White Christmas Painted Wood Sign

I saw this idea from The House of Smiths last year and couldn't wait to try it! 

I started with a wood plaque from Hobby Lobby ($3).

I then placed a push pin in each corner of the plaque to keep the paint from sticking to the newspaper.

I covered the entire plaque using "Santa Red" Americana Acrylic Paint (3-4 coats).
You can apply this paint with a foam brush but an actual paint brush (1 to 2 inch width) allows you
to get the sides a little easier.  Lastly, I cut my design out on white vinyl and
 placed it on the painted plaque after it dried.

My Christmas Card

Here's my Christmas Card that I made and that I am sending out this year!  

I made 50 of these ...I'm surprised that I'm done so early!

Welcome Back Card

Here's a card that I made recently.  We had a co-worker come back to work after leaving us for a few months.  We designated him the Brett Favre of the pharmacy so I made a card to go with the theme! :)

Spray Painted Acorns

I decided to make use of all the acorns in my yard this year. 
It was a fairly quick project but I some how managed to drag it out over several weeks.




I took the acorns and popped the tops off of each one of them.
I then began spraying and turning them with each coat of paint until they were completely covered.

Here's the finished product after several sprays.

Rust-oleum had a beautiful fall orange color (cinnamon) that I just had to try!

Don't forget to save your tops!

Pull out your glue gun and glue the tops back on the acrons.

I had a lot of help.  Can't you tell?

Can a dog be jealous of acorns?  I think she was.

Here's part of my final product.  Just in time for Thanksgiving! Whew!

Here's where I put the rest of the acorns.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Caramel Syrup

Chocolate Chip Pancakes
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp. Salt
4 tsp. Baking Powder
3 Tbsp White Sugar
2 Whole Eggs
1-½ Cups Warm Milk
⅓ Cup Butter, Melted
2 tsp. Vanilla
3/4 - 1 Cups Chocolate Chips

Preparation Instructions:
1. Preheat your waffle iron according to manufacturer’s instructions.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and beat until blended. Slowly add in the chocolate chips and mix.
4. Pour batter into the waffle iron, according to manufacturer’s instructions and cook until golden and crisp. Remove the cooked waffle from the waffle iron and continue with the rest of the batter.  Tip:  Continue to stir the batter as you go or else your last waffle will have a large amount of chocolate chips in it.  Although, several people may prefer it that way! 

Caramel Syrup

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 stick butter

2 Tbsp. corn syrup

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine buttermilk, sugar, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda in a LARGE pot.  This syrup will boil all over your stove if you put it in a smaller saucepan.  Bring the ingredients to a boil and reduce heat to low (as long as it’s still bubbling, you’re okay). Cook, stirring very frequently, for 8-9 minutes. You’re basically making candy here and candy-making requires constant vigilance.

When it’s done, it should take on this luscious golden-brown color. Remove from heat and add vanilla.There will be foam on top. It tastes just as good, but it’s not super pretty. If you’re into aesthetics, you can skim it off; otherwise, just give it a good stir.

          

Paper Pumpkins

As soon as I saw this 3D Pumpkin design on the silhouette online store, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Here are the pieces that are included in this design.

First, glue the jagged edged rectangular piece into a cylinder.

Once the glue has dried flare out the ends of each side.

Then glue a strip onto each one of the tabs and repeat this again with the opposite side.

Lastly top the pumpkin with a stem, and you are done!

Fall Orange Burlap Wreath

Fall is here in Texas!  

Since we only have 2 or 3 weeks of fall in Texas, it's definitely something to celebrate!

I saw this tutorial post from Whipperberry last year and just had to make this wreath in orange.  The love for orange I'm sure has something to do with my alma mater (University of Texas).  Hook Em! :) 

Word of CAUTION:   Be careful where you make this wreath... by the time I was done, there was an orange film of burlap dust ALL OVER my living room!  I definitely have a new found respect for those poor ladies at the fabric store that have to cut burlap all day long! 

The rainbow broke my camera!

I know that I have not posted much lately.  The biggest reason is that my camera broke.

We had a beautiful rainbow appear one evening and I just had to take some pictures.  When I went to edit my photos, I realized that there was a small blue line down the left side of all my pictures.  I tried to buff out the majority of the blue lines from those pictures but I don't want to keep doing that every time I take a picture.

I at least got rid of the majority of the blue line in this picture.
 Even though it broke my camera, it is still a great reminder of God's Promises

 I've been relying solely on my iPhone, Instagram, and Pixlromatic app.  I've finally ordered a new camera (Cannon Powershot sx260 hs) and I'm hoping it will be here by next week!  I thought this might be my opportunity to branch out into the DSLR world.  But ultimately the ease of use and smaller size of the point and shoot camera won out.  It's just too easy to stick it into a backpack when were hiking or place it into the console on the boat  

So in the meantime while I'm waiting on the camera to come in, here's what we've been up to the last few weeks (fishing, hunting, and a trip to the Pecos River).