Winter {Decorated} Mantel

{living}

Most years my mantel sits bare and forlorn in the months between when I take the Christmas decorations down and put Easter decorations up. {well perhaps not always bare, since if it's not decorated we seem to put anything and everything we want to set down up there, but forlorn anyway haha} This year though, I really wanted to do a winter-scape up there, and it all started with these two cute little birds I got from Target...

They were actually supposed to be Christmas decorations, I think, and they had ones that were definitely more Christmas looking - red and green and Christmas-y looking plaids - but I thought these two little guys would be perfect for the rest of winter and they were just too adorable with their little hats and the white one's bowtie.  They of course came home with me that day and sat in my craft room through the Christmas season waiting for their turn to grace the mantel.

Their day has come.

I finally got the Christmas decorations down and put away.... well the decorations on the mantel anyway, the tree is still up and there's still some other decorations throughout the house that I haven't gotten to yet, but hopefully later in the week... haha.  So, it was time to redecorate the mantel.  Along with the little birdies I had a birch tree with bare branches I had picked up at Christmas time from Walmart and two cross-stitches of bare trees with snowflakes that I had worked after finding the patterns on Pinterest.  And of course I also had my apothecary jar full of yarn scraps.  I also have quite the collection of tiny frames.  I think I might have a problem actually, when I see them, I just can't not buy them.... and Michaels almost always has them.  Thank goodness they are typically only a dollar or two! But anyway, the point is I grabbed a white oval one and a silver rectangle one (this one was actually supposed to be an ornament and came from Hobby Lobby...) and cut some scraps of a wintery wrapping paper to put in them.  I also grabbed a gray round one from my stash and layered it with a white snowflake. That was one side of the mantel....

I had also found this tutorial for making snowflakes for windows out of hot glue.  Perfect for the mirror, I thought.  I did do them on baking parchment paper on a flat surface (my living room floor to be precise) because I only have a hot melt glue gun and I was afraid the glue would drip before it cooled if I tried to do it directly on the mirror.  They peeled off the baking parchment easily and about half of them stuck to the mirror on their own, the others I just put another dab of hot glue on the back in the middle and stuck it to the mirror.

This was the best picture of the hot glue snowflakes... they weren't cooperating with photographing very well on the mirror from straight on

I also found a string of snowflake lights, in a bag of stuff in the craft room, to add a little more to the mirror (the birch tree actually lights up as well, I'd just have to get batteries for it. Haha.)

For the other side of the mantel, I wanted to do "icy" branches, but I didn't have any, I did however, have some white fleece so I just threw that and some snowflakes on the other side.

If I get a chance to make some "icy" branches soon I will probably replace the white fleece with them.

I'm excited to actually have a decorated mantel this winter! And I actually have some ideas for a Valentine's day mantel as well, so hopefully I'll get that done in February as well.....

Theme Food Week: Comfy,Cozy Casseroles {January}

{cooking}

So, has time sped up lately? It seems like I was just posting about December's Theme Food Week (of course I suppose that might have something to do with being late getting that one up....... heh heh). Now here I am again with another Theme Food Week wrap-up.  This week had some really yummy recipes.  And it was a theme that almost didn't come to be.  When I planning out the next few months of Theme Food Weeks I had actually originally planned on doing the theme that's going to be next month for January, but then I was having a horrible time coming up with something for February, nothing else I was coming up with just seemed quite right, and honestly even the theme I originally planned for January just didn't seem quite right for January either.  So at some point in all of this I was looking for a completely unrelated pin, but couldn't remember what board I had pinned it to so I was just looking through all my recent pins. {did you know you could do that? I just found this out, but I feel like everyone else probably already knew haha}.  I came across a couple of casserole recipes that I had pinned recently, and it dawned on me.  Casseroles! Perfect for cold winter evenings. There's almost nothing better than a warm, cheesy, hearty casserole to make you feel all comfy and cozy in the winter.  And there's a wide variety of casseroles so it wouldn't feel like we were eating the exact same thing for four nights straight.  I raided my Pinterest board and actually came up with 5 casseroles that I had to try out, and amazingly we actually managed to do all 5 nights without anything else coming up to postpone any of it! {it's a miracle! haha}.

So here we go.....

Comfy, Cozy Casseroles:

{Menu}
I have to say that most of these recipes are not exactly the lightest, healthiest recipes, but that's not really what I was going for here (although the cheddar-broccoli quinoa casserole is pretty darn healthy), but since we were going for comfy and cozy and yummy, they definitely fit the bill.  Also it was a week that I was able to use some of the tons of recipes I have pinned that I still need to try, and trying new recipes is supposed to be one of the purposes of Theme Food Weeks

Monday: Tortellini Bake with Sauteed Green Beans:

  This recipe was actually the pin that precipitated this week's theme.  I had pinned it not too long ago, and it just looked so yummy! (and it was!).  There's a bit of a funny story behind my making of this casserole though.....  Last Saturday I had gone through all the recipes and read through them quickly to get an idea of the recipe and to copy down the ingredient lists to make my shopping list for the week.  Then, on Monday as I went back to my pin to get the recipe back up to make it that night, suddenly it told me the link was no good.  I was using my phone because our house internet was out that day so I thought perhaps it was just something weird going on there, so I tried typing the address into my browser, and it told me the page didn't exist.  Huh? So I tried again several times that day and even double checked the address with the history on the browser on my computer and it just seemed like it had completely disappeared.  Fortunately it was a simple recipe and I had written down the amounts off the ingredients I needed with my grocery list so I was able to make it from memory from when I had looked the recipe over, over the weekend, but I was all prepared to have to write this post without a link to give you to the recipe.  Just for giggles today, though, I went back to my pin and tried it one last time and this time it worked.  So I don't know whether it was some issue with trying to do it on my phone (although I'd looked at it on my phone when I was first planning the week's dishes) or whether the blog's site was just having technical issues on Monday, but either way, it is back, so here's the recipe. And then the green beans of course I just sauteed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic.

Tuesday: Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake:

Now let me start this by saying that this was a really good dish.  My husband and I decided, though, that it has the potential to be amazing.  One change that I plan on making next time is to add more garlic.  Now I will say that the cloves I used were on the smaller side, so maybe even just using good size cloves would make the difference, but I will definitely be using more next time.  I also had to make some extra "sauce" for it after I mixed it all up it seemed too dry.  And if you notice the author did mention it seeming dry and pouring more half and half over it before baking it.  I actually melted down some more of the chive and onion cream cheese with the half and half and added it to the mix instead of just more half and half.  Another little change that I think I'll make next time is the type of tomatoes I used.  I used grape tomatoes because I liked the idea of the cherry tomatoes mentioned in the recipe, but the store didn't have any when I went, so I used the grape tomatoes instead.  And again it was still good, but I think next time I will use chopped Roma tomatoes.  (also the grape tomatoes definitely needed to be salted lightly before being added to the recipe, but with a different tomato that might not be necessary).  I did use partly whole grain pasta in the casserole, just to try to make it slightly healthier, but I have to say, while I love Barilla's Whole grain Angel Hair pasta I wasn't as big a fan of the whole grain penne, but it was pretty good for this casserole, especially since I mixed it with regular bowtie pasta. Here's the link to the recipe : Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

Wednesaday: Cowboy Casserole and Texas Toast:

Okay, let's start this with a confession.... I cheated on the Texas Toast, and just bought frozen Texas Toast instead of making it myself, man was it good though...  So now that that's out of the way....  Here is the recipe for the Cowboy Casserole.  It was so good, and warm, and filling.  As my best friend said when we were talking about it, you know its going to be good when it has "cowboy" in the title.  The fact that it's between tater tots is a good sign too.  There was really only one thing I did differently for this one, and if you read the recipe and know me it would be obvious.  I can't eat anything with mushroom in it.  I don't know if I'm allergic to it or something or just REALLY don't like them, but anything with even cream of mushroom soup (even if it doesn't really taste like mushrooms - which is what makes me think I might be allergic) makes me gag.  So usually I just replace cream of mushroom with cream of chicken, but that doesn't really work for everything, and I didn't think cream of chicken would work for this, so I looked at what other types of condensed cream soups there were and came up with cream of potato. I used that instead and it worked really well and the casserole came out delicious.  (of course I think I might have also used a bit more cheese than the recipe actually called for too hehe).

Thursday: Cheddar and Broccoli Quinoa Casserole:

This is basically a better (healthier and heartier) version of the cheesy broccoli rice casserole that I'm sure we've all had at some point or another.  The recipe for this calls for chicken in it, which would be delicious of course, but we hadn't had any seafood yet this week, so I decided to do shrimp in it instead (kind of a cheese and broccoli rice casserole and shrimp and grits mash up lol) I used frozen precooked shrimp so I just thawed them out and mixed them in before putting it in the casserole dish, but if I do shrimp in it again I think I will season them with some Old Bay before mixing them in, they just seemed like they needed a little more oomph, and I think that would do it.  Again I may have also used a little more cheese than actually called for (I wasn't really measuring the cheese in any of these casseroles, just kind of estimating and eyeballing it).  This is where you'll find the recipe: Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

Friday: Meatball Sub Casserole:

Let me tell you this was such a great way to top off this week! So yummy and easy to make.  here is the recipe: Meatball Sub Casserole.  And of course, me being me, I did make a couple changes.  one of those was completely unintentional and I actually have no idea why it happened.  As I was making the cream cheese mixture I somehow read 1tsp Italian Seasoning as 2tbs Italian Seasoning.... don't ask because I have no idea how that happened.... it's not even like it was originally 2tsp and I just made it tablespoons instead... there is literally nothing the same about 1tsp and 2tbs.... the only thing I can think is that there are several other things I make somewhat regularly that use 2tbs Italian seasoning so I just measured that out, out of habit.....? who knows.  I realized my mistake right after mixing it up, but I thought, it's Italian seasoning, it's not like its salt or pepper, it might be fine.  So I tried a little bit of it to check (I thought that if it was a disaster that I had two half blocks of cream cheese left over from other things that might still be good), but it was actually really good with 6 times as much Italian seasoning as it was supposed to have.... so basically use anywhere between 1tsp (which I really don't think would be quite enough actually) and 2tbs, lol.  I also got turkey meatballs instead of regular for two reasons, first, because I don't like regular frozen meatballs for some reason, and secondly, I try to limit the amount of red meat we eat, and I thought it was really good with the turkey meatballs (I used Wegman's brand), so keep that in mind as a option.  Oh, and one other minor thing is that when I went to Walmart to get the Italian bread they had garlic and cheese (or something like that) Italian bread so I got that instead of plain.

*Also I forgot to mention on each individual day, but any of the recipes that call for sour cream I use Greek yogurt instead... I prefer Greek yogurt to sour cream, and of course it's better for you. I've always used it interchangably with sour cream and never had a problem, and actually I've noticed lately most recipes say sour cream or Greek yogurt anyway. But definitely for anything this week I used Greek yogurt.

So there you have it, another Theme Food Week, come and gone.  Make sure you keep an eye out for February's Theme Food Week.  Subscribe to the blog to make sure you don't miss anything ;)

News Flash!

{doing}

I have an announcement! are you ready? drum roll please..................

Okay, it's really not quite as big a deal as that probably made it sound like it was going to be, but I'm kind of pretty excited about it.  But first let me give you a little background... For a while now I have been working on an ongoing photography project of taking photos of things that I see that look like either hearts or butterflies (but aren't actual hearts or butterflies).  Well, as I was taking my walk this afternoon (but not with my unicorn ear warmers because it was pretty warm today lol) I happened to notice a chipped section of the sidewalk that looked like a butterfly, and so I stopped to take a picture.  Then I thought to myself I really should get an album or something to keep all these pictures together.  Then I thought maybe I should share these on the blog too.  But then I thought what about future pictures? Then I thought what if I combined sharing the pictures online with keeping them all together as an album or gallery.  And here's where we come to my announcement......  I've started a second blog!  The new blog is called {Hearts}&{Butterflies} and it will be a gallery for this photography series.  I'm really kind of excited about it actually.  It's really fun to see all the different things that can randomly look like a heart or a butterfly if you look at them the right way, and having them all in one place will be nice.  So head on over to heartsandbutterfliesgallery.blogspot.com and check it out!

{My Cozy New Winter Wreath}&{a Roundup of Some Wintery Yarn Crafts}

{making}

Boy, has January let us know that it is winter around here lately! We've had a bunch of days with a high of 20 something and I think there was at least one day that the temperature barely broke 20, if it ever even did.  I know for a lot of places that's the norm all winter long, or even colder, but I have to say, for around here that is COLD! Cold enough, in fact, that I haven't even taken the outdoor Christmas decorations down yet (well, actually I haven't taken any of the Christmas decoration down yet really, but I'm always slow to get the inside decorations taken down.  I try to get the outside ones down in a timely manner though).  I did manage to change out the wreath on the front door at least though.  I used to be able to keep my Christmas wreath up all winter (well through January anyway, I have a Valentine's Day Wreath the goes up in February), but then a couple years ago I added a couple Christmas ornaments to it that matched the large ones that hang from the front porch, and it became a definitely Christmas wreath, and I had nothing for January.  So for the past 2 years my door has sat bare though January, but this year I decided no more.  So {of course} I hit up Pinterest for some inspiration and came up with an idea for a wreath that {if I do say so myself} I think turned out great!  It took a little time to make, but was really very easy.  It was a great way to pass a cold, early January afternoon (well an afternoon and an evening since I didn't buy enough yarn at first and had to go back to Walmart for more)

{The Supplies}

The Supplies for this wreath are pretty simple, all you need is:
~ {1} wire wreath form
~ about {4.5} skeins of yarn in varying shades of gray (or whatever color you choose)
~ A scarf (I know it's not pictured..... I wasn't able to get one I liked when I got the first batch of supplies, which is when I took the picture)
~ a pair of scissors
~ {Optional} pom pom makers (I just used my hands for some of them and then used a piece of foam core board for others)

{The How-to}
{First} Make the Pom Poms.  You're going to want at least 2 different shades of gray (or your color), and at least 2 different sizes of pom poms.  I actually ended up with 3 different shades of yarn and two larger, but slightly different sizes of pom poms and one smaller size.  Originally I had just gotten a lighter and darker gray, but when I went back to get more (after testing it out with the first skein) I went to a different Walmart and found one that has some white on it and I thought that would look really nice mixed in there too.  I also got 2 different thicknesses of yarn for a little more texture.  If you are using pom pom makers then of course follow the directions for making the pom poms that came with your maker.  I do not have any pom pom makers and can't really {personally} see spending money to buy them, when I can make pom poms just as well using my hand or a piece of cardboard/foam core board.  To make them without a pom pom maker:

{1} wrap yarn around your hand (or fingers depending on how big you want the finished pom pom to be) or around a piece of cardboard or foam core board.  {for some of the pom poms on this wreath I used a piece of foam core board, but I cut a little slit out of the middle of it, about halfway across to make the next step a little easier - it was the smaller sized pom poms so it really helped}.  You're going to want to wrap it at least 40-50 times around - the more times you wrap it the fuller your pom pom will be

{2} Slip the yarn off of your hand and wrap another piece of yarn around the middle of the bundle, and tie it as tight as you can get it (on the jig that I made for the smaller pom poms I used the slit I cut in it to tie the yarn around the middle before slipping it off the foam core board - you do have to slip it off to tighten it all the way, but it is SO much easier to get it started while it's still on there)

 

 

{3} cut all of the loops on both sides of the pom pom. Shake it out to fluff the pom pom.  You may also need to trim some of the threads to get the shape even all the way around.

{Second} using the tails from the thread you tied the center of the pom pom with tie the pom poms to the wreath alternating and evenly distributing the different sizes and colors of pom poms you made.

{I took this pic before I got the yarn with the white}

{Third} Make a bow out of your scarf. You can make whatever style of bow you want, just keep in mind it's not wire edged ribbon so it will be a little floppy, just a simple bow looks great.  Use a piece of yarn or wire to attach the bow to your wreath.

{Fourth} Hang on your door and enjoy all the warm coziness, this wreath brings to the winter months!

This was an 18inch wreath, and I used almost 4 skeins of the thicker yarns (2 of each) and much less than one of the thinner yarn.  So, I also ended up with a some leftover yarn from this project, so I went looking for some ideas of other ways to use yarn for winter crafts:
For one thing I ended up with this pile of little scraps of yarn from trimming the pom poms.

Normally I would just throw these away, but I'm planning my winter mantel decorations, and thought of a great way to make use of these little scraps...............

 

I haven't had a chance yet to try making any of the other crafts with my leftover yarn, but they would make great projects for another cold, cold day.  Maybe even a snow day (some of these would be especially great for snow day crafts for kids).  And none of them involve knitting or crocheting (crocheting, I have yet to learn how to do and knitting I'm not so great at).

~Yarn wrapped anything: Mason Jars (for candles, or vases), wreaths, cans, picture frame, etc.

~ A snowman made from yarn balls (or to not use as much yarn wrap styrofoam balls with yarn) or wreaths wrapped with yarn (I saw a couple ideas on Pinterest where they wrapped the yarn across the center of the wreath to make a solid circle)

~ {this one's a fun one} have an indoor "snowball" fight with "snowballs" that are actually white pom poms

~ a pom pom rug 

~ an old fashioned yarn doll

~ yarn wrapped napkin rings

~ snowflakes made by wrapping yarn around twigs (or Popsicle sticks)

~ let the kids practice sewing by "sewing" yarn through pre-punched holes in cardstock to make snowflakes

~ and so much more, that's just the ideas that I came across by searching for "winter yarn crafts".

For tutorials or more ideas try doing a search of your own or check out my "winter yarn crafts" board on Pinterest

Follow Joanna's board Winter yarn crafts on Pinterest.

{DIY} Unicorn Ear Warmers

{making}

I'm sure for a lot of people getting in shape/starting a workout routine/losing weight was a top choice of New Year's Resolution.  I can't say that it exactly was for me because {1}I don't really do New Year's resolutions and {2}I try to stick with a routine of regular exercise year round.  I must admit though, that with the holidays I really fell out of my routine, so while it's not really a resolution I am finding myself having to get back into the routine in this new year.  For me I just don't do well trying to work out indoors (unless it's a dance studio), my best regular exercise routine is being outside, so I try to walk several miles at least 4 or 5 days a week. I have to admit that there were a couple years there (right after I stopped teaching dance - go figure) that I really got pretty out of shape and as I'm getting older I'm finding it harder to get back in shape, so while I'm finding myself not making it quite as far as I used to (and I used to jog part of the way, yeah that ain't happening right now lol), it is important to me to stay motivated and work on getting back to where I'd like to be.  A great source of motivation of course is new workout clothes ;D and I also realized that I needed better cold weather gear (trust me this is way more complicated to achieve for me than you might think it would be, it's important to make sure you're not straining cold muscles, but at the same time I get hot really easily so I need gear that will both keep me warm at the start, but not be too hot by the end).  Luckily for me Walmart happened to have a bunch of long sleeve moisture wicking type "active-wear" on clearance the other day when I was in there.  I also grabbed some ear warmers and gloves.  I was all set I thought, until I saw a knitting pattern on pinterest for different animal earwarmers...... and one of them was a unicorn! Now knitting is not my strong suit..... I can do a basic knit stitch and make like a scarf.... sometimes..... but that's about the extent of my knitting skills, but I thought... "maybe I could make something similar out of fleece".  Then I remembered the {pink} ear warmers I had just bought and I thought "maybe I can add little ears and a small horn to the pre-made earwarmers"......

And so I did.

So...... if you're finding yourself in the need for some cold weather gear and want to be as awesomely cool as me (hahaha) here's how you can make one for yourself.

{DIY} <Unicorn Earwarmers

What you'll need:

~ Fleece or knit ear warmers (the one I got had a knit layer on the outside and fleece on the inside)
        -or- Fleece and a pattern to make your own
~ two small pieces of felt in a color to match the ear warmers
~ a small piece of fleece for the horn (white or gold/yellow or silver/gray - or whatever color you want)
~ white embroidery floss (or to match the horn color - or a contrasting color to match the ear warmer)
~ a small amount of fiber fill
~ sewing needle and thread (to match horn and ear colors)
~ patterns for ears and horn (to get the same size as mine make sure this file prints at 8.5x11 in.)

Instructions:

{1} if you're making your own head band follow your pattern to make it, if not go ahead and skip to step two
{2} put on your ear warmers, and making sure that it is positioned properly/comfortably, mark the location where you want the horn and ears to be, position the horn about in the middle of the band and the ears more towards the back. (I didn't actually do this step, but I did also end up taking my ears off after the first try and doing them again, so it's probably best to actually take a minute to do this)
{3} cut horn pattern piece out of fleece. Fold the piece so that the straight edges match up and the right side of the fleece is on the inside. Sew along the straight edge leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trim seam allowance (especially at the tip so that it will still be a tip when you turn it) Turn right side out (it should make a cone/horn shape now).

I just sewed this by hand because my sewing machine wasn't out and it would have been more effort to get it out and set up than to just sew it by hand, but you could certainly use a machine

{4} thread your needle with a piece of embroidery floss long enough to spiral around the horn several times, knot the end of the floss and bring it through the top of the horn from the inside and leave a good long amount hanging from the top of the horn (we'll do something with it in a minute). Stuff the horn with fiberfill (you want it well filled, but not stuffed too tight). 

{5} sew the horn onto the ear warmer at the location you marked earlier, folding the bottom edge of the fleece under as/before you sew. Wrap the embroidery floss around the horn spiraling down from the top, and pulling it just tight enough to leave a little ridge in the horn.  When you get to the bottom take a couple stitches in place along the bottom edge and tie it off
 

{6} Cut two ear pieces out of felt.  fold the bottom edges in to the middle and then fold the sides to the middle again.  Take a few stitches across the bottom near the front edge to secure.  Then cut a small slit up the back of the ear at the bottom making two small flaps (you'll use these to sew the ears to the ear warmer)

 {7} sew the ears onto the ear warmer at the locations you marked earlier, angling the ears slightly away from the horn.

{8} try the ear warmer on one last time to check and make sure everything is positioned and attached properly, and you are all done!
{9} proudly wear your awesome new ear warmer for your next outdoor activity!

not the greatest picture of me, but hey I was getting ready to head out for a walk............ lol

Custom Christmas Ornaments {DIY - it's never too early to start on next year....}

{making}

Yes, yes I know, "Christmas is over", "It's time to move one", "blah, blah, bahumbug".  We may well have passed December 25th this year, but technically Christmas is not over until January 6th (twelfth night, the 12 days of Christmas....... look it up ;) ... at least I think it's the 6th...it's either the 5th or the 6th anyway lol). I really had wanted to do several post over the holiday season about decorations and crafts, but of course that didn't end up happening.  As excited as I am about the new year and new projects though, I just can't leave Christmas completely alone just yet. (Plus now is a great time to get some stuff done for next year, and just put it away with everything else so it's ready to go, or at the very least, actually get it done because once the season hits next year there probably won't be any more time than there was this year haha).

I love for everything in my home to have a story, or to be something that's meaningful to us or tells something about our story.  Have you ever been on a house tour?  My town has a Christmas house tour and a spring house tour (the Candlelight Tour and Garden Week tour), and when you go on these tours they always talk about the decorations and "stuff" in the people's houses and how they got it, the stories behind them.  I find myself, when decorating, or choosing items for my home - especially if they are a find from a thrift store or vacation - writing out a script in my head for what would be said about them on a tour.  For example, this past summer I happened across this painting at Goodwill. It wasn't a print, but an actual painting (acrylics I think) on canvas, and I'm pretty sure it was probably someone's class project but I just really liked it and like the fact that it wasn't a print, and it was $2.99, so it came home with me. As I was on my way home with it, it's bullet point on "the tour" popped into my head: "and here we have an original painting by an unknown artist, that the homeowner found at Goodwill for $2.99 and fell in love with".  So yeah, that's the kind of special I am.

I'm the same way with Christmas tree ornaments (for our main/living room tree anyway).  Especially since getting married.  Actually the majority of the ornaments on the tree right now are super girly and/or barbie and/or ballet related since I had a bunch of ornaments and my husband none, but I really am trying to expand "our" collection of ornaments so that I can get a good number of the girly ornaments onto their own smaller tree somewhere.   I try to pick up ornaments from places we travel to, or visit, especially brass ornaments (I have brass ornaments for Skyline drive, and Virginia Beach, and a couple historic sites for example), and every year we give each other an ornament for Christmas, I usually make mine for JD and he sometimes makes mine sometimes buys them.  And I've also been trying to make an ornament for each year.  And that's really what this post is about, making cool custom ornaments either for yourself, or as a really special gift for someone.

So here's some ideas to get you going:

 Ornaments for a favorite hobby or activity:

This was the ornament I made for my husband this year.... he has gotten REALLY into RC Cars and he even has a you tube channel and his kind of "signature colors" are sparkly green and his "catchphrase" is "keep RCing my friends".  I had seen an idea for making a "manly" Christmas wreath with a tire, so I decided that would be perfect turned into an ornament, using the tire off of a toy rc car, for him.

This is our "2013" ornament.  That was the year we first went rafting down the river and found out how much we love it so I made a miniature raft/boat to look like our inflatable boats, and of course had to add a little paddle and life jacket.  The metal tag with the year I stamped myself.  After buying metal stamps for my stamped silverware project, I'm constantly finding stuff to use them for.

My husband, as well as being a certified chef, is also a mechanic for handicap/mobility equipment (he even had his own business for a while) , and has done some auto mechanic work as well, so one year I made him a tool chest ornament, complete with opening and closing drawers and miniature tools  

He also makes Dream Catchers (he is largely American Indian) and this was the ornament he made for me {I think} the first year we were married.

Another year he REALLY wanted some knee high moccasins, but they were out of the price range for the Christmas budget that year (he has since gotten them lol), so instead I made him miniature knee high moccasins as his ornament that year.

Ornaments to remember travels and favorite vacation spots:

this is ornament contains sand from our trip to Long Beach, CA this past summer.  My husband is from Long Beach, but this was the first time he had been home in almost 20 years.  Somehow despite getting sand to bring home being one of the things he had planned to do he never actually accomplished that, fortunately some sand found its way home with us anyway in my bathing suit, but there wasn't a whole lot of it, so that's why there is so little in the ornament.  If you actually get sand specifically for an ornament like this instead of just what ends up in your bathing suit you could fill it up a little more lol.

{I'm also working on a tiny scale dollhouse of one of the camping cabins at one of our favorite places we've been, Crabtree Falls.  I'm not currently completely finished with it, but when it's done I'll update this with pictures.  It's actually our 2012 ornament since that's the year we first went, so I guess I really should get on getting that done. hehe.}

Make miniature versions of a child's favorite dress up clothes or other special outfits:

One year a few years ago I made a bunch of ornaments for a friend's daughter, that were miniature versions of her dress up outfits and costumes (playing dress up was just about her favorite thing to do and definitely our favorite thing to do together).  I actually ended up also getting a small pink tree for the ornaments and making some other ornaments/signs for the tree that said "Let's Play Dress Up" and things like "princess", "fairy princess" "mermaid", etc. to go with the different costumes represented.  Also some of the costumes themselves I had actually made, others were ones she had bought somewhere.  In these pictures the ornament is the one on the left and the real on is the one on the right.  I wish I could post a pic of the tree all set up too, but I don't seem to have one, or at least I'm not sure what storage device it is on.  I also made another mermaid costume and matching ornament for another friend's daughter, and I know I had pictures of that as well, but it is MIA also..........

{mermaid princess}This was one of the costumes that I made

{blue princess dress}

{butterfly fairy princess} This is one I made too it was actually her Halloween costume one year 

{princess dress}

{pumpkin fairy princess} this was another one of the the ones I made

{pirate princess}this one I do not seem to have a picture of the original costume, but it looked almost exactly like this, I think this may have been the one that turned our the most identical to the costume.

Of course there are many many other options you could do to make your own customized ornaments, there are sooooooo many ideas out there on pinterest and other sites, but hopefully these examples will at least give you some ideas to get you started, maybe as a jumping off point or maybe one of these is something that would be great for you as well.  There is one other ornament that's not quite ready for it's pictures yet and that is this year's annual ornament..... it's going to be a tiny bottle brush tree tied to the top of a honda civic (that's what I drive) hot wheels car (I'm sure you've seen lots of exmaples of similar ornaments all over the internet, I know I've seen a bunch on pinterest and I think a couple other sources, maybe a magazine or two as well) in honor or this being the first year we went and picked and cut a tree ourselves.

And like I said earlier, even though it may seem to late for this year, it's never to early to start working on stuff for next year!!!

Theme Food Week: Elf Food {December}

{cooking}

Theme Food Week: Elf Food {aka Mini foods}

So, as I was planning out theme food week for December I knew I knew I wanted to do a week of miniature foods, but I was trying to figure out if there was any way to tie theme food week into Christmas. (you know like Frankenstein's Kitchen week, and Thanksgiving deconstrusted), at first I was thinking I would just say it was "toy" food since it was mini, but I'm really glad I thought of the "elf food" theme instead before the week began lol.  Now if you know me you know I am super into anything in miniature (well, although I also like oversized stuff too, so maybe it's just that I like stuff that is just not the size it is supposed to be or normally is.... but especially mini stuff). I love dollhouses, and miniatures, I love ornaments that are little versions of something else (several of the annual ornaments I've made for the past few years are miniatures - such as the mini inflatable boat I made for 2013's ornament), I love making miniature versions of bigger foods for parties, I even had a miniature themed birthday party for my birthday a couple years ago. So, I've been actually holding onto  the ideas for this theme food week since I first had the idea to start theme food weeks, just waiting to be able to use it.  We also did Theme food week at our house instead of my parent's house this time now that we finally got our new kitchen table and can have a decent place to sit and eat (and I'm hoping to be able to do it here most of the time, it's just so much easier for me to be able to start and prep things earlier in the day and I REALLY prefer my stove/oven to my moms lol).  There weren't as many dishes this month that I used a recipe from so for the meals that I don't have recipe links for I'll try to just give a quick description of how I made the dishes, but if you want more detailed instructions, please feel free to ask!

{Menu}
Since we had Theme Food Week at our house I was able to put the menu up on my chalkboard door, but we did end up making a few changes to the days from what's listed in the picture at the beginning of this post.  Namely, we ended up getting dinner out while running errands on Thursday so we had Thursday's meal as lunch on Saturday before heading to the airport to pick up my sister.

Tuesday: Mini Breakfast for Dinner:

 I love breakfast for dinner and have seen so many ideas for mini breakfast foods so this absolutely had to be one of the days! I even used some little pitchers and mini glasses (they had originally been for the miniature birthday party, but the pitchers especially have really come in handy) to serve orange juice.... did I mention I really love little things?.....  I served mini pancakes (made just like regular pancakes just using much less batter for each pancake so it stays tiny) mini breakfast sandwiches (mini toaster waffles with scrambled eggs and small pieces of bacon) Mini cinnamon rolls (the recipe is here .... but I use the term cinnamon rolls loosely for this particular batch, because I realized at the last second the I was out of white sugar and cinnamon so I used brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice and O.M.G. were they good! I plan on always making "cinnamon" rolls that way from now on - and did for Christmas morning.... and I just sprinkled the brown sugar and then pumpkin pie spice on top of the melted butter after brushing it on), and mini fruit salad (just cut up fruit smaller than normal I think I used strawberries, blueberries, and canned mandarin oranges)

Wednesday: Mini Chicken Parms, Mini Garlic Monkey Bread, Mini Pasta and Broccoli

This is the recipe for the mini Chicken Parms, my mom and I liked them, my husband was not as much of a fan (surprise, surprise I think he just decides ahead of time he's not going to like anything that uses ground chicken), I will say that I forgot to serve them at dinner with sauce, other than what was on the pasta, but when I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day I dipped them in leftover pasta sauce and they were sooooo good.  Here is where I got the recipe for the mini garlic monkey bread, they were yummy and easy.  The mini pasta is mini bowties made by Barilla (they make several different mini pastas) just with canned sauce, and the broccoli was just cut into little pieces and steamed.

Friday: Cornish Game Hens, Baby Corn, and Mini Roasted Potatoes

For the Cornish Game Hens I used the seasoning mix from this turkey recipe.  I use this seasoning for almost all poultry I do, I use it for my Thanksgiving turkey, I use it on roasted chickens, and of course used it here too, it is so good!  For the Cornish game hens I stuffed them with a piece of onion, and some celery along with a bit of the seasoning (when I do larger poutlry, i.e. chickens or turkeys, I use onion, orange, apple and celery in the cavity along with the seasoning).  Also, as I do with larger birds, I put some water in the bottom of the roasting pan, tented it with foil for the first quarter or so of the cooking time, and then basted every half an hour after that (these little guys ended up taking much longer than they should have to cook because they didn't get completely thawed out before getting cooked...... I don't recommend that lol, I've had that happen with turkeys a couple times too, just makes them a pain to cook properly), the potatoes were baby red potatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and a touch of mustard powder and roasted until done through, and the baby corn was fresh (not canned) baby corn and tossed with melted butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder then roasted, they were delicious like that!

Saturday: Sliders, Mini Potato Skins, and Green Beans

I made the sliders myself, just use your favorite recipe/ingredients for regular burgers, but make them small, these were beef, but of course you could do sliders with anything you'd make bigger burgers from (chicken, turkey, tuna, salmon, etc). I topped them with colby jack cheese and at the last minute realized we were out of ketchup so I quickly whipped up a roasted red pepper-garlic aioli.... it's something that I can always whip up in a pinch because I try to keep roasted red peppers on hand.... to roast the red peppers I cut them into slices and place then skin side up on a baking sheet and put them under the boiler until the skin is bubbly and blackened, then put them in a plastic container/bag and put them in the fridge, after they have cooled you can use them all right away or keep them in the fridge for a while (I think they usually last me a little less than a week maybe?) peel the skin off before using them.  For the aioli I chopped them up into tiny little pieces and mixed them and garlic powder into mayonnaise to taste.  I also sliced some grape tomatoes for mini tomatoes for the sliders but forgot to get them in the picture.  The Green beans were broken into little pieces (to fit the theme) and sauteed, and the mini potato skins are baby white potatoes.  Slice in half lengthwise and scoop out a little of the insides (you can just use a spoon, just be careful with ones this small not to go all the way through and scoop out too much) brush them all over (both sides) with olive oil and lightly season with salt. bake for a few minutes until the potatoes are almost done then top with cheese of choice (this was mild cheddar) and bacon bits and bake until potatoes are completely done and the cheese is all melted.

I realized after the fact that I should have made mini cakes and pies and such for desserts but I didn't.  I do mini desserts a lot though so that's okay, especially since one of the main points behind Theme Food Week is supposed to be to try new recipes and get out of food ruts. 

I am really looking forward to continuing theme food week throughout the coming year, I already have a couple months planned out (I'm particularly looking forward to April, it will be April Fool's Food Week.............) So keep your eyes out for everything that is to come! And I hope maybe you'll try a few theme food weeks of your own in this new year... it really is a fun way to get creative with dinners at least once a month.