Wood Block Nativities

This project was shared with me from Pam S. who made about 50 of these with help from some tall elves. She shared the photo with me and I love it!

Here's a tutorial to make your own with your favorite picture. Leave me a comment with your email address if you want me to email the picture to you.

Supplies:
2 x 6 wood, cut at 7 1/4” lengths
Craft paint
Brush
Mod podge
Scrapbook paper
Tulle approx. 1 yard length x 6” thick (Hobby Lobby sells 6" spools of tulle in the fabric dept.)
Sandpaper—optional
Favorite 4 x 6” picture

Directions:

1. Cut 2 x 6’s into 7 1/4 inch lengths. Just a note wood sizes don’t really follow real measurements. Don’t be surprised when your 2 x 6 is really closer to
1 1/2” x 5 1/2”.

2. Paint wood desired color. Use 2 coats and let dry. Sand edges if desired

3. Cut out background scrapbook paper: 6 3/4” x 5” Pay attention to
direction of paper before you cut.

4. Cut inner scrapbook border: 4 1/8” x 5 5/8” (Or if you want an easy way, slap your photo down and visually estimate 1/4” border on all sides.)

5. Mod podge your background scrapbook paper to the wood. Use very light coats to prevent bubbling. Several light coats work much better than one heavy coat.

6. Mod Podge 2nd paper centered on the first paper. Same as before, light coats.

7. Mod podge picture on top of border paper, and then mod podge a light coat over all papers & photo. Let dry and repeat with a 2nd coat. If desired, mod podge over the entirety of the block.

8. Let dry overnight. Wrap tulle around block and tie in decorative knot at the top. Trim off extra tulle.

Potato Soup

I got this recipe from my mom, and it's so good. Since I am making this for dinner tonight, I don't have a picture of it finished. Here's the ingredients you'll need. Have you seen potato soup before? Well it looks like that.

Ingredients:

7-8 medium/large potatoes

milk (2 percent, whole, whatever you've got)

1 can cream of celery soup

1 small bag of real bacon pieces

- Boil water in a large pot.

- Peel & chop potatoes into bite sized pieces.

- Cook potatoes in boiling water until soft (about 20-30 minutes)

- Drain water, return potatoes to pot.

- Pour milk to cover just the top of the potatoes.

- Add cream of celery soup & stir until mixed.

- Add bacon bits now to entire batch, or add to each serving while in the bowls.

-Let soup heat up on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.

I usually make this with a cornbread mix. I just let it re-heat until the cornbread is done.

Santa Rosa Valley Salad

My good friend Brandy W. gave me this recipe a few years back. This is a cold salad. I brought it to baby shower and it was gobbled up so fast! Jared & I love this, but I will warn you, you're kids will turn up their noses and tell you it is disgusting. You might want to prepare some PB&J for them and enjoy their portions.

The recipe says it serves 13, but I'd say more like 10 if you are serving snack sized portions, and serves 5-6 if you are serving dinner sized servings. We had ours with almond crackers. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 box Uncle Ben's Seasoned Long Grain & Wild rice (not instant)

Juice of 1 lemon

1 red pepper diced

3 oz. snow peas ends removed

4 green onions chopped

3 chicken breasts cooked & diced

1 cup pecans toasted and chopped

2 avocados diced

red leaf lettuce for garnish -optional

Dressing:

2 cloves garlic minced

1 tbs dijon style mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Cook the rice according to the package, but reduce water by 1/3 cup to prevent overcooking and the rice getting too mushy. Salad looks best with a firmer grain. Cool rice. Combine remaining ingredients except for the pecans and avocados. Prepare dressing by combining all ingredients in a blender and blending until emulsified. Pour over rice mixture and mix well. Refrigerate 2 to 4 hours or overnight. Just before serving add pecans and avocado. Serve on bed of red leaf lettuce.

What I did different:

- I'm not a fan of snow peas, so we didn't have them.

- I had already chopped my red & green pepper earlier in the week and they got all mixed together, so my recipe had both.

- I only used 2 large chicken breasts because that's what I had defrosted. It was plenty for us, but you might like more chicken.

- I also completely missed the part about adding 1/3 cup less water, so I didn't do it and it was fine. Probably not as firm, but still tasty.

18 months

Hadley had her 18 months check up today. We still can't hit 22 lbs. with this girl! Weight 21.4 oz, and 32 1/4 inches for height.

GNO Class

GNO Christmas Class

When: Friday, Dec. 3^rd 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
RSVP: Nov. 20 so I can order supplies.
Where: My House.

All projects $5!!! Are you doing your happy dance?!

Please no children. As always, feel free to invite any crafty lady you know!

To my local friends - Email me and I'll send you an message with the crafts!

Testerone before Trytophan

Jared's favorite time of year is coming up. It's the 6th Annual Highland Station Ward Turkey Bowl. He even created a blog about it. He wanted me to let my local friends know to tell your husbands. I will be participating in the the Fort Worth Turkey Trot, if anyone wants to join me. We are also looking for some girls that are available to babysit that morning (we will pay.) Post a comment on Jared's Turkey blog if your daughter is interested in some early morning babysitting.

What's for Dinner

This week's dinner:

T: Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage Lasagna & Green Beans Recipe Here.

image courtesy of Johnsonville.com

I make few changes to the recipe

- I use a 9 x 9 pan because I don't think there is enough sausage to do the larger one.

- I cook 9 whole grain noodles, but don't always use all of them. I tear them to fit in the pan.

- I make 3 -4 layers until I run out of room.

- I use Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage, remove casing and brown.

- I use about 3/4 large can of chunky tomato sauce or your favorite spaghetti sauce.

- I get one bag (2 cups) of shredded mixed cheese (mozzarella, etc) instead of using 2 cups of mozzarella & 1/2 cup parmesan.

- Use your chopper to finely chop your spinach. Super healthy and your kids won't even be able to taste it.

W: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Recipe Here.

Update on the recipe: **

I didn't have everything on hand, so here are my substitutions. I used two cans of chicken broth, plus 1/2 can of water instead of 6 1/2 cups called for in the recipe. I only used 1 1/2 cups of my favorite cooked rice (Lundberg Jubilee), and used cayenne pepper instead of curry powder. Since my rice takes 50 minutes to cook, I cooked the soup per instructions and then added the cooked rice at the end. It all tasted good, and was creamy.

image courtesy of Summer from the Crooked Curve

Summer T. made this for me about a month ago, and I've been wanting it ever since. Even though I'm stuffed full of lasagna, I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Th: Santa Rosa Valley Salad & almond crackers: This is my friend Brandy's recipe. It's typically more of an appetizer, but I've been craving it! Since the recipe is way o-v-e-r there, and I'm here settled into my jammies on the couch I'll post it later this week.