Thanksgiving Treat I am Sending to the College Girls

I bought these cute brown and white striped sox today at Michael's for Noelle and six of her friends. They were $1.50 each. Bargain!

When I got home from Michael's I wrapped the sox around two fun sized Hershey bars and tied them with a brown ribbon. I will mail them on Monday or Tuesday.

I always have fun size Hershey bars in the pantry because I use them for my Peep's s'more projects.

These will be lightweight and therefore inexpensive to mail! 

I looked all over for a little Thanksgiving treat to send the girls and I really couldn't find anything. So I was so happy when I stumbled on the sox while buying craft supplies!

These would also be cute to use as Thanksgiving place cards (or party favors for the ladies) and they can be wrapped around granola bars if you want to make the treat a little healthier.

Remember to be Thankful!

Treats for the Habitat for Humanity Boutique or Gratitude Tubes

My sweet tennis friend works tirelessly for Habitat for Humanity. She helps construct, decorate and raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

Every November she turns her home into a giant boutique - with all sorts of vendors and they give a percentage of the sales to Habitat for Humanity.

So I made these little tubes to donate - she can sell them or give them to big spenders, kids etc. She can decide.

I made them in a Thanksgiving theme because Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

I used Reese's Pieces to make the tubes because they are in fall colors and they are delicious.

I wrote little tags that say "Grateful," "Give Thanks," "Thankful" and "Blessings." These would also be a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving dessert buffet. I was also thinking they would make cute place cards - especially for the children's table.

Thanksgiving Decorations

I am now all about showing before and after photos!

The entryway hutch before picture. I love the color red!

The new hutch Thanksgiving decorations. With orange marigolds, mini white pumpkins, my turkey lollipop holder and my favorite Give Thanks rod iron decoration.

I love my Pilgrims and Indians! I also display my turkey candleholders and rod iron leaves. Thanksgiving and fall items are the hardest to find. I mean before Halloween is even over I start to see Christmas decorations. So this week I am going to look for a few more Thanksgiving decorations and I will also be working on some fun Thanksgiving projects.

So keep checking back and tell your friends about this blog if you think they will enjoy the recipes, crafts and decorating ideas. And don't forget to sign up to be a follower.

Mini Shadow Boxes For the Man Cave

I made the DIY miniature shadow boxes for the new Man Cave a few days ago!

I found these hotel bracelets when I was gathering up the sports tickets for the collage. They are so pretty and colorful.

This shadow box contains Christian's Tournament of Champions (TOC) pins. I feel like we are missing a pin. If I find it I am going to put it in the middle.

Both these shadow boxes are going above the desk in the new Man Cave and now I am done with my DIY Man Cave projects!

Sports Ticket Collage

I made a sports ticket collage to hang in the new Man Cave.

I overlapped the tickets and I still had a ton of leftover tickets.

This is a close-up of the collage.

There are three windows in the playroom. I took photos at three different times of the day and these were the best pictures. Unfortunately I couldn't get rid of the bright light areas - ugh!

The collage hangs over the desk. I am going to put the TOC pin shadow box and make a shadow box of wristbands from a one of our favorite hotels.

Halloween Themed Gift Card Idea

Here is a gift card idea  use all the time! I save pieces of cardboard and wrap it with wrapping paper.

The party was Halloween themed. So I taped the Starbucks gift card on top and added a wrapped Hershey bar. I decorated the cardboard with some fun skull and bones ribbon. So simple and your gift card won't get lost.

New Playroom Decor or How the Playroom Became a Man Cave

When we moved into the house we currently live - my daughter was 10 and my son was 3. So the playroom was decorated for tween girls. My son played downstairs in the family room.

So now my daughter is away at college and my son is going to be thirteen in a few months. So I am finally going to redecorate the play room for teenage boys. It will no longer be a playroom - it will be a "Man Cave,"

Here are the before and after pictures of the playroom.

The white armoire houses the television, Play-station 3, Xbox and games and DVD's.

Next to the armoire is a desk.

Here is a close up of the desk.

This is a picture of the bench/bookcase under the window. The black thing in the left corner is a game chair.

The girl colored sofa! The walls are painted yellow.

Another view of the sofa.

Another view of the end table.

My husband repainted the room - he hasn't painted a room for 20 years. We have been using professional painters. He recently told me his painting days are over. What painting days? You painted two  rooms! The last room he painted was my daughters nursery- she is now 19!

I bought a new love seat, pillows, lamps, clock and reframed the pictures with black frames.

I took the blue striped pad off the bench. I added a basket on top for extra cords and game controllers. I also put all of his game balls in a big jar.

I wonder what happened to the corner of this photo?

The basketball and baseball trophies are now on top of the armoire.

The desk got a new lamp and desk blotter.

In looking back at the beginning pictures - this was the room that needed a makeover! Christian loves his new playroom! Oops! I meant he loves his new "Man Cave."

I still need to add a picture above his desk and perhaps a picture above the sofa. I still have a few projects that I am working on - like framing his TOC pins in a shadow box. And I am also thinking of making a collage with all of our sports tickets to hang in the "Cave."

I will try to post some pictures of the ticket collage and TOC pin shadow box. TOC is a baseball tournament - where the first place team in each city plays each other and they exchange city pins.

Cake Balls - A Thank You For The Golf Fundraiser Team

Janine called me to help her make some cake balls - so she came over a few days ago and we made some cake balls!

Didn't these come out cute? I had the Thank You stickers in my craft box.  I hope the golf fundraiser ladies liked the thank you treats!

Candy Corn Fudge

Yes, I love Candy Corn! I saw this recipe on Pinterest and of course I had to make it! The recipe came from somethingswanky,com and she has a lot of fun ideas - checkout her blog if you have a minute.

Ingredients:

6 cups of white chocolate  chips

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Gel food coloring (yellow and orange)

Directions:

Line a 9 x 9 inch pan with parchment paper.

In a large saucepan combine the white chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and heat on medium/low. Stir so that the chocolate chips melt and your mixture is smooth.

Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the prepared pan and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Turn the heat off the remaining fudge.

After 1/2 hour - reheat your chocolate mixture. Pour another 1/3 of the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the orange gel food coloring. Pour over the white chilled layer.

Turn the heat off the remaining fudge. Put the pan back in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

The last step for the day is to reheat the last of the chocolate. Whisk in the yellow food coloring and pour over the chilled orange layer.

I let my fudge chill overnight.

Turn your fudge onto a cutting board.

 Using a sharp knife cut the fudge into 1/2 inch slices and then cut into diagonal slices.

You can cut them into large or small pieces. They would be really cute to decorate a cake or cupcakes.

This recipe made a ton of fudge! I packaged some up to bring to friends and neighbors.

I put some Candy Corn Fudge packages in my dining room. These would be super cute as classroom or sports team treats. They would be a fantastic Halloween party favor. They would be a cute addition to the Candy Corn Pajama party favor!

I love Candy Corn! What is your favorite candy?

Candy Corn Pajama Bottoms For the College Girls

I sent Noelle and six of her friends some Candy Corn Pajama Bottoms.

I am kind of obsessed with candy corn! And I wish I had bought myself a pair! They are so cute!

I rolled the pajamas and tied them with ribbon. They were on sale at Old Navy online for $5 each. But they were running a 30% off special - so I got them for a great deal!

I think the girls will really like these! They would also be a great Halloween or slumber party favor.

Leaf Shaped Tortilla Chips - Yes, It's Fall Y'all!

These are so easy and fun to make! Plus you just need a few simple ingredients.

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas
Canola oil
Sea salt
Table salt
Leaf shaped cookie cutter
Pastry brush

Directions:

Using your leaf cookie cutter - start cutting out leaf shapes with the corn tortillas.

My leaf cookie cutter is really large.

I can only cut two leafs from each tortilla.

Once you cut out all of your leaf tortillas. Place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Brush each leaf with a little canola oil and sprinkle with sea salt and table salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. If your cookie cutter is smaller you might want to bake at 350 degrees for 6 or 7 minutes.

The leaf tortillas should be a little golden. Place on a serving tray with a bowl of salsa or guacamole.

These are fun and easy to make! Your kids might want to help. And I like making these because they are baked instead of fried.

Ghost Cookies - Boo!

I made some Ghost Cookies - Boo! To you! This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:

In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, corn syrup and vanilla.

Add flour 1/3 at a time and mix throughly after each addition.  Divide dough in half and make two disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Tic tock. It has been two hours. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out dough between two lightly floured pieces of parchment paper. Cut out your ghost shapes.

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Cool cookies completely before you begin the decorating process.

I used this frosting recipe to decorate the ghosts. For the eyes I used mini chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Combine all of the above ingredients and whisk until everything is combined. If icing is a little runny add a few more tablespoons of powdered sugar. If the icing is too thick add another tablespoon of milk.

Put the icing in a zipper bag. Twist the bag so that the icing is at the bottom. Snip a little hole and pipe on the icing. While the icing is still a little wet add the mini chocolate chips for the eyes.

I like to decorate on my cookies on parchment paper. This icing usually takes about three hours to become completely dry.

I think my ghost cookies look a little friendly!