Tutorial Tuesday: S'mores Preparation

We're planning on having Christmas Eve S'mores, and I had an idea that would allow us to cut down a bit on our larger than usual grocery bill. You know how it is, when there's a holiday dinner to be planned, ya splurge a little. I'm so happy we'll be having a 'splurgy' dinner, but I also don't mind saving a bit too ;-)

So when we went to pick up our groceries I was excited to see a flavor of Graham crackers I hadn't tried before: Cinnamon. They look the same except topped with cinnamon sugar. Yum! So we grabbed that for our S'mores and were about to pick up some chocolate bars when inspiration hit. I was having trouble finding some chocolate that hadn't been made on the same equipment as chocolate with nuts in it and then I remembered I had a bag of nut free chocolate melts at home. Y'know the kind, you melt 'em down and then pour them into molds for pretty shapes without having to temper the chocolate? Well, we came home with our Grahams and large marshmallows and today I 'tweaked' the crackers to make them ready for Christmas Eve.


Two ingredients: crackers and melts. Add melts into a bowl and microwave, following directions until chocolate is a smooth liquid.

While chocolate is melting, break graham crackers in half.
Baby Boy was very insistent on his truck helping by holding down the wax paper.

"Butter" crackers with melted chocolate and let cool.

Oh yeah, we didn't waste any :)

After they were fully cooled, here they are all bagged up and ready for some roasted marshmallows :) Ah, I love using what I have! It makes life more fun.

Wishing you lots of delicious holiday goodness!

Lots To Do

Company arrives in a few days and there's so much to do!

There are several presents that have arrived in the mail that still need to be wrapped. It seems like we've been waiting forever for the last of the presents we ordered and then they all came at once. There's heaps of laundry to be done, a ton of organizing, cleaning and making things shiny and ready. Along with the last minute holiday preparations for the food and fixing dinners between now and Christmas, I feel just a little bit overwhelmed. So, I'm trying to play Flylady Bingo and get the chores done 15 minutes at a time. We'll see.

If you're a terrible procrastinator like me and have miles to go before making your home holiday ready, you can click here to like Flylady on Facebook and then click here for the instructions on how to play Bingo. It makes cleaning a little easier for me on most days.

Hope everyone's further along in their holiday preparations!

Sugar Cookie Countdown Chain

I wanted to make an advent calendar for Christmas, but Hubby got me a perfectly cute one last week, so that was covered.

Then I made too many sugar cookies the other day and realized after stuffing the stockings and sharing some, we could use them to count down for another event. We have been building up the excitement for Baby Boy because his Nana is spending Christmas with us. She arrives a few days before Christmas, so I made an angel cookie chain to help Baby Boy keep track of when we get to see her.

I want to remember this and make it our advent calendar next year! It's really cute and a fun way for kids to look forward to counting down.

Here's how the chain was made:

Lay out as many cookies as days down the center of a long strip of plastic wrap.
Be sure to leave a bit of room between them so they can be tied off.
I have the cookies face down so the folds of the plastic wrap will be in the back.

Fold one side, then the other of the plastic wrap to seal the cookies in.
You can tape it shut, but the wrap clings to itself so I left it.

Using a simple knot, tie one end off. Make sure it's secure! I tied it several times and left the ends long.
Work your way up the chain, tying between each cookie.
Slide a scissors blade across the ribbon strands to curl and voila!

Make a loop at the top for hanging.
Baby Boy loved holding it while I explained what it was for.

Then we hung it with our advent calendar so we can move the snowflake marker to count down to Jesus' birthday, and snip off the daily cookie to count down to Nana's arrival.

I would love to make one of these chains for the entire month of December next year!

Christmas Village

Since we've been married, I've collected light up Christmas village items. Our collection is still small, but I still love the thrill of setting it up and turning the lights on.

It all started our first year of marriage when Hubby wistfully remarked that he would someday like to have a little Christmas village display of his own. We were browsing a huge department store at the time and they had a gorgeous, sprawling village set up at the front of their Christmas section. So that year I bought the only thing our modest budget could afford. A blanket of "snow" that our future village would sit on.

The next year my sister gave us a beautiful miniature toy shop, complete with gorgeous detail and a back lit window display of toys and cute teddy bears careening in glee down a slide attached to the shop.

The year after that I bought a pair of battery operated mini street lanterns at Goodwill and would spend long trips gazing at the little villages they had for sale, but knew I couldn't buy them that year. One day, a few weeks before Christmas, I went back to look at the villages again and the Goodwill ladies called me aside. One of them said "You shop here a lot and are always so sweet to us. You never throw a fit if we can't find what you want and always have something nice to say. We've seen you looking at the Christmas villages for a few weeks and a few of us decided we wanted to give you these. Merry Christmas, hon."
She reached behind the counter and pulled out a plastic bag with some mysterious bundles in it. The newspaper wrapping on the items couldn't disguise the fact that they clinked a little as I took the bag from her. I said, "No way...", as I unwrapped the nearest bundle. The three of them watched me smilingly, and I nearly broke into tears when I saw that I held a beautiful little country church with a light dusting of snow. It was part of a light up set. I followed the wires connecting the bundles and found that the bag held two more adorable light up buildings: a bakery and a house. They all looked so wintery and Christmas cozy and well... just perfect. After telling them I loved the gifts but couldn't accept them, and being lovingly threatened by the sweet ladies, I hugged them all and left with a full bag and an even fuller heart.

That same year, I was surprised with some Christmas money from some wonderful relatives and decided to make use of a coupon and sale going on at JoAnn's crafts. I was tickled pink to find an amazing deal on a large light up church and some people and trees to populate our village with!

So that's our Christmas village story. The buildings are mismatched and out of scale, and while we'd like to add to them, I would never get rid of any of the misfit originals. I think they're beautiful. And this year it's even more special because we get to see it through Baby Boy's eyes. The wonder and curiosity behind his gaze as he scrutinizes the little village and it's populace adds to the Christmas feeling in our little home.


In order of acquisition:

Toy shop

Country church

House

Bakery

Bigger church. What village only has one church, right?

A few of our villagers relaxing after some toy shopping :)

And here it is in all it's shining glory.

Ornament Bling on a Mirror

I was inspired by this ornament 'curtain'.

This thrifted mirror has been sitting in a corner since I bought it because I couldn't find the right place for it. I love the frame, and thought it would look great outside, but then thought better of leaving something breakable in our outdoor sitting area.

I really like it this way :)

Baby Boy nods his head when he passes it saying "Niiiiice balloons, Mama."

Cardboard Tube Flower Wreath

So I had a bunch of these. Yes, those are empty toilet paper tubes.

As one of my oldest, dearest friends asked, "Why are you using those?"

And I answered what seems to be a running theme for my frugal crafting: "Because I've already paid for it!"

I used to be the girl who saved up to buy cardboard/chipboard/construction paper from a craft store for my projects, not realizing that many of those items formed the packaging of things I normally buy.

I just hate to waste packaging. Now, if it can be recreated into something beautiful or functional, I'll use it.

Anyway, I had the tubes, but hadn't figured out what to do with them. Until looking at different wreaths people are making out of unusual materials.

Then all it took was cutting up the tubes into 1/4 inch crosswise pieces and hot gluing them together in flower shapes. Some more hot glue to attach them in a circle and soon I had a wreath. I hoped to paint it silver, but the weather hasn't allowed it. And since I don't have a garage, it's had to stay as is.

I'm itching to slap a big bow on it but am trying to enjoy the minimalism for now

It's starting to grow on me, though, and I think it will serve as a pretty frame for the Christmas cards from friends and family. We received our first two cards! Which means, I'm late in sending mine out. Ah well. Now I have a project to work on tonight :)

Salt Dough Snowmen Are Up!

View as you walk into Baby Boy's room. He's tickled silly to have them on his wall.

I'm so happy he loves them so much!

Homemade Salt Dough Ornaments

Baby Boy and I made some salt dough for the first time. I'm hoping that we can continue the crafts we've done as yearly traditions, because they're so much fun and are so personal.

I wanted to try colors so I cut the dough in half and added blue to one, leaving the other the normal dough color.

A crafter's battle scars

Here are some shapes I made to test the recipe.

I've never used salt dough before, so I wasn't prepared for the porous look after baking. Didn't really care for it.


For the actual batch I decided to coat my shapes with egg wash to give them what I hoped would be a rustic, antiqued look.

Toa's huge little hand

They came out darker than I wanted, and they puffed unevenly, but still looked kind of charming.

We ended up with 6 snowmen ornaments and Baby Boy's handprint ornament, which I've been meaning to make. Just need to write the year on the back and it will be a little keepsake to bring out year after year.

Casualties

Cook time: 40 min per batch at 400 degrees.


For now, you still have time to make some ornaments of your own! So here's the recipe that I found earlier this year and I wish I could remember where I got it from.

Salt Bread Dough

¼ Cup Salt

½ Cup Boiling Water

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

¼ Teaspoon Vegetable Oil

Food Coloring (optional)
Pour boiling water in a bowl and add salt. Add remaining ingredients. Knead dough to desired consistency for crafting. If coloring dough with food coloring, work it uniformly into the dough as you knead the craft dough. Keep slat dough wrapped in plastic when not in use.

Model Dough as desired. It may be helpful to keep a bowl of water nearby while crafting to smooth dough and attach pieces.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. Ornaments will puff a little when baked.

Completed ornaments may be painted, or brush with beaten egg and water mixture prior to baking or a darkened, shiny appearance.

A benefit of making Christmas ornaments with salt dough is that it can be colored with food coloring when it is made, and so does not have to be painted when it is finished. On the other hand, if you enjoy painting your Christmas ornaments, salt craft dough can be made plain and painted when it is dry. Salt dough is easy to work with and makes a lot of inexpensive Christmas decorations.

When crafting your Christmas ornament from salt craft dough, you may choose to cut the craft dough with cookie cutters or go for a more personal keepsake Christmas decoration. This salt dough recipe works well for baking handprint keepsakes; make handprint plaques, or with little hands, make a handprint Christmas ornament that can hang from the tree.

Now if only I could figure out where to put them. Baby Boy loves the way they look so I'd love to place them somewhere he can enjoy seeing them. Have fun decorating!

Fragrant Cinnamon Ornaments

Cinnamon Ornaments

1 cup cinnamon

3/4 cup apple sauce

Mix well

Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice to cut out ornaments. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Use a straw to make a hole for hanging on each ornament.

Place ornaments on ungreased cookie sheet.

Place in oven for 2 to 2.5 hours until hard.

Cool completely before stringing.

Enjoy the pleasant cinnamon fragrance! May be packed away for future use and will keep their scent for a while.

Here are mine coming out of the oven. I made stars for hanging and rolled the leftover into little balls to place in a decorative bowl. I added flour to roll it out and they ended up looking snow dusted. I like them!

Using the recipe above, I got 23 stars and 7 balls.

Made a simple (and yummy smelling) garland to hang above the stockings.

We can't find our stockings either, which is a shame, because they were gorgeous velvet in different shades of blue. We personalized them with silver letters. Ah well. Found some that will do for this year from Dollar Tree. Baby Boy picked his out especially.

Then Baby Boy helped me hang the rest on the tree. 

The pomanders and these stars are so Christmasy smelling! You get a light whiff whenever you walk by. Love it :)

Christmas Shelf

A few things piled onto a shelf for some Christmas cheer

-Dollar Tree stretch canvas painting I've had for a while. Painted it black and added a decal I had custom made from Vista Print. Check them out! Their promos feature free customized items you only have to pay shipping for.
-Recognize the Dollar Tree glasses from my Valentine center piece? A quick makeover and I had a pretty display for my extra ornaments.

Probably my favorite part of this shelf is this simple wreath I made with Samoa in mind.
-The beautiful fabric was leftover from this made over key holder craft.
-The flowers were part of one of the many flower hair clips I wear and the silk leaves were found at the bottom of my craft supply box. A little hot glue can be magical.

-Next we have one of the large Ball jars we buy our milk in, with a little scrap silver silk ribbon tied around the lid.
-The last of the Valentine glasses.
-A cleaned out candle jar with lid. I tied a bit of the fabric from the wreath around the lid to cover that white plastic seal candle jars have and tie the whole shelf together.

The last jar makes me all misty- eyed. It's filled with all of Baby Boy's ornaments from his first Christmas. They are heavy white and blue clay figures in the shape of a stroller, teddy bear, baby shoes, blocks, pacifier, baby bottle, and rocking horse. A few of them say "Baby's First Christmas".

Tiny Christmas Tree

We were debating on getting a tree, but then found a great deal on a small one, the perfect size for us right now. 

Picked up a prelit 4ft tree and had it up within minutes of getting home :)

I was so happy to find my silver and turquoise ornaments. A lot of our Christmas stuff was either given away or lost during the move, so having my favorite ornaments means a lot.

One of the things that we can't find is our tree topper. I made a simple cone hat out of wax paper (y'know the cone hat we all used to make out of newspaper as kids) and then covered it with bows in colors that would complement our ornaments. It's one of Baby Boy's favorite parts of the tree, and I quite like it too.