Crockpot Orange Chicken

This was fantastic!!! I'd seen it on Pinterest a lot and finally got around to trying it. It was very easy to make too. 

The chicken went into the crockpot for three hours, then it was drained. After that I mixed together the barbecue sauce, orange marmalade, and soy sauce (I used light). Then mixture then goes in with the chicken and cooks for 30 minutes. 

It was delicious and had an awesome flavor to it. It reminded me of the orange chicken at a Chinese restaurant except it wasn't fried. It was probably a lot healthier than Chinese takeout!!! I served mine with a brown rice and quinoa blend. 

I highly recommend this recipe! 

Corn Dog Muffins

I don't have the best pictures but I will post these anyway! Since Little Miss was over on Saturday I wanted to make something kid-friendly for dinner. I had seen these on Pinterest a while ago and decided we would make them. She usually likes to help me cook but considering I have purchased her so many toys, she wasn't interested. Instead she looked at me and said, "I go play in my bedroom. You make dinner." 

I didn't go to great lengths with these. I picked up a package of reduced fat, low calorie hot dogs and a package of corn muffin mix. I made the mix according to the instructions on the package. Then I cut up some hot dogs. I put some mix in a muffin pan, then some hot dog chunks, and then put more mix on the top. I baked them according to the directions on the muffin mix package. 

The result? They were pretty good! I typically eat healthier foods and put more effort into my meals but I didn't think Little Miss would find it necessary for me to slave over a gourmet meal. Neither of us seemed very hungry so we had some apple slices on the side. 

Ghosts!

The Little Miss and I made two kinds of fun ghosts this weekend.  These projects were planned because I knew I'd be babysitting and thought we should have some fun. 

First we made ghosts out of cotton balls! I already had glue and construction paper so we just has to pick up a couple bags of cotton balls. I think we ended up with six ghosts. I picked up two bags of cotton balls at the dollar store for about three dollars total. 

I outlined the ghosts, in glue, on the paper then put more glue in the middle. All Little Miss had to do was stick the cotton balls to the glue. When we were done I cut out eyes and mouths to glue onto the ghosts. 

She was a little apprehensive about our next project but she had so much fun making these that she ended up getting really excited about them. I already had the supplies for these on hand. We used black construction paper and acrylic paint (white and black). 

For these ghosts I put some paint on paper and then stuck her foot in it. We then placed her foot onto another piece of construction paper. We repeated the process until we made several ghosts and I was out of white paint. She would've made these all day if I had let her!! I think this ended up being her favorite project of the day!!

After the ghosts dried I made some eyes and mouths on the ghosts with black paint. Then we were done! The acrylic paint wipes off of skin very easily if you clean up right away. This project has the potential to get messy but with good adult supervision you should be just fine. Little Miss will be three in a few weeks and she did a great job!! 

Painted Pumpkins

This weekend my favorite little girl and I worked on painting some pumpkins. These were super easy to make and don't really have directions except... Get paint. Paint pumpkins. We spray painted some and hand painted some. As you can see she's a great artist! :) Also, if you notice in the picture of the front porch, my ceramic stand (from a previous post) is being used in the display.

More Fun with Wine Bottles.

I finally cleaned up a few more wine bottles to create a new fall decor piece. The great thing is that I can change out the (artificial) flowers with different colors for different holidays or seasons. For example I'll get red and green for Christmas and change the word to "joy!" or "merry" (just have to make one more bottle for that one!).  After Christmas I can put sone white flowers in them and write "snow" on the bottles. 

To create these I cleaned up wine bottles and sprayed them with chalkboard spray paint. I cut the flowers from a bouquet (that I bought at the dollar store) so that they would fit into the bottles as I wanted. I then bent them down a little so that they would show better (because they were on the mantel which is high). I used plain white chalk to write on the bottles. 

I'm pretty excited about this project because it can be changed to be used in various ways. I have already have ideas for other times of the year too. 

Side note: I need to start drinking more wine because I only have a few large bottles left!! 

Chalkboard.

I picked up this cute picture frame at HomeGoods on Friday. I took the glass out and sprayed it with chalkboard spray paint. I let it dry and put the glass back into the frame. Ta-da! I have a cute chalkboard hanging in my kitchen.  

This project could not have been any easier!!

Canvas Door or Wall Hanging

I made this with the intention of putting it on my door but it kept falling down. Now it's displayed on an end table in my living room. I made it to match my Christmas decor a couple years ago but really like the color it brings into the room. 

This was another easy project. I used a canvas and wooden letter that I had purchased for "whatever."  First I drew circles on the canvas in pencil. Then I painted the green around them. After that I painted the circles. While the canvas was drying I painted the wooden letter. When that was dry I got my hot glue gun out and glued the letter on. That was it!

This could be done for any room of the home. I think it would be cute painted to match a nursery or child's room, using the child's first initial. 

This is another fun project that you can create to suit your personal taste. It's also one that would be fun to have a child help with! The child could paint the canvas to display in his or her room.