She's growing up....

There are moments in our life when we look at our grandchildren and wonder where the years have gone. That moment occurred when I saw this picture of my soon to be 11 year old granddaughter, Alexis. She was the flower girl in her cousin's wedding this past weekend,

And she was on the arm of a boy. Now THAT gave me a moment of pause. 

Born less than 2 pounds, she held my heart from the first moment I saw her. 

This is probably my all time favorite picture of her. She is forever smiling. This picture captures her sweet personality.

I just can't believe how much she is growing up.

Things on my to do list....

How cute is this. Paint some cans, glue on a cork and some jute rope and you have a little pumpkin. If you look close, you will see a green wire. She used spiral paper clips that she unwound, but you could also use green floral wire.

(Link)

I love these gourds. All I have to do is buy the Styrofoam cones. I have everything else.

And talk about super simple and easy.



And one more pumpkin from cans. Loving it.



Can't wait to get started on fall crafts.

The Perfect Size Cake

Duncan Hines has introduced the PERFECT SIZE cake. It comes in a variety of flavors with a variety of frosting. For my first test, I selected the Lemon Bliss.

It comes with a packet of cake mix, a packet of frosting mix and a pan to bake it in.

For the cake, I added the required butter and egg.

I mixed it up until it was nice and creamy.

Then you simply pour it in the bowl. No need to grease the bowl or spray it with any coating. It is apparently pre-coated. 

I used a spatula to smooth it out. 

I baked it at the suggest temp for the suggested time. I think it was 300 degrees for 31-34 minutes or somewhere in there. I took it out and placed it on a rack and let it cool for 15 minutes as per the directions.

While it was cooling, I gathered my 4 tbsps. of butter and my 1 tsp of water and the frosting mix.

I put the ingredients together so I could mix it up when the cake was ready.

When the 15 minute cooling time was completed, I turned the pan upside down and pushed on the middle with three of my fingers. The cake popped out and the outer ring of the cake pan came off, leaving this piece of cardboard which you gently remove.

Then I turned the finished cake over and grabbed the bowl of frosting.

I started spreading the frosting on the cake. Disaster struck. It was not a pretty sight. In my effort to make the perfect Perfect Size cake. I completely forgot the final step....to let the cake finish cooling after I popped it out of the pan. It was horrible. The butter in the frosting started melting and separating from the mixture, the sugar became running and I ended up with a beautiful cake in the middle of a lemony pool of buttery slop.

I was so disappointed. I really wanted to show you the beautiful cake this would make. Lo and behold, my sister, who did not have a clue I was making this cake and going through this, sends me a picture that night of a cake she made that day. How hilarious is it that she had made the exact same cake I did. So I simply thanked her for her pic, told her it looked good and asked if I could "steal" her picture for my blog since mine was a flop. Here is her finished product which turned out way better than mine. I am going to try again.

Last night I was at Kroger and found that they had finally, after several years of it being gone, brought back the Caramel icing. Though now it is called Salted Caramel, it tastes just the same as before. I was so excited. I had a spice cake mix at home so I grabbed a can of the icing.

I think I will stick with the regular size cakes. I had much better luck with my spice cake with caramel icing.

And it felt so good to sit down and have a piece for my snack last night. 

What is going on in your kitchen?

Weekend wrap up

I had a very good weekend. It started off with the arrival of a new medium utility tote my daughter got for me. I am in love with it. 

On Saturday, I went by myself to the local flea market and spent some time just browsing up and down the aisle. The outside booths have a lot of vintage finds and that was where I made my scores. I got this nice winter pitcher. I love the snowflake pattern. It was only $5.00 and I thought it was worth it.

I have always wanted to find one of these cut glass fruit bowls. I saw this one in a booth that carried only antiques. It wasn't priced and from what I could tell, some of his items were pricey. But I asked anyway. He launched into how old it was, how hard they are to find, etc. Finally, he said it took up a lot of room on his table and if I would take it off his hands that I could have it for $3.00. Well, you know I did a happy dance over that. 

I have been wanting to find a small Federal mixing bowl. I got this one for just $4.00.

And I am a sucker for any type of sandwich glass, especially little trays. I loved this one and for $2 it was a pretty good deal.

I hooked up with my daughter later that day and we were on our way to Walmart when we spotted a thrift store. We stopped in and I got this little cup and saucer set. I love to heat caramel sauce and cut up apples to dip in it. The cup can hold my sauce and the saucer can hold my apple. For $2 it was a great find.

I also found this little soap dish for just .99 cents. I fell in love with it. I am going to put it on my home office desk to hold paper clips.

Sunday after church, I got in a cleaning mood. I got out my fall tablecloth that I bought earlier this year and put it on my table.

Then I moved my big chicken as my new centerpiece on the table. 

I rearranged some of my other Pyrex and stuck my hen in one of the bowls to hold the coffee filters down. I use these filters to cover food in the microwave so it doesn't splatter everywhere. 

I moved a few things around on my wine rack once I took the big chicken off and put it on the table.

I tried out the new Duncan Hines Perfect Size Cake. 

Was it fantastic or did it flop? Come back tomorrow and see how the process went. 

Sunday Songs

You can look far and you can look wide, but in my opinion you will never find a song with words as beautiful and well known at this sweet old gospel song. 

Amazing Grace is a beloved hymn know world wide and I for one am so very, very thankful for God's amazing grace. Can I get an amen?

Mini Donut Ideas

I have a mini donut maker and I have never tried anything except brownie donuts and cinnamon sugar ones. Thanks to Pinterest I have a lot of new ideas. 

Mini Snowball Donuts

Mini Cinnamon Sugar donuts

Baked Gingerbread mini donuts

Chocolate mini donuts

Vanilla bean mini donuts

Friday Funny to make you chuckle...

This week has been full of busy times. Lots of new exciting things going on in my regular job but lots of computer challenges this week. My Thirty-One business kicked off with a bang by a lovely party at a local restaurant on Tuesday, followed by a Facebook online party Wednesday and another Facebook party on Thursday. I haven't had time to stop and catch my breath. It has been fun but stressful at the same time. So I needed a good laugh this morning. Which is exactly what I got when I opened my Facebook today. I just thought this was the cutest thing I have seen in awhile. 

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, the chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road?

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2014, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2014. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?