Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

If you are looking for a sweet treat to whip up at the last minute for your Christmas get together, you should try this peanut butter fudge. It uses ingredients you probably already have on hand and comes together in just minutes!

16 Christmas Party Games

My favorite part about Christmas is spending time with family and friends. However once the presents are all opened and I have eaten so many sweets I feel like I am one cookie away from a sugar coma, there usually isn't much else to do but sit around watching a movie or making small talk. So why not make this year's get together even more fun with some of these games and activities?!

Candy Cane Peppermint Sugar Cookies

These candy cane cookies would be a lot of fun to take to a Christmas party and the peppermint flavor gives them a fresh and light flavor! Start by making some basic sugar cookie dough with a bit of peppermint extract:

DIY Teacher Gift Idea: Super Teacher Tote Bag!

Want to give your child's teacher a special homemade gift this year? How about a DIY tote bag? They are fun and practical!

Reindeer Food Printable

Instead of leaving out carrots for Santa's reindeer, why not sprinkle some reindeer food out on the lawn? Not only will they have a special treat but it will help them find your house as well! If you don't want to make a mess in the yard you could put it in a bowl on the porch. 

Printable Santa Key Poem

If you are like us and don't have a chimney, your kiddos might wonder how Santa will be able to get in on Christmas Eve. No worries! Just leave a key out by the door and attach a key that will only work for Santa! 

Printable Dry Erase Christmas Countdown

Can you believe that Christmas is only 22 days away?! I put our decorations up yesterday and can't wait to enjoy the long December evenings snuggled up under a blanket watching Christmas movies with my guys and a mug of hot chocolate. :) 

Homemade Pumpkin Butter

Thanksgiving is in just a few days and it makes me want to add pumpkin to everything! Shelby made this pumpkin butter for his dad's birthday and it is so delicious, I can't wait to make another batch!

One Yard Colorful Curtains

Now that the living room has a fresh coat of gray paint, it is time to start adding some color! I decided to start with the curtains. Since we have a large picture window I thought making the entire curtains out of colorful patterned fabric would be a bit overwhelming. It would also be expensive. So I decided to take the white curtains that we already had and add a pop of color with a thick fabric strip.

Ozark Shadows

After going back and forth between colors for months - our living room finally got a coat of paint!

Slow-Cooker Coffee Pot Roast

The weather forecast is calling for snow today! What better time to break out the comfort food recipes? I have been making this pot roast for years and it is so easy and flavorful. Not to mention the perfect meal to warm you up on a cold winter's night.

266 Halloween Food Ideas : Creepy, Cute, and Gross

When it comes to Halloween party planning, food is one of the most important things to consider. To help out with that I have compiled this huge collection of Halloween food ideas. Whether you prefer creepy or cute, you are sure to find something to inspire you.

Trick or Treat Batman Flashlight

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and usually this blog is packed full of spooky projects all October long but I just haven't been feeling it this year. We have been crazy busy and it didn't help that I had plans to do an outdoor haunt but haven't had any luck locating the supplies for the props that I wanted to make. I still have some projects in the works though and I will be spending the second half of October trying to make up for the lack of posts during the first half. :) Today's project is for fun trick or treat flashlight shapes!

4th Annual Halloween Link Party

Is it October already?! I can't believe I haven't gotten started on any of our Halloween decorations yet. Yikes! Hopefully you are all more prepared than I am and have some projects to share and inspire the rest of us slackers to get to work. It doesn't have to be something new though, links to old projects are welcome as well!

Chili Cheese Dip

This dip isn't even remotely healthy but it is really yummy and sometimes you just have a craving for unhealthy, processed foods and those cravings must be satisfied before they multiply. Plus it is football season and junk food is mandatory when watching football, right? Right.

How To: Freeze Vegetables

Harvest season is starting to come to a close around here. For us, that means we have more vegetables than we could possibly eat so we have been freezing them so that we are stocked up for the zombie apocalypse....or winter. Whichever. ;) In this tutorial, I am using green beans but the process is basically the same for any type of vegetable. 

I know some people who just wash their veggies and stick them in the freezer but by doing that the vegetables lose their nutrients and flavor over time. It is best to blanch them first so that they keep all of their farm fresh goodness. That is what I am going to be talking about today.

Hobbit Meal Schedule Printable

My eating schedule closely resembles that of a hobbit's which could be why Pippin's rant about second breakfast is one of my favorite quotes. :) 

Slow-Cooker Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

I don't know about you but toward the end of summer I have a really hard time deciding what to make for dinner. I am tired of the recipes that I have been repeating all summer but it is still too hot out to start making warm and hearty comfort food. This recipe is a great addition to our usual summer recipe rotation. It is really easy and the slow-cooker won't heat up your kitchen.

How To Make An Adjustable Necklace Knot

My husband found a set of Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears and thought that they would make cool necklaces and I had to agree. Some of them I just put on a simple chain but for a few of them I decided to make cord necklaces to give them a pop of color. We made a bunch for people at our church since there are gears in our logo. Since everyone prefers different lengths, I chose to make the cord necklaces with an simple adjustable knot. 

Mini Cereal Box Desk Organizer

About a year ago we got a package of those mini boxes of cereal for Jer as a special treat and the boxes have been sitting in my craft stash ever since. Why? Because I am one of those crazy crafters who hold onto trash because "I might be able to use it someday." ;) I tossed most of those things when we moved but I hung onto these because I love how colorful and fun they are!

Mason Jar Savings Bank

I actually made this cute mason jar bank because we needed something to hold donations for coffee at church but it could work if you are saving for a trip or something else fun. I liked the look of just the plain mason jar but then I remembered all of the cute shadow box banks that I have seen on Pinterest. 

LEGO Business Card Holder

We are getting ready to have a HUGE garage sale this weekend...well, at least we were. The forecast is now saying that there is a 50% chance of rain. :( Anyway, when we have our sale, I plan on setting up a table for my craft shop. I don't expect to sell a bunch since they won't be garage sale prices but I am hoping that it will at least be a good advertisement and people may come back to shop later or start following the blog.  

Grandma's Lemon Lush

This recipe is kind of like the one for Chess Cake: it has been around for decades and lots of people make it but call it by a different name. I got this one from my grandma and the name is a little misleading because you can actually make it with any pudding flavor you want. She always made lemon because it was grandpa's favorite. It is also amazing with chocolate which I have seen some people call Chocolate Cream Cheese Delight. Someone else made it with coconut cream pudding and called it Texas Delight. We aren't from Texas though so I thought about calling it Southern Delight but in the end I decided to go with my grandma's "Lemon Lush". 

Cake Batter Cookies

A couple of months ago I tried a recipe for cake batter cookies that included pudding mix. They were okay but I thought the pudding made them taste overly processed so I continued searching. This recipe turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for! Full of cake batter flavor but in cookie form. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this cake batter craze? :)

Getting Settled In

As promised, I am back with pics of our new place! I actually had everything unpacked two days after moving in but we have spent the last week completing the usual moving errands: new bank account, new driver's license, new library cards, getting internet hooked up, etc. We have also been spending a lot of time just relaxing and hanging out with family and friends. 

Slow-Cooker General Tso's Chicken

I love using my slow-cooker in the summer and I'm sure many of you do too. You don't have to heat up your kitchen and you can toss everything together in the morning and then go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. This recipe is particularly great because it has the awesome General Tso's flavor but is way healthier since it isn't breaded and deep-fried.

PBR Man Burgers

My husband came up with this awesome recipe (with just a couple of tweaks by me) so he got the naming rights. Well, actually he named them "Shelby's PBR Man Burgers" but that seemed a bit narcissistic (and confusing since he has a girl's name but calls them "man" burgers) so I shortened it. ;) These are seriously the best burgers I have ever had! We have made them two weeks in a row and just thinking about them makes me hungry again. 

Now this is the story...

"...all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down."

Do you have the Fresh Prince theme song stuck in your head now? No? Hmm...

"And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there. I'll tell how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air."

How about now? Yeah, you're welcome. :)

The last few months have been CRAZY around my house! I have been waiting to talk about it because there were some things that needed to be straightened out and people who had to be told in person and I didn't want to be one of "those bloggers" and allude to big news that I couldn't actually talk about yet. Anywho...Remember when I talked about how we were purging and simplifying? Well, what really kicked that into high gear was our upcoming move! 

Yep. We are moving. Again.

The answer to your question is: Yes. We have lost our minds. Lol!

Monster Knee Patch

A couple of years ago I saw this Monster Knee Patch and thought that it was awesome! Unfortunately I didn't have an opportunity to try it out because by the time Jer gets holes in his jeans, he has already outgrown them so there is no point in patching them up. It's kind of funny how disappointed I was that my son *didn't* get any holes in his good jeans. ;) It finally happened though! I hole appeared in a pair of jeans that hadn't turned into high-waters yet. So I surprised him with this fun monster patch and he couldn't wait to show it off to his friends at school. 

Simplify

That is my current motto. Simplify. While I am trying to keep this in mind with how I spend my time - my main focus at the moment is on "stuff". All of the crap sitting around our house that we don't really need. We started purging a couple of years ago and each time we get rid of a big batch of stuff our house feels so much lighter that it makes us want to get rid of even more! I swear, it is like a freaking clown car or Mary Poppins' bag. We keep finding more and more crap that we don't really need and it makes me wonder how we ever crammed all of it in to begin with.

Lately we have been talking about building a small house in the country and by small I mean that my latest sketches are less than 500 sq ft. Not only will a house this size be cheaper to build and maintain, it will also force us to evaluate our belongings and determine what we really need because there just isn't a bunch of extra space to store the useless junk. We aren't getting rid of everything that would be considered "unnecessary" we are just going through all of our stuff with a more critical eye than before and only keeping the things that we really enjoy or that are used frequently enough to justify the amount of space that they occupy.

If you have spent much time around here, there is one area affected by the purge that may come as a shock: 

Guest Post: Tetris-Chic Mirror Make Over

Hi Everyone! My name is Sarah from Sewing Parts Online and I'm thrilled to be sharing a fun and inexpensive home decor project. My fiance and I are moving into our very first home and, in true first time home buyer fashion, the budget doesn't leave much room for decorating. Let's be honest; it leaves no money for decorating. But, a happy wife is a happy life, and the old man agreed to a $10 'splurge': Thirft store mirror for $3 bucks and a tube of cheap ceramic tiles. Score!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

The other day Shelby said that he was craving mashed potatoes so I decided to take a shot at some garlic mashed potatoes since that is always his favorite to order at restaurants. He loved how this recipe turned out! It is creamy and has a great garlic flavor that isn't overpowering. 

LEGO Heart Necklace

A few months back I saw this idea on Squidoo for a heart necklace made out of LEGOS and I knew I had to have one. Jer has been working on a giant lego village so we had the big box of parts out and it seemed like a good time to rummage through for the pieces that I needed. 

Pepper Jack Smothered Chicken

I was flipping through my recipe book the other day and came across this Pepper Jack chicken that I used to make all of the time but then somehow forgot about. I made it the other night and it was like discovering a recipe all over again. Originally it was pan fried and used packaged taco seasoning so I made it healthier by baking it and making my own taco seasoning. The result is juicier, healthier, and more flavorful. If you make the taco seasoning ahead of time, this chicken only requires about 5 minutes of prep too!

Taco Seasoning Recipe

I try to cut back on pre-packaged processed foods as much as I can. Not only are foods made from scratch better for you but they often taste better too! This taco seasoning is one of those things. So much better than the kind you find in the package.

Animal Head Pot Holder Hook

After months of fishing around in the drawer for a pot holder when cooking, I decided that it was time to add a hook above the stove. Of course I could have put up a simple hook from the hardware store but that's just not my style. ;) So instead, I put together this funky animal head pot holder hook! 

Baked Crispy Ranch Chicken

This super easy chicken comes out flavorful and juicy every single time. I have been making this about once a week since I first tried the recipe. My picky six-year-old even loves it! 

Slow-Cooker Beef Chili

This chili is so full of flavor that it instantly became a family favorite! My husband calls it "man chili" because it is so hearty you can eat it with a fork. :) 

Cutlery Recipe Card Holder

Awhile back I saw a Cutlery iPhone Stand and I thought that it was awesome but I didn't have much need for one with my crappy flip phone. Then I realized that it would make a fun holder for these Printable Vintage Recipe Cards! It could also sit on your desk and hold a family photo. :)