Addiction AKA Pinterest

Well, it has happened. Another night has gone by whilst sucked into my favorite pastime.

(Que angels singing)

No, really. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should. Here is the link to mine.


I use it for remembering where to buy something I want, design ideas, tutorials for things I want to try, and activities I want to do with Hunter.


I hope you enjoy. Cheers!

Valentines Day Challenge Day 4.... & 5

This took longer than expected and probably because I work for a living (imagine that). This Valentine's Day Challenge is Sugar Cookies!


I LOVE my recipe for these and will never turn to another. I finally perfected it to what my family likes; just like the ones you would get at a cookie shop. And the icing is perfect as well - it firms up just enough so the cookies are stackable but stays soft and doesn't get crunchy.

 Please, ignore the counters, we will be replacing them within the year (ugly things).

We did all heart shapes; big and small.

Hunter and LH got in on the decorating. It was a lot of fun for all of us. After Hunter was done decorating his cookies he decided it was time to decorate his body... Yeah... That boy was headed for the bath.


The cookies took two day for one reason; the cookies need to cool all the way before you can decorate them. I did not want to stay up that late. My recipe, with my notes to self, is below. Enjoy and let me know how you liked it. Did you have to change anything for your liking?


Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 Cups Softened Butter
3 Cups of Sugar
4 Room Temp. Eggs
2 Tsp Vanilla
5 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt


In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs (one by one) and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your dough to 1/2" thickness (1/2" for soft cookies, 1/4" for crunchy). Cut into desired shapes and place cookies 1" apart on parchment paper. Bake about 5 min (just until the sides of the cookies start to brown). COOL COMPLETELY.
NOTE: Roll dough into balls big enough for your desired shape, take a drinking glass and dip the bottom in powdered sugar and use it to press the dough down to desired thickness. This keeps you from having to roll out the dough and, if your short on time, lets you use bits of dough at a time.


Two types of icing: Paint/Dip Icing & Butter Icing for Cookies


Paint/Dip Icing
I make this icing with Confectioners Sugar and milk. I do this by eye. You want it thin enough to spread evenly but thick enough to not run off the cookie. Add desired food coloring.
NOTE: I usually dip the tops of the cookies in the icing or paint the tops with a pastry brush if I want the entire cookie covered.


Butter Icing for Cookies
2 Cups Confectioners Sugar (sifted; this is very important)
2 1/2 Tablespoons Cream (or milk; whatever you have on hand)
4 Tablespoons Softened Butter
1 Tsp Vanilla
In a saucepan, over medium heat, heat cream and butter until butter is melted. Stir in the vanilla and sugar. Remove from the heat and beat with and electric mixer until thick and smooth. Add desired food coloring and decorate.


ENJOY!

Valentines Day Challenge Day 4.... &5

This took longer that expected and probably because I work for a living (imagine that). This Valentine's Day Challenge is Sugar Cookies!

I LOVE my recipe for these and will never turn to another. I finally perfected it to what my family likes; just like the ones you would get at a cookie shop. And the icing is firms up just enough so the cookies are stackabel but stays soft and doesn't get crunchy.

Please, ignore the counters, we will be replacing them within the year (ugly things).

We did all heart shapes; big and small.

Hunter and LH got in one the decorating. It was a lot of fun for all of us. After Hunter was done decorating his cookies he decided it was time to decorate his body. That boy was headed for the bath.

The cookies took two day for one reason; the cookies need to cool all the way before you can decorate them. I did not want to stay up that late. My recipe, with my notes to self, is below. Enjoy and let me know how you liked it. Did you have to change anything for your liking?

Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 Cups Softened Butter
3 Cups of Sugar
4 Room Temp. Eggs
2 Tsp Vanilla
5 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs (one by one) and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your dough to 1/2" thickness (1/2" for soft cookies, 1/4" for crunchy). Cut into desired shapes and place cookies 1" apart on parchment paper. Bake about 5 min (just until the sides of the cookies start to brown). COOL COMPLETELY.
NOTE: Roll dough into balls big enough for your desired shape, take a drinking glass and dip the bottom in powdered sugar and use it to press the dough down to desired thickness. This keeps you from having to roll out the dough and, if your short on time, lets you use bits of dough at a time.

Two types of icing: Paint/Dip Icing & Butter Icing for Cookies

Paint/Dip Icing
I make this icing with Confectioners Sugar and milk. I do this by eye. You want it thin enough to spread evenly but thick enough to not run off the cookie. Add desired food coloring.
NOTE: I usually dip the tops of the cookies in the icing or paint the tops with a pastry brush if I want the entire cookie covered.

Butter Icing for Cookies
2 Cups Confectioners Sugar (sifted; this is very important)
2 1/2 Tablespoons Cream (or milk; whatever you have on hand)
4 Tablespoons Softened Butter
1 Tsp Vanilla
In a saucepan, over medium heat, heat cream and butter until butter is melted. Stir in the vanilla and sugar. Remove from the heat and beat with and electric mixer until thick and smooth. Add desired food coloring and decorate.

Valentines Day Challenge Day 3

Breakfast is BIG in my house and by BIG I mean; freshly grated potatoes to fry into hash-browns, fried tomatoes, eggs (any style, my favorite is poached), bacon or ham, juice, and coffee... Anyone hungry? One of my, sleeping in too late to do anything special, favorites (for the sole reason of being so easy) is Egg in a Basket. This morning I made it Valentine's Day style.

That would be breakfast for LH and Hunter (mine is still cooking). I tried to cook the bacon into a heart.... but that didn't work out too well.  I'll spare you that picture :)

Egg in the Hole
you will need:
Eggs
Slices of Bread
Butter 
In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Tear about a 1 1/2" hole out of the center of each piece of bread. Lightly butter front and back of the slices of bread. Place each slice of bread next to each other in the skillet. Crack eggs and, one at a time, place into the hole in the center of the bread.

After about 3 minutes, flip the bread and cook on the other side until the egg has set. The bread should be lightly toasted. Slip onto a plate and enjoy.


NOTE: I almost always use a cookie/sandwich cutter to make the holes in the slices of bread. I make dinosaurs, Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, hearts and stars.


What is your favorite breakfast? Do you make Egg in the Hole?

Valentines Day Challenge Day 2

I had a night out with a girlfriend and went to see The Vow. 

This is not crafty by any means, but I had to see it.


This was not a tear jerker like I thought it was going to be but, oh, so good. Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite actresses and was great in this film, and Channing Tatum, besides being drop-dead-gorgeous, is a great actor and plays this roll very well. This will definitely be added to my movie library.

If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend that you do. You can see the preview here. I love the way he loves her (heart melts). Enjoy!

P.S.  Channing Tatum is SO gorgeous!!! If you have no other reason to see this movie, he makes it all worth it.

These photos are not my property, nor do I claim them to be. They are owned by Sony Pictures and its affiliates. 

They are on here solely for the purpose of this blog post.

Valentines Day Challenge Day 1

Crayon Hearts
What you will need;

• Thread and needle (any color, your choice)
• Wax paper
• Crayons, lots of crayons
• Iron
• Scissors
• Hand-held pencil sharpener (to shred the crayons)
• Something to hang them from; wire hanger, etc.

Lay out one piece of wax paper and start to shred the crayons on to it. My son and I used every color we could grab but it would look nice with similar colors put together. Now this is very important, make sure you cover the area with shredded crayon, leave no empty areas. Take another piece of wax paper, the same size as the last, and lay it over the shredded crayons. Once your iron is hot, very lightly iron the wax paper. Do not use a lot of pressure and try not to rub too much on the paper; you don't want the melted crayon coming out the sides.

Now you can cut out any design you want, Hunter and I went with hearts for Valentines Day. A couple big hearts and a lot of small ones. Once we cut our hearts, some of the edges became loose from each other; a little heat from the iron fixed that problem. 

Take your needle and thread and poke through the top part of the heart and tie a knot in the thread to keep the heart attached, then take the other end of the thread and attach it to where you want the heart to hang from. Hunter an I attached ours to a wire hanger.

This was so much fun to do with Hunter and he is so proud of it. We have it hanging in his window and it looks so cool with the sun hitting it. We will definitely be doing this again.

8 days to Valentines Day and counting

This is the goal...

I want to do one Valentines Day related item a day.

Starting tomorrow,

Lets see what we can come up with.

Pictures 1 and 3 are stock from Google, 2 and 4 are from Martha Stewart.

TGIF!

I am so glad the weekend has finally come. I wish I was spending my weekend here. In Monterey, CA.

This is a picture of the Monterey Bay looking towards Lovers Point

It has just been one of those endless weeks for me. I feel like I have completed so much and have so much to look forward to this weekend; time with my son and husband, spending time with friends, the Superbowl is on Sunday... a lot of time to relax. 


here are some sayings about the weekend; enjoy! I hope you all have a brilliant weekend!

Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them. ~John Shirley

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.~ Chuck Palahniuk

"I've been thinking Hobbes --"

"On a weekend?"

"Well, it wasn't on purpose..."

~ Calvin & Hobbes Quotes

Where do you wish you were this weekend? What are you plans?