We have been on a mini garden kick around here. It isn’t time for the big garden yet so we are having a little fun while we wait. I saw one ages ago on Pintrest and thought it was so cute. I tucked the idea away thinking my nieces might enjoy a mini garden for their birthday. I began my hunt about a month ago for little garden things and quickly learned that fairy garden paraphernalia is so March, not February. So I procrastinated a bit and then hit up a few shops last week. For you local peeps the best selection I found was at Merrifield in Fairfax although I hear that Blue Mount Nurseries (for your Loudon chics) and the other Merrifield locations should have a better selection by now.  I was delighted to find some sweet pieces to use but I will say most things can just be made from things you already have. I popped into Goodwill and found a cheery red bucket to use as the container. I let the boys “help”, ie put the rocks here and the bench here. Be soooo careful with the flowers. and don’t move….” You get the idea. Really I enjoyed the project and they eventually got that I was going to be guiding their every move.   I got tempted to add little tea cups or other details but I decided that would be the fun part for the birthday girls! I forgot to get a picture when they got it. Seeing as how we have a house full of boys we didn’t have any of the cute polly pocket type stuff to add!  I can’t wait to see what the girls do with it!

When we had all of the first and mess out I decided to attempt a little garden inside egg shells. If it’s a success we might use it as our Easter table centerpiece!

After sitting back and letting me rearrange the one for my nieces I decided to use a  terracotta pot base  and let the boys make a mini garden for our back yard chipmunks! We added a little swing and some moss. Nothing fancy but fun!  And although the boys know that there is no way our chipmunks will be swinging in the tree I see this little sparkle in their eye when they talk about it that tells me it’s still fun to pretend. Ours did not have anything other than mulch, moss, dirt, stones and a few twigs for a tree. So you can go as simple as you want! Here is how they turned out!

it won’t shock me one bit if this gets taken over by worms and bugs within a few weeks. The boys will enjoy it, but I envision more of a Lord of the flies scenario than polly pocket!

 Plow and Hearth

one of my favorite Pintrest gardens was this one….Ninimakes. It has the best little tire swing and tree house!

this darling one in the drawer is from Midwest Living

Oh yea, and the real reason you all stopped by was to see if you won the giveaway! Thanks to all of you that came to visit shared! And again, sorry for my international friends that this didn’t work so well for! I owe you a giveaway!!

So without further ado, Drum roll please, our randomly selected winner of the $20 gift card from Three Loves is………….

Marissa R!!!!

she wrote:  My favorite Easter memory would have to be the Easter egg hunts my grandparents would put together for all of the grandchildren. That, and the plastic Easter eggs my grandmother would string up on a tree out front to decorate

Marissa, inbox me and I will set you up with Mary for collect the goodness!

For those of you that didn’t win, still pop over and see the Three Loves shop if you haven’t already! You will not be disappointed with Mary’s beautiful stuff! And her prices are awesome compared to so many handmade shops!  Thanks Mary for your generous gift! I know Marissa will find something great!

Hope you all have a great day!

Disclaimer: the random selection of the winner was conducted by a 5 year old picking a number out of the final number of comments. He was unbiased and unaware of what he was participating in And just a note, Seasons Worth Savoring is not being paid to advertise for Three Loves or any other company…this is just plain old fun!

You know on here I am huge on having people in your home and building relationships. My friend Ashley’s mom comes to mind when I think about entertaining and having an open house!  Ginger and her hubby have people in and out of their home ALL of the time. There is always a bag of chips and homemade salsa on hand and people are typically discussing the next meal! Because they are amazing cooks and love to gather around a great meal! I haven’t been to Ginger’s house in probably 10 years at least but I know it’s still the same.

As I was thinking through holiday activities and things to share with all of you I thought of Ashley and her family and wondered if I could talk her into sharing a bit about their gingerbread house party tradition. Now, like Lisa from the last post, these gals are in Texas so they do it up big.

One of my favorite times building up to Christmas is my family’s
tradition of making gingerbread houses.  As far back as I can
remember, my mom had made the dough (as did her mother), rolled it
out, cut it into little pieces, and baked the pieces for assembly day.
We could much easier go out and buy the kits, but the process of
actually making the houses has been a fun memory of mine.

I think I was 4 when I remember (only by seeing pictures in old photo
albums) my mom starting this tradition passed on from my grandmother.
Mom did one house for our family for a long time, but my mom wanted
more and more families to enjoy the joy of “art” of making their own
house.  This year (2012), my mom and I rolled out 20 (!) gingerbread
houses.  Mom made the dough and I was her workhorse for the rolling
and cutting the next day.  We started rolling and cutting around 9am
and carried on until about 4 in the afternoon so that everyone we had
invited would have their own house to do.  Turns out my little family
took up 3 of the houses this year.  Landon (12), Riley (6) got to do
their own houses and I had to do mine myself (or I would have taken
over the boys’ houses)! OK, it was mine and my husband’s house, but he
graciously let me have all the fun 😉

On assembly day, I got to my mom’s house around 8 in the morning to
help set up.  My grandmother, aunt and Mom were already hard at work
in the kitchen making the “glue” for the houses.  Mom has a recipe for
Royal Icing she uses to glue the houses together and for all the candy
to stick on, as well.  While the icing is being whipped to oblivion
(it’s gotta be STIFF– think DQ Blizzard thick), we are setting up
more candy than you can imagine!  A few bowl on every table leaves
just enough room for the actual houses to be decorated!  Our guests
arrive around 10 and the fun really starts!  There are always people
who have not assembled a house before, so we help get them started,
but from there, it’s just icing and candy flying around for the next 4
hours.  It’s literally a SWEET time:) 

We try and get pictures of everyone before they leave with their completed houses and it’s so
much fun to look back every year and see how the houses have
progressed.

I could go on and on about the houses, but I’d rather Kristen share
with you our pictures!  Hope you enjoy!  Merry Christmas!

Thanks  for sharing, Ashley! I should be sending my boys down for gingerbread house school with you and your mom next year!  I might just have to try my hand at making some homemade next year. I do love me a good kit but this looks like so much fun!  Another friend mentioned doing gingerbread nativities so that might make the list next year too!

For those of you that find yourselves bored this weekend (this is kind of a joke because I don’t know anyone who isn’t packed with activities) before Christmas and your house does not yet have a little fragrant gingerbread house roll up your sleeves and give it a try! Don’t be intimidated! The walls might fall in and your hands will be sticky but it will be a good time!    And you don’t need 50 kinds of candy although they look divine, start slow and small. Pull out graham crackers if you don’t want to bake!

For you brave folks, Ashley has shared the family recipes!! Invite someone in to enjoy it with you!

this is my 90 year old Nana making on with the boys last yr! This is their “tada”

BASIC GINGERBREAD HOUSE RECIPE

6 cups flour

1 ¾ cups sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 8-ounce container sour cream

2 eggs

To prepare dough:  Into large bowl, measure 3½ cups flour and remaining ingredients. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With hands, knead in remaining 2½ cups flour to make a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is not sticky and is of easy kneading consistency.

To roll dough: Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Working with half a batch at a time on lightly floured work surface with lightly floured hands, knead dough until smooth. (Do not skip this step!!!) Roll out to 1/8” thickness on well-floured surface such as muslin stretched over a cutting board. (To help create uniform thickness, roll out between 2 wooden dowels placed on either side of dough.) Lay patterns on top and cut with sharp knife. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and very firm when lightly touched with finger. Cool on wire rack.

ORNAMENTAL ICING

1 16-ounce package confectioners’ sugar (about 4½ cups)

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

3 egg whites at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in bowl. With mixer, blend until smooth, then beat at high speed until very stiff. Makes 3 cups. Keep icing covered as it dries very quickly. Yum.

This recipe came from Grandma Lina, who got it out of a Good Housekeeping magazine sometime in the 1960’s. The original gingerbread houses she made were placed on a paper Coke carton for stability. As long as the air inside remains humidity-free, the house should stand. In 2007, Kelly’s lasted through August of 2008!

Over the past week if you had been at our house you would have experienced dough people baking and bake fest 2012. Whew.  We also did our gingerbread house which thankfully required no baking, but smelled as if it was freshly baked!  Here are some pictures from our baking adventures!

lest you think it was all dreamy, take a look at my zopf loaf this yr! Terrible without those Swiss girls here to help me!

Oh me oh my!  Thankfully, Bake fest 2012 was more successful!

Bake fest 2012

Gingerbread house

there might have been a wall collapse

Thanks, Grandma for the gingerbread house! The boys loved working on it together! We’ve never had such a fancy kit!

Last week my friend Nina and I set up a table at the Embassy Holiday Bazaar. I was pretty skeptical that we would sell much but we went into it knowing that at least we would have an afternoon out of the house to chat! A couple of months ago I was trying to get all crafty to sell crafts, it was fun but about 10 unfinished crafts into it I decided I should just focus my energies on baked goods and stocking stuffers. I thought I would include all of the recipes I used in case anyone is looking for some holiday treats or super cheap stocking stuffers!!

For the stocking stuffers I made homemade playdough…to give them a holiday twist I made 3 kinds-Cinnamon Spice, Peppermint and hot chocolate.  I used this recipe that I have shared before and I added to it food coloring (red for the cinnamon and green for peppermint) and spice or extract, cinnamon or peppermint respectively. For the cocoa playdough I used this recipe. The cocoa does the work of coloring and adding scent so no need to add anything else! I threw in a few sprinkles while I was cooking it to give it some holiday bling!

I bought a few silicone molds and made red and green sidewalk chalk…Easy, peasy and kids love it! I used this recipe for the homemade chalk.

For the baked goods I made Cranberry Orange Bread. You can find the recipe here.

And Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. You can find the recipe here. I loved this recipe because it yielded 3 loaves and with the smaller foil pans I was able to get 4 out of one recipe!

For cookies I chose to use this recipe for Pumpkin Gingersnaps that I posted earlier in the fall. I think the name is a bit decieving…they are more like pumpkin snickerdoodles.

And to top off the sweets I made Mint Oreo Truffles and regular Oreo Truffles. I used this recipe but I know there are lots out there. I actually never got to try one but they sold out first and people kept coming looking for them.

I sold out and only wished I had made more!!  And for those of you that may be rolling your eyes thinking I must be overloaded with free time…I am not!  My baking day happened to be the day I took my grandmother to the airport. We got stuck in Zurich far longer than expected and when I did get to baking Owen cheerfully stripped the bottom half of the Christmas tree and cleaned the bathroom with the toilet bowl brush.  It was a comical scene around here! So roll up your sleeves and make something festive. It’s good for the soul…even if it isn’t good for the Christmas tree!!