DIY: Wood Beaded Ornaments

Ok, so here is a super simple and easy way to make some natural and rustic looking ornaments. If you made my wine cork garland, this is meant to match that as well. Are you ready for this? If you blink you might miss this tutorial because it's just that simple!

What you'll need:
Wooden beads
Twine
Scissors

Recipe: Roast Cornish Hens with Sage and Garlic

So instead of doing a turkey for Thanksgiving this year, we opted for cornish hens. They are smaller and easier to deal with when you don't have enough people to eat an entire turkey. Plus, I eat turkey all year round. after much searching I found this wonderful recipe on Saveur.com. Unfortunately it was for a whole chicken. So I modified it for the cornish hens. Basically I just used 5 cornish hens in place of 1 bird and followed he recipe from there. Pretty easy!

Ingredients:

5 Cornish hens or a 4lb chicken
1 lemon
22 fresh sage leaves
3 cloves garlic
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
Kosher salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
Ground black pepper, to taste
8 sprigs parsley
2 small onions, quartered
4 carrots, cut into 2" pieces

DIY: Wine Cork Christmas Tree Garland

I don't know how many of you are wine drinkers, but in this house we drink plenty of it. I always save the corks so I can do something nifty with them. Well, today I filled up my jar of corks and decided it was time to empty it to make room for more. I just couldn't figure out what to do with them until I looked at my naked Christmas tree. So here is my simple tutorial on how to make my wine cork garland.

Here's what you'll need:
Hemp or twine (and a kitty to chew on it while you try to take a picture of your supplies, thanks Luna)
Some beads, or trinkets, or charms
Eye screws (enough to screw one on each end of the cork)
Scissors
Hot glue gun or the ability to tie knots
Wine corks (as many as you want. I used 16 wine corks, but if I had more I would of strung them closer together)

Recipe: Spanakopita Bites

Tis the season for good food, family, and friends. And to start that out this Thanksgiving I'm going to be sharing some of the recipes of what's going on at my house. Now, while you have your turkeys or ham (or cornish hens in my case) cooking in the oven, your guests are going to need something to munch on in the mean time. So this is what I made to day to keep the rumbling bellies at bay. Spanakopita bites!

I originally found the recipe at What's Cooking Chicago. It said to use mini cupcake pans, but I used a regular cupcake pan and they were still awesome!

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach. thawed and squeezed dry (I used a bag of fresh spinach chopped and it still turned out good)
4 to 6 ounces domestic feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup cottage cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound phyllo, thawed
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick), melted
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Tuesday Night Unwind

So tonight I have to get to bed early so I can work a day shift tomorrow, which in turn is giving me a full 5 days off of work! Lots of crafting shall happen, along with some good food! But first step is winding down from work so I can survive tomorrow! Tonight I decided to showcase music by The Knife. Super interesting music group from Sweden (no worries, their music is in English!).

First off will be the song that got me hooked on them. I give you, Bird:

Update!!!

If you are a follower of my blog, then you can see there have been a few changes around here. I decided it was time give my blog a more personal flair.  I also decided that since my posts are growing that I should make it easier for you to enjoy the blog! So let's go over some of the changes shall we?

First off, as you can see right away, we have a different "look" to the blog now. New color scheme and backgrounds (yay)! Not one of the bigger changes, but I'm proud of it.

Next we have a new feature, the buttons that you see going across the top of the page. I'll be sorting my blog posts into these categories, and for easy searching you can click on the button to go to that type of post. On that page will be just a picture of whatever the post is about with a link taking you to the post. So you only have to enjoy what you want to enjoy!

Also up in the buttons I have made a place to put links for all sorts of websites and blogs that I've found useful or inspirational. so please go and check them out sometime! Also up there is now is a small feature about me in case anyone wants to know who is behind all this.

Over on the right hand side I now have a button that you can snag and put on your own blog or sites in case you like what you read and want to share it with others.

Other than that, I just tried to simplify everthing so you can enjoy your time on here. Thanks for reading!!!!

Thursday Night Unwind

And we are here at another Thursday! It's been a long week and I am excited to be done with tomorrow and get on with the weekend! Some exciting things are in the works.

First of all at midnight tonight I find out if my zipper face costume placed in the instructables.com contest. I also entered my t-shirt scarf into another contest on that site so we'll see how that goes. I am working on some great tutorials for some Christmas decorations, and also I'm creating my first knitting pattern. Once it's perfected it'll be posted! 

But enough about what's going on with me. You are here tonight for some exposure to some good tunes. Now I know I didn't do a Thursday Night unwind last week so guess what... you're gonna get a double whammy! (yay). Tonight I'm showcasing videos from Phantogram & The Hundred in the Hands. We are going to alternate back and forth. First off we have The Hundred & The Hands with Pigeons:

good stuff huh? I love this music video! Next will be one by Phantogram. This one is called Mouthful of Diamonds.

DIY: Recycled T-Shirt Scarf

This is a super simple way to use up some old t-shirts that you have lying around. It really only takes about 10 minutes to turn an old t-shirt into a super cute scarf! So here is the step by step!

 

What you need is an old t-shirt (with no seams down the side), a good pair of scissors, and a big tapestry needle.

Recipe: Cheeseburger Soup

I found this super yummy recipe while looking around at stuff on Pinterest (love that site!). I made a few modifications to the recipe since the one complaint that most people had about this recipe was the lack of flavor. You can view the original recipe here on Taste of Home. Now my version, let's be honest here... WAS AMAZING! It definitely wasn't lacking flavor! So here is my version of the recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. ground sirloin (you can use ground beef too, but the better the meat, the better the flavor)

1 small or medium chopped white onion 

3/4 cup shredded carrots

3 stalks celery chopped

1 1/2 tsp dried basil

1 1/2 tsp dried parsley

1 large clove of garlic diced

4 tbls butter (divided)

4 cups chicken broth or stock

1 3/4 lbs diced or sliced baby red potatoes (you can peel them if you like, but I left the skins on)

1/4 cup flour or arrowroot powder or cornstarch (this is the thickening agent so use whatever you or have on hand, I used arrowroot powder)

3 cups shredded cheese (you can again use whatever you want. I went with a sharp cheddar, but really any type of strong flavored melty cheese would be good in this)

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup sour cream

Salt & Pepper (however much you want)

Knitting Pattern: Twisted Rib Watch Cap

This is a super simple knitting pattern that you can use to get used to knitting in the round. It does get a bit mindless to knit since you're doing the same stitches over and over and over... and over. However, the results are fantastic! After I made this hat, I can't even begin to tell you how many people asked where i bought it. And then had to explain to them that I actually made it. 

Now this pattern was written by Terri Lee Royea and you can check out her blog here!

Ok ok... now onto the pattern!

DIY: Book Page Candle Holder

This is a simple way to out your own unique touch to candle holders or jars. They make great decorations and gifts! You can use any image that you can print on regular printer paper.

Thursday Night Unwind on a Friday Morning!

Before I get to the music of Portishead and why I'm doing this on a Friday morning, I need to share a bit of news... 

I am entered into a contest on Instructables and need your help! I need you to vote for my zipper face costume!  

You can vote by clicking here!

So I didn't have to work last night, and as a result I ended up going out to the bar with a few coworkers. This bar was pretty EPIC! It's called Le Tigre and the entire thing is filled with tigers!

DIY: Simple Fall Collage

This is super simple and cute way to trap fall in a frame. It also makes a great gift for nature lovers too! 

All you need is:

A page from an old book (I pick a page out of a dictionary)

A frame (I got mine from a thrift store for $0.90!!!)

Some pretty leaves

ModPodge

Piece of cardboard or card stock or some thickish type of paper