salt dough ornaments, hook 'em style.

My best friend who doesn't know about our friendship posted a "recipe" for salt dough ornaments. 

I was so excited. My mom's mom {who passed away when I was two} had tons of these ornaments, much more intricate than the ones I attempted, that she left to my mom. 

I smiled when I saw Darby's post and knew it had to be on our "things to do" list this Christmas season.

I put on my cupcake apron (thanks Stef) and Carson wanted one too. 

So, I tied a red tee around his waist and he was a happy camper. 

 Carson's daddy, my sweet husband, has many redeeming qualities. 

He cannot, however, make much of anything in the kitchen. I am hoping that by allowing Carson 

to participate in some of the cooking and baking we do around here, 

he'll grow up to be more like his Pop Pop when it comes to his abilities in the kitchen. 

I just treasure special moments with my boy like these... 

part of me was feeling guilty that Slade can't be apart of so much this year, but it sure is nice to sneak in some one on one time with my big boy and do special things together! 

 We decided to make Bevo ornaments, mostly because we have a Bevo cookie cutter and no Christmas themed cutters (note to self). But, since we have many-a-Longhorn fan in the family, we'll be tying them to packages, as well as hanging them on the kid's tree in the playroom. 

I followed this recipe and ended up with some seriously dry, chunky dough. 

Our ornaments, therefore, aren't the smoothest, most perfect things you ever did see. 

 But, we sure did have fun mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking our Bevos... so it's all good in our book!

 Sweet little thing turns the oven light on no matter what's cookin' and watches 

with anxious enthusiasm until he hears "the beep" telling us our treats (or ornaments) are done. 

I guess I should note that Carson had a hard time understanding that we were not making an edible baked good. He kept insisting that they were cookies until finally I said, "try the dough, 

it's NOT for cookies, you will see." And so he did. He spit it out so fast I don't know 

that it ever hit his tongue. He believed that they were ornaments from that point on.

 After they baked, then cooled for an hour in the oven... 

we dusted off the excess flour, painted them with craft paint, then glazed them 

with clear high gloss spray paint coating. It's obviously important not to forget the step 

of poking a straw hole in the raw dough so you can tie ribbon to hang your ornaments.

And voila... a homemade salt dough Bevo, 

if that doesn't scream Merry Christmas Y'all, I just don't know what does?! 

Thanks BFFE, I mean Darby for the great idea! We'll probably do this every year. 

Maybe I'll invest in some appropriate cookie cutters for the 2011 version.