Perfect New Year's Hostess Gift

I got a sewing machine for Christmas *well really a couple weeks before* so I could make some handmade gifts that turned out too cute! I have found that I really enjoy sewing although I'm a beginner and I mess up quite often, I find it relaxing, and rewarding! Its fun to say "yah I sewed that" Anyhow I saw this idea on Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie I thought it was perfect for a hostess gift to the gathering I am attending tonight for our New Year's Celebration. Put a nice bottle of Moscoto in it, and will give it to her tonight. Voila! It was simple simple simple, I used a wine bottle as my template and one of my hubby's shirts that he outgrew and was in the goodwill pile *I did was it hehe* Give it a try! Happy Sewing!
I am linked up to We Made it! Showcase Friday

Happy New Year to you all! Thank you for reading in 2009 hope to see everyone in 2010! May you all have a blessed an happy New Year fill with, Fun, Joy, Laughter, Family & Friends!

Kids In The Kitchen .. FUN New kitchen Gadget!

Holy Moly ... Look at what my dear friend Mel got me for Christmas, A mini donut maker! She knew I loved making donuts from bisquits click here, I blogged about it once! I didn't think donuts got any easier, but they did with this snazzy little gadget! And the donuts were 10x's better than my bisquit ones!
Lu helped me mix the batter which was:

• 5 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk

Mix butter & sugar, then add egg and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together. Add dry infredients to the egg mixture while alternatin the milk in.
Fill the donut maker with batter, and take off when golden (takes about 3-5 mins, and they slide right off)
Then ....... Dip them in powder sugar, or cinnamon ... mmmm or EVEN ...
Decorate with chocolate! Oh yeah my kinda donut!!
I halfed the recipe I just gave ya'll and still got 24 mini donuts!!! Love Lu's expression *c'mon mom get your picture and lets eat"

Now shes my little waitress!!! Love this new gadget! If you don't have one run to the sotre right now!

Don't forget to Link all your Kid Friendly Kitchen stuff up! If you made something last week please link up ... I took the day off last week due to Christmas! Hope you all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

AWARD!!!

Isn't it always so nice when you are honored with an award for you blog? Also with the fact of knowing people read and like your blog? When I started this blog I didn't know what to expect, but now I have 53 people who follow, and tons more that stop by to comment and say hello! It warms my heart! Thank you to Crafts ~N~ Things for Children for thinking of me *this too is an awsome blog! Go check her out as well!

The Lemonade Stand Award is awarded for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. The rules for accepting this award:

- Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.

- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.

- Link the nominees within your post.

- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I have chosen the following blogs to pass along this award to ... they are all creative, crafty, and inspirational & uplifting.... Hope you enjoy them all! Make sure to browse through them, you'll never know what you can stumble upon!

1. My Family My Forever
2. Adventures of A Flake
3. Frugal Family Fun Blog
4. A Mommy's Adventure
5. Blue Eyed Blessings
6. I Blame My Mother
7. Keeping up with the Schultz Family
8. Superheros & Princesses
9. The Shabby Chic Cottage
10. Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Happy Browsing!!! I will be back a Little Later this morning to do my Kids in The Kitchen Post, running a little Late because we wanted to do the cooking this morning instead of last night (we are trying out a new breakfast kitchen gadget...) so stay tuned!

Fun Christmas Pictures

Do you ever have the problem with taking too many pictures and trying to siff through the BEST ones? But they are all the best because its pictures of the people you love! I took way too many pictures over the holidays, way more than you would all like to see ... LOL But I thought I would post all the "open mouth pictures" the ones where Lu is so excited her mouth drops LOL! I've also included one of my family above, I know we are one handsome bunch!

The night before Christmas, all excited dancing around the living room in her new Hannah Montah nightgown!

See what I mean! Flies could fly right in that trap :)

Love that look, she put those boots on RIGHT away!

Uh-huh every 6 year old girl loves Taylor Swift! Get ready mammas if your child hasn't hopped on that bandwagon yet!

I probably have enough open mouth pics to do 3 or more post! So Thankful my child gets excited over little lifes joys!

More pictures to come throughout the week! Check here for more awsome pictures!

Cheesecake Trifle

If you all read my blog, I bet you would have never guessed I bring the dessert to every function! *since of course that's the only food group my house seems to recognize LOL* Anyways I thought I would TEMPT you all with this LOVELY cheesecake trifle, I made specially for my step-dad on Christmas Day .. because one he is a lover of cheesecake, and two he don't like chocolate! Who doesn't like chocolate? Anyway lets just say I think the bowl was licked thats how CLEAN it was when I left!

Heres the Ingredients and How to's:
4 Cups strawberries *sliced*
4 to 5 tbsps sugar
2 pkgs cream cheese
1 3/4 cup milk
1 lg pkg instant jello pudding vanillia flavored
1 3/4 cup whipped topping
pound cake (I used entemans brand and about 1 and 1/2 loafs)

This amount of ingredients fills the entire bowl pictured above, if you want a smaller amount, adjust accordingly.
And to be ahead of the game you can go ahead and cut your pound cake into squares and set aside.

First thing mix the strawberries with sugar and put in fridge to allow juices in the strawberries to come out.
Then in a lg bowl put the cream cheese (I cut into blocks) and SLOWLY beat in milk, until no longer clumpy, then add jello, and beat about 3 mins, now FOLD in whipped topping.

In bowl layer pond cake, 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture, strawberries (with the juice), and repeat. At the top you can do strawberries like I did, or chocolate drizzled on would look pretty too.


I've link this up to Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays hop on over and find more great recipes!

Riding on the scooter!

I am sure this will be the 1st of many post throughout the week about our Christmas this year! Which was FABULOUS! I couldn't ask for a better family or a batter weekend!This pictures are a little fuzzy but I am sure you all get the gist! Lu's big gift this year from Santa was a power scooter that goes 10 MPH and is pink! We had so much fun riding it around the neigborhood Christmas morning and we both fit on it without breaking it hehehe!

I think I had just as much fun as she did!!! Felt good to be a kid again!!! We ended up riding that thing a good couple miles!

And she NEEDS a helmet with that scooter, she drives like her mamma! Shes so stinking cute!

My house is filled with toys, trinkets, and girlie makeup from her room, to my living room, to all over my dining room table! Oh boy! Thank you to all my friends and family, and of course Santa for making Lu's Christmas Fantastic!

I think next year we are gonna start a tradition of making Jesus a cake!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you ALL!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!

I apologize for the lack of post this week!

It has been a very fun-filled, hectic, and festive week!

We will be back next week with more great post, holiday photos,

and of course Kids in the Kitchen!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Muffin Tin Monday-Holiday Winter Wonder Land

We ALL had a great time doing Muffin Tin Monday today, the theme was "Holidays" so I took that and ran with it. Seen this all over the bloggy land! We took this:
Top Row- Sugar cones, green icing, coconut
Bottom Row- Red sugar crystals, gum drops, and round green and red candies

And we turned it into a "Winter Wonder Land" We all got into the action it was a fun eveing!
First we sprinkled a red tray (I had stored away) with "snow" (coconut)
And we iced the trees

Joshy got in on the fun too :)
And Lu decorated with "lights" (red sugar crystals)
And then decorated with ornaments (the green and red candy balls) the funniest part was Joshy started to throw them to see if they would stick, and of course Lu followed suit and I had candies all over the kitchen! Oh well all in the name of FUN!!!
And we now have a BEATIFUL "Winter Wonder Land"

Check out Muffin Tin Mom for more great tins!

Cookie and Ornament decorating!

I'm telling you Christmas is my all time favorite! Even though I run around like a chicken with my head cut off ... buying toys, making presents, baking, cooking, getting photos done ect ect... those special moments, the parties, gatherings, get togethers, the family OH how it makes it all worth it!
Last night we attended a "cookie decorating party" with my bible study ladies and our families, I tell ya the kiddies really enjoyed the cookie decorating! I think there were about 15 or so kids there! Way too much toppings ... but thats the fun part right? All the sprinkles and M&M's

Look at that sugary mess .... HOLY COW!!!

And no I did not let her eat it all ... that one bit you see her taking was her only bite, LOL!

Then the kiddies made some ornaments, the glitter glue was a hit with Lu she loves that stuff, and while all the other kids colored with markers, not my Lu her ornaments were entirley painted with glitter! Oh atleast they sparkle :)

And she sure is proud!

They went straight on the tree when we got home! And the cookies in the garbage (but don't tell her ... HAHA she would have gotten a super sugar attack) But mommy got to bring home about a dozen different kinds of cookies all the other ladies made, and they are super good, I hope I don't eat them all!!

Handmade Ornaments

I saw this cute tutorial over at No Time for Flash Cards and thought Lu and I would give it a wirl, and I am so glad we did! The ornaments we made turned out super (pictured above) I LOVE handmade ornaments and I really love to adorn my tree with a new one (or two) every year! This project was so simple, and so easy I bet you have all the supplies you need right in your craft closet, so go grab them (and your kids too) and give it a try!

This salad spinner is the best $3 bucks I've spent in a long time (so glad I didn't use it for its intended purpose haha) I used paper plates (you could also go for card stock), traced different holiday itemes with a cookie cutte ie: snowflakes, candy canes, christmas trees. Cut the plate so it'd fit inside the spinner, dabbed on some paint ...

And she spun and spun .. this picture wasn't so great but she did have a blast *this was when she first started to get the hang of it*

Then we punched a single hole at the top and tied ribbon through it! Cute huh? I love the way they turned out!

I think tomorrow we are gonna make salt dough ornaments ... Oh how I love the Christmas Spirit!!!

Kids in The Kitchen Ham Casserole

WOW! I am seriously late today with my Kids in the Kitchen post. I've been working all morning, I got beind and its been super busy because of the holiday season of course. For a change we actually made dinner together last night instead of dessert! We needed to mix it up a bit :)!

We baked EVERYDAY last week for different functions, holiday parties, church, friends, exchanges ect ect... so we are all sugared out!!! I extracted the recipe form here, the only thing that I did different was to cook it in the oven longer that way it isn't as "runny" we like our food to be thick and hearty!

Lu helped me grate the cheese, which she loves to do!

And she filled the bowl with goodies, like ham, potatos, corn, & butter.

She loved that I let her cut the green onions with scissors, I believe that was her FAV part!!!

Of course no meal is complete without MORE cheese!

Isn't she a beauty???

Please Link up with all your Kid Friendly recipes, Kids in the Kitchen, Kid friendly cookbooks or anything with the kids in the kitchen!

Handmade Christmas!

I wanted to share with you all this great tutorial I found! It was my first sewing project and it turned out so great! My lovely model!

And me ....

Then I made this awsome pot holder, which needs no template really, I didnt use one. I cute a square, rounded the edges, and sewed on a pocket. Conviently the pock holds a "cookie in a bag" I put the ingredients to Chocolate Chip Walnut cookies in a ziplock bag, wrote a recipe card and stuck in into the pocket of the potholder!

Now doesn't this make a LOVELY Christmas gift? Whip out your sewing machines it won't take long! I am giving it to my Secret Santa ... she loves to bake & those are her favorite cookies!

Happy Sewing!

Linking up to a Soft Place to Land and Tator tots and Jello and Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Santa

I thought I would share some great pictures of my little Lu with Mr. & Mrs. Claus. Adorable! These were the friendliest people ever! They chatted with Lu even when there was a line they focused on her and her alone! It was really great!

And of course she is getting SUPER excied for Christmas!

Stayed tuned this week to see my first sewing project finished! It will make the perfect gift! (I am giving it tomorrow for our Secret Santa exchange, and just incase I don't want my Secret Santa to see, so I will post later this week!)

On ANOTHER note ... I am 1 follower away from 50 hooray hooray I think thats a MILESTONE!

Snowmen Ornaments

I've seen this adorable ornaments on every kid blog in the world! I knew we had to give it a try! A white hand print and a child's imagination makes for some cool and cute funky snowmen!

I just took a red ball right off the tree and grabbed my box full of paints .. it was simple, I had everything on hand! And they made for cute "homemade ornament" gifts!!!

For more great stuff check out We Made It! Friday Showcase and Kid Friendly Friday

and Round Robin Friday