Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

LOL! The guilty look on that poor dog's face just cracks me up! Have a great weekend! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you a day filled with much love and laughter and we come together with family and friends to give thanks for the wonderful bounty that we have received over the past year. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Blessings,

Simple Snowman Pillar Candle Tutorial

Good morning! I hope that you all had a nice weekend! We had a bit of excitement here...Justin harvested a nice 8-point buck on Saturday:

He's had a pretty awesome hunting season so far...within the last month he's bagged a large bull elk and a whitetail buck...not too shabby!

This coming weekend I'll start decorating our home for Christmas, so I thought I'd show you a quick craft project that I whipped up to go along with some of my snowman decorations:

These snowman pillar candles are soooo easy and quick to make! They are really cute and inexpensive gifts to give to your child's teachers, neighbors, friends, etc. Here's how I made them:

Supplies:

• 3" white pillar candle
• Aleen's Quick Dry Tacky Glue
• Thumb tacks
• Black spray paint
• Scissors
• Miniature loaves of plastic french bread (I found these in the doll house furnishing department at Hobby Lobby)
• Torn strips of plaid cotton fabric

Begin by spray painting the silver thumb tacks black. I stuck the tacks into the top part of a cardboard egg carton to hold them in place while applying the spray paint:

Allow the thumb tacks to thoroughly dry. Tie a piece of the torn fabric to the bottom of the pillar candle to create a scarf:

Once the tacks have dried, stick them into the candle to create the "coal" eyes and mouth of your snowman:

Since I couldn't find any miniature carrots to use for my snowman's nose, I decided to use tiny little plastic loaves of french bread that I found in the dollhouse making section at Hobby Lobby. The back sides of these little loaves are flat, and they are kind of an orange-y color, so they worked well as the noses. Add a little Aleen's Quick Dry Tacky Glue to one end and attach to the face of the snowman:

Set aside to allow the nose to completely dry/adhere to the candle. That's it...super easy and inexpensive gifts made quickly! Place your candles in cello bags with a little white crinkle paper in the bottom and tie up with a pretty bow and tag before giving to your favorite folks! Here's another pic of my finished candles:

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today!! Have a WONDERFUL week!!

Quote Sunday

With Thanksgiving upon us in just a few days, I felt that the above quote by William A. Ward was fitting to share with you this weekend. Take time during the next few days to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings in your life to be thankful and grateful for!

Wishing you a restful Sunday,

Silly Saturday

Have a great weekend!

Fringed Fleece Scarf Tutorial

Wow! The temps here in NE Oklahoma have been reeeeeally cold! Yesterday morning we set a new record low for the day at 17 degrees - BRRRRR!! I know that the arctic air that has been in our neck of the woods has blanketed the majority of the U.S., with many parts receiving record snow amounts! I am so thankful that we aren't digging out of snow here yet!

This evening my sweetie and I met up with our friend Jamie for dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate her birthday a little early. One of the gifts that I gave to her was a cute fringed OU scarf that I made. (Jamie's daughter, Kennedie, is a student at OU, so I really think that she'll love wearing this scarf!)

Would you like to know how to make one of these? They come together pretty quickly, and you can purchase all sorts of cute printed fleece and fun, fringy trims at your local craft store. Let's get started!

First off, trim up a piece of fleece using a rotary cutter, self-healing mat and a metal straight edge. You can make your scarf any width and length that you like...longer for taller folks and shorter for petite folks...

Next you'll want to use some black embroidery floss to blanket stitch around the outer edges of the scarf to give it a nice, finished look:

Not sure how to do a blanket stitch? Here's a little diagram to help you with that...

Once you've finished stitching around the edges, you'll want to add some fun, decorative fringe to the ends for a little extra pizzazz. Since my fringe was kind of feathery and had beads too, I decided to use some Aleen's "Okay to Wash It" fabric glue to adhere my trim to the scarf:

I applied a layer to both the front and back of the scarf, laid the trim over the glue, placed clothespins on the glued trim to hold it in place, and then set the scarf end on a piece of wax paper so that it wouldn't stick to my self-healing mat:

I let the glue dry overnight, removed the clothespins and TA-DAH!!! - the fringe was firmly attached to the ends of the fleece scarf:

Here's another look at the finished piece...I really love how it turned out! (I think that I'll have to make one for me now, but using OSU printed fleece instead!)

Have a WONDERFUL rest of the week, friends!!

Blessings,

Recipe of the Week: Mike's Venison Chili

Good morning, friends! Sorry that I didn't get anything crafty posted last week. Truth is, I've been working on some gift projects for Christmas, and I'm not quite ready to post them yet.

Along with the Arctic front that blanketed most of the U.S. last week, we received our first snowfall over the weekend. We only got about an inch of snow at our house, but some of the surrounding areas got more. The bitter cold temps and the snow got my sweet hubs in the mood to cook up some venison chili, so I thought I'd share his recipe with you today:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground venison
• 1/2 of a large green bell pepper - diced
• 1/2 of a yellow onion - coarsely chopped
• 1 - 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 can pinto beans (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 pkg. of Williams chili seasoning

Method:
Brown venison in a large cast iron skillet. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to cooked meat. Stir to combine, then add chili seasoning and pinto beans. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add bell pepper. Simmer 5 minutes more before adding the onion. Cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon into bowls and serve with crackers, Fritos, sour cream, shredded cheddar, etc. if desired.

Have a great week and stay warm!

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

Hee! Hee! I, too, am a lover of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, so I know how this poor cat feels!! ;)

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

I'm so thankful to be blessed with wonderful friends in my life!! Take some time this weekend to connect with a friend that you are thinking about!

Blessings,

Recipe of the Week: Mom's Best Dinner Rolls...

Hi, All! Recently my mom sent me a recipe that she's been using to make yummolicious dinner rolls. Since the weather has finally turned cooler, I decided to make a big pot of Tortellino Soup and a batch of her dinner rolls on Sunday afternoon. (Click HERE for my Tortellino Soup recipe.) Here's the recipe for Mom's Best Dinner Rolls:

Ingredients:

• 4 - 5 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 pkg. active dry yeast
• 1 cup whole milk (I used 2% and the rolls turned out fine.)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp. butter
• 2 eggs

Method:

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small sauce pan or in microwave safe bowl, heat milk, water and butter to 120 - 130 degrees. Add to dry ingredients; beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the 2 eggs; beat on high speed for 2 minutes more. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough. (Dough will still be slightly sticky.)

Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic - about 6 - 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning dough once to coat the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size - about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 24 portions and shape into balls. Divide the balls between 2 greased 13" x 9" baking pans. 

Cover with a clean, lightweight towel and let rise until doubled. (About 30 minutes to 1 hr.) Brush lightly with beaten egg if you are going to sprinkle with one of the topping ideas given below. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks. (NOTE: When not using a topping, rub the tops of the hot rolls with a stick of butter to keep them soft.)

Topping Ideas:

Parm - Garlic: 2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan and 1/2 teaspoon dried, minced garlic.

Almond - Herb: 2 Tablespoons chopped, sliced almonds and 1/2 teaspoon each kosher salt, dried basil and dried oregano.

Everything: 1 teaspoon each poppy seeds, kosher salt, dried minced garlic, sesame seeds and dried minced onion.

Have a SUPER week!

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

BAHAHA!!! This made me laugh out loud - so funny looking!!! Have a happy weekend!!