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Holiday Wrap Up And Crowd Pleasing Recipies

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I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday. We sure did! The highlight of the day for my husband and I, was witnessing our daughter’s reaction as she came downstairs and realized she had been a good girl this year and Santa brought her gifts.  Mr. Claus also brought a special gift for our daughter this year.  Her very own pet goldfish named “Dorothy” just like Elmo’s pet goldfish!

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My daughter meeting Dorothy for the first time

Now it is the day after Christmas, all the preparation and hard work leading up to the holiday and in the blink of an eye it is over and the “clean up” begins.  I spent the good part of today cleaning, organizing and trying to assemble my daughter’s new Art Eisel which will be going in the craft room, so she and I can work on projects together. In the meantime, I thought I would share with you two holiday recipes that were crowd pleasers this year.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies.

These tasty cookies are my husbands favorite.  In 1957 Freda F. Smith of Gibsonburg, Ohio, developed Peanut Blossoms for the ninth Grand National Pillsbury Bake-Off competition.  She failed to win the competition, but the cookie took off and landed on many tables throughout America. There are many variations of this cookie online but a great tasty version can be found here.  I normally do not make cookies except during the holidays.  I have a vintage Sunbeam Mix Master stand-up mixer that I picked up at a yard sale about 15 years ago. With the outrageous price of mixers, I will continue to use this 1970’s classic.  I chuckled because while watching an episode of “The Brady Bunch” I spotted my mixer in the background! Despite its advanced age it still works and it whipped up multiple batches of tasty cookie dough.

1970s vintage sunbeam mixmaster

A yummy peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss in the middle.

peanut butter blossum cookies

These cookies are easy to make and my daughter enjoyed dipping the dough balls into the granulated sugar.  She is such a great helper!

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Christmas Breakfast Casserole

So much is focused on Christmas dinner, it is easy to forget about the most important meal of the day breakfast.  This year I woke before everyone, brewed some coffee and whipped up a mean breakfast casserole inspired by a recipe I saw on Pinterest courtesy of The Wholesome D.  I had to improvise a bit, I used cubed hash browns with pepper and onion seasoning and bacon instead of ham.  It took less than 5 minutes to prepare and cooked in the oven while we opened our presents. You can find the full recipe here.

Breakfast Casserole

A great way to start your Christmas day or any day for that matter!

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A Manic Monday: Rock N’ Roll Themed Candles made with Mod Podge

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Anyone who knows me well, knows one thing: “I don’t like Monday’s!”  It’s always tough saying goodbye to the weekend and I always seem especially sluggish coming off the weekend.  As much as I love bigger projects, sometimes it is fun, and refreshing to complete a smaller, simpler one.  This craft seemed a perfect one to share especially on a rainy Monday.

I love Rock and Roll and am a big fan of music in general.  My husband and I were sitting around on a Saturday night, Watching “That Metal Show on VH1 Classic” kicking around ideas for projects. I thought it would be cool to make Rock and Roll candles.  The dollar stores sell long white glass candles. They are perfect and literally any image can be put on them with a little Mod Podge. We chose Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy images and printed them out 5×7 on photo paper.  We cut them out and placed them aside.

I applied Mod Podge Matte onto the glass.  I centered the photo and glued the image down. slowly smoothing out any creases. Once dry, I applied 2 coats of Mod Podge with a medium brush over top of the image to seal it.  If Rock N Roll isn’t your thing.  Any image will work so let your mind run wild.  Family photos, scrapbook paper, sports images- Maybe Monday’s aren’t so bad  after all!

Materials:

candles

printed image of choice

scissors

Mod Podge Matte Finish

thick paint brush

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The Patriotic Pasta Necklace~ Fun With Paint

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I love getting my daughter interested in creative endeavours, and there is nothing more exciting for a 2-year-old than finger painting!  My little girl loves color!    There are many non toxic, and washable paints and markers available that are safe for young children. Making sure they are non toxic is key.  I looked down to find my little toddler apprentice lips were blue!  There is a great recipe to make your own edible toddler finger paint at Momtastic Be sure and check it out!

My daughter’s art room is our kitchen, which is the easiest area to clean, since inevitably the walls will get their own bit of artwork on them.  Once the painting was done, it was off to the bath and bed.  The artwork left to dry on the front of the fridge.

Vincet Van Goo Goo

What day of crafting would be complete without some sort of pasta art project.  I decided to make a pasta necklace in celebration of the 4th of July holiday. I thought it would be something fun for my daughter to play with and wear.  This was a pretty simple craft in which the kids can help make too!

Patriotic Pasta Necklace

I used three plastic cups.  I poured Red, White and Blue paint into the cups and dipped the dry Rigatoni noodles in each color.  I repeated this until I had enough to make the necklace my desired length.  It seemed like it was taking a while for them to dry, so I decided to I let them dry overnight.  Once they were dry, I threaded them onto the twine Red, White and Blue in that order, tied a good knot and Poof! Instant Patriotic Pasta Necklace!

Kids Craft Necklace

And Erin seemed to like it too!