Christmas Crafts To Try

  It's feeling very Christmasy around here. We got our first real snowfall this weekend & the Christmas music has started in full force. I was working on whipping up a Christmas banner for a friend this weekend. I'm almost done & will post photos & details soon.

  As many of you, I've been pinning lots of wonderful craft ideas for Christmas on Pinterest. Here's some crafty projects I plan to do for this Christmas:

You may remember that I found some vintage spools on my last thrifty outing. 

This is what I plan to do with them.

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

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I've started on these candy canes already. I'm doing mine in blues & greys. 

I quite like the twine & newsprint too. 

I think sheet music would look divine as well.

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I have a big bag of pinecones I love to use & have been looking for different ways to incorporate them into my Christmas decor. I have this exact vase & think this is a fun use of spray paint. 

My Christmas colours are blue, white & silver. I think I'll paint them in those colours.

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

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I've been diligently saving toilet paper tubes to use as treat packages for my kid's little school friends. 

I have several different ideas like this pinned. We'll see which one I go with. :)

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

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So, what were you up to this weekend? Anyone decorating for Christmas yet?

Enjoy your day!

Linkin" Up:

5 Minutes Just For Me

This Weekend's Project

  This weekend, I'm delving into another Christmas project. This one is for a friend of mine who owns a store & wants to hang a "Merry Christmas" banner in her front window. Here's the inspiration:

Source

She wants her banner to actually be two separate banners. One for "Merry" & one for "Christmas".

I'm excited to start working on it! I'll post about it once it's finished.

Enjoy your weekend!

Birthday Card Bliss

  Birthdays... they come every year without fail. They seem to be coming more often the older I get. Why is that? My birthday isn't for another month, but just posting these has me thinking about my upcoming birthday... I think I'll throw myself a party... But seriously, what lady wouldn't enjoy getting a hand made card for her birthday? I know guys aren't always appreciative of this kind of thing, but ladies usually are, right?

I stamped that flourish with brown ink, then used Stickles to "colour" it in.

  Have you got a birthday coming up? Are you doing anything exciting to celebrate?

I'm thinking of adopting my friend Sarah's birthday tradition. 

She invites all her girlfriends out for lunch (last time we all went for sushi). 

We just talk & get to have some fun, girl time. 

I think that would be pretty perfect.

Enjoy your day!

Pinterest Recipe Reviews

  A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Meal Planning via Pinterest. I haven't tried all the recipes I've planned to yet, but I thought I would do reviews of the ones that I have made. Don't worry, I'm a nice person. I won't be mean.

  I didn't include this dessert in my Meal Plan - mostly because I forgot. We had friends over for dessert on Friday evening & this is what I made:

Reese's Fudge Pie

  I'm all about chocolate & peanut butter. And really, I didn't think I would ever say this, but... this was almost too sweet. It has a fudge layer which is really dense & super rich. A ever-so-small piece is ample! I don't think anyone finished the big pieces I cut. I would make it again, but cut the pieces smaller. Definitely serve with coffee. Note: I made the crust with Oreo crumbs instead of graham crumbs.

  Red Lobster Biscuits

  These get a 10 out of 10. They were amazing. We each had one in hand & put it in our mouths at the same time. You should have heard the sounds coming from us! You must try these, if you haven't already. AND they are super easy to make. I would definitely make them again. Actually, I already have made them again. :)

Cajun Chicken Pasta

  This tasted very good, but I didn't get the cream sauce right - it was too soupy. It was delicious though. Make sure you have everything prepped before you start cooking. Things get cooked & added pretty fast. I would make it again.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

  This is a fabulous recipe! A couple of notes: read the recipe through before you start making it. The instructions are laid out in a different order than the ingredients. That confused me for a minute until I read everything through. Also, be warned that you need to freeze the cream cheese filling before you can use it in the muffin batter. That takes a couple of hours. If you know these tips in advance, you'll have a happy muffin-baking experience. :) I will most certainly be making these again!

Lentil Tacos

  I actually made these just last night. I've been trying to include meatless meals in my meal planning more lately both to save money & because it's healthy to not have meat all the time. These tacos were delicious! Our kids even loved them. I will be making them again soon.

~~~

  So those are the recipes from my Time To Cook! & Sweet Treats boards on Pinterest that I've tried so far. If you haven't signed up for Pinterest yet & want an invite, leave me a comment with your email address & I can send you one! I promise I won't send you any spam. None.... Zero. Zilch. Nada. 

  What have you cooked up from Pinterest lately? I'd love to hear about it! Now that Christmas is less than 2 months away, I'm itching to try some of the crafty goodies I'm seeing. I'll be sure to post about them. Stay tuned!

Update: Click here to read part two

But for now, over & out.

Enjoy your day!

These are not my photos. All images owned by the bloggers who originally posted their recipes in blogland.

Butterfly Wall Art

  Welcome to November! Where has this year gone?? How was your Halloween? I actually ran out of candy this year for the first time ever. I think it was due to the mitt full I was giving to each kid. I was determined not to have any left overs. Nope, no leftovers here. Now just to fend off the temptation from the candy my kids collected at the Fall Festival...

  Awhile ago, my friend Sarah from Prairie Perch asked me to do a butterfly project for her little girl's room. She brought me the frame & a pillow sham that had the colours she wanted me to use. I finally got to it this weekend. Here's what I came up with:

I used my Cricut to cut the butterflies. The butterflies originally had antennas on them, 

but it looked too busy with the layers so I trimmed them off. 

I used mostly paper from My Mind's Eye with a little Echo Park mixed in.

With the pillow sham

I can't wait to see it in her little girl's room! I'm sure she'll be sharing the space when she gets everything in place. 

When she does, I'll link up, so you can all see too.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Skip To My Lou

Tuesday Talent Show

Mommy By Day, Crafter By Night

Today's Creative Blog

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

The 36th Avenue

Fall Festival

  In the last few weeks of blogging, I've been talking about the Fall Festival that our church was planning. Sunday was the big day. My friend, MJ, & I had set up our booth on Friday afternoon. I was full of anticipation to see what people's reaction would be.

  We started the day out getting our kids all costumed up for our church's Candy Carnival. Our little girl was a hula girl & our little boy was a pirate. I got the hula stuff at Dollarama. Most of the pirate costume came from thrift stores (ladies slouchy boots, too-big black pants, & a ladies ruffled blouse). We got the pirate hat, stick-on moustache, eye patch & sword from Dollarama. The parrot came from Wal-mart. The coat is mine. :)

  The kids partied in the gym while we were having church. After church, everyone headed into the gym for a yummy meal of fried chicken, rolls, & salads with home made pies for dessert. Delish!

  There was live entertainment, fun fall decorations, caramel apples, carnival games, popcorn, sno cones, tons of candy for the kids, & of course the booths which were run by different people in our church. 

  Our booth was well received & MJ & I both sold about half of what we brought. I'd call that pretty successful. 

The goodies in our booth. Top row: my offerings. Bottom row: MJ's fabulous creations.

  

  I didn't get a lot of photos as we were kept pretty busy with our customers, but here's a few:

A great time was had by all! I, for one, hope it becomes an annual event. A huge thank you to everyone who helped pull it off!!

Enjoy your Monday!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Before & After Home Tour (Part 5) : The Little Girl's Room

  I love how this blog inspires me to get more of my projects done so I can tell you about them. It's wonderful motivation!

  My little princess & I cleaned up her room & hung some new pictures this week. She says, "My room is awesome!" :) I quickly took some pictures to share with you.

  It went from bo-ring to bright & cheery.

  This was actually one of the better rooms in our home when we moved in. It was just bland. We removed the carpet & old navy blind.

  We painted it a pretty pink for our princess-in-training. She wanted a pink & purple bedroom. When I heard that I cringed. I was imagining a hideous, neon shaded room. Fortunately, things didn't turn out that way. Lots of white with only small splashes of purple helped pull this off.

And because we all love a before & after:

  On another note, this weekend is the Fall Festival I've been working so hard to prepare for. If you'd like to see some of the goodies I'll be selling at my booth this weekend, click here, here, here, & here. I'll let you know how things went on Monday. I hope you'll join me.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello

Playful Decor

Paper Box Tutorial

  Last week, I posted pictures of the paper boxes I've been making for the fall festival where I'll be having a booth. The boxes are for housing handmade cards.

  I had a number of requests for a tutorial on how to make them, so here we go!

  Just a fair warning: this post is very photo heavy so you can see the instructions rather than just reading them.

Supplies:
2 sheets of 12x12 cardstock
1 or 2 sheets of patterned paper (or large scraps work too)
Adhesive
Paper scorer
Paper cuter
Ruler

  (Remember those old stories on record that you used to listen to? I feel like saying, "You will know it is time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this... brrrriiiiing! Let's begin now.")

1) Cut one of the sheets of cardstock down to 10x12. Discard small strip.

2) Measure & score according to the following diagram:

3) Now cut according to this diagram:

This is what it should look like after you've cut:

4) Now fold all the scored lines.

5) Fold in small squares & start adhering the box together

These squares will be on the inside of the box.

There. You're done with the bottom of the box for now.

Now the lid.

1) Start with your second piece of 12x12 cardstock. Trim it down to 6 & 1/8 x 10. You need that extra 1/8th of an inch because if you don't have it the lid won't fit over the bottom.

2) Measure & score as shown below.

3) Cut the sides according to this diagram.

It should look like this:

4) Fold the scored lines & start putting it together as you did the bottom.

Here's the box. Now it's time to decorate!

  I keep it simple by adding some co-ordinating paper to the top & the bottom. You really could do whatever you wanted though. In the past, I've added tags, brads, ribbon, buttons, & rub ons. You can do as much or as little as you want. 

The finished product!

  If you are still reading, please let me say thank you & congratulations! Once you make a few of these, it will be old hat & you'll be able to mass produce at a whim.

  If you have questions please let me know & I'll do my best to answer. Thanks for sticking with me through all those photos & measurements!

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello