A Fresh Start

Happy New Year! 

A Little late I know! But after a LONG holiday, many blessings, and not enough time to do everything, I took a break! 

But I am now ready and in full swing to get my house out of the holiday funk it is in! 

I am getting all of my Christmas decorations put away (again late! I know!) and am noticing a lot of empty space in my house! This makes my head start spinning and it has inspired me to get my butt in to high gear and start crafting yet again!

I have also decided I am going to buy some sort of real (yet small) tree to put in my house! When I figure out what tree I will let you know! 

So stay tuned and let me get to a craft store and I will be posting a lot of fun family friendly crafts for Valentines, Easter and Spring! 

~Simplicity

Baked Eggnog French Toast!

Yesterday I was looking for something to make for our families Saturday morning breakfast and I happened to run across THIS blog ( I will post the recipe below as well). "Baked Eggnog French Toast" did not sound that appealing to me. I am not a fan of eggnog, but I thought hey why not! Oh-my-goodnees. I am so happy I made it! It was so  delicious. I am going to have to make this again for our Christmas breakfast! 

It is extremely simple! Here is how I made mine:  

I cute my loaf of french bread into slices, and then in half.

I poured the wet ingredients over bread:

6 large eggs
2 1/2 cups eggnog
3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

I prepared the dry ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

 Cover, and placed in the fridge. 

Do this the night before! 

In the morning pull your prepared food out and place the dry crust over the top of the bread. 

Put in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes! 

This is how it looked when it came out at 45 min! 

I served it with syrup and everyone loved it! It was so yummy and gooey! 

 Its an easy breakfast that I am sure your family will LOVE! 

~Simplicity

Simple Holiday Floral Arrangement

Here is a simple floral arrangement I did for the holidays! I hope you are inspired! 

I found my flowers (including the gold picks) at Michaels. I only spent about $10. I got them on sale! I used a vase I already own, popery as a vase filler and the left over ribbon from my tree!  

I put the popery in fist and then added the flowers! 

Then the picks... 

Then a bow to finish the look! All I did for the bow was fold the ribbon like "bunny ears" and twist the bottom! 

Simple! 

I love this arrangement for the holidays! It is super easy and I think it adds a beautiful festive look to any home! I made two and placed them on my end tables! 

~Simplicity

Christmas Cookies

I finally did it! I made my first batch of sugar cookies this Christmas season! I feel so blessed that I got to make them with my mother this year! 

You can use your favorite sugar cookie recipe. I like THIS ONE from Martha Stewart. It is very similar to the one I use. 

Take all ingredients out and pre-measure. It makes adding ingredients simple. 

Always use room temperature butter. 

Blending your sugar, eggs and butter helps to create the desired texture. 

Make sure you refrigerate your dough! 

Add flour to your rolling pin as well as cookie cutters. This helps to keep dough from sticking.

Make sure to let cookies cool for 30-45 minutes before adding frosting! 

Here is our frosting recipe: 

-1/3 cups butter

-1/3 tsp salt

-3 cups powder sugar

-1/4 cups milk

-1/2 tsp vanilla

Add desired colors! 

~Simplicity

Reupholstered my $25 Ottoman.

What a great way to start the week! I only have a few more days left with my wonderful mother. So, today we tackled my $25 ottoman I bought off line. It was extremely simple. I love finding cheap items and making them look beautiful! Here is a "step-by-step" tutorial on how to reupholster a ottoman. You can apply these same tactics to most furniture! 

Above is the "old" ottoman! 

To remove the fabric, I used a flat tipped screwdriver and a hammer (because I am weak). Simply slide the flat tip screwdriver under the staple and use the hammer when needed. 

Some of your staples may break or bend. All you need to do is get a pair of pliers and remove them. They should come out easily 

Once ALL staples are removed. You can take the old fabric off. You can replace the foam and batting if needed. Mine did not need to be replaced because it was still in pretty good shape. 

Next you will want to pin your fabric to the ottoman. This will keep it from moving when you flip it over and start to staple! 

When you are satisfied with your fabrics placement, begin to staple. I start by stapling the middle of each side. I then flipped it over to make sure it was the way I wanted it. Then I flipped it back over and continued stapling. This was a 2 man job for me! 

This was my final product! I am so happy with it! I am doing the pillows tomorrow to match! 

~Simplicity

Tomorrow...

Okay, so my mom and I have been cleaning my house and getting it ready for Christmas! After many challenges,  I can finally say it is DONE! 

We have wrapped presents and all Christmas decorations are out! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mom! I can't thank her enough for all of her help and support! 

 So, tomorrow we will be doing our Christmas sugar cookies and getting a few little projects done, to include the dried apples wreath! Stay tuned for goodies and crafting! We are feeling better and are ready to share our simple ways to make lots of fun family memories! 

~Simplicity

Sick, but still making memories!

What a week it has been! My Mother is here visiting and we are SICK. We are hoping to be back to good health soon so we can get back to all the Christmas and holiday crafts and baking we love to do together! 

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to so far:

On the way home from picking up Mom, we stopped at the best country store! 

The next day we decorated the Christmas tree while enjoying some of our favorite Christmas music! 

After all our hard work the tree is finally done! 

We also made ornaments for a tree I was volunteering to decorate. 

Stay tuned for a lot of simple crafts that look great, yummy goodies for the Christmas season and fun ways to make great Christmas memories! 

~Simplicity