12 Days of Christmas {Day 9 : Christmas Creations}

Date: December 22, 2012

Author: Exceptionalistic

Categories: 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Crafts, DIY, Gift ideas, Holiday, Link-ups, Pinterest, Uncategorized

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Did you find a last minute gift idea on Pinterest?

We’d love to hear about it.

Here’s mine!

Talk about easy. Here is how simple it is.

I found these cute bells at Hallmark several weeks ago. They were just under $2 each.

I changed out the tiny gold string for some pretty white ribbon.

I found this super cute printable on Pinterest. It’s from Teachers Pay Teachers. Here is the link!

The plan is to put a bell and a ticket in each stocking. We’ll read the book and watch the movie, then pull them out to see if the ‘bell still rings’ for us!

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Playdough cookies!

Date: July 31, 2012

Author: Exceptionalistic

Categories: Children, Crafts, Dessert, DIY, Fun, Party, Pinterest, Recipes

Comments: 1 Reply

This was really fun! I found the recipe on Pinterest which took me to I Heart Naptime. Have you seen her blog? Amazing!!!

These are called Jello cookies. The super full part of this is that the kids can play with this like playdough! The boys had fun playing with the dough and tasting each flavor before we baked them.

Here’s what you need:

3.5 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1.5 cups of salted butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
4 (3oz.) packages of Jello

First we’ll beat the butter in a large bowl. Mix with a mixer until it’s creamy then you add the sugar and beat until a light and fluffy consistency. Blend in vanilla and sugar next.

Mix the baking powder and flour in another bowl then gradually beat the flour mixture into this bowl.

Divide dough into 4 sections and sprinkle 2 tablespoons of jello onto each section. We tried lime, cherry, strawberry and orange. Knead it into the dough. You can add a few drops of food coloring if needed. We only added one drop to the lime to make it more green.

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the extra jello. Place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a bowl or do a criss cross with a fork. Either way is fun!

Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!!!

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Decadent patriotism: white chocolate strawberries

Date: July 3, 2012

Author: Exceptionalistic

Categories: Dessert, Exceptional, July 4th, Pinterest, Recipes

Comments: 11 Replies

Do you like fresh, juicy strawberries?

And white chocolate?!?

These patriotic strawberries were delicious!! We took them to a 4th party and they were loved.

Ingredients:

Fresh strawberries

White chocolate chips

Blue sprinkles or blue sugar (we used both)

*Wash and dry the strawberries. Make sure they are totally dry. Chocolate won’t stick if they are wet.

*Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl. I microwaved on 50% power for 2 minutes. Then again for 30 seconds (at 50% power) until they were completely melted, stirring each time.

*Dip strawberries into chocolate about 2/3 of the way to the top (leave some red showing).

*Add blue sprinkles or sugar about 1/3 of the way up the chocolate. I found it was easier to spoon them on rather than dipping.

*Place on wax paper in the fridge uncovered until hardened.

*Eat within one or two days.

Recipe inspiration from Itsy Bitsy Foodies July 2010 & The Sisters Cafe June 2011. Found on Pinterest!!!

Linking up with Red, White & You!

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Getting the house in order + giveaway!

Date: June 28, 2012

Author: Exceptionalistic

Categories: Finding Hope Organizer, Giveaway, Organization, Uncategorized

Comments: 19 Replies

Confession time.

It’s possible that you are like me and the minute (and I mean the exact minute) you had kids the house may have started getting a little unorganized. No? Okay well then maybe it’s just me

Speaking from experience it’s been a little rough keeping up with all that it takes to care for a house + kids + hubs! I really needed something to help me stay organized.

I found it! Check this out!!

Could it be that everything you need right here over at Finding Hope’s Etsy Shop?

Wow! It’s true. Everything I needed to get myself (or my house) in order really is right there for sale in her shop. I’m working on putting together my home organizer. I couldn’t wait until it was finished to bring you this awesome giveaway. One of the best parts about this kit is that you can also follow along here for a tutorial on how to put your notebook together!

Just in case you haven’t heard – Kayse over at Finding Hope is currently writing a book proposal. She’s headed to the SheSpeaks conference in just a few short weeks!

She’s currently running a special through the month of July on everything in her Etsy shop. With the coupon code SHESPEAKS2012 you can purchase the Complete Home Management Notebook Kit for 50% off!! This amazing deal will be great for the new budget you’ll create with your expense tracker.

Here is what is included:

Personalized Cover
Account Tracker
Address Book {Contacts}
Auto Maintenance Log
Baby Journal
Babysitter Info
Blog Planning Calendar
Book Inventory
Children’s Info Document
Cleaning Schedule (Daily and Weekly)
Daily Plan
DVD Inventory
Emergency Info
Exercise Log
Family Budget
Financial Goals Worksheet
Food Journal
Freezer Inventory
Immunization Record
Inspiration Space
Master Household Project List
Meal Planning Calendar
Online Password Tracker
Pantry Inventory
Perpetual Calendars (Birthdays and Anniversaries)
Spending Tracker

Did you spend the time counting those? No? I’ll tell you…there are 27 printables in this set.

Now…make sure you enter to win below so you can write $0 on your budget worksheet for this purchase!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Father’s Day Salt Dough Handprints

Date: June 17, 2012

Author: Exceptionalistic

Categories: Children, Crafts, DIY, Father's Day, Pinterest, Recipes, Uncategorized

Comments: 1 Reply

Looking for a quick , easy, messy craft for the boys of course I turned to Pinterest! The original source from the picture I pinned is from The Imagination Tree. It’s a really cute, really fun craft.

This is part one of the craft.

Materials needed (per child):

1 cup salt

1 cup plain flour

1/2 ish cup of water (play around with it, might need more or less depending on how long they play with it!)

That’s it! All the materials needed are in our cupboards already.

Flour & salt in a bowl.

Add water & get messy!

Once playtime is finished, roll into a ball.

Flatten & press hands for imprinting. The big one had the great idea to be sure to do ‘which handed we are’ which means left for him & right for the little one. I wouldn’t have even thought about doing it that way!

Bake at 200 degrees for 3 hours. We ended up flipping ours after 3 hours and baking a little more. They were a little wet still on the bottoms.

Before baking…(lefty)

After baking…(righty). We didn’t paint ours yet. Going to save that as an activity to do with daddy.

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