Santa's Checklist

So I realized to download Santa's checklist off of Scribd, you would have to be a member or join Scribd.  Nobody likes having to join a site just to download or view things.  So I am going to try a different way to make things easier.  I started a Wordpress blog just so I could upload my pdfs and you guys could download without a hassle.  I hope this works.

Just click the image.

Santa's Checklist

Or you can download it HERE.

Isn't that nicer?

Holiday Crafting

I hope everyone is enjoy their last week before Christmas.  Have you finished decorating, shopping, and wrapping present?  We have finished decorating and shopping.  But every present is under the tree in shipping boxes.  I guess it is time for me to open some boxes and start wrapping.  I can't believe Christmas is almost here.  I am sad it will be over soon and then the decorations will be taken down.  I just love Holiday decorations.  We got our tree the first Saturday of December so we could have holiday decorations all month.  We went to a tree farm, had Addison chop it down, and take it to the truck.  

We took it home and decorated it.  It is beautiful!  Addison wakes up every morning, looks at the tree, and starts singing "Oh Christmas Tree".

I just love my ornaments.  I also stitched some ornaments for the tree:

And made snow globes for the house:

Holiday music is playing and Holiday Crafts are being made.  I have finally finishing making 60 Holiday cards and mailed them.  I can't believe I got them out before Christmas.  I am so proud of myself.

Here are our Christmas cards this year:

The snow and the leaves are felt.  

The inside left.

The inside right.

I especially love the infographic.  It makes the Year in Review letter so cute and interesting.  I will definitely be using this style again.

And here's Addison's full picture:

He's so handsome.

I also made everyone felt poinsettas.  They were made into pins or bookmarks.  So they had a surprise in their card.

I also thought it would be cute to make Santa's checklist.  It's a checklist you can use for your kids so they have something from Santa on Christmas morning. Just fill out the blanks and it look like Santa left a receipt that toys were delivered.  I have never used InDesign and I had fun making it.  Addison was worried if I posted it online a child would find it and find out Santa's wasn't real.  I told him maybe they will just think they stumbled upon classified North Pole paperwork.  :)

http://paperandpi.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/santa_checklist.pdf

The checklist is 5"x7".  You can download on to your computer and then print it out.   I cut them a little smaller and glued the on red 5"x7" cardstock.  Gluing them a Christmas cardstock would be nice also.  I hope everyone enjoys them.  You can download it above or below.  I found out with Scribd you have to be a member or join so I have another option if you aren't a member of Scribd.

Santa's Checklist pdf 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Slow Cooker French Onion Soup

I made soup in the slow cooker yesterday.  I started it before diving so when we returned from diving we had warm yummy french onion soup.  I tried to take step by step pictures but trying to take pictures of anything in my slow cooker insert is almost impossible.  All this pictures turned out too dark. 

I thought I would share the recipe even if I don't have step by step pictures.  Notice the instructions are if you have a slow cooker insert that is stovetop safe.  If you do not, just use a pot.  

SLOW COOKER FRENCH ONION SOUP

INGREDIENTS

6 tablespoons butter
4 large yellow onions, sliced and separated into rings
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cooking sherry
6 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaf

1 teaspoon sugar, can be omitted
1 loaf French bread, sliced and toasted
1 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese

salt

pepper


DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat butter in slow cooker insert over medium-high heat.

2. Add onions. Cook and stir onion until they are translucent about 10 minutes. 

3.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Sprinkle onions with 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Stirring onions constantly, cook onions until they are soft and browned about 30 minutes.  

4. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.

5. Add sherry and scrape the bottom of the pot to release the brown bits. 

6. Pour in beef broth.  Add thyme, bay leaf, and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Also add salt, season to taste.

7. Place insert in slow cooker.  Cover slow cooker, cook for 4-6 hours on HIGH.

8. Turn oven on Broil and toast the french bread slices.  

9. When soup is done.  Scoop into oven safe bowls and add some toasted bread slices.  Add cheese on top of the soup and bread.

10. Put bowls on to a baking sheet and put in oven.  Broil for about 1-2 minutes.  Until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

11.  Serve warm

The salad is Michael Symon's Spinach Salad With Fried Egg, Bacon And Mushroom. You can find the recipe here. It's one of our favorites.  I hope you enjoy,

Updated Store

http://paperandpi.bigcartel.com

I have update my store with holiday goodies.  I will also be updating my Etsy site sometime this week as well.  If you would like handmade holiday cards, tags or wreaths, take time to browse and shop.  Also, everyone that reads my blog will get 15% off your order by using the code: BLOG.


How was everyone's Thanksgiving?  Ours was wonderful.  We went to the Godfather's brother's house (our other family) and ate and laughed and ate again.  Everyone brought so much food that everyone had to take naps in between stuffing our faces.  All the food was delicious and it turned out to be a perfect Thanksgiving.

I think mentioned before I made Thanksgiving crafts for the table decorations.  Here's what the tables  looked like:

I am already brainstorming on what our Christmas table decorations will look like. I will definitely do the embroidery hoops again.  I love the way they turned out.  I am really loving hand-stitching right now.  First the banners and now the hoops.  Speaking of banners I need to finish 3 before Christmas.   I have too many crafting projects to do this month.  People will be getting a lot of handmade gifts this year.

I will try to post everything I have been creating and I won't forget about cooking.  I found another soup recipe I would like to try this week.  And I need talk more about the embroidery hoops.  I bought the book "Stitched Gifts "and it inspired me to do so many things.

Well, I need to start sewing.  Talk to you soon.

Where have I been? NYC!!!

Guess who got married? My favorite couple, Michael and Daniel!!!


Michael and Daniel decided to get married Friday, Oct. 26 on a sunny New York City day at the courthouse. Addison was the ring bearer.  The ceremony was beautiful.  It was wonderful to see all the family and friends that attended.  I was happy to have my family be a part of it.  And I feel like our family is growing even bigger now because of this marriage.

This trip was also a nice family vacation because it was the first time JT and Addison have ever been to NYC.  I of course had to pack everything in for 3 day so they could see everything.  I remember my mom taking me to NYC for the first time.  I was in awe of everything.  I wanted Addison to remember this trip like I remember mine.  So, we did everything.

We went to the 9/11 Memorial.

We took the boat to see the Statue of Liberty.

We went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and more.

We walked across Central Park to get to the Guggenheim and enjoyed the beautiful architecture and art at the Guggenheim.

We went to Times Square.

We went to the Empire Statue Building at night.

And took Addison Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center.

We did a lot of walking and knew how to ride the subway like a real New Yorker by the end of the trip  (the app on our phones really helped out a lot).

Sunday night we realized we need to probably get out of NYC before Hurricane Sandy hit.  We were fortunate that we drove and didn't get stuck.  Michael and Daniel weren't so lucky and had to stay until Thursday.

Our hearts go out to everyone that was affected by Hurricane Sandy. We still can't believe the pictures of all the devastation.  We are fortuante that our family and friends are safe.  But not everyone was that lucky.  Please if you guys donate to the Red Cross to help. You can donate at their website here. Or you can text Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

I have been busy making Thanksgiving cards and crafting for Thanksgiving. I promise to be back soon.  This one post a month is horrible.  Sorry that I have been slacking.

If I don't blog before Thursday, Happy  Thanksgiving.

Talk to you soon