Cranberry-Chocolate Christmas Granola, and Happy Holidays!

     Today is Doodle Bugs last day of school for the holiday. So I'm throwing in my hat and it'll be my last day blogging until the new year as well. I'm looking forward to spending two weeks with both of my birdies in the nest! Also it is HARD to try to keep up with Christmas stuff and blog too! Kudos to those who aren't taking a holiday! I hope the rest of you have a wonderful holiday! In the mean time I hope you try this recipe. it is awesome! It's not you normal granola, it's sweet and delectable. Almost candy I think! I made some for Doodle Bugs teacher and covered it with a piece of fabric and told her I had a lid issue. She told me it wouldn't be there long enough to need a lid!

Here's what you need:

2 cups oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp brown sugar

dash of salt

2/3 cups dried cranberries

2/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Here's what you'll do:

Preheat oven to 350. Stir all ingredients together except chocolate chips. Spread mixture on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes then stir. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes. Watch the last couple minutes that it doesn't burn. You just want browned edges. Once it's nice and golden brown remove from oven it'll still seem sticky, but that's okay as it cools it hardens up a bit. Let cool about 20 minutes. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Store in airtight container. Enjoy!

As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain. 

Potpouri Christmas ornament... a photoless tutorial

     One Christmas when I was in grade school we made these little ornaments out of paper tubes. This was over 18 years ago and my mom still has the one I made!
     I did have pictures but somewhere along the line they ran away!! They are really easy though so lets see how this goes.

You'll need:
1  paper tube
2inchx 4 inch Festive fabric scrap
3 inch x 3 inch Lace scrap
Hot glue gun
2 tablespoons of Potpouri

Step one: Cut the paper tube in half (about two inches long)
Step two: Cover the tube with the festive fabric using hot glue. Trim the edge so it's nice and evenly covered.
Step three: Cut out 2 circles from the lace large enough to overlap the edges of the tube.
Step four: Glue one circle to one end of the tube.
Step five: Fill with Potpouri.
Step six: Glue second lace circle to open end.
Step seven: Tie string around the center of the tube. Tie the ends of the tails to make a hanger and voila, done!

PS I'll take more picture tonight after Doodle Bug's concert!

Christmas craze!

With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday, blogging gets pushed down the list. Plus Doodle Bug came home sick from school Wednesday and was out Thursday and Friday. But we should be back on track and as soon as I get back from some shopping tonight I'm going to start on the next little Christmas tutorial. It will for sure be up on Wednesday! Thank you for sticking with me through the crazy Christmas season!

December...

This month is turning out to be so much more than I expected it to be! At the moment my desk is covered in 17 little gingerbread costumes, about a dozen gifts that still need to be started, a alteration for a friend of a friend of my mom's, and a partridge in a pear tree! We have class pictures coming up on Friday for Doodle Bug, along with a Christmas concert, and Christmas party next week. We need to take the kids to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop (Yeah, we're that family!) Also Santa's Enchanted Forest is due a visit. These are only the things we know of now, not including the ones that will pop up all of a sudden! So if I'm absent, I'm sorry. Life gets crazy and now seems like the perfect time for some crazy! So I'll try to post some more tutorials, but real life comes first. I will be posting a tutorial on Wednesday with toilet paper tubes because Doodle Bug really wants to! 

Also a huge Thank you to Dotty over at Totally Tutorials for sharing my Greeting Card Gift Box tutorial!!

Polymer clay peace star ornament

     This is a fun, easy ornament to make. It adds a little color to any tree! Even ours that is eclectic enough as it is! I just love the colors and psychedelic look on this happy little star! This is also a good project for the kids to help with, just as long as they don't do the hot parts!

You'll need: wax paper to work on, something to bake on, star cookie cutter, straw, toothpick, something round and a few different colors of clay. I like to use 5, not to many not to little.

For this star (which fits in the middle of my hand) I only ended up using 1 'line' of each clay. Also it was enough to make a medium star and a small star with the left overs.

I made little balls but you can just use little piece if you want. I like to take the time and make the balls because it makes the colors clearer and more swirly. If you just do pieces it'll be more spotty.

Roll all of the pieces together into a big ball. Flatten the ball.

Cut out your star.

Using a straw, pierce a hole for the hanger.

I used the end of a serger thread cone to make the circle.

Use a toothpick to make the lines.

Preheat the oven and make a little one while you wait for it to heat up. (I use a piece of card stock to bake on because I no longer have a pan dedicated to my clay.) Bake your clay according to the manufacturers directions.

Let it cool. It doesn't take long but hurts if you're impatient!

You can add a regular metal ornament hook, but I like the added color of ribbon. If your like me and hate it when your ornaments don't face forward do this; tie a little bit of ribbon through the hole and then tie your hanger ribbon through that ribbon so it'll hang straight forward!

And there you go! All set to go on the tree or give as a gift.

I'm sharing at







As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain.

Quick and easy fabric gift bags!

     Did you know that in America 5 million tons of waste is thrown out during the holidays? 4 million tons of which is wrapping paper and shopping bags. So to make the season a bit more green use reusable bags when you shop for those gifts. If you can fit it into a regular bag, great! Why would you want all of those shopping bags hanging around anyway? Not to mention, they make more noise than a fabric bag!! 

     Another way is to make and use fabric gift bags. I made a couple of these last year and they work great! Plus we cut our paper usage down. Now I'm not perfect and I still love all the pretty designs and shiny, bright colors of wrapping paper and still use it, just sparingly. A plus to making bags to is all of the cute fabrics out there! You can make any size and have colorful prettiness under the tree still.

     Seeing as my craft corner will soon be taken over by 17 little gingerbread kids costumes I should get some projects out of the way! So here is my quick little tute on making fabric gift bags!

You'll need:

Fabric (I used a yard folded it in half and just cut out different sizes until I had cut it all)

Sewing machine and serger if you can

Thread

Ribbon

First, cut your bag pieces.

Second, serge or sew both sides and the bottoms of bags.

Third, hem or serge the top edge. I choose to serge in white thread because it reminds me of snow!)

Fourth, flip right side out.

Fifth, cut a lenght of ribbon at least 10 inches long and singe the ends so they don't fray. And sew it on to the bag about 2 inches from the top. (Father down for larger bags.) Just make sure you have room to gather and tie around the top of the bag once it's filled.

Sixth, fill and give! Your receiver will love it! Last year my mom said, "Do I get to keep it?" I'm sure someone else will probably get it this year and that's already two gifts given without wasting more paper, awesome!

I'm sharing at

As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain. 

Ho Ho Ho-ly Christmas time!!

     I must say I was ill prepared for December to start already! I thought I just got over Halloween! 

     Anyway, it hit me hard that it is now December! So the Christmas fairy, AKA me, fluttered around trying to find things to stuff the advent calendar with. My mom and I always used festive chocolates or mini candy canes, but for the love of crazies, I forgot to get any! So I raided the top of our pantry for the hidden chocolates and came up with a cute little festive combo. I hadn't planned on using anything bigger than the little oval ones or candy canes so the weight has kinda pulled the whole calendar into a curl, but that's okay because it won't be full for long! I can't wait to see Doodle Bug when he gets up in the morning to get ready for school and this is waiting for him!

The little snowman mover I made is just hanging out up there at the top tucked into the hanger. I hadn't really planned it like that but it works so all's good.

I hope everyone else is having as much fun getting ready for the holiday as I am!

We will be getting the rest of our Christmas-y goodness out of storage and hopefully we'll be all decorated by Sunday! Yea, so much fun!