Cookie Jar Holiday Gift Idea

It's no secret how much I love cookies. And not just around Christmas time. Year round baby.

I love them so much that I decided to turn my addiction into my annual holiday gift for our neighbors.

In year's past, I've taken a day off from work, and spent the full day baking numerous kinds of cookies and treats. Well, it just wasn't going to happen this year. Too much work. Not enough time.

So I did some research and brainstorming. I needed something easy. Quick.

I settled on cookie mix in a jar and I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out. I just love them!

After researching recipes online and finding the mason jars, the project was easy-as-can-be! Especially when Santa sent me an elf to help fill all 12 jars.

Here's what I did in case any of you get a crafty itch and want to do these for your neighbors, family or friends. I already have a friend that loved the idea so I helped her do them too!

Purchase Ingredients & Supplies:
This will entirely depend on how many jars you are making, but I needed the following for 12 jars:

• 3 bags of butterscotch chips
• 3 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 bag of flour + a little more
• 1 bag of sugar + a little more
• 2 & 1/2 bags of light brown sugar
• 1 large canister of Old Fashioned Oats
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Mason Jars
• Paper/tags for recipe card
• Ribbon

Spray Paint Jar Lids:

I found my mason jars at Wal-Mart. Come in a case of 12. They had several brands to choose from and were very reasonably priced. We laid them out on plastic in the garage and painted them on a night that actually wasn't zero degrees outside.

Make Festive Recipe Cards:

I'm sure there are several recipes that will work for this idea, but I used a Cowboy Cookie recipe from allrecipes.com. I simply modified it a bit to add butterscotch chips and reflect a different title, read reviews to see what others add to say, modified it again based on their suggestions, tried it out for myself and then finalized it.

Designed in InDesign, printed double-sided on 100 lb. cardstock and trimmed. 

Wowza, I can't say enough about how delicious these cookies are.

Fill the jars:

The key to perfectly layered jars is getting everything to fit and packing your ingredients tight. To get everything into the jars easily, I made myself a paper funnel with a wide-mouth at the bottom. For packing, I used a skinny bud vase that I had around the house.

Now get to layering! From the bottom up, packing each layer as you go:

1. Flour Mixture (Mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder)

2. Old Fashioned Oats

3. Brown Sugar

4. White Sugar

5. Butterscotch Chips

6. Chocolate Chips

7. Pecans

Tie Recipe Cards to Jars:

Now give those beautiful jars away and be proud of yourself!

Winter Woeland

Why do I live in Kansas? Seriously, I question this quite often when it's an arctic misery outside.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas time and the occasional fall of fresh snow. But, these freezing temps give me the woes.

What makes it even worse is having to wear a dress in Kansas during this lovely season of winter. Am I bitter? Well yeah. It's just sooooo hard to get anything done or have any motivation when it's this cold out.

Other than attending our company holiday parties, I did a lot of this:

Yep, lounging around watching TV and movies, with a fire going of course. My laziness was mostly due in part by the way I felt on Sunday, but also because of the dreary weather.

Oh man. I felt like I got ran over by a bus. I'm just getting old and can't hang quite like I used to.

But, we did have a great time attending both of our company holiday parties on Saturday. We both work for amazing companies, for lack of a better word. Competitors to be exact, so it keeps things interesting:).

My party was at Crowne Plaza downtown. Great venue, 360 degree view of the city, live band. Brian's was at the Argosy. Made an entrance arriving late, and stayed way too late watching the boys gamble.

Too bad we couldn't bring home any earnings. Only sorrows from losing. Sigh.

And, I didn't take any pictures!! I know, I was shocked the next morning when I realized. I don't know how I made it through the night without taking a single photo.

Luckily, a coworker of mine caught one at our party.

 
Oh, and I finished up my craft projects! More to come on this. I'm super pumped about how everything turned out. Anyone looking for a last minute project as a simple holiday gift? Stay tuned and you might like what you see. :)

Did you miss me?

Imagine this:
You're a stay-at-home mom (or dad for the few men that read this, lol), so you spend much of your time at su casa. On this particular day, you are sitting at your kitchen table sipping on a cup of coffee as you catch up on bills. Your two dogs are both sprawled out living the life -- one at your feet another on the rug in front of the sink.

All of a sudden, a familiar, four-legged friend comes barreling through your doggy door to say "Hi! I'm back! Did you miss me?" You are startled, but know exactly who it is.

Can you guess who the four-legged friend is?

Ah yes, our dearest Jake who decided to greet our nice neighbor in her kitchen today. I guess he had so much fun at the neighbor's house the other day that he found a loose picket between our yards to break through.

What can I say? Jake is just THAT dog. He's needy and likes to be around people at all times.

The end.

Jake going through our doggy door in the garage. He's a pro with doggy doors.

That's a Wrap: DIY Wine Charms

When you host a party, and the majority of the guests are drinking wine, glasses are bound to get mixed up.

Well, that is exactly what happened when we had all the family at our house for the Thanksgiving holiday. I don't know why I don't have any nifty wine charms, those would have come in handy.

In the midst of the confusion, my brother-in-law's girlfriend mentioned that her sister makes her very own wine charms. I was intrigued. And that got my craftastic wheels a turnin'.

Since that epiphany, I have come up with several craft projects I thought would be fun to try. The first being the wine charms. I have always been a crafty person, just not as of lately.

So, I bring you my first craft: Wine Glass Twist Wraps

They are exactly what I named them. A fun, bedazzled twist that wraps around the wine glass stem and easily distinguishes glasses from each other.

These were super easy to make and didn't take much time at all. Plus, they are a must when hosting a party if you tend to be a bit of a germ-a-phobe such as moi.

These would also make a great holiday gift paired with bottles of wine or glasses. Just an idea I might be using!

Here's all you need:

• Pliable wire, the thicker kind (I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby)
• Beads of your choice, just make sure the holes are bigger for the wire to fit through. I made four wine twists, each having a different color.
• Pliers with wire cutter

Step 1: Cut a 14 in. strip of wire

 Step 2: Close off one end of the wire by tying a knot. Then use your fingers to smash and bend wire, making sure to hide the sharp end.

Step 3: String Beads

 Step 4 : Close off the other end by repeating Step 2 and woila!
You have beautiful homemade wine glass Twist Wraps!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I've been wanting to join in on the fun for a What I'm Loving Wednesday post, so here goes! I haven't even had the chance to really dive into Jamie's blog yet (discovered from a friend's blog), but she's the fabulous host of WILW.

Link up to join the fun.

I'm Loving that I am back in action for uploading photos to my blog! I was at capacity for the free space Picasa Web Albums offers through blogger, so I had to purchase additional storage for only $5. Note to all you bloggers, if you shoot in raw or shoot fairly large photos, make sure you are resizing them! It will save you a ton of space. Here's how to quickly resize a bunch of photos all at once in Photoshop.

I'm Loving butterscotch chips! How have I never baked with these? They will be making their debut in my delicious cookie recipe for an upcoming holiday craft. More to come on this.

Source

I'm Loving that dinner will be ready when I get home! Thanks to a crock pot recipe from Ali over at 3s Company. My kitchen might be a little messy from prepping this AM, my hair may have a faint smell of shredded chicken, and was slightly late to work, but I sure can't wait to try this one out. My good friend Mark is coming over for dinner, so he can be my guinea pig:).

I'm Loving my new cognac riding boots from Urban. Love. Love. Love.

Source

I'm Loving everything about Christmas time. Hot chocolate, lights, decorations, receiving holiday cards, presents under the tree, baking, using our fireplace, holiday parties and my upcoming scarf exchange, and Glee's Christmas episode last night!

I'm Loving that good things can happen to good people. And that there are nice people in this world willing to help others out. Yes, a semi-conceited statement, but I am thanking my lucky stars today!

I received an email from Brian about 11:00 AM saying "dumb dog got out".

I can't tell you how many thoughts went through my head. "Oh no!, Is he ok? Where is my Jakey boy? How does Brian know he got out?" He never wears his collar...

Well, I'm happy to inform you that Jake escaped from a broken fence post in our yard and ran into our neighbor's garage as she was opening it. No, it wasn't CN if you are wondering:). She has kindly been watching him all day and allowing him to have a play date with her two dogs. I was so happy to hear the good news! I can't imagine having to post missing dog posters.

Therefore...

I'm Loving my sweet, specially-challenged, but very well-behaved doggy! Thanks for not running off and only visiting the neighbor Jake.

Happy Wednesday! Half way through the week!

Grrrrrrrrrr. Blogger Help.

So, I was all excited to post about my first craft project from the weekend, but blogger isn't being very nice right now.

I can't upload photos!

It is telling me I am out of storage space and have to purchase more??? Does anyone know what this is all about? HELP!

I guess I don't mind purchasing more (wait, yes I do! I'm cheap!), I just had no idea this was going to happen. Is there any way around it? Can't I host my photos elsewhere?

And, I don't decrease the size of my photos before uploading, so had I known this was the case, resizing my photos would have really helped with the storage space. Geez.

I don't have time to deal with you right now blogger. And in my opinion, the majority of blog posts are just not worthy without photos.

I guess my crafts will just have to wait.

Route 44 in my Near Future

What do you do when a City water line breaks near your office and eliminates plentiful running water and working toilets in your building?

You call Johnny. Johnny on the spot that is.

Yes folks, I have been spending my Friday walking outside of my office to use the restroom in a porta-potty. It's cold outside. It's not too desirable. And it's just weird.

A johnny is something you don't mind using at a tailgate, but not something you want to use at the office while wearing dress slacks and heels.

Not to mention, I am really thirsty. The email about the broken line went out at 7:00 AM so I didn't make my morning coffee before leaving the house and I have been forcing myself from drinking much of anything.

Oh well. At least it's Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to. I will get my fix of fluids tonight over a couple glasses of wine:) And maybe a Route 44 from Sonic on the way home.

Tonight will be for relaxing, catching up on DVR shows from this week, and watching the CATS game.

Saturday, we will be finishing up our Christmas decorations (We are almost done! Just a few last things including outside lights on bushes/trees), attending a holiday party, start stuffing/addressing/stamping envelopes for our Christmas Cards and Christmas shopping. Ugh.

Yeah, I said it. I dread Christmas shopping. Sorry, but sometimes it's just so hard to come up with gifts for certain people. I hate stressing myself out about things like this!

Oh and I almost forgot. I will start my homemade holiday gifts projects that I'm super pumped about.

Here's some of the items I will be using:

What do you have planned for the weekend?

I Got Chills

And let me tell you, they are multiplying.

The hubs and I both love head scratches/massages. I have always enjoyed him playing with my hair and lightly scratching at my scalp, while he likes a really hard scratch and this strange hair pulling thing. Weird, I know. But, we all have our strange quirks.

So, I found this funny looking gadget at Bed, Bath & Beyond called a head massager.

Sidenote: I love all the random items BB&B offers. Some are from infommercials, others just random, but they can end up being some of the best purchases ever. For example, my Ped Egg. Works great for buffing off the dry skin on your feet and works 100 times better than those razor thing-a-ma-jigs that a friend of mine badly cut herself with in college. Oh and these nifty little bra clips that allow you to wear a regular bra with a racer-back tank. Brilliant.

Anyways, I stumbled across this head massager and made the $4 purchase.

Oh man, we love this thing. Maybe me a little more, but it was well worth the small price.

  

It feels better if someone does it for you, but be ready for some chills. So relaxing...ahhhhhh.

Similar feeling to "crack an egg on the head, let the yolk drip down", a little game I played when I was a kid.

Did anyone else play this ironic game?

Put a Smile On

Well, we successfully made it through hosting our first Thanksgiving!

Boy, was it a lot of work, but definitely worth it. It was so wonderful to have all our family here. I love that both sides can come together at the same time and enjoy each other's company. It makes it so easy for everyone.

A few highlights and some of my favorite moments from the weekend:

• Fried turkey is hands down, the best, most moist (there's that icky word again) turkey you will ever eat. Period. 
• Sixty degrees in late November? I'll gladly take it!
• Getting to utilize all my serving ware that I rarely have the chance to
• Jake having lots of play time with friends Tucker and Jerry. Even if Jake is snooty and doesn't really like to play, he was forced to.
• Viewing our first-time outside Christmas lights together
• Family + great conversation + vino = laughter and smiles
• Making homemade pizza and watching football with my brother on Thanksgiving night
• Laughing about messing up one dish: the stuffing. It was very sticky and clumping together in large chunks. Not sure what happened...maybe next time I'll just make it easy and do Stove Top? :)
• Homemade Holiday Gifts, more to come on this!
• Lounging in my PJ's until late morning on Black Friday while all the crazies ransacked the city
• Putting up the Christmas tree and decorations, I love Christmas decor!
• That feeling you get when you take a moment to reflect how blessed you truly are

And blessed I am. Sometimes, it's hard for me to grasp how much God has given me.

I had a touching moment in Wal-Mart yesterday around 7:30 pm. A father of five was checking out in front of me with all his kiddos beside him. I could tell he had come from work and looked tired. His five children were so well-behaved. His kids kept smiling at me, and I would smile back. Then, the father looked up at me and gave me the warmest, most infectious smile that touched my heart.

His smile told me a little story. It said that feeding five children wasn't easy and that the kind of work he did was labor intensive. He was worn out and just wanted to go home. But, the fact that he took a moment out of his stressful day to smile at me....just made me melt.

So today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he or she sees all day.

I didn't take very many pictures of the weekend. Crazy, I know. I'm not happy about it. You won't even see all of our guests, but here's the lineup: Momma B and Daddy B, Momma K, Ron, Lori, Ryan, Eric and Lauren.

 Brunch at Houston's

 

Frying the turkey. This was a little scary!

 Paula Deen's Sweet Potato casserole. Delish!

Brian torturing our poor dog with the turkey scraps in the trash. He just sat there and stared at it.

Out with the Yellow, In with the Blue

Whew. What a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I just love long weekends.

I will post about our hosting experience soon, but I had to get in a quickie about my newest obsession.

As if my sweets addiction wasn't already bad enough, I had to finish off a bag of these in midst of my turkey coma. Well, Brian helped a little, but it was mainly me.

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Meet M&M's newest member: Pretzel M&M's

Oh. My. I never thought M&M's could come up with anything more delicious than their Peanut member. And I've never been a big fan of the regular or peanut butter, but when there was a yellow bag in my site, half of it was going for sure.

Well, the blue bag now trumps the yellow. These round little guys are oh so tasty.

Pretty sure this obsession will not be helping out with the "Maintain, Not Gain Challenge" at work. All I have to do is not gain any weight over the holidays and I get a gift card!

Fat chance of that happening (pun intended).