(Another tardy) Guest Day Thursday: Laurel’s Candy Wreath

Micki’s mother-in-law has made the most darling candy wreaths for years for her neighbors. It is so cute!!! And, you get to eat it. She taught us all how to make them at craft day, but hers is the only one finished. You basically tie about a billion candies on and then attach a pair of scissors and let people cut candies off for a treat. I don’t know about you, but I would hate to ruin that gorgeous wreath by taking a piece off! Isn’t it darling?!? It isn’t very expensive either, because you can get the candy cheap, and then the scissors you can get at the dollar store. The rest is just a hanger, newspaper, ribbon and curling ribbon. It is very time consuming, but so worth it, because they turn out so cute! Thanks Laurel for letting us share your wreath!!!

This post will be edited as we join parties to share this darling creation!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: White Chicken Chili (Teri)

Edited: Sorry this is posted so late, we were in Vegas this week, and weren’t able to finish it.

I have a fabulous group of book club friends who have supplied me with a ton of delicious recipes, and they have granted me permission to share them with you (thanks girls!). This is a great cold weather recipe. I know we have shared a few soup type recipes already, but the are so versatile for cold weather.

White Bean Chicken Chile

(Thanks Angie & congrats!!!)

6 cans Great Northern Beans

2 small onions

4 cans chicken broth (or bullion to make a scant 8 cups)

1/2 tsp chopped garlic

2 cans diced green chilies

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

24 oz. sour cream

3-4 cooked and cubed chicken breasts

Throw all the ingredients into a crock pot except he sour cream and cook all day. 8-10 hours on low or 4-6 hours on high, or until you eat it. Add the sour cream the last hour.

Angie’s note: This makes enough to feed an army. I usually only make half for our family and have plenty of leftovers. It’s great for a freezer meal. Just don’t freeze the sour cream.

Teri’s note: I didn’t have cooked chicken, so I threw it in with everything except the beans and cooked it on high for the morning. At lunch I took it out and chopped it and turned it down and added the beans. It was plenty cooked and had great flavor. I don’t love the flavor of green chilies so much, so I dumped them in a strainer and rinsed them, they still gave good flavor without being overwhelming, if you love green chilies just dump them in.

I decided that this week while I was posting my recipe, I would post my first tablescape and join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday. Here is my table. I have small children, and wanted to make the table kid friendly, so I used my everyday dishes instead of my china. I will list all my patterns, etc. at the end of this post.

This is a view of the whole table (with my too bright sunshine yellow walls….if I haven’t mentioned it, I rent, so some things I have not yet invested in to change, however we will be repainting).

My beautiful cupcake tier that my friend made for me for Christmas was my centerpiece.

Here’s the rundown:

Dishes by Corelle called Callaway (inherited from my Grandma)

goblets pattern called Lonchamps

Salt & Pepper shakers by Gibson called Holly Celebration (part of my Christmas dishes)

Water carafe purchased at a garage sale for 25¢

All ornaments purchased at Dollar Tree

Cupcake tier made for me by a friend (thanks!!!)

tea light holders on clearance last year at Pier One I think

tea lights Ikea

napkin rings (square acrylic risers under tea light holders) purchased as a wedding gift at Mervyn’s

Tablecloth on clearance at Walmart last year

We are participating:

Tadpole Tuesday: Homemade Soap (Teri)

**If you are one of my daughter’s friends, don’t keep reading unless you want to see part of your Christmas present**

In an effort to make more homemade Christmas presents, my darling daughter wanted to make something for her friends. When I was blog stalking back in October I found these darling soaps, and knew that it was a craft my daughter could do with just a little help. I also thought that most girls love fun bath products. I found some darling silicone muffin trays in Christmas Tree and Snowflake shapes at Target in their bargain section for $2.50 and some Christmas Tree shaped silicone ice cube trays at Dollar Tree. I think the cute shapes made all the difference. I bought the glycerin soap for molding at Michael’s and used a 40% off coupon. I bought the scents and glitter on clearance at Michael’s. Total for twelve large soaps and twenty small soaps for less than $20, but I will be able to use the molds and glitter for multiple other projects, and the scents for at least one more batch. If you adjust for that I spent about $10. No too bad for that many darling soaps. I will try and give you a short version of how to make these, if you want to know the exact steps go here.

We cute the glycerin into pieces and melted it in the microwave, after it was melted, we added the scent and the glitter.

Then we filled the trays (just a little note, the glycerin sticks to the sides of the container and the spatula, we just let it cool a little, and melted it again in the microwave and used it. I was apprehensive because of the glitter, but we didn’t have any trouble with it sparking).

We let them cool undisturbed for about twenty to thirty minutes and then my kids popped them out of the molds.

I tried to stage them so that you can see how cute they turned out. I wanted some Christmas paper, but I wasn’t at home and wasn’t going to have another chance to take a picture later, so I apologize for the busyness. Don’t you think they are so fun? We will defiantly be making more.

Mystery Monday: Christmas Elves & A Rat

For those of you who missed last weeks Mystery Monday, we are posting all about our Christmas traditions every Monday in December. If you missed last weeks post, you can read it here.

Since our girls were little the Christmas Elves have visited our houses. Our kids each have special pillowcases that have a little pocket that the Elves put a surprise in. I hope you can see the cute little pocket in the picture. Even though they are almost teenagers, they still get just as excited about the Elves. Now that they are bigger, the Elves leave things like lip gloss and nail polish. Their little brothers get things like toy cars and bouncy balls. It starts on the twelfth of December, because the last night that the Elves come is the twenty-third because the stockings get filled on the twenty-fourth.

Ever since Micki’s husband was little, his family has had a “Christmas Rat” under the tree. This is a cute little burlap rat that holds candy. There are specific candies that tradition dictates must fill the the rat, they are, York Peppermint Patties, Rolos, and Reese’s Peanut butter cups. One year Micki and her sister-in-law were sent to get the rat candy, and they bought crunchy Reese’s cups and Hersey’s Kisses instead of Rolos, when they arrived home with the candy they were promptly sent back to the store to purchase the correct candy. They now understand the proper care and feeding of the rat. All of the siblings in Micki’s husband’s family now have their own Christmas Rat to fill. The grandkids think it’s fabulous because they have unrestricted access to candy. Isn’t he cute?

What are some of your unique Christmas traditions?

We have to apologize for the sporadic posts, we are in Lost Wages (aka Las Vegas) for a conference and we have limited (free) internet access. This post will be edited soon to include a picture of the darling Christmas rat.

Edited: We are linking up to Somday Crafts Christmas Traditions party