Cuppycakes

As part of my new calling, I was asked to do the dessert for our Relief Society Christmas party. Naturally I turned to my brilliant sister Mary for ideas, and she suggested these cupcakes. Some of you girls will remember eating them in Park City. Lucky you, now I have the recipe and can share it with you!

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 18

1/2 c Butter
1/2 c Cocoa
1 1/2 c Unsweetened Applesauce
2 1/2 c All-purpose Flour
2 c Sugar
1 1/2 ts Baking Soda
1/2 ts Salt
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 c Mini Chocolate Chips

Heat butter and cocoa together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add applesauce and bring to a boil. Set cocoa mixture aside to cool. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a wire whisk. Add eggs and vanilla to cocoa mixture. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips, but don't overmix. Scoop about 1 1/2 oz into paper lined cupcake pans. Bake 15-20 min at 350*. Cool and dip tops into warm ganache.

Ganache
12 oz good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 oz heavy cream
1 ts vanilla

Bring cream to a boil and pour over chocolate. Let sit 5 min. Add vanilla and stir until smooth and glossy.

I decorated these with crushed peppermint candies for Christmas. You could use shaved white chocolate in January, heart candies in February, gumdrop shamrocks in March (roll gumdrops flat with extra sugar and cut out with a cookie cutter), robin's egg candies in April, edible flowers like pansies or violets in May, fresh berries in June and July, gummy pop bottles in August, sugared grapes in September, candy corn in October, salty sweet potato chips in November.

It's cupcakes all year long!

Ana Montana

Tomato Cage Christmas Trees

Well girls, I don't have Victoria's sense of style or Jannet's craftsiness, but I can put together a bargain and this is a pretty good example. Most of us have tomato cages that we use in the summer for gardens. If we don't have them already, they're cheap to get when summer comes around! I spent a little more for mine because they were cute and red and sturdier than what you usually see, but the regular kinds work fine, too.

When it's time to decorate your yard for Christmas, turn them upside down, use a rubber band to secure the ends together to make a cone shape, and wrap them in lights. I used the net lights (blue bubble LED lights, to be specific, but any kind will work) and it was super easy. You can just intertwine them to hold them on, or you could use some tape or zip ties. I didn't need any. I set them on top of the big pots on my front porch.

I have seen these done with several kinds of lights on each tree and that's also really cute.

Almost-free tree shapes for your front yard ... my first el cheapo decor item for you. Enjoy.

Ana Montana

personalized clipboard

hi ladies!! i made personalized clipboards this year for the kids' teachers. then, the kids made their own. so, of course, i can't be left out, so i made a PRINCESS one - just for me!! here's the end product. let me know if you want step-by-step instructions. so so stinking easy!! of course, i had to make a pretty fluffy pen to finish it off ... it's so fluffy, i'm gonna DIE!! ;)

Coffee Filter Fun!

I am making these for my daughter's wedding, so I thought I would post a short tutorial of how I am doing it.

You start out with-

• Styrofoam Ball- cheaper at dollar stores
• Coffee Filters-cheap at dollar stores
• Glue Gun & Glue
• Ribbon & Pins

Size of the ball does not matter, these coffee filter balls get big, so I used a medium size ball for this one.

You fold the coffee filter in half

Then fold it in half again

One more time :)

So now they are in 1/4ths (try not to smooth out the top, you want it to keep it's wavy shape) You will want to cut the end off

It will not matter how much at first BUT you will want to cut each one roughly the same otherwise you will have a lot to cut off in the end.

Now it's time to glue them onto the ball, I found that it's best to put a little glue in-between the folds at the bottom too and then just put some glue on the end and hold it to the ball for a few seconds. Just keep adding more up against each other so there are no gaps

Work your way around the ball- This is the time your thinking "What the ba-gee-bers was I thinking making this ball?"

It takes time to get this done, but so worth it! After you think your done, find more bare spots and add a few more filters till you have the desired look. From this point your going to see why I mention above how important it is you cut them the same, otherwise you have highs and lows and now you will have to use scissors and trim the edges to have an even edge all the way around.

Now take some ribbon and your pins, put some hot glue on the ends and shove them into the top of your ball.

Walla your done! Now you can go hang it somewhere fun!

Oh, and I am making wreaths right now out of them, same concept only with a styrofoam wreath. Posting it later. :)

{Book Review} "Elixir"

Quote on what the book is about-

"Seventeen-year-old Clea, the daughter of a senator and a famed surgeon, is a paparazzi magnet, photojournalist, and world traveler. Things change when she notices a handsome, timeless young man in her vacation pictures. Even more unsettling, in some photos he seems to float, and the specter soon haunts her dreams as well. Vivid visions of past lives with this man make Clea curious and lead her to the jungles of Brazil, where her father has gone missing while on a search for the “elixir of life.”


This book is written by Hilary Duff-yep that Hillary Duff, the cute girl from Lizzy McGuire. She has turned into a beautiful woman with many talents.

This book though didn't feel original, I felt like I was reading several books put together-ones I have read before. The story flowed well, and I actually was intriqued at the beginning to uncover this mystery. In the end I felt disapointed, she was obviously leading us to a sequal but to be honest I will not be picking it up even if someone left it on my doorstep.

The characters were superficial, I could not learn to love or hate them, they were just there, although Clea's friend Rayna was funny at times in the book it was not enough for me, and I am so tired of the whole "torn between two men" story line too. I may be old fashion too, but I am soooooo... not a prud, yet I have to say the author took the book to a place it didn't need to go. In fact up to that point, it was a somewhat clean book, not sure why she felt the need to put casual sex in a book geared towards teens, but maybe like the rest of the world she feels like why fight it? I tend to feel the opposite and want to see an author stand up for once! I felt it was not only unnecessary but ruined the rest of the book, it wasn't so much about having sex, but the silly way she went into it, cheesy, corny, just plain dumb and if I was Clea- a huge turnoff! But maybe that's me?

2 stars

Teen-Young Adult read 16+ imo
Adventure-Mystery-Supernatural
Adult Sexual Themes-Minor language-Minor Violence

Giving Thanks

I tend to ignore the decorating side of Thanksgiving like so many, even last year when I decorated my Mother in Laws tables for Thanksgiving I did it in a beautiful Silver Christmas Style. This year I decided Thanksgiving should not be ignored and set out to make some fun, but cheap fun!

I took the little pumpkins we grew in our garden and spray painted them an off white color, along with two fake bigger pumpkins I have had for years that were in sad shape.

I added some burlap and button flowers I made to the top of the large ones-really to hide the holes in them. Hee!

I made a fun burlap, felt and lace garland, and a burlap bunting for their fireplace. I cheated on the "Give Thanks" lettering by making them on my computer, printing them off and just cutting them out and glueing them on the flags. One day I will have my coveted Silhouette machine :)

For the tables I just used some tulle and ribbon in the middle and put the pumpkins on it, I also added some old Thanksgiving postcards I found online and just printed off on my printer with some twine to the tulle and pumpkins. Then I used a few of my glasses as lamps, just put a flicker battery light in them and made some shades out of scrapbook paper.

For the kids table I just used some extra burlap, some different pumpkins and postcard. I also printed off some coloring pages for them, a tic tac toe cards and put some crayons in cups for them to enjoy!

I also found some more fun stuff on the internet to print off and framed them and put them around the serving tables and such

Decorating is about having fun, so go out and have some fun!

Shabby Chic'ing Furniture

For my daughters wedding we are working on the theme of Shabby Chic which has been our style even before it was so popular. :) (or so we would "like" to think) I love the old/new look and so we wanted to make a few things for her.

I found this table at a thrift store for $10
Before:

I found some wood appliques at a local home store, glued them on, sanded the table and spray painted it turquoise:

After the second coat of paint I let dry for a day, went back out and sanded the edges to rough them up, tried to make them look like normal wear and tear-I even added some scuff marks to the top for added character. Then I added a colored glaze. This is the tricky part. Ralph Lauren used to make an aging glaze (they probably still do) but the home store no longer sells that line so I picked their normal glaze and added a dark brown to it but I think this one had too much purple hue- but it turned out alright since that works well with her colors of her wedding.

When you apply the glaze, do it with a nice paint brush to one area, then with a painters cloth you wipe of the excess till you get the desired amount and look your after. This is a trial and error process so don't be afraid of it, just have fun!

Let dry for 24 hours at least and then spray on a Polyurethane coating everywhere. Let dry 2 hours then spray again. This will protect your project.

Note: After the glaze is on your are going to want "no one" to touch it, no little fingers or paws! Trust me, otherwise you will be redoing some of it. The polyurethane will seal it all in, this is a very important step!

Here is the after effects of your hard work

After:

The wood appliques now stand out more, and gave this table more character than it ever had, simple but worth it.

Now we have a fun Cake Table for her wedding! Hope this inspired you to create your own fun furniture project.

Items you will need:

• Table-  yard sale and thrift stores are wonderful!
• Sander-  I just used a simple block sander not an electric one
• Glue-   wood glue that is paintable is best
• Wood Appliques-  find them at your local home improvement stores
• Spray paint-   you could used regular pain but spray paint is easier for me
• Paint Brush-   for glaze
• Painters cloth-  tear it up in smaller pieces works great for this
• Glaze with added tint-   brown works well for making things "age"

Have fun!