Christmas Presents 2011

Our wrapping theme is red, black, and white to go along with our Scarlet and Black Tree this year. I found all of my wrapping paper at HobLob over the past 3 years. I tried to stick with graphic prints in the target colors. Polka dots, stripes, and swirls. Also, HobLob had a whole black, red, and white sparkly ornament line of Christmas decor this year! Yum!

Also, note that there are no plastic-y bows to be found! Mr. Baxter and Mr. Winston love plastic-y bows...and curly ribbon...and sparkles. So, in order to avoid a ginormous vet bill, we opt for classic fabric bows. A tad more pricey, but not as expensive as an x-ray and surgery for the little ones!

I love tying bows. I don't know why. Just plain old bows. Not fancy ones. I love the look of a perfectly tied fabric bow.

I also added a few embellishments this year, including a sparkly snowflake and some jingle bells.

Christmas Tree 2011

Our house is a perfect Christmas house. I know a lot of people say this, but ours is, too! We have a great space to entertain, a warm and neutral palate that compliments Christmas colors, and a perfect spot for our tree right in front of the window!

We didn't have a Christmas tree for our first Christmas. I saved a bunch of money for a whole year so that I could buy Christmas ornaments on the day after Christmas. Then, I saved a bunch of money for another whole year so that I could buy our perfect first tree. We ended up having to call the tree company because the middle strand of lights was out, but it was well worth it!

And let me tell you...this is our perfect first tree!

Our tree is a red, black, and silver Texas Tech tree! Since we are both alumni living in Lubbock, we figured there would be no better time in our lives to have such a tree. We've been collecting Texas Tech ornaments to add to the shatterproof (kitty-proof) red and black bulbs.

It's still a work in progress (as every tree is), but I'm so happy with (and proud of!) what has taken 3 years to come together!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites Round 2

So earlier I showed off 2010's Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites. Here are this year's invites!

• To make these, I used my Silhouette Studio to create mini sweater outlines which I arranged into a Christmas tree shape.
• Then, I printed the invites on white cardstock using St. Nicholas font. 
• After printing and drying, I used my Silhouette SD to cut out the Christmas tree sweaters.
• I glued glitter cardstock in appropriate colors to the back of the cardstock and mounted it on some more glitter cardstock. (The tackier, the better!)

Once again, I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites Round 1

Fact: I love Christmas weather.
Fact: I love Christmas time.
Fact: My house is a perfect Christmas house.
Fact: I like to have fun and be goofy.
Fact: It's Tacky Christmas Sweater Party time!

Invitations are an easy way to spend extra creativity. Also, they're necessary for a part-ay. There are some important things to remember when crafting your invitations.

1) Crafting invitations is not cheaper than making them (unless you use what you already have...in which case they're free!). Well, its not cheaper than the invitations I would buy (but I'm a cheap-o with paper products), but it may be cheaper than custom ordered invites.

2) Buy on sale. Buy on clearance. Or with a coupon. Basically never pay full price for your paper or craftiness supplies. Most stores have email coupons, newspaper coupons, online coupons, and in-store coupons. Use them.

3) Plan ahead. I always plan my cards out in powerpoint or paint.net so I know what they'll look like, print like, and what supplies I need.

These are last year's invites. I love that each one is different.

• The font I used was Bodie MF Holly found here.
• First, I printed on the white card stock in green and red.
• Second, I matted the invite on red or green card stock.
• Third, I cut out and glued my sweaters from glitter paper in red, green, and silver.
• Finally, I glued on my embellishments and sequins to create a truly tacky sweater.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Halloween Cake Pops

Whew! It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

Quick catch-up before the cake pops...

The Mortons (+ a few others) came to visit for the Texas A&M v. Texas Tech game. We had a house full of Aggies (I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere). The tailgating was great! More on the recipes from that later.

My sweet husband and me.

 My two Aggie sisters!

Travis's Grandfather passed away the following week somewhat unexpectedly. He was well-loved. We went home to be with family and were able to help out some. It was great to be able to share all our memories.

The next weekend brought a Texas Rangers loss and a huge Red Raider win. One week later we had an opposite experience (which was quite painful!). Travis's parents came to visit, and we had a great time tailgating!

On to the cake pops!!

I love chocolate. Not sure if I've expressed that enough. I also love brownies. I eat too many. Solution? Brownie cake pops! 

I used my Babycakes Cake Pop Maker. There's a bunch of recipes online, and much debate about boxed recipes. I threw caution to the wind (when my family was visiting) and gave these little guys a try. Result? Delicious!

Step 1: Mix
Mix up your boxed brownie mix. I used the recipe for thicker/cake-like brownies.

Step 2: Babycakes!
Preheat your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.

Step 3: Zip Trick!
Load up your brownie mix into a big old Ziploc bag (I used 1 gallon). Cut the tip like the picture below.

Step 4: Fill 'er Up!
Fill up the wells of the maker. The instructions says to not overfill the wells and to use 1 tablespoon (if my memory serves me right). You know what? Forget it! Fill up each well to the top. You'll have some spillage, but it results in a perfect spherical cake ball each and every time.

Step 5: Cook! 
After some experimenting, we found that 6 minutes is just about perfect. If you overfill the wells, add an extra minute or so before taking the brownie balls out.

Step 6: Stick It
Insert your sticks in the brownie balls and let them cool (I stick them in the fridge for a few minutes here).

Step 7: Dip*n*Decor
Dip in chocolate and decorate as you'd like! I fixed these up to take to work on Halloween. Yum!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Ribboned Paperclips

In my To-Be-Crafted post I mentioned bow paperclips. Here are my inspiration pictures:

Source: alteredtoperfection.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: howaboutorange.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Well. Let me tell you. That first set = totally do-able. Mini bows on top of paperclips = damn near impossible! I attempted the bow. Didn't even take a picture, though. My fingers are not nimble enough for that one.

What I did attempt was the ribbony ones. I didn't have much "cute" ribbon on hand. Let's be honest. I'm not going to buy ribbon for paperclips. That's just not me. So...here is what I did

I also did a few with some red and black polka dot. Turned out pretty cute!

Football Food: Tailgating Food

During football season there are two kinds of foods: Tailgating Food  and  Football Watchin' Food. Everything that is consumed on Saturday and Sunday falls into one of those categories.

Today, we're talking about the first one: Tailgating Food.

Every tailgating food has to be portable. This can be accomplished one of two ways: pack and carry  or  make on the tailgate. I prefer a combination of both. Below are some of my favorite tailgating recipes resulting in our go-to tailgating menu.


Course 1: Appetizers
It's always nice to have a bit of variety for tailgate guests. I tend to make a fruity/veggie healthy option and a cheesey not-so-healthy option.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip
This tends to be my go-to cheese not-so-healthy dip. People love it, it makes a lot, and I have the perfect bake-and-take carrier which makes it easy. I serve this dip straight out of the pyrex casserole dish hot with tortilla chips or crackers.

Fruit Dip & Fruit Tray
I love a good fruit dip! Many are easily make-aheadable. Store them in tupperware in the coolers for tailgating to keep them chill.

Chips and Salsa
Easy. Easy. Easy. And yummy! A variety of chips + some awesome local salsa = party hit. Just make sure you have a bowl for the salsa.


Course 2: Main Dish
Burgers
A tailgating staple. Class it up some by adding A1 or your favorite steak sauce after you flip the burgers to add some extra flavor. Have a couple of varieties of cheese (cheddar, american, pepper jack) and a few toppings (pre-cut lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and condiments).

Hot Dogs
Second tailgating staple. Go with the classic all-beef franks. Toast buns and add some basic condiments like mustard and ketchup for a yummy meal!


Course 3: Desserts
Cookies
See my post about freezable cookie dough here. Pre-bake some cookies and throw 'em in a tupperware. Easy as pie (except it's cookies).

S'Mores
Marshmallow + Chocolate + Cookie. What could be more simple? Everyone loves this finger food throwback. Plus, there's no fancy serving necessary. All you need are bags of ingredients and a coathanger or two!