Heirloom Wreath How-To

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Best wishes to you and your family during the holiday season!

I love wreaths! They are great on front doors and interior walls alike and fun for all seasons. I saw this amazing beaded wreath in a Martha Stewart Magazine and knew I had to have it.  I can't really imagine Martha sitting around and stringing hundred of seed bead but I suppose one of the advantages of being a billionaire is that your have minions to do these things for you. This isn't a very difficult project, just a time consuming one, so pop in your favorite holiday movie(s) and get to it! I have included the directions straight from the source here:

I followed these instructions completely but if I were do this again I would make the ring that you attach the leaves to out of a less malleable/ larger gauge wire because the ring has a tendency to become slightly ovoid when hanging under the weight of all the beads. 

All of the leaf and pearl bunches ready to go

Just tie a bow on the wreath and hang it up!

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Polar Vortex Craft: Little Glitter Village

For years my mother, our neighbor and I would gather around the Holidays to make a little glitter house/church/barn/store. We first saw them in an old Martha Stewart magazine, though you can find abundant examples in the world of Pinterest. This is a multi-part project. The first step is to make a pattern. Here are the two original Martha Stewart patterns, which can modified to make your dream house:

This pattern is one I modified to make a church for the village.

Make your pattern on regular paper or if you are feeling brave draw it right on to your light weight cardboard. Use an exacto knife to cut out the house and windows/doors and score the folding edges to facilitate folding. Next, it's time to fold and glue. If you have a LOT of patience feel free to hold it together yourself... me, I prefer a good rubber band after a minute of hand holding. 

After a few hours of drying, it's time to spray paint it with primer and pick out what color your house will be. The first year I chose to paint my house a bright pink (of course, this is me) and my fellow crafters looked at me like I was out of my mind. They shouldn't have... it turned out great and didn't look out of place with their tamer pastel houses. 

After the paint is dry, you can apply fake snow (see below). After that dries it is time to do the all-over glitter. Paint on a light coat of thinned modge podge or elmers craft glue (watered down) and lightly pour very fine glitter over the wet glue, collecting excess to be reused. 

The middle glitter is coarser and used for the roof, the left glitter is for the rest of the house, and the Snow-Tex gives a snowy texture to the roofs. 

After you are done with the painting and glittering, it's time to place little pieces of velum behind all of the window openings (you can mark mullions on with white pencil) and mini wreaths (trimmed down greenery or mini garland). 

That is pretty much it! As the years have gone by we have made our patterns more and more complicated and added little winter accessories like trees, which can be found in the home decor area of most stores around the holidays. 

Happy Holidays!

Snowballs and Sleigh Bells and Schnitzel with Noodles

It's that time of year - holiday party season! Mull the wine or apple cider, pull out the candy canes and deck the halls! We typically get 2-3 weeks off from school around the holidays so our holiday parties have to be a bit early. During grad school and the first year of med school I had holiday parties for some of my classmates.

I included the invite which can be modified in Illustrator/Photoshop/PPT
(obviously omitting my address and phone number)

 The first year I had a soup party (chili, butternut squash soup and chicken & wild rice.) The second year I did bruschetta and some appetizers, including my popular blink-and-it's-gone brie (space unwrapped caramels cubes out evenly on top of the brie, sprinkle craisins and diced dried apricots on, pop in the oven until the caramel melts). Here are some of the other recipes that were a hit:

This is my Grandma Miller's recipe and it is wonderful!

This one is courtesy of my mom and also fabulous

 These are chewy and delicious! Don't expect them to last long :)

These literally melt in your mouth thanks to the powdered sugar. Courtesy of my neighbor.

As gifts, I gave out these cute little cocoa balls:

You can google drink mixes. I didn't love the one I used so that's why I'm not posting it here.

To make the cocoa balls: Buy clear ornaments and rinse them out. Pour in your mix.  Place half of a candy cane in the ball with a mini marshmallow on the outer end (to prevent mix from coming out) and secure the gold ornament top back on. Use ribbon to tie on your drink instructions.

I'm off to go light a pine candle, make some mulled wine, hang the mistletoe and wrap some presents!

Happy Holidays! Thanks for reading and be sure to subscribe!