Christmas Crafts...part 1

It's hard to believe that I have been celebrating Christmas in my own home for nine years...sadly I don't have to much to show for it.  Our first few Christmas' were spent with hardly two pennies to rub together and any spare money we could scrape together from the food budget would go to getting a tree and a few gifts to put under the tree for the kids. Thankfully we had(have) very generous parents who more then made sure our kids were spoiled and never knew what it really meant to go without something special each year. 

But Christmas really isn't about all the stuff under the tree but the people around it and the celebration of the birth of Our LORD and Savior, so I never really missed all the "stuff" I didn't have to decorate with around the holidays.  But this year (with the help and inspiration from pinterest) I decided that the kids and I would try to bake and make something each week through Christmas that we could either give as gifts or use to decorate the house and enjoy for years to come.

So here is my first project...

I re-purposed a wreath I had and wasn't using, I got some cheap plastic ornaments at Target, some red holiday glitter ribbon at CVS and poof, a fun and funky wreath to brighten up our door that cost me less then $15.

What you do when the Hockey Season is on Lock-out...

I was inspired by a lady in my Thursday Women's Bible Study to start crocheting again. From past experience I knew that I needed something simple to start with and something that would be easy for me to bring with me. So after doing some online digging...

I found this...this lady has a whole website full of videos and other patterns HERE.

So I have about 20 done so far in different colors. Hopefully I can share a completed afghan soon.
 

What are you doing to stay busy while the NHL is on lock-out???

Quinoa Spinich Mac & Cheese

This is a twist on a recipe I found here...

To make:
Preheat oven to 350*
2 cups of Quinoa cooked. (When cooking the Quinoa I used 4 cups chicken stock, a dash of garlic powder and about 2 tbsps minced onion in my rice cooker.)
In a large bowl combine:
Quinoa
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp salt
1-2 tsp chili paste (to your taste)
1 cup drain frozen spinach
2 cups of milk (or non dairy milk substitute)
1 1/2 cups cheese ( I used a Monterey jack and Sharp chedder blend)
 Once combined well put into a lightly greased 9x13 casserole dish.
Top with 3/4 cup of bread crumbs (I used Panko with 2 tbsp melted butter) and 1/2 cup of cheese. 
Bake until golden brown and cheese is bubbly, about 25-30.
Let it sit for about 5-10 min before serving. It's also tasty at room temp.

ENJOY!!!

Broken Crayon Fun

If your house is anything like mine (with four kids 8 and under) we have tons of broken, destroyed, half-eaten bits of crayon all over the place.  Well I was tired of just throwing them all away and every time I gave the baby new crayon she just broke them anyway, so I thought that I could reuse what we already had and make some sturdier crayons for my littlest ones.

I started by taking all the wrappers off.  Funny thing is my kids seem to be able to do this with ease when I don't want them to, but when we want the wrappers off it's quite a pain...so stick with it...it will be worth it! 

Sort the crayons by color or in whatever color combinations suit your fancy that day and put them in an oven safe container sprayed lightly with cooking spray.  I choose to use a cute heart pan that I could never seem to get any food I baked in it to come out in one piece, so if I could only use it for crayons that was ok. (I wouldn't recommend putting it in something you use to cook food with unless you want to spend time getting all the waxy residue off, I've heard that using wax lined cupcake cups works well, but I haven't tried it.)

I set my oven to 225* and let it do it's thing...to get the crayons totally melted took about 25 minutes and I did stir each color with a tooth pick about half way through to help the melting along.

Carefully remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely before trying to remove it.  As the wax cools it will shrink slightly and should slip out easily.

I let mine "air dry" over night before I let the kids have them, but once they are cool to the touch they should be fine to use.

Hope your family has as much fun with your crayon creations as mine has!!

Blessings

Changing it up

So instead of just using this blog for my jewelry and bows, I thought I would add some of my favorite recipes or crafty projects I'm working on.

Hope that you enjoy...