Salt dough ornaments

My very least favorite part of winter is how early it gets dark outside!! Gone are our evening walks to the park and hello to more time in the house. It can really make a person feel cooped up and it's easy for a toddler to get bored and antsy.  So I decided it would help to have a few activities. As I was thinking of things to include doing with our advent calendar ornaments seemed perfect. Enter ... salt dough ornaments.

I used the recipe from Mommypotamus which simply consists of flour, salt and water. It comes together quickly and easily and is fun for the little ones in your life. 

I ended up giving Emersyn her own bowl with flour and water in it to stir and play with and she happily made a giant mess :)  We made the dough and baked them one day and then completed them the next day with glittery paint. Emy's favorite part!

Happy toddler Christmas crafting!! 

Toddler friendly advent calendar

'Tis the Christmas season!

Emy is finally old enough to get excited about a Christmas tree, opening presents, etc. Last year was fun but at 2 years old this year she definitely gets it a little bit more this year. I was always so excited for holidays with kids, it's just that much more enjoyable when you can see them having so much fun and I have such good memories growing up that I couldn't wait to partake in all the merriment with my own kids. I just never clicked when we first had Emersyn that it would be a few years before they can actually participate, ha. So this year ... I wanted to do something she could find fun in an thus, a hunt for a toddler friendly advent calendar. 

I wracked my brain and looked on Pinterest (of course) and I found one where someone had used paper lunch bags to open each day and I knew it would be perfect for Emy. First, I numbered them all and she got to decorate them:

My plan originally was to fill them all with something and then hang them up by the tree but it turns out I wasn't nearly organized enough to have them all pre filled. So I'm not gonna lie, they are all hanging up empty and I simply fill the bag for the day that day. She doesn't know any different ;)

I also write down some simple Bible verses for each day of advent. She doesn't quite get yet what we're reading but we're doing it anyways!

The next step was to think of a months worth of simple toddler friendly activities/treats, etc. For the first half of the month we've had:

1. Decorate the tree
2. Christmas stickers to play with
3. Watch the Caillou holiday movie
4. Drink hot apple cider
5. Make salt dough ornaments
6. Paint the salt dough ornaments
7. New Christmas jammies
8. Make Christmas cookies
9. Read Christmas books
10. A $1 reindeer headband I found at Target with candy
11. Played with some red and green balloons
12. Watched Arthur Christmas

Basically ... I tried to think of simple and cheap ideas that she would have fun with that wouldn't be too much work for mom because mom is busy with a 3 month old as well :) If the particular activity doesn't fit in the bag I put in a "clue" such as a cookie cutter for the cookies or some kind of candy/treat that she opens

More to come!

Pumpkin coconut pie

Now that Thanksgiving has come and went, I'm having a hard time believing it's December and Christmas is so very close!

Despite the increasingly cold weather and darker evenings, I can't help but love winter in the Midwest around Christmastime. The snow, hot beverages, cuddling up in warm blankets, a cozy fire, yummy food, etc. One such ingredient of the season being pumpkin!

I made this pumpkin coconut pie for Thanksgiving and we both liked it so much I'm definitely going to be making it more throughout the holiday season!

I don't typically enjoy pumpkin pie all that much but the addition of coconut milk really gave it an extra punch that made me love this version.

Pumpkin Coconut Pie

Ingredients:

• pie crust of choice
• 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
• 3/4 cup coconut milk, stirred (the full fat kind in a can)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place all ingredients into a large mixer or bowl and mix well
3. Pour mixture into prepared pie crust
4. Bake for about 45 minutes or until pie is set up and slightly jiggly in the middle 
5. Let pie completely cool before serving

Enjoy!

Holiday recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Hard to believe a new year is upon us, too!

I have some very tasty recipes to share with you, but thought I’d jump in and give a quick Christmas recap, food related. We had planned on going to see my family in NE for Christmas but had a bit of a last minute change of plans, so Christmas was spent at our house with Erik’s family.

But first … on Christmas Eve, Erik and I spent a nice time at home with comfort food and movies! I made my own version of Oh She Glow’s broccoli and cheeze soup and paired it with a roasted veggie and hummus Panini type sandwich.

For the sandwich, I roasted onions, zucchini squash and green bell peppers, slathered some hummus on bread with the roasted veggies and flattened it down on a sauté pan with a little olive oil.

It was perfect Christmas Eve comfort food!

And since there was no Christmas snow outside, we had the next best thing … snowcap cookies!

Though I baked them a minute or two too long, they were fun cookies that tasted rich and chocolaty. I’m planning on posting the recipe later this week, because Christmas or not … who doesn’t like chocolate cookies??

And for Christmas day, what did we go with?

None other than pizza. Why not? Ha. Erik utilized his new pizza oven once again, and we’re loving it.

My absolute favorite pizza that I request Erik to make for me every single time he makes pizza? Caramelized veggies (mostly onions) with cashew cheese.

Caramelized onions seriously just might be my favorite flavor. This photo of deliciously caramelizing veggies makes me drool.

Need I say more?

I didn’t do the pizza justice with my pictures, as I didn’t even get a photo of this pizza which I just went on and on about, but here’s a red sauce version at work in the oven.

Yum!! For dessert we had delicious vegan brownies and raw raspberry cheesecake.

Some honorable mentions I got for Christmas are some new vintage dishes to add to my newly growing collection, and money to spend on Etsy. I’ve been accumulating a wish list of items and I’m excited to be able to get some of them!

Hopefully we’ll make it back to my family in NE soon. I’m dying to see my nephew!

What was the highlight of your holiday celebrations?

Christmas with Instagram

Well, it’s officially Christmas time!

As you can tell, I’ve kind of been taking a holiday break from blogging as often as normal, but plan to resume in full force after Christmas. Just wanted to stop in and say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and hope everyone has a great weekend full of family, good food, and fun! I’m sure I’ll be Instagram’ing my weekend, so feel free to follow along at my handle of purplecarrotkc.

Perfect segue into a post of recent Instagram photos, mostly Christmas inspired …

Some of you may have already seen this on Facebook or Instagram, but Erik recently found a really good deal on a pizza oven! He’s been wanting one for a long time now, so he couldn’t be more thrilled. In fact, we’re even having pizza on Christmas Day, ha.

He officially broke in the new garage pizza oven the other night, and the crust came out wonderfully!

Next up, we’ve been making some changes to our house by incorporating some of Erik’s dad’s old furniture into it. I’m really loving a mix of vintage and modern these days so we’re trying to mix it up a little bit.

Enter: old hutch now housing my newly started collection of vintage dishes and our fun new kitchen light.

Can you get much more Christmasy than a nativity mug and a Christmas tree shaped ravioli?

I didn’t think so.

And last but not least … from us to you:

Pinterest: December style

Guess what?

December is tomorrow! In lieu of the changing of the months, a December-inspired Pinterest post is in order!

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Hello December

From Tumblr

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This is my kind of Christmas wreath!
I can’t decide if I’m going to make it, or just stare at it on Pinterest … only time will tell.

From Better Homes and Gardens

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I played “Guess that Christmas movie” with this picture on Facebook yesterday.
It wasn’t very hard! Apparently I’m not the only one who loves Elf.

p.s. this is a free printable in case anyone wants it! click link below

From Inviting Printables

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One fun part about Christmas is cookie cut outs!
I love this idea, and just may have to conjure up a delicious vegan sugar cookie recipe for such an occasion.
(if you have one, I’m all ears)

From The 36th Avenue

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And last but not least … Merry Christmas!
It IS December and all, it’s not too early to say it anymore.

From Flickr

If you have Pinterest, have you found any neat December-inspired pins? Do share!