Getting Ready For Christmas: Easy Decorating Ideas

 With less than 10 days left until Christmas, I can definitely feel the tension growing, as more people pack stores and traffic on the weekends grows. So to make your holiday decorating a little easier here are some easy and quick ideas for decorating your tables.


Don't get me wrong, I do love poinsettias and the traditional centerpiece of flowers with lit candles, but for something fool proof (and something your cat can't eat) here are some ideas.

This makes such a cute centerpiece. Just get a few decorative/festive ducks or other animal and put them on top of a holiday fabric. Spread some jingle bells around them and you have an adorable table in no time.

Adding a few snowflakes, which you can buy or make with a scrapbooking punch, creates a special touch.

You can pick up reindeer at your local craft store. Take some scarfs and tie them into bows. Red really makes the reindeer pop.

Happy Decorating!

Labor of Love: A Good Pot Pie

Hi everyone! I am sure it is going to be getting busy for you soon, whether it is with school, work, or holiday preparations. I know my little workshop will be busy this week with jewelry making and knitting. At this time of year when it is getting colder it is nice to have a good pot pie. This is Ina Garten's recipe, but changed to my own taste with lots of extra veggies and more chicken. My changes to the recipe increase the amount of pot pies from 4 to 11 so that there are extras to freeze.

Ingredients (makes about 11 individual pot pies)
Two Rotisserie Chickens
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
5 cups chicken stock (I use regular chicken broth)
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or a chicken paste if you can get it!)
1/2 stick of butter
2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 large carrots
2 containers of pre-sliced baby bella mushrooms (cook these in a pan before adding)
2 bags of the steam fresh mixed vegetables
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

For the pastry covering
I just use pre-made pie crusts- you will need 2 packages
You cut them down by using one of the pie tins as a template. 

Then you follow the instructions as given on Foodnetwork. I also skip making my own chicken and just use the meat of two rotisserie chickens, giving you plenty of meat and less work.

Preheat your oven to 375

"In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions and parsley. Mix well."

Cut down the pie crusts to be slightly larger than your tins so you can cover them. Fill your tins with the mixture and then top them. Then take a fork to poke several holes in your crust. I like to do a cross when I do this. 

Put your pies in the oven for 45-60 minutes (or until bubbling with crispy crust)

Whatever pies I am not using immediately I cover with tin foil to cover the uncooked pastry crust and then wrap the entire pie in plastic wrap. I like having these pies in the freezer because you can take them out the night before you want them to defrost in your fridge and then just pop them in the oven for an hour, making an easy and delicious dinner for you! 

Happy Cooking!

On another note......

Keep your eyes peeled this week! I will be having a Beyond Measure jewelry give-away. All you will need to do to enter is to like my Facebook page and share the photo of the prize for the chance to win! I will announce the winner on December 12th and then inbox them for their address.

Making Your Christmas Bright : DIY Style

With our bellies still aching from Thanksgiving dinner and black Friday behind us, it is truly time to start thinking about Christmas. My tree is already up and decorated and I am starting to see Christmas lights. While bought gifts can be fantastic, I am a huge fan of DIY Presents. So I have put together a small collection of ideas from fabulous blogs. Just click on the picture to go directly to the blog :D

Credit to Mom 4 Real

These would be a great gift for anyone because you can personalize them to any occasion. If your friends were recently married you could put pictures of them on the coasters or customize it to a particular interest.

Credit to Martha Stewart

Who doesn't love a spa day? With this DIY you can give your mother or sister a deserved day of relaxation.

Credit to Put Up Your Dukes

This scarf is absolutely adorable and for those of you who sew a perfect gift to make!

Credit to For the Love Of...

I absolutely LOVE jewelry! Making it, wearing it, going through pages of pictures of baubles. This fun DIY is a perfect gift for the on trend girl. 

I hope this helps you all start towards your holiday gift giving goals!

Happy Crafting!

In the Kitchen With Krissia

Hello world! Finals week is over and I am home again and resurfacing to the world with a pumpkin pie recipe from my friend, Krissia.  With Thanksgiving this week, pies, goodies, and turkey is on my mind. This recipe is really quite yummy-can't beat a graham cracker crust.

Here's what you will need

Here's the recipe
**the recipe makes 1 and 1/2 pies so you can easily double it to make three or freeze excess batter**

Crust (for one pie)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tbs butter-melted
1/4 cup granulate sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Filling
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tbs melted butter
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

*preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. for the crust and lower it to 275 degrees for the filling*

combine butter, graham crackers, and melted butter

Once mixed, put the mixture in the pie pan and press around. You can use a cup to create an even edge. Cook the crust for 10-15 minutes at 350.

Combine the eggs, yolks, and sugar in the large bowl. 

Add melted butter, pumpkin, cream, spices, salt, vanilla and whisk the mixture. 

Fill crust and bake for 90 minutes

Now there is only one thing to do, ENJOY!

Happy Baking and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Fashion Showdown!

These recent weeks have been very hectic with school! Last week, Friday was the A&F Fashion Showdown( Abercrombie and Fitch) where people compete for around 5 hours creating outfits from the fabric provided. And after that was over I headed over to the metals studio to work on my geometric necklace!

Anna working on the poofed out skirt

So basically we are told all the rules and then sent to our respective rooms to begin work on our dresses. We could not start until 11:30 and spent that time brainstorming and sketching. Which basically looks like people throwing fabric around and "trying it on" in an attempt to figure out what we wanted to do.

We decided we wanted to do something structured on top with folds and then some soft draped fabric in contrast to the structured look. The belt is done macrame style and then there are tiny safety pin black ribbon details on the blue skirt.

 

We wanted the back to be delicate and have a sheer lace back. I think that worn you would better see the effect of the lace back. 

The front of the skirt is cut higher than the back. If we were to do it again and had more fabric we would have done a bubble skirt on the bottom instead of the long skirt. 

Absolutely loved this dress. Wouldn't it be perfect for a Cleopatra costume?

Here is a look at some of the other dresses

And here's us with our dress at the reception!

Kickstarter Cracked Open: An Interview with a Kickstarter Innovator

Preston Turk, student at Northeastern University, has been tinkering with watches and fascinated by the way things work since he was young.

Recently, he launched a product of his own, the "Stow-away Lens Cap Holder" on Kickstarter (A site that helps individuals get funding for their products) and I thought it would be interesting to chat with him about his innovation and recent launch!

Q- What is Kickstarter?

PT- Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website, which means it uses the power of all its users to help entrepreneurs and artists fund their projects. I'll illustrate this with my story. I created this product and prototyped it, but the cost of a mold is high, and I want to gauge if the market wants it. So I create a campaign with my goal price being the lowest I can get and still afford the mold and parts. The theory behind this is if I don't get enough money, I would not be able to make it. Kickstarter is set up so that if I do not reach the goal amount no money changes hands.  When Kickstarter users pledge money they are promised a reward if the project is successfully funded and their account is charged for the pledge. It really is a great system, and allows entrepreneurs and artists a way to get customers and gauge potential interest in their product.

Q-What inspired this product?

PT-This product was inspired like many [innovations] of mine, which was by an annoyance at something that could be done better. In this case, it was the strings that attach your lens cap to your camera. For me, they were always getting in my way. When I was shooting downwards and when shooting upwards it would get in my face. I knew I needed to make something better, that was also faster than just putting it in your pocket.

Q-How long have you been working on the "Stow-away"?

PT- I came up with the idea for this cap holder in February, but started working on it more seriously when another project of mine stopped temporarily this summer. So, I've been working on this project together with and engineer for the past four months or so.

Q- What has been the most exciting part of this project?

PT- The most exciting part of this project has been receiving the prototypes and developing the design into something that I feel performs well and looks good. We went through several iterations, from a fully round plastic design but ran into problems because the thread would break inside the camera, and the full round [version] was too big. So we the cut the sides off on the design, and used a machined thumb screw to hold it on, and added cork backing to keep it soft against the camera.

Q-What has been the most challenging part of this project?

PT- The main challenge of this project has been insuring good moldability of the design with the manufacturer. We wanted to make sure it could be produced, while also retaining the qualities that we need for it to work well. To ensure this, we worked with the factory to produce the best design.

This product is currently up for funding on Kickstarter. Any amount of money can be pledged ranging from $1.00 and up! Depending on how much you pledge you will get your own "Stow-away"! You can go to his page and help fund this product. 

I Have Joined The Twitter World!

It's official! I have finally joined Twitter!  Follow me in order to keep up with all of my creations and blog posts. I will be updating my Twitter with news about my projects and ideas and so on. :)

Samantha F. @SamanthaFo22