Thank You!

Since December is winding down, I thought today was a good time to thank everyone who was kind enough to feature me this month. As a blogger myself, I understand the time and commitment it takes to write posts on a regular basis, so it is truly touching that each of you took the time to showcase my work.

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Thank you Jennie of Craftomaniac for showcasing Our Foyer At Christmas in your

Sausage Cheese Bites (Gluten Free or Regular)

With everyone being so busy between Christmas and the new year, it's nice to have bite size food on hand. These hearty sausage cheese bites can be eaten on the go or served for breakfast or as snacks.

Those of you who are on gluten free diets know how difficult it can be to find good bread based recipes. These sausage cheese bites are very much like the traditional sausage balls I used to

These Are A Few Of Your Favorite Things

Hi everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, as my family and I did. Now that the holidays are over, I have started a different type of project. I'm redecorating my blog. This will be done in stages over the next little while, so if you see anything weird here, that's the reason. My goal is to have it mainly done by the end of the week, but we'll see how that goes.

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Merry Christmas 2011

Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas filled with peace, joy, and love.  Listen to this little girl singing about the reason for the season.

Christmas Greetings From Holly 2011

Hello friends! It's Holly, Mommy's chihuahua checking in again. Don't you love this time of year? It's a special time for me because I joined my forever family around this time two years ago. I was just a baby about 10 weeks old, when my (now) Mommy and her Dad drove all the way to another state to get me. I guess that means I was special!
If only I had known then that Mommy had plans to dress

Traditional Family Room Tree

Do you remember my family room Christmas mantel? When I showed it to you a few weeks ago, I promised to show the tree beside it in more detail. Well, now that the crafting and decorating has wound down for the holidays, we'll take a closer look at my family room tree.

While the other trees in our house are all theme trees, this is the one that is truly a family tree. You know the tree with no

Edible Christmas Trees: Family Craft Series

Children of all ages (young and um, those who are kids at heart) love anticipating what they will "receive" for Christmas.

Why not teach them the joy of "giving" as well? One of the ways a lot of us give to family and friends is by sharing our love of food and entertaining. I believe the reason I love cooking and entertaining is because my Mom had me in the kitchen working with her for as long

Old Fashion Ornaments- Family Craft Series

Everyone loves seeing Christmas trees during the holiday because the pretty ornaments are so mesmerizing. Why not make some holiday memories by making some special ornaments. This is part 2 of my family craft series. Each craft in the series is an easy craft that a parent or grandparent can do with a child. If you missed part one yesterday, it was a glittered gift box decoration.

The ornaments

Glittered Gift Box Decoration- Family Crafting Series

Many of us are so busy with our daily lives that we sometimes have a hard time finding ways to spend quality time with our families during the holidays. If you are struggling with that this season, take a little time to do some craft projects with your family. Not only will you have fun spending time together, but you'll have lasting memories as you put out your handmade decorations each year.

Gingerbread Party Features

A special thank you to EVERYONE who participated in my Gingerbread Party last week. I loved looking at all your gingerbread ideas.

I had a really hard time narrowing down my choices, but here are my features from the party.....

We'll start with YOUR pick! You all must really love gingerbread decor! Debbie-Dabble's Gingerbread And Candy Kitchen was the most viewed post on the party! If you are

Shabby Apple Jewelry Giveaway and Discount Code

Have you heard of Shabby Apple? They sell vintage women's dresses, maternity dresses, and little girls dresses. Shabby Apple also sells vintage jewelry, accessories, and items for gifts and the home.

A few of my favorite pieces of their jewelry include...

This gorgeous Spring Bloom 26 inch long necklace....


This pretty Anubis bracelet.....


And these lovely Gold Fill Green Swarovski

We Have 12 Winners.....

Thank you to everyone who participated in my Gingerbread Party! Since this was my first party, I had no idea how it would go, but several of you told me you had a lot of views from the party and deemed it a success. I'm so happy you had a great time and enjoyed seeing new ideas everyone else had. If you missed the party this past week, you can still see the great ideas HERE.


Over the weekend,

Not Your Average Fruitcake

We've all heard the jokes about receiving fruitcake for Christmas, and it's easy to understand why the traditional hard and dry fruitcake is not popular. We have made this "Not Your Average" Fruitcake many times during Christmas and have given it as gifts and served it at parties with rave reviews. This fruitcake is flavorful and moist with a nice, firm texture without being hard like some

Decorate Your Home For The Holidays With Partylite

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of PartyLite Simple Pleasures Holiday Sweepstakes. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I'm in the mood to refresh the look of my home, I often am able to switch out the accessories for a new look. Candles are a great way to do that because there are so many colors and styles of candles to fit any decor and the wonderful aromas make your guests feel

Our Christmas Living Room

Today let's finish up the tour of our home's formal living area. If you missed a post over the last few days, I also shared our dining room and foyer decorated for the holidays. Our home is an open floor plan with all three of these areas opening up to each other, so it made sense to decorate them with the same theme. As you may recall, this area of the house honors the reason for the season by

Save Money At Applebee's During Gift Card Weekend!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gift Card Weekend. All opinions are 100% mine.

We all know this is the season of giving. One of the easiest gifts to buy that is always the right color, the right size, and just what the recipient wanted is a gift card. Why not get more for your money by purchasing gift cards from companies participating in Gift Card Weekend?

If you've never

Our Christmas Dining Room

Thank you for the nice compliments on our foyer. Now I will show you the dining room decorated for Christmas. The foyer and dining room are one open space with the dining area defined by columns. As you will see, we get to enjoy the views of both spaces at the same time.


This is the dining area as you'd see it from the front door.

View of the dining room taken from the stairs in the foyer.

Our Foyer At Christmas

Hello! Welcome to my home. Today let's take a peek at my family's foyer. This area is not very big, our home has an open floor plan with our living room and formal dining area on each side of this space. That means this is probably the most formal area of our home. You may have guessed by now that my family and I are very casual people, so even our "formal" areas aren't stuffy at all. One of the

The French Reindeer

Do some of your old Christmas decorations need a bit of updating? Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing some tips on how to bring new life to some things you probably already have. With a few craft supplies and a little bit of time and imagination, you'll have some trendy Christmas decorations that are unique to you and your home.

While this reindeer doesn't have a red nose and may never

Christmas Boutique Bow For Girl Dogs

Hi doggie friends! It's Holly, Mommy's chihuahua checking in again. Thank you for all your compliments on my post over the weekend. If you didn't see it, I modeled a Christmas Bow Tie Collar Mommy made for boy dogs.

I mentioned how I wanted to play instead of pose for pictures. Well, she put another collar on me and expected me to pose again! At least I was happier I was wearing a Christmas

Our Christmas Mantel

Christmas is the time when we think about family the most, so I thought it was appropriate to show you the mantel in the room my family gathers the most. To give you an idea of what you are seeing, our kitchen and family room are on an open floor plan with one room connecting to another. Since we have the gingerbread tree in the kitchen, we are keeping the traditional red and green colors and

A Collection of Christmas Decor Craft Projects

Many of us are very busy this time of year making special things to make our house festive for the holidays. If you need some extra ideas that can be enjoyed in your own home or given as a gift, I've gathered some of the Christmas tutorials I've done in the last year so you can more easily find them.

Make Your Own Christmas CottageIf you like cardboard houses, you will enjoy making your own

Christmas Bow Tie Dog Collar (For Boy Dogs)

Hello friends! It's Holly, Mommy's chihuahua checking in again today. I want to tell you about my embarrassing day yesterday.

Well.....It was not a good one. See, I wanted to play, but Mommy insisted on taking pictures of me.

They weren't even pictures where I got to be frilly and pretty. Mommy really needs a BOY dog to model her boy designs, but since she doesn't have a boy dog, guess who gets

Our Kitchen Christmas Tree

We aren't finished decorating the house for Christmas, but I wanted to share the first tree we put up. For several years I've wanted a large gingerbread theme tree, but we've never really had room for it. There were already 3 trees in the main living areas of the house, so there was no space for one.

Instead, I've hung a garland with gingerbread ornaments hanging on the kitchen window for the