kraftfoods.com Gram's Best Brown Sugar Cake

I am not sure if I should be embarrassed about this or not. As much as I love to bake, I have never made a bundt cake. Maybe I was intimidated by the pan? Maybe I was too cheap to buy the pan??? For whatever reason I never in my life made a bundt cake.
Then comes along my fall issue of Food & Family from Kraft Foods. (side note: If you do not get this free quarterly magazine you are missing out. Go to kraftfoods.com and sign up for it. Great recipes, and did I mention it is FREE!)
I saw a recipe for Gram's Best Brown Sugar cake in this issue and it looked yummy! Still being too cheap to buy a bundt pan, I called my mom because I thought she had one. No luck! She hasn't seen hers in years. But as luck would have it my friend Jenni had the silicone pan from Pampered Chef on hand! She lent it to me and I bought the ingredients required. This cake was so easy to make! And I love this pan! I sprayed it with Bakers Joy and when I tipped it over the cake fell right out!!!! And the pan was very easy to clean as well! Beautiful!!!
Now the cheap streak has to end because I have to have this pan! I took the cake to work and everyone liked it. It is so tasty and sooooo moist!!! I highly suggest you try this. Just click here Kraft for the recipe, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Pumpkin Snowman Mania!!!

Yes I have fallen in love with this little guy!!! I found the frames and put 5 of these together today. I used Stampin' Up paper for all of the projects today. The little stamp is from Stampin' Up also. Each one is a little different.

And then I thought he would look cute on a goodie bag.

And cute on these little goodie bags too!! Told you I was going to wear out this little stamp! :)

In total I have 5 Pumpkin Snowman frames, 3 orange and 3 green bags, and 3 white bags.
Not bad for a Sunday afternoon. I did manage to go to church, do 1 load of laundry, make dinner and change the kitty litter box. So I don't feel like I totally ignored everything else. The rest can wait until tomorrow or maybe Tuesday??? haha!!!!

The Pumpkin Snowman

This is my version of the Pumpkin Snowman Julia made for me. The only difference is I did not drill holes for the ribbon, I used hot glue for the ribbon and buttons and I kept the "you make me smile" with the pumpkin snowman.
This little pumpkin stamp is going to get worn out before Halloween because it is the cutest little stamp I own!!!
This frame measures 8" X 8". I think I must make more, if you want one I am going to sell them for $5.00. I have to find more frames so I can't promise they will all measure 8 X 8. If you want one of these little guys send me an email.

What a mess!!!!!

Are you an organized crafter? Or do you keep pulling more stuff out and make a bigger and bigger mess before it is all said and done?
Wasn't sure if I should post my mess, but this is me, this is how I roll. The mess gets overwhelming. I legitimize it because I don't have an actual office or craft room. Someday I will have the office/craft room, but for today it is the kitchen table.
My kitchen table is small so that makes the mess look even worse!!!

I eventually get it all together and narrow it down to 1 basket full of supplies for 1 project. Who'd of thunk it! That is what I should do every time. But I get all these ideas and start making 1 or 2 or 3 different things at a time and just keep making a bigger mess. Maybe I need to control my adult ADD :) and focus on one thing at a time. What a concept!!

This basket holds the supplies to finish up 20 of these cute little Top Note die cut Fall bag/baskets to donate to a bake sale at work supporting the United Way.

A Good Day!!!

Why yes indeed, sometimes it's the little things in life that make it so great!!!
I received this little cutie from my friend Julia. I spotted this in the holiday Stampin' Up catalog and fell in love with this little snow pumpkin and she made it for me!!!! Love you Julia!!!
This looks tiny in the photo, but it is actually pretty big, about 8" X 8". This alone would have made my day!!! But things just kept going well!

I had 20 raffle tickets to sell for Tokay Junior Tiger Football and sold them all before lunch! Woohoo!!

Met with my friend Melinda at lunch to taste some MediFast food and talk about the plan. Surprisingly, I liked everything I tried. I am hearing nothing but good things about this program. People are losing weight, getting off of high blood pressure meds, lowering their cholesterol. Melinda and her husband Mike are both on the plan and are looking great!

If you want to get more information from Melinda let me know and I can put you in touch with her.

After work John, his kids, my son and I went to dinner at Habanero Hots in Lodi. Not only was the food dee-lish, but we had a $25.00 gift card so it was a deal too!!!! If you want to find out about the $25.00 deal go to restaurant.com. There are a few conditions but it was certainly worth it.
After dinner we took a little trip to Joannes and Bed Bath and Beyond. It was a nice evening.

I then came home and tried another idea on my Halloween Peet Pot baskets, and I am liking these better than the ones I made last night. More color. What do you think?

Halloween Peet Pots

I found another use for peet pots! Very simple. Crepe paper, ribbon, rickrack, construction paper, buttons and a little hot glue and we have Halloween Baskets ready for some candy!!!

I cut a large circle of crepe paper using a large mixing bowl as a pattern. I tucked paper into the peet pot tucking and pushing inwards to the bottom of the pot. Then I cut a strip of heavy construction paper for a handle and glued the handles inside the pot. I tied ribbon around either end of the handle. I then hot glued a ribbon or rickrack around the outside of the pot, and embellished with whatever I had on hand, sticker on a scallop circle, or a button with twine. I am thinking I better go out and get some orange crepe paper and can do even more with these pots!

Smooth Criminals!

I really need to vent today. But I promise to leave you on a happy note!

Last Friday was payday, I paid some bills, was feeling good and decided to treat myself to a long overdue pedicure after work. Life is good, paying bills, getting toes done and it is the weekend!

But when I get home my daughter tells me the bank called and I am to call them back. I do and am asked if I wrote a check in Texas for $2600.00. WHAT??? I said "Hell no". To make this long story short, somehow, someway, someone got access to my name address and checking account number and mailed a bogus check with my return address in Lodi, from New York NY, to someone in Allen Texas and that someone walked into Chase Bank in Plano Texas and tried to cash the check for $2600.00. Luckily the assistant manager thought something was wrong and the check was not cashed. She was able to get a copy of the postmarked envelope the check came in and a fingerprint of the person who tried to cash it.

After getting all my banking squared away and opening a new account I took the information the bank gave me to the Lodi Police department this morning and filed a complaint. All the information was forwarded to the Plano Texas police department and I sure hope they act on this to prevent this from happening to someone else! What a nightmare!!!! How do these criminals sleep at night, how do they get the information?? I am just perplexed and angry as well!!!! Thanks for letting me vent! I feel better! :)

Now I will finish on that happy note I promised. I still have lots of ideas for more and more Halloween/Fall crafty stuff!!!! I made the pocket folds last year and I still like them so they are on the list again this year. These are very very simple to make. The candy and the embellishments are the big hits in these.




Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have no more negative venting to do for a long long time.

I should be doing housework,,,,, but I'm not

Yes there is laundry to be done, my kitchen table is a disaster zone with craft stuff all over it and the carpet could use vacuuming. But I just want to craft! I really wish I could make a living at this stuff, it is so much fun!!!! I'm on a BOO banner binge. Can you tell? :) I am loving this vintage wall hanging. I am debating on keeping it myself???? I used lots of elements and I think I am liking that!

These were put together last night by John and I. A poster frame, poster paper and scrapbooking paper purchased at Joannes will help keep this memory for Johns son Zach. We are going to add 2 more elements to this to complete it.

Did I already say I love doing this stuff and wish I could do it full time???

Same thing here, but this was for John. He wanted to keep a memory of being an extra in this movie. We are going to add 1 more photo to it.

Well, it's still early and there is a load of laundry in the washer, so I am sure I will get something done around the house today. I think I am just happy to be home!

Fall/Halloween YEA!!!!!!!!

My son came in last night and told me that the neighborhood kids were laughing because I already had the house decorated for Halloween. I told him I didn't care. I LOVE HALLOWEEN, deal with it. And it's September for goodness sakes, I didn't decorate for Halloween in July. Geez!I made this sweet little BOO banner with paper from Stampin' Up. I used tissue paper behind the letter and circle. Added a little rickrack for a "pop". I don't think this picture did it justice. Really like this banner, going to tweak it a bit and make some more!

Made this banner with Stampin' Up paper also. This is two sided paper, you can see the other side on the mirror. Just added buttons and little orange sparklies to finish this one off. I am loving these banners!

Put your pumpkins on a pedestal. It just makes them look so elegant!

It is fall in my house! This little mantle setup will stay up until after Thanksgiving. Then.... time for Christmas decorations!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend! I hear thunder now and it may rain later! Bring on the rain! Maybe Fall really is on the way. :)

My Tokay Junior Tiger

I was very apprehensive to allow my son to play football last year. (He was 10 then). Now he is in his second year and doing very well. His stats were in the local newspaper last week. It was his first sports article. Go Zach!
I am sure he wouldn't appreciate this, but isn't he cute? :)

We have a Winner and I bought a wedding gift

Where shall we start today? First things first. Who was the winner of The Dish of Bliss and Bird Nest Pin Giveaway. ??
Here are our contestants, Julia from julialuvs2stamp, Julias twin sister Judy, Sherri from Daughter of an Artist and Jen from Lipstick and Laundry. And no I didn't goof, Julia earned 2 entries.

The slips of paper were put into this little bowl and my non biased son Zach, pulled out the winner---JEN.

Congratulations Jen and thanks for reading my blog. Let me know when you would like me to deliver your prize! A week or so ago I told you about Katie from That's All She Wrote and her great personalized plaques. I have a wedding to go to Monday and asked Katie to make the wedding gift. Here it is! I love how it came out! Because I didn't want to unwrap it, the photo doesn't do it justice. To get a better idea go over to That's All She Wrote and check out her photo gallery.

I think this is a wonderful gift and can't wait to give it to the bride and groom!

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out my friends blogs (I gave you the links) and be sure to check out Katies photo gallery. I am sure you will like what you see!

I won something from Whitney Caroline Designs!!!!

Yes folks I actually won this black and white polka dot thin wallet from Whitney Caroline Designs. Thank you so much Whitney! This totally made my day!
This is the first thing I have won on a blog! Can't wait to get my package in the mail! You have to go to Whitney's blog/shop and see all the cool stuff she has that can be monogrammed like these totes!!! Makes me think of all the neat personalized gifts I could buy for my mom, my daughter, my nieces and my friends! She has a damask ironing board cover that I have my eye on! I hope to buy that soon. She has a new giveaway going on right now. Get right over there and enter to get your chance to win a gift certificate for her shop!
Don't forget to scroll down a couple posts to enter my free giveaway--you have until Thursday to enter. Good Luck!