"Ceramic" Banana Fruit Bowl

Here is one more inexpensive gift for all those grandmas and aunts on your list. This gift will require yet another trip to the dollar store. It’s called the “Ceramic” banana fruit bowl. It looks like a nice ceramic bowl for fruit but it is really just plastic! You simply hot glue five or six plastic bananas together and coat them with a few layers of white or cream spray paint. Allow them to dry and BAM, you have another quick, cute, and easy Christmas gift. For a more dramatic look, use a metallic silver spray paint instead and it’ll look just like sterling silver!

Picture Star

Something else I wanted to show you all is the picture star. Again, this can have a strictly Christmas look to it, or it can be jazzed up as much as you would like. As you can see in the picture, all you need is a decorative star (which you can buy at almost any decoration store) pictures, and scrap book paper. In the picture I found, it shows pictures along with pretty pink patterned paper. I really like that one, but if you want it to have a holiday look, I would suggest using more of wintery blue colors and candy cane printed paper. These are just so cute and make the perfect gift for any family member. You can also just have these sitting around the house either on a wall or on top of your mantle. Cheap and heart-felt gift!

Reindeer Hot Cocoa Cone

Another really cute idea is the Reindeer Cocoa Cone. You can use these as stocking stuffers, handout at Christmas parties, or as a small gift. These are very easy to make. All you need is hot cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, piping bags, red pom poms, brown pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and chocolate chips. Fill your Piping bags with the hot cocoa mix (2 cups worth per bag). Top with mini marshmallows, and then a small amount of chocolate chips. Next, tie them off in a knot and wrap your pipe cleaner around the knot to make them look like antlers. Using double-sided tape, tape the googly eyes, and red pom poms to your bags. Last, enjoy your Reindeer Hot Cocoa Cones!! You now have a cute, craft and gift idea!

Glitter Glass Ornament

            I recently found a really cool DIY glitter galaxy ornament idea from The Swell Life's blog. They only take 5 minutes to make, are super cute, and not too messy to make.  These ones can be “Christmasy” as you would like or multicolored. Either way, they’re super cool! All you need is a few clear glass ball ornaments, glitter, and wax mopping liquid. First, remove the stem of a clear ornament (cheapest place to get them is Michael’s) and apply the clear floor wax to the inside of your ornament. Next, swish the wax around and pour the extra amount back into the bottle. Then, pour your color choice of glitter inside (see pic below). Last, swirl and shake the colors around to make cool patterns and add cap back on! Like I said, these ornaments are super easy and fun. They are so simple to make and very cute. In the final end, you can take a permanent marker and write your favorite Christmas phrase on it or add names, initials, etc. These are definitely one of my favorites!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

It’s soup season! One of my favorite foods to eat in the colder seasons is soup. I love a nice warm soup on a cold day. Plus, soups aren’t too complicated to prepare. As much as I love Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup, I think it is cheaper to make a soup from scratch.  I found a really good recipe called Famous Broccoli Cheddar Soup. It really is a good soup to try. The prep time is thirty minutes and the cook time is 40 minutes. The recipe I am using says it feeds 4-6 people, so if you plan to use this for a larger crowd or would like leftovers (like I do), I would go ahead and double the recipe.

           For this recipe you will need the following ingredients: 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1 small chopped onion, ¼ cup flour, 2 cups half-and-half, 3 cups chicken broth, 2 bay leaves, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, salt, pepper, 4 cups of broccoli florets,1 large diced carrot, and 2 ½ cups grated sharp white and yellow cheddar cheeses.  Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender (took me 5 minutes). Whisk in the flour and cook until a light golden color, then gradually whisk in the half-and-half until smooth. After that you will add the chicken broth, bay leaves and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to your liking and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook until thickened, about 20 minutes. Finally, add the broccoli and carrot pieces to the broth mixture and simmer about 20 minutes or until they are as tender as you would like. Puree the soup in batches in a blender until smooth and creamy and then put it all back in the pot. The last part is to add the cheese. Add your preferred amount of cheese and stir until melted and then you have your homemade Panera Bread soup! If you want to make your soup just a little more over the top for your guests, you can serve it in bread bowls. All you do for the bowls is take round sourdough bread loaves and cut a hole in the top and add your soup. I like the bread bowls because it’s just a little nicer than having soup in your traditional glass bowl. Yum!

Apple Candle Holder

The first craft that I am showing will end up being an easy little candle holder made from an apple. If you’re trying to make a fun center piece for your holiday table, you might want to think about using apples. Fall and winter are the perfect seasons to find good apples at great prices. Then with a few quick and easy steps, you can turn these apples into cute candle holders! I will also post step-by-step pictures to better visually understand how to make this.

First, find good quality apples. You will want to look for apples that are firm, free from cuts and bruises, and sturdy so they can stand on end without rolling over. You will also need a cutting board to use as your work surface, a small knife, a spoon. Take your knife and cut a one-inch circle around the stem of the apple. Take the spoon and remove the insides from where you cut the circle. Continue to make the circle wider, a little bit at a time. You want the circle to be just wide enough to fit your tea light. Just be careful, and do this part slowly because if you make the hole just a little too big, it could end up looking goofy. Keep checking until you have the right width. Next, once you have the circle at a good width, you just need to dig the hole a little deeper so it will hold the tea light pretty snug. Once again, make sure you are slowly digging out the fruit so you don’t overdo it. When you think you have dug the hole to a good size, add your tea light and you are done!

I really like this craft because it’s so simple and there really isn’t much money involved. I usually see a 12 pack of tea light candles at Dollar Tree for only a dollar and the only other thing to buy is the apples. Depending on how many you want to make, you really don’t need to even spend that much money apples either. When I made the tea light holders last season, I used both red and green apples to change it up a bit. If you're super girly like me, you can also add glitter and rhinestones to jazz it up a bit. Super simple and fun!

Mission Statement

A Sweet and Simple Season was created to help families out in the fall and winter seasons. We are here to help out by giving advice on baking, cooking, and decorating, as well as give advice on how to do this on a budget! We will provide pictures of our fabulous and cheap ideas and give step-by-step directions on how to make these wonderful things. A Sweet and Simple Season will be your go-to guide for all you need if you want to be the biggest hit this season!