Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 36

A peaceful Christmas playlist {101 Days of Christmas}

We’ve been playing Christmas music since we put up our tree on October 31st (and we’ve been known to play it at random times throughout the year!).

I know that’s a big no-no for many people, so out of respect for your sensibilities, I waited until today to share this Spotify playlist with you. {Although if you’re reading posts in our 101 Days of Christmas series, it may be safe to assume you love Christmas as much as we do!}

The Peaceful Christmas playlist includes an eclectic collection of artists (including Mandisa, Lady Antebellum, Kari Jobe and She & Him) singing my favorite Christmas carols.

I intentionally chose versions of these songs that are peaceful and inspiring because I know you have plenty of joy and noise and chaos in your holidays already, and I want something that you can listen to while staring at your Christmas tree lights in the dark when you just need a few minutes to remember what the craziness is all about!

Click here to add the playlist to your {free} Spotify account.

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


A peaceful Christmas playlist {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Merry & bright desktop background {101 Days of Christmas}

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope today is a day filled with love and gratitude for each of you!

As we officially kick off the holiday season, grab this peaceful background image to use as a reminder to look for the joy and magic when the stress and chaos starts to overwhelm you!

To download the image to use as your desktop wallpaper, simply click the image above (or this link: Merry & Bright Desktop Background) and choose Save Link As… Then, open the picture, right click and choose Set as desktop background.

Enjoy!

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Merry & bright desktop background {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Royal icing shapes and decorations {101 Days of Christmas}

I think royal icing just might be my favorite discovery of 2014. It’s easy to make at home, lasts forever in the fridge (which will be perfect next birthday season, when we have four birthdays in six weeks!) and can be used in so many different ways — to decorate cookies, hold graham cracker houses together, and now…to make cool shapes!

Yep, this is probably obvious to many of you, but I just realized that you can do this, and I was so excited I had to share!

Because royal icing dries solid, it’s perfect for making shapes and decorations to add to cookies, cupcakes and more.

And it’s super easy to do:

Add a thin round tip to your icing tube. (You can actually use a variety of tips for different shapes, flowers, etc, but I used a thin tip for all of the shapes above because of the extra control.)

Lay out a piece of wax paper.

Carefully “draw” the outline of your shape on the wax paper with your icing and then fill the outline and smooth it out.

Add sprinkles while it’s still wet, one color at a time, carefully shaking the excess off the wax paper in between colors and shapes. For the multi-color hat, I first drew and colored the green part and then added the icing for the red part, which kept the colors from getting mixed up for the most part.

The snowflakes and stars are my favorite, but I also broke a lot of snowflakes while trying to remove them from the wax paper because they’re so fragile, so it’lifes best to make those lines thick and make plenty of extras to compensate for the ones that break!

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Royal icing shapes and decorations {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Graham cracker houses {101 Days of Christmas}

Gingerbread houses have always been my holiday nemesis. They’re SO stressful to put together with impatient little ones waiting to decorate them, the kits are expensive when you need multiples, and there’s no way I have time to bake my own pieces in a special pan.

For the past couple of years, though, I’ve been wanting to try graham cracker houses, and I have to say that these really are a lot of fun.

I actually put the houses together ahead of time so that they would be nice and sturdy by the time the girls were ready to decorate them, and it worked perfectly. With an assortment of candy and some homemade royal icing, the girls went to work decorating their houses, and this year there were no collapsing buildings or tears of frustration.

Supplies:

plain graham crackers royal icing, divided into decorator bags assorted candy

Directions:

Each house needs 4 graham cracker squares (or 2 whole graham crackers broken in half) and 2 whole rectangles.

Using a knife, carefully cut the roof line into one of the whole graham crackers. I found that the easiest way to do this is to lay your knife at an angle from the corner to the center line and gently begin sawing. Once that piece is broken off, rotate your knife to cut the other side at the same angle.

Lay this graham cracker shape on top of the other whole graham cracker and cut the roofline at the same angle.

To assemble, add a line of royal icing to the corner between two of the graham cracker sides. “Glue” in place and set on wax paper to harden. Repeat with two other sides to form two separate halves of the house. Add icing to the open edges and slide the two halves together. Press firmly but gently and let sit until hardened.

To add the roof, add glue along the top of the roofline on both ends and lay a graham cracker square on top. Repeat on the other side and add a thick bead of icing at the top roof seam to hold the pieces together.

Once the icing is dry, these are very sturdy, so little ones can be involved in the decorating without worrying about them falling apart.

Note: If your icing is too runny and not holding its shape well, add powdered sugar a little bit at a time to thicken it up.

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Graham cracker houses {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

      CommentsThanks, Mandi, for another adorable (and brilliant!) Christmas ... by Heather @ My Overflowing Cup 

Scented playdough {101 Days of Christmas}

This scented playdough is a great stocking stuffer, and my girls have already asked me to make them some for their stockings…even though they’ve been playing with this batch already.

Homemade playdough is also surprisingly easy to make, and the addition of kid-safe essential oils offers not just a fun experience for their senses but can also have some therapeutic properties as well. For example, you could add Plant Therapy’s A+ Attention for use during a break from school work or homework to help them come back and focus on the work at hand or Calming the Child for use during quiet play.

Or you could use individual essential oils in separate batches (for example, a couple of the fresh and energizing EOs listed as ingredients in the Go Go Go synergy) and let kids combine different colors and scents as they play!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt*
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
food coloring
6-8 drops essential oil

*I used sea salt, which is what the specks in the dough are from; use refined table salt if you want a smoother color.

Directions:

Combine the first six ingredients and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Note: Every time I make this, I think I’ve ruined it because it gets thick and “overcooked” before it turns to playdough. Just keep stirring and trust that it will come together!

When the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a ball, turn off the heat.

Let cool for a couple of minutes before kneading the essential oil of your choice into the dough.

Package in little jars or containers for stockings!

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Scented playdough {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Why buy fair trade + a World Vision Gift Catalog giveaway {101 Days of Christmas}

I love Amazon as much as the next guy. In fact, I probably love Amazon more than the next guy. It’s convenient, saves me money and has pretty much anything you could ever want for sale. Which is really helpful when you live in the boonies and don’t particularly enjoy driving over the mountains just to get to the store.

And I feel okay about buying necessities like baby formula and diapers, pantry staples, art supplies and, you know, books from Amazon.

But when it comes to things like jewelry, chocolate and coffee — the optional things in life — I try my best to purchase fair trade products that help someone build a business and support their family. (Okay, I still buy the chocolate from Amazon…)

And I love to purchase gifts thoughtfully too, something that the person will truly love and enjoy and, whenever possible, something that supports an artisan or business owner as well.

Enter the World Vision Gift Catalog.

While you can buy gifts for a family in need or give gifts in honor of a loved one through World Vision, they also have a selection of handcrafted gifts that provide money to the “where it’s needed most” fund to be distributed around the world.

Buying fair trade gifts lets you give multiple gifts at once: a gift for the friend or family member you’re purchasing for, a gift for the artisan who has been paid for the work and will continue to get work, and a gift for the people who benefit from the profit on the sale, in this case offering emergency relief assistance or help for an unforeseen need for a child, family, or community!

Their catalog isn’t huge, but it is thoughtfully stocked with beautiful, handcrafted gifts. Like this silver vines cuff, this handwoven Thai purse or this fair-trade coffee set, which includes a hand-sewn bag and hand-carved olivewood scoop.

And now for a giveaway!

This week, World Vision is giving one lucky winner an Artisan Multi-Colored Necklace!

This necklace is made of beautiful semi-precious stones and glass beads. Roughly 48” in length, the necklace can be worn long or short, as a bracelet or even as a belt. Donors who give $100 or more through the World Vision Gift Catalog can receive this necklace for themselves or a loved one when their contributions are made to the Where Most Needed fund, which supports programs in areas of greatest need.

To enter to win, please fill out the form below:

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The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday, 11/29. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Unfortunately, due to the international laws governing sweepstakes and lotteries, we’re only able to offer these giveaways to U.S. residents 18 years and older.

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Why buy fair trade + a World Vision Gift Catalog giveaway {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     
CommentsI completely agree with you, Mandi, about both Amazon and World ... by Heather @ My Overflowing CupGreat article. by K Swicz 

Brown sugar & cinnamon shortbread {101 Days of Christmas}

It would be hard for me to choose one absolute favorite cookie, but if I had to try, shortbread would definitely be at the top of the list. Which maybe isn’t fair since there are so many different variations!

I love plain vanilla shortbread, and just the thought of Shaina’s lemon thyme shortbread makes my mouth water, but what makes shortbread so great is that you can easily add flavors, mix-ins and glazes depending on your mood.

The other day I pulled out a bag of King Arthur Flour cinnamon chips and decided that they needed to make an appearance in this year’s shortbread cookies. The result is a sweet and spicy cookie that’s richer than shortbread made with white sugar and absolutely delicious with white chocolate drizzle!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 cup cinnamon chips 8 ounces white chocolate

Directions:

In a medium bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and cinnamon.

Add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mixture and mix completely. The dough should hold together; if it’s still dry and crumbly, mix some more!

Gently stir in cinnamon chips.

Divide dough in half and roll each half into a log. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes or in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove dough from fridge or freezer and slice into 1/8″ slices.

Place on a cookie sheet or stone, with room to spread, and bake for 15-18 minutes, until the edges begin to brown.

While cookies are baking, melt white chocolate in the microwave or double boiler according to package directions.

Remove cookies from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a piece of wax or parchment paper.

Carefully dip the cookies in the white chocolate or drizzle the white chocolate over them with a spoon.

Click here to add this recipe to your Plan to Eat account.

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Brown sugar & cinnamon shortbread {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Weekend reading: November 22, 2014

From Instagram: Every morning I find them sleeping in the same position as each other…sometimes on their sides, sometimes on their backs. It’s too much!

Little man started walking last night, not just with one step, but with one, two, three, four steps. It’s pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (especially because he’s still so tiny!), and I kinda can’t wait until he really takes off!

Yesterday was also the last day of our first semester of Classical Conversations, and my last day of tutoring Essentials in 2014. I love tutoring, my amazing students, and this program so much, and I’m looking forward to getting back to regular content after the holidays so I can share a bit more about the class and the things I’ve learned about kids, teaching and English grammar.

That said, I really, really love the holiday season, and the last 5 or 6 weeks of the year are my absolute favorite. That doesn’t mean it’s never stressful, but I work really hard to eliminate the stress. Which means, for example, that for the first time in many years, I won’t be sending Christmas cards this year because it’s just too much for me to wrap my head around right now. Maybe we’ll send Happy New Year cards!

We’re heading to North Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving and my grandma’s 80th birthday next week, and I’ve got almost all of our 101 Days of Christmas posts scheduled so that we can relax and enjoy time with the various family members who will be celebrating with us. I’m still deciding whether to take our advent stuff with us (I’ll admit…this sounds stressful to me!) or just wait and do our own schedule of advent readings when we get back, but either way, I’m looking forward to decorating my mom’s tree with the girls, a little Christmas baking and lots of evenings cuddled in front of the fireplace!

What I’m reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Free to Learn by Peter Gray {still…}

What I’m pinning: navy & white, red & gray, chambray & cream {ways to style a cardigan}

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

For entrepreneurs Of course it’s been done before | Seth’s Blog The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Working With Your Spouse | EntreFamily Two Resolutions for Being Productive | Storyline A life that matters The Importance of Moving From Applause to Participation | Becoming Minimalist 10 Things to NOT do this Holiday Season | Finding Joy Real community How to Get Over Cliques & Get Real Community | A Holy Experience Giving each other the space to be authentic | The Art of Simple

I’d love to give credit for this flow chart that’s floating around Facebook, but I don’t know where it originated. Anyone know the source?

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Weekend reading: November 22, 2014

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

      CommentsThanks for the link love, Mandi! And that flow chart is great, ... by Stephanie @ EntreFamilyLove the flow chart – thanks for sharing! by Corrie C 

Why Schoola is now my number one stop for kids clothing

A few weeks ago Kristen at The Frugal Girl shared the new children’s clothing site, Schoola, and I immediately hopped over to check it out.

The premise is this: families donate gently used clothing to Schoola on behalf of their schools. You buy the clothes online at consignment shop prices and 40% of the proceeds are donated directly to that school.

Thrift store and consignment sale shopping is totally overwhelming for me. I find it exhausting and frustrating, even when I’m by myself, and my girls all want a say in their clothing choices these day, which means 9 times out of 10, I choose to shop online instead of dragging them into a store.

With Schoola, you can shop online and sort by size, color, type or category, with hundreds of items to choose from. Each item includes a detailed picture and information about the brand, quality and condition. And there are tons of higher quality brands, which means the clothes look better and last longer than some of our cheaper Old Navy purchases for the same price.

I decided to start with some more leggings and Christmas outfits for the girls. I’ll be honest – it took me a while to sort through the options and make choices, but I really could not be happier with our purchases. Other than one pair of pants that were adult size rather than kids’ size (which was completely my fault for not paying attention) and one pair of leggings that our 5 year old said were too tight at the waist, everybody loves their clothes, and they are all high quality and in great condition.

I spent $80 shipped (after my coupon) and got all of this:

I’ve been raving about it on Facebook ever since I first visited the site, and when our order arrived yesterday it exceeded my expectations in every way, so I decided you all needed to know about it as well!

Is this the cheapest way to buy children’s clothing? No, probably not, especially for those of you who are good at yard sales/thrift stores/consigning. But for us, it feels like a great option and one we’ll be using often.

Pros of Schoola:

shopping from home high quality brand name clothes in good condition purchases benefit schools free shipping over $50

Cons of Schoola:

not a lot of baby choices can’t touch and try on clothes ahead of time tons of choices to sort through shipping is too expensive to buy just a few items

Shop through my link and get a $15 credit on your order (and then share your link to earn credits on future orders!).

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Why Schoola is now my number one stop for kids clothing

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

      CommentsThank you so much for sharing!! We've moved to Indiana and I've ... by Andrea 

Pinecone bird feeder {101 Days of Christmas}

We made these bird feeders with our American Heritage Girl troop for the girls to hang on the tree branches around our house.

There’s nothing especially Christmas-y about this project, I suppose, but I love the idea of making little gifts for our feathered friends at Christmas and throughout the winter!

Supplies:

pinecones wire peanut butter bird seed

Directions:

Make a loop out of wire and wrap the ends tightly around the pinecone several times.

Scoop peanut butter onto one plate and bird seed onto a second.

Roll the pinecone in the peanut butter and then in the birdseed.

If you won’t be hanging them right away, wrap it in wax paper until you’re ready.

Projects from the archives:

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Meet the 101 Days of Christmas sponsors:

King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline: free professional help with any holiday baking challenge
World Vision Gift Catalog: share a full life with children in need by giving unique, life-changing gifts
Plant Therapy Essential Oils: 100% pure, undiluted oils you can trust at a price you can afford
Life Your Way Christmas Shop: get your 2014 Christmas planner today


Pinecone bird feeder {101 Days of Christmas}

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved