A little bit of Fall

This week I finally decided it was time to pull out all my "Fall" stuff. I honestly don't have much, so it didn't take too long to put everything out.  Most years, I pull my fall decor out at the end of September, but this year I told myself that I wouldn't be in a rush.  This is my favorite season of the year but bringing things out too early and then having to look at it all until after Thanksgiving is just too much for me.  Aside from that, the other "issue" is the fact that my girls like to be naughty and start touching and taking everything down!

That leads to broken stuff and an upset Mommy, which is no fun for anyone! Instead of getting upset, I've come to realize, it's just better not to invest in anything too nice until the kids get a little bigger.  It's a work in progress to teach them how to take care of and be respectful of those kinds of "special" things.  I have to laugh because the first sorta potted plant looking decoration you see in the pic above wasn't actually up on my kitchen counter where you see it until this morning.  It was in my front room on a little table with a little fall tablecloth. Only, a certain little person decided to start biting off the little berries in the hopes they were real or something. Oops!

And speaking of that certain little someone...

Miss Alivia turned 19 months old today!  Don't you just love her crazy hair?  As hard as I try, it's just too hard to keep in under control. Until it grows out, she's pretty much having to rock the baby fro! :)

This morning, since I already had the camera out, I decided to see if I could get a couple of pics of Audrey and Alivia together.  My simple request was "give sissie a hug" but that didn't yield much of anything I could work with.

They both smiled for me individually but the hug part never really worked out.  Take a look for yourself, lol!

My girls sure are characters!

Well, this post turned more into a my girls post but I just thought I'd end it with a really great recipe I love.  I love, love all things pumpkin and now that it's that time of the year for pumpkin everything, you can bet I'll be making me some yummy pumpkin bread.

Sorry for the red container in the background. This is the only pic I could find and it was from Christmas of last year!

I will warn you right now that it has a sinful amount of sugar so if you're trying to be good like me, maybe you can treat yourself and have just a little slice!

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

--3 c. flour                                                                             --1 1/2 tsp. salt

--3 c. sugar                                                                            --2 c. pumpkin puree (not the pie mix)

--2 tsp. baking soda                                                               --1 c. vegetable oil

--2 tsp. cinnamon                                                                   --2/3 c. water

--2 tsp. nutmeg                                                                       --4 eggs

Directions:

Sift together first six (dry) ingredients.  Add remaining ingredients. ( I actually like to mix all the wet ingredients together, separate from the dry and then add that to the dry mix).  Mix together until combined and then divide batter into two separate well greased loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.  

All ovens are different, so just be sure to keep an eye on the bread towards the end of the baking time to take care not to over cook.  You'll know when it's done when a toothpick comes out clean.  I also find that allowing the bread to sit and rest overnight yields a sweeter and more tasty bread!

It's super easy and SO yummy.  You'll have to give it a try!

Construction Party Fun!

Over the weekend, we got to attend our neighbor's little boy Aidan's 4th birthday party.  It was a fun construction themed party held at their church and the girls had a really fun time!

My neighbor, Rachel asked me a few weeks ago if I could make some cupcakes for the party and I told her of course I would!  When I asked Rachel what she had in mind for decorating the cupcakes, she mentioned wanting to do some "worm in the dirt" type cupcakes.  I had fun on Friday night making the cupcakes and decided to decorate them in a couple of different ways...one way for the kids and another for the adults.  I thought they turned out pretty cute!

For the adult cupcakes I did piped on chocolate whipped cream frosting with crushed oreo topping and gummy worms...

For the kids...tons of "dirt" with little construction candies that Rachel bought...

The kids had fun doing an obstacle course game they had set up and when they finally sat down for a break, I was able to snap a few pics.  I thought this was a funny one of Aidan, scrunching up his nose!

It was a fun party and I think that Rachel and her Hubby did a great job putting the whole thing together! The girls had a lot of fun and came home with a bunch of candy and treats! :)

A sweet kinda day and some winners!

It's gonna be a busy baking day for me, so I thought I'd post just a quick one to share some super yummy cupcakes I made last week and then get going for my day!  Today I'll be making a cake for a family birthday party and then I have a cupcake order from a friend for a first birthday tomorrow morning, which I'm pretty excited about!  I also have some winners to announce from all the giveaways from this week as well so here we go!!!

My friend Julie sent me the link to these super yummy cupcakes several months ago but I hadn't had the chance to make them until last week.  They are called "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough" cupcakes and you can find out everything there is to know about how to make them HERE.  Basically, for this cupcake, you're baking some chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle of the cupcake!  Yum!  Here's what they look like before you bake them...

 I cheated and used some Betty Crocker packaged cookie dough mix that I like and it still turned out really good.  If you want a cupcake that's totally rich and sinfully delicious, then this is your cupcake!

Now...onto giveaway winners!

The winner of the cupcake liners and gel pastes is:  Andrew & Lisa Lansink
The winner of the crocheted heart fridgies is:  Caroline @ The Croley Gang
The winner of the $5 Starbucks giftcard is:  Sarah @ Gives and Takes
The winner of the Progresso prize pack is:  Rosanova Family (comment #16)

If you're a winner, please message me (see Contact me link at top of my page if you don't have my email address) with your address asap and I'll get your goodies out to you!  You'll have 24 hrs to claim your prize and if I don't hear back from you, I'll select another winner! Thanks so much to everyone who entered in and have a great weekend!!!

P.S.  To all the new followers that came to enter into the soup giveaway this week, I hope you'll stick around and come back and visit me again! :)

Just blog!

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I'm finally sitting here catching my breath!  December was such a busy month and between my birthday and getting ready for Christmas, I wasn't able to blog like I usually do.  The dust has finally settled though so I'm hoping to get back to my usual self!

Tonight I was sitting here with my Hubby and was telling him how behind I feel with everything and that I just didn't know where to start here on the blog.  He said the simplest thing to me and he was totally right.  He said..."Just blog." I think what I'll do is just play catch up over the next few posts and just share what all's been going on over the last month or so here in our world!

We had a great Christmas and surprisingly enough I hardly took any pictures!  I was too busy going from house to house making the rounds to see all of both sides of our family and I didn't have much time to bust out my camera.  We didn't even get the chance to take even one family photo but oh well.  Some holidays are just like that!

Having three kiddos this Christmas made for a challenging and busy holiday!  I spent all day the day before Christmas Eve baking and when it was all said and done, I didn't feel like I made much of anything. I finally got to realizing that I tend to be overly ambitious and I need to just relax and be okay with whatever doesn't get done.  Why I make things so hard on myself, I do not know!

Here are a few of the pics I took of the Christmas treats I made....

Yummy treats we gave as gifts to the family

Mini pumpkin loaves I made and then wrapped all pretty!

And Christmas cupcakes, of course!

It was definitely a baking sort of holiday. Yum,yum!

A FIND!

Okay, so I have a confession to make.  I.am.spoiled.  You can blame it on my Hubby starting back in 1997 when we were boyfriend and girlfriend and he used to give me almost anything I wanted. :)  A lot has changed since we had kids, but for the most part, my Hubby still lets me be a baby.  His baby, anyway!

In less than a month, it will be my birthday and I'm already starting to get excited!  Every year, I'm seriously like a little girl anxiously awaiting my birthday, only around here, we don't celebrate just the one day of my actual birthday.  We celebrate if for pretty much an entire week!  It all started several years ago when I would get so excited about my birthday, only to get the birthday blues after my birthday came and went.  My family teases me about me and my birthday week obsession but I know I can't be the only one out there who loves birthdays.  Please tell me I'm not the only one!!!

Anyhow...I've been working on my birthday/Christmas wishlist over the last few weeks and I've been shocked to find that for the first time in all of my adult life, I'm actually asking for things I can use in the kitchen!  It's so funny to me how not long ago, I would have died if someone wanted to buy me something to cook or bake with!  This year, I'm asking for things like stainless steel bowls, cookie sheets and accessories to go onto my KitchenAide mixer.  Boy how times have changed!

On Saturday, while at Costco, I made the find of all finds and I just had to share it on here!  The second I saw it, I told my Hubby I had to have it!  I even told him he could save it and give it to me for my birthday but he said no and to just get it.  I thought I'd share what it was so that in case any of you might be interested in picking one up too, you can get down to your Costco and scoop one up!

I've never actually seen anything like this before but here's what it's called...

It's really the perfect item for girls like me who love to bake cupcakes or anything sweet for that matter and need to transport them from one place to the other.  I've been hoping to find something like for a while now and I was just SO excited when I spotted it!

Basically, it's three rows of stackable cupcake receptacles.  If you want to use it to take maybe a pie or some cookies, it also comes with trays that go over the cupcake holes so that you can use it for other things.  Isn't it awesome?!?

----------------------
Today ended up being a blast at my MOPS meeting!   We made apple pies to take home in time for Thansgiving and that was so much fun!  I was also on breakfast assignment and I decided to bring some homemade peach french toast and this yummy pumpkin bread as well....

Both items were from a recipe book that my blog friend Sue sent me ages ago when I first started the blog!  I've loved making several of the things in that recipe book and I think this is by far my favorite recipe for pumpkin bread.  I'll definitely have to share the recipe on here soon!

Well, let's see what else I can get to posting this week!  I have a house that needs cleaning before we have Thanksgiving here and a pile of laundry that's calling my name! :) 

Weekend Stuff

My weekend was nice and super busy as usual!  On Friday, I got out to get my haircut as planned while my mom watched all three girls!  All went well and I was so happy to hear that Livvie didn't fuss even once while I was gone.  She normally will cry with anyone but me or my Hubby, so knowing she did so well was a big relief!

On Friday night, I multitasked my heart away, baking cupcakes for my nephew's baby shower and coloring my hair while they baked!  I cannot believe how gray I'm getting and I think the reality is that it's only going to get worse from here! :(  Seriously, I'm finding that I have to dye my hair at least every 4 weeks to get rid of these unwanted pests!

On Saturday, I set to work on frosting and decorating the three boxes worth of cupcakes I made on Friday night.  I decided to make white, yellow and carrot cake, so I whipped up a batch of both cream cheese and buttercream frostings.  I decided to decorate the cupcakes with peanut M&M's since the theme of the shower was "King of the Jungle" and the M&M's matched really well.  I was so excited when I got to the shower and saw that the cupcakes matched the big cake they ordered perfectly!

                                                                             The cake...

The cupcakes...

The shower was really nice (although it rained off and on) and they had an amazing turn out.  Our nephew and his fiancee were so blessed and received a ton of gifts! 

Also...I'm really excited that I get to share a few more reviews and giveaways soon.  I've been working with some other fun review programs where I can be a "tester" of sorts, and I'm really excited about them.

Speaking of which...last week I was sent two packages of Stacy's pita chips to try out.

It was my first time trying out their chips and they were pretty yummy.  They were super crunchy and go perfectly with dips!  If you are a fan of Stacy's chips, you might be interested in knowing that starting today until November 17th, you can go HERE enter to win their Holiday Sweepstakes by sharing a favorite holiday Stacy's snack idea!  One lucky winner will win a one-year supply of Stacy's coupons and an awesome prize basket valued at $750!

Disclosure:  I was sent two bags of Stacy's pita chips to review through MomSelect.  All opinions about the product are my own. :)

All over the board

I've been in sort of a funk over the last couple days and I'm just not sure why.  I've been tired and unmotivated and just down for some reason.  I'm hoping that I'll snap out of it soon because I have lots to do and this coming weekend is going to be a busy one for our family. 

Last night I made it out to a girls night out with my MOPS group.  I decided I would make some cupcakes to share with the girls and decided to go with a fun girl color!

I love, love the decorating part of cupcake making and some days I just wish that I could find a hobby that wasn't so fattening!  It's just so hard to make cupcakes without eating them!  I've been gaining the weight back that I worked hard to lose over the summer and I really need to get back on track soon!

Turtle Treats

Today I thought I'd share how to make some yummy treats I made last week for my nephew's housewarming party!  I'm not really sure what the proper name for these are, actually. All I know is when my sister made them for me for Alyssa's birthday party back in June, she referred to them as "turtles."  If you're a big fan or chocolate/caramel and nuts, then these are for you!  I think they're a fun little addition for a party or a shower!  I'm just gonna call them Turtle treats!

Basically, all you'll need is three ingredients... round butter flavored pretzals, Rollo candies and walnut halves...

First what you'll  need to do is set your oven to 250 degrees.  Then while the oven is pre-heating, arrange your pretzals on a baking sheet covered in wax paper.  Then you take your rollos and put one on each pretzal, just like this...

Once all the rollos are on the pretzals, place them in the oven for about three minutes.  This will allow the rollos to get soft but not melt them completely.  Once the three minutes have passed, carefully take the pan out of the oven and take your walnut halves one at a time and gently push each walnut into the softened rollo. 

Here's what you'll get when you do that...

Continue doing that for as many as you wanted to make and that's it!  I allow mine time to set and that's pretty much all there's to it!

They are so easy to make and SOOOO yummy!

Cream cheese goodness

Today I wanted to finally get to posting the recipe I found for some delicious cream cheese frosting like I mentioned making the other day.  Since I've been obsessed with all things cupcakes lately, last week, I decided to go to TLC's website to check out some videos from the gals from DC Cupcakes.  I rarely get to watch the show when it's on TV, so I thought it would be cool to watch the videos they have on TLC's site.  I was so excited when I watched one of their videos and found that they shared one of the actual recipes they use at their bakery, Georgetown Cupcake.  So cool!  I tried it out the day of our little cupcake party and let me just tell you...it was AWESOME!  It was creamy and delicious and piped on so beautifully...

The girls got to have fun decorating that day, but these were my pride and joy! :)

I tried a different technique this time for the piping and I think it turned out well.  Instead of doing the swirl starting on the outside like I did in my vlog a while back, I started in the middle, squeezed a bunch on, and then made a quick swirl at the top.  I think I'll probably be using this technique from now on!  Anyhow, here's the recipe I just wrote down after watching the video.

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1/2 c (one stick) unsalted butter

6 oz cream cheese

*4 c sifted confectioner's sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

~Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium-high speed for about a minute until light and smooth.

~ Beat in confectioner's sugar one cup add a time.

~When all the sugar is added in, beat in vanilla.

~Whip together an additional one to two minutes until frosting becomes light and fluffy.

*Please note that when I first wrote this post I accidentally said 6 c sifted powdered sugar.  It was actually supposed to be 4 cups.  So sorry for the typo!

And that's it!  Seriously, it's that simple and it's so, so good!  If you want to go and watch the video yourself, you can go HERE to check it out! 

I also want to mention really quick that in the video, they say you'll need 1/2 a stick of butter, not a 1/2 cup of butter like I mentioned above.  If you bake a lot you'll see that what they showed to be 1/2 stick of butter really looked a lot like a stick of butter which is the equivalent to 1/2 cup of butter.  Also, they mentioned that you need six ounces of cream cheese.  I just used one 8 ounce block like you'd find at your grocery store and it turned out just fine to me.  You'll have to watch the video and decide for yourself what works for you!

My new best friend!

Since it's bedtime for the girls, I will keep this post short and sweet, and leave you with a picture of my new best friend....

I feel like I should give her a name! :)

I was so excited last Saturday when my sis in law gave me her KitchenAid mixer!!!  She'd had it for a while but hardly ever used it so she decided to give it to me.  I've already been putting it to good use and look forward to making a ton more yummy things this weekend when I go to try out the chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting recipes by the ladies from DC Cupcakes!

Since I also mentioned the other day that I was going to be including a little giveaway when this new blog design was revealed, I need to mention that too.  After doing my cupcake vlog, several people thought it was neat that I had the extra large piping tip to ice my cupcakes.  I thought it would be fun to give one of those away!

I'm also thinking about adding a little extra something that's decorating related..either one my new Americolor gel pastes or maybe some disposable piping bags.  I still need to decide on that.

In the meantime...to enter to win, just leave me a comment here on this post and that's it!  I'll announce the winner on Monday along with the winner of my Back to school giveaway!

Breakfast Casserole Recipe

I thought it might be fun to share this breakfast casserole recipe enjoy making.  It's super easy and a nice alternative to your typical dinner.  I got the recipe a long while back from my friend Kate!

Right before going into the oven...

Kate was sweet enough to let me post the recipe here on the blog too!  (Thanks, Kate)!

Breakfast Delight Casserole

Ingredients:
1 tube crescent rolls
2 cups cubed ham
5 eggs
½ Cup milk
Dash of salt and pepper
2 Cups frozen hash brown potatoes-Thawed
1 ½ Cups Shredded Cheddar Jack cheese

Directions:
*Spread the crescent rolls out on the bottom of a 9x13 pan
*Place the ham on top of the rolls
*Beat eggs, milk, salt/pepper, and set aside
*Layer hash browns over the ham
*Pour egg mixture over the hash browns
*Top with cheese
*Bake uncovered at 375 for 30 minutes ( I actually had to bake mine a little bit longer to be sure all the eggs had cooked).

This is a great meal to try at dinner time when you're wanting to try something different!

Birthday cookies

I spent the afternoon making these cookies for my niece's 12th birthday!

Didn't they turn out cute?  I think so!

How I Ice Cupcakes {A Vlog}!

It's official.  I am completely obsessed with cupcake making!  It's all I want to do in my spare time (like I have lots of that) and it's just been so much fun!  Over the past five days I've made about eight dozen cupcakes!  Can you believe it?

I keep finding myself wanting to make more just to practice decorating them and let me just say, it has not been good for the waistline.  At all.  I had been doing so good with eating well and then  a couple of weeks ago, I completely fell off the wagon.  I've slowly been gaining weight again but thankfully not all of it's come back.  Oh cupcakes...you are my downfall!

While at Walmart today I decided to pick up a few boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix.  It's my favorite brand of cake mix and I decided to stock up since it was only $0.98 a box!

This afternoon, my sister Yvonne came over just in time for me to start baking a new batch of cupcakes and I got to show her how to make that new buttercream frosting recipe I mentioned on my last post.  It really is SO yummy and if you didn't click on the link last time and you enjoy baking, you really must check it out.  It's on the blog called Crazy Domestic and it's a part of a fun cupcake workshop.  Go HERE to get the recipe.  It's so simple and consists of just four ingredients!

My sister left before I could start decorating the cupcakes and as I started on dinner, the thought occured to me that my sweet friend Bethany over at HappyascanB asked me on Facebook the other day to do a vlog on how I ice my cupcakes.  I decided to enlisted the help of Alyssa to record me icing cupcakes with our Flip camera.  Here's what the cupcakes ended up looking like...

and here's how I did them...

How to pipe on icing--Part 1 from Veronica on Vimeo.



How to pipe on icing--Part 2 from Veronica on Vimeo.

Hope this helps a little and like I mentioned in the video, I am so far from an expert.  I definitely have lots to learn but I'm having so much fun in the meantime!

P.S.  If you have a fun baking tip to share with me, please feel free to shoot it my way.  I love how we can all share fun ideas and help each other along the way!

Homemade buttercream delciousness!

I decided to try out a new recipe I found HERE for homemade buttercream frosting.  I was a little hestitant about it at first because I wasn't sure how everyone would like the taste compared the the usual whipped cream frosting I use.  Turns out I was worrying for nothing because the cupcakes were a big hit!  I was so happy to hear everyone's reactions and it make me excited to make more cupcakes with buttercream frosting in the future.  Here's what they turned out looking like...

I ended up using the spray on color like I showed in my Friday post.  The finished product didn't turn out exactly what I had initially envisioned but I decided just to go with it and stop being so critical of myself.  I really am my own worst enemy.

What am I doing today?

I really shouldn't be on the computer today but being the addict I am (LOL), I decided to hop on quickly to say hi!

I've been keeping busy cleaning away and getting ready for family to come this weekend from out of town for a big Fiesta birthday celebration tomorrow night.  I laughed earlier when I had just finished up washing dishes and went to wipe the counter and realized I had just about every cleaner out.  Of couse I rearranged them to look nice for the picture here, but you can tell I've been doing it all today.  I know the Hubs will be happy to see a clean house when he comes home from work today!

Can you tell I don't enjoy washing dishes?  This pile was sitting here waiting for me for at least a couple of days....

I was also on the quest this morning to find a missing phone.  We have three cordless phones and I only have one we're using right now. One of them fell behind the stove and we're too lazy to go back there and get it and the third one is missing completely.  I even went looking under the couch cushions today and wouldn't you know it, no phone.  Just an assortment of miscellaneous items...

Thankfully I did find the memory card you see in the picture above that I'd lost a while back.  I was so bummed when I lost it because it has the pictures on it from when Livvie was born.  The under the cushion search was totally worth it.  Woo hoo!

I've been asked to make the cupcakes for the party tomorrow night and I'm excited to see what I can come up with.  If I can get all my chores done today, I may also try to tackle some sugar cookies too!  We'll see what happens.

I was also super excited to find this huge tip I had mentioned I wanted the other day.  Of all places, I found it at a restaurant supply warehouse here in town that I'd never been to before.  I can't wait to see how the cupcakes turn out!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm really looking forward to getting to visit family we haven't seen in a long time! 

What are your plans for the weekend?

P.S.  Tonight our big girls get to have their very first ever sleepover at my mom's house.  Woo hoo!

29

Last Thursday we celebrated my sister Dolly's 29th birthday! 

Dolly is our middle sister and she and I are just 18 months apart.  If you figure all of that out, I was just nine months old when my mom got pregnant with her.  Two years after Dolly was born, my sister Yvonne came along.  As you can imagine, it was a busy life for my parents but my mom loved every single minute of being a mom since she waited so long to become a mother.  My poor dad got made fun of a lot at work since all three of us came in such a short span of time.  Now that I have our three girls, I've been getting a taste of what it's like for random people to put in their two cents when they see us all together.  That is definitely something I'll be touching on later in the week because I have lots more to say on that topic!

Back to the party...We had a small get together at Dolly and her hubby Manny's house.

The night before the party, I went to Target (super last minute, I know) and found some cute black and white damask plates and napkins for the party.

At first I thought they were pretty plain but then my next thought was how cute it all would be if we could add some hot pink to the mix.  I even found some cool hot pink mini buckets in the dollar section and got some tissue paper in the party colors to stuff in the buckets.

 On the day of the party, my other sister Yvonne and I met up so that I could give her all the stuff for the decorating the party and got back home so I could start baking. 

When I got to the party, I was so excited to see what an awesome job Yvonne did with the decorating!

My BIL said he had already ordered  a little cake, but I decided to surprise them with cupcakes too.  Little did I realize that Yvonne and I think way too much alike.  Turns out when I got to the party, she had the exact same thought in mind too.  Down to the hot pink cupcake liners and chocolate cake mix! The only real difference is the way we decorated them.  I think they all turned out awesome!

Her cupcakes...

My cupcakes...

One thing I decided after making these cupcakes is that I'm done with using the gel color pastes from a certain brand you'll find at Michael's.  I was trying to get a super hot pink color for my frosting and put a lot of coloring in it, and as a result, the taste of the frosting was CRAZY strong.  I've learned my lesson and a couple of days ago, I decided to order the gel paste you see pictured at the left here from Amazon.  I can't wait to try it out for the next party I'll be making cookies or cupcakes for!

I had a fun time at my sister's party and hanging out with a few of her friends from work even though I ended up arriving REALLY late.  I had the best of intentions of making some super yummy and fun decorated sugar cookies but after mixing that in with cupcaking making and getting three girls ready with a Hubby who was gone for the evening, that didn't end up working out.  I have to keep reminding myself that I should try to limit what I can take on because things are a lot more complicated now that I have three kids.

I had fun taking pictures at the party although at times I'm finding my camera does weird things.  I MUST learn how to use this camera as soon as I can sit down to figure all of that out.  I know it can do lots more than just sit in the Auto function, where I usually keep it. )

Here was our mom and our girls, minus Livvie...

And my favorite Livvie pic of the night...

I love her smile!  She's looking SO much like Alyssa did at this age!

And here's one last picture of all of us girls.  For some reason, it came out a bit blurry, but I still wanted to post one of all of us. 

Our mom with her three girls and my three girls plus my niece.  I wonder if we'll ever get any boys in the family.  Maybe someday! :)

It was a fun night and I just can't believe my sister is only a year away from thirty!  It's crazy how fast time flies!

The kitchen sink...flowers, a movie, and cupcakes {A catch up post}

Since I've been crocheting my heart out this week, I've been so behind on blogging.  There's always so much I want to write but there's this little thing called time that always seems to go way too fast for me!

This week, I've been having a lot of fun working on my new flower clippies for my shop!  I've also made it my goal to make and add some new hats to my website in the next week here.  It's been bare for Lord knows how long and I've been meaning to do something about that.  I also decided that I want to go in a new direction with my hats.  One that's more focused on baby hats.  I LOVE all things baby and I enjoy making the little hats the most.  I've decided to work on making little baby hats to add to my shop and then if I happen to get an email for a custom hat order, I'll take those on if I have time.

Here are a few of the clippies I've made this week so far...

What do you think about them?  I've been having a good time working on them and the thing I like the most is that they'll all be different in some way.  I have a gazillion different buttons in my stash and the ribbon/button/color combos are endless!
------------------------------------------------
On Monday night, Alyssa and I did end up making it out to see Ramona and Beezus.  I was a little nervous about leaving my Hubby with the two little ones but it turned out everything went well and the baby didn't fuss even once!  Alyssa and I had a good time just me and her and we both thought the movie was cute.  After watching the movie though I walked away feeling like it left a lot to be desired. I wasn't sure if I was the only one who thought this, so just for fun today, I Googled reviews and happened on this one.  It pretty much sums up how I felt about the movie.  Despite my reservations, I do think it was worth seeing anyway. It was cute and the characters were well cast.  I especially love the girl who played Ramona (so cute) and the gal who played her Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin).  Oh, and I also thought it was pretty cute how they were babywearing Ramona's baby sister in the movie too!

Of course while we were there at the movies, I had to snap a quick picture for memories sake...

------------------------------
One last thing I'm behind on blogging about is my niece Breanna's birthday party, which was on Saturday.  Since both Audrey and Alivia weren't feeling so good that day, my Hubby and I took turns watching the girls so that we could both attend the party.  My Hubby's sister's house is only about 10 minutes away from here, so it worked out that we could both go to party.  What is so special about this birthday is that Breanna turned 13!  She picked out a Hollywood theme and I was excited to help out and make the cupcakes for the party!!!

I knew I wanted to make some picks for the cupcakes but I wasn't really sure what to come up with.  I'm not usually super creative when it comes to making up something off the top of my head but after a trip to Michael's I found some cute metallic paper and some star stickers and set off to make my own toppers.  I found a Hollywood font here, and downloaded that, and cut out my own stars using my cookie cutters.  At one point I was wishing I had a Cricut machine, but that will have to get added to my wishlist for one day, alongside that KitchenAid Mixer I've always wanted!

Here's what the end result turned out looking like...

Everybody liked them and that made me happy!  My next assignment is some cupcakes for a triple "Fiesta" themed birthday next Saturday.  I'm still working on what I'll be doing as far as decorations, and I'm thinking about trying to get my hands on a big fat decorating tip like the kind they use on DC Cupcakes.  Speaking of that show, has anyone else been watching it?  It's one of my new favorites!

Okay...enough with the rambling.  I think I'm caught up now.  It's off to work on some more hats and flowers and maybe even the chores that have been piling up since I've been spending so much time working on crocheting flowers!