Oatmeal M&M Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

The hubby got home from work early and wanted to do something fun together, so we baked cookies! He looked in the cupboard of baking supplies and chose the m&ms and peanut butter chips and so I modified an oatmeal cookie recipe from my Company's Coming cook book. They turned out great! The recipe yields 5 dozen, and we ended up with 4 1/2 dozen, which means that I only ate the equivalent of 6 cookies in dough, or I made them a bit bigger... Let's go with the second option :)

Ingredients

1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup m&ms
1 cup peanut butter chips

Mix butter and brown sugar together. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and mix. Add the m&ms and peanut butter chips and mix. Form into small 1" balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes and let cool on a cookie rack. Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies.

Easy Crocheted Mug Cozy

This is the perfect pattern for a beginning crocheter! I made up this pattern, but it's one of the easiest things I've ever crocheted so I don't want to take much credit. It's perfect for using up scraps of yarn too! I had just a bit left of this colour and I wanted to make a headband, but I ran out of yarn so it became a mug cozy. That being said, you could easily make this long enough to fit your head and just sew the ends together.

Use worsted weight yarn and size I/5.5mm crochet hook.

Chain 16. Double crochet into 3rd chain. Double crochet across. Chain 3. Continue to double crochet until it reaches desired length (about 9-10"). Sew the top and bottom together and weave in ends.

So easy right? You could also embellish it with felt flowers, buttons, or whatever you'd like! Try different colours, stripes, or single crochet or half double crochet. I think that one of these on a mug filled with chocolate and wrapped in cellophane would make a great gift too! These things aren't just cute too, they keep you from burning your hands on the mug and keep your drink (slightly) warmer.

Valentine's Day Yarn Wreath

Since buying a house, I have to admit that one of my favourite things is having a front door that I can make various wreaths for. My goal is to have different wreaths for each season/most holidays. You may want to check out my Ornament Wreath Tutorial, or check out the pictures at the bottom of my Halloween wreath (no tutorial blogged for that one) and additional ornament wreaths I made this year. I got inspiration for this wreath from my friend Sarah over at The Divine Secrets of Ya-Ya's Kitchen. We took a trip to Hobby Lobby in the states before going to Olive Garden for our friend's birthday a few weeks ago and that's where I got the supplies for this project. Enjoy!

Materials:
-1 wreath form
-1 ball pink yarn (Supersaver)
-1 piece each of red and pink felt
-1 ball white yarn
-tacky glue

Instructions

1. (Optional) Wrap the yarn into a ball that fits in your hand easily. This step is optional, but I found it easier/faster to wrap the yarn this way than with the whole ball.

2. Tie the end of the yarn in a knot around the wreath form (I got this one from Hobby Lobby for $3.99, made of straw and covered in plastic wrap- leave the plastic wrap on).

3. Start wrapping! Wrap the yarn around the form (on top of the tail end), keeping it somewhat tight. Try to avoid having the yarn overlap- it's not a huge deal, but I think that it makes it look nicer. This will be inevitable at some points since it is not a straight line. If you run out of yarn, wrap a new ball, and tie the ends together, continue wrapping over the tail ends.

4. Once you have gone around the wreath once, go around again to cover up any holes. I found with the straw wreath form there were some parts that seemed to poke out. The second time you go around, don't worry about criss-crossing the yarn. Pull it nice and tight and you won't be able to tell the difference. I just went around to cover the spots that you could still see the straw underneath. Tie in the final end, and tuck it into the yarn.

5. Embellish it! To make it Valentine's Day-y, I cut out some hearts from felt (the red one is even sparkly!) and glued them on using tacky glue. Then I took a long piece of white yarn, started with the middle at the back of the wreath, and criss-crossed it around to get the argyle look, then tied the ends together at the back and tucked them in. You can also use different colours of yarn, make felt flowers, letters, etc. Be creative!
 

Valentine's Day Ornament Wreath

Halloween Wreath

Christmas Ornament Wreaths