Fabulous Fall Fridays: Guest Posting & A Suggestion of Awesomeness

I'm so excited to be guest posting at A Diamond in the Stuff today :)

I'm recycling old sweaters into cute little gift bags. Go check it out!


Now I don't have a recipe, per se, for today's Fabulous Fall Friday. It's more like a suggestion of awesomeness.

Enter the sloppy Joe grilled cheese.



Holy moly.

I can't take credit for this ingenious concoction. I pinned one a few weeks back, and it has been on my mind ever since.

I know what you are thinking. Renee, this is total fat people food. Well, Judgy McJudgerson, I got news for you-

This is totes healthy junk food.

I used whole grain bread, butter substitute, reduced fat cheese and made my sloppy Joes not so sloppy.

I made the Joes a few days ago with 90% lean sirloin and this was the perfect way to use the leftovers.

Along with a giant pile of veggies:



So, even if you are watching your cals, you can still indulge in the occasional sloppy Joe grilled cheese :)

Oh, did you go look at my guest post yet? Do it.

Gift Idea Wednesdays: Felt Sock Monkey Mug Cozy

Oh, Sock Monkey.

The odds were against this post today. I had the idea after pinning this cute crocheted version of a sock monkey cozy.

Plus, I know a sweet little boy with a sock monkey obsession.

So, yeah. I ran out of thread, misplaced my needle, left my camera at the office, blah blah blah.

But out of strife arose this beautiful little guy.

Am I talking a little nuts today? Maybe I've had too much coffee. In my defense, it was really good coffee.

Anyways, with only 17 days until Christmas, this is a quick and easy project to throw together.


*for you ultra perceptive people-yes, my monkey face is upside down (on the body piece), but it doesn't make too much of a difference.

To make this you need:
*grey felt
*red felt
*white felt
*2 black buttons (I did not have these, so I painted some black)
*grey ponytail holder
*red button
*embroidery thread
*hot glue

I made you a pattern to use, in the spirit of giving and all. So right click on below and save the image to your computer, then print out and use.



1. Cut out pieces.
2. Stitch the mouth pieces and eyes onto the body piece.
3. Stitch the ears, then hot glue to the sides (so they stick out adorably).
4. Stitch on the red button to the back and hot glue the ponytail holder to the other side.

Here are some detail shots.





Yes, that ponytail holder looks like a hot mess, but it will be on the inside of the cozy. No one will ever know.

When I have more time, I might go back and do red stitching across the top and bottom of the body piece and put a black line on the mouth. Or should I just leave him as is?

He's pretty darling...

Ruffled Felt Christmas Tree

This little felt tree was super easy to make, and we will enjoy it for many future Christmases :)

Here's how I made it.

You need:

*A ton of green felt (I used dark and light-get about 8 sheets of each to be safe)
*Scissors
*A styrofoam cone (get it in the garden section-not the craft section-waaay cheaper option), this one is 12" tall
*Pins
*Yellow felt for the top (with optional embroidery floss + stuffing)

1. Cut out a bunch of circles of green felt.



2. Fold a circle in half twice, then pin in whatever pattern you want onto the tree form.

3. Repeat a gazillion times.


This is a fun craft to do while you are watching a movie or something, as it is sort of time consuming.

If you want to make a star for the top, just cut a 2 stars out of some yellow felt. You can use a template if you want, but I just drew it (not as precise, but more charming, I'm sure). Then stitch it together and stuff it with batting if you want to add some volume.

So cute :)



Craft inspired by Family Circle

Fabulous Fall Fridays: Zucchini Chili

Well, the weather has definitely been getting chilly (pun intended) in our neck of the woods this past week. We even had snow. In November. Seriously.

So, with that in mind I had to change my kitchen chalkboard (painted with chalkboard paint) to a more appropriate theme (it was fall leaves).



Then, I had to make chili. Which is sort of like a soup, I guess. Helping my transition into the inevitable crossover to soup blog. All soup all the time.

No, I'm just being silly. Speaking of silly, my husband kind of gripes about the fact that I throw icky vegetables in basically everything I cook. So I threw in the zucchini on purpose. To mess with him.

I guess the joke's on me, because this is some dang good chili :)
We both enjoyed it thoroughly and it is a great, quick weeknight meal.

Renee's Zucchini Chili

1 lb lean ground meat (I used 93% lean ground sirloin)
chili seasoning packet
can of mild chili beans
1/4-1/2 onion, diced
1-2 zucchini, diced
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1/4-1/2 cup broth (I used 1/4 c beef broth-it depends on how thick you want it)
1 clove garlic
seasoning blend (I used this one)

Put some water (or oil) in the bottom of your soup pan (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking) and throw in the meat to brown. After it is halfway browned, throw in the garlic and onion and cook until meat is brown. Add your chili seasoning packet, then scootch the meat over to one side. Add the zucchini to the opposite side to cook for a bit. Season with seasoning blend (mine has a bit of a kick, which was welcome here). After about 5 minutes, stir everything together, add the spaghetti sauce and broth and simmer on low for about 20 minutes or until awesome.



In other news, my cookies for the cookie blog swap are going out today! I'm really excited about them.



I made a cutie pie little bottle cap snowman ornament for each recipient, too. Inspired by What I Live For blog.

If you are interested in making one, I hot glued 3 bottle caps together (and a piece of yarn to hang), painted the inside white (they were kind of greyish in the middle) and then Sharpied on the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons.



The cookie has the incredible trifecta of browned butter, toasted coconut and cocoa dusted almonds. They are currently my obsession.

Recipe will be posted right here on this blog on December 12th. Mark your calendars ;)



Have a great weekend, everyone!

Gift Idea Wednesdays: Scissors Pocket

*Yes, that is my fridge. You can totally see the reflection of my trash can, too.

Eeek! Only 24 days until Christmas. It's like totally advent time, people.

This gift idea is super easy and so functional. I cannot take credit for it, though. A lady at my Mom's work named Debbie has an aunt who makes them and sells them with proceeds going to the animal shelter (love that!). So my Mom bought one and gave it to me. I did not think I would get much use out of it.

Um, I was wrong.

First and last time I'll say that (only sort of kidding).

I love my little scissors pocket :) No more tearing packages with my teeth or looking frantically through drawers for my scissors. I literally use this every day.

All you need to make it is a cute pot holder, a glue gun and some magnet strips.



It's pretty self explanatory.

I was thinking about what kind of person would need a gift like this. My first thought was people who cook. But really this could be for:

*Bachelors to open bags of chips
*Kids to do crafts
*People who clip coupons
*Teachers
*Avid shoppers to cut tags of their new stuff
*Hair cutting people
*Other people who need to cut stuff

Gosh, the list goes on and on...

You don't even need to keep it on the fridge. You could keep it on any magnetic surface.



Ok, well. Make it.

You could also pick up a pair of scissors from the dollar store or for $1.99 at Hobby Lobby.

Weekend Wrap Up and a Rustic Christmas Wreath

Hi all! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend ;)
Mine was full of good stuff.

Wednesday we celebrated my husband's birthday with tequila and a giant, sequined purple sombrero at our favorite Mexican restaurant (he'd kill me if I posted the pic of him, so just use your imagination).

Thursday, my mom and I did the Turkey Trot, a 4 mile course.



Then we had some turkey and stuff.

Friday we did a super fun crafty get together with my awesome cousins. I'll get to that later in the post.

I ate a bunch of these babies:



So good. But so naughty...

Ok, I also decided I needed a wreath.

So, I thought I'd share that with you:

Here's what I did to make this super easy decor (took about 20 minutes or less).



*Ok, so you need a wreath form (I used pipe insulation from Lowe's that I got for $1.92--awesome idea from The Penny Parlor)

*You also need some burlap. Maybe like a yard, but I'll get to that.

*Some wreath bling. I used frosty cranberries and some decorative potpourri stuff.

*Also, a sewing machine and hot glue gun (not pictured).

1. Get your wreath form ready. Cut it. I didn't really need to do this because I just took the tape of my pipe insulation that I had in a wreath form. This will make it like a hundred times easier to put the burlap on.

2. Lay out your burlap. If you have cats, they will sit on it. Distract them with something shiny and continue on.

3. Ok, so I cut one long strip (3 yards long-but I trimmed off about a foot, so you do the math. It is not my forte). My strip was 10 inches wide.

4. Fold the strip vertically, or "hot dog" style. Sew along the strip. Is this confusing? I'm going to draw a diagram.

Ok, I hope that is helpful.

5. Now you have a long burlap tube. Put it on your wreath form, tape your wreath for back together and scrunch the burlap.

6. Hot glue whatever pretties you want to put on your wreath and hang :)

What? That was too easy.




At our crafty get together, two of my cousin's made some pretty awesome wreaths that I wanted to share with you.



Rachel wrapped burlap strips overlapping around the whole wreath, then hot glued some ornaments and cranberries and added red and gold ribbon. Love it!



Chelsea got super crafty and wrapped the wreath in green and red felt, made some felt ruffles and added some strands of felt Christmas lights.

Both of these wreaths were made using pipe insulation, too.

Ok, this post was really long! I hope it inspired you to make a crafty wreath for your home.

Fabulous Fall Fridays: Stealthy Shells & Cheese

Mac and cheese is like the ultimate comfort food. It's gooey, cheesy and puts you in a carb coma, if consumed in mass quantities.

Well, this dish is a twist on an old classic that will give you all the comforts of the original along with a serving of veggies.

I highly doubt anyone will pause from shoveling this in their face to say they taste something funny in this yummy side dish.

Stealthy Shells and Cheese

1 12 oz bag of medium shells pasta (the bag that says 3-4 servings)
3/4 can of pureed butternut squash (or 1 1/2 cups of homemade puree)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded swiss (or mozzarella) cheese
2 tbsp butter
1/4-1/2 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil noodles per the package instructions and drain. Add in all the other junk and stir it up.

And now for the close up.