First, I found these cute bird clips.  I love clips!  I use them for everything…but mostly they end up clipping the chip bags shut.  Even so, who wouldn’t like a cute clip to look at when reaching for the bag of Doritos?

Then I put them in a clear bag.  I even added a piece of colored paper to the bag to give it some structure and a pop of color so my little birdie clips would stand out.  I’m overly clever like that.

I even came up with completely stole a verse from a song that Kermit the Frog sang.  Well, in my mind, Kermit sang it.  I think The Carpenters sang it way back when, but that doesn’t really matter now.  What matters is that I took one of the verses and added it to my oh-so-creative clips in a bag.

In all honesty, now that I read it in the light of day, that verse may not be all that Valentine-y after all.  Maybe I should have added the remainder of the verse??  It could come off as a little creepy, a la Tippy Hedrin in “The Birds”.   Oh well.  It’s out there now! (haha!)  They are being given by my 3rd grader and a kindergartner.  Hopefully the cute kids will distract from any weirdness the random phrase brings up!

Moving on.

Adding the swirly twine (bakers twine is the official name, I believe) was the final touch!

There you have it!  A “tweet” little gift for the teachers that won’t add to their waistlines.  (That is always a bonus, let me tell you!)

Busy times here on the homestead.  Fences, basket balls and haircuts have dominated our time.  What’s been up in your world?

I hope January is finding you all well.  What have you been up to?

We’ve been busy with day-to-day stuff and while I haven’t been too crafty lately, I’ve been stalking some blogs that have me wanting to start up the crafty stuff ASAP!

First things first, let’s get caught up…

In the winter I went to Germany to watch my husband drive in the last race of the season for his division.  I’d never seen him race, even though he’s been doing it for a while.  He only races in Europe, so a road trip with the kids was out of the question.  It was a quick trip (thanks to my parents for watching my kids), but really great to see my guy doing something he truly loves.  Plus, the track is beautiful—going around a castle at one point.  Lush and green, it is not like anything here in the United States.

I finally got to put faces with the names of the racing team I’ve been hearing  for so long…except in the picture I took. Genius of me, I know.  Everyone was so nice and really fun.  You hear it said that racing teams are like families and it is true.  My husband’s team in the best and we’re hoping to take the kids next year for a race.

Christams came and went with a flurish and while we were all blessed to be together in the same city with our entire family, it was a tiring day and I believe it took us all about 3 days to recover.

I just turned 40.  I don’t feel 40, but then again, what does 40 feel like?  Hopefully I wear it well.

That’s me in the middle, with my best friend and husband.  The look on my face is sheer terror.  Funny, right?  Is THAT what 40 looks like?

Lord help me.

My husband planned a suprise party for me in Las Vegas with a couple we are very close to and flew in my very best friend (we’ve known each other for over 20 years!).  It was amazing, fantastic, fun, decadent, blitzy, sweet, exciting and VEGAS!  No, I didn’t gamble, but I did window shop a lot, ate some really great food and danced the night away at a swanky night club.  We saw Dennis Rodman and sat in front of David Spade.

The Guys

The Girls - and me being cheesy with the "40" fingers

Swanky Club- Tryst- behind us is the uber crowded dance floor

For the record, Dennis Rodman is a huge freaky beast of a man, even though he’s shorter than my husband.  David Spade is short and sits on his knees at the table, like a child.  Those were my impressions.

This month is flying by and I’ve still got to get my care packages out for my college friends!  Here’s what’s on tap for them for the big LOVE day…

Little mailboxes from Target’s dollar section and a few sweets.  All this to let them know we’re so proud to know them and remind them we miss them lots.

(I take no credit for being original on my Valentines—I can’t find links to all of them, but I’m sure they’re on Pinterest somewhere.)

Vinyl on the mailboxes….

Snickers

Reeses Pieces

Ring Pops

Not a Valentine, but she was the main helper in the kitchen that day.

Conversation Hearts- Actually, I came up with the phrase “No matter what you say, You’ll always be my Valentine”.  I looked and looked online, so if you see it out there and it seemed like I copied, I’m apologizing in advance!

Plus Dum Dums, Smarties and Peep Hearts for some extra sugar.

Have a great day!

Stacy

Today I wanted to share a super simple recipe for yummy Christmas cookies.  My mom has made them every year since, like, forever, so to me they really mean Christmas.

First make sure you have flour and sugar.  I did NOT.  So you’ll need to run to the store for all purpose flour and sugar if you’re like me.  Plus, you’ll need to get confectioners sugar, too.

Then preheat the oven to 400.

In your super awesome mixer, cream some butter, then add confectioners sugar and stir till it’s fluffy.  Add in the eggs, almond and vanilla extracts and mix some more.  Finally, add the flour and salt mixture and mix it well.

It should look like this when you’re done.

And your kitchen will look like this:

Hahahaha!  Really, I was a complete mess today.  This is NOT my usual kitchen cooking scene.

Put the dough in a cookie press fitted with the star point.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat, make little circles.  Mine are about 2 inches in diameter.  (I didn’t measure,  I just looked at the plate while typing and made a good guess…I’m scientific like that.)

Bake at 400 for 6-8 minutes.  I’ve found my oven cooks a little hot, so six minutes works well for me.  You don’t want to let the tops get brown.  In fact, they will be exactly the same color they were when you put them in the oven.  The bottoms, however, will get a little bit brown on the bottom.

When they’re all done, color some store bought icing green.  I use butter cream frosting and AmeriColor food coloring, but any white icing and green coloring will work.  We’ve used lots of brands of each over the years.

Make little leaf shapes on the wreath and add a red hot candy for the berry.

Yea!  You’re done!  And aren’t they so cute?  I just love them.  They look pretty on a plate.  Plus, with that hole in the middle, they are a much “lighter” cookie choice during dinner because everyone knows the calories just fall out of the cookie through the hole.

Really.

Here’s the recipe:

Butter Spritz Wreath cookies

Today it is a balmy 70 degrees at my house, sunny, no clouds.  In a word, weird.  I’m a cold-weather-loving girl and even though I live in the South, I like for my winter weather to feel like winter.

My husband would tell you it is because in the winter I can be in a  turtleneck and not look out of place.

We’d both be right.

On this first Friday of Christmas break, my floors need sweeping, my furniture needs dusting and bathrooms need cleaning.  But I found these great things at Sur La Table and I wanted to share them with you.

Here’s the spot where I tell you I am NOT a great cook.  That’s why I love the baking stuff in a box.  Love it.  And my girls can do the putting together part by themselves, allowing my little guy to jump in at the end for the fun decorating part!

How funny is that?  The Runaway Gingerbread boy!  We read a lot of different versions of the Gingerbread Man around here and this particular cookie made me laugh.  Plus, look at all the stuff that comes in the box!

Eyeballs.  Creepy…especially the one in the bottom right corner.  Ewww….my son has already called that one for his cookie. And just for kicks, we counted the eyeballs and there were 91.  Why do they give you an ODD number of eyeballs?  Unless you plan on making some kind of monster gingerbread man……but I digress….

The running Gingerbread Man cookie cutter!  So funny!

The “glue” to stick the stuff on with, plus something to add detail with.  My royal icing has turned out correctly exactly ONCE in my life, so here’s hoping the stuff from the box works for us!

Candy hearts for buttons and whatnot.  Sweet.

There was also the bag of dry ingredients, but the girls had already begun to mix and stir before I could get my camera out. So just pretend this is a picture of a bag of dry ingredients…..and please notice the image of the gingerbread man on the package.  Keep that image in your head for a moment.

After an hour of chilling then rolling out the dough.  Not quite the Martha Stewart experience we were all expecting.

Flour EVERYWHERE. Really.  We were both suprised how messy rolling out cookies can be.  Then we thought that maybe we were doing it wrong, but since we didn’t have Martha on speed dial, we trudged on through, blind to any mistakes we were making along the way. And oh my goodness! How much junk can I stuff on my counters?  And this was AFTER I’d given away about 10 boxes of stuff.  You’d think I’d have a clean counter somewhere.  Oh well.  Keepin’ it real.

Remember that image from the package?  Um, yeah.  The above picture was the result of our baking.  They look pitiful.  Bloated, cracking, eyeball a bit runny.  Gross, but in a funny holiday-ish kind of way.

We even made some cars for my little guy…

And to wash it all down, I got some Frozen Hot Chocolate a la Serendipity restaurant in New York.  I’ve been to New York about 10 times and have yet to brave the line to get a cup of  this sweet goodness in person.  Hopefully this mix will be as good.  I’m sure it will do the trick on this freakishly warm December day.

Here’s to a great Christmas break!  Cheers!

But even though she has to “suffer” through the 20 minute ride to school with those boys, they are pretty good kids.  AND listening to them talk in the mornings gives me an insight into the strange world that is Middle School.

I wanted to do a little something for them to let them know I think they’re pretty neat.  Here’s what I came up with.

These in a bag -

And here’s the tag -

Completely appropriate for Middle School boys (and one girl).

Shared at:

Just a Girl

Whipperberry

And add these:

With the help of her:

Making these:

You get one super cute and very handy gift for a teacher, neighbor, office mate, secret Santa, or friend.

Marshmallows from Trader Joe’s (Thanks to the great idea from JacO’Lyn Murphy), glass jars and votives from Ikea, plates from Hobby Lobby and a Christmas music mix CD from my house.  I tucked in a Christmas card with a note from the kids to their teachers as well.

A sweet gift for sweet people.

Merry Christmas!

I love my house.  I really do.  But the huge expanse of space above the fireplace, coupled with my oh-so-lovely lights on the wall above the fireplace make that space the bane of my decorating existence.

We used to have a great piece of wooden artwork from Pottery Barn hanging up there.  Until one day I get up and notice the great piece of wooden artwork from Pottery Barn is hanging crooked.  Turns out the 70 pound piece is pulling the drywall screws out of the wall.  It even pulled out the mac daddy picture hangers.

It also turns out there are no studs behind the drywall above our fireplace.  Odd, I know, but multiple people have agreed with this.  So my husband and I are left with a massive “forehead” (or “five-head as my husband would say) above our mantle….with lots of holes from where we were looking for studs. (Insert any joke here you’d like…)

I wanted something in that space for a year and since we decorated minimally last year for Christmas, I wanted to really do the house up this time around.  Here’s my idea.

You can still see the holes, but they are a little less out there, you know? And I know the top one doesn’t have a bow.  I tried to get one up there, but I wasn’t going to stand ON the mantle to reach the hanger, so I’ll just have to live with the little white 3M hanger.  You will have to live with it too.

It’s really easy.  Honestly, if I did it, of course it is easy.

Get some pressed wood letters (or whatever kind of letters you like) for your word, red paint, glitter.  I used red glitter, but the big sparkly kind would be pretty too.

Paint the letters….

Sprinkle with glitter…bet you didn’t see that coming!

I bought two frames at Michael’s (ON SALE for 50% off!).  I had my letters and at the store I laid the frame on the floor and spaced my letters out in the frame to make sure I would get the right size.  I have no sense of spacial relation, so this helped me a lot.  I have one frame larger than the other.

I cut my ribbon the length I wanted the letters to hang.  I wanted mine to be pretty straight, but you could do different length ribbon and make the sign more whimsical. I hot glued the ribbon to the back of the letter, then to make sure I glued the ribbons to the correct spot on the frame, I taped the ribbons in place before I hot glued them.

Then you need to love on a sweet puppy who likes to bark at the nice workmen who are clearing your backyard and who thinks the Christmas tree is her own personal store for free chew toys.

Really.  You need to love on a puppy like that.

Then you hang them up!  Bam! How easy was that?  I have to say, I like the way the two frames look above my mantle.  The “fivehead” isn’t nearly as massive as it used to look.  I’m thinking when Christmas is over, I’ll get two pictures to hang up there.  Hmmmm…..all the options.

Now, run make a super duper easy sign!

I shared this on:

Whipperberry

Tatertots and Jello

Some parents and teachers BEFORE the food and projects

I signed up to help with this party, so I’m in charge of doing table decorations, making some muffins and ordering some biscuits.  (Thank You, Chick Fil-A!)

I wanted to share my table decorations and recipes with you today.  They are very simple.  Very.  Like, super duper simple.

I needed decorations that would suit for a round table that seats 8.  That is a decently large space.  What I decided to do was frame some Thanksgiving printables (for some height on the table) and colorful leaves.  Then to accent, I’d fill in around the frames with fruits, gourds, decorative acorns and whatnot.

Decorative acorns?

Just go with me.  I’m NOT a decorator.

Here’s what I came up with -

Notice the decorative acorns? They really make the table. Truly.

In my mind, I was having wonderful large Ball jelly jars filled with sunflowers.  Lovely, simple.  No one told me that sunflowers are like GOLD around here and buying just one costs about as much as it would to send my oldest to college.

Plus, it got to be 8 o’clock at night and I was really ready to go to bed. (Yes, I go to bed very early.)

So I’m in my kitchen, shears in hand, hacking away at the stems of the bouquets I bought at the grocery store on special.  Hack, hack, hack. (COME ON! FIT IN MY LITTLE JARS, PITCHERS AND WATERING CANS!)  By this point, I really wasn’t caring about the stems or if the flowers even had petals left on them.  If I was a professional flower arranger, I’m sure I’d care about how the stems looked IN the jars, but NOW was not that time.

Hack, stuff in a jar, hack, stuf in a pitcher, hack some more because, darn it, the flower stems are still too long for the container, and on and on and on.  In the end, they ended up looking pretty okay.  Not great, but hey, the teachers said they wanted “simple table decorations”.  I’d say that shoving some flowers in a container and calling it a day meets anyone’s idea of “simple”.

I’m also making 3 kinds of muffins because I have a huge guilt complex that is intertwined with the need to be in control of all situations.  That and I’m also a glutton for punishment.  (On a side note, I do love to bake, so there is that….)  Hopefully I’ll make at least one kind that everyone will enjoy.

Pumpkin Cranberry One Bowl Muffins---YUM!

Blueberry Muffins

White Trash Muffins

Pumpkin Cranberry  Muffins

Since I didn’t make these recipes up myself, I’ve linked up to the sites that provided the yumminess.  Please jump on over and visit.  They are all wonderful!

So that’s it!  Simple, sweet and to the point.  If you’ve got any celebrations coming up soon that involve muffins, please make these. They are just what you need in the morning!

And if you have any celebrations coming up that involve flowers, consult a professional.

I’m back, though, and ready to share the easiest decorating idea that packs a BIG punch!

Have you seen this stuff?

I’d never seen it before.  Maybe I live in a closet, but truthfully, I’d never expereinced this netting in my life.

Enter my best friend since forever, Erica.

Everyone looks better in black and white...and in college!

She moves to Arkansas and, evidently, this netting stuff is all the rage for every holiday.  She had to learn how to do this so she wouldn’t be the loser house on the block without appropriate fluffy stuff! (Not really, but it is cute and she really DID want to learn the technique.)

I’m so glad she learned, because when I went to visit her last weekend, I made her teach me and now  I’ll show you.  Big Thanks to Erica!

Here’s the stuff….. again.

I got mine at Hobby Lobby, but I’m sure that most craft stores have it.

I also bought waayyy too much, so I’ll be fluffing anything that doesn’t move this year.

Ready for the oh-so-easy instructions?

First, get your wreath or garland.  For purposes of this tutorial, I’m showing you how to fluff a wreath.

Take all the ugly stuff off.

I’d say start in the middle, but since a circle doesn’t really have a middle….just pick a spot.

Gather up a bit of the netting and pinch it between your fingers.

Use the branches of your faux wreath like a twist tie to secure the netting to the wreath.  This is your starting point.

Decide how big you’d like your fluffy puffs to be, pinch a bit of netting, nestle in the wreath and tie with the branches.

There is your first puff!

Now the tricky part (for me, at least) is getting the puffs to be the same size.

Once you’re done, you can fluff the puffs even more for that dramatic effect.

And that’s it!  Cute, huh?

These wreaths were for Erica’s subdivision, so we left them simple.  For garland, you can add the big plastic ornaments for a more festive or whimsical look.

The main wreath on the big entrance sign was embellished a bit more with some decorative picks and ornaments.

There are all sorts of colors to buy–I’m hoping to get some purple/gold/green for Mardi Gras!  Maybe Blue/Gold/White for our school colors?  Who knows.

What I do know is that if I can do this craft, anyone can.

Happy Fluffing!

This means that instead of our usual noon game on Saturdays, we get to play during the week.

At night.

And this week is the first week that it has gotten really cold after the sun goes down.

I told my little cheerleader that she should wear pants and a long shirt under her uniform.

She looks like she’ll listen, right?

The other team didn’t have cheerleaders.  It was a bit sad.  But we cheered loud  enough for their parents to “enjoy” too.

Did I mention it was freezing?

These night games throw us all off.  We are used to selling hot dogs and hamburgers during lunchtime and sweating ourselves silly.

Sitting, shivering in the stands, being thankful for a friend who brought some yummy coffee is not my idea of a great way to spend an evening–no matter how great the coffee is!

So my daughter.  The one who said to me as we got in the car to head to the stadium, “Mom, I’ll be fine.  Stop telling me to wear pants and a jacket.  I’ve got some fuzzy stuff inside this turtleneck.  My legs won’t get cold.”

See those little white legs on the back row?  See those other girls with jackets, leggings, pants, gloves.  Yeah.  At this point her little legs were freezing, just like her Mom’s. (And I had pants on!)

Besides the cheering, the main thing the girls do is provide encouragement and spirit for the boys as they run through the banner before the game.

I love this part and wanted to get the entire thing recorded for posterity.  I had just learned how to do continuous shooting at this game and YOU are going to get to enjoy my shots and commentary of the run through.  Brace yourselves……

Look at the coaches.  Even they are freezing.  But the girls are yelling and they are ready!

Here we go!  The boys really have to lean into the sign. It’s only paper, but the team that played before us couldn’t break through.  They ran up to it and bounced right off. I would have really loved to have seen that! And yes, I would have laughed.  (You would have, too.  Don’t tell me you wouldn’t!)

Uh Oh!  Little man in the front looks like he may have made a misstep!

Oh!!! Dude in the front is going to do a face plant!  (And yes, there were a few of us in the stands who were snickering at this.  Don’t hate me.  We were freezing and laughter was one way to stay warm.)

Get up! Get up! Your teammates are going to run over you!

See the helmet that is a bit closer to the ground than the others?  It is just in front of the cheer coach with gold pants on at the right side of the picture.  Little man hasn’t  completely bitten the dust yet.  Impressive skills, young man!

The cheerleaders only stayed through halftime.  Then we got to go home.  Our team ended up winning the game.  That means we get to go to another county for yet another playoff game.

Bittersweet, to be sure.  We are so proud of the boys and all the hard work they have put in this season.  BUT it would be really nice to have a Saturday with nothing to do.

There’s only two things to say……

Go LCS! And….who’s bringing the coffee and hot chocolate?

**Update…our little team lost the next game.  A huge disappointment for them, for sure.  But it was a great season and they were a great group to cheer for.  We’ll get ‘em next year, War Eagles!