What We Ate {Lemon Fingers}

Good morning!

I'll make it short and sweet today, since I have a busy day ahead of me.  Tonight, I have the pleasure of hosting several of the ladies from work in our annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.  I inherited the party from a co-worker who retired a few years ago, and look forward to hosting it each year!!

It only seemed natural to share my cookie recipe with all of you!

Lemon Fingers

1/2 cup plus 4 tsp. butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. grated lemon peel

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 jar Dickinson's Lemon Curd

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and grated lemon peel.  Fold in flour and baking powder, working it into a dough ball.

Divide the dough in half and shape into strips each about 1 1/2 inches wide (will spread out during baking).  Place on a greased cookie sheet. 

Using the handle of a wooden spoon, make a deep groove along the center of each strip, leaving the ends intact in order to contain the curd.  Fill groove with curd, making sure that the curd doesn't go over the top of the groove.  Using a sandwich bag with one corner cut off as a make-shift pastry bag works well.  

Bake 10-15 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Cut into 'fingers' about 3/4 inch wide. 

YUM!  They are so good!  I love that they aren't super sweet!  

Enjoy!

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Creating Holiday Cards Using PicMonkey

Have you mailed out Christmas cards yet?  It's not too late!  Mine are hitting the post office today.  As usual, I put the task of creating our Christmas cards off until the last minute. 

Why do I put it off?  Designing and ordering Christmas cards using printing sites is time consuming!  Not to mention expensive!  I've seen gorgeous cards that cost upwards of $1 per card, and at Christmas time, that is just not an expense that I want to add to the list!

Luckily for me, I have discovered the wonder that is PicMonkey this year, and was able to create fun photo-cards in less than an hour!  And with stores now offering web-to-print services, I was able to have those babies in my hand about an hour after that!  It was so easy and fast....I love living in the digital age.

Have you tried PicMonkey yet?!  It's is an amazing, web-based picture editor that novices like me can easily figure out how to use.  Best of all...it's free!  I edit and watermark all of my House in the Heights pics this way. 

Well, unless I'm REALLY tired and rushed to post.  Then I skip editing and give them to you as is.  I'm crazy like that.

Using PicMonkey to create holiday cards is amazingly easy.  Start by clicking on Create a Collage, and selecting a layout for your pictures.  PicMonkey even has layouts entitled 'Cards' to help you find one that will work for you, and you can play around with the layout until it meets your needs.

Next, select the Images tab to drag your photos into the collage.  You can use photos provided or open your own photos from your computer.

Clicking on the Swatches tab allows you to bring pattern and color into your collage.....

...and the Background tab allows you to fill in the space between your pictures with color.

Once you are happy with your photo collage, you will want to switch over to the Photo Editor by clicking on Edit at the top of the page.  Be sure that you are happy with your collage before you do that, because you cannot go back and change or rearrange your pictures or colors once you switch to Edit.  The Photo Editor allows you to add words and embellishments to finish your holiday card. 

Once I was happy with my card, I saved the picture as a JPEG image on my computer.  Since I was in a hurry to get the cards in hand, I chose to upload and print my picture using Walmart's Photo Printing Service.  I was able to upload my picture from home and pick them up an hour later.  This year, I ordered 45 cards, and paid only $.19 each!  I had to purchase my envelopes separately, but at $4.27 for 50 envelopes, I was still very pleased with the price.

The photos were super-cute on their own, but I decided that I wanted to make them a little sturdier, so I opted to mount each photo on cardstock in various shades of green.  I simply cut the cardstock to be 1/4 of an inch smaller than the envelopes, sprayed the back of each photo with some spray adhesive, and stuck them on top of the cardstock.

I thought they turned out to be really fun!  Is it weird that I do photo-cards of my cats?  Whatever.  I think it's hilarious and don't really care.  Some day I'll do kids AND cats.  Or maybe just kids.  Wait and see ;)

I made the front of my envelopes special using a gold paint pen to write the addresses, but I doubt that anyone on my Christmas card list wants their address splashed all over the internet.  So I'll spare you that picture.

But I DID use some fun Christmas washi tape to seal the envelopes on the back.  I thought it would be a fun surprise when people turn the envelopes over. 

And that's it! A great way to create inexpensive holiday cards in an afternoon.  In addition to the cards, I had to buy the envelopes ($4.27), cardstock ($5) and washi tape ($1) , but all said and done, the total cost of cards was just under $20 (plus postage). 

Have you tried PicMonkey yet?  Go now!  You'll love it!

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Holiday in the Heights {Christmas Home Tour}

After weeks of doing a little bit here and a little bit there, our house is about as decorated for Christmas as it's going to get!  I branched out from my less-is-more holiday decoration approach a bit, and came up with some new Christmas decorating ideas this year.

I'm excited to share a tour of our holiday-decorated house with you!  Warning: this post is basically one giant photo bomb.  Enjoy!

Let's start in the family room, shall we?  It is the most decked-out-for-Christmas room in the house, by far. This year, I added a small Christmas tree in here, to showcase the ornaments that Mr. M. and I buy on trips and other special times together.

 We don't have a mantle, so the bulk of our holiday decorating takes place on the shelves surrounding our TV, which is also where we hang our stockings.



I was especially excited about the garland that I created using some gold star ornaments!

I love to have an excuse to break out my red beaded place mats in the dining room!  I love the combination of red and chartreuse with the black and white!

I showed you our Christmas chalkboard last week.  Its' the only holiday decor in our kitchen at this point, but I feel a holiday tablescape coming on, which would bring more of a festive vibe to our kitchen table. I'll be sure to show it to you if it happens!

Our main tree is in the living room, in front of the windows that face the street.  I love that I can see the tree as I drive down the street towards our house!  

I wanted to DIY a tree collar, but I just couldn't find the time this year.  So I felt so lucky to find this fab faux fur tree skirt at Marshall's!  I think it's so pretty with our purple, turquoise and silver tree.

And finally, here are some shots of the exterior. I have to give a shout out to Mr. M. for the outside lights, he did all the work!  

And that's it!  Like I have shared before, I don't go too crazy with my holiday decorating!  With all of the other things going on this month, I'm pleased with what I found the time to do!  

How about you?  Are you done with your holiday decorating yet?  Do you go wild, or keep it simple?

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Friday Favs 21

Happy Friday morning!  Time is running low to order Christmas gifts, but here are some of my recent fav finds that would be fantastic picks for last-minute gifts!! Find these fab products using the affiliate links below!

Fav #1

I love this colorful leopard infinity scarf!  It would brighten up any dreary winter outfit!

Scarfand's Colorful Leopard Print Infinity Scarf (Orange)

Fav #2

Who wouldn't love this gold ring?!  I love that it looks like a nail wrapped around your finger!  Is it a coincidence that size 6 (my size) is 45% off?  I think not.

CC Skye Schwayze Nail Ring

Fav #3

The Jawbone Jambox wireless blue tooth speaker.  I'm not really up to date on my technology, so  maybe I'm really behind, this thing is so cool!  It's small, portable, and plays music wirelessly from an I-phone or other blue tooth device.  I have visions of jamming it poolside come summertime....

Jawbone JAMBOX Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Fav #4

The 2013 Taste of Home Christmas Cookbook.  I love Taste of Home cookbooks, and my Christmas cookbook from a few years ago is one of my very favorites.  I consult mine for a ton of different occasions all year long.  These books are packed with recipes for every occasion, and even contain ideas to package up goodies, set the table, and deck your halls.  It would make a fantastic gift!

Taste of Home Christmas: 465 Recipes For a Merry Holiday

Fav #5

These cool chalkboard stemless wine glasses.  Wine charms are great for identifying your drink, but since this klutzy girl prefers stemless wine glasses any day, these are another great option!  

Chalkboard Wine Glasses Stemless, Set of 4

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal

It all started with Home Alone and Home Coming.

 When Kayla shared free printables of some of her favorite holiday movie quotes in this post a few weeks ago, I  printed the Home Alone quote faster than Kevin McAllister could set a booby-trap. 

Paired with a frame that I embellished with sparkly washi tape, it looks pretty cool on the console table in our living room. 

But I wanted more.  I wanted Clark Griswold.  I wanted Cousin Eddie.  I wanted The Grinch.  Heck, I wanted a color-scheme that I could use on shelves in the dining room. 

So I created some holiday movie quote printables of my other favorite holiday movies, and of course I'm sharing them with you!

We  have A Christmas Story representing...

 Download

And some words of wisdom from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas...

Download

And what list of holiday movie quotes would be complete without some of the one-liners from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?



Download



 Download

They add some light-hearted holiday fun to our bookshelves!