Craft Night

Women will use ANY excuse to get together, have a glass of wine and gossip!  Well our newest excuse...Craft Night.  We tried to make a cake stand and used this platter tutorial as our inspiration.  The cake stand is made of a pizza pan and a candle stick found at the Dollar Store!  For a good craft night try the craft the night before to allow for fewer mistakes...

 make sure all your guest have their own supplies....

...and supply lots of wine and snacks!

 I only took a few pictures because I ended up with a lot of spray paint and glue on my hands...plus we were just having too much fun! 

Here is the finished product!

Ashley's turned out great...she measured and took her time unlike the rest of us!

I think they turned out pretty good!  Some definetely better than others:)  Can't wait for the next Craft Night...or any other excuse to get together with the girls!

Supper Club with a Peanut Butter Torte

I went to my first Supper Club this week.  I wanted to make something yummy so I would get invited back so I went with a Peanut Butter Chocolate Torte.  These girls are so sweet and creative.
This month we grilled out with Turkey Burgers...yummy!  What a great way to get girls together and swap recipes! 

Great girls, great conversation, great wine and of course GREAT food! My Peanut Butter Torte was inspired from this recipe at One Perfect Bite.
***I used gluten free oreos, not chocolate wafers.  I also used 8 oz of cream cheese, not 12.

I used a potato masher to crush the cookies, added melted butter and molded it into a spring foam pan.

Make sure you follow the 10 min instructions or your crust will not turn out right.
While your waiting for your perfect oreo crust, make the fluffy peanut butter insides!

Combine the crust and insides and let refrigerate for at least 4 hours....overnight is better!
Make the chocolate topping...

Put the peanuts on top and let it refrigerate for another 30 min-1hour.  Serve chilled.

I will say it is hard to transport this beauty....I put it in a cake stand...in a basket and it still slid around.

Yes this cake is impressive looking and if you are a peanut butter lover like we are here at the Londry House, then you will Love this creation!  Thanks Traci for introducing me to so many wonderful new friends! Your the best!!
We also recently helped Ashley celebrate her birthday with a Mexican Fiesta party.  I am a sucker for themed parties and Ashley's husband Hunter did a great job incorporating all aspects of the party into the Fiesta theme.  They even had a donkey pinata.

 Here is me with Emily and the Birthday girl!

Happy Birthday to my newest follower:)

Schools out....FOR EVER!!!!!!!

You know that song Schools out for summer?  I think its by Alice Cooper.  Well here in the Londry house Schools out FOR EVER!!!!! Today is officially Ryans LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.....FOREVER!!!! 
I can not believe that it is finally almost over.  All the studying, all the stress, the Board tests, the seminars, all the hard work.....all over.  No we are not sad at all...we are so excited for the next chapter (the one that we have been working towards for 6 years).
Ryan-I am so in awe of all your hard work and commitment.  Your motivation and humble attitude is truly inspiring.  Enjoy this month off while you wait for graduation and your liscence because after that you have to join the real world with the rest of us:)  For our memory here are some pictures from the school:

Here is his locker which if you look closely is full of teeth molds:)

Here is the "patient" they worked on first year before they were allowed to work on actualy patients. 

Here is Ryan and I at the White Coat Ceremony.  Can't wait to see him in his Cap and Gown soon!

Congratulations on your last day!  Let the celebrations begin!

Carmel Desserts and other happenings!

We spent several days in Columbia last week.  While the guys were at the Masters, us girls enjoyed shopping, cooking and catching up.  I also got to spend lots of time with little Ryan!  Rachel and I went to have lunch with Stefanie and Katie at school and had fun on the trampoline when they got home!

Rachel and Rebecca saw the Asian night blog post I did back in October and have been wanting me to show them how to make Spring Rolls.  They were a success and we also made Asian Wings and Chicken Fried Rice.  Although this is not your everyday meal, it was a crowd pleaser...and we had a picky crowd!  The best part was the three of us in the kitchen cooking together:)

The next day we did some shopping and met my brother Matthew at Lillian's store for lunch.  She has by far the BEST chicken salad EVER!

She also makes an amazing Carmel Cake that you can see on the counter in the picture above with me and Rachel.  I watched it disappear one slice at a time while we were there and could not resist getting the recipe and recreating the cake to be gluten free when we got home!  I have to say it was a HUGE success!  I used this recipe for the cake.

For the Carmel Frosting I used a recipe frosting from Mrs. Paula Dean, but used just a little over half a box of Powdered Sugar.

Thanks for the inspiration Lillian.  Although it is sometimes frustrating when I really want to eat something and can't cause of my allergy....it is great inspiration for me to play around with the recipes to make it safe for me to eat!  If you are not GF like me use your favorite pound cake recipe and make this Carmel Icing....I'm telling you it will not dissapoint.
I also recently made a gluten free version of this recipe for Carmel Toffee!  The Girl Who Ate Everything is one of my favorite food blogs and I saw this on her website and had to make it!
I used these crackers in place of the saltines.

You line them on a cookie sheet...

Make the "carmel" part...

Pour over crackers and bake...

and finally the chocolate topping!  Let it cool completely and then break into bite size pieces.  The combination of the salty and sweet and chocolate is perfect!

Besides doing a lot of baking...I have had the best time meeting new people and speding more time with old friends here in Charlotte.  I love this city and look forward to getting settled and spreading our roots!

DIY Furniture

At this time in our lives we can not really afford lots of new furniture.  This is hard for me because I want lots of new furniture....hmmm whats a girl to do?  Do It Yourself of course!  Here are two of my past projects.
China Cabinet that we got free from a family friend's garage.  It was old, outdated and not being used.  We sanded, stained, distressed and replaced the hardware.  I am so mad that I didn't take a before, but here is our china cabinet now!

Another success project...our chair.  We needed another place to sit in our living room, but again didn't want to spend alot of money.  Here is our Craig's List chair before...

After...

And my latest project.  After moving into our new townhouse in Charlotte we were in need of a kitchen table.  We searched and finally found a table at ReStore and 4 chairs at a Consignment store.
Here is the before...

I have to say I am SOOO happy with the way it turned out!  I did work for an entire week on this.  It took 7 coats of paint and 3 coats of polyurethane, but it was well worth it...and I saved LOTS of money!  Although this is paired with our China Cabinet now, they will eventually go in two separate rooms...the kitchen table in the kitchen and the China Cabinet in the dining room.  Don't they look good together for now though:) 

We are getting settled in Charlotte and I am looking forward to 1 month from now when we are both living here full time and Ryan is offically done with school!