CHRISTMAS WONDERFUL link party with Design Dazzle

 Oooo! Oooo!

i'm SOOO excited!

i've got a special link party for you!

i've joined with the gals from the awesome DESIGN DAZZLE blog to bring you a party 

you. do. not. want. to. miss!

early december i will have a special post on their blog for their christmas series! yahooo!

but for now, 

ya GOTTA check out what the wonderful gals from 

DESIGN DAZZLE 

have done to bring so many of us together!
take it away ladies :)

If you've been reading the blog lately, you may have noticed that our 4th annual Christmas Wonderful series is in full swing! We've had some fabulous ideas from some talented ladies and we're not done yet...the fun is continuing through the middle of December! We thought it would be great to have one big giant link party to celebrate this magical Christmas season because we know YOU have some awesome ideas to share too! Simply link up your project below, which will show up on all of the 20+ blogs participating in our link party. Feel free to link up new projects as well as any past projects that you want to share. At the end of our link party (December 14th), we're going to feature some of our favorite Christmas ideas! The following amazing blogs are participating in our Christmas Wonderful link party: Uncommon Designs | The Cards We Drew | Life as a Thrifter | Ginger Snap Crafts | a girl and a gluegun | A Pretty Life | Frog Prince Paperie | Commona-My House | Dimple Prints | kiki & company | Confetti Sunshine | BellaGrey Designs | Clean and Scentsible | Holy Craft | hoopla palooza | Not Just a Mommy | Giggles Galore | Simply Designing | I Dig Pinterest | Happiness is Homemade | Paisley Petal Events | Bloom Designs Online | The Scrap Shoppe | She's Crafty Crafty | Three Little Monkeys Studio

thanks so much for linking up!!!

happy gobble til you wobble day!

dear turkeys,

i want to take a moment out of this day to thank you.

thank you for giving up your lives for us folks even when you feel neglected.

source

and for feeding our children as well.

source

and for teaching us that we need to cook properly if we want to have a memorable dinner.

source

so to that, i commend you, 

source

for giving us your all!

LOVE,

a grateful and full fan

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!

:) have a wonderful holiday :)

turkey time thanksgiving roundup 2013

well, in 2 more days it will be officially

turkey time!

so hopefully all you chickens out there are happy you are chickens and not turkeys.

?!?

anywho, just in case you missed a thanksgiving post, here's a quick synopsis:

if you like silly surprised treats: turkey stuffed pilgrim cookies

or are into the feather dudes: indian macarons

how about some zero calorie pies?: pie trivets

or high calorie pies? shortbread pie cookies

or stuff to make the pies (not really): thanksgiving utensil centerpiece

and because i have things to be thankful for like you: give thanks pumpkin garland

i have lots of collaborations with some awesome blogger buddies of mine coming up in the next few weeks like a christmas link party, 12 bloggy days of christmas, gingerbread fun, yummy christmas cookies and an awesome giveaway you will not wanna miss coming up soon!!!

so i will be back after black friday with an empty wallet and a full belly. 

have a heckuva wonderfully wonder full blessedly blessed thanksgiving holiday everybody!

and a bajillion kajillion billion thanks to 

YOU!

on line bake sale for the Philippines

today is a day to bring everyone together for a very good purpose.

early november of this year, 

many many people in the Philippines suffered a horrific typhoon.

there are many people in need of our help.

so today i urge you to help by taking part in an 
online bake sale!

that's right folks, all that you see here, you can bid on!

see those snowmen?

you can bid on them and i will mail them to you if you win the bid!

so please go on and take a closer look over at Tina's blog and you can see and bid on any of the wonderful treats 38 other bloggers made as well.

the auction will start at 8am CST/9am EST and will be open for 24 hours. please join us in this fundraiser to benefit Typhoon Haiyan victims in the Philippines. all donations will be directed to Sagip Kapamilya.  

thank you SO SO SO much!

my country thanks YOU.

shortbread cookie pies

"easy as pie."

hmmm...

who do you suppose made that saying up? 

i mean, after all these years, 

i FINALLY signed up on FB and it was not easy as pie...

so i do wonder where that saying originated from.

i don't think it was the average person, as pies can be a little tricky to make.

especially the crust part.

and then when you slave over the hot oven to make the pies, and bring them to thanksgiving dinner, and everyone says 

"oh no thank you! i couldn't eat another bite!"

well, then the saying "easy as pie" kinda doesn't make dealing with rejection so easy.

so what about you make something where everyone will actually want a piece, even if their button is popping outta their pants after a huge turkey dinner.

you can say this:

man that is tiny!

let's see how to make these.

and these don't even require the usual crust making.

you can use whatever sugar cookie or shortbread recipe you want. but i like shortcuts and the taste of these cookies.

and there is your crust bottom.

wasn't that easy?

now for the filling.

you'll still have some plain dough left over, and you'll see what to do with that in a sec.

now for the pretty lattice, which is the hardest part when it comes to making these but it's actually still easy.

look! 

you made a cherry pie.

and we still have dough left over so let's make another kind of pie.

i colored a very small amount of dough white (like 2 tbsp or so).

hey now you have cherry and pumpkin pies!

so just bake as directed on the package and...

and look. 

there's more where that came from.

watch out for popping buttons!

now wasn't that "easy as pie?"

indian macarons

huh?

you wanna know how i made these?

 ok, but first i must say that i have to give credit to the indians when it comes to thanksgiving cuz they, after all, were the ones to show the pilgrims how to make a lot of things at a time of great need.

and i already made pilgrims for thanksgiving so today we are making indians...

...out of macarons.

it's not as hard as you think really!

see, look:

the recipe comes from HERE on the martha site and i pretty much followed her directions to a "T" except i used almond flour that i bought at tj maxx awhile ago. 

it's much much easier to use than ground almonds and i think that is the reason why macarons are tricky to make in the first place.

but these were easy for me.

except i was doing 99 other things at the time. 

like helping my son with his homework.

and cooking dinner.

and washing dishes.

and talking on the phone.

and and and....

well, you get the picture.

when you pipe the feathers, be sure to only do it for HALF the cookies as the ones without will be the back of each macaron.

so anywho, 

i thought the banging was enough to smooth the macaron out and the heat from the oven would help too but well, when you are doing 99 other things, everything doesn't always work out.

but these cookies are for my family and i wasn't picky really.

i mean i did make some good ones for the first time here, and this was only my 2nd time to make these.

 i also forgot to let them sit long enough unlike the first time i made them but, 

oh well, c'est la vie.

just be sure to follow martha's recipe to a T if you want perfect macarons!

now for the filling, see my first macaron recipe here. i could use another recipe but i distinctly remember how delicious these were the first time so i made them again.

so i guess they came out alright after all.

next time i will scratch out the 98 other things i am doing and concentrate on these alone. 

sigh.

that's how.

huh?

whatev.

oh and btw,i had a little leftover green macaron batter so i piped 2 cookies to make one macaron.

and this is what i did with the green one:

finally those darn food markers work like they're supposed to!

i must make more macarons so i can draw again!

only there is always so much to do every day.

so the question is,

how?

thanksgiving utensil centerpiece

we are still on turkey mode over here, 

even though christmas has already started in blogland.

so i made some thanksgiving cookies and will make the pies closer to actual turkey day (since i do not like molded pies-how do those other bloggers do it anyway? do they freeze everything?) 

so today i will make a kid's table centerpiece.

tada!

i got these at home goods for $3.99.

not knowing why i needed them til it hit me again like my usual ideas do in the middle of the night.

it's that divine intervention that always comes when i am dead asleep.

i wonder how many ideas i could have if i slept 24/7?

probably millions with no awake time to do any of them.

well, guess you gotta give a little here and there...

oh, back to the craft!

so really it's just taping and cutting and drawing on the utensils.

so you will turn this:

into this:

now grab a jar without the top of the lid and,

jeepers they better not have any pie or the jar will break.

here's hoping for a happy family turkey day celebration for you!