Caramel Apple & Pecan Cookies

Thought I'd been missing in action long enough!  Trust me, I've been up to some things, just never could find the time to blog about it!  Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather that is FINALLY here!  I had grown very tired of the high heat day after day!  It's refreshing to have fall temperatures and enjoy the leaves starting to change.

With fall, for some reason, comes the desire for me to bake!  I love to bake!  I rarely have the time to do it, however.  This week, though, was fall break with the kids so I had the time to do a little baking. 

While perusing blogland a few weeks ago, I discovered a yummy recipe on Smashed Peas & Carrots blog for Caramel Apple Cookies.  You can find the recipe HERE.  Doesn't it look & sound devine?  I borrowed a pic of Maggie's finished product because I forgot to take a picture of mine!

Loved, loved, loved these cookies!  I highly recommend it!  I changed it up just by adding a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans that I had on hand.  Do heed her recommendation to use parchment paper.  The caramel really sticks!  I used wax paper because I was out of parchment and got to enjoy scraping them off the waxed paper when they were done. (not fun)

You can see all the oats and caramel bits.  Yum!

More Silhouette Giveaways!

Stephanie, at Under the Table and Dreaming,  Kara's Party Blog, The Shabby Nest, and Grosgrain Fabulous are all offering a deal to win a Silhouette Craft Cutting Machine!! Woo hoo!!  Boy, would that ever look great sittin' in my craft room! LOL

If you wanna try to win one, go HERE and HERE and HERE and, yeah, HERE

Thanks, Stephanie at Under the Table Dreaming, Kara's Party Blog,  The Shabby Nest, and Grosgrain Fabulous for giving us a chance at an early Chrsitmas present!

Teacher Gifts for the New School Year

Is it just me or did summer just fly by?  I can barely remember what all I did this summer.  And yet, this morning, I found myself driving my son to school amid 1,000 other parents shuttling children to elementary and middle and high school.  Where did summer go?


Now my son is in middle school and too old to be taking teacher gifts to school.  HE says he's too old.  I say, teachers never grow tired of useful and thoughtful teacher gifts.  Uhhh...tell that to a 12 year old boy!  He's not going for it!


Regardless...I have been a blog hoppin (and boy, are my legs tired...he he) and I have seen some sweet, creative ideas for teacher gifts this year.  If you are lucky enough to have a child still willing to take in a gift to the teacher, here are some doozies for you to try out...

Oops, I Craft My Pants (love that blog title!) never disappoints with her creations.  HERE she shows how to decorate lotion bottles (with free patterns).

Ten Cow Chick has posted an adorable, cheap and easy idea for hand sanitizer.  Jazzin' up hand sanitizers for teachers is nothing new.  But she had a great idea with her label.  Check it out HERE

HERE How Does She back in March of this year posted an adorable idea for etching glass and using a Cricut for lettering!  Cute!!  What teacher would say, 'uh, thanks but I don't need that.' 

HERE The Creative Itch back in December of 2009 (yeah, I bookmark that far back!) posted a cute idea for a simple tile from Home Depot modgepodged with an awesome quote for her child's teacher.  My friend, and fellow blogger, Jenn at The Frugal Front Porch did her own take on tile creating HERE.  I love the saying she chose for her pillow project:

Skip To My Lou posted a cute idea 2 years ago using a 7 day a week pill case filled with teacher necessities.  Very creative and inexpensive!!

Eighteen25's blog posted a great idea using large calculators to make a really cute and useful teacher gift!

They also posted one of my favorites using a chinese take out box and adding a personalized label and chocolate dipped fortune cookies inside!  LOVE this idea!!!  See it HERE with free dowloads for the label!

HERE they show how to make a cute grass potted plant for the teacher!

They even include a free download!  Can you tell I love their blog?!

Whatever you decide to do for your child's teacher, make sure they know you are there if they need you.  Beyond any teacher gift, that is appreciated more than anything!

How to Keep Up With and Organize Blog Ideas

Have you ever been ready to make something you saw on a blog or wanted to give the original creator credit for a copied craft, recipe, etc. but can't remember where you saw it?  I read a lot of blogs faithfully each day.  I love recipes and craft ideas.  Over the years I have really started to accumulate some wonderful food recipes from these blogs.  I thought and thought about a logical way to save these recipes and still be able to remember where they came from in the future should I blog about making a recipe.  That way I could give proper credit to whoever's blog I got it from!  This is not an easy task.  I did come up with a great idea!

First I cut and paste the recipe or craft idea, or tip into Microsoft Word.  I clean it up some and take away unnecessary commentary.  If a picture of the item is posted, I include it.  At the beginning of the recipe, I also include the name of the blog and the author and the date.  That way, later, when I make the item, I can give proper credit on my blog to whoever made it.  But it doesn't end there...

I also print each of these recipes/ideas out on 8 1/2 x 11" paper and then store it in a sheet protector in a 3-ring binder.  This allows me to keep the recipe clean and ledgible for future use.  I can also categorize these recipes so I can easily find desserts over salads or etc.

This binder has inside pockets.  I use the top pocket to house a folder labeled "printables."  This is for all those free designs people in blogland share so nicely!  I print out copies of designs for free and keep them in this folder.  The bottom pocket is for stuff I need to file.  But since it's so easy to file in this binder, I rarely have backlogged stuff to file! 

Each section has a tabbed divider.  I have the following dividers set up:  crafts, recipes, decor, organization ideas, party ideas, and tips.  But you could make whatever tabbed dividers you need. 

Today, for example, in my tabbed divider for crafts, I inserted the page to the right from Creative Crate's blog.  This is a craft idea for making a "look what I did" art display for the kids! 

This page is in the section labeled "decor."  This is a photo off Flikr of a really cool Dodge truck sandbox.  I love this idea!  I don't want to lose it, so it went into my binder. 

These same principles can also be applied to sewing projects, organizational suggestions, etc.  With the overwhelming amount of helpful ideas on blogs today, it's too much to try to just remember it all in your head.  This is a great way to store these ideas and keep up with them for many years to come.

How do YOU organize your own blog ideas?  Any suggestions for a new way for the rest of us?  Please share!  Jennifer with Hope Studios is hosting a great Tutorial Tuesday linky party here.  I'm linking this idea up with her party for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to Single Stone Studios!

Happy Birthday Frugally!!

My mother-in-law's birthday is this coming Wednesday.  Because she has a summer birthday, I often incorporate flowers or plants somehow into her gift.  Depending on what you buy, that can get EXPENSIVE!

Last week my son took an awesome class in how to learn to silkscreen.  While he was in class, I took some rare time to shop alone at some of the local bargain stores.  I stumbled upon a cute little metal bicycle plant stand for $8!  I loved it but didn't have the cash in hand to buy it.

I went back to the store yesterday after work and couldn't find it! Just my luck!!  After a little searching, I found ONE where someone must of picked it up and put it down after deciding not to buy it.  I swear, it wasn't ME! LOL  I headed over to the local nursery and scored on two pots of Wave Petunias.  I figure, one for me...one for the plant stand!  $4 for both!  Awesomeness!

Then I went home and printed out a birthday tag on my Cricut and added a skewer and stuck it in the plant and wah-lah....an awesome birthday gift for her that she's going to love for her covered porch.  Total price?  $12!!!  How's that for frugal but tasteful?!  Love it!!  Hope you do too!

Everyone have a wonderful 4th!!!  I'm going to a co-worker/friend's house and enjoy lots of delicious food and fireworks with the family!  I'm taking my stuffed mushrooms from my party a week ago, by the way!

High School Reunion Among Friends

For some of us, 26 years has passed and for others, nearly 30 since all of us best friends have seen each other.  A beautiful weekend was shared, however, showing all of us just how little time really passes among friends!  I hosted our very first ever reunion gathering last Saturday evening in my backyard.  What a great time we had!  Wonderful food, great conversation, fabulous memories, joyous laughter, and a regeneration of fond thoughts between us all!

It was also another great excuse (like I really need one) to craft!  I mailed out invitations about three weeks prior.  They were handmade and included a poem that yours truly wrote herself!  I went with a summer theme with the invite and then decided, with 4th of July being so close by, changed the decorations to that theme so that they could be used double duty; once for the party and again for the 4th!

I flew into the kitchen and concocted an assortment of desserts including chocolate chip toffee bars, no-bake chocolate/caramel truffle pie, brownies and vanilla bean icecream, and fresh fruit kabobs with fresh pineapple, juicy strawberries, and bananas.  I also made a delicious pulled pork with italian seasoning for sandwhiches, and stuffed mushrooms filled with cream cheese, spinach, and cheeses.  Yum!!

Here's a sampling of my crafts/decorations:

Each person got a personalized galvanized mini-birdhouse.  I used pretty rub-ons and inital letters and then used my Cricut to add names for each friend.  These were take-home favors and everyone got one!  The galvanized bird houses were a $1 each from Hobby Lobby.  The rub-ons were $7.99 for a book of way more than I needed - also from Hobby Lobby.  I already had the ribbon!

I also made some candle holders using scrapbook paper, raffia, and some wooden stars that I painted with white spray paint and then aged with a tea colored stamp pad. 

Martha Stewart gave great directions on her website for making patriotic pinwheels.  I had plenty of cardstock (plain) and made a few to decorate some plants.  They were a lot of fun to make! 

My favorite thing of all, though, was my S'mores set.  This was thrown together really easily.  I bought the jars with metal lids for 2.99 each (half price on sale at Hobby Lobby, again.)  My Cricut cut out the lettering and hearts in vinyl.  The copper box used for chocolates once held a set of choo-choo train cookie cutters!  The stars were on sale for $1 for 4.  I spraypainted them white and then aged them with a tea colored stamp pad.  A bit of ribbon and some hot glue finished them off! 

A thunderstorm cut the party short later in the evening and we never got to use it.  My son, not to make me feel like my efforts were in vain, used one stick to make a quick s'more before everyone ran inside to dodge the rain! LOL

I used a small pencil sharpener to sharpen the tips of the tiny dowel rods for poking marshmallows with ease!  By the way, if you want a really awesome s'more...try using a smear of peanut butter on your graham cracker before adding melted marshmallow and chocolate!  It's delicious!!!

Win a Silhouette Craft Cutter!

I got a wonderful Cricut Expression with all the trimmings last year for Christmas from my wonderful husband.  I had wanted one for a very long time.  And, yes, it cost a fortune! LOL  But, as the hair commercial says, "I'm worth it!" LOL  Anyway...jump forward now 6 months later and ask me about my Cricut.  I'll tell you I am still happy with it for the most part.  I'm not happy that I don't use it as much as I swore to my hubby that I would.  And, I feel really guilty about that!  But my issues with the Cricut are that:

1) the cartridges for it are really expensive.  I have about 6 cartridges and I still don't have images I need!

2) it doesn't interface with a computer unless you buy one more expensive cartridge (SCAL or Make the Cut)

Now, introduce the Silhouette Craft Cutter.  They just had to come out with that AFTER I got the Cricut.  Why does this always happen to me?  The Silhouette, oh my goodness...what an incredible little machine.  Now, in its own rights, the Cricut still has features the Silhouette does not.  My Expression can cut letters much larger than the Silhouette.  But the Silhouette can interface with the computer without expensive software!  There are no (did you hear me?) NO cartridges to buy...ev-a!!  Yeah, you heard me!  I love THAT!  It's purty too...but then again, so is the Cricut.

Okay..so what's all my whining about?  Well...Thrifty Decor Chick (aka Sarah) and her extraordinary blog (which I love to visit every day) is offering a give-away of a lifetime!  (okay...I exaggerate slightly... but it is a great give-away!!)  If you go here you can read all about it.  You can enter, and the sweet woman that she is, gives you 5 chances to win!  I am so entering this contest!  I hope I win, I hope I win (jumping up and down)!


Yeah, I already have a craft cutter...why am I being such a glutton?  Well, folks...I need this one (don't laugh) so I can use it to do heat transfers and get cute free fonts off the computer to do wall quotes all over my house.  (as if I don't already have enough of those! LOL)  I'll have to show you my "Peas" and "Carrots" wall quotes above my his/her closets in the bathroom.  Peas and carrots?  Yeah.  My hubby and I love Forrest Gump and the line where he says, 'me and Ginny...we are like peas and carrots...' well, you get the idea...so is my husband and I!  Peas and Carrots! LOL


Go to Sarah's blog...check it out and enter!  If I can't win, maybe one of my sweet blog friends can!  Good luck!!!