Easy Christmas Card Holder

Been getting oddles of Christmas cards?  I love Christmas cards, sending them out and getting them too.  I had this big elaborate plan on how to display them in the house, but things got so busy it didn't happen.  Had to stick to the quick and easy way but it still came out pretty cute.

It doesn't really get much easier than this.  I took some clothes pins and pretty scrap book paper from my stash.  Use Modge Podge to put the paper on the clothes pins.  I call this crafting therapy.  Did it after a hard day and it made me feel much better.

Got some ribbon from my stash and used masking tape to tape it to the door.  Used it for the the clothes pins too.  The tape holds perfectly but you can hot glue it on too.  I just like the fact that I can move the clothes pins if I need to.

Take your stack of cards and hang them up! 

And yes some of the cards on the door are ours over the years.  Can you spot the one from our very first Christmas together as a married couple!  How time flies!

It's very festive in our kitchen and I just had to share this darling candy advent we have that came all the way from Germany!  Isn't it so pretty?! 

Happy Thursday everyone! 

Dreaming of Puerto Rico

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puerto Rico, The All-Star Island for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We love to travel and this year I have the perfect excuse to take a summer vacation.  It's going to be our five year anniversary!  That's a big one right?!  Well to me it is and I am dreaming of second tropical honeymoon.  I love being at the beaches... our first honeymoon in Hawaii and the thought of that awesome family vacation to Mallorca, Spain makes me want to hop on a plane right now and head straight for the beach.  After seeing this video, my next summer location of choice is most definitely Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico has 270 miles of coastine and Flameco Beach is named one of the best beaches in the world.  How awesome it would be... sitting with my toes in the sand enjoying the sun.  I was checking out some of the images from the Marriott Resort in San Juan [we love the Marriott] and even the beach on the resort looks amazing. 

I would love to head to the El Yunque rainforest [the one in the video]and take a hike, see the waterfalls and climb as high as we can go.  It would be awesome to go horse back riding with all that gorgeous scenery or check out the Camuy caverns.  My history buff hubby would of course want to spend the day in San Juan.  

The best part about Puerto Rico is that you don't need to exchange your moneyn or a passport to go there!  Just hop on the plane and go.  They have so many attractions and gorgeous beaches I know it would for sure be a 5 star vacation!  

Want to take a trip this summer too?  Live your own 5-star vacation story in Puerto Rico.  What would you want to do or see if you could go to Puerto Rico?  Keep the dream alive and Like SeePuertoRico.com on Facebook and Follow @PRTourismCo on Twitter.

 

Carton Smart Chicken Pot Pie

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Carton Smart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When it gets cold [and I mean 0 degrees cold] there is nothing I want more than something warm to eat.  One of our favorite home cooked meals is chicken pot pie.  Homemade chicken pot pie was just the comfort food I needed too after the crazy day I had.  Doesn’t it look so yummy!!

What made it even better is the flavorful Pacific Food stock that I used for the recipe.

  I love Pacific Food’s because they are a brand committed to providing tasty products that is also better for the environment.  The cartons are made of 70 percent recycled paper and use 1/3 of the packaging compared to cans! 

It may not seem like much to use a carton that is better for the environment, but these small acts of smartness over time do make a difference.  I didn’t even realize how many other products came in came in cartons both food and drinks!  

I know my hubby can't wait for me to use this for some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

Definitely saving the Jellied Cranberry for our second turkey dinner this Christmas. 

And here is a picture of the stock that I used in the recipe.  

Check out the website to see their other carton smart foods or visit Become Carton Smart for inspiration and links to where to find more carton products. Definitely going to stock up our pantry with some of their soups!  My little lady loves soup!! 

This recipe isn’t any family secret, it’s actually on allrecipes, you can find the link HERE.  Hubby loves it’s classic taste and it’s a winner.

I skip the peas because we don’t like peas and stick to carrots and celery.

When mixing the sauce I use Pacific Food stock.

Add the filling on the bottom, pour the sauce on top and you are 30-35 minutes from some delicious comfort food.

So the next time you are making a meal this holiday season think about being carton smart.  How can you swap out one of your usual ingredients for one found in a carton?  Be sure to follow Carton Smart on twitter Tweet @CartonSmart and Follow #CartonSmart on Pinterest.

 

Fun Christmas and Winter Themed Food

Dropping in for a quick post to share some of our Christmas and Winter themed food.  The little miss still loves it and has gotten even more into cooking and baking because of these fun little meals.  It's our thing and I wouldn't trade it in for the world.  Be sure to join me on Instagram, I usually post a fun lunch on Wednesdays.  Would love to see what you come up with, just tag me @makeitcozeee.

It's not winter without some hot chocolate.  We made these candy cane reindeer to make them a little more festive.

And after our bananas got ripe we made some reindeer muffins for the morning.  They only lasted two days, they were so yummy and too darn cute!  You can find the recipe HERE.  I swapped out the crumble and added chocolate chip and walnuts to the actual muffin.

I got this idea from bentonation on Instagram [I also follow justbeccaz].  Melted snowman chicken noodle soup.  I cut the hard boiled egg in half to keep him stable.  She liked egg in her soup so much she asked for more.

And how about some snowman pancakes for breakfast?!  How cute is this little guy!  Got this from my cousin mariesilva who also makes fun food on Instagram.

She helped with this one, a little reindeer and candy cane shaped apples.  Just a heart turned upside down.  I love it! 

Join in on the fun and make some fun food with me.  Would love to see what you come up with!  

Happy Friday everyone.

Our Minifigure Lego Holiday Card

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LEGO for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I know that you can build anything with LEGO and now you can even do it virtually!  This is a really cute and fun little online activity you can do with the kiddos [or whoever really].  This morning my Boo Bear and I sat on the computer and put together our little holiday LEGO photo to email to family.  As you can she she created this scene herself.  

It's really easy and fun, just head on over to LEGO Minifigure Family and get started.  You can have up to 13 members in your picture but only four for us [she wanted to include baby brother].  We started with daddy and I let her customize everything.  Peachy skin, his expression, and I guess she couldn't find hair that matched his so she chose to put him in a football helmet.  What a hoot!  It's probably because they watch football together.  I was the only normal looking one. 

 

When the people are finished you can choose a scene.  They even have an office scene!  How funny would it be to create one with your co-workers and mail it to them.  She wanted a jungle one but the closest one we could find was the fall scene.

 

Then it's time to share.  If you are emailing it you can add a Yetti that pops out at the bottom.  

       

We had a great time me mostly laughing this morning about it.  So head over to LEGO Minifigure Family and make your own!  

Christmas Round Up

With Christmas right around the corner I thought I would share some of the fun things we have done in the past and recently...  

You can check out the posts by clicking on these links.  

                             

Hope you all are having a happy holiday season! 

Free Printout for Paper Nativity

A Facebook friend of mine shared this link for a paper nativity today and I fell in love.  It looked so cute we just had to do it!  You can find the free print out pages HERE.  

I printed it on card stock so it stands up nice. 

We colored them together and chatted about random things that two almost three year old's talk about...

I love that she drew happy faces on some of the characters and attempted to write her name in the stable.   

When we were cutting I introduced who the character were that we were cutting.  By the way for parents of preschoolers, this coloring page is great practice for cutting since it's mostly straight lines.  Then she started putting the scene together.

My favorite piece is baby Jesus.  How adorable that he lays perfectly in the little manger.  

I love it and so does she, so much so that she asked me to tell the story to her three times.  The fun part is you can put the characters on the animals as if they are riding them.

 I browsed Joel's page for other fun printout's and guess what... he is amazing. A talented artist and so awesome for sharing his ideas and printouts for FREE!  I pretty much spent 30 minutes saving all his printouts for the future.  He has a dinosaur one I know she would love, a paper woodpecker that actually pecks on a rubber band, a blow fish... oh my goodness so many cute things!  Definitely take the time to browse his site you won't be disappointed.  

Happy Monday everyone!

Christmas Advents

I know you are suppose to start advent calendars on the first, but if you haven't started an advent it's never to late to count down the days until Christmas.  Last year I made the paper chain one for my love bug but really hated the way it looked so we updated it this year.  

[Here is the ball and chain looking one from last year].

I bought a wood circle plaque for her to paint and then Modge Podge the poem onto it. 

She actually was the one who made it start to finish, cutting all the strips and gluing them together [as I am sure you can tell].   

If you want the printout of the star HERE it is.  I simply rounded the edges.

Another way we countdown to Christmas is with books.  I wrap 25 books to put in her basket, the last one is the story of Jesus birth so we can read it Christmas morning.  Before bed every night after we brush teeth she pulls a chain and opens a book to read.  She loves it.