Cake Batter Cookies

Cake Batter Cookies
Very quick recipe, I think I'm going to test it out today for a work luncheon.
I'm going to try it with funfetti cake mix and sprinkles :)!

yum!
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DIY Bracelet

Materials used:
11/0 copper beads
Black waxed thread
Black button

Directions:
Click Here!

:) turned out nice!

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Old Sewing machine DIY

I found this old rusty sewing machine stand on my Grandpa's farm. The design was so unique, It was a waste for it to just sit out there and rust away. I had a crafty idea and my dad helped put my vision into reality.
It took a lot of sanding, painting and hard work, but I think it was all worth it :)!!

Here are the pictures:

 

I used a hammer, screws, screwdriver... etc to create dings in the wood and make it old.

I used a gray wood stain and sealed it. 

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Clipboard

Vamp up an boring clipboard!! :)

Materials:
2 scrapbook paper sheets
Twine ribbon
white paint
sponge
twine
mod podge
clipboard (1.99 @ target)


First, take a piece of regular paper to trace a template for the top part of the clipboard. Trace this onto your desired scrapbook sheet for the top half of your clipboard.
Cut the second sheet to fit where you would like the 2 papers to meet.
Mod podge the entire clipboard!
Place the top scrapbook sheet on first, then place the second half on.
Mod podge over the scrapbook paper and let dry (mod podge the entire surface)

Once dried:
Mod podge a line where you would like to place your ribbon. I used a twine ribbon strip.
Take a sponge and sponge white paint around the edge of the entire clipboard.

At the top of my clipboard was a little metal hook where you can hang the clipboard, I just tied a bow with twine and...
Viola! FINISHED!

Cute?
I plan on using this at work.
Note: The ribbon with cause issues when writing with a sheet a paper, I plan on using my clipboard to place documents or notes on where I won't be writing a lot with it. The ribbon strip can even be placed further down the clipboard if you plan on using it to write on.

The clipboard can be used for anything! Pin It

Valentine's Day Outfit

The bf and I went out to a nice dinner at Flemming's. He wore his fancy suit and I wore a simple dress.
We had a nice time, but I know Flemming's doesn't compare to Perry's Steakhouse!!
The food was good, but Perry's seems to have more of the flavors we both enjoy.

Outfit:
Lace maroon Dress- Kohls
Black Tights
Black pumps- Payless
Elastic waist belt- Kohls
Necklace- Chaps (Kohls)
Bracelet- Old Navy

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day!
:) Pin It

Vintage Frame

Remember that frame I hot glued paper flowers to?
My bff gave me a great idea to spray paint a simple frame a bright color and sandpaper the paint off to give it a vintage look. The ones she made looked so good! She let me borrow the spray paint and try it myself :) (Thanks girl!!)

I took the flowers off the frame, spray painted it, and let it sit out in the sun to dry.
Once it was dry, I took a piece of sandpaper and scratched certain areas to make it look like old paint.

Lastly, I hot glued the flowers back on.

Here is the finished look:
(FYI: I blurred the picture I have inside the frame :P)

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Miss Crafty

Took a trip to Michaels and Hobby Lobby for some cute craft ideas. I have been wanting some faux ranunculus flowers to put in a mason jar. My mom had a mason jar, so I saved a few cents there :)

I trimmed the stems and placed them nicely in the jar. I love the bright spring colors and the shape of the petals. These are from the "fresh picked" collection at Hobby Lobby. I had to get a soft pink, light peach and a white to mix them up a little. Definitely adds a nice chic touch to my desk :)

I bought the small frame (happened to be in my favorite teal color) at Michaels and picked up a small tube of chalkboard paint ($1.19). I color the inside of the frame (popped out the plastic film cover) and use it as a cute little chalkboard!

I bought a few other things too.

I wanted to make something cute for the ol' boyfriend for Valentine's day so I am currently working on a nice craft using mod podge and canvas....

I'll post pics soon.

<3

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Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

Ground lean turkey meat (1 roll)
1 egg
2 garlic cloves
chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup bread crumbs (italian)
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
dash of salt/pepper

Sauce:
Spaghetti sauce packet
tomato sauce
chopped parsley
fresh leaf spinach
1/4 cup drained pasta water

Mix all the meatball ingredients together and form into balls. I suggest cooking these on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to reduce sticking.
Cook in oven for about 8 minutes at 400. Then flip the meatballs and cook another 5 minutes.
They can be cooked a little less if you plan to add them to the sauce for a bit.
Make sure they are cooked through and not pink!!!

After they are fully cooked, add them to the sauce and let sit in the marinade until ready to serve over pasta.

Top with shredded parmesan!

ENJOY!!
 :)


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Quesadillas

My best friend introduced me to a quesadilla maker and so I ended up buying one too!
Yes, yes, they can be made without one, but I thought it was neat and fast.

Recipe:

Shredded chicken
Lime
Taco seasoning (I made my own)
Pepper Jack cheese slice
Shredded Mexican style cheese
Tortillas
Red Bell pepper

First, I put my shredded chicken tossed with my taco seasoning into a skillet with chopped up red bell pepper and a little bit of squeezed lime juice.

Then, I took a tortilla and put shredded cheese onto it. As the chicken finished warming up (my chicken was already cooked) I sprinkled the seasoned chicken and bell pepper onto the tortilla as well.

I tore a pepper jack cheese slice on the top too!

Last, I placed it in my quesadilla maker with the 2nd tortilla on top and let it cook for about 7 min.


DELICIOUS!
I dipped it in fresh guacamole.


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Casual

Outfit:
Shirt: Old Navy
Necklace: Rose Gold, Coach
Necklace: Vera Wang
Purse: B. Makowsky
Shoes: Gold Glitter Sandals, Payless
Pants: Dark Skinny Jeans, Hollister

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Leopard

Todays Outfit:

Sweater: Leopard, Old Navy
Jeans: Abercrombie & Fitch (I destroyed them myself)
Wedges: Nude, Payless
Bag: Coach leather wristlet
Hair: Curling wand
Makeup: brown smokey eye

     

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Me and Teal

I love this color! A bit bold on, but gorgeous!
It doesn't matter if it is a darker or lighter teal, it's my favorite color.

Here's Me and Teal:

Burnout white shirt: Old Navy
Watch: Rose Gold Fossil
Necklace: Vera Wang Gold
Pants: Hydraulic Kohls
Flats: Vera Wang

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DIY Scentsy Bars

I absolutely love my Scentsy! One of my girlfriends and I went to a Bridal Extravaganza downtown and  there was a Scentsy seller. I had wanted one for awhile so I went ahead and bought one :)

My mom would buy me scentsy bars from ebay and they smell amazing!
I also LOVE Bath & Body Works candles too and they burn nicely. However, there always comes a time when the candle get low and they won't burn. So I saw the idea to melt the candle wax and pour it into a scentsy mold or ice tray.
(The orange wax I made previously is Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin from B&BW)
It's super easy!!
Materials:

• Candle Warmer
• Old empty Scentsy container, or ice tray
• Plastic baggy (something to store your wax bar in)
• printable sticker sheet (optional)

Step 1: Melting
Plug in your candle warmer and place the desired candle on top to melt the candle wax.

Step 2: Pouring
Make sure the empty scentsy container and/or ice tray is clean. Pour the melted wax from the candle into the container. (The wax will not melt the scentsy plastic container)

Step 3: Cooling
Let cool down and harden. You can store your new bar in the container or pop it out and put it in a baggy.

Step 4: Labeling
Label your baggies with these neat office printable stickers by opening up Microsoft Word and designing cute labels to remind you what scent each new bar is! You can always just write on the bag with a sharpie!

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Chewy Sugar Cookies

Delicious!

My dad asked me to make some sugar cookies and I came across this recipe here.

However, of course, I made my own changes!

My recipe:

The changes I made are underlined to the original recipe.

"Chewy Sugar Cookies"

Yield: about 2.5 dozen

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup Country Crock LIGHT
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Extra granulated sugar for rollin

"Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light in color and fluffy (about 5 minutes on medium-high speed). Stir in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture stirring until a ball of dough forms.

Form rounded tablespoon-sized balls of dough then roll in sugar. Place 1½ inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes until just starting to brown at the edges. Let stand on baking sheet two minutes before removing to cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up a week."

A technique I learned from another blogger is to sort of pinch your dough balls into a tower so that they are more so taller than wider. This helps with the spreading of cookies when they bake.

I also DID NOT use an electric or stand mixer, just a spoon.

This recipe is a good one! I am going to keep it for sure :)

I wanted to make it slightly more healthier by using light margarine than butter.

I also put some white chocolate chips in a few of them and they turned out tasty too!

Happy baking!

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Lunch

Yummy pasta!

Ingredients:

• 4 whole mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• italian seasoning 
• fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• dash of salt, pepper
• 2 tbsp of diced red onion
• 2 cups Pasta ( I chose veggie shells)
• olive oil
• garlic
• diced tomatoes optional

Simmer mushrooms and spinach in a drizzle of olive oil until mushrooms are slightly brown.
Add salt, pepper and onions. Cook until onions are translucent. Add garlic last, cook for 1 min on low.
Simmer tomato sauce for 1 min. Add cooked/drained pasta and sprinkle with italian seasoning. (Do not over cook seasoning or garlic or else sauce will be bitter).

Instead of making a sauce, buy your favorite sauce at the store.
When I do not feel like being extra cautious about accidentally making the sauce bitter, I "kick up" the flavor of the store bought sauce with fresh spinach, garlic powder and sautéed mushrooms.



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My Toes!

I saw a lot of the "Half-moon" nail designs lately and wanted to try it out.
I used a circle band-aid (rounded end) to make the moon effect.

• First I painted my toe with 1 coat of silver nail polish
• Placed the band-aid (made it less sticky by peeling it on and off of my hand 3 times)
• painted Essie-Lady Like 2 coats
• added Essie silver glitter x3 on top of the silver polish
• For the other toes, I just added glitter near the cuticles

:)

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Make Your Own Scrapbook

I learned how to make scrapbooks in an Early Childhood class in high school 4 years ago my Senior year. My teacher had us use the soft white fluff you can buy to put between fabric for blankets as part of the front and back cover. This made the scrapbooks soft for kids to pick up and have in their rooms.

I skipped this step for my new scrapbook and it works and looks just fine.

Materials needed:

• 1 yd fabric of choice
• hot glue gun
• trinkets (I used keys from an old Forever21 necklace I had)
• 1inch binder (or whatever size you would like)

I made a frame on the front of my scrapbook for a picture which I have never done before, but I decided to attempt to make one...it worked. :)

To make the frame, the materials include:

• manila folder
• plastic page protector

First, simply place the binder onto the fabric and cut around the edges, make sure enough fabric overlaps. It is ok, because there will be a piece of fabric on top to cover the flaps. 

The tricky part is getting the fabric under the center binding. Hot glue the top flap to fit under the top of the binding. 

Once all of the flaps are glued, cut a strip of fabric to slip under the middle binding and glue into place. Make sure it matches the top and bottom of the binding. I know, I know, it's hard to explain. Here is a picture to show the inside of the binder. You will notice the glued flaps are not showing, that is because I glued another square of fabric to each side of the binder to cover up those scrappy glued flaps.

These are some of the pictures I took of it, I'd be happy to explain how to make it...or make a video- they are not that hard to make! Does take a bit of patience though, however I am a perfectionist!!

Have fun, happy crafting!

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Windy Day

Todays Outfit:
Short sleeved Sweater -AE
Necklace- Vera Wang
White lace top- A&F
Leggings- Old Navy
Black Pumps- Payless

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