The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is that we are expecting our 3rd child!  We were surprised at this news but we are excited.  God tends to give us babies when we least expect it.  I like surprises though so I am taking it all in as we prepare the coming of this new child at the end of summer.

The bad news is that I am drawing Tritzi to a close.  When evaluating this coming year I realized that I needed to give it up.  It was a hard decision, but the right one.  I want to love my husband and my children to the best of my ability so that the word of God may not be reviled (Titus 2:5).

This little venture has been a great experience.  I have learned a lot and it makes me appreciate all the more the other creative moms out there.  I am so thankful to my wonderful friends and family who have supported me and to those who have bought my flowers.   Thank you very much!

Maybe I will be back someday!   May God bless you and your family!

Cluster of Flowers

Recently, I tried something new with one of my flower styles and clustered some flowers together to make a pin.

You can wear it this way.

Or this way.

DIY Spring Flower Pens

I made these pens and put them in a bucket as gifts for some friends this past Christmas.  I thought this would be a fun project to do for spring too.  You can make spring flowers and decorate your home.  The kids would have fun too.  If you would like some Tritzi flowers for your pens, I can send some for you for $1 a flower!

Here is what you need:  A package of pens, a small bucket (I got mine at target for $1), scrapbook letters, ribbon, hot glue, lighter and Tritzi flowers!

First wrap the pens with ribbon.  I used a school color theme with my bucket.

When you wrap the pen make sure you heat the ends with a lighter first.  Then use a dab of hot glue at the top and start wrapping.

Use the hot glue gun again at the end to keep the ribbon on.  Then on the end use the hot glue gun to put the flower on.

I used another peice of felt and glued it on the back to secure the flower more.

In the bucket I placed white beans in order to keep the flowers in the center.

Full Flowers

Little Leighton is wearing a small full flower.
Doesn’t it look great on her!  Don’t you just love the toothy smile!

Family Time

We had a great Christmas and a start to the new year.  I hope you have too.  For Christmas, my parents and my sister’s family came down to celebrate it with us.  When they come to visit they always bring some Japanese food with them.  One item my children love to receive is seaweed!  Yes, seaweed.  It is called “nori” in japanese.  Even though they are only a quarter Japanese and live in IL, they sure love seaweed like they have been eating it all of their lives.  When we receive it, it doesn’t last long.  In fact, half the stash is gone already.  I know you might think yuck, but it is quite tasty.
Here are a few items my parents brought down for us that I thought I would share.

Ramune – Japanese Soda (not all of their soda looks like this)

This bottle has a clear marble stopper at the top.

This is the “thingy” you use to push the marble down.  I don’t know what else to call it.

See the marble in the center.  Now the soda is ready to drink.

 

Rice Cakes

The rice cakes have a sweet red bean inside of them.  The children do not care for this treat.  Neither does my husband so I get this all to myself.  I enjoy it with a nice cup of hot green tea.  Sweet red bean is a common center for various treats in Japan.  It sometimes can be mistaken for chocolate.  I had friends who bit into a nice looking pastry only to be very disappointed that it had red bean inside.

The white outside is the rice dough (I guess that is what you would call it.)  It is soft and chewy.

During New Years, it is a Japanese tradition to eat rice dough with hot sweet red bean poured on top.  There is a ceremony where you put steamed rice into a large mortar and mallets are used to pound it until it is like dough.

My father-in-law insisted I eat black-eyed peas and cabbage for New Years, so I did, but I  would rather stick to the Japanese New Year tradition.  It tastes WAY better in my opinion!

Merry Christmas

Phil 2:5~8
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

My prayer is that all of you will enjoy your time as you marvel at our Savior’s birth.  What a precious time it is to share with your children and family the goodness of Christ!

Thank you to all of you who have supported me this year in my Tritzi making.  Thank you for those of you who have stopped by here to read my posts, I appreciate it greatly.  Here are the highlights of the year:

* I mailed my flowers to 18 states, and 1 out of country.

* I made flowers for the little girls at the Haiti Rescue Center.

* I sold my flowers at three locations.  A MOM to MOM sale in Macomb, MI, an Apple Festival in Kimmswick, MO, and a craft fair in St. Charles, MO.

* 1 shop bought my flowers to sell in her store.

So overall I feel very good about the year.  I have enjoyed making my flowers and I look forward to what God has in store for my little business this next year!  I’ll be back to post in 2011.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Peppermint Fudge – take 4

Every year at Christmas I make peppermint fudge from a recipe I received in 2007.  To read about how I received this recipe and to see the recipe go here.  I still haven’t gotten it quite right.  Last year it turned out more carmel colored but the texture was right for the first time.  This year, the color is closer to white but the texture is wrong!  Ugh.  I have ruled that this is not the year once again for perfect Carol Travis Peppermint Fudge.  Maybe the 5th try?  Here are a few pictures from attempting it this year.

Abigail helped me.

What makes this fudge so yummy is the sour cream in the recipe.

My guess is that I again boiled the mixture too long since the texture didn’t turn out right.  It came out more powdery if that makes any sense.  When I finished boiling the mixture it didn’t pour out onto the wax paper.  It was more crumbly,  which did not happen before.  So I had to pack it down in the container.  It looks good, but when you bite into it you know that it is not right.  Oh well.  It was fun trying for the 4th year.  I’m not giving up!

After writing the post above:

I was cleaning up the kitchen after making the fudge and I discovered something very important.  The reason I didn’t get the texture right for the fudge was because I left out an ingredient!  I left out the marshmallow fluff.  That is why the texture wasn’t smooth!  I told my husband and he gave me a little grief since I have been doing that type of thing often lately.  To much on my mind I guess!  Silly me…

Small Stitched Flowers

My friend sent these photos of her daughter Naomi and I had to share!  She is wearing a small stitched flower.  Doesn’t this picture just make you smile.

Mackenzie and Babs met in Dakar, Senegal, which is home to Babs.   Mackenzie went there as a short-term missionary.  Isn’t it neat how God puts people together for His glory.  Only God knew that Mackenzie would meet her husband-to-be when she decided to go to Africa to spread the Gospel.  Now they live in the states and have two beautiful children.  Naomi and her older brother Jonah.

 

 

DIY Paper Bows for Gifts

I learned to make these bows when I was in high school from a Doll maker.  I’ve been making them every Christmas ever since.  It is a great way to save on bows at this time of the year.  Here is a tutorial on how I make them.

What you need:  scissors, wrapping paper, and tape.

#1: cut the wrapping paper.  It depends on how big you want the bow to be but for a typical bow 8 inches wide and 6 inches long is good.

#2: fold the paper in half.

#3: And begin cutting the paper in 3/4 of an inch sections. Be sure to leave at least 3/4 of an inch in the center.

#4: curl the sections with your scissors.  See how I made a mistake and pulled a section off when I tried to curl it.  This will happen from time to time but it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it.  The other curled pieces will hide it.

#5: unfold the paper and start folding the paper like an accordion.

 

#5: pinch the center and tape it down on the gift.

#6: fold and fluff the bow until it looks like you want.

That’s it!  I hope this is helpful!

 

Neat Paper Ideas

At the craft fair, I picked up a couple of items from a girl who makes paper crafts.  This is a bookmark.  It is roughly the size of a business card.  It is a piece of cardstock paper folded in half with magnets inside.  The magnets holds the bookmark in place on the page.  Very simple but very cute I thought.  If you are a scrapbooker, stamper or card maker you would have all you need to make this for your bookworm friends or maybe for a teacher.

Another item I picked up was this tag for gifts.  It is really neat.  It stays folded like this by the bead at the end of the ribbon.  Once the bead is moved and the folds released it becomes an ornament.

Multipurpose!  Love that!  Isn’t it clever?!

It looks great on the tree.