Step 1: You need an 8×10 “wrap around” canvas (Hobby Lobby or Michaels).  An 81/2 x 11 paper photo (printed on regular paper/regular printer & printed to the edges), a sponge brush, Modge Podge & black matte acrylic paint.  Cut your paper photo to fit the top of your canvas.

Step 2: Sponge brush your black paint around the edges of the canvas and bring it up on the top a bit. You’ll probably need two coats of the black. Once it’s dry – coat the back of your paper photo with the Modge Podge, be sure to coat the edges. Place it on top of your canvas and smooth it out with your fingers being careful not to push too hard, pay attention to the edges.  Sometimes the photo will have small air pockets, smooth out the best you can but don’t sweat it, they tend to smooth themselves out, if not I figure it just adds to the character of the canvas – LOL.

Step 3: Once the photo is smoothed out, let it set about 10 minutes then coat the entire top of the canvas with Modge Podge, be sure to cover the edges. Let that sit about an hour or so then put a 2nd coat on it and cover the entire canvas this time, black edges included.

Step 4: Voilaaaaaa! You’ll be shocked at how good it looks – great Christmas gifts! I stapled red burlap trim to the backs of the horse and barn pics (previous post) and hung them on 3m hooks.  Such an easy, easy project with great results. Have fun!!

Peanut Clusters

*     12 oz. can Spanish Peanuts
*     12 oz. bag Chocolate Morsels
*     10 oz. bag Peanut Butter Morsels

Heat morsels over medium heat – continuously stirring.  When completed melted, add peanuts.  Mix well.  Drop by teaspoonful onto wax or parchment paper. Cool. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Makes approx. 40 clusters.

Gift Idea . . . Mix two teaspoons of cinnamon or nutmeg into a 1/2 pound of ground coffee (I used Breakfast Blend); or scrape the seeds from four vanilla beans.  Scoop into a coffee bag with a coated lining. I found the lined bags (39 cents ea.) and the adorable little clear scoops (99 cents ea.) at the Container Store.  Just added the ribbon and tag, you could even had a cute coffee cup filled with those little flavored creamer cups . . . . who doesn’t love coffee. I gave these to the girls in the office. A simple and inexpensive gift.

I sooo wanted a new way to display my Christmas cards.   I had this old bulletin board down in my basement and some fabric left over from these wall displays I did in my kitchen (another story). So I went and bought some batting, covered the entire bulletin board with the batting, then covered that with my fabric, just staple gunned it to the back.  Bought some velvet ribbon and these great buttons that look like metal but are actually plastic. I stapled the ribbon onto the board and then also where it crisscrossed.  I clipped the backs of the buttons off with nail clippers and then hot glued them to the cross-sections. Sooooo simple and I just love how it looks!

Spent the weekend putting up Christmas stuff . . . thought I’d share some of my ideas with you  . . . here’s the first one . . . I had bought these canisters at Walmart a few years ago in the candle department.  They’re exactly what I wanted. I needed something to put some pasta shells in and these were perfect. I decided one year to decorate my kitchen in Christmas so I changed the canisters out . . . I bought a bag of red wrapped $1 candy and a cheap bag of mini marshmallows. I just bag them up every year and re-use them. Those marshmallows are hard as rocks, LOL.

Avocado & Tomato Salad

Found this recipe on Pinterest and just tweaked it a bit . . . Avocado, Tomato (I had yellow cherubs), Cilantro, Goat Cheese or Feta, Pine Nuts, Salt & Pepper and the juice of 1 lemon. Excellent with grilled chicken. Simple and very tasty!!

Oh my gosh, these were so good and simple to make. I saw the recipe on “The Pioneer Woman”. I forgot to buy strawberries at the store but DID buy some rasberries. Yummmmm and only a few ingredients.

• 14 ounces, weight Sweetened Shredded Coconut
• ⅔ cups Granulated Sugar
• 3  Large Egg Whites
• ¼ teaspoons Sea Salt
• 1 cup Fresh Strawberries, Hulled & Sliced (I used raspberries)

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2012/09/strawberry-coconut-macaroons

Peach Salsa

Sooooo I had a few peaches left over from my jam batches. I just put all of this in the food processor & voila!! Peach Salsa – dang it really was crazy simple (I know my sister is laughing at me right now):

Pulse til’ your heart’s content! These are reallly good chips by “Tostitos”! I just realized that I use a lot of exclamation marks. I’m just that kinda girl! 😉

I just lovvve peach jam on pancakes. Every summer I split a flat of peaches with a friend. So one batch down, one batch to go. If I have a few left over I’m going to try peach salsa. I’ve never made salsa before but everyone says it’s sooooo easy. I’m not posting the recipe for my peach jam because I use the recipe for “cooked jam” from the instructions in the Certo box. My only suggestion is to have everything pre-measured before you begin the cooking process. Once it starts boiling everything goes pretty fast from there. If you’ve never made jam before I’d encourage you to try it. It seriously is not hard.  Any kind of berry jam is also very good. Here’s the link for Certo Peach Jam:  http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/certo-peach-jam-52072.aspx

Before . . . Peaches

After . . . Peach Jam