The Paper Garden: March 2017

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Fishing Theme Baby Shower

I forgot to take pictures, but here is the invite for a fishing themed baby shower. The printable image is from Dollar Graphics Depot.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Grace and the Preacher by Kim Vogel Sawyer is a story set in Fairland, KS during the Depression Era. This story is about Grace Cristler who is a postmistress and had pretty much given up on finding a husband. When her preacher uncle decides to retire, Grace is responsible for finding a replacement. She starts to fall for one man, who applies for the position, who she only knows through correspondence.

What she doesn't know is that Theophil Garrison is on the run from his past. 10 years ago, Theo decided not to help his cousins with a robbery and now that they are out of jail, they are after him with revenge.

I loved this story with an unusual twist to it. Kim Vogel Sawyer has a beautiful way of writing that makes you feel like you are there.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Industrial Farmhouse Bridal Shower

I ♥ the theme of this next shower. The bride to be has chosen Industrial Farmhouse for the theme for her wedding and I know it will be amazing! She is a wonderful party planner and I always love seeing all the parties she hosts and will have to say I was a little intimidated giving this shower. I mean...giving a party to the party planner??!! But it turned out to be a nice shower even with the bride to be not feeling well.

It all started with this invite. I used Cutting Cafe's Mason Jar Shaped Card Template cutting file and altered the file by "squishing" the jar down to a squatty one.

The bride to be's wedding colors are metal and mints/aquas so I used those colors along with metals, woods, and glass for the industrial part of the theme.

The backdrop is an old vintage tablecloth to cover up the ugly white board.

All of this below was taken from my home. I have a little vignette I put together every year and this was for my St. Pat vignette and the colors worked perfectly. Obviously, I don't have "from miss to mrs" in my home. LOL I spray painted the primary colored magnet letters a cream color and then spell out phrases. I framed a piece of sheet metal I found in our shed that I cut to size.

The dried hydrangeas I have used at several showers and they were really starting to fall apart. I spray painted them with mint and aqua glass paint. ♥ how that turned out on the brown petals! The glass "vase" is a starbucks coffee bottle that I spray painted with mint glass paint. For added fun, I used blue glass insulators and stuck them in a rusty bed spring and added a battery operated candle which fit perfectly.

It was fun to do a different layout using long tables instead of round ones.

keeping with the metal theme, we had gold paper plates and silver plastic cups. for added whimsy, turquoise and white polka dot napkins, turquoise forks, and aqua striped straws.

for food we had donuts (bride to be's favorite), key lime bars, chocolate covered pretzels,

and fruit cups.

here is the gift I made her with DH's help as I was running out of time and had to be gone a lot that week. He glued the wood together for me and I did the hardware. Now I want one!

inspiration for the industrial tray
key lime pie bar recipe
mason jar clip art

Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie Bars

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

Author: Kathleen Siegle

Serves: 16

Ingredients

Biscoff Crust

4 tablespoons melted butter
⅔ cup ground pecans
1 cup Biscoff Cookie crumbs
¼ cup sugar

Key Lime Pie Filling

3 large egg yolks
1½ teaspoons finely grated lime zest
⅔ cup fresh Key lime juice (you can also use regular limes)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)
Melted dark chocolate

Instructions

Biscoff Crust

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a 8 x 8 inch baking dish with parchment or foil.
With a food processor, blend the pecans, biscoff cookies and sugar. Blend in butter until it resembles wet sand.
Press into the bottom of the baking dish and bake for 10 minutes. Set crust aside to cool.

Key Lime Pie Filling

In a large bowl and using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks and lime zest until it thickens (5 minutes).
Add condensed milk and beat on high for about 3 minutes.
On low, mix in the lime juice until just combined.
Pour on top of cookie crust and bake for 10 minutes until the middle is just set.
Put aside to cool and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Once they have chilled for the preferred time, slice into 3-4 inch squares and dip the corners into dark chocolate. Sprinkle with sea salt and lime zest. Place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and chill until the chocolate sets.