Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Remember when I said I love ornaments?

Its all true.  I especially love the homemade ones.

This year I was lucky enough to be a part of two different ornament exchanges, which means I made more than 24 of them!

I decided on snowmen this year.  They were pretty easy.

I started with some plain white ball ornaments (hardest part of making these: finding plain white ball ornaments).

Then I made some noses out of Sculpy® clay- remember these?

They are easy to burn. If you decide to take a nap and forget they are in the oven and wake up 3 hours later because the phone is ringing and realize the house is full of smoke, you’ll know you baked them too long.

Anyhow, just glue the little suckers onto the ornaments in a nose-like position.

Make sure to drink mint tea and wear a big fluffy red bathrobe while you do this, it is important.

Next, they need faces.  Just draw them on with a marker.

I enjoyed making a variety of faces. My favorites ended up being the ones with tiny eyes and dotted mouths.

From there, cut a small length of pipe cleaner, glue it on and attach pom-poms. And there you have it- Ear muffs!

Below are  several of the other handmade ornaments on my tree.  The ones I’m featuring were made by friends in ornament exchanges over the last few years.

From Laura.

The butterfly in the back is from Mary, the Cardinal is from Connie, the Star is from Sharon, and the tree is from Jenny.

From Kim.

From my momma.

From Jenny.

I’m a horrible person for forgetting who made this little cutie.

From Sharon.

From Martha.

From Karen. Karen gave me an A in her class. Thanks, Karen!

And this lovely ornament was made by my dad.  He turned the wood parts on his lathe and attached them to a sea urchin.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Unfortunately I ran out of hooks and so the ornaments from my most recent exchange weren’t hung on the tree when I took pictures. They are there now and look lovely.

From Diana, Melissa, Katie, Karen, and Lora.

And here they are to show off their stuff!

Katie didn’t make it to the exchange because she was busy in the hospital having a baby.

People have different priorities, I understand.

Happy Christmas!  Show me what you are making!

Brown Paper Package Exchange

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Brown Paper Package exchange hosted by Max and Ellie this year.

I put my package in the mail yesterday, and I’m excited to see what will come in mine.

Here is a peak into my package- we were to include:

A little something for the taste buds: a traditional holiday treat and the recipe.

These are my Chocolate Black Pepper cookies, and they will be the star of an upcoming recipe post.

Also included, a little holiday something for the home.

I made these felt beauties last year, I love poinsettias. I love felt. And I love ornaments. So I love them.

Finally, a little something for my partner.

No, not The Tale of Benjamin Bunny…

A sweet little mini book purse!  Perfect for keeping track of small items in a larger purse.

I sure hope she enjoys it!

I think it all came together very nicely.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it all packed up and wrapped in brown paper.  Oh, well.

Thanks to Max and Ellie for hosting this fun exchange!

Pot Pie Humor

There has been much going on in Christmas preparation around here.

Here are a few previews to upcoming posts:

Lots of baking!

Lots of  ornament making!

Lots of gift making!

But what I really wanted to share with you tonight was the pot pie lunch my husband (Steve) made for us today.  Can you see the S and the H?

He said the S was for she and the H was for he.

And I’m still laughing about it.

Finals Week

The semester is already over!

Well, sort of.  There are only those pesky final exams to deal with.

So guess what I’m doing?

Studying. Making paper chains to countdown days.

Studying. Decorating my tree.

Studying. Stringing popcorn and cranberries on dental floss.

Studying. Putting Santa hats on my lamps.

Studying. Baking gingerbread.

Studying. Reading recipes.

Studying. Embroidering.

Studying. Making hot cocoa from scratch.

Studying.  Making ornaments to exchange.

Studying. Reading about what everyone is making for Christmas gifts.

Studying. Writing this post.

Wow! With all this studying I’m sure to ace my exams!

Happy finals week everyone!!

Easy Holiday Pies

My family makes a lot of pies during the holidays, and that means a lot of pie crusts.  Usually, that means a lot of measuring out shortening, and I’d really rather do that as little as possible.

My secret is to make a large batch of pie crust mix that will be ready for me to use as needed.

I mixed 10 cups of flour with 4 cups of shortening and 2 1/2 tablespoons of salt.

Then I used a pastry cutter to blend it all “until it is the size of peas.”

People always say “until it is the size of peas” when they give this step in the pie making process.  I don’t get it. Just mix it up, cutting all the shortening pieces up until you have a crumbly dough.

The amount of pies this will make seriously depends on the size of your dish and the thickness of your dough, but generally speaking it should make around 10 single-crust pies, or 5 double-crust pies.  Or some mixture of the two.

Put a lid on your bowl and tuck it away in your pantry until you need a pie crust.  It has the potential to last 12 weeks like this, but mine has never stuck around longer than a month.

When you’re ready to make a crust, throw 2 1/2 to 3 cups of the mixture in a bowl. In a small bowl crack an egg, beat it up, and add 1/4 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar.  Add 2 tablespoons of the egg mixture of the dough and gently mix together.  If it is sticking together it is ready to roll out, but it might need you to gradually add a little more of the egg mixture. Don’t overmix at this step, though, or your crust won’t be flaky.

And you’ll be sad.

Cold dough rolls out a lot better than warm dough, so you may need to refrigerate your mixture for a couple of minutes if you aren’t a Flynn.

The Flynns keep their heat at 50° because they can’t afford to keep their house warm.  Then they huddle around the oven while pies are baking to warm themselves up.

Anyhow, I like to roll my pie dough out between 2 sheets of waxed paper and then invert it into my pie plate. Or tart pan…

Viola!  Ready for your imagination to take over.

This one will be a quiche tomorrow morning.

But her sister was a tart, and she was delicious.

Happy Baking!!

Family Home Evening for Two

Steve and I aren’t always very good about having family home evening every Monday, but we have been trying harder lately.  Our goal is to have children who can say they don’t remember ever missing it.

Tonight we had a fun activity that I’m going to share with you.  Just a little introspection into the lives of the Flynns.  I hope it may inspire you to take some time to be silly together and strengthen your own family and marriage.

Our activity- a marriage scavenger hunt.  We took a few minutes to run around the house grabbing items that represented certain things to us:

1. Your spouse
2. Yourself
3. Our engagement
4. Our wedding
5. Our honeymoon
6. Married life
7. Our home
8. Our greatest strength as a couple
9. Our future together

I’ll share with you what we gathered:

1. Steve- I picked the scarecrow to represent Steve. My grandma gave it to him for his birthday because she thought it looked like him- rosy cheeks and always smiling.  I agree. Steve picked the screwdriver because it represented his joy in putting our home together and helping me with what I ask of him. It was also manly.

2. Heather- I picked the green cherries to represent myself.  They are unusual and fun.  I love to bake, and I love to be a little different.  Steve chose the stocking I made for him to represent my creativity, talent, and love for him.

3. Engagement- I chose the lighter to represent that we were sometimes playing with fire back then, but at the same time we were igniting an eternal flame. How do you like 2 corny idioms in one sentence?  Steve grabbed the Office calendar, because the day he proposed to me we spent sitting in stopped traffic for 7 hours, where I introduced the Office to him for the first time- we were hooked and we’re still addicted- to the Office and each other.

4. Wedding- We both went pretty obvious with this one. I picked my wedding ring to represent our eternal bond- something that he gave me and I cherish. It isn’t flashy, but simple and classy.  We aim for that in ourselves.  Steve chose our wedding album, full of well-wishes from family and friends.

5. Honeymoon- Our honeymoon in the John Wayne wilderness area was cancelled shortly before our wedding, leaving us no time to make other plans.  They sent us a bunch of John Wayne memorabilia to try and make us feel better. I chose this magnet to represent that for me.  It also reminds me that it wasn’t until I stopped freaking out and let myself relax that I started having a real good time.  Steve’s pick was this ornament we picked out in Canada, where we decided to make a last minute trip to a bed and breakfast.  We decided then that we would collect ornaments together.

6. Married life- This set of heart-shaped measuring spoons was a favor at a wedding reception I went to before I meant Steve, but to me they represent what they say we need in marriage- a pinch of patience, a heap of love, etc.  They also represent our love of cooking together.  Steve chose this bell that my mom gave us for our wedding. We are supposed to ring it to stop any quarrels, but it always remains silent.  That silent bell was his representation of our married life.

7. Our home- I chose the paintbrush while I was looking for something short, to represent the fact that we have had such a short time in our home together.  It also represents the creativity we have had in creating this home together- with lots of painting!  Steve picked the welcome sign that hangs on our apartment door, distinguishing us from the other apartments we’re surrounded by and advertising that it isn’t a couple of party animal college kids living here. Although, we sure can throw a party if I say so myself!

8. Greatest strength- I grabbed this picture of Joseph and Emma Smith to symbolize our foundation in the gospel, and the simple act of selfless love depicted as he gently brushes her hair really depicts to me our feelings and actions towards each other.  Steve chose this crystal bowl that was a wedding gift.  It came with a note that said we were to put gifts for each other in it each day, and it is that giving nature that he saw as our greatest strength.  The bowl is usually empty, but the gifts we give are even more meaningful than material goods and tokens.

9. The future- This little WillowTree figurine is a perfect representation for me of our future.  I have a lot of hope- for children, for continued love, for the gifts promised us by our Savior.  Steve chose this book.  We are currently reading the Underland Chronicles series together, and haven’t gotten to this one yet.  Not only will we read it together, but we will someday read it with our children as well.

I hope I wasn’t too corny for you, and that you can use this idea to strengthen your own family- even if that means simply a few quite moments of reflection.

Cheap Chicken

I was pretty happy when Safeway recently lowered their everyday price on chicken thighs and drumsticks to .99/lb.

It didn’t really occur to me what that would mean when they were clearing it out:

You see that 50% off sticker?  I just bought a whole bunch of chicken thighs for .50/lb!!

I’m excited, so I’m sharing this with you.

Sorry if raw chicken pictures make you gag.  Please come see me again anyway.

‘Cuz this made some mighty yummy chicken rolls and I’d like to share the recipe with you someday.

Happy bargain hunting- remember to check those meat clearance racks!

Blueberry Poppy Seed Cake

Steve and I had this for breakfast last weekend, and it was amazing.  I have to share. And its been awhile since I posted a recipe. Unless you count yesterday’s cookies, which I just remembered.

Make. Eat. Be happy.

For the Cake:

2/3 C sugar

1/2 C butter

1 tsp lemon extract

1 egg

1 1/2 C flour

2 tbs poppy seeds

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 C sour cream

Beat sugar and butter. Add lemon extract and egg and beat well.

Mix dry ingredients then add a little at a time to butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream.

Spread over the bottom of a (greased!) 9 inch springform pan, indenting the middle (giving the sides a bit more height to hold in the filling).

For the filling:

2 C blueberries

1/3 C sugar

2 tsp flour

Mix together and spoon over the batter in the pan.

Bake at 350° for 50 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan.

Blend 1/3 C of powdered sugar with 2 tsp milk and drizzle over the cake.

Serve warm.

Disclaimer- the batter in the middle was not fully cooked, which at first disappointed me. Then, I realized I actually really liked it that way!  The cake part is rather dry if you don’t eat it right away, but when warm, it was moist and delicious.

Enjoy!!

World’s Ugliest Hashbrowns

Warning:  These are not pretty

 

Okay, actually, they look kinda good in these pictures. Maybe I’m just hungry.

I decided to grate and freeze some of my potatoes for hash browns after the great potato disaster of 2009.

They promptly turned black.

Black isn’t a good color for food.

I decided to cook them up anyway, because, heck- they were hash browns!

We threw them out. They just weren’t very good.

Oh, well.

 

 

P.S. It turns out the potato plight wasn’t as all-encompassing as we originally thought and we were able to save over half of our potatoes. We are very grateful.

Homemade Gift Idea #2- Cookie Jars

I know the gifts in a jar thing is old hat, but y’know what else?

I still like it.

These are my delicious Oatmeal/Cranberry/White Chocolate Cookies.

Well, they will be.

It’s so easy, here is the recipe- make a few at a time and you’ll be set for unexpected gift needs!

 

Mix 1 cup flour with a dash of salt, ½ tsp of baking soda, and ½ tsp cinnamon.

Add to jar, brush sides of jar with a pastry brush to clean.

Layer as follows on top of flour mixture:

½ cup oatmeal

½ cup sugar

½ cup white chocolate chips

½ cup dried cranberries

1 cup oatmeal

½ cup sugar

Close jar and decorate as desired. Attach directions to the jar.

 

 

Here are the directions you’ll want to attach so you can actually make cookies out them and not just have a bunch of dry ingredients in a jar looking pretty:

 

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Mix together 1 beaten egg, 2 ½ TBS milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/3 cup oil.

Add contents of jar and mix well.

Drop by TBS on slightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 400° for 9 minutes.

 

Enjoy!