Chocolate Covered Christmas Pretzels

Bagged and ready for delivery...

Warming the chocolate...

Note the jar Josh is pulling the pretzels from

Getting their chocolate coating...

Some had sprinkles...

Some had more chocolate...

The production line...

They were stacked everywhere...

In keeping with the Johnson family tradition of chocolate covered pretzels... we bought 2 of the big containers from Sams Club that had cute stars, trees and bell shapes (see top picture) for about $8.00 each plus about 8 pounds of white chocolate and in a matter of about 90 minutes we had over 1,200 of those bad boys completed and ready for delivery!

We are getting better with the "production" each and every time we make them. This time we decided to melt the chocolate (we bought 2 pound blocks instead of the chips) in the microwave first and then put the melted chocolate into the frying pan (it was on low) we found that this makes the chocolate stay warmer and the pretzel don't end up "swimming" in the chocolate because most of it will drip off and back into the pan... and we didn't have to keep re-heating the chocolate on the stove in the double boiler.  After they were dipped we put them on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and moved over to the "decorating" section of the kitchen.

Our next big ah-ha moment was with the decorating bags. I had previously bought bottles (they looked like smaller ketchup bottles you use at a ballgame). Kendra would put several Wilton Candy Melts into the bottle and would microwave them until melted... stirring them constantly and sometimes they would burn a little because it was taking forever to get them to melt completely. This time I bought the Wilton Decorating Bags (I think there were 10 of them for $4.00)... these worked like a charm.  Kendra put several Candy Melts in the bag... zapped them for the time called for and then would "massage" the bag until all of the Melts were melted completely... then she snipped a very small piece off of the bottom and voila... the perfect decorating tool! (it's better to take just a little snip off ~ you can always snip off more if you want later).

Josh thought it was taking to long to just decorate each individual pretzel and decided they should just sweep across the whole tray with several passes back and forth with each of the colors. With this new idea they were much faster decorating than we were dipping and honestly... they looked just as good as when each one was done on its own!  Some of the pans Josh and Kendra used just the sugar sprinkles and others they did just the Candy Melts and on some they did both... they all looked so festive and tasted so good!

The pretzels would have set up a lot faster had my mom not cranked up the temperature to 86* in my house. Apparently when my mom and dad first arrived (Kendra and I were both running late at work and Josh was in the shower) my mom decided that it was a little "chilly" so she proceeded to crank up the heat to 86*... She claims she didn't hear the furnace kick on... so she just keep pressing the "up" button.  Josh was the one who noticed how hot it was getting and discovered that it was 86*. He first accused me of cranking it up and then my mom started laughing... she knew she was busted! Needless to say it gave us all a great laugh for the evening!

I hope that you and your family have at least one "fun" thing to do in the kitchen that everyone can do together... oh and don't forget to have your favorite Christmas carols playing in the background... you will be making memories for years to come!

Merry Christmas!

 

Dallas Cowboys Whoo Hooo Towel

I had bought some white flocked heat transfer material over a year ago and finally decided it would be fun to make me, Josh and My dad a whoo hooo towel for the Cowboys games.  I already had saved the star and the logo on my Silhouette... I just measured the places I wanted the flocking to go and cut it that size. I have never worked with flocking before and it would have been a snap had I used normal material... but all of the "loops" on the towel as well as the "lint" is not the easiest or best medium to adhere it to. I did really like how they turned out though... hopefully it will bring us better luck than we had yesterday!

Dallas Cowboy Clothes Pins...

The front of the holders...

The back of the holders...

Dallas Cowboy chocolate covered pretzels...

My dad and his brothers have been Dallas Cowboy fans since their very first game. My cousins and I all have the strong Cowboys ties as well. At our Johnson Reunion this summer I asked my dad and uncles, Darrell and Ace, to bring their Cowboy jerseys for a "photo shoot". I thought it would be cool ~ and being the awesome uncles they are... they humored me! You can see the complete photo shoot here.  I wanted to make them something fun to display the pictures... and this is what I came up with. 

I painted the cloths pin two coats of silver... I traced the special Cowboy star paper and used Mod Podge to adhere it to the wood. The white paper was added to the top (I'll never admit this... but you can have too many stars) and the white was the perfect pop he needed.  I wished the picture showed the sparkles on the papers better... then I added a blue jute-like material for the final touch. I attached two pictures of them together ~ a front and a back... just like they are posed (top and middle picture ~ right pin). You can soo tell they are brothers! I have different pictures in mine (top and middle picture ~ left pin). Since we had the Sunday night game... I thought it would be fun to give them each a bag of Cowboy pretzels to enjoy for treat time during the game.

 

Fall Centerpiece...

Another one of my mom many talents... flower arranging! She surprised me with this for my kitchen table... I love it!

Cowboy and Halloween Pretzels...

 The cute bag filled with treats...

 Halloween Pretzels...

 Dallas Cowboy Pretzels...

My dad and the cool Cowboy Pretzels...

In keeping with holiday tradition we made our super tasty pretzels. One of the girls at work found these cute football pretzels and thought that I should have them. Mom and I dipped with dad and Kendra were the decorators... Josh even joined in on the fun after he got home from work.  We put the pretzels in these cute bags and I made a cute pumpkin tag by cutting two of the pumpkins and sticking them together (the eyes and mouth would have fallen out... by putting tape over the back of the eyes and mouth and putting the two together you couldn't see the tape... OCD I know... but it looked cuter!) a little chalking to add some depth and they were ready to go.

Welcome Post...

 Halloween Welcome...

 Thanksgiving Welcome...

 The post with sign...

Some people have asked about the post that my mom and dad built.  The main post is a 4x4 cedar post... a fence cap on top and a plate that the 4x4 sits in at the bottom... a 1.4 inch maple square base that should hold up to the cold Utah weather (made by Bob Morrow - the wood man as we like to call him). The wrought iron arm post was from Home Depot and it included the little black sign holders. My dad drilled a hole in the bottom of the base and the 4x4 ... countersink the lag screw to keep it from wobbling. A coat of outdoor paint and voila... a Porch sign holder.

The signs are 2 pieces of cedar glued together... sanded and painted.  Bob (The wood man who made them for us) also drilled a small hole in the top of each one so that we could screw an I hook into the top for the sign to hang from. I then used vinyl for the sayings and some older wood cut outs from The Wood Connection.  The Halloween side has glitter on the pumpkin ~ ghost and star along with cute faces made from vinyl using my Silhouette.  The Thanksgiving side is also an older cut out along with some wire and ribbon for the embellishments.

This year the pumpkins don't have the cute vinyl faces like last year See them here... September and part of October have been filled with lots of fun on the inside my house before painting... and finally seeing the beautiful completed project...  Yeah!  Finally on the 11th of October the house was Halloween/Fall ready (only a month later than normal... but there's always next year... right?)

 

Halloween Wood Letters..

My mom is doing great at getting her Halloween and fall projects completed (I'm struggling... still!).  She was kind enough to send me her pics (sorry... the picture is a little dark).  My mom is not a fan of the bright colors for Halloween... so she changed to the the more "pastel" colors (can you use pastel and Halloween in the same sentence?) The pumpkin does have a cute face cut out of vinyl (I love my Silhouette) as well as the inking around the edges and the cute ribbons for the final touch.  The stackers are the same as the one I posted previously... but I hated how I put the vinyl on the "apples" log... it slanted some.  I like how this one turned out much better... I like having 3 different fonts!

Come In For A Spell...

 My moms cute front porch...

 Fall flowers...

 Autumn wood letters...

I thought I would post some of my moms newest and cutest fall decor. The top picture is of my mom and dads front porch and their awesome welcome post the designed and made. Last Saturday afternoon my mom came down and we designed  the "Come In For A Spell" sign and on the back is the Thanksgiving side (I love two-fers). I will post pictures when she turns it around.... I love how she used the cute scarecrows and hay bales to complete her porch. Thanks mom for sharing your talents!

Dallas Cowboy Star ~ Ooops...

 The "plain" star...

 After priming...

 After spraying it with glitter spray...

The finished star... I have to admit... you really can have TOO much glitter.  I should have just left it with the silver glitter spray paint on the base of the star... instead I went over the top of the cardstock with glitter spray (it was a different kind of spray paint that has a lighter mist)... and this is what it looks like now! You can't tell... but I had white - grey and blue Bazzill cardstock... now it's a mess! I spent $1.99 per sheet on the star paper and it took several sheets because I wanted the stars to be exactly horizontal and look like Cowboy stars (if they are on their side or upside down they look funny).  My mom asked if I was going to blog the star... I started laughing and said... yes... we need to blog about our failures as much as our successes! So this is a post about what NOT to do. I will probably go back over it all again someday ... and see if I can make it look more like a Cowboy star... until then...

Yellow It Is...

The "new" lamp...

I almost forgot to take a picture before I primed it

 

Basket...

 Wood frame...

Lately I've been in the mood for some color... I really like the purple/yellow combo and so yellow was my choice to go with my new bed spread that I got for my birthday from my family. I have to admit it might not be the perfect color of yellow to go with the bed spread... but hey for $5.00 for 2 cans of yellow spray paint I'm not going to complain and to be honest... it really is growing on me!  The lamp I've had for years and well as the wicker basket and greenery.  The frame was one I had on hand... I'm still trying to find the perfect quote to put into it... but all in all I really like my new pops of color!

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A big Thank You to Suzy at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom for her kind words and for spotlighting my blog today... I haven't posted much lately... but I promise good things are ahead!