On the 6th Day of Christmas....

Linking up with Caitlin again for some Christmas DIY crafts.

I really should title this one the "What Was I Thinking" Craft.  Because I asked myself that several times!!!

Over at eighteen25 I really liked the glitter trees they blogged about.  So I got some supplies and got to work Saturday while hubby worked on school projects & studying all day.

My supplies:
2 styrofoam cones
2 colors of glitter
spray adhesive
2 Dollar Tree candlesticks
hot glue gun


1. Spray the top section of your first cone with the spray adhesive.  Cover with glitter.  (I recommend using two pans, one for each cone and using one sheet of aluminum foil to cover the bottom when you spray and one for the glitter.  So 2 pans, 4 pieces of aluminum foil)

2.  Let that section dry about 10-15 minutes.  Spray that section again and cover with more glitter to get every spot.  Let dry for a about 5-10 minutes.  

3.  Work on the second half of the cone, again in layers.  Let the cone dry for about 15-30 minutes.  Lightly spray the entire cone with spray adhesive so that the glitter will stay on.  Next, spray and glitter the bottom.  (Tip: When I started on the 2nd half, I inserted 2 toothpicks in the bottom so I could hold the cone and not mess anything up.  You can leave them on while you spray the bottom, the bottom doesn't have to be perfect.

4.  After several hours (or overnight) glue the finished cone to the candlestick.  The girls at eighteen25 spray painted their candlesticks white.  I wanted to (and tried with another one) but it's definitely too cold here!  I still love it with the clear candlestick.  You can use hot glue or a glue for glass (like E6000) but make sure that it stays level, both glues eat away at styrofoam.  

Voila!

(Yes, the green one is leaning, too much hot glue I guess.  Oh well!)

Now I know the whole process sounds really easy.  And it pretty much is, but it is SO messy! I have glitter all over the floor (still after vacuuming & mopping).  It's all over the place and I even spent a long time cleaning.  You'll spend more time de-glittering your home than actually glittering.  If you can, do this project in a garage or outside.

Then again it could be my OCD/neat freak tendencies coming out.

And I didn't have pictures of the process because my camera is one item I wanted to stay glitter free!  Come back on day 10 to see the trees with the rest of my Christmas decor!

Also, I made several other small Christmas crafts on Saturday so come back after the 12 Days of Christmas link up to see them all!

Glitter Tree Cost:

Large cone: $2.40 @ JoAnn's (originally $3.99, used a 40% coupon)

Small cone: $1 @ Dollar Tree

Red & Green glitter: $2.39 each @ JoAnn's (originally $2.99 each, had a 20% off purchase coupon)

Spray adhesive: $5.99 @ JoAnn's (originally $11.99, 50% off coupon)

2 Candlesticks from Dollar Tree: $2

Total: $13.78 and I still have a lot of glitter and spray adhesive!

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

Linking up with Caitlin for some Holiday Recipes!

I love cooking and I love spending time with friends and family.  So when the holidays come it makes me really happy to mix the two!  If I had the time I would post all of my favorite holiday recipes (most are desserts), but I don't think my fingers could handle that!  So here's two.


Spinach & Artichoke Dip
2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (divided)
1/4 tsp black peppper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
2 blocks (16 oz total) cream cheese
1/2 of a 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry


Preheat oven to 350*.


Mix 2 T parmesan in with spinach.
In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, sour cream, 2 T parmesan, pepper, garlic, artichokes, cream cheese, and spinach.
Stir until well blended.  
Put mixture in 1 1/2-2 qt baking dish.
Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella (1/2 c) and Parmesan (2 T).
Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.  
Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips or whatever you desire!!




Chess Cake
Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix together the following ingredients with a fork and then knead with your hands for 2 minutes:
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 stick melted margarine
1 egg
Once mixed, spread into an ungreased 9x13 pan.


In another bowl mix:
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
2 eggs
3 3/4 c powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Blend by hand ingredients until moistened.  Then cream by mixers til smooth (about 2-3 minutes). Pour over cake mixture.
Bake 35 minutes til golden brown on top.  Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar while still hot.


Yum Yum!

On the 4th Day of Christmas...

Christmas Memories


As I'm sure most people do, I have a lot of Christmas memories.  I remember some better than others.  I remember admiring our (real) Christmas tree with all of the bright colorful lights, sentimental ornaments (some my sister and I made) in our old house.  I remember my mom's work Christmas parties at our house with all of the delicious food she made.  I remember baking cookies with my Grandma and then consuming them.  I remember a lot of delicious meals with family.  I remember time at Grandma's house (I loved Christmas Eve's there!) I remember waking up at 4 am-ish because I was so excited to open presents and then sneaking out to the living room to see what Santa brought (even after "Santa" stopped coming).  I might have even peeked in my stocking.  Oops.


Here are some recent memories in pictures:

A fabulous Gingerbread house made by these two lovely ladies:

 When I lived in an apartment with my college roommate we had friends from church over to paint ornaments.  It was a lot of fun and we need to do it again

Jenny, Laurie, Ryan, Sowmya & Samantha

Samantha, Janet, Nina, Kristin & April

Ryan and Sowmya with their snowmen.  (Sowmya's is UofL themed)

Samantha, Janet, Nina & Kristin with their finished products.

My oldest nephew (now 3 1/2) as Santa.  So cute!

Ethan and I on Christmas...3 years ago.

And because I am apparently terrible at taking pictures around Christmas, that's all I've got.  I am now making a promise to my self to not do that this year!!

First, Second and Third Day of Christmas

I'm a little late on the 1st and 2nd day, but better late than never, right?  For the 12 days (December 1-12) I'm going to link up to Caitlin over at theblessedlife.  Enjoy!

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

What Does Christmas Mean to You?

First and foremost it is a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  With out His birth, we would not have the wonderful gift of salvation.  Without His birth God would not have sent Him to die on the cross so we may be forgiven of our sins.  The salvation of our precious souls depends on His birth!  And what better thing to do than celebrate it with joyful and thankful hearts!

Christmas also means to me:

*Spending time with my family

*Buying gifts for loved ones (I love to shop, especially for other people!  Really!)

*This year, making gifts!   

*Snow

*Yummy food and sweets

*Family Traditions, old and new

*Christmas music & movies

*Putting up the tree and decorations with my husband

*Driving around looking at the pretty lights people put up (I don't like the net lights or houses with just inflatables, where's your creativity?!)

*Just the all around "feeling" of Christmas.  It's such a wonderful time, unfortunately it saddens me that for some people it's a stressful and sad time.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

Christmas Traditions:

My Grandma's stockings - Years ago (probably before I was born) my Grandma made stockings for our family.  It wouldn't be Christmas without them!  Since we have added 4 people to my immediate family (my husband, my brother in law and 2 nephews) recently, we have the task of making 4 more from her old patterns and supplies.  Fun!

Here's the tree at my parents several years ago.  You can *kind of* see the stocking hanging from a cabinet door.

And yes those are purple lights (mom's choice! lol)  Yes it's a big tree (12 feet, anything less with vaulted ceilings would look silly).  Yes it takes a long time to set up and decorate, including 2 ladders.  Not its not prelit, the 1200+ lights are put on by hand.  Wears me out thinking about it!  It looks like a lot of presents, but with this tree the bottom branches lay on the ground so nothing goes under it.

Decorating - Pretty broad, but I LOVE putting a Christmas tree up!  This year I'm making some new ornaments.  When I finish, expect a post!

Growing up I loved putting ornaments on the tree my parents had when they were kids.  I'm such a softy for sentimental items.  So I decided to add a new ornament to our collection each year.  I can't wait until several years down the road when our kids are putting ornaments on the tree and see the years of our marriage in ornaments. 

For this year's ornament I found one on Ebay.  I wanted something personalized and commemorating it was the year we got hitched.  I couldn't post a picture, but you can find the auction here.  Check out their eBay shop, they have some adorable ornaments!!!

Here's our tree 2 years ago (when we had been dating a couple months).  Doesn't it look so cozy with the stockings and fire in the fireplace?!  Love it!

And Brett and I the same year in front of my parents tree (this time blue lights).

And I don't think I took any pictures last Christmas.  I still don't believe it, but I can't find anything.  I will be sure that doesn't happen this year!

Advent Calendar - This was the calendar that my sister and I fought over on deciding who got to move the mouse.

A couple years ago my mom found some on the internet so we each have one now!  I didn't know it, but it came from Avon.  Pretty old school, but I love it!  Good ole sentimental items!

I hope to start many new traditions for Brett and I, especially as we eventually add to our family.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

Gift Ideas:

Now this post might be pretty short.  I am having trouble coming up with gift ideas for my own family, so it might be pretty hard to come up with different ones since I don't want to spill the beans on what I'm getting people.

But my #1 recommendation is that when buying gifts that you try to support individuals/small businesses.  So places like etsy and eBay are great starts.  Or even "home show" business such as Thirty One, Pampered Chef, Premier Jewelry, etc.    Also, check out small businesses and boutiques in your area.  I know Louisville had "Small Business Saturday" along with a lot of other cities last Saturday so that not just the big retailers benefit from after Thanksgiving shopping.  

If you're trying to have a budget Christmas, I also suggest making gifts.  I am going to try to do some of that this year, but can't share my projects because that would be no fun!  But there are some fabulous blogs out there with a lot of tutorials for Christmas gifts.  Check out some of my favorites on my sidebar.  

Here are some of my favorite etsy items I've come across:

Petal Drop Necklace from the Pleated Poppy

Or for the writer in your family a covered notebook also from the Pleated Poppy

Bird Apron from PigandCompany

Owls & Elephants from See Kate Sew

Aren't these adorable?!  Her blog is full of tutorials and ideas too!

If you're fresh out of ideas like me, most sites have gift lists by person and price range so that's a great start to get some ideas.  I suggest Amazon and Target.  While looking around on Etsy, I discovered they also have a fun gift finder. You can like to Facebook and find gifts for certain people, or search by category.  Although I don't know how useful that is...I tried it out and it said "Because X likes University of Louisville, here's University of Kentucky".  So they clearly don't understand sports rivalries!  And it's not available for every person.  

When shopping, here are a couple of things I suggest you look for:

*Personalized - if you take the time to personalize something (or get it personalized) it's a little more special and thoughtful

*Practical - gifts that someone can use every day to make their life a little easier is always a good idea.  Especially if you know they use the item(s)

*Splurge - if there's something that you know someone wants but they can't afford it or justify it (and you can) go ahead and be the one to give them what they've been wanting for a while

*Activities/Games - I like to gift things that will give me time with the person I'm giving it to.  So a game  (board, multi player video, etc) is great, or tickets to a concert, play, museum, etc are a fun gift too.

Most importantly, put a little thought into it!  It will show.

Happy Giving!