12 Days of Christmas Crafting - Intro

Welcome to the 12 days of Christmas Crafting with, Meaghan, Monica and I. We are going to share with you 12 Christmas Idea's to help you get ready for the Holiday Season. We know how busy and expensive this time of year can be so we're going to share 12 idea's with you that are all really inexpensive and easy to make. Hope we inspire you to try something new or get creative with this months upcoming festivities. We're going to post one idea each day for the first 12 days of December.

On a lighter note here is a fun picture of us to get you excited about what we've got coming your way.

Don't let this picture deter you. You see even we don't take ourselves too seriously. Don't get us wrong though we're super excited about this fun little project and our ideas are going to help you get all your food/crafts/decorating done on the inexpensive.

Can't wait to see what you think of our idea's.

And the winner is...

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:2
Timestamp: 2010-11-26 22:55:47 UTC

It looks like Tanya is the winner of the Christmas Cards. I'll send them to you in the mail.... thanks to all who participated this was a fun post for me.

Happy US Thanksgiving

It's US thanksgiving. Even though up here in Canada we have already celebrated thanksgiving I have lots of friends from the US and in particular living here in NS. So this post is for you all. This recipe for biscuits is from a church recipe book that I bought when I was living in Charlottetown, PEI. The recipe was from a dear friend Joyce. She was one of the most loving Mom's, at the time she was my friends mother but quickly became a good friend to me as a teenager. She has since lost her battle with Cancer but I will forever make theses delicious biscuits and think of her. So today I'm thankful for great friends. I'm thankful for how my good friends have loved me unconditionally throughout the years, and I"m grateful for all the things I have learned from them.Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here's the recipe which I'm now going to call Joyce's Thanksgiving Biscuits. Make and enjoy.

Joyce's Thanksgiving Biscuits

2 1/4 Cups Flour
4 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Margarine or Butter
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar

I make these in my Kitchen aid Mixer. Use the dough hook. Mix the flower, baking powder, salt, sugar and butter. Let it go for a few minutes while the butter breaks down in to little clumps. Slowly add the milk. I find I don't always need the full cup of milk. Make sure it mixes well so that the butter is properly mixed in.

Roll them out on a floured surface, I use a cup to make them round and place on a baking sheet. I bake them at 350 until the bottom is golden brown and then I broil the top to get them golden on top.

So tell me what your thankful for!

(PS. Don't forget about the Give Away it closes Friday!)

Organization Makes My Heart Dance...

Finally there is progress in the Toy Room, the shelves were done last week. It only took about six months to get from the time we purchased the lumber to this stage, but boy does it feel good. I'm not sure if you feel the same about organization but when my house is in chaos my mind is there too. It must be a mother thing. Let me tell you I was doing the inner joy dance last night. I have plans for wall art and these two picture frames are going to be going on the wall with some other decorative stuff I have planned.
Take a peek inside I just love it when like things are stored together in their place. Really I should be a professional organizer it really gets my going.

So what'cha think??

Way better than the toy room chaos that has been my life for the last year. We've lived here one full year on November 19. I've got the seating to get done and some other small projects for this room but I'm finally not dreading it anymore....

I'm "PEEK"ing Over at Visible Voice

I'm so excited for this post. Today I'm doing a guest "Peek" with Kristi over at Visible Voice. You'll see the ins and outs of building my house.

Go check it out she's got a great blog.

Oh and don't forget about my giveaway.

Christmas Give Away

I've promised a giveaway for a little bit now so here you have it. I've made these fun little Christmas cards to get you thinking about what your going to do for your Christmas cards this year. I have my family pictures printed and ready to go and I've finalized the cards I'm going to make for my far away family and friends. I haven't decided if I'm going to write that infamous generic Christmas letter yet or not. What do you think about that?

Meaghan, Monica and I also gearing up for my "12 Days of Christmas Crafting" that's going to start on December 1st and we have some really fun and inexpensive idea's to share with you so be sure to come back then to check it out.

If you would like to win these fun Christmas cards (you get two of each card), I'll ship them to where ever you live. They even come wrapped in this cute little box.

Here is what you'll need to do.

1st entry

Become a follower of my blog, and then come post a comment here that you are for your first chance to win.

2nd entry

Post this blog on your facebook page, then come back and post a comment here for your second chance to win.

3rd entry,

Post this blog entry on your personal blog, then come back and post a comment here for your third chance to win.

This giveaway closes November 26th so share this fun site with your friends.

Vintage Martha Stewart

Normally the lunch room at work isn't the most exciting place I've ever been. Last week I came in and found a pile of old books someone was free-cycling away. I dug trough the pile until this red hard covered book popped into my hands. Seriously it would have jumped if it had legs. This book was published when I was five years old, so to me it's vintage but I'm sure vintage things have to be like 100 years or more. What ever, I was still rather excited to find it. Check out Martha she looks so young here don't you think? This book has tons of great party ideas as well as recipes to try. I'm so looking forward to digging into it and giving them a try.
See these awesome fresh berry tarts. I'm so going to try to make these. I've always wanted to make a tart but have yet to try it.
I also want to dig into this children's section and have fun with my kids over the Christmas season. Yes I'm talking about Christmas again.
I'll let you know when I try some of these oldies but goodies.

Don't for get to follow this blog. Give away's are coming soon for followers.

Meags and I got together tonight to start working on our 12 Days of Christmas Crafting. Those will start posting on December 1st. This is going to be so much fun, your going to love it.

Storage Shelves

Do you remember this?

I'm sooo trying to ignore, forget, deny, evade.

It's the project I seem to always put at the bottom of my to do list. It's one of those "it's going to take so much work and the kids are always doing a number on it" kinds rooms that I find other projects that take it's place. These shelves have been in my garage for most of the summer and now I really needed to get at them. I had my hubby and his BFFC (best friend from childhood) make these for me. (Do guys refer to each other that way?) Who knows. They are a project that I got off Ana White. I love her creativity. They cost me a little bit more than the price she quotes there. Probably the difference from US to Canadian funds. So they are primed twice and have one coat of white melamine paint on them. I'm going for durability since Buddy Boys tends to be on the war path with everything he touches.
I'm well on my way to getting a handle on this toy room. I have yet to find cute baskets to put on them. That will be my next project.

Cards

Here are some more fun cards I made at club with my crafty friends. This watermelon card actually was really cute and everyone did different things with their watermelon pieces. this is what I did with mine. This is a cute card for a baby shower. You could make it in pink for a little girl.
Tonight I'm going to start on my Christmas cards. Anyone wishing it was the end of November yet so we could start decorating the house for Christmas?

Beverly's Amazing Doughnuts

Proceed with Caution! There now you've been warned.

These melt in your mouth doughnuts are to die for. They are as good as they look, the only problem is that there is absolutely nothing nutritious about these bad boys, not a thing. But let me tell you when they are still hot and glazed......hhhmmmmm!!!! Do you wanna know how to make them? I thought you might. This is a family recipe that has been in my husbands family for a while. It is a make it every couple years kind of recipe. First off because they are not a healthy choice, but oh so delicious and they take some time to make. You need a two day span to get them all done.

1 Package of Active Dry Yeast

1 1/2 Cups Warm Water - Dissolve Yeast in a Large Bowl

1 Cup of unseasoned Lukewarm Mashed Potatoes (Yes make and cool mash potatoes)

2/3 Cup Sugar

2/3 Cup Shortening

2 Eggs

1 1/2 TSP Salt

Mix all the ingredients above together and beat with a fork until smooth

3 Cups Flour - Then mix in 3-4 cups of flour until the dough is nice and easy to work with.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed for 5 min until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover it tightly. This is what the dough looks like after the kneading process.

Refrigerate the covered bowl for at least 8 hours. The dough can be stored in the fridge for up to five days. (C'mon who really wants to do that?)

After refrigeration roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 3/8" in thickness. Cut out with desired cutter. We used a cup for the outside and a pop bottle cap to get out the inside hole. Place them on a greased (vegetable shortening) cookie sheet far enough apart to allow for rising.

Cover and let rise for 2 more hours. The recipe should make about 20 doughnuts.

Once they have risen you deep fry them in vegetable shortening, on a pot on the stove. Deep fry each side until they are golden brown. It only takes 1-1 1/2 minutes on each side just pay attention to how dark they are getting. You don't want to overcook them. As soon as they come out of the fryer they get dipped into the glaze.

While you are heating up 3-4 pounds of vegetable shortening on the stove make the glaze.

Glaze

1 3/4 Cups Icing Sugar

1/4 Cup Milk or Water (Beverly used water)

1/4 Tsp Vanilla

They are now ready for you to devour. Your going to want to have some friends over to help you eat them. Twenty doughnuts is way to much for just your family and really these are not a treat you save for tomorrow they just aren't as good as they are hot off the press.

Don't forget to follow this blog I've got some giveaway's coming for follower! Your going to love it!