2017 Christmas Kitchen Tour

Welcome to our 2017 Christmas Kitchen Tour! Woo-hoo the kitchen is decked out in traditional red and green Christmas decorating ideas.

Our Decorating Agreement

As always, I buy and collect the holiday decor and Dean decorates. In fact on my Instagram I gave him his own hashtag #deandecorates. How's that for a hoot. They guy has no social media but has his own hashtag. Come follow and see his decorating skills at work. Lol! But first, check out his doings in our Christmas kitchen this year!!

Picking A Christmas Kitchen Theme

From our Christmas cookie baking center to a nod to our love of camping, our kitchen really represents our family. I have some old pieces of my mom's and things my kiddos have given me. It is where I spend all my time and I love what he did this year.

Video Tour Of Our Vintage Christmas Kitchen

Please also take the video tour of our kitchen (click the arrow below) and click like and subscribe while you are there. We would so love that!! Thank you everyone!!! You are always so kind to Dean and I with your comments about our festive decorating.

Freezer Lasagna - Cooking For The Holidays

Welcome to my holiday freezer cooking series. Let's see how we can save time and what to make ahead and freeze for the busy Christmas season.  Today is Freezer Lasagna - Cooking For The Holidays.

7 Tools You Need To Cook Thanksgiving Dinner - My Favorites!

Cooking Thanksgiving is an overwhelming task to many. I have learned the hard way how to make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier. Shop early and start smart with my 7 tools you need to cook your special meal.

My Favorite Tools for Cooking the Thanksgiving Dinner

1. When cooking your turkey, a large granite ware roaster is my favorite pan to cook the turkey in. Nothing fancy. You can buy the insert rack to put the turkey on but I don't have one. I just throw stalks of celery, halved onions and carrots across the bottom and set the turkey on top. It flavors the drippings nicely for good basting and delicious gravy.

Affiliate links in this post.

2. Any kind of meat thermometer is nice so you know when you turkey is fully done. I have had batter operated and the old dial kind. Both work well.

3. A turkey baster is nice to have for easy basting. That oven gets hot and it is the safest way to get the hot juices and baste that turkey.

My Favorite Tools for Serving the Thanksgiving Dinner

4. Turkey lifting forks are to me, the easiest way to lift that hot heavy turkey onto your platter or carving board. I inherited mine from my mom but they are inexpensive.

5. A sharp knife. From dicing and chopping but most importantly carving the turkey, a sharp knife is necessary for serving your meal.

6. Throw away aluminum pans. For really simplifying every step of preparing Thanksgiving dinner, you cannot beat these disposable pans. You can cook and freeze in them and then reheat in them and when the meal is done, just toss. This meal is so much much work that I will do trick like this to save me time in the kitchen so we can enjoy the day more.

7. A crock pot is a must have now too. As I learned to start cooking my meal one or more days ahead, have a crock pot is must have for my mashed potatoes. I cook them on Wednesday, adding a bit of extra milk. On Thursday I put them in the crock pot or slow cooker at least 4 hours before the meal and turn on high adding some pats of butter. I stir a few times but they come out light and fluffy and bubbly. No mashing the day of Thanksgiving is the best.

Read my previous post on how to organize and simplify your holiday meal prep.
And watch my video:

Patriotic Porch Flowers

Busy getting the front porch ready for Memorial day with some patriotic flowers. The hubby is out of commission with a bum foot so it was up to me and I decided to add prim tea stained American flags to go with the warm colors of table and decorative pillows.

Primitve American flags are the colors I tend to prefer cause they go with my deeper colors in the house and now the front porch.  You can watch the video of our Memorial day decor here and let me know how you think it came out. Feed those blooms with our homemade frugal flower fertilizer. And if you like our videos, you can follow us on Youtube.

Affiliate links in this post.

Pre-Holiday Room By Room Cleaning Plan - The Kitchen

Here is the newest post in my holiday cleaning tips Pre-Holiday Room By Room Cleaning Plan - The Kitchen.

While the weather is still warm I like to plan ahead for a more organized Christmas. Getting the holiday deep cleaning done early, makes me less stressed come November and December.

**Now the list may seem extensive but it is just that, a list. Do what you can or what seems to be most pressing. I like to print it off and check off what I can but I usually never get all done but this holiday cleaning plan helps keep me on track.

Easy Football Cupcakes

If you are looking for Superbowl cupcake ideas these easy football cupcakes are perfect. I love to bake but need super easy football cupcake decorating ideas and here is one we are sharing.

The girls and I have made these several times and these are the perfect cupcakes to bake with kids. All you need are a few simple ingredients but together they make an easy football cupcake themed recipe.

Because all you have to do is assemble the different pieces, these are simple cupcake decorating steps.

Superbowl Sunday is all about the food right? Along with all the good snacks and finger foods you have to have dessert and these Superbowl cupcakes are on tap for this year. It is a tradition now.

Easy Football Cupcakes
Prep time: 2 hours
Serves 18 - 20 cupcakes

Ingredients:

One box white cake mix
One container of green cake frosting
One tube of white piping for details
Bag of pretzel sticks
Some red fruit leather
Chocolate covered almonds (whole)

Instructions

Bake your cupcakes according to the box directions in paper liners. Cool completely and frost with the green frosting. Next adding the football field hash marks. Set the chocolate almond on the top center and add the football stitching with the white piped frosting. Cut your fruit leather in long thin triangles. Wrap the wide end of the fruit leather just around the top of the pretzel stick to create the flag. Place on the side of the cupcake.

Holiday House Cleaning Tips - The Entry Way

This time of year it is a good idea to start early cleaning your house for the holidays. I have a few cleaning tips to share and here is another in the series of cleaning your home for the holidays. We have already covered the deep cleaning plan for the living room and the dining room. Now, we will focus our holiday plan on cleaning the entry way.

Cleaning the entry way is important because it is the first room guest see. But this room should go quickly as it is usually the small area of the home and now is a perfect time to organize the entry way for the winter months to come.

Entryway Cleaning Tips

1. Remove anything that does not belong in here.
2. Remove rugs, send them out to be cleaned or wash them yourself.
3. Now start at the top and wipe down walls, cleaning smudges or touch up paint.
4. Remove light fixture and bulbs and wash in hot soapy water. The bulbs I just wipe clean. You won't believe how shiny the fixture will look.
5. Clean the top of door frames and wipe down doors. Get fingerprints and clean any glass on the front door.
6. Clean any glass and windows including washing curtains or cleaning blinds. I have a great cleaning tip for shutters and blinds.
7. Wipe down and clean any hanging pictures or decor in the entry way. If you have old dusty plants, toss them or place them in the shower for a cleaning. A new plant would really look nice in the entryway.
8. If you don't have a place for keys, hang one up. Since doing this years ago we never hunt for our keys cause they are always right by the door.
9. Have a nice rug or mat for wet shoes when winter arrives.
10. Wipe the floor and baseboards. I love Murphy's Oil Soap for cleaning wood floors.

Now put everything back and enjoy!

5 Fun Back To School Centerpieces

It's that time again. New books, a new school year and to celebrate, how about some back to school decorating ideas.

I like to cheer the kids on and help get them excited by doing something special with apples, school themed decor, chalkboards, pencils. A back to school centerpiece adds a special touch to the new school year.

Homeschool Decorations for Motivation

As a homeschool mom for over 24 years, I need to get myself excited as well for the new year. I am schooling my 4th and last student right now so we like to jazz up our school table for the seasons and back to school decor is probably the most important of the year. You can find all my homeschooling posts here.

And finally, how about a couple ideas from us.

This first back to school display is really not a centerpiece but shows if you collect items with an educational them, you can make a sweet back to school vignette.

And this little back to school table idea I just threw together last year when school was upon us but I wanted to do something special for the girls.

Please check out our other back to school posts.

Memorial Weekend 2015

Our traditional Memorial day barbecue is tomorrow and will be larger than usual. We are keeping it simple with burgers and dogs that of course we are razzing up with blue cheese or cheddar mushroom stuffing for the burgers.

House is set, food is bought.

But above all else, we remember the sacrifice made by our military families. For this, we are so thankful.

Via: Howtonestforless.com

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing weekend of remembrance.

Pre-Holiday Room by Room Cleaning Plan - The Dining Room

Okay, onto the dining room in my pre-holiday room by room cleaning plan. I am a bit behind with the start of school and a camping trip but I am going to try and quickly clean through the rest of the house making that a priority. Today is the dining room.

Holiday Cleaning Plan For The Dining Room:

1. Dust all crown molding and use swiffer duster to swipe walls of any cobwebs
2. Clean tops of high furniture 
3. Wipe tops of door jams
4. Dust and wipe down all hanging decor 
5. Remove plates from walls and wash
6. Dust hanging light fixture and clean bulbs
7. Wipe down all door and doorways of grime and fingerprints
8. Go around room cleaning marks on paint or touch up with fresh paint
9. Remove all nick knacks and dust and clean each piece of furniture as I do this
10. Tuck away summer decor for next year
11. Wipe down dining room chairs ( if you have upholstery then clean as needed)
12. Dust dining room table and legs
13. Clean wood floor of dining room (I have no rugs in here)
14. *If you have rugs then vacuum and flip over area rugs to vacuum other side

  I do have a china cabinet in here. I will not be taking everything out and cleaning inside because I do this once a year in spring and it seems to stay dust free fairly well.

Having a holiday grand plan will relieve stress and keep you on track to an organized Christmas.

Pre-Holiday Room by Room Cleaning Plan - Living Room

As fall approaches, I like to start deep cleaning the house for the holidays before decor comes out. It's no fun decorating a dirty house and by Christmas you will be so happy that your house is clean for company. I will share what I do in each room and you can use it as a checklist or guide for your home customizing for your rooms. Maybe this will inspire you to spend a little extra time getting the house shiny and bright before we get all those holiday plans going.

Cleaning the Living Room for the Holidays
My first room I started with was the Front Room/Piano Room: (I clean in small spurts each day I have a chance. I think I have cleaning ADD. This keeps me on track but does not overwhelm me)
Start by clearing the room you are on of any items that do not belong in there.

1. I use a long handled Swiffer duster to go around walls and dust any cobwebs and swipe over crown molding
2. Dust and wipe down ceiling fan light fixture
3. Wipe all doorways down and dust the top of door jams
4. Wipe down any doors in the room
5. Dust top of furniture
6. Dust and clean shutters
7. Clean window and sill
8. Move all furniture away from walls and clean behind and underneath
9. Wipe baseboards as I go around the room
10. Clean wood floors in area I am cleaning that day
11. As I move a piece of furniture to clean behind that day I wipe it down and dust all nick knacks on it.
12. Clean pictures and shelves on wall dusting as needed
13. Flip area rug over and vacuum the wood floor underneath and then vacuum the underside of the rug.

**You could also touch up any chipped paint or marks on the wall. I love the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for this job.

Next, onto the dining room. See you there.

Simplified Christmas Countdown

I am continuing to work on my Christmas countdown preparations. So far for the month of August I have cleaned and touched up paint on two rooms. I have one more area this month to get to and that is the dining room.

Here is a list of my to-do's in the rooms I have down for the month of August.

Clean light fixtures

Wipe down walls and hand prints

Touch up paint on walls or repaint as needed

Clean windows and glass

Wipe down and dust molding and trim including baseboards

Clean rugs and floors

Last time I didn't get into gift buying in detail but that is part two of my countdown. Because of the age of kids in our family I buy a lot of gift cards so my assignment this month was to buy three gift cards and two toy gifts for my littlest. Some people have family policies of no gifts but in ours and many others we still exchange with some and with a few friends. We have cut back all gift exchanging with out of town family but in our family we enjoy the tradition of gifts. As long as we are able to do it, I want to continue this tradition. That is why I have to be more organized. 

Also, watch back to school sales for great stocking stuffers.

I can honestly say knowing I have five gifts bought and paid for in August is so wonderful.

I can feel the holiday stress lightening up already.

So on my list is the dining room. And then onto the next three rooms for September and more gifts checked off the list. I think I will also set up a wrapping station in September.

If you missed my first Christmas Countdown post you can find it here.

I really want to make cookie dough ahead and freeze. I have not done that in years past so if you have and would share tips or recipes please do. I can post with the September countdown.

Countdown to a Simple Christmas Series

Planning ahead is the key to an organized and less stressful Christmas.

Okay, are you thinking about Christmas yet? Well, if you aren't you should be. This year I have devised a plan to make this the simplest most organized Christmas ever.

We will break down the plan into two sections: Preparing your home and of course preparing for Christmas.

First in the series let's look at your home. You are entertaining and having family come to stay. You need your entire house ready for company. Do you want to be killing yourself with all the housework and sprucing up just at the time you need to shop, bake and wrap all those gifts?

I will share my plan for my home and you can adapt it to yours. I have roughly 12 rooms or spaces in my home and five months until Christmas so I will take two to three spaces per month to spruce up.

Here are my areas for the month of August:
- Entry Way
- Front/Piano Room
- Dining Room

These rooms are all joined so they make sense to do at one time. Look at each room. What needs painting? Do any areas need deep cleaning that you didn't get to in spring? We all have these right?

Last week I tackled the entry way. The walls needed painting. They take a lot of traffic as this is our main entry to the house. I took everything off the walls, patched and painted in one day. Oh boy, paint makes a difference.

This is the before shot. We even moved the clock out of here.

Because we took a trip over the weekend I have to finish up in here in the next couple of days to stay on track. I also took a braided rug outside to clean and hung to dry.
The trim in here is next. I am just going to wipe down, sand lightly and touch up chips in the paint.

The easiest way to clean after you are done is from the top down.

Wipe down any cobwebs and dust up high over doors and furniture

Clean light fixtures

Wipe down walls and hand prints

Touch up paint on walls or repaint as needed

Clean windows and glass

Wipe down and dust molding and trim including baseboards

Clean rugs and floors

Next we will start our gift buying for the month of August so stay tuned. 

Your homework:

Break your rooms down to five areas and start with one room this week. August is almost half over so don't delay.

Too Late for Red White and Blue?

Patriotic Decor

A little late for sharing maybe, but who doesn't love some red white and blue?

So on this last day of July we bid adieu to the colors I love most.

Red, white and blue flowers planted for the season. My girls all decked out for our Fourth of July weekend camping. An old coffee can found in the garage becomes a patriotic piece of decor. The house all decked out from Memorial Day to the Fourth of July. George Washington heralding the flag atop Beatrix Potter books. Too funny!

All Set for Ribfest

We are all set for Ribfest on Memorial Day. It is our annual family barbecue. It is usually only us so very relaxed but I like to make it festive. The kids look forward to it all week.

Q and I made the poster yesterday. Now I am not a crafty gal so don't laugh.

The bunting has been hung.

The flags have been placed.

And of course we will end the day with our annual dessert, good ole jello poke cake.

You can find the recipe on my recipes page.

Happy St. Patty's Day

The top of the morn to ya!! I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patty's day where we are all a bit of Irish.

Are you cooking some corned beef? We are supposed to go away for a night and attend a party. I don't want to leave my chickies though. My girls are capable of caring for them so we will see.

Have a wonderful day!! It is raining here and cold for once. Hubby and I are planning our coop for the girls. 

He laughed at me last night when I was playing with the chicks and said I am not like other wives of his friends. They all ask for expensive purses and I ask for chickens and a coop. Nothing strange about that. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Back to School Vignette

Okay, this was entirely too much fun to put together. Maybe it is the anticipation of fall, my favorite time of the year. Hubby and I collected things from around the house we thought had a school theme.

The little desk is actually an American Girl Doll desk and the typewriter is AG too. I thought it was perfect. The slate, an antique I bought, has been dropped by one of my kids and cracked, but I still love it.

My little Mia doll is reading her little Bible which was actually my dad's from WWII.

The microscope was hubby's grandfather's and is pretty old. 

The old text books are from the late 1800's and belonged to my grandfather. He collected old books.

Although we have been a lifelong homeschooling family, I still like to make a big deal about back to school. This year I actually don't have much teaching to do. My oldest two are in college and my 13 year old is taking all of her classes from other teachers so all I will have is my three year old and I will do some sort of preschool program but mostly she will play and enjoy the other kids in our homeschool group.

Linking to:

Remodelaholic

Common Ground

Southern Hospitality