December Kick Off - Christmas Quilt!

I thought it would be fun to share something "Christmasy", last year I made this fun Christmas Quilt for my son's Preschool teacher, she absolutely LOVED it, which I was so happy about. I'd never made a "real" quilt before and this was a super simple one. I had some fabric story block fabric, so instead of making a fabric book out of the fabric I made the quilt. I thought it was a super fun and cute idea. I even went and picked up some Christmas panel fabric last week at JoAnn's. I was so excited they still had one left since they seem to sell out of the Christmas panels fairly quickly. So hopefully sometime in the next few months I'll get another Christmas Quilt done that I can use next year :) Super excited for this Christmas Season, the month of December just always feels more magical!!! Definitely my favorite holiday!!!

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Recipe Day:Lemonade Layer Cake

Lemonade Layer Cake
Was supposed to post this yesterday but totally spaced, so it's just a recipe day instead of "Recipe Monday"

Lately I've been on this new recipe kick! I'm loving trying out new recipes! Pinterest has such a wide selection of wonderful recipes linked that I just want to try them all! So I'm trying out at least 1 new recipe a week, of course some weeks I try more :)
I pinned this recipe months ago and finally made it, definitely a keeper! We all loved it and it was the first layered cake I made that didn't break...very exciting for me! So if I could do it, so can you :) it's fool proof! Just click on the name of the cake and it will take you to the recipe!

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Hope you see this!!!

I just got a sweet message from a gal about my "Perfect Marriage" Sign and I get messages about it quite frequently, so I thought I would just do a quick post to let anyone that see's this know, the signs are available in my etsy shop HERE. They are 17$ each and are 10x11 inches in size (Shipping is $9). If you don't have an etsy account message me and I'll paypal you an invoice. Thanks!

To the gal that sent me a message this morning - I hope you see this, I was on my phone and my finger slipped and hit the delete button and I have no way to retrieve it. I hope to hear from you again soon!!!

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Recipe Monday: homemade vanilla!

Over the weekend I picked up a bottle of white rum (it's supposed to be about as flavorless as vodka) and was able to start the process of making my own jar of vanilla!!! I thought I'd have enough for two jars but the one bottle filled the one quart mason jar perfectly. 

I bought my vanilla beans at Costco about a month ago and was excited to use them in a fun recipe! Soon after I saw this post on "our best bites" for homemade vanilla and thought it would be so cool to try making my own! I thought it would be fun to use it as Christmas gifts like they did but I never did order more beans. So I am happy to try it out this time and maybe next year I'll try making more for friends :)

I'll be sure to post how it turns out once it's ready to use next month! For those of you that never knew vanilla was made with alcohol, I didn't know either until a friend made some last year! Most real vanilla extracts are 35-40% alcohol, never knew that before! Hope everyone is having a happy Monday!!!

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Vinyl Wednesday: marriage signs!

I've had a handful of people ask me for some custom wedding signs in the last few months and it's been so fun making them!!! Here's a few of them:

  

This Bride to be wanted a rustic sign to be carried down the isle, as well as a rustic dessert table sign. It was a western themed wedding hence the rustic look.

I absolutely love how the two rustic ones turned out, I used the vinyl as a stencil for the paint then peeled it off and sanded it a bunch, it looked wonderful in person! Even my hubby who isn't so big on all my signs thought they were pretty awesome!!!

A comical sign to be carried down the isle, it made me laugh when they told be what they wanted, I thought it was such a funny sign to do!!!

 Lastly, another "Here comes the Bride" sign, I love the swirly font!!! They had matching "Mr. & Mrs." signs, as well as "Thank You" signs for the bride and groom to hold for pictures. Such cute ideas!!!

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Recipe Monday: caramel!

Oh my yumminess, you're going to wish you'd never seen this recipe! It is seriously addictive!!! Growing up anytime my mom made this around the holidays we would see who would wake up first during the night to sneak a bite, it was always fun to sneak a bite any chance we could!!! Seriously though, even my mom would wake up and sneak a bite! Okay, enough chitchat, here is the delish recipe you're totally waiting for-

Homemade Caramel!

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup white karo syrup

1/2 cup butter

1 large can evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, syrup, butter and half the can of milk in heavy saucepan. Stir on high heat until boiling, then slowly add the rest of the milk. Once boiling again turn to medium heat and cook stirring to 232 degrees (softball stage), add vanilla and pour into buttered pan (8x8 inch pan works great). Place in fridge to cool then enjoy! You can cut and wrap individually once cooled but you'll want to keep wrapped caramels refrigerated. 

I've tried cooking it high to get it to thicken faster...didn't work, it still took at least 30 minutes! Her it is boiling as I constantly stir, maybe put a tv show on or something while you stir, or some music to give you something else to think about besides hot bubbling sugar popping beneath your hand.

It's starting to darken in color, it will also seem thicker and cook down a little!

Have a cup of ice cold water sitting next to you when you're ready to check if the caramel is "hard" enough. If it sticks together in the water and it seems like the right thickness/consistency for your liking then add your vanilla and pour it into a greased pan. Place in fridge (or freezer for a little bit to speed up the process) till it has cooled. Then pull the delectably delicious pan of addictive caramel and grab a spoon! Mmm, so good!!!

Introduced this fine treat to my cute little princess for the first time and she loved it!!! She licked the spoon clean!!!

Hope everyone that tries this loves it as much as we do!!! And yes, I know it seems strange to eat caramel from a pan instead of a wrapper but it is so much easier and you can totally get a spoonful the size that you want!!! Enjoy!

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

I have been terrible at keeping up on posting, but I promise I am trying, life just keeps happening and making things crazy busy! ANYWAYS, I just looked at my etsy shop and I've hit 100 sales! How awesome is that!!! Most of those happened in the last 6 months, so I am pretty stoked!

GIVEAWAY OVER
and the winner is
GIGI
comment number 24
(number picked through random.org)

To celebrate I thought I'd do a quick giveaway for: 

A 20$ gift certificate

 to my etsy shop!

How to enter:

 Leave a comment on this post with what sign you would pick from my etsy shop.

 Leave another comment if you "like" my Facebook page.

Leave another comment if you follow this blog.

Leave a comment if you pin this post on pinterest.

A max of 4 entries per person if you do all of the above listed. Giveaway (extended) will end Monday November 4th, winner will be announced Tuesday November 5th, good luck! Oh and I'll be posting more fun signs on etsy soon, so if you're hoping for some Christmas signs they're in the works and you'd be able to use the 20$ credit on them!

Thanks for being such awesome supporters of my little business, it sure is fun to create for people!!!

Here's a few images of some of my favorite signs that are/will be available in my etsy shop!

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Switch it up Monday: gobble gobble gobble

So I thought I'd switch it up a little this week (I didn't take photos of any foods, so that will have to wait till Wednesday), I have this fun new sign I wanted to share! I've been working on a set of wood tags that a friend saw on Pinterest and thought it would be a great thing to make for a craft fair I'm going to Thursday. But alas, the set of tags hasn't been working so well for me, but I'm hopeful I'll have it done by tomorrow night. Anyways, I thought it would be fun to do some cute thanksgiving and Christmas sayings in these "giant tags". Look forward to the Christmas ones...I'm super excited!

(ignore the mess in the background, still need to paint the trim around the door)

Oh and if you're local, feel free to come check out this awesome vendor event Thursday!!!

Here's the facebook page for the event, go like the page to be updated about future events and see some sneak peeks of the great stuff that they'll have!!!

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Vinyl Wednesday: Special Dates

 I had a friend that saw a printable similar to this on Facebook and asked me to recreate it on wood for her. What do you thing? I think it turned out great! I hope she loves it!!!

(please ignore the terrible lighting, I"ll try to get a better pic tomorrow. Thanks!)

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Recipe Monday: cinnamon roll pancakes!

Yesterday morning I wanted to whip up something tasty before we sat and enjoyed watching General Conference (click on it if you have no idea what I'm talking about). It's a wonderful weekend that my church has every 6 months where we get to listen to talks given by our amazing Church leaders (we get to watch/listen to 4 two hour sessions, plus there's a 2 hour session for all of the men)! Anyways, long story short, I had wanted to make cinnamon rolls but ran out of time. So I decided to whip up some yummy Cinnamon Roll Pancakes instead, I'd seen them on pinterest over a year ago and hadn't had a chance to make them. So I found the original pin and realized it didn't have a pancake recipe, only the recipe for the cinnamon sugar part. So I flipped through several cookbooks before I finally found a simple, quick recipe from my Vitamix Cookbook:

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsps baking powder

2 cups buttermilk 

(I used 2 cups of lactose free milk and added 2 tablespoons of vinegar to get the buttermilk taste)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup light olive oil

1/2 tsp salt 

(i just put a dash of salt in)

1/4 tsp sugar

Blend buttermilk, eggs, olive oil, salt and sugar until well blended. Add in flour, baking soda and baking powder and fold/stir until mostly mixed. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes (supposed to help with flavor) while to get your cinnamon sugar mixture mixed up.

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

4 TBS butter or margarine

(melted, not boiling)

1/4 cup plus 2 TBS packed brown sugar

(I think I could have added a little more brown sugar to make it a little thicker)

1/2 TB ground cinnamon

I poured this mixture into a "ketchup/mustard" bottle and cut the tip a little lower so that the the mixture came out good and thick instead of getting stuck (it took a few tries to get it cut to the right size).

Place pancake batter in heated pan, once it starts to get a little bubbly swirl the cinnamon sugar mixture around it. Let cook a little longer, then flip. Here's the original pin to show you a little better how to do this part!

The original recipe said to use a cream cheese frosting but I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting (and neither is my family) so I whipped up my favorite cinnamon roll recipe frosting from the "Our Best Bites Everyday Cinnamon Rolls" and added a little extra milk to make it a little bit thinner.

Frosting/Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4 TBS milk (add more if you want it thinner)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Drizzle over the top of your pancakes and VOILA you have a delicious breakfast that your picky kids and 'picky about breakfast foods' hubby will LOVE!

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Vinyl Wednesday: Thankful Sign

I had a friend send me a message a while back with this quote and absolutely loved it! So to start getting into the spirit if the holiday season that is about to come upon us I wanted to get a "Thanksgiving" type sign, this would look great in browns for fall! Hope you love it as much as I do!

(available in my etsy shop, colors customizable)

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Recipe Monday: Canning Peaches

I spent a good chunk of the weekend canning! I helped a friend transform a whole box of peaches into a ridiculous amount of yummy jam (she'd never canned peach jam before). Then my mom and I did 1 1/2 boxes of peaches, we did 19 pints if jam, 17 pints of peaches and then froze the rest for smoothies, YUM!

I will say that the recipe I used last year was amazing! But alas, I couldn't find the delectably delicious recipe...pretty tragic, I know! Anyways, on to the recipe part, I'm being lazy so click HERE to get the super simple recipe for how to can peaches, for the jam just grab a box of pectin and use the recipe listed, super easy! I will add a little disclaimer, a few years back my sister and I canned peaches and we used the blanching method and our peaches looked awful jarred, not a pretty yellow, they just didn't look right, or taste that great. So we forgo the blanching and just peel our peaches by hand before canning now! Oh and I use the light syrup recipe when canning. Don't the peaches look so pretty (just let me think they look pretty, I spent way too many hours canning and cutting all those peaches)! Woot, excited that they're done!!! Hope everyone else had a productive weekend!!!

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Vinyl Wednesday: A "Masterpiece"

I probably only spent 4-6 hours working on this one, but with 3 kids aged 5 and under 4-6 hours of work takes more like 10 hours! So I was so excited when I finished this one!!! It took almost 2 hours just to pick apart the vinyl because there were so many words! The results definitely made up for all the work and I loved how it turned out!!! Okay, enough waiting, here it is:

Oh and I did add the dot on the 'i' children and the apostrophe to 'wont' after I took the pictures! The size was 12x17 inches! Thanks for looking!

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Recipe Monday: Blueberry Pie!

If you're looking for a wonderful and somewhat easy dessert for today try this delicious recipe!!! I never liked fruit pies growing up, until I realized that a homemade fruit pie with crumb topping and ice cream is delish!!!

If you're like me and you don't have premade pie shellls on hand, you can whip up this quick pie crust recipe:

8 inch Pie Crust Recipe (from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt (i never put this in, but I grew up in a house where we hardly used salt because of my dad's health problems)
3 tablespoons cold water

mix together with a pastry blender (click on the word if you're not sure what this is), or you can always use a fork. Once it's pretty well mixed, mold into a ball and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Once you have it rolled into a circle large enough for your pie plate fold it in half and lightly lift it into your pan (this helps keep it from tearing or breaking), then mold a edge around your pan and use your fingers to make little creases all the way around:

and voila! You have a pretty pie shell! Trust me, it didn't look this good the first time I made it myself several years ago. I was totally spoiled growing up with a mom who could bake like a champ, she made everything from scratch!!!

Blueberry Filling (Original Recipe found here): 
4 cups Frozen blueberries (rinse a couple times then pat with a towel to help remove excess water)
7 Tablespoons Flour (original recipe called for cornstarch, but I didn't have any the last time I made it and substituted flour, I liked it just as much!)
3 Tablespoons Water
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
2/3 cup Sugar

Mix spices, flour and sugar. Then add in water and lemon juice. Place blueberries in pie shell, then top with liquid mixture. Preheat oven to 375 degrees while you mix up the crumb topping!

Crumb Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

I normally microwave the butter for 10 seconds or so to soften it if I don't have time to let it sit on the counter for a couple hours to soften. Mix together with fork until it's all crumbly:

Then top the pie with it! Mmm...so yummy!

Bake for 50-60 minutes at 375 degrees. Then VOILA! You have delicious blueberry pie!!! Everyone that's tried it says it's their favorite recipe!!! So I challenge you to go try this, you wont be sorry! Oh and it's best served warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on top!!!

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Vinyl Wednesday: love the edges!

I absolutely love when the look of a sign when the edges are a different color then the paint!!! So for this sign I painted the wood red, then once that dried did a couple coats of blue over it. So when I sanded the edges the red showed up! I'll lost a better close up of the edges tomorrow. But to see the end result you have this beauty!

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Recipe Monday (a day late): homemade pizza

A favorite meal for the kiddos is making there own pizza! They love being able to decorate it! Plus it takes about 20-30 minutes to put together then 20-25 minutes to cook, so it's a great quick meal! 

Pizza Dough Recipe (old Betty Crocker recipe)

1 Tablespoon active dry Yeast

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon Sugar

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I use canola or olive, whichever of the two I have on hand)

2 1/2 cups Flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Let rest 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

I then broke the dough into 4 pieces and pressed them into 4 good sized personal pizzas.

I topped them with spaghetti sauce, then let the kids put on some mozzarella, pepperoni, black olives and a little Colby jack cheese. Then I sprinkled on some Italian seasoning and a little parmesan. 

Pop the pizzas in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on how done you like your pizzas and voila! You have delectable homemade pizza!

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Produce Galore!

If you have never tried Bountiful Baskets you really should!!! I love ordering a basket every month, sometimes multiple times a month!!! Plus they have amazing bread choices that are absolutely delicious! I try to order twice a month so that I can get a basket of yummy produce every other week. Today's spread featured:

a large head of romaine lettuce

2 bunches of spinach

2 (1 lb) bags of carrots (I gave one to a friend since I bought a huge bag at costco last week)

4 yummy looking yellow peaches

4 tasty looking asian pears

9 bananas

5 ears of bi color corn (white & yellow - my fav!)

3 bell peppers

3 roma tomatoes

6 small avocados

1 Italian squash (i think it's zucchini)

9 hatch green chili's

Can you say YUM! I am so excited for that yummy foods I'll get to make with these!!!

A few examples:
Pumpkin Zucchini Bread to use up the zucchini

Banana Muffins (my kids love these in the morning before school)

Fajita's with the bell peppers (I have onions from 2 weeks ago I can use with it)

Green smoothies with the spinach, avocado, peach, pear and bananas (plus I'll throw in some frozen grapes and berries I have)

Deli Sandwiches with the tomatoes and lettuce, plus some salad!

And I'll probably grill up some chicken with the corn (my kids LOVE corn on the cob)

In case you've never ordered Bountiful Baskets before, you go online to Bountiful Baskets.org sometime between Monday after 12 noon and Tuesday before 10 pm to pay for your basket, it's 15$ plus a 1.50$ handling fee (for me it costs 1.50$ or more just to drive to the store to grab some produce), if it's your first time ordering you'll also pay a small fee of 3$ or $4 (can't remember the exact amount), but that's only the first time you order! So normally it's 16.50$ and you get a basket of veggies:

and a basket of fruit (today was very veggie heavy, sometimes it's more fruit heavy, and sometimes it's about even). I love that you never know what you'll get so you can have fun trying new recipes! I'm not gonna lie, every once in a while you'll get some produce that isn't so great, but 95% of the time the produce is wonderful, it's definitely worth the cost!

So back to how you order, you'll order online, then you get to go pick up your baskets on Saturday, normally in the morning. You'll have to check bountiful baskets online to find out times and locations for your area. Since it's a food coop it's all done by Volunteers. So if you arrive 45-60 minutes early at your site you'll get to help distribute the boxes of produce into the above baskets for everyone. If you volunteer you also get to pick an extra item or two (if it's a small item you'll get two, if it's a large item you'll get to pick 1) just for helping. Each basket has a set number of each item, then whatever is left in the cases of produce after that number is distributed, the volunteers distribute as evenly as possible. So some baskets might have an extra bag of carrots, some might have extra lettuce or pears or chilies etc. I ended up with an extra bag of carrots and an extra bunch of spinach. Then I got an extra peach and avocado for volunteering. LOVE it!!! And my kids know that every other week I go to Bountiful Baskets (yes they even know that's what it's called and they're only 3 and 5). 

If you have any questions ask away, I've been going for 3 or 4 years now and absolutely love it! 

Oh and here's there facebook page that is always filled with fun new recipes!

(Bountiful Baskets on Facebook)

 

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Vinyl Wednesday! - here comes the bride

I had the pleasure of making a fun wedding sign last week for a gal! She wanted it heart shaped with a ribbon so that a little boy could walk down the isle carrying it.

My hubby wasn't to keen on the idea of cutting a heart shaped sign, so I found these heart shaped wood pieces on etsy!

I painted it with 3 coats of white craft paint and made sure to let it dry over night to make sure it was completely dry! I then had my hubby drill two holes in it, I tried to make them somewhat even by measuring the distance from the middle on each side. 

After the holes were drilled I sanded the edges and lightly sanded the front and back so that it was smooth over the whole thing as well as to smooth the area where the holes were drilled.

I love the sanded edge effect!!! Anyways? After doing that I grabbed some ribbon and used a little pick thing to help press it through the holes and tied some knots on the ends to help hold the ribbon in place. I double knotted it twice in hopes it wouldn't slip or come undone.

Then I applied the vinyl! It took 3 tries to get the desired spacing right, but I was super happy with the outcome!!! Totally worth the time!!! Voila! A cute wedding sign!!!
(look forward to more vinyl goodies next Wednesday)

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Recipe Monday: Sweet & Sour Chicken & fried rice

Can I just say YUM! We all loved it!

 (I have some pretty picky kiddos too)

I found this recipe on Pinterest several months ago and have thoroughly enjoyed making it every so often, definitely a favorite of ours! Well today, I didn't have time to cut up and lightly fry the meat before baking it so I used Tyson's Jumbo Popcorn Chicken that I bought at costco last month! It made it super quick to whip up! The rice takes very little time since you can make the white rice ahead of time, then turn it into "fried" rice when you're ready. If you're looking for a quick, easy and delicious meal, you should try making this Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe!!!

 Oh and from now on I'll be posting a recipe that i've tried or make every Monday, so look forward to some tasty recipes in the future!!!

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