Reindeer Root Beer & Christmas Popcorn

Just in case anyone is looking for a last minute fun Christmas activity with your kids....

 Reindeer Root Beer & Christmas Popcorn!

Christmas Popcorn = popcorn with red & green M&Ms :)  I saw a friend on facebook with similar root beer reindeers, so I made my own version based on the materials I already had laying around the house.  I bought plastic bottles since I thought they would be safer with the kids, a word of warning - the labels were a PAIN to remove.  My advice is to go with the no-label glass bottles and just pour the kid's root beer into another cup when it's time to actually drink it - that's what we ended up doing anyway.

We ate & drank our special treats while watching a Christmas movie and then had our annual weekend before Christmas sleepover under the tree.  I love making memories!!

 Linking to:  simply {kierste}, The Frugal Girls,

Candy Bar Christmas Gift

The kids & I put together some Christmas goodie bags for J's teachers.  Nothing fancy because I wanted J to be able to do most of the work, so it was really from him and not me.  I have seen different versions of these candy bar gifts, but we made up our own based on the candy we could find.  We appreciate J's teachers and his school so much and I hope these treats were a hit!

Each bag contained a copy of the note and each of the candies (and Shout wipe - random I know) pictured above.

If you can't read the note, it said...

KUDOS to you...I want to SHOUT it from the rooftops!

You are EXTRA special, a real ORIGINAL, and one of the RIESENS I love school!

I have MOUNDS of fun here and you are a such a life LIFESAVER, helping me become a SMARTIE!

I wish I could give you 100 GRAND for your PAYDAY ~ you are worth a MINT!

Enjoy your Christmas break, TAKE FIVE, relax, and have fun with your family!

The finished product was definitely not fancy & crafty, but it was filled with love from a student to his wonderful teachers!

 Linking to:  simply {kierste}, The Frugal Girls,

Easy Christmas Card Display

I absolutely love the anticipation of going to the mailbox every day this time of year.  In a time when 99% of our correspondence is done via email or facebook, it is so special to me to actually get Christmas cards from friends and family.  I love every card I get, but I especially love photo cards.  I like to display them throughout the Christmas season, but we do get a lot and sometimes it is hard to find a good spot for them.  For the past few years, I have been taping them to my freezer, but this year I wanted to move them to an area where we would see them more often.

I thought the kitchen or the dining room would be the perfect place since we spend a lot of time in those rooms.  We have a lot of wall space, but I didn't really want to use tape, so that took that idea away.  (Although since then, I have thought about using painter's tape, so that might be an option someday!)

In keeping with my "simple is better" theme, I hung twine from the curtain rod over the sliding doors that lead to our screened-in porch.  I used mini clothespins to attach the cards, and voila ~ instant Christmas card display!

(You can also see the Christmas Burlap Table Runner I made a few years ago, and the Red Chair that we use because our other matching black chair broke!)

Here's a closer view so you can see those cute mini clothespins!  (Find them at places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels).

How do you display your Christmas cards?

Linking to:  simply {kierste},

Coffee Bar Decor

I've had an idea for some wall decor for my coffee bar area since we first set it all up a few weeks ago (see it here).  I was able to purchase some burlap coffee sacks from our awesome fundraising partner, Just Love Coffee, and finally made a trip to Hobby Lobby to get a canvas.  This project was so super easy - I literally spent more time in the checkout line to buy the canvas than I did actually completing it!  Ok, in full disclosure, this was my brainchild, but my fantabulous hubby did all the work while I wasted time on facebook supervised.

I bought several of the Ethiopian coffee sacks, but this one was my favorite...I like the green lettering and the random red stripe on the left...

We slid the canvas inside (almost a perfect fit), then cut out the middle of the back so we could pull it tight around the edges.  Then it was time for the handy dandy staple gun!

Jon stapled all around the edges and here's what we ended up with...

And here's what it looks like hanging in our kitchen, next to the coffee bar.

 

I love burlap, love coffee, and love Ethiopia.  All 3 at once?  Be still my beating heart!  Know what else?  I spent a total of less than $20!

If you are a fan of great coffee, or if you just want to check out a really amazing business, head over the Just Love Coffee.  The link will take you to our fundraiser, where $5 from every bag purchased goes toward our adoption!

Linking to:  Tatertots & Jello, Whipperberry, Bubbly Nature Creations, Funky Junk Interiors, I Heart Naptime,Craft-O-Maniac, Today's Creative Blog, The 36th Avenue, Thrifty Decorating, A Turtle's Life for Me, House of Hepworths, The Frugal Girls,

Marshmallow Hearts

Like the terrible blogger I continue to be, I am finally getting around to posting about a cute activity Jackson & I did for Valentine's Day this year!  Feel free to ignore, since it won't apply for another 51 weeks, or squirrel it away to remember for next year, or even better - pin it so you don't forget!  :)

I found these strawberry heart-shaped marshmallows at the grocery store awhile back, bought them, and promptly forgot about them until the day before Valentine's Day.

I rediscovered them while searching in the pantry for something else completely.  I wracked (racked?) by brain trying to come up with something to do with them, and decided on keeping it simple.  Dip in melted white chocolate chips and then in sprinkles.  Wonderful, festive idea right?  Until I did it and saw what they looked like.

Happy Valentine's Day....here's your.....lump of pink sprinkles??

I tried dipping them in only halfway; same result.  I flipped it over, and lo and behold.....cuteness!  And they fit perfectly in the Valentine's mini-muffin tin liners I found last year at Target's 90% off Valentine's sale.

So....what did we do with all these fancy marshmallow hearts?  We put one on each place at our Valentine's meal (in case you don't remember, our traditional Valentine's meal is a heart-shaped meatloaf or hamloaf, and lots of other heart-shaped or red or pink foods).  We've also been using them in hot chocolate - adorable and tasty!

Make Ahead Smoothies

Awhile ago, on Pinterest I believe, I had seen the idea of making smoothies ahead of time, freezing them in small portions, and keeping them in the freezer at-the-ready.  I was in love with this idea (yay for OAMC!), but somehow didn't pin it, and in the meantime, lost it.  Argh.  After a LOT of searching pinterest and a few of my favorite blogs, I realized I wasn't going to find the original post.  Luckily for me, there were a ton of other great ideas out there.  I looked at a bunch of different ideas and then came up with my own.

Strawberry Freezer Smoothies:

• Freeze yogurt in ice cube trays.  For me, a 32 oz container of yogurt filled 2 ice cube trays.
• Fill resealable baggies with 2 cubes of yogurt and around 3/4 cup of fruit.  (I already had some strawberries frozen, so I used those.  If you are putting fresh fruit in your bags, flash freeze them first so you don't end up with one big clump.  To flash freeze, lay each individual piece of fruit on a cookie sheet & freeze).
• Since the resealable sandwich bags I used aren't freezer bags, I put them all in one gallon sized freezer bag.....no freezer burn & it corrals them all into one place.

• To serve, add milk & honey and blend until it's the texture you like.
• Note:  I froze individual servings because I have one of the Magic Blender knock-offs.  If you are making a regular blender full, just adjust the amounts accordingly.

I also decided to try the Green Monster Smoothies I have been seeing.  I am not a huge vegetable fan (AKA I despise most vegetables) and figure if I can sneak a few in here and there, it will be a huge health benefit!  Now, a bright GREEN (spinach) smoothie isn't exactly hiding anything, but trust me, they taste delicious....not vegetable-y at all!

I made two different green smoothies.  For my first batch, I used the basic ingredients of the recipe at NaturallyElla.  I used what I had on hand - so regular milk instead of almond milk, and no flaxseed.  I whipped up the smoothies and froze them in the ice cube trays.  When I prepare these, I'll need to thaw them out a little first, since I won't be adding anything to them.

I also made up my own (similar) version, this time without the milk so it didn't take up so many of my ice cube trays....I can easily add the milk in the day I make them.  I blended 4 large handfuls of spinach, 2 bananas, and added some canned pineapple on hand that I needed to use up, along with it's juice to make blending easier.  (I did use my large blender for this).  To serve, take 2 or 3 of the frozen spinach cubes, add a few yogurt cubes, some milk & honey, and blend.  There you have it.  A spinach smoothie.  Sounds delightful, doesn't it?  But seriously, folks, they are gooooood!  Take a toddler's word for it.....she LOVED it so much she had two!

So easy, and if your family loves smoothies, having some ready-made packs on hand can be a huge time & money saver (have you ever priced the frozen smoothie packs at the grocery store?!)  I love that you can be creative and throw in whatever fruits you have.....it's impossible to make a bad smoothie or get the recipe wrong!

Bonus:  the strawberry smoothies will be perfect for my kids' Valentine's Day breakfast tomorrow!  (Looking for other quick things to do for Valentine's Day?  Click here!)

And the green spinach smoothie will definitely be on the menu for St. Patrick's Day!
 

Linking to:  Craft-O-Maniac,

Fun with Felt!

I have been a bad, bad blogger lately.  So many things to do, so little time to blog about them....  Here's a little project I was working on a few days ago....easy, no-sew felt hair clips!  It was the perfect craft for a rainy day.

I added a both a hair clip and a safety pin on the back of the flowers so they can do double duty!  They were sooo easy, I can't wait to go back to Hobby Lobby and get some felt in every color!!  I used two great tutorials for these, so instead of writing up my own, I'll direct you back to the originals (which I found popping up on pinterest)....for the flowers go here, and for the bows check this out.

What is your favorite rainy day project?

Fall Food Favorites: Apple Butter

Just in case you didn't see my guest tutorial last week over at The CSI Project, I'm reposting it here for you today!


Hello fellow CSI Project fans!  I'm Angie from The Cellar Door Stories, and I'm so excited to be here for Fall Food week!  True, when you think of fall food, pumpkin is probably what immediately comes to mind.  But for me, nothing says early fall like apples!  We live close to several apple orchards and have a family tradition of picking apples each year.  Along with homemade applesauce, I like to try out a few new apple recipes each year.  This year I decided to try apple butter, and I'm going to be sharing my recipe with you today!

A friend had mentioned to me that she made apple butter in her slow cooker.  I was intrigued and decided to try it out myself.  Her recipe started with whole apples, and I had already turned my mountain of apples (1 1/2 bushels) into applesauce (go here to see how it's done), so I needed to improvise a little.  I scoured the internet and my recipe books for ideas, and ended up creating a recipe that is kind of a mish-mash of about approximately 36 other recipes I looked at!

First, gather all your ingredients and dump them into your slow cooker (I recommend spraying your crock with cooking spray ~ makes clean-up a LOT easier).  I used the following, but you can definitely tweak the amount to your taste:  10 cups applesauce, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves.

I cooked my apple butter on HIGH for a total of 12 hours.  By the end of the 12 hours, it was time for me to go to bed and I didn't want to leave my slow cooker on any longer.  I turned it off but left the apple butter in so it kept cooking.  Yes, that seems like a long time!  It takes a long time for some of the liquid to cook out.  Your time will vary depending on the amount you are making and your slow cooker.  Stir occasionally to make sure your applesauce doesn't scorch.  I took the lid off for the last 5 or so hours.

Here's what my apple butter looked like after about 6 hours...

And here's what it looked like in the morning...you can see a lot of the liquid has cooked out, and it's a few shades darker.

I spooned the apple butter into jars - from my original 10 cups of applesauce, I ended up with 8 jars of apple butter.  I still haven't figured out the whole canning thing, so mine went into the freezer, but this could definitely be canned!

Bonus ~ who doesn't love homemade food?  This could make a great little gift for someone!  I decided that as a gift, the jars were looking a little too plain, so I added a raffia bow and some scrapbooking paper stamped "Made Especially for You!"

Add a loaf of homemade bread, and you have a perfect hostess gift for your next fall night out!

Thanks to the CSI Project girls for having me today ~ hope to see you all over at The Cellar Door Stories, where I love to blog about DIY & crafty ideas, food, family (including our adoption journey), frugal tips, and any other random thing that crosses my mind!

Fun Fall Activity Repost

Looking for a fun fall activity to do with your kiddos?  I'm reposting this from last fall, back when I was the only one who regularly checked my blog!

Ok, so probably everyone has done this craft.  It certainly isn't original but it came out of the recesses of my brain today when I was trying to think of a simple fun activity to do with Jackson while Carly took her nap.  It's easy, cheap, already had all the supplies on hand, and it can double as some fall decoration - so that makes it a win-win-win-win in my book!

Materials needed:  crayons (preferably old or broken ones), crayon or pencil sharpener (or old cheese grater), wax paper, newspaper, scissors, iron, marker.

Layer newspaper, one sheet wax paper, crayon shavings, wax paper, newspaper.  I used an old tea towel on top of it all, too. 

Iron on low setting just until the crayon is melted.  Draw your leaves (don't be jealous of my sweet leaf drawing skills!) and cut them out.  (For the pumpkins, we drew them first so we knew where to put the orange & green). 

Tape or hang them on a window and admire your new cute suncatchers!



(Yep, it's definitely afternoon & he's definitely still wearing pajamas).



Linking to:  The DIY Showoff's Fall Festival Party

EEK and BOO!

I've been in a funk lately.  A blah sort of mood, where I feel unmotivated, lazy, and let's face it....annoyed.  Anyone watch The Office on Thursday?  Where Pam was all hormonal and crying?  As my husband was sitting on the couch laughing at her, I was sitting in my chair holding back tears.....because Pam........she really gets me.  As much as a fictional character can get someone, at least.  Unlike Pam, I don't have the pregnancy hormones to blame my blah-ness on, but seriously, the ups and downs of adoption, the hurry up and wait, the unknowns.....it's been taking it's toll lately.

Why am I telling you all this?  Really, I have no clue.  I'm actually posting to show off the cutey little Halloween decorations I made yesterday!  I'm typically not a Halloween person.  I don't really decorate for it, because I don't like the witches and goblins and all that spooky stuff.  But yesterday as I was digging through my craft supplies, forcing myself to do something creative to hopefully get out of my funk....I found some black glittery letters that just screamed Halloween!

So, I gathered up some supplies...

The frames were part of a cheapy 3-pack from Ikea.  I painted them with DecoArt Americana's Burnt Orange.

When the orange paint was dry, I gave it a little more character by using a paper towel to rub on a little black paint in spots.  I cut some scrapbooking paper to fit, and put on my sparkly black letters.  Easy peasy.

Here's what I ended up with:

A close-up of the glittery letters...

And again, the end results...

No witches or ghouls, but just a nice little touch of Halloween!

 

Linked to a few of my favorites, including The DIY Showoff's Fall Festival Party

Beautiful (FREE) Hydrangea Wreath

At the end of July, I forced myself to take down my patriotic wreath and since then my front door has been looking mighty empty.  With saving for an adoption, I have been trying to be very conscious about the amount of money I spend on non-necessities...and a new wreath, or materials to make one, doesn't really fit under the "needs" category!  Nikki from Thrifty Decorating to the rescue!  She made a beautiful hydrangea wreath and inspired me to do the same.

Mine was slightly different because I had a wire wreath form to use (left over from my Christmas greenery wreath).  After picking the best blooms from my hydrangeas, I used some florist wire to attach them to the wreath.

I just kept going until the wreath was filled!  (Yeah, I switched to working on the living room floor halfway through like always!)

My hydrangeas aren't too big, so the blooms were a bit limited, which made the wreath lack some fullness....so I added a raffia bow to try and make the lack of bloomage less noticeable.

Here's the finished product on the front door ~ I like how it turned out, and of course the best part is that it was totally FREE!  Thanks for the inspiration, Nikki!

Linking to a few of my favorites ~ check them out!!

It's always exciting to be featured ~ thanks so much!