I Heart Picnik Part 3 {invitations}

Oh hello!  Here I am.  Did you miss me?  I have had a hard time sitting down these past few days.  Catching up after a trip always takes me a bit longer than I think.  We had a great time in Boise catching up with family that we don't see nearly enough of.  But thank goodness for facebook right?! ;)

When I was a teenager my parents started a tradition of pancakes and ice cream in December.  Well when Darin and I got one of those cool flippy waffle makers we decided to make it our own tradition.  So we invite family over and have waffles with ice cream.  Its much more fun if you send family invitations, even to dinner.  Besides when you have a good friend like Picnik why not?  After I did Ivy's pumpkin party invitations  I had a bunch of people ask me for a little tutorial. So I'm going to take you step by step on how to make your own evites! {or invites} This is also how I made that applesauce recipe card last week.

First go to Picnik and upload your background.  You can use a picture, a blank document that is the size you want, or like I did this time, some digital scrapbook paper.  I used one from this free kit.  Free is ALWAYS good!   Easy and cute.  My favorite kind.  Plus  I knew that this would go perfect with the tags in the new seasonal stuff.  

 

See?  SO cute right.  Once you have uploaded what you are going to use for your background, click on the CREATE tab.  This is where all the fun stuff is!  Under create the first tab on the left is FEATURED.  All of their Christmas stuff is there.  {Check out the winterize on a photo sometime.  I love it almost as much as cross-process.}  Scroll down until you find the tags.  There are some really cute ones to choose from.

Next up is adding your text.  I started with my big word first so everything else would fit around it.  

To get the same color on my second layer of text I clicked on WAFFLES.  There should be a little box that pops up with all of your options, and the color.  In the upper right hand corner just above the colors is the code for the color you picked.  Highlight it and copy it.   Then click on your other text.  In this case WHO WANTS.  Then paste your color code in to the same spot and it will match.  Pretty fancy huh!

Add the rest of your text with all of your party info.  Save and you are done.  Ta Da!  Now you can "hand out" these invitations through email or facebook  by attaching it just like a picture.  If you really wanted to you could print them out at Costco or at home or wherever.  Since this one is a 12X12 I could print it out as an 8X8 or 12X12.  But those are kind of expensive for an invitation.  Luckily, we are a facebook family!

{IF you are going to print out your invitations then you need to crop your background in the first step. Once you have uploaded your image it will go to the edit tab.  Just click on the crop button.  At the top will be a drop down menu that says no constraints.  Click on the arrow and pick the size you want.  Seriously, they make it so easy.   Then after you make your invite its just the right size to upload and print.}

 Mmm waffles.  Can't wait!

All is Fair In Secret Recipes

Remember back in like September when I accidentally shared a secret family recipe?  Yikes!  Well I have one recipe that I haven't shared with my sister in law, mostly to tease her.  But after I spilled the beans on her Grandma's pie filling I figured it would be best to make it up to her with my Grandma's Almond Rocha recipe.  It is my Grandma Perkins recipe {yep the one I was telling you about on Monday} and I love it.  My mom has been making it as long as I can remember, and of course her mom made it forever.  So I thought it would be a fun treat to take to Boise.  And it worked out perfectly because the sun finally decided to shine today.    

Why does it matter if the sun is shining?  Well here is Grandma's candy making lesson number one.  It has to be a clear, sunny day with LOW humidity.  I know it can be tricky to get the perfect day, but  if you have descent conditions,  go ahead, pull out your ingredients and lets make some candy!.

 

 

3 Tbsp. water

2 sticks of butter

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

 sliced almonds

1 giant chocolate bar

electric skillet

wooden spoon

Grandma's candy making lesson number two.  Use cheap butter and higher quality chocolate.  Cheaper butter {think store brand}  has less cream or something.  I'm not sure why, but it works better.  My mom likes Lucerne.  As for chocolate I used a Symphony bar this time, but we really like it with dark chocolate too.  All right.  Ready to rock?

 
Using one of your sticks of butter grease a metal 9x13 pan.  

 

Grate half of your chocolate bar in to the pan.  I use my grater attachment on my mixer.   Sprinkle with almonds.   Or put the almonds and then the chocolate, either way.  Set your other half of your chocolate bar to the side for now.  DON'T eat it! 

 

  

 Ok, put your butter, sugar and water in an electric skillet.  Turn on HIGH and stir constantly.

Grandma's candy making lesson number three.  Its HOT!  That is why we need to use a wooden spoon.  Your other spoons will melt.  I promise.

It will look like this when it starts boiling,  a pretty yellow color.  Just keep stirring, just keep stirring.   And then here comes the fast and {little bit} tricky part.  When the boiling slows down and the color changes to...

 

 

...this, a tan color, add the vanilla...

and stir for one more minute.  Be careful not to burn it!

 

 

Then pour your toffee mixture in to your 9x13 pan, going back and forth and filling in the gaps until your chocolate is completely covered.   Remember lesson three and BE SO CAREFUL!  It is really hot and you do not want that burn.  It will ruin Christmas. 

Now break up your remaining chocolate and place on the hot toffee.  Let it stand for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt a bit.

 

 

Use a spatula to spread it.  Gingerbread men spatulas work quite well. ;)

Then scatter more almonds on top and let it cool.  Like a long time cool.  I try and make it in the morning so it is ready to break in the evening.  

When it is set, use a knife, stab it to break up your rocha in to pieces and store in an airtight container. 

Grandma's Candy Lesson number four.  Always give it away.  Otherwise you'll eat it.  

Maybe I made that last one up.  :)  But it is always better to give right?!

 

{FAIR WARNING:  Anyone my mom or Grandma ever taught to make this that wasn't a family member hasn't been able to get it right.  So don't blame me if you don't have the magic!}

 

 Let me know how it turns out!  Oh, and lets have a poll!  Whats your stance on secret recipes?  

Weekend Notes

THANK YOU!  I've been busy all weekend filling orders!  I'm excited that you guys are excited!  And just to get shop business out of the way first...

Ruffled Burlap Wreaths are ready to rock!  I can't even tell you how much I love them.  Each one is a little bit different, and can be customized to match your holiday decor.  Too cute. 

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  I had a kind of sad day yesterday.  My Grandma passed away early Sunday morning.  She has had alzheimer's for 10 years, so it was expected, but I still got a little teary.  I'm just so extremely grateful for the knowledge that I will see her again someday, and she is finally at peace, restored to her perfect state in Heaven.  I think the best word to describe my Grandma is Elect. She was a very classy lady, serving for many years in the Wyoming House of Representatives, and at the Casper Chamber of Commerce.  

Isn't she a sweet gal? She loved color, baking pie, sewing and had a cute sarcastic sense of humor.  {Hmmmm.  Sound like anyone else I know?!}  Dorothy was blessed with fabulous hair that as far as I know never went gray.  Lucky girl.  So I'll be heading to Boise at the end of the week to attend her Memorial Service. I'm excited to see family that I don't get to see very often, not so exited for the crying I'm bound to do.  

One thing my Grandma and Grandpa are well known for is their applesauce.  Seriously the best ever.  No matter how hard I try mine isn't quite the same, but it always reminds me of spending the summer in Wyoming, and more recently visiting with my awesome Grandpa in Boise.  We swap canning stories and I love his laugh.  So in honor of Ty and Dorothy here is their applesauce recipe.  Its seriously worth going out and getting apples today. 

 

And just so you know, its good on just about anything!  

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Thanks Grandma for being such a fine lady.  I Love you.

Open For Business {pretty much}

I don't know if you  have noticed the banner that I have been hanging up in my little space at things like the farmer's market, or that craft fair I just did.  Yep, the one that says Ruffled Sunshine.  Ta Da!  I have a name for my little business!  Back in the summer when I did the She Market, my friend Karen {who you met a couple of weeks ago during I'm Thankful Week}  decided I needed a business name.  Not just, you know that one girl that makes cute stuff and sells it sometimes.  I so wanted to use Ivy's name, but every one I came up was already being used.  So I picked two of my other favorite things and viola!  My amazing friend Celia came up with a perfect logo {she also did the Family Proclamation} and has been a huge help with everything design minded. 

{Hows that for stuffing as many links in to one paragraph as I can!  Did you catch them all?} 

 I had such a great time at My Favorite Things, it gave me the last push I needed to finally get things up and running online.  And so, here it is folks, just in time for the holidays...

www.ruffledsunshine.bigcartel.com

Kind of fun right?  I'm starting out small, and it doesn't have a lot hence the pretty much, but it should get a little bit fuller over the weekend as I get more pictures taken.  I just wanted to get it up quickly for all of you who were looking for Winter Blooms, {which you can also now find at Greenies in Richland. Thanks for your interest by the way!  It totally makes me happy :) }

Opening up shop is something I've been wanting to do for a while, I would just get so nervous even thinking about it that I pushed it back to the back burner.  Umm, I think I do that a lot.  Maybe I should work on that?  Anyways...  Come on by and check it out!  Let me know what you would like to see in Ruffled Sunshine!  

Have a festive and fabulous Weekend!

  

 

 

Oh Deer!

Did you know that it was my birthday a month ago?  I know, I should have told you, its just that 31 isn't quite as fun to celebrate, ok?!  Anyways, I saved up some cash and with all my birthday money {thanks guys!} I was able to get a Silhouette.  Woot!  I love this thing!  I have been pretty busy so I haven't used it a ton, but I'm sure it will get broken in this month.  I've been dying to try the heat transfer, so I picked up some cute pink polka dot stuff from Hobby Lobby.

See?  Cute right?  Its even fuzzy which I love.  I  used a shape that Silhouette has in their library to cut the sweetest deer for Ivy's shirt.  

Ivy has a lot of white shirts.  Um, just like her mama.  My trick is to embellish them right there, down at the bottom.  That way she can still wear them under things and not have things like a pink deer head poking out of her dress.

Add in the cheesiest 3 year old around and,  

OH DEER! 

  I have one stinking cute shirt. 

{ BTW  I highly recommend the Cherokee ones from Target.  They don't stretch out like other ones and always have sweet little gathered sleeves. } 

SO yeah, I heart my birthday present.  Anyone want to come play with my new toy with me?!