Candy Bar Greeting!

Have you ever made one of these before?  If not, you really need to!  They are fun to make and fun to give! I've made many of these through the years.  I loved making them for my kids, my neices and nephews, my kids friends, my parents, teachers.... and on and on!   

 

They are simple to make.  This is how you do it.

 

 

Gather your supplies:

 

Poster Board (the heavy styrofoam kind)

All colors of Sharpie Markers

All kinds of candy - about 10 to 12 different ones

(You can figure up your "story" before you buy your candy, or you can just buy all kinds of candy and then write your story to fit - thats what I do.)

Heavy two-sided poster tape

 

 

Lay your candy out in front of you, take a pad of paper and start writing your story to fit the occassion.  The one I was making was for a graduation gift, so I was focusing on that.  Have fun and make it silly!

 

 

After you have it written out on paper, you can get very particular and measure out your sentences and words on your poster board.  I don't get that particular.  However, I do write everything out in pencil first, so that I can erase if it gets too sloppy.  Usually I just kind of wing it.  Then take your black sharpie and start writing!

 

 

I like to do the words in black so that they really stand out.  Once you have all your sentences written out in black, take your color markers and do some embellishing!

 

 

I'm not very artistic - but I do like to doodle, so I like to add that sort of thing.  Basically anything that adds color and excitement! 

 

Then tape on your candy with the double sided poster tape and you are done!  You can spend hours on this project.... or you can spend 30 minutes like I did. 

 

 

Here is the finished poster!

 

This one (below) is a blast from the past.  My son and his wife had a destination wedding on the beach in Florida three years ago, and so we all met there for a week.  I made them one of these the night before their wedding.  They were going on a cruise for their honeymoon - I figured candy would be a bit hit.  More than that it was a special memory for my son of when he was litle and I made them for fun occassions.  They loved the poster - here they are smiling as they read it. 

 

 

Next time you're not sure what to do for someone for a gift, or just a fun pick-me-up, choose to make a candy bar greeting poster!  And have fun.  (Incidentally, I think its time to make one for my five year old grand-daughter.  When I pulled this out of the car at the gradutation dinner we attended this evening her eyes bulged out and she said, "Wow Gram.  Look at all that candy"!)

 

Hope your week is sweet!

A Strawberry Kind of Day!

 

My daughter and I took the girls to the strawberry farm today to pick berries.  It was such a beautiful day.  This picture was taken before we got started - you can tell because our faces and hands are still clean!

 

We go to Browns Farm in Alabama - it is close and very family friendly, with public bathrooms and a huge pavilion with picnic tables.  We've been going since before Jillian was born - back in the days when I flew from out West to visit Andrea and her husband.  Now I get to just drive 30 minutes to pick strawberries!

 

 

Jillian was old enough this year to really help with the picking! 

 

 

Rosetta?  She ate more than she picked!!  This evening when I dumped one of my buckets in the sink to wash the berries there were a lot of half eaten ones!

 

 

I love strawberries right off the vine.  As a matter of fact, I can hardly stand to eat a strawberry from the store - they don't even taste like the same fruit.

 

 

It was such a perfect day.  You know its fun when everyone had red sticky faces and fingers!

 

 

Andrea and I each bought three buckets of these awesome things!

 I came home and made 8 half pints of jam. I love these little half pint jars.  I don't like having huge jelly jars in the refrigerator and they are perfect for giving as gifts too.  Hopefully we'll get back to pick one more time before the season is over. 

 

 

I guess my favorite part of the day is that it is still a novelty to go and pick strawberries.  Where we lived in the Southwest desert there was no such thing as a strawberry farm.  Things (besides tumbleweeds) just don't grow too well in pink sand!  I am thankful that I now live where things grow in abundance and I want to cherish that. 

 

Hope your week is wonderful.



House on The Hilltop - Part Twelve (and other things!)

Continued from House On The Hilltop - Part Eleven

 

We've had rain for three entire days (and nights) so yesterday evening when the sun came out I grabbed my camera to try to catch some pictures of the evening light.  I walked around the house and this was what greeted me!  These calves really love trying to prove who is the strongest!

 

 

And who is the fastest!

 

Can you see the little black calf on the left that has a white speck on his belly?  He and the white calf are best friends.  They chase each other, nap together, and just hang out together.  You didn't think calves had best friends did you? 

 

 

So, as for our house progress?  We started to feel like we were spinning our wheels, so we sat down and wrote down everything left to complete in each room.  There were lots of little (and big) things.  But, the great news is that it all fit on one big poster board which is posted up in the house and we get to check things off every day!  It seemed like it got us back on track and also gives a bit better visual of what we've got left to do.

 

We installed the flooring in the kitchen...

 

 

... and the dining room.  Its so hard to see it in a picture, but it is really lovely.  We are ready for the cabinets to be delivered.

 

 

And speaking of cabinets.  The cabinet shop is letting me come and take pictures of their process.  Its pretty fun to see how it all works.  Here I am with the owner of the shop and his assistant as we discuss a few details.

 

 

Andrea brought the girls up the other day and I was wearing my knee pads and Rosey went crazy trying to pull them off of me to put on her so she could match her Gramps!  She walked all over with my knee pads on! 

 

Installing vanity lights in the bathrooms...

...wall lights in the Barn Room (upstairs)

 

... all window trim up, sanded, caulked and painted.

Bathtub in master bath, shower in guest bath installed and plumbed, electrical outlets and switches complete in all but the kitchen (waiting on cabinets and back splash).  Ceiling lights in bedrooms, hall, and laundry room going in today and chandeleir in the dining room. 

One step (and check mark!) at a time.

 

 

And in the middle of building a house, mowing the rapidly growing grass, taking care of cows, new calves being born, and continual rain, I've been trying to get my garden fully planted.  Jillian helped me one day - her favorite thing to do while I'm in the garden is pretend the bars on the Ranger are her Monkey Bars!

 

I hope your week is off to a great start!  Thanks for reading and thanks to all of you for your encouraging comments on our house!  We're really been needing the positive feedback lately!! 



Home-Made Hamburger Buns

 

We often combine meals with our daughter, son-in-law and those precious grand-daughters and last night was one of those occasions. Hamburgers sounded so good to me so I told my daughter that I'd bring the buns, burgers and fixins and she said she'd make the sides.   You can read her blog post on what she brought here. 

 

If you've never had a hamburger with home-made hamburger buns you are missing out on something really special!  Think its too difficult to do?  You are in for a big surprise on how easy it is.  I'll help you.

 

Gather your ingredients: 

 

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon instant yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 cup hot water

 

Throw all your dry ingredients in your mixer equipped with dough hooks (see note below), add your wet ingredients and mix on low till all ingredients are incorporated.  Then knead on medium setting for about 3 - 5 minutes.  You've kneaded your dough long enough when it is smooth and has a nice shiny gleam to it! 

 

 Note:  I would recommend a mixer with dough hooks; however, you can certainly mix this up and knead it by hand.  My mother always did!  As far as mixers go, my personal preference is the Bosch Universal Mixer.  I'm on my second Bosch mixer in 25 years and I use it practically on a daily basis, so that tells you how wonderful they are.  Some people prefer a Kitchenaid and I've heard they are just as wonderful.  It simply comes down to preference.

 

Remove the dough from your mixer and place into large bowl that has been slightly oiled with olive oil. Cover with a clean tea towel and set it aside to rise to double size. Depending on the temperatures, it could get to this point in 20 minutes or an hour so keep a watch on it. (We are living in a travel trailer right now while building our house, and my camper was warm and toasty and my dough was double in size in about 20 minutes.)

 

 

When your dough has risen sufficiently, separate it into 9 pieces and form them into nice little balls. Pour a little olive oil on a cookie sheet (I love my jelly roll pan for this) and place your dough balls a few inches apart. I kind of roll them in the olive oil on the pan so the top sides are oiled as well as the bottoms. Cover with a tea towel and let them rise about 15 minutes. 

 

 

Then, with the palm of your hand, squish the balls into flat disks the size of hamburger buns! Cover with your tea towel again and let them rise til nice and puffy - it was about 30 minutes in my warm camper, but could be as long as an hour.

 

 

Place in pre-heated 375 degree oven and bake until they are a beautiful golden color. Brush the tops with butter, let cool slightly and then with a serrated knife cut them in half horizontally. 

 

 

Grill your hamburger patties and assemble your burger ingredients.  I used butter lettuce leafs, sliced tomatoes, sliced purple onions, home-made pickles, and sliced avacado. 

 

 

I would also recommend using the very best of  ingredients.  From King Arthur flour, butter from grass fed cattle, cage free egg, organic sugar and sea salt for your buns to the best meat you can buy for your patties.  My husband and I are lucky to have a farm where we raise grass fed beef, so I feel the hamburger meat is the finest quality.  My pickles are ones that I canned last summer, and soon I'll have fresh tomatoes from my garden.  All those ingredients make for a hamburger that is better than anything you can find anywhere! 

 

These home-made hamburger buns come with a warning:  You will never want another hamburger with store bought buns and neither will your family!  So, once you make them, you will always be making them!

 

For your convenience you can click here for a printable recipe.  Enjoy!