Happiness is....

...beautiful, seedless, sweet watermelon in my fridge!!! Hope you all have plans for a great weekend!!! Hugs to you all....

Debbie

Bits and pieces.....

My friend Tina asked when I was going to update my blog. I had trouble explaining that I had some time to post...some thoughts.....but they were all bits and pieces. So here goes...all my bits and pieces to share!!! LOL

Currently, I am on a "jar cake" kick. There is something about these gems that intrigues me...I want to make some fun ones that can be used for gifts during the holidays...and just to have on hand to share with someone to let them know you think they are pretty special. In the past, I have baked some of the tea cakes and fruit breads in wide mouth jars....but with these, I wanted to combine my love of cupcakes with the jar thing.

The first go was to find a cupcake recipe online from one of the "famous" cupcake bakeries. I made these from scratch.....great buttercream icing. After I baked, I piped through the middle icing, topped with icing and sprinkles. Turned out really cute....great warm, or even cooled down. But if you put them in the fridge...the texture of the cake turned to something my son called, "sweet cornbread"....not quite what I was going for!!!

That called for a little more searching. I found someone that was making the cupcakes in a jar, and they looked like more "crumbled" cake in a jar....so, I thought I would try that. This is the result of last nights experiement:

I have to say, these turned out great. What I used was a butter recipe boxed cake mix...mixed and baked per the instructions on box. When it was baked and cooled...I crumbled up the cake and put it in the bottom of the jar. For the next layer I used a Caramel Apple Pie Filling/Topping I found at the local grocery...good stuff!!! Then I used another layer of crumbled cake. For the topping/frosting....I picked up a container of plain vanilla icing. I thought the icing needed something to blend with the rest of the cake...so I mixed a bit of cinnamon with the icing (just to taste)...turned out great and made a wonderful finish to this dessert.

This was a hit with the family...and I can wait to try this with more flavor combinations. And using the vanilla icing to flavor in many ways works well.

Here is another fun dessert tip. During the fall when we are doing apple pies....I love fixing a ice cream to go with them other than the usual vanilla. I take a container of ice cream and a container of cool whip....soften both so I can mix them together.....add a bit of cinnamon to it and it makes a delicious cinnamon ice cream to go with your apple pie.

Now that I have finished the cooking portion of this post...I can share other "odd" things from here. Yesterday, I was having lunch at the shop. I had ordered a fish sandwich from Buffalo Wild Wings.....because those wonderful people will deliver to the store when I am stuck there on my own and can't get out for lunch!!!! Anyway, I have the usual styrofoam container of food, half eaten and played with, when a couple of ladies come in to shop. My food is at the check out on a lower table at the side of it where we do some work at times. I walk away from my lunch to chat with the ladies and wait on them. They are in for quite awhile when I notice one of the ladies coming toward my lunch...which I thought was odd. She walked up to my sandwich....stuck her finger in the tomato and said..."Oh, that is real"...and walked away!!!

So please share with me what the appropriate response is to that?????? Sadly, my lunch was then trash can bound. Arrrggg!

And on another note.....the news is annoying me, Big Time....if I hear another report on the pregnant man I am going to have to slap someone. First, are we so in need of news stories that this warrents ANY type of coverage????? And hey, he DIDN'T start out man...he came with all the original plumbing for this job and decided to keep it when "he" wanted to change....so please, tell me where the heck the story is????????? There are huge number of pregnant women everyday on every continent facing all the usual and unusual goings on of pregnancy.... Why don't we concentrate on some of the problems with childbirth or health care for women and get away from the circus act mentality of this Pregnant Man????? Nuff said.

Ok....I have officially posted now! (smile).....

Hugs,
Debbie

Wonderful Organizing Idea

Ok...I FOUND IT!!! This lovely drop spot display was found here

You will find some great organizing ideas there...I just thought this display was awesome!! What a great idea....and the "personalizing" options are endless.

Hugs,
Debbie

It's Monday.....

Out of clutter, find simplicity....

---Albert Einstein

Alright, this weekend I had the brilliant idea that we should have another garage sale. I just wanted to dig in and get out all the stuff we didn't get to during the last one and have a final clearing out of some items that we had been just moving from one area of the house to another because we either:
a. didn't need it any more
b. didn't really have space for it

c. no one could remember why the heck we got it in the first place.
(Yeah, there were alot of C's---smile)
Now I realized that this was Mother's Day weekend.....but I totally forgot about all the graduations this weekend with the high school and local college...ARRRGGG!! Needless to say, traffic was nil!! And when you do have two carloads of people show up at once and NO one buys anything....you know you are in trouble!!!

That means today, I am loading most of it up and sending to the local We Care store to sell. We did a good just clearing this out and I just refuse to lug it back into the house to be shifted from room to room again.

The nice thing for me about clearing things out, it starting to freshen up some areas of the house.

I moved my teacart into our entryway and set up this little area, which I love. A large bowl to drop our keys into as we enter the house (we are the Center of lost key here!!!). It is an effort to combine fun decorating with practical uses.

I wish I could remember where I found the organizing blog that had a picture of a wonderful peg board...I have the picture, but hate to post it without having the person to link too. (I will work on that later today). The organizer had used a large pegboard, painted and framed out to look great and then had added wire holders for folders and a shelf, a hook for her purse, a mirror, a holder for flowers, and more. Great decorative piece for an entry or office area....but so many practical uses. I have add this to my to do list for my studio.

Well, I need to head off to do the "Monday Stuff" of housekeeping......

Hugs,

Debbie

A Lesson For Mother's Day....

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms. I hope you had a great day with those special loved ones in your life....and I hope they took the time to let you know how much you mean to them.

With that said...I need to do a small but needed rant. This is a life lesson I need to pass on to anyone even remotely thinking of doing something this stupid on Mother's Day...so here goes. If you are about to do something that is needlessly hurtful or just plain stupid....DO NOT choose to reveal it to your Mother on Mother's Day. If you do, it will be a painful reminder to her of your chosen stupidity...each and every Mother's Day to come. Do save it.....

Putting said soapbox away now. Fortunately, I am not the Mother involved...just an innocent bystander that had this dumped on them too. There are people that just simply should not be allowed phone privileges....

.

....counting to 3 and deep breaths!

Hugs,

Debbie

Crazy Week.....

Frankly, crazy doesn't even begin to describe it...LOL. It has just been busy, hectic, crazy, and fun. I am working on a new baked gift item that I want to share, just don't have a camera handy....

Look for me to be back tomorrow or some time this weekend with fun stuff to share!!!
Till then....

Hugs,
Debbie

Etsy On My Mind....

I am finding that getting back to knitting has been really relaxing for me....but my addictive personality kicks in too, as I love working with the different color combinations of yarns!! That makes my current obsession knitting dishcloths!!

I really love using these and while I first ran across them as dishcloths.....I found they make great washcloths too. Fun to match them up with pretty soaps and bath luxuries for gift baskets or gift cans.

As I got started with these I have also worked on getting my Etsy site up to date and new things loaded...I hope you will stop by to take a look at it when you can and let me know what you think.

I am off to pop in a movie to watch with my son....and knit away....


Have a blessed, lazy Sunday!!!


Debbie

Grace For The Moment.....

Like a quilt,

grace wraps us in comfort,

allowing us to daily rest
in the goodness of the Lord.

--Patterns of Grace (Roy Lessin/ Heather Solumn)

I have been sitting on some news....I hate doing that--especially when I want to share, gripe, complain, rejoice, giggle or dance. And for the most part...this news has moved from the whiny to the dancing mode... (lucky for you!!! LOL)

First off...I LOVE*LOVE*LOVE (yes, I am doing my Gail King impersonation!) having a brick and mortar shop. Designing displays, looking for great handmade artists, working with customers, setting up classes....those things keep me up at night with my mind spinning. Lucky for me, I have great friends that don't disown me when I make late night or early morning calls to work out the details of some new "project". But even with this.....the economy and gas hikes have slapped us around a bit. I am fortunate to have a wonderful partner who is "finance" savvy....but sadly, I would rather live in the make believe world of "all is well."...

But truth be told...we needed to make some hard decisions...and the biggest one is closing the shop this month. Now, even I can look at the books and see that it is in our best interest...but it is hard letting go of something that you enjoy. But truthfully, I would rather leave something that makes me smile...than have it become something that I dread and can't wait to leave. And this isn't the end of a dream...it is just another path we need to take to a new adventure.

And wouldn't you know....God is there all the time looking after us. This week I had a dear lady to come to our shop stop by to see if I was ok. She had been reading the blog and sensed something was going on..... thank you sweetie for stopping by, it made my day. Later that same day, two ladies stopped by to visit the shop, we had a great conversation about handmades and such....as they were leaving (without knowing anything of what was going on)...one of them turned to say, "You know, I believe we are suppose to be here to pray for you." And they did.

There have been other "breezes" of God's grace this week......nothing that would make the evening news, but reminders to my heart of who is in control and He has never steered us wrong. And frankly, already new doors are opening....we are going to have a booth at The Knitting Mills in Chattanooga....shows in the area....Etsy and our sweet vendors who have said, "let us know where you going we want to be a part of it!!" So who knows what lies ahead.

I am sorry to close this chapter.....but my mind is already working over time on new things......

And I have to tell you dear blogger friends...many of you have so inspired me in several different areas with the creativity, heart, home, faith and more that you share in your blogs....so know that I thank you for that too!!!

I have plants to be planted this weekend....dolls to be stuffed......menus to plan....all is well!!!

Hugs,

Debbie