Egg Tree

I just had to share my new egg tree with you. I looooove it! It is whimsical and reminds me of something Dr. Seuss would have had. I got it at Pier One.....you can't see the color and glitter very well in the picture, and the way the branches are curvy makes smile.



I got a lot of the ornaments at Pier one as well.....but there are some empty branches to collect some more through the years. And do you see Cubby's little chick he made?



Just thought I'd share a few pictures of my spring mantle too....



...a few more spring chicks and Cubby's recent Easter pictures. Happy Easter everyone!

Scrapbook Sunday

Okay......I'm still feeling REALLY happy to have finished Cub's Disney book...I just had to share a few more pages. Here is the page I did for the Pirate's of the Carribean ride...



Some big silver glitter chipboard letters....and stitching from Bessie my sewing machine.



These pirate stickers were too cute...and I had to point out the souvenir cup full of rootbeer he suckered me into for 6 dollars!



The best part of the Safari ride was our tour guide......she was hysterical! Unfortunately I couldn't capture that on this layout :(



I found these cute stickers at Joanne's and of course used a 40% coupon.



These two roller coasters were G*R*E*A*T.....according to everyone else....as you can see I didn't ride them because I was taking the pictures.....and I like it that way! I VERY RARELY do a ride.



I forgot about rub-ons.....I found a little packet of them in my stash...gotta remember to get a few more.



The fireworks at the castle at the end of the night were just A.MAZ.ING!! I was so happy to have captured several great shots.......and even though they look great they hardly do them justice...you just really have to be there!!



Cub collected these little Mickey confettis all day and kept putting them in my pocket. Can you believe I saved them and brought them home and kept them for almost a year??! Then.....I had the perfect little vellum envelope to put them in for this page. It's the little things that make me happy :)



......and a little bit of ribbon to finish the page.



The five of us spent the day at Hollywood Studios and I did a two page layout of the day.



I took a picture of the sign going in, matted it a few times and made it into the "title" of the page....a little paper tearing, stitching and blue glitter alphabet stickers I picked up along the way.....and it's a cute page.



Here are a few random embellishments I had on hand...I'm really happy with the way this double page layout captures the day.

The Cutest Little Duckling

Spring is here.....except for the little bit of snow we got last night...what's with THAT???! So Cubby wanted to get busy doing a little craft. I picked this little unfinished ducky up at the Goodwill for 50 cents a few weeks ago..



Cub has been anxious to paint her for days.....so today was the day, he got his little painting bib on and got busy.



He loves to do crafts....after he went to school I embellished her a bit with some glitter....when he came home and saw her he said....."she's beautiful"....it doesn't take much :)

Favorite Friday

Okay, this may seem like a really random thing to make the cutoff for something that I consider a favorite....but sometimes it's hard for a girl to find a decent pair of pantyhose without spending a fortune. And believe me.....I've tried a ton of them....then when my cousin and I were talking several weeks ago she mentioned to me that she was on the hunt for the perfect pair of pantyhose...so decided to address this issue.

And I know us girls who even wear pantyhose are a dying breed.....but there are some occaisions that you just HAVE to. Chip and I were going out for our anniversary in February, it was freezing and snowing.....I was planning on wearing a dress and wouldn't dream of going out in the cold and snow in a dress without them....so I hunted and searched and I actually came across these at Wal-mart for under 4 dollars!!!!!!!! They are the perfect shade of "nude"....have terrific elasticity, and made my tummy look flatter----BONUS!!!!!! At that price they are practically disposable....but I washed them in my lingerie bag...yep, I have one of those too :) hung them to dry and they came out great.

So on one of those occaisions where you really do need to wear pantyhose.....try these, I promise you won't be dissappointed!

Bunny Cookies

I am soooo excited to share these cute bunny cookies today.....as you are all aware I'm quite new to baking, so when stuff turns out it really makes me happy!



I made these cookies for a friend....we met for lunch yesterday and it's her birthday next week......the recipe is actually hers and I have loooooved them for years....so I wanted her to taste mine to see how they compare...she liked them!! And we both agreed.....cut out cookies take TIME! It usually takes me two days.....I make the dough and bake the cookies one night, frost and decorate the next...anyhoo, I got the bunny cookie cutters and the pale shades of sugar crystals several weeks ago and couldn't wait to bake them. Happy Spring!!

Scrapbook Sunday

Yeah for me!!!! I'm sooooo happy to announce I've completed Cubby's Disney book!!! I even spent a night or two going back over pages I wasn't thrilled with to add some more details and embellishments. He loooooves it! It was supposed to be done last October for his Mickey Mouse themed birthday party, but that didn't happen :( And I was trying to keep it a surprise.....but he knew I was working on it and the last several weeks he wanted to check it out every morning to see my progress. I have a bunch of pictures I can use for his "real" scrapbook, when I get to that point...and I still have several that I may make into a collage page for the very last page....there is one empty one. We'll see......

Anyhoo......here are a few pages wanted to share with you. He looooved Mickey's house, and so did I!! It's in Toontown and every detail is cute.




EVERYONE needs to ride on Dumbo....it's a Disney classic!! This page I kept plain and simple.



I just used some stencil letters and chalked the edges for the title.



The Haunted Mansion was his FAVORITE ride....



One of my dear friends who scrapbooks loaned me her Disney font cartridge for my Cricut that I used for the title...and I outlined the letters in silver since I tried for DAYS to get the shadow function to work and couldn't get it :( I REALLY have to take a class sometime. Aren't these stickers from Joanne's great? I used my sewing machine a little bit too...



I like the way this page turned out using a white background. It's not real busy...



Again, I used my friends Disney font for the title with some stamps, my new edge punch and a Mickey punch with some silver glitter paper. How 'bout how my cousin and I got the same Mickey t-shirt and we wore them together...mine in black and hers in pink....and you can't see them, but I also have on my original Mickey Mouse earrings I got on my first trip in the 7th grade.

I have a bunch more pages to share with you....stop back next week!! Happy Scrapping :) What are you working on these days?????

Favorite Friday

Hi!!!!!! I'm so excited about my new weekly feature.....Favorite Friday!!!! I've had it in my mind for a long time.....but I wanted to wait until I wrapped up What is it Wednesday. Soooooo Every Friday I'll feature something that is a favorite of mine....and I have a lot of them :) Well...... here it is......my first feature...Bagel Thins....they are the "it" thing in our house these days...

We all looooove them! Cindylou and I prefer the Everything, while the boys like the plain...We even like them for lunch and make them into sandwiches. They are only 110 calories with 5g of fiber and 5g of protein. How great is that? That's practically nothing.....with a great bagel taste. Give them a try...they may be a favorite of yours too :)

What is it Wednesday????

What is it???? It's the one year anniversary of What is it Wednesday!!! I can't beeeellllieve it's been a whole year!! I haven't missed a week! It's been on my mind for several days on what to feature this week for the big milestone....and yesterday I saw this super.cute.pinkilicious little cake. Isn't it adorable? I thought a little pink cake would be the perfect treat to celebrate with! It juuuust fit! And it really wasn't easy to get it in there all in one piece with no damage. It's been killing the kiddos to look at it in there.....but I promised them we'll get it out tonight and celebrate!

It's been a fun year featuring something each week in my pretty glass canister.....some weeks were a bit hard to think of something......some were kinda silly.....but I do feel proud that I kept with my challenge to myself of doing it for a whole year. So now....when the cake is gone, I'll have my canister back all to myself.

I have had variety of things over the past year.......beer caps and Thomas the Tank and his friends....cheesepuffs and clementines....salad, seashells and scrapbook supplies...yarn, markers, lipglosses and cotton squares a tribute to Bruce Springsteen and even a bird's nest......was there anything you had on your mind that I should have tried????? If so let me know......I'd be curious to hear some of your ideas :)

Anywhoo... I already have another weekly post idea up my sleeve.....be sure to check back Friday for my new weekly feature....Favorite Friday.....I'll dedicate every Friday to something I consider a favorite!!!! Thanks to everyone who checked in every Wednesday to see what was up!

Scrapbook Sunday

I'm excited to reveal a few more pages from Cubby's Disney scrapbook this week....I have been cranking right along with it the past few weeks....I have just THREE more pages to go to complete it...I can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel. The two pages I am featuring this week are clean, plain and simple.....I love the way they turned out. We loved the parade and I had to dedicate a page to it.



I got these cute Disney parade chipboard stickers with a 40% off coupon at Joanne's.



I used my Mickey punch to make a tag for the word "the"....and the puffy alphabet stickers are from the Dollar Tree.....can you tell I ran out of "A's" and had to make one from a plain sticker??? The first A I drew myself with a thin Sharpie marker!! Sometimes you just have to make things work.



This page showcases the pictures we took with the castle in the background....it was super quick and easy to do.



I used a black ink pad and alphabet stamps for "the" and chipboard letters for "castle"



Then I tore red card stock and layered the checkered paper.....I used the zig-zag stitch on "Bessie"....my sewing machine to keep it in place. A tag, a little bit of chalk, a chipboard smile sticker and a big white brad and the page is done!

I just love preserving all of these memories.......one of the big reason's I love scrapbooking!

Whoopie Pies....Oh My!!!!!!!

People.......THESE.ARE.AMAZING!!!! I did not grow up in an area where there were Whoopie Pies....I only discovered them when I moved here to Western Pennsylvania....and I have had one or two in my travels.....but I've never, ever attempted to make them...well, they are EEEAAAASSSSSYYYY!!!!!!! I came across them on a blog I follow.... Saucy's Sprinkles....click HERE to see......... Of course she is sooooo talented in the baking department and made her cake part from scratch...of course. Oh, and I apologize for the yellowish hint to my picture....the first ones I took during the day were blurry :(



Well.....I "dumbed" mine down and used a boxed cake mix.....super quick and I made the executive descision that my kiddos wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Then there was the PAN. My dad got me two of these for christmas because he knows I love the muffie tops from Panera. I think he got them online.....I saw them at Williams and Sonoma for $24.99 each....you can certainly make these without the pan and just use parchment paper I'm sure.....anywhoo......

I made the cake mix according to the directions. I sprayed the pans with cooking spray, then filled the wells almost to the top. If you don't have the pans, I would suggest to use a small scoop and put the batter on the parchment paper on cookie sheets...do a test run to see how much they spread. Bake them for 8-10 mins, or until a tootpick comes out clean and they bounce back when you lightly touch them. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then put them on a cooling rack. A tip would be to cool them with the right side facing up so you don't get marks on them. When cool put a generous amount of the fluff in between and enjoy with a cold glass of milk. ****Warning****** These are SUPER sweet!!!!!!!!!! I mean it!!!!! But you'll love them! So go on......"Whoop" it up!!!!!

Super Perfect White Fluff Stuff in the Middle:
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
10 Tbsp. unsalted butter
6 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

To prepare the filling, use the flat beater on your stand mixer. Combine all ingredients on low speed until just blended and then crank up the speed to medium-high until fluffy, about one minute. It will be nice and fluffy... and kind of sticky. That's a good thing. This recipe makes 8 whoopie pies.

Ham and Cheese Stuff 'n Puff

Okay.....first of all the name of this recipe is a little corny.....second of all, how do they make casserole pictures look so much more appetizing in the the cookbooks??!....this picture does NOT do this dish justice! It was GREAT and my whole family liked it. I found it at kraftfoods.com when I was looking around for a recipe to use the leftover ham I had in my freezer from Christmas dinner. I don't know what I was thinking when a bought a 10 lb. ham for 3 adults and 3 kids???? Anywhoo.......this was really good....so tuck it in the back of your brain when you find you have leftover ham after Easter in a few weeks.....and it literally took 5 minutes to put it together and get it in the oven.

Ingredients:

5 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 pkg. frozen chopped broccoli, thawed, drained
1 pkg. Stovetop stuffing mix for chicken
9 oz. chopped ham.......I think I used about 1 1/2 cups.
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat eggs, milk and sour cream in a large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Add broccoli, dry stuffing mix, ham and half of the cheese; mix lightly.

Pour mixture into 2-qt. baking dish or 9 inch pie plate; cover loosely with foil.

Bake 1 hour. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 5 min. or until cheese is melted and mixture is cooked through. Makes 6 servings.

A note: I actually doubled this recipe.

A Surprise in the Mail

Lookie what I got today!!!!!!!! A whole box of treats from my bloggy friend Misty over at Southern Belle Mama!! Click HERE to check out her wonderful hospitality.....I won her very first giveaway and here are my wonderful treats!!! I will be starting my new book when I find an afternoon to take it up to Starbucks with my gift card.....I always get the same thing....I know kinda boring.....grande skinny vanilla latte...but I don't often go unless I have a gift card...so this will be a big treat...and I may just have the truffles for dessert!!...and Cindylou has already been hovering around trying to claim the super cute Vera Bradley photo clutch.




I am SUPER.EXCITED about this terrific pink and green apron from Williams and Sonoma!! I had it on all afternoon and almost went to the bus stop in it! Can't you just picture me whipping up yummy things with my pink Kitchen-Aid mixer "Minnie" in it???????? lllooooooooooveee it! Thanks soooooo much Misty!!! I truly felt like a princess all day!

What is it Wednesday????

Aren't these just so pretty????? Fresh from my Dad's girlfriends brothers backyard in Santa Barbara, CA.....got that??? I just can't fathom going out into my backyard and picking fresh oranges, lemons and limes!!!!!!! Wouldn't that be terrific???? They are as juicy and tasty as they look. And just a little heads up........next week will be the ONE YEAR anniversary of my What is it Wednesday feature..... I CAN'T BELIEVE it!!!!!!!! I haven't missed a week! I may just have to do a little something special....hmmmmmmmmm.....

Scrapbook Sunday

I've been scrapbooking for over ten years now, but I'm fairly new to the world of cropping. I've only been to five...and after my first one I got the message loud and clear that I needed a better system of transporting my supplies than my random collection of L.L. Bean tote bags. I was overwhelmed when I went to my first crop and brought practically my whole craft room. I noticed several of the girls had complete "systems" of wheelie bags, tote bags and matching accessories in the prettiest colors. I didn't want to invest a ton of money, because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be a "regular" cropper.....probably just a few times a year. So I did a little homework and some shopping and found these cool bins with 12 x12 hanging files and handles.

I loooooove them....they fit my needs perfectly. Even when I'm not at a crop....they are my file system in my craft room too. They fit neatly under my craft table.



The lid to them is actually a container with a tray to fit supplies.



So when you take it off you have a spot to organize your stuff while your cropping.



In one bin I keep all of my scraps and cardstock....organized by color, of course :)



Here's another view of the inside of the lid...lots more storage for more do-dads.




The second bin I use for all of my patterned paper. I also have a file for Halloween, Christmas, Fourth of July and Easter. When I come across things for those holidays I put them here so I have them on hand when I need them......because of course I don't necessarily work on these holidays at the appropriate times of the year....so this way I'm prepared even at 2am on any random day!