New Year's Eve Printables

Christmas has come and gone once again and in this house we're gearing up for our annual New Year's Eve party.

I created two printables for my table and I thought I'd share them both with you all to help make your table scape a little more festive!  Who doesn't love a good free chalkboard and subway art printable?  I know I do!

Just right click and save to your desktop and print.

Place in an 8x10 frame and enjoy!

Happy New Year Printable

Subway Art Printable

Wishing everyone a joyous and happy 2015!

Our Snowman Dinner

I wanted to post about our snowman dinner a few days ago, but with the holidays being here and wrapping everything up (pun intended) I just couldn't find enough time in the day to sit and blog about it.

Now with the holidays over and New Year's Eve quickly approaching, I have finally found a moment to catch my breath and share it here.

Last year, I planned a grinch dinner (which you can see HERE) but this year I wanted to do something a little different.

Side Note: If you check out my grinch dinner, apparently collage making was all the rage last year because I don't have one.single.picture.  

Anyway, I wanted our dinner to be just as special as the grinch dinner but with an entirely different theme.  So I looked through our Christmas movies and came across the idea to do a snowman themed dinner and finish off the night by watching Frosty the Snowman.

I searched all over for a snowman themed dinner but couldn't find anything.  So I just tried to create all different types of snowman themed food and smash them together to make one dinner theme.  I think it worked!

Our "main course" was a simple and delicious snowman pizza.

 Complete with olive eyes and a mouth, an orange pepper nose, and a bacon scarf.

For the dessert I made Snowflake Crunch Popcorn (you can find the recipe HERE)

 and I made these adorable snowman cupcakes that were almost too cute to eat.  Almost.

And to wash everything down, I made some White Chocolate Snowflake Cocoa (you can find the recipe HERE).

I think everything tied together very well and there was little preparation I had to do for this dinner.

Everything was kept fairly simple but the excitement of my kids was above and beyond.  What more can you want?  Little work and big smiles. Awesomeness.

I kept the decor pretty simple with a blue and white winter theme.

Download my Frosty Printable HERE

 You can download my Frosty the Doughman Label HERE

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and sending warm wishes for a happy new year!

Christmas Snowflake Crunch Popcorn--A Marshmallowy and Yummy Treat

I recently threw together a snowman themed dinner for my kids on Sunday night.  (I'll be posting that soon!)  I wanted all the food and decor to be winter themed, and I thought this was definitely fitting for that.

I love that it was so simple to make with ingredients I already had in my pantry, plus the colors remind me of winter.  And whenever you pair marshmallow with ANYTHING, that's okay with me.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 bag mini marshmallows
• 3 cups popped popcorn (can use microwaveable but I prefer to pop my own kernels)
• 1/4 cup butter
• blue M&M's (blue sprinkles are optional as well)

Directions:

1. Place popcorn in a large bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
3. Add in marshmallows to butter and stir until completely melted.
4. Pour butter/marshmallow mixture over popcorn.
5. Mix until popcorn in completely coated.
6. Add in blue M&Ms and stir to combine all ingredients together.
7. Serve within a few hours.

White Chocolate Snowflake Hot Cocoa

For my family, winter starts when the first cup of hot chocolate is made.  It's tradition.  We don't drink it any other time except for in the Winter.  And in Florida that means December.  (and usually not a day before).

But what could make hot chocolate even more exciting?  What can be even more decedent and creamy and has a completely different flavor but still brings a warmness to the winter?  White Hot Chocolate!

Yes, you heard me right.  Hot chocolate made with amazingly delicious white chocolate.  Talk about an amazing alternative to everyone's favorite classic holiday beverage.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups milk 
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 bag white chocolate chips
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Add in all ingredients into a crock pot.
2. Turn on low.
3. Heat for 2-3 hours or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is hot.
4. Enjoy with some whipped cream and marshmallows on top on a chilly day :)

Note: You can easily cut this recipe is half if you have a small family, or keep the recipe the way it is if you're serving a large crowd.  It makes around 10 servings.

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Chewy Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies

If you're a peanut butter addict like myself, these yummy Christmas cookies might become your new obsession.

Please don't say I didn't warn you.

Some might be thinking, how are these a Christmas cookie?  For my family they are because I only make them around Christmas time.  Why?  Because that's what my mother did.  And I'm pretty sure we're the same person.

These are one of my favorite cookies of all time because as a peanut butter junkie, these fudgy chewy cookies are filled with peanut butter chips and that makes me want to sing.  And dance.

Crispy around the edges and soft and chewy in the middle.  That sounds like THE perfect cookie to me!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 bag Reeses Peanut Butter chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.

3. Add in eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.

4. Add in dry ingredients.  Mix.

5. Stir in peanut butter chips.

6. Drop tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake 8-9 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

8. Enjoy!

*Can store in an airtight container for up to 3 days*

*Makes around 4 1/2 dozen cookies*

To Print This Recipe Click Here

Girl's Desk Makeover

I haven't posted a furniture makeover in a while, so I thought I'd share a past desk makeover that I completed a few months back.

Wow.  What a slacker I am.

Let me show you the desk before:

I know what you're thinking.  Why?  Why would ANYONE in their right mind ever even purchase this disgusting and hideous thing?  My only answer I have for you is.... $4.  It was four bucks!  How could I not buy it?  Even if it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, or if it turned out that something was wrong with it ..I wouldn't lose sleep overing hauling something to the curb that only cost me $4.

I have to admit.  It actually looked worse than in the pictures.  In the first picture, I had already removed the hardware and removed some funky bamboo molding from the drawers.  Yes.  You heard me right. Bamboo.

When I first started to sand this desk I realized someone actually painted this desk that horrendous green color.  Someone actually had to go to a store, pick up a swatch, and said "oh, hey this is a nice color, lets paint the desk".  I don't know what they were thinking or why they would do such a thing, but they did.  And now it was my responsibly to scrape all this off and start again.

After sanding it with 150 grit sandpaper and removing as much as the paint as I could, I gave it two coats of primer.

After a full day of drying, it was ready to paint.

This was the first coat of paint. If it wasn't for this picture, I would have missed the complete underside of the desk!!  I really need to get on my game, I know.

I gave it two coats of a light pink paint on the bottom half of the dresser.  The color is Musical Mist by Behr.  It was the same pink color I had used for my daughter's dresser and nightstand makeover, which you can see HERE.

The top I had painted white using Behr's Popped Corn and gave it two coats of Minwax Polycrylic so it would have some durability and shield off some of the drawings and marks it would later receive from my 6 year old.

While the desk was drying, I decided to keep the original hardware and just give them a few quick coats of spray paint.  I used a primer first, and then a white spray paint after it was dry.

It was all finished and looked so much cleaner and brighter.  (The top was still wet at this point)

Here's the after:

It's a great piece of furniture and it costs me only $4 to complete the entire project, based on the fact that I already had all paints and supplies on hand.

It's custom to match the rest of her furniture in her room, and she adores it.

And I adore the price!

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Peanut Butter Blossoms -- A Classic Christmas Favorite

With Christmas time comes cookie baking.  They go hand in hand.  It's tradition for my family, and I'm sure many other families, to spend the holidays in the kitchen around the table mixing and rolling dough and watching the cookies bake in the oven.  The intoxicating smell of those delicious cookies just reminds me of Christmas.

Every year we make the same type of cookies that are only to be made around Christmas.  Any other time of the year, it's a sin!  It's just wrong to make a Christmas cookie at any other time of the year.

It would be like watching A Christmas Story in June.  Ya just don't do it!

Plus, not eating something all year makes us look forward to the special cookies we bake together.

Peanut Butter Blossoms are a cookie tradition that my mom has made since I could talk! Probably even before that.  When I got married, it was one of the first recipes I wrote down to make at Christmas.  I think that certainly proves that I've been married for a quite a while if I had to actually write down a recipe and not pin it. But moving on..






It's a classic cookie that I'm sure has been blogged, pinned, and plastered all over the Internet thousands of times.  But that doesn't mean I'm not going to share my recipe here.  No sir.  I'm still sharing it with my readers who actually haven't seen it or don't know the recipe.  Actually, researching the recipe I found that there are a million variations and different measurements for everyone.  So I'm going to share my personal recipe with you all in hopes that this cookie will become a new tradition in your family.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
48 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped
plate of extra sugar to roll dough in (about 1/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl or stand mixer combine shortening, peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg.

3. In a separate large bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.

4.  Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix until everything is well blended together.

5. Shape dough into a large ball and divide dough mixture into 4 equal parts.  You will need to get 12, one inch balls from each quarter of dough.  

 6. Roll out 1 inch balls and roll in extra sugar.

7. Place dough balls on an un-greased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and immediately place a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie.

9.  Allow to cool on a wire rack.  Chocolate will harden as it cools.  

Notes:

-Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

-Yields: 48 cookies

To Print This Recipe Click Here

Enjoy!

Our Letters To Santa -- Includes Free Letter Printable With North Pole Envelope

December is rushing by quickly.  This is the time of the month where I begin living in panic mode.  I still have a lot of activities planned for the kids, and not much time left to do it all.

Sunday was a day spent at home blasting some Christmas music, tying on our aprons, and baking our first batches of Christmas cookies.  (I'll be sharing a few cookie recipes in the next few weeks, so keep and eye out!)  I thought it would be the perfect day to break out the letters and let the kids start brainstorming ideas of what they would be asking Santa for this year.

I've created this adorable Santa letter printable and a special north pole envelope that is addressed to Santa himself!  All you need to do is download both, cut out the envelope (which I'll show you in more detail how to create it),  fold up your letters, and mail them out.  It's that simple.
_______________________________________

To Download the Santa Letter Click HERE

To Download the North Pole Envelope Template Click HERE

To make the envelope:

1. Download and print out the envelope template

2.  Cut out the template

3. Flip over and fold over left side flap first and glue.

4.  Fold over right side flap and glue.

5. Fold bottom flap over and glue ONLY ON THE SIDES.

6. Place folded paper inside and glue top flap down.

7. All finished!

_________________________________

The kids had such a great time dreaming up all the things they wanted to ask for from Santa.

I remember doing this as a little girl and it filled my heart with joy to watch them fill out their lists.    

He was concentrating.

 All ready to be mailed out.

I hope this printable comes in handy for the little ones in your life. And who knows.  It might even give you Santa some ideas on what exactly to get if you're a little unsure.  Everyone needs a hand for gift ideas sometimes.  Even the big guy himself!

Hoping you all are having a joyous and happy holiday season!