shabby

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Applesauce

 Last Friday the girls and I made some applesauce. It was a great day of hanging out, chatting like we girls do best, and getting some free, yummy applesauce at the end of it. I also got to play with my new camera a little bit, and got some fun photos of the process.
 




 I love playing around with my new camera, but still have so much to learn. I can't wait to start taking some classes and learning all that it can do. Thanks for reading!

Cake Balls

A friend of mine had a milestone birthday last week, the big 3-0. We had a great big shindig with tons of food, drinks, a party bus, and a visit to the casino. It was a wonderful night. The week leading up to the party began preparations. A couple of the girls and I made the most wonderful substitute for the classic birthday cake. Cake Balls! We had no idea what we were in for when we started this process. Here is how it is done:
Start with a fully baked cooled cake (flavor of your choice).  Break it into a bowl, and either with a fork or your hands crumble it into teeny-tiny pieces.
 Once the cake is completely crumbled up, mix the cake with 2/3-a whole can of frosting. (There are also other options of mix-ins. We also used a couple different kinds of coffee creamer for a few different flavors.) We did yellow cake with chocolate frosting (birthday girl's favorite combo, strawberry cake with vanilla coffee creamer, and chocolate cake with hazelnut coffee creamer. The mixture needs to be sticky enough so that you can roll it into balls.
 The next step is rolling the mixture into balls. Make sure not to make them so large, they should be bite size. Put them onto a cookie sheet and into the freezer for about an hour so they stiffen up enough to dip without falling apart.
 Dipping is the next part of the process. We used almond bark and chocolate chips (with added shortening) for the coating. We found the best method to be rolling the ball in the coating, and then scooping it out with a fork and tapping the excess off.
 Not all of them turned out perfect, but they tasted amazing! Make sure you have plenty of time for the entire process, and have fun!
 Here's the birthday girl holding her "cake". She looked fabulous!
 All my favorite girlfriends together for one great night!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The freezer project...

So I looked in my freezer today and this is what I found:
 A complete disaster! I had no idea what half of the stuff in there was. So I decided to start cleaning it out. Wow, I was in for a surprise. This was a quick project, and very rewarding. Here are the results...
I love finishing a project like this, so rewarding! (Now I just need to really make an effort of not filling it up again)

I think this will be a week long project for the rest of this week.Cleaning much used areas that have been over-run. Here is a preview of tomorrow:
The kitchen table (yikes!)

There is sunshine in your smile...

I have the most beautiful son. Every morning when I wake up and I see his beautiful face I see the sunshine in his smile. He makes me laugh. He makes me so happy. He is my life. I also have the most wonderful husband. On the mornings I wake up early enough to his beautiful face I see the sunshine in his smile. He is so good to me, and I will live my life trying to be so good to him. My life is wonderful, I couldn't ask for more. I love to cook, sew, craft, bake, and take pictures. These are all things I am working on perfecting, one project at a time. Please feel free to join me on this adventure as I log my progress doing the things I love.