From The Heart....

Each February I organize our Ladies' Dept. Valentines get together. We usually serve food and make some sort of gift for the ladies to bring home to the ones they love. This year I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to do a sort of live blog thing. Several of the ladies in our church have blogs and most of them have oodles of talent. I titled the party "From The Heart" and picked a couple of ladies to demonstrate something that they do to show their love to their families. I underestimated the time it would take to adequately cover each of the topics, so we didn't get to the topics of : Favorite Homemaking Books, The Art of Coupon Clipping, & How to Create a Quick & Easy Party Table. 

We will get to them at some point though. Sorry gals.

 Below are pics of some of the ladies that participated.

 Sis. M demonstrated how to make homemade laundry soap which is more economical than the varieties available in stores, Not to mention better for the environment and your family.

Sis. K showed the ladies how to make "yo yo's" from scraps of fabric. Then she showed us some ideas on how to use them to embellish pillows, picture frames, and headbands.

 Above & Below are pics of "Plain Old Kristi" discussing how to pack adorable healthy lunches for your children. If you would like to see some of her "Bentos" you'll have to hop on over to her blog.

These Japanese inspired lunches are so cute.

 I was inspired to try my hand at making the laundry soap. 

I did it. It works. It's cheap. I love it.

I also decided to try some other recipes 

and I even made a discovery.

(If you already knew about this, 

don't spoil my fun.)

I decided to make a paste out of baking soda and a few drops of Dr.Bronner's Peppermint Castille Soap. I applied it, with a damp washcloth, to my tea kettle and my pitiful toaster oven.

After lightly rubbing for a few seconds, I rinsed and dried the two. 

The part of my oven door that you see gleaming over the box of soda 

used to be caked on/baked on black & brown . . .

and just look at my kettle!
I usually have to use chemicals and a lot of elbow grease to get it that shiny.

 One of the door prizes happened to be a cookbook that I own. I purposed in my heart to come home and try some more recipes from it. The above chunks of pure delight are a result of my determination.

These are called French Breakfast Puffs and the recipe is from, 

"The Pioneer Woman Cooks"

By: Ree Drummond

The recipe may even be on her fabulous web site.

Last, but not least...

From our hearts to your arteries... 

 homemade shortbread going into the oven for Eloise's Sunday School class. 

We decided that these are tastier than Valentines cards.

If you would like to see what the finished product looks like, simply click on the, "In My Kitchen" tab at the top  and then scroll down a little ways and you will see a spatula lifting a golden morsel out of a pan.

That's what it looks like.

Love & Prayers,

~Me~