Cranberry Snow - A Beautiful Holiday Treat!

CRANBERRY SNOW

A friend shared this with me several years ago 

when a group of us were swapping favorite holiday recipes.  

I wasn't too sure if I'd like it, 

but she swore it was amazing.  

She was right!

It was an instant hit with my family!!

It's like 'healthy' candy that you just pop into your mouth.  

One after the other.....

again and again and again!

It's better made the night before serving 

so it has time to air dry thoroughly.  

Ingredients:
1 regular size bag of fresh cranberries (2 lbs)

Sugar
1 egg white
Gallon size Ziploc bag

Directions:
Add one teaspoon of water to the egg white and beat by hand with a fork in a small bowl.

Put 1/2 of the cranberries in the Ziploc bag.  Add only half of the egg white mixture to the cranberries, zip shut and thoroughly coat the cranberries until they're all shiny.

Add 1 - 2 cups of sugar to the shiny cranberries, zip shut and gently toss them until as much sugar as possible sticks to the cranberries.

Spread out on a large waxed paper covered cookie sheet and allow to air dry completely (preferably overnight).

You're gonna love 'em, so go ahead and make the other half of the cranberries and the rest of your egg white mixture while you're at it!

This is an amazing addition to any holiday relish tray or great by itself!

I'd recommend only making as much as you think 

you'll consume in a 24-48 hour period.  

It's best at room temperature and the cranberries 

will get mushy if left out for more than a couple of days.  

That's usually not a problem for us cuz 

we scarf them down pretty quickly. 

Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Annual Holiday Open House

It's only the very beginnings of October and
 I've ALREADY HAD MY HOLIDAY PARTY!
Now I can just enjoy the rest of the holidays and be totally relaxed, right?

Yeah, right.  ;)



Meet my beautiful vendors!
Carol from Thirty-One Bags
Jen makes her own jewelry
Meaghan from Tastefully Simple
Andrea from Scentsy, Grace Adele AND Velata
Bethany and Brittany from Jamberry

The party was great!
I had wonderful vendors who worked hard,
the food was delicious,
(much of which was from Tastefully Simple),
and the turnout of friends was even better than last year!
My house was buzzing with ladies having fun shopping, eating and visiting with one another.
I love when I see my friends make new friends with my other friends!!!


The table looks similar to last year, but believe me, the recipes were different.
Next year I may need a new tablecloth just to mix things up!  lol
You can find a few of the recipes from last year's blog post
and yeah, pretty much the rest was provided by Tastefully Simple!

Sooooo here's what happened........

Halloween / Autumn: My favorite time to decorate!

Last year it was all about Black and White Halloween.

This year, it's all about the COLORS OF AUTUMN!

Funny how we're so fickle, huh?!

I am loving the Autumnlicious color of my mantel!

Get an eyefull of these owls!  

I recently made these in Margie Romney-Aslett's class 

(which I'll tell you about later.....it was a bucket list experience for me!)

I recently made the SPOOKY banner at Crop-A-Roo!  I love the fun it adds!

You can order the elements for it from Stampin Up!

And if you like the bunting below it, my neighbor makes these and you can get yours HERE.

She's an amazing sewer and makes all kinds of adorable stuff!

How To Display Your Lovely Christmas Photo Cards

Don't you just loooove the adorable photo Christmas cards that everyone sends nowadays?

Used to be we'd get only a couple each year,

but now almost all of the cards we receive are photo cards.

I am incapable of throwing away a card if it is a photo.

I have a gajillion that I've been saving for years, but it seems kind of a waste to just throw them in a box and then never look at them again!

What to do, what to do?

The Rustic Wooden Box Autumn Centerpiece

So here's the rustic tool box I got at Junk In The Trunk last weekend, 

that I know you've been dying to see.

Favorite Autumn Mantels!

Autumn is my favorite season!  

The weather gets cooler.

{this is exciting news in Arizona!)

I can drink hot chocolate and wear my beloved sweaters.

THANKFUL Subway Art

This was my first attempt at Subway art, and I've gotta say, 

I was surprised that it was so easy peasy!

I had ordered the vinyl {inexpensively} online....it came with lots of words, leaves, pumpkins, etc.

You can also easily cut out your own if you have a Silhouette machine.

Be sure to use a variety of colors and fonts.

Autumn Party Menu

I.  LOVE.  FOOD!

I love making it!

I love eating it!

I love sharing it!

Here is the menu of a party I recently had:

PUMPKIN LASAGNA

BROCCOLI SALAD

CHIPOTLE MEATBALLS

VEGGIE TRAY

PUMPKIN BREAD W/CHOCOLATE CHUNKS

S'MORES MINI CUPCAKES

GINGERBREAD MINI CUPCAKES

MARSHMALLOW POPS

CANDY CORN POPCORN

4 FLAVORS OF CANDY CORN!

AND BEST OF ALL,

4 FLAVORS OF VELATA CHOCOLATE FONDUE

PLUS LOTS OF GOODIES TO DIP INTO IT!

I wanted the food to scream AUTUMN IS HERE!!!, even though the temperatures are still in the 100's.

Halloween Mantle - The Black and White Of It

Last year I was inspired by the black and white decor of

Less Cake More Frosting {LOVE LOVE LOVE HER!}.

I'd never seen JUST black and white Halloween decor before and I totally fell in love with it!

Wishing at this moment that my red wall was ORANGE!

I've had the window frame for many years, 

but this is it's first debut out of the garage since I moved to Arizona five years ago.  

Wondering now why it took me so long!

(it has a twin sister still in the garage!)

Father's Day for the dad of our house!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to all of you great dads!!!

Recently the dad of our house got a new grill.

Not just ANY grill.

He saved up and got a Traeger!

Say hello to the TEXAS MODEL!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was quite simple,

and yet, it was one of my favorite.

I'm just so happy with life right now,

my husband, my children, church, community, everything.

(except my weight....but there's always gotta be something, right?  lol)

Saturday Highlights:

The UPS guy delivered this

Easter at the 'Farm' House

A little late in posting this, but seriously, our Easter was so fun, I wanted to share ANYWAY.

{there are a couple of Young Women Easter handouts at the end of this post}

I got a few of the Easter decorations up.  On Easter day.

Last minute I thought it would be fun to spruce up our dining tables for our lovely big family dinner.

March - 12 Months of Christmas

This is all about Cowboy's Christmas gift that will keep on giving for the rest of the year!

The original post is HERE....

I thought it might be easier to just post these month by month, 

so that I can share any fun pictures I might have of that month.  

In March, the gift he opened was:

A gift certificate to the Olive Garden

and

Herberger Theater tickets to see The Great Gatsby

Honestly?

I hated it.

February - 12 Months of Christmas

This is all about Cowboy's Christmas gift that will keep on giving for the rest of the year!

The original post is HERE....

I thought it might be easier to just post these month by month, 

so that I can share any fun pictures I might have.  

In February, the gift he opened was:

A Gift certificate to The Outback Steakhouse

and

2 tickets to the Herberger Theater to see 39 Steps

(very funny...we also saw it in Cedar City last summer @ the Shakespearean Festival)

I tend to fall asleep ANYWHERE I sit down at night,

especially a dark theater...

so we opted this time to see the matinee

(I didn't even know they had a matinee!)

I fell asleep anyway!  Gah!!!

The day we went to see the play we actually stopped for lunch at a GREAT place in downtown Phoenix called Corner Bakery Cafe.  VERY good!

HAPPY EASTER! Attributes of Christ in a Butterfly Basket

Here is a wonderful little Young Women's Easter handout that I've really enjoyed since last Easter

FOOLED YOU!

Wanna really fool someone on April Fool's Day???

TRY THESE!

 

Is it

Licorice {or Skunk Spray} ???

My Obsession with Valentine's

So yeah, I'm pretty much obsessed with Valentine's Day this year.

I blame THAT on Pinterest too!  lol

Decorating for ANY holiday is fun, but getting new ideas and rearranging the old adds to the joy!  :)

And, um, well, I had this Valentine stuff up before the Christmas tree was even all the way down.

And I had that tree down the first week of January!  hehe

Kids' Handmade Valentine's

(free printables from Shindig Parties To Go)

Hearts from our hearts

Christmas Paper Craft Projects 2011 (and 2010)

Are we finished with Christmas yet?  

Nope!

I think Christmas should be celebrated year-round!  

Or at least for more than just a month!  hehe  ;)
(I promise only one more post after this about Christmas...til next year)

I love these little crafts aka GIFTS that we made this Christmas,
so of course, I'd love to share them with you.

These projects were constructed by me but 100% designed by Rachele!


2011 Christmas projects

Here's the sad thing about making these cute goodies at Rachele's......

I like 'em so much I fail to give them away.

Note to self:

Share these with friends next Christmas 

and spread the love!