Tommy The Turkey

This is my cute little turkey I made with some of my best gal pals. I named him Tommy because he is so cute. But now that I look at him he may be more of a girl because of the girly colors on his feathers. Oh well.

This was such a fun craft to make. All you need is a little 2 x 4 block, some jumbo craft sticks, 5 gallon paint stick and a few other items most of us have at home.

I put him on my window above my kitchen sink so I can look at him while I do the dishes. His little face makes me smile while I scrub.

Once you have everything together it only took about 30 minutes to get him to look like this.  If you want to make your own Tommy and see the original tutorial with step by step pictures click here. 

Pretzel, Reeses and M&M Bites

I've seen treats like these all over the internet made with Rolos, Hershey's Kisses and Hugs but until now I hadn't seen any with Reese's cups. I made these with the little mini Reese's cups. Have you tried these? They are to die for. I'm not sure why miniature anything is about a million times better but these are so good.

I heated mine up a little to long in my warm oven and they started to really melt but I just pushed in the M&Ms and they turned out fine. 

They are the perfect holiday snack because you can customize them to any holiday by changing the M&M's color. I couldn't find the fall M&M's anymore so I just ate all the blue ones in a regular bag. They're healthy right?  I LOVE chocolate. 

                                              Linking up to some of these parties. 

Thankful Tree

I had a bunch of this brown packaging paper from a box I got from Amazon.  I love shopping from Amazon, I get the most random stuff delivered like diapers, tampons and toys. They all come in boxes with packaging paper.  This had been sitting downstairs in a heap in a corner. I was thinking about making a large scale thankful tree and when I saw this paper I knew it would be perfect.

I decided to tape the tree to our pantry door which is just about the most used door in my house and the center of our home. Everyday we can add a few leaves that say what we are thankful for.

This is how our tree looks now. A little bare but it's growing everyday.  It's been so fun hearing all of the random sweet things Addie has to say. Some of my favorites so far are; "I'm grateful for mommy for making my lunch" and "for Gracie for giving me loves" (we call hugs loves).  I'm excited to see what else we come up with. I'll post a photo of the finished tree on Thanksgiving.

Today I am thankful for the library. Where else would I go during that last hour and half before daddy gets home, the girls are driving me crazy and we need to get out of the house?

Father's Day Food

Image: Bakerella

I made these adorable cupcakes and fries last year for my hamburger loving husband and dad. They are really easy to make and so much fun! Click here for the instructions from the amazing Bakerella.

I might make these cute grill cupcakes this year, found in Family Fun Magazine. I love all of the fun things you can do with cupcakes!

Click here for the recipe.

Cupcake Topper

Cute free cupcake topper download from TomKat Studio.  Click Here to download the file.

Irish Decor

Look at this cute St. Patrick's Decor. I want to make that Irish Board. Go to Lulu's Tiles for the tutorials.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is full of love and chocolate.

Easy Valentines Idea

If the way to your mans heart is through his stomach, this could be for you. I would give it to Reed except I already showed it to him earlier to find out if it's dumb. It is not dumb. He liked it, your man should too.

Take a Jar of Salsa. Homemade perhaps?


Make a tag that says "My Love for You is SPICY"



Tie to Jar.

Don't Forget the Chips!


You're done. How cute is that?

Check out Tatertots and Jello for more fun ideas!

Cheaper than roses

Another great Valentines idea. I love love love how this Love Note Bouquet looks. For directions look Here. Found on Your Life in Shade.

Sweet Valentines Ideas

I have been loving all of the fun Valentines treats I've seen around the web. Here is a sample of some of my favorites.

I love love love these iPod Valentines, they are my new favorites. Found Here.

Cute felt fortune cookies filled with kisses. Found on My Petite Purse.

I love these cute Lollipop Topiaries found on one of the cutest blogs, Remodelaholic.

Cute little candy shaped cakes. I love how these look! Found Here.

I love these strawberry roses, I would enjoy these far more than real roses. Found Here.
Cute little Cupid cupcakes, found Here.

Here is a cute heart shaped layered jello. I don't really like jello but I do enjoy a good layered jello every once and a while. Found Here.

A Valentine's Tree

My mom gave me a little white Christmas Tree this year that she was just going to throw away. We used it during Christmas as another decoration and then put it away. Then I saw on someones blog (I wish I could remember who! Update: It was Laurel's cute tree that I saw, you can find it Here) that they created a Valentine's Tree out of their little white one. Why didn't I think of that?? So here is my first Valentines Decoration of the year.

I was going to make my decorations but then I went to Michale's and found these cute little hearts on sale. The only problem was that they only had red, which really isn't a problem if you have some glitter and Mod Podge.


I just did a layer of Mod Podge (has it always been Mod Podge, I thought it was Modge Podge) and sprinkled the glitter on. Then I cut some ribbon and stuck it to the top of the heart.


Ta Da, pretty cute.


The finished Valentine's Tree. Now I just need to find some little gifts to go under it.



Penny Pinching Party
Blue Cricket Design
Creations by Kara

Easy homemade gift bows

Have you been wrapping all your gifts? I've started and I'm about half way done, now I just have to wait for the rest of them to arrive. My favorite tip about wrapping presents is making your own bow for the top. My mom has made these bows for as long as I can remember and her mom before that. It is one of those things I just kind of thought everyone did, until people started asking me how to make them. So here is the easy bow tutorial.


First use a scrap of wrapping paper that you have left over. I always use a square and fold it in half.

Now just start cutting strips, you can make them as wide or as thin as you want. Making them thicker or thinner will change the look when you are done.

When all of your strips are cut, open the scissors up and glide the paper across the blade. I always start in the middle and go in opposite directions. As you glide the paper it should curl the paper. You may have done this with ribbon, its the same thing. Don't push to hard because you could rip the paper.

Now group all of the strips in the middle.

Secure with a peace of tape with the edges hanging over the paper to attach to the box.

Tada! You're done. Easy, beautiful, and inexpensive.

Click Here for more DIY projects from A Soft Place to Land, and Works for me Wednesday. Click Here for more frugal Christmas ideas of Life as mom.

More fun food

I have seen so many fun Halloween ideas this year. They just seem to keep coming. If we had more time I would make some of these, found on some of my favorite blogs.

1. Candy Corn Cupcakes from Our Best Bites
2. Shrunken Heads from Our Best Bites
3. Brain Cupcakes from Annie's Eats
4. Spider web cake from Armelle the blog
5. Crunchy Doughnut Eyeballs from Armelle the blog
6. Candy Corn Cookies from Bake at 350

Scary Food

I don't like Rachel Ray the person but I do love some of the Halloween food ideas found in her October Magazine. I will be making some of these this month!Buried alive muffins

Severed Hand Toast

Hash Brains

Meatloaf cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting