My Hurricane Ike Survival Kit

Well, as I sit here Thursday night at my house, I am getting ready to go to work tomorrow as one of those "essential employees" who are basically always at work, even when almost everyone else is at home. The university has closed but my building is on stand by as a tornado shelter in the event of tornadic activities. There are 2 other shelters on campus for evacuees so there are plenty of other people working as well. Our building is mostly going to be closed and locked up, but we do have one wing with 29 hotel rooms and a few on campus residents living in it, so we are monitoring them as well. so, basically, I will be at work for at least 8 hour shifts with not much to do but watch the weather and keep apprised of the situation, so I have attached below my version of a good survival kit.....yes, those are scrap booking supplies. I figure a few hours of free time with nothing to do, I might as well be productive right? I may not even have a chance to open it but I would like to have it there just in case!

...and don't worry, I also have a packed bag with other essentials and we have food on the premises!

We sure hope this is a non-issue and we are not badly hit but with a storm that is currently almost the size of Texas and 525 miles across, the odds are we will at least be hit with lots of rain and 50-60 mile and hour winds. My boys will hunker down at home without me and I will join them when I can.

So, to all you people in the Ike path...be safe! To those who are not, I will be back with you in a couple of days baring no major problems. If our electricity maintains, then I may be able to post here and there.

Take Care!
Heather

Hurricane Ike

Howdy Folks--

I haven't had a chance to post any today. We are all watching Hurricane Ike to see what path he will choose. He currently is heading for the Texas coast and the university I work at is housing some special needs evacuees and we are busily trying to work out all the other arrangments that go with that...so, needless to say, I have been busy! Plus, there is still a chance that he will come visit us as well....ahhh, the fun of hurricane season!

So, bare with me while I take care of some other needs, I will still try to post when I have a moment, it just may not be every day for a few days!

Take Care!

Heather

Lunch Sack Scrapbooks--Update

Howdy all,

I wanted to give you some extra info on the lunch bag scrapbooks that I posted here.

We are doing them for our big Craft Day this Winter so I have been putting together prices and I actually made one last night as a gift for a pregnant friend of mine. It really doesn't take long if you have a good paper cutter that is accurate and fast (but not so fast you loose a finger!). I probably made mine last night in a little over an hour, start to finish, including the sewing of the sacks together, which is just one pass down the middle of them all with the sewing machine.

Here is a general price list and recipe list for what you will need:

I chose to use 4 of the paper bags, the regular old brown kind. I found these at Target for $1.40 for 50. They also had the choice of a solid color lunch bag in white or red and those were $1.40 for 40. Either one is a great deal, so they end up being either $0.03 or $0.04 each bag, and you need 4, so a whopping $0.16 per scrapbook.

For the paper, you will need something close to 5X5 paper and you can get 4 squares of that out of a 12X12 sheet (plus leftovers). Like I have said before, I generally use Stampin Up (SU) products because I like how everything matches and is true color matching, the ruby red ribbon matches the ruby red paper, etc...so my prices will be for SU products. Anyway, you would need 8 layouts for the whole book including the cover and each layout is 2 of the 5X5 papers, so a total of 16 squares of the 5X5 paper, which would be 4 sheets of 12X12 paper.

I like the "designer series" of papers by SU because they are card stock, double sided and you can fold over a side and show the other design or flip one side of the layout and you know it will still match the other side, etc. Plus, the designer series papers have designs on them, they are not just a solid color. So, I figured we could use 2 sheets of designer paper and 2 sheet of solid colored card stock.

Designer Series 12X12 paper is about $0.83 each, so 2 sheets would be $1.66 total
Card Stock 12X12 paper is about $0.37 each, so 2 sheets would be $0.74 total

So, your total costs up to this point for the paper bags and the paper to cover the "pages" is $2.56. Pretty economical!

And now for the other fun stuff. If you wanted to add embellishments, I was guessing we might add brads, buttons, paperclips, and ribbon.

Brads are about $0.05 each
Buttons are about $0.09 each
Assorted Clips are about $0.29 each
the 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon is about $0.33 a yard

So, I guessed we would use ....
10 brads totalling $0.50
8 Buttons totalling $0.72
2 Clips totalling $0.58
2 Yards of Ribbon totalling $0.66

So, the embellishment total is $2.46

And the total for the book, paper, and embellishments is $5.02

Now, I know you can find fun papers and accessories for cheaper, so you can cut that down even more, I just love the quality and richness of colors that SU offers.

So anyway...that is the scoop....about $5 or less per book for everything!

If you did some punches or cut outs, those would be inexpensive because you can get a lot of punches out of one sheet of paper, so keep that in mind as you shop. Stickers are also economical.

You will probably want to personalize it and add even more, this is just the basic costs for a reference for you. For instance, you might want to put some pages in there that had little pull out cards on them so you would need more paper for that. Since the open ends of the bags make for natural little pockets, you could further embellish those areas and have more places for photos or what not.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Recipe- Chicken and Rice

This is a really basic recipe and you can double it easily. It is a freeze ahead meal for those days that you do not want to cook dinner, you can just throw this in the oven and let it bake! Our ward has gotten together on a Sisters night and made a bunch of these and some lasagnas and then we store them in some one's freezer and use them for when babies are born or people need meals brought in. Its super basic and simple, but still a nice meal. Just add a veggie!

Chicken and Rice Casserole--Freeze Ahead Meal

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 1/2 c. raw rice (Uncle Ben's is best)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
4 c. boiled, boned, cut-up chicken or turkey
cornflake crumbs

Put butter in 2 1/2 quart casserole and melt. Mix all other ingredients together and stir in butter. Top with cornflake crumbs. Bake at 275 degrees for 2 hours. You can fix this ahead of time and freeze. This freezes well. Make 2 or 3 at a time to have on hand.(I think I would add some frozen peas for color)

One year for Christmas I gave my sister "The gift of Time." She is a super busy Mom and Relief Society President and sometimes she just needs a little more time on her hands, so I made her 6 make ahead freezer meals and this was one of them. All she has to do on those hectic days is throw this in the oven!

I love freeze ahead and make ahead meals, so if you have some good ones, please share!

Heather

Book Club-Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

For me, this book was laugh out loud funny at times and heartwarming and lovely at other times. If you have ever lived in the South, know Southerners, or are mystified by the Southern way of life, this book shows a funny and entertaining view of thing that happen in the South. I fell in love with the family and then all their friends. You will probably realize that you have friends like many of these characters. One of the central ladies in the story has a radio show that she does out of her house daily and she reaches across the nation to help homemakers learn a better recipe, cope with things, and be a friend to those in the rural areas who rarely ever get to see a friendly face. The era in this book is an era long gone but one that I think I might have enjoyed. When she meets a family of gospel singers who travel across the nation to sing, they bring a whole new view of life on the road.

This book is silly, funny, touching, and an easy read. Sometimes I like these kind of books that transport you through time and don't take a whole lot of brain power, you can just sit back and enjoy the characters. We read this for a book club and I have read it once since then.

If you have a favorite book, please let me know. I am an avid reader always looking for a good read!

Craft-Simple Scrapbooking Layout

Happy Sunday to all!

Tonight I just wanted to post a simple scrap booking layout that is so easy and you can use it for virtually any theme or occasion. I used this one as a "filmstrip" kind of layout where each picture is a moment in time of a series, but you could really just use any event or whatever you were wanting to scrapbook. This layout was done at a Scrap booking retreat and it was either Lindsey or Leah's idea (you can see their blogs at the links to the right).

For this I chose 3 colors and used them over and over again: Chocolate chip brown, vanilla, and either bashful blue or sky blue. You cut each of your pictures to be a square and just line them up across the page. My pictures are 4X4 so 3 of them fit across a 12X12 page, and I have a 2 page layout, so 6 pictures total.

he title "The Remote Control" is stamped on with chocolate chip brown ink and the rest is paper and ribbon. The polka dots are the "au chocolate" series from Stampin Up that I LOVE but has been discontinued, although they have a new series out now that I might just like better!

I used this to show the action my son would take in trying to steal the remote control. He knew at a young age where the power of the household was held! The brown rectangles are for journaling. This page is so basic and easy...one of the reasons I love it plus its SUPER versatile. You could easily switch out the blue for pink and do a baby girl page or go for primary colors and do something completely different.

For a change, you could also scallop the border papers, make flow-y waves, or use some fun scissor cuts. The possibilities are endless!

Sorry that these are not the best shots of these pages. I hope you can get the idea!

Recipe-Garlic Basil Shrimp

My friend Jenn posted this recipe on our recipe blog at http://recipestop.blogspot.com/ and I wanted to share it over here.

It is REALLY good and versatile as well. I have made it with shrimp, I have made it with chicken, and I think it would be yummy vegetarian as well. I added in some fresh spinach leaves when I add the tomatoes to pack an even more nutritional punch. This recipe is from Ellie Krieger on Food Network, she is the nutritionist with a healthy show, so its healthy to boot! (always a plus!) I also used fresh crushed red pepper paste instead of red pepper flakes (its one of my new fave spices!). I have also made it once with the white wine and once with white grape juice and they both tasted great, not sure I could tell a difference. I have served mine with whole wheat angel hair and whole wheat egg noodles, both were de-lish! Its it also a quick dish to make, I love that!

Garlic Basil Shrimp

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/4 pounds large shrimp (20 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes, or more to taste

3/4 cup dry white wine (i used white grape juice)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then saute shrimp, turning over once, until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the oil remaining in skillet and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Add wine and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.

Stir in basil and tomatoes and season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Return the shrimp to pan and cook just until heated through.

Serve with orzo, pasta, rice or crusty bread.

YUM!

Decorating-Covering Books

I came across this picture in the September Issue of Veranda Magazine. I love this magazine, I came across it one day when I was splurging and getting a pedicure and I grabbed this magazine to look at while I was sitting in one of those fabulous massage chairs while these wonderful people make my feet look so cute and summer fun-ish! (I even got little flowers painted on my big toe nails!)

This magazine is my style...if I had a million dollars to decorate my house, a housekeeper to keep it clean, and a fabulous view out every window. Basically, it is my style if I had an unlimited budget...which I don't! However I love to look at these magazines and take little snipits of their style and use it in my home.

I really love the way these books look with these covers, they make the room colors look in harmony and have a similar color scheme. I admit that I would have to still have their titles printed on the spine so I could find the book, but I like the overall look of this, because lets face it, not all books are pretty or match your decor! I could see doing a series all in the same paper so that you knew it was that series and could easily locate it. I think the most economical way to do this would be to buy rolls of wallpaper (the kind without adhesive on it) and use that to cover the books because you would get a large amount of paper and they would all match. You could also use fabric, wrapping paper, or butcher paper if you wanted to make your own design with stamps or something. Anyway--I think this is a nice way to make your books match and it will probably help keep the cover of your book in better shape since it is protecting it.

I have also seen some wall papers that are beautiful enough to frame and hang on the wall, so that is another way to coordinate your colors. You could also use the wall paper as a mat on a frame.

My father was a professional wall paper-er for a while during his life so we always had spare rolls of wall paper around. We used that stuff for everything from wrapping paper, to decorating, book covers, you name it! I even wall papered a desk once in my life...and it looked pretty good!

So, here is the picture of the entire room and then a close up picture. Enjoy!

You should try to have at least one beautiful space that is yours...a space where you can go and relax and think and just feel good. If that place is sitting on your back porch in a swing or in a sitting area in your guest room...it doesn't matter, just have a place where you can go and feel peace and think. A place where you can feel like you again, if only briefly.

Decorating--Wall Art Vinyl Style

I just love the new trend in vinyl lettering and wall art. It is especially great for people who live in an apartment or rental because they can apply it and take it off without damaging the walls. I think its a fun way to make a statement and decorate, especially because you can have whatever you want made into a quote that you can put on your wall.

Stampin Up has their own version of this, you can see it at http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/decorelements_web.pdf
I got a few of these pieces for my birthday and I am wandering around my house trying to figure out where they will look fabulous.

We also use the same vinyl art technique in some crafts we did at our Super Craft Thursday last year in our ward. We mainly used them on things with your last name or Family home Evening boards and such and they turned out so nicely. We have a lady in town whom you can order vinyl lettering from but it seems like a really popular thing these days so you might check the Internet or your area listings and see what you can find.

These are really easy to make and yet so elegant. I love things that are personalized and they make great gifts. Honestly, all you do is take off the back layer of the paper, center the word that you are working on and place it where you want, then you take a tongue depressor or similar and rub firmly on the backside of the vinyl transfer. Once you have done that and are sure there are no bubbles and the vinyl has transferred, then you peal off the backside and there you have it. If you are doing it on wood with 2 layers of words, do the back layer first and then the top layer, for instance on the wood one below, you do the surname first and then the other word second so it shows up on top. If you are doing it on glass for the black frame below, then you would have to figure out if you want the lettering on the inside or outside of the glass and figure out of you need to have the name revered so that when it transfers, it is correct. The glass ones are nice because the wall color comes through the glass since it is see through!


The "Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal..." one is just transferred onto a kitchen ceramic tile, one of the rough ones that look like a natural stone. I gave this as a gift to a friend of mine and she loved it.







If you are interested in seeing the other projects we did last year and the costs, you can check out this web page http://holidayfuncraftingretreat.blogspot.com/

we created this web page and then never used it, but it shows you our examples and the prices. As a side note, we only charged people cost on these items, we did not make any money, we wanted people to be able to get them for the cheapest price possible!

Organization Tools-Cork Board Jewelry Holder

Hello Everyone!
Sorry I missed a day of posting, I was watching the Republican Convention and honestly was getting really tired by the end of it...I was ready to go to bed at 10pm...which hardly ever happens! So, I guess I had a busy day yesterday and it caught up with me early....but it was nice to get some sleep! It will certainly be an interesting election year here in the good old US of A...bring on the debates so we can see what they really plan to do!

I saw this idea in Real Simple and I thought it was so basic and so easy, I immediately went out to buy one of these cork boards and some cute little thumb tacks. The idea is to use a cork board to organize your jewelry because then the necklaces and things will not get tangled and are in plain sight for choosing. It recomended a smaller cork board but when I looked, I found I could buy a smaller one for the same price as a nice big corkboard...so, being in Texas, I decided to GO BIG! I bought the bigger one and have started to organize it as a jewelry holder. One of the reasons I love this is because I love to wear scarves and necklaces, but my necklaces are always getting tangled! So, this way they can all be in their own space and it makes it nice for me to pick out which one to wear because I can see them so clearly. I mounted mine in my closet, so its right next to my clothes and easy to pick out what to wear with my outfits. At night, if I get my outfit ready for the next day, I just put the necklace around the coat hanger so the entire outfit is together. I love the visual aspect of this because I can see everything at once and not jumbled up in a box. This picture is a little sparse but you get the idea. I haven't put all my stuff up there yet but I think its such a basic idea and a great organization tool!

I think I will also maybe do something like this for my scarves and tack clothes pins on the corkboard and just clip my scarves in. That was they will not get too wrinkled in a drawer and are easy to see and choose which one will be the perfect match.

***I wanted to add this after thought...you could really decorate this up for a girls room and put one of those feather boas around it or some other girlie things and just hang it on the wall.***

Saying Thank You--Sending a note!

I love a beautiful thank you note.

It doesn't have to be extravagant or showy, just a simple note to tell someone you appreciated what they did or how they did it. It only takes a few minutes but it can mean the world to someone else.

I used to be really good about writing notes to people. I would think about who I thought needed a note and sometimes even pray about it to see who might could use a pick me up or need some words of encouragement. I've sent lots of notes through the mail and I am always surprised when people tell me how much they mean to them. I will tell you a story as an example. I don't tell you this to boast that I sent this note, it is only an example of what can result from a simple note. I did not find out the meaning of this note to this lady until years later.

We had just had the Primary Program in our church and I wanted to tell the Primary President what a good job she did. I had always heard that she was a good president, which most of the time is a heroic task! So, I sent her a note telling her what a good job she does and how much I appreciated it. At the time I sent the note, this sister was having many doubts about herself and the job she was doing as Primary President. She was feeling woefully inadequate for the job and was sad and frustrated. When she got my note, she started to believe that she really was good at this calling. It helped build her confidence and give her the boost she needed to pick herself up and continue on to another Sunday in Primary. She said that because I believed in her, she did too.

Like I said, I had no idea that this had an effect on her until years later when she mentioned it in a Relief Society lesson and I was so surprised that my silly little note had such an impact.

So, tell people you love them, appreciate them, and recognize their talents and time spent in doing things...it may be the only good thing they hear that day and may change their course.

Like I said earlier, it does not have to be extravagant, these cards are some that I picked up at Sam's for $6.99 and they sit on my desk/craft table. I love the colors, I am a pink and chocolate brown fan! And these are lovely and simple enough to send "as is" or to embellish with a cute flower or accessory glued on. And there is probably 40 cards in this little box, so its an economic choice!

So, send a THANK YOU to someone who deserves it or someone who might need it! Someday, that person who needs it might be YOU and then you will be glad to get that note!

If the person you need to thank is no longer with us, then thank them in your journal or write them a card and send it to relative as a keepsake. If you have someone you want to thank who isn't with us on this Earth anymore, please say thank you with this post and make a comment about what you would say thank you to them for.

My lovely Grandmothers are no longer with us here on this Earth but they are with us in SPIRIT and memories. I would like to say THANKS to both of them...

To my dear sweet Manna, thank you for your strength and courage. You are one of the most courageous and bold people I have ever known (and yet she was a tiny waif of a thing) and I love that you taught us so many lessons while we thought we were just having fun. Thank you for teaching me how to sew, it has been an outlet for creativity and a way for me to feel close to you when I do it.

To my happy and exuberant Maw Maw, thanks for teaching me that laughing is the best medicine and that family is the most important thing in life. Thank you for teaching me how to paint, it opened my eyes to new things and started me on my path to other artistic endeavors. And thank you for the recipe to your monster cookies!

Ideas for Ladies Groups

Here are some ideas for groups that you could create. You don't have to think along the same old lines that have always been done, think outside the box and be creative, you may spark some interest and get a really active group where the sisters can bond and create lasting friendships.

Here are some suggestions--

#1-Adoption & Infertility Support Group-
We had a group like this in our ward because we had some sisters who were dealing with these issues, and generally these issues go hand in hand and many of the sisters involved in the infertility side may be looking into adoption. We had 2 "specialists" in our ward that ran this group, one was knowledgeable on infertility because she had battles with infertility for 6 long years and tried all sorts of medical intervention...3 failed rounds of clomid, 4 failed rounds of mini-injectibles, 5 failed artificial inseminations, and finally were successful with in vitro fertilization. After many years and many dollars...and many many prayers...they were successful! This sister is me. I felt like I have been on a long journey and wanted to share what I had learned because I felt like I had a PhD in infertility. And, to be honest, being LDS means you live among the land of the fertile and home of the preggos! We had another sister in our ward who has infertility issues as well but they went the adoption direction after trying a few infertility rounds. They were successful in their endeavor as well! So, since we were 2 sisters with similar issues and different paths, we offered up our world of knowledge on the subject and created this group. We only met every other month or every quarter, depending on the needs of those in the group, but I think it was a good way for people to share information in what can seem a daunting journey full of many little decisions that always are predecessors of the really BIG decisions.

#2-Healthy Living Group-
This group would get together on Saturday mornings (or whenever their schedules allowed) and they would do meal prep for the week. They would bring the veggies or fruits or whatever and cut it up and get it ready so that their meal time preparation during the week was much quicker and healthy easy meals would get to the table faster. They would also share healthy meal recipes and a fun sisterhood of chopping vegetables and eating healthy.

#3-Gardening-
A gardening group could be a shared or community garden. If you have someone in your area who has a patch of land that they would not mind you digging up, then you could start a group or community garden, where those who help with the upkeep, reap the reward of the shared crop. You can have a rotating schedule for watering and weeding with assigned days and share in the responsibilities and costs of the garden. What a fun way to learn how to garden for the beginning gardener and a great way for an expert to pass down their wealth of knowledge. Plus, the community spirit of helping each other grow your food can change lives and make lasting friendships.

#4-Recipe Exchange-
A recipe exchange group could meet once a month and exchange recipes, and at the exchange, bring a sample of what your recipe is that you are providing. The months would have different themes, like cookies, potatoes, Asian, casserole, cobbler or crumble, jello, chicken, green veggies, desserts made from veggies, appetizers, holiday fare, etc. Whatever the theme is, everyone brings a sample of their dish and copies of their recipe to share. It could just be an hour every month but a fun chance to share recipes and chat with friends over a yummy family favorite.

#5-Book Exchange-
Instead of a book Club, do a book exchange. This could be once a quarter or however often you like, but have people bring one of their favorite books as a gift for someone to leave the party with. This does not have to be expensive, you can always purchase books at half price books, but I think it would be a fun way to see what other people are reading and share the stories that you love with your friends. You could also have a blog for the book exchange members where they could post reviews and discuss the books.

Did I get your creative juices flowing?

Tip--Scrapbooking Preparation

I think sometimes the thought of scrapbooking things is a little daunting because its not just putting the pictures in the book, its choosing the papers, putting the right pictures together, working on a layout, etc. I have a few things that I do that helps me be prepared when I have a free moment to do some scrapbooking...here are my tips!

#1-When you are getting your pictures developed, there are many great online developers now that will mail you your prints or you can pick up at the store. I use HEB (a Texas chain of grocery stores) and have always been pleased with the quality, and if I have some pictures that are particularly beautiful or fun, I will blow them up to a bigger size so that they can be the centerpiece of the page. Its good to get some varying size in your photos, it gives variety and you can do different things with different sizes. I also will get a few pictures printed in black and white or sepia brown tones, you just have to check that setting when you are ordering that picture, you don't need a special camera. So, in short, order a variety of sizes of photos and vary up the tones.


#2-When I have a few minutes, whether I am watching tv or sitting at my dining room table, I will go through my photos and figure out which ones I know I want to have on the same page or layout and I will put them in the empty sleeves of my scrapbook, so they are in order there ready to go whenever I am and I don't have to hunt around for the pictures, they are already grouped. So, as I flip through my pages, I can see which pictures are in each sleeve so I can figure out what page I want to work on next.

#4-At another time when I might have a few minutes, I will flip through those sleeves with just the pictures in it and I will look at the colors and pick out papers or colors that I want to use on that layout. I will put the paper in the sleeves with the pictures, and if there are specific accessories or whatever that I might want to include (sticker, some ribbon scraps, buttons, whatever) I will tuck them in there as well. To me, it makes the time when I actually am scrapbooking more fun because then it is just creativity and adhesive running wild! I don't have to stop and go through pictures or whatever.

#5-Storing stickers is in a binder for me. I have a binder with page protector sleeves in it and I keep my stickers together by category in the sleeves. I have some that are sports related, holiday, vacation, etc in each sleeve so I can quickly turn to that sleeve and go through my stickers.

If you have any scrapbooking tips, please make a comment and share the info! This is a place for you all to share techniques and ideas...we all want to have those moments where you say "Oh, that is a GREAT idea!"

Coasters

These coasters were done at a Stampin' Up Retreat that I went to last Winter. These are easy and simple to do but you have to be sure to do them correctly. The coaster part is a ceramic tile like they would put on your back splash in your kitchen, the rough stone looking ones. You can get these at any home supply store like Home Depot or Lowes.

Supplies

tiles

damp rag

Large Stamp, the simpler the easier

Stampin Up Staz On Ink Pad or similar permanent ink

Clear Embossing powder

Embossing gun or heat source

Spray on shellac or sealer

4 Felt circles per tile to put on the underside

Instructions:

#1-Clean off tiles with damp rag so they are not dusty

#2-Take Stamp and ink the stamp well with Staz On Ink, make sure it is completely covered

#3-Stamp on the tile, be very still because you do not want to smudge the design. If it is an intricate design, be extra careful and press firmly so the ink is transferred to the tile.

#4 Immediately after stamping the design pour embossing powder over the design on the tile and shake so it covers the entire design, discard the extra in a container and reuse, then immediately clean off the stamp...remember the ink is permanent so you don't want to ruin your stamps!

It is very important that you do this right away after you stamp because the ink dries quickly, so you really must act fast.

#5 With an embossing gun or other heat source, heat the embossing powder until it crystallizes and forms a protective coating.

#6 Allow to dry for 12-24 hours

#7 Spray sealant or coating on the tile so that it is protected

#8 Let sealant dry

#9 Place adhesive felt circle pads on the corners of the underside of the tile

DONE!

Recipe-Baked Potatoe Soup

Baked Potato Soup
3 cans of cheese Soup
1 Box of chicken Stock
2 Baked Potatoes
12 slices of bacon cooked until crispy (or bacon bits)
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of Mrs Dash
Sour Cream
Shredded Longhorn Sharp Cheddar Cheese to top

Bake 2 potatoes and cut them into chunks (like potato salad size).
Take 3 cans of cheese soup (I spiced it up and used 1 can of Pepper Jack cheese soup) and add a box of chicken stock. Simmer and stir on the stove.
Take the cut up baked potatoes and add them to the soup.
Cook some bacon or use bacon bits, about 6 slices worth, crumble and add to soup.
I also used 6 more slices crumbled up to top the soup when serving.
Add salt and pepper to taste plus about 2 teaspoons of Mrs. Dash.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, shredded cheese, and bacon pieces. Yummo!

I think you could probably make a creamy version of this soup by using Potato pearls instead of real potatoes, with that and the bacon bits, just cut the sour cream and it could be a food storage type meal.

I also like this because you could just bake 2 potatoes in the oven while you are cooking something else and then just throw them in the fridge until you want to make soup in the next few days, then you can make it up in no time and just let it simmer a little longer so the potato is warmed through.

With the Fall quickly approaching ( I know that because football season has started in Texas, not because its getting any cooler!), I will post more soup recipes. I am a soup girl, I love 'em and I have some really fab recipes. My mother and sister used to own a tea room so we because souper soup makers!

Recipe-Asian Chicken Salad

I have played with this recipe from the original one I was given (by Marissa Hill, one of my favorite cooks) and it is such a versatile recipe. You can make any number of substitutions and still come out with a great salad. I have tried to cut down the calories by changing it from fried won tons to chow mien noodles (plus its much less effort to just open the bag and pour instead of cut up won tons and fry) and you can substitute splenda for the sugar and there is hardly a difference. You can also make it hotter or give it more of a kick by adding Tabasco or some of that Asian pepper paste. The nuts are interchangeable, if you prefer slivered almonds, use those, I happen to be a Southern girl who loves a good pecan (pronounced Pah-kon). I have also thrown in extra veggies, like chopped up broccoli, green peppers, peas, etc...whatever floats my boat that day or whatever is in the bin in the fridge.

Asian Chicken Salad

4 Chicken breasts cooked and diced (large can of chicken is okay)
1 bags of lettuce or 1 bag of shredded cabbage(coleslaw mix) or broccoli slaw works too
1 cup of pecan halves (slivered almonds can also be used)
1/2 bag of Chinese noodles or 1 bag of Ramen noodles broken and sauteed in butter (butter is optional but yummy!) or won tons fried up in strips


Dressing for Asian Chicken Salad
This dressing is so good you will want to sop it up with some crusty bread!

2 tsp of Mrs Dash Original
4 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup of oil
4 Tbsp vinegar (I usually use cider vinegar)
1 tsp salt

Add chicken to lettuce/cabbage and set aside. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight lid. Shake well before pouring on salad. Next add noodles and pecans. Toss and serve.

Welcome!

Howdy and Welcome to Beautiful Basics!

To the right you will see the information on why I created this blog under "Why Beautiful Basics?" Its my story in a nutshell.

I hope you can find some inspiration here or at least get some juices flowing if you are looking for a project to do or an HFPE idea. I launched this page today so its new and I will add things as I think of them and have time, but I plan to post fairly regularly, so please check back! I am also open to ideas and suggestions, you can email me at beautifulbasics@gmail.com

So THANKS and WELCOME to my blog! I am sending you a big Cyber Hug and Howdy!

Craft: Scrapbook Page Ideas

This is one of my all time favorite scrapbook layouts that I have done so I thought I would share. It is so basic and (I think) beautiful. I took pictures with my little boy when he was a baby, the pictures compare his tiny fingers to mine and my husbands...we did it with fingers and toes. All the pictures are in black and white and then I did a simple page in celery green, chocolate chip brown, and cream color. This is also one of those pages where you could take the same pictures over the years and compare the changes and growth in your little babies. they grow up so fast, its fun to try to capture the moment!

The page title is 10 Little Finger and 10 Little Toes:

HFPE Idea- Saving pennies!

My sister's ward just had an HFPE that covered 2 topics: saving pennies and "your favorites". The first part they had someone offer suggestions on ways to save money and find freebies. Below are some of the suggestions (thanks to Lindsey, Tonya, and Cori!) I think you could also go further if you needed more classes or time to fill by adding a class on budget cooking ideas.

Ideas on saving big with just a little effort

• Go to freebie web-sites, Tonya suggested checking out the freebie groups on yahoo (Heart of Texas Free-cycle)
• MyPoints.com -If you know a member of My points, be sure to get a referal from them so they get extra points! But you can join either way. *Printable coupons*
• Craig’s List is a local classified adds, look for the “free section”
• Go to the specific web-sites of the companies who make your favorite product On-line surveys often reward you with free items or coupons
• Coke bottle caps can be redeemed to give you spending money at the Coke store
• Cash in your rebates (Office Max & Office Depot often have these available)
• Sign-up for Newsletters and Birthday Clubs (Sonic, Dairy Queen, Chuck E. Cheese) AFullCup.com is “a freebie Mecca”
• Target.com (look for Super Target.com at the bottom for coupons)
• Mr. Ink Jet is good for printer ink savings
• TotallyFreeStuff.com
• Wal-Mart free samples (go to WalMart.com main stores now offer free sampler)
• Hobby Lobby.com gives a weekly coupon & for Michael’s on-line as well
  

Thanks for these great tips!

Then they also had the sisters bring something or somethings that were their "favorite things", like show and tell. I think this was similar to Oprah's favorite things...except less screaming and not free stuff for all. This was a way for sisters to share things they love with other sisters and you learned something about the sister as well.

Here is a sample of some of the things that were shared by some sisters. (I think this is a really fun thing, I have to think about what I would have brought!)

People's "Favorite Things"
-Pampered Chef mini-whip, Johnson & Johnson’s Soothing Naturals Baby Wash/Lotion
-National Geographic Magazine, Tabernacle CD, “Love is Spoken Here”
-One sister loves information, so she shared some research on heart attacks and second degree smoke
-Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight book series
-SA8 Pre-wash for spots on laundry (only available on-line), Color care Shielding Shine Mist by Biolage, Zero Frizz for hair
-Sketcher shoes ordered from endless.com where you can ship it back for free if they don’t fit.
-Facing the Giant (movie), Harry Potter book series
-Stampin’ Up!’s table top cutter (ka-chunk), Special K’s Chocolaty Cereal, 101 Meals to Cook in a Slow cooker, amazon.com for books, & usps.com for mailing stuff from home
-Feminine Screwdriver with changeable head

I have to agree with many of these items listed...the Stampin Up Paper Cutter is also one of my favorites, I just found Special K Chocolaty Cereal and am such a fan....and the Feminine screwdriver is something I have and love. I have a matching tape measure to go with it. It is my personal "tool set" and I keep it where I can always find it....plus its way to girlie for my hubbie to want to use it! Here is a picture of mine...

This is the hammer with all the components inside.
And this is the hammer once you unscrew the handle and take out the 3 different screwdrivers with different heads and sizes. This was given to me by my boss for Christmas a few years ago and I LOVE IT! It is a great gift for the girl who has everything!

Let's see....my favorite "things" would be chocolate cake, Estee Lauder Foundation ( I have a really hard time finding foundation that matches my PALE skin color and Estee Lauder is the ONLY one that works for me...believe me, I have tried TONS of products because I was in search of a cheaper brand...but I give up and will only wear Estee from now on...its true to me so I will be true to it! It was a bummer one day when I realized my real skin color was "translucent!")

Another favorite, I love Stampin Up Products for Scrapbooking and Card Making because everything matches...the paper matches the ribbon color, matches the buttons, etc. I really hate it when I buy lovely ribbon and paper and the reds do not match so now I just buy SU products because I can trust them and the quality is superb. You can view their catalog online http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampwithlinz/ and Lindsey is a great demonstrator and I am not biased at all!

I also love whole wheat pastry flour. I have been trying to substitute whole wheat for white wheat in a lot of my recipes and I have found that the ww pastry flour makes a good substitute on many things!

So, post a comment on your favorite things! I would love to hear some!

Make every day beautiful!

Heather

Books -The Secret Life of Bees

There is nothing more beautiful than a good book...and this is a GREAT one! Its one of my all time favs. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to! We did this for a book club with my church ladies and it was the largest attended book club we had. It is by Sue Monk Kidd and the title is "The Secret Life of Bees". A little warning for you....there are a few curse words...but not many and it builds the character of one of the people in the book...and you really start to loathe him for it. You will learn a lot about bees and a lot about life. And you will grown to love so many of these characters like they are your oldest friends.

Craft-Paper bag Scrapbook

I was lucky enough to get this fabulous scrapbook at a Scrapbooking retreat I go to twice a year with my sisters. They choose names for us and we have a "secret sister" that we do 3 little gifts for throughout the retreat and then you reveal who you had at the end of the retreat...its a TON of fun...and the retreat is the BOMB...we have so much fun...I get giddy just thinking about it because my next one is less than 100 days away. My sisters and our friends go and its for 2 days and we are just in scrapbooking heaven. You gotta try it!

Anyway--I digress...this is the Scrapbook that my friend Mickey made for me. (I have been lucky over the years to have Mickey be my secret sister twice!) I have a little boy so this is a perfect scrapbook for me to put pictures in. In case you cannot tell, it is made out of school lunch paper bags...the little brown ones. The instructions on how to make one of these are here http://scrapbooking.about.com/library/weekly/blpaperbagscrapbooks.htm
you can go in and decorate the inside with stickers and paper and little pull out things since the sides of the bags that are open are still open, they become little pockets for little treasures.

I love this because it is so simple and uses simple items that are easy to find. you can decorate with scraps and doodads and make it Oh So Cute!

Here are some inside pages.... This page on the left is a pull up tab, so you pull on that little gadget and then you can see the entire picture. On the right under the "ribbit" there is a pocket in between the green paper and the checkered paper that is also a pocket for a picture.

And another page...
If you try this, I would love to see what you come up with! The possibilities are endless and you can't get more basic than a brown paper lunch bag...beautiful!

Simple Craft and Easy Gifts-Legal Pad

I did this at a Stampin' Up (SU) Club night last week up with Lindsey's SU Group. We had a fun time doing it and did this plus 2 other crafts in about an hour and a half...and this one was the easiest so it only took a few minutes. This is similar to the notebook I posted a few posts ago but this one is done on a legal type pad, so its glued/gummed together at the top instead of a spiral. This is probably going to be a gift for one of my visiting teachees. I think you can buy these pads in a group of maybe 6 for about $3 at WalMart. The size on this is probably 5X8. Its easy to do, you just....

#1. Get some craft paper and cut it a little longer on top so it will fit over the entire front and then probably 2 inches on the back, so add about 2.5 inches to the length of the pad.

#2. Glue the edge on the top of the back so that it is even with the bottom edge on the front.

#3. Take some ribbon and tie a bow or knot around the entire top.

#4.Decorate at will!

I used stamps, ribbon, punched out paper, and the bottom edge has a scalloped edge...although I chopped it off in the picture (sorry!). These take just a few minutes and you can use up some of your scraps if you are a scrapbooker like me and have paper remnants hanging around.

I do these for teacher gifts for holidays and such. I also gave one to each of my Primary girls (10-12 yr old) for Christmas and had their name personalized in stamps across it. It could also be done for a Young Women's activity where they decorate it themselves. The one pictured below is a simple one but you can really bling it up if you want with rhinestones, brads, stickers, etc.

HFPE-Facebook and MySpace, Resumes, and Interviewing

I think it would be a really good HFPE or Sister's Night to do a class on My Space (MyS) and Facebook (fb). So many parents do not know what is going on with their kids on the computer and I think it would be good to show them the ropes. I am on both, but I prefer Fb over MyS. I haven't tried out Zenga or the others. It's a GREAT way to keep in touch with friends, especially those from high school and college whom you may not have seen for years.

Along with this night, another class option would be on interviewing and resume writing. As someone who does a lot of hiring for student workers and professional staff, I am always amazed by what people put on resumes, applications, and the things people say in interviews. And, its easy to get out of touch with these things if you haven't interviewed in years.

Here are a few tips on interviewing & writing a resume...
-Use correct grammar on your application...capitalize when you are supposed to...when I get apps with no caps I don't even look at them. If you are not important enough to capitalize your name, then you are not worth my time to hire. It shows a lack of confidence, so don't so it!

-On your resume--Don't put an objective or goal or mission statement...You don't know if what you say will be a turnoff to the person reviewing the apps. I get some with totally off statements and I don't pay attention to them because I think "well, if that is what they want, then my job isn't for them!". You cannot foresee what they are specifically looking for, so do not limit yourself in an objective or other statement!

-Always dress for the job you want even if it is not the job you are interviewing for...there is always a chance that you could blow their socks off and offer you a better job than the one you applied for...if you come in wearing jeans, then you might get a job that is a jeans level job and one you really do not want. If you come in professionally dressed, it shows confidence and it impresses people to think you are going places...and you are...or at least you want to be!

-Don't ever wear jeans to an interview---ever....and I mean NEVER!

-If you have a My Space or Facebook account, people may check it when you apply for a job, so watch what you put on there or make it private! ( I know lots of employers who check Fb and MyS, it really does happen and I know of people who have not been hired because of what they had on their Fb or MyS account.

-For interviewing, especially if you have not interviewed recently or ever....PRACTICE! You can look up on the Internet common questions people ask in interviews, have a family member ask you those questions and work on your answers so they sound fluid and make sense. people have told me I am a hard interviewer--I admit that I ask some harder questions but I really want to know how you will respond on your feet and to see how your thought processes go. Be on your toes and be prepared for hard questions...its okay to pause and think of an answer...I would rather have a pause and have someone think about the answer than get an "I don't know" or an answer that does not make sense or answer the question.

-Use a cover letter for explaining how your experience applies to the job, don't make your resume wordy. A cover letter should be relatively shirt. Start with To Whom It May Concern or similar, mention how you found the job and what position you are interested in, tell tham about your experience pertaining to the job and any specific skills that you have, then thank them and tell them to please contact you if they have any questions or would like to talk to you about a job, include your email and phone number(s) where they can reach you. End with "Sincerely", and your name.

-Use your own email address and make sure it is professional! If I get an app for someone and they do not have their own email, like they have their husbands email down as their email, it makes the person look subservant and lacking confidence...get your very own email! And, for job hunting, use your name or something similar like your name and a number or the year or something, don't use something like cutiepiegirl at email dot com...it doesn't portray a professional image.

Recipe:Monterrey Chicken--Many Meals in one!

This is a Lindsey (my sister) classic, she created this dish off something she ate in a restaurant and its a favorite of ours. I think this is a budget conscience meal and I usually make it as a two-for meal. Meaning, I make more than I need for the first meal and then jazz it up some and have a totally different meal the next night but with parts from this dish. I will explain below.

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts (However many you need to feed everyone, I usually make 6 to feed 3-4 people plus have 2 left over for the next meal)
Package of Bacon Sliced or Cheese (We use Swiss, Cheddar, or Provolone...whatever I have)
Jar of Barbeque Sauce

Take Chicken and wrap a bacon slice around it, place in casserole dish or pan. Cover with bbq sauce and put in oven at 375 for about 45-60 minutes until done. With about 10 minutes left, add slices of cheese over each breast. You can also put this in the slow cooker on low and cook it all day and add the cheese at the end, just be sure to add about a cup of water at the beginning. Lindsey has also made tiny bite sized versions for appetizers.

For the next day, I have a few variations of this meal.
#1. My favorite is to take the leftover chicken breasts, sauce, and bacon and cut it up or shred it and add some butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce and it makes a barbecue buffalo chicken. I put the chicken in a whole wheat tortilla with lettuce, ranch dressing, and any other fixins and make a wrap sandwich.

#2. You can also take that same buffalo bbq chicken and toss it on a salad, add baked tortilla strips or chips and you have a bbq buffalo salad, you could add blue cheese crumbles if you are a blue cheese person and bacon bits are also a nice addition.

#3. Lindsey will take the chicken and make quesadillas the next day with it, just shred it up, add cheese and anything else you want to a tortilla and cook it in a non stick or cast iron pan, flip when it gets toasty.

#4. You can also just cut up the Monterrey Chicken and add it to a salad the next day. I do this because I think it is cost effective since I don't have to buy items for two complete meals, plus it saves on prep time the second day and I don't have to turn on my oven and pay the electricity to have the oven on and my a/c to cool down the hot house from the oven being on. :) I just use the microwave the second day.

Try it! I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!

Olympics are done!

Well, I am going through withdrawal already....I heart the Olympics....but I will be glad to get back to a normal sleep pattern! I would like to say THANK YOU to China for being gracious hosts and hostesses! ( Being a good host is beautifully basic, of course!)
My blog is still under construction, so bare with me while I tweak it, you may want to ignore it for a while and come back later!

Tomorrow is the first day of school here...which means lots of traffic in town and on campus! And, the students all have money because its the beginning of the semester and mom and dad sent them with money and that haven't bought books yet...so don't even think about going out to eat!

Crafts & Cooking

I did some baking again this weekend. I seem to be on the quest for the perfect loaf of bread recipe. I have been testing wheat bread recipes but moved on to white this week and found that even thought I know white is a lot less good for you...it sure is good! It makes the best PBJ sandwiches!

Below is a fun and EASY craft project I did a while ago. In my work I use a system called EMS, Event Management Systems...its an awesome system...and I just got back from their conference. I always take notes and so I take a plain old spiral and make it fancy. The recipe for this...one spiral (I paid $.05 for this one during school supply extravaganza at WalMart), some fun designer paper (the green paper with the swirl is Stampin' Up designer paper in "in colors from last season, I almost exclusively use SU products because I Love them and they are the up most quality), then I stamped with a roller stamp the swirly design, and added the green paper framing the blue paper and stamped "EMS" on it. I then took a dauber and sponged around the edges and glued on the ribbon. It probably took me about 10-15 minutes max...that is probably generous, it probably took less....and VOILA, I have a cute and personal notebook that I look great with as I carry it around to my EMS meetings at work. I have one for every year so I can keep track of changes and meeting notes, etc.




I also made Lady Bird Johnson's biscuits this weekend from the White house Cookbook my awesome friend Darla gave me. Below is a picture of what my family affectionately calls "The Character biscuit." It is the biscuit that is made with all the left over dough once the rest of the biscuits are cut out. Its the one that isn't big enough or is slightly bigger than the others and just never comes out looking right but at least it has character. We got where we would fight over this biscuit because it of course tasted better than the others.

Here is the recipe for these biscuits...they are good!

Lady Bird Johnson's Hot Biscuits

2 cups of flour

1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder

1 teaspoon of salt

3 Tablespoons of butter

3/4 cup of milk

Mix together dry ingredients and sift, add butter in pieces and work into dry ingredients by hand until mixture is lump free, stire in milk quickly, mixing by hand to form soft dough, transfer dough onto lightly floured surface and press down by hand to 3/4 inch thick. cut dough into 2 inch biscuit rounds and arrange on a lightly greaseed baking dish. bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. (They are biscuits, remember so they will not be real brown unless you add more butter on top or something)

I also made a loaf of her white loaf bread and it was really good too...again, I love a good white bread! I will try to post that recipe soon. I have been baking and cooking a lot lately, so I will share the good ones!

Suggestions for Sister's Nights

Here are some suggestions for Sister's Nights, those smaller activities in between all the big 4 HFPE meetings:

-Play Group-meet once a week at a park or the church
-Knitting Group
-Scrapbooking Group
-Photography Class (we did this one for 3 months, meeting once a month with the basics of photography)
-Sewing Group-basics of sewing, we actually made a simple skirt that some sisters wore to church the next Sunday...they were super cute!
-General Craft group-we would set up tables for them and people would bring unfinished crafts to work on and chat.
-Sports Group- this group would meet in the gym and play volleyball or basketball.
-Fit Group-Meet and do yoga or some other form of fitness
-Walking Group-Meet at the mall in the mornings or in one of the neighborhoods at night and go walking twice a week.
-Make ahead meals-We would get together and do all the advance prep for freezer meals, everyone brought their own ingredients from a specific set of recipes and then we all put them together and got the prepped for the freezer so you just had to go home and put them in your freezer.
-Cooking Classes-From specific cuisines to breads to cooking techniques...this one is endless.
-Nativity Group-We had a group that was working on a crafty nativity set, we would meet and do another figure once a month, whether it be a shepherd or a sheep. We bought the supplies in bulk so the cost was minimal.

HFPE:The Ties That Bind

When we do an HFPE, we usually came up with a theme or title and then would use that throughout our "advertising" for the event. As an example, we did one called "The Ties that Bind" and this is what we discussed:

1) Staying close to family even when they are far away--We talked about family newsletters, family blogs, doing family history. We talked about rotating newsletters among family members and keeping in touch. We gave ideas for ways to blog with your family, you can ask questions for people to answer along with just updating people on your day to day activities. For instance, my family has a blog and we keep up with everything going on in all the families lives by blogging. We tell of our day to day dilemmas and victories but we also ask questions of each other. We might ask "describe your home when you were growing up?". It was fun to see how everyone described it and what the differences where. We have also talked about our favorite restaurants, foods, memories of certain places, etc. This is our way of doing some personal family history while keeping in touch with family.

2) Family traditions-We talked about different family traditions people in the ward and our families have. We talked about passing traditions down and starting new ones. I believe we even had the sisters fill out forms with info on their family traditions and we sent that out to people who wanted to start some of their own family traditions. One of my family's traditions is to get together every summer, usually around the 4th of July, and have a remote control car race. This is usually geared more toward the males in the family but anyone is invited to participate. Its big fun and the cars usually leave the final race with wheels missing and various other things broken as they all go for broke and bragging rights. The, we set the date for next year and a few days before they race again, they are all in their garages trying to put back together their cars from the previous year that were destroyed during the race. The family members who are not "driving" the cars are the pit crews and we run around like banshees turning over the upside down cars and un-sticking the ones that are stuck in the mud or trying to run up a tree. Its a fun time for all!

3) Being a good Friend--We talk about ways to be a good friend and watch out for the sisters in the ward. We all need friends, and sometimes it is hard to get to know people in the few short minutes between Sunday School and Relief Society.

For our 4 HFPE nights a year, we generally try to have a dinner and start at 6:30pm and then have the activity after wards. In this case, we asked sisters to present the three topics listed about and everyone stayed in the gym where we ate and listened and then once it was over we chatted and had dessert. The dinner doesn't have to be anything fancy, we joked that we should do Thai food and make it "The Thai's that Bind" but we didn't, although we may have done Chinese food that night, now that I think about it!

Whenever we do a dinner, we try to make it something different, not just the typical lasagna and bread sticks or whatever. We have done 1) Asian Salad, Orange Chicken or Sweet and Sour chicken and fried rice. 2) Pizza and salads 3)Soups and Salads or Soups and breads....just to name a few. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to be good! We have also done things to make ordinary dishes fancy, for instance instead of serving fruit salad, we served fruit kebabs or made a fruit kebab arrangements on the table. It looks lovely and inviting and isn't just a hum drum old salad.

Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment

HFPE as we fondly call it. It changed its shape a few years ago when we went to the "new program" and now only have 4 HFPEs a year. I was involved with HFPE (big surprise) when the change occured and I will say it was a little bit of a challenge. We found that we would plan 4 big HFPEs and then 8 slightly smaller HFPEs the rest of the months. It took us a while but then we realized that this was not the goal of the new program. The months where there is not an HFPE, there should/could be smaller activities...these can be things that only apply or interest some sisters in the ward, they do not have to have universal appeal. So, in the interest of your own sanity...DO NOT HAVE 12 HFPEs a YEAR! Its a LOT of work and not really what the program is meant to be. This is what we did...

We picked 4 months that we knew we wanted large HFPEs. We chose March for the RS Birthday, September for the beginning of school (We have a huge influx of new people at the beginning of every school year because we are a college town), and then 2 other months. We have a few months that are traditionally lower attended so we did not choose those months..for instance, December is a busy time and we have lots of students taking exams, so we do a low key fun night in December. January is also a lower attendance month because usually school has not started back up for the college students and they are not back in town from the holidays.

#1. So, pick your four months for the BIG HFPEs.
#2. Look at the other months and see what is out there. Our stake has a Stake HFPE on a Saturday during the Spring. we are given the option of not having an enrichment night during that month and encouraging our sisters to go to the stake HFPE instead. If this is an option...do it! With HFPE, its a NEVER ENDING calling and as soon as you finish one activity, you have to start another...so take a break for a month when you can...and besides, the stake may ask you to help with their activity anyway!
#3. For the non-large HFPE months, remember these can be low key. We decided to come up with a different name for those months instead of calling them HFPE, because in fact, they are not HFPE. We call them "Sisters Nights". For our "Sisters Nights", we took a survey of the sisters and what they were interested in. There were people interested in all the normal things...sewing, scrapbooking, card making, sports/fitness, book club, etc. So, small groups were formed and we asked people to be leaders of these groups...its really not a calling, its just an "assistant" in your HFPE. These groups had the option of meeting at some one's house or at the church on whatever would be your normal HFPE night if it were that month. They could meet every month, every other month, or however often the group wanted. Our wards play group is also considered one of our groups. Some of these groups only met a few times, like we had a photography group that only met for 3 months and was a teaching class done by a lady in our ward. We also did a crochet class that met 2 times, the first one was to teach you how to crochet and the second was to help you learn new things or to help you fix any problems or just crochet and chat with friends. Really, these groups can be anything you want and you do not need a ton of them. If one month you only have one group that is meeting, that is fine as long as it is still open to the whole ward if they wanted to come. Sometimes our groups would also meet at the same time at the church...we would have a sewing group in one room, basketball being played in the gym, and the crochet group in another room. Its your program so decide what will be best for your ladies in your ward...pray for guidance because you will need it and try not to get discouraged if a group doesn't work...people are busy, it could be a great idea but the timing may be bad. There have been many times when we have planned an activity for some specific people at their request and then they don't show up! Oh well! So, to recap...Sisters Nights are smaller, don't have to appeal to everyone, and if a group of 5 people is meeting and having a good time and sharing talents and friendship...that is a success!!

Whole Wheat

Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I am trying to use more whole wheat in my cooking and am on a search for a really good whole wheat bread. I have made two very good recipes so far but am still looking for perfection. Any good recipes, please send my way! Here is one that is a Whole Wheat Honey Sandwich Bread that was nice and light. Since you let it rise 3 times, it is very light compared to many other whole wheat recipes I have tried. The recipe can be found here http://recipestop.blogspot.com/2008/03/honey-whole-wheat-sandwich-bread.html and another really good recipe for 100% whole wheat bread can be found here http://recipestop.blogspot.com/2008/05/100-whole-wheat-bread.html I liked them both, but I think I want something texture wise that is right in the middle of these two, a little heavier than the sandwich bread and a little lighter than the regular.

I made some yummy chocolate chip cookies last night with my friend Mel's recipe. They are so good! I knew it was an A+ recipe so I played with the flour a little and did half whole wheat pastry flour and half regular flour and they still turned out great! Thanks Mel! Mel also makes the best peanut butter bars in the world...among other things. There is nothing more beautiful than a good chocolate chip cookie recipe!

I need to pull out my sewing mahine sometime soon. My son needs a new nap mat cover for the new school year. Last year was frog themed, this year I might do a zoo theme or cowboy/wester theme. I need to get to a bigger town with a bigger fabric selection and find something sute! I will post it when I am done!