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Super Bowl Goodness- Peanut Butter Football Dip

I am sorry for the lack of posting lately. Work has consumed my life and I love working with my students, but it has left me so tired when I get home that I haven't been online much.

With that being said I thought I'd come back and tempt your sweet tooth for what I made for Super Bowl dessert. Even though my 49ers lost, I was able to cope with it by eating more of this yummy dessert. What is it? Well it's Peanut Butter Football Dip of course, brought to you once again by Pinterest. I saw the picture, and the steps were right there so I gave it a whirl.

Brace yourself and prepare to undo your belt after this one. It's really good....


Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup peanut butter (your choice; crunchy or smooth)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups powdered sugar (up to 2 cups if needed)
½ cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate sprinkles or chocolate chips for the outside of the football
White tube frosting for the football laces


Directions

*Cream butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter until mixed *I used a bowl and stirred by hand but hand or stand mixer would probably be faster)
*Mix in vanilla
*Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, and mix until combined.
*Mix in chocolate chips.

***I placed my mixture in a bowl and let it chill for a little while so it would be easier to work with
*dump the mixture on a large sheet of waxed paper and form a football shape

*Place the waxed paper onto your serving plate. ***I had my wax paper folded to about the size I thought the football would be and folded it nicely on the plate I planned to server it on (A Super
Bowl Paper plate- I was driving out of town with it so it had to be on a dish I didn't care if I got back. Thank you grocery store for having those plates on hand for $1.48)

*Cover in sprinkles or chocolate chips, pressing them into the surface a little so they stick. *I put some in my hand and just flattened it against the football.
*Pipe on the laces using the white frosting
*Chill it again in the fridge so it doesn't get too soft before you eat it (unless that' how you like it)

And there you have it. Enjoy and let me know if you try this out!
I served mine with pretzels but you can use whatever you like.

Nom.Nom.Nom.

This would be great for any holiday. Shape them into lips for Valentine's day, a star for 4th of July, etc.

Invitations

I have finished some invitations that I was asked to make for a Family Reunion. Here are some photos of the process and the finished product.

I hope you enjoy!

The text:

The details on the text:

Piles and piles of text.

Texted in the actual Invitation:

Envelopes prepped:

Direction and Map Prep:

Inside of the invitation is complete:

All closed up:

Holiday Lights

We went to see some holiday lights a few weekends ago, and now that I'm off for Christmas Vacation we're going to go see some more, but until then, here is your Holiday light fix!

Happy Holidays

Christmas Card Book and 2012 Card Display

I love receiving Christmas cards and I think it's a shame to toss them out after, so ever since we've been married I've been saving my Christmas cards and last year I finally found a way to save them all. This mini binder...

I haven't had a chance to create a cute cover for my little binder so until I find one... this will have to do.

For the card we are getting this year, I decided to display them in my kitchen which overlooks our family room to give it some holiday magic. Here's what I did to display them.

I bought red and green ribbon and taped it to the back of the cabinet doors. I used red clothespins to fasten the cards to the ribbon. As more and more cards come in, I used more ribbon and created the same effect over our hallway door near the tree, so we'll have room for them all.

Crafty Christmas Gifts

Ok so for Christmas for all of my cousins Big and small I made them each an apron.

The adult aprons are made out of a dish towel and some ribbon. The kids half aprons are made out of a fabric placemat. I also made the littles some snowmen beanies.

Here are the photos I promised.

Adult Arpons wrapped up

If only I had a better model... here's what they look like on.

Here are the kids half aprons and the snowmen hats

How I wrapped the kiddo's gifts

How to decorate for Christmas when all of your Christmas decorations are lost in your storage unit over 1.5 hours away

Long title, but you know how that goes.

Ok, so not sure if I told you all but... we went to the in-laws for Thanksgiving. I was so excited because when we first moved to Texas that's where we rented out storage unit, and I would be able to get my Christmas decorations out of the storage and take them back with me.

Well after we ate and before we went to see the new James Bond movie with the family, The hubs and I went to the good ole storage unit to fetch my WONDERFUL Christmas decor. We get there and all of my classroom and scrapbooking boxes (HEAVY, HEAVY, HEAVY) had been placed in front of all my Christmas boxes (I hope, we never found them). We moved a few boxes and peaked in what we could and couldn't find them. I was crushed, I mean REALLY crushed. I needed to then figure out how to make my home feel festive and Christmasy without braking the bank. Tough, but I clipped coupons and really hunted and here is what I came up with... so far.

I bought this cute snowman at a craft fair I went to a few weeks ago, $10. The mat underneath is from IKEA $1.50 (I love living so close to an IKEA). The candles and holders I already had.

Thanks to Pinterest I found a GREAT and super easy tutorial on how to make stockings, so that is exactly what I did. I made the 2 small ones first using their pattern and realized they were just too short for the ledge of our counter (since we don't have a fireplace), so I tried my best to create a larger pattern, and came up with the two larger ones. I need to iron them out a bit but I'm pretty happy with them. I bought the fabric at JoAnn's and it was 50% off. SCORE!

On our entertainment center, I bought some pretty greenery that was 50% off (and ended up being $4 at JoAnn's) along with the little items I stuffed in there (all 40 cents a piece),some lights from Big Lots $1.50 and the pinecones are from Walmart. They had a big bag for $3 and they smell like Christmas. The rest of the bag is hiding in the small rectangle basket on the bottom shelf there. The little Glitter Noel and HoHoHo signs are from the dollar section at Target.

The little mini tree sits on my computer/crafting table. I bought it at Big Lots for $7 and the star was also from BL and was $1. The ornaments I already had and bought on clearance from Anthropologie (my favorite store) after Christmas a few years ago. Under the tree are some blocks (my favorite kind of blocks... who else had them as a kid?) that spell out GingerBread.

Couldn't leave out the bathroom. I have a Beach-wood Whale that usually sits in our beachy themed bathroom(we are a coastal family, and lived by the ocean before moving here). Well I was at Home Goods yesterday and found this Nativity make out of beach-wood. PERFECT! I love it and bought it! I have two battery candles that hide behind Mary and Jospeh so it give a nice glow.

We are going to get a real tree, YAY, but are waiting until we can find a Christmas Tree lot because it's not the same buying it from the local grocery store.

So for a little money I have managed to bring some Christmas spirit into our home and I can't wait for more!