And the stockings were hung...

The last two years we had no where to hang our stockings so I made this board to hang them on. I love this cute saying. I cut out the letters with my handy dandy Cricut machine. It was so easy and I love how it turned out!

P.S. Please remember that I am trying to get to 25 followers by Christmas time!!

 

Junk vs. Treasure

We have a second bedroom in our apartment and I love love love love it! I call it my Hobby Lobby. 

I even made a sign. :)

Whenever my dad comes over and sees all the "junk" I have, he tells me that I need to make a trip to the D.I. Obviously he is not a crafter! These are just a couple of the random things that I have in my Hobby Lobby. What is one man's junk is another girl's treasure.

The key is organization..

Steven made me those beautiful shelves. He cut the wood and I stained, painted, and modge-podged them then he mounted them for me. And don't you love those jars? I want to get a few more and do a second row behind them.

Doesn't all this junk just make you want to go crafting crazy!!

Only 23 days left to get your Christmas craft presents finished and wrapped!

My Very First Turkey!

This year Steven and I decided that we wanted to start our own tradition of having our own Thanksgiving dinner. That way when we have kids, no matter what way we are getting tugged and pulled, we will be able to have our own time with our family. We decided that we will make our own Thanksgiving dinner and decorate the house for Christmas today. The past week I was looking all over the internet for recipes for a great turkey soak. I found two that sounded delicious so I combined them to make my own. I have to mention how much my mother-in-law helped me! We spent Thanksgiving with them this year and I was able to learn all of her tricks. Honestly, that is what helped the most!

So here is what I did... I started on Saturday afternoon so that it would have plenty of time to soak.
First I cleaned out the middle of the turkey with cold water. I threw away the neck and the heart.
Then I grabbed my 4 gallon bucket and filled it with water (I didn't have a pan big enough). I threw a bunch of sea salt in and let it dissolve a little bit before I put the turkey in.

Then I mixed:

1 Tbs. dried rosemary
2 tsp. ground sage
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pepper

I rubbed in all over every cavity of the turkey. Then I cut lemon wedges, onion wedges, and tangerine wedges (because I didn't have oranges). I squeezed the juice over the turkey and rubbed in the onion. I put the turkey in the water and I also threw in all the wedges.

Today I pulled the turkey out of the soak. I melted butter and combined: garlic salt, pepper, and paprika. I basted the turkey with the butter then sprinkled the mixture all over the turkey.

I used the bag method to cook the turkey. One key thing to remember about using the bag is that you need to put about a tablespoon of flour in the bag and mix it all around. That way the turkey won't stick to the bag. 

I cooked the turkey according to the directions on the turkey packaging. 

It turned out so yummy! The meat was really tender with good flavor. I used the juice from the turkey to make the gravy. I did the gravy the traditional way. The juice gave such good flavor though that I didn't even have to add any salt or pepper to the gravy.

Here's another fun idea...

Steven came up with this genius idea. We love those chocolate oranges that you can get around Christmas so last year we decided to try to put them in hot chocolate.

We make hot chocolate in our hot chocolate maker then while it's hot, we put chocolate orange pieces in it and let them melt. It is delicious!

Here is our first very own Thanksgiving dinner!

After dinner we decorated the house for Christmas.

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend and we have so much to be grateful for! 

We hope you all had an equally great Thanksgiving!

Wrapping Presents

I saw this super fun idea on Pinterest and I thought that I would share it with you!

This only works if you have something small to wrap, like a necklace or earrings. 

First find some old toilet paper rolls.

Then layer with modge-podge and put paper all the way around it. You can see that step with the rolls in the background of this picture. Then you will fold down two sides on one end of the toilet paper roll, just like it shows in the picture. 

Put the present inside and then fold down the other end. And you are finished!

Here are the present that I have wrapped so far....

Aren't these fun tags? I saw one like it on Pinterest and I wanted to make my own. It's brown cardstock that I stamped with the reindeer stamp. Then I added the red jewel nose. 

Christmas Wreaths

I have the cutest hair client, her name is Sandy. She always shows me these incredible wreaths that she makes. She is so creative and talented! I wanted to try to make a wreath like hers and I figured the best people to make them for are my mom and mother-in-law! 

This gold and red one is for my mother-in-law. She loves the traditional colors but I added some fun ornaments to it so that it wouldn't be bland. 

I used a whole roll of ribbon to make that bow, but after I finished it I decided that next time I want to make it a little bigger. I got all of the ornaments at either Hobby Lobby or Walmart. I waited for the sales because I needed a lot of ornaments, and the cost can add up really fast. 

The S is for Shields of course. I wanted to add a few special ornaments to each one to personalize them. 

That little tiny bottle is full of Lake Powell sand, which is their favorite place. I looked for a boat ornament, but none of them were very cute. Luckily I have a whole jar of Lake Powell sand so I bought a jewelry bottle charm and filled it with the sand.  

One really helpful tip that Sandy gave me was how to glue on the ornaments. She bought an old pan from the DI and filled it with glue sticks. She warms in on the stove and then she dips the whole ornament in the glue and places it on the wreath. It works really well! They really stick on there with no chance of coming off. The only thing I didn't glue was the bow and the Merry Christmas ornament. I wired both of those to the wreath. 

This one is for my mom. She loves the fun decorative stuff like polka dot ribbon! 

Isn't this little Rudolph buddy cute? I found him at Walmart for $1. 

These were some of my favorite ornaments. They are just sticks that you stab into the wreath. They were at Hobby Lobby for $0.75. I loved them so much that I bought some for my Christmas tree!

This wreath's personalization is the S for Sorensen and the high heel to represent the four daughters in our family. The high heel is also from Walmart.

I am so excited for the holidays!! There are so many fun crafts to do and give away!

P.S. Remember that I am trying to get to 25 followers by Christmas! Click on the Follow Me button on the right side of the page! 

Gobble Gobble!

We are in the final count down days to Thanksgiving! I am so excited. What is better than being able to eat food literally all day long while being with your favorite people?? This is my November door hang. It came from the Wood Connection (of course), but I added my own personal touches to it.

Is there anything cuter than a onesie?

I have had a few friends lately either have a baby or they are very close to having one. I love love love getting baby stuff! 

I go to Walmart and get plain onesies. They are usually $2 or $3. Then I add my own personal touch!

 I can't wait to see these onesies on the tiny little babies!!

P.S. My goal is to have 25 followers by Christmas.. Help me make my goal! Click on Follow Me on the right side of the page. :)

Tulle Flowers

Last Saturday I was hanging out with my cousin Nikki. I had a tulle flower in my hair and she asked me how to make it. I had actually cheated this time because I just bought that flower. But then I started wondering if I could make one. So I made a video about how to make the tulle flowers. It is so easy and they turn out really cute!

Watch the video here.

Happy Birthday Lex!

Happy Birthday Lex! 

Today is my sister's birthday. For my family, I usually try to make one gift and then buy them another one. For Lexa I decided to make another bag. I hope people aren't getting sick of my bags... I just love to make them!

Aren't these colors fun? I thought they fit her style really well. I had some fabric for other projects and just used the scraps. Does anyone know the technical name for these designs? I call them muffins, but I'm almost positive that's not right. :)

The buttons were from Walmart. I think they were $1.50 for 4. This design is so easy to make, but it looks fancy. In the near future I'm going to post a video about how to make them.

Love you Lex!