Stair Carpet

Now that the living room has warm brown tones and the stairway walls from the living room to the basement are a light yellow, it really made the old gray carpet on those stairs "clash". Today Andy S. came over and installed new padding and beige carpet on the stairs. It looks (and feels) awesome!!

Baby Shower

Marcie and I gave our sister-in-law Anngela a baby shower on Tuesday. After stressing about the details all week, I was able to relax and enjoy the party. It was fun! Thanks to all who were able to make it. We served Pink Punch, Cucumber Sandwiches, Veggies & Dip, Spinach Dip and Sourdough Bread, Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink frosting, Pink M&M's, Pink jelly beans and Pink "Binky" favors. I was able to pull out all my American Prescut serving dishes and also to try out my new cupcake tree. Instead of playing the regular baby shower games, we did something different. I typed up a bunch of questions on pink paper and put them in a bowl. We had everyone pick a question out of the bowl and as Anngela would open their present, they would ask her the question they had chosen. The questions ranged from "What is your favorite restaurant" to "What was your favorite vacation since you've been married" to "Did you ever break a bone? Tell us about it" to "If you had a day all to yourself, what would you do" to "Tell us how much each of your babies weighed". I think everyone enjoyed this new twist on baby shower games as we all got to know more about Anngela and the focus stayed on her (as it should!). Marcie was going to take the remaining questions to Duane (Anngela's husband) to see how well he would fair : )

Cucumber Sandwiches

CUCUMBER SANDWICHES
1 - 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 (0.7oz) package dry Italian salad dressing mix or Ranch salad dressing mix or Dill Knorr brand salad dressing mix
1/2 to 2 tsp. dry dill weed

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mayo, dressing mix and dill weed. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight.

Bread: I used French bread baguette and had Safeway slice it. You can use the cute appetizer breads stores sometimes carry around the holidays, or regular loaf bread cut into triangles, etc.

Cucumbers, sliced thinly - I used a crinkle cutter to make it more interesting.

Additional Dried Dill Weed

Spread the cream cheese blend onto the slices of bread. Top with a cucumber slice and sprinkle with dill weed.

Only make about as many sandwiches as will be eaten (so they don't get too soggy). But the spread can stay in the fridge for up to a week so you can make fresh ones the next day. In fact, spreading on plain sandwich bread is pretty tasty too!

Pink Punch

PINK PUNCH
1 - 12oz frozen pink lemonade
1 - 12oz frozen orange juice
1 - package frozen sliced strawberries, defrosted
1 - large bottle 7-up or Ginger Ale
1/2 bottle Club Soda

Mix together, add ice & serve.

Spinach Dip

SPINACH DIP

1 package (10oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 - 10oz container sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 package Knorr Vegetable recipe mix (the yellow packages)
3 green onions, chopped finely

Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with french bread or sourdough bread. Nice in a bread bowl too.

Baby Binkies

BABY BINKY FAVORS:
Lifesavers - used 1 package Sweet Mint and 1 package Orange Mint
Jelly Bellies - used Strawberry Shortcake (needed to be pink!)
Almond Bark

Melt 1 cube of Almond Bark in the microwave in a small bowl. Take 1 lifesaver and dip an "edge" into the Almond Bark. Then attach the "edge" to another lifesaver at the "hole". Repeat for remaining lifesavers. Let dry. Then dip a Jelly Belly "point" into the Almond Bark. Set into the "hole" of the lifesaver to form a BINKY!

Saturday

Each year my mom takes the grand kids to the Old World Christmas ornament outlet and lets them each pick out an ornament. Her treat. There are so many to choose from, so it is hard to narrow it down: Audrey always talks me into buying her a few more. And then I have to have a few more myself! My choices were Wedding Bells, Santa Elf and Cuckoo Clock. Audrey's were Malamute, Winter Wolf and Leopard. After we were done, we headed to my mom's for lunch. Kathy brought Mandarin orange jello, I made the Ramen Cabbage salad, Michelle provided a green salad and Mom bought Safeway Chinese food for the main course (Teriyaki chicken, General Tso's, Sweet n Sour Chicken, Beef & Broccoli, rice, chow mien, pot stickers & egg rolls). YUM!

After we finished our meal, Kathy and I headed out shopping. We went to the fabric store so she can make my birthday present retro apron : ) Picked out some fun snowman fabric and a few apron patterns. And then we headed to Target & the mall. Got some holiday shopping done, some birthday shopping done, some errand running done and had a good time.

For my evening, Mom and I had tickets to the Spokane Symphony. The guest artist was Be'la Fleck & The Flecktones. The group consisted of a banjo player (Be'la Fleck) and an electric guitar, saxophone and a drum/bass player (he actually played both at the same time). The music was contemporary jazz. I'm more of a jazz traditionalist, so talked mom into leaving early... but I must say, they were extremely talented musicians.