Wrapping paper organization

We have some problems with linen storage in our house. We have places in both the kids' baths, but they aren't super functional. The boys' bath is narrow and shallow, the stacks of towels fall over when you try to take one out. The cabinet in A's bath is over the toilet and we've had incidents of open toilet lid while getting out fresh sheets. Not good.




I decided to do something about it. We have a linen closet in the hallway but we use it for games. I realized we have a whole second half of the closet that wasn't being put to good use. The wrapping paper and supplies are on the floor and we had holiday door decorations hanging on the rod.


I could put this space to much better use. I moved the holiday door decorations to the spare coat closet by the front door. I had to do some thinking on how to handle the wrapping paper.

I saw this pin on Pinterest.


source
I looked on the internet. I lusted after the Container Store solution, but even with the Elfa Sale discount, it was still too expensive. I finally found a ClosetMaid solution that fit my budget.

First I sorted out the mess of all our wrapping paper. I put 3 rolls of baby wrapping paper in the donation pile. We don't have friends having babies any more, and if more do, I can use the 20 baby gift bags I still have.




Once it was sorted, I figured out I needed hallow core door anchors to hold it all in place. Fast forward a week or so and I finally ended up with this.


Wrapping paper is now organized and off the floor, now I just have to figure out how to build shelves to hold the sheets and towels. I'm looking forward to that project, but honestly, it will probably take another Pinterest Challenge to get it done.


Check out the projects from the Pinterest Challenge Hosts, Sherry, Katie, Carmel, & Sarah

Camping and Rock Stars

While A & J and I were throwing the tea party for S#2, DH & B were out camping for the weekend. It was Y Guides campout in OK.

It was a jam packed weekend of boy stuff.  Hiking, horse back riding, bb guns, archery, fishing, etc.








They came home around noon on Sunday. After finishing a school project and a quick rest, we headed out to a birthday party for a boy from B's soccer team.

His parents threw a huge party for their 7 year old twins. It was a Rock Star theme party, complete with limo rides (one black stretch and one while hummer), two DJs to keep the party rocking, wait staff, the street blocked off from traffic, and rocking tour t-shirts for the party favor.






I'm not sure what the parents do, but there were pictures of the twins taken in the White House with George W and Laura.  Whether or not you're a fan of Bush, the photo collection was impressive.

After the party we headed over to dinner at B's friends' house. At 7:30 I realized that it was getting late. I still had laundry and A had to study. We headed home and B practically begged to go to bed. It was a long weekend for him but he had a good time.

A Pinterest Tea Party

Last week was S#5's 30th birthday. A week or so before the birthday one of her friends contacted me about having a party for her. She wasn't going out of her way to celebrate and I was going to let her get away with it. Her friend insisted that she wouldn't plan a celebration, so we should instead.

Just as I was starting to plan for the party, YHL announced their Pinterest Challenge on their blog.


I knew what I was going to do. I used Pinterest to help select the menu and decorations. What fun!

#1. The decor

Clothes Pin Photo Display

I used this pin as my inspiration.


I emailed all the sisters and contacted her friends from high school & college through facebook requesting photos. After some issues with sending them to print at the wrong Costco (Frisco is way farther north than West Plano but they both have address on the Parkway), I had a good number of photos. On the advice of a friend I saw in Target, I ran over to the dollar store instead. I grabbed two bags of clothes pins and a clothesline.






I ended up with an lovely homage to Mims!

#2. The menu

Since S#5 loves British TV, we decided on Tea Party theme. I poured through my Food & Dessert board trying to find the food I wanted to make. Searched on Google and Pinterest for the perfect foods. Google gave me an idea of what types of food to serve, Pinterest provided the recipes.

Tea Breads

Banana Bread & Pumpkin Bread from Pinterest

 

My tea breads


I baked them in mini loaf pans and they were delicious. The pumpkin bread recipe was the best I've ever tried, not heavy or greasy, with a nice light glaze drizzled on top.

Savory Scone

Cheese Scallion Scone


My scones


The dough for the scones was very wet. I cooked them as long as the recipe said and they still weren't done. I cooked them 5 minutes longer and I still wasn't sure. I was afraid if I didn't pull them out they would be rock hard and tough. After cooling they sank down. I imagine they could have taken a few minutes longer in the oven. Despite not being the prettiest scones in the world, they were yummy.

Sandwiches

Cucumber and Arugula


Ham


My sandwiches




Wow, natural light looks so much better. Oh well. The sandwiches were both much better than their picture. Even the ham sliders. I wasn't sure on that recipe since there was mustard in the sauce, but it wasn't a heavy flavor and gave a nice tang. The arugula in the cucumber was devine. Oprah knows what she is talking about.

Savory

Mini Spinach Dip Bread Bowl


My spinach bowls


I pinned this recipe a long time ago and was very excited to try it. It was worth the wait. I think I'll make them again if I go to a Super Bowl Party or even better a Notre Dame Bowl Game party.

Fruit Salad

Mini Chop Fruit Salad


No Pinterest inspiration here and no decent photos of it either. It is in the blue bowl. Mini chop fruit salad is super easy to make, but time consuming. It is just a bowl of fruit from the grocery store chopped up into a very small dice. It is good for those who don't like to eat a whole hunk of green melon. Thanks to S#2 and the Banff Springs (or Chateau Lake Louise?) High Tea for that recipe.

Dessert

Chocolate Mocha Cake


Salted Caramel Cake


My Chocolate Mocha Cake


I planned to make Chocolate Mocha Cake, using the recipe that Mom has been making since S#1 was in high school. Unfortunately, Mom went out of town and didn't answer her phone and I couldn't find the recipe. I decided that I would find a good substitute. The Chocolate Mocha Cake seemed to fit the bill for the cream and the icing. I've made the Martha Stewart Salted Caramel Cake before and I think it is the best chocolate cake recipe ever. I added some espresso powder to the recipe because I remember that Mom's recipe called for some. Over all the cake was good. I followed the first recipe so the center cream was chocolate-y and not as espresso strong as Mom's recipe. I had another piece on Sunday and after all the flavors melding for a few days, it tasted even better.

This was a fun Pinterest Challenge and a marvelous party. I hope S#5 had a great 30th birthday.

Check out the projects from the Pinterest Challenge Hosts, Sherry, Katie, Carmel, & Sarah

Clean your cookie sheet

I made another attempt at using a pin from Pinterest to solve a problem. A month or so ago, I made oven baked french fries for dinner. I forgot to line the cookie sheet with foil beforehand and it left me with a with a splotchy baked on olive oil mess.

I found this pin that explained that you should use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to clean your cookies sheets. You make a paste and rub it on with your fingers. I thought it was worth the try.

I quickly found that rubbing with my fingers wasn't going to cut it. I needed to scrub and scrub hard.

You can see the splotchy oil where I have started scrubbing.


Once I spent time scrubbing it pulled up a lot of gross junk.


In the end, it looked a lot better. I tried scrubbing with just soapy water before. This definitely had better result.


Even though it is improved, it is not totally clean. When you run your hand across the surface, you can still feel and even see where the baked-on oil was. I have since looked at other pins and found this one. She made the paste and let it sit. No scrubbing and it came clean. I think I might try this one next.

Pumpkin Chunkin

I came home from the store on Thursday afternoon to a crying B. He had carved a pumpkin for a school project and he wanted to use it for Halloween. Well, hot Texas Octobers and carved pumpkins don't mesh. The poor jack o' lantern was moldy and gross and starting to cave in.

B was devastated. I told him we could carve another one before Halloween but it didn't console him. Next I asked him if he knew what the best thing to do with a moldy pumpkin was. He didn't know. I told him to smash it. Tears turn to smiles with a big "YEAH!" and a fist pump.






The first throw didn't smash it enough. He had to try again.








Oh, little boys are fun!

A Big Birthday

My baby sister (S#5, Mims, Mimi, Mairz, Mary, etc) turned 30 yesterday. I remember the day well. My sister woke me up that Saturday morning to let me know Mom went to have the baby. Mrs. Schaffler was going to take me to my soccer game. About halfway through the game, they pulled me out and told me that I had a baby sister. I said something to the effect of, "Great, but you could have yelled it from the sidelines, you didn't have to take me out of the game."

I can't imagine what our lives would be like without our Mims. She wasn't planning on celebrating, just another birthday, just another day. We couldn't let her do that, so we had a birthday dinner for her.

Here she is leaving a message for S#1 thanking her for her chocolates. She is now old enough to get a fancy box of caramels and could deny all children a piece of candy, because they are too precious for children.  She's holding the lamb pillow we gave her. Her nickname as a preschooler was "Mary had a Little Lamb" and she still gets lamb/sheep stuff. Our mother loves collections!


For dinner we made green egg pizza. I decided to pre-roll the dough. I used every single sheet pan I own.


It worked okay for the most part, but I was running low on corn meal and was stingy. It's not good to be stingy with cornmeal when your pre-rolling pizza dough. I learned that lesson and we worked around it. We also learned that the $10 pizza stone from the grocery store won't make it through two sessions of pizza making. At least, the break left about 2/3 of the stone intact and we were still able to finish cooking the pizzas. Now, I know what to get DH for Christmas this year, that and a pizza peel.




Everyone had fun making and eating their pizzas. The kids and DH ate the regular stuff: sausage, pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and cheese. The women had fancy ingredients, prosciutto and arugula. Yum!




I debated making a cake for her. There is another celebration planned for Friday, so I decided, cake for Friday, ice cream for the actual birthday dessert.


It was delicious!

It was a great celebration of 30 years of Mary. Here's to another 30!