Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dipped Oreos

I learned how to make dipped Oreos from my supercali-craftalistic-expealidocious (don't have a heart attack Dana, I know that's totally spelled wrong. haha) friend, Sheri. She made cookie bouquets out of them for a holiday. I made them this past Valentine's Day in red, pink and white, with tiny heart sprinkles on them. They are super cute, and adaptable to your theme, holiday or colors. The first time I made them, they were kinda difficult. I bought double stuffed oreos to have extra room for the sucker stick. A lot of them broke, I don't know if I just bought a really breakable package or what. This time I am using regular oreos and popsicle sticks, just because that's what I have on hand, and the popsicle sticks are thinner.Here we go... First, twist open your cookie. Gently slide in the stick from the outside to a little bit past the center and lift the filling out.
Replace the stick in the goove where you removed the filling and it should be completely level. Replace the other half of the cookie and hold it in place while you, using a small spaula or knife, spread some melted Wilton candy disks on one side.

Lay it down on a cookie sheet that has been covered with wax paper.

Next, you will need to add more to the top and also coat around the sides of the cookie, while using your other hand to hold the stick in place. Once it is all coated, you add the sprinkle of your choice...

This is what they will look like. Allow to fully dry.

Peel off the wax paper and wrap how you choose. I have the clear bags from Michaels and decided to tie with a ribbon instead of using the twist ties. Give out one by one, or you can arrange a cookie bouquet. Enjoy! =)

4th of July Cookie Bark

I was introduced to cookie bark by my friend Trish, when she made some for Halloween last year. It is SO good! The only difference is I used red, white and blue M&Ms instead of candy corn. This can be changed up to match any holiday. I made some for Easter this year with pastel candy corn and pastel sprinkles.I had these cello bags already, and cut some tags on my cricut this morning to add some extra "cuteness" to the bags.
To start off, line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Spread out some pretzels on the wax paper.

Next, break up some Oreos (I quartered them) and spread around the pan.

Next, I added red, white and blue M&Ms.

Microwave white Wilton candy melts (available at JoAnns and Michaels) and pour on top. It will take two bags of candy melts to do one big cookie sheet. You have to use a spatula and stir it around a bit so that it all gets coated and is all connected.

The last thing you need to add, is sprinkles on the top. I used of course...4th of July sprinkles.
Allow to dry and harden completely, a few hours. Then you just pull up on the wax paper and break it up in pieces.
This is the star tag that the handy dandy Cricut did for me.

I remembered that I bought a Close to my Heart stamp set from a garage sale and found several stamps I could use on plain tags. I cut out plain white cardstock tags with my cricut and tried some stamps out.



Just try not to eat it all when you are breaking it up and bagging it! It is so yummy and makes cute little treats!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Generosity: A gift worth sharing..

Yesterday was a very special day for our family. For quite awhile, we have had to keep a REALLY hard secret...my brother in law from Arizona bought my mother in law a car! Yesterday was finally the big day! We planned a small bbq for Brandon and Margaret's birthdays and invited a few friends.Marty gave his mom a bracelet box with the keys in it and the look on her face says it all...first-confusion!Then he walked her outside and told her "it's all paid for and it's ALL YOURS!"
Oh my goodness, I can barely contain my tears even looking at these pictures for the millionth time!

Checking out her 2009 Nissan Versa...still in disbelief!
Can't believe she has AIR CONDITIONING finally!!


"Let's go for a ride, Marty!" =)

This is the first car ride for the girls in Nana's new car! They were SO excited and kept begging and begging for a ride.

Look at that smile...she said I can't imagine how bad she used to feel that she couldn't take the girls anywhere, because her car was so dangerous and HOT! Her car used to turn off by itself, even in busy intersections, and she'd have to pray and keep turning the key till it would restart again!

My wonderful mother in law said she actually thanked God for sweat earlier in the day. On her way to our house she was at a red light and as she took off quickly she said "thank you Lord for sweat, because when I take off, it cools me down when the wind hits it". Talk about positive thinking!
On a side note, I don't know how to put this into words...but I think generosity is one of the greatest gifts or "talents" a person can possess. I was raised by two of the most generous people I can imagine, who continue to heap generosity on our heads. In less than a few hours after posting on facebook that I am too cheap to buy an ipod, so I use my old worn out mp3 player from before they made ipods, a friend gave me her extra one. A generous relative had given SEVERAL expensive electronic hand me downs, as well as gifts. Our very generous friends gave us a CAR, and not a car that is too worn down to sell, but a good car, just because they knew our lives would be easier with two. I don't list these things to be boastful, don't miss my point. "Let he who boasts, boast in the Lord." These people are generous because they love God, and they love others. I have always thought that it REALLY is better to give than to recieve, it is so fun for me to GIVE! I am quite sure, I learned the joy of gift-giving and thoughtfulness from my mom. She is still that way today. On our drive back from LA last week, we were getting excited to think of what we could do for Margaret for watching the girls for us all day to make our trip to Ikea possible, and it was exciting! I serve a generous and loving God, friends, and if He never gave me anything else for the rest of my life, He gave me enough, because He gave me Jesus. Share and give, friends. Share and give. =)

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Lemon Cream Cupcakes!

It is beyond me why I haven't made these in over a year. They are SO good! I made this recipe two mother's days ago and they were gobbled up. Last time I put the frosting on while they were still a little warm and it turned into glaze and dripped down the side. I was planning on doing that this time, but was busy prepping something else and accidentally let them cool. Oh well. The recipe calls for them to cool all the way anyway, I just like the drippy look of the glaze..makes them look irresistable!There is fresh grated lemon zest in the cake and in the frosting! Yum! Snag the recipe over here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Cream-Cupcakes/Detail.aspx

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Bars!

See how good these look? They smell even better!! This was my first time making these, so I'm excited they turned out how they are supposed to look!
This was the makings of the crust, just oreos put through the food processor and melted butter..."these are a few of my favorite things.." =) You won't get that unless you know the Sound of Music.

This is what the crust looks like and I didn't take pictures of the middle steps, but it was SOOO easy. Follow the recipe over here, at Tasty Kitchen...http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/cookies-and-cream-cheesecake-bars/


They look pretty cute served on flattened out cupcake liners!


Thursday, June 24, 2010

The long-procrastinated project

This has been a project in the making for quite awhile, I have just been too lazy to complete it! It wasn't even that much work to finish, I guess I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with it. This is one panel of a stand that I used to use when I sold stuff at craft shows. I would hang hangers on the chicken wire to display my items. This morning I roughly painted it white. It was just a old dirty brown color...I tried to paint it so that you can still see some streaks of the brown through the white.
I have a different idea that I am going to use this for later on, so I will post pics of that when I do, but it's awhile off...
Since I am hosting a double birthday bbq for my husband and mother in law on Saturday I decided it could be cute if I do something different in the center for different occasions. I went to the back of the "ranch" and found this piece of wood in one of the wood piles. It is grayish and kind of looks like driftwood. Then I found these letters ready to punch out from a sheet in one of my scrapbook paper stacks. I punched out the letters for happy birthday and grabbed my mod podge. I mixed a little white paint with water and whitewashed the board. Then I mod podged under and on top of the letters.

I then just pushed in a thumb tack on each side and cut a length of craft wire. I added a few curlies and beads on the wire. I just attached it to the chicken wire in the middle of the stand.


You can kinda see the beads in this picture.

You can tell what's in bloom in my garden, huh? I will either be cutting all hydrangeas to match for the party or buying a bouquet of mixed flowers and dividing them between the bottles. I don't like that the two on the bottom almost disappear compared to the other blossoms. Apart from that, I think it's pretty cute, and all made out of stuff laying around the ranch. The only thing I bought were the glass bottles from thrift stores.

$5 -Dollar Tree Ribbon Wreath

This is the extent of my 4th of July decorating. I have had this up since Memorial Day...it kind of doubles as both. =) I made this out of things from the Dollar Tree. All of the ribbon (with the exception of the plain white and the red with polka dots- those were scraps that I had at home that I used to fill in) and the foam circle came from the Dollar Tree.
4-5 rolls of ribbon (I used 4 and filled in with scraps) and 1 foam circle from the craft section of the Dollar Tree= $5 ribbon wreath! Simply tie bows along the wreath base until full and hang wherever you like!

A quick morning project

The girls and I ventured outside before the heat this morning to finish up a couple of projects and of course, swing! I am not quite ready to show the first project, but it involved me painting it and the girls suggested that we paint their VERY faded bench. The funny thing was, it had already crossed my mind so I said yes!See how faded it was....
The size of the bench is decieving...getting the paint in between all of those boards is time consuming!


At least the girls WANTED to help me, and did very good not fighting. They took turns with the paintbrush, each girl got three dips in the paint can and then they had to switch turns. =)
This is the finished project, I might do another coat, but either way, it looks better than before! =)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Flag banner

I have seen these flag banners ALL over the blog world lately and have been meaning to do this project for awhile now. Today I FINALLY forced myself to sit down and cut the fabric and break out the glue gun!I think it's a super cute addition above Emma and Cami's queen bed that they share in the princess room!

All I did was cut diamond shapes from the fabrics and then alternated them as I hot glued them onto a ribbon. I crossed them at the head of the bed and then draped to the opposing wall and secured with thumbtacks.

I just have to add these two bottom pictures! Brandon snapped these when checking on them last night before coming to bed. They were holding hands so he came back and got the camera and turned their light on to snap a few pics. I will cherish these as they age! =)


Seriously, have you ever seen anything sweeter? I've always wanted a sister!