Friends, Furniture, and Fruit Roll-Ups

Last week Kevin and I were blessed with the opportunity to stay with some fabulous young friends for a few days.  We filled our time with crafts, cooking, shopping, eating, taking a surprise run to Krispy Kreme, and watching Anne of Green Gables!  It was a blast!  Here are some highlights (sorry about the phone photos!) -

First, we decided to go to an antique store in search of a certain something for their mom's birthday, but instead we found this:

You really do have to understand the background to appreciate this find!  Kevin and I have never bought furniture together, and we continue to use a perfectly good couch he had before we were married, and an adequate dining room table we acquired for free from a house someone was moving out of.  We are grateful for those things!  Yet we have been longing for a big comfy armchair and ottoman.  If you've ever looked for one, you know they can be quite pricey - at least $400 - $1,000 dollars for both pieces.  (Unless of course you would enjoy a lovely floral print from the '70's off Craig's List.) :)  That is most certainly out of our price range.  So when I sent an email to Kevin and he said go for it, I was thrilled.  Olivia, Ivy, and Ellie gave it the appropriate "used furniture smell test," then we made the purchase!  We took it home, vaccumed it and washed the cushion covers and it is working out great.  I am definitely loving our first furniture purchase/bargain!

The next day we made yummy fruit roll-ups/leather, using a recipe I found from Darby's Fly Through Our Window blog.  You can find the recipe here.  It was a really fun process, and it actually turned out to taste great!  We used strawberries and blueberries, (instead of peaches), and I thought they were a little too tart, but still really good.  We also used homemade applesauce and lemon juice rather than fresh juice from an actual lemon.  So if I did it again I would add the full 1/2 cup of sugar she suggests and fresh lemon juice (to avoid using too much).  Also, we cooked ours the full 10 hours and it was difficult to peel off the wax paper.  So I might try the Saran Wrap or take it out sooner.  Sounds like I need to give it another shot to perfect it!  The girls did an awesome job and stayed up late with me to get these in the oven.  They are definitely yummy!

Finally, we spent the last day watching Anne of Green Gables, (a classic!), and making covered notebooks.  We used all kind of supplies and scrapbook paper, (I so wish I had a picture of our beautiful mess!), and mod podged the front and back covers, followed by sanding down the edges.  This is turning out to be my new favorite project!  The girls were excited to take them to school or give them as gifts. We also made mini paper bag scrapbooks, like the ones my class made on Valentine's Day this past year.  The girls demonstrated their creative genius and we had a blast!  

  Yay for the weekend!