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Archive for the ‘Entertaining at Home’ Category

County Fair Theme Party

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Party Theme, tagged , , , on July 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It is getting to be that time of year when County Fairs are held across the country, highlighting our rural roots and ambitions.

If you want to recreate that experience at home, think about hosting a County Fair themed party. It can be a lot of fun and not that hard to put together.

Invitations

Think outside the norm for some fun invitations. You could send them on blue ribbons, use red or blue gingham cloth to cover the outside of the card or card stock shaped like a barn.

Decorations

Use canning jars filled with sunflowers or wildflowers as centerpieces. Cover your tables in red or blue gingham material. For an extra pop of county fun. Put down bandanas in the center of the table before setting on the centerpieces. You can also use bandanas for napkins if you want to go all-out country. Raffia ribbon is another great choice. If you have kids who are complaining about being bored, have them make sunflower chains by running a darning needle through flower heads and stringing together on plain white thread.

If it is an evening party outdoors, use citronella candles to not only provide some nice lighting, but also keep the bugs at bay.

Games

Create your own carnival area with a variety of fun and easy games.

Pour birdseed in a large pan and sprinkle in a few pennies. Have a contest to see who can find the first penny.

Use canning jar rings and pop bottles for a ring toss game.

Sack races or three-legged races are fun. Do a tug of war game or a water balloon toss.

You can also find inexpensive carnival-like games at Oriental Trading

Shop the dollar store for fun prizes.

Contests

Have your guests bring something to enter in a contest. It could be a vegetable, baked goods or crafts. You could have several categories to choose from. If you do have several categories, select three or so guests to judge each category, splitting up the efforts so most of your guests have an opportunity to judge.

Food

You can keep the food simple and fun. Serve hot dog and hamburgers for the easiest menu. You could also make corn dogs and curly fries, if you don’t mind the frying or the calories!  You can find mixes  for things like corn dogs, funnel cakes and more.Think about fair foods you have enjoyed. It is easy to buy a few bags of cotton candy for your guests to share. Serve caramel apples of chocolate dipped bananas or bowls of homemade ice cream. Icy cups of strawberry lemonade or sweet tea are great beverages everyone can enjoy.

However you decide to plan your County Fair Themed Party, remember to have fun with it and enjoy your guests!

She Who Needs an Elephant Ear!

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The Versatile Blogger Award

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Referrals, tagged , , , on July 26, 2011| 4 Comments »

My friend Denise from Gypsy World Spice Cafe shared The Versatile Blogger Award with me. I am quite honored she did. Even though Denise and I have never met, I feel like we are friends from sharing through our blogs. If you ever want to know what to do with a spice, check out Denise’s blog. She has some fabulous and creative ideas! Really, check out her recipes. They are beyond amazing!

There are some strings attached to accepting the award… The award works like a chain letter. So by accepting the award, I have to share 7 blogs that I love, along with sharing 7 things about myself.

7 Blogs I Love

Natty Nook: Kirby and Lena serve up everything from Home Décor and DYI projects to fun recipes. And they are also fans of The Pioneer Woman – a blog I must read daily.

My Name is Snickerdoodle: Amy’s posts are fun, entertaining, endearing and sometimes make me drool as I look at her recipes.

Making Miracles: Began as a way for her to share her journey into surrogacy and now includes some delicious recipes as well as every day living that is fun, inspiring and uplifting.

Kevin & Amanda: You’ll find a variety of wonderful things on this blog from tasty recipes and scrapbooking ideas to beautiful photography and fonts!

The Magic Number: My friend Lindsay, whom I greatly admire, started writing this blog when she found out she was pregnant. She has continued writing it with much humor and inspiration. Check out her post entitled “Nice girls.” I can’t tell you how much I love it.

How Sweet It Is: Beautiful Jessica writes about food, workouts and life in a very engaging and fun way. In addition to great photos, she has some recipes you have to try!

Jamie’s Appleseeds: My friend and neighbor, Jamie, writes a lovely blog about life and love and photography. She is one of the sweetest people I know and her posts always make me smile.

 

7 Things About Me

1. This one is not a secret to anyone who knows me or has read my blog, but I love chocolate. As in, if a day goes by and I don’t have any, my world starts to crash around my ears. Growing up, my mother thought I was allergic to chocolate and for more than a decade I was not allowed to eat any. Captain Cavedweller, my wonderful hubby, decided to test the theory and offered me a bit of his candy bar. I didn’t die, or even have an allergic reaction, so I have been on a quest since that day to make up for all the years I missed eating chocolate.

2. I love the smell of sagebrush. I grew up on a farm that was surrounded on two sides by sagebrush. When the summer rainstorms would hit, the scent of sagebrush would mingle with the tang of raindrops creating a fragrance that someone should figure out how to bottle.

3. We had a calf that lost his mother when I was in high school, so he became my pet. I bottle fed him and spoiled him. Blackie would follow me around like a dog. He ran loose in our yard a good part of one summer, which made running through the grass barefoot a bit of a challenge.

4. As much as I love food, I can’t stand the taste of sweet mingling with other flavors. I don’t want a sweet dressing on my salads, don’t put a fruit salsa on my entrée (I had a mango and ham sandwich once that nearly did me in!), I don’t even like sweet and sour sauce.

5. I used to design and sew most of my own clothes. I worked in fabric stores to earn extra money in college and fell in love with the notion of creating my own patterns and fashions. I haven’t made anything for myself in years, partly due to a lack of time and partly due to a lack of desire. It was much more fun to sew when I was several sizes smaller. My patterns, now all out of date, are gathering dust in a back corner of my craft closet along with my stamp and scrapbooking supplies, my quilt patterns and a box full of silk ribbon from when I was going to teach myself to do ribbon embroidery (a skill which requires patience and we all know I don’t have any of that!)

6. Border Collies are my favorite breed of dog. Captain Cavedweller and I had the most wonderful dog when we bought our first home. We loved her to pieces, as did most of our family. When we moved, my Dad kept her for us. Following an accident she had to be put to sleep. We still miss her, terribly.

7. I call my hubby Captain Cavedweller. He didn’t like being referred to as “Most Wonderful Hubby” here on my blog. So after a bunch of name-calling, Captain Cavedweller seemed to be a perfect fit. Since his aspiration is to some day be a hermit, you can’t even know how appropriate the name is. We met 18 years ago, have been married for 17 and I never imagined loving someone as much as I love him. He loves me unconditionally, encourages my dreams and wild ideas, lets me be me and spoils me.  And I like it.

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Canning Jar Drinks

Posted in Beverages, Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, tagged , , , on July 21, 2011| 1 Comment »

I was flipping through my Schawn’s catalog the other day and saw this idea for serving summer beverages and loved it.

You can fill a tub, cooler, bucket or whatever container you like with ice, fill jars with your beverage of choice, screw on the lid and not worry about spills. I especially liked the idea of being able to have a variety of drinks without a bunch of pitchers or containers taking up valuable counter or table space.

Most of us have some canning jars running around and even if you don’t, they are super inexpensive and you can find them everywhere this time of year.

Schwans also has a fun lemonade recipe to go along with this fabulous idea.

She Who Would Now Like a Berry Lemonade

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One of Those Days

Posted in Captain Cavedweller, Entertaining at Home, Family, Musings, tagged , , , on July 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the type… when you wonder why you ever bothered to drag your sorry self out of bed because that was the beginning of the descent into non-stop not-fun drama.

Ever have one of those days?

Phew… I’m glad there are a few hands raised out there.

My day started with me trying to gather up all the trappings I feel necessary to drag out the door with me on my way to work. In juggling the plunder, I inadvertently hit the panic button on my key chain which set my car alarm blaring at the early morning hour of barely after 7. I’m sure my neighbors and their out-of-town guests were thrilled for that rude awakening. Especially when it went on for goodness only knows how long because I couldn’t hear it until I actually opened the door and stepped outside. Sorry, Jennifer!

Arriving at work, I found my computer had been attacked by evil trolls and refused to boot up. I think it is the same set of ruthless, wicked minions who have invaded the phone line at work. So there I sat with no computer or phone which is pretty much like tying my hands and putting a blindfold on me for the day. Which was a great way to train a new assistant. The village idiot has got nothing on me considering my discombobulated state yesterday. The poor girl will probably turn tail and run while the running is good.

After blundering through the day by playing musical computers, and not getting half as much done as I had on my to-do list, I arrived home only to find Captain Cavedweller had his own disastrous day.  To top it off, he pulled in the driveway to find our garage door wide open (evil trolls are on the move, I tell you!) and an army of the tiniest ants I’ve ever seen swarming over our kitchen counter. Thankfully, they had not yet found my stash of peanut M&Ms.

Ah, so there was the bright spot in the day. My M&MS made it through unscathed.

She Who is Glad Yesterday is Finished and Done!

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