Snacks!!

Hey Ya'll!

I found a recipe on Pinterest that looked delicious, easy, and fit within my slim down sister competition diet so I tried it!

You can find it here. It's from The Silver Pen {Originally posted by With Style and Grace}. Hollye Jacobs does such an amazing job finding the silver linings in life. Be sure to check out her blog and show some love. ❤

Back to the snacks. If you know me at all you know how passionate I am about my snacks. I would rather eat snacks all day then meals {I'm woman enough to admit that happens from time to time}. I saw these Baked Apple Cinnamon Spice Chips and couldn't wait to give them a test run. Making a snack that was delicious, healthy, and I could easily devour at work was right up my mid-week alley. {Happy Hump Day!!!}

So after work I headed to Fresh & Easy for some apples, hurried home, and set my oven to preheat. The prep was really easy {I was talking with Grandma on the phone while I measured, mixed and sliced}. I put the apples straight onto my baking sheet {fresh out of parchment paper} and it didn't seem to make a difference. I first set my timer for 1 and a half hours and then monitored in 10 minute increments until my chips were done. It took a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes. {I determined "done" by a simple taste test, of course}. 

Next time I'll do a better job of mixing my spices before coating my apple slices. Some bites are a bit more flavorful then others. I opted out of adding sugar into my spice mixture. And I'll bake more than 2 apples at a time. TOO DELICIOUS!

Here are some pictures! Now I just need to make it through the night without eating all my apple chips so I can take them to work tomorrow. 

Nice List

Hello everyone!

I'm finally coming down from my Christmas time high. Decorations are put away, presents have found their places in my apartment, and Christmas songs have been discontinued until next year. {Thank goodness for a few days off!! This happened much faster than last year}

I found my way on to the nice list this time around. Lots of special gifts from special people! More than getting great gifts, I LOOOOVE giving them. If you read earlier in my blog you know Chrissy and I made this Christmas Pinteresty. We handmade gifts and distributed them carefully to our friends and family. {Some of them are still waiting to be unwrapped so act surprised ;)}

We also sent out a Christmas card; by sent out I mean gave with our gifts. We developed a few new traditions and giggled our way through old ones. This was such a wonderful Christmas season for me and I feel so blessed and grateful for it. 

First the Christmas Card:

Then the Gifts:

Wreath from Hobby Lobby, double sided ribbon 

folded into a bow, hot glue, bells

Carving blocks from Hobby Lobby, Red and Green Paint, 

Silver and Gold Sharpie Pens, Carole Lyrics

Carving blocks from Hobby Lobby, Scrapbook Paper in Christmas themes, Black paint

bows made from ribbon, bell, letters cut with my Cricut {I'll have to look at my moms for the theme}

Wreath from Hobby Lobby, double sided ribbon, 

bells, hot glue, sequin ribbon

12x12 Canvas from Target, Red Paint, 

Silver Sharpie Pen, Silver Glitter

12x12 Canvas from Target, rolled up scrapbook paper, 

cardboard, twine, gold glitter, hot glue

12x12 Canvas from Target, bells from Hobby Lobby,

cardboard, twine, gold glitter, hot glue

Christmas Cookies!

Wrap Job on the BF's gift:

looks kinda like Santa's belt to me ;)

Family Time:

Upsidedown trees @ Crossroads Church

Grandma's Tree #2

{YES! those are initials made from candy cane pipe cleaners}

Uh-Oh Grandma's Fridge - awkward stages on display

Christmas Eve Lunch Buffet of goodies

Christmas Eve Lunch beverages 

Grandma's North Pole Village 

Grandma's Stockings Hung by the Fireplace with Care

{By far the favorite place in her home}

My gorgeous cousins & sister

{Please excuse my awful posture!}

My mama's Christmas Tree!

Our stockings hung by the chimney with care

{AND mom's half opened present}

Me and little Bella snuggling 

Me and Chrissy <3 

Christmas Dinner Part 1 - Prime Rib

Christmas Dinner Part 2 - Brittney and Katie

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Elf's Hard at Work

I am thrilled to have a reason to craft! Not that a reason is ever needed to use glitter - it is nice to have a purpose.

Chrissy and I are having a Pinterest Christmas this year! {Woo Hoo!!} After trips to Hobby Lobby, Target, Michaels, inspiration from Pinterest , and visits from our Fairy Craft Godmother we are ready to get started.

I can't post too many pictures in fear of ruining the element of surprise. But here's a little taste. ;)

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all the smells, decorations, family time, carols, and above all the celebration of baby Jesus. This Friday I'll be attending the Christmas performance at Crossroads in Corona. The show begins at 7:30. {there are shows Saturday and Sunday if those fit better into your schedule}

Remember this is a time of giving and creating memories with your family and friends. It's hard to avoid getting caught up in the crazy emotions and chaos surrounding holidays but try to enjoy all the little things - one day you'll realize they were the big things.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

xxoo
J

Pumpkin Patch Perfection

Hello Everyone!

I threw a pumpkin carving party this year for Halloween! It was so much fun. I love creating festive touches during the holidays and I thought hosting a carving party would be a great way to decorate my apartment and spend some time with my friends. I enlisted the help of one of my favorite uncles, Joe! He is the mastermind/ executioner behind my party planning.

There were so many little details that made the entire evening a complete success. Planning a party while juggling a full time job is not the easiest of tasks. I wouldn't have been able to pull everything together without Uncle Joe. So a gigantic THANK YOU is necessary.

We started with the entryway. The lighting was distorted with aluminum foil and the spider egg sacks (gross!!) were made from Epson Salt filled balloons in stalkings (with a glow stick to illuminate the spiders). They were wrapped in spider webbing and hung with tiny nails from the ceiling. Spider webbing was draped from the walls with lots of spiders! [It still freaks me out]. We added in a little something special... the large spider in front of the door is harnessed to a string that pulls open when the door is opened so my guests were greeted with a scampering spider up the door. (pictures below!)

Walking into the living room you're not quite sure where to look first. Along the crown molding is a boarder of black and orange crepe paper, bats, and balloons. Along the walls is a black crepe paper fence with a watchful crow and more bats! Those were fun to cut out- I was inspired by these bats on Paper Crave.

In the windows you'll see 'traveling ghosts' inspired by Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. We used white balloons, drew scary faces, and put glow sticks inside before blowing them up. We hung plastic drop plastic with painters tape and sprayed green glow in the dark paint to be picked up by the black light bulbs.

Over the television hung the ghastly ghost to ensure fright and fun were taking place during the party. In front of the ghost was a table covered in painters drop plastic to keep pumpkin guts from getting everywhere! (We put plastic on the floor too, which made for easy clean up). I created basic center pieces from tall vases filled with glow bracelets for the guests and vampire fangs. Pumpkin carving kits, templates, and goodie bags filled with candy held places for each of my guests.

The food table was quite a spread! Name tags for each of the dishes with fun names informed guests what they were eating. We had Cranium Cheese in the shape of a brain, Witch Digits with almond finger nails, Moldy Mustard, Weiner Worms, Hobgoblin Eggs, Cemetery Crudite, and Devils' Eggs with red food coloring veins to name a few. I also applied some stickers to cover the real bottle labels with more fun Halloween inspired names.

The last surprise for my guests was in the bathroom. A white cloth was hung over the shower curtain with bloody handprints and slashes through the material. The mirror had bloody handprints and splatters, and a message in blood (red paint) explaining the need for carnage.  Red lights and a knife on the counter completed the horror movie scene.

Here are some pictures of the party. I had so much fun putting everything together (with lots and lots of help!) and seeing the looks on my friends faces during the evening.

Food Spread

Batty Behavior

Watchful Crow

Ghost Faces

Pinterest Creation. Click here to learn how

Allison and the Spider Cider (or Captain Morgan)

Lovely ladies

Ghastly Ghost overlooking the carving table

Jack-o-lanterns!

Spider egg sacks. I forgot to take pictures at night but just as creepy in the day.

My Snow White Pumpkin

Thank you to everyone who helped and everyone who attended.