Neighbor Gifts- Hot Chocolate

This was easy to put together and very fun! If you need something to throw together this week, this is it!

Hot Chocolate in a Jar (layered for pretty look)

and Chocolate Peppermint Stirring Sticks. This was fun and the kids loved it! You can find the recipe for the hot chocolate HERE.

Baking Gifts

I made these gifts for some ladies I work with every week at church. It's not expected and I just wanted to do a little something so they knew I was thinking of them. I found the recipe and an adorable free printable for Oreo Truffles!!

Here's the link! They are so easy and look and taste so good!

I loved how they turned out so much, I'm going to make another batch for some teacher gifts and a few more friends. The boxes came from the dollar store, but I don't think they looked it. Have fun making these!! Thanks TomKat Studios for sharing!!

Favorite Things- Holiday Edition

I LOVE my friends Favorite Things party! This year it was hard to decide what to bring. I ended up with this:

A Big Huge Fat Cinnamon Roll and a bottle of Martinelli's (Apple Cider)! I kept thinking of Christmas. We always have Martinelli's on Christmas Eve and Cinnamon Rolls Christmas morning! These are definitely some of my favorite things!!

Here's a link to the recipe if you're looking for a good one. This one is amazing!

Knit Scarf

Here is a really fun and simple gift idea. I made this for my sister-in-law who loves Anthropology and those types of stores. This is loosely based on this tutorial. Knit is so great to work with. And to keep it Anthro-inspired, it's great to leave everything with raw edges.

I love the little ruffle and flower details. And I just love this knit fabric in general. I think she liked it! And thanks to my friend for modeling for me :-)

Advent Countdown- Books

I had some big hopes of finishing this heirloom-hand stitched-amazing-very time consuming advent calendar for this Christmas! But when I found out I had started in a wrong order and it would take me longer to complete, I decided this year it was not meant to be. I'm going to work on it enjoyably through the year for next Christmas and not stress! So I needed a backup interactive advent calendar for the kids! I decided to go with the book countdown and I LOVE it!

(Book Advent: You wrap up 25 (or whatever number) Christmas/Holiday books and have them numbered. They get to open one each day till Christmas!)

I think we're going to do this every year and I'll tie it into my new amazing advent wall hanging I'll have done for next year. I ended up ordering 8 new Christmas books this year and doing only a 20 day book countdown. I'll keep adding more fun new books each year.

My kids LOVE it! It's our special time each night to read their stories and they are loving getting to "open presents" early! I highly recommend this for anyone thinking of trying it for the the 12 days till Christmas or for next year. Next year I'll also wrap them cuter :-) Getting the cold and flu the first week of December was not helpful! At least we should be immune and healthy for Christmas!

New Decoration

I have seen these jars all over blog land and I even looked them up to buy on Etsy! They wanted almost $50 for a set of 3 and I didn't like that all 3 would be matching. I wanted different heights and different shapes, etc. So I decided it was time to make these for myself. They are super easy.

I'm sure there's some great tutorials out there for this but I kinda thought it looked self explanatory so I just winged it :-)

The bottoms are various candle holders. The tops are various jars or glass containers.

To Make: Simple paint the candle holders and any lids. I went with black as I wanted it to be versatile for all seasons. I also had to use a primer to get the paint to stick to the glass. Once it's dry, use your E6000 Glue to attach the glass to the candle holder. I held mine in place for a few minutes since it sits a little precariously on the little candle holder. Depending on your lid, you might need to glue the canning jar lid to to the ring so it all comes off together. And that's it! Now add some candy and bows and you're done!
I finally had to get pictures of these before all the candy was gone :-) Happy Holiday Decorating!!

Holiday Handmade Gift Exchange 2011 Complete

Yeah! I got it in on the last day but I got it in :-) Here's what I sent my partner Cora!

A striped Christmas runner and 8 coordinating fabric napkins and

an everyday Monogrammed Table runner on 100% organic cotton.

I've loved getting to know Cora and her adorable family! I love doing the gift exchange! Big thanks to Linda for organizing all of this! Check out Craftaholics Anonymous for all the gifts!