Iron Craft Challenge #14: All Natural

I read the description for this challenge, to make something with natural materials, and I was stuck.  So I figured I would go with wood, because I have a big bag of old-fashioned clothespins, and a Christmas ornament, because that seems to be the kick I'm on lately.

I started with pretty simple materials: a couple wooden clothespins and a wooden circle bead, blue cloth, and hot glue.

 First I put together the baby.

 Then the Mary and Joseph.

 And the whole family!

 I call it my natural minimalist nativity scene.  Simple but cute!

Anyone else making Christmas ornaments in July?

4th Of July Fun!

Jonah and Matthew love when I get out the paint shirts and the newspaper. They think painting is the best project in the world. It's messy, so it doesn't happen very often, but they love it.

I had a red lid that came with a Christmas cookie container, but the container itself had broken. But the lid was pretty, and I thought I could probably make something with it, so I saved it.  I decided to paint a flag on it.

Since I was painting, I decided to let the boys help, so I pulled two oatmeal canister lids out of the recycling for them, and gave them some red, white, and blue.

Then I put it all together with a little bit of ribbon, and hung it on our front door.  A little bit of festive fun for the season, and they were so proud when they saw their artwork on the door!

Reformation Breakfast and Menu Plan November 4-16

My friend Tricia came up with this idea for her Sunday School activity/treat, and I thought it was awesome, so I borrowed it for our Reformation breakfast.  On Reformation we celebrate Martin Luther's nailing the 95 Theses on the Catholic church's door, thus starting the break from Catholicism to what eventually became the Lutheran church, which we are a part of.  One of the symbols is the Luther seal.

So we made the Luther seal on pancakes.

The pancake for the yellow ring, blueberries for the blue, whipped cream for the white rose, strawberries for the heart, and chocolate chips for the cross.  Pretty and delicious!

One of my November goals is to add more Paleo foods into our diet. It's something that we want to try to see how it affects how we feel, weight loss, and so on. If it helps, and if we can fit it into our budget, we're going to keep it going, at least part of the time.  This does mean, however, that I'm back to planning all the meals, which I don't love doing (although it does make life a whole lot easier in the long run).

Monday, November 4
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Soups from the Freezer (Chicken Enchilada Chili or Tomato)
Dinner: One Pot Chicken Drumsticks

Tuesday, November 5
Breakfast: Winter Squash Hash & Eggs
Lunch: Chicken Salads (using leftover chicken from last night)
Dinner: Crockpot Italian Sausage with Peppers & Onions (doubled)

Wednesday, November 6
Breakfast: Leftover Hash & Eggs
Lunch: Leftover Italian Sausage
Dinner: Pear & Ground Pork Stuffed Sausage

Thursday, November 7
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs & Fruit
Lunch: Vegetable Soup
Dinner: Chicken Fajita Mix, Refried Beans

Friday, November 8
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Tortillas with Refried Beans and Cheese
Dinner: Crockpot Beef & Broccoli for us, hot dogs for the boys

Saturday, November 9
Breakfast: Creamy Breakfast Quiche
Lunch: Vegetable Soup (made on Thursday)
Dinner: Chicken with Mushrooms & Onions (making extra chicken for salads for the next two days)

Sunday, November 10 (Jesse's birthday!)
Breakfast: Leftover Quiche
Lunch: Steak, Steamed Broccoli, Paleo Pumpkin Pie
Dinner: Chicken Salads

Monday, November 11
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Chicken Salads
Dinner: Turkey Crockpot Chili (doubling the vegetables)

Tuesday, November 12
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs & Fruit
Lunch: Turkey "Sushi" Rolls
Dinner: Leftover Turkey Chili from last night

Wednesday, November 13
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Curry Chicken Salad on Cucumber Slices
Dinner: Mexican Beef Skewers, Poblano Sweet Potatoes

Thursday, November 14
Breakfast: Family Frittata
Lunch: Tomato Soup
Dinner: Leftover Skewers and Sweet Potatoes

Friday, November 15
Breakfast: Leftover Frittata
Lunch: Leftover Tomato Soup from yesterday
Dinner: Mini Meat Loaves, Carrot Fries

Saturday, November 16
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: TBD
Dinner: Leftover Meat Loaves and Fries

Unless linked otherwise, a lot of these recipes are from the Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook, which we bought a couple weeks ago.  We're not completely Paleo - you can see that we're still having cereal for breakfast, and we do have the occasional non-Paleo item. But overall, it's a good introduction.

Iron Craft Challenge 9: Notions

This challenge, to use materials from the notions section of the craft store, immediately led me to ribbons and buttons.  And with Mother's Day coming up, I decided to make some pretty cards for the special ladies in our lives.

I got some of my inspiration from here and here. I also included a list inside of some of the things I love about my mom, and my husband did the same for his mom.  I got that idea here, and I think it's such a sweet one.

A little ribbon and buttons from my craft stash, some glue, and voila! Mother's Day cards! 

Homemade Christmas Present Roundup

Merry Christmas!  I hope you are all enjoying the holidays with those you love, celebrating Jesus' birth.  I will be back to regular posting next week, but for now, here's a roundup of homemade Christmas presents from both this year and years past:

• Fleece Block-y Balls
• Wire Beaded Family Ornaments
• Food In Jars (Taco Bean Chili and Cornbread Mix)
• Tile Photo Coasters
• Snowman Hot Cocoa Jars
• Food In Jars (Peanut Butter Brownie Mix, Reindeer Food, Everything But The Ice Cream Sundae Box)
• Grandkids Board
• Fleece Scarf
• Bubble Magnets
• Yarn-Wrapped Wire Mickey Mouse Ornament
• Photo Thank You Notes
• Woven Scrap Rug

I do enjoy coming up with new projects each year, finding things that fit each person.  However, I tend to come up with lots of good ideas bright and early, and then not work on them until the last minute.  Someone remind me to start working on these projects before mid-December next year!

Homemade Christmas Presents: Fleece Block-y Balls

I tried really hard to think of a way to describe these besides "I made some giant balls."  Pardon my second grade humor.  I found a pattern for these fleece blocks, which looked like fun, but I wanted BIGGER.  

For a size comparison, here are the balls with my 20 ounce water cup.  They're big.

To make these, I cut six 15" squares of fleece per ball.  I measured, kind of, but if you know anything about how I craft, or cook, for that matter, I tend to just guesstimate and it usually works out okay.  My lines were not perfectly straight.  Then I cut strips on the sides, five per side, plus cutting off the corners.  (Go look at the pattern I linked if that doesn't make sense.)

I tied them together and realized that maybe 15" was a bit too large, but 10" as suggested seemed too small.  So find a happy medium...

I put a big jingle bell from the craft store in one.  I took the suggestion I found here to put it in a plastic Easter egg first so the jingle wouldn't get muffled, and I filed the rest of that block with stuffing.  The second one I filled with plastic grocery bags, so it makes a fun crinkling noise.  Yay sensory learning!  If I have time, I may make a third one, but that one will simply have stuffing and be quiet.  

These might be too huge for stacking, but they should be fun for rolling around, leaning on, and hopefully shaking until the jingle bell drives their parents crazy  to enjoy pretty music.

These didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned them in my head, but I really like them, and I hope the cute little girl who ends up with them enjoys them too!

Homemade Christmas Presents: Family Ornaments

Some of my favorite Christmas ornaments are the personalized family ones.  I wanted to make one, not only for us, but also for some of our friends and family.  I still have a personalized one from my childhood that has my parents, my sister, and me (but no little brother!), and I think it's awesome.  

To make these, I grabbed a package of colorful beads and some small, round, wooden beads at the craft store.  I already had the wire on hand.  I cut one strip of wire and doubled it over for the "base" to hang the people from.  I looped each end of the base so I would have something to attach the ribbon to hang it.

Then I cut a smaller strip of wire for each person, threaded on the beads (3 colorful ones per adult, 2 per kid, and just 1 for baby bean), and twisted it around the base.  For those that I knew, I tried to use their favorite colors, or at least more feminine colors for the girls, and masculine colors for the boys.  A pliers helped, but my thumbs still hurt from the twisting.

I had plans to add a little nameplate to the top with "DeDeyne 2012", but I couldn't find anything that looked quite right, so I just left that off.  I still like how it turned out, and I hope the recipients of the other ones I made will like them too!

Homemade Christmas Presents: Food In Jars

One of my favorite homemade Christmas presents (both to give and receive) is food in jars.  The mixes are (usually) layered and pretty to look at, while also still being useful and consumable.  This year we made Taco Bean Chili and Cornbread Mix for our pastors and church administrator.  The cornbread mix is the standard recipe I use, which was on the back of the cornmeal package.  Jonah and Matthew even helped dump the ingredients into the jars!

I also included a bag of peanut butter granola, but that didn't make it into the picture.  I printed the directions for the mixes onto labels and stuck them right onto the jars, so they won't get lost.  We recycled some jars that had been given to us last year with other goodies in them, as well as some cleaned out pickle, salsa, and sauce jars that I had saved from the past few months.  This is an easy (and cheap!) present that can be appreciated after the holidays are over.

Homemade Christmas Presents: Tile Coasters

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is creating and giving homemade gifts.  I always try to come up with something personalized that the person will really love and use.  I have seen several variations of these tile photo coasters around the blogs, and I knew I wanted to try them.

Materials:

• 4 or 5 plain white tiles ($0.16 each at Home Depot)
• Scrap felt for feet (so they don't scratch the table)
• Hot glue
• 4x6 photos, trimmed to size
• Mod Podge and a paintbrush

 After laying down some of my favorite comics (love Baby Blues!), I cut out some scrap felt squares for the "feet" for the coasters. 

I also trimmed my 4x6 photos to fit. 

Then I hot glued the felt to the bottom of the tiles.

And finally, I painted on a layer of Mod Podge.  It looks terribly streaky at first, but it does all soak into the paper and dry after a bit.  According to the bottle, you need to wait at least 15-20 minutes between layers, but I waited a little longer than that.

I ended up doing 5 layers of Mod Podge, and then I sprayed them with some clear fixitive to seal them.

Then I wrapped them up with some pretty ribbon and ta da! Homemade present!

Also, please excuse the messiness of my table in the photos.  A lot of crafting and baking has been happening here over the past few days...

Homemade Christmas Presents: Snowman Hot Cocoa Jars

Aren't these adorable? I made these up for some of our nieces and nephews for a little Christmas treat.  They are really simple to make. 

Jonah and Matthew helped me fill the jars.  The bottom one has 1/4 cup hot cocoa powder in it.  The middle one has M&Ms, and the top one has mini marshmallows.  I hot glued the 3 jars together, drew on a Sharpie face and buttons, and wrapped a ribbon scarf around their necks.  Easy!  I'm sure they will enjoy this yummy treat.

Easy No-Bake Christmas Treats!

Yesterday afternoon, Jonah and Matthew and I made two easy and yummy Christmas treats.  While they did more eating than helping, they both enjoyed helping make these treats.

Peanut Butter Chex Mix

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Chex cereal, divided in half
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup peanuts or other nuts
• 6-8 oz. almond bark
• 1/4 cup M&Ms (we didn't have any, but these totally would have made it better)

Directions:

Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper and set aside.  Melt peanut butter and butter together. Pour over 3 cups of Chex cereal.  Add peanuts and mix to coat.  Dump onto one cookie sheet to harden. 

Melt almond bark.  Pour over 3 cups of Chex cereal.  Add M&Ms and mix to coat.  Dump onto other cookie sheet to harden.  After cereal has hardened and dried, break up the larger chunks and mix the two kinds together.  Store in an air-tight container.

Ritz Cracker Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• Ritz crackers (We used 46)
• Peanut butter
• Almond bark (We used about 7oz. on 23 sandwiches, but 8oz. would have been better)
• Sprinkles

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and set aside.  Spread peanut butter on half the crackers and top with the other half to make sandwiches.  Melt almond bark and dip the sandwiches to coat, turning over to get all sides.  Set on cookie sheet.  Top with sprinkles (the kids' favorite part!).  Let sit to harden (10-15 minutes).

Have You Started Your Christmas Cards Yet? And A Giveaway...

There are 68 days until Christmas.  Isn't that crazy?  I've been working on getting things ready behind-the-scenes at our house: working on my Advent Calendar, coming up with a gift list and plans for getting everything done with time to spare (no working on presents in the car on the way to someone's house this year!), and even thinking about our Christmas card picture.

Have you thought about yours yet?  I decided to do a little bit of looking around on one of my favorite photo and cards sites, Tiny Prints, for some inspiration.

For my Christmas cards, I do have a few requirements.  They have to include a Scripture passage - Christmas is all about Jesus' birth!  I like this one (Behold Joy) for the passage.

I also like lots of spaces for photos, usually one family shot and a bunch of the kids, plus pictures of big events from the year since we also include our yearly family newsletter with the cards.  This one (Seasonal Sprinkles) is fun and festive and has lots of photo spots.

And then, I found one I really like.  Bible passage? Check.  Several photo spots? Check.  I still have a little while to keep looking, but I think this one (Born This Day) might be the winner.

We still have to take a good picture, and we are probably going to be late on mailing out the cards this year, because, let's be honest, we're finding out if baby #3 is a boy or a girl about a week before Christmas, and we want to share.  But that doesn't mean I can't get my cards done ahead of time.

And so can you!  Tiny Prints has generously offered to give one of my readers a $50 credit off of their total order.  Now you can get to work on your cards too!  The code cannot be combined with other offers, and does not include tax and shipping.

To enter, just leave me a comment telling me what your requirements are for your Christmas cards. Please make sure to include your e-mail address when you comment so I can contact you if you are the winner.

The comments will close at 11:59pm (central time) on October 28, and the winner will have 24 hours to respond with their mailing information so I can get them their code.

While you're waiting to find out if you're the winner, be sure to check out the Tiny Prints Special Offers page for more good deals.

This is a sponsored post.  I received a Tiny Prints credit for writing it, but as always, all opinions are my own.

The Advent Calendar Project

So quite a few weeks ago, I posted about The Advent Calendar Project, which is a weekly project to make an ornament to go in a pocket calendar, one for each day in December leading up to Christmas (so, 25 total).  They're on week 16 (I think?).  I haven't made any ornaments yet, although I have a whole bunch of ideas saved.

One of my monthly goals for this year (for November, but I started early) is to make an Advent calendar for our family to use.  I knew I wanted to make one with pockets, so we can have options for the month of December.  An ornament a day?  Sure.  A piece of paper with a special activity? Why not.  A little treat for the kiddos?  Maybe.  So I came up with this plan.

I promise, it makes sense to me.  I still haven't finalized the design for the background, although it is going to be mainly red.  But I have started working on the pockets.

I cut out lots and lots of pieces.  25 fronts, and 75 sides (left side, bottom, right side for each pocket).  I grabbed the number patterns from a pattern book I have for various kid learning toys, and I worked on those during naptime, so I could focus and make sure they're (mostly) centered.  That's the tricky part.  So now, while the kids are playing, I can pick up whatever number pocket I'm on, and fill in the white.  Because I'm just doing filler work, I can watch the kids and not mess up.  Yay progress!

I still have to figure out how to for sure finish the massive two-panel background, design and make the decorative top, finish and attach all the pockets, and figure out how to hang it (and stabilize the sides so it doesn't curve inward).  Good thing I still have a couple months...

Iron Craft 2012: Earth Day Challenge

The idea for this challenge was to use something you would normally throw away.  I don't normally save bottles after we're done drinking out of them (although I have crafted with the caps before), but I have seen a lot of yarn wrapped bottles on Pinterest lately, and I thought the were really cool.  I also have absolutely zero patriotic decor in my house, and since the next big (or at least big enough that I might decorate for it) holiday season is Memorial Day/4th of July, I decided to go with that color scheme.

I did the middle one first, which is why it isn't as proportional as the other two, but I really like how these turned out.  I used hot glue to attach the yarn at the top, and glued a line down the back (bit by bit, not all at once), so that as I wrapped the yarn, each loop around was held in place.  They're not perfect, but they're cute and simple.  I like them!

Bottlecap Snowmen

Aren't these bottlecap snowmen just the cutest little things? I saw this idea quite awhile ago, but we don't drink much, and I never remembered to ask people for their bottle caps, so it took awhile before I had even this many.

I painted the bottle caps white, which took several coats on each side. Using a hammer, nail and a piece of scrap wood, I pounded holes in the caps - two in the top one, two in the middle, and one in the bottom. That was actually really easy, although it was quite loud!

I threaded small pieces of craft wire through the holes and twisted it together in the back. I used a longer piece to make a loop on the top, and finished them off with some Sharpie faces and buttons.

Even though this was such an easy project, it's taken me the better part of a month to do. The other day, I was getting sick of how cluttered my dining room table was getting, so I decided to clear it off, and that included getting these guys out of the way.

When in Doubt, Give Food!

One of the best Christmas gifts, in my opinion, is a special treat, or something that makes life easier, and even better if it doesn't take up much space! These Peanut Butter Brownie Mixes in a Jar are all of those.


For a few of our church staff, I put together little treat baskets with soup mix and the peanut butter brownie mix. They also got some Reindeer Food, a.k.a. Puppy Chow with Christmas M&Ms. I had planned to make the bottles a little prettier with some nice printable labels, but our printer ran out of ink, and I ran out of time, so I left them as is. It's okay to not be perfect.


The finished product. I think they'll really enjoy these.


And, for another present, we put together an "Everything but the Ice Cream" sundae box. Ours included waffle bowls, sprinkles, fudge sauce, M&Ms, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and candy canes. Yummy!

I was able to reuse some baby food jars for the toppings, as well as the Frappuccino bottles for the puppy chow. I hope you have been enjoying all these handmade Christmas presents! I'm done for this year, and I hope you're close too!

Easy Christmas Card Display

I knew I wanted to come up with some sort of easy way to display our Christmas cards this year. Since we're obviously not going to use the air conditioner at this time of year, I taped some ribbons to the inside of the cover.

We've been getting more cards (which I love!), so I added yarn above the cover, and above one of our windows.

We're already almost out of room there too, so I guess I'll just have to keep expanding it. I don't mind! I love Christmas cards!

Handmade Christmas: Grandkids Board

I bet you can't guess who these are for! I saw a picture of these on Pinterest, and I thought they would be perfect presents for all the grandparents in our life. I used the same lettering technique that I used for the Birthday Board, and hot glued some clothespins to the bottom to hold pictures. Then I nailed picture hangers to the back.

This was a really easy project - it just took lots of room on my dining room table while the paint was drying. I know they will all appreciate having another place to display their grandkids.

Handmade Christmas: Fleece Scarf

One of our Christmas exchange relatives this year is a Steelers fan. So I decided to make her a Steelers themed fleece scarf. This is actually relatively simple. Stitch a straight(ish) line down the center. Then cut strips like you would for a fleece blanket. You can find the tutorial here, but it really is that simple.

This took me a few hours, because I had to hand-stitch the line down the center, but if you have a sewing machine, it will only take a few minutes to sew that, and a few more to cut the strips. Another gift that is customizable! Love those!

I'm planning to make a Cars one for Jonah with the leftover fleece from his blanket. He's excited...

Handmade Christmas: Bubble Magnets

These bubble magnets are one of my favorite gifts to make and give, because they're easy and you can customize them to the recipient. You can see the tutorial here.

I made two sets this year for part of our Christmas exchange. We have some on our fridge at home as well. Please ignore the uckiness of my cookie sheet - it needs a good cleaning.

Easy and unique! That's a good Christmas present. And as long as you have magazine pictures/patterns saved (I just tear them out as I read magazines and put them in an envelope with my crafts), this is definitely doable as a naptime project.