These sweet ornaments were made by my mother.

To make the first ornament, mom used some red tulle, white crepe paper and scrapbook paper.

On the next ornament she used wrapping paper, red tulle and a white snowflake ornament.

So pretty!

Mom and I have also been busy in the kitchen.  She made fudge and I made divinity.  ‘

Tis the season!

Izabelle has been busy in the kitchen too…

She had some fun creating a little graham cracker ginger bread house.

Izabelle is such a creative little girl!

Izzy has really sparked an interest in cooking lately and has been a big help in the kitchen.

What a cute little house, right?

8 days until Christmas and loving every minute of it.

xoxo, Christie

I can’t say it enough:

I LOVE FALL!

In honor of this glorious season, the kids and I drove over to Grandma Wolfe’s house yesterday to make homemade caramel corn. We can’t stop eating it.  It’s oh-so-good-wonderful-fantastic-yummy-yummy-to-my-tummy-mmm-mmm-good. I keep telling my husband that he’s cut off,

“No more caramel corn for your buddy!”

But he doesn’t believe me.  And so he keeps eating more. It’s really that good.

_______________________

Here’s a peek at the project I’m working on:

I’ll share more when it’s finished.

xoxo, Christie

Earlier in the week my mom, my sister and I invited some lovely women over for a baby shower.  My sister-in-law, Kristin’s baby shower!

I made a simple banner for Kristin’s shower using the Making Memories Just Chillin‘ Line. The banner came together really quickly:

My mom and I also put together  a little diaper cake for Kristin:

It was our first time making one, and I can say that it seem as though it would’ve been a lot harder making one alone.  It was nice to have four hands instead of two, especially when were were putting rubber bands around rolled up diapers and tying ribbon.

We made little roses out of wash cloths:

I loved the monkey on the top…Kristin is decorating the baby’s room in a Jungle Theme.

Here’s some of the goodies we made:

Cherry Chip Cupcakes…

White Chocolate Peanut butter Krispie Cookies (yum):

Sweet and Salty Popcorn (made with sugar, butter & vanilla…ooo la la):

We had tons of fun!  I think Kristin liked it to…

You can barely see her baby bump in this photo (it’s hiding behind her knees).  That’s my nephew in there!

OK.  Here’s where I get to brag about my sweet, sweet husband, Dan.

Dan is the Senior Programmer for THIS company.  The man has skills.  Skills which I completely took advantage of (he lets me because I’m his wife).

Me: Dan, I’d really like to create a new banner.

Dan: Cool.

Me: I have a specific idea which requires your expertise.

Dan: Cool.

Me: So can you help me.

Dan: Yep.

It was that easy.  I asked for a banner that I could upload images to and change them as often as I choose.

Dan made it happen.  As I said before.  He’s a sweet, sweet man.

Take for instance this special feature:  If you click on any photo it automatically shows up in Light box.  And if there is more than one photo in the post an arrow will appear for you, the blog reader, to browse on through the photos.  Pretty darn nifty, aye?

I’ll upload a few more photos of the treat tags I made for Emilee’s Wedding…that way you can give it a try.  Start by clicking on the next photo, you’ll be happy you did.

Did you like it?  I hope so.

Also, each photo in my blog banner links to the post it belongs to.  If you see something you like or missed in the banner, it’s just a click away.  Before you leave here today you should “click” around. Take a browse and tell me what you think!

My husband is great, isn’t he?

_________________

Here’s a little of what I’ve been up to the past couple of days (Food Prep for Emilee’s Wedding):

Homemade Divinity.

Homemade Chocolate Fudge

Homemade Peanut Butter Fudge.

‘Tis the Season!

On Saturday my family and I were invited to come along with some friends from work to pick Huckleberries. This is considered a great honor, especially since we’ve only lived in Idaho for a little over two weeks.  Usually it takes years before locals will show you where to find Huckleberries.

It’s a known fact ’round these parts that huckleberries are like gold.

Seriously.  They fetch a pretty penny!

Huckleberries aren’t exactly easy to find either.  We followed my friend, Robert (from work) and his wife, Katrina about 35 miles out of town…another 5 or 6 miles twisting a turning through gravel roads, then another 2 mile hike up the side of a mountain.  After that we weaved our way through bushes and picked huckleberries until our fingers turned purple.  Our fingers literally turned purple (from the huckleberry juice).

The photo above was the last photo I took before I slipped, fell and broke my fancy camera. Don’t go worrying about me…I’m fine (besides a big bruise on my knee and shin) but my camera…Oh, that sweet photo taking machine, has perished.  I almost cried. Not because the fall hurt (which it did) but because my camera bit the dust.  And I was a little embarrassed.

For now, I’m using my trusty old point and shoot (should have brought it on the hike instead…coulda, woulda, shoulda).

We did have a terrific time on our huckleberry hike!  We ended up with purple fingers and loads of huckleberries.

I washed the huckleberries, let them dry and then froze about fifteen zip lock bags full of them.

Yum!

We’ve already made huckleberry pancakes and huckleberry muffins.  I’m thinking about making some jam too.

We’ll see.  It is only Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday!

AKA: “The Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting” post.  Or the “I am a cheater post”.

Sometimes cheating can be good.

I know, I know usually nothing about cheating is good but let me explain.

I made these delicious cupcakes using a box of Duncan Heinz Devil’s Food Cake Mix.

Seriously.  I’m a cheater.

I could have used my Grandmother’s Chocolate Cake recipe to make these decadent cupcakes but I did not.  Or maybe I did use my Grandmother’s recipe and I just don’t want to share it. No, that’s not the case,  I’m a cheater not a liar.  I used a cake mix.

I did, however, make HOMEMADE frosting.  Homemade frosting can make any “cake mix” cupcake taste like heaven.  Especially when you make Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Go ahead.  Try to tell me that you don’t want to buy yourself a box of Duncan Heinz cake mix and bake up some cupcakes right now. Go ahead. Try.

You know want cupcakes right now.

OK, not only am I a cheater today but apparently I’m a cupcake pusher too.

It’s alright, you can blame me for the cupcake envy you’re feeling right as well.

Just in case you want to cross over to the dark side with me, here is the recipe for…

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 box confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbsp milk

Have a wonderful day!

Love your friend, Christie (the dirty rotten cheater)

Here’s some of the project, food and family photos I should have blogged during the busy Christmas season but didn’t.  Better late than never, right?

I made the little circle box above with my beloved Graphic 45 paper.  I just cut, covered and used Mod Podge to seal it.  I added the little glittered flower with hot glue to top it off and then filled it with Chocolate from our local Sweet Shop.

Here’s another Layout I put in a shadow box as a Christmas Gift:

A closer look at the flowers:

My cousin Alyssa made this adorable teeny tiny little manger scene out of modeling clay:

I wish that I had better photos of the details…here’s a couple that turned out halfway decent:

The Wisemen

And here’s the Angel (My finger is in the photo, just so you can see how tiny these little figures are).

Izabelle and I made cinnamon rolls for our friends and neighbors this year.  We delivered them on Christmas Eve.  It was fun to do something different (we usually make cookies).

We left some of these delicious devils out for Santa.  He liked them.

Here’s a little peek at the kids on Christmas morning:

And of course, Marley, he was so happy with his enormous raw hide bone.

I think I am pretty much caught up now…I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and you have a fabulous New Year!

I’ve just landed on Santa’s Naughty List!  I couldn’t help myself, S’mores aren’t just a camping treat anymore. S’mores are the I’ve-Been-So-Busy-All-I-Can-Do-Is-Think-Of-Chocolate Treat!

Oh, you know you want to be naughty with me.

If you do want one of these delectable Not-So-Camping S’mores, all you have to do is stick some Hershey’s Bar and a marshmallow on top of half a graham cracker.  Then, heat your mini tower under your broiler for less than 2 minutes. Afterward, stick the other half of the graham cracker on top of your melty creation and squish it (that’s the fun part).

Congratulations, you have now made a Totally-Indulgent-Guilt-Ridden-Treat!  It’s OK, you’re in my boat now and we’re going down together.

BEWARE: The chocolate may just be so melty that it lands smake dab in the middle of your shirt. At this point the S’more Treat becomes the I-Just-Ruined-My-Shirt-With-A-Chocolate-Stain Treat.

I totally didn’t get melty chocolate on my shirt.

Alright, alright I did…but it’s just between me and you, K?

Naughty, naughty.

I’m taking a little “Pretty Paper” break this weekend and posting about my other favorite thing, COOKIES.

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I’ve baked the “Original Recipe” on the back of the Toll House Morsel bag for years now.  So much in fact, that I like to switch it up a bit.

About 7 years ago I started adding “Skor Bits” to the recipe.  It made REALLY TASTY toffee cookies.  Then after a few years of making the Skor Bits cookies, I could no longer find the Skor Bits in any grocery store so I switched to the Heath Bar English Toffee Bits (Just as good, I just prefer Skor over Heath).   But I didn’t stop there;  Still using the Toll House recipe I added the huge Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Melties and Heath Bar English Toffee Bits (I know sacrilege, so sorry Toll House).

Now that’s a cookie you can sink your teeth into. Definitely NOT a low-cal cookie, but oh, it’s gooooood!

Stay tuned, over the next couple months, if you’re lucky, I might just share my Grandma Crabtree’s Rice Krispie Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe and My Mom’s Soft Frosted Sugar Cookie recipe.

It’s FALL people!  Time to start baking & crafting!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love, Christie

These are delicious right out of the oven:

And if you like them steaming hot…they’re even more delicious with butter:

This recipe is also perfect for those mini loaf pans.  It makes a fantastic holiday gift.

This recipe made 20 cupcakes + 4 mini loaf pans.

As promised, a recipe for DELICIOUS Pumpkin Muffins:

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins (or bread)

3 cups flour

5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2  teaspoons salt

3 cups sugar

1 (15oz.) can pumpkin

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

1 cup cranberries (I used craisens)

Preheat oven to 350

grease and flour pans (I just used paper cupcake holders)

In large bowl mix together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt

In large mixing bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, and orange juice and beat until just blended – and pumpkin mix to flour mixture, stir until JUST moistened. Fold in cranberries.  Spoon batter into pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Note:  For the mini loafs, I cooled the oven to 325 and baked them for 65-70 minutes.

Enjoy!

Love, Christie