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.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

{living}&{doing}

Wow, so.....  I'm not the only person that Christmas seriously crept up on and then whizzed past this year right?! In fact, more to that point, I still have Christmas presents for a couple people to finish up making and Christmas cards to send out..... yep I got that far behind schedule this year...... I also had planned some fun posts for the blog here for Christmas related stuff, but, yeah...... clearly that didn't happen. (Although, I may still do my post on handmade ornaments, as I'm un-decorating, since after Christmas seems to be when I typically get the most ornaments made haha) For that matter I didn't even ever manage to get ALL my decorations up this year (granted I do a LOT of decorating for Christmas so even without getting it all up/done we still had plenty up.)  For me, if i don't get things finished by at least a couple days before Christmas the chances of them getting done before early January are pretty slim, Christmas Eve we have church and then dinner at our house with my family, then of course Christmas day, then the 27th is my sister's birthday, then this year we had an ugly sweater party on the 28th, then the 29th is my mom's birthday, then of course we come up on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, then yesterday we took my sister to the airport so she could head back home, and we have a wedding to go to tomorrow, so it has been a full, but great couple weeks.  But you see why stuff definitely has to get done ahead of time or not at all......

Even though I didn't get a chance to post all of the posts I had been hoping to I still want to share some pictures from some of our Christmas traditions and events before I dive headlong into what's going to be going on in the new year.

Cutting our own Tree.....

posing in the patch before finding a tree

Searching for just the right one (we were only looking for a little one for the front porch)

aaaaaaaaaaaa..... the ONE

My hubbster cutting our little tree

This was everyone's favorite photo, lol, us with our "quarry"

our little tree in place by our front door

and decorated. I really wasn't sure at first what I wanted to do with this tree decoration wise, but I decided to go simple and I think that looked best.

This was a new tradition for us this year.  I had always wanted to go cut my own Christmas tree and last year I found out that the farm that we go to for berry picking, and pumpkins, and to shop in their market has a cut your own patch.  We didn't end up making it out there last year to get one, but I made sure that we did this year, and we plan on keeping this tradition going year after year.

Christmas Traditions

tacky Christmas lights "festival" at a local bluegrass park/camp

driving through the light festival

driving through the light festival

driving through the light festival

driving through the light festival

driving through the light festival

My husband and I at a slightly more high tech light festival..... our local mall does a holiday light show in the middle of the outdoor section of the mall

nursery rhymes window display at one of our local stores in downtown.

the store's other window

and we of course have to have our pictures taken with the Mater and Guido that are outside of one of our local mechanics shop (and not just for Christmas, we've gotten Easter pictures, Halloween pictures, 4th of July pictures, etc.......)

one of our favorite traditions is Christmas lights. We've always driven around finding houses and neighboorhoods with lots of lights, but last year we also found out about a drive through "festival of lights" at a nearby bluegrass park/camp.  We went last year, and as you may have guessed from the pictures (that's only a small sampling of pictures from it) it is FABULOUSLY redneck and SO much fun! It is now a must go for us each year.  We also like to go see the light show our local mall does in the center of it's outdoor area.  They have the lights programmed to "dance" to Christmas music (although I have to say this year we were really disappointed, it was only maybe a third of the length it normally is and they really didn't do as much and the lights weren't really that well synced to the music......).  Another thing that I wait for all year is the window displays of one of our local shops in downtown Fredericksburg..... they always do something really neat, this year it was nursery rhymes.

Christmas Eve Dinner

this year dinner was served in our breakfast nook on my new table

the tablescape for Christmas Eve Dinner

close up of one placesetting

closeup of one placesetting

and with the bowl removed so that you can see my new Christmas plates

close up of the centerpiece.... I actually threw this one together at the last minute because I didn't get the one I had planned done.  I ended up really liking this one though

Christmas Eve Dinner is always at our house after church on Christmas Eve. We always have fish soup/stew, and then each year I make a different side to go with it and dessert.  This year it was a goat cheese and proscuitto with Italian herbs quiche, and a lemon cream cheese pie for dessert. {P.S. here's a link to the recipe I use for the fish soup.... it is sooo good!}

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

decorate your own sweater ornament activity table

sign for decorate your own ugly sweater ornament

decorate your own ugly sweater cookie station

snacks (including ugly sweat min pizzas)

a few sweets

Hubster decorating his cookie

my mom making sweater ornaments

 I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of this party, and really didn't do a whole lot of decorating specifically for it, since the house is already decorated for Christmas, I also don't have pictures of my husband and I in our ugly sweaters, we did take them, but they are on my mom's phone and I haven't gotten them from her yet, but you can see a little bit of his in the picture or him making his cookie.... it was definitely tacky!

There was of course a bunch of other stuff from the past few weeks, but the idea here is just to give you a few of the highlights, and activities...
{We did of course have a Theme Food Week for December the week before Christmas that I haven't gotten posted yet, but I think it deserves it's own post so I'll try to get that up this weekend too}

~

And so now, as I sit here on this dreary/rainy first Saturday of the new year, it's time to start planning for 2015.  We have a few trips that we are hoping to be able to go on this year, as well as our typical little day trips and activities.  For the blog I'm hoping not only to chronicle not only that stuff, but I'll be continuing on with Theme Food Week, and I'm planning on testing out some more Homemade Homemaking projects this winter.  And of course more crafts and collecting and decorating (I still have several re-decorating/remodeling projects I'm hoping to get done around the house this winter/spring), parties, and fun stuff.

And so I bid farewell to 2014.  In some ways it was a not so great year, but it also brought some amazing times and experiences for us, and good or bad I truly believe that all things in life are vital to making us a better us, and I refuse to be anything but thankful for the experiences, no mater how much they may hurt, or how difficult they may seem to deal with/get through.

And a welcome 2015 with excitement and hope. (and perhaps a slight amazement that it can really be 2015 already..... I remember as a kid figuring out how old I would be when the year 2000 came and it seemed so old and so far away, and now that I'm about to turn 30 this year, I look back at those 14 years olds and they seem SO young and 14 years old and the turn of the century seems so long ago, even while it sometimes feels like that was just yesterday)

Praying for blessings and cheer, and strength for you and yours in the new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Theme Food Week :Thanksgiving Deconstructed {November}

{cooking}

So........ I know I am super late posting this, but it was just yesterday as I was working on the menu and grocery list for Theme Food Week for December (which is this week) that I realized I had never posted  November's Theme Food Week! A bit late, but better late than never right?...........

November's Theme Food Week theme was "Thanksgiving Deconstructed" - each night focused on one part of a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal: Turkey, gravy and stuffing; Cranberry Sauce; Green Bean Casserole; and Mashed Potatoes.  My sister who was home for a visit chipped in and made some sweet potato fries, so that covered sweet potatoes/sweet potato casserole too. so, without further ado, here is the menu and recipes from Thanksgiving Deconstructed Week:

{Menu}

Monday:

Turkey, Gravy,and Stuffing Pizza: Okay, this may sound weird but it was SOOOOOOOOO good! I saw a similar idea on line somewhere (I don't remember where) that inspired this meal, but this particular recipe is my own.  I started with a pre-made pizza crust (usualy when I make pizza I just get refrigerated pizza dough, but this crust seemed a little more substantial and I thought it might hold up to these toppings better) Mine was Wegman's brand and it worked out really well because it had almost a dinner roll flavor.  The pizza's "sauce" is turkey gravy (just from a can or jar) and I topped that with chunks of turkey breast, turkey stuffing and some mild cheddar cheese.  The original idea for this I think was supposed to be an idea to use up leftovers, but for mine I just cooked some boneless skinless turkey breasts cut in chunks in a pan on the stovetop, and used boxed stuffing mix (which I had no idea was so quick and easy to make lol).  Like I said it was really really good, much better than I thought it would be even.

Tuesday:

Cranberry Sauce Topped Chicken Thighs, Cranberry Rice Pilaf, and Steamed Broccoli: Today's Thanksgiving dish was, can you guess?........ Yep cranberry sauce! And both of these recipes were really good this is the recipe for the chicken (although I have to say I followed the recipe for the sauce, but just baked the thighs like I would any other time), and here is the cranberry pilaf. I was actually surprised I liked this as much as I did, because there was orange juice in it and normally I can't stand rice with orange juice in it, but I guess the cranberry or something balanced it out in this, because I really liked this dish.  The broccoli was just steamed and tossed with butter, salt, and garlic powder.

Wednesday:

Green Bean Casserole Soup and Dinner Rolls: Here is the recipe for the soup.  The only change I made was not blending the mushrooms in, I just sauteed them and added them to everyone else's soup as it was served, since I can't eat mushrooms.  My mom and I liked the soup, my husband, not so much, but I wasn't souper {<-- see what I did there? hehe] surprised by that. This was also the night my sister made sweet potato fries, and we ate them as an appetizer, I have no idea what recipe she used, but Pinterest I'm sure is loaded with them.  I can tell you we didn't season them the way her recipe said, it used coconut oil, which we did, but we put a little salt and pumpkin pie spice on ours instead of whatever seasoning the recipe used.


Thursday: Off night (we actually ordered Chinese take-away this night lol)

Friday:

Mashed Potato Lasagna: No real recipe for this one either.  I had seen somewhere another "leftovers" idea to use mashed potatoes in place of ricotta in lasagna.  Of course my mashed potatoes weren't leftovers (well actually, they kind of were because I had made them the night before, before we decided to get Chinese) and basically I just replaced my usual ricotta mixture with the mashed potatoes, that were seasoned with garlic and Italian herbs. I have to say it was pretty good, and very filling.


Of course as I said this week is Theme Food Week for December, so hopefully I will be able to get it posted this weekend or the beginning of next week (with Christmas SO close though I make no promises ;)