Little Girl, Shiny World: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Christmas Wishes

If you happen to know the real-life me (much more boring than the blogger-me I should mention) then you probably received one of these in the mail.

If you know me and didn't, I apologize. I was drinking red wine while writing. So some maaay have slipped through some rose colored cracks. Or it was the Post Office. Yes, yes it must have been them.

Wishing everyone the merriest Christmas! The older I get I'm realizing how much the holidays are really about family ( however crazy or annoying), friends, and relaxing together the best way you can. Be it with special food, drinks, games or presents.

So I hope you are doing these things, somewhere warm, cozy & happy.

Cheers!

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We Wish You a Homemade Christmas. . .

I love my friends. I love my family. I love my work.

Basically, I love WAY too many people.
Especially around Christmas time! Gifting, for me, becomes a hierarchical battle.
I am forced to attempt to quantify my love for people, and then rank them accordingly.
"Super love", "Kind of like" "Find annoying but don't dislike".

These are real categories. Don't pretend you've never done it.

In the end, I give most people some sort of gift. This is selfish on my part. I love to shop, even for other people. After hours of perusing, and many dollars spent, my joy is cut short by the arrival of my bank statement, and I decide to get thrifty about things.

So I share with you my Cinnamon Espresso Butter & my Salt n' Spice Blend.
The butter will make you wish you could eat it raw, by the bucket load. Seriously it smells that good. Slap it on an English Muffin with your coffee & you're good to go.

The Salt n' Spice is a spice recipe meant to mimic a McCormick product that was discontinued a bit ago. This stuff was the BEES KNEES on a microwaved baked potato. It's basically how I survived college. I found the recipe online (strangely enough from McCormick itself--hmmm) I bought cute spice bottles from Cost Plus World Market (did I mention this place is my Mecca?) Also, both these recipes follow my "takes less than 20 minutes" rule of DIY. Score!
Anyhow, enjoy.

And if you are a possible recipient of these gifts, STOP READING THIS! :)

Salt n' Spice

Ingredients

1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Salt Free Garlic Pepper Seasoning, McCormick® Seasoned Pepper Blend or Lawry's® Seasoned Pepper
1 tablespoon McCormick® Garlic Salt
1 tablespoon McCormick® Onion Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick® Celery Seed, crushed

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients until well blended.
2. Store in tightly covered jar in cool, dry place.

Cinnamon Espresso Butter

Ingredients

2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon Spice Island® Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the coffee granules, water and vanilla. In a small bowl, cream the butter, confectioners' sugar and cinnamon until light and fluffy. Add coffee mixture; beat until smooth. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. Yield: 1/2 cup.

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Another Use for Christmas Lights. Mini-Tutorial.

I am the queen of reading tutorials. I scour the net looking for the next thing I can do on my own, DIY, craft, scrap, scrape together & just generally mish-mash.

Sadly most of them I don't tackle, because if they require more than 20 minutes to accomplish I loose motivation completely. Please. Don't judge. :)

I figured I would share a little tutorial, my own rendition of something I have seen done many times and in many different ways. I figured I would share because this thing takes less than 10 minutes. Yes!

I took a square glass vase that I inherited from an event and I filled it with Christmas ornaments. Cute on it's own right?

It gets cuter. I layered a strand of Christmas lights in between the bulbs. I put the vase on a side table with a socket behind it and. . .
VOILA. Simple, chic, cheap, and did I mention simple?

Now I could have made this more sophisticated by taping the wire of the lights down into the vase, & securing the rest of the lights behind the table.

But I'm lazy :) So I used a few picture frames on the table to hide the unsightly wire from the lights.

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All I Want for XMAS is. . .

Does anyone else remember that song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. . ."
A.K.A. every parents worst nightmare?
Seriously when I think back on it, I don't know how my mother didn't kill me.
Singing & lisping at the top of my lungs.
**Shudder**
I will make sure that my child never learns of this song.
The things our parents put up with.
But then again, one day your kid grows up, and buys you sweet things for Xmas. . .

So the song I'm currently singing (self-written) is "All I want for Christmas from my unborn children is. . ."