Cinnamon Ornaments!

When I was in preschool, I made this adorable gingerbread ornament that has hung on the tree every year since. It's always given off this incredible cinnamon aroma that fills our house with Christmas scents. It's been 18 years since preschool, and it still smells divine! I decided to make some of these today as gifts with my Williams-Sonoma Cookie Cutters. They turned out so great! These ornaments are incredibly easy. In fact, you probably have everything you need to make them in your kitchen!

Ingredients:
2 cups Apple Sauce (1 15oz can)
2 cups Cinnamon
1 straw
Ribbon to hang
Cookie Cutters

Directions

1. Mix the apple sauce and cinnamon with your hands to make a ball of dough
2. Roll out the dough (I did this in between two pieces of wax paper) 
3. Cut your shapes! Make sure they are at least 1/4 of an inch thick.
4. Poke a hole where you want to put a ribbon with your straw.
5. Heat your oven to 170 (I just set mine to the warm setting) and bake for 2-3 hours. You also have the choice of not baking them and letting them sit out for a few days. 

That's it! I love mine and I'm super excited to give them away as gifts!

Stuffed Pepper

First off, I wanted to thank you all for blowing up pinterest with some of my blog posts! You made my day. :) It's my birthday week (I'll be 22 on Friday!), and I've been experimenting in the kitchen to celebrate. That almost sounds odd to say! If you ask my friends about my creations they will probably giggle themselves silly. I was never one to cook. In fact, my idea of cooking was a bowl of cereal or mac and cheese. Trust me, I make a mean bowl of cereal; however, thanks to that beautiful website we like to call pinterest, I've been broadening my horizons. Today's creation? Stuffed bell peppers. I've always seen them in the supermarkets. My mouth has always watered longingly at the display case of brightly colored stuffed (expensive!) veggies. So today, my goal was to make one. Every recipe I saw called for so many different things! I am a picky eater, so I knew it couldn't contain tomatoes and onions like every recipe called for. I can handle onion powder, so that was going to be my substitute. There were many great sauces out there, but I didn't have any of the ingredients to make them. So, I ended up with possibly the most simple stuffed pepper recipe ever. It was delicious! Please experiment with it and have fun!

Ingredients: (For 1 serving)

1. One green bell pepper (You can use any color you want but this is my favorite!) 
2. 1/4 cup of ground beef
3. 1/4 cup of rice (and 3/4 cup of water to make it) 
4. 1 handful (I'm guessing this would be around 1/3 cup?) shredded cheddar cheese 
5. 1/4 tsp onion powder
6. 1 tsp (or more according to your tastes) tabasco sauce/ or other hot sauce
7. salt/pepper to taste. 
8. 1 tsp garlic

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut the top off a bell pepper and make sure all the seeds are out. 
3. Bring a pot of water (enough to cover a bell pepper) to a boil. Once it boils, put your bell pepper in for 4 minutes. When it is done, set it aside. 
4. In a small pan cook your meat. You may want to soak the oil out of it with a paper towel. After the meat is browned, put in your garlic and brown that too. (Does that make sense?) :) 
5. In a small pot, add your rice and water. Put a lid on the rice and leave it open a little for the steam to escape. The rice will be done after 7 or 8 minutes. (usually when it stops bubbling and steaming) 
6. When both the meat and rice are done, combine them. I put my meat into the small pot I was cooking the rice in. Add your tabasco, salt, pepper, onion powder, and cheese. Mix! 
7. Spoon your rice/meat mixture into your pepper. Top with more chedder cheese. 
8. I placed my pepper in a small glass pyrex bowl to keep it upright. Bake it for 25 minutes! 

Eat right away! :) I actually had no idea how to eat this so I just took a steak knife and fork and went for it! SO GOOD. 

Apple Fritters!

I'm trying to make it a goal on this site to try out as many pinterest recipes as I can. I hope by doing so, I can give you all a better idea of what to make! Today's recipe pick are the homemade apple fritters that have been taking pinterest by a storm. Jacquline from Seemingly Greek is the creator of this yummy recipe. I looked through the reviews and adapted it to a recipe to better fit my tastes. The result? Pretty good! I have never been an apple fritter fan (I'm a freak!) but these were not too bad. :) A little trick... the more apples the better. The bites with the most apple in them were the best! So, I would definitely keep this one in my recipe box. I think my husband will love them! Be sure to check out Jacquline's blog for many other great ideas.

 

Homemade Apple Fritters Recipe:
1 heaping cup AP flour
1/3 cup sugar

2 T. and 1tsp brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp almond extract
1 T. butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
3 large apples. (Tart flavors work the best)

Glaze

2 cups pwd. sugar and 2 T. milk 

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat Oil (You will know it's ready when a small drop of dough floats to the top) I kept it on medium low heat.
2. Mix all ingredients together. (I like the original authors description: "The batter should be the consistency of a light cake mix") 
3. I used a cookie scooper to drop around 5 dough balls in the oil.
4. Brown each side (it takes around 30-40 seconds) I used two cooking spoons to flip and squeeze the extra oil out when they were done.
5. Dip warm fritters in your glaze mixture (I made sure they were completely coated) 

Serve warm! :) 

Want to try the original recipe instead? Click HERE! 

Passion for Fashion

I LOVE lace. Every time I wear a lace clothing piece I automatically feel more elegant. Here's a piece I picked up from forever21. It was around $25. Check out your local forever21 for some great lace items! Try pairing a lace dress with tights and pearl necklaces. This would make a wonderful Christmas look. :)

Free Printable Subway Art

Here's another free printable for you!

Free Printable!

I love this quote! I saw it on pinterest and made a version to frame in my home. Merry Christmas! Enjoy this simple, free printable!

Download by clicking here.

Miracle Acne Treatment?

I am one of those lucky people blessed with adult acne. It's not horrible, just a few pimples a month. In February I had a flare up that left scars all over my cheeks. . . NOTHING would get rid of them! It wasn't a happy situation for me. My Aunt had told me about tea tree oil many months ago, but I hadn't picked up my bottle until recently. A few days ago I bought my first bottle at CVS pharmacy on a whim. It was only around $10 so I figured it wouldn't be a huge blow to the budget. All I can say is: WOW! In just 2 days my acne scars on one cheek are completely faded. The other cheek's scars have been minimized greatly. My husband is using it and is having the same results! :) We don't dilute it at all (probably not the best if you have sensitive skin!) and find that it clears up your face super fast. Tea tree oil can also be used on small cuts and bug bites. Definitely worth checking into! :)

Fashion Recreation

I LOVE Blair's style on Gossip Girl. I'm not a big watcher of the show, but her fashion has always stood out to me. I love her headbands, classic Audrey Hepburn styles, and cute hair. I tried recreating one of her looks from what I had in my own closet... honestly, I could have probably done better. It turned out pretty  cute though, and I think it was a pretty fun outfit. :) Excuse the HUGE mess of a room. This picture was from before we moved into our apartment, and wedding gifts were everywhere!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

I found this recipe on pinterest and tweaked it a bit to make it my own. :)

What you'll need:
1 package of crescent rolls (This will make 8 rolls... you can double the recipe if you need more!)
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon almond extract


For the glaze:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon (Add it in until it's drizzling ready. . . I added a bit too much and put in more powdered sugar to compensate)


Heat your oven up to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and almond extract. Roll out your crescents and peel apart. Apply the mixture you just made to these with a knife. Roll them up and pinch the ends of the crescents so the mixture won't fall out. :)

Put them in the oven for 10 minutes.

When they are done, mix together your glaze and drizzle over with a spoon. All done! YUM!

Homemade Fabreze Spray!

Oh, pinterest. I'm constantly trying out new ideas gathered on that gem of a site. Today I was determined to make the homemade fabreze spray I had pinned weeks ago. I'm going to be completely honest with you: I'm married to an amazing christian school teacher. We just recently moved to this new town and I haven't found a job yet. That being said. . . woooah are we on a tight budget! :) This was such a great find and I'm super happy with the results. Not having a laundry room in our first apartment has not been the easiest thing, so this spray will keep things fresh a little longer until our next laundry trip. I love that you can pick your favorite scented fabric softener. My bedding now smells divine. I'm a happy camper. :)




Here's the recipe for a 32oz bottle

1/8 Cup of Your Favorite Fabric Softener
2 Tablespoons Baking Soda
Hot Tap Water - To Fill the Bottle to the Top


You can click here for the original post! :) 

The Guest Book Tree

I've always been confused by the idea of guest books. That frilly book always placed on a podium with an overly-extravegant pen has never quite made sense to me. When I saw the idea for a guest book tree, I knew that was my perfect replacement. I love art, and having a piece of it that would remind me of my amazing guests seemed like the perfect plan. Think about it: your guest book is probably going to go into a box never to be seen by human eyes again. A guest book tree, however, is out on a wall for you to look at and admire every day! Perfect!

My Mom, being the artistic genius she is, painted my tree on a piece of canvas from Michaels. She then bought me stamps in different shades of green to make the "leaves." We kept a box of huggies baby wipes right by the stamps to clean the guests fingers. :) My sister decorated a little chalkboard with "leaf your print" on it. SO cute. It turned out great! I hung it in our walk-in closet. It definitely is a great reminder of our wedding and the people that made it so wonderful.

Homemade Ornaments

What you'll need:
Styrofoam balls
Mod Podge or spray adhesive
Glitter
Faux craft pearl strand
Glue


Boredom inspired this fun project. I was sitting in my kitchen while my hubby, a new teacher, was at his first parent teacher conferences. I looked in the bag of craft supplies my mom sent home with me. I had everything I needed to make these! I would recommend using white styrofoam balls... mine were green and were very tough to cover. Overall, they were a super cute way to prepare for Christmas. I do recommend wearing rubber gloves to prevent your hands from looking like an extra ornament.

1. Cover styrofoam ball with mod podge.
2. With a newspaper underneath, sprinkle glitter of choice over entire ball. Let dry.
3. Cut pearl strand to make a loop to hang your ornament.
4. Push the ends of the pearl strand so one pearl on each end is pressed into the styrofoam. Cover the pearl with glue.
5. Sprinkle glitter over glued pearl.
6. Let dry completely before hanging.

A Bucket List

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details. 

1. Take my Grandpa on a vacation. Seriously. This man has always paid for my sister and I to go to Disney World. It would be amazing to surprise him and take him somewhere. Universal Studios please? :)
2. Visit Italy. It would be neat to visit family still over there, and learn about my culture first hand.
3. Be in a movie. Whether as an extra, or a real character. It would be fun to live out my dream!
4. Get a job I love. It would be awesome to do something enjoyable.
5. Create "blessing bags" (http://kwavs.blogspot.com/2011/05/blessing-bags-how-to.html) Such a great idea.

6. Take my Mom to Ireland. She's always wanted to go, and since she's spent her whole life giving to others it would be wonderful to give back to her.
7. Buy my sister a horse. It would be neat to make her childhood dream come true.
8. Get a "real" camera. Dabble in photography.
9. Get my husband a gift he loves. He's so hard to buy for. :)
10. Go surfing. Maybe I'll stick to trying it at Typhoon Lagoon at Disney. . .
11. Have a kid. . . but praying that's a good 5-10 years from now ;)
12. Convince my husband to let me get a puppy.
13. Buy our dream house.
14. Play "Glenda" in Wicked!
15. Take my Grandpa on a hot air balloon ride. Can you tell I love this guy?

Message in a Cookie!

When I stumbled across these cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma, I had to have them. Normally, this would be way out of my budget, but I knew I could have lots of fun with these! First off, here's the link to buy them. Williams-Sonoma Message in a Cookie Cutter Set. They are just too fun! The possibilities are endless. The only picture I have from using them is of my Easter cookies. They turned out really cute. It's definitely an easy way to impress the guests! I'll be honest, they are pretty time consuming. This isn't something you'll want to bust out every day, but it does add a lot of fun to your designs.

Some Tips:
1. Roll the dough VERY thin. Seriously. The dough rises (obviously) and the letters will disappear into cookie land.
2. Many reviewers say not to use the dough recipe that comes with the cookie box. So, look for your own!
3. Look for decorating frosting pens. They make it SO much easier to decorate these.
4. When stamping, liberally apply flour to the cookie cutters. Trust me. You will thank me when your message doesn't look like a blob.



Now for some pictures. :)

This is what the box looks like. Lots of cute decorating ideas!

Easter Cookies!

Picture from the Williams-Sonoma website (aka I didn't take it... aka now you can't sue me!) 

Yummy Fall Breakfast Smoothie!

Pumpkin Pie Breakfast Smoothie

Click on the link above to try one of the yummiest breakfast smoothies I've ever had! Vivian Levine gave myrecipes.com a wonderful adaptation of this creamy breakfast drink.

I Can Make That! DIY Photo Booth

When planning my wedding, one of my most desired "extras" was a photo booth. I searched high and low for one I could afford with my minuscule budget. Every one I came across was in the $1000 range. I tried finding other areas to cut to make it more feasible, but it just wasn't happening. While at a bridal show, my Mom and I finally found the answer to my prayers. A super affordable photo booth! Talking with the man about all the exciting possibilities made me even more eager for the big day- That is, until he asked me that dream-crushing question: "Where is the wedding?" Turns out, my wedding, three hours away from their base, would cost me a huge traveling fee. Of course, putting them right in that bracket with the others of way over my budget.
All seemed lost as I finally sent my photo booth desire into the pile of things I could never afford. (Why is this pile so big in the wedding world?) For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wanted so badly to make it happen. This opened up my eyes to another world of DIY photo booths. Many of the ones I saw online seemed to be expensive in their own right. People were buying fancy cameras and hooking up computers and printers. . . for me, this kind of blew the whole "save money" portion of the idea. I had to get creative. I found a damask curtain at my house from Target. It was cute, went with my theme, and FREE since I already had it. Doing an internet search for free photo booth props resulted in some super adorable mustaches and funny ideas. I talked to my photographer about it, and she told me she would be more than willing to stand there and take photos of all the guests. It ended up being a HIT! We put the pictures online for people to print out themselves. Many even took pictures with their own cameras. For basically free I was able to add a great element of fun to the wedding. I will leave you with some pictures from LGPhotography and some links to print out your own photobooth props! The blogs that made the props are super cute, and I definitely recommend checking them out. Such a fun, cheap way to add so much to your big day, or any party.


"Tip Junkie" Free Mustache Printable!
"Catch My Party" Free Printables!
"Oh Happy Day"- Free Printables!

Oh, so creative.

Before- Old Fisher-Price Castle 

After- Repainted castle made a great accent at our castle wedding! Photo credit: LGPhotography





My Mom's creativity has never ceased to amaze me. I'd like to say that her creativity was passed on to me, but I highly doubt it. She has this amazing way of taking things from ugly to fabulous. A lot of people have these castles sitting around, and you've probably seen your share at local garage sales. I think this would make a gorgeous addition to a little girls room. My Mom spray painted this castle with left over ivory spray paint from another project. It needed a few coats to get that solid pearlescent color. She put a piece of damask ribbon on the "door" of the castle. In the windows, she placed crystal stickers by David Tutera's wedding collection. The project was a cheap way to take my husband's old toy to a wonderful accent. Such a chic and easy project!


-A