Merry Christmas!

christmas eve caramel corn

I did a lot of cooking today. A lot. I had my dad over for a late lunch/early dinner, and Will's parents over in the evening, so I spent the day making a stuffed pork roast (with apple and sausage stuffing), homemade macaroni and cheese, two batches of spinach dip (one for my family party tomorrow), ginger bread cake, homemade whipped cream, a batch of thumbprint gingerbread cookies, and finally, caramel corn. I made caramel for the first time several weeks ago and was amazed at how easy and delicious it was. So I decided it would be a nice snack to have around for holiday guests, and to take to my family party tomorrow. I followed this recipe, only changing the baking method as recommended in the comments, which was to use a disposable roaster rather than cookie sheets. This made it much, much easier since clean up is probably the most difficult part, and popcorn was lost to the bottom of my stove the first time I didn't follow this tip. Anyways, onto the pictures. I'm still amazed that you can just make hot, bubbly, caramel out of corn syrup+brown sugar+butter.

Merry christmas eve! I have lots of pictures of today's food over in my flickr, if you're interested. Enjoy your evening waiting for santa. Make him some caramel corn! :-)

christmas time, is here

I've been adding here and there to the christmas decorations I already had up, and I figured I better hurry up and share the new things before I get busy with family celebrating and christmas is over. I still want to take outside pictures at night. Hopefully I'll get them up by Christmas eve!


.The dining room.

I added a few touches to the table, both items I bought on clearance, or things I got for free! A silver beaded mat, a cute little glittery bird, and some more pine branches which I tucked behind the bird, and added to the ornament bowl.

I also added some more pine branches to the shelf. Such an easy, good smelling, nice looking touch! It certainly helps that the "back yard" of my apartment has several huge pine trees. I thank the tree for the branches every time I take a few :-)

Finally, I was getting tired of looking at the plastic base of the tiny dining room tree (hmmm, this seems to be a repeating theme ) but I didn't feel like going out, or spending any money, so I was forced to get really creative and settled on a pretty pair of cream colored gloves.

Which I stretched around each side of the base. Isn't that a cozy looking tree bottom now?

.The Kitchen.

I wanted to do a little something in the kitchen, so I put up a band of red ribbon, attached a tiny pine branch, and added a single glittered silver ornament to dress up the plaque that is always above the sink.

.The balcony.

When I did the tree trunk project, I grabbed way more branches that I thought I would need, having this project in mind. I stuck three of the largest branches into a pot I had flowers in this past summer, wound some white lights through, and wrapped a red ribbon around the pot. To disguise the dirt a little, I added some more pine branches around the base.

I ran outside last night for one last piece of pine branch, this time in front of the porch light which was really ugly and exposed due to using it as an outlet for the lights. I attached a single, large-ish piece, plus a red bow I made.

So that's (probably) all the decorating I'll be doing. I like to leave things up at least for the week after christmas though, and the white lights outside well into January. They're too pretty to only have out for a few weeks. I'm excited to do some entertaining over the next week or two, and share our pretty apartment with some friends and family!

a day of christmas baking

I spent literally all day Monday baking with my mom and Aunt Jeryl (my godmother). We got to her house around 10:30 and left around 7:00, stopping the cookie, candy, and bar making for only a few minutes to put together a sandwich. It was so fun that we decided to make it a tradition. So here is cookie baking, year one, 2010.

my mom works on her batch of 7 layer bars

when you have no more room in the fridge and you live in Michigan, your giant bowl of gingerbread dough goes outside to chill.  Cute dog to guard bowl is optional :-)

the hot tub became a cooling rack landing spot when we ran out of counter space

It made for a really nice time together, and a will make for a really delicious dessert table on Saturday!

a tree trunk for our little fake tree

Our christmas tree looks beautiful, but everytime I lay on our couch and look at it, I see one problem (and it's not the stuffed horse cat toy that mango regularly leaves under the tree)

My family always had (and still gets) a real christmas tree. As soon as we're out of an apartment, I plan to get one too. For the time being though, our little fake tree is just fine. Except for that one thing.

 

This is what I don't like. The green pipe extending out of the bottom of the tree. When I look at a christmas tree, I like to see a  stump! So I knew I wanted to do something to disguise it.

I did a lot of brainstorming and ended up with a project that was not only free, but came out awesome. Possibly my favorite craft to date.

I started with these materials. The sticks were found in small wooded area on the edge of my apartment complex, and the oat container was donated by my mom! I keep our oats in a jar, so the container is long gone.

The idea was to glue the sticks to the tube, and use the tube to wrap around the pipe of the tree.

 

I cut out a strip from the tube so I could wrap it around the pipe when I was done, and gave it a really quick coat of spray paint with a leftover can I already had so that the print wouldn't show through. If you wanted this to be really durable and had the means to cut piping, you could use a plastic pipe. I also would have liked to spray paint it brown rather than tan, but it was more important to me to use what I already had. 

WIth the sticks broken into straight-ish pieces and the spray paint dry, I used a glue gun to attach the sticks all around the tube, until I ended up with this:

I actually like it a lot even on its own, and I think you could use this same idea in a lot of other ways. Maybe attached around a set of glass canisters, with flameless candles inside? I'm imagining a set of three as a centerpiece with pine branches and white lights would be really pretty.
But this little branch tube had a place waiting for it, that ugly green pipe under our christmas tree.

I'm in love with it! It does a perfect job of combining the more elegant things I like (white lights, glass bulbs, sparkle) with the more rustic (pine branches, plants, sticks). I also love that our little (fake) tree looks almost like it's growing right out of the floor. And even though I thought I would only use it until we get a real tree in another year or two, I actually think it would look neat stretched around a tree stand too. I especially love it since this project was free (I already had the spray paint and glue gun glue). Gotta love a project that's free as well as pretty!

YAY!

credit

I just wanted to say that I am DONE, done, Done with my semester! I was so excited to finish up my internship so I would have some free time, but it was quickly filled with studying and projects. Now I'm officially free and so excited for some baking, christmas shopping, family time, and crafting. And while I still need to reserve some time each day to prepare for my certification exam early next month, it will be on my schedule. YAY for being one semester closer (and now just one semester away) from my masters degree.

front door wreath

I went to Joann's this morning, and was quickly lured in with their 60% off christmas sale. I haven't put anything on our apartment door yet, so I picked up a small wreath, a woven gold sparkly star, and various red sticks, leaves, berries, pine cones, etc. to dress it up. So in around 10 minutes, and for $7, I have a wreath. Plus it was fun!

 

oh, christmas tree

After a little light snafu, removal and replacement of all of the ornaments, and replacement of a strand of lights, our tree is done, and it is beautiful, if I do say so myself. It's not completely filled up, but I have no plans to buy any more ornaments. I really like the idea of collecting ornaments throughout the years rather than filling it up with a bunch of things bought quickly. I did buy the sign language ornaments, and Will and I bought these adorable sparkly forest ornaments with tiny cardinals on the branches (picture below). Will's family also donated a few ornaments to the cause, including an adorable santa that plugs into the light strand for power, with a little candle in his hand that lights up. Thanks to the Sparrow's! Your passed down ornaments are my favorite kind :-)

I still have some ideas in mind for some ornaments I would like to make, so I might be adding a few more. I also really don't like the green plastic pipe that extends from the bottom and serves as the "stump" of the tree. I've been thinking and thinking about a solution that would remind me a little more of a real tree, and have an idea I think could look really neat. Even though I'm done with my internship, my time was quickly filled up with end of the semester projects, so I'd had very little free time. Hopefully things will slow down in the next week or so!



P.S. the tree skirt? Our old duvet cover :-) It's been sitting in the linen closet for months and finally found a purpose!

greens

I was at Lowe's last week buying a wreath, and picked up a package of small branches they had bundled for decorative purposes. Before I came to my senses, and remembered I my apartment building is surrounded by pine trees, I was going to buy them. So glad I didn't! I went outside today with a pair of scissors, and while a pair of scissors was lost in the process, the greens were free, and look great tucked around what I already have out. I also incorporated them into a new display in the bathroom.

 

Christmas in 3D

I've been working on decorating the apartment over the past week, and like many of my projects, it kind of took on a life of its own. I rarely have a set plan ahead of time for exactly how I'm going to do a project, I just kind of dive in and adjust as necessary as I go along. I knew I wanted to keep the decorating at least somewhat within our existing decor and colors, but still wanted it to be festive and fun. This year was more fun than decorating last year, since I wasn't starting from scratch. It was super fun to go to our storage closet and pull out the boxes, knowing there was lots to get started with.


Because I'm never finished with projects, I full expect to be posting updates and changes throughout the month. Because of the light situation, I decided to wait on tree pictures, and focus on the other decorations I have so far, in the dining room.


This first area is the wall to the left of our dining room table. I hung a wreath that I wrapped in white lights, and some tiny matte, shiny, and sparkly balls that either turquoise, silver, or white. They go perfectly with the curtains! And I hung our stockings below, which add in some traditional red. I painted our names on each stocking last year.

 

 The table has some more sparkle with a bowl filled with larger silver balls and an assortment of the small turquoise ornaments from the wreath.

You might recognize the antiquey-silver goblet vase from Halloween! When I saw it at home goods, I thought it looked equal parts classy Christmas and spooky Halloween (given some cob webs), so I knew it would give me more bang for my buck than something with, for instance, witches or reindeer on it. I did make one change to it though. As it was on its own, the glass bowl and the vase were pretty similar in height, and it didn't look the best. As as I was cleaning out a drawer the other day I came upon a stainless steel candle lid, and a lightbulb went off. See the lowest layer of the vase? The smooth part? That, is the candle lid. Every once in a while my hoarding of random objects pays off.

 You can also see the turquoise placemats I have, which is the back half of the fall placemats I had out last month. 

Above the table are these white sparkly snowflakes that I bought for $2 at Target and hung at various heights with some ribbon.

Finally, I added some christmas to the shelf in the dining room with this tiny christmas tree I've had since my freshmen year dorm. I'm pretty sure I got it at the dollar store! With little white lights and some of the same tiny bulbs, it looks prefectly festive.

 So that's what I have so far. I still plan on adding some tiny touches in other places throughout the apartment. I like to do a little something in the bathroom and the kitchen, and I still would like to tweak the table a bit. The balcony has lights, which I'll share soon, and of course, the Christmas tree, which we have in the living room. Tonight Will and I walked around Target's ornament selection, and it gave me some ideas for little ornaments I'd like to craft. Will even wants to help! Hope your holiday season is off to a nice start!