I told you...

I told you I would make these cookies....

Then I couldn't find a snowglobe cookie cutter and I couldn't find any snowflake sprinkles... I finally found the snowflakes... and decided to make my own snowglobe cookie cutter! It really ended up being quite simple... just take a circle cookie cutter and bend it in 4 places to make a base. The top sort of adjusts itself, so it's easy to get the right shape!

I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, though you can't fit too many on a cookie sheet!

Of course, the best part for Ellie was watching them bake. She just parked herself in front of the oven for a while!

Looking good, Mom!

The baked cookies...

This year I did something different than I've ever done before... I put my frosting in bottles instead of in decorator's bags. It was a great way to decorate quickly! I will definitely use this idea again if I'm working with color flow frosting!

One step at a time... first the base of the snowglobe, frosted and sugared immediately.

Then the top of the snowglobe, complete with gingerbread men, snowflakes, and course sugar snow!

Finish it off with some white frosting and non pareil snow and you have a very fun cookie!!

They were very fun to make, and pretty darn cute, too!!

The 2010 Snow Day Album

Last year I made a December Daily album. This year we are having a bit of a non-traditional Christmas, with almost no decorations, altered schedules, and the like. I didn't want to give up Christmas completely, but didn't see doing activities and taking pictures, etc, in my future, either. So I decided to make a little journal about what we do on the "snow days" - the days we're stuck inside the condo!

Publish Post

It's a spring line, but I thought it was fun and festive for Christmas, too.

I have a new craft room!

Wanna see it??? Here you go...

What? It doesn't look like much of a craft room?? Well, it's what I've got right now, and it's keeping me sane! Here's a look inside...

It's kind of hard having the living room, dining room, two offices, and a craft room all crammed into one small living area. This has ended being a good solution, since it becomes my work space when I flip over the top, storage inside, and an ottoman / coffee table when not being used for crafting. =D And when we finally move out and into our new house, it will go in my new Mary Kay office!!

More Gummy Pops

One of the things we picked up when we were making our Gumdrop Pops was a container of gummy letters. I thought it might have some fun shapes in it. Turns out, P is the perfect shape for a scarf on a gumdrop snowman. =D

Because that was the only letter we used in our gumdrop pops, we had a few letters left over. I decided to use those to make more pops - festive words this time!

I used words like "Merry" and "Happy" and "Ho Ho Ho" and "Peace" and "Joy" and "Noel" - How much more festive can you get??

Christmas Cards

I bought a holiday stamp set a few months back in anticipation of making some fun Christmas cards for my Mary Kay clients. I thought maybe I'd get some Copic coloring in on these, but since I can't find my Copic markers after the recent move, I found an alternate idea.

I used a Martha Stewart anywhere punch to punch windows in the card, then went for a simple graphic card with a black image (strategically colored) and a sentiment stamped red paper strip inside behind the window. They were simple to put together, and I really like how they turned out! I managed to turn out 40 or so of them in an evening!

I'm feeling crafty

... but am really in no position for craftiness. I'm sitting in a little 2 bedroom condo, surrounded by boxes (only one of which contains craft things - and not the helpful sort!) and I want to craft. I believe tomorrow I am meeting up with Amber to make some pies, so that will help. But oh, how I want to craft!

And so, my attention is turned to the sort of crafting I have always wanted to do and never done... I want to use chocolate transfer sheets on truffles. Yes, I want to! I have Christmas goodies to make this year, so perhaps some finely made truffles with beautiful chocolate transfers will be in the making.

I'm also going to be making these cute snowglobe cookies this year! I've got almost all the decorations for it so far... all that's needed now is the little snowflakes! I've found them, I just have to order them...

Aren't they cute?!

Gumdrop Pops

I was inspired by Martha Stewart and these cuties, so Ellie and I sat down last night and decided to make our own gummy pops. We started with this:

and came up with things like these:

We had a lot of fun putting them together, and decided they'd make cute additions to Christmas gifts for Eliana's friends this year!

The **NEW** Craft Room!

It's taking shape...

My new craft room will be in the bonus room above the garage of the new house. I am SO excited about it!! Here's what it looks like right now...

See this space??

Our builder is still trying to figure out a way to put a dumb waiter in for my to haul my crafting stuff up from the garage instead of having to drag it up the stairs... Wouldn't that be AWESOME! Of course, it's still a pipe dream at this point, but a girl can dream, right??

I couldn't take it any more....

I needed to craft. NEEDED to craft. Mind you, I have only a few craft supplies out any more, but I had enough to put this together the other night:

I played with a few supplies from the last kit I got (have I mentioned that I think kits are marvelous?) and it was nice to craft again. I miss my craft space. Can't wait for the new one! It's taking shape in the new house, so I'll have to share as it comes together!

A distracted afternoon....

Here's a little album I accidentally put together one afternoon while I was cleaning the kitchen before we went to Texas. Oops! Guess I got distracted. It was quick and easy, though, and fun to put together. =D

I am only scrapping old pictures on the off times that I actually scrap these days. I am resolved not to print any new pictures until we move into the new house, which won't be for several months yet. There you go! A packed up craft room and no new pictures lead to this!

Apple Surprise

I came home from a few weeks in Texas and made dinner. We had French Toast and Apple Surprise! I got the idea from Martha Stewart Living this month and modified it to fit my plan. See, on the plate it just looks like an apple! Inside, though, is a surprise....

First you take an apple, cut off the top, and scoop out the insides. I put the insides in a pan and simmered them with some cinnamon and sugar to make some syrup for the French Toast.

Then you fill the apple with whatever. Martha recommended caramel. I filled them with homemade apple sauce and cinnamon.

I added a little cinnamon stick and apple heart for garnish. =D Isn't it cute?

Then I put the lid back on it to add to the surprise.

Eliana thought it was great, and we all got to eat our apple bowls after the applesauce was gone!