Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Baby Boy Nursery

As I was looking back over my posts, I realized I never showed the final result of our baby boy's nursery that we finished (a year and a half ago!). This post shows the before and after of our remodel, but I've never posted pictures of what the room looks like after we decorated.

Better late than never, though! Here is our nautical themed nursery. (My "baby" is now 16 months old, so some things have changed since these pictures were taken.)

Standing in the doorway to the room. We now have a real end table next to the recliner, the wall
next to the curtains has 2 white shelves hanging on it with a pirate ship and some glass bottles on it, the 2 big lamps are gone and the little white lamp is next to the recliner. 

My best friend Lindsay sewed the curtains for me! I LOVE the way they turned out!  You can't really tell from this far away, but the top blue fabric has white rope criss crosses with knots in it...perfect for a nautical room! 

We transformed the closet a LOT. Check out the before and after. (We also added
 lots of shelves to the inside, which I currently don't have a picture of. Whoops.)

There used to be an antique sconce hanging next to the door, but we
changed it to an outside light that looks nautical to fit the theme of the room. 

My friend Stephanie gave us the ship flags and the ship to hang on the wall.

What do you think of the nautical themed room? I am SO pleased with the way it turned out! I also haven't posted how we did the faux board and batten, so if anyone is interested in that, please let me know.

Blog Feature Friday: Ms. Redo

Hi, I’m Mary from Ms. Redo. Thanks so much to Katie for inviting me to share with you today!

Every Christmas for more years than I can count I have made salmon dip. This year is no different. My husband asked me to make a batch for the office Christmas party this week.

Of course I was glad to oblige, it’s so easy to make, plus it’s always a hit. While at it, I made a second batch to keep at home. So yummy!

Here’s the recipe:

Salmon Dip

1 lb. Can salmon

8 oz. cream cheese/softened

1 Tbls. Lemon juice

2 tsp. grated onion

¼ tsp. Liquid Smoke

¼ tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients. Chill several hours.

Now how easy is that?! Hopefully you’ll enjoy this as much as we do. And again, thanks, Katie, for allowing me to share today.

**How yummy does that look? Mmmm! Perfect for the Christmas season!

Christmas Gifts, Etc.

Hey everyone! I know people are probably getting their Christmas shopping done (or maybe just getting started!) and wanted to remind you to check out my Etsy store for some great ideas. You know those people that seem to have everything and you're not sure what to buy for them? Give them the gift of graphics or a beautiful stained glass window!

I have things for sale such as my Green Diamond stained glass, custom blog banners, custom logo and business cards, and custom cards (notecards, Christmas cards, invitations, etc.)... and a lot more! Also, if you buy from now through the end of December, you can use the code CHRISTMAS25 and get 25% off your whole order!

On a different note, don't forget that I'm always looking for people who want to be featured on my Blog Feature Friday. This helps you get more traffic flow to your blog. Let me know if you want in on the fun!

Christmas and New Year's Break

Just wanted to let everyone know we will be taking a break from the Blog Feature Fridays until after the holidays are over!

Please let me know if you would like to be featured! I'm always looking for crafty people to promote!

Marshmallow Brownie Cupcakes

I love baking new things, especially when I can give away the sweets so I don't eat them all myself! I found a new recipe for Marshmallow Brownie Cupcakes and they sounded so good I made them for my small group at church. Big hit, let me tell ya. I followed the directions exactly like she said to make them and they turned out great!

 I used a box brownie mix. Make as directed.

Spray the pan really, really well. These things stick like glue! Then pour a little brownie batter into the bottom of each cupcake holder. 

Drop a large marshmallow on top of the batter.

 Cover with the rest of the brownie batter.

Bake at 325° for 20-25 minutes.

Blog Feature Friday: Henry Homestead

Hey everyone! I'm excited to introduce you to Rachel from Henry Homestead today. She was one of my good friends in college. Both of us were in the first class to graduate with an Interior Design degree from our school. She has some EXCELLENT ideas and is very crafty, so go check out her blog after you read this piece (which you can also find on her blog, here)!

Time to start sharing the details of the family room I showed you a few weeks (months?) ago.  Let's start with the fabric ruffled lampshade that I saw first on Crafty Texas Girl (via Centsational Girl), this is hers:

I had some major lampshade issues in this room.  I was planning on using a little yellow lamp from Goodwill, but no shade seemed to look right.

Yikes.  It's like a bad day in the dressing room. 
I ended up choosing the top left shade for the ruffle project because I thought that once I added the ruffle, it would be the right proportions to the lamp.
I started by tracing my lampshade to create a template, then used the template to cut my fabric to cover the white shade.  I really really like the fabric, and wanted to use it even though I figured it wouldn't let much (or any) light through it. 

Once I got to the bottom, I didn't like the way you could see the seam of the ruffle, so I glued it to itself to make a cleaner look...

I ended up doing that to the top and bottom to keep the ruffles together.  I put it on my lamp, and still didn't like the way it looked.  I decided it must be the lamp base, so I used a different lamp I had and liked it 100% better.  I don't have a great "after" picture (just like I didn't have "after" pictures of the whole room), but you can get the idea from these pictures...

Ruffle Shmuffle, fun project!  And since the edges of the ruffles are unfinished, I occasionally have to give it haircuts to remove the extra threads, but hey, who doesn't need a little haircut every now and then?  Give this one a try!--- it adds a nice feminine touch to a room without being girly.  I wonder how it would look to use all sorts of different fabric ruffles, varying colors and patterns?  Could be very cool! Again, you can get the full directions here.

Interior Design Standard Measurements

Have you ever wondered exactly what height outlets or light switches are supposed to be off of the floor? Or how tall a kitchen counter usually is? Or what the average width of a dining room chair is? Well, here are some answers!

Outlets and light switches:

• Outlets are typically placed 12"-18" off the floor.
• Light switches are typically placed 48" off the floor (to the center of the switch).

Dining room standards:

• Chairs are typically 18"-19" wide.
• Behind table and chairs you need about 2 feet for people to be able to walk (with the chair pulled out).
• To pull out your chair, you need about 2 feet as well, totaling at least 3 feet to 4 feet of space between the wall and the table. 
• A 48" round table will seat 6 people.

Source

Kitchen standards:

• Counters are typically 36" tall.
• Islands are typically 38" tall.
• Kitchens should have a work triangle between the sink, stove, and refrigerator. Any 2 appliances should be no less than 3 feet apart and no more than 7 feet apart. Total sides of the triangle should measure no less than 12 feet. 

Source

Mantel and pictures:

• Mantels should be at least 6" above the opening of the fireplace.
• Pictures should be hung at 57" on center (meaning the center of the picture is at 57").

Source

Mattress sizes:

• Twin 39"x75"
• Full 54"x 75"
• Queen 60"x80"
• King 76"x80"

Source

I hope these standards will be helpful for you! Are there any others that you would like to know about?

Just Dance 4

Every year for Christmas since I can remember my mom would buy a family game and mark it as “from Santa.” We’ve gotten so many games this way! Even though my sister and I don’t live at home anymore, “Santa” has continued to bring family games to my parents’ house. A couple of years ago he brought a Wii. It has been so fun being able to play it when we’re all home together! We like Wii Sports a lot, but our very favorite game is Just Dance.

Even though all of us (except my sister) are horrible dancers, we love to goof off and be silly with each other. Even my dad participates! My son doesn’t quite understand the concept of using the remote on the Wii, but he loves the music and will dance in front of us as we’re dancing. It’s super cute. You can even get a workout in if you really get into it and use the “Sweat Mode.”

Anyways, the reason I’m writing this post is because Ubisoft came out with Just Dance 4 not too long ago and it’s got some great songs on it! Some of them include “The Final Countdown” by Europe, “Good Feeling” by Flo Rida, “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj, “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction, “Good Girl” by Carrie Underwood, “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, and SO many more! There are over 40 all-new songs on it. There’s also a new “Battle Mode” where you can challenge your friends!

And now to the most important part of this post. Drumroll please… I am so excited to tell you that you can get this on Amazon today only for $22.99!  It’s usually almost $40 but today it’s Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day. WOW!!! This would make an AWESOME Christmas gift!

Search for #JD4GOLD on Twitter to find out what others are saying about it! 

Monthly Meal Plan: December

I told you in my last menu plan post how I like to do my menu planning monthly. It saves me time and effort and I get most of my shopping done at once! Here is my menu for December.

Because of the holidays, there are a lot of days we won't be home (see all events in purple!) and therefore, don't have to make dinner!

My menu includes:
Calzones (twice this month!)
Chili
Hamburgers and homemade macaroni
*Pinterest recipe (Sweet and sour chicken with fried rice)
Meatloaf
Quesadillas
Oven BBQ Chicken
Sloppy joes
Chicken chili
Tacos
Breakfast
*undecided Pinterest recipe
Lasagna
Pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches
Roast
Pork chops
Steak
Buffalo chicken wraps

Snowman Hot Chocolate

Here's another MOPs craft for you ladies! I'm calling this one Snowman Hot Chocolate. It makes a really cute gift (we made it to give to our neighbors) or just use it as a decoration. My goal for the MOPs crafts is to do something that doesn't take a lot of time or effort, that way the ladies can focus on chatting with each other while they do it, so this doesn't require much of either of those!

I found the idea from Pinterest (where else?) and put my own spin on it.

Step 1: Gather your supplies
3 jars with lids
Red felt strip (or you could use fabrics instead of felt)
Black felt strip
Peppermints
Hot chocolate
Mini marshmallows
Hot glue gun

Step 2: Hot glue the black felt around one of the lids to make the hat. (I glued a long line onto the felt and sort of rolled the lid onto it)

Step 3: Fill your jars with peppermints, marshmallows, and hot cocoa. 

 Step 4: Hot glue the red felt into a scarf shape and drape around the hot cocoa jar.

 Step 5: Paint eyes and a nose (and a mouth if you want!) on the marshmallow jar. (I used puff paint.)

Step 5: Stack your jars on top of each other and you have adorable Snowman Hot Chocolate.

**Update: I've had a few people ask where we got the jars to make this. We bought them at Specialty Bottle.