A Little Naughty, A Little Nice

Looking to add a little spice to your holiday this season (and I don't just mean in your spiced cider!)?  Then this just might be the post for you!  With December only one day away, it is time to get the advent calendar ready.  I've been working on our family advent calendar with fun holiday crafts and activities similar to last years, but this year, I've decided to make A Little Naughty, A Little Nice advent calendar for my husband!!

With two young kids and full time jobs for both of us, it is sometimes challenging for my husband and I to find the time to have stress-free couple time.  I decided to craft this fun calendar just for us.  Since it is meant just for us, I decided to hang it from our headboard. Honestly...this was also so we wouldn't get so busy we'd forget to open one each day!! 

 
I painted clothespins in red, white, and greens and clipped them to a red ribbon. I bought two small packs of 6x6 holiday paper from Michaels ($4 on sale) for the rest.  I ended up cutting the paper to be 6x4 because I thought it looked better.  The paper pack came with the numbers that I just cut out and glued to the clothespins.  I decided to roll the paper, so my husband couldn't cheat and know what was coming! I even taped them!

I typed up the advent activity for the day and glued it to the inside of each paper.  I couldn't just write it because the stack of paper I bought was double-sided.  It was fun coming up with the days activities.  I was purposefully vague on some items.  For example, I thought we could decided together which of us would give the back rub and which would receive it.

Here's some examples of A Little Naughty...(only a "little" naughty for this post!)

 And A Little Nice...

As crazy as the holiday season gets, I think these activities will enable my husband and I to have a little of our own time and just enjoy each other a bit. I cannot wait for December 1st!  If any of my readers do this, please let me know.  Maybe I can swap out some of my ideas for yours!

*Another note: Just like I do with my kids' advent calendar, I keep a hidden list of the days in order.  This way if something comes up and I know we won't have time to fit the activity in that day, I can switch it with a less time-consuming day.  This is another reason why I numbered the clothespins and not the papers. 

Thankful Tree

Happy Thanksgiving!! I love this holiday, not just because of the delicious food which makes me feel like I need to be rolled out the door, but because it is a holiday season that presents us with a great opportunity to reflect on all we have to be thankful for.  My husband and I took our family out for a walk on the horse trails near our house at the beginning of the month and we came across this...

This thankful tree displays the numerous blessings that surround us.  There were tags dangling from the tree written by neighbors and others who passed by the tree.  On these tags, the writers noted something they were thankful for and then hung it on the tree like an ornament.

Attached to the trunk of tree was a plastic container with a lid and inside the container were blank tags and pens/markers for anyone who wished to add what they are thankful for to the tree.  I loved this idea, and I decided to make a small tree for our house.  The remainder of the walk, our family picked up long sticks to be used for our tree.

When we got home, I found a vase.  My daughter and I placed the sticks in our vase, and then set about making the tags. We used my Cricut machine and Stretch Your Imagination cartridge to make 3.5" tags on light tan cardstock.  We threaded twine through the top of the make the ornaments, and placed the vase as the centerpiece of our dinner table.

Next to the vase, we placed a dish with blank ornaments and a pen, much like the neighborhood tree.  Throughout the month of November, our family (and whoever visits that wishes to add a thankful tag) have been writing down things we are thankful for.  Every time I look at this tree, it reminds me of all I have to be thankful for and the many blessings we have in our lives.

As this month comes to a close, I plan to write 2012 on the back of each tag and keep them all together. Next year, it will be so neat to read them again.  It will also show the growth of our kids as their handwriting and what they are thankful for changes. My favorite tags so far this year have been one I wrote on behalf of our 17 month old son, "Chairs, books, toys...anything that I can step on to reach things I shouldn't" and one of our 3 year old daughter's "I'm thankful for Johnny-John."  This one will be neat as her nickname for her little brother changes over time.  Each year, I will hang some of the past years on the tree, and then I will make tags in a slightly different color for the current year.

We have so much to be thankful for, and this tree has been a wonderful daily reminder for my family of just how much we are blessed.  I highly recommend making a tree of your own.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Bare Necessities

November is a time we often count our blessings and be thankful for all we have.  Others do not have even the bare necessities, and they are struggling every day. This prompted me to host my November monthly dinner with the theme of Bare Necessities where the girls and I made care packages to give out to the homeless in our communities.

Entry:  I wanted my decor to fit with my theme, but not be depressing.  At first, I was going to decorate all in teddy "bears" and play up this homophone, but that seemed too cutesy to go with our activity.  I decided instead to mix the two.  A shopping cart was donated to my ASB several years ago, so I borrowed that to set outside my entry door. I filled it with blankets, sleeping bags, etc.  Across from it, I set out a flattened cardboard box with a giant panda bear (thanks Gracie!).  I made a simple sign for the panda to hold inviting guests to enter.

Decor:  I set my dining table with some camping tarps as a tablecloth. As a centerpiece, I filled a small shopping cart with washcloths as well as some of the care package items.  Next to this, I placed another teddy bear holding a sign that read: "Homeless Let's Help" instead of the general Please Help that you often see on the side of the road. I placed newspaper under it -- the employment section -- for added color and contrast.

As place cards, I made knapsacks out of a scrap of fabric and a pencil. I filled the inside of the fabric square with Thanksgiving M&Ms, tied the ends of the fabric together in a knot to create the sack, and slid a new pencil in (writing side down so it didn't show).  To add the name to each pencil, I used by Cricut machine to cut letters and then glued them on.

To keep with the theme, the menu card was a piece of cardboard with the menu written in black marker.  The wine bottles were wrapped in paper bags.  I tied the tops with a burgundy ribbon for the red wine and a white ribbon for the white wine.

On the table we used for assembling the care packages, I used a sleeping bag as my tablecloth. I set out another bear, this one holding a sign that read "We Care Packages".  Another small shopping cart held the cards (see Activity section below).

Our good friend Josh in Mammoth carves these amazing bears out of wooden logs.  This bear was given to us at our wedding years ago.  It is engraved with our names at the bottom, and the bear was originally holding fresh flowers when we received it at our reception. He was a perfect addition to my table, and the hole was perfect to stick a skewer with a sign to identify the table.  By the way, you should really check out Josh's website to get one of these for your home, Bare in Mind Carvings. We love ours and get so many great comments on it.

Menu:  Again, I tried to adapt or fit menu items to the theme.  We started with Raspberry Salad with Candied Almonds.  Yummy!  The salad consisted of mixed greens, feta cheese, whole raspberries, and candied almonds.  It was served with a raspberry vinaigrette.  To make the candied almonds, I used 3 tablespoons sugar with a half cup of almonds. In a non-stick skillet, heat on medium heat 6-8 minutes, or until sugar forms a golden brown syrup and coats almonds.

For the main dish, I made individual Chicken Pot Pies, but shaped them like knapsacks.  To complete the look, I stuck a wooden chopstick through the top and tied a small strip of fabric around the end.  Although my pot pies included carrots and peas inside, I decided to serve green beans with it as well.  To make the knapsacks, I made the dough and then cut it into 6"x6" squares.  These squares I filled with the chicken mixture before folding the edges in. Here is the recipe for the inside mixture:

Chicken Pot Pie

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

Freshly ground pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup frozen peans

1 1/2 cups cubed or shredded cooked chicken (I got mine pre-cooked from Costco)

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Cook the onions, carrots, and celery with salt and pepper to taste, until the carrots soften, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and thyme and cook an additional minute, stirring frequently.  Add the flour and cook off the raw flavor, about 1 more minute.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Which in the stock and Dijon mustard.  Add the peas and chicken and cook on a very low simmer until the sauce thickens up into a gravy, 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.

For dessert, I served Strawberry Pie with whipped cream.  The best thing about this entire dinner was that I made almost everything the day before, so I actually had a chance to visit with my guests during this dinner rather than spending all my time in the kitchen preparing the meal.

Activity:  As I stated above, this theme was centered around the creation of Care Packages to help the homeless in our community.  I asked each guest to sign up to bring 20 of one or two items on the care package list.  I then bought gallon size Ziplock bags to hold all the items.  The items I asked guests to bring were:

Chapstick

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Deodorant

Packages of Tissues

Soap

Trail Mix

Crackers

Bottled Water

Hand wipes

Bandaids

Granola Bars

Pair of Socks

Coins

Lotion

One of the girls even typed up a list of local shelters in Orange County, and she brought single-day bus passes that we attached to several.

I also crafted a small note card for each guest to write a message of their choice before placing into the bag. The girls seemed to like this addition. (If you'd like a copy email me.)

When filled, the idea of these bags it to place them in your car, so it is handy the next time you encounter someone in need.  Each guest left with two full bags ready to give out to others.


This was a great party, and we all enjoyed putting these bags together.  The feedback I have received from the guests and the stories they've shared when they gave a bag away makes me smile.

Halloween: Family Fun

Happy Belated Halloween!  This is not my favorite holiday. However, I have come to the understanding that you must learn to like this holiday once you have little ones running around super excited about dressing up and trick or treating.  My hang up with this holiday is twofold.  First, I have a hard time spending the loads of money that costume stores want you to pay for something that is poorly made and your kids will wear once or twice.  Secondly, the creative gal in me has a hard time settling for standard princess or super hero type of costume. Our costumes this year were a big hit, so I decided to share them with you in case you can use them for the future.

Here is our family this year...

My daughter's favorite movie right now is Up.  She begs to watch it almost every night. So one evening we were watching Up, and I hinted to my daughter that she should be an Up character for Halloween.  The clincher...I told her she could carry balloons while she trick or treated.  She was ecstatic! Immediately, she assigned each member of our family the character we would represent.

My husband was Mr. Frederickson.  We made a visit to the local GoodWill and picked out a dark brown coat and slacks.  We already had the white shirt and suspenders.  We borrowed the cane and just added 4 tennis balls to the bottom.  The glasses we found at a thrift store for $0.59.  The bow tie and white hair spray were purchased at Party City.  To finish off the outfit, I made a Grape Soda pin for him to wear on his lapel.

I was Russel.  I borrowed a yellow hat and shirt from my dad.  The Boy Scout sash was borrowed from one of my past students. I already had the brown shorts and hiking boots, just added orange shoelaces.  I wrapped a piece of orange felt around my neck to make the scarf.  The hat emblem, flag, and patch were made out of scrapbook paper.

My daughter wanted to be Kevin, the Snipe.  This is where I had to use my creativity because a Snipe costume does not exist.  I bought a purple fleece hooded sweatshirt and 2 rainbow boas.  I stitched the boas to the sweatshirt with needle and thread without cutting the boas at all.  The sweatshirt was a zip-up, so it worked perfectly to take the sweatshirt on and off without ruining the costume.  I also stitched some feathers extending from the top of her head.  The yellow beak is made out of card stock and stitched to the hood to hold it in place.  Blue card stock is behind each googly eye as well. All these items can easily be removed and the sweatshirt used normally after Halloween too!  For the feet, I cut these out of black foam and safety pinned them in the back.  They ripped fairly easily we found, but a little black duck tape helped!

My son was Doug, the cute little dog from the movie. I looked everywhere for an expensive puppy costume that was brown like Doug in the movie.  I found this one at Party City for $15...works for me.  If I had more time, I would have added a collar with a red light flashing, but I ran out of time on that one.

This was a really fun Halloween costume.  I think it is even better than our one last year (although I loved my chicken and my egg...)

Murder Mystery Dinner Night

I had always wanted to try one of those Murder Mystery Dinner parties, so I decided to host one for my monthly dinner in November of 2010.  I did some Internet research on various kits to find one, and I decided on Pasta, Passion, & Pistols created by University Games.  This kit was in my price range, had positive reviews, fit the amount of people I would have at my dinner, and the overall plot sounded interesting.

The kit comes with invitations, scripts, recommended menu, and all the police reports/secret clues that you need to successfully play the game. You can even reuse all the materials (except the invitations) to host another party with a different group, so it doesn't have to be a one-time use thing.

Invite:  Although the kit came with invitations, I did not use them because I like to create my own.  The setting of this murder was an Italian restaurant in New York City, so I went with an Italian theme. All images I found on Google and adapted using Microsoft Word.  I sent only the front (the invite on the left) first.  Once I knew who could make it, I sent the invite again with the character they would play printed on the back of the invite (right). All information is given on the Party Planner sheet included in the kit.  By the way, even as the party host, I did not know anything about the plot, killer, details, so I was also able to partake in the fun of the evening.

Entry: In front of my entry door, I created a body outline with chalk and set up crime scene tape around it.  I also set out an "evidence bag" which was a zip lock bag with a toy pistol inside of it.  On the door, I created a restaurant sign welcoming guests to La Speranza Restaurant.

Decor:  I set my table with a red and white checkered tablecloth, green napkins, and my usual white plates. I set a few pieces of paper and a pen on each plate for guests to take notes during the evening.  The booklets included with the kit have a spot for note taking, but since I didn't know if I would be reusing the game, I didn't want to use those. 

As my centerpiece, I bought white and red flowers from my local florist and tied a red ribbon around the vase.  Next to each vase, I placed a black toy pistol for added decor. Bread and Italian oils for dipping were also on the table along with white pillar candles. I downloaded some Italian opera to play in the background.

For the place card, I used my Cricut machine to scrapbook a card that went along with the character each guest was playing for the evening.  For example, Mama Rosa is a chef, so hers was a chef hat; Marco Roni is a soccer player, so his was a soccer ball.  My monthly dinner guests are all girls, but some of us played male roles for this evening.

Menu:  The mystery kit provides various dinner ideas and recipes.  I created my own menu of Italian food, but I did try two of the recipes from the kit. The two recipes I tried were the Baked Ziti and the Mocha Cake.  Due to copyright, I cannot include the recipes.  Anything Italian would go with this theme though.  You could even serve pepperoni pizza since the person murdered was Guiseppe (Pepi) Roni!!

Favor:  At the end of the evening, I gave the guest who guessed the murderer correctly a large bottle of Italian red wine.  The other guests received miniature bottles of wine.  I created a "restaurant bill" as my tag to attach to each bottle of wine.

Three of us dressed up in our costumes for the evening!

This was a super fun evening, and we all had a great time dressing up, playing our parts, and guessing the murderer.  This kit says the party takes 3-5 hours, and it did take about 3 hours for us.  I knew the girls could not stay super late, so we did move fairly quickly through the script in order to finish.  Note: This did mean our general conversations were lessened a bit to accommodate, but none of us seemed to mind this time because the evening was entertaining on its own.

If you are looking a different way to dine with friends, this might be fun for your group!

Construction Zone: Girls at Play

I've had a couple requests from readers to post details of the Construction Zone: Girls at Play party I hosted way back in January of 2007. I must warn you...I took very few photos of the dinner details and those that I do have are horrible!  At least you will get an idea of what we did!

Invite:  I created a standard construction-themed invitation for this party on Microsoft Word. I asked the girls to dress as construction workers to add to the fun of the event.

I included this photo because he is actually reading the directions...this was a first! :)

I guess I should back up and tell you that this theme came about because my husband (well, he was just my boyfriend at this point in 2007) and I tore out the carpet in the downstairs of our condo that year to replace it with wood floors.  The project took a little longer than anticipated, so we were "under construction" when the January monthly dinner rolled around.

Entry:  I set up construction cones and caution tape leading to the entry door.  I made a construction sign on the door that read "Girls at Play" and under it was another sign that warned "Enter with Caution."

Decor:  Since my dining room table had been moved out to do the floors, this left me with a clean slate for decor.  I set up two construction sawhorses and bought a large thick piece of plywood to put on top as the table. I bought an expensive piece of plywood because we were planning to use it for another house project after the party. As a centerpiece, I just grabbed construction tools from our garage: large yellow level, hammers, screwdrivers, table measure, wrench, etc.  I also had two mini cones that I placed on each end of the level.  I wrapped the napkins with zip ties.

As a place card as well as an accessory for the evening, I gave each guest a plastic construction hat I bought at Party City.  To make it specific to each guest, I designed a tag with the guest's name and a construction-related occupation.  I used alliteration, so I had: Maria the Mason, Deanna the Designer, Carole the Carpenter, etc.

Menu: I themed my menu around construction as well.  Our drink to start the evening was Screwdrivers.  The remainder of the menu included a Build-Your-Own Pizza Bar, A Craft-Your-Own Salad Station, and a Build-Your-Own Sundae Station.  For the pizza station, I just made pizza dough and placed it on a piece of tin foil for each guest (see photo on the left).  After guest's had placed the toppings they desired on it, I placed it on a cookie sheet with other guest's pizzas and cooked them all at once.

Favor:  Each guest left with a construction cookie in a clear favor bag with the Work Complete tag attached.  As you can tell, I am not a great artist (especially when using frosting), but you get the idea!

A simple theme that would be great for a young boy's birthday party. I would incorporate dump trucks and other ideas now that I have a son with all of these toys, but back in 2007 when I had this party, I didn't have kids to steal from!

As usual...if you would like the document with the tag or invitation email or comment below.

Horror Movie Madness

It is the month for Halloween festivities, and although I am not into the Horror movie genre, I decided to theme my dinner after this concept.  This October monthly dinner marks 6 total years of me hosting monthly dinners....that's 72 dinners I've hosted...each with a different theme.  I wanted to think of a theme that had something to do with the number 6, but all I could think of was 666.  I didn't want to do that theme exactly...hence, the Horror Movie Madness theme!  (The funniest thing about this theme is I HATE horror movies and honestly have seen very few...too scary for me!)  So, although it was an odd theme for me, I decided to roll with it.

Invite:  I created two invites for this dinner and couldn't decide which I liked more.  The first was an adaptation of a quote taken from Poltergiest (who's main character's name is coincidentally Carole Ann like mine!).

The second is a simple blood/hand print that seems to reflect almost any horror movie.

Entry:  Since I have two little kids, I don't have too many scary decorations.  However, I did purchase this Scream-inspired ghost to hang near the entry door. I also wanted to have a blood-splattered message.  To do this, I wrapped my front door in seran wrap and then used red washable paint to write the message/place hand prints.

Decor:   I bought a white plastic tablecloth and then splattered red acrylic paint to appear like blood.  Along the center, I cut cardboard in triangle/random shapes and covered them in tinfoil to look like a broken mirror (I wasn't willing to take on the bad luck superstition of breaking a real mirror!).  I melted red candle wax onto plain white candles to also appear bloody. Lastly, I placed a black crow and a skull I bought at the dollar store on the table.

As a place card, I made knives and cleavers out of card stock and tinfoil.  I used the Cricut machine to add the guest's name to the blade.  A few brads were added to look like rivets on the knives.  I found mini skulls at Michaels (8 in the bag for $2) and used them as napkin rings.  They were plastic, and I just drilled a hole through them, added a black string, and tied them around the napkin.

As added wall decor, I printed out horror movie posters to cover the photos of my family that normally hang behind my dining table.

I also borrowed a garland of bloody knives from a friend (purchased at Big Lots) and some skeletons from the Human Anatomy teacher at my work. On the bathroom mirror, I painted "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

Menu: I started the evening with a plate of mozzarella eyeballs on the center of the table.  I bought the cheese already marinated in a sun-dried tomato marinade.  The pupil is just a sliced green and black olive.

For the main dish, I served ribs and shaped them into a rib cage.  A red pepper served as the heart with a knife stabbed through it.  This was a new recipe for me, but I enjoyed it.

Instead of serving a blob of mashed potatoes, I decided to shape them on the serving platter into a severed hand.  I bought a saw at the dollar store to place at the severed point. Next to this dish, I placed copies of the Saw movies as a reference.

I originally planned to serve cauliflower which already looks like a brain, but since my mom always tells me I need color variety in my meals (she's a retired home economics teacher), I decided to serve broccoli instead.  I cut the broccoli into large sections with multiple florets and attempted to pipe on a homemade cheese sauce to make it look like a brain.  As you can tell from the photo, I was not successful in my attempt.  The broccoli melted the cheese too quickly for any pattern to stay.  Oh well...at least I got compliments on the taste!

To finish off the main meal, I baked bread sticks shaped into bones.  I bought the prepackaged Pillsbury Artisan pizza crust.  I rolled it out and sliced it into slivers.  Then just sliced the ends and rolled them down.  Before baking, we added butter and Parmesan cheese to the tops.

For dessert, I served vanilla ice cream with strawberry topping.  I bought Wilton's Icing Knives to put into each mound of ice cream to look like the knife caused the red topping to ooze out.  I also made Jason and Scream cake pops for each guest.  I shaped the cake pops into the mask shapes, then covered them with melted white chocolate.  The black and red is royal icing that I piped on.

Activity:  I found movie clips on YouTube of various scary horror movies and burned them to a DVD. Guests tried to guess the movie by writing it on the game card I made.  This game did not work as well with this group of girls, so think about your guests beforehand. I didn't know mine were so chicken when it came to horror flicks...most wouldn't even look at the screen even though I didn't have any scenes with blood!  The girls were also fairly illiterate when it came to knowing horror movies, so they were not able to get many correct.

Favor:  My favor was Voodoo Doll cookies. I used a gingerbread man cookie cutter to make sugar cookies.  Then piped on the features using royal icing and added red toothpicks as needles.  In order to have the dolls fit in the bags, I did cut the toothpicks a bit. The tag I attached played up the words "poking" and "sticking"just for fun.

It was definitely an evening to DIE for!

If you are looking for an interesting Halloween party or just a recipe to cook for October festivities, I hope you got some ideas. As usual, if you would like the template for the invite, horror movie game, or the Voodoo doll tag, just email me.