Hot Cocoa on a Stick
Tuesday
Hot Cocoa on a Stick
Friday
Swedish Christmas Trees
At Christmas time I love my home to be filled with lots of Christmas trees and one of my favorites are the simple Swedish Trees. If you're lucky enough to find them this time of year...let's just say they cost more than they should.
I found an easy and inexpensive way to make your own little forest of Christmas trees...and it is a fun family project too. I found the materials for this project in my canning cupboard and at my local Hobby Lobby.
Small Jelly Jars
Styrofoam Block
Wood Dowels the Size of a Small Pencil
Colored Stain
Hot Glue Gun
Make It Christmas - Tree Branches ($2.99 per pack)
Make It Christmas - Snowballs ($1.99 per bag)
Wire Snips
1. Cut a
small piece of Styrofoam off the block and hot glue it into the bottom of your
jelly jar. (Make sure the piece is small enough that you will have side
room for your snowballs.)
2.
Cut your wood dowels into 8 to 10" pieces. Run one end through
a pencil sharpener to make a point for the top of the tree.
Stain dowels with your favorite stain color. I used weathered oak
for mine. Let dry.
3.
Take the center of a piece of the Make It Christmas tree branches and
wrap around the tree twice. Straighten out flat. Repeat five times
up the trunk.
4. Use your
wire snips to trim the ends of the trees. Go from large at the bottom to
small at the top. Straighten your branches again.
5.
Push your trunk straight into the Styrofoam piece so the trunk
stands tall. Pull out and squirt a bit of hot glue into the hole and push
the trunk back into the hole. Hold in place until cool and firm.
6. Fill your
jelly cups with the Make It Christmas snowballs and your Swedish Trees are
done!
I LOVE
these little trees. I placed two of these in each window of my house along with our Light of Christ candles. They look so traditional and give a little
Christmas cheer to a usually un-decorated place
in my house. I'm making a few more this weekend to give to friends
and family.
Wednesday
Chalk Art Christmas Hoops
These little ornaments may just be my favorite addition to our big family tree this year! I'm calling them Chalk Art Christmas Hoops and they are so simple and easy to make you could get your little elves involved too.
MATERIALS
3" to 4" Wood Embroidery Hoops
Black Fabric
Pom Pom Trim
Ribbon
Glue Gun
Scissors
Deco Fabric Pen - Pearl White
To make these Chalk Art Christmas Hoops you stretch the black fabric into the wooden embroidery hoops tight! You will want it tight because as you write with the marker, it will stretch and loosen the fabric. The tighter the better.
The next step is where the magic happens. Find a design you want to put on your ornament and using the DecoFabric Pearl White marker, draw your design on the fabric. You may need to trace it more than once to get a good "chalk line" on the fabric background. Let it dry for a few minutes. My tip after making a few of these is to keep your design simple. They show best the more simple they are.
Once your design is dry and finished glue your trim around the outside rim of the wood embroidery frame. Tie a ribbon around the top screw piece and hang from the tree using a ornament hanger slipped into the opening where the screw is located.
Monday
Photo Transfer Christmas Ornaments
Photo transfer Christmas Ornaments are a beautiful and fun way to decorate with some of your favorite holiday memories. Wood is one of my favorite mediums because of it's warmth and texture. This year they are so "on point" and it wood products can be found easily at your local hobby store. They make perfect gifts too! Let's get going...
Find a photo you love. You will want one with a lot of contrast. You can use either color or black and white. I recommend sharpening the colors so there is good contrast when the ink is settled into the wood. Also, if there is any lettering or numbers in the pictures, you will want to use a photo editing program to reverse the image. Print off your image on light weight copy paper.
Once your image is printed off on the light weight paper. Take your wood piece and trace around the image to get the sizing right. Cut just inside the traced line to give you a margin for the bark edge to show.
Using the white acrylic paint, dry brush the surface you will be applying the image to. This helps make the image pop. You can skip this step if you want more of a shadow look to your finished project.
Once the paint is dried, the magic can begin. Using a dry brush coat the wood slice surface with Matte Gel Medium. This is the product that takes your inked image and "soaks" it into the wood. When the surface is coated, place the image face side down onto the surface and smooth out. This will need to dry for 8 to 10 hours.
Now that your medium is dried, you will be removing the paper fibers from the image. To do this, lightly mist the paper with water and using a damp rag, lightly rub off the paper. You will see the image appear from under the fibers. This is a delicate process. If you feel too much of the image is coming off, you can use your fingers to release the fibers. It may take a few mistings to get the fibers off, be patient and rub lightly.
Once the fibers are removed, you are ready to seal the image. I use Modge Podge and because these are holiday ornaments, I used the Sparkle Modge Podge. It just give a super fine sparkle to the project which looks spectacular when the tree lights hot it. If you have any spots where the image rubbed off too much, just add a little more Sparkle Modge Podge to give it a snowy look.
To finish the ornaments, drill a hole in the top of the wood slice and hang from your favorite ribbon. Tuck larger slices into blank spaces on your tree or nestle into your garlands.
Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! I love this day, but this post is going to be short as I am booking to to get everything done. We have 15 coming for dinner tonight and there is a ton to do. Thank heavens for the schedule of preparation that we have been working on this week. It will make it pretty easy.
The first thing I did this morning after drinking a big Diet Coke was to wash the turkey and get it in the oven. I boil the neck, heart, and gizzard to get broth for the stuffing, adding a little salt and fresh herbs. We rub the turkey down with butter and stuff it with the pre-chopped celery, onion and herbs from the day before. I follow the Reynolds instructions to get our perfect bird every time.
While the turkey is baking we make the stuffing and peel the potatoes for my favorite mashed potatoes. For the stuffing I melt a cup of butter and sauté rough chopped celery, onions, and fresh herbs until sweating. I add 3 - 5 Tablespoons of poultry seasoning to this mixture. Then I add the dried bread cubes and toss well. After it has been tossed I add the broth mixture from the turkey parts until it is the perfect moisture. Place the stuffing in a covered baking dish and top with pats of butter. Yes, I know it is a lot of butter, but it is Thanksgiving and stuffing. I bake it for 30 to 40 minuets and let it brown a little on the top. This stuffing has been served at our table for over 20 years and is the perfect compliment to everything else on the plate.
While the stuffing is baking we peel the potatoes and get the mashing done. Lots of butter and sour cream go into my mashed potatoes. They are soooo yum! I heat the rolls, top the Jello with whipped cream, get the punch ready, put everything in it's serving dish, make the gravy from the turkey drippings in the Reynolds oven bag and the last thing I do right before we eat is marshmallow the Sweet Potato Casserole and broil it until perfectly toasted.
Wednesday
Happy Thanksgiving Week - Wednesday
Today is my favorite day in the week of Thanksgiving prep. because it is pie day. I truly think National Pie Day should be changed to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as I think there are are more pies baked that day than on any other! Everyone has their favorites, but I like to stick to the three traditional Thanksgiving Pies (of course with a little twist) pumpkin, apple, and pecan.
One of the cutest little surprises on Thanksgiving Day are the little individual pumpkin pies baked in a mason jar lid. They are so easy to make and are the perfect little "snack" before the big meal. We always snack on pie before dinner...don't you?
To make these pies you take your favorite dough recipe (mine is at the bottom of this post) and form it into the lid of a wide mouth sized mason jar or canning lid. Place the lids on a cookie sheet for stability. Fill to the level of the lid edge leaving your dough edge sticking above. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minuets or until the custard is set. Take out of oven and let cool. Top with fresh whipped cream and say yummmmmm!
Tuesday
Happy Thanksgiving Week - Tuesday
It's Tuesday or "Day Two" of our Thanksgiving dinner preparations, and so far it is going great. The goal here is to do whatever can be done to make Thursday a relaxing day. If your family is like mine, they start showing up at the house on Wednesday, so I am trying to get everything I can do today.
1. Wash and iron linens.
2. Make sure special dishes are ready.
3. Make sure your final grocery list is complete ( I will make a late night run to avoid the crowds).
4. Make Sweet Potato Casserole.....
Sweet Potato Casserole
8 to 10 Sweet Potatoes
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Can Evaporated Milk
1 + 1 Cups Brown Sugar
2 + 2 Teaspoons Saigon Cinnamon
1 Teas. Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Chopped Pecans
Mini-Marshmallows
Peel and dice sweet potatoes into 2 inch chunks and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt. Bake at 350 degrees until the potatoes are fork tender. Bring out of the oven and place in a large mixer bowl. Add 1/4 cup of the butter, 1 cup of the brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, vanilla and evaporated milk. Beat together mashing the potatoes and incorporating the ingredients together. I personally like to leave some chunks whole in the mix to add a little "bite" to the casserole.
The other task for today is to chop the onions, carrots, celery, and herbs for the turkey and stuffing. I place them in separate containers and refrigerate until needed. I love doing this ahead of time because it saves time, and my boys don't get realize they are doing little bits of Thanksgiving Day dishes every day...instead of all at once. It's a "mom" mind game!
Friday
Christmas Wool Pillows
It's time to begin decking the halls and one of my favorite quick projects for adding a big pop of color and warmth are wool appliqued pillows. If you can cut, glue and go up and down with a needle you can make these! I have three patterns for you, Swiss Cross, Holly and Ivy, and Christmas Eve Special Delivery.
- 1 yard of wool felt per pillow
- 16 " pillow form
- scraps of wool
- pom poms for the wreath pillow
- needle and embroidery hoop
- scissors
- fabric marker for tracing
- embroidery floss to match your wool
- Aleen's No-Sew Fabric Glue
- free downloadable pattern from TD Christmas Wool Pillow Pattern Templates
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