Christmas Ideas

What a great idea! Give the kids a gift bag on Christmas eve early enough that they can put on new jammies, maybe have a pack of popcorn they can pop and a new movie to watch, book to read, or coloring book and crayons. Something to keep them occupied.

These bottles are similar to Yoo Hoo chocolate drink. Hubby drinks about 4-6 of these a week so I am saving the bottles to make some gift jars with. 

I think I showed you these before but I can't help it. I just love these little guys. 

Adorable. And made with a pickle jar. Something I use about one jar a week.

More pickle jar crafts. Love these.

This is very cute if you know someone who does primitive Christmas decor. 

This has nothing to do with Christmas other than it glitters.  But oh, I do love this manicure. 

Happy crafting.

Snack time....

I go back through my old posts sometimes and look at some of the things I posted. I stumbled on one from last December that just absolutely starved me to death. Now I want to make a dessert. Here are some of my personal favorites of things I make. These are all actual pictures of things I have baked or made over the years.

Orange Christmas cookies from my mother-in-law's recipe. Makes over 70 cookies. I only make them at Christmas because if you make over 70 cookies...you have to frost over 70 cookies. This is a whole day project.

My mother-in-law also had a great recipe for applesauce raisin cake. We make it in loafs and in small Bundt pans.

Santa brought me a mini donut maker a couple of years ago so I tried my hand at cinnamon sugar donuts. This are perfect for cool fall morning. I need to make some of these soon.

I always make Mom's recipe for chocolate candy and peanut butter candy any time the mood hits. These are the old fashioned fudge, not the kind with marshmallow cream and chocolate chips. The chocolate is actually made using Hershey's cocoa powder and the peanut butter is with Jif peanut butter. We actually don't even call it fudge. We call it chocolate candy and peanut butter candy. 

I like making a lemom 7-up pound cake. It is SOOO good. One of my favorite things to make. The recipe is on the side of the Duncan Hines Lemon cake mix for a pound cake, but I use a bundt pan. Instead of water, I use a mixture of 7-up and lemon juice. I make the glaze with confectioner sugar, lemon rind, fresh squeezed lemon juice and a splash of milk. I drizzle it over while the cake is warm. They don't always come out of the pan looking this good, but I got lucky last year.

I like to make brownie cookies (recipe on the side of the Duncan Hines chewy brownie mix) and I always make a batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They are probably the one cookie I make that Hubby and I both enjoy the most. Sometimes, I make the frosting recipe for a Texas sheet cake and put it on the brownie cookies. If I do that, I always put a teaspoon of cinnamon in the brownie cookie mix. 

Of everything, my favorite is Mom's chocolate candy I mentioned above. It is so simple so delicious. It literally melts in your mouth. 

And I like to always make some of my peppermint hot chocolate. I simply fix a cup of instant hot chocolate, miniature marshmallows and use a nutmeg grader to grade "candy cane dust" on top of the marshmallows. Then I stick a candy cane on the side for garnish. Best peppermint hot chocolate ever out of my favorite cup ever. 

If you see anything that you want a more detailed recipe on, just leave me a comment and I will send it to  you. Happy baking.

Something wicked this way comes....

I came out of the grocery store one evening last week and this was the sky.

It was really wicked looking. I just had to stop and take some photos. When I got home I posted the pics on Facebook.

Check out the 3 lights in the clouds on this one. It kind of freaked me out. 

Then a friend of mine commented that she thought it was the space station. Her grandson, who is also my great nephew, is very interested in the space station and he told her that it was going to be close enough to earth to see it. She sent me a link he sent her. So I went to the link and saw the time chart and it was supposed to be over my area around 8:00 that night, which was around the time I took the random picture. So I guess I accidentally got a picture of the space station. She said they had this online showing the shape of it in the night sky. I bet if the dark blue clouds were not in the sky I wouldn't have gotten such a cool picture of it. 

How cool was that?

Some ideas...

When I was at Hobby Lobby this weekend, I got some great ideas. They have this beautiful picture that made me think how cute it would be to frame some of those lovely Christmas cards I get that I hate to throw away.

I saw this cute little tree in red and blue. Then I noticed they have it in plain wood in the craft department. It would be cheaper to buy the plain and decorate it your own way.

I also loved these clipboards but they were a little pricey.

Then I found these plain wood clip boards in the craft section. I am going to create something with them....just not sure what. 

I used my 40% off to get this book ox 4 x 6 scrapbook sheets. They would be perfect to make crafts or cards with. 

This was one of my favorites. 

And I liked this one as well. 

But I do believe this was my absolute favorite. 

They have their gemstones on sale so I picked up a few to use in my craft projects. 

I picked up some pretty scrapbook sheets while I was there. They have a great Christmas collection.

Now, just to find the time to make all the things I want to make.

Weekend wrap up....

Saturday was a good bargain day. I went to my friend's yard sale and scored several good bargains....like this package of business cards for .25. Worked out perfect because I need to design me some new business cards. 

Then I scored this Sandra Brown book that her mom had for sale for $1.00. Her mom said she almost didn't put it in there because she had never read it. Then later I found out she wished she hadn't sold it. I will have to loan it to her once I read it. 

I got these gorgeous red and white Corelle saucers for just .25 cents each. I love red and white. 

Another quarter scored me this cute little book. I love laying stacks of Christmas story books out at Christmas time. 

Some cute snowmen ribbon for another quarter. 

This was a huge piece of turkey material. I think it was like .25 or .50. I can't remember for sure. 

I got two of these little bracelets (one in peach and this green one) and a necklace I forgot to make a picture of. Everything I got totalled $5.00. So it was a pretty good bargain day. 

After that, I went to a local antique store that I do a lot of trading at. I had some antique glass ware that had been taking up space for awhile that I no longer collected so I took it to my favorite place. I was able to trade in a few pieces and get this square Pyrex cake pan that I had been looking for. 

I also got this Early American piece I wanted.

I found this little bowl and fell in love. I think it is Federal or Fire King. I can't remember. 

I got this little Libby vintage juice glass. I love the red roosters. 

I love handmade doilies. This was only $1.00.

And this precious apron for Christmas. 

I was able to trade my items for the majority of these and only had to pay a small amount for the rest of it. What an awesome day. 

Laugh a little

I thought I would share a little humor this morning. I turned on my Facebook the other night and notice my daughter had tagged me in a photo. I thought "Oh how sweet. Let's see what she tagged me in."

I would have been highly offended if it weren't for the fact that this is SO TRUE. I have the compulsion that makes me think I need to search out everybody I know and have one last conversation that day before we leave the sanctuary. Then I have some friends who are in the foyer that I have to say a few words to. And then we get outside where people are milling around the front and I always find somebody that I just need "one more minute" to tell goodbye. It's harder to get me out of the church parking lot on Sunday morning than it is getting a kid up for school. 

Another funny I saw was one I tagged my daughter-in-law in. I despise dusting and she loves to give me a hard time about it. It is true. I don't like to dust. Of course if I didn't love to collect so many knick knacks and what not's, I wouldn't have to move so much stuff to dust so I might enjoy it more. Hmmm....Nope. Still wouldn't like it. Anyway, I just had to share this little poem. She got a kick out of it. 

Have a blessed Sunday!

My current obsessions....

I go through spells where I fall in love with things I see online then it seems I see items with that theme everywhere I look. 

I am currently seeing little cute witches everywhere. Isn't this one so precious. I can make the broom but that is about it. 

I love these ghosts made from lace and Styrofoam balls. Super simple. May make some of these this weekend to hang on the hooks on my front porch.

My hubby loves YooHoo so I am saving some of the bottle to do something like this. 

I love candy canes crushed up in my hot chocolate and sprinkled on my marshmallows. I call it peppermint dust. I would love to do these as gift ideas. How do you think they make the hats?

And for some reason, I am in love with old trucks. Isn't this a cute idea.

I have had an obsession about these old trucks as decor ever since last Christmas when I saw people decorating with them. 

What are you currently obsessed with?