Super Easy Advent Calendar!

My sister and I always had an advent calendar when we were little to count down the days until christmas. Ive been wanting to make one for Mason, but never could find one that wasnt all "Santa threw up on this..all out CHRISTMAS-Y". Once again...pinterest to the rescue! I found this adorable one and it was SO EASY to make. The only sewing required was in fastening the buttons to the felt tree. I used mostly stuff I already had, but felt is amazingly cheap anyway so this can be done fairly inexpensively.

So here is a quick run down of what I did to make this...you can always add your own twist and probably make something a little better quality. But I was high on ambition and low on time so here is what I did...

Take a large piece of white felt (however large you want the end product to be...
Cut out a large tree shape in your color choice...
Sew 24 buttons onto the tree..
Fasten tree to white felt ( I used hot glue but you can always sew it too!)
Cut out 24 pieces of felt all the same size for your pockets to hold the ornaments...
Hot glue the pockets on 3 sides to the white felt...
Paint on some fancy numbers and add a star and trunk to your tree..
I just bought some mini tree ornaments at walmart to put in the pockets...they were 6 for .97 cents :)

The colors didnt come out very accurate...but I used green, red, light blue, brown and mustard yellow felt..

DIY Holiday Decroations

I've been making these wreaths since summer! I absolutely love them! I think Jake hates them though! Thats too bad since they are EVERYWHERE in our house! Haha! Again, I saw an idea on Pinterest where you put a sticky hook on the inside of your cabinet door UPSIDE DOWN! That way you can hang things on your kitchen cabinet doors! GENIUS! So here are my latest wreaths for the holiday season...these are small (8 inches) I made a few of them to decorate my cabinets with...and they are gray..not black like its looking here :)

Here is the "how to" video that I used to make the actual wreath...MAKE IT!

DIY Cheap Holiday Gift!

Since discovering Pinterest I've been a busy girl! There are SO many DUH! moments I've had in the last few weeks! Did you know that you can write on glass with a dry erase marker? Ofcourse you did! But I didnt! I'm in the process of making a lot of DIY gifts and holiday decorations. I plan to share a few of them here, but if you're on Pinterest you've probably already seen most of them! Haha

Hanging Dry Erase Board 

cost of supplies: $3.72 (I got my stuff at Michaels with a 40% off coupon from this site)

time invested: 8 minutes

What you will need: Assembled picture frame in the size of your choice (mine is 11x14)

                                 2-3 sheets of scrapbook paper

                                 Ribbon

                                 Dry erase marker

Pretty self explanatory...put the scrapbook paper in however you like it and hang it by the ribbon!

I love these so much that I hit up the local Goodwill store and got a 5 frames ranging in size from 20x24 to 8x10 for only $18! All I had to do was spray paint them!

Simply Delish!

Like I've said before..Im a sucker for easy recipes! And my awesome friend Asya recently bought me a breadmaker (because she holds the key to my heart). So after a little research I came up with this AMAZINGLY delicious, SUPER easy meal! So I figured...why keep all that goodness to myself?!?! Why not share?!?!

Deli Stromboli

1 roll of french loaf dough from the refrig section at the store

1/2c shredded cheddar cheese

1/2c shredded mozz cheese

1/4lb salami

1/4 lb ham

3/4c banana peppers

Shape dough into a 12x14 in rectangle. Layer ingredients to within 1/2 in from the edges. Roll it up and place seam side down on baking sheet. Brush with butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 min or until golden!

Simple Green Beans

2lbs of fresh beans

2T butter

3T minced garlic

salt and papper

Blanch beans for 3-4 min and drain. Return to the pot add remaining ingredients. Saute for another 6-7 min over med heat!

The most amazing cinnamon rolls you've ever tasted.....

Put these ingredients in your bread machine (if you dont have one..RUN! dont walk and get one!!)

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• Put your machine on the dough setting and walk away...She'll let you know when its ready.
• Pull out your dough and roll it out into a large rectangle. Slice into 10 equal pieces. Take each piece and roll it between both hands to make a long "pencil" like shape. Then shape it into swirls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 min. 

Once they are baked you can drizzle them with this glaze....

•  1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

ENJOY!

Halloween Weekend!

Halloween weekend was jam packed full of fun stuff! We went to the corn maze, carved pumpkins, made halloween sugar cookies and went trick or treating! Ofcourse, there was lots a spooky food to go along with the festivities and the weather was great!

Mason opening his Halloween treat bag from Ma and Pa!

Mummy Dogs! Yum! Just hot dogs wrapped in crescent dough with honey mustard eyes! Bake at 375 for 10-13 min!

These were AMAZING! Smores rice krispy treats! Recipe HERE!

Arghhh! My little pirate!

Ma and Pa ready for trick or treat!

Aunt Kah and B dog slim

We actually went to something called Truck n Treat! Everyone decorates the trunks of their cars or the bed of their truck and passes out candy! FUN!

Pa is SCARY!

One group was passing out books! how cool?!?!

Everyone was dressed up! haha :)

Mason and his pirate pumpkin!

Mason and Aunt Vickie!

Making cookies!

Mason and his Meme (my grandma!)

CORN MAZE!

Feeding the goats!

Trix or treat popcorn! Make it HERE!


Stay tuned! Ive decided to jump on the youtube organization bandwagon! Its a project a week for 52 weeks! I definitely plan to blog about some of my more challenging organizing projects! I think Im going to start with my pantry!