Holidays – Long Island Chick

Don’t Let Sandy Play the Grinch – Craft New Christmas Ornaments!

Kathleen — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 13:39:48 +0000

The devastation wreaked by ~~Hurricane~~ Superstorm (or whatever they are calling it) Sandy is sobering. But, not only did people lose their furniture, boilers, sheet rock, cars etc., they lost their memories – family photos, keepsakes and Christmas decorations. While some things just can’t be salvaged or replaced, you can create new heirlooms. Now we all have our favorite standbys like the tricolor bead candy canes (don’t have any? come on, you know you do!), I wanted something different so I searched my favorite site, Pinterest, for some inspiration and came up with a bunch of beautiful ornaments you can easily make (and they don’t look like something that came out of a Kindergarten classroom either). Here are a few of my favorites:

These felt stars are easy and adorable to craft (from Purlbee) and are the epitome of the primitive look. You could easily make them into a string garland or incorporate them into a primitive theme (along with salt-dough ornaments below) with some burlap garland!

I absolutely adore these wood ornaments with scrapbook paper modged podged on (from Brown Paper Packages) – another easy project:

These swirl nail polish ornaments (from Beautylish) are gorgeous:

My kids have made salt dough ornaments before and with the stamping here, they make a nice personalized ornament (from Design Editor):

It would be a great idea to host an ornament crafting party to make these for friends and neighbors who lost their Christmas Ornaments. These are all fairly easy to make and you could definitely crank a bunch out over some hot cocoa (maybe with some schnapps). I hope you are as inspired as I am!

Happy crafting!

Easter Celebrations: Easter Basket Cocktail

Kathleen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:25:48 +0000

I came across this image on Pinterest and how could I resist???? And, it is garnished with a Peep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So run out and pick up some peeps, coconut and cherry vodka – for the recipe please visit Feast of Fun. Also, check out the comments – one person suggested dropping a few jelly beans in the glass for a little surprise at the end

: Happy Easter!!!

Easter Is On Its Way: Wreaths to Make

Kathleen — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:28:15 +0000

What a beautiful first day of Spring here in New York! I don’t remember it ever being this warm in March – the trees are blooming, I see crocuses and daffodils everywhere and the birds are chirping away! It is time to get the house ready for Spring and Easter. Many talented crafters are posting tutorials for Easter and Spring wreaths and I thought I would share some to inspire you to make your own:

Peep Wreath from Spittin Toad

I just love peeps!!!!! They are such a symbol of Easter and so very colorful! Make sure to read her tutorial carefully to avoid disastrous results!

Easter Washi Tape Wreath at Tatertots & Jello

How beautiful is this wreath? A foam wreath base, white plastic eggs, ribbon and some washi tape and you have a spectacular wreath!

Butterfly Wreath at Alisa Burke

This upcycled newspaper wreath is breathtaking – love, love, love the butterflies!

Spring Wreath at Dollar Store Mom

At first, I thought this was made with paper mache yarn eggs but no, she managed to find rattan eggs and dyed them!

All Things Spring Wreath at Crafty Sisters

Stock up on that craft moss whenever you can – it certainly comes in handy!

These are some of the wreaths that caught my eye. Please link up your wreaths and share your Easter creations!

Anisette Cookies to Die For!

Kathleen — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:48:54 +0000

One of my favorite holiday cookies to make is Anisette Cookies. These cookies have that wonderful anisette flavor yet are a bit soft. I don’t particularly enjoy the hard-as-a-rock version. I made these cookies for my 2010 Cookie Exchange Party. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Anisette Cookies

Ingredients

2 Eggs
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
2 Tbsp. Anise Seed
3 C Flour
2 Bars of Butter, softened
1 1/2 C Sugar

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together - dough should be pliable and not stick to fingers.
Form 2 to 3 loaves per cookie sheet. Press somewhat flat.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes at 350 degrees. DO NOT PREHEAT! Once edges are golden brown, remove from oven.
Slice on a slant and let cool.

http://longislandchick.com/anisette-cookies/

Holiday Spirit Boost: Host a Cookie Exchange!

Kathleen — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:05:35 +0000

The Holiday season is often a whirlwind of social activities – between shopping, decorating, and events it can be difficult to engage in those traditional activities we all associate with Christmas. Why not combine two favorite Christmas past-times – baking and partying and host a cookie exchange? The idea is to have each guest bake a few dozen of one type of Christmas cookie and bring to the party. At the end of the party, each guest selects one dozen of each type of cookie and goes home with a lovely assortment of homemade Christmas cookies. One of the best sites to get some inspiration is Cookie-Exchange.Com

So I hosted my first Christmas Cookie Exchange Party this December. It was sort of last minute and we also added an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest to it as well. Used Facebook Events to create the invite online – made life easy and we could share details of what type of cookie we were making and so forth. Well we had so much fun! We not only enjoyed everyone’s cookies but we also had some great laughs and shared that sometimes elusive Christmas spirit. The Cookie Exchange party is a “girls only” event and it gave all of us the opportunity to just spend some time with friends during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

: My Party Guests

: Some of the Delicious Cookies!

: Our Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest Winner!

We all agreed that this needs to be an annual event – I am so looking forward to Christmas 2011!!!