Peppermint Mocha - DIY.

This year I knew I wanted our Christmas gifts 

& cards to have more of a handmade feel. 

(see our Christmas Postcard) 

I'm also kind of a weirdo & I save every empty spaghetti jar in the hopes that I will use 

them for something at some point. Thus the idea to gift homemade hot chocolate mix was born...

I searched & searched for a good recipe & decided on this one because of the peppermint element.

Pssst - If you've ever had a peppermint mocha at Starbucks it tastes very similar - yum, yum!

After a few taste tests, I whipped up the hot chocolate mix, created some tags with directions on how to prepare it for the recipients, bought some new lids for my recycled jars & ta-da... 

Homemade Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate!

It is really yummy if I must say... 

I'm definitely whipping up an extra batch or so to have on hand.

Oh & If you want to give it a try or have any questions,

 please feel free to email me, I'd love to help you out!

How bout you? 

What are you giving this year?

xoxo

Christmas Postcards - DIY.

It took me a pretty decent amount of time to figure out Christmas cards this year. 

You see getting a family photograph of all three of us, is pretty darn difficult round here. 

So I figured that option was out...

 Messing around one day I snapped a fairly decent photograph of Piper Dog 

& while everyone else may not love & appreciate her as much as we do, 

I figured using her as a representative of The Fry family this year was better than nothing! 

Enter Amy Moss over at Eat Drink Chic. 

Amy designed these super cute downloadable holiday tags this year. 

I fell in love with the "Love & Whimsy" version & knew I had to

 incorporate it into our Christmas card design someway, somehow... 

At first I just figured I'd do Christmas photo-cards with Amy's tags as the label at the bottom. 

I had the blank cards printed & picked up the paper & craft paper tapes at the local craft store. 

Then, I thought of doing a postcard because (a) they are a lil' something different & (b) they'd save on postage. 

While waiting for my photos to be printed I lucked out & Amy came up with yet another

DIY/Free printable that just so happened to be a postcard. Lucky me, right?!

It took a lot of cutting, gluing, taping & patience but when all was said 

& done I have to say I am pretty pleased with the results... 

I love the decorative tape & kraft paper... I feel like both really add to the homemade look

 which was just what I was going for. I just hope they make it to all their recipients. 

That is the only problem with postcards, no room for a return address!

xoxo