Do you like thin mint cookies?

If you like thin mint cookies you will love these! We make these every year and they are so simple to make that my kids do it all (and then I eat them all).

All you need is Ritz crackers and Andes Mints (I buy a bag of the baking Andes Mints, they are next to the chocolate chips at the store and are much cheaper than buying the regular Andes).

Melt the Andes Mints and then dip the Ritz cracker in it and set on wax paper to cool. It's THAT easy!
They melt in your mouth... yummy!

Perfect for a last minute neighbor gift.
Make some and tell me what you think... please.

For friends and neighbors

Keeping it simple this year...

I bought these plastic "paint cans" at the local craft store and decorated them with Christmas scrapbook paper, ribbon and stamps/ rub-ons. Now I'm making the yummy carmel corn to fill them.

Want the recipe? It's my favorite!

Crunchy Carmel Corn

1/3 C butter

2/3 C brown sugar

3 Tbs Corn Syrup

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all and bring to boil then remove from heat and add:

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp vanilla

mix with 2 quarts popcorn (or one bag of microwave popcorn)

Cook at 250degrees for 30 minutes then stir and cook an additional 30 minutes.

Christmas project ideas

I love the idea of using old Christmas pictures or even framing Christmas cards to decorate for the holidays. You could use the picture frames you already have out and just swap the pictures or paint some wood frames (they are only a few bucks at Micheals) like in this picture.
I love this pompom garland but I instead of a countdown I'm going to use it to...well, I'll have to show you soon.
Found this on Little Birdie Secrets. You can make 16 seasonal words out of these 7 blocks... seriously! Perfect gift idea.
When I first saw this I thought to myself, "so cute, but I don't sew". I was thrilled to find this requires zero sewing! Check it out.

A little busy with little ones

I don't know when the next post will be... Melissa and I are both busy with brand new little ones (6 days apart!).

Stay tuned, we will be back among the living soon... we hope.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

Decorated the house this week...

This is our "stocking for Jesus". Christmas Eve we write down our gifts to the Savior for the new year. This is a special tradition for our family.

It's not Christmas until we hang the cow on the tree.

We tied the tree to the top of an end table this year in an effort to make it a bit harder for little hands to reach... but he is persistent.

Ahhhh, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Love this chubby star I made a few years ago...

and this new star (thanks for the idea Emily and Melissa).

Of course I had to do another banner.

Check out Tip Junkie- she is doing a virtual tour of homes decorated for the holidays, too fun!

Sitting on the sofa, looking at the tree, with the fireplace on, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to Christmas music... I love this time of year.

Merry Christmas

Car Seat Cover

Like every other craft I make, it is the brain child of someone else... I am just good at copying! I saw these cute car seat covers and being only weeks away from having my first baby (in Utah, in the winter) I had to have one. Theirs were a little fancier with bows or buttons on the straps that attach to the handle and super cute fabric (2 coordinating cotton fabrics sewn right sides together then flipped right side out). I used a cotton and a minke and like the bibs did a rough edge so it will fray.

My fabric was about 36 x 44 with the straps on top being 2 1/2 x 9. If you plan on doing a finished edge you might need a little more for your seam allowance. Good luck!

*Melissa*

Christmas Star

A while back I saw a darling Halloween star on my sister-in-law's blog and wanted to make my own for Christmas. I bought my barn stars at Real Deals and a Christmas stack of scrapbook paper from Michael's as well as some Mod Podge. Made a pattern with card stock and it was that easy.
A simple bow and hung on the front door will complete this easy Christmas craft.

NOT distressed

Distressed with brown ink

*Melissa*

It's a SiSTeR thang

I love doing this blog but to keep it going with lots of great ideas I decided I wanted to get my super crafty sister in on the fun and happily she agreed.

So, Introducing.... MElisSa!
Not only is she beautiful but she has great taste and loves to get knee deep into a project. Before I moved 1600 miles away Melissa and I would spend many a night watching chick flicks and "creating" (oh, and eating chocolate). Oh, how I miss that!
So keep an eye out for her posts (she just did the one on super cute baby bibs).
Welcome to nannygoat Melis!

Baby Bibs

Awhile back I saw a darling bib on a little baby and as usual the thought came to me... I could totally make that! So I googled bib patterns and found the following http://chickpeastudio.typepad.com/chickpea_sewing_studio/files/bib_pattern_final.pdf
As you can see they are as easy as can be!

I used fabric I already had and cut away. I used white thread with a 3/8 seam and plain old straight Velcro that I cut off from a roll. The instruction on the pattern say to sew them right sides together and turn them right side out. You could do that for sure, I personally like it with the rough edges look. I think that is about all, they are pretty self explanatory!

And the beautiful thing is the more you wash them the cuter they get!

*Melissa*

"Baby legs" (or arm warmers)

When I saw this tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets (LOVE that blog!) I couldn't wait to try it out, especially since my girls love to wear short sleeve shirts even in the dead of winter.

It's so easy. All you need is a pair of socks (knee-high for baby legs or kids arms and thigh high for adult arms) matching thread and scissors. Just cut the feet off of both socks then turn the sock inside out and fold the raw edge over and whip stitch it. THAT"S IT!!

So cute and comfy. I have to make more 'cause my girls are fighting over them!

Now I can't wait to make some "baby legs" for the new babes. (The tricky part is finding boyish colors/patterns in a knee-high sock.)

Selective Colorization with Photoshop Elements

I found another tutorial for photoshop elements that I love and wanted to share.

This allows you to turn your picture black and white and then re-color the parts of the picture you want.

Check it out here.

Oh, and let me know if you like me to share these photoshop tricks. I love learning more but maybe everyone else already knows all this stuff?!?

So please leave a comment if you want me to keep sharing what I find. :)

Playing with photoshop today

I learned the coolest photoshop trick today on Blissfully Domestic and it is soooo simple!

I took this original picture (above) of my daughter and added a few different textures so you can see the effects.

I love how the different textures change the feeling of each picture.

Love this!!

Check it out, she even gives you links to free textures to use.

Witches and One-eyed Monster -Cake Balls

For a Young Women's activity my talented friend taught the girls (and me) how to make these fun Halloween cake balls.

So here are the basics:

*Bake one box of chocolate cake as directed.

*After cake is cooled crumble it into a large bowl and mix in 1 can cream cheese frosting

*Roll mixture into quarter size balls, lay on a cookie sheet, and stick one sucker stick in each

*Chill in fridge for several hours

*Melt your choice of chocolate (we did purple and green colored) in microwave per directions on package
*dip cake ball in chocolate and decorate as follows
For Witch: chow mein noodles for hair, oreo cookie and kiss for hat and orange frosting for eyes
For One-eyed Monster: Half of a marshmallow and one M&M for eyeball

As you can see the girls are not perfectionists... that's what makes these so darn cute.

LOVE that warty lookin' witch!