XOXO Valentine's Cupcakes

As usual, I found inspiration on Pinterest this week.  Check out these cute XOXO cupcakes!

I was racing to prepare donations for the youth group's Valentine Dessert Auction, and decided these would be quick and easy.  I even took a short-cut by ditching the piping bag and opting for frosting in a can.

I think the frosting would have looked a little nicer if I hadn't taken the shortcut, but not bad for a quick treat!

Oreo Truffle Pops for Valentine's Day

I was enlisted to help a friend make truffle pops for a wedding shower.  When I figured out that they were easy, cute AND delicious I decided I'd better find a reason to make another batch.  Thank goodness the youth group needed donations for their Valentine Dessert Auction!  You might need this "fancy" trick up your sleeve, too.

To make truffle pops, you'll need:

• One regular size bag of Oreos
• 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
• One bag of chocolate chips
• Sprinkles
• Cake pop sticks (from Michael's)
• Clear treat sacks (from Michael's)
• Cupcake papers
• Decorative wire garland or ribbon

1.  Place cream cheese and all the Oreos in a food processor.  Pulse until combined and lump free.

2.  Shape dough into balls about 1 1/2" in diameter.  Place truffles on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Insert a stick into the top of each truffle.  Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. 

3.  Using a double-boiler (or your microwave), melt the chocolate chips to a consistency that will be good for dipping.  Dip each truffle into the chocolate until uniformly covered.  

4.  Shake on some sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet.  Return truffle to the baking sheet.  When all the truffles have been dipped, refrigerate for another 15-20 minutes.

5.  Slip a cupcake liner into the bottom of a treat sack.  Add your truffle pop (stick side up) and secure with a piece of wire garland.  You can twist the ends of your garland around a pencil if you want them to have some curl.

Happy Valentine's Truffle Pop Day!

DIY Tablecloth

A nice dining room set is currently on our wish list.  In the meantime, we get along just fine by covering up our sad old table with a nice tablecloth.  I went out and bought a formal white tablecloth and a festive tablecloth for the holidays, but was wanting something more casual for everyday.  Not seeing anything that fit my criteria (1. must love it, 2.  must be able to afford it) I was biding my time.  

And then I stumbled onto this Tablecloth Tutorial on Pinterest: 

Photo & Tutorial from Hamburger Panda

Duh!  I own a sewing machine.  I can sew straight lines with it.  Therefore, I can make my own tablecloth.

About a week later we were helping Jim's family with an estate sale at his Aunt Judy's home.  Judy was an avid seamstress and had an enviable stash of fabric.  Low and behold...there it was...perfect tablecloth fabric for $1 a yard!  

I like it when Pinterest teams up with the Universe to send me important messages. Make your own tablecloth, Nicole.  Seriously!

When my mom came to visit in February I felt confident that I had the back-up necessary to fire up the ole Singer.  In one afternoon (which was more measuring and ironing than actual sewing) I was able to whomp up our new tablecloth.  

Ta da!  Of course, my initial attraction to the fabric might have been motivated by the perfect match with our Peacock and Scarlet Fiestaware.

I like to call them Ms. Peacock and Miss Scarlet.  We have Mrs. White, too.  Looks like any future Fiestaware purchases will need to be Plum, Mustard, or Green...

Nicole did it.  With the Singer.  In the Dining Room.  

PS - The Hamburger Panda tutorial was great - very easy to follow and lots of good photos.  

PPS - Whomp up is Montanan for make.  As in, "bein as I'm hungry I oughta whomp up some dinner."  

DIY Ornament Wreath

There are gobs of cute ornament wreaths all over Pinterest, and I finally got around to making my own!

I followed a very nice tutorial from Andrea, and there are plenty of others out there so I won't bore you with the repeat here.  I found these fun silver ornaments at Winco (of all places!) and they were even cheaper than the dollar store options.  I used 70 ornaments total.  The best part?  The globe snaps into the hook on the ornament so there was none of the tedious gluing required on the other tutorials.  I think Winco is also called Cub Foods in some areas (wink wink Minnesota girls!).

Our door is super tall so standard over-the-door wreath hangers weren't working.  We found a really nice decorative metal Command Hook at Home Depot and adhered it to the door.  It's sturdy, but removable so I'm not worried about damaging the door surface.

Come knock on our door!  We are super festive!

Pinterest Project: Glittered Light Bulbs

I finally made something I found on Pinterest:  Glittered Christmas Bulbs!  Though the instructions were minimal, the project was easy, inexpensive, and fairly quick.  The gratification was big =)

What you need:

* Old Christmas bulbs
* Glitter
* Modge Podge or Decoupage
* Paintbrush
* Paper plate
* Cookie Sheet
* Waxed Paper





Both Recollections and Martha Stewart make Extra Fine Glitter.  It was perfect for this project - good coverage, and not  as chunky as regular glitter.

Each bottle is $4-$5 each, but I hoarded Michael's 50% off coupons and spent $6.50 total.  I do love to save!

Martha's glitter was more expensive, but I didn't really see a difference in the quality.  Both lines have awesome color choices.

Let's get this show on the road!  Remove the bulbs from their string.  I scooped up this set at a garage sale and paid 50 cents.  Again with the savings!  Of course, they were grimy from life in someone's garage so I had to wipe them all down first.  Still worth it.  

Using the paintbrush, apply a medium layer of Modge Podge over the colored surface of the bulb.  I chose to leave the metal base exposed.

Working directly over the paper plate, shake glitter over the bulb.  It was easy to miss the pointed tip so I had to go back and catch those little bare spots.

Still over the paper plate, tap the excess glitter from the bulb, allow it to dry just a bit.

Lay them on your wax-paper covered cookie sheet to dry completely.  I left them overnight just to be on the safe side.

Return the remaining glitter to the jar.  Covering 24 bulbs used very little glitter so I have plenty left over for other projects.









And that's all there is to it!  I'll be exercising a lot of restraint to keep these in the closet until after Thanksgiving =)

Welcome to Monica & Chandler's!

We made it!  We're IN our new home!  Thanks to the world's greatest friends our new place is painted, every last thing we own has been schlepped, furniture's assembled and beds are made.  It's a pretty exciting time here at Hotdish Central.  Every day one of us turns to the other to say "can you believe we own a house?"  Our first mortgage payment isn't due for a whole month so we are love-love-loving home ownership!

Do you know what that means for you?  In addition to our here-and-there ramblings about cooking, crafting, choral music, and canines, we'll have all sorts of home improvement and DIY projects to trot across the blog.  For our debut project, I'm only showing you the front door.  =)  

If you run in our circle of friends, chances are good that you can quote episodes of Friends like it's your job. Seriously, if some struggling cable network ever works up a Friends Trivia Hour our people will be the champs!  Move over, Ken Jennings, we've got the game show domination thing in the bag.  We spent the last couple years bringing Jimbo up to speed by rewatching the entire series, so it was his proud graduation from the Friends Academy when he suggested we frame our peephole.

Genius!  Why didn't I think of that? For a quick second we googled "Monica's Door Frame" and found that you can buy replicas online for upwards of $30.  Are you kidding?  I can do better things with that $30!  Perfect opportunity to do it ourselves. 

Enter the cheapo frame from TJ Maxx:

This gold finish did NOTHING for me so I took a page from Mrs. Lovely's book and bought sent Jimbo to Home Depot for my first can of spraypaint.  Even better?  He also picked up this swell plastic trigger.  Now my spray-finger won't be sore or covered in paint!  

One coat of Rust-oleum Colonial Red, a little double-sided adhesive tape, and done!

Mmmmmm....shiny & red.  These are good things.  

Never one to be left out of the action (but easily bribed with a biscuit to do what I ask of her), Sugar volunteered to show you our entry.  I once heard  that your photos should always have someone in them...

 Welcome!  Can't wait to peer through that cute peephole at all our future visitors.  

PS - you can have your own swell rug (in a few other nice colors) from Costco =)

PPS - I'm hoping to provide better photos (not taken with my phone) soon.  It's a long story for another time, but my camera took a swim this summer and I just got a replacement.  So glad Santa came early so I can really document important things like spray paint triggers!

MugRug: How Did I Live Without It?

Do you know about MugRugs? Suddenly they're everywhere as those crafty gals who sew are whipping them up out of scrap fabric. As a birthday gift, I received my very own MugRug custom made by KnittyBitties.

Knowing that the rug would get the most use on my desk at work, I requested something appropriate to life in Beaver Nation. Isn't it cute?


Even the back is adorable! Though you can't tell from the photo, it's quilted too.

Now my water bottle (with its tendency to sweat) and my beloved Starbucks traveler have a nice tidy, spirited home on my desk.
This is not my first KnittyBitty creation. My magic apron, coffee coat, and beautiful table runner have all come out of the little ETSY shop that could. I love crafty items that are fun AND functional and this one hits it out of the park!

YON Progress Update: #12 Craft

I made a little progress on the Year of Nothing list! Today I can report finishing two craft projects...both of which have been sitting patiently for quite some time.

First, a mini-book from my bridal shower way back in April. The girls started this little book for me as a shower gift, and I finally finished it up!

I added my copy of the invitation (since it was a work of art ala Erin).
To keep it simple, I printed photos and adhered them back-to-back to make their own pages.

We had shower games that were actually fun (who knew?!) and I saved them in a vellum envelope. It's pretty funny to read back over them, even now.

I saved a tag leftover from the favors. Needless to say, the M&M's didn't last...

When the girls started the book, they printed a bunch of these little fill-in-the-blank prompts. Each shower guest filled one out, documenting how long we've known each other, where we first met, their favorite memory of our friendship, and some relationship advice. I paired them up with photos of each gal.

And finally, I had one leftover thank-you note to include as well.
So...this project came to the finish line in just barely less than a year. Sheesh! The good thing about being behind on the project was the joy of reliving it over the last few days.

What took even longer (TWO years and 16 days to be exact) was finishing my Happy Book from the day we got engaged.


This one sat half-finished for over 18 months. Long enough that I even notice changes in my style from start to finish! Again, it was a fun trip through the special memories and I'm so HAPPY it's complete ;)