Dollar Store Glass Hurricanes

I wanted to change up a couple of my Christmas decor items this year. I saw an idea for DIYing glass hurricanes here. For only $2 for each hurricane, it is an update right up my alley! I knew they would be perfect for the mantel decor since we do not have a lot of space to decorate our mantel. Simple and elegant!

I glued glass candlesticks to the bottom of tall glass vases (all from dollar store). There are a few sizes of vases so you can pick whatever works. I used super glue and taped them down while they set.

Then I added some small ball ornaments in red and silver (LOVE decorating with these!) along with some small pinecones. I had all of that on hand. I first tried larger ball ornaments but only a few fit and it looked funny.

You could also use peppermints or candles or really anything. I can definitely see myself repurposing these for another season! They tie in really nicely with some of my other Christmas decor that I will do a post on soon!

Linking up to these parties:

(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday Marvelous, Just Something I Whipped Up, The DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, Ladybug Blessings (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Creations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics Anonymous, JAG Show and Share Day, Frugalicious Friday,  FrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge,Weekend Wander, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop, It's So Very Cheri,

Chicken Santa Fe

Ok so who doesn't love crock pot (or slow cooker depending on your choice of words) meals??!! HELLO? Throw some stuff into the crock pot, let it sit all day, and come home to a wonderful smell and a yummy cooked meal... how can you not like that!

This fall and winter, we have been expanding our collection of crock pot recipes here and there to use the crock pot more often. It does waaaaay more than chili people although I do love turkey chili, don't get me wrong! I found this recipe at RecipeGirl and tweaked it some to make it more to our liking and a little healthier. It was fabulous!

Here is what I did:

Chicken Santa Fe

One 15 oz can white beans
One 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 - 1 1/2 cup bottled chunky salsa
1 pkg of chicken breasts (1.65 lb)
5 oz of low fat cream cheese, cut into chunks
1 cup shredded cheddar

1. In a slow cooker, mix beans, and 1/2 cup salsa. Top with chicken and pour remaining salsa over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (or high for 3 hours) until chicken is tender and cooked throughout.

2. Shred chicken with a fork or any type of utensil you want. Add cream cheese. Stir and let cream cheese melt into the mixture to create a creamy sauce.
3. For serving: I served the chicken & sauce over brown rice with cheddar cheese, green onions, cilantro, and a little dolop of sour cream on top. Or you can serve these as tacos with cheese and a couple of taco fixings such as lettuce and tomato.
Serves: 6

It almost looks like white bean chicken chili in color which isn't extremely colorful which is why I like to add the greens on top. You could throw in some jalapenos if you wanted to make it spicier.

Here is my trusty crock pot on the counter. When I get home from work I just switch it over from Low to Keep Warm until we are ready to eat. It was my grandmother's crock pot before she downsized and it is a HUGE crock pot. I don't know the exact specifications but it's quite large. It also has a zip up case which is nice for traveling to keep dishes warm.

So go and cook with your crock pot... it's so easy it barely feels like cooking! Hope you enjoy!

Linking up to these parties:

(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday Marvelous, Just Something I Whipped Up, The DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, Ladybug Blessings (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Creations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics Anonymous, JAG Show and Share Day, Frugalicious Friday,  FrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge,Weekend Wander, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop, It's So Very Cheri,

Learn to Read Recipe Book

One of the homemade Christmas gifts I did for Abby (Eric's 3 year old niece) was a Kid's "Recipe" Book. She is turning 4 in May and knows letters and will be learning to read soon. I wanted to make something to go along with the Play Kitchen we did so I decided on a recipe book. This was a very cheap project but it just took some time.

What I used:

-a binder or something to put the pages in- I used a flexible plastic one with a slide in cover on the front)

-paper to use for the pages and words- I used colorful cardstock for the letters and a couple of pages

-glue stick

-page protectors

-my Silhouette machine!! to cut out all the letters

I called it a recipe book but it is more like foods/meals and the ingredients that go into them. Now, let's be honest, I don't expect her to be learning words like appetizers, julienned, and prosciutto (right away anyway) so I kept it really simple. I used all foods that she would be familiar with.

I found images online of some basic foods/meals and the corresponding basic ingredients that go into those foods just by searching google images. I printed and cut those images out and arranged them on pages. Then I used my Silhouette machine to cut out all the words. I wanted a font that would be easy for her to read and where the letter "a" looks handwritten and not how it looks here in this font so Comic Sans MS was the best candidate. I attached everything with a glue stick and put the pages in page protectors.

Here are all of the pages from the Recipe Book.

I think my cereal recipe is pretty cutting edge...

Mmmmm mac & cheese!

Of course you can customize it however you want that makes it such a personal gift that kids are sure to love. I definitely recommend the page protectors because if I have learned one thing from being around Abby... it's that kids play hard, really hard, so you wouldn't want torn pages :)

How cute is she? She loved her book and I hope it helps her learn to read and perhaps spark an interest in cooking!

Linking up to these parties:

(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday Marvelous, Just Something I Whipped Up, The DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, Ladybug Blessings (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Creations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, Creative Juice Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics Anonymous, JAG Show and Share Day, Frugalicious Friday,  FrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge,Weekend Wander, It's So Very Cheri, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop

Thanksmas and my first pie

As I mentioned, last weekend we celebrated Thanksmas with the LaForces. The nieces and nephew usually come down and the timing works out for all of the young adults who have to split holidays with spouses family and such sooo this is what we typically have done. This is the 5th time I have spent the Thanksgiving time holiday with Eric's family - the first time being a few months after we started dating.

The way Thanksmas works is we celebrate Christmas on Thursday morning and everyone opens gifts and this way the kiddies get all of their toys on their first morning there. Then we all have a Christmas breakfast.

We usually spend the day playing with them and their new toys. This year my goal was to have some homemade gifts for each of them. I already shared my Snap on rosette shirts and I have more homemade gifts to share soon. One of the presents the older 2 kids received from us were Razor scooters (a suggestion from my friend Ann from work and an excellent suggestion it was)! They were excited about them... especially the 8 yr old. And I'm not gonna lie I tried it out made sure it worked and all and it was pretty fun!

We usually do some sort of black friday related shopping (5 dollar old navy pj pants... yes please!) and then Friday is Thanksgiving. Are you confused yet? We have a big dinner at the grandparents. This year for Thanksgiving dinner, I contributed my famous Cheesy Potatoes that make an appearance every year without fail and this year I also made Pumpkin Cream Pie!

It is the Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cream Pie recipe and I have to say her stuff is wonderful! I have only tried 2 of her recipes so far but I have a ton on a list to try soon.

This was my first pie I have made by myself (without my mom that is... who is an experience pie maker) and it was delicious! I even made it 2 days ahead of time and it kept no problem. Pumpkiny but not too much and lighter than a typicaly pumpkin pie and fluffy and cool. To be honest I didn't make it with the kidlets in mind because I knew there would be other desserts for them but some of them wanted to try it and loved it! I was pretty shocked since these kids are quite picky eaters. Anywho definitely a keeper!

Me and hubby after dinner... lovin my new orange coat! I think it can definitely accompany me to a cold Clemson game in the future :)

Then the young adults went to see the harry potter movie. I have not read the books but Eric, his brother and his wife have so I have gone along to all the movies. I must have really gotten into the movie because apparently there was some guy behind us with an awful fake evilish sounding laugh the whole time but I never heard it hahaha!

The only bad part of the weekend was getting a cold from the kids a couple days later. Booo! I swear I have yet to be around them and not get sick after... they are little petri dishes.

Sharing the pie at these parties:

(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday Marvelous, Just Something I Whipped Up, The DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very Cheri, Creations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics Anonymous, JAG Show and Share Day, Frugalicious Friday,  FrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop