Shannah, Author at My Suburban Kitchen

Christmas Craft Round-up!

November 28, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Even though I already shared this riveting account of our black Friday adventures today, I wanted to come and share with you my favorite crafts for the Christmas season {so far}. I {hopefully} will manage to actually complete all of these during Christmas time. You know that old saying about the best laid plans though…
Let’s start with something on the simple side – Reindeer Beer from And I Thought I Love You Then!

[And I Thought I Love You Then]

Then, I’ll work on a felt Christmas tree using one of the styrofoam trees I picked up recently.

[Scissor Variations]

I love this simple way to display incoming Christmas cards.

[Red Thread DIY]

I also can’t let the season go by without making an Advent calendar. Now, if only I could decide what kind to make!

[Talk Crafty to Me]

These waterless snowglobes are absolutely gorgeous and sound pretty easy to make!

[Sweet Something Design]

Of course, I am going to need a wreath for the door. Maybe a marshmallow one!

[Food Network]

These yarn balls looks so cute and can be customized to match any decor!

[Ruche]

These cupcake liner trees are another cute way to decorate (and maybe even get the kids involved)!

[The 36th Avenue via Tatertots and Jello]

My Silhouette Cameo is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I might try to make something similar to this stenciled sign.

[Tatertots and Jello]

Then, I think I will end on another easy note with homemade glitter Christmas ornaments.

[Greenbean’s Crafterole]

What is on your list for holiday crafting this year?

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

November 28, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Ok, so did you brave black Friday? Are you burning up the mouse to take advantage of the cyber Monday deals going on?
As I mentioned here, we are yearly black Friday shoppers! It all starts with the pre-planning! I use Black Friday Ads to see what most of the sales will be in advance of the actual sale papers. That doesn’t stop me from pouring over a stack of papers when they come on Thursday morning though.

Once I have my hands on the papers, I separate them into three categories: not interested, maybe and definitely going. From there, I make a list of the things I want at each location. This year, I used the free printable available over on Remodelaholic.
With my strategy planned, the next step is to prepare for the journey with a “survival kit”.

I put a variety of snacks and drinks in my kit. I also have a resusable tote bag because it is easier to carry than some of the smaller plastic bags the stores give you. Now, I am ready to shop.
All the pre-planning paid off this year too as I got everything that was my list (plus a few extra items).

Where did we go? Here is a run down of our shopping adventures!
8:00pm – In line at Toys R Us for the 9:00pm opening.
8:30pm – Mathlete headed over to hop in line at Target while I waited for Toys R Us.
9:00pm – Toys R Us shopping! I purchased electronics so the line here was very long!
11:30pm – Finally out of Toys R Us…I joined Mathlete in line at Target.
12:00am – Target opens!
12:21am – Target shopping finished and in the car!
12:40am – HH Gregg shopping
2:00am – Finish up at HH Gregg
2:15am – Fuel up at Starbucks with a latte and breakfast sandwich
3:00am – A little nap in the car while we waited for Michaels to open.
5:00am – Michaels shopping
6:00am – At home and in bed!

Some of the items we scored (contains affaliate links so you can check out the items):
Xbox 360 4GB Console
Disney’s Tangled Fairytale Dress (4-6X)
Disney Toddler Rapunzel
Fisher-Price Walker-To-Wagon
Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Rev ‘n Sounds Race Track
Sony NSX-32GT1 32-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LED HDTV Featuring Google TV, Black

Now, I have to move on to cyber Monday because I’m on the hunt for a few last minute items. Happy shopping!

Fabulous Freebie Friday #6

November 25, 2011 By Shannah 2 Comments

Hi, my dear readers! I hope the Thanksgiving holiday treated you all well. As you read this, I am probably out having the time of my year during my yearly Black Friday shopping.
I’m also over at Naptime is My Time sharing one of my first Christmas crafts of the season today. Please stop by to say hi!

**************************************************
Now, let’s get to the Giveaway link up!
Got a giveaway going on? This is your place to share it!

The “rules” of this party:
1) Be sure to link to your specific giveaway post and not to your overall blog.
2) Put the name of your giveaway and an end date in your link title.
3) Please put my button (found over on the right side of your screen!) or a link back to here in your post so your readers will know where to come find yours and other fabulous giveaways each week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving to all my dear readers! I am thankful for all of you and hope your day is filled with laughter, happiness, family and friends.
One thing I am pretty sure it is filled with: food…and lots of it. If your house is like mine, there is always way too much food. So, I am sharing five ideas of how to transform the leftovers into new meals so that the food doesn’t go to waste but you don’t get stuck in a turkey rut either.

[101 Cookbooks], [Crepes of Wrath], [Culinary in the Desert]

1) Got leftover pumpkin that didn’t make it into one of your pies? How about giving Thai-spiced pumpkin soup a try.

2) You’ve probably got lots of turkey and maybe a little cranberry sauce left. Throw it together and make a Thanksgiving sandwich.

3) Maybe you didn’t quite finish off the ham at dinner. Cut it up and make asparagus ham lasagna.

[Moms Who Think], [Have Recipes, Will Cook]

4) Shepard’s pie is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.

5) Leftover sweet potatoes can be transformed into a new main dish by adding some black beans and avocado.

Losing the Dark Circles

November 23, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

This week unexpectedly got really crazy and has left me looking like this

Only my dark circles are more like this

[Skin Options]

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, I know the camera will be clicking away and I can’t look like this! So, I have to figure out some ways to get rid of the dark circles that are currently plaguing me. The obvious answer would be more sleep since lack of sleep is the main cause but I don’t think that will be happening.
Ideally, I would spend the next few days doing this all day

[Skin Care Beauty Zone]

Let’s all take a moment and dream of how that would be for like a week. Ok, back to the reality of two {wonderful} kids, a job and other life related tasks.
So, how do I rid myself of these little “gifts” (and no I don’t mean my kids!)? I did some searching online and came across some dark circle remover products. There are a ton of options from home remedies to eye creams to gel products. I think I might be a little too far into eye crater territory for the home remedies so my google search really should have read extreme dark circle remover. I’ll be giving something a try starting tomorrow to hopefully make a recovery in time for family pictures!

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated. However, the views, opinions {and eye circles} are my own.

WTCW

November 23, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Can you believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving? I can’t. We already talked about our week of Thanksgiving meals so this WTCW will focus on the week after all that turkey cooking and eating!

[Loving Every Second], [Nourished Kitchen], [Gluten Free A-Z]

Sunday: After a lot of traditional foods for the holiday, soy lime fajitas sound like a really great change of pace.

Monday: I made turkey picante pie for our first meal swap and our family has really taken to it.

Tuesday: This is the perfect time of year for soup and I am going to give curried lentil soup with coconut milk a try.

Wednesday: I remembered I still had some polenta hanging around from a previous recipe so I am going to give eggplant stew and polenta a taste test in our house.

[101 Cookbooks], [Not Without Salt], [Flourishing Foodie]

Thursday: You know what Thursday means in our house…pasta! This week it is broccoli basil macaroni and cheese.
Friday: Sometimes the simply joy of a fall sandwich is the perfect way to end the day.

Saturday: Breakfast gets the dinner treatment in a grilled veggie and sausage frittata.

Setting Up for Thanksgiving

November 22, 2011 By Shannah 1 Comment

Many of the blogs I read (of which there are many!) have been working on Thanksgiving decorations for weeks. I don’t traditionally host Thanksgiving at my house so I hadn’t really bothered to decorate anything! This year, we are hosting a very small Thanksgiving meal at our house and so I am doing very small things to decorate our house for the occasion.
I love the idea of using natural and/or food items as part of decorations. I had an empty vase hanging around and so, on a recent grocery store trip, I grabbed some food to use in it. Using split peas, white beans and kidney beans, I simply layered them all in the vase for a simply decoration.

Once the vase was done, I turned my attention towards the table. I had picked up some burlap garland so I figured I would incorporate that into my table decoration.

It was much narrower than I expected once I opened it. No worries though because I just made two separate panels and overlapped them a little on the table.

I’ve had a fall themed arrangement on the table for awhile and I thought it still went pretty well. So, I just placed it right back on the table.

So, there you have the beginnings of our Thanksgiving preparations. H started setting the table over the weekend by placing every spoon we own out on top of paper towels. She was so excited so I think I’ll put her to use when the dishes are ready to come out. The turkey and ham were bought over the weekend so we aren’t too far away from our big Holiday meal.

The Turkey Bird

November 22, 2011 By Shannah 5 Comments

This is the first year that I will be hosting Thanksgiving at our house. In honor of that, I decided to make a turkey to “host” our meal. I started with some embroidery hoops

I quickly painted both hoops with some brown acrylic paint.

Once those were dry, I grabbed some of my leftover burlap (from this project) and put into the hoops.

I trimmed the excess burlap from around the hoop. Then, I was ready to add feet! I simply cut two little feet out of felt and hot glued them to the bottom of the hoop. Mathlete claim they look more like people feet than turkey feet but I don’t have a close enough relationship with a turkey to really know. So, I left them like they were. Since the edge of the hoop is pretty small, I wrapped a little portion of the feet around the back of the hoop and glued it there too.

I had picked up some feathers and decided, instead of using felt to make turkey feathers, I would use the “real” ones. I simply positioned them how I wanted and then hot glued them to the hoop.

While the feathers dried, I placed the eyes and beak on my smaller hoop and glued them on. Then, I attached the two hoops together. I’m sure you can guess but I used hot glue for that too!

H was sleeping when I finished this guy up so I can’t wait until she discovers him this afternoon!

Have you made any fun Thanksgiving crafts recently? Are you all ready for the upcoming holiday?

This post may be partying at the following locations:

Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T., I Made the World Cuter Today at Making the World Cuter, Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple, Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch, Market Yourself Monday at Sumos Sweet Stuff, the Craft Catwalk and Embellishing Life, Get Your Craft on Tuesday at Today’s Creative Blog, Tutorial Tuesday at With Hope Studios, Take a Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie, Who’s got Glam at Giggles, Glitz and Glam, Tiptoe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles, Show & Share at Southern Lovely, Hoo’s Got Talent at Nightowl Crafting, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs, Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home, We’re Organized Wednesday at Organize and Decorate Everything, Wow Us Wednesday on Ginger Snap Crafts, Inspired by You Wednesdays at Eisy Morgan, Whatcha Workin’ With Wednesday at Its Toile Good, Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims, Wow Me Wednesdays at Polka Dots on Parade, 100 Ideas Under $100 at Beyond the Picket Fence, Coffee and Conversation Thursday at With a Shot of Brandy, Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple, Hooking up with HoH at House of Hepworths, Look at Me, I’m so Crafty at It’s Fun to Craft, Craft, Scrappy Happy Me Thursday at Craft, Scappy Happy, Catch a Glimpse Thursday at A Glimpse Inside, Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks, Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans, Share Awesomeness Thursdays at The 36^th Avenue, Thrifty Thursday at Thrifty Decorating, Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge, Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous, Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, The Pity Party at 30 Days, Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage, Show and Share Day at Just a Girl, Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home, Free For All Friday at Young & Crafty, the Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground, Show and Tell Saturday at Be Different, Act Normal, and the Before and After Party at Thrifty Décor Chick.

Going Down Under

November 21, 2011 By Shannah 1 Comment

Sadly, we aren’t talking about an upcoming trip to Australia today. We are talking about Mathlete and his planning bug. What is he planning you ask? His current focus (his only focus?) right now has been on planning our future basement renovation. Right now, our basement is home to a bunch of our junk, my crafting area (no, Mathlete, those are not redundant items) and maybe some random bugs. Hopefully, by this time next year, that will be a thing of the past.

I have been complaining to sharing with my mom the ongoing planning of this basement project. It isn’t that I am not excited about having a finished basement because I definitely am. Right now, it is in the stage where I can’t picture it and it is mostly talk about electrical, plumbing and drywall. You didn’t fall asleep there, did you?

Enter Floor Planner which allows you to create 2D and 3D floorplans to help people like me get excited about what is to come in a given space. Obviously, I left all the fun design stuff to Mathlete and just waited for the finished plan to land in my inbox {I did hold the tape measure for the measuring portion of this project}. Want to take a look at our current {stage 1} draft plan?
First, in 2D

Now, in super fabulous 3D

As you can see, the plan for the basement to have storage, a theater area, a wet bar, bedroom and bathroom. Where will my craft stuff be relocated to? It is a little difficult to tell but the bedroom we’ve designed is HUGE. So, my craft stuff will reside in there.
Once I got a picture of how it will look in my mind, I started planning different elements. My first focus was the bar area. I’ll share my plans with you for that space in an upcoming post!

Have you ever done a basement remodel? Any tips to share?

Floor Planner has no idea who I am and I was in no way compensated to talk about their website. We just found them the easiest to use for this part of our basement planning.

Fabulous Freebie Friday #5

November 18, 2011 By Shannah 1 Comment

Time to link up all those fabulous givewaways floating around the interwebs. Got a giveaway going on? You know what to do!

The “rules”of the party:
– Please be sure to link up only to your specific giveaway post and not to your overall blog.
– In your linky title, please put the name of your giveaway and the end date.
– Please link back to this blog so your readers will know where to come find other giveaways too!

Interested in entering a giveaway, check out all the ones linked up below!

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