Three years ago today...

I married this man

Ours was not a traditional wedding - unless you got married back in 1974.  Yep, we had a 70's wedding on New Year's Eve and honestly it was the most amazing night.  When we got in engaged in October of 2006 Justin threw out the idea of having a 70's wedding and I immediately said yes.  We just wanted to get everyone together and celebrate in true Harvey fashion - good food, refreshing libations, great music, and lots of laughs. 

In three short months with lots of help from family we pulled together a very memorable New Year's Eve celebration.  At the time Justin was co-owner of a restaurant so after our church ceremony we had our dinner at the restaurant and the party at a loft across the street.  The boys all had retro tuxes and my Mom made my dress while the bridesmaids dresses were made by a local seamstress.  Our good friend Jennifer is an amazing musician and lended her talents to the evening.  Everyone was decked out in their finest 70's gear and ready to have a great time.  The result was an evening full of love and lots of great memories....

a special moment

Not one to ever shy away from pretty women..even on his wedding day

  the conga line

 

  its' easy to say I do when you love someone as much as I love him

 

 not everyone can say they have had a New Zealender Elvis at their wedding

another reason I love Jus so much - he cares more about shoes than I do

plus he makes me very happy...

a motley crew...having a good time

Jennifer Lynn rocking out- channeling country stars of earlier years

our "celebrity" moment, our cake was featured in People Magazine's wedding issue that year

 He makes me laugh, he makes me want to be better, he is generous and kind, and being his friend and promising to love him forever is the easiest thing I've ever done.

The misson - amazing fabric for my new (old) sofa

Right before the holidays Justin and I sold our old beat up couches.  The search for a new fabulous replacement started right away but everything we found in our local market was either too expensive or cheaply made.  That is until I stumbled upon this beauty at a local home consignment store for a song, not only is it really well made it's almost exactly what I was looking for, tight back, low arms, exposed wooden legs...only problem is the rustic cabin fever fabric that is covering this jewel.  Not to worry, its headed to the upholster as soon as I can find some fabric I love.

I'm looking for something classic that will stand the test of time but has a fresh feel.  I think a solid will be best so I can change my look with pillows/accessories whenever I feel like it.  It has to be durable enough to stand up to the three monkeys and any future bambinos Jus and I have and of course has to be pet friendly for Miss Tripps.

Here are some options, which ones do you like...

fresh apple green cotton velvet

tonal herringbone

knubby red...I'm kinda in love with this one

very well suited for...a suit

slightly green diamond chenille

knubby brown - would hide the dirt

rich green chenille

I love all the colors of this one

Adore: Tables

I am working through an idea for a new project and these photos are providing me with ample inspiration. 

 

 

Can you guess what I have up my sleeve?

Naughty or Nice?

Every year I try to make cinnamon rolls for our friends and neighbors - a tradition that my family did growing up.  I combined a few recipes this year and the result was pans of gooey, warm, cinnamon mounds of goodness that make the perfect Christmas morning treat. 

MB's Cinnamon Rolls
Note: I used my handy Stand Mixer with a dough hook which made the job easy but an old fashioned spoon or hand-held mixer will do the job just fine.

2 packages of yeast
1/2 cup hot water
1 T. sugar

*Trick from my mom that helps me always get yeast to activate: Run your tap water at hot for a few minutes, use the HOT tap water to fill your measuring cup and put it in your mixing bowl.  Stir the sugar in, by that time your water should have cooled to just the right temp.  Add your yeast (I rock my bowl a little bit so the yeast is moistened but not stirred).  Let sit for 15-20 minutes until foamy.

1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk

Place your stick of butter in a bowl and microwave till melted.  Add your milk while the butter is still hot so the milk is heated and the butter is slightly cooled.  With your mixer on low, begin incorporating the milk/butter mixture to the yeast.

Now add:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, slightly whisked

Mix on slow until well incorporated.

Add:
2  1/2 cups flour
1 t. salt

Mix on low until smooth, slowly add:
2 cups flour

Until the dough is smooth and clinging to the dough hook.  Remove dough from the mixer and place on a floured countertop and knead just until dough no longer sticks to your hands (don't over knead or add too much flour).

Place in a greased bowl, cover with damp dishcloth and let rise for and hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

*Tip: I preheat my oven to the lowest temp available and turn it off as soon as it starts to get warm, usually just 2-3 minutes of preheating.  I place my dough bowl in the oven with the damp cloth and let it rise there where the temperature is consistent.

Cinnamon Topping
Combine the following ingredients:
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 T cinnamon
dash of freshly grated nutmeg

Once dough has risen, place on a greased countertop (spray it down with some PAM).  Roll out in a 12x24 inch rectangle (approx.), not too thin.  Spread 1 stick of softened butter all over the face of the dough and sprinkle on the topping mixture.  After I add the topping I like to pat it into the dough using my hands - I find it makes it easier to roll-up.

Roll dough into a log, keeping it relatively tight as you go.  Pinch the seam of the roll closed to seal it.

Spread more softened butter ( I know - I'm starting to sounds like Paula Deen) into a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan.  Begin cutting your roll into 1 inch thick pieces and lay them in the buttered pan, leaving room for them to rise again.  I was able to fit 6-7 rolls in each pan.

Allow the rolls to rise for another 30-45 minutes, then bake in a 375 oven for 10-12 minutes.  They should be light golden brown but not over baked.

Glaze (courtesy of the Pioneer Woman)
1 bag powdered sugar
2 t. maple flavoring
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup brewed coffee
1/8 t. salt

Combine all until it created a thick but pourable glaze.  As soon as your rolls are out of the oven ladle the glaze over them - being VERY generous.

Dig in and enjoy - or deliver a few to friends and family and see the big smile they get on their face.

Late afternoon eye candy

 

 

Getting saucy

My brother-in-law Nathan is not the easiest person to shop for, mainly due to the fact that he does not crave material goods [I'm sure Justin wished I was more like him] so I had to think long and hard about what small gift I could give him this year.  He loves to cook so I started running through kitchen items but they have everything they need, then it hit me - I could give him my sauce recipe that he has been hounding me for ever since August when I used it here.  Better yet, I could make some sauce and give him the recipe which is how I found myself elbow deep in bbq sauce one night.

Check it out, the easiest sauce you'll ever make and it happens to look quite festive once bottled - the perfect holiday gift!

Ginger Soy BBQ Sauce
I 12x this recipe so I had enough for canning but this recipe is enough for a normal meal with the family.

2 cups ketchup
1  1/2 cups honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic finely minced (more or less to taste)
2 inch hunk of fresh ginger finely minced (more or less to taste)
pinch of red pepper flakes
fresh ground pepper and kosher salt to taste


Dump all ingredients into a bowl, mix well, and enjoy!  It works great as a sauce for meatballs or pulled pork but you can use it anywhere you would a normal bbq sauce.


I chose to can my batch and followed the directions on this website for preserving bbq sauce but you can keep it in the fridge in a glass or plastic container for 2-3 months.

Worth getting up for

Our street this morning blanketed under a new dusting of snow, a great way to start the day.

Surprise..it's a new post

Thank you for your patience as I stepped out of the blogging world for a week - life became a little chaotic with things like major deadlines at work converging, searching for a new couch since we accidentally sold ours, finishing homemade gifts, shopping for those last minute presents, celebrating engagements, and catching up with family just to name a few.  The only way I've survived is by eating these sinfully amazing caramel mounds that were delivered to the office...I just can't seem to say no to these guys although my hips are begging me to put the caramels down.  Tis the season :)

But I'm happy to report I'm back and I have tons to catch you up on but since it's less than 4 days till the big day I thought I would share a great last minute gift idea for your favorite artist.  Mine happens to be my adorable nephew Evan who is obsessed with art projects so for Christmas I thought I'd put together an art set for him which includes these great crayon pucks, perfect for little creative hands that might have a hard time holding onto normal crayons.  They are super easy and inexpensive to make, here is how you do it...

Step 1:  Buy a box of 64 count crayons and a disposable muffin tin. Once home put in a good movie or cd and start unwrapping the paper from the crayons.  Justin rescued me from trying to peel the paper off by suggesting using an exacto knife to slice the paper the length of the crayon and then the wrapper just falls right off (he's brilliant).  It turns an hour long project to a five minute project.

Step 2:  Sort your crayons.  I opted to go the color family route with all blues together, all greens together, etc. knowing that Evan is more of an inside the lines guy and likes things in an orderly fashion.  However you could go nuts and do crazy color combos - just keep in mind they all melt together and certain colors can result in poop brown pucks.

Step 3:  Begin filling your muffin tin with your colors, breaking the crayons into 3 or 4 pieces before placing them in the tin.  Once you have all your colors in the tins, take your finger and swirl the crayon pieces so the colors get all mixed up.

Step 4:  Place them in an oven that has been preheated to 270 degrees.  I suggest placing the disposable muffin tin on a foil lined cookie sheet just to create some stability when getting it in and out of the oven.

Set the timer for 15 minutes, check on them when the timer goes off and then if the crayons are not completely melted set the timer for 5 minute increments until they are all melted, especially those centers.  Take them out of the oven and give them another swirl with a toothpick just to get that marbled effect.

Let cool completely (2-3 hours) and then carefully peel away the muffin tin from the pucks.  You are left with these giant crayons that your mini Van Gogh is sure to enjoy.

My favorite artist

Unwrapping Christmas memories

Our tree - decorated with ornaments from Me and Justin's childhoods

Every year growing up I could always count on unwrapping two special gifts...an ornament and pajamas.  As soon as Grandma Nick's box of presents arrived in the mail Mom would give us each the Christmas ornament that my grandma had made for us before tucking the other presents under the tree.

They ranged from hand painted teddy bears to stuffed snowman and each had our name and the year handwritten somewhere.  She made them for all of her grandchildren so that when we grew up and moved away that we would have a special set of ornaments to decorate our tree.  Every year when I pull out those worn shoe boxes and unwrap the small treasures I think about all of the great holidays we had growing up and I also think about Grandma Nick and the often quiet but heartfelt ways she showed her love to me.  She lost a hard battle with cancer over a year ago so the thought and love that went into the ornaments resonates even stronger these days.

one of my favorites, Grandma's version of me singing

As for those other presents under the tree - every Christmas Eve we were allowed to only open the packages from Grandma, tucked inside were homemade flannel pajamas made especially for us with our likes and dislikes in mind.  I usually got the blue or purple colored set and my sister got the pink ones.  We would quickly change into them before snuggling into bed so Santa could arrive.

 

Me (left) and Maren Christmas morning with our pj's and gifts from Santa

After my Grandma passed away my Mom asked if there was anything I wanted as a memento of her and I chose the quilt that Grandma Nick had sewed using all the scraps of flannel pajamas she had made over the years.  It is a patchwork of memories and a wonderful reminder of her and also happens to be the perfect cold weather blanket that I constantly find myself bundled in.

 

I was thrilled when my mom told me that she planned to carry on the tradition of homemade ornaments and pj's now that she has grandchildren - it was such a wonderful part of my family's holiday memories and I love the thought that it is something that my "someday kids" will be able to experience.

What are your traditions around the holidays?

Adore: settees

I recently moved my love seat into the "dining room" area since we don't have room for a sit down table in there.  I like the idea of having it there as a plopping spot for reading & relaxing and for conversation while someone is cooking in the kitchen.  It works quite well but our love seat is a tad over sized for the space and has left me dreaming of finding a lovely settee to replace it.  I'm keeping my eye on craigslist for a great bargain and using these images as my inspiration.  Wish me luck!

 

  

 

 

 

Holiday Wishes Garland

There are many examples of amazing mantle garlands out there ranging from elegant greenery, glittered messages, and beaded finery.  but I chose to go simple and created this garland using  materials I either found around the house or purchased for less than a the cost of a holiday latte.

Here's how you do it -

Using Microsoft Word I created the letters that my message was comprised of.  You can create any size and style you want but I chose to go with a dark chocolate text color and a square shape with that same chocolate border.

A great source for finding fun fonts is dafont.com which is a free online font catalog that has everything from super simple ( I used the style called Castorgate in 175 size) to very stylized.

After printing out my letters on white card stock I cut them out leaving about a 1/4" border.

Next up was creating the red backgrounnd "tiles".  This was super easy - all I did was find some wrapping paper that had a fun print on it and then spray mounted that to some leftover foam core.  Using a box cutter and ruler I cut the foam core into tiles.

From here it was a matter of plugging in the glue gun and using that to affix the letters on the red tiles.  I purchased some brown satin ribbon and using that magical glue gun again secured the red tiles to the ribbon.

It was a fun and easy project to do and I think it turned out great.  It would be a great addition to a mantle but also a great way to introduce the holiday spirit in a kids room or entryway.  I encourage you to try it.

I'm sharing this idea over at Mustard Seed Creations on her link party.  Lots of great ideas - go check it out!  Or you can browse through the more than 200 DIY ideas on Kimba's link party over at A Soft Place to Land.