Patriotic Treats with a Side of Summer Accountability

It all started when I was pinning (which I do quite a lot now that school is out and when I'm successfully putting off doing something) away on Pinterest and I came across this pin...

Stephen and I were going to enjoy a cook-out at his parents house for Memorial Day Weekend and I decided that I was going to make one of Stephen's most favorite treats: Cake Balls.  Have you ever made cake balls?  Have you ever tried them?  If you've never tried them, you need to get your hands on at least one and taste the goodness for yourself - they are truly amazing.  If you've never made them, let me caution you: they are very time consuming.  Back in February I made the mistake of asking Stephen what he wanted for his birthday.  He insisted that he wanted nothing and I insisted that it was HIS birthday, I would make him ANYTHING he wanted (did you read my post from Monday to see how busy I was during this time?).  He decided that he wanted cake balls.  I'm pretty sure a part of me died a little inside when he said that...of all the things he wanted, he chose the most time consuming dessert possible.  However, I did tell him that I would make anything he wanted (dang it!) and so cake balls it was....

Fast forward to May - school was about to be out and summer was on the verge of happening - I was feeling adventurous!  I was going to make cake balls...not just any cake balls, Patriotic Cake Balls!!!  {cue the dramatic, excited music}

These were my inspiration from this website:

1st step was to make the cake balls.  If you've never made them before, here is the recipe (there are a million if you google "how to make cake balls" or "cake pops" and they're all about the same).  I used a half a tub of frosting to make mine.  I went with white cake (mine and Stephen's fav) and white icing.  After I made the cake balls, I arranged them in my 13x9 metal cake pan to get an idea of how many of my balls {insert inappropriate middle school boy jokes here} needed to be red, white and blue.

Once I figured out how many balls needed to be what color, I got to work and did each color separately.  I used the Wilton colored candies from JoAnns (or any craft store - even Wal-Mart carries them) to coat my cake balls.  I had lots of trays of different colored cake balls sitting around my kitchen.  Talk about needing self control to just hang around them without eating them!  If you do make cake balls, be sure you make lots of extras so you can just pop them in your mouth while you're working!

Unfortunately I did not do my math correctly and I didn't have the right amount of white cake balls.  What's scary about this is that I teach 4th grade math....this was a perfect example of math in real life (because everyone makes cake balls, right?) and yet I failed at it.  Stink.

The good news is that even though I was short on the white balls, they still tasted great!  It's a good thing that these desserts take a while to make, otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would make them entirely too often and my thighs would pay the price for this bad addiction!

For this upcoming 4th of July, I'm thinking about making this dessert from Betty Crocker:

I'm also thinking about making these to hang under the pergola by our family room window:

Now onto the side of Summer Accountability.  I know you probably don't care about how I'm spending my summer days and please know that this part of the post is entirely for me.  Last summer I found myself getting overwhelmed by all the different things I wanted to accomplish during the summer time. This overwhelming feeling kept me from accomplishing much of anything.  As a way to try and ward off laziness, I've decided that I'm going to blog about my daily activities during the summer.  Maybe it'll keep me from getting sucked into Bravo's Real House Wives Marathon because I'm ashamed to tell all of blogland that this is how I chose to spend my day!  So here it is, my daily what dos:

Monday: walked Princeton in the morning, changed the sheets on the bed and washed them, put sheets back on the guest bed, did the laundry and put it up, blogged, did my Bible study, worked on a small art project that I had been putting off, touched up trim in the entry way, went to Bible Study.

Tuesday: walked Princeton in the morning, put a first coat of paint on the inside of the front door, put up the last basket of laundry, went to dinner with my parents, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Wednesday: walked Princeton in the morning, put a second coat of paint on the front door, cleaned up in the basement, my friend Julie came over and we hung out most of the afternoon, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Thursday: cleaned up the paint mess, went to the grocery store, worked out in the backyard for 3 hours, vacuumed and tidied up, made dinner and Stephen's parents came for dinner, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Friday: filled the dishwasher, did the rest of the dishes, worked in the vegetable garden, painted the first coat on our bedroom closet, emptied the dishwasher, blogged.....

Do you think I'm crazy yet?  Feel free to skim past these random lists of my uneventful days...I'll be honest - I did get sucked into a few episodes of Real House Wives of the OC...it's like a train wreck and I can't turn away.  These women are SO mean to each other.  It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that they exist, they're adults and I'm aiding their richness by being sucked into their drama.  Ugh. Do you have any "guilty" tv pleasures?  I'm not gonna lie....I also get sucked into Real House Wives of NJ....okay, enough confessions!

I'm linking up with these parties:

Thirty Handmade Days; Naptime Crafters; Simply Designing; My Romantic Home; Finding Fabulous; The Shabby Nest; Chic on a Shoestring Budget;  The Scrap Shoppe; A Vision to Remember; Tatertots and Jello; I Heart Naptime; DIY Showoff; Homemaker on a Dime; Sumo's Sweet Stuff; Craft-O-Maniac; Uncommon Designs; C.R.A.F.T.; Lines Across; That's What Che Said;  Creatively Living; An Extraordinary Day

Hand Painted Nursery Signs

I suffer from the I-Can-Make-That Syndrome.  I'm sure a lot of you suffer from the same thing.  It's a blessing and a curse.  I'll be out and about, see something that I really like, see the price tag and think to myself, "I can make that!" It's almost like a challenge against myself (yeah, I know, I'm cool!) to see how well I can make what I've found in the store.  A couple of years ago, I was acquainting myself with Etsy and I found myself drooling over these hand painted nursery signs.  They burned a mental image in my mind and I knew that I had to try my hand at them!  I had a few successes (here and here) with hand painting signs and then a big success with hand painting a sign for my nephew last summer (here).  However, these methods just took too long, and I wanted to try my hand at using my Silhouette to paint.  So, as soon as my dear friend Amanda found out she was pregnant, and my sister-in-law found out she was pregnant, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for them....

Here are my supplies: a $4 board from Hobby Lobby (sanded and wiped down), push pins from my desk drawer, a can of Krylon satin white spray paint, 3 different colors of acrylic paint, and a spool of decorative and coordinating ribbon (wired ribbon works best).

I first stuck the push pins in the bottom of the board so that it is easier to spray paint.

Next, I spray painted it until I was happy with it.

Using my silhouette, I cut out my niece's monogram and attached it to my painted sign to be used as a stencil.  

Then I took my deeper shade of purple and painted the monogram.  I waited for it to dry and then peeled it off.

I then started painting the birth stats (lighter purple).  I made sure I had a small paintbrush (that's the key!) and painted the middle name first (to be sure it was centered).  After I painted her name, I thought that green polka-dots would be great along the edges (I was making this up as I went).

Along the bottom, I added the birth stats.

And then hand painted a flower that was on my sister-in-law's baby shower invitations.  Lastly (with paint) I filled it in with polka-dots.

When I was finished, I spray painted the sign with a spray paint Lacquer by Rust-oleum.  I did this for 2 reasons: to protect that acrylic paint, and also to add shine to the sign.

Pin It
After it dried, I used a staple gun to attach the ribbon to the back of it so that it could be hung on the wall.  

Ta-Da!  I'm done!

It was a wonderful Christmas present for my sweet niece, Sophia!

After I made that one, I got right on the sign for my sweet friend, Amanda and I followed the same steps.  Here are the results:

Pin It 

If you're interested in a great, personalized gift for a new mom, I highly recommend doing this!  If you're not suffering from I-Can-Make-That syndrome and would like to give a new mom this gift, email me!  I'm taking orders!

I'm partying here this week

Christmas 2011

Yeah, again, I know the date...better late than never, right???  Moving on...
This past Christmas was the first Christmas that I did not leave the city of Louisville since I was in high school.  It made things really calm, which helped balance out the craziness that I was wrapping presents on Christmas morning (are we all noticing a theme here....again, better late than never, right?).  It definitely beat last Christmas when it felt as though we travelled the globe to see everyone at Christmastime!  Unexpectedly, Stephen's mom ended up staying in Louisville for Christmas because Stephen's sister had a baby.  Which meant that we celebrated with his family on Christmas Eve, my family on Christmas day, and then with his family again (when his dad returned from Pittsburgh) later on in the week.  We had a lot to celebrate, and celebrate a lot we did!

So, on Christmas Eve we went to church with Stephen's family (minus his pops) and then went back to his parents house to eat a yummy meal!

Christmas Eve:

On Christmas Day we woke up and headed over to my parents house to enjoy Christmas with my family...unfortunately, we're not good about taking pictures - here's the only picture that I have from Christmas day (I stole it from my sister):

Celebrating Christmas later on that week with Stephen's whole family (Pops included):

All the grandbabies

This picture makes me laugh - Nathan and Ashley are both still such attractive people, even in their outtakes!

Noni and her great grandbabies

4 generations

<3

Jake, getting some loving!

Nona and Nunu with their grandbabies

The whole clan

Somebody (I'm not going to name any names...) got really hot from running around like a crazy woman. Her solution?  Strip.  Ah - the benefits of being a child!

A little late, but I hope you had the merriest Christmas!

I'm an Aunt...AGAIN!

Sweet Baby Sofia was born on December 20, 2011 after making us all wait about 2 weeks before she decided to make her debut!  This is my 4th time being an Aunt and my 2nd sweet little niece!  Sofia was born to my sister-in-law, Cali (Stephen's sister).  Talk about 1 good, early Christmas gift!

Aunt Kari loves you, sweet baby!  Even if she looks a bit overly excited to hold you...don't worry - she'll try reeeeeaaaallly hard not to squeeze you too tight!

I love everything about this picture - from the excitedness that he felt from getting to hold Sofia, to the awkwardness that is his hold - Stephen is one proud uncle!

Stephen, Cali and Sweet Baby

Sofia was telling them about her day

One last time, for good measure, and also for you to see that awesomely, big bow on Sofia's teeny-tiny head!

She might look like a teeny peanut, but teeny was one thing she was not.  Cali was ALL belly from the beginning of her pregnancy on - if you saw her from behind, you'd never even know she were pregnant. When Baby Sofia came into this world weighing a whoppin' 8lbs 15 oz, we all felt sympathy pain for Cali!

I have most definitely loved taking advantage of having a sweet little baby to hold!  My other sweet baby, is no longer a little baby, but a little man who doesn't so much like to snuggle anymore. 

There's Elliott-man, enjoying his big boy food!

Whelp, all that to say that our Christmas season was quite memorable and exciting!  Having a precious peanut come into this world always makes your heart go pitter-patter.  Anything smaller than normal size is always too cute.  If you don't believe me, listen to any woman's reaction when she sees a puppy, a kitten, oh for heaven's sake, even a smaller than normal size can of coke!

Thanksgiving

Yeah, I know - it's December 12 - why am I posting about Thanksgiving?  Well, because my body still thinks it's November despite what I keep telling it!  As a result, I'm just now getting around to sharing my Fall decorations with you :).
This year, Stephen and I had the pleasure of hosting my families' Thanksgiving at our new house.  I was so excited to have everyone come over and hang out - I knew that this was what was going to make our house feel more like home (I know, gang me, but it's true!).  Thankfully, I've been loving fall for a long time now and so I had plenty of fall decorations and table linens already.  However, in our Chicago Apartment, we only had a dining room table.  In our new house, we have been blessed with the room for a kitchen table and a dining room for a dining room table (which we inherited from my parents).  So, when I knew that Thanksgiving was going to be over here, my mom and I trucked it to Kohls and we got some good deals on linens to adorn our dining room table.  I was also excited because this would be the first time we used our wedding "china".  I say "china" because Stephen and I didn't actually register for china because we know that eventually, one day far, far away, my mom is going to give us her china.  However, we did register for what I call our "fancy dishes" from PB (the emma dishes) to use whenever our Fiestaware was just too much for the occasion.  This was an occasion that the Fiestaware needed to tone it down a bit!
We were hosting my immediate family (mom, dad, sisters and their husbands - and also Little Elliott of course) as well as my Aunt and Uncle from Bowling Green.  With that being said, there were 10 of us total so 4 would sit at the kitchen table and 6 at the dining room table.

Our kitchen table all decked up for Fall, wearing her reversible fall table runner and place mats that I made last year.  I wanted needed some burnt orange napkins to go with the whole she-bang and scored big time when I found a set of 6 pumpkin fabric napkins at JoAnns for $2 a pack - yes, please!

 A close-up of the table all set.

Here's a close-up of a place setting.

In the dining room, I reeeeaaaalllly wanted this table runner from Crate and Barrel, but just couldn't bring myself to spend the $50 on it.

I was pretty pumped when I found one at Kohls that looked pretty similar only with olive branches on it for a MUCH better cost (I think it was like $15) than the one at Crate and Barrel.  You might also notice that we've painted our dining room....more to come on that, later!

 Our dining room table wearing her new table cloth, runner and wine colored napkins, all ready for Thanksgiving!

A close-up of the set table.

One of our emma place settings - sorry for the turned picture!

I loved decorating for the season, but I also loved baking and preparing just as much!  My sisters, mom and I tagged team the efforts for our big Thanksgiving Feast and it was a success (if I do say so myself!)!  My mom bought the turkey and I had the honor of preparing it and roasting it.  If you've never done this, please know that it is incredibly disgusting!  I immediately got on the phone with my mom and my mother-in-law and thanked them for graciously doing this every year!  My mom also made a beef dish (for all those none turkey goers out there) and pecan squares for dessert.  My sister Melissa made a killer goat cheese and beet salad, as well as an amazing pumpkin, gingerbread trifle - a true pinterest success!  My sister Laurel made my mom's famous cheese grits, as well as her spinach casserole.  I made (with the help of all listed above) mashed potatoes, Southern Living's cornbread stuffing (to-die-for) as well as a tasty brie appetizer (recipe compliments of Melissa).  My Aunt brought her sweet potato soufflé as well as her cherry fluff.  Needless to say, we were all holding our bellies and wallowing around for a bit after the meal :).  

If I had to pick, my favorite Thanksgiving dish is my mom's cheese grits.  I know that may not sound Thanksgiving-ish to you, but boy does it scream Thanksgiving to me!  What about you - what's your favorite dish?  Anybody else out there from the south and enjoy some good grits on T-day?