I've Turned Orange!

The FIFA World Cup is upon us, and it is very evident here in The Netherlands. The Dutch team is orange, and there is no mistaking it. Our entire neighborhood is decorated with orange; orange flags, orange stuffed animals, orange horns..you get the idea. 

Orange streamers weave across the streets from one home to another. 

Even our grocery store has showcased all their orange vegetables, the bakery is selling their cakes iced in orange, snackfoods have been repackaged in orange and M&M's are available in a special Netherlands edition. It's incredible. It's everywhere.

So, what do you do when everyone and everything around you is colored orange? 

You join them!

We put on our orange shirts (that we still had from Koninginnedag) and cheer. It is hard not to get excited when you see everyone else so excited. It's infectious. I love it.

I hope that you, no matter what color you may be sporting, are enjoying the World Cup.

Cheers!

-Laura

Blueberry Banana Whole Wheat Muffins (Vegan)

I made these this weekend and. they. were.

wonderful.

I used this recipe as my base then added

1 Cup blueberries* (fresh or frozen, thawed first)

1 tsp cinnamon

*mix the blueberries into the dry ingredients, this will coat the blueberries and prevent them from turning your batter purple.

I love these muffins. They are soft, tender, fluffy and full of goodness. Hubby and I ate half the batch before the day was done so I decided that I better freeze the rest so that he could have some in his lunch next week. To freeze them, I individually wrap them in plastic wrap, then put them all into a freezer bag with the date marked on them. They will keep like this for 2-3 months, if wrapped properly. To pack them in my hubby's lunch I just take one out of the freezer in the morning, and he unwraps it at lunch, gives it a few seconds in the microwave and it tastes just like it came out of the oven. 

What a yummy lunch time treat.

Happy baking!

-Laura

YW Value Table Cards

After another brief blogging break I am back with plenty to write about. We made a last minute trip back to Canada. 

It was wonderful.

Upon returning home, it was time to put together the YW in Excellence and New Beginnings Evening. What fun!

The tasks were delegated out and I was quite content with getting a creative aspect of it; the table setting. The previous year, they had done a great idea of setting a vase of flowers in each value color on the main table. At the end of the evening, the girls could come up and make their own Value Bouquet and we decided to do that again this year. They LOVED this. Combine the flowers with colored table cloths and some table cards and you have a great table setting for the front of the room.

Which brings me to the table cards. I made these with the intention that they would be used throughout the year as a table setting during our value themed months.

It is a little difficult to tell from the picture, but the value text is raised and mounted onto white corrugated poster board, which was then mounted on to folded, white cardstock. Tie a color coordinated ribbon around and voila! 

The evening was so enjoyable and it was great to see the girls receive recognition for everything that they had been busy with during the last year. We have a very talented group of girls (and I am not the least bit biased).

Cheers!

-Laura