Christmas Food "Hacks"

I hope that you all had and awesome Thanksgiving yesterday with your family and loved ones! I know we sure did at our house. I'm still cleaning up from it! :)

However, it's officially Christmas time!!! I adore this time of year! Everyone is always so cheerful and nice and the weather is wonderful (in my opinion) and then don't get me started on all the Christmas decorations that we get to put up and see!! I love it! Along with all those wonderful things comes a busy, busy few weeks as well... Especially for moms. We are constantly planning and prepping and cleaning and cooking and entertaining and wrapping and the list goes on. 

So, to make lives a smidgen easier this holiday season I've found some pretty creative hacks to share with you all! Some of these we've all seen before and some of them I've never even thought of doing! (And those that I haven't thought of before, were pretty spectacular in my opinion.)

Here you freeze chocolate into tree shapes and then add some icing to the backs and place them on a flat white cake to make it shine a little!

Fill empty condiments bottles with icing for decorating sugar cookies with the kids!

Dip cookie cutters in flour first to help the sugar cookies retain their shapes!

Look at this simple center piece! White candles and peppermints! Love it!

These are frozen dollops of coolwip/whipped cream to put in your mugs of hot cocoa! Such a great idea!

Three small candy canes glued together makes the perfect place card holders for your holiday tables!

Use the bottom of a crystal glass to make a unique design in your sugar cookies.

These were just a sampling of the hacks that I found on Buzzfeed! 

You can check out the rest of them over here: 38 Christmas Hacks

I hope that some of these come in handy throughout your busy holiday season this year and help you cut some corners!

-Stephanie

A Candyland Kind of Halloween

Such cute ideas to add to your Halloween parties this season!! I adore the skeletons they made here! Maybe some of these will inspire y'all to get super creative with your Halloween festivities!! This is from a "Halloween Candyland" party on Catch My Party!! The rest of the photos on there are to die for!!! Seriously wish I had thought of this one first... I love the party theme and their decorations for it are so cute! I am loving all the bright colors they used here, too!

Go check out the rest of these incredible decorations here: http://catchmyparty.com/parties/whimsical-halloween-candyland

-Stephanie

Under The Sea

Check out these cute treats from Catch My Party!!

Eeek!! These are too adorable! I love octopuses and these are just too much! These would seriously be perfect for an under the sea party or a pirate party or maybe even mermaids!! And all they are, are marshmallows on sticks! Super easy. I really might just add these to the ever-growing list of projects for Jocelyn's birthday coming up! (I should really stop and just try to make it through Halloween and Christmas first!!)
Check more on these underwater critters and how to make them for your party here: http://catchmyparty.com/photos/671914

- Stephanie

More Halloween Treats!

The link to these cute Halloween designs can be found here: http://bit.ly/1ajcIO8

Totally loving the RIP cupcakes!! Such a cute idea for a party! And the Frankenstein lollipop bucket idea is adorable!! You could have those strategic placed throughout your home for a party and allow the guests to grab one as they please! You could easily make any traditional Halloween character for this, too. Like a vampire, witch, or mummy!

The rest of my Halloween crafts are coming together well!! It's getting so close!!!!!! I seriously can't wait to decorate this year! Last year we had so much going on with your wedding and things that we just didn't have the time, nor the supplies, to decorate the house with... I'm so ready this year!!

- Stephanie

Some Cute Halloween Friends - Halloween Day 2

These super cute and easy Mummies are such a fun addition to your holiday!!

Once completed fill them with your favorite Halloween candies and give them out to your kids! I'm making some for Jocelyn's 4K class and the kids that are in our small group through church!

What you'll need:

 

1. Scissors
2. Hot glue
3. Googly eyes
4. Gauze OR a cheese cloth
5. a Pen or marker
6. An empty and dried water bottle

 Step one is to cut your water bottle in half. I cut mine right under the wrapper. You'll need to leave enough room for trimming it, because the plastic will be sticking out in all sorts of ways. I clean mine up to be nice and smooth all the way around to prevent a little one getting poked and crying!

 Step two is to cover one layer of your cloth all the way around your bottle. Do this so that it looks covered even around the eyes once they're on! I'll also, if I can, put some glue around the inner rim and fold the cloth down over it to cover it up completely! (On a side note: I cut my gauze with fabric scissors! The first one I made was with regular ones and it was pretty frustrating trying to cut it straight and without there being a huge mess on the ends!)

Step three is to place on your eye balls! I'll usually place mine on there to get a good visual for them and then mark the places with a pen or marker to make sure they're on there straight and where I really want them to be.

Step four unroll a section of the cloth, cut it, then start to fold it up length wise to wrap around the bottle. It doesn't have to be perfect, the messier the better... Then it looks more realistic! Once you like the way it's sitting I glue each end of my cloth down, I don't run the glue all the way around because the cloth base helps to hold the wrappings on there everywhere else.

Step five repeat step four till your mummy is covered in his gauze! Mine usually take four layers of gauze to cover them. Three under the eyes and then one above them. I also will "mold" my cloth a little around the eyes to make it look a little spookier and have them half way hidden some times!

Then you're done! And you have an adorable little mummy friend to give out to your kid's class or party! I can't wait until all mine are finished up and filled, ready to be delivered to all the kids that are getting these!!

I'll take a group photo of all of mine once they're ready!!!

I hope you love these cute fellas as much as I do and find them fun to make! And make them your own!! If you have some really cool addition to these guys once you start yours please post your design for everyone else to see! :)

- Stephanie