Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Yay!  One of my favorite days of the year.  Yesterday was my other favorite day... my birthday!  I turned 27 and boy was I glad.  For months I thought I was turning 28.  I felt like I got a year younger when I realized I was only going to be 27.  I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I turned 25 because I was half way to 50.  I am so freaked out about hitting the big 3-0!  Yikes!
But, that's not what I got on to talk about.  I wanted to share some Christmas pictures with everyone.  Here are a few of the decorations we had at our house this year:

Merry Christmas!

Inspired by Pinterest

First things first....  This has been a very busy week of vacation.  I started off making two different kinds of fudge and some peppermint bark.  I was inspired by some pinterest recipes, however I tweaked them a little and ended up with one plain chocolate fudge, chocolate fudge with nuts and the peppermint bark.  I looooooove peppermint bark, but I was always afraid to make it (even though most recipes seem super easy).  When I found a bag of crushed peppermints at the grocery store I just had to try it out. 

This is what you will need:

• equal parts of white and milk/semi-sweet chocolate. I used two bags of each.
• peppermint oil or extract
• peppermint pieces
• some sort of double boiler contraption
• cookie sheet

I just put the milk/semi-sweet chocolate on the foil & greased cookie sheet and stuck that in a 250 degree oven for about 5 minutes.  When it came out i just spread it around in a large rectangle that just about covered my entire cookie sheet.  Then, I sprinkled just a few peppermint pieces on top.While that was cooling I made a double boiler out of a medium sized pot and a metal bowl.  I got the water hot and steamy, but NOT BOILING.  I put the white chocolate chips in for about 5 minutes and I stirred just a few times.  Near the end I added some peppermint oil.  No, I did not measure it.  I just eyeballed and waited until I could just barely smell it.  I didn't want it to be too strong, but I definitely wanted to taste it.  I took this melted white chocolate and spread it over the milk chocolate and added more peppermint pieces to the top.  I placed mine in the fridge to chill.  After it was completely hard I chopped it up into reasonable sized pieces. 

After all of my sweets were done I sorted them and placed them in these cute little tins to hand out to our neighbors on our street.  Yes, we do that kind of thing around here and I LOVE it!  Our neighbor just brought over some homemade toffee last night and it was delish!

Now, on to my Pinterest inspired art!  All you need is a long piece of fairly thin wood (like one inch), cheap dollar store picture frames, spray paint and some pictures of various letters (I got mine from that flicker site on Pinterest).  First, I took apart all of my frames and removed the stuff on the back.  Then I painted the frames and the wood the same color. You may need to have your husband go out in the garage and cut your wood down.  Mine just happened to fit perfectly.  I also made one for my mom and diddles had to cut that one down just a bit...  And while he was out there he even routed the edges for me.  Fancy!

After I got my pics back in the frame I lined them up to make sure I liked them.

Before I used liquid nails to secure the frames I made sure to put a little hanger thing on the back.




I let it dry for a few hours before I hung it up (just in case).  And here it is now:

I pretty much LOVE it!  We needed some stuff upstairs.  We hardly even use our gameroom, but when I do go up there is is a little depressing.  Now it looks so much better, and these pinterest inspired canvases are also going to help make it look awesome.  If only I could decide what color I wanted to paint them.  Right now I think I'm going back to white.  I better decide before tomorrow.  No, it will have to be done today I cant work on my BIRTHDAY!  I almost forgot that my birthday is tomorrow...  Anyway... We are hosting Christmas for diddles' family this year and I want the house to look it's best.  I am sooooo excited.  Christmas is my holiday and I have always wanted to host the holidays at my house.  I can't wait!

And before I go I want to give recognition to my little garage troll that kept us company as we worked on these projects.  He isn't accustomed to visitors, so I was very grateful that the little demon didn't bite my arm off while I was in his domain.

AND, one more thing...  This is the awesome paint I have been using to paint my crafts.  I love the colors.  I love the finish.  I love the way it covers.  Awesome.  You can find it at Home Depot.

I'm thinking

This is just going to be a three months out of the year kind of blog.  I really enjoy blogging to share my crafty creations, however I rarely have time or energy to blog during the school year.  And if I do have free time I usually spend it doing nothing because I am so worn out!  Anyway...  These last couple of weeks have been crazy.  This is (BY FAR) the worst school year I have had yet.  I really need to find a better school closer to home... Despite the stress, I have found time to make a few Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts/gifts.  Here are some ornaments I made for my team using floor wax, fine glitter and vinyl cut using my Cricut:

 I  have a few more things that I made as gifts that I am going to post after Christmas.  I'm really excited about them.  I think everything turned out super cute!  I'm even going to the store tomorrow to pick up a few supplies to do some last minute gifts just because I'm feeling super crafty.  I've been done with my gifts for a few weeks now, but I just can't stop.  Thanks a lot Pinterest! 

Pinterest... It's a love/hate relationship

So, I've had a Pinterest account for a while now.  But, I just recently became addicted.  I can't stop pinning!!!  I've mainly been obsessed with school related pins.  It has really motivated me to get back into my classroom (this is very good because I have to go back to work this FRIDAY).   I've found all sorts of amazing things I need to try out for this school year.  However, I can't stop pinning to actually get things done!

I did find some time to try out this cute gift I am going to give to my team that was inspired by Nothing But Country. 

And I made these awesome scratch off reward tickets using things I already had around the house!

And I've even made a few shirts... like this one:

Hopefully I will get some work done in my classroom this week and I can show more of the projects I hope to do!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

I've had several friends ask me for this recipe recently, so I thought this would be a good place to share it with everyone.  Several years back my family put all their favorite recipes together and created a family cookbook.  This little book has seriously become my cooking bible (this along with all my wonderful Pioneer Woman Recipes).  This is a sweet dip that is great for parties or other get together.  I usually serve it with teddy grahams because they are the perfect size and they wont break when you dip them.

Ingredients:
1 - 8oz pk softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini choc chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Shape it into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for another hour. Roll the cheese ball in finely chopped nuts before serving.

Little Girl's Dress

This past week I made what might have been the easiest garment ever!  I just bought one of those cheap dollar patterns to make a dress for the same friend's little girl to wear on her first day of school next week.  I had it done in no time.  I even added some embellishments to make it super cute.  It probably cost less than $5 to make and I still have material left over!

Nap Mat

I am so proud of myself for my latest creation.  Thanks to Jenny Garland I was able to make a nap mat for a friends daughter.  She is starting pre-k this year.  The directions were very easy to follow and I had it done in no time.  I know nothing about nap mats, but I thought the buttons and carrying strap were genius.  LOL!  Here are a few pics of the completed mat!