Happy Birthday Baby

She's crazy about Elephants.....This cake wore me out.

Happy Birthday Baby!

"Yo Gabba Gabba" Giveaway

Here's a link to a great Blog. Kim has so many fantastic deals and giveaways. It's amazing how she finds all of these.

One of her latest giveaways is for tickets to see "Yo Gabba Gabba, Live" . My daughter would just love to go to this.....an so would I! YGG is just the coolest kids show on tv right now.

So here's the link so you can enter for someone you love as well.

Stlmommy.com

Tasty Tasty Mud Pies!

Did you ever make mud pies as a child?

What if the mud was actually chocolate?

This was my second attempt at making chocolate truffles for Valentine's Day. Actually I make them almost every year, but for some reason this year I make a batch that was a real stinker. I had bought the wrong chocolate, and lost my original recipe, so I made it up. Bad idea.

I like bitter chocolate, but this was terrible, so I added some milk chocolate and......wait for it......raspberry jelly. HA....well, actually I've used preserves before, but the jelly was not good.

So after that, I broke down and redid the whole batch. I also decided to dip the balls of chocolate in chocolate bark.....for a bit of a bite.

These are so good! I gave one to my son to try. His eyes got so big and (I'm sure he was just being kind) said that they were the best ever! That's all the affirmation I need.

Happy Valentine's Day kiddo!

lengthy abscences

It's been so long since I wrote something here. Trust me I haven't forgotten. It's been a rough holiday season, but I am still here and crafting my next post. I'll be back, I promise!

Those are pictures of the only craft I did over the holidays....some loverly little soaps for my wonderful Granny......I still owe her a sock! :)

Love....

One Reason I Love Fall

I love Pomegranates , but I have never found a recipe for them that sounds good.

Plus they it's hard to get the seeds out.

They are beautiful though....and tasty. :))

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Basically, I love to dress up! I try to make sure my kids have a great costume, whether store bought or hand made.....but mostly hand made, at least a little.

For several years I have tried to get my son to be Harry Potter, but he was always interested in something else. This year it was his idea. Since HP isn't as big this year, we had to make the costume. No biggie, I already had a pattern for a cape left over from Star Wars a few Halloweens ago. I also found a plain maroon tie at the thrift store on which I painted gold stripes. We bought the glasses and wand, but he lost the wand about a week later, so I ended up having to make it anyway. Oh well....I love him. :)

My husband never has dressed up with us. Mostly it's because he works late and barely makes it to go Trick or Treating with us. I think it's also because he's a wimp.....which I can't understand since he's a theater guy. This year I came up with the perfect idea....it would tug at his heart-strings and he wouldn't have a choice in the matter. He would dress as Clifford the Big Red Dog and my daughter would dress as Emily Elizabeth, Clifford's owner. He agreed.... they were sooooo cute.

I had originally chosen a fairy costume for my Daughter, but every time I put it on her she cried and begged me to take it off. The costume she ended up with is regular clothing, so she was more comfortable.....and cute.

Here's my son and I. I was originally going to be a Beatnik...easy with all the black clothes I have and with the addition of a black beret. My son however had a rough day at school the day before. They were having their school Halloween party and one kid in his class, who knows how to push his buttons, made fun of his costume. He called him "Harry Plopper" real original, but it still bothered him. Really I think he's make fun of whatever my boy was, he's just like that, but my boy was pretty upset, so I told him I'd dress as a Hogwarts professor. It worked brilliantly, and my man cheered up.

We had bought him a wand at the costume store, but he lost it a few days later. So....I searched the web for a way to make a cool wand easily. I found it here. These turned out great. I made another one for my daughter, since I knew she'd be jealous, but I didn't post the pic here. These are easy and really cool when done. My son was pleased....which is what matters most.

The first pic is of me and my boy in 2005 or so....the hat I am wearing I bought at Walmart for about $10. I have worn this several time for Halloween, but I felt it was time for a makeover, so I decided, at the last minute, to re-do it. Here you can see the result. I love how it turned out. What do you think?

And here is another shot of my Clifford and Emily Elizabeth.......I can't get enough of this. She has him wrapped around her little finger.....as it should be.

Hope you had a great Halloween! On to Christmas! oh no.........!!!!

My best ever soup

Here is the best chicken soup I have ever made, if I might say so myself. :))

What looks like "Honeycomb" cereal is Fiori. I'm sure some of you know that, but I have never bought it until now.

If you'd like to know what's in the soup, or if you'd like to tell me your "best soup ever" recipe, please leave a comment.

xo Danna