The Haldeman Holiday Ornament

Hello friends! We are just days away from Christmas, so there is still time to make a keepsake ornament! Last year we did cinnamon ornaments, and salt dough ornaments for our ornament tradition. 

This year for our 2015 keepsake ornament, we made Snowmen Handprint Ornaments! 

This is a pretty simple craft. You'll need the following items:

- Glass or plastic ornaments: shiny coating only. Do not purchase the matte ornament balls (ex purple, blue, red etc) as they will bleed through the paint. 

- Craft paint - black, brown, and orange, paint brush

- Toothpicks

- Fabric 

- Pencil

- Ribbon

- Glue stick

- Your child's hand :)

Step 1: You'll want to paint the palm of your child's hand with white craft paint. Gently place the ornament in your child's palm and have them "hug" the ornament. I had to gently press their fingers flat up against the ornament to ensure that the snowmen would appear ;)

Step 2: While the ornaments dried, I cut out small little "scarves" from some left over holiday fabric. Truth be told, the process of cutting and gluing the little scarves took the most time. Helpful hint: USE WASHI TAPE for the scarves. By doing that, you'll cut your cutting-perfectly-small-sized-scarves time in half ;) ;) And you'll save your sanity in the meantime!

Step 3: Take a pencil and draw out your snowmen faces, noses etc. You can totally skip this step, but I'm just way too anal about how my snowmen look - good grief! LOL

Step 4: Take the bottom of a toothpick and gently dip it into black craft paint, and place it on top of your pencil marks. This is how you'll make the eyes/mouth/buttons. Do the same thing with orange craft paint to make the noses. You can also use a toothpick to make stick arms and hands.

Aren't they SO cute! They have so much personality, don't they? Side note: I'm super proud of myself at this point in time, FYI.

Step 5: Take a glue stick and glue the back of your fabric scarves, then stick them on your snowmen any way you like! Dip the end of a paintbrush into the white craft paint and "dot" around the ornament to make it look like falling snow. And voila! Add a pretty ribbon on top and you've got your Snowman Hand print Ornament! WOOT! 

No matter how you decide to spend these last few days before Christmas, do so with your heart and soul! Make it a memorable and wonderful holiday with those nearest and dearest to you! 

Happy Holidays, 

The NorCal Contessa

Chocolate Orange Pretzel Bark (say that 3 times fast ;) )

Chocolate. Orange. SOHAPPYTOGETHERRRR! As a kid, I never liked these flavors together. But now that I'm a full fledged adult, I like it. I really, really like it! My girlfriend Kelly, (who is equally obsessed with Young Living Essential Oils as moi) gave me this recipe the other day that lists one of the ingredients as Orange EO. It's a fast, easy, and sure to bring a smile to your face kind of recipe! Thank you Kelly for all of your wonderful recipes, especially when they include YLEO's ;) This won't be the last time I make this treat!

Behold...

This recipe calls for the following deliciousness:

- Young Living Orange Essential Oil

- 1/2 c unsalted pretzels, crushed

- 1 pkg Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet chocolate baking bar

- a pinch of Pink Himalayan Salt

- parchment paper covering a cookie sheet

Before I begin, let me nerd out and tell you some of the benefits you'll reap by using Orange YLEO's and Himalayan salt. The health benefits from using the Orange EO are as follows: While it not only enhances the flavor of your foods, the smell is uplifting to the body and mind, its an anti-inflammatory, and helps boost immunity. The health benefits of Pink Himalayan salt promotes a healthy blood sugar, increases hydration, is detoxifying when thrown into a bath, and helps support respiratory health. And chocolate...what's not to love? I mean, could eating this delicious treat be any more awesome?! 

Alright, back to the recipe. In a double boiler, melt chocolate until smooth and creamy. Add 4 drops of Young Living Orange Essential Oil, stir and mix well. Don't have a double boiler? Not to worry! I just used a glass bowl to put on top of the pot. Easy peasy and I just saved you money...you're welcome ;)

Side note: Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of yourself with only one hand?! Super duper hard, FYI. As I was saying, in a Ziploc baggie, take a 1/2 c of unsalted pretzels with a pinch of Himalayan salt and crush with rolling pin. Spread chocolate with a spatula onto parchment covered cookie sheet, then sprinkle the pretzel-salt mixture over the chocolate.

This layer will be pretty thin in thickness, so if you like a thicker bark, I would pour the chocolate-orange mixture into a small brownie pan. Place chocolate-orange-pretzel cookie sheet into fridge for 2 hours to harden. After 2 hours, take out cookie sheet and gently break the bark into pieces. You can eat them yourself (which I may or may not have done) or you can gift them in pretty little boxes. Either way you've made something from the heart, and that's always the best gift of all. 

Creatively Yours and Happy Holidays,

NorCal Contessa ;)