Just for Your Entertainment

My sister-in-law just posted some pictures from the extended Johnson Family Christmas.  This is what happens when you try to take a "nice" family photo at the end of the day.

As you can see, myeslf, my husband and my sister-in-law thought the last picture was one too many.  But when I look back, these are always my favorite.

Holiday Crazy

So, the actual holidays are now over and I can relax right?  Wrong. 

Now its back to the ole grind, both in work and with the house.  Unfortunately, its still not done completely no matter how much I wish it would be.

But our time to work on it is limited.  Even though Christmas is over, we have lots of friends and family who are visiting from out-of-state.  Since they don't come home very often, we try to open our schedule up as much as possible in order to see them a hole bunch before leaving.

I love having everyone around.  My sister-in-law, brother-in-law and his wife are all here from California which is so wonderful.  Its awesome having everyone in the same room, especially for my husband's parents.  Each time we are all together, a family photo has to be taken.  This is the curse of having a professional photographer in the family.

Here we all are, oh Johnson family.  I hope everyone has a marvelous Christmas holiday and are now able to relax and recover.

Being Domestic

The night I spent making the paper doll, I also wrapped a bunch of presents and make some granola. I wanted to make something for my grandparents, but wasn't sure of what to get.  Then came Martha Stewart's Christmas magazine and my problem was solved!

Here are the containers that I made, which are based on the Martha Stewart idea.  I had to put one batch in a non-glass container since I was mailing it to my Grandmother in Florida.  Last  year I sent here a candle which unfortunately didn't make it there in one piece. 

Here's the recipe if you want, because, as my husband says "it's so good".

4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 vegetable oil
1/4 honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup of dried raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 300 F.  In a bowl mix oats, almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.  In a saucepan warm the oil and honey.  Whisk in vanilla.

 

Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture.  Stir gently with a wooden spoon; finishing mixing by hand.  Spread granola in a 15x10 inch baking pan.

Bake 40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes.  Transfer granola-filled pan to a rack to cool completely.  Stir in raisins/dried cranberries.  Seal granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bag.  Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.

I was actually surprised at how well they all turned out.  I started with the mindset of filling four of those jars for each grandparent/set of grandparents but screwed up the math and bought way more than I needed.  Instead of returning, I ended up making 8 batches.  Now almost everyone gets granola for Christmas  :)

I would encourage everyone to try this.  I am definitely not a cook or baker but this wasn't really hard, I actually had a lot of fun making it.

These helped a little though...

Good tea and a little companionship, it was a very successful evening.  Now off to enjoy Christmas festivities with my family.  I hope you have a marvelous Christmas Eve & Day.

First Attempt at Being Crafty

For Christmas, several of us went in on a gift for my sister-in-law who lives in California.  The item is very large so we had it shipped to someone already there so its ready and waiting when she returns.  This makes for one problem, how do you let her know what you got her?  I definitely wasn't going to cut out a receipt/picture and just give her that....BORING.

So, I thought up a creative way to let her know what her present was from all of us.  And in order to prove I have a small, but growing crafty bone I took pictures to document it.  Plus, posts with pictures are always more interesting.   We got her something for making clothes, so I thought it would be cute to give her a paper doll.

I found images online, but had to make sure they were big enough to withstand a pretty good size increase.  I printed them all on cardstock paper to avoid tears and bought a sturdy piece of posterboard.

I cut each out leaving taps at the shoulders so she could "dress" her doll.  In order to prevent damage when she dresses her doll, I reinforced it with the posterboard I purchased.

I bundled everything in to a cute box and put a little note inside stating "just something to help get you started".

I am so very excited to give it to her.  As you can gather from her gift, she is also crafty.  I hope she enjoys it as much as I do.

So, there is my first original crafting experience.  I can't wait to do more, but I may have to wait until next week since we can three Christmas parties this weekend and I have yet to make food for them.

Happy Holidays :)

Too Much Time On My Hands

So, I don't like my display name/header, its just BORING.  I have been sitting here, wracking my brain to think of something cute and creative, yet descriptive.  But since I am trying oh-so hard, I am drawing more and more of a blank.

If you have any thoughts, my imaginary followers, please let me know.

Also, I made a paper doll to indicate what I got someone for Christmas since they won't actually receive it until January.  I am so proud of myself for a.) thinking it up all myself and b.) being crafty enough actually accomplish it successfully.  So to commemorate this momentous occasion, I have taken photos along the way and will be posting them soon.

This is Teresa Johnson signing out....good day.

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So, about 30 seconds after I published the above post, I thought of something I might like instead of my original header.  "at least I tried" isn't too bad.  I think I am going to try it out for a bit.  Plus, its the interet, if I end up not liking it as much its just a click away from being changed  :)