Finally the sun is shining and I was able to take a few brighter pictures of Faith's room!  Gotta love spring although we are prepared for at least a few more snow storms before June. That's living in Alberta.

I found this great art piece at Homesense for only $70. The colors are perfect and I thought it gave a little pop of color to the room.  It is a print on a canvas so I thought it also added some texture.  Faithie-Girl LOVES it!  

The details on the duvet cover.

Faith loves to shop for antique cats so Scott put up these black shelves from ikea to display them.  They work perfect because they are so narrow, they are to display picture frames.  Now if I can only find a gilded mirror in silver!  Ha, ha.

Faith's 12th birthday gift from Mom and Dad!

It all started when she saw the perfect wallpaper.  My words to Faith "Well you better check with Dad".  Faith was gone to ask her Dad in the other isle before I even finished my sentence.  In typical Scott fashion he said,  "I'll put it up if you help me".   All of a sudden we were picking out the perfect paint. I think Faith smiled from ear to ear for a week! The next discussion was new linens to match and to our amazement we found the perfect color and design to match the paper and paint at Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was so happy to be able to get everything for the bed at one store!  

The cherry on top was the announcement that she would be getting new furniture and a queen size bed to add to her gift!  Pier One had everything we needed. 

Faith is now thirster than ever at bedtime and needs to have a glass of water at her side every night.  I wonder if it would have to do with the pullout drink shelf in her end table?  So much fun being twelve!

A big cozy chair to read in every night before bed.

I asked Faith what she loved the most about this gift and her answer was having so much fun helping Dad wallpaper, paint and put together her furniture.  True love! 

PEARS

Pear Custard Pie

This is such an easy and delicious recipe and would be perfect to add to your Easter brunch menu.  It is a crustless pie and the pears add a light sweetness that makes this dish very fresh tasting. Oh and the best part of this recipe, it whips up in a snap! 


1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pie dish
3 ripe but firm Comice or Bartlett pears, peeled, halved, and cored
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
      Confectioners' sugar, for dusting


Preheat the oven to 350 F; butter a 9-inch pie dish.  Slice the pears 1/4 inch thick lengthwise.  Arrange the slices, overlapping slightly, in the dish.


In a blender, process the melted butter, granulated sugar, flour, vanilla, eggs, milk, and salt until smooth.


Pour the batter over the pears; bake until golden and firm to the touch, 40 to 45 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.


If you would like a little more flavour I would add a touch of cinnamon or nutmeg, enjoy.


recipe source: Everyday Food Great Food Fast, from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living

The Gift Of An Ordinary Day

I find this video so touching and wanted to share it with you.

I really enjoy preparing salads that will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.  This Santa Fe Salad is perfect for exactly that, it will stay fresh for 2-3 days.  I love to top chili with this recipe or scrambled eggs, tacos or it is yummy as a side.   I find that 1 tsp. of cumin is not enough flavour so I add about 1/2 tsp. more for a little kick.   Enjoy!

Santa Fe Salad

Cilantro Lime Dressing 
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp. cumin 
salt and pepper


Salad
19 oz can black beans, rinsed, drained
1 red bell pepper, diced
12 oz can kernel corn, drained ( I use frozen, thawed, rinsed)
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded,minced


In a medium bow whisk together oil and lime juice.  Add cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper and mix well.  Stir in salad ingredients and seasonings.  Serve at room temp.  Serves 6.


recipe source:  The Best Of Bridge

Faith's 12th Candy Birthday Party

Kernels popcorn, Superkid!  The popcorn containers are from Home Outfitters and looked adorable at each place setting.

This candy cake was so much fun to make and I think it looks so sweet!  I bought a round cake at Co-op, several packages of Kit Kat chocolate bars, and a large bag of M & Ms.  All you need to do to create this cute cake is to break the Kit Kat bars into twos and gently press them into the icing on the side of the cake.  My cake took 9.5 Kit Kat bars to cover the whole cake.   Then carefully pour the whole bag of M & Ms to fill the top of the cake up to the sides of the candy bars.  If you like you can wrap a sweet ribbon around the candy bars and tie it into a big bow in the front. That is it your cake is decorated.

I found this pink mesh in a roll at the $ store for $2.00 so I thought what a perfect table runner!  The tissue flowers are from the Martha Stewart's party line.

I also ran around the house and found every clear glass vase or container that I owned to display all of the candy assortments. I arranged the vases down the center of the table and  keep the vases on the pink runner.  In the end the table looked bright and along the theme of  Dylan's Candy Bar.

Faith and I had so much fun setting up the nail station.  I bought the Girls lots of nail polish in both bold and light colors, it is a good idea to have soft colors for the girls that don't wear the bright colors.  I put a ton of cotton pads, nails files and nail stickers in a bowl so that every girl had their own to use.  At Walmart I picked up a couple of hand and nail lotions and a nail air dryer for $14.00 which was the hit of the night!!!

Loads of magazines, the girls just loved the Teen Prom magazine!  I found Style Me Up!  craft kits at Walmart to make key necklaces, Sweet Key Charms and washable sparkle tattoos, Butterfly Kiss.  The nice thing about these kits were they had eveything in them!  The key necklaces were the favourites, every girl made one and proudly wore it all night.  

The girls had so much fun with the Wii Just Dance 2 and Karaoke Revolution.

Be prepared for your home to smell like a nail salon and have lots of nail polish remover and Q-tips.  I found that because the girls don't paint their nails very often they needed to use the Q-tips to remove the polish from their skin, especially when using their left hand.

To give the snacks and dinner a restaurant feel I went to the $ Store and bought some plastic pop jugs so that the girls could help themselves with refills and metal pizza pans to put the pizza slices on.  I also found curly and colorful tooth picks to top the fruit and veggie platters. 

I wanted to create loots bags that were kind of grown up so I  got each girl a $5.00 Starbucks card and made each girl a cup cozy.  Oh course I added candy too.   I did not want to be left with all the leftover candy from the table so at the end of the birthday I filled candy boxes for each girl and gave these along side the loot bags.

Super Spoiled and lovin it!!!!

twelve

"A daughter is a miracle that never ceases to be miraculous... full of beauty and forever beautiful... loving and caring and truly amazing." - - Deanna Beisser

 I seems like yesterday that you were born, not twelve years ago!  You were born at 2:44 am, 7 lbs, 6 oz, 19 inches long and now look at you.   You have grown as tall as Mom, your feet are a size 7, you can work a computer device better than Dad and I, you have a dog walking business, you play the piano, you love ballet, you have grades that make us so proud, and best of all you are the most thoughtful Girl we know.  

"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart." --Author Unknown

Happy Birthday Faith, we love you.