My Santa candle inspired me to make a chocolate-covered Oreo with a similar design. All you need is a package of Oreos, a bottle for piping, and red, white, and dark chocolate candy melts. Continue reading
I needed to replace my fall candle in the entry with something a bit more festive. Using Santa’s belt buckle on decorations has been pretty popular, so I decided to make a Santa candle. I originally planned on covering a red pillar candle with red glitter, but I lucked out and found a sparkly candle during Black Friday shopping.
Supplies included: red candle, mod podge, white paint, white glitter, black ribbon, a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a belt buckle, and a paintbrush… oh, and a glue gun of course!
The cardboard got painted white then painted with a layer of mod podge and covered with glitter.
Then I fed the ribbon through the cardboard belt buckle and hot glued the ribbon on the back of the candle. I also glued down the corners of the cardboard. Too easy.
Linked to: Feathered Nest Friday from French Country Cottage; Strut Your Stuff Link Party from Somewhat Simple.
This post has been updated on my new blog.
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Hershey’s Kisses thumbprint cookies are always a staple around holiday time, and I was pretty excited when I saw candy cane and mint truffle Kisses at the grocery store. If I were using regular chocolate Kisses, I would have gone with a peanut butter cookie dough. But since these were flavored Kisses, I opted for plain sugar cookie dough (found here). Really, you can use about any recipe you want. Make sure the dough is chilled well, and then roll into balls (about a heaping tablespoon of dough). Continue reading
Starting tomorrow, I will be writing a series of posts called the “12 days of christmas cookies.” I can already tell you now that not all posts will be cookies, since I definitely plan on making my Grandma’s fudge recipe. But I think “cookies” is more catchy than “treats” or “sweets.” My goal is to post one recipe every-other-day for a total of 12 posts. Let’s see if I can stay on track. Wish me luck!
When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, most of my family members are pumpkin pie people. Most people, that is, except for my sister. Loree is an apple pie person. Despite sarcastic comments from my dad asking if this was Thanksgiving or the 4th of July, Loree stuck to her guns and made an apple pie. Actually, she made several apple pies.
circles of pie crust dough go into a cupcake tin.
My brother-in-law may be camera shy, but he is very helpful with cutting apples.
filling.
the tops get brushed with egg.
My mom has been really excited about her latest discovery: sugar and a penny to make fresh flowers last longer. I brought her a Thanksgiving bouquet on Thursday, and she immediately added a pinch of sugar and a penny to the water. We’ll see how long these last.
With a 5-month-old puppy in the apartment, Mike and I have recognized that maybe this Christmas will have to be tree-free. But, I still want to hang some ornaments. I got inspired the other day in JoAnn when I saw some giant red ornaments. I have also been wanting to do a glitter peppermint ornament for a while. So, our Christmas ornaments will be hung from our bedroom curtain rod this year.
This was such an incredibly easy project. Supplies (notice Pippa in the background – afraid she is missing out on something):
The small red ornaments got a few stripes of white paint. After that dried, I went over the white paint with decoupage glue and white glitter.
Then I hung the ornaments from the curtain rod with red ribbon. Ta-da!
Linked to : Under $100 Linky Party from Beyond the Picket Fence; Potpourri Friday from 2805; Sat Nite Special DIY Link Party from Funky Junk Interiors.
My mom called me last night, wondering if I had any wine glass labels to bring along with to Thanksgiving dinner. Seeing as I can’t actually remember the last time I used my wine glasses, I do not own wine glass tags. So, I improvised. I used my Slice gadget to cut 1.5″ circles from a sturdy piece of scrapbook paper. I added a little metal circle (the name escapes me right now) from my collection of Making Memories scrapbook materials – but I could have just as easily punched a small hole. Write the person’s name and attach with a ribbon. Maybe next year I’ll experiment with different Thanksgiving images on each tag.
Mike bought me a Groupon to an art supply store a while back, and I finally got around to using it a couple of weeks ago. I was thrilled to find a great selection of specialty paper that was 50% off, thanks to the Groupon. I got this sheet of Santa paper for a few dollars. Santa has been riding around in the back of my SUV for the past two weeks, and I soon began to worry about the wear and tear on the paper. I know I am breaking my cardinal rule of “no Christmas before Thanksgiving,” but I decided to get Santa inside and in a safe place. For now, I have hung the paper on our bedroom door. I like using the paper as a poster. Perhaps I will eventually do something more with it.
I really wanted to paint wine bottles for a Thanksgiving decoration, but I rarely drink wine at home. Luckily, I went to wine night at a friend’s place and dinner at my mom’s house the next night. Score! As I was looking at the bottles, I thought to myself: “where in my 1-bedroom apartment will I store all of these decorations.” I decided that I better get the most out of all my decorations. With 6 wine bottles, glass paint, mod podge, scrapbook letters, and some glitter, I made a decoration that covers both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
For Thanksgiving:
Turn the bottles around, and you’re ready for Christmas:
