Peter Cotton Came to Our House: Easter Decorations

One of my most favorite hobbies is decorating for the different holidays. As a kid I always wanted to be a teacher. One of the main reasons I wanted to be a teacher was to change bulletin boards. Isn't that funny! I thought that would have been awesome to decorate the classroom for different holidays. I guess it is fitting because I love pulling out my decorations from the last year and putting them up around the house. For some reason when I pull out my Easter/Spring Bin I am extra happy. I know that when I pull that bin out it is going to get warmer, brighter, and that it is going to be spring. YIPPEE!!

Entryway: Easter Table : the photos in the frames are of Zachary & the Easter bunny at the mall.

My newest additions: Boy & Girl Bunnies! I think I have mentioned before that last spring I went to a clearance sale at local store that has adorable decorations. Well at that sale I found these two paper mache (not sure if that is spelled right) bunnies. When I first saw them at 85% off I wondered why they were at this sale. Most of the sale items needed a little touch up (chipped paint, bent wires, missing pieces). I posted about some Christmas decorations from this sale HERE. Anyways I could not figure out why these bunnies were in the sale...until I picked them up. Both of their legs fell out of their bodies. I was a little embarrassed at the sale because the legs fell on the floor. Of course my mind started churning and I thought all they needed was a little super glue. Thank God for my glue gun. Long story short...I bought the bunnies that were once $85 each for $7.50 each with an additional 50% off so I got them both for $7.50! Not too bad! Their legs are completely fixed and no one would ever know they were discarded for being damaged. Aren't they adorable!

Coffee Table

Plate rack in Kitchen

Bunnies on the Mantle: I got these bunnies last year at Gordman's and I love them!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Valentine Snack & Great Teacher gift

I came across this yummy snack mix a few years ago. It is so yummy, so addicting, and so bad for you....BUT it's worth it. Zachary and I made two batches of it to give to his teachers at school. It is quick and makes a great gift for neighbors, friends, family, and teachers.

Ingredients (for one batch)

4 cups of rice chex

4 cups of corn chex

1/2 jar of milk chocolate m&ms

1/2 jar of honey roasted peanuts

6 Tablespoons of margerine

3 Tablespoons of light Karo syrup

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Recipe:

Melt margarine, brown sugar, & Karo syrup in a GLASS bowl in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.

Stir. Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and stir.

Pour the melted mixture onto the chex cereal. Stir.

Put back into the microwave for 1 minute.

Stir.

Put back into the microwave for 1 more minute.

Stir and repeat one more time. WARNING: It gets very HOT!

Stir and then pour mixture onto wax paper. Let sit for at least 4 hours to dry. Don't even try to sample because it is lava hot and will burn off all your tastebuds. Don't even say that I didn't warn you. Ask my husband...he learned the hard way. I leave mine out overnight so that it is really crunchy!

Then add the peanuts and m&ms. Eat & share.

****MAKE SURE YOU USE A GLASS BOWL BECAUSE A PLASTIC ONE WILL MELT!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am one of those people who love Valentine's Day. I love everything about it...Red, Pink, Candy, Cupcakes, Hearts, and celebrating the ones that I love. It's a perfect holiday! This year I chose to decorate with a cupcake theme. Hope you enjoy! Happy Valentine's to you and yours!


Entry Table

This is my new Valentine decoration for this year. She's a Valentine Angel that says " You make my heart smile".
Of course my candy jars....you can't decorate for Valentine's day without candy!

January Snowmen Decorations

For January I usually decorate my house with snowmen. Zachary loves them. I think he loves Frosty more than Santa. Here 's our Decorations for the COLD month of Jan.

Christmas Decorations

Better late than never...I wanted to post our pictures our our home Christmas decorations.
Our floating ornaments over our staircase.


The garland doing down to our basement

Zachary's tree


Our Stockings
The Mantle

Our tree

Willow Tree Nativity

Mini tree with Snowmen

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Seven Layer Salad

This is a VERY easy salad to make. As long as you have all the ingredients it can be thrown together rather quickly. This is the salad I usually take to family gatherings or holidays.

Ingredients:
1 pound bacon
1 large head iceberg lettuce - rinsed, dried, and chopped
1 red onion, chopped

3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 (10 ounce) package frozen green peas, thawed
10 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white sugar
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Cook Bacon. Crumble and set aside.
In a large flat bowl, place the chopped lettuce and top with a layer of onion, peas, egg, shredded cheese,and bacon.
Prepare the dressing by whisking together the mayonnaise, sugar and Parmesan cheese. Drizzle over salad and refrigerate until chilled.

Christmas Garland

A couple weeks ago I shared with you items from my birthday purchase. If you want to read about it you can click here. What I ended up using those supplies for was a 15ft garland for my stairs. I have seen these garlands in stores from $75-200 depending on the quality and quantity. Again I figured I could do it myself. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It does have battery powered white lights wrapped in in. Since I don't have a power outlet nearby I had to go with a battery operated one.

The only problem I have with it is should I take the candles and glass candle sticks out of the display? If you peak real close you can see that the candles are still wrapped. I am trying to decide if...

1. I should take them back.
2. If I should apply glitter all over them.
3. Leave them as is with their wrapper off.

So if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment.