White Elephant Gift Idea

(Photo courtesy of Caffeine, Kids, and Knitting)

One couple at our Bible study's Christmas party last night brought the cutest white elephant gift idea, and I thought I'd share. It was a gift box with a silk mistletoe, a pack of breath mints, and Chapstick. So fun and creative. Why not knit your own mistletoe to include with it?

One of the cutest things I've ever seen...

I can hardly wait to make this Santa Party Mix this week! Absolutely precious.

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Our family has started a tradition in the past few years of taking a family picture just before Thanksgiving to use in a photo card for Christmas. It has been such a fun tradition, and we look forward to looking back on each year's photo to see how we've changed and grown. To go from two dogs in 2007 to two kids in 2010 is crazy fun. =)

The only difficulty each year is actually choosing a card. Generic cards are easy to find. Cards that share our faith - that we're wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas" and not "Seasons' Greetings" - are much more sparse. Typically the choices are few, and most are boring. So, when I clicked on a sidebar ad the other day to peruse Shutterfly's selection, I was shocked to find so many choices bearing the details we desire in a card. Look at how cute some of these are!


I love these!

Plus, they have a ton of other options that I was unaware of like personalized gift tags,
Christmas party invitations,

Photo calendars,

Photo mugs,
and even Address labels that coordinate with the Christmas cards.

Then, several days later, I saw a blog post of a friend talking about earning 50 free cards by blogging about her favorite Shutterfly products. Perfect! And, if you're interested, make sure you visit their site to find out how you can earn 50 free cards too!

Here's the thing - good luck sticking to just the 50 cards! Once you start looking around the site, you may stumble upon many more things to fill your cart.

I'm seeing a version of this under our tree for sure!

I can't wait to get started on this! What a precious gift for a little girl. Do you know anyone who would love this as much as my sweet daughter?

Chocolate-covered Marshmallows

We made some gift buckets for our neighbors for Halloween, and I had to share the only handmade element - chocolate-covered marshmallows. I've seen this idea floating around the Internet, and it was the easiest and probably most versatile thing I've ever made. You just put a jumbo marshmallow on the end of a lollipop stick, dip the top in melted chocolate, then decorate with sprinkles. This could be so fun with white chocolate and crushed candy canes, dark chocolate and crumbled graham crackers, or milk chocolate and mini M&Ms. The possibilities are endless, and it's the perfect quick and easy favor!

My new favorite soup

This soup is easy and out of this world delicious! I highly recommend it.

Spicy Butternut Squash and Chicken Soup

1 small diced onion

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 cups of cubed butternut squash

2 cups chicken stock/broth

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cup chopped cooked chicken

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp black pepper

fresh lime juice

bunch of cilantro

Cook onion and celery in a saucepan over medium heat in a drizzle of olive oil for 5 minutes while stirring. Stir in squash, broth, tomatoes, chicken, ginger, salt, cumin, and pepper, and mix well.

Cover, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes or until squash is tender. Stir in the juice of one lime, and serve with fresh cilantro sprinkled on top.

Yum!

Patchwork Colored Pencil Roll

I love this project! Crayon/colored pencil/marker rolls are all over etsy right now, and I thought I'd try my hand at a pieced version for my nephew's birthday. I love the way it turned out, and it was super easy if you're looking for a quick project.

Heart-Healthy Barbecue Sauce

My family and I are spending some time with my parents trying to help them out following my dad's quadruple bypass surgery. I've been busy dreaming up heart-healthy (low fat, low/no sodium, and no sugar) recipes. One of our favorites is homemade barbecue chicken pizza (which we make with whole wheat flour), so I tried to find some good heart-healthy barbecue sauce at the grocery store to no avail. I searched for some recipes and based this recipe off of several of those. It is delicious, and I can't wait to have this on our pizza for dinner!

Heart-Healthy Barbecue Sauce

1/4 white onion, finely chopped

1 small can tomato paste

Diet Coke (I filled the tomato paste can twice to measure)

2 Tablespoons heart-healthy ketchup

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon mustard

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp worchestershire sauce

a shake or two of your favorite Mrs. Dash

In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir to combine. Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes until the flavors combine and the sauce thickens slightly. Add more of your ingredients to taste.

Rainbow Cake on a Stick

One of our favorite boys turns two today. Since he got a baby brother as an early birthday gift, we offered to make a cake to deliver to free up her hands a little more. I've been wanting a reason to try out this Rainbow Cake, so we dove in. It was such a fun lesson for my daughter in color-mixing and measuring. We had a blast. I made the cake in loaf pans to cut down into a square, so I had lots of scraps. While my 2-year-old napped, I dreamt up a fun creation for her that was a HUGE hit. I just cut hearts out of each color of cake, put a dot of frosting as glue between each heart, then put it on a stick. To say she was thrilled would be a gross understatement.

No more brown apple slices

(Please forgive my absence lately. Our Internet has been spotty but is finally fixed. Hope to be back up and running regularly now!)

This is a great idea for packing apple slices for on-the-go snacking in a way that keeps them from turning brown. I love this!

Party Favor - Gummy Skewers

What a cute idea! Find the how-to here.

Blackberry Muffins

My mom went blackberry picking a couple of months ago, and she gave me a TON. We've been eating blackberry pancakes, blackberry smoothies, blackberry cobbler, and blackberry syrup on ice cream. Yum, yum, yum. I wanted to find a good blackberry muffin recipe, but I just couldn't find one anywhere. I did some combining and review-reading to come up with this recipe, and it is a hit. I think it could use some tweaking, but as-is they're amazing, and I guarantee there will be none left.

Blackberry Muffins

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups blackberries (rinsed, and dried, and dusted with flour)

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup milk

Streusel Topping:

4 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 Tablespoons flour

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir with a whisk.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the 1/2 cup of butter with the white and brown sugar until fluffy and light. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Gently stir in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk until well-combined.

Add the blackberries, and fold lightly.

In a separate bowl, use a pastry blender (or two knives or even a fork) to mix the streusel topping ingredients.

Using a 1/4 cup scoop, fill a greased (or paper-lined) muffin tin. Sprinkle approx. 1/2 Tablespoon of streusel mixture on top of each muffin, and bake for 25 minutes.

Personalized Tag Blanket

I LOVE this idea! I can't wait to make one for one of the many, many babies in my life.

Had to share

I've made this cake a few times now, and it is always a HUGE hit. It is so easy and delicious that it's just too good not to share. It is made from a box cake mix, whipped cream (in a tub), Butterfinger bars, and caramel sauce (in a jar). Couldn't be simpler. If you're looking for an easy cake to take to a party or potluck (or if you're just craving sweets!), go make this cake.

Kelly's Butterfinger Cake

Baby Shower Activity Idea

Me, Leslie, Casey, Kim

A couple of weekends ago I helped to host another baby shower for one of my very best friends. She is expecting her second boy next month, and we wanted to bless her socks off. I am a big fan of doing something at a shower to create a lasting memory for the guest of honor. In this case, we made personalized onesies using fabric backed with heat and bond. It was such a hit, and everyone was so super creative. But the best part about this idea is that you can be as simple or as filled-with-creativity as you are comfortable with being. It really works for anyone.

The set-up

I made a sample to get the ball rolling

Instructions and supplies

We hung the onesies as decoration. Guests could go pick one and take it into the dining room to embellish.

The process: tracing, cutting, iron, embellishing

Some of the finished products - SO cute!

More party details: Cupcake toppers courtesy of the Cricut

Favors: Candy bar in the shower colors

This was probably one of the most fun I've ever had at a shower. If you're interested in the idea but don't feel up to re-creating it, look for the kit in my etsy shop this fall!

Cookies and Milk

I threw a mid-morning cookies and milk baby shower for a great friend (at another great friend's house) a couple of weekends ago. It was a fun, simple morning, and I thought I'd share the details in case anyone needs any ideas.
The color scheme was chocolate brown, cream, and turquoise blue. The budget was very limited, so it was a fun challenge coming up with cute details at very little cost.

For these centerpieces, I just rolled diapers, tied them with raffia, and filled some blue glass vases we usually have in our master bedroom. Then, using double-sided tape, I wrapped them in ribbon to finish the look. Simple, practical, and precious!

Here's the cookie bar. I chose cookies that froze well. So I spent one week making one dough a day and freezing it. Then I just pulled them out the day before the shower and just baked and baked. The containers were all clear glass tied with raffia and a label in the color scheme.Lots of the details were made using the Cricut, a tool I'd highly recommend!
We played 2 games that turned out to be a lot of fun. The first was a game where I listed 20 crazy celebrity kids' names, and everyone had to guess whose child it was. The second was a match-the-mom-to-be game. I provided a word that's typically associated with a phrase or saying. Then people filled in the blank afterwards with the first thing that came to mind. For example, one was Little Boy _________. Another was Mom __________. We all had to fill in what we thought the mom-to-be would say. The prizes were the cookie-in-a-jars pictured in the center of the table below. Both game ideas were my talented, creative sister's.

The favors were cellophane bags to fill with cookies. Then I cut strips of tulle to use to tie them and strung all of the recipes on the tulle.

Fun weekend. Fun celebration!

One of my favorite projects ever!

One of my very best friends is preparing for the arrival of her second sweet son. I saw a similar quilt somewhere (can't find it now to give credit where credit is due!), and I knew it would be perfect for her. I immediately got to work, finished this quilt weeks ago, and couldn't wait to give it to her this morning at her shower. I love, love, love how this turned out! It was so much fun to make too!

Recent Projects

I have been sewing and crafting up a storm lately with little time to blog about it. Here are the contents of one of my latest boxes I shipped the other day. A great college friend of ours has a very sick baby girl. She's been in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately they were out of town when she got sick, so their two boys are at their grandparents' house. They haven't been home in weeks. This is probably my favorite tag blanket ever. It's a prayer quilt/taggie to comfort their sweet baby girl. I also made a set of alphabet bean bags (each bean bag has a button that the letters can be attached to) with a drawstring peek-a-boo bag to hold them. I loved both of these projects and had such a great time making them. I hope the recipients are blessed by them!

Quick and Easy Teriyaki Marinade

I'm making a chicken teriyaki stir fry for dinner tonight out of things I keep in the freezer. But when I went to grab the marinade, I realized I must have run out. Parker's napping (which is rare), so I didn't want to wake him to go to the store for one measly thing. So I decided to throw some things together to see if I could come up with a good recipe. I love the way it turned out, and I wanted to make sure to save it here for future reference. Hope you find it useful!

Alicia's Last-Minute Teriyaki Marinade

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup soy sauce (I use low sodium)

black pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

about 1 inch of fresh ginger, minced

Throw it all together, and refrigerate until needed!

I'm planning on roasting some chicken breasts, dicing them, and throwing them over a bag of stir fry vegetables steamed with a bag of green beans with this marinade drizzled on top. Yum!

Holiday Craft-along

Can you believe it's time to get started on Christmas crafting? Hobby Lobby certainly can as their aisles are already loaded with green and red, sprigs of evergreen laced with shiny ribbons, and thousands of glittery ornaments.

I just ran across this Handmade Holiday Craftalong link that already has some amazing ideas. I plan to follow along and sew up a storm in the next few months, and I thought it may be helpful for some of you! Here's the link.

Uses for pool noodles

Last week we had a major black mold disaster during our master bathroom DIY remodel which ended with our family in a hotel. I was so thankful for this helpful hint from a friend as it made our night MUCH easier. Our 2-year-old sleeps in a twin-sized bed with bed rails. She's too tall to sleep in a pack-n-play comfortably, and bed rails are way too cumbersome to be portable. So we stopped at the Dollar Tree to buy some pool noodles which we used along the edge of the bed between the fitted sheet and mattress. It worked perfectly, and she slept soundly.
I've been meaning to post this idea for awhile now. Then this morning when I was catching up on Craft Gossip, I saw another fun pool noodle use which caused me to do a little Google search. Turns out there are tons of ideas out there for this inexpensive piece of foam. Here are just a few I stumbled upon.
Out of the Crayon Box's idea for using a pool noodle to make a wreath form. She went from this:
to this:Obsessively Stitching's Flower Party Decor:

My Little Gems' Lacing with Water Noodles:

My Little Gems' Water Noodle Race Tracks:

Craftzine's Flower Garland: