DIY Pom Pom Garland

I have a really easy DIY project for you today.  It's perfect for your holiday mantle, your Christmas tree, your next party or anything festive that you're doing.  I had good intentions of making a Christmas wreath from extra pine tree branches, but that didn't happen.  This may just end up being my only DIY of the season and I'm okay with that.  It turned out great!

I had been on the hunt for an oversized pom pom garland for a while and couldn't find what I wanted.  Time to make my own!

I'm traditional with my Christmas decorations and want them to be bright red, green and white.  I love pom poms and polka-dots.  I found these stockings from TJ Maxx online a couple of years ago.  They're so pretty.

I was doing some Christmas shopping and noticed that the gift wrap section was full of cute stuff at my local TJ Maxx.  These pom poms caught my eye.  They were perfect for my project.  Each set was $2.99 and the pom poms were huge.  I picked up four sets and then got some dark green yarn.

I cut each pom pom out of the package and cut off the sticker backing.  Each one was meant to be a bow on a gift.  Since I was using them for something else I cut the backing off.  I pre cut my green yard to the length of my mantle.  I strung the yarn through the loop and then tied a knot in it.

I eyeballed the spacing with a pair of small scissors.  I did this for all 8 pom poms.

I love how it turned out!  I hung it with clear tape on my mantle.  The white pom pom garland was from a local home decor shop.  I just love the layered pom poms this year.  The whole garland cost me about $12 and took about 15 minutes from start to finish.  I'm thrilled with the results and would highly recommend checking out the pom poms in the gift wrap section of stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Homegoods if you are interested in making a garland for yourself.

 One of my very favorite spots to decorate in my home in each month.

Now on to my next DIY project... wrapping Christmas presents :)
Have you started wrapping yours yet?

Winter Outfit Inspiration

It's gotten COLD in the Midwest.

We wake up to frosty temps almost every day.  We haven't gotten much snow just yet, but I hear it's coming.  I still need to officially switch my closet over to winter.  Pull out my sweaters, cardigans and duck boots.  It's been on my to do list for a couple of weeks now.  I just keep putting it off and pulling out a sweater or two at a time to wear.  Can you relate??

I'm excited to show you some of my favorite cold weather outfit combos today.  They're easy, comfy and cute.  They are perfect for a busy mom on the go who wants to look put together.

I have a few secrets:
1. Old Navy Rockstar Skinny Jeans.  I like the mid rise jeggings and cute booties.

2. Ankle booties.  I love the Lucky brand booties because the quality is amazing.  They come out with a slightly new style every year.  They're such great quality and hold up for years.  I also found a really affordable pair at TJ Maxx this year that I've added into the rotation.

3. Only buy items that you LOVE.
I've been working to eliminate clutter in my closet over the last year.  Only keeping the things that I really love wearing and feel good in.  It makes getting dressed lots easier and I'm always looking for ways to edit my closet down to my favorites.

Matilda Jane.  I love their tops.  Every time I wear this top from last year I get so many compliments on it.  It's a closet staple and it feels special.

Statement sweater.  I picked this up at Style Encore.  It was new with tags and I love it.  It's super soft and an easy way to make a plain outfit interesting.

Wal-Mart puffer jackets.
These Time and Tru jackets are just $20 and are so cute.  I love my black and pink ones.

Mad for Plaid!
I try to pick up a new flannel every year.  This bright one is from Gap Factory this year and it's the best.  It feels festive and fun and is really soft.

Plaid Peplum with bell sleeves.  This came from Loft earlier this summer.  I just love it!

Plaid layers.  I'm on the hunt for a new dark wash denim jacket.  I want it to be soft and lightweight.  That seems to be a tall order.  I haven't found any that I love so I keep wearing this light wash jacket.  It's not my favorite, but I'm making due until I can replace it was a favorite item.

 Ruffles.  Have you seen all the pretty ruffles on shirts this season?? I love this mid arm ruffle and the distressed denim from Old Navy.

Comfy Clothes:
Chances are pretty good if you stopped by my house... you'd see me in my North Face fleece, yoga pants and comfy clothes.  School drop off uniform usually involves yoga pants.  And that Old Navy floral sweatshirt is a favorite.  Throw on some make up and some cute studs and you're set!

What are your go to outfits for Winter??

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place / Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter 

Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam & Dylan Too / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest / Facebook

Keri at Keri Lynn Synder / Faceobok / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Mauri at The American Patriette /  Facebook /  Pinterest / Instagram

Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World /  Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter

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My Favorite Christmas Recipes for Families

Anyone else doing some baking this week??

I'm hoping to make some cookies for neighbors, teachers, friends and fireman.  It should be a yummy week.  I'm planning to do some sugar cookies, monster cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Here are my favorite Christmas recipes that are fun to make with your kids!  My kids love to help me in the kitchen.  Most of the time they are pretty helpful.  Minus the times when Fletcher dumps a container of sprinkles in the kitchen or when they want to lick all the utensils.  Overall, they're sweet helpers.

1. Rice Krispie Treats
I love finding the Christmas Rice Krispies this time of year.  I found ours at Meijer.  Olive buttered our pan, measured the ingredients and helped dump everything in while Fletcher napped.  Then he was happy to be a taste tester when he woke up.

Tip: Save a handful of mini marshmallows to sprinkle on top once you get the cereal and melted marshmallows combined.  We shared these with our neighbors.

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Christmas sprinkles is an easy way to make a regular cookie feel really festive.  I use my favorite chocolate chip recipe and dip the dough in sprinkles before I bake.  

Real life: Fletcher insisted on helping me sprinkle long after the cookies were baked.  Sprinkles went everywhere... yikes!  Future baker!?! 

3. Christmas Snicker Doodles
Add red and green sprinkles to your favorite Snicker Doodle mix.  I've tried lots of recipes and the very best Snicker Doodle I've ever made is this Krusteaz box mix.  Every time I take these cookies somewhere people end up asking me for the recipe.  They're so easy and so good!  My family loves them, too.

They stack so nicely for gifts.  We're delivering these to Fletcher's teacher and Olive's bus driver.

Here are a few more dessert recipes from the archives.  They're all delicious!

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Reindeer Cookies

I made my GO TO RECIPE for MONSTER COOKIES
They're always a crowd pleaser.
I just swap out the M&M color to match the event - holidays, game days, etc.

I made some sugar cookies and used all the Christmas sprinkles we had.
You can use any sugar cookie recipe
and top them with my Perfect Buttercream.  They'll be delicious!

Tell me what you're baking for Christmas!

Christmas Home Tour 2018

Happy Monday!  Our house is finally all decorated for Christmas and I'm ready to share it with you.  My MIL came for a visit last week so I snapped so pictures while I had everything tidied up :)   Rest assured there are still plenty of things out of place, but our home is well loved and well lived in.

The main things that I bought new this year were bottle brush trees.  I just love them!  I also went through every Christmas decoration we own and donated two big boxes of them.  I weeded out broken things, decorations we no longer loved or needed and it felt so good to declutter.  We just decorated with our favorite things.

Welcome to our house at Christmas time!  Come on in :)

Our family room.

I loved mixing my house plants with my Christmas decor this year.

We've been collecting Irish nutcrackers/Santas for a while.

Our real tree looks and smells so good!

This is the super kid friendly section.  I let the kids decorate and rearrange it all month long.  Most things aren't breakable and their holiday books go here.  They play with this stuff every day.

Fletcher.  The destroyer of Christmas decorations.

Festive Kitchen:

Fletcher's Christmas Decorations.
Both kids have everything from baby ornaments to their current favorite things on their trees.

Olive's Christmas Decorations.

Kid's Bathroom decked out for Christmas.

A fun hope-to-do list for the month of December.  We came up with it together as a family and are having a great time crossing things off the list.

The cats of the house say hello.  They don't get much blog air time anymore, but Topher, Oliver & Scrappy say hi.  Topher is 9.  Oliver is 10.  Scrappy came with our house.  He is an outdoor cat that calls our deck home.  He loves for us to feed him, but he is not interested in us getting close.

Now it's time to link up with my blog friends for a Holiday Home Tour!

I can't wait to see how everyone decorated this year.

This year's Holiday Home Tour hosts include Crystal, Leslie, Becky, Penny, Stephanie, Shelly, Whitney, and Keri. I would love for you to visit the homes of these ladies, they have such beautiful spaces and I love the holiday touches they have throughout their homes.

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