Cross Door Hanger

Earlier this month, my daughter was baptized.

I love to throw a party and couldn't wait to host one after her baptism.   

As soon as the Christmas decorations were put away, I got to planning.  

The colors were light pink and white.  

I always have a festive door hanger when I host parties. 

So to go with the colors and theme of the party, I decided to make a cross door hanger. 

Materials:

Cardboard

Yarn

Hot Glue

Embellishments (pearls)

Cardstock 

Scissors or Cricut 

How I Did It: 

I printed a cross pattern that I found online. 

 I just Googled cross pattern and printed the first one I came across. 

Then I cut it out and traced it onto a piece of cardboard (an old Crate and Barrel box)

I cut out the cross.  Strong scissors will be a big help. 

Then I started wrapping my white yarn around the cross. 

I continued around all the sides and did a few crosses in the middle.  

The middle was not covered completely. 

After all the sides of the cross were covered with yarn, I worked on the center. 

I used my Cricut to cut out a circle for the center.  

Then, I printed her monogram on white cardstock. 

I cut it out and glued it onto the bigger circle.  

Then, I glued little craft pearls around the outside.  

To finish it off, I took a piece of pink yarn and hot glued it to the top of the back side of the cross. 

I tied it into a knot and used that to hang it off the door hanger.  

Honey Lime Shrimp

Shrimp has become a weekly staple in our house.  For the past month, I've been making shrimp in pasta dishes.  This week I decided to change things up.  

Results: Delish.  Took about 15 minutes to make. Loved the marinade and even used a little of the remaining over my rice.  Without a doubt we will be making this one again.  Enjoy!

Honey Lime Shrimp

Courtesy of The Dough Will Rise Again

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T honey
juice of one small lime, or half a large lime (2-3 T)
zest of one small lime, or half a large lime
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1.) In a large ziploc bag, combine all the marinade ingredients. When everything is well-combined, add the shrimp, squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag, and close it up. Place it in the fridge.

2.) Let the shrimp marinate for 30-60 minutes, flipping the bag around once or twice during that time, so that all the shrimp stay evenly covered in the marinade.

3.) When you’re ready to cook, take the shrimp out of the fridge and let them sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; there is no need to add any oil or butter to the pan, as the marinade has enough oil in it to keep the shrimp from sticking to the pan. (If you would prefer to use the grill for these, you can thread them onto skewers and toss them on the grill at this point.)

4.) Add your shrimp to the pan in a single layer, making sure they are not too crowded; you can always cook them in more than one batch. Let them cook on one side for about a minute, until they curl up and start to turn pink. Flip them over, and cook for another 30 seconds or so, until the shrimp are opaque. Remove from the pan, and serve immediately!

Candy Heart Valentine Frame

Here is a simple and cute Valentine's decoration for your house. 

Materials: 

8x10 frame

candy hearts

heart tracer

red cardstock (or your color choice)

hot glue

How it's done....

1. Take the paper out of the frame. 

I made sure the background paper was the same size as the paper I was taking out.

2.  I used my Crucit to cut out a heart tracer.  I glued the tracker onto the background paper I chose, which was red card stock. 

3. Put the frame back together.  

4. Line up the hearts on the tracer.  I made sure to put them all on BEFORE I started gluing. 

Once everything was the way I wanted it, I glued down the hearts one by one (with hot glue). 

Once they are all glued down, you're done! 

Date Night In- Jar

2016 updated date night jar 

One of the goals hubs and I set for the year was to have date nights in.  With a baby, getting out of the house for a date is not as easy as it used to be.  So, we decided we would try to do two date nights in a month.  He would plan one and I would plan the other.  For Valentine's Day, I'm giving him this jar filled with ideas for our date nights.  It's easy for me to come up with things to do but not as easy for him.  Now, he'll have a whole bunch of ideas at his fingertips!

All I used for this project was the printables below, a glass jar, ribbon, crinkle paper and card stock in red and white.  

I printed the ideas for date night on white cardstock. 

I made a red tag that was 3 1/2 inches on my Cricut.  

 Then, I printed out the date night in sign.  I made sure it was no bigger than 3 inches. 

I used this handy dandy puncher to round the edges. 

My tag for the jar was complete!

Next, I cut out all the date night ideas.  I included blank ones on the printable and decided to put the blank ones in the jar.  That way hubs can fill in some ideas that he thinks of along the way. 

Once they were all cut out, I put them in the jar on top of some crinkle paper.  

I added the crinkle paper to help fill the jar.  I wanted to use a mason jar but didn't have one in my stash. 

You can use any embellishments or fillers you'd like. 

Last, I used some thin red ribbon to attach the tag.  I made sure it hung on the front of the jar.  

Simple as that.  

Hopefully this will prevent the "what do you want to do?", "I don't know, what do YOU want to do?" conversations! 

Download the Date Night In Ideas Pages Here & Here 

I think the date ideas are pretty self explanatory.  But if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! 

Valentine's for Him & Free Printable

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. 

 Like usual, I've waited until last minute to make a gift for the husband.  

I love making him baskets filled with goodies. 

Since we don't do big gifts for Valentine's Day, a basket of little gifts is the perfect way to go. 

It shows him how much I love him and satisfies his sweet tooth at the same time.  

I can't wait to give it to him on Thursday.  

You can download the printable tags here.
If you have trouble downloading them, comment with your email and I will send the PDF to you.   

Here are some of my other gifts I've made for hubs:

30th Birthday Gifts

Daddy Survival Kit

Simple Love Banner

When cleaning out my craft room a few weeks ago I found a pack of unused doilies.  I knew just the project that I was going to use them for.  It had been one I had been eyeing on Pinterest for a while now! 

How I Did It:

My supplies were 4 doilies, red card stock, white card stock, white yarn, Cricut machine and tape. 

I laid out 4 doilies. 

I used my Cricut to make 4 4inch hearts. 

I taped the hearts onto the doilies. 

Next, I used my Cricut to make LOVE out of the white card stock paper.  My letters were 2 1/2 inches. 

I glued the letters onto the hearts.  

After that, I cut a large piece of yarn.  I laid it on the floor and placed the doilies on top.  After I checked the placement, I taped the yarn onto the back of the doilies.  

Last but not least, I hung it up.  I taped the banner to the inside of this cabinet.  I'm in love with the end result. I know I'm not going to want to take it down after Valentine's Day!

Strawberry Cookies

When planning the menu for my daughter's baptism this past weekend, I went through my pantry to see what I already had.  I always stock up on cake mixes when they are buy one get one free, so I had a large variety of cake mix.  The colors for the baptism celebration were white and pink so I immediately grabbed my box of strawberry cake mix.  From there, I went to Pinterest in search of a recipe. There were a bunch out there. After a little sorting, I decided on this one.  

Results: Easy to make.  Another perfect spring recipe that I will definitely make again. Though next time, I will add the frosting.  I think the frosting would definitely kick these up a notch.  Nonetheless, still a good cookie recipe.  I love that it's not your typical chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. If you need a great recipe to make for Valentine's Day next week these will surely be a hit.  Enjoy!

Simple Springtime Strawberry Cookies

Courtesy of If It Bakes You Happy

For the Cookies:

 - 1 (18.25-oz) box strawberry cake mix

 - 1 stick butter, softened to room temperature

 - 1 large egg

 - 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Frosting:

 - 1 8-oz package 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature

 - 1 cup powdered sugar

 - 1 tsp. vanilla extract

 - 2-3 tbsp. Smucker's Simply Fruit Strawberry -OR- any seedless strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat liners or parchment paper, set aside. 

2. In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix, softened butter, egg, and vanilla until you have a nice cookie-like dough that is well-mixed (see pic above- it will be almost like Play-Doh).

3. Drop rounded tablespoon-fulls of cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets approximately 1-2 inches apart. 

4. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until edges of cookies are just lightly turning brown. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with any remaining cookie dough.

6. After your cookies are completely cooled, in the same medium bowl used for your cookie dough (I just wiped mine out to save on dishes), combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and Smucker's using a hand mixer, mixing until light and fluffy. (If you feel like your frosting is a little too runny, pop it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to firm it up a bit before spreading on your cookies- you want it to be spreadable but not too thin or it will run off the cookie.)

7. Frost each cookie to your heart's desire, using as little or as much frosting as you prefer. (For extra cuteness, you could add some pastel-colored sugar sprinkles or some fresh strawberry pieces, but we were just digging the super simple route this time.)

8. Store any leftover cookies covered in the refrigerator with wax paper in between any layers of cookies to avoid sticking.

*I didn't have a picture with the cookies alone. I didn't make the frosting to go on top because I knew I wanted to pile the cookies on this plate*

Valentine's Day Yarn Wreath

I'm finishing up my final DIY projects for Valentine's Day this week.  This project was inspired by this pin on Pinterest.  The original pin was linked back to Etsy, so there wasn't a tutorial with how to do it.  So I decided to create one so that you can all have an adorable wreath to hang on your door this Valentine's Day.  I love how this wreath turned out.  It may be my favorite one to date. 

How I Did It: 

The supplies I used were a foam wreath, red felt, white yarn, pink yarn, scissors, a heart tracer and hot glue.  

First, I covered the wreath with pink yarn.  

Next, I used my 2 inch heart cut out to make my felt hearts.  I traced them and then cut.  

I placed them on the wreath as I went so I didn't make too many. 

I ended up cutting out 12 hearts. 

I hot glued down the hearts, putting two dots at the top and one at the bottom of the heart to make sure it would lay flat.  

After that, I started wrapping the white yarn.  I did one direction first. 

Then, I did the opposite direction to create the criss cross look. 

Lastly, I added a banner to the wreath. 

I used leftover felt cut into diamond pieces.  

I used my Cricut to cut out 1 inch LOVE letters using white cardstock.  I glued them to the bottom of the diamonds.  

I attached one piece of pink yarn to the wreath, going straight across. Then, I folded the diamond over, hot gluing it together.

After all the diamonds are glued down, you're finished!   

Hang it up and show off your hard work!

Lemon Pound Cake

This recipe comes off the side of the Duncan Hines lemon cake mix box.  I was searching for things to make for a brunch at our house and noticed it when I was planning my recipes.  I already had the cake mix (and other ingredients) at home so all I needed was the pudding.  I do love cheap and easy recipes! 

Results: Of course, I loved that it took no time to prepare.  I was surprised it made two large loaves.  I was able to enjoy one at home and send the other to work with hubs.  I'm not a huge lemon fan, yet I enjoyed this recipe.  I didn't add the frosting glaze to the cake.  I didn't want the added calories and felt is was good just the way it was. This cake would be perfect for spring.  It's a light cake with the perfect hint of lemon. This could easily be either a dessert or breakfast recipe. Enjoy!

Lemon Pound Cake 

Courtesy of Duncan Hines

Hands-On Time:	10 minutes
Total Time:	2 hours and 30 minutes
Servings:	Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Rating:	5 stars

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 pkg Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Lemon Supreme Cake Mix
• 1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant lemon pudding and pie filling
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup Duncan Hines® Creamy Home-Style Frosting, favorite flavor

Baking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan.
2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into pan.
3. Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 minutes. Invert onto heat resistant serving plate. Cool completely.
4. For glaze, place frosting in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high power 10 to 15 seconds. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Fire Roasted Pot Roast

Pot roast is a weekly staple in our household. 

It's dairy free. 

Can be thrown into a crock pot. 

Hearty & Healthy. 

Hubs and I both enjoy it. 

It's a win win.  

Since I've been making the same recipe for pot roast, I decided to change things up this week.  

Results: This definitely has a kick to it.  Hubs loved it and I liked it.  He loves anything spicy, so this was right up his alley.  I didn't add the mushrooms because the ones I bought went bad.  So I threw in celery instead. Next time I make it, I will definitely add the mushrooms.

Fire Roasted Pot Roast

Courtesy of Pillsbury 

1

boneless beef pot roast (2 lb)

Salt and pepper

1

package (8 oz) sliced fresh mushrooms (about 3 cups)

3/4

lb potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-inch cubes

1/2

lb carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces

1

can (18 oz) Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ fire roasted tomato cooking sauce

Chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, if desired

1. Spray 6- to 7-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Generously sprinkle all sides of beef with salt and pepper. Place beef in slow cooker.
2. Arrange mushrooms, potatoes and carrots around beef. Pour cooking sauce over beef and vegetables.
3. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 8 hours or until beef is tender.
4. Serve beef and vegetables with sauce from slow cooker. Garnish with parsley.