Christmas Gift Idea #7: Cupcake Socks

I apologize that this post is so late tonight. I forgot it was Monday! What a day!

This is a classic movie that you should definitely watch this Christmas season—White Christmas. This is my dad's favorite Christmas movie. We always watch it every year and sometimes not intentionally. It comes on TV and so my dad gets hooked, which gets the rest of us hooked. Not sure if I'll get to see a white Christmas this year since I live in Texas now, but at least I can still see them in the movies, right? Enjoy!  

Christmas Gift Idea #7: Cupcake Socks

I can't take the credit for this craft! My aunt made these for my mom and me a few Christmases ago and we loved them. So cute and so easy to do. All you need are:

• A pair of socks
• A couple of cupcake liners
• One colored cotton fluff (They sell these in local craft stores)
• A pair of scissors
• Tape
• Hairband/rubber band

STEP ONE:

First, lay your socks out flat, one on top of the other. Roll the top sock down until it looks like a little hot dog and then roll the other sock around it. 

It should look like the picture on the right when you are finished rolling them together. Keep in mind you want to make this look like a cupcake! That should help you as you're rolling them together. 

STEP TWO:

Second, wrap the hairband or rubber band around the bottom of the socks to hold them together. 

Keep in mind you won't be getting that rubber band/hairband back so if you have a lucky hairband or something (Some people might, I dunno?!), then I would find something else to hold the socks together. 

Once you have finished with this part, set it aside for a moment.

STEP THREE:

Take your cupcake liner and cut down one side until you get to the base/bottom of the liner. Then cut around until you have cut out the base/bottom of the liner (you can see that on the right side of the photo—the little circle). Feel free to discard.

You'll notice the cupcake liner looks like a C in this picture. I'm going to be using that as a way to explain this next part. Cut slits starting from the inside of the C going out. Don't cut all of the way through. You only need to cut about half an inch up. You do this about an inch and a half apart all along the liner (just the inside of the C). This will allow the cupcake liner to straighten out a bit so you can wrap it around the socks. 

STEP FOUR: 

Wrap the cupcake liner around the bottom side of the socks, keeping in mind you are trying to make this look like a little cupcake! :)

You will need to use the tape here to tape the liner together once you have wrapped it around. 

STEP FIVE:

I then took another cupcake liner, cut a small section out of it (maybe an inch and a half in width) and taped it together again so it would fit snugly around the cupcake socks. This will be a judgment call on your part regarding how much you need to cut out to make it fit together. 

STEP SIX:

Finally, use double-sided tape (or fold regular tape to make it double sided) to put the cotton fluff on the top of the socks to make it look like a cherry on top. 

And there you have it! The cupcake socks! Doesn't look as gross as it sounds, huh? :) So go find some cute socks your friend or family member or coworker will love and make them into this little cupcake to give as a gift. 

Until next time! :)

Christmas Gift Idea #6: Beaded Silverware

Before I share with you Christmas Gift Idea #6, as always I want to start off with a Christmas clip. I really enjoy this movie! I make sure to watch it every year at Christmas. This scene in particular is pretty spectacular. If you haven't seen the Santa Clause movie, put it on your to-do list this season. It's a great movie. Also, I'm sorry this clip isn't better quality. It was the only one I could find of this scene. The sound is still pretty good though so I hope you enjoy it all the same!

Christmas Gift Idea #6: Beaded Silverware

I learned this great idea from a women's event at my church! We had an event where we learned about great Christmas gift ideas for under $10. (Sound familiar?) Don't worry though, I've been creative with this blog. I haven't used any of those ideas until now. Although if you read my blog before the Christmas Gift Idea series, you may remember a post featuring the knitting loom I use to knit scarves and blankets—I was introduced to that idea at this women's Christmas event. But hey! Taking what you've learned, applying it to your life, and sharing it with others is a great practice to keep. :) I hope that you will take these ideas I'm giving you in my post, apply them to your holiday gifting activities, and then share these ideas with your friends and family! 

But back to the post! I will be taking you through this step by step. 

Materials: You will need a serving fork and spoon. I believe I got these from Walmart for a buck and a half each. Then you will need some wire (pictured to the left) and some beads. For my first set of these, I used purple and blue beads and it turned out great! Pick out whatever beads you think would be best for the recipient of your gift.  

1. First, take your wire and wrap it tightly around the end of your utensil. It's okay if it slides because that will get corrected once we have finished

wrapping the beads.

2. Second, divide your beads in half. You will use half for the spoon and half for the fork. (I'm sure most of you know that, but I know that sometimes when I start crafting I lose sight of even the simplest of things because I'm so caught up in what I'm doing!)








3. After you have strung your beads on the wire, wrap the string of beads around the utensil until you make it to the base of the head. Then, wrap the remaining wire around the top of the beads you ended with and continue to wrap the remaining wire around the other beads to make it hold tighter.

4. Then repeat with the other utensil. My mom is in town visiting this week so she helped me put together the spoon tonight. You can see that the two look different, but when you are making your own, you can make them look the same. Each person might have a different look to theirs depending on the order of the beads and how they arranged the beads as they were spinning them around the utensil.

Now all you have to do is wrap them up! If you would like to add more to this gift, perhaps you can find a pretty salad bowl and kitchen towels to accompany your serving fork and spoon, or some other kitchen serving dish.

Until next time! :)

Christmas Gift Idea #5: Canvas Photo

Today I will be showing you a fun trick I found on Pinterest, which would make great little Christmas gifts for your family and friends! As always though, let's start with a fun Christmas clip to get us in the Christmas mood! :)

Christmas Gift Idea #5: Canvas Photo

Aaron and I got married a year and a half ago. We have quite a few wedding pictures and some family who have requested a couple of photos of us. With this fun Christmas gift idea, you take a wedding photo, a family photo, or a photo with your friends and then mod podge that photo onto a canvas. It's a great way to mount your photos and create cute little gifts. Here are the two I finished:

These didn't really photograph all that well, but they look great in person, trust me! :) For the first photo, I followed The Sassy Pepper's instructions.

She even adds a cute little element to the side of the canvas by using a few pieces of scrapbook paper to make a sort of frame. Here's how mine turned out:

As you can see from this photo, my picture was too small for this canvas so I used gray paint to create a frame-like look to it. I also need to go back and add maybe a cute ribbon that I can use to hang this. Since it is a canvas, I can always hang it up that way, but a ribbon might give it a little something extra. 

All you need for this craft is Mod Podge (you can find this at Hobby Lobby or Michaels, and I'm sure other craft stores), the photo you want to use, a sponge brush to use for spreading on the Mod Podge, and a canvas. The paint (and a paint brush) and scrapbook paper is optional. 

Get creative with this and be sure to check out Pinterest for other ideas similar to this. You can make some great gifts using photos, canvas, and mod podge. It's simple, it's easy, it's personal, it's inexpensive, and your friends and family will love it! :)

And please, if you do any of these crafts, share your creations with all of us! I believe you can just post the picture in a comment in the comment section. I would love to see what any of you come up with! 

Until next time...

OU-TX Weekend

For starters, I would just like to share with all of you that I successfully made it through my first week at my new job! I have to say I'm loving it so far. Not a fan of the traffic, but I'm sure I'll adjust or figure out alternative routes that aren't as congested. I'm learning about some great stuff at work that will not only help me with my new job but should help me with this blog as well, which is a bonus!

I've been thrown back into working life and realize now—with my first week behind me—just how little I was actually home this week. Wake up, drive to work, work, drive home, make dinner, eat dinner with my husband, chill on the couch for a little while, and then it's time for bed! Then we wake up and repeat! But alas, now it's the weekend and I get to experience some more free time! Time to play! And what will I be filling this weekend of all weekends with? OU-TX of course!

I should explain what OU-TX is for those of you who live far away from this Red River Rivalry. Well, that's just it. It's the Red River Rivalry, big football game, between the University of Oklahoma (Norman) and the University of Texas (Austin). The two teams/schools meet in the middle (Dallas) for an epic game!

Now I don't get to go to the game this year, but I am planning on attending a watch party for it with my hubby and some coworkers/friends. And who is going to dominate this year? OU, of course! To get you into the spirit of OU-TX, a little video:

Oh yeah, that's my alma mater! Love it! :)

I also wanted to post some pictures from my previous OU-TX experiences. I've had the privilege of attending the OU-TX game twice. The pictures I'm posting here are from the first time I attended the game. Unfortunately, this was one of those years where we lost, but it was still an incredible experience because it was my first time going to the game. The second year I attended the game we won, which was awesome, but my friends and I were in some pretty terrible seats then so I thought this would give you a better representation of my OU-TX experience.

Our team gettin' pumped! 

Seriously, we were very close to the action! Here was our kicker, Stevens, warming up!

Pretty much on the field. Put me in the game, coach! Totally joking. I would be hospitalized within seconds of getting on the field. Ha ha! 

Boomer Sooner! 

Sammy B! Great quarterback for our team. I was really upset, as most Sooner fans were, when he was injured in this game. But he did recover and was able to play in the games following this. He's now in the pros. 

One of the great things about OU-TX is that the fair is right outside of the game, so afterward—yep! that's right!—we got some cotton candy! 

 Oh and then we had to get some QuickTrip coffee before we headed home. (We don't have QuickTrips in the OKC/Norman area, so this was a must!)

Well, there is my OU-TX flashback! I'm excited about watching the game tomorrow. I feel confident we will do well. 

See you back here on Monday for Christmas Gift Idea #5!

Christmas Gift Idea #4: Crocheted Hat

It's time for Christmas Gift Idea #4, but first, a fun Christmas clip! I love this movie!

The Holiday

Christmas Gift Idea #4: Crocheted Hat

I'm sure many of you have friends who can crochet hats—and maybe you can too!—but for me, this was something I wanted to learn but just could not get the hang of it. Well, I finally decided I was going to sit down and try to learn how to do this. My husband had been asking me to make him a hat for some time. A crocheted hat makes a wonderful, personal, and inexpensive Christmas gift for friends and family.

If you are like me and have had trouble learning this in the past, check out this video and see if you can follow along, and stick with it! You can do it!

You'll need a crochet hook if you don't have one already. Here's a link to the kind I have: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Boye-Aluminum-Crochet-Hook-Bonus-Set-Sizes-F-G-H-and-I/21989215. Then all you need is yarn and you are good to go. I've gotten most of my thin yarn from Michaels, but you can also find yarn at Hobby Lobby, Walmart, and other crafting stores!

She gives you the intro here about how to start your hat, but then she has more videos with how to continue. They should appear in the window after you finish watching this first clip. I found her videos really helpful.

And there you are—a gift under ten dollars!

For this one—the OU hat—I followed the instructions for the video posted above and then I crocheted the OU with white yarn after the hat was finished. 

For this one, I used white yarn to start and when I ran out I used the multicolor yarn you see in this picture. I just tied a knot with the end of the white yarn and the beginning of the multicolor yarn to continue crocheting the hat. 

Finally, I just used plain navy blue yarn to make Aaron's hat for him.

I hope you enjoyed this fun Christmas gift idea and if you haven't been able to make a hat before, I hope you will be able to now! Once you get the hang of the basics, you can branch out and start getting creative with it! The first hat took me quite a while to make but once I got the hang of it I could make them much faster!

See you next week for Christmas Gift Idea #5! :D

Fall Love

As much as I love Christmas, I love fall just about the same! I think October to the end of December is all pretty great! :) What do I love about it? I'll tell you!

1) Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown airs on television during this time—particularly around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here's a clip from their Halloween special:

2) Fall Leaves. I love seeing the leaves changing colors and walking through them as they pile onto the ground. I used to love jumping in the piles when I was younger. However, as I got older, I hesitated doing that anymore because I knew I would just have to rake them all up again. When I was young, I didn't think about how my dad would have to rake them up again.

3) Cooler Weather. It's not too cold and it's not too hot. It's just right! (Although Texas better hurry up and get to cooling off. I'm ready for the heat to be over! And I live in the northern part of Texas so I'm told that's not an unfair request.)

4) Pumpkins. I love pumpkins! I love seeing the pumpkins, walking through a pumpkin patch, and carving pumpkins. :)

5) Pumpkin Food and Drinks. Along with that, I also enjoy eating Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake (Aaron and I had some for dessert last night), and drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattés. If you have any Pumpkin recipes, send them my way!

6) OU Football. While I still enjoy watching the games, I loved this part of the fall even more when I was in college because I got to go to all of the games, including OU-Texas two years in a row, which is coming up! (I won't be attending the game this year, but I'll still be watching. Go Sooners!)

7) Halloween. There are a lot of things I enjoy about Halloween. You can see my list below!

• Halloween Parties/Decorations. For most of my college years I lived in the dorms so we didn't have any room to have a Halloween party. A couple of my friends lived in a house though and every year I would convince them to have a party. They wouldn't even have to decorate; I volunteered to decorate for the party! I had so much fun doing that! :)

• Halloween Costumes. I will dedicate a post to this as we get closer to Halloween. I was going through all of my old Halloween pictures and I have some really great pictures to share with all of you. And for a couple of them I was able to incorporate some of my craftiness to the costume! I'll show you how I did that in that post.

• Halloween Movies. Here are a couple of short clips from two of my favorite Halloween movies. (I love watching Harry Potter around Halloween, but hey, I enjoy watching those year-round so that's why you don't see it listed here!)


Hocus Pocus




Casper 




• Haunted Houses and Trails
• My dad and brother participated in a Haunted Trail once. They looked pretty scary to me! My brother was in this coffin that was placed somewhere along the trail and every once in a while as people were passing by, he would pop out of the coffin and then slowly go back in. Pretty scary, huh? My dad didn't really have to jump out at anyone because his costume was already scary enough! 

8) Thanksgiving. I enjoy Thanksgiving. Not only do you get to eat great food, but you get to be with family. That's my favorite part—getting to see my family. I wanted to post a picture here of my family at Thanksgiving but I wasn't able to find one on my computer. I have a lot of Christmas pictures though so I'll be sure to post some around Christmas! 

9) Black Friday Shopping. I enjoy Black Friday shopping but it isn't just because of the great deals you can find—but there are some great ones out there—it's more of the strategy and thrill that goes with it. Sitting down the night before and plotting out your course—what stores you need to hit at what time to make sure you get the items on your list—waiting in line to get in, and getting into the store and running around like someone on a mission! Aaron went Black Friday shopping with us last year. It was his first year to ever experience it! He did really well, but he only lasted one store. That was enough for him. I don't think he fully understood Black Friday. That's okay though. I still had a lot of fun and I was glad he was able to go with us! 

That's my list! What do you like about fall? Post your answers in the comment section below! 

***

In honor of the start of October, I wanted to share this video with you that my sister-in-law—the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme—was in with some other memes you might recognize. I just saw this posted today and watched it. I thought it was really funny and a very fitting video to post at the start of October! Hope you enjoy it!