Happy Halloween!

Halloween Fun

We had our friends over tonight for a little Halloween celebration. Everyone dressed up and we had so much fun!

Here we have Shane and myself as Juno and Paulie Bleeker, being very serious.

Newly-wedded Brian and Andrea as The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. Also featuring our little Lucy as "The Grinch's Dog".

Sheldon and Staci were our resident Greek Gods.

Jake and Cody as a 1970's sleeze bag film maker - right Jake?, and construction worker.

Jo as Kanga and Little Roo, and Lee as Christopher Robin. Jo is due to have baby Soren in 5 weeks!

Stacey (sans Shawn, who sadly had to work) as a Gypsy with her beautiful little girl Avery as herself, an Angel.

Some ferocious lions - Olivia and her Dad Chad the Cowboy on our left, and Matthias with his Dad Sheldon - Greek God on our right.

Here is Olivia again with her Mom Alexis, who is Samantha from Bewitched, who also made Olivia's costume by hand.

We love our friends!

What are you going to be?

Shane

This is my Husband Shane. If you have seen our "family blog", you have seen tons of posts (written by Shane) about how great he thinks I am, and you (the reader) are invited, and sometimes required to leave a note telling me that you think so too.
He spends a lot of his time thinking of ways to make me feel loved. His secret wish list that he keeps on his computer, which I saw the other day, is full of things he wants to do for me or have for me.
I don't want to be "mushy" or "cheesy", but I want to share with everyone (or just my family members who are obligated to read this blog) just how wonderful he is. The picture above is a good representation of who Shane really is. After waking up early and doing the dishes for me before leaving, and after a long day of work, and after a soccer game (because he is still a kid who loves to play) in which he Broke his nose!! He rushes home to take a shower, create a make-shift nose splint, and put on a white shirt and tie because someone said they might need him for a blessing.
He waited on our couch like this for three hours, getting up every now and then to ice his nose and see if there was something he could do for me. Every day I think to myself, "Wow, I am a very lucky girl."

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Last night Shane and I had dinner at Brian and Andrea's - our cute newly wedded friends - and Andrea made sweet potatoes and I liked them!! I hate sweet potatoes, usually, unless they are from Guru's and are fried, and have spices and dipping sauce. So tonight I experimented roasting them in Old Bay and Seasoning Salt, and to my great surprise again, I loved them!! This is like a whole new world for me. It's getting me excited about all kinds of sweet roots and gourds that I have hitherto been avoiding.

If you like sweet potatoes, or if you're feeling adventurous, like I was - try this:

Ingredients
Yams - one large one was plenty for Shane and I, so however many you're feeding...
Olive oil
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Old Bay seasoning
Seasoning Salt - I use Lawry's

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 375.
Wash and peel yams, and cut into 1 inch cubes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread yams on top.
Drizzle with Olive Oil - enough to coat evenly.
LIBERALLY sprinkle Kosher Salt, Black Pepper, and Seasoning salt. Remember this is a starch and it's going to absorb the oil, and need a lot of seasoning.
Then sprinkle Old Bay - you may not want to be liberal with this - it can be intense. If you're from Maryland, I don't need to tell you what to do. For everyone else, just be careful.
Toss everything to coat evenly, and spread yams out on the baking sheet. (after this I add a little more spice for good measure, but it's up to you - I like a lot of seasoning)
Roast yams in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it they start to get brown and crispy on the bottom.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Don't you love frogs? I've been looking around different design blogs for nursery ideas and I found this pattern at The Purl Bee. All the babies I've been around lately just like to chew on things, so I thought this would be a good place to start for toys - a squishy bean bag. This project took less than an hour, so I'm going to make a whole bunch of different animals. What do boys like? Snakes? Lizards? That's all I've got so far.

p.s. Although the eyes are really cute. I'm pretty sure they present a health risk, so I took them off and gave this frog to my dog - she acted like she'd died and gone to heaven.

And the Winner is....

This is how I picked the number. You enter your information up there, and press enter.

And your number shows up here on the next page and says, "Julianne Smoot! You are the winner!" So, my dear Julianne, you can expect your package in the mail.

Thank you everyone for participating, and coming to look at my new blog. Have a good weekend!

Things are starting to get spooky around here...

I have never decorated for Halloween before. I don't know how that happened, but I have no idea where to even begin. So, when I was asked to host this month's book club on Dracula, and told that "everyone usually throws theme parties" I was a tiny bit nervous. But I've realized after looking around for ideas and getting started that decorating for Halloween is SO FUN! Spooky cobwebs and witches - I have the song "This is Halloween" from Nightmare before Christmas stuck in my head all day long. Anyway, I haven't gotten things going in full swing yet, but we had the book club meeting tonight so I covered the Vampire basics.

The classic garlic and wooden stakes.

Holy water - BYOV (bring your own vile)

And a Coffin Cake, made with this recipe.

I know I'm missing some crosses, but that's a long story.

Baby Quilt

Speaking of quilting... I have a little problem. I have gotten slightly out of control with quilting projects - I am working on 5 different quilts - I know. I don't know what I was thinking, but every time I see a cute new line of fabrics I lose my self-control. I just imagine a pile of fun handmade quilts stacked in my family room for people to snuggle up with and drink hot chocolate, and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This baby quilt was so fun and easy to make. I followed the instructions on my friend Kelly McCaleb's blog. She is a gifted seamstress among other things, and she has easy to follow instructions, which you can find here.

Giveaway!

Earlier this year I got really into quilted oven mits. I made a ton of them to give away as gifts, and sell at craft fairs. I have one last set to give away to one of you. So, if you have a bridal shower coming up, or if you want something new for your kitchen, just post a comment, and I'll randomly pick a winner Friday afternoon.

My Inspiration, and My New Blog

All my life I wanted to be the perfect homemaker - something my Grandmother instilled in me from a young age. I remember sometimes feeling resentful towards her ceaseless attempts to teach me about cooking and cleaning, keeping house and serving others. I shared these feelings with her one day in her kitchen when I accused, "What are you trying to do, make me a ready-made wife?!" It makes me laugh to remember, but that is exactly what she was trying to do - prepare me for my ultimate calling in life, Motherhood.

My own Mother taught by example. She entirely devoted herself to the well being of her family, making countless sacrifices in our behalf. She taught me the value of tradition and taking pride in my work - anything worth doing is worth doing well, and she made everything in life beautiful and special.

I have taken feeble stabs at Decorating like my mother, cooking like my Grandmother, sewing like my Mother in-law, and hosting like my Aunts and the women I grew up with in my home Ward Relief Society. All these women have inspired me, and they have set the bar very high. So, that's what this new Blog is all about. My attempts at cooking, crafting, and mothering (since I am expecting my first baby - a boy - in January). I am going to share with you recipes and projects that I have found or created, and hopefully you can find something you like here.