Birthday Candy "Cupcakes"

Today is my best friend Laura’s birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!

I found a really cute idea for a gift from Better Homes and Garden. Here’s my version.

I found little condiment cups at the dollar store that reminded me of cupcake wrappers.

I had treat bags with blue dots leftover from something, I can’t remember what. LOL I cut the bottom off of the bag and cut along the side of the bag to make a long rectangle.

I filled the center of the bag with candy (one with M & M’s and one with Andes Mint Candies), gathered up the edges, made sure it was just the right amount to fit inside the cup and secured it with a rubber band.

I cut off the excess bag so it would fit in the cup. I used some glue dots to hold the bag in the cups and to hold the “cherry” pom pom on top.

Now I have a quick and easy gift to send!

{Unfinished} Chinese New Year Centerpiece

Do you celebrate Chinese New Year? We do.

Sorta.

Our “celebration” is usually just a decorated table and homemade Chinese food.

This year, thanks to Pinterest, I was inspired by this post to make a centerpiece for the table.

Here’s how I made it.

I roughly cut a rectangle out of the gold lame to wrap around the plastic container. I wrap the plastic container with the gold lame and used hot glue to secure it. (This is where I REPEATEDLY burned my fingers with the hot glue. LoL)

I squeezed some hot glue into the bottom of the container and add a layer of poly pellets. I did 2 layers. (The pellets will give the centerpiece a little weight to keep from tipping over.) Then I cut a rectangle out of felt and glued it over the pellets to keep them from coming out if the centerpiece gets knocked over.

I painted my skewers red since I was out of gold. But I did swipe some gold fabric paint over the red for a little sparkle.

While the skewers were drying, I wrapped the outer ring of the embroidery hoop with gold ribbon and used a drop of hot glue to secure the ends. I covered the inner ring of the embroidery hoop with the red felt and added the outer ring onto the inner ring.

To make the firecrackers I laid a piece of gold foil on top of red foil and wrapped it around the mini spools and used a drop of glue to secure the foil. I glued one end of a skewer into the spool , added a small piece of silver pipe cleaner to the other end for the fuse and tied off the ends with fishing line.

I wrapped a piece of red foil around a styrofoam block that fits inside my container. I added a drop of hot glue to the bottom of the styrofoam to secure the foam inside the container.

I pinned the hoop to the styrofoam and added the “firecrackers” all around it. Then I took a string of red beads to fill the inside of the container. (And to cover the glue from the firecracker holes.)

This is kinda where my inspiration stopped. I wanted more gold in it but couldn’t find the supplies I had in mind. In fact, in MY small town, it’s really hard to find the things you need. So here is the unfinished centerpiece that I will use at dinner tonight. On the red felt inside the hoop I plan to print a picture of that year’s animal and stick it on the red felt.

Here’s what the center piece looks like so far:

Happy Chinese New Year anyway!

Under the Weather...AGAIN!

Can you believe it? I am sick again! I posted a month ago about being sick and now here I am back in bed with "The Crud". {P.S. I am beginning to think that whole wash-your-hands-constantly-to-keep-from-getting-sick thing is an urban legend!}

Hopefully I will feel better next week so I can get some crafting and posting done. Until then I am staying in my jammies with my tissue box and cough drops!

{source}

Snowman Pin Art

Yesterday I posted a photo of my “winterized” entertainment center. My newest snowman decoration is a pin art picture.

Here is what I used to make it:

{Paint, wooden frame, sparkly glitter, pearl white cardstock, clear snow flakes and a snowman pin}

I painted a white base coat on the wooden frame. Once that dried I painted two coats of light blue. While that was drying I cut a square out of pearl white cardstock and painted a layer of decoupage glue over it. Then I over-sprinkled sprinkled silver sparkle glitter over the square.

After my frame and cardstock dried, I place the cardstock in the frame. I pulled the pin backing off the snowman and glued him to the center of the square. I cut “Let It Snow” out of the same pearl white cardstock using my Cricut. I glued the letters at the bottom of the frame and some clear snowflakes on the upper right corner.

{That's my Middy girl sneaking into the picture! LoL}

P.S. I just realized the snowman looks like he is on aluminum foil! LoL

Linking here:

From Christmas to Winter Wonderland

Now that the Christmas holidays are over and life is back to normal routines, it’s time to take down the decorations.

January is usually a humdrum month - no holidays, cold weather and since taking down the festive lights, drab and dreary at night.

To keep it feeling festive but not like you are dragging Christmas on and on, I like to keep out my snowmen.

Check out my entertainment center’s transformation from festive Christmas to Winter Wonderland.

Christmas Themed

{Ignore my reflection on my messy bed. LoL}

Winter Themed

{Again, ignore my reflection and the messy bed. LoL}

I switched out the green tinsel garland for blue and silver garland but kept the multi-colored lights. I took down my bell trees and added my sock snowmen. I hung a snowflake garland and my snowman banner from the dollar store. My newest decoration is the snowman pin art next to the t.v. {Tomorrow’s post!}

Do you decorate after Christmas to brighten up the cold, winter nights?

My Life In Pictures - I'm Cold!

I’M COLD! Winter has been here for only 2 weeks and I'm already thinking of this:

I just hope I don’t see this scenario again:

Hope you are warm where you are!

Melissa's Cookbook - Peach Pie

My mother cleaned out her recipe binder a few weeks ago. She came across a magazine clipping for a peach pie recipe. She made a non-gluten-free pie that looked so good that I asked her to make one with a gluten-free crust from the health food store. I’m not a pie person, don’t really care for it, but this one looked SO good. And it was!

Note: We also tried this same recipe with apples instead of peaches. Mmmm....

1 Pre-made pie crust (or make your own if you do that kinda thing)

Filling:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

3 lbs ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (about 7 cups)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnnamon

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add peaches and sprinkle with lemon juice. Toss until evenly coated with sugar mixture.

Put streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Work with fingers or a fork to form coarse crumbs.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Spoon peach filling into your prepared pie crust, then sprinkle with the streusel. (Place pie on a lined baking sheet to catch any bubbling drips.)

Bake 45 to 50 minutes until pastry is golden brown and peaches are tender when pierced. Remove to wire rack and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Linking here: