XOXO Valentine's Cupcakes

As usual, I found inspiration on Pinterest this week.  Check out these cute XOXO cupcakes!

I was racing to prepare donations for the youth group's Valentine Dessert Auction, and decided these would be quick and easy.  I even took a short-cut by ditching the piping bag and opting for frosting in a can.

I think the frosting would have looked a little nicer if I hadn't taken the shortcut, but not bad for a quick treat!

Oreo Truffle Pops for Valentine's Day

I was enlisted to help a friend make truffle pops for a wedding shower.  When I figured out that they were easy, cute AND delicious I decided I'd better find a reason to make another batch.  Thank goodness the youth group needed donations for their Valentine Dessert Auction!  You might need this "fancy" trick up your sleeve, too.

To make truffle pops, you'll need:

• One regular size bag of Oreos
• 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
• One bag of chocolate chips
• Sprinkles
• Cake pop sticks (from Michael's)
• Clear treat sacks (from Michael's)
• Cupcake papers
• Decorative wire garland or ribbon

1.  Place cream cheese and all the Oreos in a food processor.  Pulse until combined and lump free.

2.  Shape dough into balls about 1 1/2" in diameter.  Place truffles on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Insert a stick into the top of each truffle.  Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. 

3.  Using a double-boiler (or your microwave), melt the chocolate chips to a consistency that will be good for dipping.  Dip each truffle into the chocolate until uniformly covered.  

4.  Shake on some sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet.  Return truffle to the baking sheet.  When all the truffles have been dipped, refrigerate for another 15-20 minutes.

5.  Slip a cupcake liner into the bottom of a treat sack.  Add your truffle pop (stick side up) and secure with a piece of wire garland.  You can twist the ends of your garland around a pencil if you want them to have some curl.

Happy Valentine's Truffle Pop Day!

2012 Holiday Greetings!

We're looking back at a very pleasant, low-key 2012!

In January...

• Jim went to San Francisco to work at the MacWorld conference.  All his tech-gadget itches were scratched.
• Nicole opened a new learning center for Engineering students at OSU.  It continues to be a big focus of her work.

In February...

• Mom & Fred came to visit.  Since our birthdays are three weeks apart, we shared a party.

Celebrating a combined 98 years! 

In March...

• Jim and OSU Glee hosted their first "Sing Off" concert.  They collaborated with OSU's a ccappella groups to rock our socks.

OSU Glee

In April...

• We got to hear Chanticleer in Portland

In May...

• Nicole got to go to Anchorage on a work trip and snuck in a quick visit with the Taylors.
• We were "drafted" to the Methodist Marmots softball team. Nobody can tell us where the team name came from, but we won a few games and had a lot of fun!

We did some landscaping...and discovered a convenient way to transport trees.

In June...

• We got a visit from Erin & Aiden

Uncle Jim & Eloise snuck in a little beach time

Mom & I met up with Brenda in Seattle

In July...

• Jim chaperoned the youth group mission trip to Juneau.  They built a community garden and celebrated the 4th of July Alaska-style.

In August...

We spent a week in Montana.  Sunsets at Mom & Fred's are the best!

Nicole's grad school pals had a super fun Corvallis reunion.

In September...

• Our sister-in-law Treena visited for Labor Day weekend.  We shopped till we dropped!

We got the dog dirty. 

In October...

Nicole traveled to Nashville for a conference and saw the Grand Ole Opry

In November...

Jim & Nicole reunited with old friends for a Willamette Choir Reunion

Jim served as Music Director and Band Leader for a production of RENT.
(See the back of his head under the platform?)

In December...

• We spent a few days in Phoenix enjoying 80-degree weather with Erin & Aiden.
• Jim hung enough Christmas lights to ensure that our house can be seen from space.

As always, we are reminded of the many blessings of this life, and are so grateful for the family and friends we share it with!  We wish you the happiest of holidays and a joy-filled new year!

Jim, Nicole & Sugar

2011 Holiday Greetings!

Time for a look back at 2011...We vowed it would be Year of Nothing, but we sure crammed a lot in!

January brought actual snow!

Bigger than the news of snow was the start of Jim's new job as Director of Oregon State University's Glee Choir.  Between 75 and 100 students have enrolled every quarter and they are a big hit around campus.

OSU Glee

Jimbo hit the big 3-0 in April.  His best friend Lucas turned 30 a few days later so we rolled the whole thing into one big birthday shindig (complete with matching novelty t-shirts) at the Kennedy School in Portland. 

Soon after we celebrated another friendship - my 20th anniversary with my bestie Brenda Lee.  We'd been promising ourselves to celebrate milestones (10 years... 15 years...) but never managed to pull it off.  So we went big for our 20th and flew off to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. 

Jim and Thatcher came along to..."supervise"...and we had a fantastic time!

April included one more special celebration - showering our girl, Erin, and anticipating the arrival of her sweet baby Aiden.  

My pals from grad school got together in Las Vegas in May.   We had a fantastic reunion, including a Cirque du Soleil show and a special baby shower brunch to celebrate Nikki's little guy, Oscar.

In June, I joined a group of OSU colleagues to run our Hawaii orientation program in Honolulu.  Thanks to an unused companion fare, Jim was able to tag along.  Of course he was put right to work and learned a lot about academic advising and online registration!

July found us in Charleston, South Carolina, helping our dear friend Amanda move.  A few days later we'd gotten her settled in Columbus, Ohio.  We got to see a few new states and try out the Piggly Wiggly.

I dig the Pig!

We traveled back to Montana in August and had a nice relaxing vacation.  We spent time with my Mom and Fred in Missoula, and took a camping trip with my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dean. 

Four days with no internet, no cell phones, and nothing more pressing to attend to than getting the boat in the water?  Hello Vacation!  I finally got good at towing/backing/parking a trailer.  I think I'll add that to my resume...

We squeezed in a day trip to introduce Jim to Glacier National Park.

Just as we returned from Montana, I had my last day at OSU's College of Pharmacy.  It was hard to say goodbye after 8 years, but opportunity knocked for me and I took a new job as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs for OSU's College of Engineering.  About a month later, Jim was offered a position as Choir Director for the First United Methodist Church in Corvallis.  Glee and the church keep Jim happy and busy, and we both feel so fortunate to have found such fulfilling work this year. 

Knowing that we are happily settling into long-term jobs in Corvallis, we decided to take the plunge and buy our first home.  We looked at 10 houses and fell in love with number 11!

We moved in to our new digs in October, and have been enjoying "fancy" amenities like the dishwasher, a garage, and a real yard for Sugar.  It's a big step up from our 850 square foot rental!

Thanksgiving found us at my brother's house in Spokane, Washington.  It was a  nice low-key weekend with my family and included a benefit dog-walk for the Humane Society. 

And now it's time for Christmas.  It will be our first in our home, and Jim's family will come to celebrate with us.  As we count our blessings - family, friends, good health, meaningful work, and the world's greatest dog - we wish you all the best.  May all your days be filled with joy! 

Happy Holidays from Jim, Nicole, and Sugar

DIY Ornament Wreath

There are gobs of cute ornament wreaths all over Pinterest, and I finally got around to making my own!

I followed a very nice tutorial from Andrea, and there are plenty of others out there so I won't bore you with the repeat here.  I found these fun silver ornaments at Winco (of all places!) and they were even cheaper than the dollar store options.  I used 70 ornaments total.  The best part?  The globe snaps into the hook on the ornament so there was none of the tedious gluing required on the other tutorials.  I think Winco is also called Cub Foods in some areas (wink wink Minnesota girls!).

Our door is super tall so standard over-the-door wreath hangers weren't working.  We found a really nice decorative metal Command Hook at Home Depot and adhered it to the door.  It's sturdy, but removable so I'm not worried about damaging the door surface.

Come knock on our door!  We are super festive!

Pinterest Project: Glittered Light Bulbs

I finally made something I found on Pinterest:  Glittered Christmas Bulbs!  Though the instructions were minimal, the project was easy, inexpensive, and fairly quick.  The gratification was big =)

What you need:

* Old Christmas bulbs
* Glitter
* Modge Podge or Decoupage
* Paintbrush
* Paper plate
* Cookie Sheet
* Waxed Paper





Both Recollections and Martha Stewart make Extra Fine Glitter.  It was perfect for this project - good coverage, and not  as chunky as regular glitter.

Each bottle is $4-$5 each, but I hoarded Michael's 50% off coupons and spent $6.50 total.  I do love to save!

Martha's glitter was more expensive, but I didn't really see a difference in the quality.  Both lines have awesome color choices.

Let's get this show on the road!  Remove the bulbs from their string.  I scooped up this set at a garage sale and paid 50 cents.  Again with the savings!  Of course, they were grimy from life in someone's garage so I had to wipe them all down first.  Still worth it.  

Using the paintbrush, apply a medium layer of Modge Podge over the colored surface of the bulb.  I chose to leave the metal base exposed.

Working directly over the paper plate, shake glitter over the bulb.  It was easy to miss the pointed tip so I had to go back and catch those little bare spots.

Still over the paper plate, tap the excess glitter from the bulb, allow it to dry just a bit.

Lay them on your wax-paper covered cookie sheet to dry completely.  I left them overnight just to be on the safe side.

Return the remaining glitter to the jar.  Covering 24 bulbs used very little glitter so I have plenty left over for other projects.









And that's all there is to it!  I'll be exercising a lot of restraint to keep these in the closet until after Thanksgiving =)

Happy Easter!

The Great Christmas Letter War

Like so many others, my parents (mom & step-dad) send a Christmas letter. In addition to newsy tidbits about their hiking, gardening, and tromboning, there are updates on the kids - myself and my step-brother, Ben.

Let me give you a little context: when our parents married, Ben was 21 and I was 12, so we didn't "grow up together" the way other siblings do. Ben came home from college in the summers, but we never had the share-a-room-fight-over-the-phone-hair-pulling kind of sibling relationship. We like each other, we like to spend time together. We're cool. In fact, I admire him because he's a really awesome person. No spats. No rivalry. No nonsense.

Here's the problem: Ben's exceedingly proud papa is the author of the family Christmas letter. And it shows. Anyone reading the letter gets all kinds of updates on all the ways Ben is overachieving and/or saving the world this year.

Ben bought the most beautiful historic home.

Ben is restoring that beautiful historic home himself. Impeccably.

Ben is the President of a fancy community organization.

Ben gives trombone recitals to benefit aforementioned organization. No one has ever played more beautifully.

Ben hiked here and there. More miles than anyone's ever hiked before.

Ben summited Mt. Rainier. Uphill both ways in the snow. WITH MONO.

Ben qualified for the Boston Marathon. They will surely award him a key to the city.

Ben negotiated peace in the middle east.

Ben single-handedly found a cure for cancer. On his lunch break.

Ben walks on water.

Ben is better than Jesus.

And Nicole? Oh...right...yes, she's there too. If I'm lucky, I get three lines about how I'm still related to them. Sometimes my information isn't even accurate! One year the letter said I work for the University of Oregon. THE HORROR!

Needless to say, the annual Christmas Letter Disparity has been a hot-button issue for this unsung youngest child. Last year I finally pointed it out to Ben, who found it hilarious and not at all problematic! Punk. He even hassles me about it. "I'm gonna take the trash out - betcha it'll be in the Christmas letter!" Har-dee-har-har.

In March, everybody was gathered at our parent's house, and the wine had been flowing over dinner. Ben passed the salt and his wife muttered under her breath about how that would probably be in the Christmas letter, and that was the end of it. I took the opportunity to call our parent's attention to the epic inequity to which I'd been subjected. I politely pointed out that I would be getting married this year and maybe - just maybe - that would give me equal billing in the Christmas letter. I also reminded them that I was marrying a fellow named JIM. A little accuracy, people.

And then, in December, the dreaded Family Christmas Letter arrived.


Just unfolding the letter put me into fits of laughter. Most of the letter is written in teensy-weensy 8 pt. font. But Nicole's update? 24 pt for the win!

And my paragraph came before Ben's.

And my paragraph was totally 100% accurate.

And I have never loved or savored the Family Christmas Letter more. This sucker will be immortalized in my scrapbook: The Year I Won the Christmas Letter War.

I claim this victory in the name of the underrepresented siblings of the world! We shall overcome!

Love,
NICOLE

P.S. Later I discovered how this miraculous missive came to be. My Mom wrote the letter this year.

P.P.S. I also found out that I was the only one who got the special large-type format. But I'm okay with that. I put it on the internet so it will live on forever.

P.P.P.S. This will surely be my first and last victory in the Christmas Letter War. Ben got a new job this year. And he's running the Boston Marathon. And he's probably on the short list for a Nobel Prize.

Fluff & Fudge

In September, my friend Megan married a charming man named Chris...
...and promptly moved to Rhode Island! Apparently it's a pretty big transition for a German farm-girl from Oregon to move in with a good Italian guy from Westerly. Megan's stories about life on the east coast have been entertaining and laden with references to lamé and leopard-print.

This week I received a surprise package from Little Italy's newest resident - full of items she considers distinctively Rhode Island.
Tasty Italian biscuits:

Coffee Syrup:
Apparently the coffee situation has been the toughest part of the transition. "Regular" coffee automatically comes with cream and sugar, and a strong black cup can't be found. But this coffee syrup is a hot ticket! Megan says it's used the way we Left Coasters use our chocolate syrup - mixed in milk. So, rather than dashing some milk into your coffee, folks add coffee syrup to their milk...go figure.

And finally, Fluff:
"Fluff & Butter" sandwiches are made by smearing this marshmallow goo and Peanut Butter on your bread. Health food it ain't.

While I loved the novelty of these little treats, Megan couldn't have known how perfectly timed her gift of Fluff would be. Marshmallow creme is an essential ingredient in my Dad's (practically famous) fudge recipe, which I was planning to make this weekend. As I whipped up a batch of fudge today I was awash in the nostalgia that process and those smells bring to me. As this is my first Christmas to make it without my Dad, that Fluff was probably the nicest gift I could have received.

The jury's still out on the Coffee Syrup.

Halloween!

We were invited to a Halloween party at Jessie & Tim's house on Saturday night. As we were brainstorming costume ideas, Jim had a stroke of genius. After picking up a baby Ella at the Goodwill and printing out a paper iPad, we were all set to masquerade around as Jessie & Tim!
Jim was extra-committed to a realistic portrayal of our friends - he shaved his head. We had a great time and a few people even mistook us for our doppelgangers from across the room!

Thank you, Jessie & Tim, for being good sports =)

Happy Birthday Sugar!

18 years ago today my Mom and Freddo tied the knot. Happy Anniversary!
(Incidentally, I'm fresh out of digital pictures from 18 years ago so this one from two weeks ago will have to do!)

A year ago today, we celebrated the very special wedding of our dear friends Nikki & Henry. Happy FIRST Anniversary to you!
Though we didn't know it at the time, our sweet girl Sugar was being born that same day. Today Sugar turns ONE!
(and she's thrilled about the party hat commemorating the occasion).

We've been lazing around Kauai all week and finally rolled into town to reclaim our pooch late last night. Thank goodness for Mimi who, in addition to taking care of Sugar all week long, also made her a special birthday treat - PupCakes!
Those are dog-food "sprinkles" on top - they think of everything. We decided this wasn't the year to train her to blow out candles.

Being a dainty and refined young lady, Sugar swiped the whole thing in one bite...
...and ran it out to the backyard (where all edible treasures are taken to be devoured).

Mmm, PupCake! Nom, nom, nom!

With her PupCake polished off, Sugar's patience with her party hat wore a little thin.



Happy Birthday, Sugar!! We look forward to dressing you up in silly outfits and feeding you novelty baked goods for years to come =)