Girls Weekend

OK, now to explain the Smilebox I posted this morning. Megan, Jill, Heather and I went to Seattle on Friday to see Mamma Mia at the Paramount Theater. Fabulous show!!! Enroute, we stopped at my sister's in Bothell so I got to hug and kiss on the nieces (much to my mother's dismay :)). We also went to Lasting Memories (scrapbook store) in Lynnwood and hit Alderwood Mall for a few minutes too. I was glad that they needed to hit the mall as I realized while at the mall that I had left my slacks for the show laying on the ironing board at home where I started to (but never finished) ironing them to pack that morning. So, I got a new pair of slacks as I only had jeans to go with my blouse.

From there, we fought the traffic to get to Seattle and follow the AWFUL Mapquest directions to the Edgewater Hotel. It is such a beautiful hotel once you get to it. We then did a quick change in order to make to for dinner reservations at The Melting Pot - a wonderful fondue restaurant in Seattle. We stuffed ourselves to death but loved every bite of it!!

Then off to the Paramount for the Mamma Mia show. We all loved it and I would go again tomorrow. My family is already sick of the soundtrack that I bought :) but Kenzie sings them with me while we cook.

We hit the North Bend Factory Stores on the way home and got everyone delivered I got home about 6:45 Saturday night.

A great Girls Weekend Out!!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Yummy Cookies

As I mentioned the other day, I made some butterhorn cookies for a tea social I went to and they were sooo yummy! I got hooked on butterhorns at our local Starbucks and thought, for 85 cents each, I should be able to make these. Little did I know that I could make ones that taste so much better!!! Thought I'd share the recipe today as I had yummy butterhorns on my mind and no time to make more so till keep dreaming butterhorns!

Butterhorn Cookies

2 cups flour
1 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, divided
2/3 cup finely chopped walnuts, optional but tastes great with them
1 cup sugar, divided
3/4 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl, measure flour, butter, sour cream, salt baking poder, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 egg yolk (save the egg white for later). Mix with spoon until blended and mixture holds together. May use mixer if you cream the butter first. Shape into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap, chill 2-3 hours until firm. In a small bowl, mix walnuts, cinnamon and remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1/3 of dough to 1/8 inch thick (about a 10 inch circle). Spread with egg white using pastry brush. Cut into 12 equal wedges, using a pizza cutter is the easiest way to do this. Sprinkle 1/3 of walnut mixture on wedges. Roll into crescent starting at wide end. Place cookies point side down about 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet. In cup beat, 1 egg & 1/2 tsp sugar. Brush on cookies. Bake 15-20 minutes being sure not to over bake.

Makes 36 cookies. This is a relatively quick recipe to make just has the chilling time in the middle. Taste great warm or cooled just don't burn your mouth on them eating directly out of the oven, although they are soooo good that way!

More cards

I have been having fun making cards with a friend of mine. We have a great set of directions that uses a Level 2 Paper Pack (CTMH) and makes 50 cards out of it (you add the cards) - you make 5 different cars and make 10 of each. It is so fun. I did it in our stamp group and we swapped them out. I did the black and white set for my sister using CTMH Silhouette and then I did this set for my secret sister at church using CTMH Paper Garden (which I love). I have made so many sets from these instructions that I created a new set of instructions which makes 60 (yes 60) cards from one level two kit. This one makes 10 different cards and you make 6 of each. Tomorrow I will post the pictures of them as they turned out so good using CTMH Caprice.

Failed miserably

Well, my best intentions just weren't good enough. I could give a lot of excuses including my 37th birthday, going back to work more regularly, closing of the candy store, volunteering in kids classrooms, registering Chase for kindergarten, etc, etc, etc - but I won't.

Life has been busy but I have enjoyed some fun craft time and had to post a picture of the cards and birthday calendar book I made for my sister's birthday (and she loved them too!).

It is late and I just got the last batch of butterhorns out of the oven so I am head to bed.

Good night!

Trip

Well, we are back from the trip and as most have noticed - my good intentions to post daily from the trip just didn't make it well for several reasons that I will not bore you with here. So . . . here is my plan - starting tomorrow I will post pictures and blog entries daily for the next 15 days following our trip day by day. I did faithfully journal in my handwriting every day of the trip so I have all of the details to include in daily posts so starting tomorrow we will get to board the plane in Seattle and fly to Dulles (Washington, DC) and on to La Guardia and board the ship. Also included will be pictures from the awesome sunset sail out of NY harbor.

See you all tomorrow!!

PS - each day there will be a mystery picture and the first to post a comment identifying the mystery identification of the picture will receive blog candy from me :)

Our trip begins

WE ARE IN SEATTLE!!!


Well, believe it or not, we have finally started he trip! We got up this morning and finished the packing and ran a few errands and then Dad took us to the airport in Wenatchee. We made a couple of stops to get new movies for the kids and pizza for Papa to take home for dinner. Once at the airport, which we were sure to be at about 1 1/2 hrs early, we found out the our flight was delayed 45 minutes due to high winds in Seattle. We finally did make out of Wenatchee about 5:05 pm instead of the original 4:15 pm. Thankfully we had planned it to have plenty o time for connection in Seattle. We were originally supposed to be on an 11:30 pm flight to Chicago-O'Hare and then change planes and on to LaGuardia-NYC. When we got to Seattle, we went to get our United Airlines boarding passes and were given boarding passes to Chicago but due to storms in the midwest the Chicago to LaGuardia portion of the flight was cancelled. Thankfully we happened to have a very nice gentleman from United at the gate and he helped to get us rebooked so we are on an 11:05 pm to Washington, DC-Dulles and then a short 1 1/4 hr hop on to LaGuardia. We will actually get to LaGuardia earlier this way than in the beginning. The same nice gentleman helped us to get our luggage switched so it made the same flights we did and didn't end up stranded in Chicago and us on a cruise ship with no clothes. :(

We are off - Dave has been ready for days - can you tell?













I am including a few pictures from our time so far - we are just waiting it out in Seattle for the next 3 hrs until our flight leaves. I am headed off to get a neck pillow for the flight shortly but had to start my journal of the trip here!!

More tomorrow!!