Christmas Gift Tags via Silhouette

Have I told you how much I love my Silhouette??  Well, if I didn't...I really love my Silhouette.  Of course, I just had to bust it out to make some Christmas Gift Tags.  I love the fact that the Silhouette online store is so reasonable and you just buy the designs that you want and keep them forever to use over and over.  Everything is $0.99 or under and many times you can get multiple designs for the price of one.  For example all of my gift tags had multiple designs.  These are the designs that I used if you are interested:
4594, 20965, 21815, 23215, 23106, 34399, 21114, 21113, 11919, 16657, 23349, 22263, 23305, 34398, 34397, 23457, 36560, 36354, 36369

Neighbor Christmas Goodie Boxes

We've been crazy busy and sick and tired.  I haven't been keeping up with my blogging obligations but I'm hoping to be back on track shortly.  Miss me?  HAHA!  

I made Neighbor Christmas Goodie Boxes this year.  I bought festive, green ziploc storage containers and filled them with:
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Pretzel Bites
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Turtle Pretzel Bites

I tied a festive bow with festive ribbon to make it all festive looking.  I don't have individual pictures of my bow tying so stay with me...
1.  I cut a long, long piece of ribbon.  I used the wire edged ribbon to be able to shape the bows easily.
2.  I folded it in half so that I knew where the center point was.
3.  I placed the center point in the center of the container (shorter side) and wrapped the ribbon to the underneath and criss-crossed the ribbon on the underside and brought the ribbon up either side of the longer side of the container and tied a knot.
4.  I then tied a bow leaving extra long ribbon ends.
5.  I tied another bow on top of the first leaving longer ribbon ends.
6.  I tied one more bow (3 total) and trimmed the ribbon ends.

Hope you followed me.  I didn't take pictures as I was in a hurry and kind of winged it.  I was pleased with their results, that is why I decided to share.

Kickin' Pretzels (Pretzels with Some Heat)

These are great!  Love them!  You get some serious heat with some bites and not some others.  It's not an exact science so some pretzels are coated better than others.  Warning:  These are VERY addictive!

Ingredients
1 cup vegetable oil
1 package hidden valley ranch dry mix
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pound mini pretzels

To Prepare
1.  Preheat oven to 200F.

2.  Whisk together the oil, dry ranch mix and cayenne pepper in a small mixing bowl.

3.  Spread pretzels on a cookie sheet (with sides).

4.  Pour oil mixture over pretzels and toss as best you can.

5.  Bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours, tossing pretzels every 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Source: www.food.com

Christmas Treat Bags with 3D Bow - Silhouette Project!!

These were so much fun but I think I should have picked an easier embellishment to decorate these little gift bags.  I had to cut and assemble 18 bows as well as fill the goodie bags.  Took most of an evening.  Argh!  They turned out super cute though and I got to bust out my Silhouette!!  

Our school has a 'no candy / sugar' policy for treats.  So...I filled these with a cookie cutter, stickers and a pez dispenser.  (Pez candies were included but I took my chances since Steel's teacher sent home some candy corn for Halloween.)

Click Read More for How I Did It...

Gift Card Snow Globe

I lacked creativity this year when it came to a Christmas gift for Steel's teacher.  I copied off myself from last year's teacher's x-mas gift.   Still a cute idea, right?!  I had this great plan for Christmas this year...  I started early, as usual but then stopped.  I wanted to wait to finish shopping until it got closer to Christmas.  Well, Christmas is in 10 days and I am scrambling!  I have so much to do!!!  I still don't even know what we are going to eat.  I still have to finish up shopping, finish a quilt, make another one, make a few more gifts, finish wrapping, shop for food, make goodies and clean.  Plus, our Christmas is really only 9 days away because we do our big family dinner on Christmas Eve.  Wow.  I'm overwhelmed.  It's gonna be busy.  AND I am extremely busy at work, it never ends...the plus side...only 5 more days of work until 11 days off!!!!

Anywho...  Check out last year's posts on these cute little gift card snow globes...here and here.

Steel's Santa Pics 2012

I had to beg to get Steel to go talk to Santa but then he talked to him for like 10 minutes!!!  We slipped in at closing time and had no line, it was great!!!  Now they email you a jpg file.  I love it! 

Bracoile

How about some bracoile to go with your spaghetti?  Seriously easy.  Seriously delicious!

Ingredients
Thin sliced top round steak
Bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Your favortie pasta sauce

To Prepare
1.  Lay out each steak and sprinkle with all of the ingredients. 

2.  Roll up the steak.  ( I didn't find that I needed to tie it closed with string.  You may want t to keep it closed.)

3.  Brown the rolls in a fry pan using olive oil over medium heat.  Roll them in the same direction as they were rolled up and you should have any problems with them unrolled.  (Hence, no need to tying.) make sure they are evenly browned all the way around.  I found that this took less than 5 minutes. 
4.  Lay them out in a baking dish once browned.

5.  Cover with your favorite pasta sauce and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F. 

Enjoy!

Kid-Made Ornament Display (using a hidden tension rod)

I have a hidden tension rod above the kitchen sink that I am using to display my beloved Steel-made Christmas ornaments.  I hung the ornaments with ribbon. 

Steel's Christmas Pictures 2012

We got Steel's Christmas pictures done... 

Burp Cloths

These are my matching burp cloths to go with my Reversible Bibs.  The process is basically the same, check out the Reversible Bibs post here.  

Click Read More for How I Did It...

UV Protected Yard Sign

Fun Tip:  Protect your ward decorations with a Clear UV Protector.  I used Krylon Fusion for Plastics.  It adheres to multiple surfaces.  I'm hoping to protect my new sign from the sun's damaging and fading rays.  

Whole House Air Freshener

Whole House Air Freshener:

Pour some vanilla extract into a coffee cup, place in oven at 300F for an hour or so.

Steel told me he wanted to eat what I was making!  I felt so bad that there wasn't any goodies in the oven that he could enjoy.

My inspiration:  lifehacker.com

Reversible Bibs

This a reversible bib that I made using a fun fabric and a coordinating color in terry cloth.  It actually fairly simple and doesn't take too much time to make either.  I also made matching burp cloths with the same fabrics.  I will post on those in a couple of days.  Here are the bunch...

Update:  Check out coordinating Burp Cloths here.

Click Read More for How I Did It...

Last Football Post of the Year {Promise}

I ordered pictures from a photographer that took pictures at several games.  Love them!  I just had to show them off.