A Love for Cookies

My husband would say that he is a salty person. I on the other hand would say that I'm a sweets person.Well, naturally you'd think that because Skyla is a mini clone of daddy that she would take after him in this aspect. THEN, she does what she does best and surprises the heck out of you! This kid LOVES sweets!!!!

 During the planning process of this upcoming birthday party, I have found myself completely stumped on a fun theme that completely describes Baby S's favorites. Yea, Yea... she likes Sesame street and Barney and all of that stuff but hasn't that been a little played out? Anyone can go buy some plates that have pictures on them and be done with it. I on the other hand of course had to take the very long, very time consuming, very exhausting and meticulous route. We are having a "MILK & COOKIES" party! Two of Skylas' absolute favorites. This kid would drink a gallon of milk a day if I let her and let's not even let her know there are cookies in the pantry... she will find a way to get to them.  I'm going to post all of the details of the party but here is a sneak peak at what I've been working on.

Yea, Don't mind the mess! 

Do you like Skylas' cake topper?

And here we go into the adventures of baking 13 dozen cookies. Yay for me. HAH! Yea right! Can you tell I'm thrilled? This is only 2 dozen in ;)

Peek Peek ;)

2 Dozen down, 11 to go.

You can find this amazing recipe here! They are the perfect combination of Chewy and gooey!

What kind of parties have you thrown for your toddlers? 

     

Letters to Skyla: You're Turning 2!

Dear Skyla, Today we were dancing fools! We jumped and hopped around the house like we were winners on SUTUCD.You showed off your not so graceful spins as I made you giggle over my not so awesome running man moves.  At this moment, I begin to smile sadly inside. Not in a bad way but just how I realize that my little girl is growing up. How my once little girl needed me to feed her and burp her and rock her to sleep, now is growing into a beautiful little girl who thinks she can do it all.

 I want you to know that you CAN conquer the world! You can be anything you want to be. As the little cute sign in your bathroom (that my mom gave to me and I passed on to you) says,

  I know you may stumble and have to deal with pain but I want you to know that I will always be here to help pick you up after you fall. I'll help brush off your knees, put a band-aid on that boo boo and tell you to get back out there.  

I am your biggest fan. I will always be cheering you on with utter amazement that no way, did I ever know that I could love like this and be so proud.

 This Sunday, you turn 2! 24 months, you have blessed my life. You have taught me so many lessons on how to love, forgive, be patient and to always remember that it's ok to make mistakes. It's how you continue on that makes the difference. I love you with all of my being...  Love, Mommy  

Lamp Redo Inspiration

Hello, My name is Kristen and I'm a BAD BLOGGER...I'm so sorry for my disappearance but life's craziness has taken over and for a moment a truly considered shutting this down but I realized that I really love itand it's my outlet for sharing my love and inspiration of all things crafty.  Along with moving, starting yet another business opportunity and a toddler moving into a big girl bed... my hands have been tied and uninspired by anything due to dot dot dot exhaustion. Through the craziness though, I have been bitten, by the craft bug I mean.    I've been working on quite a few things, a mirror redo which I'll be posting soon! I promise! Also, a semi- homemade dry erase board, and TONS of baby stuff! My sister is preggers! YAY! She's due in September but the shower is in June and I suddenly got uber excited to make a billion things for my first niece!!!!  Amongst all of THAT, I've been chatting with my sister about lamps. She just bought her first home and is searching and searching for new bedside lamps for the master. It feels like robbery when you look at the price of lamps these days! A cheap one...umm... $40 buckaroos! Geez! Well, thrifty old me had a simple solution! While blog hopping a few weeks ago, I cam across some AMAZING Lamp re-vamp's ;) Here are a few that I LOVE!

From Imperfectly Beautful: Click HERE for the Tutorial  

From Shelley Inspired: Click HERE for the Tutorial

From Finding Fabulous: Click HERE for the Tutorial and to think they all started out a little like this...

Can you say ICK!!! You know where you can find these! Yard sales, Craigslist, Thrift stores... all for around 5 bucks! You can't beat that! I think I will start searching for one for Baby S's big girl room we are starting on soon.

Now, GO! Re vamp something! and have a blessed and beautiful weekend.

  



Quickie Family Vacay {Daytona Beach}

I know it's been awhile... Let's just say I "lost" my camera connection cord and have been in the process of turning my house upside down, all along, thinking that Baby S had something to do with it hiding from me.  Today, I had to apologize to her. I had to apologize for blaming her silently in my head as I became frazzled and frustrated. I had to apologize because she had absolutely nothing to do with my very common forgetfulness.  You see, I just bought this new purse.  

It's somewhat of a downgrade upgrade from the suitcase I've been carrying around for the last year and a half, lugging diapers and bottles and snacks and toys and wipes and and and....you get the picture.

Last week, the family and I took a little weekend dash to the beach.

It was so much fun and quite relaxing...

If you call relaxing taking a soon to be 2 year old to a large body of water

whom doesn't know how to swim.

No worries there though...

She wasn't very interested in having the water touch her... AT ALL

Well in my hurried packing... look where I stashed my camera connector.

Let's just say, I'm brilliant and keep it moving, OK?

Here are a few more pics of our trip to the beach minus the hubs ;(

 Baby S. didn't know what to do with the sand exactly. She just dug and threw...

After awhile, we stuck to the kiddie pool

Here is one of the kids in Publix.

That's my nephew, isn't he a cutie?

That one is hands down my favorite even though it has nothing to do with the beach.

Just look at their faces!

They love each other!

Meet my big sis and momma.

Momma looks pretty great, Huh?

Thanks for letting me share these memories! Smooches!



One Spot {Makeup Pouch and Key Chain}

 Want to know a simple fact about me? I LOVE Target! I HEART Target! Target makes me SMILE!  I could go into Target for deodorant and walk out with a basket full of goodies and ask myself, "How did that happen"?  I love their super stretchy tanks that go on sale to $5 bucks in the spring. I love walking up and down there aisles like I might find a gold mine if I search hard enough. I love the kids bedroom decor that I keep telling myself that I would've loved something like that when I was a kid. In fact, Target, makes me feel like a kid. A big kid leaving with a big smile until I realize that I may have to do some explaining for my purchases when I come home. Well, you can imagine my excitement when Target put in the "One Spot" a few years back. I could come home with a bag of goodies to play with with out breaking the bank! A few weeks ago, I scored this cute little purse that is totally meant for a child but I just knew I could do something awesome with it.  

 What I was going to make, I didn't know but it became quite clear that whatever it became, it would be a simple project.

First, I detached the ribbon strap and bow from the bag. (Save them for later, you can use them)

Remember my Rose Magnets I made? Well, I used the same idea but instead of attaching the flowers to magnets, I attached them to the front of my purse... like so...

 Isn't that the cutest thing?!?! Now, I don't have to dig for my essentials (mascara, lip gloss, Visine) It all fits perfectly in this little bag and is so easy to find ;)

Now, remember the ribbon strap and bow that we removed from the purse? Yep! We are going to use it to make a key chain!

 I found a set of six key rings at Hobby Lobby for a buck seventy five.

 Put the ribbon through the key ring.

 Fold the ribbon in half. Hot glue the end, roll it twice and hot glue again. That will ensure it doesn't come apart. I then attached the already made bow (from the purse) to the bottom and embellished with different beads. Have fun with it!

If you make either of these, email me pictures! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Couponing for Coupons

I've always hated junk mail. In fact, we stop at the trash can BEFORE we get to the house to avoid the unavoidable build up of clutter... mostly.... junk mail.  Well, a few weeks ago my very sweet neighbor sent me these crazy text messages with pictures of all of her goodies that she got with messages beneath saying something along the lines of... "All of this for just $11 bucks"

 I'm thinking in my head... WHAT?!? That's at least a hundred bucks worth of stuff and it's all items that I buy and use on regular basis. What am I doing wrong here?

 Then, she tells me that she just keeps all of the Q's (coupons) from her mail along with her Sunday newspaper and keeps eyes out for good deals.  Well, if anyone knows me, and they knew I was going to take on yet again, another project, they'd say in their very careful and gentle voice... Kris, you don't need to put anything else on your plate. Well, I probably should have listened to them and my horoscope but why would I not jump at the oppurtunity to save my family money?  So, with that being said, I bought my first Sunday paper and found a few really awesome blogs that not only will teach you how to use your Q's to your best advantage but also, they will tell you where to shop and where to look to find the Q's to go along with a good deal.

 (This is from one stop at Rite Aid a couple weeks ago) Tell me how last week, I walked out of Publix with over $100 buck worth of stuff for $24 dollars? Think I'm joking? Heck no! This is my third week and so far have cut my grocery bill down to a third of what I was spending. The hubs doesn't even mind spending one of our movie nights on the couch next to me while I flip through the deals because at the end of the day... that extra money is going towards something even better! We desperatley need a new washer and the goal is to put that extra moolah to good use! Here is what we are saving up for ;) 

Still don't believe me? Try it for yourself! Here are a few oh so helpful blogs to get you started...

couponmom.com

Southernsavers.com

Mojosavings.com

P.S. On all of these sites, there is a section that says, "Learn to Coupon",

I recommend reading this before starting cause' it can get a little confusing.

Anyhow, have fun, save money, and let me know what you find for amazing deals!

I also have to shout out to Kristie for putting up with my late night phone calls with stupid questions about can I use this on that or that on this? LOL. LOVE you grrrll!

    

Spring Oreo {Truffles}

One of my first post was about finding the lovely Bakerella, Queen of the Cake Pop. I didn't know how I have entered through the doors of every one of my favorite craft stores, only about a billion times (ok, maybe not a billion, but you get the idea) and missed these little beauties! Well, I think I seriously jumped in my car immediately and headed down to the local market to get my supplies.  I couldn't resist getting the "Spring Oreos"

I like the idea of little Oreo Truffles vs. Oreo Pops but you can certainly get Popsicle/candy sticks and use those. (Just make sure you put the stick in before you dip your Oreo ball into the candy coating) Your first step is open a pack of oreos and set aside about 7 of them. You can crush these up and use them to decorate with, or in my case, eat them. Or let your toddler have a few and send them into a sugar coma like, Baby S.  

 She really thought I gave her the whole package... HAH! Yea Right!

Ok, really, here is what you'll need to make these:

1. Package of Oreos minus 6 or 7                          

2. One Package of room temperature cream cheese

3. Candy Coating                                                   

Here is the quickly directions but if you want the ORIGINAL RECIPE for these,

go ahead and Check out Bakerella! Let her know we said hey!

1.  Crush remaining cookies and stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together. ( I used a food processor to crush the oreos, which make it super easy)
2.Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
3. Melt chocolate as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.

4.Decorate with Sprinkles of your choice (before the chocolate dries)

5. Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!

 Of course, Taste test ;)

(BTW, these are much better after they've chilled for a few hours)

Mine were inspired by St. Patty's Day!

Good Luck!

YUMMM!