Funsie Onesies

onesie party my crib 2am bring a bottle

One of the fun little activities we had at Jackie & Matt’s baby shower was an opportunity, for those that wanted, to create a hand-painted onesie for Baby Ben.

onesie ladies I have arrived bow tie

Since I knew I’d be busy at the shower, I made a few ahead of time.  A quick search on Pinterest offered tons of cute ideas.

onesie dad you got this

If you are looking for an inexpensive, but unique, creative and personal gift to welcome a new bundle of joy, consider creating your own little funsie onesies with a little fabric paint and a pack of cotton onesies.  (Be sure to pre-wash the onesies before painting.)

onesie lil stud muffin

There are so many cute and creative possibilities!

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Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

A Carnival Baby Shower for Jackie & Matt

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Oh what fun we had planning, preparing, and celebrating the soon-to-arrive Baby Ben with our McHendy daughter and son-in-law, Jackie & Matt.

I was designated the “official” photographer, so get ready for lots of photos.  I was so busy worrying about capturing it and so busy just enjoying it, that it is just now hitting me, after I shared the photos with Jackie (and she posted on her Facebook page), how close I am to being an “almost” grandma!

When Jackie shared the photos, she wrote:

Matt and I have always hoped we could welcome our baby boy into a community of people who will love, encourage, and support him. On Saturday, we were shown a million times over that we without a doubt have that for our baby boy, Ben. Thank you to everyone who braved the snowstorm and made it out to the shower. We are so blessed for all of you (and for all the people who couldn’t make it)! A special thanks to my mom,Jill Henderson, my mother-in-law, Carol Kallis, my future sister-in-law, Becca Cura, and my second mom, Jodi McKinney for throwing us one creative, awesome shower!!

So for the past half hour ( I am drafting this Sunday evening), I’ve been bawling happy tears and cherishing these very special moments.

I hope you enjoy viewing these photos as much as we had in creating and being a part of them.

(If you click on the first – or any one of the pics – you can scroll through the photos in full size.)

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork

Are you ready for a party in your mouth?

Looking for a versatile recipe that can be a main course, a sandwich, serve a crowd, be made into a great nacho platter?

Look no further!

I present:

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

ENJOY!  (We sure did)

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Ingredients:Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork

  • 5 lb boneless pork loin (or your favorite pork roast)
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • Half of a 16-oz. jar sliced banana peppers rings with juice
  • 1 10-oz. can Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilis
  • 2 12-oz cans Dr. Pepper soda
  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Place all in crockpot and cook on High for 6 hours.  Remove pork and shred with fork.  Place back in juices and let set at least a half hour.  Even better the next day when the juices and meat all mix and mingle even more!

Serve on Hard Rolls, over mashed or fried potatoes, with rice, in a tortilla wrap with your favorite fillings or over tortilla chips with queso and shredded cheese and pickled jalapenos for the most amazing Pulled Pork Nachos!

Wouldn’t you be the hit of the party serving these nachos for the Super Bowl or a Playoff party this weekend?

Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork nachos

Want to see a little closer?!

Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork nachos 2

This recipe might be fun to try with beef or chicken too.

Have some fun in the kitchen.  Creativity is everywhere!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

*Inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s recipe.

Not Your Momma’s Cookie Exchange Party

Colleens Cookie Swap Group Photo Aprons Whip Nae Nae

Remember those aprons I shared yesterday that I made for my daughter-in-law’s cookie swap party?

Well – here we are doing the Whip Bake Bake at the party!

I am so excited to share some photos of the amazing party my even more amazing daughter-in-law (third from the left back row – next to me) threw.

This is not your momma’s cookie exchange like we did back in the day!

Check out the amazing drink station where Colleen served Hot Chocolate with all the fixings and add ins as well as gin and tonics and wine.  All the makings for a “spirited” cookie swap!

drinks 2

Hot Chocolate Bar

hot cocoa fixings

drinks

There were cozy Christmas socks on a festively-decorated antique child’s chair for anyone whose piggies got cold,

cozy socks

and a well-equipped cookie packaging station for us to box, wrap, clip, tag, and/or plate our cookies to take home.

cookie packing station

clips at cookie packing station

tags at cookie packing station

We all brought enough cookies to share tastes that evening and enough for everyone to pack up 5 or 6 dozen to take home and share with our families and friends and for our own parties.  Colleen made little labeled tags for each type of cookie so we knew what we were sampling and so we could vote on the “Most Delicious,” “Most Unique,” and Most Attractive.”  And boy were they ever!

Katie rocked “Most Unique” with these adorable and absolutely luscious cherry snowmen cake balls.

snowman cake balls most unique

Michelle’s Apple Delights were a slam dunk for the “Most Attractive!”  Aren’t the awesome?

apple delights most beautiful

And Alaine’s Pistachio Cherry Cookies had us all swooning for “Most Delicious,”

cookies

though they truly were ALL delicious and beautiful and unique and made with “lovin from the oven.”

lovin from the oven

And……. two of the young ladies actually had some “lovin in their ovens!”  Jen is in her first trimester and Jessica is due any day!

Jen and Jessica pregnant bakers

How cute is this sign that went with Colleen’s Grinch cookies (green crinkle cookies with teeny tiny hearts?

Grinch cookies

And check out these Inside Out S’more Cookies!  (and the little polka-dot wooden spoons to stir your cocoa)

inside out smores

She even had prizes!

prizes most delicious

Before we ate cookies…. Well – we pretty much ate cookies the whole evening…  Colleen made some fabulous food including the most amazing Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Party Sliders,

Hawaiin Ham and Cheese Party Sliders

and Hassleback potatoes,

hassleback potatoes

as well as plenty of veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, spreads, and and adorable cheese and olive wreath.

olive wreath

We even played some fun and silly games like teaming up to make the best reindeer antlers out of balloons stuffed in panty hose!

team 2

Team 1

 

Reindeer Katie and Michelle

Reindeer Michelle

It was the most fun, most unique, most delicious cookie swap party I’ve ever been part of!  I am so proud of my beautiful, generous, creative daughter-in-law, and I thank her for kindly allowing me share this with all of you.

Hope you are enjoying this festive holiday time however you choose to celebrate!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Perfect Pairs Wedding Shower Gift

Perfect Pairs Wedding Shower Gift Basket

Yesterday I shared the beautiful celebration of this adorable and perfect pair,  Candace and C.J. at the bridal shower I attended for Candace this past weekend.

perfect pair wedding shower gift framed photo

And, as promised, here is the “Perfect Pair” gift basket I made as my gift for them.

perfect pair wedding shower gift chip and dip bowl

It was so much fun trying to think of perfect pairings to include in this gift basket.

perfect pair wedding shower gift chips and dip salsa

I am sure there are so many more pairs you can think of, and you can customize the gift for your “perfect pair.”

perfect pair wedding shower gift cutting board and knife

Some things are simply practical, and others I found on Candace’s gift registry.

perfect pair wedding shower gift salt and pepper

Does anything “pair” better than peanut butter and jelly?

perfect pair wedding shower gift peanut butter and jelly

A pair of gloves just made perfect sense.

perfect pair wedding shower gift pair of gloves

I also had fun creating all the pear/pair tags with a variety of watercolor wash colors…

perfect pair wedding shower gift fork and spoon

and thinking of little things that would make their home cozy and special.

perfect pair wedding shower gift candle and light

Pen and paper… will they scribble little love notes?  create shopping lists?  wish lists?

perfect pair wedding shower gift pen and paper

A fun bag or basket pulls it all together and adds to the fun and practicality of the gift.

Perfect Pairs Wedding Shower Gift

If you are looking for a fun and creative bridal shower gift, consider this idea for your perfect pear  pair!

pear purple watercolor

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Joyful Christmas (& ‘Smart Ass’ Trivia Answers)

Joyful Christmas FMS163

It’s a Christmas Card TGIF Post.

And heck – before you know it, I’ll be mailing these cards out!

I love when I come across a sketch challenge, and it just speaks to me and a design comes so easily.

Such is the case with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches Challenge FMS#163.  I just loved the design.

FMS163Whatchya think?

Joyful Christmas FMS163

I’ve been itching to use my SU Joyful Christmas Poinsettia stamp (from last year) and also dying to do some water coloring.  I wanted to do something different, and water coloring on newspaper print DSP was just the ticket to feed my creative Christmas card crazies for this week.  🙂

For this card done on SU Crumb Cake with Under the Tree Specialty DSP Paper, I heat embossed the poinsettia in white on the newsprint DSP, and then used my Koi Watercolors to paint it – not worrying about “staying in the lines.”  A couple of pearl embellishments and a cheery pop of festive red with a cherry cobbler sheer linen bow finished it off.

I love it when an idea comes together easily.  🙂

So – anyone that follows my blog regularly is just dying to know the answers to yesterday’s Smart Ass Trivia questions – right?  (Even though most of you “Smart Asses” figured them out already)  🙂

Well – How long did it take you to figure out the “What Am I” is a Tea Bag?

And the “Where Am I?”  Well, that is the River Thames.

Wishing you all a joyous weekend!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi