USA Blocks

I have had all kinds of computer, camera and silhouette issues today, but my post is finally up for this week's Cutting Cafe challenge. This week, we got to choose any file we wanted. I chose The Block - Template and Cutting File Set as well as Star Box Template and Cutting File and USA Word Shaped Card Template and Cutting File Set.

I had asked Regina if she could design a tall block and this is what I had in mind for using this shape of block. I love anything Patriotic and knew I wanted to make more decorations for my home.

I stretched the star file to measure 3.5" x 2.5" and layered onto a piece of kraft cardstock. It is easiest to decorate the front of the blocks before putting them together.

On top of each star, I layered a rosette that I made from a Lori Whitlock file from the Silhouette store. (shape #32781 3d Build a Rosette Strips) For the "U", I added a mini tag that has "God Bless America" typed from my computer and printed onto designer paper.

Each letter is layered onto 3 thicknesses of kraft cardstock to give it a chipboard look. Behind each rosette, I added some tinsel rope that I had purchased marked down at Hobby Lobby after Christmas. I see they are carrying a Tim Holtz brand year round now.

To finish each block off, I tied some vintage seam binding around each block with a bow at the top. I added some dried beans (filled the blocks about 1/3 full) into each block to make them a bit heavier and sturdier. I used Xtreme adhesive to adhere the pieces together and Power Tabs for the buttons.

I really love the end result...Patriotic, shabby, and just "me".

For a chance to win 3 Cutting Cafe files of your choice, be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow and leave a comment AND to check out the files that the rest of the DT chose to create with this week.

Milk & Cookies

I have another cheery card from Inky Antics' 11226MC Better Together Clear Set (drawn by artist Trudy Sjolander). This one using the Milk & Cookies image.

Images are colored with Irojiten Colored Pencils and all the pieces adhered with Mono Adhesive Mega Roller. This roller is on sale on the Tombow USA website right now, so be sure to head over there to take advantage of the sale.

I even decorated the inside of the card.

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 24

I have a very corny post to share with you today. I made this "card" for my dad for Father's Day. I got the idea for it here. It wasn't easy writing the candy gram out when I had to use such large boxes of candy, since I couldn't find regular sized ones, but he thought it was funny, so that's what mattered.

I didn't get a picture taken of what I gave my FIL, but it was a "just add ice cream" basket filled with ice cream cones, homemade toppings, and sprinkles.

Frugal Friday 6-13

Not sure why this didn't post yesterday.
Been a slow two weeks (frugal wise).


*Still eating wedding leftovers, so that has saved on food bill
*spinach 99¢ bag
* bag of jalapeno's 99¢
*downloaded free book from Book Bub
*rec'd a gift card to Subway
* earned $25 in Swagbucks...put it towards Amazon
*bought some garden plants from Amazon....free with my swagbucks
*planted a large garden...can't wait for those firsts...tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, etc Ü
*ck'd books out from the library

Anna Wight Guest Designer

Today the Tombow Design Team is hopping with Guest Designer Anna Wight. I have been a long time fan of Anna's. We both live on farms, garden, enjoy canning, papercraft, sew, etc and I love her style.

My project today is using Inky Antics' 11226MC Better Together Clear Set (drawn by artist Trudy Sjolander).

I colored the image with Tombow's Irojiten Colored Pencils and used StickiTrac Adhesive to put the card together. The image is raised with Foam Tabs.

Here is the prize package for this week:

Xtreme Adhesive

MONO Adhesive Removable

MONO Aqua Liquid Glue

In order to enter to win the prize, please comment on all the Design Team’s projects this week. Tombow will announce our winner on Monday June 16th at 3:30 P.M. EST.

Now it's time to hop on over to Melissa's blog to see her lovely project for this week.

Here is this week’s Line-up:
Tombow Blog
Debbie Fisher
Melissa Cash
Jennie Garcia 
Marie Browning

Anna Wight
Tombow Blog

 

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 23

For today's post I am sharing a Strawberry Cheesecake Salad I found on Pinterest that I made for Benjamin and Kassy's rehearsal supper. Well, actually I didn't make it, I had my niece put it together for me. She was such a big help!

The photo is a little bit blurry, but the salad was delicious. I tripled the recipe to fill this large bowl.

Strawberry Cheesecake Salad

via: Food.com

• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 30 mins
• Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 12 ounces whipped topping
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) packages cheesecake flavor instant pudding and pie filling mix
• 3 (6 ounce) packages strawberry yogurt
• 1 lb fresh strawberries, sliced
• 3 bananas, sliced ( add just before serving or they brown)
• miniature marshmallow ( add just before serving)

Directions

1. Thaw whipped topping and in a large salad bowl stir together whipped topping, yogurts, and pudding powder. Let this set up in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Wash and slice strawberries. You can add strawberries to salad or wait to add them with sliced bananas and marshmallows just before serving. Keep refrigerated.

What I changed: the grocery store didn't have 9 containers of strawberry yogurt, so about half of the yogurt was strawberry/banana which worked perfectly for this recipe.

This is so refreshing and I think it would be good with other flavored yogurt and fruit: blueberry, peach, etc.

I finally got caught up on some sleep and other stuff this past week and am working on a 3 part wedding post for the blog, that hopefully will happen this week or next.

BFB Through Deep Waters

Through Deep Waters by Kim Vogel Sawyer was a bit harder for me to read in the beginning, but I kept on as I am a fan of her work and I knew it would be worth it in the end and it was. It was only hard because of the content.

17 yr old Dina Hubley is the daughter of a prostitute who didn't want her. Dinah wants to escape the Brothel to become a Harvey Girl waiting tables along the railroad in a respectable hotel. Through some very sad events, she is able to start our as a chambermaid at the Clifton Hotel because she is not old enough to be a Harvey Girl at the time.

She falls for Amos Ackerman, a chicken farmer and has to decide whether to leave her dreams behind to be a Harvey Girl or keep following her dreams. She doesn't feel worthy because of her past, but Amos has struggles of his own.

Blogging for Books provided this e-book to me for free in exchange for an honest review

Patriotic Card in a Box

Hello and welcome to Cutting Cafe's new schedule and challenge for June. Cutting Cafe will now be showcasing the design team's projects on the 7th and 21st.

This week we were challenged to use Regina's Card in a Box file. With this file you not only get the card box file, but several images to use for whatever theme you would like. For my project, I chose the stars to go with a Patriotic theme.

I love all things red, white, and blue, and with the holidays coming up...Flag Day and 4th of July, this was a perfect choice for me. I think this little box would even be cute just sitting out on a shelf.

There are two sizes of boxes to work with and I chose the small box. There are a couple of changes I made along the way. I enlarged and decreased the star image so that I could layer 3 stars rather than 2 and I cut the flap pieces down so that the box part behind the flaps showed a bit more.

I added glitter around the stars for some sparkle and all the designer papers are from Fancy Pants Design's Nautical line. The kraft cardstock is from Michael's and the adhesives I used are from Tombow (Xtreme, Mono Aqua Liquid, Mono Adhesive Dots).

If you stop by the Cutting Cafe starting tomorrow and leave a comment, you will have a chance to win 3 of your favorite files!

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 22

Good morning! Today's pin is one I've had pinned for quite some time and decided to give it a try. It is a grease removal tutorial  for getting grease stains out of clothes. I don't know how I manage to get them, but I do and it seems it is always on new shirts!

I was so excited that it worked and it was so easy! AND I had the items needed on hand to do it. Here is a picture of my shirt with the grease stains:

and here is a picture of after:

instructions via http://wegotreal.com/remove-grease-stains/

1.  Put a few squirts of dish soap on the stain and gently agitate with your fingers,  a soft wet toothbrush, or by rubbing the fabric together. (I used Dawn)

2.  Let sit for about 15-30 minutes.

3.  Rinse thoroughly. At this point, I couldn’t tell if the stain was there or not, so I proceeded with the next step just in case.

4.  Add 1-2 T. of baking soda and again agitate.

5.  Let sit for another 15-30 minutes.

6.  Wash in cold water as normal.

DO NOT DRY!  Check to see if stain is out and if not, repeat steps.  I let mine air dry and the stain was completely gone.  

Get Well Soon

This post has been preposted. I will be back later with wedding pictures, but now on to Tombow's monthly challenge. Marie is the hostess this month and her theme is anything with bird(s).

I love this image drawn by Tammy DeYoung for Inky Antics. Even though the turtle is the main "character" in this card, I love the little birdie that is cheering him up! We all need "somebirdie" when we are down. Ü (sorry couldn't resist the pun).

I used Inky Antics 10975SC Sick Turtle Clear Set, Irojiten Colored Pencils, Mono Glue Pen to add glitter to the umbrella, Power Tabs, and Mono Adhesive Permanent. Then for fun, I added some white dots to the turtle and birdy's cheeks.

Come and play along with us for a chance to win this great prize shown below. Be sure to check out all the details on Tombow's blog.

Frugal Friday 5-30

By the time most of you read this, I will be on my way to decorate for the wedding reception and rehearsal supper (at a separate bldg.), but wanted to share some fun frugal finds with you today


*bought shirt with coupon for DH for wedding, great deal for a dress shirt
*was able to buy wedding clothes for myself including shoes and necklace with everything being on sale and then an added coupon for the shoes
*3 lb strawberries for $2.19 at Walmart
*used 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for new blades for my paper cutter
*downloaded book from Bookbub
*Benjamin scored gallon milk marked down to 69¢! We got several to make the cornbread and hamburger buns for the wedding.
*more strawberries for 98¢
*needed shredded cabbage for rehearsal supper and it was marked down to 79¢
*went to Sonic during happy hour while shopping
*went to Culvers (frozen yogurt) and they "accidentally made 2" of what was ordered, so gave us the free one. (good thing we had ordered small so we could eat them)
*local grocery store had fried chicken from their deli marked down to 99¢ a box. Most of the boxes were marked $8.90 ish. They had 2 breasts, thighs and wings or legs. I bought 5 of the largest weight boxes and tore the meat off of 4 to bag and freeze for shredded chicken gravy and biscuits and saved the other to eat so I would have to heat the stove/oven since it's been hot.
*needed a birthday gift for mom and found some good buys at Walmart and then a basket marked down 66% to put them all in. (got her some flavored tea, mug and pretty dish towel, then added one of my handmade dishcloths)

You're Tea-rific!

I have a fun Inky Antics Card to share with you today. This cute Teacup Mousies #1 Set (10952 MC) was designed by Tammy DeYoung. I colored the image with Irojiten pencils and blended with Gamsol. I used Mono Adhesive Permanent, Mono Adhesive Dots, and Mono Adhesive Removable to put all the elements together for this card.

We are in the home stretch for the wedding this week. Everything is coming together nicely, and I pray the weather is beautiful as this is an outdoor wedding.

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 21

We have been enjoying the rhubarb in our garden lately and I wanted to share a new recipe I tried from Pinterest called Rhubarb Cake and it uses Greek yogurt which makes it very moist.

I think this dessert would be good with other fruits as well.

Rhubarb Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients (serves 12)

Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 pound (4 cups) diced rhubarb

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan.
• In a large bowl, stir together sugar, baking soda, salt and 2 cups flour. Stir in the eggs and Greek yogurt until smooth, then fold in the rhubarb. Batter will be very thick. Pour into pan and spread evenly.
• In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup flour and cinnamon until the mixture is crumbly. Then sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Hopping with Pretty Paper Pretty Ribbon

The members of the Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon's Design Team and the Tombow Design Team have joined together to create beautiful projects featuring different files & adhesives. If you came here from Jeanne's blog, you are in the right place.  If you just stumbled upon this post and would like to start from the beginning, please visit Lisa's blog. This week we are making projects that are using Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons Files and Tombow Adhesives.

It's all about a wedding here in the Fisher household. My oldest will be getting married next weekend and I knew these banner files from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon would come in handy. I used the Simple Banners Shapes Cutting File and enlarged the short banners until it measured 2" in width to make my banners. I had a bunch of political junk mail from all the candidates running recently and used them for my base as they were a lightweight chipboard. I used Mono Adhesive Permanent to adhere the polka dot paper to the junk mail and then Xtreme Adhesive to adhere that to the burlap.

After cutting the burlap, I adhered pieces of a paper lace doily to the top of the banner pieces with Mono Adhesive Dots, then ric rac & jute bows with Xtreme Adhesive. Letters were cut with my Cricut using Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and adhered with Mono Adhesive Dots . (I thought that was an appropriate font since Kassy is a teacher Ü) I just taped the banner pieces to a string of jute so that they can be removed later and added to a scrapbook page.

The banner was then tied to 2 pieces of dowel that I cut to fit the basket. Be sure to watch my blog for another project using PPPR's banner file for another part of the wedding.

Now on to the cool prize that you can enter to win:

$20.00 Gift Card to Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons

Tombow Adhesives Bundle:

Xtreme Adhesive 

MONO Adhesive Removable

MONO Multi Liquid Glue

3D Foam Tabs

For a chance to win, you MUST be a follower of each blog and leave a comment on EACH
blog. For extra chances, you can also "LIKE" Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons on Facebook and Tombow USA Facebook page. The winners of the giveaways will be chosen on Tuesday May 27, 2014

Now it's time to head over to Leah's blog. Here is a list of the blog hop order in case you need it.

Lisa ~ http://prettypaperprettyribbons.blogspot.com/
Leanne ~ http://www.createdbyleanne.blogspot.com/
Marie~ http://mariebrowning.wordpress.com/
Melisa ~ http://www.melisascraftycreations.blogspot.com/
Jennie ~ http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/
Jeanne ~ http://www.jeannespapercrafts.com/
Debbie ~ http://debbiedee.blogspot.com/
Leah ~ http://leahschaeffer.blogspot.com/
Melissa ~ http://www.inkclinations.blogspot.com/
Tombow Blog ~ http://blog.tombowusa.com/


I am linking this up to DL ART

More Fun Blocks

I am soooo excited! Regina has designed more blocks and accessories for Cutting Cafe called The Block-Template and Cutting File! If I had time, I could do another whole week of these. I chose to create my project using the tall block option. I suggested this to Regina and am so excited that she created this size. I have so many fun ideas, but time is short right now as we prepare for a wedding. Ü

I picked some pretty papers by Kaiser Craft (front and back) & My Mind's Eye (sides). Then I just got out my "Michelle" box and started decorating it with goodies from my box.


side note: My friend Michelle Pearson and I used to do a lot of swapping and one time she sent goodies in this strong little box that is just perfect for storing little embellishments. It is filled with a few goodies that I still have that she sent (the white vintage buttons I used) as well as my crocheted flowers (need to get to making more of those), as well as left over embellishments from previous projects (paper flowers, stick pin, tickets, brad, & paper doily).

To make the top and bottom a bit stronger, I cut a piece of scrap cardstock to fit that area and layered it to the inside before putting the box together. The rest I just cut pieces to fit the sides and adhered with Xtreme adhesive. All the embellishments were layered with Xtreme and/or Power Tabs.

Be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow and leave a comment for a chance to win 3 files of your choice.
I am linking this up to DL ART

Pinned It Made It Monday week 20

For today's pins, it's all about asparagus. We also decided we need LOTS more asparagus planted. Ü These recipes were "okay". I would eat them again, but not my favorite. I just like asparagus baked with olive oil, salt and pepper as I really like asparagus.

Wrapped With Bacon...I love bacon, but it was so over powerful (and I only used one strip instead of two like the recipe called for) that you couldn't really taste the asparagus.

Creamy Baked Asparagus and Aged Cheddar 

...again this was good, but not great.

Frugal Friday 5-16

*We've been eating asparagus and rhubarb.

*Used 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for chalk spray paint for rehearsal decoration idea (I'll be sharing the rehearsal pics in June...hopefully I remember to take pics!)

*cut crab apple blossoms to bring inside in a vase. so pretty and just makes me smile

*Three 8 oz blocks of cheese for 99¢ each. We like snacking on cheese and crackers and sometimes that is our supper, so this was a great buy for us.

*Earned $10 in swagbucks

*downloaded free books from Bookbub

*rec'd a free book from Blogging for Books to review

*downloaded free cutting files from Miss Kate Cuttables and Images by Heather

*saved a shirt by searching how to remove oil stains and it worked

*used free Amazon swagbucks to order supplies for decorating rehearsal supper

*took food with us when we attended Benjamin's graduation. Trip is 4.5 hours away.  We only ate one meal out and fed 4 people on $11...not bad for 2 days.

*Benjamin gave us 2 boxes of crackers and several boxes of granola bars that he had gotten free. These will come in handy for quick eating/energy while we are busy getting ready for a wedding.

*Benjamin also brought some leftover food from his apartment to share with us.

*been being frugal and food shopping VERY little and using what is in the freezer/pantry, etc.

*downloaded book from Bookbub

*checked books out from library

*watched movies on Netflix (youngest has a subscription)

*3 lb bag of boneless, frozen chicken breast for $4.99

*was at Walmart right when they were marking down (and loading fresh) strawberries from $1.88 to 98¢!! Bought 7 of them. Cleaned some to take with us when we went to graduation, froze some and made a strawberry salad and strawberry limeades.

BFB The Soda Fountain

Blogging for Books now has cook and crafting books and my latest book from them that I chose is The Soda Fountain by Gia Giasullo and Peter Freeman. I love everything about this book! 

• More Info
• Author Bio

We've toyed with the idea of an ice cream/tea/coffee shop for a few years but it's never really worked out and now that I have this book, I'm wanting to open one even more. The history and recipes shared are priceless!

Here are some fun excerpts:

*a few recipes that did NOT stand the test of time in soda fountains:

Celery Egg Tonic

Pru-Nut Malted Milk (prunes and walnuts)

Yeast Milkshake

Caramel Cream Sundae on a bed of lettuce

*one of the weirdest fountain menu item:

Egg & Coffee (together...mixed)

*a few from the earliest fountain lunch menus:

American Cheese and Peanut Butter

Peanut butter, Sardine, and Potato Salad on Rye

**Now I love peanut butter, but the above sounds gross!

Some fun Soda Fountain lingo:

"Sweet Alice"....milk

"Adam's Ale"...water

"Belch Water"...seltzer water

"Belly Chokers"...donuts

"Huddle Soda"...one soda, 2 straws

*the first "ice cream soda" didn't have ice cream, just ice, cream, and soda

fun soda names:

Betty Boop

Tarty Pants

Purple Cow (I actually had one of these ...my first...at a soda fountain when I lived in Michigan)

Hot Flash...coffee or hot chocolate and ice cream...first customers to order this were 3 teenage boys. LOL!!

These are just a few of the fun facts in this book. If you like this type of thing, you definitely need to get this book. I can't wait to make some of the recipes in it. I will be sharing here on my blog when I do. I'm thinking the first one is going to be Vanilla Cream Soda. My boys love cream sodas, so this one sounds like a good one to start with. Have to find some citric acid to make it.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Quick and Easy Gift Idea

Hello! As you read this, my oldest son will have just graduated from college (WHERE does the time go???) AND will be getting married the 31st of this month, so we are super busy here as I am blessed to be able to help them out quite a bit with the wedding plans.

So, it's all about quick and easy this month as I need to have all my posts pre-posted. We are doing all the food for the wedding as well as decorate for wedding, rehearsal, etc. 

Here is a fun gift that is perfect for Mother's Day (I know it's already past, but what I gave) and for graduation gifts. It's another of my mini notepads covered. The fun puffy, sequined heart is from May Arts. It has a sticky back, so can't get any easier than that!

I used Tombow's Xtreme Adhesive for all the construction of the notepad cover.

I am linking this up to DL ART

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 19

Good Morning! The weather is so crazy here! The past week we moved our youngest home from college and on that day our oldest was getting 8" of snow. Then two the next day we headed to the other side of the state to attend our oldest's Honor Program and College graduation the next day. Got some sun while having a picnic on the porch, but had to come home a day early as another snowstorm was coming in. The kids got caught in it a bit Sunday morning, but are all home safe. NOW it's suppose to snow here today! I had all my winter clothes packed away and had to pull a few out yesterday.

Okay, on to something a bit more sunny....I made these adorable bee cupcakes for our April Ladies' Night Out group. We had a bee theme and everyone one loved these. They were so much fun to make!

I used THIS pin for the inspiration to make the bees on the cupcakes (but not the recipe). Then I made THESE honey cupcakes, THIS recipe for honey meringue, and THIS recipe for salted caramel drizzle (I thought drizzling honey might be too over-powering and the caramel was the perfect complement to the honey!).

The cupcakes were super yummy! Definitely a keeper. I used almond slices for the bees and a sunflower seed for its stinger which you can barely see in the photo above. Then melted chocolate to make the eyes and stripes on the bee. To make the bees see recipe below.

My friend had picked up a tiny bear at a garage sale and showed it to me and asked if I could possibly find some. I did some googling and found these cute little bears. Typed out the Bible verse, covered it with clear contact paper and adhered them all to the front. 

I also found these adorable bee stickers by JoLee on Amazon to add to the top. These are the favors that all the ladies rec'd. 

HONEY CUPCAKES
a recipe by Lauren Kapeluck
{makes 1 dozen cupcakes}
For the cake:
1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In medium bowl mix together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3. In small bowl mix together wet ingredients: buttermilk, honey and vanilla, set aside.
4. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugar on medium speed until combined.
5. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
6. Gradually add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating starting and ending with dry ingredients and mix until combined.
7. Using ice cream scoop fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
9. Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
10. Once cupcakes are completely cool, ice.

{courtesy of thecakeblog}

Simple Meringue Frosting Recipe

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 egg whites, eggs at room temperature will be easier to separate
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional) **I used real vanilla Aaron brought me from Haiti

Simple Meringue Frosting Directions

This recipe takes less than 10 minutes, but it does have to be done all at once. The honey must be poured into the egg whites while it is still hot or it will solidify.  The hot honey also cooks the egg whites.

1. Heat honey in a saucepan over medium heat 5-10 minutes; until mixture bubbles and darkens.
2. Meanwhile, separate two eggs, being very careful to avoid getting any yolk in with the whites.
3. Add the salt to the egg whites.
4. Put two whites in a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or use a hand held mixer and a bowl held steady by a helper.
5. Mix starting on medium.
6. As the eggs start to froth, turn the mixer up to high.
7. At the same time you turn the mixer up to high, start pouring the honey in with a thin steady stream, taking about 1 minute to pour in the hot honey.
8. Continue mixing on high as the frosting fluffs and thickens and is cool enough to touch, 2-3 minutes.
9. Add the optional vanilla while mixing.
10. Use a spatula or butter knife to frost cupcakes, or spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes for a more decorative look.  The icing goes on the cupcakes or cake easiest if used within a couple hours of making. 

{courtesy of healthhomehappy}

HOMEMADE CARAMEL SAUCE:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tbls water
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract

1.  COOK:  In a small saucepan, briefly stir together sugar and water and bring to a boil.  Continue cooking on medium-high heat, without stirring, until the mixture turns DARK amber in color.  About 7-8 minutes.

2.  ADD:  Remove sugar and water mixture from heat and slowly add in cream and vanilla.  Stir with a wooden spoon until mixture is completely smooth.  Then set aside until it is cool to the touch.  About 30 min.

{courtesy of fishstitch}

HONEY BEES

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup dried milk

mix together and refrigerate, then form into bees

this recipe I came up with after viewing several and working out a ratio to make it simple and work for my bees

Cutting Cafe Mother's Day Sale

In appreciation of Mother's Day we are having our

......... BEST SALE EVER AGAIN............

ANY 5 FILES FOR ONLY $5.00

OR

ANY 10 FILES FOR ONLY $10.00

THAT IS ONLY $1.00 A SET

go HERE for more info

Tulip Time on Cutting Cafe

This first post with the new Cutting Cafe DT is all about tulips! We had 3 different tulip files to work with and I chose the Tulip Shaped Card Set for the tulips and the sentiment.

I have an even more appreciation for my Silhouette as the cord died and I made my project the old fashioned way...cutting by hand. So thankful the images were easy to cut. Went a different direction though as I planned to use the basket tulip file, but there was no way I was cutting all those squares out by hand. LOL  {side note: called Silhouette and they are sending me the part for free!! YAY!} second side note:{sentiment was added after I had taken this picture below}

I had these fun little baskets that I had purchased from a tractor supply store (not sure why they were there, but loved the bargain. Ü I just covered the sides with designer paper and then cut the tulips and mounted them to the front. Then I found these fun Little Debbie Tulip Cakes, so I will put one of those and some other goodies into the box for a fun little gift. (BTW, I also see they have butterfly cakes too, so will be doing something fun with them as well.)

Since it's all about tulips, I thought I'd share a pictures of my tulips growing right now (and yes I see I need to clean out the dead leaves. LOL!

And as always, be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow and leave a comment for a chance to win 3 files of your choice.


I am linking this up to DL ART

Blog Hop with Michele Kovack

Today the Tombow DT is hopping with guest designer Michele Kovack.

I created this card using Inky Antics 10976MC Flower Turtle Set and Tombow's Irojiten Colored Pencils, Mono Adhesive Dots and Mono Adhesive Permanent.

This week’s prize will include:

Xtreme Adhesive

MONO Adhesive Removable

MONO Aqua Liquid Glue

In order to enter to win the prize, please comment on all the Design Team’s projects this week! Now it's time to head over to the very talented Melissa Cash.

Here is this week’s Line-up:
Tombow BlogDebbie Fisher
Melissa Cash
Jennie Garica
Marie Browning

Michele Kovack
Tombow Blog


I am linking this up to DL ART

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 18

This week's pin was one I wasn't so sure I was going to like, but it looked so good I wanted to give it a try.
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars. Snickerdoodles are my favorite cookies and sometimes there are recipes out there that just ruin them, but this wasn't one of them.

I was needing a dessert to take to a funeral, so decided that would be a good time to make them. I ended up coming home with 1/2 pan as there were so many desserts and not many people at the dinner. That was okay, because then we got to enjoy them. If you like snickerdoodles, I highly recommend this recipe.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter or shortening (shortening gives a better texture)
• 1½ cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Cream shortening and sugar.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between eggs.
3. Mix in sour cream.
4. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, baking powder and salt.
5. Mix into shortening/sugar mixture.
6. In a separate, small bowl, combine ⅓ cup sugar and cinnamon.
7. Sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar mix into a 9X13 pan.
8. Spread batter on top.
9. Top with remaining sugar mixture.
10. Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
11. You don't want this too much like cake, so opt for less time if you need to.

Recipe by Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker at http://frugalanticsrecipes.com/2010/11/snickerdoodle-cookie-bars/ 

Frugal Friday 5-2

 *from Freebies Frenzy rec'd...
Emergen-C samples
Eucerin Lotion

*downloaded books for free onto my Kindle from Bookbub

*checked books out from the library

*rec'd a free 15yd roll of lace for a contest I entered

*Italian Dressing marked down to 70¢

*used $1 off coupon on batteries

*$2 off coupon for Easter M & M's marked down

*earned $15 in Swagbucks and used it for Amazon dollars

*bought milk on Monday for an extra 50¢ off

*bought 6 plastic tablecloths at Dollar General for 30¢ each. They rang up as $1, but I told that gal that the sign said 30¢, so they had to sell it to me for that. Will use them for our monthly ladies nite out gatherings.

*I didn't have enough glasses for everyone for the shower I hosted so used mason jars. So much more fun to drink out of anyway

*bought a block of cheese marked down to 99¢

*32 oz plain yogurt marked down to 99¢

made sandwiches to take when we were going to be in town over supper time

Exciting News

Even though my "term" was up on Cutting Café, I have been invited to join in again and this time "forever"!! I am sooo excited. There is going to be a change in DT posts where together we will post twice a week, but there are so many awesome files out there that Regina has designed, so I am going to continue to post every week. This will give me a chance to create with those files that are on my "back burner" so to speak.


You can go HERE to read all about it and to see who else will be joining me. Our first DT post will be May 7th, so stay tuned! It is going to be a spring-y filled inspiration post!

Cutting Cafe Envelope Pouch

I can't believe it's been 6 months already for this stint of my Cutting Cafe DT. Since this is the last week, we got to choose any file we wanted to create with. Did you see the awesome envelope pouch that Sheryl Wilder created last week? I loved it! It uses a 6" x 6" Michaels envelope. Well....Michaels is 4+ hours away and I really wanted to make one.

So, I used the Envelope Template Set and the style 2 envelope. I resized the envelope so that folded it would measure 5.5" square. This nice thing about making your own envelope is that you can decorate it all flat and layed out and then form it into an envelope, then box.

I used some My Mind's Eye papers, fun little ticket, paper doily, paper flowers and my own paper rose from Regina's Paper Flower Set.

If you would like a chance to win this file or any others on Cutting Cafe, be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow and leave a comment for a chance to win 3 files of your choice.