Christmas Decor

As you may know, we are renovating our house so it is not going to be fully decked out with Christmas decor this year because who wants to put decorations on top of drop cloths? Not me! I did put a little holiday cheer out on our front porch, I had to take some night time photos because it gets dark at 5 pm and I don't get home until a little after that:)

I bought these skates at a garage sale last January knowing I wanted to do this. I spray painted them silver, glittered them and voila it is wintery and wonderful. Add some frozen looking garland and a bow and it is Christmasy.

Next up, I filled a bowl with glitter lights! I also have some of these on my desk at work! These glitter lights are made from old big Christmas lights. My mom had a lot from an old string of lights but she also bought some more at a garage sale. Now the old lights have new life!

My family and I made these on Thanksgiving! 

To make the glitter lights you need to mix school glue with water in a bowl, about 3 parts glue, one part water so the glue is a little runnier than usual. Then paint the glue on the light with a brush avoiding the metal part of the light. Then roll the glue covered lights in a bowl of glitter! Next, we stuck the metal part of the light into a piece of Styrofoam so the light could air dry without touching any surfaces like so-

Lastly, as I drove up our street on my way home from work today my hubby was putting Christmas lights up on the tree in our front yard! How exciting and pretty! I couldn't get a good picture of it but it looks cute.

How are your Christmas decorations coming along?

Linking up here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Go check out these linky parties!

Thanks Christina for choosing my Glitter Christmas Lights over at your Christmas Parade!!

Rum Balls

Oh my word y'all! If you like chocolate and you like rum, then you will looooove this recipe for rum balls. They are out of this world good!

I searched for a good recipe and decided to go with Martha Stewart's recipe. There are a lot of ways to make rum balls but these seemed to be the most chocolaty which is perfect for me. A lot of other recipes call for nilla waffers and nuts so, just know that there are a variety of other recipes out there if you are inspired to make your own rum balls and don't like this particular recipe.

First off, you make a batch of brownies using melted semi sweet chocolate, oh my Lord this batter is good!

 

Next up, bake the brownies as usual.

Once the brownies are baked and completely cooled, break them up into your mixer and add the rum!

Now, you roll the mixture into small balls and roll the ball in some sugar! I used powdered sugar.

Then refrigerate! I tried the rum balls as I made them and they definitely taste their best when they are cold!

They look like unsuspecting donut holes when they are finished but don't take these babies to work and eat them or else your breath will smell like you've been drinking on the job.

For Martha's recipe, go here. Happy holiday baking!

Linking up here, here, here, here, and here.

Monday Post- List Style

I have a lot of thoughts and observations to share today so, here it is list style!

- My mom and mother-in-law are both so great. They are giving, nice, and fun to be around which is awesome. This weekend, my mom loaded me up with Christmas dishes and a few Christmas decorations before I left Texas. Now we are ready for Christmas:) She would have liked for me to take even more stuff but the car was already full. We also made homemade York Peppermint patties together and they turned out soooo good. I'll do a post about those later! My mother-in-law loaded us up with a fantastic candy box and chex mix.

Matt and I love the candy she makes around the holidays! She also helped me get ready to make curtains for our living room, that will be a post of its own when I start that process!

-I had such a great time going home to Texas for the holiday. The 9 hour drive sounds so long but is really never that bad to get home and back. Every time we go home the people we see are so glad to see us and make it all worth it.

-This time of year is so soo sooo my favorite! Christmas music is on the radio, people have put up their decorations, and there is so much to look forward to!

-When I am driving in a parking lot I always stop for the pedestrians. You that awkward moment when the pedestrian pauses because they aren't sure if you will stop for them? Well, I always stop because when I am the pedestrian I always walk right out in front of cars in the parking lot expecting them to stop.

-In three weeks, Matt and I think we can have our living room finished! I am so excited to show you all the finished project! I think I will look spectacular!

-I feel like December is going to go by super fast, I can hardly believe we have made it past Thanksgiving!

-I pretty much have bought or have an idea for everyone's Christmas present this year. It feels good to have that under control.

-I bought the most delicious yogurt today at Trader Joes, their Vanilla and Cream yogurt. As I was eating it, I thought this tastes so outstanding I wonder how much fat is in this? There is a lot and I reckon that is why it tastes so good! I forgot to check that before buying it, oh well.

-Tonight I plan on unloading our car the rest of the way, doing laundry, cooking beans, rice, and sausage for dinner, and then I will put out some Christmas decorations!

-Thanks for reading my blog! I really appreciate all of you readers and your comments:)

Have a happy Cyber Monday!

Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a day of great food and then we watched football the rest of the day at my parents house! My mom pretty much had everything ready to be put in the oven so there wasn't much cooking Thursday morning, just putting the final touches on everything and carving the turkey!

Dessert table

Two dinner tables pushed together to make one!

Snowman my mom made

The table all set

A few different chairs to fit everyone

Hubby with Frances checking out the adds for Black Friday

My Brother appreciated me taking his photo

Looking out the window

Dad and dog carving the turkey

Dressing and other side dishes

My grandma and great uncle

My grandfather-in-law getting some pie

Mom and dad cleaning up

The table after the meal

I like our eclectic table, we had 14 people at my parents house so we had mix matched chairs and dishes which was fun and cute.

We ended the day with craft time and made some glitter covered Christmas lights!

The day was exhausting for the cats, they had to show off how cute they are all day to all of our guests.

They ended up going to bed a little earlier than usual.

Bella

Francis

Elk Canvas

I love Elk, Moose, and Deer! I've been wanting some antlers or something woodsy to incorporate in our house. I found an awesome canvas on Pinterest and was inspired to make this!

I chose to make an Elk canvas because they have such pretty antlers.

To make my Elk canvas I found a profile of an Elk on Google images, printed it and cut it out. Then I painted a canvas with the same paint we are painting our trim around the house with and let it dry.

Then I took my elk stencil and taped it to the canvas.

Then I spray painted over the elk stencil and when it dried I removed the stencil.

Boom, you have an awesome elk canvas!

Guest Post At The Fresh Fridge

Check out my guest post over at The Fresh Fridge today! Here's the link.

Plantable Wedding Favors

Last year when I was wedding planning (Mr. and I got married in September of 2010) I wanted to give my guests a wedding favor that was unique and something somewhat useful. I looked and looked at all of the options out there and really liked plant-able seed paper.

I am a DIY kind of girl and searched for a way to make seed paper myself.

My mom and I made all of the seed paper hearts that we used as wedding favors at our wedding by collecting a lot of news paper, blending the newspaper in a blender with water to make a paper pulp and pressing the pulp onto a screen. Then we sprinkled the wet paper with wildflower seeds and let it dry in the sun. Then we cut the dried seed paper into hearts, added a ribbon, and a note that said "Love Grows Plant this Heart and Watch Wildflowers Grow!" Then we put the date of our wedding on there too.

Guests could then plant the heart and wildflowers would grow!

It was a very affordable and fun favor in my opinion! Also, seed paper is very easy to make as long as you don't mind getting a little dirty and have the time to do it!

Personalized Charms

I've seen a lot of people wearing cute personalized charms lately and I wanted to make some of my own. I found that Hobby Lobby has a kit with two metal frames and the glass you need for olny $2.47!

The Hobby Lobby Charm Kit

Unfortunately the clasp on the kit doesn't actually work. The charms pictured above are made from the Hobby Lobby kit and I just broke off the clasp and super glued the glass and pics into the frame. After the frames dried over night I super glued the jewels onto the frames.

I made one necklace for me with the TCU logo on one side and an Airstream pic on the other! The second necklace I made for my mom with the Texas A&M logo on one side and pic of her dog on the other!

This is a fun and easy project to personalize something you love to wear around your neck!

The Snow Maker

Today we made our own snow!! A few days ago on TV we saw a lady in Canada try this in -30 degree weather and it was really cool. You boil water and throw it into the air and the steam turns to snow! We tried it ourselves in 21 degree weather and it worked! Check it out!

Do it Yourself Tortillas

A staple in my family's everyday diet are whole wheat tortillas. I make breakfast burritos and hummus wraps daily, and use them when I make fajitas or quesadillas.

Because I use whole wheat tortillas so much, I decided not to depend on buying them at the grocery store each week. I wanted to find a way to make my own. The way I make them is cheaper, healthier, and I think tastier than the one's I find at the grocery.

Here's the how to-


Ingredients-
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup very warm water

Mix your ingredients in a bowl and kneed the dough until you have a big ball of tortilla dough. The dough should not be too dry (add a little more water if the dough is flaking apart).
Let the dough rest about 5 minutes.
Next divide your dough ball into 8 smaller balls.

Get a rolling pin to roll your tortillas out.

Heat a griddle or big pan on low/medium heat.

Cook your flattened dough on the low/medium heat for a few minutes each side.

Now you have delicious, healthy, and cheap tortillas for the week!