I Lurve Me Some Cuppycakes!

I've been on this huge cupcake kick lately! They are so easy to make and to make look impressive without much hard work. I cannot frost a cake to save my life but frosting a cupcake is uber easy! Either buy a large size frosting tip or just use a bag and snip the tip off (a large opening for cupcakes!) and swirl the frosting on. And remember- sprinkles hide a multitude of sins!!!


Orange Creamsicle Cupcake with Twisted Frostinng


Cupcake from THIS blog
and
frosting a combo of fluffy white frosting below and orange frosting from here
Tastes JUST like the ice cream you grew up with!!

Devils Food with Fluffy White Frosting
Cupcake and frosting from here.
I LOVE meringue frosting- it just tastes so yummy to me! And the recipe from the blog for this frosting is so easy... I think it is also called 7 minute frosting.



Pink Lemonade Cupcake
These are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE cupcakes!! They are tangy and sweet and taste like summer....and they are pink! It's hard to top pink!! I've probably made these 3 or 4 times, they also are super easy.

Cupcake from here and the frosting is a combo from that blog and from here.
I added to the frosting the pink lemonade AND lemon juice. I wanted it extra tangy.




And I am dying to make some cherry limeade cupcakes (aren't they pretty!!!)

WFMW: ideas from blogland....

I have a 3 shelve black bookcase in my livingroom/entry way from walmart. It keeps my bobbsey twin book collection, my wooden toy dog my dad made me, my christian books and my photoalbums. The top is about hip length and I did have a bunch of pictures of me and hubby from dating days and I was ready to change (forgot to take a before pic!).

I combined ideas from various blogs, mainly these ideas: a white mantle, black and white and another blog where she painted a dollar store bird black (or white) and made it look sooo neat! (but I forgot where I saw it!! poop!)

*

I used either acrylic antique white paint or black spray paint to cover everything. I had an ugly picture frame from someone had given us for our wedding and painted it- cut out a piece of scrapbook paper and spray painted our monogram on it.

A bird from dollar tree that I spray painted black and set on top of part of a cupcake holder!

A wooden WELCOME that I painted and drew black polka dots and swirls on (from dollar tree)

An old pesto jar that I painted the lid and covered in scrapbook paper and filled with shells.

A few pics of us at the beach when we were dating (backed in the same scrapbook paper as the monogram frame).

And the candle holder from the yard sale (see- doesn't it fit perfectly!!) and a plain white candle that I also wrapped in scrapbook paper!

I'm happy with it and when my husband walked in he actually said "I like that!" He never says anything unless pushed!! :)

And by using what was arounnd the house and buying the elphant at a yard sale, the welcome sign and bird at the dollar tree the whole project only cost 3 dollars!!! And that works for me!!

*click on the second pic to see a big pic!

Check out this awesome blog for more Works For Me Wednesday! http://www.wearethatfamily.com/

Dollar Store Decor- summertime!

In florida it is starting to get HOT! We don't really have much of a spring. I was ready to change my easter decorations for some summertime decorations! I had no idea what I was wanted to do for the table so I just went to the dollar tree to look for ideas and found these:





Everything was of course, a dollar. They had the glasses with lemons all over them, the yellow giant gerber daisy, the glass chunks and the fake lemons. All I did was cut two squares of muslin that I had left over from making a cotton slip and it was done and for only 5$!!!


The yard sale placemats work great! (the pic is dark- it was nighttime when I took these!)

Yard Sale-ing with my sis

After reading this blog: Balancing Beauty and Bedlam specifically this post and this post on building a wardrobe from thrift store shopping and yard sale shopping I decided that I needed to go yard sale-ing!!

The first time we went I found a bike (that hubby hasn't fixed yet!) and 4 christian romance books.... an okay haul... not what I was hoping for!!

Fast forward two weeks and check out what I found!

Bracelets to match my 'thrifty outfit'!! 50cents each!! (sorry for the bad pic!)

placemats!! 4 placemats with absolutly NO marks for 1$!! And they match my dollar store decor table centerpiece (post coming!)


A candle holder for 1$ (just the candle holder, not the candle!) PERFECT for the idea I have for my bookcase in the livingroom!

So excited about all these scores!! And looking forward to going again

For more frugal fasion finds check out this website: Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Sewing skirts!!

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book:

Sew far (sew far/So far.... get it?? *giggle, giggle, snort*!!) I have made 6 skirts from it!! I had basic sewing skills from when I was a teenager but that's all the skills you need in order to do this! It teaches how to draft a pattern from your size! and it's not hard (ie- you don't need to be a math major!) and it has cute unique ideas!

Here's two of my skirts that I have made so far:
Yes, only my bottom half as I had just gotten out of the shower and didn't do my hair or have makeup on!!



a brown skirt made from a sheet!! I found the shirt at a thrift store for 3 dollars!! This is my 3 dollar outfit! and today I found some brown and turquoise bracelts at a yard sale for 50 cents each!! (pics to come in another post!) A VERY thrifty outfit!!

The bracelets that fit perfectly!


And for more frugal fashion ideas check out Jen's blog Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Bulletin Boards!!

I know that these very words can cause cold shivers to go down the backs of many... or not. I enjoy doing bulletin boards, when I was a preteen/teenager me and a girl that went to church with us stayed at the church building during the afternoon and worked on a bulletin board.

But- unless you have ideas to go on- this is a very scary thing! LOL! When I was a preteen we borrowed a book on bulletin boards from my dad and used an idea from there. Since then I have bought a couple of books on bulletin boards.... but they were pretty useless. A while back I was googling bulletin board ideas and came across this awesome sight- it has over 500 photos of boards!! Now- I'm not saying that I agree with all of these- you have to weed through a lot of unscriptural ideas or change them into scriptural ideas. This is the website-http://www.boardsgalore.com/ and here is an easy link to the slideshow- http://boardsgalore.com/Slideshow.htm

I did a bulletin board for a friend from church thursday- took my little sis to help me out. These flowers are AWESOME and soooo easy - check out the website for them- http://www.craftstylish.com/item/7515/how-to-make-simple-white-paper-flowers

And here's the bulletin board that we did!


up close of the flowers:

Point of View

If you want a lesson in seeing other peoples point of view... go fabric shopping!!

Due to finances, this year I have been making aprons for wedding presents for the bride. We have two from our church getting married the SAME day... different locations and times but the same day. I went to Joann's today to look for fabric for the girl getting married. Her name is Amanda. I do not know Amanda I have only met her 2 or 3 times, her 'husband to be' attends church with us. I asked her Mom and Aunt what style she likes- what type of fabric she would want, both said that she is old fashioned and likes pastels, and flowers.

This is the exact style I HATE! LOL!! I like bright modern stuff. I like old fashioned if it has a modern twist to it. So, I didn't think to bring another person with me to have another opinion and had the worst time at the store. Every piece of fabric I came to made my toes curl because I couldn't stand it! Then every piece I *sorta* liked I second guessed myself over and over! LOL!! I could NOT decide what to do and was really stressing out!

Finally I realized that I would have to STOP looking at it from my point of view because I simply couldn't stand that style and would have to look at it from anothers point of view! And once I did this- I found options that would work!! And some I even liked from my point of view.

It was a lesson that I really needed to learn- I get to the point where my opinion is right/more important and dismiss everyone else. What is it that they say? Walk a mile in another person's shoes? And by trying to understand others you can come to a compromise that you BOTH like! :)

(Note- I am speaking of matters of OPINION only- I do not believe in compromising on God's word when God does not compromise on his laws.)

This is what I am more drawn towards: and


This is what I ended up buying for Amanda: Only it is on a light yellow background with pink and orange roses and I will be doing a light pink ruffle and pocket.

I'm back!!

Life has changed a lot... we have moved back home to Florida and my husband is only preaching part time and is working at a grocery store right now. He is *hopefully* going into the army in the summertime. I am working now- substitute teaching. I miss staying at home- but my schedule is really flexible doing this and I am home by 3:00 in the afternoon. I'm only working 2-4 days a week.

Money is realllly tight for us right now so the posts may focus more on thriftiness now :) :)

My goals to get back into: bring dinner to elderly people and to start having people over again!!

Our lectureship starts this week so I will not be doing anything this week other than learning more from God's word and Christian fellowship!!

Coming Attractions: What I have been up to- making aprons!! (this is me and my dog roxie)

Packing?

We are moving! Somewhere... :) My husband is looking for a job (he's a preacher), right now we are looking at a place in Louisiana and in Georgia. I'm working on packing up our house!! Woo hoo. any tips?? You'd think I'd have it down to a science as we have moved 3 times already....plus I was a PK and moved a lot from that!

no new posts??

I'm slacking on blogging!! I'm still here, still homemaking. Still baking, cooking, creating, crafting, cleaning and sewing! However, we've started a new adventure!! We are adopting a baby!!! I've started a new blog (my third!!!) and it's all about our adoption process.

There will probably be more posts once we are into the loooong wait but for new the posts will be few and far between!!

Thanks for understanding!!

www.growinginourheartscan.blogspot.com

I'm Ba-ack!

Yes, I realize it's been a while :) OH well!

I just realized that I get to plan !3! parties this year!! I LOVE to plan parties! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

First is our 2 annual ;) ice cream party. Last years was a hit! (pics to come). Everyone brings homemade ice cream and desserts.

Second is the church's Christmas party. They throw it every year....but no one decorates :( Come on people!!! How NOT fun is it to have in the same building with the same decorations that you have fellowship meals in? (strawberries, BTW are the decoration!!). So I told them last year that I would decorate and everyone LOVED it! And I loved the attention :) :) :) (I forgot to take pics though!)

And thirdly my husband is turning the BIG 3-0!!! In January....he-he-he and I will still be a young 23 :) Sorry, drives my husband crazy :) Anyways I'm throwing a chocolate party for him...it will be fabulous!!

So, these are what I get to dream about and plan. I would be a party planner....but well, I don't drink and will not plan parties that involve alcohol.....so that leaves me with kids parties.....and I don't like most kids :)

The invitations from last years party:
The centerpieces I made:


*Warning* don't serve lemonade at an ice cream party.BLAH...but it's cute,yes?

The ice cream toppings


This years will be bigger and better :)

As Easy As Pie!!

Well, I forgot to post my handtowel from yesterday! Oops!! So you get 2 today!! Cleaning and Shopping. The Friday one's great because I always try to get the house all put together before the weekend so that I can be lazy and do what I want. I LOVE Saturday's because I love shopping! LOL!! Shopping is always fun!!

Our fellowship meal is this coming Sunday and I wanted to make a pie. I'm not very good at pies.... give me a 5 page recipe to make a gourmet dessert and I can do it. But pies?? Nope !! So I want to practice at them!! And I made a BEAUTIFUL and tasty apple pie. I made it in my cute retro pie plate (yes, I know it says strawberry pie... oh well!!) and now it's sitting on my table looking all yummy!!