Erica's recipe for delicious peanut butter cookies.

Happy Halloween, everyone!! I hope you all had a fun weekend of Halloween parties and your kids got more than enough candy. Please show me pictures of your costumes... I LOVE Halloween costumes (especially pet ones)!! Speaking of pet costumes, Wes & I took Athena to the Spooky Pooch Parade at the Myriad Gardens over the weekend. Athena didn't dress up but we saw a bunch of other cute dogs who did.

Geppetto & Pinocchio on the bottom right was one of my favorites. My other favorite is a family dressed in rain ponchos. They were carrying umbrellas with stuffed cats & dogs dangling off of them. It was raining cats & dogs!! LOL I really wanted a picture but they never walked our way.

We met up with my coworker, Jennifer, and her dog, Martin. We've been wanting to get Martin & Athena together for a play date all year. They liked each other & had a fun time sniffing butts <3 

For Halloween this year, I baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for my coworkers. I baked these once for my ICP Presentation over the summer. (Everyone in my department had to do a presentation over some random topic my manager assigned us. Mine was beyond boring so I bribed everyone into paying attention by promising cookies after my presentation was over.) The cookies were a huge hit! I baked somewhere between three & four dozen and they were all gone by lunchtime. A few coworkers have asked for them again so I decided to bring that for Halloween (instead of candy).

I have the most basic recipe for peanut butter cookies in my recipe collection. I tweaked it some by adding crushed peanuts and chocolate chips (and removed some of the sugar content). Here is my version of peanut butter cookies.

Soft n' chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 1 cup butter, 1 cup all natural peanut butter, 3/4 cup white sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 cup crushed peanuts*, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, plastic wrap
*To make crushed peanuts, put raw unsalted peanuts in a food processor.

1. Cream the butter, all natural peanut butter and both sugars in a bowl.

2. Add eggs and continue to cream together until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. I pour in 1/2 a cup of the flour mixture at a time while mixing. If you do too much, flour will fly everywhere!

5. Add in the crushed peanuts. Mix well.

6. Add in the chocolate chips. Mix well.

7. Pour the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a giant ball, wrap and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Roll the chilled dough into small balls and place on a baking sheet. The cookies don't expand too much so you can place them close together.

10. Bake for 10 -12 minutes. Place on a cookie rack to cool.

Mmmmm.... cookies!!!

Accouncing RagsReborn Gifts' Holiday Craft Show Schedule!

Here it is... the last five craft shows of the year! \(^_^)/ And what a difficult year it has been! (;_;) Last year in 2015, I did two fairly large shows over the summer and then mainly concentrated on smaller holiday shows in November and December. I was spoiled and unprepared for how difficult the upcoming spring and summer craft show seasons would be. Then 2016 rolls around and I experienced my first show where I sold absolutely nothing. Finances are tight but I am still sewing & producing beautiful pillows because RagsReborn is my passion & greatest dream. I'm hoping to bounce back and see an increase in business as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

This is where I'll be Saturday... my last fall show before the holiday season begins!

Sadly, I am not the only artist who has had a difficult year. Due to the oil layoffs in the spring and the uncertainty of the future of our country brought on by the current election, Oklahomans have been a little more frugal than they usually are. I know several vendors, artists and crafters who have suffered from dismal sales this year. We are all beginning to know what it means to be a starving artist. As you prepare your Christmas lists and begin to buy gifts, I hope you take some time to visit local craft shows. There is so much local talent in Oklahoma! I know many artists who make jewelry, craft unique decorative household items, write books, create pens & wooden items, make soaps & candles, and sew, crochet & quilt. I am sure if you take the time to shop at local craft shows, you will be able to find something for every single person on your gift list. And, the parking is much better than at the mall and the lines are way shorter!

There are so so so many local craft shows to choose from. Of course, I'd like for you to come to the shows where I will be at, but if you can't make it out to any of my shows, there are plenty more going on every weekend. (Just to give you an idea of how prominent craft shows are, over these past two months, there were nine weekends in September and October... and I did seven shows!) The most important thing is that you support your local artists. Shop local, shop handmade, shop Oklahoman!!

See my pillows all stacked up in the top center photo?

There are two shows I would like to mention before I share all of the shows that I, RagsReborn Gifts, will be at. 

       On November 5th, there will be a show at Triumph Family Worship Church. It won't be a large craft show but the vendors who will be selling there will have amazing items to purchase and every member of that church is friendly & supportive. This was my second favorite show that I participated in last year. Sadly, it is on the same day as my first favorite show so I had to pass on it this year. After you come out to The Handmade Show at The Crown Center and the Sip & Shop event at Quirk and Beans Coffee Bar, please also go check out the craft show at Triumph Family Worship. (https://www.facebook.com/events/298782447126369/)

       The other show that I wanted to participate in but couldn't due to a scheduling conflict is The Santa Market. The Santa Market is the holiday handmade shopping destination in Edmond, Oklahoma. Three of my favorite vendors, Sweet Sparrows, Skunk Juice and Pixie Creations will be there. I met local children's book author, Carly Cartmill, at a Quarter Mania event earlier this year. We've become fast friends and she asked if I would donate a pillow set to The Santa Market's raffle to benefit Alzheimer's research. I whipped up the pillows pictured below. So, after you shop at the Craft & Vendor Fair at the Earlywine Park YMCA, please swing by The Santa Market (https://www.facebook.com/thesantamarket/?fref=ts) to finish up your shopping and bid on my awesome pillows. 

Just in case the print on my Holiday Craft Show Schedule flyer is difficult to read, here are all of my craft shows:

       (P.S. I will not be defying space & time by being at two places at once on November 5th. I, personally, will not attend the Sip & Shop event. My best friend, Alan, and his wonderful girlfriend have volunteered to set up at booth on my behalf at that event. They are friends with both myself and the coffee shop's owner and wanted to do us both a favor.)

SIP & SHOP AT QUIRK AND BEANS COFFEE BAR

Saturday November 5, 2016 10am - 2pm

109 NW 142nd Street, Edmond, Oklahoma 73013

THE HOLIDAY HANDMADE SHOW AT THE CROWN CENTER

Saturday November 5, 2016 9am - 4pm

13300 S. Western Ave., Moore, Oklahoma 73170

https://www.facebook.com/events/954527544656282/

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR AT CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Saturday November 12, 2016 9am - 3pm

5101 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112

https://www.facebook.com/cpcbazaar/?fref=ts

CRAFT AND VENDOR FAIR AT EARLYWINE PARK YMCA

Saturday November 19, 2016 9am - 3pm

11801 S. May, Oklahoma City, OK 73130

CHRISTMAS AT THE LODGE AT MUSTANG MASONIC LODGE

Saturday December 3, 2016 9am - 3pm

406 E. State Highway 152, Mustang, Oklahoma 73064

https://www.facebook.com/events/1009144722468437/

Wes & Erica spend a weekend at the fair, part 2.

To get us in the mood for Halloween, here are my favorite pumpkins from the 4H competition: the hollowed out purple monster on the top left, the box of donuts on the top right, the ice cream cone on the bottom left and the root beer on the bottom right.

I'm back with more fair fun and pictures! As I mentioned last week, Wes & I spent a majority of the afternoon indoors instead of outside. One building that was particularly interesting was the creative arts building (aka the 4H building). I'm not sure what 4H is but I don't think it's necessarily very artistic. I suppose a lot of the children's offerings were creative, though. It was more like very advanced home economics. My public-school education didn't offer 4H but if it did, I would have probably both participated and excelled in it. It was a bunch of kids' cooking projects, home grown vegetables and random display boards with whatever projects they wanted to display. I saw a project on how to clean a gun, how to properly express emotions through facial expressions (Wes claimed that mad and angry looked identical) and the joys of raising a litter of pit bull puppies. 

My dream is to be a middle-aged lady who brings sewing projects to the fair and has people complement me on my talent all day long. 

After thoroughly exploring the 4H building and poking fun at the children's projects, we decided to head back outside. (We weren't rude and none of the children were present. Plus, who doesn't laugh when they see an entire project dedicated on the many uses of rabbit poo?)

Bees and rabbits! 

Some other things we saw throughout the day were: a martial arts demonstration (it was more of a self defense demonstration), a pair of elderly ladies walking around in those novelty t-shirts that have a sexy beach body printed on them to make it seem as if the person wearing the t-shirt is sporting the body, and I sampled peach pineapple jelly (not very tasty).

Derek Shaw's martial arts demonstration.

Next on our agenda was the Swifty Swine Pig Races. Another thing I did not know existed. There were three races and each pig in the heat had a silly name like Ba-rack-o-ribs Obama and Brad Pig. The pigs ran around a little track and the winner was awarded an Oreo. The star of the show was Swifty, who was a swimming pig. They brought him out to a cheering audience. He took a dump, jumped into a trough of water, swam across and then ate an Oreo. It doesn't sound that exciting but it was actually rather fun to watch. 

As evening came, the fair offered some live music. 

The first performance was by a trio of drummers who call themselves Junk Rock. Their drum kits are made from buckets, old drum pieces and PVC pipe. It was really neat. One of their songs was a cover of the nostalgic, Wipe Out. They asked the audience to dance along and a lot of the elderly did! I wish I'll end up happy and carefree in my old age. One of the other songs the drummers covered was Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off." All of their other songs were originals.

The next set was an Elvis impersonation contest. Behind the Zoppe circus and fair food, this was my favorite part of the day. The competition was regional so we saw Elvises from all over the United States and we also saw Cody Ray Slaughter. He is a famous Elvis impersonator who has toured & performed live as "Elvis" and appeared late night television. He sang one song and was really impressive but for some reason, he didn't dress in costume. He just wore jeans and t-shirt. Maybe he got funnel cake on his Elvis costume. We saw 6 or 7 Elvis impersonators. Most of them were the older Vegas-era Elvises. I prefer the younger Jail House Rock era Elvis but the impersonators were very entertaining. One posed down on his knees and then sang, "I hope this suit doesn't tear." The competitors who advance from our state fair move on to the finals at the Florida state fair. 

So there you have it... a very full day at the Oklahoma State Fair! The fair isn't just for children and hillbillies. Lots of good shows, food and a little bit of education. 

Wes & Erica's trip to Kansas City, KS. (pt.1)

My actual wedding anniversary is April 27th... my more important "El-versary" (aka when Wes & I took a road trip to Las Vegas to get our vows renewed by an awesome Elvis impersonator) is October 8th. A few weeks ago, we decided to take another road trip to celebrate our El-versary. We didn't go as far as Las Vegas, though. Instead we drove to Kansas City.

Wes saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain's show that highlighted a bar-b-que restaurant in Kansas City, KS. The restaurant was Joe's Kansas City (formerly Oklahoma Joe's) BBQ. One of their star attractions is a plate of burnt ends of brisket. Wes was sold & I'm always up for going out of town, so off we went!

Looks like I'm at the airport but it's just a gas station.

Kansas City was a very manageable five-hour drive. (words I never thought in a million years would be put together: "manageable" and "five-hour drive" LOL) Maybe it's because I've never driven to Kansas before so the scenery was interesting. Or maybe it's because the Kansas Turnpike has zero cops so everyone got to drive 90 mph. Or maybe it was the Travel Plazas we encountered every 20 miles or so. They are ginormous gas stations with a connected Dunkin' Donuts/Hardees. I got a raspberry iced coffee at one of these Travel Plazas. One of Wes' friends is always talking about how tasty coffee is with raspberry syrup added. No one believes him but I had to try it for myself. It wasn't bad. It tasted like raspberry iced tea. I don't know what happened to the coffee flavor.

Anyway, we finally got to Joe's around lunchtime and the line was out the door! It was totally worth it when we got our food. We both got the lunch special- a plate of burnt ends on toast and one side. I got it with their Kansas Caviar, which was a cold vegetable salad with lime dressing. I actually liked my Kansas Caviar more than the burnt ends. But the burnt ends were still really good. I had some leftover and it was still good when I reheated it a few days afterward. Wes enjoyed the food, too. (I asked him for his insight and his opinion and he just answered with "It was good.")

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We finished lunch around 2pm but our hotel check-in time wasn't until 4pm. What to do for two hours? I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market but it closed at 2pm. I also wanted to go to the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens but it was 1. hot outside, 2. half an hour away, and 3. closing in a few hours. We decided to drive the five minutes into Missouri and hang out at the Country Club Plaza. When we drove across the border, the GPS on Wes' phone welcomed us into Missouri. I found it amusing.

The buildings are modeled after architecture of Seville, Spain.

The Country Club Plaza is a huge 15 block long shopping district. This is where people with money go to buy their wares. High end retail shops EVERYWHERE... Michael Kors, BCBG Max Axria, kate spade, even a Tesla Motors with fancy cars on display on the sidewalk. I enjoyed window shopping but was not in the financial state to splurge. The Customer Service office offered out-of-towners a Passport shopping guide that promised a free souvenir tote bag if $150 in purchases were made.  I bought a few things here and there but only spent $100. 

We walked around and explored a good handful of stores. I didn't buy anything crazy or exotic. A few of my favorite stores was Three Dog Bakery (because I am obsessed with buying things for Sadie & Athena) and Better Cheddar. The Better Cheddar had sooooo many samples of cheese and it took so much will-power to not try them all. Luckily, we had just finished lunch so I wasn't very hungry. The store was filled with meats & cheeses, jellies, salsas, chocolates and wine. I wanted to buy some of everything but I figured nothing in that store would travel well. 

 Oh the delicious cheeses!!

Delights for Sadie & Athena at the Three Dog Bakery. I got them some "RRRRRRibs."

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After our afternoon of shopping, Wes got himself a coffee at Scooter's (and I placed a business card on the bulletin board, see above) and we headed to the hotel. Wes booked us a room at the Intercontinental... a really plush hotel literally across the street from the Country Club Plaza. There were at least two weddings and another formal event being held at the hotel that same weekend. We were the most casually dressed couple. LOL  

A complaint I always get is that I overbook our vacations. I'm always trying to do and see every tourist attraction and the vacation no longer is a vacation because we're never relaxing. For this trip, I barely planned a thing so we got to spend the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening in our nice hotel.

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Later that night, we headed back out to the Country Club Plaza to grab dinner and explore the night life. Warning: there is no night life. LOL All of the retail stores closed at 7pm and all that was left was a few restaurants and coffee shops. We grabbed a quick dinner at Potbelly and took an evening stroll. Even though all the shops were closed, the streets were still lit up and beckoning window shoppers. We also managed to catch some live music. 

There was a group of performers named Battery Tour. They were a DJ, MC/beatboxer/singer and a few dancers. They performed "professional karoke" (I believe that's what the lady at the Customer Service desk called it). They basically did cover songs and danced around and got the audience moving. It was a fun show & they were talented kids. Being an old lady, I was sleepy by 11pm and we walked back to the hotel. It was an easy-going day of food & shopping. El-versary Day 1 complete, Day 2 to come next week!

Wes & Erica spend a weekend at the fair., part 1

                               Welcome to the 2016 Oklahoma State Fair! 

                                                  (This blog will be mostly pictures. LOL)

I haven't spent a day (like a "get there when it opens and stay until it closes" day) at the fair since I was in grade school. I went a couple of times with my family but that tradition didn't last long. I remember the large building with all the shopping & free samples... don't remember which building it was but it used to be painted orange and had many colorful flags atop the roof. The only ride I remember is this big blue wavy slide. You rode down it in a potato sack. And I think we saw Disney on Ice one year. End of Erica's childhood fair memories.

  

A kid in 4H did their presentation on border collies...smart kid.

I went to the fair a handful of times with friends as an adult but we usually just went for an hour or so in the evening. There was nothing really exciting to see or do. Over the past few years, Wes & I have been going to the fair for dinner (because fried foods, duh!) Well, this year I decided to relive my childhood and spend an entire day at the great State Fair of Oklahoma! People love the fair and go multiple times while it's in town. There has to be a reason why. We cleared our schedules for a weekend and I looked up attractions to see & do and made an itinerary for the day. 

Bottom right picture- a shack filled with turkey legs being smoked, aka heaven. 

Turns out there is quite a lot to do and see at the fair (and all the shows & demonstrations are free!) so it's no surprise why people spend entire days at the fair but, for us, staying out all day is a bit too much. We had a fun day overall but we were there from 11am - 9pm. That's a 10 hour work day! I was overly ambitious. LOL Maybe next year, we'll only stay out about half that time. We actually did so much that I had to split this blog into two Mondays. 

The first building we went into was Agtropolis in the Expo Hall. It was mainly geared toward kids but I think it was my favorite building. The building was full of farm animals! Piglets & tiny chicks (pictured above) and goats (pictured below)!

Agtropolis gave children the chance to learn about raising farm animals and sustainable environmental measures. The shopping in the building was all MIO (Made in Oklahoma) vendors. There were also a lot of educational demonstrations. We watched a beekeeper extract honey from a honeycomb and the booth with the alpacas taught us fun facts about their wool.

After I got my fill of adorable farm animals, we decided it was time for our first meal. The main highlight of the state fair is the food, after all. Everything is fried and skewered on a stick! Throughout the day, I had a jug of rootbeer, fried mashed potatoes (my favorite!), bacon wrapped corn on the cob, lemonade, salt water taffy and a piece of key lime pie dipped in chocolate. Good thing we also spent the entire day walking off the calories. Hahaha!

We spent most of the afternoon wandering around in the nicely air-conditioned buildings. There was so much shopping. Unfortunately, most of the vendors sold the same types of items so it wasn't as exciting as it could have been if there was more variety. Neither of us saw anything we couldn't live without so we didn't get any fair souvenirs. While we were walking from one building to another, we ran into the antique tractor parade. I guess if you can restore a classic car, you can restore an antique tractor. 

Next came our favorite activity of the day- Zoppe Italian Family Circus.

Their tent is always the first thing I notice when I walk into the fair but we've always gone in the evening when it's closed so I never really knew what it was. I'm so so glad we went this year. Both Wes & I enjoyed their performance immensely. It was an old traditional circus, like with clowns, acrobats, jugglers and sword swallowers. The ringleader described it as "a real circus, not like the famous French Canadian show that just pretends to be a traditional circus."

Of course my favorite act of the circus was the performing dogs. The precious pups ran around in circles, jumped through hoops and over hurdles and danced on two legs. I tried taking pictures but didn't get very good ones. We sat up in the bleachers so we were a little far from the action. 

That wrapped up the morning and early afternoon activities. The weather was pretty warm the weekend we went so we spent most of the afternoon in the buildings. Still no exciting shopping, though. *sadface* I almost bought a bamboo memory foam pillow but I didn't want to lug it around the rest of the day. Late afternoon and evening fair activities to come next week!!