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By Brandy 4 Comments















Lego Advent from Little Bins for Little Hands
Another fun Lego advent idea. Wish I had thought of making our own in the past!
Advent Wreath from Oh Happy Day
Each "bon bon" is filled with treats! What a unique and pretty idea!
Envelope Advent from Organized Living Solutions
Envelopes strung up like a tree. What a clever idea.
Paper Bag Advent from Tell Love and Party
Can we all just swoon for a minute over the colors here? Paper bags!
Book Advent from Living Loving Laughing Together
I love Christmas books and definitely have enough to create an advent for my kids. Love it!
And you can find this darling one in my book! 60 sewing projects for kids, including an entire chapter for holidays!

Every baby deserves a soft, cuddly, handmade blanket just for them. I love making baby blankets, especially receiving blankets. Lately I have found my love for working with knit fabrics. I didn't think that would ever happen, but I have found that knit actually isn't that hard to work with. If you find the right weight. I like sticking with light-medium or medium weight knits. They don't curl as you sew and the medium ones feel like I'm sewing cotton.
Dallin's teacher is pregnant with her first baby. She loves owls and has them all over their classroom. So that is where the scheme for this blanket came from. Owls are very easy to find these days! I received a knit "burrito" blanket with Dallin and loved it. All of my babies loved to be swaddled. The burrito blanket stretched and stayed put. A nice little baby burrito. Using the same technique as I did in the Flannel Baby Blanket tutorial, I got started on Mrs. Darnell's blanket.
I found these 3 coordinating knit prints from Girl Charlee fabrics.
{The fabrics I used were Linden Green Chevron, Linden Green Owls, and Royal Blue/White Stripe Ponte de Roma.}
I used the striped knit for my bias tape, which actually isn't cut on the bias so it is just trim. Since knit is nice and stretchy, I just cut it in strips, pressed it and pinned it around the edges of the blanket.
In no time, this blanket was finished and we couldn't wait to give it to her.
Wrapped in tissue paper and some extra scraps of trim, we headed to school to drop it off before she went on maternity leave. She absolutely loved it. We can't wait to see pictures of her new bundle of joy!
To make your own darling knit or flannel receiving blanket you can follow my quick tutorial here!
By Brandy 2 Comments

Our baby turned two years old and is quite the little girlie girl. She needed a cake to match her cute feminine personality. Since she is an October baby and absolutely loves going to the pumpkin patch, we decided to have her party there with our family. Cinderella seemed like an obvious choice for a cake. I made her the tiniest Cinderella cake and served the guests chocolate cupcakes with the mellowcreme pumpkins on top.
This little cake is made from 2 cupcakes. A jumbo cupcake with a regular sized cupcake (both upside down) and stacked on top of each other. Then I used a star tip and edible pearls to decorate the dress.
My insert was made using my Cricut! I used the Paper Doll Cartridge for the cut out and glued a skewer in between the layers of card stock in the back.
This was one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. It was perfectly tiny for my little 2 year old, but could easily be made larger using a bigger cricut cutout and using the Pampered Chef batter bowl (following the doll cake baking directions).
Here is another cake I made with the help of my cricut!

I've said this before, but we are popcorn fanatics over here. As in, my husband and kids eat it every single night! Here is a SUPER easy and delicious way to mix things up. Cookies and cream popcorn! If you are a fan of Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream candy bars you are in for a real treat. Pick up a couple XL ones the next time you are out. You won't be sorry!
You will need 1 (4 oz.) XL bar for every 2 quarts of popcorn you pop. I air pop 6 quarts when I make this and use 3 XL bars.
Break up the candy bars and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Continue microwaving in 10 second intervals until the white chocolate is smooth. Put your popcorn into a huge bowl or divide into two bowls and pour your chocolate over the top. Stir with a rubber spatula (or use your hands. That's what I do) until evenly coated. It won't look like there is a lot of chocloate on each piece, but you don't need a lot. Just a light even coat.
Line a flat large, flat, surface with wax paper and spread your popcorn across in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt, to taste. The sweet and salty combo is amazing! Let it sit until it is set, about 30 minutes. We don't wait that long before digging in, but it is messier if you don't wait for it to set up a bit!
It was the perfect treat to have while watching Tom & Jerry after dinner!






Ruby and I made a quick stop at Michael's the other day while Derrick was in Home Depot. We had fun browsing the aisles of fall decor and couldn't pass up some fun brown craft pumpkins that were ready to be decorated.

I've seen a lot of silver pumpkins lately, my favorite being the ones at Pottery Barn in their window display right now. I love the look of the mercury glass, but sadly, cannot afford to spend that much on a glass pumpkin. I saw some spray paint recently that gives the look of a mirror. It's called "looking glass", but you have to use it on glass. Since these were paper I came up with another alternative.

Good old fashioned spray paint.

I don't know if it matters which kind you use. These are just some I found in our garage. A black and a metallic silver.

I sprayed each pumpkin in a nice layer of black spray paint and let it dry completely.

Then I sprayed a very LIGHT coat of silver on top so that the black still came through a bit (giving it the vintage look). It's hard to see the contrast in the photos since the metallic is so shiny, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results!

My silver pumpkins rang up to $2.99 a piece. That I can afford.

Fresh salsa is amazing, but you simply can't store it. This canned salsa is absolutely delicious and has a fantastic shelf life. It definitely rivals any salsa you'd get in a restaurant! I'll show you how to can salsa like a pro with a few simple steps.
This post contains affiliate links.
Canning salsa is easier than it sounds. Just chop and simmer. Not like making spaghetti sauce and having to peel tomatoes or canning peaches and having a sticky mess all over the kitchen. We won't talk about the spaghetti sauce I canned a few summers ago except to say that it was awful. There's nothing worse than spending an afternoon peeling tomatoes and sweating up a storm in the kitchen only to have the fruits of your labor not turn out at all!
I love making fresh salsa (pico de gallo) and blender salsa because I like to avoid the canning process whenever possible, and they always turn out great, but this salsa was fairly quick to make and turned out absolutely delicious! It's a keeper, for sure, and if I could just get a handle on not bawling my eyes out while cutting onions it would be even better.
Anyone have tips for an onion cry baby like me? It's awful!!
I only purchased one tomato plant for our garden this year because I am the only ones who likes tomatoes in our family. Then I received two plants from a gal at church who had way too many starts. I figured I'd get a few tomatoes from each plant since that has been my experience in the past. Well, these 3 plants were good to me this year and grew like CRAZY. Between the 3 tomato plants, and the pumpkin plant that spread across the back of the house creating a huge pumpkin patch, our "little" garden has taken over. I couldn't keep up with just adding them to sandwiches and salads and wanted to preserve them somehow. Luckily Derrick likes salsa too, so now we have a nice supply to share.
You can use any combination of tomatoes, veggies, and spices. The canning process is the same. Use this recipe as a base to come up with a family recipe that you'll want to make over and over! Give this one a chance to simmer down, then add more sugar or salt if you'd like. You can also add a bit of cumin, pepper, or any other spices. I like mine with just a bit of salt and sugar to allow most of the flavor to come from the veggies and tomatoes.
I filled a large stockpot with all of my veggies. Tomatoes (red and yellow), bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, garlic, and apple cider vinegar. I let it simmer until it started to break down into a desired thickness.
New to canning? Here is a great resource to get you started in the processs of water bath canning.
After the salsa had a chance to simmer and be tasted I ladled it into hot canning jars (that had just been washed) and added the lids and rings. I ran them through a quick 35 minute process in my water bath canner. If you haven't canned before, a water bath canner is the way to go. You can can most fruits and jams/jellies this way. It is just a huge stock pot; large enough for quart sized jars to fit inside.
Once the timer went off, I pulled the jars out and carefully moved them to the counter on top of a dish towel to cool. You'll know they are sealed when the lids make a popping sound and there isn't any give when pushing the lid down in the center.


Salsa that has been processed with a good seal has a shelf life of 18 months.
You can use a food processor to making chopping and dicing easier.
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Strawberry Freezer Jam with Instant Pectin
By Brandy 5 Comments

Last year it was 90 degrees on Kaylee's birthday. I remember thinking how fun it would be to do an outdoor water party for her sometime. We bought the kids a big blow up water slide this summer and it has been a hit. I figured I would get it out, invite 15 of her closest friends and grill hot dogs. EASY party. Minimal set up. With the weather being in the high 90s lately, I thought that surely we would be fine with planning the easiest birthday party ever! Fast forward to the night before the party. The forecast went from sunny and in the 70s earlier in the week to 63 and cloudy, and finally settled at 60 and thunderstorms. I was in a panic. Almost everyone had RSVP'd that they were coming. 15 kids inside our house on a rainy day. We were scrambling with coming up with activities! We came up with "Hot Octopus" (passing around the octopus puppet to the music instead of hot potato), animal charades, freeze dancing and making oceans in a bottle (photo at the bottom of the post). We served lunch. We opened presents. We ate cake. Everyone went home. It was a whirlwind!
If you are interested in the details of the treats, keep reading!
This cake was so much fun to make. I stacked two square cakes and iced it using a fun scallop technique. Then I used a tiny round cake that had been cut on an angle for the island. The island is covered with white frosting and graham cracker crumbs. The little creatures are made from chocolate molds and colored melting chocolate. I love it when I don't have to use fondant to get the look I am going for. I much prefer using butter cream.
Instead of passing out treat bags, we sent each child home with a cupcake.
I picked up these darling cupcake boxes, along with the cupcake liners and masking tape, from Wholeport. Their masking stickers are one of my favorite products. I use them for so many things.
My husband came up with the "Ocean in a Bottle" activity and helped the kids make them. He ran out of mineral oil and had to use vegetable oil for some (hence the yellow). They filled them with food coloring, glitter, jewels, ocean foamies, water and oil. They are fun to shake and fun to look at. He sealed each cap with hot glue and electrical tape.
The party was a success. The kids had fun and even though it rained we were still able to have a beach party. After it was over...I took a nap.
This post contains sponsored product (cupcake boxes).