Our Christmas Tree is Up!

I really love getting our house decorated for Christmas. This is our first year in this house and it has been fun to find new places for our "old" decorations.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos from our tree decorating today.

Joe's Farm Grill

My husband's birthday is today and we started celebrating on Friday by going out to dinner with a bunch of friends. We went to one of our favorite restaurants: Joe's Farm Grill.

If you are ever in the Phoenix area, this is definitely worth a visit.

The BBQ chicken pizza is excellent. Especially when paired with a side of sweet potato fries (dipped in ranch dressing!)
I ordered what I order every time we go there: the Pesto Chicken Sandwich. Once I find something I like at a restaueant, I just can't help but order it every time. I sometimes try to order something else, but I just can't. I've got to order what I know I will like. Is anyone else like that?
It was so nice to go out without kids and relax with friends over an almost 3 hour dinner. Great friends are such a blessing! So are good babysitters!
Happy birthday to my amazing husband.

Creamy Hot Chocolate

Tonight I decided to make a little treat for myself: hot chocolate. I did a quick search for a recipe and decided to give this one a try. Supposedly it's the Starbucks hot chocolate recipe.
This was so creamy and delicious. It only took a couple of minutes to put together and all of the ingredients are things I normally have stocked in my kitchen.

Here's the recipe:

• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 cups milk (We only had skim milk, so that's what I used)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• whipped cream
• chocolate shavings (optional)

Directions

1. Measure water, cocoa, and sugar in glass measuring cup or large mug. Stir well.
2. Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes to make chocolate syrup.
3. Stir in milk and vanilla and microwave until warm.
4. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

I skipped the chocolate shavings since it already was very rich. I'm going to be making this again soon!

Baby Shower Yummies

Last night I hosted a baby shower for a great friend.

My sister and I had fun creating a few treats for the shower.

First up is these mini carrot cake cupcakes.
The recipe came from this book and it is truly the best and most amazingly delicious carrot cake EVER. I've had this for my birthday cake more than once and I'm normally a chocolate dessert girl.
The recipe made a lot of mini cupcakes. Around 75 of them. Yum!
I used a little Cosmo Cricket Earth Love paper to make these cupcake decorations.

Don't you love the mini polka dot cupcake holders? I picked them up from this Etsy shop a few months ago.

Next up were these chocolate mousse treats. One friend said that it was her new favorite dessert.
Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Mousse. Make it soon and you won't be sorry!

This recipe is for a pie filling, but I like creating these smaller, more fancy desserts.

Chocolate Mouse

4oz. Bakers Germans Sweet Chocolate

1/3 c. Milk

2 T Sugar

4 oz Cream Cheese

8 oz Cool Whip

Melt the Chocolate in a double boiler. Meanwhile, mix milk, sugar, and cream cheese together. Once chocolate is almost cool, mix into above. Once mixed, fold in the Cool Whip. Refrigerate 4 hours tell firm.

Top Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Cookies with a dollop of mousse and enjoy!

DT Call and FREE Class

Just wanted to quickly stop in and let you know about a couple of things.

1. Scrapbook Circle has posted details on their design team call. It's always so fun to see so much beautiful work coming to my inbox. Making a decision is never easy.

2. Jessica Sprague is offering a free Holiday journaling/album class on her site. The deadline for signing up is tonight. So hurry over and sign up if you haven't already. I've taken a couple of her classes and they are always very organized and filled with great ideas. Plus, since the class is free, I don't have to worry about not doing everything for the class. I can just do what I have time for and not have any guilt!

Gift Album Idea

My daughter needs to bring a gift to school for a 10 year old girl who loves to draw. I decided that it would be fun to make a few journals/drawing books for her.

One of the most exciting thing about this project for me was the fact that I FINALLY pulled my bind-it-all out of my closet, dusted it off and used it. I've had it for over two years, but lost interest in making my own mini albums right after I got it.

Here's a look at what I put together. This first album is about 6" X 4". I really liked how these Sassafras papers are so playful and bright. Perfect for a girl's art journal.I covered craft chipboard for the covers to make it more sturdy than just cardstock. This inside pages on all of these albums were made from cutting regular white printer paper down to the size of the covers.
I used up my few last scraps of the July Scrapbook Circle kit for this next album. I really love finishing off kits! The cover of this album is from the Teresa Collins line of chipboard that was made for the bind-it-all. I've had this since getting the bind-it-all, so it made me happy to finally use it up.

This final album was a little bigger than the others and measures about 6" X 9". I finished off the last bits of my November SC kit with this journal.
Now that the November kit is gone, I get to start playing with my December kit!
I'm thinking that I may make more of these with my daughter to give to her friends for Christmas. This was a great way for me to get to use up some of my supplies and make something that someone will hopefully enjoy.

It's a Boy Banner

Next week I'm hosting a baby shower for a friend. I'm keeping things simple, but I couldn't resist putting this banner together today to use for a little decor during the shower.Supplies: Letter cards: Collage Press; Patterned Paper, stickers, rub-ons: Cosmo Cricket Earth Love; Tickets: Tim Holtz; Ribbon: Basic Grey.

Thanksgiving Crafting

I hope that I will be able to squeeze in some time this month for some thankful themed crafting.

This is one idea from Family Fun that I'd really like to make:If I don't get this put together for Thanksgiving, I'll aim for a Christmas themed saying for this project.

Plaid Toes

I wouldn't normally take a picture of my feet. I think I took a picture of my feet once when I was at the beach and I was looking out at the ocean and my toes were in the picture. But feet pictures really aren't one of my top subjects.

But I just could resist taking this photo.A friend and I went and got pedicures for her birthday last week. We tried out a new place that has hundreds (not exaggerating) of designs to choose from for the polish on your toes.

I opted for a fall colored plaid with sparkles. How fun it that?

Luckily it's still quite warm here, so I can still wear sandals!

A Little Fun...

My sweet friend, Stacy, gave me a cool blog award and list of questions to answer with only one word. I get to pass this award on to 5 others.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse


2. Your hair? brown


3. Your mother? caring


4. Your father? hard worker


5. Your favorite food? burrito


6. Your dream last night? none


7. Your favorite drink? Water


8. Your dream/goal? joy


9. What room are you in? family room


10. Your hobby? scrapbooking


11. Your fear? fear


12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home


13. Where were you last night? home


14. Something that you aren't? singer


15.Muffins? bran


16. Wish list item? happiness


17. Where did you grow up? Tempe


18. Last thing you did? Played Uno


19. What are you wearing? pajamas


20. Your TV? off


21. Your Pets? none


22. Friends? amazing


23. Your life? wonderful


24. Your mood? thankful


25. Missing Someone? Yes


26. Vehicle? Armada


27. Something your not wearing? Glasses


28. Your favorite store? Target


29. Your favorite color? Green

30. When was the last time you laughed? tonight


31. Last time you cried? Last month


32. Your best friend? husband


33. One place that I go to over and over? Target!


34. Facebook? Yes


35. Favorite place to eat? Barrio Cafe and el Charro

I'm passing this along to 5 wonderfully creative fellow bloggers.

Candace: Always thoughtful and love the creations she shares.

Jennifer: Wow! Everything she create is absolutely gorgeous. So creative and kind!

Lady Grace: Love looking at her creations. So full and life and energy.

Tiffany: She is so good with words. Every post thoroughly entertains.

Bethany: So creative. Great with new techniques. Always inspiring.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Loving this Peach Cobbler

Everyone in our family has been feeling under the weather for a couple of days. I decided that we needed a yummy comfort food dessert.

We ended up making this peach cobbler. I've made this recipe two or three times and it's delicious every time. There's is just something wonderful about warm fruit with a sweet biscuit style topping.This is a perfect cozy. fall dessert that goes perfectly with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Meeting the Pioneer Woman

My sister, Michelle, and I both enjoy following the Pioneer Woman's blog. We've both made several of her recipes and we were excited to see that she was coming out with a new cookbook.
Ree (The Pioneer Woman) is currently on a book tour for her new cookbook and she came to a bookstore very close to us last night.

Michelle got there early and helped us score front row seats for Ree's Q & A session.
I'm guessing that there were at least 400 people there wanting to have their books signed. We decided it wasn't worth the wait and went home. Later, we decided that we may as well go back and get our books signed.
It was fun to meet her and talk about one of our family's favorite appetizers, the Jalepeno Bacon Wrapped goodness.

A few of our other favorite recipes from PW are...

French Breakfast Puffs (made as mini muffins)
Macaroni and Cheese
Cornbread (I've only made the cornbread, not the beans, but I think I need to give the beans a try!
PW's Creamy Mashed Pototoes

After briefly chatting with Ree, we also stopped by to say hi to her sister-in-law and mother-in-law.
It was a fun night out!

Thankful

I love November. It is a time where I really love to focus on all of my blessings. It seems like a lot of people are focused on gratitude. Love that.

Here's a quick thankful card I put together. The Jillibean corrugated alphas are one of my favorite embellishments right now!

2 Thumbs Down

While we were in Colorado this summer, a sudden thunder and lightening storm came upon us. When we were seeking cover at an animal rescue place, I asked Hannah what she thought about the storm.

She gave me a very sad face and showed me 2 thumbs down. I caught her response on camera and here's a layout I just made with the photo.She said, "I really didn't like the storm because it was blowing my umbrella away. If the storm wouldn't have been blowing my umbrella, it would have been 1 thumb up for the storm." Funny girl.

I created the background for the layout by using the cloud sticker at the bottom of this sticker sheet. I stuck the sticker on the background paper several times and sprayed with mist. I really like how this made reinforced the storm theme of the layout.

Hopefully storms will be more friendly to her umbrella in the future!

Everything on the layout is from the November Scrapbook Circle kit.

Pumpkins!

We had a fantastic Halloween. We enjoyed the evening in our old neighborhood where we got to catch up with many friends. The kids consumed enough sugar to keep them going until next Halloween.Hope you had a fun night!