Crockpot Sweet & Sour Chicken

Hi friends. Yesterday I decided to make up a crockpot/slow cooker version of sweet and sour chicken, and it turned out really well, so I'm sharing it with you.

Get excited. Ok, here it goes.

Roughly chop a small onion and get some minced garlic and stick it in the bottom of your crockpot.

Add your chicken. Mine was still partially frozen, so it came out like this. Add garlic to the top of said chicken, and add two teaspoons of soy sauce around the outside of the chicken. 

Add two cans of pineapple chunks. Fill in around the chicken, and then on top when the sides are all full. Cook on high for four hours.

Make some rice, and enjoy. You can add bell peppers if you're into that kind of thing, but I'm not, so I didn't. Super yummy, super quick, super easy. 

Christmas Decor at the McShanes

Hi friends. So I have a million things to do before Christmas, so this is going to be a blog with more pics than words. I just want to share with you our home at Christmas time. Here we go.

Above the couch

Ornament in honor of Aunt Bobbie

Our tree. Those are colored lights, I know it's hard to tell.

More tree

The star is made out of tin foil and cardboard, just like my grandpa used to make for family Christmas that we had in October before they went to Florida. The d.i.y. How-to is at the end of this blog.

Wooden ornament from target last year. I added paint and glitter.

Here's what the back says.

I've covered up the plug for the air conditioner with a bow. Mostly because it makes me laugh.

Up on top of the desk. The M is a cardboard M you can get at Joann's or Hobby Lobby, and I sprayed it gold.

I'm using a lot of the lanterns from my wedding. No suprise. This is next to the TV.

On top of the microwave. My little tree from childhood.

The shelves are full of family and Christmas pictures.

A view from the other side. 

The deer head

This is an old decoration that my mom or maybe my grandma made, but at some point in my childhood, my mom wasn't going to decorate with it anymore, so I inherited it. I find it oddly charming.

These are the little birds that sit on our internet box. They tweet. Get it? Because twitter? There's always a bird of some kind sitting on that box because I think it's so funny.

Deer bookends. I love antlers.

Our couch. White faux fur throw we got for our wedding, fleece tie blanket I made with a classic Christmas scene, and of course, the pillows. Potpourri in a bowl that's shaped like a bird, probably a dove. Festive, but weird. I like birds. 

Now here's how to make the star. One thing to note is that you could make it with tin foil, but then spray or paint a design on it, hot glue jingle bells or buttons to it, or whatever you like. I left mine plain because that's how it was when I was a kid. All you need is cardboard, five strips of paper cut into equal lengths, a pen, a scissors, duct tape and some tin foil. Alright, let's party.

 Step one: Arrange

Step two: trace

Step three: connect all points.

Steps four & five: cover with tin foil and turn over. This is the back.

This is the front.

Step six & seven: duct tape it all in place and tape a string on. This is the string that will help you tie your star onto your Christmas tree.

Done.

Ok, Merry Christmas everyone! I'll start updating the blog better and more frequently in a couple days.

Home-made Trees and a Nativity Scene

Hi friends. So a couple days ago I made five Christmas trees out of cardboard cones that I bought at a craft store. James has a Nativity set he got for confirmation, and it comes with a manger, but this year I wanted to do something a little different. I decided to make a Christmas tree forest behind the scene. 

Here's the first tree I made. I got out my scrap bin and cut triangles out of two different green patterns. You might recognize the darker pattern from the pillowcase tutorial. Anyway, I used some hot glue and attached them.

I decided to make it extra kitschy and add buttons. Next year I might make a white and gold tree like this one with only gold and pearl buttons, but that's another craft for another year.

This tree was literally just cheapy garland from the Dollar Tree and some glittery pom poms that I had for a craft I did years ago. Again, everythhing was hot glued on. Let's actually just assume from this point on that things are hot glued, because that's how I did this whole project.

This tree is all lace and ruffles with eyelets. Click on any of these images to get a closer look, btw. Anyway, I added a couple green ribbons, so e green buttons, and some gold jingle bells. 

This tree is my favorite. It's the plaid ribbon that's all over in my Christmas decor (really!), and it's rustic and homey and I love it. Plaid ribbon and khaki/gray buttons. Cute.

Here's all the trees together. The two that are in fake planters I bought at a second hand wedding shop for 2 bucks a piece, and the red tree with the gold ribbon is just yarn, so I felt like it didn't need an explanation. I'd love to add a couple smaller trees next year; this year I just got the big trees because they were on clearance and thus were cheaper than even the small trees.

Here's our Nativity scene. 

The wise men are to the right, because that's east in a map and it just felt right (it's also east in our apartment).

Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus are of course in the center, and in front of the tree that looks the most like an angel. Someday I'm going to make angels for the Nativity scene, but today is not that day.

Once again, the dinosaurs join us to celebrate the birth of Christ, symbolizing not only my love of dinosaurs, but also that all are welcome in God's family, and if we are truly loving as Christ taught us, we lovingly accept everyone into the faith and into our hearts, especially at Christmas time.

The goat that is/was my dowry of course joins the Manger scene.

So that's our Nativity scene. Someday I'm going to get a different Joseph, one that doesn't look so emo and surly.

Ice Globe

Hi friends. So the other day, I went to my parent's house and I saw this:

Yeah, this is a terrible picture. Let's go in for some close ups.

My dad made ice globes that led up to the house. The neighborhood's Progressive Dinner was that night, so they lit these babies all the way up the walk.

Here's an areal view.

And cheers Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus! who Lady is afraid of/thinks is trying to harm her. That's right, one of our dogs barked at baby Jesus and his virgin mother. What a sinner. Anyways...

I asked my dad how to make these beautiful lawn decorations, and it was simple, so I did it myself so I could show all of you.

First,blow up a balloon really big.

By the way, for most of the day, I was wearing my Napsack.

Ok, so once you've blown up your balloon, it should be nice and stretched out. Fill it with water, at least the size of a cantaloupe, then stick it outside to freeze (or in your freezer if you're not from the frozen north) format least 8 hours. I did mine for ten, but it was sitting in our porch in an old chair and the bottom didn't freeze all the way, so make sure that you put it on something cold.

Here's me holding the frozen balloon.

So, I should have just put it outside, but I was worried about the dogs disturbing it, so I put it on the porch, and worse yet, on a chair, which, as I mentioned, means it made a nice bowl rather than a globe, but I'll give you the instructions for a globe all the same.

Get a drill, pit your ice globe on a towel (we didn't do this because this pic is a fraud) and drill holes on opposite sides, like the north and south poles. Holding hue globe securely with mittens or a towel or whatever, turn your faucet to hot and, turning the globe at angles, let the water go through the top hole without melting much, but carefully expand the bottom hole. That's the hole you'll set on the snow, and it just has to be big enough to fit a candle.

Here's what ours looked like. It's a nice bowl, so it's not quite as cool. But I still like it.

Here's the top view. I hope some of you try this, it's very pretty.