DIY Cooking at Home

Hey there! Did you happen to see my tightwad tip last Tuesday? I made gift tags out of Christmas cards , helping me stock up on wrapping supplies for next year! I loved this idea so much, I rounded up 10 other ways to recycle Christmas cards into cute home accessories or gift items. Check it out over on About.com! 11 Ways to Upcycle Christmas Cards If you like this post, try one or more of these other projects using re-used and recycled stuff: 10 Things to Make with a Cardboard Box 8 Uses for Old Sweaters 10 Tin Can Projects

Hey, hey! So, do you still have your Christmas cards on display? Before you take them down and toss them, try this tightwad tip: make gift tags out of those holiday cards! As you can see, I used a 2 1/2 inch circle punch to make most of mine. But I also cut out words with scissors, too. Don't limit yourself to just the front of the card. Waste not, want not! The back might have a solid background or a pretty pattern that would make a nice tag as well. See? This little card provided 4 gift tags! And finally, I have to show you these funny tags I made from A Christmas Story cards that were on super-duper clearance at our local drug store. I bought two boxes of 14 cards for $6 total, which will provide 56 tags! So there you have it! I'll be happy to have all of these tags ready to go when it's time to wrap next Christmas. For more tightwad tips, check out these posts: Refreshing a Grocery Store Bouquet Toolbox Desk Caddy Target Haul and Tightwad Tips

Hi there! Today I'm going to show you how easy it is to make a wreath from a placemat. I found two round cork placemats at a junk shop, and got them for free! The owner wanted/needed to clean things out, and I guess she thought a set of only two placemats would be hard to sell. (They probably are.) So I snagged them up before she could change her mind, and knew just what I wanted to do with one of them. I hot glued some picture hangers to the back like so: Then I tied on a pretty red ribbon and voila! A "wreath" that cost $1.29 (for the picture hangers) and took all of 5 minutes. Now this is the kind of craft I have time for lately. So what's hanging on your door this Christmas? Find more Christmas decorations for your front door, check this out: Front Door Decor for the Holidays

I'm almost done with my shopping so now I've got to get about the huge task of wrapping it all up. I fondly remember the first Christmas I spent completely on my own as an adult in my own apartment. I turned on a holiday movie and spent hours making each package look pretty. Fast-forward 20 years...now most of the wrapping is done after the kids are asleep and my husband and I are already dead-dog tired. So while neatness still counts, I'm satisfied if it ends there. But we do enjoy some adult beverages and watching It's A Wonderful Life while we get the job done. I do love the idea of a pretty package, though, even if I probably won't be able to make ours look that way until after the kids have graduated. But I realize they don't have to be complicated, so I've gathered up a handful of simple ideas for you. Our Suburban Farm Real Simple Good Housekeeping The Haystack Needle How About Orange And if you liked this post, try this one: More Gift Wrappin...

The countdown to Christmas is really on now and I can feel the heat, can you? Each year I try to give the girls' teachers something they can use up. I can imagine that the last thing a teacher needs is another tchotchke for their desk, so edible gifts are my favorite thing to give. This year, I'm giving Jingle Jars. No doubt you've seen cookie mixes in jars before; but, I dressed up my jars with some burlap and jingle bells, making the jar itself something they can reuse, either for their own gift-giving purposes, or possibly as a votive candle holder. I started with spaghetti sauce jars that I cleaned out after removing the labels. I simply wrapped a cuff of frayed burlap around each jar and secured it with a strip of hot glue where the ends overlapped. Then, I threaded a cluster of jingle bells onto a long length of variegated yarn and wrapped it around and around the center of that burlap cuff. I tied a knot in the back to secure the ends of yarn, and tucked it u...

Hi there! I looooove Christmas cookies, don't you? I'm excited to share a cookie recipe with you from Barb over at A Life in Balance . If you haven't visited her blog before, you totally should. She has tons of great, realistic ideas for busy families. Anyway, she and I both participated in a virtual cookie swap...I gave her my recipe for Candy Cane Cookies, and she shared her recipe for Peppermint Kiss Brownie Bites. (We had a peppermint theme going on!) Thanks for sharing this cookie recipe with me, Barb...they were absolutely delicious! Peppermint Kiss Brownie Bites 3/4 c. coconut oil 1 1/2 c. sugar 1 T. vanilla extract 2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder 3 eggs 1/2 tsp. salt 1 c. flour 48 Hershey's Candy Cane kisses, unwrapped Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray mini muffin pans with cooking spray. Mix together oil and sugar. Stir in vanilla extract, cocoa powder and eggs, then slowly stir in salt and flour. Scoop 1 tablespoon of batter into each muffin opening...

Hi there! It seems hot chocolate stations are all the rage this year for the holidays, so I jumped on the bandwagon and created a mini version on a tray for our kitchen. We do, indeed, have a lot of hot chocolate this time of year, and I like my own (it tastes so much better than the packet variety!) so having all of the essentials close by does make it easier. I lined a wooden tray with some burlap, put some snowman mugs I bought at the dollar store on it, and added a ceramic Christmas tree dish (also from the dollar store) to hold some candy canes. Then,  I added some vinyl chalkboard labels to some mason jars I had, and since my wide-mouthed jars didn't have lids, I glued tin foil to some cute fabric, cut out two circles slightly larger than the mouth of the jars, and molded them to the jars' openings to use as makeshift lids. Here's the cocoa mix I made (it's based on my recipe for Hot Chocolate for One ): 2 c. unsweetened cocoa 1 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt To mak...

Hi guys! Welcome to Home Made Modern! I'm so excited to be participating in the Home for Christmas blog hop hosted by Hometalk.com and CountryLiving.com! Today, I'm sharing my simple chalkboard advent calendar with you. A lot of you probably have a chalkboard and/or a chalkboard wall in your homes...they've been trending for quite awhile now. If so, you can create this simple look in your home in just minutes! We converted our pantry door into a chalkboard , and it gets a lot of use! I love the look of boxwood on the dusty, black background of a chalkboard, so as I was decorating for Christmas, I decided to hang our little boxwood wreath from West Elm in the kitchen. Then, I simply used a ruler and some sharpened chalk to draw a calendar underneath. I had this tiny green Christmas tree leftover from something, so since our chalkboard isn't magnetic, I just stuck some poster putty on the back of it to use as a marker. Voila! The kids love moving the tree each ...

Welcome back! If you visited me yesterday, then you saw our living room all decked out in red, blue and green Christmas decorations . Today, I'm showing you our family room, which has a different look this year. I wanted to create kind of a winter woodland look, so I used lots of earthy blues and greens and threw in metallics for some glamour. I hope you like it! I feel like this year, our family room has a modern but vintage look. For instance, I thrifted the oil painting from Goodwill, but hung a metallic letter garland on it for some sparkle. What do you think of all of these elements together? Let me know in the comments!  Merry Christmas! Here are some related posts you might like: Christmas Tree Jars Gilded Christmas Village Wood Slice Chalkboard