Special K Treat

Sunday treats!

Thought I would give you a little treat in case you are like us and like to make a yummy munchie on your Sunday afternoon. This is one of my all-time favorites. My girlfriends and I used to make this in high school and then consume the entire batch(aaah, I really miss that old teen-age metabolism!). We used to call it Special K treat because that was the cereal we liked best to use in it. Is was my dear friend Melanie's recipe and when I was pregnant this last time with Joshua I had to call her for it because I was sure I was going to die if I didn't get some immediately! So here you go:

1/2 C Sugar

1/4 C Brown sugar

1/2 Butter

2C Mini-marshmellows

1t vanilla

4 C cereal(Special K, corn flakes, any unsugared flake cereal)

1 C coconut(optional)

Melt sugars and butter and marshmellows. Bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes then remove from heat. Add vanilla. Add cereal and coconut. Spread on a piece of wax paper, or I spray Pam on my granite countertop and that works great to cool. I bagged this up to give to one of the girls I visit for church for her birthday. I tied on a little sculpey pumpkin I learned how to make from Tif at a halloween party a few years ago and I think it looked nice an fallish.

Look at my Halloween treasures!!

I received such a fun package from my new friend and swap partner, Katie. It was a black cat and pumpkin swap and just look at how she spoiled me! I love the little pumpkin box and and the darling little hanging star decorated for the season. It was really a great swap, and I thank you from the bottom of my little pumpkin colored heart Katie!








Isn't this star the cutest, sorry it is a bit blurry!













And here is a cute little face to brighten your day! Doesn't he look too grown-up in that chair?! It was mine by the way, I recovered it when Brittany was little and all of my toddlers have loved hanging out in it.

This post is for the guys!

About a month ago our Opa (Hubby's father) was in town to visit us for a weekend and attend a huge car show with William and Matthew. They really had a great time and saw some beautiful cars. So I thought I would put a couple of pictures up so my dad (and any one else) could see the great cars.



These two were in a museum they visited called the Blackhawk museum and they treat cars as art work there.

















There is Opa admiring all the cars!













Watch out world, someday he just might drive one of these things!

It's a Party!!!

Karla is having a party today! Sort of like a parade of homes, that's what we call it in Utah. You buy a ticket and get to walk through a bunch of lovely homes that are all decked out in their finest. Karla is having a blog-party where you show your favorite little corners of your house. I have really been looking forward to seeing everybody's pretty nooks.

So here are a couple of mine. First is my new favorite thing. When we moved, my drop leaf table that was my grandmother's got broken. VERY sad. But my hubby being the brilliant man that he is found a way to still use it. Two of the legs broke right off and most people would have just sent it to the dump. But my smart man found a way to cut it in half and attach it to the wall so now it is in my front entry and I think is one of the most interesting pieces in my house!

See, it is half a table!

And this is a little spot I really like in the living room. I found the sweet old Madonna in a thrift store(one of my favorite finds ever), and hubby gave me the ceramic sculpture for my birthday a last year. It is as close to a Lladro as I would ever want to get with my kids around! I really love it that is why these stay out all year, not just at Christmas!


Thanks for visiting and go over to Karla's and check out everybody else's houses too!

The witches are coming!!

I finished this little witchy girl I made for the halloween hat swap. I hope it is going to be okay, you were supposed to decorate a hat, and I think they were meaning a witches hat. But I liked doing the paper hat dolls so much I thought it would be fun to do a witch.I modified her hat, you have to look pretty close though to see the pointy part. And I had a buch of the white petal left from last time so I just painted them gray and black. I do really like how the glitter went kind of purple on the black. Hope she likes it!

Oh, and just a note, I just listed the last of the Halloween witch dolls over in the SHOP!

Finished little Cat!

I finished this little cat for a pumpkin/cat swap I am in. I added the crepe paper ruffle that Natasha did as a tutorial. I have used that little trick a lot, I really like it. I think the ruffle really adds to this little painting and of course I always like a touch of gingham!

The new couch has arrived!


This post is mostly for my mother and my sister, the rest of you, please feel free to voice your opinions too though. My sweet, sweet mother, in an attempt to provide herself a decent place to sleep when visiting us, gave us a wad of cash to buy a new hide-a-bed. That and she was probably a bit tired of listening to Brittany whine about giving up her bed, I know I was. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an attractive hide-a-bed. Apparently anyone who has night-time guests is assumed to also have no taste. After much searching, online and off, we found this addition to our family room. It arrive yesterday and I wanted my mom to get to see the latest thing she has added to my home. My sister is coming to visit me in October(yeah!) so I thought she might want to see too. It is micro-suede so hopefully will be kid-friendly. It is looking really suedey in the picture, I don't think the suedeness is quite that obvious in real life( are you loving these words I am making up?). It looked a bit blah when it first arrived so I tried to jazz it up with pillows and quilts, of course. I think I am really going to like it! Thanks Mom!















This is what it looks like in the family room now, the kids are thrilled, it faces the T.V. and the other couch has always been along the other wall.

I think this is probably actually quite acurate!

It was really kind of a fun quiz to take, give it a try! I mean who doesn't want to be a Jane Austen charcter, at least once in awhile?!

I think I finished the fairy room!
I had a little time during Joshua's naptime the other day so I finished up the odds and ends in Brittany's room to finish making it a fairy room. She had this canopy already, I just added the fairy I made at the top and some clothespin fairies she and I made before school started.
I made this one!
















And Brittany made two like this one! Aren't they cute! As you can tell we love fairies around here lately. I still have a couple of fairy prints my mom sent that I think I will frame, but the room is pretty close to being done.

How Weird am I?

I was tagged at least a week ago to share seven weird things about myself. You don't realize how difficult this is until you sit down to try and do it. So I have been jotting things down and we will see how far I get
1. I have mutant feet. That is what my sister always called them and I must admit I used them to torture her. How could feet possibly be scary enough to chase one's little sister and send her running screaming down the hall? Well I can spread my toes until they look, as my sister called it like "the claw." I know, not my proudest moment, but I am a really nice sister now I promise.

2. I hate cutting raw meat. HATE it! I used to get my roommates to do it for me and now get hubby to any chance I get.

3. I don't really like eating meat. As far as I can tell this is not necessarily related to fact #2, maybe it is subliminally because I do enjoy meat I haven't prepared, say at my mother's house or a restaurant.

4. I read doing all sorts of household activities. The number one activity is unloading the dishwasher. I also read chopping veggies sometimes, folding laundry, used to do it a lot while curling my hair, especially love to read in the tub and pretty much always have a book on my kitchen counter for that stray 10 sec or so. Oh, and it goes without saying while I am eating.

5. I am pretty much the cheapest woman alive. I think this may be why I like crafting. It is a way to have something pretty usually for much cheaper than I could buy it. I also love thrifting, but that isn't really weird. But I will re-use things I thrift and turn them into other things, again not really weird. But if you had seen my family room the day I cut an old fake fur coat up to make a fur cape for my daughter one Christmas you would have thought, "Man this girl is Weird!"

6.I can never eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup again. I opened a can while pregnant with Brittany, and you know how when it is condensed it has a slightly green color and stronger than usual smell? Well it was really not good while pregnant! It makes me want to barf just thinking about it!

7. My favorite thing to have for breakfast is left-over dessert. Cake, pie, cookies whatever. My logic is then I have the whole day to burn off the calories. Not necessarily true but it makes me feel better about starting my day with a sugary treat!

Well, I hope after that you-all will still be my friends!

I Love Angel Food Cake!!

I discovered a great thing today! (Prepare yourself, you may not find this quite as exciting as I did). Did you know you can bake angel food cake in cupcake form? Yes!! It is true! And it is even yummier than regular angel food cake! I had an angel food cake mix in the cupboard and thought, "Oh, that sounds yummy, I'll make that real quick". Well, on the box it said to try it in cupcake liners, so I did and it was so great. I love the crusty top part of the angel food cake and this way you get that in every bite. Plus I hate cleaning the angel food cake pan and presto! No messy pan! Now although angel food cake has very little fat and not as many calories as regular cake, and I didn't think it necessary to frost(again with that yummy top), I am pretty sure I made up for any calories I saved eating one after another. Funny the little things that can make ones day isn't it?!

We are getting in the Booo mood!

I know, it is still early in September, but believe it or not my kids usually have nailed down what they want to be and I have started sewing by now. We like to send out a little Halloween card to our friends and family with the kids in their costumes so I sort of have to start early to make it happen. It actually is more fun than Christmas cards I think and people really seem to like getting them, maybe because you don't usually get a Halloween card. Anyway, we are pondering the very important question: "What shall I be for Halloween?" This is a very serious question you know. Especially this year, our old elementary school did not allow costumes but our new one does and we are really excited to have somewhere great to wear them to. So the candidates for Matthew are Power Ranger, Zoro or The Tin Man from Wizard of Oz. I thought I was going to be off the hook for making his this year(I don't do Power Rangers when Target does such a fine job), but it looks like Zoro is pulling ahead. We had an animated dvd from the library and know think he is really cool. I like him because he is a gentleman. Brittany was considering being Dorothy(the ruby red slippers are a big draw), but it looks like she is going to go with a princess--again! We are calling it one of the twelve dancing princesses this year but I suspect that is because she can choose just about any color she wants to that way! And Joshua? Well, this is probably my last year getting to choose for him, my kids form opinions early, and I can't decide between something cute like a polka-dot dragon or an adorable mini-super hero. I am leaning toward the dragon, I mean we are looking at years of super-heroes right?
The little painting above it one I was messing around with just for fun, I actually sort of made this in duplicates so I could send out a couple and keep one for myself. I love that it is sort of all the Halloween icons; cat, witch and pumpkin all in one! Well, if you aren't thinking of Halloween yet ( as most people probably are not) I hope you don't mind my rambling on a bit about it. I love Halloween ever since I became a mom. It is just so many of my favorite things about childhood all in wrapped in one. Parties, dress-up, make-believe and candy. What more could you want?!

A New Happy Dress for School!


I finished one of the dresses I planned for Brittany before we left Utah to have for school this week. I think it looks so happy with the bright yellow and polka dots. I am calling it the 15 minute dress. I have had friends ask me how I seem to get so much done with my little kids around. Well, things like the 15 minute dress. I just work on it for little 15 minute snatches of time when my kids are busy. That and then I occasionally stay up late. That is how I finished the little felt flower at the waist, stayed up late watching Gilmore Girls on dvd and sewing. I have to say I like the flower the best, and so did Brittany and her friends. She wants it in purple now so she can wear it on her school spirit day. So I guess I will have to start saving up my 15 minutes!

Here is a close up of the flower. I just safety pinned it on the inside so I can take it off to wash.

More Little Witches in the Shop!!!

I don't know why things have seemed so busy around here the last week, but it has seriously cut into my blogging time! Hopefully I will do a little better this week. I did want to let you all know there are a couple more little witches in training over in the Shop. I don't know why the one pic is blurry and I am too tired to fix it right now. Two of their sisters have gone to lovely homes and I am trying to decide whether to make more of them or move on to Christmas. I am getting in a more Halloween-type mood so it might be fun to try a couple more. I have been doing some back to school sewing that didn't get done before school started. I will hopefully have pictures in the next day or so. Let's just say we turned out a very happy little dress.

This one had a little paint accident while I was painting her eyes so now she either looks like she wearing make-up a little early in her life or she is a bit gothic! But I like her anyway.
Hope you all have a great week!

One of my favorite catalogs came this week.

I just love Chasing fireflies. If you have kids, like kids or ever were a kid you have to go here and order one of these to flip through. They have the most amazing things I would like to order one of everything! They have a great website, but what is it about flipping through a nice glossy catalog or magazine that is so lovely and therapeutic? I love the web, but sometimes it is just nice to have something in my hand.
Don't you just love this beautiful coat and those great tights? I would take that in mommy size.
I love everything on this page!
Here is the front of that cute coat, don' t you wish you could be a little girl again?
Let's not forget the boys, if I were a millionaire I would definitely have all this stuff for playing make-believe! So even if you don't have the catalog but feel like looking at fun kid stuff go try Chasing fireflies!

Gonna Try Something New!

Okay, I am going to try something new in the Shop. It is a little christening dress to fit a little girl's favorite doll. About Bitty Baby's size if you know the American Girls dolls (16-18"). This is my daughter and her friends favorite thing to dress their dolls up in, I don't know if it is the length or the lace or just the impracticality of white but they all want their baby to wear it. So we will see if anyone visiting etsy feels the same way and wants to do some early Christmas shopping. I am telling you though, if you know a little girl who wants a baby for Christmas(mine does every year), this is the one piece you gotta have for their wardrobe!

My baby is five years old!

I can't believe it has been five years since this cute little guy joined our family. He is so fun, and funny. Everyone who meets him seems to fall in love with him. And he really is a good boy, for the most part.








So in honor of his birthday, Matthew will draw the winner in front of his birthday banner(which his wonderful teacher sent home from church with him Sunday).






















And just in case you can't read that little slip of paper I will tell you that it says that Karla is the winner! If you haven't visited her blog you should go there right now! She has the greatest posts, she is one of my favorites.



So thanks for playing folks! Thanks for your kind words about the shop, and visit anytime!

Wow What A Nursery!

We went out to celebrate Matthew's birthday tomorrow and although we did go to the zoo I think I had a better time at the amazing nursery hubby took us to after.

They had these great displays were they made their own flower boxes against old windows and doors. The colors were so bright I just couldn't resist.




The begonia were just huge!












I really wanted to take this window home and install it on my house if only there were a way!







One of the great things about this nursery is the amazing, huge, twisty old oak trees that are all through it. Of course I made the kids pose in one. And don't you love the little house under the arch of that huge old tree? It was really a great place, hopefully next time we go it won't be so HOT!































Don't forget to leave me a comment to enter again for the drawing. I probably won't get it done until after my kids come home from school so you will probably have tomorrow morning's post. To celebrate
The Shop's Re-Opening!

Joshua has decided to test his artistic abilities so being the lovely mother I am I outfit him with crayons, the big kid of course. Tape a piece of paper to the high chair and he is ready to go. "Oh, look at these great colors!"










"See my pretty crayon, I'm going to make great pictures just like my brother and sister!"












"Hey, I bet these taste great!"











And thus ends our first foray into the art world for our funny boy! Couldn't get him to stop eating them! Oh well, better luck next time!







And here is one other little item currently in the shop. I had so much fun making these paper hat dolls for a swap last month I just couldn't stop. I think I will try a Halloween one for another swap I signed up for this month. They are so unique, a great idea someone else had I am going to run with. Hey, don't forget you can comment again to enter again for the give-away Tuesday(shameless what I will do to hear more from you folks!)

The Shop is Open Again!!!!

And so to celebrate I am having a little give-away. Brittany says it is a red, end of summer give-away and I think she is right. So here is the deal leave me a comment sometime this long weekend and I will enter you for the drawing on Tuesday morning. You can enter each day you leave a comment to increase your chances. Of course I would love it if you visited the shop to see what is over there and feel free to spread the word about the give-away. Good luck and happy Labor Day!

You could win this cute little bag...

And this is what is inside! A little atc, a happy red bird and a somewhat patriotic looking bracelet!