Sugar & Cloth

I love receiving money and gift cards as much as the next gal, but the little kid inside of me really, really loves the surprise of opening presents. It also loves shiny things and dessert first so it might not always know best, but in the case for turning gift cards and cash into mystery stocking stuffers, it knows what it’s talking about!

Turns out that Hobby Lobby sells plastic ornaments that snap open for less than a dollar. For those of you that think I accidentally bought Easter eggs, stand corrected, ’cause these babies even have a loop to hang them from the tree in case you’re not the wrapping presents type (hey, dad!).

To make these, I filled both sized ornaments with sequins, and put cash in the smaller one, and a gift card in the larger size.

Then I taped the edges closed and wrapped them in fabric like a tootsie roll, tying the ends with twine.

Super simple and they’ll never guess what’s coming, plus they’re also a cute way to gift candy for the little ones. I’m curious to hear any of your clever ideas on what else you could fill them with, so share the wealth by leaving a comment!

Every now and then I subconsciously pick a favorite DIY, and this paint splattered coaster project is definitely one of my recent loves! It’s really fun, and really easy. You can check out the full tutorial here, and in the mean time, get your giveaway boots ready because S+C is a part of this bad boy! –

I’ll be announcing each giveaway and blogger in posts, Facebook, or tweets each day in December up until Christmas, so keep a look out.

P.s.- The S+C giveaway is this Monday, eek!

I’m not into taxidermy, but I’m really into paper mache animal heads (like these). Can someone make sense out of that one? Yeah, me neither. Despite the irony, I really couldn’t bring myself to pay the hefty price tags for these babies, and I’d make one from scratch, but I’m not a sculpture artist either. Alas, I bought a paper mache animal and sawed it’s head off. All of the awesome, with half the work and half the cost!

Materials:

• Paper mache animal (Lots of options here, mine is from Michael’s)
• Spray paint
• Saw (or heavy duty scissors)
• Two long nails
• Hammer

Technically you could use any plastic animal for this project, but I think the paper mache looks much better in the end. Either way, first thing is to saw the head off. As long as you saw/cut straight down, the finished product should lay flush against the wall. If it doesn’t, you can use scissors to trim up troubled edges. Spray paint it the color of your choice and let it dry.

My solution for hanging the animal is pretty straightforward, but if you have any clever solutions for this, I’m all ears!

This version calls for two long, industrial nails two inches apart (according to the size of your animal), and hammered in at a downward angle. Then the animal just slips over the nails and sits up straight.

I never deny my love affair with peppermint flavored things, but during the month of December, I let my peppermint flag fly high. Literally. To mark the occasion, I decided to combine this reader favorite recipe with the holiday season to create peppermint eggnog milkshake shots that are perfectly petit enough to fit any party… unless the big and tall section is more your style, in which case you can turn this into a punch bowl recipe.

Ingredients:

• Peppermint ice cream
• Peppermint white chocolate bark
• Crushed peppermint
• Eggnog
• Sugar water

I hope all of you American readers had a very full Thanksgiving! Seth and I had our own little Thanksgiving for two, well technically it was 1 1/2 since Seth has been recovering from the pesky Flu, but it still called for pretty table settings nonetheless. Also, yesterday I learned it’s always best to make your own turkey while living in Texas, unless you’re cool with the possibility of picking up your Turkey only to realize that it’s practically BBQ style. #texasliving, sigh… happy weekend!