homemaker dinner party

This past weekend I hosted a little girl's night at my house. I invited all the girls I knew that are recently engaged or married or are in a relationship that will definitely, most likely, almost definitely turn into marriage material! Haha. It was so much fun!! By no means am I saying that in my 2 years and 2 months of marriage that I have all (any of) the wisdom, but I also know that I would have liked the perspective of a women JUST on the other side of the fence when I was getting married. One with no kids, one who was just barely not a newlywed herself. So that is what I did. I invited these ladies into my home and we had a wonderful night talking weddings, engagement stories, recipes, crafts, and our men. (in the best way possible of course!)

DIYs

1. Card making

 We made some fab cards together ranging from birthday, thank you, bridal shower, you name it! These girls got so creative with it I loved seeing the end products!

  2. Homemade Laundry Detergent

The next DIY we did together was making laundry detergent. It was a practical & different craft for them to take home! I will post the "recipe" on the blog in a few days!

each girl got her own jar to take home! They all added different combos of the essential oils so they all came out so different and yummy smelling!

Dinner, dessert, sweets, & treats

Making dinner together was a blast! We made balsamic & brown sugar chicken with oven roasted potatoes, spinach salad with blue cheese and dinner rolls. 

After dinner we made some "Polar Express hot cocoa" (again, another post for another day...so.good)

and the last girlie left standing and I watch a movie.

swag bags.

Whats a party without swag??

I picked up these awesome bags for 0.99 each at Office Depot of all places and filled it with goodies!

Cute socks for the colder weather that is (eventually??) coming, kleenex for the purse, my favorite cleaning tool the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a printed M-F cleaning schedule by Squirrelly Minds and a gorgeous scripture printable by French Press Mornings. They were also able to take their DIY laundry detergent and their homemade vanilla (not shown above) home in their cute bags!

Like I said we had a blast and it was so much fun hearing about all their wedding plans and what is going on in their lives. It was seriously an awesome evening!

Cleaning printable can be found HERE

Scripture printable can be found HERE

fall mug swap + online community

One of my favorite thing about the blogging world (my favorite actually!) is meeting the other women in it! It is crazy how you can feel a connection to women you have never and may not ever meet. We are connected by our stories and the similarity in our struggles and joys. We are connected by a comradity brought on by similar tragedy or victory - we cheer each other on and pray for one another with many miles in between. Sure sometimes it is catty and judgey and the claws come out on sensitive subjects, but for the most part I am proud to be part of such an amazing online community. 

Another fun perk of this community is all the swapping that goes on! Ornament swapping, mug swapping, headband swapping....the list goes on. It is so fun to participate in these things because you get a chance to connect once again in a way that is different. You get to know the person, you follow their blog and Pinterest and by the end it is like sending a gift to a friend! 

The Fall Mug Swap put on by the wonderful Amanda Lynne from Amanda Lynne Designs.

I hopped on board as soon as one of my besties (in real life! I love when the blogging and real world collide!!) Ali from Ballpoint + Pen told me about it. Give a mug, get a mug. I am all over it.

My mug swap buddy Chrissy from The Pearl Blog sent me the most amazing package! Not only did it contain a gorgeous mug that is as we speak filled to the brim with yummy coffee, but also she sent me cocoa packets, cookies, a HOMEMADE scarf (what? awesome!) an awesome flower ring and the striped stationary set! (someone has been peeping my office supply obsession board on Pinterest!) 

See mug swaps or any swap for that matter, are the best. You get to know a new friend explore a new blog and just participate in this wonderful online community!

My mug swap story has a little more drama! Haha I peeped her Pinterest, read about her on Facebook, followed her Instagram...I knew this lady loved owls and fall. I immediately ordered this little HOOT in white and had it delivered to my house. Well it got stolen off my porch (boo!!) so after 2 calls to UPS, 1 call to West Elm and many unbloggable phrases to my hubby about hooligans running around the neighborhood drinking about of MY owl mug (when did I turn 80...geez!) I just decided in the spirit of Fall Mug Swap to just suck it up and order a new one and have it sent to HER house instead of mine. All turned out fine, she loved the mug and did not already own it! (phew!)

Off to drink coffee out of my new mug and put my new scarf on! 

mini apple + pear pies

Last night there was a ladies dessert night at the home of a woman from our church. I knew I wanted to make something fall-ish and I had tons of apples and pear from our CSA delivery box. 

Pie. Sounds good. But kinda messy...hmm how about mini pies! 

Yes. 

Pre heat oven to 350. Makes 12 mini pies. 

Ingredients

• Enough pie crust to make 12 muffin tin sized rounds (i used a large biscuit cutter) and enough extra to make designs on top. 
• 3 ripe apples
• 3 ripe pears
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp milk + 1 egg (not pictured) beaten with a fork.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

Wash apples and pear and peel. Slice thin and pat dry with paper towel.

Add apples and pears to large bowl 

Juice the lemon and add to the bowl of apples/pear along with the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

I do all of these spices by sight, but I think I added about 2 tsp of each - maybe more cinnamon. 

The fruit tends to get very wet/soupy so when adding the filling to the pie shells, used a fork or slotted spoon so your pies don't get soggy!

Ok for the pie crust I used store bought, but obviously homemade would be better!

Cut the pie crust into 12 equal rounds that fit inside muffin tins - I used my doughnut/biscuit cutter and it was the perfect size!

I decided to make my own parchment liners for the pies so that they wouldn't stick to the muffin tins and they would look cute to take to the party - let's be honest! I just cut large squares out of parchment paper and pushed them down inside the muffin tins, creasing the sides as I went.

Here you can see what I mean with the parchment paper. 

Anyway...back to the recipe. 

Once the dough is cut out and the parchment paper is in place then put the dough round into the muffin tins and just kind of...make them fit. Its ok to mold them into the tins, since they won't be perfect when you push them down. Just make sure the dough is solid and there are no gaps or cracks - fill these in with extra dough. 

Ok fill the little pies and add extra dough to the tops in literally any shape or pattern you want. I like that they are a little janky and misshapen and "rustic" looking! Just make sure they all have some sort of vent hole. Brush top dough with the milk/egg mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

They were so yummy and extremely easy to eat, perfect for a party setting. The perfect little serving of pie! 

p.s. I tried to make cinnamon & nutmeg whipped cream to go on top but it was a disaster!! The whipping cream never whipped and It was just a mess!!

But...homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream WOULD be the perfect addition to this sweet treat!

Cocktail hour! French 75

I am seriously loving this having people over once a week thing! We are trying new recipes, connecting with friends and having so much fun!! I will do a full community dinner post tomorrow but today I  will leave you with the {super, duper simple!} cocktail I made for us ladies last night while the boys drank their whiskey on the rocks. 

Gather your supplies!

1. 1 oz. gin
2. 1/2 oz simple syrup 
3. 1/2 oz lemon juice + a shaving of the peel for garnish
4. 5 oz Champagne or sparkling wine.
5. Ice

Combine all ingredients with ice into a cocktail shaker (or if you don't have one into a large pint glass and stir instead of shake before you strain it) shake it up and then strain into champagne flutes. Add a garnish of lemon peel. It is so light, bubbly, and refreshing!!

So yummy!! But there is something wrong with this picture. I didn't use champagne flutes like you are supposed to...big mistake.

This resulted in very tasty but VERY strong cocktails. Holy Moly.

Use a champagne flute.

Let's keep it classy out there. 

week 1 - family dinners.

I decided that now that I have more time I want to have friends/family over for dinner once a week. Old friends, new friends, our families, you name it! I also love trying new recipes on my friends, so its a perfect combo. : )

Well this last week we started out with some of our best, dearest, and long time friends and their sweet firecracker of a daughter! I was able to use the homemade cheese & ricotta that I posted last week for a fab pizza party.

I kind of love when the dough looks a little wonky makes it feel more homemade and rustic! 

We made a combo pizza with the ricotta, pepperoni, organic sausage, tomato, & bell pepper. 

and one caprese or margarita pizza...basil was added later.

We ended the night with a giant pazookie that we all shared straight out of the pan with spoons.

I love our friends. I love sharing dinner with them, they are such a blessing in our lives!!