Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge

Okay I haven't posted in forever, but I wanted to do thissketch challenge, so here it is!

This is sketch #152 and I decided to make a Valentine for Josh.  Shhhh don't tell. :)    I used the new Jillibean Soup papers for Valentine's and the embellishments that came with my kit from the Scraproom.  I also used liquid pearls around the edge.

Happy Valentine's Day!

May Day Baskets

With dance weekend this past weekend, I did NOT do May Baskets.  However, Grandma Marcia saved the day and showed up with these beautiful things:

The popcorn is green popcorn ball popcorn.  Then there is the chocolate rose, butterfinger and peppermint patty flowers, and leaves with Hershey kisses glued on them.  How cute!


I hope to get my pictures off my phone to work so I can post some of my recent projects soon.

Fun Spring Crafts

Yesterday and today were crafty days at our house.  Yesterday we did such an easy thing that I found in a Disney Family Fun magazine.  We made SLIME.  Yes, we really did.  It is definitely an outside plaything, but it took less than 5 minutes and it was super simple.  Here is the recipe.


Add 3/4 cup warm water and 8 oz. glue along with some food coloring in one bowl.  In a second bowl, mix 3 tsp Borax and 1 cup warm water.  Then pour the borax water into the glue water and let set for 1 minute - DO NOT STIR.  After one minute, you will have slime.  It is pretty cool...


Today, Chase and I made fun little things for him to take to preschool tomorrow.  They are Easter smash eggs.  I also found this idea in the Disney Family Fun magazine.  Awesome, and they weren't really that hard.


First, we poked holes in the bottoms of the eggs and used cuticle scissors to cut an approx. 1 inch circular hole in the egg.  Then we washed and dried the eggs.

Next, we died them like you would die regular Easter eggs.  (This was fun...)

Next, we had to let them sit and dry....this is what took a long time as I wanted them good and dry.  Then we stuffed them with the goodies - toys, chocolate, and confetti!

Chase loved stuffing the eggs.  I found the shredded confetti at Walmart.

Last, we covered the holes with a strip of paper that had been stamped (ours said "So Eggcited!) and placed them down into muffin papers.  Tomorrow, the kids can smash them with their hands and have a blast with what they find inside.  Thankfully I won't have to vacuum - but they may not be happy with me at preschool.  :)

Now to do the eggs for Lexi and JJ's classes....





Double Crafty Day

I can't believe it has already been a month since I made anything!  But after our trip, I was working so much I just haven't had time...until today!


So I will be posting two different crafty things today. First, I stole this recipe from a food blog done by Allison Coil Johnson called Yummy-Nummys.  I saw that she posted this the other day, and it looked so good I had to try it.  Delicious!!!  And they were super easy and quick to make.  She made hers using peanut butter chips.  Believe it or not, as well stocked as my pantries are, I did NOT have any peanut butter chips on hand, so I used chocolate chips.  Can I tell you how much I LOVED them.  Totally not on my diet, and I totally don't care. :)  These are the Nutter Butter Cups.   I'm working on my food photography, so this picture is better than some, but I've got some work to do yet.

The other thing I did was actually make a couple cards with my scrapbook stuff.  It's been awhile since I've even sat in that room downstairs, but I found this saying at the scrapbook store the other day and I had to have it.  I'm sending these cards to a couple of my friends, so hopefully they get them before they read this post. 

Do you know what the inside says??

How fun, huh?  And I just had to add this one, cuz he's soooo cute!

Hope you all have a good day.  I know I will. :)

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Cake

Oh yum!  I should be packing for the trip tomorrow, but I just couldn't leave the kids without something yummy to eat while we're gone.  I found this recipe quite awhile ago, but I had to pull it out today and give it a try.  I bought some madagascar bourbon vanilla paste at a Le Gourmet Chef store awhile back and it is excellent, especially when vanilla beans aren't readily available here in the middle of Iowa. 

I almost feel like Sandra Lee semi-home made as I also used a box mix and added to it.   The batter smelled soooo good. :)



And did I mention the filling is a CREAM CHEESE filling?  Yummo - plus it made so much, I used it as a filling and a frosting.  Now I have been very very good on my diet this month, but I did cheat today and ate some of this...

I just dirty iced it (as Buddy would say) and went with it.  Some of the things I am going to work on is my food photography as I realize I took the picture of the "ugly" side of the cake and it's very dark.  Guess what?  Still tastes delicious!

Chocolate Sugar cookies

Howdy - I'm ready to start blogging and jotting down what happens in my own little crafty / cooking world.  I am really going to try hard to keep this updated a couple times a week.  I'm very excited to start on this little venture.  Today, I did some baking getting ready for our trip away.  I made peanut butter brownies for Josh to share at his card party tonight.  I don't have a picture, but I'll share a picture of the chocolate sugar cookies that I made for the kid's valentine's parties.

I made chocolate sugar cookies, covered them with fondant, and then wrote each name in royal icing.  Overall I made 55 of them - quite time consuming but they looked great!