Painting a Pumpkin

Painting a Pumpkin

I was out picking up some produce at the local little store that has discount produce and they had a bunch of pumpkins for $1.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use them to decorate my home for fall and I wanted to paint it.  But how?  Do I do the same thing I've done before and paint a face on the pumpkin?

Nah....so this is what I did.....

How would you paint your pumpkin?

Teacher Appreciation Gifts: A little Relaxation in a Bag

Teachers work hard everyday with our children and they deserve some time to relax too!  They deal with tantrums and still love and care for our children, filling their heads with as much information as they can.  Kameron and I made up these little bags, made our own soap and bath salts for some much deserved R&R!

We started with a kit from AC Moore to make your own soap.  We broke up the soap as directed and melted it in the good old microwave.  Next we added the ground up apricot seed for exfoliation and some herbal, vanilla, and orange scent to make it smell sooooo yummy!

After pouring the soap into the molds we let it sit overnight and then came time to dress it up.  We used a brown paper lunch bag to wrap the soap with scrapbook adhesive to hold it all together, we wrapped it like a package then added some decorative paper around it and some raffia.

The other part of our bag included bath salts.  We poured our bath salts that you can get at AC Moore into our bowl.  Next added some dried lavender flowers and a mixture of the same oils to create a similar scent to the soap.  Then Kameron mixed it all up and spooned it into individual sachet bags.

  

Now to package it all up!  I used a plain old brown paper lunch bag, some raffia and paper crafting to spruce it up and present it.  A soap and two sachets were in each bag.  Hopefully you can share this gift with someone special too!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts!!! Colored Pencil Vase

It's that time of year!  Time to thank Kameron's teachers for all that they teach him and let them know how much we appreciate them.  Kameron and I made these cute vases and added some flowers from our garden.

I found these plastic tubes in the home interior section of AC Moore for $1 each.  They were perfect! It took a little over a pack of colored pencils to cover the outside.  We used E-6000 to glue them on the tubes. Let me just say this glue is awesome for gluing almost anything!!!!

Next I added the finishing touches......  some ribbon and paper crafts to make it extra special!  I hope Miss Jen, Miss Kelly, and Miss Johanna love them!  We certainly had fun making them!

Stout corned beef and cabbage with horseradish mustard sauce

I have always made a traditional corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's day.  After browsing around the web a bit I decided to try something different this year and this is what I came up with.  Was definitely worth the effort!

Ingredients:
2lb corned beef brisket
5 smashed garlic cloves
10 peppercorns
5 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
12 oz of stout
4 cups reduced sodium beef broth
4 cooking onions cut into wedges
4 parsnips peeled and in large chunks
6 carrots peeled and in large chunks
8 small to med red potatoes
1 head of cabbage
4 tbsp butter

1 cup horseradish mustard
1 cup light brown sugar
ginger ale


Directions:
Rinse and soak beef brisket on cold water for 15 minutes.  Peel and prep vegetables and onions.
Put corned beef in heavy soup pot with packet of spices it comes with, garlic, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaves, stout, and enough beef broth to cover the beef.   Bring to a boil over med high heat then cover reduce heat and gently simmer for an hour and a half.

While cooking finish prepping vegetables.  Then in a mixing bowl combine the horseradish mustard, brown sugar into a paste.  Add ginger ale until in forms the consistency of a thick syrup.  Set aside.

Next add in the carrots, parsnips, onion wedges, potatoes, and cored cabbage wedges to your soup pot after simmering for an hour and half.   Remove cabbage when tender but not limp about 15 minutes.  Continue cooking the rest of the meat and vegetables.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large saute pan melt 2 tbsp of butter.  Thinly slice the cabbage and remove any excess water.  Brown the cabbage in the butter then remove to serving tray.

Next remove the potatoes and thickly slice them.  Remove beef brisket and place in shallow roasting pan with fatty side on the top.  Score the top with a knife in a diamond pattern and coat and top with mustard mixture and place uncovered in oven for a half hour.

While beef finishes in the oven,  place another tbsp of butter in saute pan and brown potato slices.  Remove and do the same with the vegetables left in the soup pot with the remaining tbsp of butter.

After a half hour,  remove beef from oven and let it rest for fifteen minutes then slice and place on serving tray with all vegetables.  Serve and Enjoy!!!!