Christmas Card Curtains

I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail. Seeing pictures of friends and family and opening cards with glittering snowflakes on them really ups my christmas spirit. And since the cards are usually quite lovely, I like to display them. But, putting a pile of them in a bowl somewhere doesn't quite do the trick. So, I had an idea involving some red tulle ribbon, clothespins, and a little imagination!

You could create this same affect on a window and it would be adorable, but I have a huge iron mirror in the living room that was looking a little empty. So, I decided to give it some Christmas card curtains


All you have to do is tie some tulle to the top of a mirror or window and allow it to fall down the sides. I also tied a piece from the top two corners to really frame the mirror.

Next, take clothespins and simply clip the card directly onto the tulle.

How easy is that? And now I can look at them each day as I walk by! Plus, it creates a pretty awesome frame for the Christmas tree from a certain angle...

Enjoy!

~ Mari

Christmastime is Here

... And things at the Smith house are looking glittery and bright! While my mom and our friend, Marilyn were here visiting, we dove right into decorating for the holidays. I thought I would share some of what we did with you!

Let's start with the great outdoors...

A vinyl-sided gingerbread house ;)

Come on in!

We picked these wreaths up at Michaels for $1.99 each!

(we made the bows out of outdoor ribbon from Lowes)

I made this wreath out of curly fabric bows from Hobby Lobby

Little Christmas Curls

On the front porch

(I found the wicker cabinet on the side of the road!)

A garden ornament with snowflakes and glittery stars

The nest of the elusive Peppermint Sparrow

Our little outdoor tree

(it lights up at night...that will have to wait for another post)

Happy holidays to everyone! Hope your decorating is going well!

~ Mari

It's Creamy, It's Tasty, and It Looks Good in Stripes

In honor of July 4th, we at the Rel Maples Culinary Institute of Culinary Arts decided to salute our nation in the form of... ice cream. We made quite a few different flavors (pecan praline, mint chocolate chip, hazelnut coffee chocolate chunk, vanilla bean, sweet cream, brandied cherry, blueberry swirl, and fresh lemon sorbet), but we had a patriotic idea... why not stripe the cherry, vanilla, and blueberry swirl for a red, white, and blue treat? And that is exactly what we did. Here's a little overview from start to stripes...

Pink soup? Nope. It's the base for the brandied cherry ice cream - the "red" portion of our patriotic dessert. Chef Hallman says that you always make the base the day before and let it chill overnight. That makes for the creamiest ice cream the next day. So, for the base, we used half heavy cream and half milk. Then we added sugar, salt, and glucose syrup. To achieve the brandied cherry flavor, we added crushed maraschino cherries and a splash of cherry-flavored brandy. Yum! This one will be for adults only... haha. Then we just let it simmer on the stove for a few minutes until it thickened.


The next thing we needed to do was make it red. This was not an easy task. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to make really red icing using food coloring, but it takes almost an entire bottle of the stuff. And, even after we did that, it was a bright fuschia.... NOT patriotic red. But, we hoped it would darken as it chilled...



Here is the blueberry swirl ice cream (the "blue" portion) after it chilled and turned in an ice cream maker for about 15 minutes. When it stops spinning... it's done! After this stage, then you swirl in the blueberry mixture by hand.

And... voila! You have a tri-color dessert of patriotic proportions! And there I am.... in the freezer... posing with our masterpiece. So what if the red is actually pink, the white is actually off-white, and the "stripes" are more like wavy lines? We did it! I think people will get the idea. And if they don't .... they are lame.