12 Projects of Christmas: Chalkboard Wine Glasses

One of my favorite things to do over the holidays is sit and share a glass of good wine with friends! But if you're like us, at some point you all put your glasses down and a few minutes later have that moment of "wait--whose glass belongs to who?!" Wine charms are cute, but I wanted something fun and different. I've seen the idea on Pinterest, and I decided that this would be a great addition to any Holiday party or even make a great gift!

Look at how fun these are!  Guests can write their names on their own glasses, and I like the look of the matte black paint against the glass.

These are SO easy to make, too!!

Grab your materials:

A 4-pack of wine glasses
Paint brush
Chalkboard paint
Chalk (not pictured)

 

Start by painting a layer of chalkboard paint around the bottom of each glass.  You'll want to let it set for 1 hour, then paint a second layer and let it dry 1 hour.  Hold the bottom of the wine glass up to the light and see if you can see any light through it.  If you can, add another layer of paint.  Once you've added enough layers of paint, let the paint cure for 24 hours.

Once it's cured, scribble some chalk over the chalk paint...

...and then wipe it off.  This sets the paint up and makes it ready to be used repeatedly.

Then go for it!  Pass your glasses out to your guests, give them a piece of chalk (I used white, but how fun would it be to use multi-colored chalk?!), and let the festivities begin!

Like I said, a fun addition to you Christmas or New Year's party, or a great gift for anyone!

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xoxo, Melissa

12 Projects of Christmas: Holiday Rolls

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite parts of the holidays is the food.  Not just the yummy desserts (well hello there, Christmas cookies...) but all the food in general: mashed potatoes, Mom's green bean casserole, turkeys and hams, all of it!  My favorites are usually the ones high in carbs--which is definitely no bueno for my waistline.  But here's my excuse:  if it's only one small period each year, then it's okay to indulge a little, right?  :)

Today's project is one of my favorite parts of the meal--the rolls!  I know, I know...with all the other delicious food, why in the world do I go for the rolls?  Maybe it's the carbs, or the fact, that it's a total comfort food for me, or maybe it's just because I can't resist a warm roll or piece of bread straight out of the oven.  But either way, I look forward to a warm gooey piece at the beginning of each meal.  So here's one of my favorite recipes.  I do mine in the breadmaker because I have no patience for the kneading and rising, but this can be done the traditional way, too.

First, the ingredients:

1 1/4c of milk
1/2c sugar
1 1/2tsp of salt
4Tbs butter
1/4c warm water
4 1/2c bread flour
1 packet (or 2 1/4tsp) active dry yeast
1 egg (not shown)

Whether you're doing this in a breadmaker or not, the first step is to make our warm milk mixture.  Over medium heat, warm your milk until it gets a skin on the top that wrinkles when you wiggle the pan.  Don't boil the milk, though!!  Add the butter, sugar, and salt, turn off the heat, and stir until it's all dissolved.

Set it aside until it's cooled to lukewarm.
Breadmaker: Put the warm water and lukewarm milk mixture in the bottom of your breadmaker inner chamber, then add all of the flour, and finally put the yeast on top.  Set your breadmaker to the DOUGH setting (you don't want to bake it in the breadmaker, just let it mix, knead, and rise in there)

Traditional: Combine lukewarm milk mix and warm water in a large mixing bowl and stir in about 4 cups of the flour to begin your dough.  Put the remaining flour on the board and knead it into the dough.  You should knead until the dough looks like satin--if it's a little too sticky, you can knead more flour into the dough about 1Tbl at a time, but don't add too much flour or your dough will break and not stick to itself.  When it's ready, put back in the mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place (I like to use the stovetop oven vent while it preheats) until it doubles--usually 45-50 minutes.

Turn out onto floured countertop.  If you are doing this in a breadmaker, do not punch the dough down.  If you are doing it traditionally, punch the dough down slightly, but not so that it's flat.

One recipe will make about 20 rolls, so divide your dough into 20 pieces.  I do this by cutting the main dough ball in half, then halving each section until I have 20 equal-sized pieces.

Take each piece and roll until each one is about a 7 inch snake.  Take each snake and tie a knot in the middle of the dough, then fold the extra ends over itself and tie in a second not.  Place each dough knot in a lightly greased muffin tin cup.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350*, then brush the top of each with an eggwash (1 egg and about 2Tbls of water whisked together) and bake for another 10-12 minutes.  The tops should be shiny, golden yellow/brown.

These rolls are slightly sweet and very dense, but so delicious!  They go great with my homemade apple butter :)  Hope these bring a new flavor to your holiday meals and that your family enjoys them (carb-load and all! haha)

Happy holidays!
xoxo, Melissa

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12 Projects of Christmas: Joy Door Decoration

It's December 1st!  You know what that means... Christmas music playing in the kitchen while I bake cookies for our first holiday party this weekend!  I'm so excited for the holiday season, I seriously could barely control myself today--I got 3 of the 12 Projects of Christmas done today.  No joke!  Which is honestly kind of a good thing because we've got a very busy weekend ahead--including driving halfway home to meet my dad so he can give me our Christmas tree and ornaments.  Somehow I managed to grab the box with the branches and stand, but not the box with the pole and the ornaments...oops.

So here's the first of the 12 Projects of Christmas!
I'm really excited about this one.  I came up with the idea while walking around Hobby Lobby (easily my favorite store ever) and not being able to find a door decoration that I loved.  In their defense, the selection was pretty picked-over after the big 50%-off sale.  So I decided to come up with a plan to make my own, and it turned out absolutely beautifully!

"Why not a wreath?" you ask?  Well, we have a wreath that hangs on the wall in the livingroom that I love and want to see more than just when I'm coming and going from the apartment.  But mainly because our peephole is placed in just the spot where it will be covered by a wreath hanger no matter what I try...boo stupid apartment building.

So anyway, here is the tutorial for my Joy Door Decoration (ps. You can use any word, but JOY is perfect for the holidays and isn't so big that it overpowers the door or the decoration.  Feel free to use any word you like.)

First grab your materials:
2 complimentary colors of paint (I used the red and gold that matches our house and our Christmas tree)
1 1/2" wide ribbon in a complimentary color
20 inches of garland (I cut mine off of a 7' piece that was too long to use around our window)
4" wooden letters
Glue gun (not pictured)

Start by painting your letters.  I used 2 coats of the red paint as the base color...

and used the gold paint to do a faux plaid.  Please don't judge how unstraight my lines are--I know I need some practice, but you get the idea :)

Next, cut 3 strips of ribbon, 15 inches each.  The letters won't hang 15 inches down, don't worry--you need that extra length later on.  Use the hot glue gun to attached one of each strip to the back of each letter.

Once the glue is dry, space out your ribbons about 3 inches apart from each other and tie them on to the garland's main wire.  Make sure to leave about a 4 inch tail.

Next, cut 3 more pieces of ribbon, about 12" each.  Fold the ribbon to create a "faux bow" like you see in the picture.  You don't want to actually tie it, just fold it over.

Next, lay your faux bow on top of the knot where you tied the letter ribbon onto the garland.

Fold the extra tail of the ribbon over the faux bow (see, told you you'd need that extra!)

And tie the tail to the main part of the letter ribbon.

Repeat the faux bow with all three letters.  It should look like this:

Next, cut a small piece of ribbon (about 3 inches) and create a loop, then hot glue it to the back of the garland where the middle letter is tied.  This will give you a way to hang it.

Here's the final project, all hung up on our (ugly) apartment door!

I know it looks like the "Y" is hanging lower, but I think that's because I was on the stairs looking up at an angle.  When you look at it head on, all the letters hang evenly, but you can play around with bending the garland and the length of the ribbon to make it work for you.

Here's the money breakdown:
Garland: (already had it)
Ribbon: $2
Letters: $3 ($1/each)
Paint: (already had)

Total cost: $5 (this will be more if you need to purchase the garland or the paint, of course)

I also recommend if you're going to hang it outside to spray the letters with a sealant to make sure it doesn't get any weather damage.

Happy Holidays!  Stay tuned for 11 more Christmas projects to come!  :)

xoxo, Melissa

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12 Projects of Christmas!

Hi friends!

Gosh, I can't believe it's almost December!  Where has this year gone?  I'm excited, though--I LOVE Christmas!  The decorations, the baking, the music, getting together with family and friends, and of course I love to give gifts to those I love.  This year, with the economy being so tight, I've decided to go more of the homemade route for gifting, which got me thinking...

What can I do on my blog to promote all the goodies I"m going to be showcasing and tutorialing?
::lightbulb::

This year will be the first annual 
"12 Projects of Christmas"!

 

Between December 1 and December 24, I will feature 12 different projects that are Christmas/Winter-themed.  Some might be decorations for the house, some might be for gifts, and some might be for plain, ol' delicious Christmas cookies.  In theory, I'll post 1 project every other day, but let's be honest---there might be one day with 3 projects and a few days with none, but I'm going to be as consistent as possible.

I'm really excited!  A good friend of mine commissioned me to do a big project for her boyfriend's present, so that'll be a big project on here, plus I have a few more up my sleeves...so excited!

Please make sure to click the little blue "join this site" button on the side so you can get all the wonderful projects between now and Christmas (and feel free to Pin any project you see!)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas (okay, I know...still a little early...c'mon, I'm gettin' excited here!) :)

Tutorial: CrockPot Apple Butter

I swear, nothing smells better in our house than Fall cooking: pumpkin, cranberries, spices, and of course apples!  And I LOVE to eat all the yummy Fall cooking (which is probably why my Winter clothes always seem to be a little snug...hmmm...).  One of my favorites is apple butter.  Every October, my fiance and I go to the local Apple Butter Fest, where they have huge vats of apples and spices cooking down into homemade apple butter.  Usually we stand in the extremely long line to wait and buy a jar of the delicious stuff, but this year with a smaller budget and a longer line, we decided to try making our own instead!

For the record, apple butter is something that I have never made before, so I was a little worried about how this was all going to turn out.  I pictured it not tasting right or not having the right texture or all of it burning on the bottom of the crock pot and not being able to be eaten.  Insert scary apple butter nightmares here.

Reality:  It was soooo easy!  And it turned out really delicious.  And the best part?  It's homemade, so it automatically tastes better!

Okay, so here's the tutorial.  Honestly, the hardest parts were peeling all the apples and then waiting for the stuff to cook down (You know, when you can smell all that appley-goodness but can't eat it yet?!  You know what I'm talking about...).  I definitely recommend making this yourself, not just because it's easy, but also because you know EXACTLY what's going into it and you can control the amount of sugar you use.  You wouldn't believe the amount of sugar in store-bought apple butter!

First, get your ingredients:

-I used 6 lbs of Jonagold apples for my 8-quart crock-pot, which filled it perfectly to the top--this cooked down to fill 2 large Ball jars.  You can use any kind of apple (except Red Delicious or Yellow Delicious), and I recommend picking ones that have a sweet, crisp flavor--you'll use less sugar that way.
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1 tsp ground cloves
-1 tsp apple pie spice
-1 1/2 cups apple cider (you can use sugar-free if you prefer, but you'll probably end up wanting to add more sugar to taste at the end unless you like a less-sweet flavor in your apple butter)
-Sugar to taste, added 1/4 cup at a time at the very end of the cooking process

Peel, core, and chunk your apples and put them in the crockpot.  I used one of those corer-slicer things to make it go quicker.

Add your spices, then add your cider.  Stir it up so most of your apples are covered with the spices and cider.

Now comes the hard part...turn the crockpot to "low" and walk away.  Your apples need to cook for at least 16 hours, but you might find that after 16 hours it's still not cooked down to a consistency you like.  For ours, we cooked it for 20 hours (yes, that's almost one full day--trust me, the wait is worth it!) to get it the thick and smooth consistency we prefer.  Okay, don't totally walk away.  Make sure to come back and stir it once in a while.  I chose to stir it every couple hours at first, because I was around the house, but after about 5 hours I left it alone and only stirred it a few more times during the rest of the cooking process.  Stirring it at the beginning is important to make sure it's cooking evenly.

This is about 8 hours into the cooking process.  The apples have started to cook down, and at this point your house will smell ah-may-zing!!

This is after 20 hours of cooking.  You can see how much everything cooks down and how the color changes.  Stir it up and taste it--now is the time to add sugar until it's got the sweetness you prefer.  We added 2/3 cup of sugar total to ours to get it to the right flavor that we like, but this is totally up to you!

You can "can" this afterward if you choose, but it's not necessary.  This will last in your fridge up to 3 months (if it will even be around that long--around here, it's lucky to last a month!) and this recipe will make enough for a large jar for you and a large jar for a friend--a perfect, homemade gift!

So enjoy your homemade apple butter and make sure to let me know how yours turns out!

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The Artsy Girl Connection
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Tutorial: Bread in a Can

A few weeks ago, while having coffee with my friend from college, Krissy, I told her about how I found this great idea for making bread in a can from this great craft blog.  After going on about how it combined my two loves: baking and crafting, and how much I couldn't wait to try this project for my blog, she asked me if I could wait just a few more weeks to do it, but that if I did wait she would pay me for it.

Um.  Duh.  Of course I will--are you kidding me?  I have a million other craft ideas to create and blog in the mean time!

She's a high school teacher who needed a nice gift for her secret pal at work, and thought that bread in a can would be perfect!  She told me she'd pay me for the materials, plus for my work (I told her none of this was necessary, but she insisted) and that she's need them at the beginning of October.  Perfect!  I can make yummy Fall quick breads in cute cans, and it's a great excuse to go crazy with the decorating--I mean, who wants an undecorated, uncute gift?  No one!  Let the crafting begin!

So this week, I made bread in a can.  Again, I can't take full credit for this--it's something that's been going around the crafting world for a while, and I got my banana bread recipe from Chasing Fireflies.  What I didn't get from her wonderful blog was a recipe for a pumpkin quick bread (which I already had) and the ideas for how I was going to decorate these beautiful cans.

If you want the banana bread recipe, head over to Chasing Fireflies because she has done an amazing job with the recipe and her own design of the cans.

Here's my recipe for pumpkin quick bread.  You can add walnuts to it, but since I didn't know if the receiver of this gift has any allergies, I decided to leave it out this time.  But it's definitely yummy to add a 1/2 cup of walnuts to this before you bake it!

Pumpkin Quick Bread
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
1/2 c veg oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

 First, mix your dry ingredients (including sugar for this recipe) in one bowl and your wet ingredients in another bowl.  Super easy, right?

 Now is the hard part:  mix them together.  Okay, I'm kidding; this is not hard.  In fact, this might be one of the easiest recipes ever.

 Instead of baking them in a loaf pan or muffin pan, I'm baking them in washed out veggie cans!  One can for pumpkin, one can for Chasing Fireflie's banana bread, and a third can (not pictured) for the leftovers so that I can munch on them...hehehe...

 All I did was take off the lid (make sure to use a can opener that doesn't leave a jagged or sharp edge), take of the labels, and wash them out very well.

Before you pour your bread into the cans, though, you need to make the new pretty labels.  Trust me, this is way easier before you bake them than after!  I just chose 2 different scrapbook papers that have complementary colors, plus 2 small tags.

 Take the paper and wrap it around the can with the pretty side facing in.  This way, you can draw on the paper without worrying that the receiver will see it.

 Draw around the edge of the bottom of the can so you know where to cut.  I used the inside part of the bottom lip so that I'll have a silver can border around the edge of each paper.  You can kind of feel where it indents, and then I just used a pencil to mark it.

 Cut your paper on the pencil line, and voila!  You have a new, much prettier label for your bread cans.  You don't want to bake the labels, though, so don't attach them yet.

 Next, I traced the tag onto the scraps of paper left over, cut it out, and glued them on so I had matching tags for each can.

 You can see here are my 2 labels and 2 tags.  Since they are complimentary colors, you can mix and match the tags and labels if you want.

 Now, fill your unlabeled cans.  I filled each of them 3/4 of the way full.  Be careful!!  If you fill them too full, they will bake over the top and that won't be a very pretty display--it can also fall off into your oven and make that awful burning smell....not that I know from experience or anything...

 Once they come out of the oven, let them cool completely before you try to put the labels on.  I put them in the fridge overnight to ensure that they were cool enough.  I also then let them warm up to room temp before I tried to put the labels on, so the cold can didn't cool the hot glue too fast for me to put the labels on.

I used hot glue to attach the labels to each can.  Go slow, only gluing a small portion at a time, and make sure you line up your label before you glue or your label might be warped when you're finished.  I didn't take pics of this because it's hard to hold a camera, a can, and a glue gun all at the same time.  But here are the cans after they were labeled:

 Next, I cut plastic wrap just big enough to cover the tops of each can with just a little hanging over the edge.  This will keep them fresh before you give them away.  I used 2 layers of plastic wrap, just to make sure.

 I used 2 squares of matching fabric on each can, just laying them on top with alternating points, and then folded the edges over the can lip.  I used twine to secure the plastic wrap and material down (to keep them fresh) and then used twine to tie a pretty bow on top with my labels.

Here they are all finished:

How cute are these to give and get?!  A great gift for a friend, coworker, teacher, new neighbor--anyone would love to get these!!  :)

Totaling up the cost of these is a little harder, because it depends what you have on-stock in your cupboard.  This is definitely a project/gift that you can do for under $10 though!

So go ahead and give it a try--even if you don't give it away, and you just make some bread in a can for yourself to eat on a crisp Fall afternoon!  Bon appetit!


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