Christmas Pez Tree With Santa Yoda Bobble-head!

(Click on photos to enlarge.)
We three...dorks, of Christmas cheer, bring you...
Our Christmas Pez Tree!

It was a blast to make.
Well, the laughing and eating of Pez was a blast.
The "Ouch, that's my finger under the hot wax" - not so much. ;)

Yep, that's...Yoda.
Santa...Yoda.
Bobble-head... Santa... Yoda.
Perfect, no?

Tim's mom used to make a Starlight Mint tree.
My mom....would have liked to make a candy tree, but likely bright and shiny objects distracted her. So, Tim and I compromised. We walked the candy aisle in Tar-jay until we found something festive and wacky. Pez. Perfect.

Tim, the Middle-Schooler, and I - worked in pairs. It was many hours and lots of laughs. Tim wanted to make a "garland" in yellow Pez - hopefully you can see that in the pics. I thought it was a nice touch.

The rest of the tree is random.
Well, random meaning...we tried to make sure that no two of the same color are next to one another, nor above one another, and there all with the "P's" up and the "Z's" down...and, can I JUST TELL YOU that there are verrry few red Pez in each bag - oh, and there's one mistake, two oranges on there vertically, but we're not fixing it - because..."The great thing about a Pez tree is that there's no wrong way of doing it."

Least that's what Tim kept telling me, so I didn't get all flustered.
*wink*
To mount Dear Santa Yoda, we took great expense in securing a golf pencil.
Nuff said.
We set our tree on a holiday plate. (We're not sure if the Middle-Schooler noticed it was a cute little penguin,yet. Shh, don't tell him.) And, we put the extras out for folks to eat. Since I would break someone's fingers it would be a shame to eat directly off the tree.
So, there you have it. 5 bags of Pez, many hot glue sticks, and a few truly fun hours later, we have our tree.

From our house to yours: Have a tacky little Christmas.
Have you made a candy tree?
Are you planning to?
I'd love to hear from you.

P.S. If your decorating tastes are more stylish than sweet, don't miss the giveaway over at It's the Little Things That Make a House a Home.

Homemade Donuts in 15 min? Call the kids!

Mmm. Donuts!
Fresh, fast...
And, made by a 12 year old.

Don't believe me?
Read on... ;)
Step 1. Call over the nearest Middle Schooler. Grab Pillsbury biscuits from the fridge. (Any kind is fine.) Make holes in the center of them. If you want donut holes you could punch them out with a shot glass toothpick holder. (We simply used our thumbs.)
Step 2. Admire your work. Wait, that's not it.

I sorta forgot...

Step 0.5 - Take your Cast Iron Camp Stove (dutch oven or other heavy pot) and fill it with a few inches of oil - being sure to stop a few inches from the top edge. (We always want to leave room so oil doesn't overflow, right?) Take your handy probe thermometer...
Me? I like this style but I only paid $20 at Bed Bad and Beyond for it. (I love it because you can set it for 350 and it the alarm will go off when the oil is ready. So, you can step back get the donuts ready. Just be sure that you lift the probe off the bottom for a few seconds to be sure you are getting an oil reading and not the bottom of the metal pot.)

There's Dad...Step 3...showing us how to lay the donuts in. You can use a spider like the one shown. Or, you can use your fingers, carefully, laying the front of the donut in the oil and laying the back down away from you.

Safety first.

If there are any platters - which there won't be if you are gennnnnntle - they will splatter away from you.

Step C. Don't over crowd the pot. 2 is our max here. And, actually, I think we did the rest 1 at a time. (Over crowding can cause sticking, it drops the temp of the oil so the donuts can become greasy, and overcrowding makes it difficult to remove them without splattering.)

Step 42. What a pretty little baby donut. This puppy is almost ready to flip.

Flip.
We tried using the spider to flip. It wasn't bad if there was only one donut. But, with two, there just wasn't enough room. (Later we switched to a large serving fork to gently pierce and flip 'em.)

The spider was perfect for lifting them out.

Pretty donut. Not too much oil coming off it.

Time to roll it in cinnamon sugar.
(Our chef couldn't help drawing in it.
When we volunteer at church making pizzas, he leaves us notes drawn in the flour, too.)

Aren't they pretty?

Talk about full service.

These really were very, very good. They were simple to make - and it was fun having all of us involved in the process.

(Did you notice that you can indeed use a glass top electric oven to heat a cast iron camp stove?)

Next time we might try making all donut holes.
Or, taking a pastry tip and filling them with homemade jam.
Or, maybe melting some chocolate bars with a teaspoon of shortening in the microwave and dipping the donuts.
Or, dipping them in colored sprinkles for Christmas.
Or, or....

What would YOU do?
If you decide to try these, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Ornament Wreath A/K/A How I Saved $60 bucks

(Sorry about the dark pic.)
So, here's another shout out to a follow blogger...
Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick!

LUCKILY...I followed her directions.
Completely.

And, it was a lot of fun!
I love the way the wreath turned out. And, I have at least one more planned - a gold, red, shiny sparkly assortment. (And, it just might turn out to be someone's gift...if it turns out nice enough.)

It took a LOT more ornaments than I expected. But, it was fun AND it saved me tons of money. Take a gander at this... Wow! That's the wreath I wanted, but for $60 dollars I thought I would just make my own.

Plus, mine was shatterporoof! LOL!
We've been joking as we walk through the stores at how the plastic ornaments (and natural pinecones!) are being marketed as "Shatterproof."

Was there a big problem with pinecones shattering last season??

I thought about wrapping red garland through the way Pier One did, but I decided I liked the clean look better.

The hardest part?
Finding flat head tacks. Seriously. I wanted to hang my wreath with a giant ribbon - which I learned from The Nester who demonstrates a simple pretty method of How to Hang a Wreath.

BTW, I lurve the The Nester and I lightly recommend her site for inexpensive decorating tips and joyful, witty posts.

What have you seen in the store that you have done for less at home?
I'd love to hear from you.

Leftover Corn Bread? Baked French Toast!

A few nights ago the dear BF made white (chicken) chili and cornbread. (And, it was marvelous - though I didn't get a picture. I'll post the recipe soon.) We had leftover cornbread and he mentioned that it's a shame he had already sliced it into squares. It would have made a nice french toast, he thought.

Hmm. We can work with that!

I took the cornbread cubes and placed them in a 9x13 dish. I grabbed a ziplock of stale leftover muffins (very tasty, but I over-baked 'em and they were dry) and crumbled them all over the top and in between the cornbread cubes. The muffins had dried Michigan cherries in them, so that was a bonus.

Then I mixed up a few eggs, some cream, some milk, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, and a bit of vanilla and pour it over the bread. After letting it sit for about 20 minutes I baked it uncovered till it was brown and the egginess was set.

It made for a nice baked french toast. I decided that I prolly used a bit too much egg/milk mixture and will let it be just a bit drier next time. Also, it could have used even more cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla - who knew?

But, still...darn tasty.
I'll be making this again the next time I have left over bread.
Especially cornbread.
Yum!

Our "Thankful Tree"And, Big Thanks to 2 Bloggers

Recently, I've been enjoying some DIY decorating blogs.
Of course I always have my eye out for retro-related blogs and stores.
And, I've been...inspired.

I almost jumped out of my skin with happiness when Tim said he thought a "Thankful Tree" would be a nice touch.

So, what's a Thankful tree?
Pardon the panoramic photo-shopping.
(Can you spot the bonus kitty nose?)

I borrowed the idea from Kimba at A Soft Place to Land. Basically, we have a jelly jar of tags and pens and whenever the mood strikes us, we place more leaves on the tree. It's been a such hit we aren't in a rush to take it down. (Yep, we have both a thankful tree and a Christmas tree. Fun, no?)
Kimba's tree has a modern touch in red.
And, her jute-wrapped vase is a DIY project in itself.

We opted for going the realistic route - Tim did spray paint it copper, but it just looks...normal. Maybe we did go a little too realistic though. You see, we headed out with the middle-scholer and found an old dead branch in the woods.

And, of course, trees and branches OUTSIDE are much LARGER when they come inside. It's the magic of the season, I guess. As you can see in the franken-pic above, our branch goes past the door frame all the way to the ceiling.
I love it. Our "leaves" grew fast.
And, it's kinda fun to read them.
Since our tree was - er, a bit...large - I had ended up getting a pot and filling it with large fish gravel. Which of course, the cats started playing with. And, they threatened to eat it. So, handy-man Tim grabbed some clear spray paint and glued those puppies down tight.
Yeah, a little humor never hurts. Two cats. One litter box...

Take a second look at the pic - past the homemade donuts.
See those sweet placemats?
They are oilcloth - brown gingham on one side with birch on the other.
And, I won them over at Modern June.

I just love them.
Oil cloth is that resilient material that your mom or grandma used to have.
And, these placemats will go perfectly with my Goodwill Christmas plates with the little gold stars on them. Score!

Thank you to Kelly at Modern June for the adorable placemats.
And, kudos to Kimba at A Soft Place to Land for the Thankful Tree concept.

And, major thanks to Tim.
For being willing to drag a dead 7 foot branch into the house.
I am very thankful for our tree.