Thursday, December 10, 2015

Awesome Life Friday #46

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Welcome to Awesome Life Friday!

We're so looking forward to seeing what you've been cooking, creating, growing, decorating, reviewing, giving away, and thinking about this week!

You may have noticed that we've begun co-hosting another link up - Party in Your PJs!  It will be starting on Tuesday evenings, and running through Saturday.  I hope you'll join us there as well!

This week, I'm on the road headed to Florida to spend some time with my husband's family, so we're going to save Features for next week's party.  I'll be peeking in as I can, though - I can't wait to see what you've brought to share this week!


Thank you all so much for sharing your awesomeness!

Are you all ready to party?  If you like, we'd love it you'd help spread the word by grabbing our button:






Here we go!



Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Salt Dough Holiday Ornaments

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With a husband in the military, we aren't always able to spend our holidays together with the rest of the family. My family lives in Germany (a 12hour non stop flight away and a long and exhausting trip to and from airports) and his in Oregon (a 16-18hour drive away). 

This year we made the decision to stay at home because, to be honest, as much as I love seeing family, a flight to Germany for the whole family is just not in the budget and just the thought about keeping a high energy kindergartner and crazy toddler busy in the car for such a long drive had my stomach in a twist. So, staying in the wonderful Mojave desert it is (sarcasm).
However, I don't want our families to miss out on how the little ones have grown and we want to send them a “piece” of us. Here I was, thinking and coming up with giant ideas about picture collages, etc but then the simplest idea came to my mind: Salt Dough Ornaments!

I remember when I was little we did this in kindergarten as a gift for our parents and grandparents for the holidays – I know my grandma still hangs the hand print of 4 year old me on her holiday tree every year!

So I spent an entire afternoon Skyping with my grandma until she remembered her salt dough recipe: 
The Recipe:
2      cups   flour
1/2  cup     salt 
3/4   cup     warm water

Bake at 300F for 30min.
  
I was very positive surprised by how cheap the ingredients were! At my local Commissary, I payed $1.89 for a 5lbs bag of flour, $0.90 for 1lb 10 oz of salt which makes a batch of Salt Dough approximately $0.44!!

Salt Dough Ornaments

Here is what you will need:
  • flour
  • salt
  • warm water
  • food coloring (optional)
You will also need the following items:
  • a mixer (optional)
  • a knife
  • cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
  • a wooden spoon, pencil or small round cake decorating tip
  • a roll pin
  • paint (you can use water colors, markers, acrylic paint, finger paint, nail polish, etc.)
  • paint brushes
  • cookie cutter (optional)
Step 1:
Preheat your oven to 300F.
Get your dry ingredients together and mix them up good.

Step 2:
Add your water and food coloring if you want your dough to have a certain color, then mix it all well, if your dough is too dry then add another 2tbsp of water!

Step 3:
Kneed the dough by hand for a little bit to make sure it's really all well combined, then roll it out approximate 1/4 inch thick on a slightly floured surface.

Step 4:
Make hand and/or foot prints or just simply use a cookie cutter to make a shape.

Step 5:
Making the holes: I came up with two ways to do that.
 
The first one would be to use the end of a wooden spoon or the tip of a pencil to poke a hole or the second way (I prefer that one) is to use a cake decorating tip and poke a hole in it.

Step 6:
Put them on the cookie sheet and bake them for 30min (they should be dry and harder but not brown or burned).

Step 7:
Let them cool completely and then get creative :)  

Step 8:
Paint them, write on them, let the kids get messy, whatever you want! 


My kids and I had so much fun making these that I am sure we are going to make this a new holiday tradition now; and the big plus for all the parents out there: I kept them busy for an entire afternoon and everything they didn't paint I painted once they were asleep.

Happy Holidays everyone! 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Party in Your PJs! #85

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Welcome to Party in Your PJs!

Happy Tuesday!  Reviews, Chews & How-Tos has joined the Party in Your PJs Link Party - your posts will now be seen on five different blogs each week.   In addition to Kim from The Cookie Puzzle and Bree from bumblebreeblog, you'll also find Party in Your PJs every Tuesday evening at Grandma Ideas, Wood of Bell Trees and... here!

You'll still find the Awesome Life Friday link up every Thursday evening at 8pm ET so we hope to see you there as well.


Are you ready to party? I can't wait to see what you've brought to share!



Bree @ bumblebreeblog

Bree explores the possibilities offered by new and recycled materials to create solutions for decorating, the holidays, and gift giving that combine thoughtful inspiration with myriad materials and careful planning to create excellent projects. In addition to crafting, BumbleBreeBlog includes craft and blog related lifestyle advice ranging from wedding vendors to blog tips, and every bit of inspiration along the way. Bree Inspired! 

Kim @ The Cookie Puzzle 

Kim is a small town girl who love simple things. Simple cookies, simple crafts and simple people. She is a wife, mother to one son and two adorable fur babies. Slightly addicted to reality TV and sitcoms, but she loves curling up with a good book or a good walk while listening to podcasts. You can find her at The Cookie Puzzle, where she shares her love for cookies and crafting. 
  

Nina @ Grandma Ideas

How is this: Nina is wildly in love with her grandchildren. She delights in doing activities with them that strengthen their relationship –- playing games, doing crafts, snuggling, reading stories to them, and cooking together. She enjoys reading, technology, and traveling. (Tahiti is her most favorite place on earth!)

Lynda @ Reviews, Chews & How-Tos 

Lynda lives outside DC with her husband Michael and elderly beagle, Sadie. She and her daughter Jackie started RCHReviews as a way to spend time together in spite of living across country, and along the way they've added several friends as regular contributors. Between them all, they bring together many different perspectives and lifestyles with one common philosophy - try new things, have fun, and remember you are awesome!

 Heather @ Wood of Bell Trees

Heather is a wife of a peanut butter fanatic and mom of one silly human and one furry canine, wrangling life on 2nd shift and glitterizing everything as she goes!







The rules for the group board include:
1. Limit of one pin a day.
2. Just like the party anything goes, but clear wonderful pictures with great descriptions are most successful.
3. Please no Spam ( Spammers will be deleted without warning)
4.  If you pin to the Pinterest Board, please link to the Party in Your PJs Party also, the party runs from 7 pm Tuesdays-Midnight Saturday (Central Time)
5.  Finally have fun and share this group board  with blog friends and followers!  The more success the group board is the more success you will see from your pins.

Want to be added to the group board?  Follow our Party in Your PJs board and comment on this post with your Pinterest name or email Bree at bumblebreeblog@gmail.com or Kim at thecookiepuzzle@gmail.com

Features from Last Weeks Party!












  
Make sure you head over to the other member of Party in Your PJs
 to see their features - we each pick our own features!


All links are pinned to a Party Board...you can follow the board on Pinterest...feel free to follow the board, there is lots of inspiration to be found there.

Ok...let's party!

Rules
-Link to post, not your home page
-Link to something YOU made, wrote or thought
-No Etsy or Business Pages
-Link Parties, Roundups and Giveaways welcome
- Don't Link and Run! Please visit other links, make friends, learn something new, leave a comment, we all love comments
-If you were featured, grab a"Featured" button, found below.
-Consider adding our Party button to your Party Page or Post.





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