Some Valentines Cards

I'm almost halfway to my goal of 25 Valentines cards for Card Cupids, so I thought I would share a few that I've made in the last couple of days.
The cupcake shaped card is my favorite yet, I just love it! Hopefully these inspire you to create some Valentines cards of your own!

11th hour Christmas Cards

I didn't think I had Christmas Cards in me this year, but at the last second (meaning this morning before I left for work and tonight when I got home) I pumped out these:

yeah, so I've only made 6. And so they're going to be reciprocal cards (I'm sending them to people who've already sent us cards!) and so, they may not be there by Christmas. BUT I made them, and they're done and they'll be in the mail tomorrow!
This is one of my favorite designs from when I was making cards earlier this year, most of which I sent to Card Cupids, so I decided to re-create it. The lovely wreath is cut from the Holiday Cakes cartridge, and to save time I skipped cutting the berries and used glitter glue instead.

And, it's only 7:40 right now, so I have a few hours to make more. So I may even get to making reciprocal cards from last year, when I didn't send out cards at all.

I feel so alive! (not really.)

Something other than a card

I've been trying to think of ways to use my cricut to make something other than cards. (I'm addicted to card making right now, though!)
Since Halloween is coming, I've been focusing on that. I decided I wanted to make some luminaries to line my sidewalk up to my door step for Halloween night (assuming it doesn't rain!). These are what I came up with:And the best part? They won me an ATG gun! I'll have to tell you about that in a another post, though, because this has been the winniest week ever for me and I can't wait to share my prizes.


I also have these mirrors from Ikea in my entryway, and I cut a bunch of shapes from Pumpkin Carvings at 3" to go in each mirror. I love them! I think I'll be changing out the cuts for each holiday this season, because I love the effect. It's very hard to take a picture of a mirror, so you'll have to trust me that it looks much cuter in real life.


And then I used the leftover face cuts from my mirror cutouts to decorate my mini pumpkins for Halloween. I always keep my mini pumpkins up through Thanksgiving, so I didn't want to permanently alter them, and I think this works perfectly.

So, that's what I've been up to!

ETA: sorry for the horrid pictures! It's dark by the time I get home, so with that comes terrible pictures until Spring :)

Mother's Day Gifts

If there was a contest for weirdest family tradition, I'm pretty sure mine would win. There's one goal at holidays that we all strive for: make mom cry. At prayer before dinner everyone passes her their napkins, and then we all giggle when she actually has to use them. Yeah, we're mean. Anyways, my point is, I think my mother's day gift is going to be a winner, so pass the napkins!

A few weeks ago Sarah from He Coaches She Crafts posted this adorable plaque that she made for her mother using a cricut. When I whined that I didn't have a cricut but loved the idea, Sarah suggested that I go to Wordle.net and create a collage there. What a great idea!

I used Sarah's tutorial to make two plaques, one for my mom and one for Dimples' mom. For my mom I chose the words for mom (mother, mom, mama...yes I call my mom "mama" still), and words that I thought described my mom, like beautiful, caring and loving etc.
For Dimples' mom I chose their last name to be the focal point, then love, home and family. Then I used thesaurus.com to find other words that meant love, family and home, and chose the ones I thought described his family best.

And I really loved how they turned out. I think they are so sweet, and I'm glad that I took the time to make something instead of just buying something like I usually do.

sorry, I had to black out our last name there.

And mom, if you're reading this, you know you're going to have to pretend to be surprised and cry for me later. Happy Mother's Day!

Valentine T for baby

This is my sweet nephew P's first valentine's day, and I wanted to make him something special. Considering he's only 7.5 months old, he can't have my cookies or cupcakes, so I made him a t-shirt.
First I bought a plain red T-shirt from Target and some black fabric with lips on it from JoAnn's. Then I sketched out a template of a necktie. I cut out the tie shape and sewed it on like an applique, trimming off the extra fabric when it was done.

I love it, and I can't wait to see it on his chubby little self!

Handmade Christmas update

Christmas with my family doesn't happen until New years day, but I thought I would share my progress with my handmade gifts for the nieces and nephews.

For the two pre-teens and one five year old niece I made Organza flowers following this tutorial on Reesedixon.com I am so pleased with how they came out. The best part is that I had all of the components on hand. The organza came from my fabric stash, and the seed beads from an old bracelet that I had taken apart years ago.
Then, I glued them to some inexpensive satin headbands that I purchased. And here is the final result:

I adore them! I hope my nieces love them as much as I do.

Next, for my nephew and 13 year old niece (who would never wear a flowery headband!), I made these duct tape wallets. I had one of these (that I bought! How silly) when I was younger, and I remember how cool I thought I was, so I thought that they would like them.

Even the bug detail is tape. I used a scrapbooking punch to make the cutouts, and used to voids along the bottom. I'm thrilled with how they turned out!

So, I have one gift left to complete. 2 year old PJ's crochet hat. Yes, I'm crocheting again! after a two year hiatus, it only took me a few minutes to get back into the rhythm, and I've already completed one scarf and most of his little hat.

Peanut Butter Balls (Buckeyes)

(Far Right in photo)

These have been on my Christmas rotation since I was kid. Easy and delicious!

2 Cups powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 (12 oz) package chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened (but not runny)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Combine all ingredients except for chocolate. Mix until well blended. Roll into small balls. Stick toothpicks in balls, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Melt chocolate chips on double broiler. Dip peanut butter balls in chocolate. remove toothpicks and store in a cool place.

(refrigerating the balls with the toothpick inside is a little tip to make dipping easier. the toothpicks stay in much better!)

Spritz Cookies

I've always been fascinated by Spritz cookies, I didn't know that they were made from a press until a few years ago. I thought it was some cookie mould that would be very time consuming...

Anyways, the Wilton press was on sale at JoAnn's last week, and I couldn't resist. I love these cookies! I can't wait to try out new variations (I saw one where a spritz was pressed on top of a round cookie-so cute!)

Basic Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
1 teas vanilla
1/2 teas almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teas baking powder
Also, the cookies pictured are my "seconds". I'd already packaged up the "firsts" to give to friends and coworkers. The cookie press is definitely worth the $6 I paid for it! :)

Russian Tea Cookies (Snowballs)

I've had these every Christmas as far back as I can remember. This recipe comes from my Grandmother, and it could not be easier (or more delicious). Now, I use margarine for these, because that's what her recipe says. Don't hate the margarine cookies, they really are awesome!

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teas salt. Then add 1 cup soft margarine (not runny!) and 2 teas vanilla. Blend with pastry cutter. add in 1 cup finely chopped pecans. Roll into balls. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes.

Remove and cool for 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar. They keep really well if you store them in an airtight container with powdered sugar.

20 Minute tree skirt

Last week, in a rush to find something to hide the ugly base of my fake Christmas tree, I bought this "drape" from the dollar store. It was okay, but just looked like fabric wrapped around the base of my falsey.
But yesterday I saw this tree skirt on the blog Shanty2Chic. How Cute is that?! I love it.
So, after my movie was over last night it was still to early to go to bed, so I decided to use my dollar store drape to make a ruffle tree skirt.
The result: (click to enlarge)
Not bad! It only took 20 minutes, and I didn't use a pattern (not like I had invested a ton of money into it!)
Also, at first I was jealous of the ruffle foot on Shanty2Chic's sewing machine, but as I was sewing in a very loose top stitch on the ruffle (to pull to make the ruffle) somehow my machine began pulling it and created the ruffle! I was probably way more excited about that than I should be. And, by some twist of fate, the ruffle was the perfect size.
This will probably be a one year tree skirt, as next year we're hosting Christmas for my family, so I plan on getting a giant real tree, which will need a bigger better skirt. This was great practice though, and I'm really happy with it!

Handmade Christmas

This post will be ever changing as I find ideas for a handmade Christmas. I started it on Oct. 19th, but am just getting ideas collected nearly a month later! The next four weekends are going to be busy ones!

Since beginning this post, I also found out that we are expecting a new niece or nephew next summer, so I will add one more to my list: fetus, due July 1. I'm calling niece as they just had a boy last summer :)

Looking at last years list, I have some gifts I never made, so I'll roll those over to this year. Also, I've found a wonderful new resource for handmade gifts called Givers Log that is filled with beautiful gift ideas.

Fetus
nephew P, 6 months - we purchased all of his presents. oops.
nephew PJ, 2 - crochet hat
niece A, 5 - Organza flower headband
nephew B, 11 - Duct Tape wallet with ants
niece C, 11 - Organza flower headband
niece M, 13 - Organza flower headband
niece J, 13 - Duct tape wallet


These Organza flowers will look adorable attached to headbands for the nieces. The only niece who I think might not like this is niece J, who isn't the headband type of girl. I'll make her one anyways, though, because maybe someday she'll want to wear it to church :)

Hot Chocolate on a Stick, for adults

Handmade Christmas recap

I think this years' handmade Christmas went much better than the last. First, I started early and collected ideas. That was key. It made me feel organized and the projects didn't seem so difficult, and if one seemed too daunting, I moved on to another idea. Here are some pics of my finished projects.

For my pre-teen nieces I made these little fabric journals. The first one that I made was the blue one, and I was least happy with it's design, so I added her name to it, and a little extra inner pocket. It also fit the best over the journal, so in the end I was very happy with it.

For my one year old nephew I made these little fleece slippers. I used my husbands Moccasin slippers as a template for the design, then googled the "average size of a one year old foot in inches" to get the size. I was delighted when they fit him perfectly. Also, I sewed the buttons on extra tight so he wont be able to pull them off and choke on them. Because I care. :)

And for my four year old niece, I made this purse that I posted a few months ago. She wasn't very impressed with it because there was a giant red gift bag that she fit inside, and it was way cooler. I'm sure she'll love the purse when the giant gift bag stops being so awesome :)

For my 10 year old nephew I made a little fleece hat that had 7 panels, and little ear flaps decorated with buttons. I used my own head as a template for that hat, and since my head is freakishly small, it barely fit his! I think it was cute, though. Maybe he can wear it under a beanie when he goes to the snow :)

Anyways, I had a ton of fun personalizing my gifts, and actually using my sewing machine! I will definitely be doing this again next year, except I'll be starting a little earlier so that my gifts can be more intricate. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll know how to knit by this time next year!

Candy Making

This was my candy making-ist season ever! Along with my Mom and a girlfriend I made about 300 nougats, 250 peanut butter balls, 2 pans of Fudge, 1 pound of candied nuts, 2 slabs of peppermint park, 100 caramel pecan pretzels and 100 Russian tea cookies. Okay, so the last one was not candy, but they were made in the middle of a candy marathon, so they totally count.

For my co-workers I bundled up little packages of Russian Tea Cookies, Fudge, Peppermint Bark and Caramel Pecan Pretzels and Candied nuts, and wrapped them in cute bags. Dimples and I passed out candy every time we had friends over, and we each ate way too much ourselves. Some of it was destroyed in an unfortunate glass breaking incident, and some of the nougats are still in my fridge, bringing me shame for not dipping them in Chocolate yet.

I love the Holidays.

Busy Bee!

I've got a lot of yummy recipes to post, and a lot going on, I've just been way to busy to post! Hopefully that will change as yesterday was my last day at full time job for TWO whole weeks! Woot!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my Christmas decorations, because I know everyone is dying to see them.

Hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner

So our first Thanksgiving at home was kind of fantastic. It was very Chill, and it was nice that way. Anyways, here is our beautiful Turkey:

Yumm-o! And it was so juicy and buttery. I basted that sucker with garlic butter, and stuffed it with sliced apples. It was delicious.

And I thought pioneer woman's green beans added some fun color to the meal. They were tasty, too. (I altered the recipe a bit by adding full pieces of bacon to it. I love me some bacon)

And here are some tips for future Thanksgivings:

-- When a bowl falls out of the cupboard and breaks on the counter, don't use the vaccum to clean up the mess. Even though it seems like a one teaspoon measuring spoon is too big to be sucked into a vaccum hose, it's not. And then you won't have a one teaspoon measuring spoon anymore.

--When the Turkey says "with Giblets" and there's only a neck in the cavity, the rest of the giblets are in the neck hole. Be sure to take these out before you cook it, or else your husband will find them when he's tearing the meat up, and make fun of you.

-- When you put an apple in the cavity, be sure to remove the sticker on the apple, or your husband will find it when he's tearing the meat up, and make fun of you.

-- When you aren't quick with the baster, the juice will shoot across your kitchen. We both learned this one the hard way.

-- Pans from the oven are hot! Don't grab!

-- Stove burners that are on are hot! Don't touch!

-- Your normally well behaved shih tzu will become a begging beast when she sees a bird that is the same size as her. You should probably put her in another room.

Anyways, hope everyones Thanksgiving was fabulous! I'm off to drift into my Turkey coma now.

Holiday Planning!

I'm so excited that the Holidays are here! This will be the first year that Dimples and I have Thanksgiving at our own apartment, and this means I'm making a turkey. Lord help us all. Well, actually, Pioneer Woman help us all. She's showed me everything I need to know here and here, so I'm feeling prepared. My Mom and sister are coming over, so it's going to be very small and cozy (the cozy part is because our apartment is like 600 square feet, so when I say cozy, really I mean cozy.) My Mom came over yesterday and we planned our menu:

Turkey-me

Gravy-me

Acorn Squash- Me

Onion Bread-Mom

Salad-Sis

Mashed Potatoes- Sis

Walnut Pie- Mom (we fought over who got to make this. She won...this time. :)

Pumpkin pie-Me

Bacon Green Beans-Me

Stuffing- Mom (and since I'm making the turkey, we wont be cooking the stuffing in the turkey, thank goodness. I find that practice disgusting. Would you like a heaping dish of salmonella? Yummy)

Cranberry sauce-Me

And we'll each make an appetizer. I'm excited. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite Holiday because all you do is hang out and eat all day. If we could somehow incorporate gifts into Thanksgiving it would be pretty much the best day ever.

I'm still working on my handmade Christmas gifts, though to be honest I haven't done much since I finished the purse. I'll get there. Really I should have got some done yesterday because I had the entire day off, but nope, I just watched old movies all day. It was fantastic.

And to finish up, last week a sister of one of Dimples clients sent Dimples home when a can of homemade oatmeal cookies. She told them not to eat them all, he had to share some with his wife. I thought this was adorable, so today I made a batch of sugar cookies with a peppermint vanilla frosting to put in the can so he can take them back to her. :)

Here is the easiest bestest Sugar cookie recipe ever, which I found on the back of a set of Wilton cookie cutters:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 granulated sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teas vanilla extract

1/2 teas almond extract (I omit this. I don't keep almond extract around)

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teas baking powder

1 teas salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; add to butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough (this is my favorite part! I'm all about instant gratification when it comes to cookies). Roll and cut with cookie cutters as desired. Bake 6-7 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool on racks and frost.

And here are my finished cookies:

And boy howdy are they good. I know what you're thinking: Those would've been prettier if she'd waited until they were cool to frost them, right? But remember when I said I'm all about instant cookie gratification?

True story.