Holiday Iced Branches

First, gather your supplies. You will need:

Tacky glue

cheap foam brush

paper plate

bare branches

Colorfill Diamond Vase Filler (I used a 1lb bag and had leftovers)

Newspaper to cover your work area

The paper plate and glue I had on hand, the branches I got on sale at Hobby Lobby, the foam brush I had but it came from the Dollar Store and the Crystals I bought online. The crystals were the most expensive, not because they cost that much but because I had to have them shipped and they weigh a lb, literally. So, if you can find some locally it might be a better deal. Still, total project cost was between $15-$20.

Step one: Pour out your crystals on the newspaper

Step two: "Paint" the glue onto your branches. This glue is really thick and kind of hard to spread but do your best to spread it evenly over the branches - no big clumpies! 

Step 3: Lay the glue covered branches onto the crystals and roll and press them to stick. I found that, sometimes, it helped if I held a handful and pressed them to the branch if it was a particularly "bendy" area that was hard to cover.

Allow to dry on the newspaper for at least 45 minutes.

Here is a close up of what the branches looked like when they were all dry.

And this is the final product displayed! I picked up the ball ornaments at the Dollar Store ($1 for 7) to use as a base to balance the branches in my apothycary jar. I am really pleased with how they turned out and think they add some winter elegance to my decor! I love how the light reflects off of them and am thinking about getting some of the little battery powered tea lights to hide down in the jar to light it from underneath. I can't decide if having to digg to turn them on would be worth it or not!

Anyway, hope you like my Wintery craft!

A take along dessert

With all the holiday fun coming up I am sure almost everyone will have an opportunity to "make and take" something somewhere. This is one of my favorite recipes to do so with!

1)b/c it is super yummy

2) b/c it makes a LOT to share (you can always take two pies and keep one at home for yourself...)

and 3) b/c it is relatively easy and fast

I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does...

Caramel Topped Pie

This makes THREE (3) pies!

16 oz cream cheese, softened (DON'T use fat free, it mixes weird, low fat is okay)
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
16 oz Cool Whip
3 graham cracker or shortbread crusts (you can make your own if you really want to but the ones at the store come with their own pie pans already!)
Caramel ice cream topping
For topping:
1 1/2 c pecans
1 1/2 c coconut
3/4 stick butter or margarine, melted

Mix milk and cheese together. Fold in Cool Whip (you are going to want to do this in small batches or it will take over your mixing bowl)
Pour into crusts.

For topping:
Preheat oven to 350. Spread coconut and pecans onto baking sheet, pour butter over and stir to combine. Spread the mix as flat as possible. Toast until brown. (I do this in 5 min increments stirring after each time. It usually takes between 15-20 minutes to get everything golden. BE SURE TO WATCH IT ! There is a very fine line between golden and blackened!)
Let cool then sprinkle over pies.

Drizzle caramel topping over each pie.
I always put mine in the freezer so that they get really firm and are easier to serve. I think if you take them out about 20-30 min. before serving they would be soft enough to cut into.

Wee little dresses

So, this weekend I went down to visit my family with the purpose of getting some sewing instruction from my momma so I could make dresses for our impending arrival. I am pretty proud of myself, 3 dresses in 3 days, and on my first attempt at making anything with a pattern. Here are my finished items!

This is the first one I made. My Momma hovered around and told me what to do and how to do it. But I made it all myself. Except the button holes, my machine went all wonky when we tried to do them so Momma just made them on hers.

This was the second one I made all by myself while momma was at work. Since our nursery is done in "Classic Pooh" I wanted her to have a some "Pooh Bear bees!" Again, the buttonholes were made by my momma and cut by me.

Last one, and this one is a medium instead of newborn size. I wanted her to be able to wear it on our family beach trip this summer so I tried to estimate where she might be at around 6 months. I had a tiny bit more help with this one. In addition to the buttonholes, momma sewed on the rickrack. It was so small and I was so tired and not feeling very confidant in my ability to stay on such a tiny line.

All in all I am VERY happy with how each dress turned out. Not bad for my very first time I thought. And, I now feel like I could easily make one at my own house without the emergency back up available! Maybe there will be more sewing in my future....

An Experiment

So, I decided to try a little experiment for dinner the other night. It turned out pretty well if I say so myself (hubby had 3 helpings) so I thought I would share it with you.

Mexican Chicken Lasagna

4-6 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled and shredded or cut into bite sized peices

2 cups chicken broth (can be reserved from cooking chicken)

1 c chopped onion

1 c chopped celery

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 1/2 tsp Tony Chatchere's Seasoning

Sm jar of processed cheese

1 can rotel (use hot if you like an extra kick!)

Package oven ready lasagna noodles

4 cups shredded chedder cheese

Preheat oven to 350

Boil onion and celery in chicken broth until tender. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Add soups, seasoning, processed cheese and rotel. Stir until melted. Add chicken and reserved veggies. Stir until combined.

Spray lasagna pan with non-stick spray. Spoon 1/4 of chicken mixture into bottom of pan. Top with a layer of noodles. Add another 1/4 of chicken mixture. Top with shredded cheese (enough to cover). Layer more noodles, 1/4 of chicken mixture, shredded cheese, repeat one more time being sure to end with cheese.

Bake for 40 minutes until bubbly and noddles are cooked through. You may want to put a cookie sheet under your baking dish, mine bubbled over some.

Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

The recipe would easily serve a family of 4 with leftovers. Even with all my hubby ate the two of us had about a half pan left.

Spooktacular!

So, I meant to post this the week of Halloween, but life got in the way. I am going to post it anyway and maybe you can use it for next year!

Supplies Needed:
length of cheesecloth
latex balloon
wax paper
Styrofoam cup
a bottle of "Stiff-n- Stuff" or other fabric stiffener
large bowl you don't normally use for food
tiny bit of Vaseline
black felt cut into 2 medium sized ovals

Steps:
Blow up balloon, not too big

Poke hole in bottom of cup, turn upside down and thread balloon knot through

Rub Vaseline all over top of balloon

Place balloon/cup on sheet of wax paper

Empty fabric stiffener into container ( you will not need the whole bottle for just one project) and dredge cheesecloth in it. Be sure to thoroughly soak/saturate the material

Remove the cheesecloth and squeeze to get rid of excess solution

Unfold and drape over the balloon allowing the excess to puddle onto the wax paper. You can arrange the excess any way you like.

Dip the felt ovals into the solution and use you fingers to press out any excess

Stick the ovals onto the cheesecloth
this is what it will look like:

Allow to dry thoroughly

Pop balloon (don't worry I have never had one explode on me, just get a slow leak) and remove wax paper, cup and balloon from your masterpiece.

What have you got? An adorable ghostie who can stand up on his own!

I have made this project with about 7 different classes of preschoolers and it's a hit every time!

Fast and Yummy

This is one of my most favorite appetizer recipes. It's one of those that is so bad for you but tastes SO yummy! Any time I have made it I never have leftovers.

Brown Sugar Smokies
(can be doubled)

1 package "Little Smokies" sausages
1 package bacon
1 box brown sugar
toothpicks

Cut bacon strips into 3rds. Wrap cut strip around little smokie and secure with toothpick. Spray a slow cooker with non stick spray and layer sausages and brown sugar until there is none left. Don't be afraid to use that whole box! Cover and cook until all the sugar is melted. If you want them ready fast cook on high, if you want to cook them all day, turn it on low.
Use a slotted spoon to serve. Finger-lickin' good!

Scraping up a storm!

My B&B weekend was so much fun! I didn't have much to do to catch up so I was able to get a little more detailed on my pages. Believe me, my pages don't always look like this! I was really proud of how some of them turned out and wanted to share them. All the pictures were taken while on a trip to the Chattanooga Aquarium in Tennessee. Sorry they are sideways, I don't know how to turn them. if anyone else does, please let me know. Blogger "Help", wasn't.



My seahorses, I tried to duplicate the look of the coral on the pages. I drew out my shapes and then hand cut them. My "critters on a log". Again, the log was hand drawn and then cut. I used chalks to give it some depth. I am thinking about adding a hand drawn alligator skull on the top of the second page. What do you think?

My Penguin page! Torn vellum at the bottom, hexagons cut from vellum for the ice cubes and then the dimension added with a silver pen.

My "jellies." Many, many tiny thin strips of orangey colored vellum cut on a wavy cutter with a deckle edged blade. Many, many strips. Many, many. This one took a while! Lettering cut from the same vellum with a die cut machine.

Oh, but look, it has a secret! It's a three page spread! Hiding behind the orange jellies are the ones that have been turned all kids of crazy colors by the lighting!

Underwater creatures. The left page is strips of the many blues I saw in my photos that have been cut on a wavy cutter. It reminds me of the current maps you see sometimes. I really like the effect. The right side is hand drawn, each piece separately, and then put together. Brought to you by my memory of the Jaws poster.

Here are some close ups of some of the more detailed pages.

I hope you enjoyed my pages as much as I enjoyed making them!

Something I didn't create

So, I am a YouTube addict. I admit it. I find one thing and then that leads to another and then another and then I have been sitting for two hours watching YouTube videos and I need to wash my hair and pack a lunch and.......



ANYWAY, in my peeking and poking around I found this little tidbit. I LOVE it. I love this style of dance, I happen to love the song (wish I knew who was doing the cover though) and I wish, wish I could dance like this. I've learned however, as a singer, I tend to think in musical phrases and not 8 counts!

I just wanted to share this you guys.



This is from the Australian version of "So You Think You Can Dance" and the "featured" male dancer in this piece was the eventual winner of the show!

I am off to a weekend long crop at a nearby B&B tomorrow and I'm excited about it! Maybe when I get back I will have some fun pages or new products to talk about. Maybe both!

Poppy Seed Chicken and Pasta Salad

Hi, all! I was way too exhausted to post last night, sorry about that. I'm all rested up now though and ready to post the promised recipe!

Poppy Seed Chicken and Pasta Salad

1 1/3 cups uncooked spiral pasta

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup bottled poppy seed salad dressing

Boil chicken breasts until done. Set aside to cool and then shred. Cook pasta according to package directions. I use the stock from my boiled chicken as the cooking liquid in order to add a little more flavor. Rinse pasta in cool water and drain well. Combine first 6 ingredients and mix well. Drizzle dressing over top and toss to coat. Chill until serving.

This makes 4 lunches for me, or probably one meal for 2 (with a little left over).

If you decide to use it as lunches you may want to add a bit more dressing (just a squirt) on the 3rd and 4th days. I always divide it up into 4 storage containers ahead of time.

Also, a tip on the almonds. I just toast mine in the microwave. I spread them out in a single layer on ceramic or glass plate (DON'T USE PAPER!) and micro for about 2 minutes. Stir and then micro again for 1:30. Keep stirring and microwaving until they are to your liking. Be careful though, it's a fine line between toasted and burned! It usually only takes me the 2 rounds to get them where I want them, but all microwaves are different.

You may see what looks like burned spots on your plate. Don't be concerned. That is just the oil from the almonds. If you run water over the plate when you are done it washes right off.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and some yummy food!

Festively Fall

Wow! Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome! I even got a follower on my first day! Look -->
Hi, Jaime!

As promised, here is last night's crafting project.



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out AND it cost me less then $10! The grapevine wreath and leaf garland came from the dollar store. The beaded pumpkins, berry stems and ribbon for the bow came from Hobby Lobby, at a 40% discount! I tried to post closeups of the pumpkins and berry stems and of the bow but Blogger keeps reorienting my photos so they are sideways. If anyone knows how to remedy this or why it's happening let me know. If I can fix it I'll post the other photos.
Tomorrow I will move on to another of my 3 "C"s - Cooking! So, be ready for a yummy new recipe to try out this weekend!