Pinterest Play Day!

I finally had a pinterest play day! You know FINALLY doing SOMETHING that you've pinned to one of your boards!

If you haven't joined pinterest yet..enter with caution it's addicting!

So I seen this recipe on pinterest for these little cracker bacon snacks..

instantly I thought DAN WOULD LOVE THOSE!!

And let's get real who doesn't love BACON?!

Basically you take a club cracker, put parmasean cheese on it and wrap a half strip of bacon around it and bake it at 250 for 2 hours....

The picture below is about an hour into baking time...

And this is what they looked like when they were done..I know...wipe your mouth your drooling...

And this is what it looked like when Thing 1 tried them!

All three males in the house say this is a recipe to be filed..give it a try..they are super easy to make and not really that expensive. I got 28 crackers out of 1 pack of bacon.

This original recipe came from The Pioneer Woman. She has step by step directions on her blog if you'd like to see how this all goes together.

A Valentine Mantle

Ok so this mantle didn't go quite as well as I had planned.

I knew I wanted to blend the colors red,pink and turquoise but I couldn't get them to look just right on my mantle. Sometimes my dark wood work really works against me!

I seen how Lucy over at Craftberry Bush did her mantle and my wheels started turning!!

Her mantle is BEAUTIFUL be sure to take a peek-you won't be sorry. It's so soft and romantic.

However..I wasn't going for a romantic look just more of a fun whimsical feel.

She showed how she made a faux cross stitch picture and I knew right away I too wanted one of those!!

HOWEVER-I did not even come close to doing as good as she did. I just free handed mine and didn't use precise lining-which I regret now..because mine isn't so "cross stitchie" looking..but it'll do for this year I may redo it and do it correctly this time, for next year...

I was also inspired by her to wrap the blue jars in burlap and use the stripped down books.

I'm still not happy with how my mantle turned out. I think Im going to add some big glittery hearts.

But I don't want to dwell on it..so for now Im going to call it done..besides I still have to decorate the hutch :)

It looks more cluttered then decorated to me...I'll bet I end up redoing it eventually lol..

How are you decorating this year?

I've Been Featured!!!

Yay! So exciting!
The heart wreath that I made got featured as a top 10 on the Happy-Go-Lucky blog!

Thats super cool...I know right?!!
Thank you so much to Kara and Amy for hosting a fun blog party!
Be sure and pop on over to Happy-Go-Lucky and check out her blog.
Lots of link ups and cool stuff to see!!

Love is in the air...well sorta...

I started pulling out the RED and PINK stuff today!!

I wanted to share with you what I made a back in December.

 Little Heart Scatters..Made from SALT DOUGH!

I cut them out with a little heart cookie cutter..

 Spray painted them red-quick and easy here folks..

 Shot them with a coat of sealer..And BAM! Done!

Cute little bowl scatters...I made star scatters, gingerbread men scatters and Santa's boots and hat scatters (I will share at another time)

Here is the salt dough recipe that I used..

Take about 1 cup salt and dissolve it in about 1 1/4 cup water (or a little more if needed). Then stir in about 3 cups flour ( one cup at a time), until it's a nice soft dough.

You can shape it or cut it out with cookie cutters. Let it harden or bake it at 200 degree F until hard. Then paint with regular acrylics or spray paint :) Be sure your scatters are completely dry and cooled off before you paint them. Store in a container where no moisture or water can get to them.

I sold these this year for $2 a dozen and they were a big hit!



January Almost Over..........ALREADY..??!!

Looking at the calendar today, I was a little taken back by the date! January 26th!

Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the New Year!

How are you doing with your New Years Resolutions? Are you sticking to them?

I myself...have stuck to some..some I haven't started..and some are starting to fall by the wayside...

When I looked at the calendar I realized Valentine's Day is just around the corner (already!) and it's time to start packing away the winter and new year's decor and pull out the red and pink..yay the one time I can get away with pink in this house :)

So Before January comes to an end, I want to wish you a Happy New Year one last time this year!

*~* Wordless Wednesday*~*

(My neice Allie)

A Valentine Start

After taking the all the Christmas decor down, I decided to keep the small tree

that I bought up. I stuffed it in a corner in the dining room and thought it would be fun to decorate it for the different holidays.

Doing things DIY is always my first go to before I spend money on something.

Carter was using his parla beads (The beads you put on a pegged tray and fuse together with wax paper and an iron) the other day, and I seen the heart tray setting there and the phone rang...and so....began the start of making Valentine ornaments for the little tree.....

So whatcha think? I think cute so far..but guess what, I ran out of pink beads....ole well..Stay tuned for more ideas to come :)



Wordless Wednesday

And that's a wrap!

I think is the last of the cards for a little while. Next month Im planning to work on Christmas

cards so I can be prepared to send them come December instead of attempting to do them all last minute!

(Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics!)



More Cards...

I was getting Christmas cards all the way up to Christmas day.

I didn't get a chance to return some cards back to a couple people, so

I decided to make a some "warm winter wishes" cards to send back

to those people that didn't receive a Christmas card.

Not only that, I think it will be a nice welcomed surprise in their mailboxes.

Plus it gave me a chance to play with the new stamp set my sister Shannon bought me

for Christmas. As well as the fun stuff my mother in law got me!(Thanks Shanny and Lou Anne I love them!)

 This card is an actual Christmas card, it's one I started and didn't get finished so I went ahead and finished it and someone will receive it next year lol..I just am in love with those tilda stamps!!



Happy New Year...What are your resolutions?

(another crappy cellphone picture)

Christmas for me seemed to be here and over in the blink of an eye!

As I took down the Christmasy stuff I decided to decorate my mantle in a winter theme

until February, when I will Valentine it up!

For the year 2012 I resolve to be more prepared for Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas and LOVE to do all things Christmas related!

My friend Teresa over at 8 Things About Me and myself have come up

with a month by month motivational challenge.

So if you are like us, always running behind, please feel free to join us. And if you post on your

blog about it please let us know or link back to one of us so that we can see what you are doing as well!!

Here is the list of challenges we've come up with...

1. I will clean up all the Christmas decorations and will start a gift closet in Jan.
2. Feb.-make Christmas cards
3. March make Christmas crafts/gifts
4. April- buy forever stamps for your Christmas Cards.
5. May- buy one gift for every child in my house.
6. June- find crafts (Kids) and recipes for Christmas
7. Christmas in July we are going to do crafts with the kids make a Santa list,watch a Christmas movie.
8. August- Stocking Stuffers- school supplies are on sale.
9. September- Make sure you have supplies for your cookies.
10. October- Address Christmas Cards, make sure I have enough crafts made for everyone.
11. November- rearrange furniture and start getting Christmas decorations out.
12. December- Wrap gifts

Sounds easy enough right?!! Come join us for the fun and motivation!

p.s. As I write this Jan 4th...Im sitting on the couch looking at my pretty lovely lit up Christmas tree...I always hate taking it down I love that thing all lit up!! But as the challenge goes for January....lol..I have put everything else away tho so I am doing "something"....

As for the rest of my resolutions...

1. Stick to the Christms Challenges and see how they work for me

2. Open an etsy store

3. Be smoke free by my birthday-April 9th!

4.Lose at LEAST 20lbs this year..refer to #3..this will be a REAL challenge concidering

I could go on and on with a list of things I'd like to do and like to change but I will stop here!

I hope 2012 holds nothing but the best for you!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Christmas Cards

I didn't get alot of cards done and mailed this year, but the ones I

did get done I was pretty pleased with!

Sorry the pics aren't the best, they were taken on my cell phone.



2011 Christmas Home Tour

Seasons Greetings!

I hope you Christmas was memorable and full of Christmas magic!

I thought before taking my decorations all down I would take you

on a little Christmas tour at our home.

I didn't put up alot this year, Christmas seems to have came pretty quickly!

First, I will show you what I did outside..I think this was my

favorite part of the decorations! Living out here in the

sticks it's pretty pointless to hang up lights outside but some times

I long for the days that we use to live in town and really "do it up" outside

with all the lights on the roof and in the trees...so this year I made do..

Yes, I am aware of the paint under my window..talk about

crappy house painters! They won't be painting our house again!

(yes Im serious, they were PAID painters!)

And now into the kitchen...

This is right above my sink. I really like this because it's

VERY sparkly!!

 These are my attempts to capture the sparkle of the garland and glitter balls...

I put a small 5ft tree in the kitchen and I baked some gingerbread men out of

cinnamon dough, they turned out super cute and I made extras to give to

my sisters as gifts. I actually took all the Christmas related stuff off the tree and put it in the

dining room corner. Thought maybe I'd leave it up all year!

 My friend Elizabeth McCabe got us a couple of these faux
ribbon candies that actually LOOK REAL ...they were prefect on this tree!!
And if you look closely you can see that I actually strung REAL popcorn on the tree!
Can you believe I don't thin I've ever done that before!!

 My vintage baubles kept under a cloche, Im not sure how old these
are..My Aunt Penny gave them to my baby sister when she first moved into
her own home, and my sister didn't want these "crappy" ornaments!
And I was glad to take the crap!

 Mr, Mouse with another vintage ornament. What is it about
Christmas that make mice cute??!!

 Pointsettia garland was drapped on my hutch

 Candy Canes made by boys. My mom cut them out of wood and the
boys painted them. First one made by Carter -obviously and the second one made by Caleb.
It doesn't bother me one bit that they are unperfect. I think the unperfect-ness of them makes
them have character and gives them a rustic kinda look :) I love them and smile every year that I unpack them!

 Here's our little pig thats allowed to live in the house..
He has lots of "costumes"..think plastic goose dressed up in outfits...yea
thats our pig :)

Green and red glass balls in a decorative jar.

 Making the carpet look pretty when making Christmas cards..

it really was kinda pretty...but then again im a bit addicted to glitter :)

 The mantle..just a bunch of wonky stuff

 I liked the glass balls in this arrangement, but I am so getting
different greenery for next year that fake looking stuff looks like crap!

 Some of my nutcrackers along with a nutcracker book..

The prize in the stocking...lol...I fill tp tubes with old candle wax and paper towel
and give them to my friend Staci for fire starters. Well I stuck one in each
one of the boys stockings during the month, while we were waiting for santa to come
(hey i wanted them to hang right!!) and forgot to take Carter's out of his stocking!
Whoops! He emptied his stocking and out came that...he looked at me like ..
"What the hell is this??" I said.."better not open that, it could be rudolph pooped in your stocking"...

 This little snow baby on the sled I've alway thought was adorable. When I was a kid my mom use to make a bunch of these and sell them at craft shows.

Our Santa Key holds top place in all our Christmas decorations.

I first made this key for Caleb when he was little and asked how Santa was going to

get into our house when we didn't have a fire place.

I am SO thankful now that I wrote the year on the back of the key! (I did't realize I had done that until this year!) 2002-I can't believe that key is 10 years old already!! Where did the time go?!

I used a fake key embellishment from scrapbooking supplies and bought a pin with a santa face on it. Popped the pin back off and glued on the key and string!

Santa has came, ate and drank..left a note and now
it's time to put all the decorations away..that part always makes me sad!

I hope that you were able to find many things to cherish this Christmas!