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November 22

Madison, our #3 grandchild, turned 4 this past weekend. Melissa had been wanting me to throw a special party for her ever since I did Kadence's Pink Princess Party a couple years ago, so I decided this was a good year. I went with a Rainbow Brite theme. All those fun 80s toys are coming back around I've noticed--Rainbow Brite, My Little Pony, Care Bears. Sure doesn't seem like 25 years has gone by, does it? What's cool about putting on a themed party these days is that you don't have to do it ALL yourself. I had wonderful invitations made and emailed to me within an hour of ordering and just printed out as many as I needed. A really special cake topper was mailed out as soon as I ordered it. I even found some themed mini pinatas to use as swag bags as the little girls left. It was a fun party to put together. I had the room all decorated a couple days in advance and I wanted Madison to be surprised. I think it was probably hard for Melissa to keep telling her "No, we can't go to Grandma's now. We have to wait til Saturday!" but Saturday finally came and Madison was obiously pleased.

We pretty much stuck with the same formula as for Kadence's party because it was really just such a winning time. The little girls colored Rainbow Brite pages I printed off the internet as we waited for them all to arrive.

The little girl on the left is smiling so big because she had just asked Madison, "Are you going to be nice to us today?" Madison replied, "Yes, I'm going to be nice." And the little girl had said, "Are you suuuuure?" And everyone cracked up laughing. Ya just never know what you're gonna get with Madison, but we're sure that in the end she'll have been worth it :-)

Then everyone's favorite Professional Party Princess arrived, dressed like a magical rainbow fairy and with little treats for all! :-)

First she did a little face painting on each girl

 Or in some cases, they just wanted the paint on their hands,

lol. This is how Kadence looks every time someone tells her to 'smile for the camera'. We're hoping she outgrows it! :-)

Then Princess Shoshanna sweetly posed and smiled with each girl so I could make an ornament for them

I ran and made the above mentioned ornaments while she apparently danced with rainbow scarves and ribbon wands. I only know that because when I came back in and saw them being read a rainbow story I saw the scattered remnants (in other words, no one took pics for me)

90 minutes with Shoshanna had flown by, so then we had a mad blast through the gifts

so we could move on to the BEST pink champagne cake in town

YUM! Every bite is enjoyed each on it's own.

 I think everyone agreed; it was a very fun party!

And in three weeks, grandchild #4--Jaxson, our token male at the party, is turning one!

I had to come up with the ornament idea at the last minute--I didn't take pics of what the girls took home but used the three leftovers to make some with grandkids' pictures. I was literally out in my studio a couple hours before the girls arrived painting these raw wood stars I found at JoAnn's.

Which gave me the idea--what if we (grandparents) made a different ornament(s) with the kids' photos every year...what a cool tree we would have 20 or so years down the road! I need to stamp 2011 on the white rim of each ornament. That's my good idee for the day ;-)

November 16

I did a little holiday listing on etsy today.

 

 

Also decided to finally share some orignal Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabrics.

You can check it out here. 

November 11

I promised I'd be back in a couple days, didn't I? oops! Well, I know Keyera for one is super anxious to start making these herself so she can quit relying on John to bring them in his lunch so lets get started on the Almond Joy bites. Here's what you need:

I buy big jars of coconut oil here. 

The coconut manna (or coconut butter) is here.

I buy the unsweetened shredded coconut by the 12 bag case.

The dark chocolate I buy by the 5 lb bag.

Raw almonds in the bulk section at the grocery store.

Sweetleaf Stevia drops I usually buy several different flavors at a time here but if you're trying to keep it all in one order get them here. 

I think I mentioned last time, use a good quality vanilla extract. I'm always scouting Ross, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, etc in their kitchen dept for just such items.

This is the mold I use. I bought all 7 that were on the rack last time I checked JoAnn's. They're also at Michael's I think.

Well! Now you know why I put off the directions so long. It's not just some stuff you grab at Safeway, right? And yes you probably can find a lot of those ingredients at the health food store but they are way more expensive than Amazon. Anyway...the rest you could probably figure out yourself but I have come up with a couple of time savers so I'll proceed.

I don't measure, but I'd say about 1 cup of oil to 1/3 cup of manna. I threw out my microwave (could no longer ignore that I was 'nuking' food) but you can use whatever to melt it. While it is melting I am beginning the assembly line process. 

1/2 tsp of shredded coconut in each cup.

One almond in each cup.

Once the oil is melted, remove from heat and add a good Tbsp of vanilla, and app 1 drop of Stevia per fluid ounce of oil. Now here's my first time saving tip:

Yeah baby! I don't even want to tell you how many times I filled each little cup by hand before I thought of this. Get a ketchup bottle from the dollar or grocery store and you're off!

My more recent 'big idea' was to send the chocolate drops through the food processor, thus saving a couple of steps. It's somewhat messy and the end product isn't quite as pretty, but of course; they taste the same! 

Now you get to clean out (or at least, rearrange) the freezer because that's where all these trays need to go. For maybe 15 minutes. Then they all just pop out of the molds.

Voila! 

The ones on the right are the way I've been making them until now. First you would put them in the freezer without any chocolate. Melt the chocolate (double boiler style if not using a microwave), then spread a little bit on top of each candy and freeze again. I store them in the fridge. Coconut oil melts at around 76 degrees.

Either way, they are really good and good FOR you too, believe it or not. In fact, when we have a couple of these with a glass of red wine after dinner we say "we're taking our medicine"! 

Let me know if you have any questions and how it works out for you.

PS: If you have any leftover melted oil, just pour into a container, freeze it, pop it out and store in the freezer in a baggie til next time you make them. It'll be your 'starter'. ;-)