Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

You know, they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder"...so my blogging friends, will you be fonder of me now that I have some new blog posts on the way? You didn't know there would be a test did you? ;)

Life has been so completely busy that I simply haven't had the few free moments it takes to do a blog post. But today my determination was meant and I made the time, my room is a different story however!!
It is SO lovely out that I actually sat outside for a little while today (manly to get this picture;)! And I set up a tftt picture so I now have next week's picture, sorry about missing the 20th's. I hate doing that...I just couldn't get it together enough to blog that week!
So, this is just a note to say that I have an outline for what the next few weeks should look like on my blog so keep checking back and hopefully I'll have posted!
Blessings...and no melting out there ;)

PS. I'm thinking about starting a once a week (on any day I pick;) 'Modest Wardrobe' or 'What I wore' post....what do you think? Please let me know your thoughts in a comment below!

Thoughts for Tea Time

Monday, May 27th's
Thought for Tea Time

Today's Thought:

'There is no pit so deep, 
that the hand of God is not deeper still.'
-Corrie Ten Boom

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Birthday Blessings!

I had a wonderful Birthday Saturday! Mom and I went shopping all day and out to lunch at Olive Garden. I hadn't been there before but completely enjoyed it ;) I found several nice treasures from shopping at all the cute little stores that we went to!
We came home to several people at our house for a little dinner party Hope put together for me! It was a lot of fun, I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

So to all who made my birthday very special...THANK YOU!! I had an amazing day :)

Oh, and as a side note...I have a few more teacups to pose as TFTT pictures in the future! So excited my teacup collection is growing!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Thoughts for Tea Time

Monday, May 13th's
Thought for Tea Time

Today's thought:
"I have come to see that you can limit God in different ways. You can limit Him by thinking He can never work in spectacular ways. But you can also limit Him by  thinking that only the spectacular is meaningful."
-Joshua Harris

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day

To my wonderful, beautiful and inspiring Mother...thank you for all the sacrifices you make, the pain you endure, the love you pour out, the strength you offer, the joy you give, and the example of Christ you show...Happy Mothers Day!
And to all women who have been blessed to have a child, happy Mother's Day. May your day of celebrating be special and unique with your families!
God bless!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

John 14:1-3

"Let not your heart be troubled: all of you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there all of you may be also."

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Chocolate Chip Scones

I love Pinterest! I just thought Id start with that little intro ;). I saw this recipe on Pinterest a few evenings ago and thought it looked good, so I pinned it for a future time...little did I know that future time would be just a day or two later ;) Dad bought chocolate chips yesterday while at the store and I got to work on making these scones!

And I have to say that after two failed attempts on making banana bread in our bread machine these nicely replaced my confidence :) I was pretty upset to learn I couldn't conquer a bread machine but I've know decided that it was the bread machines fault altogether!!
I know you all want to try these nice tasty little scones that just go perfectly with tea! Speaking of which, I now have my next week's thought for tea time picture!

Chocolate Chip Scones
Ingredients:
2 3/4 c. All-purpose Flour,
1/3 c. Sugar,
3/4 tsp. Salt,
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder,
1/2 c. Chocolate Chips,
2 large Eggs,
2 tsp. Vanilla,
1/2 c. to 2/3 c. Milk
Glaze:
3 1/2 c. Powder Sugar
7 Tbsp. Water
1 tsp. Vanilla
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
2. Work in butter just until mixture is unevenly crumbly; it's ok for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated. 
3. Stir in Chocolate Chips.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and 1/2 c. milk.
5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together.
Stir in additional milk if the dough seems dry, and doesn't come together (I had to do that).
6. Scrape the dough onto a well-floured work surface. Pat/roll it into a 8" to 8 1/2" square, a scant 3/4" thick. Make sure the underneath is very well floured.
7. Cut the square into 2" squares and then cut each square in half diagonally, (I floured my knife and it worked better!).

8. Transfer the scones to a well-greased (or parchment paper lined) baking dish. They can be set fairly close together.
9. For the best texture and highest rise, place the pan into the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Preheat your oven in this time to 425*F.

10. Bake for 19-20 minutes, until the scones are golden brown! I transferred mine after the freezer into a new baking dish to avoid cracking or braking with the temperature change.
11. Make the glaze now. If your sugar seems lumpy sift it before making, for an extra smooth glaze.
12. Now, glaze each scone! I used a pastry brush and glazed the tops, let it harden, then dipped the bottoms in glaze and set upside down to harden that. If you want additional yummy glaze tops then glaze as much as you'd like ;)
I glazed the scones over a rack in a sheet cake pan to catch the drippings!

13. Put your tea kettle on, invite a friend, make some tea, and serve with these yummy chocolate chip glazed scones!!

These are way delicious and are a new favorite recipe in our home!

This recipe came from the King Arthur Flour website, but the pictures are mine :) If you're pinning to Pinterest please leave my link in caption!

Happy baking!!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Thoughts for Tea Time

Monday, May 6th's
Thought for Tea Time

Today's thought:

'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be exeptible in Thy sight o Lord.' Psalm 19:14


So, what do you do when you forget to take a tea time picture? Well I grabbed one of my favorite tea pictures off Pinterest and using that ;)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

One week...

I only have one week until Im 18!! Im not usually so excited about my birthdays but Im really looking forward to this year's :-)
Counting down the days for some reason seems immature...is it? ;)


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A full calendar

Sorry for my absence here the last while and I wish I could say it will get better but unfortunately all I can say is that my calendar is full right now and I am focusing on planning papers, emails and phone calls ;) I am putting together a fundraising yard sale for a family at our Church who are adopting a child or children from Ethiopia! You may be wondering how much work can a yard sale actually be?! There are indeed many details involved...from getting donations from everyone that we can, to organizing a bake sale and lunch stand, to getting the necessary things like canopies and tables, and then of course all the going through things part which I will be starting to embark upon tomorrow! Should be fun right? :/
Besides that I have also been given the great pleasure of being asked to be a day-of coordinate for two weddings coming up in June. I meet with one of the gals I will be doing a little more then just day-of planning for on Saturday to disguise the details! I am so excited :) It has long been my desire to become an official event and wedding planner but some things just take me time to actually decide upon (ok...nearly everything does :-P). Since the great joy of planning my sisters wedding last year, I have been able to really get a feel for this and love it...oh, the details, I LOVE them! :) Anyhow, the Lord has really blessed me with the talent and ability to plan and work with details and I am happy to use that to help others when they need it, and especially with weddings because I know how that time flies and you want to spend it with your fiancé, your family and your friends and not be constantly sweating over how things are! I'll do the sweating for you...cause I love it!!
Anyways, didn't plan on going on like that but there you have it!

If you live in the area here in Alaska (in the Matsu valley) then come visit us on May 17th and 18th at Farm Loop Christian Center between 9am-5pm! We will also be having a lunch stand (open between 11am-3pm), a bake sale and homemade ice cream!!
And from wherever you are you can be praying that we have good weather for the event!
I'll be back hopefully soon ;)