Valentines Candy

A couple of years ago I received some candy making supplies for Christmas. I've had a lot of fun with making different kinds of chocolate.  The other night Addison and I decided to make some for her to give to my dad and stepmom (Papa and Gamma). 

I love how they turned out and they make such a fun gift!

Banana Muffins and a Crepe Fail

Tonight I tried two new recipes. I received an email today from Eat Better America with a recipe for Chocolate Crepes with Bananas. It looked so good, so I decided we would have it as a special dinner.  It looked really good, but it did not taste good. I will definitely not be making these again.

Then I tried a new recipe I found on allrecipes.com  It's Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, but I left out the chocolate chips, they turned out really good.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar (I used 1/2 c white and 1/4 c brown)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 egg
1/2 c vegetable oil (I used 1/4 c oil and 1/4 applesauce)
1/2 c plain yogurt (I used 1/4 c fat free sour cream and 1/4 c skim milk)
1 t vanilla
1 c mashed ripe bananas (I used 2.5 bananas)
3/4 c semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the banas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I baked these in mini muffin tins and sprinkled a little sugar on the top before baking them.

Free Canvas

I've seen posts about the free canvas from canvas people on quite a few blogs this year.  Today I finally got around to checking out the site and ordering one. You get a $55 credit, so you can get a 8x10 canvas for free or upgrade to a larger size, the 11x14 would be $9.99.  I decided to go with the free 8x10 as I will be using it either in our bedroom or Addison's bedroom.  I used a beautiful picture of Addison taken this fall in black and white. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

If you would like a free or discounted canvas check out the canvas people here https://secured.canvaspeople.com/freegift

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It was busy at our house, unfortunately, Dustin had to work midnights all weekend.  We started our holiday with Christmas at his parents on Thursday. Christmas day Addison and I went to Ely to my dad and stepmoms.

Addison was so excited Christmas morning. Santa brought her the Hello Kitty camera that she asked the Santa at Bentlyville for.

Santa Belly Ornaments

The last couple of years we have made ornaments for Addison to give to her teachers at school and her grandparents. We keep one for our tree too.

This year we made Santa Bellys.  She really didn't get too involved with this one since I had to use hot glue.  I bought the ornaments last year on clearance. Then I cut a piece of felt into strips that were 3/4 inches wide. I used gold pipe cleaners for the buckle. I hot glued those onto the felt and then the felt onto the ornament.  On the back I used black permanent marker to write her name and the year.

I think they turned out really cute.

Here she is showing one of them off.



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Christmas Cards

Twinkle Flakes Scarlet Christmas 5x7 folded card

Personalize the christmas season with Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly made it so easy to make our Christmas cards this year. The hardest part was choosing which design and which pictures to use.

Ho Ho Ho! Holiday Cards from Shutterfly!

It's that time of year again where I am in the search of the cutest Christmas card to send to our family and friends.  This year I stumbled across a wonderful deal that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers. Not only is it a wonderful deal, but they have some of the cutest designs that I have seen.

They have Christmas Card designs here.  What's nice is you can choose if you want one picture or more than three.  Some years I pick one, others I choose to have more. It all depends on how many pictures are so cute that I can't decide which one to use.

This one is so cute and I can picture my blonde haired, blue eyed little girl on it.

They also have Holiday Cards here, incase you don't want to use the word Christmas in your cards.

This one is so cute. My daughter is going to be four this year and is so excited to make a snowman!



I can't get over how cute the Christmas Gift Tags they have here. They are just so cute! I think this one is my favorite. How fun would it be to use these on gifts for your loved ones!

I have ordered from Shutterfly many times in the past. Their picture quality is excellent and I have always received my items very fast.

I haven't decided which card to order for this Christmas, but I'm sure with all of the choices that Shutterfly offers it will be a wonderful one!

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