DIY Wreath Form

Wreath - simple decoration that livens up your front door and provides a friendly welcome to guests. We've been having fun 'designing' new wreaths to fit the seasons. Once again, Pinterest is great for inspiration. Last time I made one, I bought a wreath form from Walmart for $5. This time I wanted to try something I had seen on Pinterest and make my own using a pool noodle from the dollar store.

I cut the noodle down until it was the size I wanted it to be and formed a nice circle, and then taped the ends together really good.

Then I wrapped it with twine. {Like I've mentioned before, this takes a really long time. I'm trying to figure out the best way to temporarily attach decorations instead of hot gluing them so I can use the same form for different designs. This wreath was a gift, but my next one I will definitely be figuring that out so I don't have to do this again!}

I made fabric flowers this time and love how they turned out! So, my pool noodle experiment was a success! You would never know by looking at it that that's what the form is made out of!

Baking with the Hulk

The Hulk showed up at our house this morning. I decided the best thing to do was use his muscles to help make some muffins!

Healthy Chocolate Muffins {aka Hulk Muffins!}

source

1 3/4 c. oats

3 egg whites

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c. plain greek yogurt (I used vanilla)

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1 c. hot water

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 c. truvia baking blend or baking stevia (I used reg sugar)

1/2 c. semi-sweet choc chips

1. Line muffin pain with cupcake liners.

2. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Mix all ingredients together in a blender (except chocolate chips) on LOW. Blen until mixture is smooth. Do not over blend. (Ummm...apparently I didn't read the directions very well. I just mixed it all up in my mixer. They still turned out though!)

4. Place mixture in cupcake liners about 3/4 the way full. Top with chocolate chips.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

These are actually pretty good! They don't have your typical cake-y texture, but they still have good flavor. I'm curious to see if they turn out different when I actually follow the directions! :)

Deliciously Homemade

Let's be honest, there are some things (not many) that aren't worth the effort or taste to make on your own. That's not the case with the recipes I'm about share with you though! These homemade hummus and french bread/baguette recipes are so good, and they don't stick around very long...in our house at least!

Hummus is a delicious dip for veggies, pita chips, baguette, etc. Or you can use it to make Hummus Pizza. It calls for tahini paste which can be kinda spendy depending on where you get it. We were able to get a pretty good size jar for $9 and it'll last us for awhile. When it runs out though, I want to try THIS recipe for tahini-free hummus.

Garlic Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained

3 TBS tahini (sesame paste)

juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 2 TBS)

2 TBS vegetable oil

2-3 TBS olive oil

10 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor. Process until pureed.

Notes: You might need to add more oil to get the consistency you want. -- The original recipe called for 6 cloves of garlic, but we found that it didn't have enough of a garlic flavor. Adjust to your taste. -- For roasted red pepper hummus, reduce the garlic and add some roasted red peppers till you get the flavor you want. It's delicious!!

Bread...who doesn't love it?! Especially homemade bread! This is a really simple and delicious recipe.  It's nice because you can get several loaves out of it depending on what size you make them. (The first time I made this I had 2 large loaves...the second time I had 3 smaller loaves and 2 baguettes.) And let's not forget that your house smells amazing while these guys are in the oven!

French Bread/Baguette

(source)

Mix - let sit for 5 minutes:

2 1/2 c. warm water

2 TBS yeast

3 TBS sugar

2 TBS yeast

Add:

1 TBS salt

1/3 c. oil

6-7 c. flour

Knead for 2-5 minutes. Cover and allow the dough to rise. When it reaches the top of the bowl, punch it down. Repeat rise/punch process 2-5 times.

Grease baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Shape loaves. Place on prepared baking sheets, slit tops with sharp knife and let rise for 30 more minutes. Brush with egg wash. Bake at 375* for 30 minutes. (I think I only baked the baguette for 15-20 minutes.)

Valentine Candy

idea came from here

BE MINE - John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

ALL MINE - John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

TRUE LOVE - Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

LOVE ME - Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

I'M SURE - John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

SWEET TALK - Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

BE GOOD - John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

FAX ME - Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Valentine Wreath

This was really easy to make aside from the fact that it took almost TWO hours to wrap the wreath form in twine. Definitely a project to do while watching a movie or show to keep from getting bored to death from it! I love it though!

Valentine Nails

My attempt at Valentine nails...the crooked heart is driving me crazy, but it took WAY too many coats of white to get a solid coat...so I'll live with it :) Not too bad for freehanding it though. (In case you're wondering, I used a bobby pin dipped in polish to make the heart.)

Here are some other cute Valentine Manis:



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Friday Favorites

Valentine Nails...plan on doing this this week!

Washi Tape & iPhone chargers...cute!

This book/song is so cute!

Mmm...I plan on trying these!

A bookshelf for shoe storage. This would be so cool if you had the room for it!

How delicious does this sound?!

Coffee Filters

Who would have thought that coffee filters could be turned into something for decoration?! Yet another great find on Pinterest!

We needed something for our table centerpiece, so I decided to make some flowers to fill in the box. You would never know by looking at them that they were made from coffee filters! I got the filters from the dollar store, so this project cost a total of $2...nice!

Here's the tutorial I used to make them...they're super easy!

Fail

You know how I've been trying to do things that I've pinned on Pinterest? While most things turn out great there is a slight percentage that are fails. Take these cookies for instance...

I like caramels.

I like apple cider.

I like cookies.

But caramel apple cider cookies? Not so much. It sounded good, but they didn't taste very good. They weren't gross necessarily, but they weren't delicious either. A waste of caramels and apple cider in my humble opinion. I'd much rather drink a cup of cider and eat a caramel and cookie. :)

But hey, who knows? Maybe you'd like them. Here's a link to the recipe in case you want to give them a try!

December

December is here and I have a feeling it's going to go by as quickly as it came! There is so much planned for this month it's crazy, but I do love this time of year!

A while ago, I saw a table centerpiece box on Shanty 2 Chic and loved it! So, this week I bought the supplies and asked our resident handy man (aka: Dad) to help me with it. :) I showed him what I wanted and he did a great job! I stained it and filled it with some Christmas-y decor...I'm loving the way it looks!

I used branches left over from our Christmas tree to to fill in the box. See those red ball ornaments in there? Those are the ones I bought at the thrift store for 50 cents. Oh, and remember that wreath form I also bought at the thrift store?

Ta da!!

I'm loving our decorations this year. Maggie put the mantel together...doesn't it look great?!

Do you like our snow? Shhh...don't tell anyone, but it's epsom salt! Thank you Pinterest!

And our tree :)

Pin Happy

For any of you on Pinterest, you know how easy it is to pin things but never get around to actually making the recipe, doing the craft or project, etc.  I've decided to try and make an effort to put action to my pins. :)

Here's a few to get us started!

This past summer when Selma was with us we decided to try some different face masks.

Here we are trying this mask. I'm not really sure what it did for our skin after only one or two uses, but it smelled wonderful! It was like putting pie on your face. :) My only complaint was that the warmth of your face makes the honey melt so it was constantly dripping.

Source: petitelefant.com via Kali on Pinterest

We also tried this peel off mask...ouch! I do not recommend putting it over your entire face, it's true to it's claim to be like pore strips. So, for putting on problem areas it's great...your whole face, not so much!

Source: myfavoritethings-miranda.blogspot.com via Kali on Pinterest

This crockpot spinach tortellini soup had good flavor, but we found it to be lacking. It wasn't as hearty as it looks in the picture. We also made the mistake of using frozen tortellini instead of dry, so the pasta was overcooked.

Source: javacupcake.com via Kali on Pinterest

I had the urge to make a breakfast cake this morning, and I found this! It was very yummy! Next time I think I'll only make half of the struesel because there was alot and it almost seemed to keep the center of the cake from baking properly.

I started off with a helper, but he didn't stick around very long. :)

Have you tried any of these? What were your thoughts?