Griswald....He came in like a wrecking ball!

Griswald has arrived for 2013!

He came in like a wrecking ball on an ornament from the tree.  He's hanging from our chandelier above the kitchen table!  Hopefully this will catch the tweens attention and they will stay involved this year.

 He came in like a wrecking ball.....

 Hopefully Griswald will continue to come up with cute ideas for this season.

I came in like a wrecking ball

Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung

Left me crashing in a blazing fall

All you ever did was wreck me

I'm addicted....to canning and preserving

I just wanted to make a little post about my recent addiction....canning.  All of these pictures are of recipes using the water bath method, but I will be doing some pinto beans, pumpkin, green beans, and soup in my pressure cooker in the near future.  I am trying to eliminate the items in my freezer to make room for an elk that my husband will hopefully be getting soon.

Pickled cucumbers!

Pickles asparagus and tomatoes.  The asparagus is spicy and I don't have much left, because it's a new favorite in my house!

Pineapple in water! So much better than the store bought and you know what's in it! No sugar!

Salsa verde! I used vinegar in this one and LOVE it with chips...although that's not in my diet plan. ;-)

Apple Scrap Jelly! I made this from a blog I found on Pinterest! So good and such a good idea since I was already making pie filling! http://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/2012/10/10/apple-fest-2012-apple-scrap-jelly/    I tweaked the recipe a little and used only 6 cups of sugar.

Unfortunately, the scrap jelly is the only one that I have a recipe for.  I will try to be careful to write down my recipes in the future.  

If you'd like to follow my "can and preserve" board on Pinterest, here is the link:

http://www.pinterest.com/LittleBitLoo/can-and-preserve/

There are MANY good ideas on this board!

Some of the other recent recipes that I've canned successfully (without pictures) are:

Plum jam

Tomato sauce

Banana Jam (freezer jam...not really canned, but good)

Strawberry jam

Pickled mushrooms

Pickled sweet banana peppers

My kids LOVE it when I make plain overnight oats and bust out the compote and jam to make their own flavor for breakfast! 

Bib giveaway!

www.facebook.com/LittleBitLooCreations/app_228910107186452

Visit my Facebook page to enter! It's only one week long, so don't delay!

Girly Mustache party!

We had a girly themed mustache party for my daughter's one year Birthday!  Here are some of the ideas that I used for the party.  All of our friends and family had a great time with the theme.  

Complimentary mustache station. These are store bought mustaches that I laid out.

This is the sign that was on the gift table.  

These print outs were all over the house and there wasn't even one left at the end of the party.  Many pictures were taken with these little paper goodies.

Even the mounts got in on the action.

There were hanging mustaches all over instead of paper streamers or garland.  I just used a razor and cut each one out of black card stock and punched a hole in the top.

Popcorn containers were decorated with the mustaches for a cute little snack that all of the kids enjoyed.

There were a lot of fresh fruits and veggies for snacking.

The pink buckets were plain and I added the mustaches with a little hot glue.

Mustache gingerbread cookies in two sizes.  Painted with a bit of black food coloring.  These didn't last long at all.

Two styles of straws.  You can wet your whiskers with these babies.  :-)

Funny whisker humor was hanging all over the house.  Many pictures were "tagged" with mustaches as well.

The Birthday Girl's smash cake.  This idea was on pinterest.  I just used a regular round cake pan for this little cake and a 16" cake pan for the large cake that everyone enjoyed.

I found some very cute mustache fleece and covered the gift chair in it.  This was a very cute backdrop for the present opening.

This party was a great deal of fun for the children and for the adults.  I decided that the theme didn't have to be limited to boys.  I was inspired by a dear friend and then went wild getting more ideas on pinterest and other areas of the internet.  

Have your own mustache party...you won't be disappointed.  

Griswald is getting more and more sneaky.

Here are some of the new sneaky places that Griswald has discovered.

He found that our laundry room "wash" sign has lost it's "A," so he decided to help out.

This was supposed to say 12/11/12!

Just hanging out on a binder this day.

It looks like he got into the dog treats last night! He looks like he might get sick!

Griswald is having a ball messing around the house!

Griswald the elf has been up to some fun antics around our house.  Here is the latest!

He made snowflakes and garland in the entryway of the den...not to mention the HUGE mess that he left all over the floor and desk!

He dyed the milk neon green! The kids had a blast eating green mashed potatoes for dinner that night.

In honor of our young daughter that likes to hang upside down as we yell, "upside down baby!" He was hanging on the light fixture Sunday morning.

Messing around with Daddy's Birthday cake.  He got all "pooped" out.  :-)

OK, this was just for fun with the adults during a late night of Scrabble.  Hilarious!  

Stay tuned for more crazy adventures of Griswald the Elf!

The Elf on the Shelf. The adventures of Griswald the Elf

Yes, our family is jumping on the band wagon this year! 

I intend to blog about the adventures of our Elf named Griswald.  He arrived in our home on the Eve of Saint Nickolas Day. We get our stockings filled on Saint Nickolas Day (which is today), so that's when he made his grand entrance. 

Griswald noticed that the little ones did not have stockings, because I have been too busy to make them, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and help out!

Of course when we woke up Saint Nickolas had filled them with goodies!

What a helpful guy, he is already helping us out in our home! Hopefully he remains helpful and doesn't cause too much mischief. 

                     
                            Please stay tuned for more ideas and adventures of our little guy Griswald.