Hoppy Easter!

We're only having 4 guests for dinner, but I've been prepping all week!  How do you like the little bunny dirt cups (chocolate pudding sprinkled with oreo crumbs and tinted coconut)?  Easy and cute - couldn't resist (saw them on Pinterest).

I also baked bunny buns (although they look a little like cats) . . .

and chocolate-coconut birdnests . . .

 I dipped strawberries . . .

and baked and decorated this carrot cake (I'll top it with a chocolate rabbit).

 The table is all set and the turkey breast is in the oven (do you think we'll have enough food?!?!).  Now all we need is our guests!

They should be here shortly, so Happy Easter, everyone!

Are You Ready?

Spider webs and eerie lights on the railing...

Check!

 Cute little ghost hanging near the front door...

Check!

Bags of candy in a bowl near the door for easy access...

 Check!

Whimsical Halloween banner hanging in the entryway...

Check!

 Fake jack-o-lantern glowing in the front window...

Check!

Miscellaneous horns, ears, tails, wigs and hats just in case...

Check!

Some orange and black cupcakes, just because...

 Check!

Halloween, bring it on!

Where I've Been and What I've Been Doing

That's right - I've been to Wonderland and back again!  We threw a Sweet Sixteen bash for my middle daughter last weekend and the theme was "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party."  So for the last month or so, we've been getting ready, by painting signs like the ones above, making tall flowers like the ones below (from pool noodles and tissue paper!),

and making goodies like the "Oreo Cookie Truffles" on the tiered stand here,

 and these Top-hat pops (marshmallows on a stick, dipped in chocolate with a cookie brim and fruit leather hat band).

I even printed signs for the sliders we served as appetizers

and we wrapped water bottles with labels that said "Drink Me."

We rented a local hall and made one long table over which we hung chinese lanterns, to resemble the scene in the Disney movie.  It all looked very colorful and festive!

I even printed "A Very Merry Unbirthday" sign on colorful paper.

The crowning touch was the two cakes we baked and decorated.  I was quite taken back by the cost of a custom cake, so Chelsea and I decided to bake our own.  We bought boxed fondant in two colors (plus a bit of white for the note on the hat) and cut out flowers with cutters in three sizes.  The hat cake is just a 9-inch layer with three 8-inch layers on top, trimmed a little to make it more hat-shaped, then frosted with green buttercream.

Chelsea and her friends all had a great time and she is a very happy teen!

But now I need a vacation!

Ready for Spring?

A few weeks ago, a co-worker asked me if I was ready for spring.  Of course, I answered I had been ready for spring for weeks already!  But then he said that although he was looking forward to spring, he still hadn't finished his winter indoor projects, which got me thinking - neither had I!  Once January hits and the holidays are over, it's the perfect time to tackle all the repairing and redecorating projects around the house.  Here it is, April already, the weather is warming up, but we're still finishing up our indoor projects.

Here is my daughter's bedroom makeover, almost fully completed.  We bought the paint way back on Valentine's Day, but finally got the room all prepped and painted it a few weeks ago.  We still have a few shelves to rehang, but other than that, it came together nicely.  The big change was painting the ceiling that dark blue to look like the night sky.  I was afraid it would make the room look small, but I really like it!  The twinkle lights around the perimeter brighten it up too. 

The highlight of the room is this new dresser and lamp, which I picked up at Homegoods while my daughter was away on a school trip for a few days.  It was a great price and replaces a repurposed, huge TV armoir that was in there overpowering the room.  This one is so much better!  The lamp even has dangly prisms (hard to see in this photo) and fits perfectly with her love for sparkly crystals!

We also replaced a messy desk with two smaller book shelves.  She had gotten the cool sherpa chair as a Christmas gift, and it's a great place to hang out and do homework.  This is where we need to hang a few more shelves, but then it'll be all done and we can focus on the outdoors...

So Proud!

 Have you seen the cover of the spring Adult and Continuing Education Programs from Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES?  Isn't it great?  Don't you love the tree, shaped like a brain with leaves that resemble the brain's surface?  And the branches that look like arms, reaching up to the sun?  Isn't it innovative and clever and well done?  I agree - it's totally witty and unique!  Want to know why I think this is the best cover PNW BOCES ever had on it's program brochure?  Look carefully below:

Woo Hoo!  Her first professional cover!  This brochure is mailed to every home in Putnam County, and many in Westchester as well - what an accomplishment!  She's on her way!  I'm so proud and in awe of her talent and accomplishments at such a young age!

Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...well, you know how the song goes!  We got a nice blanket of snow this week, so it's looking like Christmas outside, and we finally got to some of the decorating indoors too.  We put up the tree, and, for the first time, we put up this miniature Christmas village.  I inherited all these lovely houses and accessories from my parents.  It came complete with the snowy blanket, houses, lights, mirrored ice skating pond, and little figurines, so it was fun and easy to put together.  Here are a few close-ups:

The "downtown" area, with some stores, a central park, and gazebo...

...the skating pond with a bridge,

...and beyond the bridge, some victorian homes near the church on the hill.

Here is another shot of some of the stores and the gazebo.  I actually remember buying several of the buildings (the toy store & other shops here as well as some of the victorian homes) unpainted at a local craft store and painting them myself a long time ago, I think before I was married.  They don't look too shabby, even next to the store-bought models.

Hope it's looking like Christmas by you too!

Thankful Thursday, Halloween Edition

 
To me, the scariest thing about Halloween is that the very next day, the frantic Holiday Season begins!  I thought the rule used to be to wait until after Thanksgiving, but I've already seen Christmas decorations, candy, and gifts in all the stores, so now is a good time to slow down and savor our blessings.

Today, I'm feeling especially thankful for heat and electricity, as we spent the last two Halloweens without power, following that freak snowstorm in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy last year.   I'm also grateful that no one I knew personally was injured or suffered substantial losses, as did many people in the tristate area.  We were also fortunate to have good friends, neighbors, and relatives who gave us a warm meal, hot shower, or place to bunk overnight.  It made all the difference!  And despite the fact that I'm currently feeling like our entire home needs a huge cosmetic overhaul, I'm still grateful that we have a warm, comfortable, safe place to live in a beautiful setting.  It's easy to forget that we're more fortunate than most.  On this All Hallow's Eve, I'm also grateful for the close relatives who have passed on before me, most especially, godparents and grandparents.   Finally, I'm thankful for my daughters, who manage somehow to keep me young and give me gray hair at the same time, who make me smile, laugh, and sometimes cry, as we journey together through their adolescence.  It's a bit like a roller coaster these days, but certainly is never dull!

What are you feeling thankful for this Halloween?

Frightfully Fun!

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween in style with a howlingly fun teen bash.  We spent most of the day hanging webs, lights, and assorted spookiness all around the garage and downstairs family room.  When the guests arrived after dark, they were greeted by my oldest daughter dressed as a skeleton, with her face painted as above.  She led them past the webbed railing and a large spider decorating the garage door.

From there, guests walked down this dark hallway we created by moving and covering our storage shelving and lit by black lights, which made the words above glow eerily.

The creepiest thing about it was the dark, as well as the sound effects provided by Martha Stewart's Spooky Sounds for Halloween CD.  There were small flashlights and little battery powered candle flames here and there, just enough to light up ghostly scenes like the one below.

Finally, at they end, they were treated to a small scare by my ever energetic, hardworking, imaginative and cooperative husband Mark as he peered out of a coffin wearing his corpse mask and costume!  I don't think he scared too many of the kids (as some of them ran up to him right after, gave him a hug and shouted "Mr. Green!"(not exactly the effect we were going for!) but it all set the mood for a great time.

From there, the kids went into the hallway, which was decorated with webs and spiders.  We replaced the ceiling light with a blue bulb which made it look really eerie.  From there, they passed through the orange and black curtain into the party room.

We covered the central i-beam with more webs (I bought 10 packages just to be sure we'd have enough!) and purple twinkle lights.

The food table was set as you see below.  I pretty much covered everything in my studio area with large black plastic tablecloths from the dollar store, and then used more webs and cheesecloth to cover them.  I made a spooky tree with some branches, from which I hung little paper bats.  The girls drew scary ghost faces on some white helium balloons, so they were floating around the table.  The recycled plastic gallon milk jugs had battery powered candles in them as well, making for a nice display in the dark.

 Thank goodness we were able to borrow so many of the decorations and supplies from friends, neighbors, and my friendly neighborhood library (where I got the CD and a few scary movies).  Today we're already starting to take everything down... although I think I'll leave some of it up through Halloween on Thursday....

Sunday Nature Hike

It was a beautiful, cool fall-like day, so we decided to get out and enjoy a hike up nearby Nimham Mountain, which is named for a Wappinger Indian sachem who aided the patriots in the Revolutionary War and lost his life.  Along the route, there is an ancient "stone chamber," as you can see below.

For some unknown reason, of all the places where these pre-Columbian chambers are found, Putnam County has the highest concentration of them.  Carbon dating of artifacts found in the chambers indicates they are much older than even the Native Americans who lived here.  No one knows for sure what their purpose was, but they are usually oriented so the door faces due East, so the sun enters the chamber at dawn on the winter solstice or spring equinox.  It is also a mystery how the large flat rocks used for the roof pieces were moved without the aide of sophisticated tools or machinery.

 As you can see, this one is about 20 feet deep.  Apparently, many colonists who found them made use of them as storage cellars.  I've heard some local groups are trying to preserve these sites for their archeological interest.  There are also rumors that the ghost of chief Nimham has been seen in the vicinity of this chamber!

We continued up the mountain to the fire tower on top.  It has been restored and is well maintained, so many people climb it to take advantage of the views, which were spectacular.  There are many small lakes and reservoirs in the area, and the skyline of New York is even visible on very clear days.  Today it was visible, but minimally.

I believe this is a view of the nearby town of Carmel and Lake Gleneida.  We'll have to come back in a few weeks, when the fall colors are at their peak.

What did you do this weekend?