DIY Hanging Xmas Pine Cones

We still had our fall wreath up on our front door on Sunday, and I figured that needed to be taken down! We spent so much time decorating the inside and the outside of our house for Xmas, we neglected the front door. 

We have a lot of crafts going right now, mostly for Christmas gifts, so we needed something quick and easy. Our house should be in a Hobby Lobby ad right now, you can't even tell we have a dining room table because it's covered with all sorts of craft scraps, hot glue guns, gifts, wrapping paper, you name it!

I remembered seeing a  DIY project with hanging pine cones on Pinterest, so I went with it! We had all of the supplies at home, and it took only about 5 minutes.

All you need is:

ribbon (i used some Christmas colored ribbon we already had)

pine cones

hot glue gun

wreath hanger, or some way of hanging it from your door

Cut your ribbon to different sizes and collect them all together, evening them out at one end.

Tie another ribbon in a bow around all of the ribbons that you gathered, holding them together (the green ribbon is the one i used to tie mine together)

Put a rather large amount of hot glue in the top of each pine cone and attach the bottom of each ribbon to it. Be careful pushing the ribbon down onto the hot glue, it's thin and the hot glue could burn you through it!

Once you have glued all of your cones on, let the glue dry for a minute or two. Attach a small hook or ring to your ribbon that is tied in a bow, and hang it from your wreath hanger. You could also  just hang it from a nail without a hook or a ring.

-Whitney

Can't Get Enough

I cannot stop listening to this song.  It seems fitting for this damp yet warm day we have here in KC.  Enjoy!

The music video makes this song even better.

-Megan 

A 90's Kids Christmas List

I came across this 90's Kids Christmas List and wow did it take me back to the good 'ol days! The days when even the simplest toys kept our attention for hours!

If any part of your childhood (or your children's childhood) took place in the 90's, then you will probably recognize all of these toys! You may have even had several of them on your Christmas list!

A few of my faves:

Bop It....twist it....pull it....really tested our coordination and reflexes! 

My Grandma did a great job of feeding my Beanie Baby collection! I still have bags of them, because "some day they are going to be worth so much money!".....still waiting for that day! (Mine even have tag protectors, in case anyone is interested)

I can still remember the way these little guys smelled (weird, i know), and somehow they were so entertaining.

What kid did not want to feel like they were walking on the moon???

Oh stretch armstrong! How badly i wanted you to accidentally break so i could see what was inside of you!

 

Tamagotchi! I took that thing everywhere, but i guess I had to if i wanted to keep him alive!

-Whitney

The Cat-Eye

The Cat-Eye is a make-up trend that I am completely obsessed with, but as most trends I thought only make up artists could make it work and therefore only models and actresses could pull them off.  Recently I came across this tutorial online from The Hairpin and she just makes it look so simple. I tried it last night for the Matt and Kim concert thinking it wouldn't work (sorry for being a downer) but I was totally surprised because it did ! I myself the girl who buys most of her makeup at a drug store can have a cat-eye. 

Hairpin Tutorial

Nicole's Red Carpet Cat

Flawless Cat-Eye

Blue Cat-Eye and accessories

Elle's thumbs up to Cat-Eyes (in Terry's glasses)

All Images via Pinterest

-Meow! Megan 

DIY JOY Garland

We had a lot of burlap to use after we took down our Friendsgiving tables, that went through 3 rooms in our house! Luckily, burlap makes for some very cute Christmas decorations too. Brooke sewed stockings for all 4 of us out of the burlap, and I made this little JOY garland that we hung from the mirror in our living room.

It was super easy and fun! All you need is:

 a few feet of burlap (more or less depending on how many triangles you want)

twine , rope or thick string of some kind

 red embroidery floss (that you make friendship bracelets out of)

a large needle with an eye wide enough to fit the red floss 

 white acrylic paint

 letter or shape stencils

whatever you would like to add to your garland (I used red bells and some greenery cut from a tree in our back yard)

I simply cut out 3 large diamonds from the burlap, and folded them over the twine (so you have 2 triangles, one on each side of the twine), stringing the bells in between each one.

Using a large needle and your red embroidery floss, sew each half of your diamonds together with a large stitch (this will attach your diamonds to the twine, and create the triangle shape. Do the same to the other 2 diamonds, so you end up with 3 double sided triangles.

Then just stencil whatever wording or shape you would like onto your triangles, add a little greenery (I just poked mine into one of the holes in the bells) and TADA!

-Whitney

Merry Mantles

The mantle is my favorite part about Christmas decorating! Maybe because it's such a focal point for most houses. Or because it frames the fireplace, which is where you want to be during the winter time, and especially Christmas. Here are some mantles that have caught my eye this year:

Love the greenery on this mantle with the pops of red, and the lanterns are perfection!

These silver hanging glittery stars are so fun! I really like the white stockings against the lit fireplace.

The logs in this fireplace are amazing, and i love the peace garland!

The simplicity of this one works very well with the awesome Santa portrait!

 

I love decorating with pine cones, so i was naturally drawn to this one! The natural colors are awesome, and with just subtle hints of Christmas, this could stay up all winter long.

These bright red wreaths really pop on this mantle, and I really like the spacing of the hanging stockings.

This one is a little overkill, but kind of fun! I wonder how long that took to make, and how the heck do you store that??

Images via Pinterest

 Here are a couple pics of our mantle. Brooke made the burlap stockings from the burlap we used for our Friendsgiving dinner! (tutorial to come soon!)

The PEACE stocking hangers we got last year from Hobby Lobby, of course! And the pre-lit garland is from Target.

What's your mantle style??

-Whitney & Megan

Garlic Scallion Noodles

This week has been crazy busy for us Pretty Penny girls, half of us are jetting off for a fun girls weekend, we all went to the Jay-Z and Kayne concert and we have been trying to get our house Christma-fied.  We have a couple festive crafts to share with you next week.  Needless to say we have been busy so this meal was a perfect choice for our busy schedules.  Its so simple and quick, but trust us when we say that its one of the most flavor-packed noodle dishes we have made in a while. 

via

Ingredients

Half a box of spaghetti noodles

4 tablespoons of butter (we used about 3 1/2 and it was still a bit buttery)

5 cloves of minced garlic

2 scallions finely chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar (up to 2 tablespoons can be added if you want it sweeter but we found this to be the perfect balance of sweet and salty)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and then drain.

2. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt butter.  Add scallions and garlic, cook until you can smell the garlic usually about 5 mins. 

3. Add sugar and soy sauce and cook for another min.

4. Increase heat and toss the noodles in and coat with the butter mixture.

5. Garnish with addition scallions and serve. 

Enjoy!

-Megan and Whitney