Chocolates for Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Since my giveaway is done, Whew, I have been busy with other fun Christmas Projects. One of them being these...homemade chocolates. Yumm! Every year I make them with my Mom.  We'll ....she makes the delicious fondant and then I help her dip.

Flavors 2009:

Vanilla Nut

Orange Pecan

Chocolate Nut

Maple Brown Sugar Nut

Lemon

Hope your Christmas is filled with lots of things homemade.

Christmas Giveaway Winners.

Drumroll Please:

Thank you everyone who entered! It was fun to host a giveaway for such fantastic products! Thank you to Tom's Design, Malinda's Designs, and Unfortunate Alice for being apart of my Christmas Giveaway.

The lucky winners: Necklace ~ Camille

Scarf ~ Pitrizzia

Headband ~ Camille

Winners, please contact me with your addresses so I can mail you your products.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Holly Jolly Sisters Giveaway ~ Malinda's Designs

Holly Jolly Sisters just wouldn't feel like Christmas without hosting a few fabulous giveaways!!

To make sure you get your presents before Santa comes on Christmas Eve the giveaway will end promptly at midnight on the 20th so I can mail your presents early on the 21st.

Third Present ~ Malinda's Designs: Funky Neck Warmer and Scarf

This fun scarf is the perfect accessory for winter. The big buttons and colorful yarn makes this a must have this Holiday. I fell in love with themn as soon as she finished setting up her booth for Art Shoppe. This versatile scarf can be worn in a number of ways and looks good with every outfit. Forgot about those normal scarfs this Christmas and win yourself this funky neck warmer!!

To Enter, Please do any or all of the following:

Visit: Malinda's Designs and leave a comment here, telling me what you love about her scarfs ~ 3 entries

Become a new follower of French knots ~ 2 entry

Become a new follower of Fahrenheit350 ~ 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Facebook about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Blog about this giveaway ~ 2 entries

Buone Feste Natalizie

Holly Jolly Sisters Giveaway ~ Unfortunate Alice

Holly Jolly Sisters just wouldn't feel like Christmas without hosting a few fabulous giveaways!!

To make sure you get your presents before Santa comes on Christmas Eve the giveaway will end promptly at midnight on the 20th so I can mail your presents early on the 21st.

Follow closely for two more days of Holly Jolly Sisters Giveaways!

Second Present: Unfortunate Alice

I absolutely adore Unfortunate Alice's hair accessories. Her beautiful style and exceptionally made product will make you the envy of every eye this Christmas Eve. Even Santa Elves can't make anything this good. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to get this adorable headband with sweet pink flowers and a black polka-dotted feather. I love it!!

To Enter, Please do any or all of the following:

Visit: Unfortunate Alice and leave a comment here, telling me what you love about her hair accessories
 ~ 3 entries

Become a new follower of French knots ~ 2 entry

Become a new follower of Fahrenheit350 ~ 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Facebook about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Blog about this giveaway ~ 2 entries

Feliz Navidad!

Holly Jolly Sisters Giveaway ~ Tom's Designs

Holly Jolly Sisters just wouldn't feel like Christmas without hosting a few fabulous giveaways!!

To make sure you get your presents before Santa comes on Christmas Eve the giveaway will end promptly at midnight on the 20th so I can mail your presents early on the 21st.

Follow closely for three days of Holly Jolly Sisters Giveaways.

First Present: Tom Designs

I am thrilled to be giving away this amazing necklace. Tom Design is a wonderful local Utah jewelry designer and in fact she also sells at Tom and Lucy's and our customers go ga-ga for her designs!! The winner of this necklace will be one of the luckiest gals on Christmas. Hopefully whoever wears it will get a kiss under the mistletoe!!

isn't that butterfly the perfect touch?

Description: This vintage inspired necklace has the perfect feminine touch. A white flower cabochon hangs asymmetrical with nine smoky rose colored glass pearls. Flower cabochon measures 1.25 inches from top to bottom and the pearls are 8 mm round. The necklace chain is antiqued brass, measures 18 inches, and connects with a lobster clasp.

To Enter, Please do any or all of the following:

 Leave a comment here, telling me why you love jewelry ~ 3 entries

Become a new follower of French knots ~ 2 entry

Become a new follower of Fahrenheit350 ~ 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Facebook about this giveaway ~ 1 entry

Blog about this giveaway ~ 2 entries

List each entry separately so I can pick a winner quickly!!

Thanks, Kitty and I are wishing you a Holly Jolly Christmas.

Simple, Sweet Felt Ornaments

With only 11 days before Christmas the Holly Jolly Sisters have another craft and foodie pack week full of great Christmas Ideas. Today and I want to show you a fun homemade ornament ideas using one of my most favorite things: FELT. I adore felt. It just makes me happy and feel right at home.

For several years now I have had "Handmade Felt Ornaments" on my to do list for Christmas and 2009 is finally the year I am getting them done. 10 to be exact! These 10 ornaments will look right at home on my Christmas Tree. For you see, I have very strict guidelines when it comes to my Christmas tree. Let me share:

#1 Our Christmas Tree has to be Real.

#2 Only red, white, black, green and glittery ornaments allowed.

#3 White lights only

#4 The ornaments have to look handmade and/or as vintage"y" as possible.

I have been thinking about these ornaments for some time. I knew I wanted them simple and sweet and I knew I wanted them to be hearts. I took my perfect heart shaped cookie cutter and I made a pattern. Then I cut out my felt hearts. I prefer to use boiled wool as often as I can ~ giving it a very by-gone era feel! I stitched around my heart and embroidered a Christmas word in the middle. Other words I used: Noel, Santa, Peace, Love, Cheer, Hope, Jolly etc.

I added a button for the dot on the "j" and a little felt Christmas Tree. I hot glued some ribbon to the back as a hanger and Viola!!

For more Christmas tree trimming hurry on over to at Kitty's Blog. Check out her amazing Festive Fruit Tree.

Christmas Gift Guide

This time of year there are so many people in our lives we want to remember and show we care at Christmas. From our neighbors and friends to our hair dresser, mail man, Teachers and paper boy. Little known fact: there is proper etiquette involved when it comes to giving gifts at Christmas time. I found this site helpful.

Back when Martha was on T.V. (pre-jail sentence) I heard her talk about gift giving etiquette, she said "When going to a party where gifts are being exchanged, even if you can't afford gifts for the adults, children always need a small present." Now that I have children myself, I could agree more.

In our community neighbor gifts are a very popular way to show we care at Christmas. In our neighborhood I have lots of great friends that I love to leave a simple, delicious treat on their door step. Over the three years of living in our neighbor my list has gotten quite long!! Time and cost are always a contributing factor when deciding what to give your neighbors. My neighbor gift tradition has always been to make TOFFEE . I put the toffee in a cellophane bag and wrap it with a pretty bow. I always get lots of ooohs and ahhhs ~ they love it and now my neighbors anticipate receiving toffee from our family. What do you give out as neighbor gifts?

Where not done with gifts yet...Kitty has some great gifts ideas for your pets this Holiday, stop by and see what she has cooking in the Fahrenheit350 kitchen.

Pinecone Birdfeeders

Every summer we take a family vacation to Lake Tahoe. The weather, scenery, water, small town feel and restaurants creates the perfect family vacation. All along the coast line and in the forest are massive pine cones. I grew up in Oregon and I know pine cones but these pine cones are on steroids. Every year I say: "I am bringing some of these pine cones home" I always plan to do something fantastic with them and finally this year I did. I decided while picking them up and loading them in my car I was going to make bird feeders.

With the winter chill and snow that accumulates our feather friends really deserve their own Christmas present. The birds in our backyard loves their Christmas Presents, they spend all day nibbling and singing. My boys love to watch them.

At your local pet store or Walmart pick up a bag of bird seed. Bags range in size but each pine cone will hold about 1 cups of seeds. While your at it pick up some cheap peanut butter (PB) and raffia, sting or wire to hang your pine cone.

Melt your peanut butter in the microwave. It makes a huge difference in applying the PB to the pine cone.

Drizzle PB on pine cone covering as much of the cone as you desire. Roll your pine cone in birdseed.

With a long piece of raffia double knot the top of your pine cone. This will allow you to hang your bird feeder from a tree outside.

I brought home so many pine cones... I gave some of the bird feeders away as neighbor gifts and sold a few at the Art Shoppe.

Hang your bird feeder somewhere outside viewable from indoors and enjoy your feathered friends all Christmas and Winter long.

Stop by Kitty and see what she has cooking in the kitchen with Pinenuts this Holiday at Fahrenheit350.

Holly Jolly Candy Canes

Candy Canes are a big Holiday Theme around our house. I love the crook and the striped red and white of each traditional candy cane. I love the way they taste and how the instant you look at them you think of Christmas. A few years ago I had idea to incorporate my love of candy canes into more of my holiday decor. So, I came up with these simply adorable fabric stuffed Candy Canes!!

I started out with a shape (in my head!) I knew I didn't want a standard pattern because I wanted to give each candy cane its own personality and pizazz. I bought and borrowed (Thanks Mom!) several types of fabrics that I thought would make for interesting candy canes. Below is a step by step process to make your own Candy Canes.

Begin by cutting 2 identical "canes" from your fabric. Sew all the way around the "cane" leaving a 2 inch opening for stuffing. Back stitch the ends of each opening so while stuffing the "cane" the thread doesn't come loose.

Trim fabric around stitching to a quarter inch (1/4). This helps reduce bulk.

Flip "cane" outside in and stuff candy cane with craft stuffing through hole. See below.

To finish off your "cane" I hand sewed the cane who different ways. #1) I let the stitches show and whip stitched the raw edge. #2 I hid my stitches by folding and bringing the fabric together to make a smooth edge and then hand sewed the sides together. I think it looks great either way! You decide.

It was fun to add embellishments on each "cane" with buttons, felt, stitching, bells and ribbon. Have fun with it and personalize each Candy Cane.

I have placed the Candy Canes all around my house and even in our family Christmas tree.

Candy Cane your way to Kitty's blog for an amazing dessert that uses candy canes!!! Peppermint never got so much love. Merry Christmas.

Snowmen Cheer

Aren't these snowmen fun? I can't get enough of snowmen at Christmas Time. Frosty the Snowman was a jolly happy soul....

About a month ago I was contacted by POM Woderful to review their delicious pomegranate juice. As soon I opened the box my husband said: "I love Pom juice" ~ no lie. (More on the yummy juice later!) And being the crafter I am; I took one look at their juice bottle and thought: "Snowman"! Their bottles are the perfect style and size for your very own crafty snowman this Holiday Season.

Today after school the boys and I got busy. Snowman 101 went into effect. All you need is some POM Wonderful juice, black and white paint, twigs, scarf fabric, buttons, bells, other fun embellishments and candy.

Step 1: Clean and Rinse POM juice bottle. POM juice must be refrigerate, so if you want them for display you'll need to drink the POM juice first! Step 2: Paint bottle white and cap black.

Step 3: Fill bottle with candy, rice or something heavy so your snowman won't tip over. We prefer candy.

Step 4: Once bottle and cap is dry ~ start decorating. Add your snowman's scarf and buttons, bells and embellishments. Add twigs last, as they get in the way of decorating if you don't.

My boys and I had a blast decorating our snowmen and using the glue gun. They look so festive on our kitchen table. Who knew I would have such crafty boys!! Besides painting the bottle this is an extremely easy craft for children. If your children aren't old enough to use a glue gun make sure and help them attach their snowman embellishments.

***POM Wonderful juice can be purchased at most local grocery stores: Whole Foods, Albertsons, Winco, Food 4 Less, Safeway etc. For a complete store directory in your state click here.

Now, head on over to Kitty's blog to learn how to make a delicious Snowman Cheese Ball. Perfect for your work, neighbor, school or church Christmas Party!