Relay For Life 2014

Our Relay was at the end of June this year and while I'm relieved the festivities are over (due to the amount of preparation and work involved) I'm also sad because I thoroughly enjoy it.

We had some new team members this year so I spent the whole of one evening painting more team shirts using the freezer paper stencil method.  I think I ended up finishing about 15 shirts including a onesie for our youngest relayer.

We stepped it up this year with games at our campsite.  One of them was the fishbowl game.  A classic carnival game we all love to play but our parents dread because it comes with the possibility of owning a goldfish.  We didn't want to buy a bunch of goldfish, nor do we as parents want to put that on other parents so the solution was Swedish Fish and Goldfish crackers for our younger relayers as prizes.

 

I created a cute little tag for each of the prize baggies that said "Thank you for supporting Betty's Hope" so people would know where they won their prize and who we were.  I created them in Picmonkey and they were super easy and I think, a great little added touch.

Here are the games we had at our campsite, the fishbowl game and the Cancer Sucks game which was like a lollipop tree but in a flower pot instead.  We had a small bucket of trinkets if you picked a lollipop with a black tip you won a prize.  If you picked one without you still got to keep your lollipop.

We also had homemade cookies and a fleece blanket raffle.  For a few of the team members I busted out the good ol' Cricut and made team cups.  I purchased the clear tumblers from the Dollar Tree and used my breast cancer awareness cartridge to create the image and the calligraphy cartridge for the words.

We bought the trifold boards at the Dollar Tree and I used my cricut to cut out the letters.  We were really psyched with how good they looked.  Not to mention super easy to read as you walked by our campsite.

We like to take care of our overnight and early morning walkers so I whipped up some breakfast burritos filled with egg, sausage, green pepper and cheese.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap then in foil and around 3 am they go into the crockpot on warm and are hot and ready for everyone within an hour or so.

This is the second year I've made these and everyone really loves them.  They are easy to walk and eat at the same time which is perfect for any relayer.

We are already coming up with ideas for next year's relay and I'm excited at the possibility of new team members, and more money raised.  This year we have almost hit our goal of $1500.  Last year we raised just over $1000 and the year before (our first year) we raised $500.  We are steadily increasing and that's exciting for us.

If you want information on a Relay for Life event near you go to relayforlife.org for more information.

Red Velvet Cupcakes-Cupcakes for a Cure

The official beginning of the Relay for Life year started September 1st, and I had such good intentions to send cupcakes to work with my mom once a month starting then.  However, as always September through December is a crazy busy time of year with the holidays and Grant's birthday and I never ended up getting around to it. 
So I figured I only have 4 months from now until the end of the school year to raise money with cupcakes and I better get started.  Naturally with Valentine's Day this week I thought red velvet would be the perfect flavor, plus I have never made red velvet and have been wanting to for awhile now.

I used the red velvet recipe from the girls of Georgetown Cupcakes except I didn't use red food coloring, I used the Red Velvet Emulsion I also used for the Red Velvet cut out cookies.  Since the recipe was from Georgetown Cupcakes I thought I would be blown away with a really great flavor but I have to say I was a little disappointed.  There wasn't enough of a chocolate flavor to satisfy me.  The recipe calls for 2 1/2T cocoa and I have to say next time I will be using 1/4c to add more flavor.  Most of the recipes from Katherine and Sophie say they will make 12 cupcakes and I always somehow end up with 18, I thought this would be the same for their red velvet recipe so I only added 1 1/2T red velvet emulsion.  This recipe ended up making 24 cupcakes so I really should have added 2T of the emulsion and I plan to next time I make them.

All this being said, my husband said they tasted good and they were really moist right out of the oven.  They rose perfectly and other than wanting a little deeper red color and a little extra cocoa flavor they seemed perfect.

Breakfast Burritos

The Relay for Life was this past weekend and since we stay all night and have multiple team members coming and going, we need plenty of snacks and food to keep our energy up for the 18 hour walk.  I decided to take breakfast on and chose breakfast burritos.  I love them and the freeze fantastic so I knew if I had leftovers it wouldn't be a problem to take back leftovers.  The only issue I had was trying to find a way to keep them warm without an oven, microwave, or anything else really.  So what was my solution....Crockpot, and it worked great.  We put the Crockpot on high just until they were warmed through then lowered it to the KEEP WARM setting and they stayed nice and warm for everyone throughout the morning.

Here's how I make mine:

Eggs $1.29

Shredded cheese $3.29 for a 4cup bag

Tator Tots (did you know you can buy these at the Dollar Tree!) $1.00

Tortilla Shells $1.00

Meat of choice: ham, sausage, bacon

 

My mom had a hog butchered last year so she supplied me with the meat.  It wasn't seasoned so I used Bobby Flays recipe as a base.  I didn't have the fresh herbs or onion powder so I improvised.  I used 1 1/2t dried sage, 1 tsp dried thyme, and 1T minced dried onion.

 

The ingredients in the burritos can vary depending on what kind of flavors you want.  I've added green and red peppers along with onion in some and that's delicious too.  Cook your meat and drain it if necessary, set aside.  Scramble your eggs, set aside.  If using tator tots bake them in the oven as directions say.

 

Now set up an assembly line of your ingredients and assemble your burritos.

Roll em up and wrap them in foil.  Put them in the crockpot on the keep warm setting and you have one great on the go meal.

I used about 6 or 7 eggs (I lost count) and cooked a full pound of sausage but only used about half.  This amount made about 14 burritos.

 

To freeze these, after rolling them up wrap them in plastic wrap then foil.  Place them in a freezer bag.  When you're ready to eat one, remove the foil and microwave them for about 2 minutes, and enjoy your on the go breakfast.

 

 

Relay for Life 2013

Our Relay for Life event was this past weekend and we had a great time but, lessoned learned, I have to start conditioning before hand next year.  I was so unbelievably sore afterward.  The blister on my foot is proof.  I walk over 12 miles total and have the lapbeads to prove it:

The lap beads was an onsite fundraiser one of the teams did.  You paid $1, got a necklace and a bead and each lap you made you got another bead to add to it.  Each lap was 1/4mile.  So 4 laps = 1 mile.  We had an amazing team with 2 members walking over 20 miles!!!

That's freakin amazing in my book.

My Mom even walked 14 miles.  We were there the full 18 hours the event lasted and I was got all of 1 1/2 hrs of sleep, my mom was the only one who lasted the entire night with no sleep whatsoever. 

We were also one of the few teams who had a walker on the track every minute of the race, so I'm super proud of our team and accomplishments this year.

 

We doubled what we raised last year and won Rookie of the Year this year!

 

I guess this means we have to step up our game for next year haha.

 

I made a banner for our campsite:

It was nothing spectacular but it went well with our pink lights and other pink ribbon decor.  My mom made pink ribbon butter cookies and put them out for donation.  There were 2 in a package and we raised over $20.  Next year we hope to do a couple different on site fundraisers and we are hoping to double our money every year!

 

I had visions of cute pictures of me and Grant in our team shirts I put so much work into.  Here is how that turned out:

Me trying to physically turn his face toward the camera, him laughing hysterically because he knows he's driving me crazy, haha.

It was a great time and I'm so proud of what we accomplished this year and so proud of our team as a whole.

 

Great job Betty's Hope!!!!

 

Now only 11 months until our next Relay....

 

 

Relay for Life Shirts (Freezer Paper Stenciling)

There hasn't been much sewing recently.  So what have I been doing you ask?

Freezer paper stenciling.

These are all the shirts I made for the Relay For Life event coming up.  Our team didn't have shirts last year and my mom and I decided this year they were a must.  We looked at having them professionally printed but not everyone on our team would be able to afford a $15 shirt on top of the registration fee and extra money needed at the relay itself.  So what was our grand idea, or rather MY grand idea? Freezer paper stenciling them......ALL OF THEM.

Word to the wise, do not volunteer yourself to freezer paper stencil 20+ shirts for any event. 

While the results were great, being the procrastinator I am, I ended up having to finish over a dozen of them the last week before the event and make a team banner to boot.  Not a smart idea.

I'm glad they are all finished and I know everyone will appreciate them, but man am I tired.

I think me and my Xacto knife need some time apart for awhile.

Relay for Life Team Shirts

I posted here about our Relay shirts I'm freezer paper stenciling and after finishing 3 (of the possible 23) I have come to realize, maybe I took on too big a task.  Our Relay is in June and I'm guessing as to whether or not I'm going to be able to get them all done. 

I will say I love freezer paper stencils and already have a design made for my son's zoo shirt this year (cuz you know you have to have a special themed shirt to go to the zoo).  However I wasn't aware that I would not be able to reuse the stencils.  For whatever stupid reason I thought I could just peel and restick the design as many times as I desired.  I have found after 2 shirts the stencil needs pitched because the stickiness of the small pieces no longer works.  So that means I have to make about 12 stencils, x-acto knife them, paint them, heat bond them, and wash them.

There are loads of tutorials and tips on various websites, just do a google search and you will find dozens.  In case you don't want to go to all that trouble, I looked at this post as a reference.

the color in the pic above is a little wonky but its a really pretty pink in the right lighting.

 

 

Even though I love how they are turning out I'm thinking maybe we should have ordered some haha.

O well back to cutting and painting I go.

Banana Split Cupcakes

I made some banana split cupcakes for my Mom to take to work to help raise money for our Relay for Life team.

(seems like all I'm getting recently is ugly cell phone pics, but at 6 am I have no desire 2 whip out the good camera)

I altered the recipe a little since I've had some trouble with the tops of my cakes being a little sticky after they've cooled.  They turned out super cute and I was really pleased with the taste, texture, and presentation.

I used the Pumpkin Spice recipe in the book Cupcake Diaries except I substituted the pumpkin for about 3 mashed bananas, omitted the spices, added vanilla, and decreased the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups.  To top them I did a regular old vanilla buttercream, chocolate drizzle, peanuts, and a cherry.  They were so tasty and everyone loved them.

Relay for Life T-Shirt Prototype

Last year was the first year my family participated in our local Relay for Life and we had a great time.  So naturally this year we are starting to prepare ahead of time and decided we wanted team shirts for everyone.  The only problem is every t-shirt printing store online and where I live cost about $13 a shirt, which isn't horrible but everyone is already trying to put as much money as they can towards the Relay so we couldn't really justify the extra cost. 

Of course the crafter in me wanted to find a way for us to make them ourselves without looking like 5 year olds made them.  I started looking for possibilities and came across freezer paper stenciling.  This is nothing new by any means but I had never attempted it.  For whatever reason I figured it couldn't be as easy as everyone said, but holy moly it is!

I printed our team name and an image we liked, traced it onto freezer paper, cut it with an exacto knife, ironed it to a dingy white shirt (to see if it worked, no sense wasting a good one if i ruined it) and painted.

Here is how it came out:

 

And a close up:

 

 

Our team shirts are going to be pink in honor of breast cancer since that's what my mom and aunts have battled, and BEAT!  The cancer ribbon with wings as well as the team name is in honor of my dear grandmother who passed away about 5 years ago with lung cancer.  I'm so excited for everyone to be walking with our shirts and can't wait for the Relay.  I will have more posts about our campsite decorations we are making as well as a few other details in the months to come before the day of the Relay.

And if you haven't signed up or looked into walking in the Relay for Life nearest you, DO IT!  It's a great way to give back and get involved.

Chocolate Mint Cucakes

I love making cupcakes and last year I made a bunch to help raise money for the Relay For Life.  My intention was to make chocolate cupcakes with cherry frosting.  However, I made the cherry frosting twice and both times the butter seperated and it was NOT good and I had to dump it out, ugh!  So I had to nix the cherry frosting idea and decided to go with a Chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and Thin Mint cookie crumbles on top.

 

I'm not a huge mint fan, even though I love me some mint chocolate chip ice cream, but I have to say these cupcakes were pretty darn tasty.  I used Lorann's Creme De Menthe flavoring for the frosting.

 

Is it wierd that I love taking pictures of my cupcakes when they turn out pretty.

 

If only it was daytime when I took them so the lighting would be better.

 

 

I feel like a cupcake pro with the plastic containers we bought.  I know that sounds stupid but after using the cardboard cake boxes from Hobby Lobby all last year to transport cupcakes, having the plastic ones with the cupcakes seperated and everything, it was a dream.  Made it alot easier for my mom to take them to work too.

 

Toddler Relay for Life Onesies

The Relay for Life was last weekend and my mom and I were really excited.  This is extremely important to us especially right now.  At the survivor dinner we received our team t-shirts.  All survivors registered to a team received a purple t-shirt, team captains received a turquoise t-shirt, and all other team members received a white t-shirt.  They don't have toddler or childrens shirts so my mom and I really wanted to make one for my son and neice since they would both be at the Relay with us.
We started out with 2 regular white onesies.  I used an 18 month, one of Grant's old ones, for Sophie and pulled a 24 month out of his drawer so no cost there.

We took a trip to Hobby Lobby and came across these fabric markers by Crayola. 

I've never seen them before but was excited about trying them out.  I wasn't crazy about them with this particular project but they worked okay.
We mimicked the Relay for Life t-shirts we already had, minus the sponsors on the back.

Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 years ago, and had a mastectomy exactly 1 week before my wedding.  She did all her radiation and chemo and had been cancer free since then.  We all thought it was behind us until about a week ago when we found out the cancer that was in her breast tissue was now in her hip bone.  Once again she will be going through radiation and chemotherapy.  Her diagnosis was less than a week before the Relay for Life in our town and we knew that it was more important than ever for us to participate and raise as much money as we could for the American Cancer Society.  In light of all of that I wanted to put something on the shirts to honor my mom's fight.

I was not completely satisfied with how they turned out because in my head they looked a lot better, but I'm glad Grant and Sophie had their team shirts.

We had never been to Relay for Life and didn't quite know what to expect but I have to say I am super excited for next year.  I told my mom this year we would lay low and this would be our practice year.  Most people set up campers or tents and there were games, music, and food until the wee hours of the morning.  Grant was with me the entire time and what a trooper he was rolling around in his stroller and running around the campsite.  I'm so proud of him because he did so good.  Only a couple melt downs and I guess that's to be expected when you're outside for 18 hours straight.

Next year we plan to have everything more organized and make it a little less stressful, but it was worth it all for the thousands of dollars raised.

Relay for Life Survivor Dinner

My mom and I attended the Relay for Life's Survivor dinner last Thursday.  My mom is a 2 year breast cancer survivor and this was the first time we had been there.  Since we are one of the teams participating in the relay this year we also volunteered to decorate a table.  The theme for the race is Superheroes and we were supposed to make our own interpretation of that and come up with some ideas.

My mom works in the city school system with junior high kids.  At the end of the school year she had some of them draw a cancer superhero.  We used these laminated pictures as placemats and also had folders of the extras so the attendees could look at what the kids had drawn.
This one was one of my favorites.

My mom had little glass votives in storage we pulled out, wrapped some ribbon around and made a pink ribbon to glue on the front.

Our centerpiece we wanted to just tie into the color scheme.  Looking at it you wouldn't know the theme was superheroes but we wanted something a little elegant.  We took a glass vase from the dollar tree along with clear rocks from the dollar tree, filled it with water and put a  stemmed flower from hobby lobby inside.  The flowers sitting on the table were blooms from the same flower stem as the centerpiece.

Here is the whole table with the centerpiece, placemats, and folders with superheroes inside.

The dinner was really nice.  They took pictures of each person and their guest and provided the survivors with a goody bag including a small photo album. The baskets for the basket raffle were all there as well and each survivor received 5 free tickets to put in whatever basket they wanted.  It was neat to see what ideas other people had for the baskets and see our own too.

The Relay is next weekend and I'm super excited to attend.  We got our t-shirts and are ready to Relay!

Relay for Life Basket Raffle

My mom and I are walking in the Relay for Life here in our town and I'm really excited.  My mom is the team captain and I guess being her daughter and helping coordinate everything I could call myself the co-captain.

Either way, at the Relay they do a basket raffle, where each team puts together a basket of a certain theme of their choosing and people at the Relay bid on them with their tickets.  We decided to do a baby basket and make most of the items.  Ok technically I made the items but my mom did lend me her fabric stash to raid :)

Here is what we put together:

2 fabric balls (1 boy and 1 girl) with jingle bells inside the pattern can be found here.

4 bibs (2 boy and 2 girl) made of flannel with terry cloth backing.  I simply used one of Grant's bibs as a pattern.

4 burb cloths (2 boy and 2 girl).  I used the tutorial here except I used quilt batting you can get at any craft store or walmart in between the layers.

1 unisex changing pad (I had great intentions to make 2 but after 3 days of sewing I gave up that idea).

2 binky clips (1 boy and 1 girl).

1 Bit of Whimsy Jean doll (can you see Grant's little fingers on the right going for the doll?).  I made a boy doll as well like the one made for Grant for Christmas but after ripping seams out 3 times and the fabric finally giving in, leaving a huge hole by the arm, I gave up on the boy doll.

We also put 2 bottles, 2 binkies, a rattle, baby wash and baby lotion inside.  I'm really glad we did this basket but also so so so glad I'm finished with all the items to fill it.