Quick and Easy Gift

Need a teacher gift or a small treat to add to a gift basket? Buy a scoop and fill it with pistachios, pecans, or whatever your favorite nuts are. Place it in a cellophane bag and tie it with a cute Christmas ribbon.

Quick and Easy Ornament

I had feathers left from my Feather Tree and I wanted to use them to make an ornament. My original intention was to have a single feather in the bottom, but it ended up being pretty full by the time I finished. I was surprised by the beautiful results.

Materials needed:
clear glass ornaments
white feathers
white glue (I like Alene's Tacky Glue)
Martha Stewart snow glitter (or whatever you have)

Take the top off of the ornament. Gently bend each feather and push into the ornament with a toothpick. Continue until you have it as full as you would like. It is actually amazing how many feathers will fit in there. Squirt glue along the top to look like icy snow and cover with glitter. Allow a few minutes to dry and replace top.

It's just that easy.

Cookie Cutter Felt Tie-Ons

Anthropologie is one of my favorite places to shop, especially for Christmas surprises. They also have very cute tie-ons for their gifts. This is the one this year, and I happened to have paper that matched it perfectly.

It is made of felt circles that are threaded onto twine. After I looked at it, I got to thinking about how easy it would be to make them, but be a little more creative.

I traced around cookie cutters onto felt with a sharpie.

After I cut them out, I folded them in half lengthwise and cut two small slits in the middle.

Then I threaded them onto twine, which I got at Hancock. (The brown felt has been washed a couple of times to give it a worn look).

I typically use tissue paper only for stocking stuffers, but both of these patterns were really cute.

I loved how they turned out!

Homemade Treats for Your Canine Friends

This recipe was given to me the other day by my friend Jennifer who is an animal lover/rescuer. It has a texture like a meatloaf and she bakes it in a 13 x 9 dish. I decided to try it in muffin tins for individual servings. It is a wonderfully nutritious snack that is easy to make. And perfect for a Christmas treat!

Ground Turkey Dog Treats

1 sweet potato
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
5 tbsp uncooked old fashioned oats
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Cook sweet potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Let it cool and slip off the skin. Mash up and combine the remaining ingredients, using your hands if necessary. Place in a greased baking dish and bake at 350 for 1 hour. If you use muffin tins, bake 20 minutes for mini tins and 30 minutes for regular muffin tins.

After the sweet potato is cooked, combine ingredients.

I used a smaller tin for my Yorkie and a larger one for my Izzy.

Mmmm. They smell good, but don't eat them. They are for dogs. And our dogs LOVE them.

Keep refrigerated. They won't last long.

Painted Christmas Ornaments

As I shared in my last post, I really enjoy painting Christmas ornaments. I did two this year and I am posting them to show how fun and easy they are to do. They are also very inexpensive.

I got this little resin Santa at Hobby Lobby, where family traditions are started. He was 50% off and I paid $2 for him. Such a nice blank canvas waiting to be splashed with creativity.

I used regular acrylic paint, and it took a couple of coats of the red and maybe about three coats of the white. I used a very tiny brush on the parts where the two colors met. A coat of Mod Podge is an option after the pain dries if you want it to be shiny. I opted for a matte finish this time.

Here he is with his black boots, gold buttons...

...and green mittens.


He looks very much at home among the regulars.

This is a simple wooden ornament of which there are an abundance at both Michaels and Hobby Lobby. It was less than $1.
First I painted it in acrylics.
Then oversanded it a little.
I diluted some brown acrylic paint with water and brushed on some, then wiped it off to give it an aged look. Then I hung it on my tree.

Painting ornaments can be fun for every member of the family. They are also very cute to tie onto a gift for someone special.

Scenes of the Nativity

We have several nativity scenes that are very special to me and we really enjoy getting them out every year. Gil brought me several back from a trip to Peru. This is one of them.
(You can click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to).

I love this one with their removable Peruvian hats and the smiling animals.

This one was made by women who were in a Peruvian prison. Mary broke into 16 pieces while in transit. I was heartbroken and glued her back together. She is fine now.

They have a beautiful glow to them in a dimly lit room.

This is the oldest and most important of all our nativity groups. I bought these unfinished in the fall of 1979, which was the year Gil and I got married. We painted them together and have enjoyed them for 30 years now. They posed this year for a photo shoot.

For many years they didn't even have a stable. Now they do.

The other day Zac asked me how all of them sprang for the stable because he grew up seeing them without one. He wondered if the three wise men bought it with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but then said that it would be hard for them to give something that had been stuck to them for so many years (literally). This led to a spur of the moment song, with guitar and vocal, which was titled, "Give Up Your Myrrh for God." Somehow the song went on to mention the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and the year 1492. I know. Perplexing.

Memories and traditions have been really fun in our family. Create as many as you can.

Uncommonly Cute Reindeer

Zac surprised me with a these really cute little woodland reindeer yesterday. They are from Sojourns, which is in located on the north side of downtown Birmingham. (A very cool shop, by the way). I love the looks on their faces. Zac said that they reminded him of Izzy, our kooky dog that I rescued last year.

Do you see the resemblance?

Hmm... I'm thinking maybe so...

Yep, they are the reindeer version of her.

Festive Waxed Paper

This is an idea I got from Martha Stewart. It is easy and could be done for a variety of different occasions and is great to use for wrapping food gifts.

Materials needed:

waxed paper
copy or construction paper
paper punch
iron
pressing cloth or paper towels

1. First, lay cotton fabric or paper towels on your ironing board to protect it.
2. Lay one layer of waxed paper onto ironing board.
3. Place paper cutouts on top.

4. Cover with another piece of waxed paper:

5. Cover all with a cotton pressing cloth or paper towels.
6. Run an iron, set to medium heat, lightly over the layers to set:

How easy is that?!

Wrap something delicious with your newly crafted paper...

...and give it to someone special.

Chocolate Leaves with Peanut Butter Filling

I was in the mood for chocolate the other night, which is actually nothing unusual. I have leaf-shaped Wilton silicone molds that I hadn't used in a while, so I decided to try a version of the Reese Cup shaped like a leaf. I used crunchy peanut butter because I really prefer it, but creamy would be fine.

Chocolate Leaves with Peanut Butter Filling

1-12 oz bag semisweet chocolate morsels (I recommend Ghirardelli for both)
1-12 oz bag milk chocolate morsels
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1. Melt chocolate morsels in the microwave. Check and stir at 30 second intervals until completely melted.
2. In a separate bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla.
3. Slowly spoon or pipe a small amount of chocolate into each mold. You really only need just enough to cover the bottoms.
4. Place a small amount of peanut butter onto the chocolate. I did this with my fingers and shaped the peanut butter to spread it out inside the leaf. (To hopefully get a bite of peanut butter with each bite of chocolate!)
5. Spoon just enough chocolate over the peanut butter to cover it.
6. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Remove from molds.
Yield: about 18

Here are my molds. I got them at Walmart a couple of years ago.

Have your peanut butter mixture and melted chocolate ready:

Place a small amount of chocolate in the mold, then peanut butter, then cover with chocolate. Spread out with a spoon.


Chill until hardened, at least an hour:

Remove from molds. These molds make that part really easy.

They turned out to be oh, so yummy. I kept them in the refrigerator because I like the contrast of the crunchy chocolate with the peanut butter.

Happy Halloween

I hope that everyone has a fun and safe Halloween weekend! We are going to watch scary movies and eat good food by candlelight.