Christmas Decor - DIY Holiday Jars

I have officially gone Christmas decorating crazy! There is no mistaking the holiday at the Doyle house.

The mantle is done, tree is up - just needs a few finishing touches, dining room table is decked out with the Christmas china, AND I made DIY Pinterest inspired holiday jars! I love Christmas! The idea came from Better Homes and Gardens decorating with kitchen items. This decor is really simply, really inexpensive and really pretty!

You will need a few mason jars (as many as you want to up out), a bag of fresh cranberries, some greenery (I used sprigs from the bottom limbs of the tree that were trimmed off) and some tea lights. Since I already had everything but the cranberries, this was a fun and inexpensive way to add some holiday touches to my home!

Place the greenery in the bottom of the mason jars. Add in the cranberries, then fill with water to the top. The cranberries will float. Top with a tea candle and you are done! 

Pretty right? And super pretty lit!

Has anyone tried any Christmas crafts/decor from Pinterest? Don't you just LOVE this time of year!

The Doyles

DIY Christmas Candles

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday with family this past week! 

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I am ready to get my Christmas decorating on! Okay, so I actually did this Christmas craft before Thanksgiving, oops. I guess its safe to say I've been more than ready to pull out the garland and tinsel this year! At least I showed Thanksgiving a little respect and blogged about it after, right?

I've been seeing a lot of glittery Christmas candles in home decor stores recently, some to the tune of $20 bucks a pop. Yikes! This got me inspired. I decided I could make the same pretty glittery candles for much cheaper and could satisfy my DIY bug at the same time. A win, win!

Let's start with the guests to this DIY glitter candles party. I got a pack of 3 candles for $2.89 at Garden Ridge. Has anyone been there before? It's one of those big you-can-find-just-about-anything warehouse-y kind of places with really good prices. I got the glitter and the spray adhesive at Michaels. The glitter was about $3.00 total for regular gold glitter and some Martha Stewart tinsel glitter that was on clearance. The adhesive was about $6 but can be used again for many more projects. So the whole project was under $12 for 3 candles which is a whole lot better than $20 for one!

From there, the project is pretty straight forward. Spray the candles with the adhesive. I wrapped the wick in tape so it wouldn't get glue and glitter on it. The rolled each candle in the glitter. 

The end result?

Pretty right? Just let it try for a few hours and shake off the excess glitter. 

Here they are in my living room. Gives this table a little more pizzazz and Christmas cheer than the plain white ones that are housed there the rest of the year, don't ya think?

So there you have it, my first but definitely not my last Christmas craft for 2012. Has anyone else done any Christmas crafts yet? Feel free to share if you have!

The Doyles

Give Thanks!

 

It's Thanksgiving week! Can you believe how fast time is flying by? 2012 is coming to a close but not before we celebrate family and friends and all we are thankful for and the 
birth of Christ this Christmas!

 I am so looking forward to a much needed break and some R and R. I will be unplugging for the rest of the week to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family. We have a lot to going on with a big Thanksgiving feast and mama's cooking (YUM!), a special birthday party for my Grandma, loving on my sweet new baby cousin, and a lot quality family time!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Our wonderful marriage, great family and friends, our house, good jobs, our health and a great new year ahead! I'm so excited to see what all it will bring! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Cheer Link Party

Well, the Christmas bug has bitten me early this year. Is anyone else in the mood to decorate for Christmas? Some ladies over at a few of my favorite blogs are hosting a Christmas Cheer Link Party December 4th - 20th. I participated in a Fall Decor link party in October and it was a blast! 

I'll be sharing a Christmas craft, mantel, tree, recipe, and attire here on the blog so be sure to come and check it out! Isn't this fun! :)

I'm already getting down those red and green storage boxes and sorting through my Christmas decorations, while of course playing some Christmas music throughout the house! 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Turkey Meatloaf

Yes, this is a post about meatloaf. I know meatloaf doesn't really have the best reputation, but I promise, it can be delicious! Just give it a chance. At least check out this recipe. I think it will surprise you! 

On Sunday I made a modified version of The Pioneer Woman's meatloaf. If you are obsessed a fan like I am, you know her recipes are super yummy! But, if you are like me, you can't always eat the all the whole milk and real butter you want. It's sad, isn't it?! 

Anyway, back to the meatloaf. The changes I made are super simple but can make a big difference for a healthier meal during the week. 

Her recipe calls for ground beef, which I replaced with ground turkey. We've been using ground turkey as a beef substitute for a lot of recipes recently and we really like it. I also used non-fat milk instead of whole milk and sliced whole wheat bread instead of white bread. Here's the recipe I used. It was delicious! Moist and extremely flavorful! 

Turkey Meatloaf

1 cup non-fat milk
6 slices whole wheat bread
2 pounds ground turkey
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
4 eggs beaten
10 slices bacon

Sauce:
1 1/2 cups ketchup 
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, pour milk over bread slices and let soak for several minutes. 

Add the ground meat, Parmesan cheese, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper and parsley to the milk and bread. Pour in the beaten eggs.

With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a foil lined baking sheet. 

Lay bacon slices over the top and tuck underneath the meatloaf.

To make the sauce, combine the ketchup, brown sugar and dry mustard in a bowl. Pour 1/3 over the top of the meatloaf and spread with a spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the meatloaf. Continue to bake for 15 minutes. 

Slice and serve with remaining sauce. 

If you are interested in the original, you can check it out here. 

Does anyone have any yummy turkey recipes to share?

The Doyles

A Day to Celebrate!

Today is hubby's birthday. He is just the greatest, in my humble, extremely accurate and completed unbiased opinion. :) He works so hard and does so much for our family of two. I am extremely blessed to have such a wonderful husband! 

So, today is about celebrating him! I found some great birthday ideas on Pinterest and thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Birthday Morning Surprise

Via

Birthday Balloons

Via

Candy Bar Cake

Via

Birthday Cake Pancakes. YUM!

Via

Hubby loves everything pumpkin!

Via

Cute yet masculine party decor

Via

Happy Birthday Honey! 

House Tour

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend and Monday!

I've been working on something new for My Doyle Life. Our house tour can be found under the Our House tab. If you are interested in our humble abode, be sure check it out! 

As we make updates and tackle DIY projects, we'll share our progress with ya here!

Have a great week!

The Doyles

Happy November Y'all!

It's November! Can you believe it? Officially 3 weeks until Thanksgiving. Crazy, right? 

The 1st day of every month is also known as bunny day in our family. My husband's grandmother told him as a little boy that if you say bunny on the 1st day of every month, you will have good luck. It obviously stuck and is a fun little thing that we do. So, happy bunny day everyone! I hope you all have a great November!

Here are some things I'm excited for this month. 

Hubby's birthday! 

NC State and Duke basketball

               

Thanksgiving decorations

Thanksgiving food and time with family

What do you guys have planned this month? Thanksgiving plans or traditions you'd like to share?

The Doyles