Nutella yummyness!

I made these last week and BOY were they delicious!

Introducing my .. Nutella cupcakes!

Ok, "my" isn't the correct word.
My batch of someone else's cupcakes. Haha.

I'll provide the link for anyone interested.

But please note, these are super yummy and you will want to eat more than one. 

Just sayin'. :) 

http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2011/05/guest-post-nutella-cupcakes/

Go make some! NOW!

Christmas Tree topper!

There is no art to this, but I thought I'd share.

This is the top of my Christmas tree.

It's kinda hard to tell what is what, but I'll try to explain.

I bought the orange feather-type things from Pier 1.

I got 'em for like 64 cents a piece and when I say "a piece" I mean a whole branch of these things.

So I cut off the long branch and stuck 'em throughout the top. (Plus a couple towards the bottom of the tree)

Then I went to Target and saw the swirly, glittery fun things. Haha. That's an awesome name, right?

They were $2. I thought I could separate the strips, but I was wrong. So three chunks later, there we go.

Finally, my mom bought me some sparkley additions from Cracker Barrel. They were like 4 bucks but I think they were 40% off. I don't know - she grabbed 'em and bought 'em before I knew what was happening.

So here it is!

I LOVE it. It's a fun twist to the top of our tree and something I've always wanted to do :) 

Painted Ornaments

Painted Ornaments

Seriously, they're so fun to make!

I thought of this idea in November and then Googled it to make sure I wasn't crazy.

Today, we were going to buy a tree but I knew if we bought a tree we'd need ornaments ..

So instead of buying a tree and having it remain naked, I decided we'd start on our ornaments and buy a tree on Sunday! :)

Good idea. Right?!

So we sat down with my case of paints and I showed the kids how we would do it.

They sat and observed, very intent on what I was doing.

They quickly took to it and enjoyed picking out colors and watching the designs they would make.

So here's my simple instructions:

Go to Michael's (or your favorite craft supply store) and buy clear ornaments. I bought plastic because I have two children under the age of 6 and a cat.

I bought ten plastic circles.

Take the top off and set aside.

Drop a good amount of paint into one of the balls.

Swirl around, slightly vigorously.

Add another color if desired.

Place your thumb (or paper towel for kids) on the opening.

Shake so everything is covered.

And, finally, sit it upright so the paint doesn't drip out.

Once they're dry, add the topper back on and hang on your tree!

Note: You must add a sufficient amount of paint so that it moves around the ball. At first, I added too little and nothing was moving.

Enjoy yourselves!
The kids had a blast and I only got a little antsy a couple of times. 

That's a record! Hahaha