Expresso Martinis and Me

I love Expresso Martinis. As a matter of fact, I have sipped three of them this evening. Here is the recipe:

2 ounces coffee liquor
1 ounce cream de cacao
1 ounce vanilla or expresso vodka

Pour it into a shaker with some crushed ice. Shake. Pour. Sip.

Or, if you prefer, shake without the crushed ice. Pour. Add funky ice cubes. Sip.

It's the Most Wonderful Time!

We completed our peace sign ornament project, and I have to say that it turned out fabulous!













Our tree is exactly as I dreamed it would be.I try to purchase most of my ornaments at garage sales, thrift shops and dollar stores.


We also have special ornaments that are given to us every year, and some Santa decor that my daughter loves. I usually put out some smaller trees in galvanized buckets. This year I acquired a large library table from my Grandma, so I decided to work up an entire display in our dining room. I think my favorite part is the layered buttons in the jar. All of the jars and vases were purchased at garage sales and thrift shops. I got the idea from one of my favorite catalogs. (The one I am too thrifty to order from..)





I try to some up with a different color scheme or theme every year. I found a beautiful idea for next years' tree, and I can't wait until the after Christmas Sales to start collecting ornaments! This tree was blogged at Funky Junk Interiors - I love the natural-ness of it!

Dear Crap I've Made. I love you.

So I spend a lot of time scanning around other peoples' blogs to see their designs and ideas. Many times I will look at everyone's favorite things and this is how I came to Crap I've Made. The first thing that got me was the sweet name. Let's face it, we all make a ton of crap. Myself included. But then... I spotted it... the crap that I have been frothing over in the Pottery Barn catalog.. the Peace Sign Christmas Tree. Ah, yes I wanted it bad. Alas, I am thrifty, frugal, cheap.(Whatever you want to call it.) Needless to say, I signed on as a follower of the blog and set right to work on the prep work to prepare the goods.

Crap I've Made has an awesome tutorial, so I will not re-invent the wheel. We dumped glitter in a container and put the glued-up ornament in and shook it around, rather than sprinkle. We are going to attach ours to some funky garland that was purchased at the dollar store. We also used the Sizzix machine to cut out the word "peace" from the scraps. We had to use the small templates, so we will see how they turn out.