Beauty 4 Ashes: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: 6-Month Pictures

Monday, November 28, 2011

Inspiration Files: DIY Gift Ideas

When I see something on another blog and it particularly inspires me, I save a picture of it on my computer. I have all kinds of folders, one of which is Christmas Ideas. Today I want to share my collection of Christmas gift ideas. Most are linked; two are not. If you know the missing two sources, please contact me so I can link back!

If you are family, please view with those short-term-memory glasses, mkay?

Please tell me where this is from so I can give proper credit!

Ouch, another one not labeled! It has a watermark but I can't read it.

Do you have any DIY gift ideas up your sleeve for this Christmas?

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Helping Others on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a recap of Thanksgiving last year, but it's what we're doing again today! I hope you have a wonderful day and are feeling very blessed. I am.

My in-laws decided that instead of hosting a regular Thanksgiving dinner for "only" 9-14 people at their home, they'd host a dinner at their church for 150 people who might not otherwise get a Thanksgiving dinner.

These simple centerpieces are black beans and votives in mason jars of various sizes were on the rest of the tables.

I think it looks simple and welcoming!

Here is my mother-in-law, preparing salads for the guests.

She planned and organized for weeks ahead of time so Thanksgiving Day ran smoothly.

There were many volunteers from the church who came to help out instead of staying home with their families.

Look at all that food! Church members and local businesses donated everything!

A dentist from town even showed up that morning saying he was there to help. He warmly welcomed people in the lobby and disappeared without eating a crumb.

Here is a group from the rehab center enjoying the meal. They clapped for us and told us how nice it was to be treated like humans. I'm not telling you for the accolades, but so we can all realized how much we have to be thankful for!

The people standing in this picture are church members who acted as servers, bringing people hot cider, salad and pies. That really helped those of us serving in the kitchen!

We (and I say that only because I helped; this was all the organizing of my in-laws!) also sent meals to the jail and the police station. As the day wound down, we realized we had a lot of food leftover, so my father-in-law called the jail and asked if they would like seconds for supper! We dished up more and sent it out. Someone told him when he delivered the food, "It's so nice to know there are people out there who care." Doesn't that make it all worthwhile?!

I hope you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving. We're definitely planning to do this again! What a blessing we all received by blessing others who are less fortunate.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Wants to Crawl!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Peanut Butter Experiment

Our family loves peanut butter. We like the all-natural, peanuts and salt only kind. For several years we've ordered it by the 9 lb-bucket from a natural food store. Recently the price went up and we decided it would be a fun experiment to try making our own.

So we ordered peanuts instead of peanut butter.

We broke out the juicer with a grinder attachment.

We filled up the feed tube

and pressed the peanuts into the machine.

Sure enough, out pooped some peanut butter!

You might want to avert your sensitive eyes.

Pretty soon we had a whole bucket of ~~poop~~ peanut butter.

It seemed dry, so we added a little olive oil

and some salt, of course.

My sweetheart gave it a quick stir. No, those are not my manly hands!

The verdict: Freshly ground peanut butter is fantastic! Other than washing the juicer (UGH!), it was a simple enough chore too. So since we liked it, we wanted to know how much we saved! You want to know too?

My engineer husband actually made a spreadsheet. And the bottom line? Nothing! It was actually a few cents cheaper to buy natural peanut butter from the grocery store! Can you believe it?

We were pretty bummed to find out we weren't saving anything by making our own peanut butter. The silver lining? One less chore on my to-do list!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Inspiration Files: Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving! To me it's the holiday with the purist motives and least commercialism. I love that the focus is on family and gratitude. The only thing I wish was that it wasn't sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas so Thanksgiving would get the attention it deserves!

I hope you enjoy these Thanksgiving inspiration pictures!