Cranberry Butter Spread

Everybody loves the holidays for at least one reason! Mine being food and fun :) This is a festive spread because of the delicious fresh cranberries that are used... mmm.

I saw this simple recipe but I do not remember where I saw it! Just know that I'm not clever enough to come up with this one on my own...

What you'll need:

1 lb softened butter
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup honey
Zest of a full orange

*I used "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" to try and cut some fat out.

To begin, empty the butter into a medium sized mixing bowl

Then make sure you give those tart cranberries a good chop.

I chopped the cranberries because I wanted them mixed in really well, but I suppose it's all about personal preference.

Now... for my favorite part... the honey <3

All that is left is that beautiful orange. Make sure you get at least a medium size so you get a nice amount of zest to mix in.

By the way, I used a regular ol' grater... no fancy kitchen utensils here!

Next, give it a good stir until smooth and creamy.

Yum yum yummy!!

This spread was wonderful on toast, but I bet it would be just as wonderful on pancakes or muffins! Try it out :)

Personalized Wine Carafe

I hope everybody's holiday was wonderful! I had a fantastic time with the family, and I am definitely looking forward to New Years with them!

Now that everyone has unwrapped their gifts, I can FINALLY post about them! For the next few days, expect a flood of crafty blogging :)

First off- I have been dying to post this one. For Christmas, I made David's mother a personalized wine carafe.

I grabbed this cute carafe from Hobby Lobby :)

On my Cricut, I cut out "Valeria's Wine" on vinyl and smoothed it over the carafe.

Then I applied a thick layer of Etching cream in the cut-out letters and left it to dry for about 10 minutes.

After the time was up, I rinsed the carafe under water and took the vinyl off.

Here is the finished product-

It's kind of hard to see, but it really did turn out nice!

I love being able to personalize items, especially for people with unique names. This carafe made a great gift. Who doesn't love wine after all??

I WON!!

I am very pleased and excited to say that I have won my FIRST blog giveaway!!

Here, on Sumo's Sweet Stuff, I won a beautiful jewelry piece from BlackGiraffe on Etsy <3

I will update with pictures when I have received my piece!

YAY!!

That Christmasy Feeling...

It finally snowed down here in Carbondale!

I literally was talking about this last night with my friend. She asked, "when do you think it's going to snow?" and I said, "Down here? Probably not 'til late January!"

Boy, was I wrong...

View from the apartment deck

My dogs were quite excited to see the white fluffy snow. The minute I opened up the deck sliding door, Zoe ran out and created the most perfect little paw print  <3

It's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Another thing I wanted to mention- coffee creamer. What other great way to smell and taste the holiday season than a sweet and spicy creamer for your coffee??

David and I ran into this one at the store...

Rufus modeled in the background for us

And OMG YUMMY! Vanilla Spiced Rum creamer. If you love tasting the holidays in your coffee cup, you have to try this delectable creamer.

Hope everyone's season is turning out to be beautiful!

Project with My Kindergarten

I wanted to share a cute project I did with my Kindergarten class this semester :)

I asked the children to describe pumpkins and things we do in fall. We had a pumpkin and I wrote the descriptive words on it as a reference for them.

Then I passed out cute bordered autumn papers for them to write a simple story about something they did this past fall.

Here is a sample of a page-

"I gutted pumpkins"

When all of the pages were finished, I compiled them together in order to make a "Fall Book". Unfortunately, a lot of the children lost their pages (*sigh*).

BUT- I did make a super cute cover for the book-to-be!

I love my Cricut <3

So there you have it, a cute, simple, fun idea for kids to be creative and reminisce about their Fall adventures.

Favorite Ornaments

Looking through my Google Reader, I came across a blog that is hosting a "Favorite Ornament Party"! How fun!

I decided to chose my favorite ornaments on my Christmas tree and take a picture to join the party.

This is my favorite ornament because it contains a photo of the ones I love most- my fur-kids, Zoe and Rufus <3

This photo was taken last year when they were dressed in their Christmas pajamas waiting for Santa Paws... too cute, right?!

My other favorite is this darling one-

It's my favorite because this was the first ornament David and I picked out the first year we moved in together <3

If you would like to join in on the fun, here is the link for the Flamingo Toes Favorite Ornament Party :)

Early Christmas Gift!

My friends decided to throw a wonderful (early) Christmas party since finals week is coming up and we're all going home. We did a Secret Santa drawing so that everyone can get at least 1 gift...

Needless to say, it was successful!

I decided to write this blog because my "secret Santa" was none other than my wonderful boyfriend, David! What a great surprise!

Here's what he got me...

This AWESOME organizer for all my crafty things!! I was in love! (not just with my organizer, but with David for picking out such a thoughtful gift!)

Hang tight for some more blog entries... I can't really post anything I have been working on lately because they're all gifts... shh!

DIY Recycled Ornaments

David, my wonderful boyfriend, is a magician (yes, a magician); therefore, we have odd things laying around the apartment for who-knows-what reasons.

One of those odd things-

Are these. They are the little plastic balls that hold cheap toys in the $.25 machines, or that hold pantyhose.
Side note- this is also a good activity for the little guys who actually buy the silly toys. Keep these balls around to repurpose them into ornaments!

I found 3 of these little guys on my desk. Wondering why, I asked Dave, "...What are these for?" He replied, "I thought you could make dog treat ornaments or something."

HOW THOUGHTFUL!! HOW SWEET!! HOW LUCKY AM I TO HAVE A BOYFRIEND WHO APPRECIATES MY LITTLE CRAFTS?!

Incredibly impressed, I gave him a big hug and put them away...

Until last night.

Ornaments? Hmm...

Great idea!

I decided to attempt this idea-

I took the little ball-thing and punctured 2 holes on the lid and put a ribbon through them.

Then, I stuffed it with glittered tissue paper that I had leftover from wrapping gifts.

I took some red ribbon and glued it around the lid closure.

I knew it needed a little something else, so I added some dazzle.

How cute!?

I didn't have any string or fishing line, but once I do I will tie it around the top ribbon in order to hang it on the tree :)