Happy Valentine's Day and Valentine Candy Robots

Happy Valentine's Day! 

We have had a fun Valentine's Day today, this year I had fun decorating the dining room with some vintage style Valentines, as well as this beautiful bouquet of flowers that Gary gave me, I love the dark purple thistle type plants in this bouquet, as well as all the vibrant colors! :)

A couple years back I found some very cute vintage style punch out Valentine's books, this year I decided to use them as decorations, I still would love to craft with them also! What I am really on the lookout for, and what I haven't found in the longest time, are the little Valentine activity type books I had as a child back in the 80's where you would cut out and make all sorts of Valentines, I had so much fun with those as a child!

Along with the vintage Valentines, I have set out some of my favorite little Valentine figurines. I really enjoy decorating for every holiday!

This year, my daughter Sarah, who is in her first year of college, and currently working as the assistant coach for the high school robotics team, decided to make a very cute robot themed Valentine goody for the robotics team members. These little candy and juice box robots turned out so cute I had to get pictures and share them with you.

This was such a cute project, and the robotics team really enjoyed them. I think these would be great to pass out in classrooms for Valentines day, and also as a great party favor for a robot themed birthday party. Here is a close up picture so you can see how they were made.

The different candies were attached to the juice box, as well as the googly eyes attached to the top little box of Nerds, with a hot glue gun. She used Starburst for the feet, Fruity Tootsie Rolls for the arms, and a little box of Nerds for the head. Very cute Valentine treat!

Valentines Day always marks the time when I start really looking forward to spring, last week we finally had our winter. The snow was beautiful, we had quite a bit more than last year, we all had fun playing in the snow, the dogs really enjoyed it too, our younger lab was running all around and catching snowballs the kids would throw for her, it was really cute.

We all bundled up and made a few snowballs, the kids made snowmen, it was also nice having a few days off from school!

I keep my birdbath dripper on year round, so the birds have water even when everything is frozen, it turned into quite the fun looking icicle cave trapping and coating the little gnome who stands near the birdbath in ice, it looked like something the White Witch from Narnia would do to our little garden gnome!

After a few days of winter it all melted and went back to our normal Oregonian rainy winter, and signs of spring are everywhere. Bulbs are pushing through the ground, the Robins are back and I even caught a glimpse of a beautiful thrush that stopped by my garden for a quick visit, I haven't seen one since I lived near the woods, so that was a nice treat. Today I was pleasantly surprised by a blossoming group of mini iris, I love these pretty little purple flowers. I am really looking forward to spending more time in my garden now that spring is on the way!

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Lemon Puffs and Apple Cheddar Tea Sandwiches

Last Sunday I hosted my sister's bridal shower, we all had a wonderful time. The bridal shower theme was Vintage Floral, and we had a old fashioned luncheon with plenty of tea sandwiches and desserts. I made two new recipes for the shower that I wanted to share, Lemon Puffs, and Cheddar Apple Tea Sandwiches.

These are the Lemon Puffs, and the instructions to make them are extremely simple.

I was originally going to make Lemon Tassies that I have made in the past for tea parties, but as the evening before the shower was dwindling, full of other party preparations, I realized I would have no time to make them, and needed something easier. I had some puff pastry in the freezer, and I knew I still wanted to use the lemon curd I purchased, so I Googled recipes for puff pastry and lemon curd.  I found some good ideas and altered them a bit to come up with these little lemon puffs.  Here are my instructions.

Ingredients- 1 package Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets (2 sheets), 1 jar of prepared Lemon Curd, and powdered sugar

Thaw puff pastry on the counter according to package directions, spray a mini muffin pan with pan spray, preheat oven to 425 F.  Using a pizza cutting wheel cut each puff pastry sheet into 12 squares (for a total of 24), bending the sides of each puff pastry square fit them into the mini muffin cups, then spoon about 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon curd into each square, then bring all four corners to the center and pinch together to seal. Bake for about 10-14 minutes until puffed and golden, keep your eye on them in the last couple of minutes, I left mine in for a minute too long and the lemon curd started to bubble out and a few were ruined due to the burned sugar from the lemon curd getting too hot and bubbling out, luckily I caught them in time so I didn't ruin the whole batch! When they are done, remove them to a cooling rack, I used tongs to pop them out as they were too hot to handle, when the puffs are cool dust them with powdered sugar.  They were delicious, and so easy to make, definitely something I will be making again!

The next new recipe I made was an Apple Cheddar Tea Sandwich. I knew I wanted a new tea sandwich for the party, and I wanted it to have a slightly sweet element, I thought thinly sliced apples would be delicious in a sandwich.  These were very easy to make and a yummy addition to the tea sandwich tray.

Here are the instructions to make this easy tea sandwich.

Ingredients- whole wheat bread, a nice sweet apple variety (I used honeycrisp), margarine spread or softened butter, and a jar of Kraft Old English Cheese Spread.

I love these little jars of Kraft Cheese Spread, when I was little we would often have Kraft Cheese Spreads for sandwiches, including my favorite, the Pimento Cheese Variety.

To make the sandwiches, first core, peel, and thinly slice your apples.  The picture below shows the sandwich at various stages. First butter or margarine both slices of bread, this acts as a moisture barrier so the sandwich doesn't become soggy, then on one slice, spread a thin layer of the Kraft Old English cheese spread, then add a layer of apple slices, and put the top slice of bread on.  Using a sharp bread knife, cut off the crusts, then cut the sandwich into three long rectangles, then cut those each in half, you will end up with 6 little sandwiches from one regular sized sandwich, the smaller pieces were easier to eat, and stay together better.

I was too busy prepping everything to get great pictures, but here they are on the tray below, the little square sandwich off to the side.  Here is a link to the recipes for my other Tea Sandwiches.  I really liked the apple and cheese combo for this new sandwich, and I would like to try other variations and possibly use a raisin or cinnamon bread with apples and cheese as well.

Tea sandwiches are fun, even the little kids enjoyed them, they are just the right size for party nibbling!

In other news, winter has finally arrived here, we have had such a mild winter so far, hardly a speck of snow. When the groundhog saw his shadow on Sunday I was wondering when winter would arrive, and it seems it finally may have. We had one day of big fluffy snowflakes that didn't stick to the road, and tonight we are expected to have cold enough temperatures for the snow to stick. Here in the north-western Oregon valley we usually have mild winters, so when we get a storm every few years it really shuts things down because no one is set up to drive around in snowy weather. School let out today two hours early so no one would end up trapped at the school. Now everyone is excited to have a nice cold day bundled up drinking hot cocoa, and hopefully enough snow to build a little snowman! Just so long as the power stays on for most of the time, and it doesn't get too cold and dangerous on the roads, I am happy to have a little winter. :) I really feel for all of the people in other parts of the country having such a bad winter this year, I can only take it in small doses and am mostly dreaming of the sunshiny summer and getting ready to plan my spring and summer garden!

Our dog Zoey doesn't mind the big fluffy snow flakes at all, we went out for a walk and she was trying to gobble the snow flakes out of the air and was wondering what on earth was landing all over her, it was pretty cute! :)

Hope everyone is having a nice week, and stays safe in all this winter weather!

Winter Garden and Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Last night I decided it was time to do a walk through of our wintery garden, I haven't spent much time out in the garden since the busy holiday season.  I went out just before dusk, and decided to snap a few pictures before dinner.

The barberry bushes and their pretty red berries are the star of the garden right now. We have been in a fog bank for over a week now, the fog has frozen onto all the plants and trees and looks beautiful, the red berries really stand out.

The frozen fog has made delicate icicles throughout the garden.

The rose hips are very pretty and stand out against the dark greens and browns in the garden as well.

Here is our plum tree.

I enjoy looking up through the tree branches at the wintery sky.

The garden is quiet and peaceful.

On foggy winter nights, the smell of a nice warm dinner cooking is always welcome.  Last night I thought I would jazz up our chicken, and decided to wrap it in a layer of bacon.  I started with frozen boneless skinless chicken tenderloins, and wrapped each one with two strips of thin bacon (some of the smaller pieces I only wrapped with one strip of bacon).  I topped them with some fresh ground black pepper, then popped them in the oven at 400 F.  After about half an hour I flipped them over to brown the bottom, when the bottom was browned I flipped them back upright to make sure the top was crisp and brown.

When you are sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the bacon is crisp and fully cooked, remove them from the oven.  I cooked mine probably five minutes too long, some of the ends of the chicken had dried out too much, but the taste was delicious.  I served them along side boiled potatoes with butter and sour cream, and a big serving of steamed broccoli spears.  Definitely a meal I will be making again!

Today I took a beautiful country drive and got out for a short walk down by the river, I will have some beautiful pictures to share in my next post.  For me there is nothing more invigorating then getting out into nature, even for a little bit, I tend to get a bit of cabin fever when we have too many gray days in a row, which we have a lot of here in the Willamette Valley.  I look forward to sharing about my outing as well as a new soup recipe I will be trying out.

How's the winter weather in your part of the world?

52 Weeks of Fairy Tales Week #2 - The Brave Little Tailor

Before I share my second fairy tale post of the year, I thought I would share some wintery pictures from my garden.  We still have not had snow here in the valley, but the weather is getting colder and colder, and the last two mornings Jack Frost has been at work.  The weather man reports we may have snow this weekend!  I would love for it to look a little bit more like winter, at least for a couple of days, it has been feeling a bit too much like Spring for mid January.

The Red Barberry berries look pretty among the frost thorny branches.

The angels on the little birdbath have spiky ice crystal hair, and the glass floats have frozen in place.

All of the leaves have wispy little ice fringe.

I love the way the frost looks on the fence post.

Maybe I'll get to post some snow pictures soon...

I have been enjoying planning out my 52 weeks of Fairy Tales that I will be reading and crafting through this year.   Last week was the first week, here is a link to 52 Weeks of Fairy Tales Week #1.  This week, since I have been working on hand sewing projects, I thought that the perfect fairy tale for this week would be The Brave Little Tailor.

(Picture from The Book of Classic Fairy Tales by Kincaid)

The Brave Little Tailor is about a young tailor who has a delicious piece of bread with jam waiting for him to snack on after he finishes up some work.  Some pesky flies smell the delicious bread and jam, and try to get a taste, but the tailor quickly swats them away, and manages to kill seven of the flies in one blow.  He is quite proud of his accomplishment, and quickly sets about sewing a belt with the words "Seven in one blow" embroidered on the front.  Feeling confident, the Brave Little Tailor decides to set out and tell the world.  He tucks a piece of cheese in his pocket for a snack, and heads out.  Along the way he finds a little brown bird trapped in a bush, and removes the bird and tucks the bird in his other pocket.

On his journey, he encounters a giant, the giant assumes the "seven in one blow" is seven men that the tailor killed.  The brave tailor is quite confident, so the giant decides to test the tailor.  First the giants picks up a large rock and squeezes it so hard that water drips from the rock- then asks the tailor if he can do that.  The brave tailor is clever, and pretends to pick up a rock, but instead pulls out his cheese, which he squeezes until it drips water- the giant is impressed, and gives the tailor another test.  The giant picks up a stone, and throws it quite far away, again the tailor pretends to pick up a rock, but instead pulls out the little brown bird from his pocket, when he throws the bird it flies away making it look like the tailor was able to throw much further than the giant.  So the giant tells the tailor if he is so strong, then he can help him carry a giant tree home, the tailor agrees, and says he will carry the roots, since they are the heaviest part.  The giants picks up the tree and the tailor pretends to be carrying the end, but really just jumps up onto the trunk and the giant carries him home, he jumps down before the giant can see, so the giant believes that the tailor has helped with the large tree.

(Picture from The Book of Classic Fairy Tales by Kincaid)

By now, the giant is a little worried about the brave little tailor, if he is that strong, maybe he will endanger the giant?  So the giant invites the tailor to stay at his house and meet the giant's brothers.  The tailor agrees.  That night the tailor goes to sleep in a giant bed, because the bed is so big, he crawls into the corner, which is very fortunate, because the giant and his brothers came in and beat the bed with an iron bar in order to kill the tailor.  The giants thought that they had rid themselves of the tailor who killed seven in one blow, but were very frightened the next morning when the tailor came out for breakfast.  All of the giants ran away.

(Picture from The Book of Classic Fairy Tales by Kincaid)

Feeling confident, the brave little tailor then enters the royal service in a nearby kingdom.   The knights, who also believe "seven in one blow" are men that the tailor has killed,  are frightened of the tailor, and ask the king to send him away.  The king is concerned this may make the tailor angry, so instead sends him on a quest to rid the kingdom of two troublesome giants, thinking the giants will kill the tailor.  The king promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the person who rids the kingdom of these giants.  The Tailor again uses his wits, climbs up in a tree above the two giants, who happen to be napping, and drops rocks on one giant, the giant thinks it is the other giant, and tells the other giant to stop throwing things at him, they go back to sleep and the tailor throws rocks at the other giant this time, who wakes up, and gets into a fight with the other giant.  The two giants end up fighting each other to death.  The king is impressed witht he tailor, but gives him another quest before he gives the tailor his daughter's hand in marriage- the tailor must trap a unicorn.  Again the tailor achieves the quest by tricking the unicorn into charging him and getting his horn stuck in a tree trunk.  The Tailor is then sent on one more quest- the trap a wild boar.  The nimble tailor had the boar chase him right into a chapel, and the tailor jumped out a window, and the boar was trapped inside.

Finally the king agrees to let the tailor marry his daughter.  After they are married, the princess hears the tailor talking about being a tailor in his sleep.  The next day she asks her father to send him away because he is only a common tailor.  By this point the brave little tailor has made good friends with a squire, who overhears the kings plans to bind the tailor, and send him on a ship far away, the squire tells the tailor.  So that night the tailor pretends to be asleep, and in his sleep calls out commands to his men and his tailor, making it seem as though he was a powerful leader.  The knights who were going to take him away become frightened and leave.  No one ever bothers the brave little tailor again, and eventually he became a great king.

This fairy tale is one of the tales collected by the Grimm Brothers, and is also known as The Valiant Tailor.

This was a fairy tale I read often as a child.  I used to love that the Brave Little Tailor was so clever.  Today I read this tale from the original Grimm's Fairy Tales, as well as a version from my childhood Book of Classic Fairy Tales by Eric and Lucy Kincaid.

Because these tales were originally passed down orally, through story telling, I think it is important to become familiar enough with fairy tales that you could tell a version of the story without a book if needed.  When you include Fairy Tales often in your children's story time, they will start to remember them, and be able to tell them back to you, or at least parts.  I think this kind of learning is a wonderful exercise for everyone.  As I noted in my last Fairy Tale post, most of the Grimm's Stories are online for free, including this story.  The Brave little Tailor is included in most Grimm collections, as well as Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book.

I had a very fun time making a little Brave Little Tailor Doll this week, along with his "7 in 1 Blow"  Belt.  This is the first boy doll I have ever made, I am happy how he turned out.  Here are a couple of pictures.  I am looking forward to sharing this story with my family, as well as bringing both my Rapunzel doll, and My Brave Little Tailor doll when I go visit my young niece and nephew so I can have a story time with them as well.

I am looking forward to the weekend, and the possibility of some snow!  Anyone else waiting for some snow, or have you already had snow and are ready for the spring?