Fleece Ear Warmers

Okay I think I discovered the best handmade gift ever. Not only is it super cheap to make but also quick and easy. 

While in NY for Thanksgiving my sisters and I were talking about our knit ear warmers and how although they were super cute, they didn't always do the best job of keeping our ears warm. That's when I thought of Delia's ear warmer tutorial and thought I should give fleece a try. 

I was totally inspired by Delia, but made mine a little differently. I doubled up my fleece and simply sewed the two pieces together, leaving the edges raw. I added two buttons so it could be adjusted and rounded the ends. 

I love how they turned out. Cute but also toasty warm. 

I stuck with rosettes, because they were quick and easy, but I can't wait to try some other designs. 

These would make great gifts for your sisters, girlfriends, teachers, and co-workers. They only cost me about $1.25 each (I bought my fleece at 50% off) and they only took about 20 minutes each to make. 

Handmade Holidays?

I promise I have a real excuse for the lack of blogging. I've been having major technical issues. First off, a few weeks ago iphoto deleted all my photos. After an hour of crying I found them , but will still have to reorganized them all, YIKES. Now we are trying to figure out what is eating up all the memory on our computer, so I can download new photo's. It's been a bit of a nightmare. I'm currently using my hubbies laptop but it takes FOREVER to download pictures into blogger.  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this will all get sorted out sooner than later. 

  

For anyone that's been following for over a year knows how important homemade gifts for the holidays  are to me. Making things for those I love is what makes Christmas meaningful. Nothing gets me into the Christmas spirit like creating the perfect gifts for my family. 

Unfortunately, my family and I had abnormally busy November and December this year, and weren't able to be as ambitious we have been in the past. My next few posts will show the few things I was able to pull together before Christmas.

Like most Americans, our family follows the tradition of opening new pajama's on Christmas Eve. My Mother almost always made ours for us, something I never thought I would do. But, in a moment of frustration I committed myself to sewing PJ's for all my girls. I don't understand why it is so hard to find PJ's that are Christmas colors but not overtly Christmas themed. I want something festive but can be worn for months after the big day.

Luckily I stopeed myself from my big plans of sewing tops for my older girls. Instead they got a full set for their dolls (simplicity 4268).

I love how the full set turned out for my little thing. My favorite part is the piping and ruffle at the bottom. 

 I'm proud of the top. I made up my own pattern and can't even remember how I did it. 

I had just enough material left to make me a pair of bottoms as well.

Hope your holidays were as joyous as ours!

Paper Medallion Ornaments-guest posting

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for these super easy, inexpensive, ornaments at Design Dazzle's 100 ideas of Christmas.

Come on over and check it out HERE. 

White Chocolate Fudge- with cashews

Today we start our Chocolate making process. We usually start on Monday and do it for an entire week. My sister is flying in and couldn't come until today, so we are attempting the impossible. Wish us luck.
In honor of chocolate week, I thought I would post my White Chocolate Fudge recipe from my guest post a few weeks ago. I've added a few little details I forgot the first time around.

I am so excited to share one of my favorite holiday traditions, CHOCOLATE. My mother, sisters and I spend a week after Thanksgiving making around 350 pounds of hand-dipped chocolates. You can read more about it HERE. 

Not everyone has an amazing mom like me to sit next to them and help them dip chocolates for their neighbors, co-workers and friends. So, I thought I'd give you something almost as good, our recipe for White Chocolate Fudge with cashews. It's to die for. 

It's easy to make yet your neighbors will think you're a professional candy maker. This just may become your newest secret family recipe. 

** A cube of Butter is a stick or 1/2 cup butter**
***The evaporated milk is a 16 oz can***
Another important thing I forgot is, you don't want to scrap the sides of your pan when pouring the hot liquid into the mixer. It will sometimes make your fudge grainy.

Once you've let it set for a couple hours somewhere cold, turn your pan over and let some hot water run over the bottom of the pan. Make sure to hold you fingers over the opening so that your fudge doesn't drop into the sink. After a couple of seconds of hot water the fudge should release.

Drop the pan over onto parchment paper so you can cut it into pieces. I got out my ruler to cut 20 even pieces. Once cut, I wrapped each piece in plastic wrap.

You can deliver your fudge as is or you can dress it up in one of these SWEET bags:

They are the perfect size for one or two pieces of fudge.

I printed this fun images onto Paper sacks from Michaels.
(CELEBRATE IT, paper sacks, 3-1/2" x 2" x 6-3/4", 16 pieces)

To make your own, down load the file HERE.

***To print, click on PRINT in FILE menu. Then click OPEN WITH PREVIEW. Then click on PRINT in preview FILE menu. When the print options box opens change paper size from standard to untitled.  Tape down the bottom flap on the back and print. ***

If making fudge is not for you, you can still fill the sacks with you favorite holiday goodie. 

Hope your holidays are SWEET!

making the season bright

First off I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did. We spent the holiday in NYC. 

The parade was the highlight of the trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience for us. The kids loved it, but I don't think I have it in me to do it again. 

Here I am with my sisters saving our spots at 6am. Notice it's still dark outside and very cold. 

I've been running non-stop since we got home getting ready for Christmas and our annual Santa party, which we had over the weekend. I have a couple days to relax until we start our Chocolates. 

Cutting down our tree.

Letting the kids decorate the tree before bed so I can redo it while they sleep.

This is our droopiest tree ever, but I still love it.

A closer look, it's covered in Santa ornaments to go with my Santa collection. 

The tree was too tall and we had to cut off the bottom. My sweet sister-in-law cut off the branches and made these awesome swags for me.

Did you notice the packages under the tree? They're our 12 days of Christmas presents. I've used the same wrapping paper for years and ran out last year. I had to come up with a new look and love how these turned out.  I used my Silhouette to make the tags. I love that machine.

You can check out my holiday home tour from last year HERE.

I sure do miss you guys. I hope to be back blogging on a more regular basis, but don't want to make any promises. I'll do my best. 

What do you want this year?

First off I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and hope everyone traveling makes it to their destination safely. I'm on the East Coast enjoying time with my siblings.

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know about a Black Friday sale silhouette is having. I'll be stopping in sometime over the weekend to pick me up some stocking stuffers for myself.

In addition to the 30% off, if you enter my code "SECOND" at checkout you get an additional 10% off, for a total of 40% off.

If you are interested in getting the CAMEO, you won't find it on the regular page. You'll need to go to the secret page found HERE. The 30% discount code won't work for the Cameo, but if you use my code, "SECOND" you will get a VERY nice discount.

If your a crazy Black Friday shopper like myself I wish you the best of luck and lots of energy. 

Refashionista

Today I am guest posting at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar as part of a refashionista series. 

Come on over and checkout how I put together one of my favorite refashions to date. Click HERE. 

I hope you love it as much as I do. 

White Chocolate Fudge - guest posting

Today I am guest posting at I {heart} nap time, as part of a month long series called Crazy Christmas Crafters. 

I'm sharing this ridiculously yummy recipe for White Chocolate Fudge with cashews...

And a free printable for these sweet bags to deliver it in. 

Come on over and check it out.  Just click on the button below. 

There will be great Christmas ideas all month long from some great bloggers, so head on over and get ahead of the game before the season starts. 

Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

Giving and receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite traditions at Christmas. It's just one of those little things that makes the season so magical. 

Last year was our first year ordering cards through Shutterfly and boy was I impressed. First off, they have an amazing selection, over 800 options to choose from. Second, they are easy to use. Third, they are super fast, I think I received mine days after ordering them. And lastly, they were super high quality, definitely the nicest cards we've ever sent.  

After searching their site here are some of the designs I really love:

Not only does Shutterfly do cards, but also holiday gifts and photo books. You could get some early Christmas shopping done while you are there. 

I don't know about you, but our holiday season is insane, I can't wait to get these done and have one less thing to worry about in the months to come. 

Do you want to get your cards done too?

The first three readers to leave a comment here, WITH THEIR EMAIL, will get a code for 25 free card. (sorry-US residence only). 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We celebrated all weekend long, with multiple parties, lots of candy, treats, spooky movies and carving pumpkins. I think we've had our fill and will skip trick-or-treating tonight. 

Trunk or Treat

We attended our first ever trunk or treat. It was so much fun. 

We decided to stick with our costume themes and decorated our trunk like Hogwarts. 

I basically grabbed everything old looking from our house and set it up in the trunk. 

I turned printed images from online into a pendant banner to help people get the theme. 

My cute little sister threw a big Halloween party at her house later that night. My dad helped her make this amazing face-in-the-hole picture boards for her party. 

What would Halloween be without lots of homemade goodies?

We've been making cakes for the school Halloween carnival for years. We loved how this ghost cake turned out. We copied THIS. 

When I showed my daughter the cake online to see if she wanted to make it, she said, "what if another mom is a blogger and they help their kids make the same cake." It cracked me up. 

We always do a spider cake because I like to use the barbie cake pan at least once a year. This year we did a black widow, complete with a red hourglass on the back. 

I copied THIS idea and made these super cute cupcakes and toppers. 

Mummy pretzel sticks. So easy, so festive and so yummy. 

Hope you all are having a great Halloween.