VIII. Candy Cane Results

I could have made a candy cane dish every day of this month, so it was hard to zone in and focus on one treat.  When I first received my challenge, i immediately was going to make a holiday mixer, but I opted for something sweeter instead. I made Holiday Cupcakes with a Candy Cane Swirl!

Ingredients:

• 1 box of cake mix (I had confetti cake on hand, I would definitely suggest using a white cake mix)
• 1 jar of Betty Crocker Whipped Vanilla Frosting
• 15-20 drops of red food coloring
• 2 4 tbsp peppermint extract (thanks Jamin for the correction)
• 24 cute muffin baking cups

Steps:

1. Preheat oven and prepare the cake mix per instructions on the box.
2. Enlist a helper.  Have said helper hammer peppermints into crumbs.
3. Add the crushed mint and 2 tbsp peppermint extract to cake batter and mix with standing mixer.
4. Reserve 1 cup of batter and put in a small bowl.
5. Scoop cake batter into lined muffin pan.
6. With reserved batter stir in 15-20 drops of red food coloring.
7. Spoon red batter in to muffin cups and swirl with a knife.
8. Bake for 18-22 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
10. Once cool, frost with Whipped Vanilla Frosting, serve and enjoy!

And Voila!
They are rather tasty, but there is no way that Jamin and I can eat 24 cupcakes before they spoil, so we both will be bringing a treat to work this week!

VII. Wreath Results

I accepted the wreath challenge with great aspirations. I actually had to force myself to choose which sort of wreath I wanted to make.

From sticks, to stones, glitter and pine cones, I was prepared to create the Christmas Spirit..... So I thought.

I went to the store the next morning and walked through all the Christmas items waiting for the most perfect idea to pop. When I approached the flower isle, I nicely found a sale sign --- ALL STYROFOAM 50% off... YES, GREAT, AWESOME...NOT!!!!! All the Black Friday shoppers had cleaned the place out! Not discouraged, I wandered to the spice isle. There's just something about Cinnamon that warms me up! Looking for the Cinnamon sticks was exciting. I was already thinking about all the red fabric I had at home and how I could make my own bow and use the sticks as the core of the wreath..... til I found that a pack of 12 cinnamon stix were $9.00, and I needed easily 50 sticks.

With the tail between my legs, and 4 stores later, I found a wood wreath made up. I grabbed some fun decorations, dissembled them, and got out all my red fabric. I ripped small shreds tied the ends together to give it a rustic look and placed each festive piece to finish the puzzle. It is a fun welcoming wreath, now if it will just warm up enough so I can get something to stick so I can hang it on the front door instead of just inside the front door.

Although my wreath was not what I had wanted, hoped and expected it to be, it still turned out to pack a punch of Christmas. Don't get discouraged because all the pieces aren't falling together perfectly. Use this as a reason to go outside the boundaries!

Of course I look at yours and absolutely love it! HOW PERFECT!!!

VII. Wreath Results

Ta-Da! It's been a while, but I finally finished a challenge!  So I was browsing through Michael's last Monday  because I need to pick up stickers for work and I got stopped by the 50% OFF all Christmas decor.  My favorite holiday decor are wreaths, so I just needed to find the correct supplies in order to make it!  I looked through the floral and foam section for a foam circle to use as the base for my wreath, but they were all sold out because they were also on sale so I knew I was going to have to improvise.

I picked up some fantastic, glittery midnight blue plastic leaves that were $0.49 a piece!  For that price I was able to purchase a handful of different leave shapes.

Other supplies that I used were scissors, wire cutter, floral tape and a glue gun.  I thought that I would be able to wrap it only with floral tape and then cover that with ribbon, but I ran into problems keeping it circular in shape because it wasn't strong enough.  Therefore, I resorted to the glue gun.  I also struggled with that, I think the glue is rather old.  I started by laying the pieces for layer one face down and glued the end of the stem to the top leave of the next.  Although I bought a variety, I ended up using only the fern like stems and the broad leaf stems.

After the first layer was put together and glued securely, I layered on the fern pieces to give it some body and structure.

The minute I held up the wreath, the glue started to give way and my circle became more oblong.  I reinforced about half of it with a wire hanger to help hold it's shape.  I hot glued it to the back of the wreath and taped it in few places with the floral tape.  I used left over stems and snipped the leaves so I could hot glue them around the wreath to cover the not so good looking parts.

I used a similar colored ribbon to hang the wreath from and perched it on our door.  As you can see there are few parts that could use a little more body and it's shame isn't 100% circular, but I think it looks great!  It's simple, festive and unique!

Happy Holidays to All!

VII. Wreaths

Okay, so I may have gone MIA and haven't completed and posted failed the last two challenges... I was dealing with... umm, umm... problems... Okay, fine I'm just making excuses, you got me!

This challenge, if you choose to accept, is fitting for the upcoming holidays.  When I think of Christmas, a thousand things come to mind, but lately I've been drawn to wreaths.  I think they are disgustingly perfect and cheery reminder to guests that they are welcomed when hanging on your front door.

So, your CHALLENGE DETAILS are:
Inspiration: Your choice
Medium: Wreath for your front door
Deadline: Sunday, December 2nd @ 11:59 p.m.

You can make it any shape: square, triangular, circular, pentagonish, etc... You can make it any color: red, yellow, aqua, green, black, etc...  You can also choose what it is made out of: traditional pine needles (real or fake, I won't judge), sticks, yarn, buttons, ribbons, ornaments... or... ANYTHING YOUR LITTLE HEART CAN IMAGINE!

Are you ready for the twist...

This is going to be a group challenge!  While I was squeezing my way through Micheal's Monday morning (note to self, never and I mean NEVER go to Micheal's when everything Christmas is 50% off.  It is a mad house! Even at 9:00 a.m.!) to pick up stickers for name tags for my company's holiday party this weekend, I couldn't not stop and look at the glittery holiday decorations, although I didn't try very hard to keep going, they were 50% off!.  I think it's a sign of aging for me when, 1. I stop to look at things that are glittery and shiny, so not who I used to be years ago and 2. I picked up items that are BLUE!?!?  Alright, I'm off track, but I picked up the most perfect items to also create a wreath with you this week because I couldn't resist and our home needs that little touch of the holiday spirit!