birdsandtrees

Easy Ornament

Each school year, I've wanted to do an ornament with our class picture.  This year's ornament couldn't be easier, so I thought I'd share it with you, in case you need an ornament to mark the year for your child or family.  I got the idea from Martha, who's got tons and tons of ideas for homemade ornaments.  I've tried to add a homemade ornament to our tree every year (like these two years ago), especially since I don't have a lot of ornaments to begin with.  I think I'm going to make some of these bird ornaments for the tree as well (since birds and trees are my thing).  Need to get on that... 

Anyway, to make this one, all you need is a cookie cutter, some ribbon, and a picture. I tied the ribbon on the top of the cookie cutter, with a knot to keep it tight and then another knot at the top to hang it.   I printed the photo on some matte photo paper (but any heavy weight paper will do). I then centered the cookie cutter on top of it and traced around it.  Next, I cut it out and then used craft glue to glue it to the cookie cutter.  It's as easy as that!  So easy and simple.  Which is my kind of project these days!

Balls of Cake + Lollipop Sticks = Cake Pops

Have you been reading Bakerella? I find her blog and recipes so inspiring and creative.  I love her idea of making cake balls - where you make a cake, crumble it up after it's cooled, mix in some frosting with the crumbles, form it into balls, and then dip it in chocolate.  Genius! I remember seeing some of these (a red velvet cake ball...Bakerella has a recipe for this here) at a party last year and thinking about how I wanted to try it.  

You can make your life easy by making it all from a cake mix and already made frosting (which I plan to do sometime, thank you very much Sandra Lee).  But I decided to do things "made from scratch" style this time.  Last week, Bakerella posted about making these chocolate cake pops using the Pioneer Women's Chocolate Sheet Cake and Frosting.  When I saw them, I knew I had to make them. No question about it.  I made the sheet cake and frosting the night ahead (following Bakerella's advice) - if you ever need a good chocolate sheet cake and frosting recipe, make her recipe.  It is right on.  

The next day, I crumbled up the cake, added about half of the frosting and then formed it into balls.  I then followed Bakerella's instructions on turning them into cake pops (but you could easily just leave them as balls).  I found this post the most helpful about making the cake pops.  Check out all of her other cake pops here...so many possibilities!

 

The last thing I did was drizzle some white icing over them, using a store bought icing in a squeeze bottle that I found at a cake store.  I'm really happy with how they came out - I see many cake balls and pops in my future!

Always one of my favorite parts of Christmas...

I love when all the ornaments are hung and presents start finding their way under the tree.  And, my goodness, the smell of a Christmas tree.  Love it.  [Insert sigh here]

I hope you're having a lovely weekend and enjoying St. Lucia Day! 

It's time for...

- cranking up the Christmas music (some new finds for this season: A Very Rosie Christmas and Behold the Lamb of God...I've been playing this one at school and it's a beautiful advent CD for kids...and us too)

- dusting off the boxes of decorations and trying to locate that one last box you can't seem to find

- peppermint mochas

- advent calendars...hopskipjump has some great links and ideas

- lots and lots of baking...I've been thinking about making some of these for gifts this season and maybe attempting these at school.  

- flannel sheets

- making my annual Christmas trip to KMart to see what Martha's come up with for this year...and she knows her audience because she's added some ornaments and decorations for us crafters - check out this ornament and this one!  I mean this garland is just too much. 

- updating my banner and lists on this blog!

- the best hot chocolate ever.  Thanks, Ina. 

- kicking the gift-making into high gear...24 days to go!

- reflecting, hoping, waiting...if you need some verses to reflect on each day of Advent, check out these 

Happy Advent Season to you all!

Food.

Before December starts, I wanted to share some pictures from our time in New Orleans last week.  If I could sum up our trip in one word, it would be: food.  Food, more food, and a bit more food.  I feel like I need to go on a Thanksgiving detox or something.  My parents treated us to some amazing meals (if you're in the city and need a restaurant for a special occasion, go to Brigtsen's....it was incredible!!!).  Here are some snapshots of our visit:

My mom always sets a beautiful table, but this one was one of my favorites. 

My mom also likes to be REALLY organized and makes REALLY detailed lists.  I had to take a picture of the SPREADSHEET she made for our Thanksgiving meal.  She's crazy. 

 

Here are the sides for our meal  - I'm not sure if we could fit anything else on that counter.  It was a lot.  But so good.  I forgot to take a picture of the gumbo - that was our first course (which is really a meal in itself!).  On to the meat....

 

Oh yeah.  You know you wanna try it.  And as if that wasn't enough, we also had...

  For those unfortunate ones who have never had a turducken before, let me tell you - it's GOOD.  Really, really GOOD.  I know there are haters out there and people raising their eyebrows at it, but you need to try it! It's a chicken in a duck in a turkey.  Sigh.  I love our country.

 

Add two pies and one cheesecake and we were pooped by the end of it all. 

But very happy and very thankful. 

Sorry for the lack of blogging around here!  Just popping in to say that I'll be gone again for a couple of days while we're in New Orleans for Thanksgiving.  But I promise I'll return with some crafts I've been working on...promise.

 I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Well, it's almost a week later and I'm just now sharing some pics from the birthday bash.  I will admit that I don't think I've completely picked everything up from that night.  Workin' on that. 

I had such grand visions for James's 30th birthday party - I wanted it to be outside, with lots and lots of candles and lights, a cold, crisp October night with a fire to crowd around.  I think when I get ideas in my head, I just go for it and I won't settle (or be happy) until they are accomplished and enjoyed. 

So I did get all the supplies and necessary things to make that happen.  I was pumped.  Even the unseasonably warm weather couldn't get me down. 

I had wonderful friends who were helping us make the backyard pretty magical.  And then...the weather report changed and that afternoon, all of a sudden, we're taking everything inside because a storm was going to pass that night.  Right in the middle of the party.  Great.  

 

So I did have a panic moment,  maybe letting out a pout or two.  But then Amanda gave me the pep talk I needed (which she's so good at) and told me exactly what I needed to hear: we worked so hard on all the decorations, bought several things for that night, and we weren't going to let a little rain that was coming later that night get in the way of the party.  So we brought all the stuff back outside and made sure to usher everyone out back as soon as they got there.  We were going to enjoy it, darn it! Stacy even made a fire (see blurry pic above).

Once the rain started, we all crammed into our teeny living room and made it work - it turned out to be a great party. 

 I made these cupcake toppers (the idea is from Martha's Encyclopedia of Crafts) using several baby/childhood pictures of James - I just printed two square copies of a picture, cut them out, and then sandwiched a coffee stirrer in the middle...all held together with double stick tape.  That picture (above) is the day he was born...a little bit scary but definitely called for.  I'm realizing that I didn't take enough pictures...but you get the idea, right?

Good times.

We had a great weekend...

with this little guy!  More later...

Thirty years old.

Today is James's birthday.  And not just any birthday, but the big 3-0!  We're having a little shin-dig later this week with friends and family, but I wanted to have something festive up for the actual day.  So using Posie's book, Stitched in Time (I can look through this book over and over and never get tired of it), I made the birthday banner.  I tried to pick fabrics that weren't too girly (notice that there is not one calico print here, thank you very much) and I think it came out pretty well!  To make it, you basically just cut out the pairs of fabric for each each letter, and then use freezer paper to make stencils and then paint each one with fabric paint.  But I do recommend getting the book if you don't have it - this project is worth it alone!

I love the idea of having this from now on, hanging it on his birthday for years to come.  Growing up, whenever there was a birthday in our house, you could always count on the Muppet paper cut outs (that fold out as birthday cakes and other weird things) to be on the kitchen table that morning.  And my mom still put those out for my last birthday this past summer.  And even though I don't really watch the Muppets anymore, there's something really fun about having them there.  It's a small tradition that I'm starting today with this lil' banner. 

Now that this is done, it's time to move onto some other preparations (and lots and lots of cleaning) for this weekend that I'll share soon! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!

Quick Sweet Treat

Need a quick sweet bite?  We made these ghosts at school this week using nutter butters, white chocolate, and mini chocolate chip morsels.  I've seen the idea on several websites like this one. 

All you do is dip the cookie into melted white chocolate, then top with two mini morsels for eyes (I also used melted chocolate piped from a ziploc to make the mouth) and let cool until the chocolate has hardened.  Yummy. 

Need another idea for those Halloween parties this weekend?  Try the Chocolate Caramel Crack(ers).  I made them this past weekend and they are GOOD.  Real good.