DIY Candy Platter

I'm NO cook. I don't pretend to be a cook. But, I did manage to make a serving platter for Christmas cookies! If I can do it I'm sure you can too.

For starters you will need:

Some sort of tray to put in oven, then put some parchment paper over it. We didn't have any but I used freezer paper with the slick side up to lay candy on. You will also need peppermint candies. We had been to a few Christmas parades so we we just used what the kids had gotten. And since it was our first try I wasn't sure how many to use.

TIP 1: I would have a pattern in mind so you have an idea of how many pieces of candy you need.

I did not have a plan and just set them in a circle. Then I didn't have enough to make a big enough platter so I took a candy cane off the tree. And to my surprise, IT WORKED! But I had to fill in the spaces so my platter was not very cute. Lesson learned for next time.

 

Put in the oven at 350 degree's.

 

 

You will want to keep an eye on it. It will only take about 8 minutes or so. They just need to melt enough to stick together.

If you will notice these next two pictures you can see the bottom where it started to run and not look as pretty.

Tip 2: If you leave them in there too long they will get too thin and start to bubble and run. YES, this is from experience.

 

Let it cool for about 20 minutes.

If you touch it and it's still hot or sticky LEAVE IT ALONE.

You want it to be completely cooled and hardened or it will break or stick to the paper.

 

Then carefully lift it off the paper. This picture shows the back side. 

 

This next picture shows how thin and brittle it can be. I think it is this thin because I left mine too long. I believe if you take it out when it first melts it should be thicker. Remember, I let mine go too long and it started to bubble and run.

Then just put your treats on top and serve. I carried mine on a plate with the paper and when I got to where I was going I just slid the whole thing off the paper and took the plate and paper with me. I did this because I was afraid I piled too many cookies on the platter and didn't want it to break in transit. I, again, think if I had taken it out earlier it would have been better and I wouldn't have had to worry about that.

Hope you enjoyed!
C~C



My walls are scribble pads for little hands

My 2 year old, Ruger, decided to draw a line on a few of my walls today. We just moved into this house 2 weeks ago so you can imagine how freaked out I was....

 

I hope you can see the marks. I know they are a little hard to see on the red walls. And the one that shows a long strip of Cardinals paper is where he did almost the entire wall.

 

 

NOW WHAT?

 

I got a washcloth and a box of Baking Soda. I wet the washcloth and poured a little on it. I wasn't sure how much to use or what it should look like but it was clumpy so I rubbed the washcloth together. I tried it on a little spot and it worked but seemed sort of hard so I added more water and more baking soda all over the cloth.

I then scrubbed the line. You will have to put some effort into it......

 

 LOOK IT WORKED!

 

 

Then I realized if you do it against the "grain" so to say it worked a LOT easier. So for instance, if you have a straight line up and down, then scrub it from side to side. This actually made it where I didn't have to put as much effort into it, but still had to push. About like washing your car....

 

 

And now another spot.....

You can see in the next how it's coming off.

                                                                                                                                             One line GONE!

 

 

 

Then I saw some spots where shoes or furniture had hit and left scuff marks so I thought....what the heck!

 

IT WORKED!!!!

 

 

 

After I did the beige walls I re wet the washcloth and put more baking soda on it.

 

 

  

 

 I went on to the red walls. The first was a straight line. I scrubbed it up and down at first (mainly because I had already forgot my side to side trick) and that WAS NOT GOOD! It left a white line in the paint. I went on to do the rest of the red walls and was a little nervous thinking I was going to rub white marks in all of them, but when I did the "going against the grain" trick it didn't seem to rub off the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had a spot in the closet door. It came off a little easier!  

 

 

And WHALA......IT WORKED!!!!! I might add after the walls dried I did have to go back with the damp cloth and wipe the white residue off.

 

I should probably also mention that some of the red paint came off on my rag. It didn't do any damage to the walls (except the one spot where I rubbed it straight up and down...picture above). But you do NOT want to wipe the rag on anything until after you rinse it out. Yes...I learned that from experience....I thought I'd hit a few spots on the doors where there were some icky sticky spots....but it came right off after I washed the cloth out.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed today's experience.....I don't like to clean but I'm glad I figured out a way to get those crayons off before Rod got home!

 

C~C

 

 

P.S. I'm really sorry the pictures are not very good. I'm still trying to figure the camera and lighting out. I hope I never have to clean crayon off walls again but if I do I'll try to get better pictures!

Orange peel trick from Pinterest to make a smelly good house!

Yesterday I tried the pin on my oh so favorite site, Pinterest. Now if you recall my very first post on this blog I said I would share with you things I've tried whether they work or not. Here is a story of both!

http://pinterest.com/pin/59672763783418981/

It basically states to add orange peels to a pan and add cinnamon then bring to a boil so that's what I did. I did not bother to follow directions and I did not bother to open the actual pin to see if there were more directions. I just decided to wing it.

 

I turned the stove on 6 or one past medium and waited

 

 

 

 

And waited some more

 

 

And then it started to boil and BOY did it smell good! See that steam rolling out of that pan!

 

Then we tried fanning it because it seemed to be going straight up into the bottom of the microwave. We thought this might make it go throughout the house.

As I said before I didn't read any directions so I don't know if you are supposed to just quit when the water is almost gone or what. But I decided to add more water. And when it got to boiling it was the same as before. Smelled soooooo good! After that one I just quit. The orange peels were looking pretty sad by then.

It didn't exactly smell up my entire house but the kitchen and front room smelled so good I was going around sniffing the air. I'm guessing no neighbors saw me do this because I did not have any men wearing white coats asking me if I wanted to go with them to a nice pretty white room show up.

Now how long does this lovely smell last? I have no idea. This is one of the things I messed up. I started making my kids some dogie muffins....that's what we named them. It was another post I found on Pinterest and will share later when I try it again. But the point is that when I turned the stove off I turned the oven on and started cooking these tasty little dogs. So when they cooked they replaced my yummy smell without even asking me....Can you believe that, those little dogie thieves robbed me of my smelly good house. That and I have almost come to the conclusion that the ceiling in my living room is very high, and I think we all know that heat rises. So I figure my smelly good rises too!

OK so today I decide to try this again because my daughter was asking for oranges to eat. Only this time it didn't work out so well. I did the exact same thing but this time I didn't bother to watch the pan. BIG MISTAKE.....HUGE! When the water ran out it smelled like icky burnt cinnamon. But instead of just being done with it I had the bright idea to just add more water. Waited again while it boiled and it smelled a little so I decided to add more cinnamon.....waited, still smelled burnt so I added even more cinnamon. After a while I gave up.

Moral of the story is that if you don't feel the need to follow directions, at least watch your pan so it doesn't burn!

SAVE YOUR NOSE.....WATCH YOUR PAN!

C~C

Rattlesnakes...I promise you will get a giggle!

Let me start my story with giving you some background. Missouri has 5 venomous snakes. One being the oh so scary RATTLESNAKE. I personally hate snakes. I don't care if it is a rattlesnake, copperhead, black snake or even a little old garden snake. I can't stand them. I freak completely out and often have nightmares if I see one, even if it's only on TV. I have been known to make someone look under the vehicle before I will get out to make sure the one we ran over miles and miles back did not somehow crawl under the vehicle, sitting in wait for me to get out so it can strike. Or I've refused to put my feet in the floorboard on a dark night because I think it might have somehow crawled into the vehicle and is curled up at my feet. The best might be turning the covers all the way back on the bed to make sure the evil devils are not sleeping in my bed!

Why I have such a fear or hatred for them I have no idea. I don't recall anything tragic happening to me as a child. I don't recall anything tragic happening to anyone else I know either. I do, however, recall as a child my dad would mow the lawn all the way down to the end of the road with a pistol. Every so often you would hear a shot. Copperheads, that's what was common around our house growing up. We learned at a young age to stay away from piles....any type of piles whether it be wood, junk, leaves or just stuff that has been stacked away for storage. You also learned to stay away from damp, dark places. For instance the space that leads under decks or crawl spaces, wood pallets that you stack the hay on in the barn, or even the hay itself!

You can now conclude I did a pretty good job staying away from snakes growing up despite the fact I was outside all the time. We even went to a conservation area in Southwest Missouri called Mark Twain National Forest about every weekend. Our family grew up riding motorcycles and just outside of the little town of Chadwick is a perfect place to take your family. There is a trail down and as a child it was narrow (very narrow) and would wind around the Ozark Mountainside. You didn't have much room for error as one side of the trail was the wall and the other was a long drop off. Not too far into the trail you would come to a little bridge and to the one side was a cave in the middle of the rock wall. It was called Rattlesnake Cave. I never had the nerve to get up there but some of the boys would climb up there. We had heard stories of rattlesnakes being in there but I'll have to ask, I don't remember them ever seeing any while I was around.

There is also a place we would ride dirt bikes and four wheelers in Oklahoma, called Wynoka. Every year they have what they call a Rattlesnake Roundup. I've never been....on purpose, but I've heard stories about them being as long as a truck. If this is true, I have no idea, nor do I want to find out. But the point is I've been many places where I could have easily come in contact with a snake, and if I were going to it would most likely be a copperhead or rattlesnake.

Bringing you to current times my dad passed away in 2003. I acquired a few of his possessions, one being a rattlesnake on a rock. NO, it's not real. I've asked myself a few times why in the world I would get or even keep such a thing when I can't stand snakes. The answer is....I have no idea. I'm still trying to figure it out. I assume it's only because it was my dad's and I want to keep something he had. I guess it's a question for a psychiatrist! Anyway, I've kept this thing and always displayed it in my house. When I first got it I had it sitting in a bookshelf as you walked in my house. It has scared a few people and to be completely honest, it's scared me more than once! As I've moved from place to place this thing has moved with me. I've always tried to take good care as to not break it. You see, it is hard to explain but it sits on a rock but sort of winds up in a striking position which makes it very fragile.

A few years ago our family moved into a house just outside of Springfield, MO. My husband has a gun cabinet and I had it sitting on the top of the gun cabinet. Over the next 2 years the snake sort of got pushed to the back as I piled things I didn't want the kids to touch up there as well. A few months ago my husband was sitting in my office chair which was right next to the gun cabinet putting his boots on and very calm he says, “get the broom, there’s a snake up there”. I, forgetting it’s up there, FREAK OUT. I yell at the kids to get out of the house. I scoot them out the front door and get the broom. I throw it at him and take off out the door. About 45 seconds later I peek my head in the door to find him sitting there as still as can be. I was like, what are you doing, get it!!!! He is quietly telling me he can’t because it’s going to jump on him and I was supposed to whack it, not throw the broom. So we start arguing about how I’m leaving him in there and I’m trying to explain how scared I am and that there is NO WAY I could help because I’m too freaked out. I even start crying because I don’t know how we will get it out of the house. He then decides we need the gun….YES…he’s going to shoot it off the top of the gun cabinet! WHAT? Actually, I was OK with this idea except for the fact I would have to go close to him to give him the gun. So that plan is out and we are arguing again about how much help I am. All the while I’m screaming at my kids to stay out of the house because they keep trying to sneak in under me through the door to see what’s going on. Finally Rod takes this GIANT leap across the living room then sneaks back to get the broom. He stands there a second then whacks the snake with the broom. Then stares for what seems like a year…..Then flips this hat out of the way with the broom. I’m freaking out screaming, “where is it, where is it”…..He stops, looks at me and says, “You did that on purpose”…... “You put that there to scare me”….I’m still confused and go see the head of the snake barely hanging and realize it’s Dad’s snake!

He still won’t believe me that I didn’t do it on purpose.....

This was around Sept 5, 2012. At the end of September and only like 3 weeks after this happened we moved to Northern MO. When we move, of course the snake went with us. We did not have much room in this new place so the snake got to stay out in the shed. I only went in the shed a few times and EVERY SINGLE time that darn snake would get me. I would see him sitting on the shelf and it would take a few moments to realize it was him. We ended up moving from that house about 2 months later. And again he went with us. Now I don't remember packing him up so I'm not sure if I did this or if Rod did but we've been in our new house about a week. I was in the garage trying to find a lost pair of keys and I opened up a cooler sitting by the door. Why would my keys be in there? I have no idea but all the normal places didn't seem to house my keys. So as I opened the cooler I jumped back and screamed so loud I bet the neighbors thought the 12 O'clock siren was going off. There was that freakin' snake......He got me good this time!

My poor poor snake now has a broken head......

 

 

C~C

Who wants to tackle LAUNDRY with me?

Well I figured since I was doing the laundry I'd go ahead and share how I do it.  No matter how hard I try to stay on top of it and fold it as they come out of the dryer I always manage to get behind. I have found a way to trick my mind into thinking there is not so much to do. It seems to be A LOT easier and faster.

I start by dumping all of it on the couch in a pile. Then I place a bigger basket on one side, a little round one in the middle and a bigger basket on the other side. In the picture you will notice I already had socks in the round basket. I had them left over from the last time. I post at the bottom how I do socks. Seems to be easier and faster too. And makes those dreaded white socks not so annoying. 

I sit beside the pile and throw mine and my husbands clothes in one basket, the socks into the little basket and the kids clothes into the other basket. I throw any sort of towel beside/behind me on the couch. If I have blankets or sheets they go in a chair somewhere.

 

 

Then I start with the towels. I fold all of them. I put bath towels away and they all face the same direction. I also put any type of pool towels on the bottom then the ones you don't really want to use but will if you run out on top of that. If you notice I change directions each time with the wash cloths. This way they stack better. And if you are wondering why the hand towel is on top it was so I would remember to put it on the towel rack.

 

We also use hand towels instead of paper towels. This started when we got married because we ran out of paper towels. Then I got to noticing how Rod (my husband) would use WAY too many to clean up one little thing. I would get upset because he was wasting them and so I just quit buying them. I honestly think this is cheaper anyway. So don't be alarmed if you come over for supper and we hand you a hand towel!

 

Then I fold the kids clothes. I don't really sort them. I just pull out whatever is on top and fold them. Boy goes on one side of me and girl goes on the other side. Of course they are broke down into long sleeve, short sleeve, jacket, hoodie or sweatshirt, jeans, jammies (pajamas), underwear and shorts.

Now let me point out that I also break the shorts, shirts ect. into different piles as well. For example, with my daughter I fold her sports shirts (she plays soccer, softball ect and gets a shirt for each one) into a pile, then other "play" shirts, "nice" shirts, tank tops, ect. I do the same for her shorts. They are placed in her drawers by piles of play, nice, skirts, and sports. I do the same for my son but he's only 2 so he doesn't really have very many different piles.

You might also notice the way the jeans sit. I sit them in the opposite directions as I go so they will stack better in the drawer. I lay out my daughter's underwear flat so that it lays in the drawer better and doesn't take so much space.

 

 

 

After the kids clothes I then use the empty basket to separate my clothes from Rod's clothes. I already did this in the picture above. This started because I got to noticing how many clothes I was folding of his. I swear he changes at least 3 times a day and I wanted to prove to him how much laundry he had! Now I do it to just to make it look like there is not so much to do. Again, I'm tricking myself! LOL 

So when I do mine I again break it down but I wanted to point out the fact that when I have something to hang up I lay it over the back of the couch. I do this for Rod's hanging shirts also but in a different pile most of the time.

 

Then when I go put stuff away, which I also do in an order. I carry the things that go in drawers together ect. Just so I don't have to make so many trips.

But before I go I count how many hangers I need. While in there I grab that many hangers and place them in the shirts I have laid out. To make it easier to find the hangers I place them in a certain part of the closet after I take the clothes off the hangers. For example: the plastic together, the store ones with the notches (which are GREAT for tank tops) and then the ones with the little clippy deals. I try my hardest to get Rod to do this but I've about gave up. So I just go in there every so often and do it for him.

 

Then place the clothes in the closet in sections that are sort of like the kids clothes. Long sleeve, short sleeve, dress, hoodies, sweatshirts, ect.
 

 Then I do the socks in basically the same way. I put the kids in one basket and mine and Rod's in another.

 

 

 

 I do the kids first and if there are a bunch I use the little basket to sort them between boy/girl. I didn't have very many this time so I did them together but sorted them in the basket to make it easier to put away.

 

Then I put the color (my fuzzy house socks) in a basket to fold and I sort out the white socks into piles that are alike so when I'm done sorting I just grab 2 at a time and put together.

 

 

 

I now separate mine and Rod's by the fuzzy color socks. This is how they go in the drawer also.

 

If you are wondering what's in the small basket it is the lone socks. One time I figured out where the missing socks go. I stopped my dryer in mid dry and found a tiny tiny piece of cloth sticking out of a crack. I pulled and pulled.....and pulled and pulled, then I pulled some more and finally got a LONG stretched out sock. Somehow it worked it's way into that tiny crack between the thing that turns and the part that sits still. I'm convinced whole hardily this is where ALL the missing socks are! 

 

 

WA LA.....It's that easy! I guess the moral to the post is that if you break down the job into smaller jobs then it doesn't seem like such an overwhelming task.

Hope I've gave you some new ideas to help you in doing laundry...if not I hope I've at lease amused you in my odd way of doing things!

 

 

Now you might same I'm a little OCD.....go ahead, I say it all the time!

One of these days I'll do the Pinterest idea where you add glue to the plastic hangers so the clothes don't slip. Don't worry, I'll take pictures and post so you don't think I'm completely crazy!

  

C~C

 

 

This is a NEW adventure for me!

I will start with the fact that I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. This adventure is like most in my life. I just jump in and figure it out as I go. Reading directions seems to take too much time. Ha Ha, which is probably why I can manage to mess a lot of things up. But I want to say one thing right from the start.....I CAN'T SPELL! I don't pretend to, after all that IS what spell checker is for. And I have managed to forget almost everything I learned in any English class I've had. This is my disclaimer and if you are one of those wacks that get all freaked out by stuff like that then you had better just quit reading now or you will end up in a straight jacket in a padded room screaming out comma, semi-colan, check your spelling before you post for the world to see.....Oh and I like to use the .....a LOT! I'm not sure why. I just sort of type what's exactly in my head. Which I should add another disclaimer.....sometimes what's in my head is not safe for others to know! I recommend you consult with a Psychiatrist before you take any advice from me. BTW, I just realized there IS a spell checker on here. You might have lucked out a wee bit!

So A little about me. I'm from a small town in the SW part of MO. I lived in the same house my entire life. Or so I've been told but then I've heard I might have lived in another house when born. Who knows. I'm pretty sure my mom lost her memory with her 1st child and it's gotten progressively worse since. So you know I have at least one sibling. Well I've actually got 2. An older sister by 3 years and an older brother by a year. My poor mom.....I have 2 kids, a boy and girl who are almost 2 years apart to the day and I want to pull my hair out. I couldn't imagine 3 that close together. No wonder why she acts so goofy at times. We've drove her to it. But she's an awesome lady and I couldn't ask for a better Momma!

Well I don't want to overwhelm anyone right from the git go so I'll probably put it on pause for now.

But 1 final note. I want to use this blog to not only share my life story but to show the things I (we) do on a daily basis or life in general. I like to (try) to make crafts. I like to take pictures, go hunting and fishing (another disclaimer....if you don't like hunting stories or seeing pictures of dead animals this blog is NOT for you). I like most things that involve being outdoors and being a stay at home mom has opened up a whole new life for me. I'm learning how to cook, clean, make projects and teach my kids. I'm also learning about the religious side to life. There are many things we can learn together if you want to take this journey of life with me! I'm sure it will be one heck of a ride for you because I know it has been for me so far!

Enjoy,
C~C

P.S.  Why C-C.....well, when my first niece was born I wanted to be called something easy for her to say (in hopes she would say it before anything else, but that didn't work) and my name is Crystal so at the time I just used the 2 C's and said C-C. In 2007 I married my husband and our last name starts with a C....so I guess it was meant to be, now it's a true C-C!