Oh How Nifty, Look Who’s Fifty!

Johnna is 50! She is also my godmother. When I was little, until age 4, we lived across the street from each other. I grew up with her kids. Emil was in my grade and we went to school together from pre school until high school graduation. We were very best friends all through childhood. Stephanie was two years behind us. Johnna has been at every birthday, graduation, and family party that I can remember. So when Stephanie asked my sister and me to help out with her mom’s fiftieth we were both more than happy to help host.

My sister made a chocolate cake for the shindig. I love the daisies and how the white 50 pops out against the dark chocolate.

My contribution was three appetizers. I found all the recipes on Pinterest (of course) and just had to try them out. First I made sesame chicken wings. They were flavorful and crispy.

I also made Pioneer Woman’s stuffed mushrooms. I love that they are low-carb. Instead of bread crumbs, she uses cream cheese. The hot sausage adds tons of flavor.

My absolute favorite appetizer was the bite-sized baked brie! I used the linked recipe, but modified it slightly. The cherry preserves got switched for apricot, and I made them about half the size that the recipe calls for. These were so delicious that I wanted to keep them all for myself. A pop-able snack and a perfect bite.

Look at all the food! That’s pretty much all I need for a great party!

My sister hung some baby pictures of Johnna. I love the personal touch that they added to the decor.

Here is the happy family before the festivities begin. I love that even the dogs are looking right at the camera!

As the party was occurring I took a bunch of pictures of the guests.

(From top to bottom: My fellow hostesses, Becky and Stephanie; Me and my godmother; My mom and godmother)

Time for cake! Yummmmm. I don’t know the recipe but I want it. Just so delicious! Chocolate frosting on chocolate cake.

Some more random party shots… Brother and Sisterly Love (please excuse the bad white balance)

Childhood best friends…

Family love…

What’s a birthday party without presents?!

Even Daisy (the family dog) wanted to know what all those presents were!

Thanks to Steph for letting me help out! And happy birthday (again) to Johnna!

-Carolyn

Mystery Wine Party… Part 2

You may remember me writing this post about a friend of mine having a mystery wine party. That party was a little over a year ago, but she had another one (with an around the world theme) this past March. Each event was so much fun that I knew I had to have my own.

A good friend of mine got married in March. It was a great wedding, partly because I got to reconnect with some of the girls that I graduated high school with. I thought that it would be great to have them for a dinner party. What a perfect opportunity to have my mystery wine party!

Here are the details for the mystery wine idea:

• Each guest is assigned to bring a different type of wine (I did kind of wine, but at the around the world party we brought wine from different parts of the world).
• The wine should be under 15 dollars and a brand you’ve never had before.
• Guests bring their wine still in the brown bag that it is given in. That way you can’t tell what the wine is before the guessing begins!
• Everyone tastes each wine at the same time, guessing type, year (or vintage if you want to sound fancy), and location.
• The person with the most correct wins!

I tried to make the party look and taste great! I want to note that I copied was inspired by my friend’s party, so please don’t give me all the credit! I started with a wine themed flower arrangement. I was going for a purple and green color scheme.

Brown butcher paper covered the table so that guests could write their wine guesses right on the table. I provided purple and green Sharpie pens right with the silverware. (Note- the paper needs to be cut to the table size and shape because it does not fold down like a normal tablecloth.)

The food was very centered on the wine theme. Simple food with hints of international flare. First I had cheese, crackers, and grapes. The cheeses include Havardi Dill, Extra Sharp Cheddar, Gouda, and Blue Cheese. I made sure to let them come to room temperature. Grapes accented the platter perfectly.

Next time I will have to remember to leave the cheese in the packaging until right before people come. By the end of the night the edges were just a tad dry.

Dill dip with veggies right on the table. So delish!

Plus three different recipes of bruschetta.

The three kinds of bruschetta are regular ol’ tomato (with some melted mozzarella), braised pepper, and honey-lemon ricotta. They were all fantastic!

My absolute favorite part of the meal was the butterbeer cupcakes! I am Harry Potter obsessed, as were some others at the party, so they added a perfect ending. I found them on Pinterest, my favorite website. Here is the original link to the recipe. I highly recommend them! Anything with cream soda and butterscotch is good with me!

I neglected to take pictures during the party… we were just having too much fun! So much fun that one of the guests is having her own Cinco de Mayo themed wine party tomorrow. I can’t wait!

Have you ever been to or hosted a wine tasting party? Are you as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am? Let me know!

-Carolyn

Patriotism in NYC

This past weekend I chaperoned a band and chorus trip to New York City. I am a high school science teacher, and I was big into band in high school. So when the band director offered to have me chaperone, I was excited! We did tons of stuff. The kids got to have workshops with Broadway pros, see Sister Act on Broadway (with Raven Symone which the kids were very excited about), go to the Wax Museum, and take a movie sites tour. They got to see all the sites of NYC, including all the delish food vendors.

My favorite parts of the trip were the lunch cruise and our visit to the 9/11 Memorial. The lunch cruise left from Chelsea Piers. The boat was huge and the kids had a taco buffet, desserts, and a DJ. I spent most of my time on deck. There were fabulous views of the city skyline, from the Empire State Building to the Freedom Tower. The Freedom Tower is really starting to take shape. It looks like it will end up being a really cool building. On Monday it became the tallest building in New York City!

The cruise also took us down around the Statue of Liberty. A bunch of the kids had never seen the landmark. They were very excited and amazed they were able to see it from the boat. I found a flag at the back of the boat and got some really great shots.

I love how the flag is perfectly unfurled to show all the Statue.

The 9/11 Memorial was next on our itinerary. Unfortunately the museum was closed, so I will have to make sure to go back when it is open.

I was nervous about going to the memorial. I had never visited Ground Zero before. The significance of the site brings back memories from that day. 9/11 remains, as it does for many, the one day that I remember down to the last detail. I was a sophomore in high school with a French exchange student visiting. My principal came in to French class to discuss something with my teacher. After he left, she let us know about the attack. The whole day everyone in school was engrossed. No one talked about anything else. One girl came into English to tell us the towers fell and we didn’t believe her. No one could have fathomed such a thing happening at the time. Even now it is hard to believe.

The other thing that made me nervous about visiting the memorial was that my students were 4, 5, 6, or 7 years old during 9/11. They just don’t remember it in the same way that I do. Of course they understand that it was, and is, horrible. But they don’t seem to have the same connection with the day that other generations do. It makes sense. How could a 5-year-old really understand what happened? I had some anxiety about the kids behavior because of their age. However, the kids were great and very respectful. I talked to them about my experience on 9/11 and they responded with what they remembered. The memorial was important to everyone, no matter their age.

I love the way that the memorial was done. Two fountains flow in the footprints of the old towers. In each fountain, water drops from ground level into a large pool, and then into a smaller pool that seems to be never-ending. The names are not engraved, but cut all the way through the metal. Each letter creates a hole through which you can see the water. The holes that the names create allow flags and flowers to be placed into them. It creates a poignant image that adds a level of emotion to the memorial. If the wind hits just right, water also shoots over the top of the fountain and sprays you with water. Be careful if you go!

Definitely visit if you get the opportunity. You will be reminded of the huge impact that event made on all of our lives. The patriotism that was felt just after can still be found at the memorial. It is a nice change after all the political arguments and protests that we see every day on the news.

Have you all been to the memorial yet? What did you think of it?

-Carolyn

First Engagement Shoot Ever!

I am not a professional photographer. I am just learning the tricks of the trade and having fun learning. You might often find me with a camera bag on my shoulder and my Canon in my hand. I love to play around taking photos of different things. My sister is also into photography so it is very fun to take pictures together. I love having another eye to critique things… plus she is better at making conversation than I am. So we both jumped at the chance to work together shooting Dawn and Mike’s engagement.

Dawn is a friend of my sister and she wanted to have some great engagement pictures for her Save the Dates without the added cost of having a pro. She does have a pro for her wedding (thankfully… not sure we could handle that yet). So we headed down to the town beach to take some pictures. It was a cold and windy day in late March, but the gray skies worked to our advantage. The pictures came out great (if I do say so myself) and it was tons of fun!

We started on the beach near a rocky point.

Then we headed over to the swings…

… and down to the bridge that takes you into the park.

The next three are my personal favorites!

Thanks so much to Dawn and Mike for letting us take your engagement pictures!

Would you use an amateur photographer for engagement/wedding shoots? Let me know what you think!

-Carolyn

Easter 2012

I know… I’m just about three weeks late. Can’t believe it’s already May (tomorrow).  So I’m finally uploading some pictures from my brand new Canon that I got for Christmas. I’m in love with it and I’m trying to get tons of practice.

This Easter was great. I’ve always loved holidays. I love spending the time with my family and that everyone gets together. We spent the morning at church. I broke out the trombone and joined with some others to play along with the hymns. Then we went to my mom’s side of the family for egg hunting and dinner.

Loving this picture of my brother-in-law with all the eggs.

I love egg hunts! The kids are so cute hunting for all the candy and eggs. The adults have a great time pelting one another with the candy that is left over. Let me tell you… Candy being thrown at your head is painful!

Kids came out and the yard was swept for any sign of goodies.

My little cousins (the ones who hunted) range in age from 5 (now 6) to 14. The older ones still in driving range (ages 18 to 28) got really cute ceramic bunnies from Crate and Barrel filled with Cadbury mini eggs! The adults enjoyed the egg hunt just as much as the kids!

Eggs had to be sorted: Money in one pile and jelly beans in another.

After a delicious dinner (which included my absolute favorite thing… sticky buns), we went over to my dad’s side. They had some great desserts and company!

That was my Easter 2012. Who wants to have a town-wide Easter egg hunt with me next year? I think its sounds fabulous!

-Carolyn

 

 

Striped Baby Quilt

I’m working on refinishing the estate sale dresser (went with gray with a yellow/light gray design that I am still working out). While I do that I thought I’d share this quilt that I made earlier in the year for a good friend of mine. I got the inspiration from two places:

And I was especially inspired from this post over at Young House Love. I love the colors mixed with the white and that none of the stripes really match up. Plus its definitely gender neutral and I needed some more gender neutral ideas! My friend decided not to find out the sex of the baby, which I think is a great idea, but it makes quilt making more difficult.

I bought some white fabric for the front and green leaf fabric for the back. Fabric quarters were on sale (only $1 each) so I bought 20 to have some good variety… plus I only ended up using a little of each so I can do another project! I loved how the stripes in the picture didn’t match up so I made sure to cut my colored strips in different widths from 1.5 to 3 inches. The white strips are all 2.5 inches.

And here are some of the colors that I used…

I alternated colored strips with white strips and sewed a total of four lengths.

I pinned the four long strips together and sewed/ironed along the seams. It was starting to look so pretty!!!

Then I did my least favorite part of quilting- pinning the front to the batting and the backing. Plus I wrinkled the back and didn’t realize, so I had to pin it twice! Ugh. Once it was pinned I decided to try a meandering stitch. This is a stitch that does not go with the lines of the quilt and is random. It also is not supposed to cross over itself. I loved quilting in this style. I felt like I got to be more artistic. I also broke 8 sewing machine needles in the process.

The quilting took forever to do and I think my dog got bored.

When I finished the quilting I did my first machine binding (usually I hand bind the quilt, but I wanted to try something different). I used a turquoise fabric with brown spots. I curved the edges of the quilt and had fun with doing the machine binding too! It was a completely different look than I had done before.

Once the binding was done it was ready to go to the baby shower!

I had also bought a really cute cow costume for the baby (my friend lives on a farm and owns cows).

I made sure to sign the quilt with a fabric pen. I always want people to know where the quilt came from!

This is my favorite quilt yet. The meandering stitch really makes it pop. I hope you guys love it… I know Maggie does!

-Carolyn

Estate Sale Dresser

Today is the day I fell in love…. with estate sales! My mom and I went to one in our town and it was amazing! I got 12 pyrex dishes (everything from square and oval casserole dishes to pie plates) and a funky purple dresser for 35 buckaroonies. I am definitely in love.

But I’m not in love with the color of this dresser.

And from the side…

As you can see, it has a great mirror and hanging rod (which I think would be fun to put ribbon spools on if I put this in my craft room) and is pretty deep. But I am not feeling the purple love. So I played around on Photoshop to see what my other color choices would look like.

Turquoise:

Black:

White:

And my personal favorite, Gray:

Maybe an even darker gray (I did what I could with my Photoshop skills). But I am still undecided. I could even be really funky and paint a pattern like ombre or chevron on there. That makes me nervous, but I could always paint over it right?

After some family voting my dad likes black, my mom likes white, and I like gray. So I need help! What paint color do you guys think I should do?

-Carolyn

(Yes I know its been three months since I blogged… gotta be more consistent cause I love being back!)

Day 7- Three Ring Circus

Today is our last full day in Haiti. We leave tomorrow at noon on our flight back to the US.

When we got to the worksite today Stevenson was already working with the kids. We had 140 kids there! We had set up some tarps above us. Today we needed three tarps to fit everyone. So the performers were practicing (and eventually performing) under the big top.

Behind the church the ladies were cooking lunch as they do everyday. They worked so hard all week and made great food! I have a picture with the matriarch of the church (Madame St. Jean) who also helped cook every day. That was the second ring of the circus.

The third ring was the concrete roof that was poured today! The concrete workers did have a cement mixer, which is rare for Haiti. However the only way to transport the concrete up to the roof was by bucket brigade. They were very quick and they slid the buckets down a rope back to the bottom. They had the whole roof poured by 1:30.

Gilbert (the leader of the neighborhood) took us on a tour of the neighborhood to show us where some of the money from prior trips has gone. Many of the people in the neighborhood still live in tents. If they have houses they are one room. For some the kitchen is outside. We met one man who is 85 and blind. He lives in a tent with only a cot in it. We will leave more money to make more repairs to other houses. It was eye opening to see where the people we have been working with live… I wonder how they always look so clean and put together at bible school. Here is one house that was fixed up with some money that my group had previously given:

And here is the kitchen for that house:

Gilbert allowed us to ask him some questions. He said that when people do not have enough food the neighborhood often shares what they have. He also said that many people do not have jobs. Our driver Johnny told us that out of 8 million people in Haiti only about 400,000 have jobs. Johnny used to be a science teacher (!) for twelve years and did not even make enough to feed his family. Gilbert is on the left and Johnny is on the right:

We toured the neighborhood for about half an hour. Then it was time for the kids to perform! I have some videos of the different performances. Many children sang songs and read poems. There was the fashion show that I mentioned yesterday as well as a break dancing performance. Everyone was very engaged in the show.

I really loved this little girl:

Then it was time for lunch. We fed over 140 kids and probably about 250 people total from the neighborhood and church. It feels much more important to feed the people after having seen where they live.

We also bought 150 Cokes for the adults and kids. They really enjoyed them and were excited to have something that they could not have otherwise afforded.

Then it was time to give out the items that we brought. First we all said something to the group and had Michelle translate. She pretended to have a high voice like me when I spoke. We gave the bags with school supplies to the kids along with a tee shirt. Adults got tee shirts, work gloves and hats. Some people got some of our suitcases… Johnny and another guest house worker got s couple also. We made sure to take care of the people at the guest house first since they have taken such good care of us. Gift giving became pandemonium. I suppose if you have nothing it is important to get as much as you can when you can.

I gave my own hat to my Ayana. She was a very quiet girl that stuck with me all week and just sat quietly and hugged me most of the time. She was so sweet and reminded me so much of myself. She enjoyed being quiet and still and was often just a bit outside the rest of the group. She is about 8 or 9 and I really connected with her.

As we are about to return to the US I am reflecting more and more about this trip. I had so much fun, built strong relationships both with my team and the people here (especially the children). The people are so welcoming and appreciative of all the help we have given them. It is easy to pretend that you know what poverty is and what Haiti might be like, but you will not truly know until you come here. The poverty of the people is overwhelming and I cannot imagine growing up or living in that kind of poverty. And yet they are such a vibrant people with a joyful spirit. They have a strong faith and big hearts. I only hope that I can come back and do more. I think they have done more for me than I have done for them.

In Jesus’ Name,

Carolyn

Day 6- The Good Samaritan

Early morning again… Breakfast at 7 which was cream of wheat and sausage. Then we went to a supermarket to buy more peanut butter for tomorrow! The supermarket was huge and had more stuff than my grocery store at home. Of course only the wealthy people can afford to buy anything there. We also bought bread from street vendors as we do each day. Here is what about three hours of my day consist of:

Then we were off to serve more peanut butter and bread to the crowd. Here is Nina making friends with some of the kids:

Stevenson was already working with the kids on their songs for tomorrow. The singing from the kids was great! I have an awesome video of all the kids singing that I hope to share when I get home. Many kids were singing in small groups but sometimes all the kids sang as well.

He also did this weird fashion show thing that made many of our team members uncomfortable, including myself. The girls did kind of a catwalk in to the church and then the boys chose which girl they liked the best. It was definitely odd and I thought kind of inappropriate, but the parents and kids really enjoyed it. Perhaps it is a cultural difference.

We acted out the story of the good Samaritan. I played the Jewish man that gets beat up. We had fake beards made from pipe cleaners and construction paper, masks for the robbers made from paper plates and yarn, and gauze to bandage my wounds. After we acted it out, the kids also acted it out. They had the best time watching and acting out the play.

Down the street a group of Pentecostals were having a fast day. They held service outside of a home and we could hear their singing. We were invited to go in. The women were singing and dancing. It was easy to feel the presence of God in the area. I suppose it has been easy to feel him all week.

Today we fed 105 kids lunch and fed over 200 people total. We had some free time after lunch and did bubbles with the kids and other games. I don’t know if I said this before, but these kids are obsessed with bubbles! The first time I brought them out they cheered so loudly I felt like a rockstar. Of course this can also cause problems like pushing and shoving, but mostly it is great fun.

We left the worksite to go to an artists’ cooperative. They had some great stuff there like hand carved wooden bowls, tin art, beading and paintings. I did buy some things there, and everything was very reasonably priced. When we got back to the guest house we headed out the front gate to buy some things from the vendors out there. I bought a few things, including a folk art style painting. I love having art from the places that I’ve traveled. It makes everything have a good story behind it.

Of course I went for a swim. Then we had dinner. We are the only group here now and the people in charge must have gone out to eat, so it was just the eight of us. We are giving away items tomorrow, so we began our plan of attack. It is important to plan to make sure it is somewhat orderly and everyone gets something. We brought over 600 tee shirts, 103 pairs of work gloves, 55 hats and many other items. We decided to organize it and make bags for all the kids. It took a very long time, but it will be worth it tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be a long day. I can’t believe the trip is almost over! I feel like I could stay another month!

Love always,

Carolyn

Day 5- Feeding the Five Thousand

Before you get all excited, no we did not feed five thousand people today. But we did feed 200!

We began the day at 7 with a breakfast of French toast, bacon, and cantaloupe. Then we were off to the work site to feed a breakfast of peanut butter and rolls. It took us over an hour to drive there! When we finally arrived the kids were waiting at the gate cheering for us. It was heart warming. Here are some kids lined up for peanut butter:

It was my day to teach and I was assigned the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. If you don’t know the story basically Jesus (Jezi in Creole) fed five thousand people with only two fish and five loaves of bread. Michelle helped translate the story. Then I taught the kids a song to the tune of Happy Birthday. I even sang it in Creole to teach them.

We had about 75 kids at the beginning of the day.

The kids made fish out of paper plates. They cut out mouths and used the cut out as tails. We even had goggly eyes to put on the plates which the kids loved. Then they colored them with their own designs.

We had some time after that before lunch so we played some beach ball games with the little kids where they passed the beach balls over their heads and through their legs. Then we lined them up for lunch.

We fed 100 kids and about 75 adults. Yesterday we had to leave early and there was a disagreement between the church ladies who cook the food and the neighborhood people. Sadly fewer people came today because of that.

After lunch we had a bit of free time so we played hokey pokey, London bridge, and the señorita shaky song (which is not what it’s called but if you know it then you know what I mean). Then we left to tour the downtown area.

There is still a great deal of evidence from the earthquake in downtown. The presidential palace is still damaged and across the street there is a very large tent city in what used to be a nice park. I cannot imagine having to live in a tent for over a year and a half. We also saw the Catholic cathedral that was badly damaged in the earthquake and also is not nearly repaired. Then we visited the Methodist church which is still standing.

The prison that was damaged in the earthquake is directly next to the Methodist church, which also has a school in it. Can you imagine a prison being next to a school in the US? During the earthquake the prisoners escaped into the school!

While there we met the choir director who has worked over fifty years in the church. During the earthquake he was in front of the church. He usually went up to the tower of the church everyday at five to listen to music, but that day a series of events (someone needing WD 40 and a kid wanting to call his mother) prevented him from doing so. The tower fell in the earthquake, but he was saved due to this series of events. What a miracle.

Then it was back to the guest house, a swim, dinner, meeting for tomorrow and Skype with my parents.

Love Always,

Carolyn