CARAMEL??!! Free Printables!!

It was a HUGE newsflash to me when I heard the news!

Did you know that you could turn cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk into CARAMEL??? You can cook it into a caramel drizzling sauce, dipping sauce or SPREAD!!!!

One of my FAVORITE blogs, This Crazy Life-Michelle Underwood Designs, gives all the deets!! Not only does she give details on preparation, she graciously gives FREE PRINTABLES to doll your caramel sauces up for gifting!!!

Here are a few of her finished products:



Here are pictures of her ADORABLE free printables!!:

(Yes it says "CHRISTMAS," however, the red and white labels are PERFECT for the little holiday we have coming up in 1 WEEK!!!)

Please head over to This Crazy Life-Michelle Underwood Designs! Get yourselves some cuteness and tell her THANK YOU!!!

Get Your HEART on!!

How fun!! A website where you can make your own conversation hearts!! Visit here to customize yours!!

Cinnamon Cheesecake Muffins

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS!!!!

I semi-homemade the most heavenly dessert Ever, EVER!!

My inspiration came from my favorite local bakery, Rao's. I Love, LoVe, LOVE their strawberry cheesecake muffins. They have these scrumptious little cream cheese "bits" inside of them that make you want to jump up and slap your mama!! (That is for you, Christine!!)

As I was formulating my dinner plan, I began to crave one of those little darlins. However, I also began to crave one of my other faves, Krusteaz Cinnamon Crumb Cake. I thought to myself, I wish Rao's had a cinnamon cream cheese muffin. WAIT A MINUTE!! I could MAKE a dozen cinnamon cream cheese muffins for the price of ONE!!

So I gathered my supplies:
Krusteaz Cinnamon Crumb Cake Mix
1 Egg
2/3 cup of water
Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Cheesecake flavor NOT their new cheesecake filling tub!)
Leftover Christmas Muffin Tin Liners
12 count Muffin tin



I followed the directions for mixing "muffins" on the back of the Krusteaz box.

When it came time for layering, I just added three little "bits" of the cheesecake flavored cream cheese. Here is layer 1:

The layer 2 picture is no where to be found! Trust me though....it looked good! Each muffin cup had two layers for a total of SIX cream cheese "bits."

13 minutes later:

WARM, BUBBLY, CINNAMON CHEESECAKE HEAVEN!!!

1 dozen muffins= $3.00

The Strong Man, Barnum and Bailey ALL gobbled them down!! It was a Red Letter Day for me!! There is NEVER unanimous agreement in this Circus!!

Please try this recipe out for yourselves and let me know what you think!!

Gingerbread Choo Choo Train

Look what we did!!!

A Moment of Peace

Someone PuhLEASE tell me what I was thinking!! WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?

I gave the boys CHOCOLATE ice cream cones to keep them quiet so I could check my Google Reader. After about three minutes of stone silence, my "holysmokesitisstrangelyquietwhatcouldtheybedoing" mommy sense went off.

"Boys, you guys aren't being messy are you?" I asked. Barnum replied, "NO, I'm not! Brother kind of is though."

Barnum's statement completely confirmed my panic so I ran into the living room. As I turned the corner, I found this:

WHY was he rubbing his ice cream cone ON HIS TOES????

Bailey, "I SEE, I SEE ME!!" He wanted to see his picture on the camera.

"HA HA HA HA, I durdy," Bailey told me.

What a cute, dirty little PUNK!!!

Lesson learned. As the mother of a 4 and 2 year old, I don't have the privilege of checking my email or Google Reader during waking hours. I also don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.

WHY ON EARTH WOULD I GIVE THEM CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM CONES?? (The answer: because they asked!)

Meet Stellaria Media

Nothing says "I love You" like the gift of fresh flowers!

Imagine my surprise and delight when today, I was the proud recipient of this arrangement! YUP! I was chosen by the four little darlins I was chaperoning today to receive this delightful gift.

Is it the promise of blooms in this arrangement that thrilled my heart so? I think not! It was the bloom in the hearts of the youngins' that gave them to me! The bloom of initiating love, kindness, giving, and selflessness.

Through this gift of love, I was reminded that the context of a situation and the heart motive behind it means everything! A heart motive can make the most beautiful person ugly and the ugliest person the most beautiful.

Because you see my friends, Stellaria Media is nothing more than a common weed. A common weed that was beautiful to me because of the pure loving intent behind it!

Catching the Love Bug

While at Target last year, I scored some silver tin mailboxes out of the dollar bin. Fast Forward to a year later when I actually carved out some time to do something with them!!

I used paper from K & Company and The Doodlecharms cartridge on my cricut to personalize them. I have to apologize for the camera phone photos. I cannot find the camera charger anywhere and it is DEAD!! Won't even turn on!

My original plan was to Modge Podge the paper to the tins as I was instructed in my "altered tin" course at our local library! HAHAHAHA. I know you readers out there are thinking what a dork fest but it was F-U-N!! Thankfully, my friend Lori got a hold of me before I started and turned me on to the world's bestest stuff EVAH!!! Terrifically Tacky Tape! It worked like a charm! I just cut the paper to size, terrifically tackied it and VIOLA!!! (yes, I know I wrote VIOLA instead of VOILA!!)

It seems that I am not the only one into these little mailboxes this year!! Check out Organized Chaos and Make and Takes versions!

For those of you I know who are obsessed with pink, word on the bloggy street is that Target has PINK tin mailboxes this year!! If not, follow Kami's advice (from Make and Takes) and spritz on a little spray paint in pink OR the color of your choice!

Now, what to fill them with??

Even though it was a very small transformation, it was still a transformation! Therefore, I linked it up with Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage! Please go and check out all of the talent!! This weekly McLinky party will BLOW your MIND and INSPIRE!!! There is a TON of talent!