Christmas Projects

I made more Christmas postcards this year. (See last year's design here.) I chose Luke 19:38 for this year's verse and embossed the front with a "peace" stamp.

Many of the people on our Christmas list got jars of homemade jalapeno jelly and spiced apple jam. (Both recipes are inside the Ball Liquid Pectin box, with more recipes available here.) The label template is courtesy of Merriment Design.

The spiced apple jam is great on just about everything, especially waffles, and I enjoy the jalapeno jelly on a slice of french bread with a little goat cheese.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Before & After

I thought I'd share some before and after shots of two quick and easy projects. These candle sconces belonged to my grandmother. Here they are before:

 After a few coats of white paint...

This old picture frame is from Zach's mom (Thanks Renee!) and I decided it would be a good size for a chalkboard.

I already had an 11 x 14 piece of masonite, which was just the right size for the frame. All I had to purchase was a small tub of chalkboard paint. They have this stuff in just about every color now; I chose to go with the traditional black. I gave the masonite three coats of paint and 24 hours later it was ready to write on.

After

Minnie millery

Meet the two newest additions to my Etsy shop...

green monster softie

bunny softie

Fireplace Candleholder

Before we moved in, our house suffered a chimney fire. According to the home inspector, some of the tiles were damaged, making it dangerous to have a fire in the fireplace. It's now two and a half years later and we have yet to make any effort to repair it. Adding to our lack of motivation is the fact that we live in central Texas, and on this mid December day it's a sunny 70 degrees.

However, I was getting a little tired of the gaping black hole under our mantle and dreamt up a cheap and easy solution. Easy meaning my 24-hour on-call handyman Zach was there to assist me. (You can view our first fireplace project here)

We went on a post-Thansgiving walk in a wooded area near my mom's house, looking for logs to use for our project.

Zach cut the logs down to size using a miter saw, then screwed them together to form the base of the candleholder. We decided to use a variety of candles, including tapers and tealights. Using forstner drill bits, Zach drilled holes into the wood to hold the candles.

Howdy Doody!

I came across a Howdy Doody doll in an old trunk at my mom's house. It was a toy my siblings and I had as a child, and which my brother Ryan was particularly fond off. Ryan has special needs and has always loved playing with toy cars and trucks, and any toy having to do with Hulk Hogan! He was crazy about his Hulk Hogan wrestling doll. Hulk Rules.

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When I found Howdy Doody, his clothes were nowhere to be found. So I took him home with me and gave him a brand new shirt and pair of pants...although I confess I didn't stay true to his original attire.

This will be a Christmas gift for Ryan; I'm sure he'll be excited to see his familiar toy!

12 Days of Handmade Holidays Giveaway

Visit Think Liz for a chance to win one of my handmade needle-felted ornaments!

Giveaway ends Tuesday, December 14th at 10pm.

Holiday Tea

Each year our church holds a holiday tea. This year I helped host a table with my friends Kelli and Kristin.  The hostesses are responsible for decorating their table with a holiday theme and providing party favors for their guests.

For the table linens, I made a burlap table cloth with fringed edges and cloth napkins in a purple snowflake pattern. We used shank buttons and purple ribbon for the napkin rings, wrapping the ribbon around the napkin and pulling it through either side of the loop in the back of the button.

For the table centerpiece, we used silver candlestick holders, topped with purple and gold ornaments. We placed the candlesticks on a silver tray and decorated it with holiday picks and gold buttons, like those used for the napkin rings. These are some of the same items I use for our dining room table centerpiece at home:

For party favors we filled small spice jars with different shades of purple M&Ms, complete with embroidered jar covers to serve as placecards.

I invited my friend Weihua from work- here we are in front of our table:

There was a choral performance and Speaker Tammy Maltby shared about "Christmas Kitchen Traditions" and provided a cooking demonstration, which we got to sample, yum!