Busy Weekend...Baking, Cooking, and Candle Making oh and the Pageant

Yesterday, we did some holiday baking. We made snickerdoodles, peppermint bark and some reindeer cookies that I have been seeing all over Pinterest. We used red sugar in our cinnamon sugar for the snickerdoodles to give them a festive look. I used the recipe in my Better Home & Gardens Cookbook, but they have it on line as well.

For the peppermint bark we used a recipe from Martha Stewart Magazine. Of all the recipes I have tried from there this is the only one I liked. Hazel had fun opening the candy canes and helping break them into tiny pieces. I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but it looks similar to the one on the recipe.

Before Baking

For the reindeer cookies, I admit we used slice and bake sugar cookies. For some reason I have the worst luck with sugar cookies when I make them homemade. Plus I was trying to make sure we had something fun to decorate that Hazel could help with and not have to refrigerate for an hour or more before going on. I used chocolate covered pretzels (from Trader Joe's) and M&M's. They were so easy and turned out pretty cute.

After Baking

We some of each type to church today for the annual cookie swap. The cookie swap is a fundraiser for the high school youth group to go on their mission trip over the summer. You bring in cookies and then people pay $10 for a decorated box (decorated by youth group) and can fill box with the variety of cookies everyone brought in up to 3 dozen. We didn't get around to making gingerbread cookies yet, but will this week.

On Friday night, we made some candles. I had bought two kits of Pure Beeswax Honeycomb Candle Kits at the Cape Ann Waldorf School's Holiday Fair. The kits come from Hinode Farm. My idea was to try the Cookie Cutter Candles from Family Fun. Well we did one. I don't know if my wax wasn't warmed up enough or if it was suppose to be so hard to cut it with the cookie cutters, but I hurt my hand and felt like it was a huge waste of wax.  However we did make one.

Then we started rolling them. Much easier and more efficient. We used the scraps from the cookie cutter ones to decorate. To make the striped ones I looked at the tutorial on Hinode Farm's website. We are giving some as gifts to family, but most Hazel did not want to part with. We also rolled the few big scraps of the red and got very small ones.

Hazel wanted to keep all the blue ones.

The ones Hazel would give away

Today at church we had our Christmas Pageant. Hazel and I were angels. They changed it this year so the kids didn't have to rehearse and the also involved all the congregation who wanted to participate and be part of the story. It was fun. Oh, and our good friends who we have a play date with every week was the holy family. Hazel was Baby Jesus her first Christmas and was an angel last Christmas. She wouldn't walk down the aisle without me either year so I have been an angel both years as well.

Oh, and we started our day yesterday reading Curious George Makes Pancakes, and we made banana blueberry pancakes. So much fun to read and do the same activity as one of her favorite characters. George after all comes for a playdate every day according to Hazel.

One last craft, that we did ages ago, but I don't think we shared.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and have a great week! Try to find peace this week and not all the craziness of the holidays!

Sharing Saturday #10

Wow, we have shared so many amazing ideas the past few weeks. Thank you so much for sharing them with me. I know I always am inspired by them. This week I was late visiting them and leaving comments, but I have to say it was wonderful to go and see comments from all of you saying you were visiting from Sharing Saturday. Thank you for sharing the blog love with one another!

Christmas is almost here!

Is anyone else feeling the holiday stress? I know I planned ahead so I wouldn't yet I feel like this week I have been running around without any time. I'm not sure how that happened. I guess starting with a sick child and lots of last minute tutoring jobs.

Well, yesterday we went to school and made a neat craft, a star window. It was very easy. We started with a picture mat and glued on a handmade paper cover (which our teacher had already cut to fit). Then we glued a piece of vellum to the back. Then we cut out stars from various papers (foils, handmade and a bit sturdier paper for the kids to cut) and arranged them on another sheet of vellum, gluing them once we decided where we wanted them. Then glue the second vellum to the first and you are done. Our teacher said the original instructions called for tissue paper instead of vellum, but she thought the vellum would be easier and prettier.

When we came home we finished the rest of our pine cone trees. We included garland on these. We also wrapped most of Hazel's gifts to give to people. She had to decide which of each craft was going to various family members and her godparents.

We also decorated some foam and wooden trees and a gingerbread man. I got the foam trees last year and we decorated them with stickers and glued on a small picture of Hazel from the Sears $7.99 package (too small for much else) and gave them as gifts. This year we used all of our glitter glue and other decorations. I'm not sure what we are going to do with them, but we had fun.

Have a great weekend! Stop by tonight or tomorrow for Sharing Saturday!! And go check out last week's entries, so I can figure out who to feature by the popular vote.

Mingling....

All day yesterday, I thought it was Thursday--maybe because I thought Tuesday was Wednesday. However I kept looking for the Blog Hop. So today, I am Mingling over at I HEART CRAFTY THINGS. Come join me! It is a great way to find new wonderful blogs to read and get some new readers of your own!

Busy errands and things

First I have to start by saying Happy Birthday to Amy over at One Artsy Mama. I am participating in her BIG Birthday Celebration by donating my needle felted Dala horse for her giveaway. She is giving away 17 ornaments to 17 lucky readers. Go over and check them out for a chance to win.There are really some beautiful ones. I'm having trouble picking my favorite.

Now that Hazel is finally feeling better, we spent the morning running errands. Most of the errands had to do with Hazel's birthday party. Hazel's birthday is New Year's Eve, so we always plan her party for the first since people are off. This year since it is on a weekend we are actually having her party on her birthday, but in the morning so we won't mess up anyone's New Year's Eve traditions.

Every year we have had a large themed party for Hazel. For her first birthday we did a cupcake theme because I feel in love with some plates that said "Our Little Cupcake Is Turning 1." I searched everywhere for cupcake things and this was the year before cupcakes were in. I found very little, but did find a template to make paper cupcakes for favors filled with pink and purple M&M's. Needless to say we had cupcakes instead of birthday cake. My mother knitted her an adorable cupcake hat from a pattern I found in a magazine.

For her second birthday our theme was Tea for Two. We had a tea party. I made finger sandwiches and lots of tea and sweets. I had people sign a paint your own small tea set when they came. And on top of her cake was another paint-your-own tea set--this one mini that my nephew and I painted. (He painted and I adjusted the colors a bit so there wasn't so much black.) Again there was not much out there for tea parties yet. Now I see them everywhere. I seem to be a year ahead of all the trends. I did however find at Michaels on Clearance garden tea cups with attached saucers for thirty-nine cents each and bought enough for the favors. I filled each one with two tea bags and a small tea cup note book. For the older kids I had paint your own tea cup, but unfortunately, all but one was sick and unable to come.

So for her third birthday, I think I already shared, my theme is nursery rhyme. Come on after making dish and spoon costumes for Halloween could I pick anything else. I found some great paper at the Christmas Tree Shop for twenty five cents for twenty five sheets. Then I thought about rhymes for the invitation. This is what I came up with:

Isn't the paper perfect? Now I'm working on decorations, food, and activities along with the theme. I bought some strawberry tarts from Yankee Candle on clearance for adult favors and plan to make scented (and possible glittered) homemade play dough for the kids.  I want to have different stations like pat-a-cake with some homemade play dough, a Jack be nimble jumping contest, Humpty Dumpty Puzzles, photo ops with a Hickory Dickory Dock clock and a tuffet and large spider for Little Miss Muffet (and make a white bonnet like she wears).

I'm also helping a bit with the planning of a friend's son's first birthday party. The theme is Winter One-derland. I'll share more on that another time.

Do you do theme parties?