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Decorate a Campfire Cake

6/23/2023

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For Father's Day, my granddaughter was excited to make her dad and grandpa a cake! She chose a Dolly Parton Style Coconut Cake Mix that I had in my cupboard and whipped that up as a 2 layer round cake. I had seen a cake online that was decorated to look like a campfire. Since her dad and my husband both love camping, I suggested that might me a great way to decorate the cake. She was all in! If you decide to make this cake, of course you can do it in any flavor you like.

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Books and Poetry Introduced to me as a child by my mother

6/15/2023

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As long as I can remember, I have loved to read. It took no convincing for me to dive into a book and to only come up for air when I absolutely had to. I loved mysteries and fantasies, historical fiction and adventure stories all equally well. I also love to read and memorize poetry. This has been a love that I shared with my mother throughout my life. We lost her last week, just a few months past her 100th birthday. Thinking about all that she has meant to me, my memories of shared moments with books and poetry with her are some of my very favorite.

She would recommend books to me by saying, "Oh Helen, this is such a great book! You will love it!" And so I would read it and she was always right, I did love it!
She would be looking at a book of poetry and say, "Say, listen to this!" And she would read me a poem or at least a stanza and comment on how much she loved it. She often had a lesson or moral I could learn from the selection.
She loved it when as a child I would memorize a poem for some reason. She would always have me recite it for my family or just for her whenever she could.
She would take me to our town's old library. It had wide steps up to it with wide, curved bannisters on each side. The floors were wooden and squeaky and it smelled like musty old books. I loved it there. She would let me peruse the children's section all on my own. That is where I first checked out the complete works of Winnie-The-Pooh, and Doctor Doolittle. The only problem with going to the library was that I had to give the books back! I hated that part!
I always received books for birthdays and Christmas and devoured them as quickly as I could. My mom never complained about me spending so much time reading. She seemed proud of me for loving it so much. As I grew older, I realized that when I was assigned to read the classics that she had introduced to me, I had already read them! My life was so much better because of my mom's wonderful encouragement and help in finding the wonder of books!

So, I thought that I would put together a list of poetry and books that my mom introduced to me as a child, as many as I can remember anyway. Maybe you will find this list useful as you encourage your own children to be readers. Also, I want my grandchildren and my great nieces and nephews to learn a little bit more about their Great-Grandma and who she really was.

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A Harry Potter Style BookStack

6/14/2023

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A couple of months ago, I shared a shelf sitting bookstack with you on this post. I had so much fun making it and I kept thinking of different things that I could say on them. I still think these would be great gifts for people, especially if you know their favorite movie or song that you can take a quote from.
I asked my girls what they would want on their stacks if I made them one. Alicia immediately responded with this Harry Potter Quote, LOL! (Please read it with the appropriate Ron Weasley British accent!) "Not me, Not Hermione, YOU!"

It cracked me up so much, that of course I had to make her one!

The first set that I made was so simple with just an easy whitewash paint on the books. But, Harry Potter books called for something more! You can refer to my older post to see the basic directions, but here is what I did differently:

The blocks were cut from a 2 x 4 board. Mine are 5 inches long for this project. If you don't want to worry about working with wood and want a larger book stack, check out this set from DollarTree! I just found it online recently and I think for a group project, this stack would be ideal! You can order a minimum of 12, at $1.25 per piece, that comes to $15 for a dozen projects!

Instead of painting all of the blocks a solid color, I used scrapbook paper that reminded me of Harry Potter and decoupaged it onto the book cover of two of the books. Here are a couple of similar choices that would work great!

I covered the front back and binding with the paper, but the 3 side edges I painted anoff white acrylic paint to represent the pages. I also did a brown wash around the edges to age them.
I painted the middle book a complimentary solid cover.
Rather than stamping the words as I had done before, I found a font that I liked on the computer and printed off my words. I cut them out, leaving some white to help the words stand out and then decoupaged them onto the books. You could also use vinyl and your Cricut if you wanted.
After the decoupage glue is dry, stack the books and glue them together with E600 glue.
Choose a ribbon in any color you think will work and tie it around the stack of books. I held it in place with little dabs of glue. I had fun arranging the ribbon into loops and swirls and tacking in place with more glue.
I used a wooden owl cutout that I painted white with gray accents to look like Hedwig. I glued him in place on the top of the stack among the ribbon. I used an owl piece that I already had. I will put a couple options here:

You can see the brown wash I did on the edges of the pages.

I kept the owl very simple.

I love how this bookstack looks on my shelf in front of the Harry Potter books! I may have to make another one for Alicia because I want to keep this one, lol!
Now I'm off to work on a Christmas version of a bookstack! They are just so much fun!

Other Wood Projects you will love!

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Eggs in a Pancake Nest

6/8/2023

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When my grandchildren come for a visit, one of the things they love is to have special breakfasts. My next to the oldest granddaughter loves smoothies or pancakes. Her next younger brother loves what we call "Eggs in a Nest." My husband calls them "Gashouse Eggs." There are various names, we've learned, for eggs fried in the middle of bread, which becomes toast and is great for soaking up the yolk. Plus, you get the extra bonus of having the crustless toast cut from the center of the bread.
The last time they were here, we were trying to decide if we wanted pancakes or eggs in a nest when it dawned on us that we could have Eggs in a Pancake Nest! Genius!

To make this fabulous and filling breakfast, simply use your favorite pancake recipe or mix and bake your pancakes on a griddle as usual, just don't make them too brown!
Bake both sides of the pancake and then, using a biscuit cutter, cut out the center of the pancake. I found it easier to remove the pancake to a plate to do this. Then, put the pancake back on the griddle and break the egg into the center of the pancake.
Let the egg cook on one side, adding salt and pepper to the egg, and then flip it to the other side and allow the egg to finish cooking. You may want to turn the griddle to a slightly lower heat to keep the pancake from over browning. (This was all trial and error for us! )
Remove the egg to a plate and add butter and syrup as usual!

I love a good batter bowl for making pancakes, waffles, cupcakes, etc!

We also had some blueberries, so my granddaughter and I were wanting blueberry pancakes! So, we poured out pancake batter on a griddle and put blueberries on the part that was going to be cut out. In the photo below, you can see that I decided to have one Egg in a Pancake style and one totally blueberry style pancake. You can see how I applied the blueberries.