Merry Christmas

WHEWW! I made it! I officially put my craft table away this afternoon, until after the holiday (which means Saturday!). I hope all of my hard work and crafting is appreciated by all, I know way to be selfish!

Merry Christmas to all, I hope that we all remember the reason we celebrate this time of year, and take time to remember Christ and His birth.

Happy Holidays

Food Gifts

Food gifts are a great way to keep costs down during the holidays. I sent these yummy candied almonds to the kids teachers, and to my hubby's co-workers. I had the jars here at home too, and I got the almonds as a gift from my in-laws, so the whole thing just cost me my time.

Here's the recipe for these delish almonds!

Candied Almonds

2 egg whites (at room temp)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1-2 tspn vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter melted then cooled to room temp

1- 1 1/2 lbs nuts

I used almonds for this recipe and I used about 5 cups of almonds and it was perfect.

beat egg whites until they have soft peaks when beater is lifted from bowl. Beat in brown sugar 1/4 cup at a time, vanilla, and cinnamon until stiff peaks form, and they are glossy. Slowly fold in melted butter. Fold in nuts until well coated. Pour nuts out onto ungreased jelly roll pan (or a cookie sheet for those of us out there that didn't know it was the same thing!). Bake at 275 for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes to keep the nuts separate.

As they cool stir them also to keep them separate. Make 2 batchescuz you're gonna want to eat a whole one yourself!

Oh and crafting tip #507... Spray paint does not come off of skin like regular craft paint, it stays on for DAYS!

"Tis the season for gift exchanges!

The closer we get to Christmas it seems the more parties and gift exchanges we are involved in. Sure mostly they have a $5 limit on them, that's not so bad, right? Well times that by 4-5 gift exchanges and it can really add up. So last night my daughter and I rummaged through my craft room for a project for her gift exchange at church. She was actually really excited to make a gift and she thinks she may try and get this one back for herself tonight. Here is what she came up with:

Yes, another project from a block of wood, but they sure are cute.

17 Teachers and no $$$

Yes, I said 17 teachers. My son goes to preschool at our local High School. His class is taught by high school students supervised by a teacher. There are 17 "Big Kids" that teach, so when it comes to teacher Christmas gifts it can get a little overwhelming. So this year I decided I needed something quick, easy, and CHA-EEP!

Here's what I came up with:

Basically just clothes pins that I embellished. I've seen these lots on other blogs, but it never dawned on me how inexpensive they would be. I had the clothes pins, buttons, and paper at home. I added a magnet on the back for their lockers, which I had to purchase, but they only cost me $2! So for a grand total of $2 and 1 hour I had 17 teacher gifts.

You can really go all out on these and embellish the bee-geebers out of them. I went simple because really a high school locker is no place to keep really nice things... unless they are iPods, cell phones, MP3 players, etc!!

Use those coupons in the mail

I don't know if it's just me, or my neighborhood, but a few times during the year we get great coupons in the mail. I'm not talking 50 cents off if you buy 2 of something, I'm talking $10 off a $10 purchase. In my opinion that is a great opportunity for some Freegifting!

We have a tradition of sorts in our household, each new baby for their first Christmas gets a Hallmark ornament. It's one that has the date and baby's first Christmas somewhere on it. This new baby is no exception, but I was choking on having to fork out the $12-$15 for only one ornament. Lucky me this week I got a Kohl's gift card in the mail one of those $10 off a $10 purchase, so this little gem only cost me $2.50!!!

Can you say BARGAIN!!??