I have gathered a few simple party ideas that might come in handy when putting together a birthday party or other special celebrations.
Balloon cake topper idea came from Martha Stewart Living . Take a simple cake and top it with mini balloons tied to wooden skewers.
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Colorful confetti made from tissue papers. {diy here}
.Audrey from This Little Street made these adorable gift bags for her daughter’s 2nd birthday party using brown paper bags, tags, twine and felt balls.
Lynn Morris classic potato salad uses simple ingredients and is simply delicious… for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a late night snack. I have truly done all that. Lynn Morris introduced this potato salad recipe to me 20+ years ago at her cafe, The Sweet Addition. Lynn has since retired from the business and sold it many years ago. But I can say that it has been tried, approved and enjoyed by many customers. The recipe will make a nice big batch to take to a potluck or a gathering.
Ingredients
4 lbs peeled & cut into bite size {1/2 – 3/4 inch} Russet potatoes
7 large hard broiled eggs cut into big chucks
10-14 cooked bacon strips, chopped and reserve some to sprinkle on top . {baking bacon instructions click HERE}
1 cup mayonaise
1 cup chopped green onions/scallions
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard {not shown in pic}
1 tablespoon salt {add to cooking water}
salt & pepper to taste
Directions
Place the cut potatoes and 1 tablespoon of salt (do not skip this step) in a large pot with just enough cold water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to med/high and simmer for about 10-12 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and still hold their shape when pierced with a knife. Drain the potatoes in a colander and let it sit to cool for 20-30 minutes. Transfer the potatoes into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold.
Assembling: Into the bowl with cold potatoes, add all the ingredients and toss, cover and refrigerate. Sprinkle with reserved chopped bacon pieces on top before serving.
This is a very forgiving salad, add more or less of any of the ingredients depending on how you like it.
A little country music always lifts my spirit, puts a smile on my face and gets my feet {and fingers on the computer keyboard} moving. I thought this is a good time to share my current playlist. Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Eric Church and Keith Urban are the guys of country music I’m currently listening to and have their songs on repeat, especially while putting together blog post(s) late into the night.
There are 12 songs {two on repeat = 14 on the playlist}. Click PLAY, turn up the volume and have fun!
{1.Only Way I know 2.Old Alabama 3.repeat: Only Way I know 4.Tattoos On This Town 5.She’s Country 6.Amarillo Sky 7.Dirt Road Anthem 8.How ‘Bout You 9.Guys Like Me 10.Like Jesus Does 11.Long Hot Summer 12.Somebody Like You 13.Fly Over States 14.repeat-Old Albama}
.I grew up listening to country music and thought everybody did too. Not my Bill. After a few years together {early in our relationship} and MANY loooooooong road trips to and from Washington State and Wyoming and the only radio stations that came on played just country music. Eventually he came around.
Maybe there are a few others that just haven’t heard country music. Give it a try.
How about you, country music fan?!
This is our blog, White Gunpowder’s 1st birthday … Yay!
We filled this post with too many things but I hope it will be fun, insightful and encouraging. First, dive right in and enter the giveaway for your choice of ONE, $100 gift card to one lucky winner.
Easy to enter, pick one or all the options in the entry below and that’s it. The more you enter the better your chances of winning will be. Come back everyday and enter in the giveaway until it ends at 12:00AM on August 2nd 2013.
Contact us if you have any questions.
Bill and I also answered a few questions that we’ve been asked and thought others might want to know or are curious about too.
Little more about us, chickens, dog, blogging and White Gunpowder.
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Q: How did you came up with the name “White Gunpowder”?
The name came together while on vacation in Wyoming (amazing view at 13,000 feet above sea level) and Montana last year. We wanted the website to be a reflection of the two of us, our personality and interests. I came up with the first word “White” and Bill likes the word “Gunpowder”. White in general for me describes clean, fresh, new and things like crisp white shirts, kitchen cabinets, plates, serving pieces, linens and towels. For Bill, Gunpowder represents the great outdoors, hunting, fishing and hiking.
Q:What breed of chickens do you have?
A: We started with 12 chickens and 11 different breeds. Last year we lost 4 due injuries and unknown sicknesses and gave one rooster away to a friend. Currently we have 7 breeds: Speckled Sussex, Americana, Delaware, Dominique, Barred Rock, Golden Sex Links, and Austra White chickens. They are very much a part of our family and we enjoy their fresh eggs everyday.
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Q: Why did you decide to put together the website and what will it be all about?
{reason one} For many years I’ve tried to compile my recipes into a cookbook-like manner to someday give my children but with very little success. They have said to me often “I want this recipe or that recipe or can you write this recipe down for me…” The website brought discipline and structure for me and it has been helpful so far to record {with pictures too} these recipes that have been stacking up on shelves, bookmarked, and filed in my notebooks.
{reason two} The curiosity of what is blogging and wanting to know more about it. This is a fairly new concept for me even though it has been around for awhile. Other than using it as an archive for my recipes Bill and I didn’t have any particular reasons or ideas of what will be the focus of the website. The answer to the question was often, “I’m not sure yet.” It’s been a year now and we should have a pretty good idea. Right? We might not have narrowed it down to a category but we know it will be what interests us and we hope you will enjoy it too.
Q: Did you know how to put together a website when you decided to do this?
The Answer is a big NO!
We knew the basic computer stuff, but not the inner workings of the computer, software, or how to take something from point A to make it work at point B. We had doubts, but in the end our decision was to “Jump In” with a lot of help from Ryan and Emily at Jones Design Company. I have been following her blog and enjoyed reading it and be inspired by what she was posting. In June 2012, Emily featured on her blog “ your blog is waiting“, perfect timing. I knew she would give the step by step instructions without all the “Techi” confusing terminologies. In addition to the The Blog Class, Ryan and Emily also provided a support group for the Members where we can continue to help each other and to keep up with the news and updates. The step-by-step instructions and the support have been great!
We hope our little story inspired you to take a leap and try something new or start what you’ve been thinking about but were a little unsure. We can’t say that it will be a smooth ride, but if you are doing what you love the obstacles will become a little easier with each step you take. Through the many challenges of putting the website together, I{Kay} feel it was worth it. I’m still amazed at all the things I learned and ‘Can Do’ now. I’m enjoying it.
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Would like to see more pictures of your dog, Glory.
⟵ Glory as a puppy at the beach.
Glory {French Brittany} turned 2 years old in May, she’s a happy dog, great with the family and always wants to please.
After two years she is NOT out of her “puppy chewing stage” yet!
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⟵ Glory, naturally on a hunt for a bird and loves the water.
After researching and narrowing down the different breeds of bird hunting dogs our decision took us to Arizona to Sun Country Breton. Don and Linda Rice were great to work with and they kept us up to date about how the puppies were doing and had lots of photos to share. The next litter of puppies will be available early 2014.
I think that’s it for us on this 1st Birthday of White Gunpowder!
It’s always wonderful to hear from friends and new friends, contact us or make a comment on one {or more} of our blog posts.
To the beach! With a bucket in one hand and a shovel in the other, my kids are ready to have fun in the sand {if and when they get there}. Their buckets were always full of treasures by the time we left the beach. I created these simple illustrations of the sea life and things often found along the Pacific Northwest beaches. Fun and whimsical drawings to be used on a beach scavenger hunt and/or as a fun print to display and remind you of the trip.
{free printable Here … beach scavenger hunt list}
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A Trip to the ocean is our family annual summer vacation. Great family time to enjoy a little bit of beach living, the sand, the ocean, salty air and relaxation. Last year we skipped it and headed to the mountains instead. I was a little surprised at how much they are craving the ocean. For the past few months the question kept popping up as to when we will be going? Sometimes in life we take things for granted and realized how much we miss it when it’s not there.
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The Pacific Northwest beaches tends to be cooler in temperature with clouds and wind. There are rare occasions on our visits when the temperature hits the high 80s°F, blue sky and it felt like we were on a tropical island, and then at other times the rain, hail and a lot of wind. No matter what the weather may be, we have not been disappointed. Our kids are looking forward to the next beach vacation!
{we’ll be updating our Facebook page with new pictures when we get back from the trip}
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This is one of my favorite pictures of Hannah(L) and Grace(R) from many years ago. The curiosity and the excitement of finding treasures along the beach and sharing them.
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Share with us your family’s favorite vacation spot?
Balloon cake topper idea came from Martha Stewart Living . Take a simple cake and top it with mini balloons tied to wooden skewers.
Colorful confetti made from tissue papers. {diy here}
Audrey from This Little Street made these adorable gift bags for her daughter’s 2nd birthday party using brown paper bags, tags, twine and felt balls.
Style Me Pretty Living put together a party theme using neon colors. One of the ideas included in the party was to dip or paint marshmallows in bright neon colors.
mini paper garlands {diy here}
