Tomato Cage Trees

Every year at Thanksgiving my mom, sisters, aunt and I do a craft. This year we did tomato cage trees. My sister's ward did them as a craft and we loved the idea. So here's how we made ours...

Start with tomato cages. I bought all of these at home depot for about $2.80 each. They were the larger 4 tier ones.

Then we started by bending down the points. This was a team effort. The purpose for this was to give a place on top of the tree to add the bow. It would just sit in the middle of the bent wire.

Then we found some garland at wal mart $4 for 9 ft. Later I found some for $2 for 9ft but it wasn't as thick. I bought it later and used and it worked fine though.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. We wrapped the garland around the outside of the straight sides and then every once in a while wrapped it around the round layers to hold it in place. Once you get to the top you can just cut the excess garland off with wire cutters.

They work perfect in kids rooms. As soon as we got home the kids each picked a tree and took it in their rooms to decorate. A strand of 100 lights filled the trees perfectly. I had other ideas for the trees but the kids were so excited about them that I just let them have them and decorate them how they wish. I had bought some pretty Christmas ribbon for a bow, some berry garland and red beaded garland but oh well.

Sorry for the bad photos.

A purple one for Sydney...

and blue lights for Theron. Seriously, how cute is this...

I think the total cost per tree was about $12 including the lights!

Awesome giveaway!

Totally want to win THIS! Check it out!

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year? cricut, pots &pans, wheat grinder, camera strap

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received? hand made ornaments from my son

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle? a quilt, the binding is scary.

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child? my cabbage patch kid, I was sooo excited!

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?scooters, leapsters and anything princess and star wars

6. What is your favorite holiday food? easy, mom's yams

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays? necklaces

8. What is your favorite holiday movie? White Christmas & Miracle on 34th street

9. Favorite holiday song? All I want for Christmas is you

10. Favorite holiday pastime? Our Annual Family Xmas party

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

I'm really sorry to anyone that checks my blog. I have been wanting to post for days now. If I'm blogging it's usually on my personal blog and even then that has slowed down. Child 1 had the swine flu and I can't get my husband healthy. He is going on 2 weeks of feeling awful. Urgh!

However I will post this awesome recipe for cinnamon roasted almonds. These are really really good!

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon cold water
1 egg white
4 cups whole almonds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar

preheat oven to 250 and grease a cookie sheet. Preferably one with edges.
Mix the egg and water until egg becomes frothy. Add the nuts and mix it around until the nuts are coated with the egg. Mix together the sugar salt and cinnamon and then sprinkle it over the nuts. Toss until nuts are evenly coated. Spread into the greased pan and bake for 1 hour. I stirred mine every 20 minutes or so.

Tip: I think the nuts are a lot better once they're cooled. They're good warm but I liked them after they've cooled so the nuts aren't so soft.

Store in a air tight container.

Zucchini Bread

This recipe is amazing. Really it is! It's really moist, fluffy and filling. I don't think I'll ever use another recipe for plain ol' zucchini bread. Sooo good! I found it online and changed it a little to cut out some sugar. Here's the recipe...

3 C flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 C applesauce
1/2 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla
3-4 C grated or chopped zucchini. I actually used close to 5 cups.

preheat oven to 325.
sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together.

In separate bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, applesauce & sugar. Add sifted ingredients. Mix well. Add zucchini. Bake in 2 greased pans 50-55 minutes. I think mine were done in about 60 min.

Tip: some recipes for zucchini bread say to squeeze all the water out of the zucchini after it has been grated. Don't do that for this recipe. All the water in the zucchini is what helps keep the bread so moist and keeps it from drying out.

If you're looking for a different zucchini bread recipe try this.

Here's a way to [Re]beautify something, give a fun gift and help keep kids germ free during this flu season. O.k. there is no such thing as a kid ever being germ free but you know what I mean.

These are going to Theron's teacher...

The funny thing is that This popped up on my google reader this morning. No way! Someone was totally on the same wave length or something. We have to be friends. I need to meet her! Our projects look way to much a like for us not to be friends. How cool is this?

Easy home made potpourri

This stuff will make your whole entire house smell soooo good. So good, you might just start licking your walls.

Here's what you need:

• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 3-3 inch cinnamon sticks
• 6 bay leaves
• ½ cup whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in a pan with water and simmer on low all day. Keep filling with water as needed.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the yummy smells. The cinnamon, vanilla, sugar cookies, fall, pumpkin, spice, fire places, hot chocolate, thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas trees. All of it. I love it! This is the perfect scent to welcome fall. Even though it's still in the upper 90's here, I'm doing everything I can to make it feel like the summer weather is almost over.

Thanks Jackie Lee and Stacey for the recipe!

Last fall I was busy with my enrichment calling and other things. I didn't get anything done that I wanted to. So, this year I'm starting early, to make up for lost time. First off, pumpkins...

Go here for the tutorial. Holly is so cute and creative. In fact go to her blog anyways so you can see how the pumpkins are supposed to look. Good thing I was going for the homemade look and not perfection. Mine turned out so ugly they're cute.