Shhh...it's an affaire!

A CRAFTY AFFAIRE!!!

My mommy and I are taking the trip out to the West Coast in a couple of weeks to help my sister out with her booth at the holiday market!

If you don't know, my sister is the wonderful mastermind over at Try to Keep Up!  She's been putting a whole bunch of news up on her facebook page, so follow along there for the most up to date news!

She's been working hard crocheting her fingers to the bone to get ready for this show, and set up some online shops! Wanna see what kind of goodies she has?

Lots and lots of combinations of infinity scarves and headbands, as well as beautiful snowflake Christmas tree ornaments! Click here to check out more of her goodies!  Here's a secret - I totally made some of those scarves for her! (Sisterly slave labour!!!) So you should definitely buy one because I might have made it :P

If you are in the BC lower main land area, come stop by and visit us!! Look for the West Coast Leslie Designs booth ... we'll look something like this:

If you say you stopped by because you saw this on Envirocraftiness, you'll get a free gift...and by free gift, I mean a high five. 

Not in the lower mainland area? 

If you're in the Edmonton area, check out Modern Sole in Sherwood Park for some of the sweet boot cuffs made by Leslie!

Alright, not in either of those places?! I have good news for you too!  Leslie just opened up an online store at StoreEnvy!! Check out all her goodies here!

Thanks for checking it out! Hope to see you in December for your free high fives!!

Halloween FUN!

Last year at work the girls in the Finance/Admin department decided we should do a little work Halloween party & potluck!  There was a contest for best costume, and best decorated desk.  My competitive spirit was all down for this!

I'll start with my desk decorating:

I was originally made some bloody handprint window clings out of white glue but didn't like they way they turned out, so I threw them out and ended up painting my hands with red acrylic paint and smearing them on my cubicle window (SO much fun, by the way!)

(attempt at glue window clings)

I found caution tape at the dollarstore to put all over the exterior of my cube.

Because my boss is not the type to participate, I expanded my decorating onto his cubicle too.  :)  I picked up this Styrofoam tomb stone at the dollarstore.  I had considered a chalk outline and toilet paper decorating for my boss's desk, but I didn't have time.  Maybe next year!

I made a stained bloody curtain out of what I had around the house.  I coffee stained a white piece of fabric, and then used my scrapbooking spray ink to add some "blood"

(Curtain drying in the bath tub!)

I found some severed fingers and random eyeballs and brains at the dollarstore.  I floated some things in jars of colored water (Tip: neon food coloring made for great colors here!)

Some of them I drilled holes in and put on my Christmas lights

And then some were just placed around :)

The potluck was extremely successful! People brought what they said they would, we had a good mix of things, and it was all so tasty!  Some people even got really into it!

Spider dip!

Witch fingers

Jello brain!!

Thanks for checking out my Halloween hauntings, hope you got some fun ideas for decorating and food!

I can't wait to do my desk this year! 

     

 

Throw-back Thursday - Fall Leaf Garland

A while back (2010?!) I did a post about how to make a dried leaf garland.  I came across it the other day an thought it was worth another look!

 

 

For the first step, look to this post for how to dry and mod-podge your leaves. Gather some strong thread or twine and a needle and you're ready to go.

I tried using thread first, and didn't like it.  It got twisted, and the leaves slid around too much.

Then I grabbed what was left of my hemp (I seriously think that I've had this since I was 12!!) and used it instead.  

This required me to use a yarn needle to poke holes first

 

I threaded the hemp through one side

 

And through the other side

 

And then do it again, and again, and again!!!

Ta-da! Now you have a festive decoration that will last for the season!

Individual Pumpkin Cheesecakes

I just realized I haven't blogged in a whole month! Wow.  I've still been crafty, just busy! Now that september is over I feel it's time to bring on the fall/halloween posts I prepared last year! 

For our work Halloween party, we had a potluck.  I love bringing desserts, and I wanted to be festive, so mini pumpkin cheesecake it was.  Now at that time I had just started trying to eat gluten free and I couldn't find a good recipe for this.  I ended up blending about 3 recipes together and this is what I came up with.  It turned out fantastically and I would definitely make it again!

What you'll need:

12 or 24      premade gingersnaps about the size of the bottom of a muffin tin (if you want/need, GF)

3                  eggs

1 8oz pkg   cream cheese (softened)

3 Tbsp        sugar (or substitute of choice)

1/2 can       pumpkin (the recipe I used didn't specify can size, but as far as I know, they really one come in one size - BIG)

1 tsp           vanilla

2 tsp           cinnamon

1 tsp           ginger

1/2 tsp        nutmeg

1/4 tsp        salt

Whipped cream/whipped topping of choice

What to do:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) The recipe I started with was all "crush cookies and add butter..." blah blah blah.  By the time I got my costume and office decorating stuff together, I had NO interest in actually making crust for these little guys.  I soon realized that one cookie = the size of the bottom of the muffin tin.  WIN! 

Place one cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup.  The cool thing is the cookie gets all soft from the cream cheese mixture on top of it! They turn out perfect!

3) Mix your eggs, cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, spices and salt in a blender.  At the time I didn't have a blender & used a hand mixer.  This worked alright too.

4) Pour the mixture into the muffin cups. (excuse the dirty stove - it had been a long night of pumpking carving, seed roasting and desk decoration crafting!)

5) Bake until knife inserted comes out clean (I'm sorry I don't have a time for you - when I make them again I'll update this!)

6) Let cool.  They can refrigerate overnight if you need.  

7) Top with whipped cream & serve!

             

$5 of Decorating Fun

Once every year I get to remind my boss how "old" he is (old in quotation marks because he's only 4 years older than I am, and neither of us are actually old) I like to do this by decorating his cubicle for his birthday. 

This year I spent a total of $5 at the dollar store, and produced fairly good results - and that included a card!

This banner was left over from last year...but you can't go wrong with one of these!

I decided against the Disney Princess theme and went with something slightly less emasculating and less obnoxious - hockey theme!

I found a package of Canadian hockey team napkins - perfect!

I also picked up some streamers, balloons and tissue paper!  Streamers and balloons are pretty obvious as to what to do with them, but the tissue paper I took one sheet at a time and grabbed it by the middle and stuck it in random crevices...like between his monitors.

So for not very much money, I was able to decorate the cubicle and still have plenty left over! 

Cheese Platter Goodness

This year for new years was probably one of the best in recent history, and we kept it pretty low key, just me (& Adam), Amy & her hubby Landon, and my sister Leslie & her hubby Tyler.  We had delicious food and drinks and played Cards Against Humanity until 3am!?!?!?

Anyway, Leslie already blogged about our new years in a timely fashion, so check it out here.

I did want to share the cheese platter I made with you though.  I based it off of this Martha Stewart advice that I pinned

Source: everydayfoodblog.marthastewart.com via Jill on Pinterest

So as a serving tray I actually used the brand new pizza stone that we got from Adam's parents for Christmas!

On here we have (starting at the top, and working clockwise) prosciutto, Boursin (delicious & creamy...if you've never had it, I recommend - just do not look at the nutritional information if you'd like to enjoy it!), small bowl of mixed nuts, sundried tomato & herb havarti, chorizo salami, and gouda (possibly smoked gouda, I can't remember) and in the middle a small bowl of olives.

Adam and I were a little ambitious in our shopping and had also gotten some maple candied salmon and baguette which you can see on a plate just behind the meat and cheese platter.

I was also in a pretty tray-ish mood and made a fruit platter, I think I made the dip from a pin... but I can't seem to find it :(

Thanks for checking out our good eats! 

http://todayscreativeblog.net/

Christmas Card Extraviganza {card 5}

Rounds 5!!









Now you might be thinking that this is not 50 cards worth.  And you're right.  Clearly it's 24.  There's a couple more that didn't manage to get photographed before being sent, and a few were those leftover ones from last year.  But I most definitely sent out 48 separate christmas cards this year!

If you want EVEN MORE Christmas Cards, I have 4 posts from previous years too!!
2010 Cards
2011 Cards - part 1
2011 Cards - part 2
2011 Cards - part 3

Christmas Card Extraviganza {card 4}

Cards 1-5
Cards 6-10
Cards 11-15

Round 4!!