Craftastic.

Lamentations 3:25-26: "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." We have begun the month-long craze of Christmas hustle and bustle. This frantic rush to find everyone just the right gifts at just the right price sometimes has us pulled in a million different directions. Let's make it our goal this Christmas season to shut out the noise of the commercial Christmas and tune in to the quiet peace of the true meaning of this holiday. Put your hope in Him and seek the Lord first, not the marked-down aisles of any store, and He will be good to you! You can count on that promise :)

This Thanksgiving was the first one for us as a married couple and that meant lots of driving to see both sides of the family in a very short amount of time. But it was definitely worth it! This year my younger sister-in-law, a fellow Pinterest devotee, came up with all kinds of craft ideas (both edible and non) for us to produce in our holiday sweat shop (sweat as in the only time we changed out of comfy sweats was for about an hour to eat our Thanksgiving meal and snap a few pics). Not only did she have the ideas in mind, but she went ahead and acquired every single thing that we would need to make them! While my husband and his dad watched the endless football games, my two sisters-in-law and I were busy hot gluing away like mad women. And so, I present to you the results of our labor of love....

Pinterest came through for us majorly on this holiday, in both recipe and craft inspiration. We made this cute little guy to snack on during one of the many football games on Thanksgiving day. I present to you...the turkey cheese ball! Cream cheese, cheddar cheese, finely chopped turkey, and some seasonings (if you want the recipe I can get it from my sis-in-law) formed this turkey's body. His tail feathers are crackers decorated with different colors of cream cheese, dyed with food coloring and pecans cover his body. Slice a red bell pepper for his neck/head and secure with toothpicks. Add details such as eyes and a beak with colored cream cheese (the eyes our skills were able to produce creeped my father-in-law out haha). This cheese had really good flavor...unfortunately however....when it was wrapped in saran wrap chilling in the fridge before adding the details we referred to it as "the turkey cheese brain" (it kinda looks like one...alot). Not a good thought to have in your head as you eat! I actually had to force feed a cracker with a tiny smidge of the cheese ball to my husband who (after whimpering like a small child) admitted that the flavor was good but all he could think of was TURKEY CHEESE BRAIN! Moral of the story.....don't be immature. Ha!

Nothing says fall like acorns! Simplest and cutest (and tastiest) little snack...seriously ever time we opened the fridge we felt the need for another nibble. Little nutter butter cookies form the acorn cap, a Hershey kiss is the nut and a chocolate chip forms the little stem. Secure all parts with a little bit of frosting (we colored white store-bought frosting with food coloring).

Next up: Rice Krispie Pumpkins! My sister-in-law found the recipe on Pinterest and it called for orange jello mix in the traditional rice krispie treat mix. After we made these precious little treats we decided the orange flavoring made it a little too sweet and next time we would stick with food coloring to get the nice pumpkin look. Anyhoo, spray your hands with cooking spray to form the balls without having cereal cemented on your hands by marshmallow glue. Use a tootsie roll for the stem and (attempt to) decorate with green frosting to add leaf embellishments.  

Bet you didn't know the pilgrims had delicious little hats that taste suspiciously like Reese's peanut butter cups?! This is seriously the best dessert ever because you actually get three sweets in one without having to visit the dessert table three different times. (Side story - at a dinner/auction fundraising event at the preschool I totally got called out by the senior pastor of the church for not straying too far from a certain table all night. "You haven't moved very far have you?" Uh no. Thanks for noticing.) White cupcakes, vanilla frosting (I believe my sis-in-law topped hers with the sugar crystal sprinkles but you could do whatev), a Keebler fudge stripe cookie, and an upside-down Reese's peanut butter cup create these super cute Thanksgiving treats. Add detailing with some colored frosting and viola!

Now on to the crafts.....

These reindeer actually began their journey as plain matte glass ornaments. We squeezed brown paint inside and turned them every which way to try to get it all covered. I believe there is an entire bottle of brown paint dried inside my poor Rudolph but that is beside the point. It was actually super entertaining trying to get all the random tiny spots that somehow escaped the paint the first ten squeezes. Then comes the stressful part....trying to get the eyes and mouths straight (mine would be the little guy in the middle sans mouth...I thought it looked cute and had already sweated through one shirt attempting to paint a symmetrical smile). Use brown pipe cleaners to customize your antlers!

These snowmen were actually our first ornament craft and were so stressful we frequently called out "Alcohol! I need alcohol!" Rubbing alcohol that is.....although by the end I was happy to see my margarita on Wednesday night. We discovered that if you mess up you can rub off whatever paint you want with rubbing alcohol as long as it is still wet. Fill a clear glass ornament with fake snow (note to the wise...use a funnel of some sort and be prepared to spend a little while filling Frosty's face). Turned out pretty cute huh?!

This next craft took me back to my childhood days when my sister and I would help my grandma make crafts for an enormous bazaar at her church selling all sorts of handmade Christmas items. Our inspiration came from Pinterest, of course, but we used white tube socks instead of a sweater like the pin. Stuff a tube sock with quilt batting, stuff some more, stuff some more, and then when you are done, stuff it some more! I got tired of stuffing and decided my snowman would just be petite (can you guess which one that would be? Ha!) After you get the size base you desire, secure it with a rubber band then continue stuffing for his head. Secure with another rubber band. You will be left with quite alot of sock that looks like the snowman has a very long ponytail. After singing a couple rounds of "Whip my hair" while making my snowman dance, it was time to cut off the excess. My sis-in-law selflessly made all three hats for our snowmen using black felt and hot glue, first by making a cylinder out of felt. Cut a circle the same size as one end of the cylinder to form the top of the hat. Then, cut a circle with a hole in it (a doughnut, if you will) to form the base. You want your hat to be solid so that you can hide the little tuft of sock ponytail. Buttons form the eyes, as well as the holly berry. Cut the carrot nose and holly leaves out of felt, attach all details with hot glue. We used fabric scraps to make a little scarf. I stuck my little snowman on my husband's desk so he can have a friend while doing homework. I know deep down he appreciates his new companion.

Three ingredients: Jar. Tissue Paper. Modge. Podge. Done! Cover the outside with tissue paper and a thick coat of modge podge. After the podge had completely dried, we added little details like a ribbon around the center and a printed label. I stocked mine with chocolate as my "reindeer treats".

 One of my sis-in-laws spotted these little snow globes at Anthropologie going for 30 bucks! Well, we decided to make our own and I hope no one spends that much money because they are a cinch to make (sorry, Anthro I love you but not your prices). Four ingredients: 1 Ball jar, mini Christmas trees found at a craft store, epsom salts, and ribbon to finish the look. Hot glue the two pieces that comprise the lid together to avoid your snow globe being opened and spilled everywhere. Since your jar will actually be upside down sitting on the lid, hot glue your trees to your lid. Pour some epsom salt into the jar and secure the lid. Flip it over and adjust the amount of snow. After you have the desired snowfall, secure your lid to the jar with hot glue. Finish with a ribbon and there you go! So there Anthro!

Are you feeling the craft bug yet? Next on the list...button wreaths! Super cute and super easy. Start with a wooden circle acquired at any craft store (you know that aisle chock full of unfinished wood at Hobby Lobby? Well, now you have an excuse to go down those wooden halls) and paint whatever color you desire. We chose a shimmery neutral. Next, use a cup to trace a circle onto your wood to use as a guide. Then get to button-ing! I decided on green, red, and brown-ish neutrals for mine (on right). After getting them all situated the way I wanted them I decided to scrap the whole thing and just glue as I go. It's much easier to layer them as you glue versus attempting to layer then move each one while they are still in position. Just wing it :) I set mine up on a little easel in our kitchen and love it!

Last craft pic I promise! We got our inspiration from a little tree my mother-in-law bought and thought we could make our own! I love walking into any store or boutique and thinking "I could totally make that". Now if I actually get the materials and make it is a whole 'nother story but at least the ambition is there right? Start by painting wooden spools brown (another trip down the unfinished wood aisle is in your future yay!) After those dried we covered the middle with wide burlap ribbon. Cut a piece of wire (my mom-in-law found some that kind of looked like thick twine or rope (picture wire wrapped in brown raffia..is that a better image?) and glue it to the inside of the hole going through the top of the spool. Form a star from this same wire (ok, somehow my star came out literally 4 times bigger than either of my sisters-in-law's stars. How this happened I have no idea. All I know is that mine looked like Patrick the starfish from Sponge Bob for the longest time) and glue to the top of your tree trunk wire. For the branches we snipped different sized pieces off of a mini table-top tree and secured with hot glue. Finally, adorn with button "ornaments". I balanced my gigantic star with a gigantic burlap bow and it totally did the trick. Our tree is sitting on our bookcase shelf next to our Christmas tree in the living room. Sadly, they look somewhat similar....hey those fake Christmas trees are not cheap! But I love our Charlie Brown tree and it is the thought that counts :)

Happy Crafting! 'Tis the Season!