Cake Mix Cookies

How was your Thanksgiving?  Are you still stuffed?  How was your shopping?  

Now that we are officially in the holiday season I thought I would share this easy yummy cookie recipe.  These are so easy and fast--I might not need to cook them as long as I did, if your oven is hot or cooks fast decrease the cooking time.

So when you have unexpected guests whip these out with some hot cocoa and you will quite the hostess.

Gobble, Gobble

Last week for a family activity we made turkeys to decorate around the house.

I cut out the bodies and feathers and let the kids do the gluing (with a little assistance) and they drew the faces on.

I was originally going to make a garland out of the turkeys, but it just didn't work out.  We placed them in any spot we could.

Even the shelf above the piano got some extra turkeys.

My three year old was pretty proud of this one.

This one had the most feathers, thanks to my five year old.

This is such a fun project.  You could have paper cut out for kids to do while waiting for dinner on Thursday. Wouldn't they be fun place cards too?

  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Family Cook Book

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$39 for your own cookbook, not too shabby.

Pin-It Up Thursday...Cinnamon Wreath

Another Pinterest craft.

 I sent this link to my mom because I knew she had a lot of cinnamon in her craft supplies.  While I was out visiting family last month she gave me a box full of cinnamon to make my own wreath.

Inspiration

To find out how to make your own wreath click to continue...

White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake

My hubby works at a hospital.  There is always seems to be food or a potluck going on in the break room.  One day he came home raving about a bundt cake that a co-worker brought in for her birthday.  She got it from a bundt cake bakery (you know the one--delicious and very expensive.)  He described it to me and I went to work creating it for him.

White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake--this is not for someone who is remotely wanting their waistline to decrease.

Mix

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

350 degree oven.  Put a pan under it to catch any drips.

Bake 55-60 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.

Flip on to a cake stand or plate. 

Shown here with cream cheese frosting.  Yummmm!

Tumbler Baby Quilt

While I was in Utah last week he asked me if I could make a quilt for a friend-and most importantly...he gave me permission to go fabric shopping.  I didn't need to be told twice, I found a sitter for my kids and my mom and I went shopping.  It was so fun to peruse through quilt shops.  I found an inspiration quilt for my colors and ended up using a charm pack (a first for me)

I used the Moda Ruby charm pack

You can buy it here...

http://www.amazon.com/Moda-Ruby-Charm-Quilt-Squares/dp/B005A12MVE

Here are the fabrics found in the pack...

Aren't they fun fabrics?

I thought about several different approaches to sewing the quilt top.  At first I thought of a disappearing 9 patch, but then I saw an apple core quilt and thought of the tumbler quilt my Grandma gave me earlier this year.  So instead of cleaning my house yesterday I found this awesome tutorial by Amanda for a charm pack tumbler quilt and stitched up a quilt top...

What do you think?  It was simple to put together and I love the color combinations.

I found this fabric (not Moda) by the other fabrics.  I liked how it went with the colors of the pack, I cut a few tumblers from this fabric.  This will also be the binding for the quilt.

See the polka-dot tumbler.
This was such a fun quilt, I'm itching to make another one.

Happy November

How was your October?  Did you have a great Halloween?  I've spent the last week watching my sisters kids while she and her husband are in Europe--lucky ducks.  It's been an adventure taking care of 5 kids.  My October was a super busy month, crazy but fun.  My little girl lost her second tooth too.  I thought you would find this x-ray interesting.  This is the shot from her last visit 6 months ago, you can see the bottom teeth ready to come up.  It was an adventure to pull out the tooth, it was really loose.  The tooth wouldn't even stand up straight anymore, but it wouldn't come out.  We even had floss wrapped around it and she couldn't pull it out--so I just grabbed the floss and pulled it out.  It brought back so many memories when I would wiggle her tooth.  Now I need to make a tooth pillow.  She put the tooth under her pillow and it moved and fell between the bed and the wall so the tooth fairy couldn't get the tooth.

I have a little project to show you next week that I finished while the kids were at school and I had some time to myself.  Hope you are excited for the Holidays just around the corner.

Entertainment Center to Classic Kitchen

This was the last project I competed with on Crafting with the Stars-I am a little disappointed that I didn't go further.  I'm really not complaining though because my October has been so busy that it was a blessing that I didn't go further in the competition.  I will have to share what my other two projects were going to be.  But here is the kitchen....

Isn't it cute?  It was really fun to work on and gratifying to see the end result.

 Every little detail was fun to plan and carry out.

 This took a lot of mod-podge just so you know.

 The curtains are much cuter in person-but apparently are not very photogenic.

 The sink, the knobs actually turn and so does the spout.

 Every thing that could be spray painted red was-knobs & hinges.  I painted the faucet too.

It's been fun to watch the kids play and have a kitchen that is actually tall enough for my little giants.