Christmas Decor: Hurricane Transformation

Only two days left til Christmas and I am still scrambling around.  All of my shopping is done, but I have yet to wrap ANYTHING and still need to buy some grocery items for Christmas Eve dinner.  We are hosting this year in the new house, and it is really exciting!!  And to break from tradition a bit, we are going to serve an italian-style meal; sausage lasagna (my sister-in-law's yummy recipe), caesar salad, homemade garlic bread and some "Doggy Treats" as an appetizer.  They are also called Sausage & Hamburger Rounds or something like that, but I think Doggy Treats is a little more fun!! 

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try it:

Doggy Treats

1 lb hot sausage (casing removed)
1 lb lean hamburger
1 lb velveeta cheese (cubed)
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1 shake worchestershire sauce
2 loaves miniature party rye rounds

Brown and crumble sausage and hamburger.  Add cheese and seasoning to the mixture then spread onto individual rye rounds.  At this point, you can either freeze them (and then put them into plastic bags for storage until needed) or you can pop them on a pan and put under the broiler for a few minutes.  EASY-PEASY!!!  I am only having 7 people over tomorrow night, so I will probably halve the recipe or just freeze the ones I don't use.  I think everyone will love it.  Wish me luck!!

And, as promised in my mantle post earlier this week, here is a quick before and after on my christmas-y hurricane vases. 

Materials:
(2) hurricane vases
(2) tall candles (any color is fine - green just worked well in my room...AND I already owned them)
White cane sugar (about a bag and a half)
Burlap Garland (bought a roll Michael's with a coupon for $1.50)
Roll of Ribbon (I chose a sparkly green one from Michael's....on sale and w/ coupon $1.25)
White snowflakes ($1 for a pack of 4 at the dollar store)
TOTAL: $3.75

I started out with two glass hurricane vases.  For most of the year, they are filled with some sand, a candle and some shells or starfish.  For Christmas, though, I decided to take it up a notch.  I poured out the sand and added some white sugar to the bottom of both. 

Then I added my tall green candles (can't remember where I got these from but I have used them for years and they are still ridiculously tall!!)  And next step was to heat up the hot glue gun and get ready to add the burlap garland.  On the roll, it is rather wide, so I actually cut the length I needed and then folded it over to double it.  I wrapped it around the hurricane, dabbed a few dots of hot glue on either side of the cut ends and held them together for a minute to cool. 

And while the the glue gun was hot, I cut the ribbon to the same length and dabbed a few dots to attach it around the hurricane as well.  By gluing both the garland and the ribbon to itself, I will be able to take off this decor after the holidays and change up the look of the hurricanes for another season.

And finally, the last step was to add the snowflakes.  Originally I was just going to use these snowflakes on the tree as ornaments, but once I started this hurricane project, I knew they would go to better use here.  All I did to attach them was add a dollop of glue to the center of it and hold it in place on the ribbon.

And..................VOILA!

It was such a cheap and easy transformation that I had to share it with you guys!  And I can always use it again next year if I keep the same rustic, natural theme in my living room.  All I would have to do it slip it off and store it with the rest of my christmas decor and then slide it back on next year!! 

Have any of you done some fun christmas crafts?  Any easy, affordable ones you would like to share too??? I would love to hear about all of them!