Project Homemade Christmas:Strawberry Butter

This is one of my all-time favorite strawberry treats!

It is my mother's recipe and she has been making it for years.

Strawberry Butter. 
It tastes absolutely divine on fresh biscuits....nothing compares!

This year I have decided to share this wonderful butter with my friends for Christmas.

You will be happy to know that this is another very do-able project...you can make it and package it in under an hour!

It takes 3 simple ingredients:

1 cup of butter.

1 cup of strawberry jam.

{I used homemade freezer strawberry jam that I made in Nova Scotia this summer. Yes. I dragged home frozen jam in my suitcase from Nova Scotia to Alberta. Don't judge.}

{And yes, I do think that blackberry jam or raspberry jam would work just as well!}

2-3 cups of icing sugar.

Mix well until you have the consistency of a whipped butter.

Thick but not runny.

Then spoon butter into small, clean jars and embellish how ever you like.

I used red polka dot ribbon...and I made the labels with Avery oval labels and my computer.

You can read more about making Avery labels here.

Store the Strawberry Butter in the fridge until gift-giving time.

Serve Strawberry Butter at room temperature with biscuits, muffins or toast.

You could also tuck a Christmas-themed spreader into the ribbon and give the butter with a batch of biscuits or muffins.

I picked up these little spice jars from Superstore, and the spreaders were 2 for a $1 at Dollarama.

And yes.

As soon as I put my camera down, I ate that strawberry-butter-topped biscuit!

Happy Weekend!

This post has been linked to these terrific parties:































Design Dazzle

Project Homemade Christmas: Peppermint Foot Soak...

I have been busy with Christmas this week...having lots of fun creating homemade gifts!

I have a number of projects that I want to share with you in the coming weeks.

I have an important rule though.

I want to share with you projects that only take about an hour of your time...because we are all busy people, right?

I like projects that are completely do-able in a reasonable amount of time....so an hour is my rule of thumb.

The first project I tackled this week...

*Peppermint Foot Soak*

This is a great gift for friends, teachers, book club members and any girl on your Christmas list!

For this project you will need:

Small jars...recycled, canning jars or from the dollar store.

I got these for $1 at the Dollarama.

Epsom salts and peppermint oil.

I picked up this bag of epsom salts at Superstore for $4.29.

Peppermint oil can be found at any health food or natural foods store.

I found peppermint oil in the drug section of my local grocery store for $13.99.

Pour the epsom salts into a bowl and add 8-10 drops of peppermint oil to the salts and mix up with  a spoon.

Now scoop the peppermint foot soak into the small, clean jars,

Embellish with ribbon and a mini candy cane if you like.

This gift would also be great paired with soft, fluffy socks.

I picked up a cute red pair from Dollarama.

Now, how did I make those labels, you ask?

Here's a tip...Avery Labels has a great site where you can go and design and print your labels online.

I love this site and I have used it several times for address labels, organizational labels and food labels.

I picked up a package of the new oval labels from Staples for around $13.00.

I know that I will use these labels often, so the cost was worth it to me.

Then I went online to the Avery 'Design & Print Online' tab, put in the number of this product and made the labels.

I then printed the labels from my computer, peeled them off the sheet and put them on the jars.

Easy!

If you have never done this before, it may take you a little time to figure it out, but having this skill is so useful!

You could also make labels with scrapbook supplies.

Whatever works for you!

Using the size jars and the bag of epsom salts I used made 8 jars of peppermint foot soak.

You could use smaller jars to make more gifts if you like!

Here are some other homemade Christmas gift ideas you might like:

Gourmet Oatmeal Cookie Mix

10 Homemade Gift Ideas

Vacation Memory Jar

4 Amazing Photo Gift Ideas

Vacation Memories Shadow Box

And you can take a peek at these boards on Pinterest:

Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas Cookies

New Year's Ideas

Linked to:
Handmade Wrap & Gift Party, Handmade Gifts,

A Vacation Memories Keepsake...

For the first time ever this year, our little family went on a warm winter vacation to somewhere semi-tropical...Florida.

We have always been too busy with our winter sports seasons to book ourselves this kind of vacation, or we just didn't have the extra in our budget.

But with the realization that our daughter will soon be off to University in 3 short years, we decided this year would be the year.

We had an amazing vacation....lots of wonderful, slow down-time on the beach.

No schedules. No early mornings. No practices. No homework.

It was peaceful & rejuvenating.

When I got home, I really wanted to make a tangible reminder of this vacation for us to remember.

I found a shadow box at Winners and I printed some black & white photos doing the thing we enjoyed the most...hanging at the beach.

We loved Cocoa Beach.

I really love how this simple project came together.

It is a snapshot in time....of the 4 of us together.

Happy. Relaxed.

A memory to place on our wall!

This post is linked to these great parties:







Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff

Sundae Scoop @ I {heart} Naptime














Tips & Tutorials Tuesday at Stories of A to Z