Christmas in July - day 18

and no, you didn't miss anything over the last 15 days.  There wasn't a post.  (see here to find out why)  but we are back and today's ornaments are totally awesome!

First up is Mr. Claus:

and this is the Toy Soldier:

Both are created using size 10 thread and as always the patterns are available online for free.  These do require you to sign up for a free membership but no credit card is required. 

I have created a "junk" email account that I use anytime I sign up for places like this to prevent myself from being inundated with junk email.  I also never give out my real mailing address unless I want to get mail from them.  I have used this particular site for patterns for years and have never had any problems with them.  That being said, I recommend you use your best judgement as to how much information you chose to share over the internet. 

Should you chose not to join this site, you can still find these patterns in Annie's Attic #874811, Crochet Ornament Toppers which is often listed on Ebay.

Until next time,

Family Fun Night...

....without breaking your wallet!

With a family of 5 and the varied taste buds, finding food for a family fun night can be tough. My 3 year old likes simple, my son doesn't like veggies, hubby likes LOTS of veggies and my daughter and I are somewhere in the middle so I wasn't sure that the products being offered by Kroger would please everyone. Boy was I wrong!!

 My hubby ventured to Kroger in search of the perfect pizza and sweet treat for us. When he came home with a whole grain, self-rising pizza crust I was flabbergasted! I didn't know they had whole grain crusts! And lime fruit bars to boot, yummy! While he was gone I had prepared some refried beans and seasoned burger. I spooned a small amount of each into the tortilla scoops and topped them with a mexican cheese blend. Shredded lettuce and sour cream were on the side since not everyone liked those. These little things were a huge hit in my family and so easy to make. I bet they would be good at any type of get together with their bite size portions and pleasing mix of salty, spicy and crunch. I was surprised that there were very few broken bowls in the bag. To be honest I found no difference between these and other name brand tortilla bowls. Who knew we didn't have to sacrifice dollars for quality!

 We unwrapped the pizza and placed it on a pizza pan and put it in the preheated oven.

 We had enough time to play a round of Uno or two before removing it from the oven. I have to say that I was a little disheartened when I first saw it. The crust looked yummy and there was lots of cheese, but the pepperoni must have been really greasy because there was a layer of grease all over the top of the pizza.

 I let it cool some and then dabbed with a paper towel or two before cutting and serving.

 Boy was I glad we didn't give up on it! The texture of the crust was amazing, the sauce was yummy and it had the perfect amount of cheese. I feel like the pepperoni was sliced a little thick for my liking but it had a good taste to it. My kids wanted me to put this on next weeks shopping list and hubby said it was better than that pizza that says, "it's not delivery it's_______" which is a huge compliment since that was the only brand of frozen pissa he would eat!

With out pizza we had some of Kroger's Vitamin enhanced water. Usually I don't like these as they typically feel kind of chalky to me with a weird after taste. We had the tropical flavor and it wasn't bad. My 3 year old deemed it, "mmm, delicious" and hubby said it was tasty. The other two kids wouldn't try it since it had the word vitamin in it. Party poopers!

 That left the lime fruit bars. This was the hit of the night for the kids. The bright green color was attractive to them and they tasted like a fresh limeade. I love being able to give them a sweet treat that is real fruit rather than artificial everything. All in all this was a wonderful evening with the family and one that won't break your wallet or force you to sacrifice yumminess or healthiness. Thanks to Kroger for introducing me to some new foods!

 Until next time,



All the products that I tried in this post were provided to me free of charge as part of the Family Night with Kroger BzzAgent campaign. My only obligation  was to provide an honest review of the products. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

 

STORMS!!!

Let me apologize for only having posted 3 Christmas in July posts so far, and here it is the 11th.  I promise I have good reason though!

On June 29th a MAJOR storm came through my state. Here is how my power company described the storm:

  Friday night's storm was part of a massive straight line wind storm that traveled close to 700 miles in 10 hours, devastating 10 states and leaving more than 4.3 million customers without electric service throughout the United States. Company and state officials are characterizing the storm as similar to or even greater than a hurricane, but without advance warning. The storm produced winds in excess of 75 miles-per-hour and heavy rain across a large portion of Appalachian Power's service territory.    http://bit.ly/Lo1qM6

We had over 300,000 families without power, including us.  We were without power for six days and without phone or internet for 10.  The posts that you saw had been scheduled before the power outage occurred.  Even with the internet back on, it still flickers in and out as work continues to remove downed trees from the lines.


It appears that my services are mostly stable as of now, and I plan to continue posting Christmas patterns from across the web this month.  However, I can not promise that there will be daily posts as there were with the flowers series.  I hope you can understand.


If you pray, please pray for those that still are without power.  As of this moment there are still almost 8,000 families in my state without power.  Many of those had power restored only to have one of the four storms that have come through since the 29th take it out again.  While the situation is not as difficult as it had been (gas is available for generators, we are not experiencing record high temperatures this week, grocery stores are open and have perishable foods available) it is still an uncomfortable position to be in.  

a wind damaged electric tower in the Wheeling area

 

Until next time,

Christmas in July! Day 3

Today I offer up this dainty, lacy treasure:

Image courtesy of Annie's Attic

Designed by Mary Layfield, this adorable sleigh would be the perfect table centerpiece, or presentation for small gifts.  The sleigh measures 7 1/2 inches tall and 12 inches wide.  Absolutely beautiful in my opinion.  You can find today's pattern here.

Until next time,

Christmas in July! Day 2

We all have that someone in our family or on our gift list that is just impossible to buy for.  The teenager who has everything, the coworker you don't really know but whose name you drew for Secret Santa, or the uncle or aunt you haven't seen in forever who decided to join the family gathering this year.  The easiest thing to do is to pick up a gift card, but who wants to give a plain jane gift card?  Fortunately today is just for you.

Run out and purchase that gift card and grab a little yarn while you are at it to create this cute little snowman that will cuddle the card for a great presentation!

Above is the knit version.  You can find the free pattern here.  Not a knitter?  That's okay!  Lily / Sugar 'n Creme also offers the crochet version pictured below.  You can find that free pattern here.  

Both of these patterns require membership with Lily/Sugar n Creme's site.  Membership is free.  Becoming a member will give you access not only to these patterns, but many others as well.

Until next time - Merry Christmas,

Christmas in July! Day 1

Welcome to my first ever Christmas in July party!  Every day this month I will post a different pattern that relates to Christmas that you can make.  Hopefully this will encourage us to get busy so that we aren't desperately trying to weave in ends on Christmas Eve!  (Not that I have EVER done that before wink wink)  Every Friday I will host a linky party for you to post your own projects (and PLEASE do, I have never done a linky party before and I would hate for it to be a flop!)

Today we begin with this totally AWESOME nativity set! (What else could I choose but a nativity when the first day of Christmas in July is a Sunday?)

Seriously, you have to love the simplicity of the design and yet each is unique!  They are available as PDF downloads totally free. 

You can get the nativity here
the shepherds here
the angel here
and the 3 wisemen here

all are available in both UK and US terms and what is really neat about these is that with the exception of baby Jesus, each can be used by your little one as a finger puppet as well.  While you are visiting the site, be sure to check out Mandy's other free patterns.  She is a great designer, I really liked her Crazy Chick!

Until next time,