My Not-So-Original Idea

The week after Christmas, I was thinking about making a felt flower.  So, I went to my Google toolbar and started looking up "felt flowers" trying to find some tutorials  I thought this might be easier than going to each of my favorite blogs and seeing what they had.

Well, I was wrong.

I literally went through pages of links. Yet still, I couldn't find quite what I wanted.  So I pulled out some felt and got started.

I wore my new flower on New Year's Day (and many days since!) but it wasn't until yesterday that I finally posted what I came up with.

Now...

I have a confession to make.  Last night (during my bout of insomnia) was the first time I have looked at any blogs since before Christmas.  (gasp!)  It's awful, I know.  I can't believe I just admitted to it.  I've been in a funk - don't judge me!

So last night I started catching up on my favorite blogs and you know what I came across in the side bar of Tatertots and Jello?  A flower that looks very close to mine (or maybe mine looks very close to hers)!  She actually used a template to cut her petals and only used two layers instead of the three I used.  Her center was a little different, also.  But all in all, our flowers look the same.

I was so embarrassed (and frustrated!)  I was pretty pleased with the flower idea I had...turns out, someone else thought of it first!  Huh!  Story of my life!

So go visit Jen over at Tatertots and Jello.  Maybe she's already done something you've been thinking about, too!

Felt Flower Tutorial

I love big flowers for embellishing most anything and everything!  With winter here, I wanted felt flowers instead of the silk flowers I've been using.  I searched the internet and kind of combined some ideas from some of the flowers I saw.  This is what I came up with (some pictures are of my red flower and some are of the purple.)

Here's what you will need.

1 sheet of felt

1 large button

complementary colored yarn or embroidery floss

hot glue gun

hair clip

lapel pin

First I cut five petals about 3 inches in length.  (This is done completely free hand.  Don't sweat the shape too much.  It will look good, I promise.)  Then do five petals around 2 1/2 inches and five around 2 inches.  The red flower I made with a bit of a pointy petal.  This gives a poinsettia look.

To give it some "oomph" I decided to sew a seam along the back.  It gives a little more depth.  Just fold them in half and line them up on the sewing machine and do one after the other then cut them apart.

Next, cut a circle from the felt to use as base for the flower.  Start gluing the 3 inch petals around the outside.  Then glue the 2 1/2 inch petals and finally the 2 inch petals.

Finish off with a button laced with yarn or embroidery floss hot glued to the middle.

Flip over to the back and use a scrap piece of felt to attach the clip and pin with hot glue.

Your flower is finished!  I hope you get as much mileage out of your flowers as I already have from mine!

One way I use mine is on my favorite knit beanie!

And as a lapel pin to dress up my jean jacket!

I'm linking this idea to these wonderful blogs!
C.R.A.F.T.
Finding Fabulous

I'm still here!

Hello, friends!  Sorry it has been so long since I last posted.  Let me catch you up on what's been going on (this is the part where you pretend to care)!

As of January 3rd I have started working my third job!  Yes, that's right, third.  My 6 and 8 year old boys seem to have a problem finding employment to help pay for their private school!  So I decided to step up.  I'm working as an aide in the Pre-K classroom at their school and I love it!  The only problem is, I'm still trying to figure out how to fit everything into the new schedule!  But it's coming along.

On a similar note, you work-outside-the-home moms...how do you do it?  Getting up every morning and shower/make up/hair and put together an outfit.  Make breakfast, pack lunches, get out the door at exactly 8:08am (1 minute later and you catch all the stoplights.).  Come home from work/school, make snacks, start homework, practice spelling tests, practice Bible verses.  Now start dinner, start a load of laundry, clean up dinner, fold laundry.  Start the boys on their showers and teeth brushing so as not to miss 7:30pm bedtime.  Is 7:30pm too early for me to go to bed, also?  Start another load of laundry.  Monday night, Boy Scouts.  Wednesday night, AWANA.  Friday night, woo-hoo!  Mom's day off is tomorrow!  Oh, yeah...more dinner and laundry.

Work-outside-the-home moms, you have my utmost respect!

In my spare time, I have managed to make a couple of things that I want to share with you so I will be working on some pictures of those things and hope to have them posted soon!

Again, thank you so much for your faithfulness.  Many of you I don't know personally but I feel blessed to know you as my blog friends!  Thanks for your patience and for sticking around while I figured out this new "routine"!

Sausage Ring for New Year's Day Brunch

Hello, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  It was busier (and more exhausting!) than I anticipated and I'm just now feeling like I'm caught up again!  Well, sort of!

With New Year's Day just around the corner I wanted to share a delicious brunch recipe with you all!  This recipe has been a holiday staple in my family for years (starting with my grandmother making it every Christmas when I was a child).  In fact, this was a special request by my dad for our Christmas get-together this year!

Sausage Ring

2 pounds breakfast sausage

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup diced apple

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups soda cracker crumbs

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Press into a bundt pan (I line mine with plastic wrap to make it easier to remove the next morning).  Refrigerate overnight.

To bake, preheat oven to 325F.  Remove sausage ring from bundt pan (don't forget to take off the plastic wrap!) and place on a rack inside a rimmed baking sheet (water in the bottom will help with clean up).  Bake for approximately 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

One fun way to serve the sausage ring is to fill the center and outside edge with scrambled eggs.

Add some cinnamon rolls, fruit and Champagne Mimosas or (Bloody Mary's if you're my husband's family!) and you have a beautiful, delicious and satisfying New Year's Day Brunch!

Why I love this recipe?  It's de-li-cious!  You prep it the night before and throw it in the oven the next morning and forget about it (ideal for Christmas morning while opening packages!).  And it's kinda fancy-smancy filled with scrambled eggs.  This recipe freezes well, also.  Just thaw completely in the fridge before baking!

Christmas Kit

If you have kids then you know how important it is to get all those new Christmas toys up and running as quickly as possible on Christmas morning!

Well, my obsessive-compulsive need to be completely prepared led me to this idea our first Christmas with a little one.  A Christmas Kit!

I just used a plastic container large enough to hold everything (it may have even had a former life as a lunchmeat container).  Then I filled it with all the things I thought we might need.

Here is a list of what I came up with:

• pocket knife (how many times have you cut your finger on the shirt box trying to break the tape?)
• batteries (check what batteries you will need when you purchase the toy...and buy extras!)
• screwdriver (phillips and flat head)
• wire cutters ("Wire cutters?" you may ask.  But have you seen the way they attach toys to the packaging nowadays?  With either black box quality zip ties or twist ties that are so wound around the toy you need to be a rocket scientist to sort it all out!  And scissors just won't "cut" it!  Plus it dulls them.  Just pull out the wire cutters and give them the "what for"!!)

This is what our kit looks like:

We just have the four of us on Christmas morning and usually the only gifts are ones from each other or from my grandmother.  Consequently it's easy to keep up with who gave what.  But if you have a big Christmas shindig, a notepad and pencil for writing down who gave what (for thank you notes later) is a good idea.

Something else I do is keep all the kid's owners manuals (for their toys, not the kids themselves!) together in a separate file.  To do this I just slide them in a gallon sized zip top baggie and drop them in a hanging file in our file cabinet.  Then if you need to refer back you just grab the one with all the kid stuff!

Hopefully this helps keep the Christmas cheer going on Christmas morn for you and yours!

BBQ Spice Rub

My youngest son is all about food!  I think he inherited this from me.  We wake up thinking about food and before we're finished eating breakfast, we're thinking about what's for lunch!  When he was only about three, he asked me if I would teach him how to make goulash when he grew up...already thinking about what he's going to eat when he goes off to college!

Well, he and I were discussing what we would eat on Christmas day and he suggested ribs.  Yummy!  My husband and I split duties when it comes to smoking meats.  I'm in charge of perfecting the "prep" and he's in charge of the smoke.

In my pursuit to find the perfect rub, this is what I ended up with.  This rub is so delicious, in fact, that I have quit using barbecue sauce all together (however, that is my next endeavor - homemade barbecue sauce)!  I found this recipe online but it's been a few years and I can't remember who it came from...sorry.

BBQ Rub

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup paprika

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

And that's it!  It really is fantastic!  So much better than anything you can buy in the store.  It will work on all kinds of meat, too.

And this would make a nice gift for the Grill Master in your life, also.  Be sure to include the recipe because once it's gone, they're gonna want some more!

Jesus' Birthday Party

Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids.  Yippee!

It was also their Happy Birthday, Jesus! party.  This is such a sweet celebration.  The entire elementary school meets in Fellowship Hall.  Each class has a birthday cake, scripture is read, carols are sung and the principal tells a story about the different symbols of Christmas.  We end by singing Happy Birthday, Jesus and going off to our individual classrooms.  Truly a sight to behold

Let's start with Jesus' birthday cake.  There is significant symbolism involved in it.  We started this tradition with our boys when they were little (well, they're still little - only 6 and 8!) and it now continues at their school. First you bake a chocolate cake.  The dark cake represents our sin.  Then you frost it with white icing.  This represents the cleansing of sin through Jesus on the cross.  Then we place red M&Ms on top in the shape of a cross representing His death and resurrection.

The cake is a bit "homemade" looking.  Not all fancy, like a store bought cake.  But I labored over it non-the-less!  In fact the morning of the party, I'm driving the boys to school with the cake sitting on the armrest in the middle of the front seat.  I stop at the stoplight and one of the boys backpacks falls forward and hits the armrest.  I plainly told the boys (as calmly as I could) that heads would role if they messed up the cake!  Oops!  Sorry Jesus.  Sorta lost sight of what we're celebrating!  But it's okay...I'm back on track now!

Next, the teachers take turns reading the Christmas story from the Bible.  Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 2:1-2 and Matthew 2:9-11.

Then the principal tells a story similar to this one.

Finally we light the birthday candle and sing Happy Birthday, Jesus.

If you've never heard this song before, you're in for a real treat.  It chokes me up every time.  Now imagine Pre-K through 5th grade kids singing this in a darkened room lit only by the candles on Jesus' birthday cake!  Grab some tissues and press play.

This is such a wonderful tradition that really puts Christmas in the right perspective.

Here's wishing you and yours a blessed, Christ-centered Christmas!