Another Glitter House and Bottle Brush Tree Set

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 I can't stop myself! Ok, I actually can. But my niece saw a picture of the one I made for Priscilla and wanted one. And who am I to deny a five year old a glitter house. They do take a few days to make but they are so fun and adorable, so I gladly obliged.

If you missed the instructions they are here and here!!! I plan on making these even after Christmas, I think they are still "wintery" and cute!

French Toast Muffins

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 Whoaaa, yumm. These are pretty amazing.
 We happen to have a Wegman's obsession in this house. Normally around the holidays they make a mini french toast muffin that is amazingggg. The container barely lasts a day around here. This year, they are no where to be found :/ I was actually a little upset about this. So I dug through my recipe tin and found a recipe I had put in there a while back but hadn't made yet. I really wish I remembered what site I got it from, but our hard drive crashed over the summer. (I normally still bookmark it after I write it down and store in the tin) If I come across the exact source, I will update!!

If you haven't made these french toast cupcakes I posted forever ago, you might wanna try these too. (they are outta hand!)

If you love french toast, and also love muffins, these are a must. The topping on this is also a must in my opinion, so don't skimp! It is best to serve these warm with the topping right out of the oven, but I am just going to heat them up later to serve and store the topping in my fridge until everyone is here to eat them!!

Muffin Topping
3 Tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
6 slices of cinnamon swirl bread cut into pieces (de crusted)

Muffins
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of melted butter
1 egg beaten
1 tsp maple extract
2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the over to 375

Combine the first muffin topping ingredients and set aside.

Combine milk,melted butter, maple extract and beaten egg and set aside.

In a larger bowl combine all dry ingredients and then add the milk mixture slowly. I didn't use my kitchen aid, I just had mixed, like literally with a whisk. Feel free to use a mixer if you like. Judging by how my arm felt afterward, maybe I needed the workout ;)

Spoon batter into greased muffin pan. After this add the Muffin topping to the top of each muffin and press down. Bake 20 to 25 minutes (mine were perfect in 22)

After removing from oven, let them cool a little bit and then add the syrup topping. Enjoy!

Makes a dozen.

Christmas Light Canvas

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While back in Philly for Thanksgiving, me, my husband, my brother, his girlfriend KJ, and my dad went to the movies. We took our dad to see "Bad Grandpa" If you haven't seen this movie yet, let me start this blog entry advising you to NEVER take your father to see this movie. Now I had anticipated it being a little raunchy and over the top, but OMG. Sitting next to my very religious father during this movie was a little too much for me to handle! My husband and I just kept looking at each other with eyes wide open and an "OMGGGGG" look on our faces. I very badly wanted to switch seats with my brother the entire movie, who got off the hook and was many seats away! Jerk!
 But anyway, before the movie, my brother's girlfriend KJ and I were sorting through pics on our phones showing off our newest holiday crafts…and there was this. Or something very similar to this. Having just bought a ton of christmas lights for the marquee letters, I decided to be a copycat :)
 I had Patrick help me with the script. If you aren't good at lettering (I have the WORST handwriting), or don't have anyone to help, you can simply use a stencil to paint them on. If I didn't have Pat around that happens to kill it in the handwriting department, that's what I would have done.

You need:
~ Canvas (I used a larger one. 18x24 I believe)
~ Paint pen(s)
~ Christmas lights (I used  two mini packs of 20)
~ Glue gun

That's all! Very simple, and pretty cheap.

Start by figuring out the set up you want. Looking back, I would have made the phrase a bit smaller, because I couldn't fit the star pattern I wanted. Once the phrase, or word is on, with a pencil mark where you want to poke your lights through. Once that is finished, poke your lights through and secure with a dab of hot glue. I used two different strands of lights because I really really hate dealing with tangled stuff. If that doesn't bother you, then you can use just one strand with more lights on it!

And that's it! My living room is VERY well lit this year with all of the Christmas light crafts!!!

DIY Creamy Coconut Oil Scrub

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 These have become my favorite. Not that the previously blogged aren't awesome, because they are, they are just totally different types of scrubs. The earlier posted scrubs are definitely rougher, super super duper exfoliating and not for your face. These coconut oil scrubs still exfoliate but in a more gentle way. The coconut oil moisturizeres your skin unlike anything I have used before. When I used the vanilla one last night in the shower I could not BELIEVE how soft my skin was. I didn't even apply a moisturizer after words. I used it all over, even my face and it was just magical.

To do these you need:

-coconut oil 

-pure cane sugar 

-vitamin E drops 

-touch of almond oil

-fragrance

-food coloring (optional) 

Creamy Vanilla Scrub

- I used about a half of a cup of coconut oil. It is very cold here, even indoors, so I heated mine in the microwave for about 40 seconds to make it soft.

- Add coconut oil and about a cup of sugar. I used a mix of raw organic pure cane and turbinado sugar. I did this because I like the different textures. You could use either alone, or mix as well.

- I then added a few squirts of almond oil,  a few drops of vitamin e and a few drops of vanilla essential oil.

- Mix well and add to your container!!

To make the grapefruit I did the same steps as above but added some peach and pink food coloring and swapped the vanilla for grapefruit oil. It is not an in your face scent mixed with the coconut oil, it's softer. 

I am definitely gifting these! I would enjoy receiving these myself! To make the lid, I took a piece of scrapbook paper, traced the inner lid onto it, then cut it out. The labels are chalk board stickies from hobby lobby. I really wish my handwriting was better :/ but whatever, ha. 

Note: after the coconut oil sits, if you live in a cooler climate, it will get harder again. It warms easily, just scoop desired amount you want to use in the shower and once you start applying it will become creamy again instantly. They are homemade, and made from organic ingredients. I am really in love with these!!

(And yes I used the vanilla already! Sorry!)

DIY Sugar Scrubs

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 I never thought I would see the day where I made my own body products, not gonna lie! Ha! Who am I!?

 I decided to make these because it is just too easy, and I like knowing what is in the products that I use. They also make a great, easy present and Christmas is right around the corner!! I made two different ones today. I made a pink sweet pea scrub for Annabella and a vanilla scrub for myself. These are definitely BODY scrubs. They are rough, great for dry spots, but I would say too rough for facial use. 

You need:

- pure raw cane sugar

- brown sugar

- almond oil (or coconut) 

- fragrance/ essential oils 

- vitamin E drops 

- mason jars or container of your choice

Brown Sugar Vanilla Scrub

To make one container I used:

-about 3/4 cup raw sugar

-about 3/4 cup brown sugar

-about 3/4 cup almond oil

-a few drops of vitamin e

-a few drops of vanilla essential oil

-First I mixed the sugars in a bowl. 

-I then added the almond oil and stirred well, getting any clumps out. 

-Next I added the vitamin e 

-Then the vanilla. 

-Mix well and add to your container of choice.

My measurements are approximate because it depends on your container. I first started using 1/2 cups of the sugars but when I went to add it to the jar, it wasn't enough. So you really have to eye it up based on the size of the container. If you don't have enough to fill,  just add a little more of each ingredient until it's perfect. It is really hard to mess up, trust me! 

For the sweet pea, it's basically the same directions except I only used pure cane sugar, so double that. I also added a pink food coloring to make it pretty. And swap vanilla for the sweat pea. The scent is actually from Hobby Lobby in the soap making area. It smells good! A little strong, but I think I used too much, so add in small amounts!! I think for my next pink scrub I am going to use a rose essential oil. But AnnaBella loves it and that's all that matters, right?? 

I will definitely be making a ton of these this week to add to people's Christmas presents! I can't wait to go and get some new essential oils to try!!

Potato Chip Bark

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 I think it's safe to say that I like any dessert mixed with pretzels or chips or anything salty. I loveee me some bark, so this was perfect. Although my picture kind of stinks, the actual bark does not! (I am envious of bloggers that live in a location where that little ball in the sky called the sun shines on most days! It is VERY difficult to get good lighting here :/)

You need:

-bag of chocolate chips 

-2 cups of crushed potato chips

-white chocolate chips

-Start melting the whole bag of chocolate chips in 30 second increments. I find that around two minutes of this is usually perfect. 

-While yoh are doing that, line a baking sheet with wax paper or even tin foil. 

-When the chocolate is melted, pour into the baking sheet and smooth with a spatula.

-Add the crushed chips to the top and press them in. 

-Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes. 

-Take out and break into pieces.

-Melt half of the bag of white chips and then drizzle on top of broken pieces.

-Refrigerate again for ten minutes. 

I drizzled my white chocolate and THEN broke them apart. Don't do what I did! Most of the white chocolate ended up falling off and made them look bad :/ but I will still eat them because they ARE still delicious ;) 

Paper Mache Marquee Letters

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 I would say this project is kind of a practice- run for me. I have located large metal letters at Hobby Lobby and plan on making my own diy marquee letters out of them. While shopping for be 1,000 other things I needed at Hobby Lobby I came across paper mache letters (which are already book marked on my computer to order from some random site). How do they have EVERYTHING I need?! The problem with Hobby Lobby for me is that they are closed on Sundays. And what day to I always want to go? Yeah, Sunday. But the letters must have been calling my name because for ONCE I remembered to go there on a weekday! 

 So I decided to go with the word "LOVE" I will tell you that I almost lost my mind with this project. My first run I tried to use the same string of lights for all of the letters, glued them all in and plugged them in with such excitement. The end result was NOT exciting. At all. It just didn't work. The weight of the lights and the weight of the letters was a fail. So I went to sleep and the next morning went back at it. I removed all of the lights, and glue and decided to use one strand of lights per letter. Excessive maybe, but it works.

 You need:

-paper mache letters

-razor blade

-Paint/spray paint

-Christmas lights 

-glue gun

-screw driver 

-First I removed the front of the letters with a razor blade. 

-after removing the front, I spray painted them gold 

-once the paint is dried I marked where I wanted to poke the holes with a marker

-I poked the holes with a small screw driver (I would recommend poking from the inside out)

-get your lights and before you glue them, practice how you want to put them in. (I used four different light strings. I bought small packs from hobby lobby that have 20 lights per strand.) I would also recommend setting them up so the last light you poke through is towards the bottom of the letter. 

- poke the light through the hole and add a dab of hot glue between the base of the light and the letter 

Pretty easy! Can't wait to do the giant metal ones!! 

DIY Christmas Letter Decoration

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Modge Podge and glitter. What else do you really need?? They are clearly my favorite crafting tools! Ha! I bought the letters from Michael's in the wooden letter section. You do do this craft anytime of the year actually. I am actually going to order some paper mache lettering and do a kitchen set using "EAT" or "YUM" soon, I was just in a rush and wanted to do the "JOY" THAT DAY. (I am a little impatient) But the paper mache makes them three demential, and I like that. You can find them here

Anyway, back to this craft. You need:

~letters
~modge podge
~foam brush
~glitter
~acrylic paint
~sealant

First I painted the letters red. You don't need fancy paint for this. I only paint them because I am a perfectionist and the thought of glitter coming off and seeing the white would drive me NUTS. I used a really crappy $2.00 acrylic paint.

After both sides are painted and dry, apply modge podge and glitter away! I use the fine Martha Stewart glitter because it's my favorite. After that is dry, use a spray sealant. (mine was actually clogged, so I used hair spray. Man I love hair spray!! haha)

And that's it!! You have yourself some DIY glitter letters! Feeling festive over here!

(Please excuse the awful photo, there is rarely awesome natural light here!!)

DIY Deer Silhouette

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I am so so so in love with this!!I think this was the cheapest craft I have EVER done as well! Michael's (as of yesterday) is having a 50% off sale on two packs of canvas. Now, they obviously aren't the most amazing canvas's you have ever used, but they get the job done. I also didn't want to buy a more expensive one in case I messed up! (which I did a little bit) So this was my first "practice" one. I plan on making a few more and acing them! And also not drinking two cups of coffee before I attempt the next so my hands aren't shaky!
 So what made this craft extra fun is that I had my husband draw the deer on. Having an artist for a husband does come in handy sometimes! If you cannot draw it yourself you can just google "deer silhouette"and print it out and trace it onto your canvas. I printed this one out so my husband knew what I wanted.

You need:
~ canvas (I used 9x16)
~ modge podge
~ paint brushes
~ glitter (I use martha stewart glitter)
~ q tips
~ spray sealant

After you have the silhouette drawn or traced, use a small brush start to outline the deer with modge podge. I broke up my glueing into about 6 or 7 sections. So I would outline a small area with the finer tip brush, the fill the small area in with the a wider brush, then glitter. And repeated that until I was finished. Again, I had WAY too much coffee and was a little shaky. If you mess up, just quickly use a qtip, or a tooth pic would work as well. Once you have finished and it is dry, apply spray sealant. My can was clogged so I used hair spray.

Since I already had glitter, modge podge, and everything but the canvas this ended up being a $5.00 craft! $5.00?!! Best $5.00 I have spent!!
You can probably see that this deer is a little splotchy. Again, it was my first attempt, I can't wait to make more!

Salty Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

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 Ummmmmm, let's talk about how delicious all of these things together taste. There is a local coffee shop that makes a cookie with pretzels in it. It's obviously delicious. Of course I think to myself that I can recreate it myself at home and eat them whenever I want. They aren't exactly the same, but just as good. I searched the inter webs for days for the perfect recipe and I ended up just taking pieces from two recipes and fusing them together. They are SO GOOD.

You need
~ sea salt
~ 3 cups of flour
~ 1 tsp salt (regular)
~ 1 tsp baking soda
~ 1 1/3 cup of butter (sticks are always best )
~ 1 cup sugar (I use pure cane, but you can use whatever)
~ 1 cup brown sugar
~ 4 tsp vanilla
~ 2 eggs
~ 2 cups chocolate chips (i use larger ones)
~ 1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
~ 1 cup of M&M's (peanut butter, caramel or butterscotch chips would work instead)


~Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
~ Mix flour, salt and baking soda and set aside
~ Mix both sugars, and butter. (I used regular butter because I forgot to buy sticks at the store. They turned out awesome, but sticks are always best)
~ Add eggs and vanilla to the butter and sugar, then slowly add dry ingredients
~ Stir in all chocolate pieces and pretzels.
~ Scoop dough onto baking sheet (I use an ice cream scoop, and keep 1 to 2 inches apart)
~ Add sea salt to the tops of the cookies
~ Bake for about 12 minutes depending on your oven. (12 was perfect for mine)

I made about 4 dozen decent sized cookies. And I have a feeling they will all be gone very very soon!

Wall decals

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 We have a small house. Before Priscilla was born, Annabella had a superrrrr cute playroom. When I became pregnant again, we moved Annabella into our room, which is the biggest room, made the baby's room Annabella's old room, and we took the playroom. This leaves us with the problem of not having ANYWHERE to put the disgusting amount toys we have. Right now we have a lot of the toys in the "dining room" which isn't really a dining room at all. This month we are going to rearrange it, and paint it (it is painted an ugly flat beige we rent and our landlord obviously really likes cheap gross paint)…and although I would loveeee to do the stripes we had in the old playroom, and in AB's room, we don't plan on staying here that much longer. So decals it is!

I found a ton of cute ones here and here

I am debating between the dogs, hearts or cute clouds raining hearts <3>

Yet another bottle brush tree deer scene!

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 I told you, I can't help myself. I really really can't. This is the most simple one I have done so far. All of the things are just items I purchased from Michael's and hot glued on! (actually the house is from Target). And it's perfect for my living room ;)

DIY Tree Advent Calendar

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 So I was on the hunt for inspiration for an advent calendar. I knew I wanted to make some sort of tree out of card stock and couldn't recall ever seeing anyone do this...So one night I was just going through diy pics online and I came across a card stock tree tutorial. And here I thought I was coming up with this on my own!! I mean how is anything ever original with the internet these days? Haa!! I have done that with a few things in life actually. Most note worthy is a "long hair don't care" tee shirt. Yeah, I 100% without a doubt thought I was onto to something. Went to google, nope, about 500 people were already on that. I can't! This is real life guys. Like it really happened.But anyway, this tutorial is great. And even though I really thought I was onto something, I WAS glad I didn't have to make the templates myself :)
Templates are small, medium and large

I used all three templates. All you need are the templates, glue gun, card stock (I bought a holiday book from Michael's), some Pom poms, numbers (optional) and treats to put inside!!! I am so excited to get back from this trip so the girls can start opening them!!!

My winter night time look

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Soooo, I finally came around and did one of these Polyvore sets!! I know I know, a little late on this one!! I went to make a winter wish list and then realized that I pretty much wear the same things every winter at night time, so I made a collage of that. Hey, I know what I like….and it's clearly faux fur, faux leather, sequins, lace, and leopard print ;)

DIY Letter

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 We have a goldish/bronze letter "H" from Hobby Lobby that we keep up all year round. It's a good one. If you are looking for a nice surname letter, I totally recommend…actually we have the same "P" one in Priscilla's room as well, but I really wanted to make a fancy holiday "H". I went to Michael's and  went straight to the wooden letter section. I picked out the white one, it's the biggest. (at my Michael's at least). I bought gold spray paint, so that if there was space in between the decoration, you wouldn't see the white in the back ground. I went to the holiday aisle where they have loose bundles of holiday berries. (I am pretty sure that's what they are supposed to be, ha!!) I picked out the colors I wanted to go with….golds. You could really do your letter in any color and it would look nice. The reds would look good, green or even all different colors would look awesome. I would recommend getting them while a sale is going on. Mine were half price when I got them, and I needed a lot. So if you don't get a deal, it could be a pricier craft. All together this craft was around $25.00.

You need:
~ large letter
~glue gun
~ spray paint/acrylic paint (I was just being lazy. Acrylic is definitely cheaper)
~ holiday berries/balls

After I painted the H and was waiting for it to dry, I started popping the berries off of the metal stems and collected them in a bowl. When the paint was dry, I started glueing them on. I started with the outline of the H and then filled the inside. I am glad I choose a few different sizes of berries, because there were parts where I needed a smaller one to fill in space.

These are what they looked like before I deconstructed them:

And the finished product, I am so happy with this one!!

(it is large, don't let the super sized table lamp behind it fool you!!)

Putting up the Christmas Tree!

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I know....it's still November. We like to set our tree up on Thanksgiving, but we won't be home for Thanksgiving. By the time we get home it will be into the first week of December, and I just can't wait that long to set up the tree! We already put the girl's trees in their rooms over a week ago! So it seems perfect right now. The one thing I have learned is that when you are a parent, especially to more than one child- time goes SO FAST. Christmas will be here in a blink of an eye so I really like to make the most of my holidays!! Here are a few pics of us decorating. And Patrick is officially fired. There was ONE photo of me taken and it was if the back of my head. Then you wonder why I have to take selfies ;) haha. 

H&M Home

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 I LOVE H&M. One of the biggest bum outs about where I live is that I have to drive two hours to get to one :/ So I was ecstatic when H&M opened their online store. Like DYING ecstatic.

 THEN they started selling home decor online and I almost had a heart attack. I am really feeling some of this stuff. The floral curtains….I NEED them.

I am really leaning towards this for when we switch Priscilla to a big girl bed. I might have to order it soon just to make sure I have it!!

Can't stand the cuteness!