Masculine Birthday

Like many of you, I have a terrible time creating masculine birthday cards. I typically buy Chris and my dad a card for their birthdays simply because I was the sentiment to be especially meaningful since these are the two most important men in my life! So, when I was called on to make birthday cards for the staff at my church, I not only had to make one masculine card, I had to make 11!! WOW! Of course, I didn't make 11 unique cards, but coming up with 1-2 designs was proving harder that I thought. So, after scouring the internet and SCS, I went back to my old faithful, Me, My Stamps and I and found this perfect card design!!! I dug through my stamps and found a funny one with several, simple images, and went to work. I LOVE how these cards turned out!! I am definitely going to use this layout in the future because it is easy, fun, and let me use all that beautiful coordinating paper that I have from SU! Thanks for stopping by today - I hope you have a great week!!

Pumpkin PSA

I feel I have been remiss that I have kept this wonderfully delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffin recipe to myself, so consider this a public service announcement - a pumpkin public service announcement!! These are the easiest muffins to make and you will surely find yourself making them again and again. You can make these in standard muffin cups and you'll get 24 per recipe, so be sure and make two batches so you'll have some to give away. Your friends will love you for it!! And, if you need another incentive, I've been told that these are Weight Watchers approved!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins

1 box yellow cake mix
1 can pumpkin
3/4 cup cinnamon chips
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; mix all ingredients together very well to completely incorporate the dry cake mix; drop batter into mini or standard muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes (minis) or 18-20 minutes (standard).

Go now and bake!!

Birthday Photo Garland

Our sweet Morgan recently had her first birthday so, of course, we celebrated with a party and lots of yummy cake!! We had a cookout and the day was gorgeous, with just a hint of a breeze and glorious sunshine. We put up a canopy for a little bit of shade, which offered the perfect location for the photo garland I made. I took one picture from each month of Miss Morgan's first year and created banners for each one and hung them on rope using custom clothespins that coordinated with our party color scheme. I am so proud of how the finished project turned out!! It was very simple to create using 4x6 photos and card stock cut to 4.25 x 8.5. I then drew a line from each bottom corner to the middle of the picture to create the fishtail. I used a bit of monoadhesive to attach tiny strips of patterned paper to the clothespins. I did the same thing, with the addition of buttons, and used them as weights for our tablecloths. Clever, don't you think? And super cute!! Thanks for stopping by! Hope you'll make a photo garland for your next party!!

Quilt Quips

A couple of Sundays ago, I was able to go to my stamp club meeting at Harriet's place in Norris, TN, not too far from Knoxville. We made several pretty cards, but one of my favorites was Harriet's card, which looks quilted and even has faux stitching for a truly authentic look! Simply punch approximately 16 1" or 1.25" square (or more, depending on the shape of your focal point) and adhere them to a 5.5" x 4.25" piece of copy paper. Emboss using the embossing folder of your choice and cut out in your preferred shape. Fun and clever! I don't have this stamp set, Quilts Quips, but I can easily write these sentiments on future cards for an even more handmade, homespun look. I can't wait to make more of this adorable card! Thanks for stopping by!

Rich Kiss!

A couple of days ago, Papertrey Ink posted a card on its Facebook page that I really liked and believe it or not, I had a few minutes today to make a simpler version for a relative whose husband passed away recently. I wouldn't have put Rich Razzleberry together with Kiwi Kiss, but I love the look of this simple card. The colors make a statement so the card doesn't require elaborate embellishments. I would definitely make this card again, perhaps using another color scheme that's outside my comfort zone. Thanks for stopping by!

The Plug-In Drug Yields Delicious Scones

One of my favorite motivational speakers is Nelle Mohney, a Methodist minister's wife from Chattanooga, TN, who I have heard speak several times over the years, though sadly not recently. One of her points that I have remembered all these years is that television is the "plug-in drug!!" I totally agree! It is completely addictive and can waste more time than just about anything. Next came Facebook (even more addictive!) and most recently, Pinterest! I have spent more time "pinning" recipes, party ideas, gift ideas, crafts, things for kids, and on and on (which is probably why I haven't blogged in a month!). So this week, I have made an effort to actually cook some of the recipes I've "pinned." Today, I gave pumpkin scones a try. I made scones for the first time in high school more than 20 years ago and they would have easily passed for bricks! Over the years, I haven't had much better success with scones . . . until today!! As luck would have it, I had GREAT success with my scones today! They were easy to put together in my food processor and had 2 glazes! YUM! I even took pictures along the way, a la the Pioneer Woman. That's really a lot of work and my phone still has flour on it, but these are the lengths I'll go to for you, sweet blog readers!!

Dry ingredients plus butter in the food processor - so much easier than a pastry blender!
A half-cup of yummy pumpkin goodness!
Pumpkin, milk, and an egg - what a beautiful color!
Wet and dry ingredients coming together . . .
Look at those beautiful little specks of butter!
Patting the dough out into a rectangle on a flour-covered cutting board - I used a little too much flour! I had to wipe it off the finished scones with a paper towel!
Next I cut the dough into three equal parts and each part into two rectangles per the recipe. The scones turned out to be quite big, so I think I'll cut them smaller next time.
It took three tries with three different utensils for me to get the soft dough to the baking sheet. The bench scraper turned out to be the best choice.
The finished product!!
I baked the scones for 14 minutes (the recipe called for 14-16 minutes) so as not to overcook them and they are so tender and moist and delicious!! My very first success with scones! They also have a sugar glaze AND a spice glaze drizzled on them - how could you go wrong with that amount of yumminess!!