Christmas treats and friends' ugly sweater party!

 Want to make some super easy and delicious holiday treats? Then I invite you to try the super fast Christmas candy my friend brought to my attention during the snowstorm last week.

You take pretzels (I found these 'waffle' pretzels which in my opinion are delightful!), top it with a hershey's kiss (experiment with the different flavors, I made mint truffle, Irish cream, and dark chocolate), pop it in a 200 degree oven for 3-4 minutes (just melty),  and then take it out of the oven and top it with a festive m&m (or two) and let it set. SIMPLE! DELICIOUS! Completely addicting. The perfect balance of salty and sweet. Bag a few varieties up and you have a great hostess gift to bring to your next soiree.

Here are pictures from our most epic ugly sweater holiday party. Yep the crab dish made another appearance! I love it so much I am just going to carry it around with me. We had homemade chicken wild rice soup, bbq mini wieners, shrimp and cocktail sauce, fresh made potato latkes, cornbread, a cream puff tower, spritz cookies, chex mix, puppy chow, and homemade candies.

 Mike showing off the extra sweater I bought just in case. I think the ruffles make it.

But Sarah def wins it with the ugly/sweet sweater with dangling mittens!

Christmas Presents a win and a FAIL.

I made some of my Christmas gifts this year at my place of employment. It was kind of nice to go in and not have to work. I spent a couple of epic days working on some projects.

The first is a clear win. It is a platter for my grandma. She really is into Jim Shore. You know? The little wooden figurines at Hallmark and the like. Yeah that guy. Quilt motifs and such. Well my grandma also likes Santa figurines. She has a whole set of really cool ones that she painted herself and for a couple of years now everyone has been getting her Santa themed Jim Shore items. I decided to take the Santa/quilt motif idea and incorporate it into this platter.

 I free handed the Santa and then did a quilt pattern on his outfit and then a simple version of that same quilt pattern on the rim. I think it turned out splendidly and I can't wait to give it to her!

The next platter was a slight fail. There was one very similar to this as an example in our store and I decided it would be a cute gift for the family that I babysit for. The mom used to be my violin teacher and I started babysitting for them when the had only two kids. Now they have number 7 on the way!

 I was so nervous about spelling one of the names wrong that I in fact DID spell one of the names wrong. Sorry Philip, I snuck an extra l in there on ya. But overall I really like the colors and the 'bubble' technique on the background.

The next gift was a complete fail but it was in no way my fault. The paint 'shivered' in the kiln which basically means that it is just flaking off. To say I was upset is a bit of an understatement. I spent HOURS on this piece for my aunt. It is a 3 piece 'tea for one' set including a teacup, teapot, and lid. ALL THREE SHIVERED. Angry.

 It was a Jane Austen theme. I used just two colors, a creamy off-white and a deep rich brown. The top piece used the 'lace' technique. The second layer had a silhouette of Jane Austen on each side and the bottom layer had the opening quote from Pride and Prejudice. I was so proud of it. Now of course we don't have anymore of this exact piece in and I wouldn't have had time to get it done in time for Christmas anyway. I guess I just need to decide if I ever want to attempt it again.

 You can see the cracks in it.

And this is what is happening. Le sigh.

Making Christmas

More handmade gifts. 


This first one was actually for an anniversary dinner earlier this month. It was for my friend Aimee's parents. 25 years! Keep it up. Pattern from mmaammbr on flickr.

 This next set of ornaments is for the other couple that got married this year. I was inspired by my other ornament set to make one for them as well and this is what I came up with. It is especially adorable because for their wedding instead of a unity candle they actually had two beakers filled with yellow and blue water and they poured them into an Erlenmeyer flask. For cute! I was just going to make them a wall hanging with this basic idea but I think these turned out super cute as ornaments and they needed more ornaments on their tree anyway! I am especially pleased with the little green heart bubbles. For cute!

Xmas Ornaments

Finished a couple more ornaments.

This one was for the giveaway. It is Tennessee, can't you tell?  It is in the mail and on it's way!

I finished these as a gift set. The little boy and girl cacti are from a pattern by sewcharitable. So cute!

O Christmas Tree

I caved and bought a fake tree. I love real Christmas trees but there is a long story as to why I can't have one in my house. So I got around the problem by putting one up in my room. It makes me insanely happy. I was being a bit of a Scrooge for a couple of days (apologies to my friend who received a super angsty fb message the other day!) but I am better now. My faith in Christmas has been restored and I am back on track for Christmas.

 I only dug out one box of ornaments and it proved to be enough. I tend to go a bit overboard at times.

My First Christmas. I am a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Power Rangers!

Christmas Sebastian? Why not.

Handmade gingerbread ornaments. They still smell good and these were made in '94!

Best Party Dress Ever

New Year's Eve is really fun because you get to dress up in ridiculous clothes and party like your life depended on it. The main theme? Sparkly. Straight up sparkly, shiny, obnoxious clothes are the best for a New Year's party. I found the best dress this year. It was $6 at a thrift store and it has so much amazing 80's tastic-ness going on that I almost died of happiness when it fit.

I have the dress. Now I just need the party.

Snowmagedon

Have you heard we got a bit of snow in MN? Well we have. A LOT. I spent a good chunk of the weekend pleasantly stranded in Wisconsin with good friends, bad movies, and more junk food than we knew what to do with. Headed back to Minnesota today and it is even crazier here. The metrodome collapsed. Driving is basically anarchy on ice. I am glad to be home where I can hopefully, finally, get some Christmas planning done. A grinch has stolen some of my Christmas spirit. I am going to work to get it back but it might be buried under all the snow.

First Big Snow

The first big snow of the year in MN is always a little tricky. I love the snow but I must say being a grown up has put a bit of a damper on that love lately. When you are a kid all you see is snow days and sledding but now all I see is how am I going to get my baby car to work and back without killing myself or others.

Baby car buried in snow! Took quite awhile just to dig it out.

But today I don't have anywhere to go until this evening so I am spending the day working on Christmas gifts for friends and family! Craft room here I come.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend thus far.

Christmas with Weezer

Why did I not know about this? WHY?!?! For the first time ever itunes suggested an album I actually wanted to buy- "Christmas with Weezer". Christmas? Weezer? Music? Why didn't I KNOW ABOUT THIS!!!!!? The important thing is that I know about it now and it has made my life so much better. For $4.99 you can buy the 6 song album on itunes. The whole thing is only about 13 minutes long but it is 13 minutes of solid gold Christmas music. (Speaking of- Solid Gold should do a Christmas album- that would be AMAZING.) Anyone who knows me knows that Christmas music is one of my (many) obsessions. Not so well known is that I have a mini-obsession with Weezer. Also have a mini-crush on the lead singer. Nerdy, cute, and can rock out. Is that so much to ask for?

 

I like a man who can rock a sweater vest. Is that weird? Yeah. Pretty weird. 

First Day of December!

By my watch it is past noon. I would like to thank all of you who entered in the giveaway. All four of you are awesome! I probably should wait awhile before I do another giveaway but I thought it would be fun and I thought it would keep my craft room from  overflowing with items. I had fun. I hope you did too. I even used random.org even though the old numbers-in-a-hat trick would have worked just fine.

Winners: For the State-of-your choice Ornament #3 is our winner! captain-science

For the Silver and Gold set #1 is our winner! thewaterpenny

I will be contacting you and sending your little ornaments on there way so they get there in plenty of time to adorn the tree.

I hope everyone is having a good December so far! I enjoyed reading your answers for your favorite Christmas ornament. I have too many favorites to list. As a kid I loved the Disney ornaments- some that were prizes in kids meals. Every Christmas we used to get a special ornament that we would add to the tree so ours was always a random assortment of the history of our likes. I liked walking around our tree and checking on how many of my ornaments made it onto the tree that year. Now that I am back home I am trying to convince my mom that we need a tree. She is against it. Something over the years has made her bitter to the holidays. I hope it never happens to me. I might smuggle a tree into my bedroom.

*Captain-Science how do I get in contact with you? If I don't here from you by Friday I will draw another winner.