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 ;)