The Farm Chicks

Sixlets

What can you do with Sixlets?

Make yummy candy bracelets:

Festoon a cake!

Deck the walls.

And why not?

A sweet day is a happy day.

Hooray!

Cotton Candy Balloons!

Every year, I love creating a fun photo opportunity for visitors at the entrance of The Farm Chicks Show. This year, I constructed a big bunch of cotton candy balloons.

For me, cotton candy is fun. And happy. And wouldn't this be fun to make for a photo op (or decoration) at your next party?

To construct:

1. Hot glue paper cones to bags of cotton candy.
2. Affix long strings to the cones.
3. Hot glue bags together to create a huge bunch of "balloons".
4. Hang bunch from ceiling with several pieces of clear heavy duty fishing line.
5. Once hung, tie all the loose strings (hanging from the bottom of the cones) together to create a knot, just as a balloon peddler would.

Tip: I repackaged my bags of cotton candy using clear bags, rather than the clown themed bags they came in. (It just fit better with what I had in my mind).

Special thanks to the wonderful Samantha Cabrera for these images from the show.

Tiny Party!

I had a tiny party with my nieces, Chloe and Annie and their mom (my sis-in-law) Alison this weekend.  Everything was tiny - except the fun.

 

 

 

We made tiny aprons for all their dolls and tiny dishtowels too.

And then we packaged it all up in tiny little bags for the dolls to take home.

 

And we managed to drink our tiny little tea, eat our tiny tasty treats, and have tiny conversation all while my tiny little nephew took a teeny tiny nap.

How-to's:  I made the dots on the table by punching out scrapbook paper with a 7/8" circular craft punch.

The tiny three-layer cakes were made by baking chocolate cake in a sheet pan and cutting out the layers with a small circular cookie cutter.  I frosted each tiny cake just as I would with a regular-sized cake, and covered each one with white chocolate shavings.

The party hats are from Martha Stewart, but you could also easily make your own, using scrapbook paper to roll out into a cone, hot-gluing into place, and then attaching elastic.

I made the tiny pies in little oven-safe condiment dishes and made the tiny circles on the upper crust using the tip of a cake decorating tip.

The tiny cute-as-a-button cupcakes were baked in cupcake liners I found at the Japanese Dollar Store and the sugar buttons came from Bake it Pretty.

We made the aprons by cutting out an apron shapes from fabric and edging each one with bias tape.  We used bias tape for the apron strings as well.  We stitched the bias tape into place, but it could also be attached using hot-glue.

The tiny bags are from Martha Stewart.

 

 

Front Porch Family

Last night, Colin's sister, Alison, and our brother-in-law, Rick, came over for dinner.  Since it was such a beautiful evening, I decided to move everything to the front porch, for a perfect summery dinner.

We had delicious Copper River Salmon, Garlic Potatoes, Fresh Fruit, and Green Salad.  And for dessert, warm Chocolate Chip Cookies.

And after a brief thunder and lightning intermission, which we enjoyed watching from our front porch seats, all of the cousins had a hockey/bike riding/roller-blading/go-cart cruising/pogo stick jumping/rock climbing extravaganza.

And it was perfect.

Drink-o-Rama!

I love collecting great old pop bottles to fill with special drinks for guests.  Like these I filled with vanilla chai tea I'd brewed the day before.  Delicious juices work really well too!  To seal, I use new corks that we purchase from home improvement stores like Lowes.  And I always make sure to sterilize the bottles before use.

For this Prairie Party, we placed the bottled ice-teas in a huge old yellowware bowl and filled with ice.

Summer Refreshment

Summer parties call for refreshing icy beverages.  To make them even more delicious, I like to have an assortment of fruits and garnishes on hand for guests to easily stir in, such as little dishes of smashed fruits like blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and sprigs of mint.  Simple garnish skewers can be made with lemon wedges and berries.

For the Country Party, great old metal Igloo drink dispensers were used to dispense the drinks.  To label the drinks in the Igloos, we used old 4-H ribbons we found at an estate sale and added a handmade paper medallion to the top of the ribbons.  We stamped the names of the drinks on each medallion and affixed the blue ribbon "labels" to each container.

 

At the same party, we filled a vintage kitchen cart with canning jar "glasses" and placed it next to the lemonade table.

Country Party

Whether you're planning a summer party with friends or a casual country wedding, it's the extra little details that can make all the difference.  Don't hesitate to pull out your favorite furniture pieces to use as clean-up stations, and to use fine linen napkins for your meal.  Mix casual and elegant, junky and fancy - but most of all, just have fun!

Sweetpeas in a canning jar are placed inside a darling little shopping bag:

Wild rosehips fill a vintage dairy cooler atop atop an old dough table.  A funky enamelware tub will hold used silverware, the wired wheeled market basket a gathering spot for used linen napkins, and a chippity old wood box serves as a recycling receptacle:

Vintage cardboard anagram letters make perfect little labels for the silverware clean-up tub, used linen basket and compost bucket:

An old washer is used as the gathering place for plates on one side and canning jar "glasses" on the other:

Chicken feeders make perfect vases:

Vintage silverware is placed atop linen napkins and tied off with strips of cheery calico:

Rosey Lunch Party

A special lunch with friends calls for pretty little settings. I love these tiny café creamers I found at a sale, and for a recent lunch party, decided they’d make perfect personal vases. I filled the “vases” with tiny wild roses and set out a mix of beautiful old china plates to create special place settings.

Forks were placed atop cloth napkins and tied off with pretty vintage ribbon. As a final touch, I placed a sprig of wild rose buds under each ribbon.

This salad is the perfect light lunch:

Raspberry Poppy Seed Salad

Salad:

Greens of your choice
Thinly sliced red onions (enough to accent the greens)
Raspberries (enough to accent the greens)

Raspberry Poppy Seed Dressing:

2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1 tsp. Honey
1 tsp. Raspberry Jam
1/2 tsp. Poppy Seeds
Salt & Pepper to taste

Garnish:

Crumbled Feta Cheese
Sliced Almonds

Combine salad ingredients in a pretty bowl. Combine dressing ingredients, and pour desired amount over greens. Toss gently and garnish. Serve promptly, and enjoy.

TIPS:
To keep the dressing from separating, slowly pour the oil into the lemon juice, while whisking rapidly. Whisk in remaining ingredients. The result will be a creamy dressing that won’t separate.

Make delicious sandwiches by hollowing out good quality focaccia bread squares and stuffing with this yummy salad.