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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Re-purpose...The Christmas Tree Gets a New Purpose

In this time of going green, I thought I should do my part and come up with a new purpose for my Christmas tree (you know because Christmas is over).  So for this last week-ish of it's time at my house I have transformed this Christmas themed tree with Christmas gifts (well at one point it had Christmas gifts under it)...

...in to this Birthday themed tree with birthday presents under it...


My husband, B was born on New Year's Day and I like to make sure to differentiate between the holidays (no Christmas themed wrapping paper for the B-day presents) so he still feels special on his bday. So here is the birthday tree in prep for B31 (aka, B's 31st year on the planet also known by other people as 2011).

Were any of you born on/near a holiday?
Have you taken down your tree yet?
Do you know how hard it is to wrap a giant present?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Shiny Christmas Balls!!!?!?!?!!?!

One of my favorite things to do every Christmas season is to go for a drive to see the Christmas balls.  What are the Christmas balls?  They are balls made out of wire (I think) and strands of Christmas lights, then hung in trees.  My house has 5 balls.  But there are a couple streets where the entire road has balls in their trees and it is amazing.  Every time I turn down the road, I smile and say "ahhh".  It's pretty awesome.  I also think it's a fundraiser for canned goods also.  So that is good.

So my handy assistant and I tried to capture this magic for you.  It's not as good as seeing it live but it's still pretty neat and you can listen to this wonderful tune from the Charlie Brown Christmas CD.

And here are the balls at my house (plus our reindeer) that B put up for us.  I was pretty much no help.
So do you have a street of balls in your town?
What's your favorite holiday decoration?
Did I say "balls" too much?

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

My Christmas Present to Myself...The Christmas Themed Apron (used to make Christmas themed movie/party snacks)

Sewing is hard.  Well it's hard for me.  I'm not super patient.  And sewing patterns are confusing.  When I can't figure out what something means (even after googling it) sometimes I get scary and yell or curse for no reason.  I'm sorry B and Hobie.  Thanks for trying to encourage me not to quit even if I was mean to you at the time, I do appreciate it.  I baked you some cookies yesterday to make up for it.

BUT NOW I CAN CROSS OFF #5 ON MY 30 FOR 30 LIST!!!!!!!!!!

After working on it most of the day on Saturday, I completed my Christmas-themed apron.  It has some major flaws and I cannot sew in a straight line to save my soul (although my sewing teacher did give me some tips-I probably need to sign up for that 2nd class).  I definitely should have used red thread instead of black so all my flaws didn't show as much, but oh well.  It still looks pretty good from far away and most people probably won't even notice the issues it has unless they are looking for them.

So I have decided that I will pull out this apron every year at Christmas and see how much my sewing skills have improved (hopefully).  Now I have to plan my outfit for the Holiday social I'm hosting on Wednesday around this apron.  (I've got to get as much use out of it as I can before Christmas is over.)

Monday, December 20, 2010

No-Bake Baking....

I decided to do some baking on Sunday but I actually went with items that didn't involve baking (more just melting)...

So if you want to make something really easy this week for a Christmas party or what not, here you go....

Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies...
1 bag of Butterscotch chips
1 bag of Chocolate chips
1 can (mine was 5 oz) of Chow Mein Noodles

-Melt the chips in a double boiler or the microwave and then stir in the Chow Mein Noodles.
-Scoop spoonfuls on to wax paper and let it harden

**I recommend breaking up the chow mein noodles a little before mixing them in or you will break you face trying to eat them.**

You can also do this with just butterscotch chips or with peanut butter chips or whatever.  I have also seen them with peanuts added in.
Next I wanted to make something vegan to send to my Mother-In-Law for Christmas.  So I asked Leah from Lovely Life of Leah for some help.  She gave me this recipe from the Alicia Silverstone book, The Kind Diet.  So I headed out to Earth Fare (sort of like Whole Foods) and bought..............

Crispy Peanut Butter Treats
Brown Rice Syrup (1 3/4 cup)
Brown Rice Cereal (aka healthier Rice Krispies) (1 box)
Carob Chips (1/2 cup)
Natural Peanut Butter (3/4 cup)

You basically just heat the syrup over the stove until in liquefies and then melt in the peanut butter.  Then you pour that on the cereal and mix it together in a bowl.  Add in the carob chips once it cools and then spread it in a pan.  The wax paper helped on that.

Veganlicious-OK so these weren't that bad.  I like the peanut butter flavor.  I was not a huge fan of the carob chips so I just didn't put that many in.


So that was my Sunday afternoon.
What did you do this weekend?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas Stockings aka Things I Bought From Etsy That I Love...

Last year was my first Christmas as a married person and also my first as a dog owner.  So I decided our family needed new Christmas stockings.
I wanted something personalized and unique since we'd just had boring red and green ones the past few years.  So I started perusing Etsy and found the shop, Handmade Pretties.  I fell in love with her stockings made from old sweaters.  Plus it seemed nice that she was recycling old sweaters to make something new.  I placed my order and asked about a smaller stocking for Hobie and she told me about her little paw print stocking.  I was sold.  I loved these last year and I still love them this year.  Plus they are really big.  I did notice though yesterday that both B and Hobie have stuff in their stocking and mine is still empty.  Sadzies.

This shop has already reached it's capacity for stockings this year but if you are in the market for new stocking for next year or a cute sweater skirt, you should check it out.

I also still have a stocking at my mom's house from when I was really little.  It has a picture of a little girl on it.  When my sister was born (9 years after me) my mom managed to find one really similar to the rest of our stockings so they'd all match each other.  B's great Aunt also knitted me a stocking last year since his Grandmother used to do that for everyone in the family before she died.  It was really sweet getting a stocking in the mail from someone I'd never even met.  (I did meet her this past year though.)

So what kind of stockings do you have?
Are they homemade?
Do you get new ones every year or have the same one from your childhood?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Gingerbread Cookies!-I'm Not a Total Failure

brothers

So after my major crafting fail on Saturday I really needed some success to pick me up.  My task for our work holiday party last week was to make a ginger cake.  After I made it, I realized I had all the ingredients (like molasses, ginger, allspice, etc) to make gingerbread cookies.  I have never made gingerbread cookies before so I decided to go for it.  I found a gingerbread cookie recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook that my sister (wut up L-Fab?) gave me for my birthday.

pic from anthropologie.com
Here's the recipe-ish...

Gingerbread Men Cookies (based on the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (at room temp)
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses

1-Sift the flour, baking soda and other spices together in one bowl
2-Mix together (with mixer) the butter and brown sugar until fluffy
3-Mix in the egg and molasses
4-Gradually add in a few spoonfuls of the dry ingredients until you have a nice dough
5-Split the dough up into three sections and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (I only did this for a few hours)
6-Preheat oven to 325 degrees
7-Pull dough out of fridge and let is soften for about 10 minutes
8-Sprinkle surface with flour and roll out the dough (add more flour to the dough so it doesn't stick)
9-Cut gingerbread men shapes out and bake for 10-15 minutes
10-Let the cookies cool and then decorate

Poor little guy lost a leg.
So these turned out pretty well.  I brought some in for my co-workers and they seemed to enjoy them (except the heartbreaking part where you have to eat off the head).  I did not make the royal icing that the cookbook suggested.  Instead I took the easy route and used the quick drying cookie icing from the store.   Overall, these ended up much better than my snowflake etched glasses.

Have you ever made gingerbread cookies?
Do you think Ted Mosby would count these as a Christmas themed movie snack?

Monday, December 13, 2010

Making Stuff Is Hard-The Martha Stewart Edition

On Saturday I decided to have craft day with Beezus5.  So I looked up this wonderful snowflake etched glass video by Martha Stewart.  The video made it look so easy.  So I bought all the supplies and had Beezus5 watch the video also.  Then we basically did everything the video said but our glasses did not look like these......
pic from marthastewart.com

They look like this.  Basically they just looked like dirty glasses.


I think we may not have used right kind of stickers and maybe we were not putting enough etching cream on the glass.  We're not really sure.  We did end up making a few monogrammed glasses that looked decent but I'll show you those at a later time.  I was pretty sad about the snowflake glasses but I just have to remember that all (most?) my craft projects are not going to be a success.  Ahhhh, the joys of crafting.

Has anyone else ever used etching cream to etch glasses?
Are you doing any holiday crafting?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

DIY Christmas Ornaments Straight from my Tree...And My Favorite Tree Decorating Snack

Last year I stole/borrowed/was given a box of ornaments from my Mom's house.  They feature many ornaments from my childhood as well as several homemade ornaments.   Here are a few.

The handmade sleigh, made from popsicle sticks...

Here is the lovely ornament I made last year by covering a clear ornament with tissue paper and a glue/water mixture...


Many years ago my mom made a bunch of these needlepoint ornaments...

And here is my favorite...the wooden frame with my face picture in it.  What a great smile I have.  And nice girl scout uniform I'm wearing...

I didn't make this ornament but it's currently one of my faves.  I demanded that we get some sort of Christmas ornament when we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii so we got this pineapple.  I like it...
Whenever I decorate the Christmas tree, I always like to enjoy a nice bowl of Chex Mix.  I pretty much just follow the recipe from the box.  I just used cashews (instead of mixed nuts) and pretzels (no bagel chips) and only 2 types of Chex (instead of the recommended 3) this time.

How is your Christmas tree? 
Do you make any ornaments?
Do you have any traditions (like Chex mix) for tree decorating night?

PS-And no, Chex did not sponsor this blog but when I was reading back through it the last part sounds a little like a commercial for Chex.
PPS-Shana is having amazing week long Christmas giveaways on her blog so check those out if you want to win something cool.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

4 Thanksgivings and a 5K

I pretty much had 4 Thanksgiving meals this year.  And I know you want to know all about them.

1-Dinzee Buddeez Festival of Fakesgiving.  This occurred last Sunday.  When my husband and I were first dating we would spend holidays apart so I made up some fake holidays that we could have together.  Such as Fakesgiving.  Fakesgiving is basically just eating Thanksgiving food on a day other than Thanksgiving.  It allowed us to share a turkey (or perhaps a rotisserie chicken or turkey sandwich) together before we left to hang out with our families.  This year I decided to see if my Dinzee Buddeez friends wanted to have a Fakesgiving before Thanksgiving since we'd all be going different places for Thanksgiving.  (Side note, Dinzee Buddeez is a group of 4-8 people who go out to random restaurants sometimes to eat.  It's very exclusive-ok not really.)  This basically ended up being a long con to get my friend Shanzie to prepare a turkey for me to eat at her house.  So Shanzie made a turkey breast and dressing and the rest of us brought sides.  We had a ton of food including...cider, spinach dip, green beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni, sweet potatoes, turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce.  I also made a pumpkin pie.


2-Thanksgiving Day Lunch with my immediate family, aunt and cousins.  Normally I go to B's Aunt's house for Thanksgiving but due to a work event he had we decided to stay in town for all of Thanksgiving.  So we ate lunch at a restaurant near my Aunt's house for Thanksgiving.  It was a lovely Thanksgiving buffet with all the normal stuff plus prime rib.  However I mistook some horseradish for potatoes and accidentally put a huge spoonful on my plate.  Fortunately I figured out what it was before eating a big bite and dying.

3-Me, B and Hobie Thanksgiving night (our Fakesgiving even though it actually ended up on real Thanksgiving).  Since we ate early in the day but I still wanted a Thanksgiving themed dinner for my small family I made us Turkey, Brie and Cranberry Sandwiches.   They were delightful.  I also made some pink stuff per B's request.  Then we read out of our Thanksgiving Basket of Thanks that we had been keeping throughout November of daily things we were thankful for.  Then Hobie tried to eat our leftovers.

How to Make a Delightful Turkey, Brie and Cranberry Sandwich.....
-Toast some croissants for a few minutes in the oven.
-Put some canned whole berry cranberry sauce (don't be a canned cranberry sauce hater, but you can use homemade cranberry sauce also) and deli sliced turkey on one side
-Put slices of brie cheese on the other side
-Toast for a few more minutes
-Then carefully stick the two sides together

4-My Mom's Festival of Fakesgiving (although she hates the word Fakesgiving.  She thinks it means I give Fake Thanks which is just not true).  This was on Friday.  My mom made all of her amazing Thanksgiving foods including a turkey.  I like her dressing the best and her mac and cheese is awesome as well.  Everything was very good and I definitely ate too much.  My sister and I got in a brief shouting match but I think that's what makes the holidays fun/memorable, right?

Then there was the 5k.  Gboro apparently has a Gobbler 5k every year on Thanksgiving morning so B and I decided to participate.  This was awesome.  I mean not while I was actually running it.  But after.  I just felt really good and positive and semi athletic and not as bad for binge eating 4 meals as I normally would have.  And I beat my last 5k time by a little bit.  Plus I got a t-shirt with a turkey on it.

What did you do for Thanksgiving?
Anyone have more than 4 Thanksgiving meals?

PS-Don't forget to enter the giveaway!