Dipped Chocolates Recipe

This is one of my favorites to make around the holiday's!

2 1/2 lb. powdered sugar
2 cubes margarine
1 can sweetened condensed milk
dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla


Soften butter and add milk. Add sugar, salt, vanilla and stir. Divide and add flavorings. (I always use the orange extract and then put orange food coloring it as well) Refrigerate for a while. Use the directions on the back of the almond bark for melting. Form fondant into balls and dip into chocolate. Place the chocolates on tin foil to dry. Takes about a minute and then you can eat them!!! Once they are finished we usually keep them in the fridge, that's the way I like them and with a big glass of milk :)

Christmas collections

I was thinking the other day about how collections come about and what and why people start them. I have a friend who collects Santa clauses. Big, small, silly. Some would say I have a Christmas collection. I do have a lot of Christmas things. I can't help it. I LOVE Christmas! The lights, the colors, the music. Since I have been a little girl I have loved to look at Christmas villages. A little town stuck in a snowy winter wonderland. See the kids sledding down a snowy hill. Peek inside a little cabin and see the little family sitting down at the table.

When I was first married I mentioned how I loved these little villages so and there became my start of a collection of Christmas houses. Everyone started to add to my little town until is grew and grew and now it's out grown my house! The picture below is NOT my own, but isn't it pretty? I could look at these little towns for hours and imagine what the people are thinking and doing. I love to look at them when it is dark and the lights are on. I think I have outgrown my village collection or I should say it has outgrown me. My next collection I want to start is the Willow Tree nativity. Of course it has to do with Christmas! :)

So what kind of collections do you all collect if any?

Christmas Fudge

This project was so fun and super easy! I love this time of year especially with all of the crafts and creative projects that are out there! A few of my girl friends are getting these this year! You take a big chocolate bar, some scrapbooking paper and type out this little poem and there ya go!

Ella was helping me by playing with the ribbons Now...anyone want to help me clean up???The possibilities are endless with this project! I might go ahead and add some ribbon but you can do whatever you want! Super easy, creative and an inexpensive project everyone can love!

Here's the poem:

Dashing from the malls
With groceries yet to buy.
Lessons, work and housecleaning
Life’s so crazy! Why?

Bells on our telephone ring
The machine will take the call.
We have no time for family or friends,
It drives us up the wall.

How are you? How’s your life?
We really want to know.
Hope you’re ready for Christmas,
Now maybe it will snow.

A day or two ago,
We thought we’d make a treat,
For all our special friends-
A Christmas gift to eat.

Our intentions were top notch,
But our schedules would not budge,
Hence, here’s this year’s edition
Of homemade
Christmas Fudge…

Christmas cards

***The winner of the Ella Bella Bows is.....TAYLOR! Thanks for commenting Taylor. Alycia will send those out to you lickety split!****


It's that time of year again where it's time to send out those Christmas cards and share with those what's been going on in our lives. It's nice to see how the kids have grown, and what fun things have been happening through out the year. I try and send them out in the early weeks of December because if I wait too long then I'll get too bogged down with other things and they never get done.

In my quest to have some cute cards I try and convince my kiddos to participate and pose for a nice Christmas picture that we can share with friends and family. Easier said then done! Lot's of begging and threats (no dinner for a month! Your grounded for life!) to bribing, (candy for dinner, all you can eat!). Finally this year I came up with something that didn't require them to all be looking at the camera. Hubby and his family are huge hunting fanatics I like to say and I thought it would be fun to do something that had to do with hunting. This is what I came up with and the kids actually had fun acting it out.
*Disclaimer: Of course we would never hunt santa with actual bullets or anything. Just marshmellows and candy cane ropes. *

So how do you do your Christmas cards? Family photo? Home made? Cute box from a store?

Traditions

It's the season for some traditions don't you think? I grew up with a few traditions like always going to my grandparents, and holding our annual Christmas party downstairs. Always a bowl of spicy chex mix on the bar and punch made out of Squirt and juice.

Now that I'm married we've made a few traditions of our own. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Christmas. So of course the Christmas tree has to go up right after Thanksgiving. As soon as I can get away with it.

Another tradition is new jammies for the whole family that we open on Christmas eve. The whole idea was to have nice, warm, comfy jammies and of course to look cute for those Christmas morning pictures. No more half dressed shots! Another favorite of mine that I hide waaaay back in the freezer so no one can see, is a carton of Dyrers special addition Peppermint ice cream. This is sooo stinkin good! And half the fat of regular so that means we can have an extra large bowl of it right?

Another great tradition is Cottage Cheese cookies. Your probably thinking what the heck? Cottage cheese? That's not Christmasy. I'm not really sure why they became our favorite Christmas treat but they are so good you just can't eat one. People are always surprised by how good they are and really, you can't taste the cottage cheese. Promise!

This recipe came from my mil. A few years ago she made all of our families a cookbook with some of her best recipes for Christmas.

Cottage Cheese Cookies

3 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

4 tsp. vanilla

5 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup shortening

2 tsp baking POWDER

2 cups cottage cheese

1/2 cup walnuts (optional. We've never made them with the nuts but I bet they

wouldn't' be too bad.)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl (when it means big bowl, get a HUGE bowl. This makes a lot!) by hand or heavy duty mixer. Chill over night. (I'll be honest. We're lucky if these make it into the fridge for an hour. Still good!)

Roll into balls. Roll into powdered sugar. Press down a bit (not too flat)

Bake at 325 for 10 minutes on greased pan. (or non stick)

This recipe does make quite a bit but you'll be glad you made it all. You can share some with your friends! Now that I've shared some of my Christmas traditions, why don't you share some of yours? And don't forget to check back on Friday for an awesome give away we are having!

A Christmas Cookie Swap

Mmmm sounds good already! Every year I am always trying to think of something new to do for my friends. Something I want to make fun yet personal, thoughtful yet festive. Well...what about a cookie swap? You throw a party at your house and everyone brings a plate of a dozen cookies. At the end of the night you go home with a plate of cookies that are different from the ones you brought. Christmas these days can get really spendy so what a fun way to do something that won't break the bank and that everyone can enjoy! Besides...who doesn't like cookies?

Above are some pictures I found of some Holiday cookies. You can make them as festive as you want! Another great idea for your kids to join in and help!

This month we'll be having great Christmas idea's and some give aways as well! Check back often, leave us comments and maybe you will win some great stuff!

Clapping my hands in excitement!

Ok. Everyone who knows me knows that I love Christmas. LOVE IT! Love to shop for it. Love to bake for it. Love to hang out with the family. Love to decorate for it! In anticipation for that great day of decorating, who everyone knows IS really as soon as the turkey is off the table, I may even let the family finish eating it. I've been working on a few little things to decorate the house with this holiday season and I thought that I would share a few with you to get you in the holiday mood too!
This is soo easy! I already had the candles and the ribbon was 50% off at Michaels so it wasn't much at all. Look how cute the candles are now with just a little ribbon to jazz them up with. This is going to be a present for my daughters teacher. Mrs. Baillie if your looking, keep your eyes closed for this part!

This one is supposed to be finished but hubby's promise of the wood scrap I need to put the "days til Christmas" on is still missing. I'll bug him again today to get on that! I'd just do it myself but if you've seen his mans land, it's just not pretty.

THESE! Soooo stinking simple I'm kicking myself for not doing these before now. Someone said you could pick up the glass stones at the Dollar Store but I couldn't find any clear enough at mine so I got mine at Joanns. They were around 3 dollar for like 25 stones. I got a pack of 50 magnets at Walmart for 3 dollars too and of course had the scrapbook paper. Not bad if I do say so myself. Look how pretty they are. They will make someone fridge very elegant!

I picked up this sled at a flea market back in May, with the thought of turning it into, of course, a Christmas decoration . I'm not sure I like the bow though. I may change that. I just shopped around in my Christmas stuff till I found some things that worked.

Dollar asle at Walmart! Had the Christmas ribbon. I'm going to fill it up with some goodies for friends. It's so easy your kids can make this.

These books are where I've been finding some really great recipes. YUM!

So aren't you all excited for Christmas now? We'll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving but we'll be back on the 30th and we'll be having lot's of fun ideas and tips for the Christmas season!

Believe

I guess you probably noticed that there was no post yesterday. Oops! It was me. I'm sorry. I really have no excuse other than, well...I don't have one! I've just been busy with finishing up our remodel, basketball, scouts, YW and all the other fun things that come with having a family. I also took on this craft project with my mil that we are doing at church, that has kept me sanding and sanding, and sanding till I felt like my arms were going to fall off.

I've confessed before that I am a blog stalker. I admit it. I am! I can't help it though. There are so many great ideas and talented ladies out there. That is how I found my latest project. I found this while surfing Tip Junkie If you've never looked at her site you should! Lot's of awesome tips and ideas.

Isn't this a terrific project? And it would make a great gift for someone too. You can find the originally idea here. I love the idea of using the candle for the letter L. It gives the project that little extra something special don't you think? I used the word Welcome for my daughters teacher's Christmas gift and put the word home on the candle. Like I said, the ideas can be unlimited. It's also fairly simple. We just cut a 2x4 into the size blocks we wanted. We cut 7 1/2 6 1/2 and 5 1/2 sized blocks but, you can make them any size that you want. We'll paint them (any color I think would look great too but, we picked black. It goes with everything!) and add the letters and your done. No more than an hour for sure!

Don't forget to check back wednesday for Alycia's terrific post and on friday we have another guest poster who is going to share some awesome tips on how to get the most out of your money this holiday season.

We also have some really fun give aways starting after Thanksgiving so be ready!

Where has the time gone?

Its already the 1st of November? Is anyone else is disbelief that we are nearing the end of the year already?? Once Halloween is over it seems like I just can't catch a breath until after the New Year. In 3 weeks we have Thanksgiving and then shortly after that we have Christmas. Sounds easy but November and December are such busy months! We usually travel back home to be with our families for both of these holidays which means a lot of driving, packing and stress to make sure we have everything in order before we go out of town. The question is...how can we slow down and enjoy this time of year? We need to remember the reasons why we celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving and enjoy the time we spend with our families. This season my plan is to take care of all those little things that need to get done early and try to slow down and have some fun the next couple of months! Christmas is my favorite holiday and this year its my daughter's first Christmas as well. I'm excited and plan on enjoying every minute of it! So what are your plans???

I couldn't resist putting this photo up. Cutest little pumpkin!

Less than 3 months till Christmas people!

Are you looking for a simple, easy, cute Christmas gift? Well have I got an idea for you! Turning tumbled tiles into coasters. They are so cute, you could use them just the way they are. You can find them at any hardware store. You know the usual, Lowe's, Home Depot. You can't beat the price either. I picked up mine for .38 per tile. Every time I go there now, I pick up 4 or 5. Now I have all these little tile towers all over. I'd take a picture but then you'd also have to see all the other stuff packed (stuffed, thrown, piled) all over from our kitchen remodel. Trust me, it's not pretty.

So here's what you'll need for this project. Yes, once again I've forgotten to take pictures of the actual process but I think that you gal's can figure it out. It really is easy. I chose to use stamps on mine.

4 or 5 tiles of your choice.
Stayz on ink (this really does work best. You can get it at most craft stores)
Stamps
Polycrylic protective finish
Felt pads for the bottoms

*So first you wipe any dust off the tiles. Then start stamping! If you make a mistake just use a little wet paper towel and wipe away. I think you have a few seconds at least to do this. NOT that I would know anything about having to re do any of mine. (only about 10 times!)

*And of course since it's about Christmas gifts I made mine with some Christmas stamps but I think any kind would look really nice. I made some nice florishy (lol I love to make up new words) ones for my mom and mil.

*After I finished stamping and the ink was dry, I'm impatient and didn't wait too long, put a few coats of sealer on. I think I waited maybe 20-30 min in between coats. I told you I was impatient! After everything is all dry then add the felt pieces to the bottom to protect.

Then to finish off the gift don't forget to wrap it in some pretty Christmas ribbon and add a cute little tag. I love ribbon! Hi, I'm Valerie and I have a ribbon obsession. :)

Okay dokey! That's it. This one is so easy that you can chill out with your favorite movie on and create these cute little gifts for friends and neighbors. They are going to love these!