Maybe Christmas dosen't come from a store... Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little more

As I shared earlier I graduated from college 3ish weeks ago so I didn't have a bankroll to buy gifts with this holiday season. I only made three of the gifts I gave, but those three saved me some dough.I crocheted scarves for three special ladies, my mother-in-law, my grandmother-in-law and my Granny. As I sat down to write tonight I realized that I forgot to take pictures of all of these gifts :( The grandma's scarves were very simple single and double crochet patterns that didn't take long to create. My mother-in-law's on the other hand, was a stitch new to me called the crocodile stitch.


NOT the one I made



Her scarf looked just like this but it was heather gray, and boy was it a doosie! I wanted to make more than one but since it was my first time it took a while, and two whole skeins of yarn! Not to mention I had to watch a 30 minute long YouTube tutorial after reading the directions to understand what they meant! She loved it so it was well worth it! Next Christmas I plan to be more prepared and organized in my Christmas crafting.

My Daddy even got in on the holiday crafting and made me the cutest snowman to stand by my front door!



The scarf in this picture I made a couple of years ago!

-Merry Christmas & Enjoy!-

Oh Christmas Tree...

Finally after graduation (eeekkkkk) the other weekend my husband took me to the tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. He felt bad for not taking me sooner so he said I could have whatever tree that I wanted... Bad idea :) We got a monster tree and I Love it so much even though Jock says I have lost my tree picking privileges... It finally feels like Christmas in our house!

To save some money this year, since I am a poor officially graduated college student, I have made some Christmas gifts. I will share them after they are given, I don't want to spoil them for their recipients.

-Merry Christmas-

My Totally Awesome Vintage Tree

I love love love old vintage things, so when I saw a scraggly cardboard box at my Granny's house this summer I was beyond extatic. In this scraggly box was a silver aluminum tensil christmas tree...still in the original box!! I knew that I just had to have it! Granny gladly said I could have her christmas tree, anything for the favorite granddaughter right?!  I'm guessing that my Granny and Papa purchased the tree around 1962 or 1963, but I'm still on the hunt for a picture of them with the tree.We also found some awesome vintage ornaments in the attic!! Sadly the color wheel has long been lost, but one day I will find a replacement!

LOVE LOVE LOVE my Tree!!

A Thanksgiving of Firsts

This year my husband and I took on the task of hosting our very first Thanksgiving in our home! The holidays are such a busy time so we decided to simplify and have both of our families over at once so we could all spend time together. We ended up entertaining ten guest. My mom came over early and we attempted dressing for the first time using my granny's recipe and I must say it turned out well. ...or the pan speaks for itself. :)

After all of the food was gobbled up and football was on T.V us ladies settled back down around the table of some wreath making to kick off the christmas season. We used  this tutorial from pinterest to guide our creativity! It was great to spend time with my mom and mother-in-law at the same time doing something fun. We thought we could skip the hot glue step, but we ended up having to go back and do it so I highly recomend you do it!

This is my finished product!

Throughout the month of November my husband and I also kept a thankful tree. Each day we wrote something that we were thankful for on a leaf and tied it onto our "tree". (We missed a few days because we didn't start on November 1st)

All in all we had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of firsts and I hope all of these 'new' things that we did this year will become tradition in years to come!

It has been a busy week in the Wilson house. On Monday night I am pooped but happy! Friday night I made corn bread for the first time ever! I was way nervous because my husband has told me all of these great stories about his mom's and his grandma's cornbread, but I was up for the challange. Last week my daddy gave me a lesson on how to make cornbread the right way, so I set out to copy his recipe. My husband loved it and I was relieved! Daddy's go to recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens 1980something was a hit! I was a little impressed with myself !

Recipe: 1 cup flour (all purpose)

             1 cup corn meal

             2 tbsp Sugar

             1 tsp baking powder

             1/2 Tsp salt

             2 eggs

             1 cup milk- I use 1/2 sweet milk and 1/2 butter milk

             1/4 cup crisco melted.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and pour melted crisco in a cast iron skillet. Put in the oven to heat. Mix dry ingredients first, then add in eggs one at a time. Pour in the milk and pour the hot grease from the pan into the cornbread batter. Mix well adn bake for 20 minutes and Thats All!



For my sweet friend Heather's baby shower I made two hats for her baby that is due in Feburary. I was able to view the patterns for free so I will post them here to share... later when I find the website again!

And finally Saturday night we threw my mother-in-law a birthday party at out house. It was a small gathering of family and some good food but she said it was the best party she had in a while! Before the baby shower Saturday morning I made her gift as well! I had picked up a cute rectangle frame from goodwill Friday while my mom and I were shopping. I got home to take it apart to make her gift and the painting had real butterflies pressed under the glass. I was totally grossed out! I threw all of the nastyness away and made her a chicken wire earing holder like all of those cute ones I have seen on pinterest. It was a busy weekend, but I'm greatful for all of the people I get to share my life with.

Before

After

Happy Birthday!

-Enjoy 

Its only the 7th day of November and I can already tell this month is going to be non-stop. I was just able to replace my Halloween door decor with something a little more generic! I was sad to see all of my Halloween decorations go, but I'm excited that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I am hosting my first ever Thanksgiving at our house! Yippie! My new front door decor is nothing fancy and it sure didn't take any time, not that I would have had any to devote to the project anyway! I looked around my craft room and found an old frame that I wasn't using for anything and decided that would be what I used.

I nailed a picture hanger on the back, but I lost one nail... no worries a thumb tack did the trick!

Next I found some ribbon in my ribbon box and ran it up under the picture holder so that I would be able to attach my W I bought at Hobby Lobby a while back for like 4$

I looped the ribbon around my W, tied a knot in the end and took it out to hang on the front door. Its pretty plain, but it beats having a naked door!

- Enjoy.

Leafing Adventures: Black Rock Mountain State Park

This weekend my hubby took me driving and hiking in the North Georgia Mountains. "Leafing" as my brother-in-law calls it. The colors were so beautiful and so much richer than they are around here. While we were walking through  the leaves and looking out over miles and miles of mountains as far as our eyes could see Jock looked at me and asked, " How could anyone see this and not believe?"

It is so awesome and humbling at the same time to think the same God that created all of this created me for his purpose and  he loves me more than I can imagine! If he created all of this by the words of his mouth,  then there is no end to the possibilities of what good he can do in my life if I seek him and am still to listen to what he has to tell me.

Psalm 8:3-9

I was so glad that we were able to spend the day together, even though the hiking trails kicked my tail it was totally worth it!

On a different note my awesome pumpkin that I carved last weekend only survived one week! I guess it was still a little to warm around here for him, he had a short life and happy life, but a big, black, nasty, hairy mold spot got the best of his little smiling face. He has been replaced with this super cute wooden one complements of my daddy! I only have one for now but I am hoping for some more in the near future!

- Enjoy

Celebrate Fall Y'all

It is finally starting to feel like fall in Georgia  three weeks after the official start! We spent this whole past weekend celebrating fall. To kick of the fall celebration and a friends birthday as well, a trip to the corn maze in Watkinsville was in order Friday night. I felt just like a kid again climbing on to the hay waggon for a ride over to the maze and sliding down the giant slide. The night was all fun and games until Jess got left behind in the maze alone, but we eventually found her and no one had to call 911!

 On Saturday a few of us girls got together for a pumpkin carving party! I know its still 13ish days until Halloween, but what good is a Jack-o-lantern if you cant enjoy it for a while? My party was nothing fancy but we had a great time carving and socializing. I am grateful for the  time we all were able to spend together!



Us with our carved pumpkins



Saturday night was topped off with a great time around the fire pit with friends and smores of course!
This fall season I have also discovered two new things that I LOVE Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice cookies and Coffee-Mate Brown Sugar Maple Latte. Before this year I had never dared to try anything made even in the resemblance of pumpkin except the pumpkin candy corn! I know that Pumpkin cookies aren;t the real deal, but I did step out of my comfort zone a little and it was totally worth it!

As far as coffee goes French Vanilla is the only kind of flavored milk I like but I decided since I was being adventuerous with the Pumpkin Cookies I could try some seasonal coffee milk as well, and you can't really go wrong with brown sugar and maple! It is like heaven in a cup! You should go buy some before the fall season is gone!

                                                                   

                                                                         Happy Fall!

Getting into the halloween spirit

I saw this cute Halloween wreath on pinterest a while back and decided that I just HAD to have one for Halloween! It was avery simple project and pretty darn cheep too.  All you need to make this for yourself is a floral wreath (Dollar Tree $1) Some black tulle, (3 yards for 3$ Walmart) a roll of ribbon for her legs,( $2) a piece of felt for her shoes, and a wooden plaque to write welcome or your family name on. (.97 cents Walmart) That comes to a grand total of $7 dollars, and I think it looks super cute on my front door! I can't wait to add some carved pumpkins, hopefully my sweet husband will be taking me to the pumpkin patch soon!
                                                                  - Enjoy!

It's Finished!

As you can see from the time of my last post about the wax paper project, it has been a while!! Never again will I be so stupid to think a project like this sounds like fun! Many, Many days and 3 or 4 boxes of wax paper later I have a "chandelier" above my bath tub. I mean I have to admit it looks pretty cool when it's dark and all of the lights are off, but I'm not sure all of the time was worth the finished project. Just being honest. So 90 bajilion wax paper circles and many afternoon hours later here it is.

Marlboro Man Sandwich

Tonight I tried out a new recipe on my hubby, the Marlboro Man Sandwich found on http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/. (thanks for the suggestion Heather!) I modified mine slightly because my husband is strictly a meat and potatoes kind of man, but he loved it! I baked home made french fries to go with it too. I think this might be one of his new favorites!

The Pioneer Woman's Recipe:
2 Whole Medium Onions, Halved and Sliced
1 1/4 sicck butter
2 lbs cube steak cut into strips
salt
pepper
1/4 cup Whorcestershire sauce
5 dashes Tobasco
4 Deli Roles
8 slices fresh Mozzarella
8 slices tomato
1 1/2 cup Arugula

My Recipe:
1 stick butter
1 Package Cube Steak
salt
pepper
garlic salt
1/4 cup Worcestershire  sauce
Many dashes of hot sauce
Pepper Jack Cheese Slices
Sandwich Rolls

I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, then melted a glob of butter in the skillet. Once the butter was melted I added the meat. Let it sit on one side for at least 1 minute on high heat then use a spatula to flip it. Add Worcestershire and hot sauce and more butter if needed. Put another glob of butter in a different skillet to toast sliced sandwich rolls. Remove meat from heat, and remove bread when it gets a little crispy. Put the meat on the rolls first and drizzle a spoon full of pan sauce over it. Add pepper jack cheese slices, and add the top piece of bread . Eat while warm and enjoy!

Tater Tot Casserole

At one of my wedding showers last year, a sweet lady gave me a copy of our church cookbook with a list of her family's top 10 favorite recipes. Believe it or not all the years growing up at home and using the very same cookbook I had never even heard of tater tot casserole. I don't even want to think about all of the calories but it has become one of my husband's favorite dishes! According to him it contains the all of the 3 basic food groups: meat, potatoes and cheese!

-Enjoy-

Tater Tot Casserole

2 lbs ground beef                                         

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 can cream of potato soup

1 cab cream of chicken soup

2 cups shredded cheese

1 bag of tater tots

Saute onions in a small amount of oil. Add ground beef: brown, then drain. Pour into large Pyrex dish. Mix soups with 1 can of water, then spread over ground beef. Place grated cheese on top of soup. Add tater tots. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

I modify this by only using 1 lb of ground beef because there is only 2 of us and we can still eat leftovers for a week! Also I only use a little more than half a can of water. If your husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy he will LOVE this!

On the way to church this morning Jock and I were talking about our friends that we have in our current stage of life. As he was talking about how awesome it is that we all have the same beliefs, and value the same things, it occured to me that this is it! Recently, I dug out my old prayer journal and on multiple pages, my prayer was for friends that believed like we did and that we could openly share our faith with. These friends are exactly who we have, and I didn't even realize that my prayer had been answered. We are exactly where we are at each point in our life for a reason, and this is it!


With some of these friends we had a great time roasting weenies and making smores at our place Saturday night. Fall is my FAVORITE time of year and it is right around the corner!!

Roasting :)

Finished Product YUMMY

And to finish off this exceptionally great weekend I got a new computer desk for FREEEEE :) Thanks to my Uncle Tommy who rescued it from being thrown in the dumpster at his job. Who in their right mind would throw away a perfectly good old school wooden desk?! A little Old English Polish and it was good as new! Its just like what I have always wanted, and I am so glad he thought of me!!

This doesn't look ready for the dumpster to me!



perfect!



Fortcast for Labor Day = Rain and that was perfectly alright with me. Working on my summer tan at this point is a lost cause anyway. With my sweet husband at work, I  FINALLY had some time to work on a few projects!

About a month ago I found a super cute solution  for the very ugly pot light above my garden tub. I found this awesome and seemingly simple idea on http://www.freshlypickedblog.com/2011/03/how-to-make-chandelier.html . How more economical can a project get?!  A sewing machine, wax paper, some kind of circle cutter, an old ratty lamp shade and a few cup hooks are the only materials needed. No one mentioned that this project would take an eternity to complete. I have been cutting out wax paper circles for the past 2 weeks and have blown through 2 boxes of wax paper and had nothing to show for it. Today would be the day that my project transformed from a pile of wax paper into a chandelier... or so I thought! I set about the task of chain piecing all of my circles together, starting with the bottom row... only 18 circles per strand no big deal, right? At the end of the day, 8 hours and 422, yes 422 wax paper circles later I completed the bottom row of my chandelier! ... Only 2 more rows and 90 bajillion more wax paper circles to go!



More detailed instructions will be included when the project is completed!

Enjoy  

Chicken Wire Window

For a while now I have been admiring chicken wire frames in antique shops and flea markets, but have refused to pay what they are asking for them. I had the perfect spot picked out in my kitchen, only I hadn't wanted to fork over the dough, I am a poor newley wed college student after all! So I decided to make my own! I mean its chicken wire and a frame.. it can't be that hard right??

I rounded up my supplies: an old wooden window frame from my grandpa's office building, chicken wire leftover from my mom's chicken pen, a staple gun, wire cutters and a measuring tape. (Which I ended up not needing)

(Not pictured: Wire cutters )

To begin I wiped the fame off with a damp cloth, it was extra dusty!  I unrolled the chicken wire and used the staple gun to attach one edge of the chicken wire to the frame.Then I stapled the other side next, pulling the wire tightly so it wouldn't be wavy. After securing the wire on two sides my husband cut off the excess with the wire cutters because I acted like I didn't know how! (hehe)

 I secured the remaining two sides and went a little staple crazy! The more the better! I decided to add an extra layer of chicken wire because the holes were too large for what I had in mind, but if you want a more spaced out look 1 layer is perfect!

It turned out so cute and it was super easy!! I hung it on the wall with a wire picture frame hanger, and used clothes pins to attach my pictures and other items! I only had to buy clothes pins which were 97 cents!!

enjoy!