a lovely gift

Back in October I posted about a new favorite blog that inspires my socks off. Her name is Donna, and I love her stuff. I showed her work to my friend Gina, the graphic design artist at Carol Joy Holling Camp. Gina is amazing at what she does...a true artist. When I showed her the project Donna had done, she didn't seem intimidated and said, "we can do that." And so we did!

Our marketing director, Casey, had her last day at Carol Joy yesterday. She is moving to Minnesota and will still work for camp, just via skype and lots of emails. So we made her a going away present. Casey doesn't like butterflies, which cracks us up. I never even thought it was an option to not like butterflies. So we decided to make her an art piece centered on a butterfly with a cheesy butterfly quote: Casey, it's like you always say, "Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases where it goes." (please groan here.) Ha!

Gina got a frame for it, and honestly, it turned out stunning. And Casey loved it. And plans to hang it in her brand new house in Minnesota! We were honored and I am inspired to make a few more of these just with flowers. I LOVE the bright colors.

This is Gina and her daughter Evalyn showing off our materpiece.

And finally, we made Casey her own NLOM (Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries) sweatpants. She has joked many times that if she is working from home and skyping in to meetings, she really will never have to put on a full outfit. Just a nice shirt and sweats will do. And now she's set.

Chocolate Oreo Truffles

My sister-in-law, Lisa, went to a cookie swap a few years ago at her neighbor's house. When the neighbor brought out her own cookies she said boldly, "These are the best expletive-expletive cookies you'll ever eat!" She then proceeded to reveal the Oreo Truffle. Lisa is hysterical when she tells this story; she was so shocked that such words would be used at a ladies neighborhood Christmas cookie swap!

But, after trying one bite of these babies you're going to want to be the one who brings these fabulous truffles to your next cookie swap. Just watch your potty mouth.

one package Oreo Cookies
one 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
one 24 oz package chocolate almond bark
white almond bark for drizzle design

Crush oreos in food processor or a plastic bag. Blend cream cheese with Oreo until all pieces are covered and creamy...I used my kitchen aid. Using a one inch cookie scooper create balls onto a cookie sheet and then freeze these cookie balls for an hour or two. Dunk frozen balls into melted chocolate. Place on wax paper until hardened. Drizzle white almond bark on top. Let set. Store in refrigerator or freezer (I HIGHLY recommend freezing these things!)
Makes about 4 dozen one truffles.

our abc's

I spent a good part of the weekend working on Our Family ABC book. My mom had this fabulous idea to use our family pictures to make an alphabet book for the grandkids for Christmas. It was super fun to put together as it meant I spent a lot of time looking through all of our family pictures. There were letters that proved to be tricky though- I didn't have much for O, X or Z, but I got creative. And thanks to shutterfly and their "each additional book 50% off" deal, it didn't break the bank either.

ABC Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

the bummer about social media

The Tale of a Facebook Folly

I had a phone conversation recently with a dear friend. She told me about how her best friend just had her baby, and how during the labor, the friend kept her in the loop as they live many states away from each other. But the friend having the baby didn't call for about two hours, at which point my friend was pretty sure she must have had the baby.

My friend got a phone call from another friend asking her, "Have you heard?!! It's a girl!! And her name is... and she weighs..."

Now, naturally, my friend wondered why this other friend, not nearly as close to the mama delivering, knew all of this before she did. The phone friend said she had read it on so-and-so's facebook status. And then my friend wondered how so-and-so knew. Because so-and-so definitely was not as close to her best friend having the baby.

Turns out, the father of the baby to be born had called his sister. And his sister posted the news joyously on her facebook page. And then other friends wrote congratulatory messages on their facebook pages. And it turns out that my friend, living in a remote area was out of cell signal. So even though her best friend was trying to reach her all the while, she had been unable to get through.

But it still sucked. Because my friend wanted to hear this most happy news from the mouth of her best friend. And her best friend wanted to be the one to tell her first. But because social media moves faster than wind, she heard it from a friend of a friend of a sister of a husband all through that handy status update.

This isn't the first time I've heard this story. I have another friend who learned of her own sister's baby being born through the husband's twitter update. And it just didn't feel right. The baby had barely taken it's first inhale before the dad thumb-typed the news. The problem being he hadn't told his wife he was going to do this. So she missed out on telling people herself, person to person, voice to voice. And in the midst of this highly charged moment of birth, they had a little fight because she was so disappointed that people were calling her to tell her the news that she had wanted to call and tell to them.

All I'm saying, is that I think there have to be some rules put in place of common etiquette and due process with social media. Because sometimes I think things move just too fast as it is, and we're missing the whole point of intentional community and sincere relationships.