{Please Welcome} McKenzie from Girl Loves Glam

I am especially excited for today's guest blogger! Not only is McKenzie a very talented Etsy-preneur and cosmetologist, she is also my husband's cousin. Too fun! And I'm thrilled to have her blogging at Cupcake Diaries today. This girl is seriously so talented and fun, and she makes the cutest headbands, clips, scarves, and more! You can see all of that at her Etsy shop. She and her husband are expecting their first little baby at the end of January and I couldn't be more excited for them. They're going to be amazing parents! (Isn't she one of the cutest little pregnant ladies you ever did see?)

Today McKenzie has brought one of the CUTEST ideas for neighbor gifts I've seen this year!
Thanks for being here and sharing with us, McKenzie!!

And don't forget to enter the Plum District giveaway! It ends TONIGHT!

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Hey Cupcakers! I am McKenzie from Girl Loves Glam! I am a cosmetologist, Etsy shop owner, avid blogger, and mom to be!

A few things about me:

• Hometown: Idaho Falls, ID
• Favorite TV shows: The Middle and Modern Family. Wednesday nights are the best!
• Favorite ingredients to work with: I think pretty much anything tastes better with real butter!
• Something I can't live without: The Internet! It would be impossible to run my Etsy business and be a blogger without the Internet.
• Favorite blogs: Cupcake Diaries of course, Ucreate, A Thrifty Mom, Simply Sadie Jane, and Girl Loves Glam (a little personal plug there!)
• Favorite room in my house and why: Now, it is my upstairs bonus room! I just finished cleaning it out and turning it into a craft room/office/guest room! I love it!
  
• Favorite vacation I've been on: Trip to NYC I went on with my family and husband right after we were married.
• My typical day: Clean, create Etsy pieces, blog, package Etsy orders, make dinner, then go hang out with my family.
• Something I want to learn to do: I would love to learn to web design.
• My guilty pleasure: E! News. That show is full of pretty trashy, non-important news, but for some reason I love it!
• How I like to relax: I enjoy just vegging out in front of the TV with my laptop while searching blogs and Pinterest.
• Three more things I can't live without: My family (doggies included), my church, and a camera.
  

I love this time of year and all of the excitement that fills the air. One thing I love is all of the great recipes, tutorials, and projects that there are all over the Internet for the holiday season! It has been tough to decide what projects to take on and what ones may be a little too much to take on during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy! One total lifesaver has been Cupcake Diaries! Sometimes I get in a total meal slump or just have a brain fart when it comes to the food department. Cute Alli's Cupcake Diaries blog has been the best! I'm sure all of you can agree with that. I was excited when Alli asked me to be a guest blogger on Cupcake Diaries. I knew the perfect project to share with all of you!


We all know what a pain holiday "neighbor gifts" can be. We want them to be nice, but can't afford to spend a fortune on each of them. I enjoy making my neighbor gifts not only because it looks like I took a little more time on their gifts, but it saves me a lot of money too! My mom had torn out a picture from an old magazine years ago for birdseed feeder ornaments. We decided that would be the perfect neighbor gift this year. They are also ALL over Pinterest if you want to see more varieties of them. We made about 130 of these beauties! It ended up being about 3x the recipe. What we didn't realize when going into the project is that each ornament would have to sit and dry while it was in the mold. Therefore, we turned everything from cookie cutters, to measuring cups, to lids, to disposable cups into molds for our ornaments! It made it fun to have a variety of sizes and shapes and a lot of laughs as we tried to find enough "molds".


Birdseed Feeder Ornaments
Here is what you'll need to make them...

• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 3 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 4 c. birdseed
• Large mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Muffin tin, candy mold, or other small molds
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Pencil or drinking straw
• Waxed paper
• Twine, yarn, or ribbon
• Scissors

Directions

1. Stir together flour, water, gelatin, and corn syrup in a large mixing bowl (because we tripled the recipe, we used a bucket to mix these together.) Add birdseed to the mixture and stir together.
   
2. Spray your "molds" with cooking spray and pack birdseed into each one. Poke with pencil or straw to create a hole for your ornament. Keep your ornaments in their molds and lay out on waxed paper for 2-3 hours to dry.
   
3. Pop ornaments out of molds and flip over onto waxed paper. Continue to let them dry for another 2-3 hours. Cut your twin, yard, or ribbon and string the holes of your ornaments.
   

Tadah! You are done!

We wanted to come up with a silly little poem for our packages, so we did. It is cheesy, but that is what neighbor gifts are all about, right?

Good luck! They are a great way to stay in budget and let your neighbors know that you care! Come visit me at my blog sometime for tutorials, giveaways, and sometimes just a good laugh. I may even be able to talk Alli into guest posting over there!
Happy Holidays!

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If you are interested in being a guest blogger, please e-mail me at
cupcakediaries1@hotmail.com
No strings attached! It would be so fun to hear from you if you have something to share!