh lemons and frozen raspberries. My first batch of raspberry ice cubes, I just dropped raspberries in the water and froze it together. The water turned really red from the juice, as they defrosted slightly. The berries became hidden in the cube and didn't have the impact I wanted. I tried half freezing the cubes but, that also did not look perfect. For the last attempt I filled the trays half way with water, took them out, placed the berries on top and poured ice water over it to freeze it the rest of the way. The lemons I just tossed in the water and froze it all together. In the end they both turned out great!

I also wanted some snack foods, but we were having an early dinner and didn't need anything big. I decided on a veggie tray. I just cut up veggies like usual and added dip in the center. It didn't match the theme, so I added gummy worms around and veggies. It made it more fun and was perfect for a 2 year old boy's birthday party.

Everyone left full and hydrated at the end of the day!

Birthday Ballon Wreath

It's Official, my little dude is now 2! We had a little gathering yesterday with family and I thought I'd share a few of my projects.

One of my first projects I did this year is a ballon wreath. It was pretty simple. All I needed was a straw wreath, any ribbon, which I got at Micheals (just make sure to rip the coupon out of the paper, you can even pick one up at the store) floral picks and a large bag of ballons, which you can get at Walmart, or the dollar store. I used approximately 70 ballons.

I just wrapped the wire from the floral picks around the base of the ballon and then stuck it in to the wreath. Overlap the ballons, so you cover most of the wreath. It took me a couple times of moving ballons to get it to look nice.

One the ballons were all around I just took a peice of ribbon and tied it around.

I hung it on the gate so that all of our guests saw it as they arrived! It was a big hit. The best thing about it is that I can put it away and use it again next year. Only 364 days and my little dude will be 3!!

Summer Sun Jars

Summer is coming and I'm ready to be outside. I saw these mason jar solar lights on etsy almost a year ago and have wanted to try making it myself. I read on different blogs about tinting the jars with a product called Mod Podge. I have been waiting to try this out and finally found the time. This is the right time, not only because I wrote my last exam of the semester this afternoon(!!!), but the solar garden lights were on sale at Canadian Tire for a dollar each. I found outdoor Mod Podge at Michaels and I already had a bunch of jars that I have been saving.

The first method I tried was The Hand me Down House blog. It was really easy, added food colour and painted it on. The solar lights I found the light part just screwed off. It had the light sticking out the bottom, so Hubby drilled a little hole and I just set them inside.

I added a bit of texture and they look really nice. Unfortunately, Canadian weather came, it snowed a day or so later after this. I am not sure why, but the colour came off a bunch. I don't if it was not completley dry or if it doesn't withstand our weather well.

With a little more garden research I found another method here This included pouring it inside and baking it in the oven on very low for a bit. I didn't let mine drip out and got a bit of a puddle on the bottom. I think it looks pretty cool though.



The darkest one just had thicker Mod Podge. I think this will work, being protected from our crazy weather. I didn't have 3 identical jars, so I just randomly picked a few from the cupboard. I think it looks better this way.

It glows Blue!! I have them sitting outside on my table as a centerpeice now, but they would look cool randomly around your garden or as a path to your house in the front!

Overall, I recycled the jars (FREE), bought garden lights for $1 each on sale and bought a jar of Mod Podge ($7) and used about a third. They were also super easy and quick.

Can't wait to do more summer crafts!!!