First craft in my new room...

I painted mini birdhouses to hang on my wall after I finish painting my living room. I set up a tripod to snap pics as I paint and enjoy my day.

Painting the roof reddish brown

 Painting the walls barn red

 And lastly white trim

 And VOILA! I have a cute barnesque bird house to hang on my wall tree.

After this I pained a simple slanted roof house in bright yellow, green, and blue.

First foray into gumpaste...

Mix it yourself he said... it's cheaper that way he said... I think next time I'll just buy the pre made stuff and be done with it. I must have washed half of it down the drain just to get it off of me. I still have chunks of it between my fingers and apparently on my face. But here's hoping at least the half that's sitting on my table is usable. Good thing I'm only using it to try out my new Cricut machine.

Edit for pics:

 

Not much for the pain it was to get the gumpaste mixed and the machine figured out but now that I know what to do watch out world I have goodies to make!

DIY gift wrapping paper

One of the greatest joys of giving a gift to someone you love is wrapping it up so prettily and watching them ooo and ahhh over it. So today I thought I'd get a jump start on Christmas buy making my own hand stamped paper.

I'm gonna cut open a normal paper bag (size is up to you)

If you're fresh out of paper bags you can buy a roll of mailing paper. Dollar Tree usually has some.

Lay it out flat,I didn't care if it still had fold lines if you do iron it out on a dry setting. Then gather your stamps, pads, pens, and other writing implements.

I chose white & red stamp pads with snowflake and do not open till December 25th stamp.

Next step is simple, just stamp, draw, or write on your paper. Any idea works for whatever you need it for.

Since this is for Christmas and I have no presents to wrap I can't show you my pretty wrapped gift. But just think of all the endless possibilities there are with this idea. no more will you have to run out and get wrapping paper for the only wedding you've been to. No one will ask if you used the same paper for birthday's year after year, and everyone will be talking about how AWESOME you are.  So go on now and get your wrap on!

Mini meatloaf

 Makes 8.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound ground beef
•  2/3 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the egg, milk, cheese, oats and salt. Add the ground beef, mixing well, and form this mixture into eight miniature meatloaves. Place these in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Stir thoroughly and spread over each meatloaf.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 254 | Total Fat: 14.3g | Cholesterol: 77mg

My family loves these. We bake them in muffin pans for quick Monday night dinner, they freeze well, and you can put almost any kind of side with them. I honestly don't know how I got by in life without eating meatloaf like this. I love to mix up the cheeses and use Red Mills 5 grain hot cereal as well as the quick oats. Comes out a bit more dense but so very filling.  I hope your family enjoys as much as mine does.

Want a chalkboard?

But the price of one or that special paint is too expensive? Well here's a great DIY recipe. I was checking our pins on Pinterest and came across this site the idea room, and found the recipe. I followed it and had a success with just doing basic colors. 

All you need is 1 cup of paint and 2 Tablespoons of non sanded white grout.

  Now me being very excited to try this out I didn't look at the link to the recipe and steps she used till today, I found I missed a few but that just means I'll have better pics for next time. Also they never talked about the stench, very strong ammonia smell so make sure you have a window open. I also found that doing 2 or more coats works best and they are tougher if dried for at least 12 hours each time. Knowing that I can redo my kitchen cart so that my grease stains don't show and when I paint my fridge and the rest of my freezer it will be nice and even with no chunks. And what's better than making your own paint? How about making your own chalk? Which I will make later on this year. I have big plans for that post.

Stuffed Sweet Peppers

While most people stuff bell peppers we thought to stuff a small sweet pepper, and they were a HIT!

Ingredients:
Sweet peppers
Cheese (we used organic feta and swiss)

 Directions:
1. Grate your cheese, it helps to grate a little at a time and to use the small holes.
2. Cut tops off peppers and hollow out any extra seeds (usually there are none)
3. Stuff the peppers. How full they are depends on you.

Tips:
1.You can stuff with any cheese you like.
2. Don't limit yourself to just cheese.
3. Great appetizers or veggie side for a party or dinner.

                                                                            ENJOY!

German Pancakes and *drumroll*

Buttermilk syrup. While the family loves German pancakes more than the normal ones we have found that the buttermilk syrup is the epitome of AWESOME!!! Our family has said it needs to be in the fridge and ready to heat at all times. So without further I give you our favorite recipe.

Ingredients: Makes 8 small servings

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• BUTTERMILK SYRUP:
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• confectioners' sugar

  Directions:

1. Place the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender; cover and process until smooth. Pour the butter into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; add the batter. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the first five syrup ingredients; bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Dust pancake with confectioners' sugar; serve immediately with the syrup. 

Tips:
1. Make sure all the pancake ingredients are well blended.
2. Use butter in the syrup, comes out a bit thicker, but not much.

We have this for breakfast and dinner at least twice a month. We double both recipes and place the left over syrup in the fridge so we don't have to make it each time. It should stay fresh for 2 weeks if your family hasn't begged you to make breakfast all the time.

 Christmas morning the first time we made it. So yup that's a bottle of normal maple syrup on the table and it was never used.