Christmas Creations

Christmas Creations is something that my mother-in-love and family came up with.  It is such a great way to save money on Christmas presents!  My family does what we call Christmas Creations every year in October.  We all come with 1 or 2 ideas of crafts to do.  We've done many things from body scrubs to the book pumpkins I showed in My Passion  post.  

 All crafts that we have done are easy, and afordable.  They are the perfect gifts for Christmas.  So what does this mean?  If you're like me, you have family and friends that you like to give gifts to but let's be honest they add up.  Gather some friends or family members and create your own Christmas Creations group.  Share ideas, create together and just have fun making things for the people who are important in your lives, without feeling like your breaking the bank.  

Here are a few of our favorite Christmas Creation crafts to get your group started. 

Lemon sugar scrub from Just Another Day in Paradise

She does great at giving step by step instructions. 

Homemade Lotion The Boho Mama
This isn't the recipe that we used, but it's pretty close.  It seems pretty easy to make & there are options to differ it as you want.  

Paper Beads from Mad Mim

This blog is great!  They are really easy to make, you don't really need to measure, any small triangle strips will work.  But, if you want to make them nice this blog is great at helping explain the steps.


What are some homemade gifts you make?  Please share below,  I'd love to add to our family collection! 

Freezer Meat

Now, I like to tie saving money and helping the environment too.  I like to buy my ground beef in bulk because it's cheaper and divide it how I will need it and freeze it.  However, that is a lot of plastic bags that I'm throwing away, not to mention after a while those bags add up in price.  While some bags I re-use, I don't re-use any bag that has had raw meat in it  So, I have invested in some more Pyrex round containers, again using my cereal wax paper, I wrap my meat up in 1/2 pound or pound sections.  Then I place the wrapped beef in the Pyrex bowls.  The wax paper is less waste than the Ziploc bags, not to mention it's free (again using the cereal bags).  

Check out the how to, here: Cereal Bag Wax Paper

I plan to try this with my chicken too, but for it I will have to use the longer Pyrex containers.  Will be posting soon about how that works.  

I also buy my meat in bulk.  The local grocery store sells it in 10 lbs, and so I buy it and divide it up as I need it.  

Notice the cereal wax paper? :)  One side of one bag is the perfect size to use. 

I flatten out the meat using the paper into a circle that will fit the bowl I'm using.  It's much like making hamburger patties, I still have a hard time getting them perfect :) 

Then I wrap the meat with the paper, trying to get all air out. 

And place in my Pyrex bowl. 

I can get two 1/2 lbs in a 4 cup container, and I can get two 1 lb chunks in a 7 cup container. 

I hope you enjoyed!

My Passion

This isn't a normal post, but I wanted to let you in on a passion of mine.  I adore photography.  I have loved it since I can remember.  Growing up my dad was always taking photos and I'd like to believe that I got my passion from him.  I'm also a bit old-fashioned, if I could I would have a developing room in my house to develop my own photos, but that's another post.   

So, photography is my passion.  With photography I have always been drawn to taking photos of nature or architecture.  There is something beautiful about nature & architecture when taken in the right setting.  Someone once said, with photography you have the whole world to put on display, but you as the photographer get to choose what to include and what not.  

When I learned about Letter Photo Art I realized it was a perfect combo for nature and architecture photography.  There's something exciting about finding that nature or architecture object that looks like a letter or even a number.  

I have taken my passion and started an Etsy store.  In my store you can download any letter and/or numbers 1-12, in either color or black and white for only $5.00 a download to customize whatever word you want. I have had so much fun putting these together.    

Here is an example of how you could use the photos this fall.  Fall is my favorite season, the colors are beautiful!!

Black & White 'FALL' Word Art

As I said above, I LOVE the colors of Fall.  So I decided to have both black & white AND color options as a set on my Etsy.  I just think the colors are so fitting to Fall, I had to include it as a set.   The color set is a limited time offer!  Get it today for only $10.00 instead of $5.00/letter! 

Color 'Fall' Word Art

The picture frames are from Target.  They are nice & only $1.99 for a 4x6!  

The pumpkin is made from an old book, my mother-in-love taught me how to make it at one of our family Christmas Creations.  They are really easy to make, and this blog gives you step by step instructions, Book Pumpkins. 

The bottles are simply painted root beer bottles.  Stay tuned for a post about how to make art using everyday items like these root beer bottles.