Weekly Wonderings: November 30th, 2011

      The holiday season is almost upon us, which means time to start hunting for gifts. In my love of all things homemade, like food or projects; this year I am embracing the idea of homemade gifts for my friends and professors. (Yes, I give professors  a little holiday gift, normally food of some sort, kindness never hurt anyone’s grades).  Here is what I am thinking of attempting this year:

1) Peppermint Bark!

2)Bath Fizzies

3) Book Plates

4) Candy Cane Marshmallows

5) Spiced Nuts (I made these last year and they were a hit!)

 

Extras might have to be made of everything so I can try it! All of these wonderful ideas and photos are from Martha Stewart, I love looking at all the great homemade gift ideas she has! You can find my compellation of gracious gifts here!

Handy House Tip #6: Onions

Lotti cries, a lot. Well okay, only when cutting onions but still, we eat onions often. I, on the other hand,  wear contacts, so it keeps the onion stuff from making me cry, phew! Anyways, having a crying roommate when trying to make dinner, isn’t always fun so we (okay, Lotti did) for a few ways to solve the problem. Here are our two favorite ways:

1) Place onions in the freezer for about 15 minutes before cutting them.

      - This one works, you just have to remember to do it 15 minutes before you want to cut them, which is always tricky in our house. We tend to have spur of the moment dinner ideas.

 

2) Burn a scented candle near you, while you work.

      - We love candles, so it doesn’t even matter if it works that well, but the two things together does tend to help keep tears at bay.

Do you have any tricks when it comings to cutting onions and not crying? Is anyone immune to it like me?

50 Dollar Fix: Buffet Tables

     

       So in the midst of planning for our lovely potluck, Lotti and I realized we need somewhere to set all the delicious food, like Hank. We wanted to use our normal dining table for people to sit at and our kitchen is too tiny for doing the buffet there. My first thought was to rent a table, because a 8ft table will normally only cost 6 dollars to rent, which isn’t too bad on the bottom line and normally you get to keep it for three days. I called a party rental store near us but they only had an 8ft by 30 inches, which was way too deep for a buffet. We wanted it to be tall and skinny (about 20 inches wide we estimated), like a traditional buffet. Quandary.  Well, as I was anxiously looking around the apartment for some piece of furniture that could double as a buffet (none found), I stumbled upon some relegated wood, Lily and I had bought two summers ago in the a Home Depot frenzy. Relegated wood, as we refer to it, is wood that is leftover from bigger pieces Home Depot cuts for people. And normally its SUPER CHEAP. It’s great for little projects, like these frames.They were just about the right depth, so now the question was how to make them a table. I went and sat in my living room to ponder while watching Martha Stewart. By the way, love the new layout of the show,  its seems so modern! While there, I saw my bookshelves I built this summer. PRESTO! Idea!

I could stack two of the crates on top of each other and form a tall structure for the wood to sit on! So now we had one 4ft table figured out, but we wanted a second one, hmmmmm… As I went into our third room (Lotti’s study, my craft room), I saw Lotti’s keyboard. ON A STAND.

The perfect sized stand to balance another piece of wood. Buffet table born! After craftily covering it with a table cloth, no one was the wiser.

All and all this buffet table cost me nothing, but I bet if you were to do it on your own it wouldn’t cost you more than 50 either. Most people have some odd furniture that could double as the base of a table so all you really need a piece of wood and just look at the reclaimed wood section at your home improvement store for that! Have you ever had to be ingenious with your furniture to get it to meet your needs?

Gracious Gift: Funeral Style

      I know normally I talk about cute housewarming gifts or the like but I just had to share this gift we received from some lovely people. Days before the service, we received this basket of goodies for the two kids. It was filled (though already eaten when this photo was taken) with candy and movies for each child. A girly movie for Aurora and a boy one for Brandon. Books for them to play with, and games for them to play by themselves with were in the box. It was the most thoughtful gift we received, yes the food was nice but this gift kept the kids entertained for hours which was so much better! I will definitely be using this idea for future.

So what am I thankful for in 2011…

I am thankful for many things in 2011, so excuse the pictures of people you don’t know but people I love dearly. This is my family, and I love them more than anything in the world, this year has been tough on us but I know we will survive. I am missing pictures of my two uncles but I love them just as much, we are such a tight knit group.

Clockwise from Left: A, Dad, Austin, B, Mimi, ME, Gramps, Mom

A & B on the first day of school! Don’t they look so happy? Look at B’s handcuffs (Don’t worry we took them away before school)

My boyfriend: This is the look he gives me pretty much all the time, I may take too many random photos without giving him notice….

I am also so thankful for the love and support of my friends this year (and yes, even those in the blogosphere), I always know there are people around me to turn to a support. I would post photos, but I don’t want to bore you guys with too many photos!

Easy Entertaining: Thanksgiving Potluck

So instead of 5 things inspiring me this week, I thought instead I would show you guys some pictures from my potluck, the one were Hank was served.

Here’s what the space looked like-

Bar Cart: Best idea ever, Lotti luckily had a tea cart from her grandmother, so we just put all the glasses on the bottom and the drinks up top. I had been seeing the idea all over in design/ party ideas and I can see now what all the hype is about. We even served this strawberry-mint water which was a hit! The drink pictured was a hot apple cinnamon cider made by Lotti’s bf. Once I figure out his secret recipe, I will let you know because it is delicious! Another great drink idea would be this Italian soda idea and would look cute on a bar cart.

Buffet: Look later in the week for how we put it together, we had labels for the food to say who brought what food. This way people knew who to thank. Hank, of course, was the centerpiece. We had napkins, silverware in mason jars and plates stacked on a table next to it for easy buffet access.

Decorations:  So we wanted to change things up a little for the party, but we didn’t want to spend a ton of money (Okay, like any, we are on a college budget here). Thank goodness for free printables. Just print on your computer and cut away! And it came with so many different things, we were able to keep it consistent throughout the party décor! The Thankful Tree was definitely a party favorite as well.

Pretty cute, huh?

Thankful Tree

       So if you already have a recipe for Turkey or aren’t in charge of it (lucky devils), and are looking for some way to contribute to the Thanksgiving I highly suggest a “thankful tree”. All you need is come construction paper! And in my case, a very crafty friend who can cut out a tree! 

       We had all the leaves cut out before the potluck and while everyone was waiting for more people to show up, we had them write what they were thankful for on the leaves then tape them up! As you can see, they were quite cute. But expect the boys not want to participate, and I think only half of those here actually ended up writing something as we got distracted with food. I loved this activity and can’t wait to do it with my family this Thursday. I think it makes a great idea for a family tradition. You could even do them smaller and keep them each year, to show how your family’s love grows each year!

Here are some close picture, clearly we weren’t that serious! But it was fun nonetheless!

     Does your family have any Thanksgiving traditions? I would love some more to add!