1 Candy Cane Swirl

We had a wonderful time at our annual Christmas Party this year. This was our signature drink {and a huge hit}...

1oz vodka
3oz cranberry juice
1/2oz grenadine
1/2oz peppermint schnapps
splash of 7up

Enjoy!

1 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays...

from the voice behind the curtain.

1 Rice Krispie ~ Christmas Tree

My boys LOVE rice krispies ~ they call it "talking cereal". Cute hey? Have you ever checked out the back of the box? no? Well you should!

This was our take on a Christmas Tree - straight from the back of the box.

We {Cameron and I} mixed up our cereal and formed a cone shape.

Then I iced it and decorated with jelly beans.

So good!

Thanks for visiting... have a wonderful evening!

1 Stocking Ladder

I know that I'm not the only one with no where to hang our stockings.... here's our solution:

a Stocking Ladder

Sunny from Life in Rehab lent me inspiration with her "I'll get around to it ladder".

I started with a panel from an old room divider.

Painted and glued some dowels on.

My {kinda} ladder.

Wrapped in twinkly lights...

and ribbon.

The stockings were hung on the ladder with care.

Merry Ho Ho!

0 Christmas Sugar Cookies and Inspiring Creativity

Welcome! I am glad you've stopped by. You have. Got. To. Check out these cookies!

I have a love / hate relationship with sugar cookies. Love the look. Hate the rolling, cutting and icing.

So I said to myself "self, let's give it just one more try."

And what a try it was!

Totally worth the drying time.

While blurfing the net I saw this 'flooding' technique. I lined my cookie with icing and allowed it to dry.

Then I filled it with slightly runnier icing.

And moved the icing into bare spots with a bamboo skewer.

When they look this good it's easier to overlook my aversion to rolling, cutting and icing.




So... what have you been up to?

Please link up your projects and grab my button to share the fun.

0 Holiday Painting for Toddlers

One of the fun projects in our Advent Calendar was to paint a picture for GG. They turned out so great that I just had to share! The boys LOVE to paint... at preschool. Here's our mess free {kinda} version for home:

I started with lining our table with paper. And cutting holiday shapes out of black cardstock.

I glued the black cardstock onto blue cardstock using repositionable glue. I planned this craft right before bath time and stripped the boys down to their ginch. Then I let them have at it with coordinating paint colours {we used acrylic paint}.

Here is Isaiah's angel before.

And after I pulled off the black cardstock.

Here's Cameron's snowman before.

And after.

We can't wait to give these to GG! Try this at home ~ super easy and a TON of fun.
Thanks for stopping by!

0 Upcycled Holiday Wreath

You know when you know EXACTLY what you are looking for? But can't find it? Yeah ~ me too! I scoured all over town for an upscale burgundy wreath for my mirror. And couldn't find anything! So using a hand-me-down wreath from my SIL, I created my own version.

Upcycled Holiday Wreath

I started with this traditional outdoor wreath.

And plucked off all of the excess foliage that didn't "go" with my colour scheme.

I dug through boxes of decorations to find these glass ornaments {that I had put in a vase last year}.

Then I took all of the hooks and dodads {that's what they are called ~ I swear!} off of the ornaments.

And hot glued them strategically around my wreath.

Ta Da!

While not exactly what I was looking for ~ this wreath turned out fabulous!

Thank you SO much for visiting! I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season!

1 Christmas Baking ~ Butter Tarts

Well... this was my first attempt at baking butter tarts. It can be a little tricky to get the baking time just right. They sure turned out yummy though!

I used my grandmas tart shell recipe and a classic butter tart filling.

I'm glad you stopped by. Have a wonderful weekend!

3 Inspiring Creativity ~ Holiday Decorations

Welcome to my Inspiring Creativity Linky Party here at Dragonfly Designs! I am so glad that you could stop by!

I start to decorate and get into the festive spirit at 12:01 am on November 1st. Seriously that's when the snowmen start to invade our house. Here are a few shots of the buffet in our dining room:

We don't have a fireplace {or mantel} so this is our alternative.

Burgundy and gold accents fill each room.

This apothecary jar is my latest addition. Hey ~ any ideas for where to hang our stockings? Last year I hung them from the banister going down the stairs.

Now on to the party!

You know the rules. Please grab my button to share with others! What have you been working on?

1 Test Kitch ~ Crockpot Lasagna

Hi! I am afraid that this is the only photo I took of this meal. But I just HAVE to share the recipe with you, after all, what could be easier than Lasagna in a crockpot?

So here it is:

Cook 8 lasagna noodles {broken into pieces}
Brown 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef and add 1 chopped onion.

Put into a crockpot {slow cooker}.

Add:

2 ~ 14oz cans diced tomatoes
5 1/2oz can tomato paste
1 cup cottage cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Parsley
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. basil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

I also added a diced green pepper and two diced celery stalks.

Stir well and cook on Low for 7-9 hours or High for 3-4 hours. Makes 10 cups {2.5 L}

Enjoy a classic made easy! Thanks for visiting.

2 Festive Spirit...

...Happy Monday!

Milk, eggnog and baileys ~ sprinkled with nutmeg!

1 Christmas Cards

Today I wanted to share with you some of the Christmas Cards that I have made this year. I have been teaching 20 Card Workshops, Mother Daughter Scrapbooking, Scrapbooking for Kids, Holiday Mini Album and Mother Daughter Cardmaking Workshops ~ and have fallen somewhat behind in my own paper crafting!

"May your days be merry and bright"

"JOY"

"Happy Holidays"

"Angels"

The goods:
Ribbon and patterned paper ~ Michaels
Stamps and ink ~ Close To My Heart



Thanks for stopping by!

1 Test Kitch ~ Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I found a SUPER yummy recipe from All Recipes ~ Peanut Butter Cup Cookies!

You can find the recipe here.

Basically you use a peanut butter-like cookie dough to form cups and fill them with mini peanut butter cups.

After looking everywhere for mini peanut butter cups, I used these mini rolos instead.

Yum!