After Christmas giveaways!

• Check out the after christmas giveaway here at maedchenmitherz.
• Win a beautiful necklace here from Jane Deaux Metals.
• Here's a dichroic heart pendant from Helix element jewelry.
• There's lots of goodies to win here at City of Dionne.
  
• Win a Wendy's $5 gift card here at momstart.com.

Tomato Cage Christmas Tree

I love these little trees, but they are always so expensive! Here's a tutorial by Lauren to make one for cheap.

Heavenly cute online class

Over at maedchenmitherz there's going to be an online class! Check it out here!

Scrap Buster Fall Pillow

I love this fall pillow from Cluck Cluck Sew. While you're over there, check out all of the other great tutorials!

Dirt Cake with Worms

This is after we had already dug in!

We had a small Halloween party with Rodney's family. My mother-in-law and I put it all together. One of the desserts I made was a dirt cake with worms (I doubled it) . It was so delicious! Here's the recipe (with my changes):

Dirt Cake with Worms

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes of instant chocolate pudding mix
• 3 1/2 cups of milk (for thicker pudding use less milk)
  
• 2 tubs of Cool Whip (I used 1 big one)
• 1 package of oreos
  
• 1 package of gummy worms (one of the $1 ones at Wal-Mart will be plenty!)
  

Directions:
Mix pudding with milk for 2 minutes (I made my pudding ahead of time and let it chill for about 2 hours)
Mix 1/3 of cool whip with pudding
Crush Oreos in food processor (or in a zipper baggie like I did)
Layer pudding, cool whip, and cookies. Add gummy worms on top to finish. I put about 5 gummy worms in each layer between the cool whip and the cookies for some extra wormies.

Mario and Princess Peach Love

My husband cross stitched this for me using the end of the Bitter Luigi cross stitch pattern. Find it here on spritestitch.

Check it out!

Photo by Kim @ NewlyWoodwards

Check out Kim (and Ryan) at Newlywoodwards for a giveaway! While you're over there check out their awesome renovation work.

Halloween Pillow

I like Halloween, but I also like to keep the decorations for it simple. That's why I love this pillow from Pleasant Home! Super cute and very festive.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amigurumis

Aren't these little Ninja Turtles by atsuko so cute?!?!? The hubby loves them, so I am going to made them for Christmas for him. Check them out on Craftster.

Fall is Coming!

Yay! I love Fall. I'm really excited about Autumn coming and will probably start decorating soon. I have been looking at fall crafts and decorations. My first project will probably be a centerpiece for the table. I love this one from Better Homes & Gardens.

Watermelon Cookies

I love all things watermelon. I just think they are cute. I also think decorated cookies are cute. So, combining the two are double cuteness! I may invite some friends over for a bbq just so I can make these watermelon cookies from the decorated cookie.

House number pots

I love these house number pots! If my house number wasn't 5 numbers long, I would definitely do this. Check out the tutorial on this at Evangeline's Vine.

Headband

I love this DIY headband. I can't wait to try one!

Cute Ideas

So, I haven't been doing anything new lately. No new recipes. No new projects. So, I thought I would link to others that I love.

• Bag of jelly beans @ Purlbee
• A rainbow cake @ Omnomicon
• Roman shades from miniblinds @ Little Green Notebook
• The buttercup bag @ Made by Rae
• Crooked coasters @ the long thread
• Pita bread @ Coconut & Lime

I am also going to make a denim picnic quilt with Little Birdie Secrets.

Salisbury Steaks

So, Rodney LOVES Salisbury steaks. I am quiet fond of them myself. So, since we both liked them, I decided to make some for supper the other night, and I am so glad I did! They were so delicious. I found this recipe.

Salisbury Steaks

Ingredients:

• 1 (10.5 ounce) can French onion soup
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder (I just used regular mustard)
  

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup French onion soup with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and black pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.
2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour off excess fat.
3. In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Notes: Next time I will cook the meat in a cast iron skillet and when I pour the soup mixture over the meat, pop the skillet into the oven to cook.

It turned out excellent and the gravy it made was good over the mashed potatoes.

I am bad

I haven't been posting much. To tell you the truth, I really haven't felt like it. But, 2009 is a new year, and I am feeling cheery and good. So, I will definitely start posting again. I have a lot of new things planned to make and bake and I'm really excited about it. This is going to be a good year.