Yummiest Salsa Ever!!!

I came across this recipe on another blog and gave it a try...and let me tell you, it is soooo good!! And super easy too!! (Makes it even better!!)  It's a Pioneer Woman recipe that was posted on I Heart Naptime...those are two of my favorite crafty/cooking people!!

 Cast of characters


1 large can whole tomatoes
2 cans Rotel tomatoes (the recipe that I found used 2 cans original...I used 1 can original and 1 can hot)
a big handful of cilantro
spoonful or so of minced garlic
1 whole onion (small/med) diced

Optional
1 jalepeno (I used this one time when I made it with 2 cans original Rotel, but it's easier to just use the hot/original combo above)
dash cumin
dash chili powder


You dump pour all your ingredients into a blender or food processor and pulse a few times (maybe 8-10...I've never actually counted).



Pour it in a bowl and viola!!  (I forgot to take a picture of this step but I think you can all figure it out ;-) LOL)
Be sure to have plenty of chips on hand!!

I'm a slacker....

Please forgive me!!  I've been busy getting the house all clean and pretty for our company.  We have some friends staying with us for a conference our church is having so I've spent the last couple of weeks cleaning all the nooks and crannies of my house!!  Even the inside of my fridge is sparkling clean :-)  Imagine a picture of a nice clean fridge here...lol!

I have had a little more time for crafting the last 2 days and I've been working on some new hairbows and headbands for my shop (which will be back up and running as soon as I finish some bows for it)!!  Here's a little sneak peek...I made this one for Lily this morning since she didn't have anything purple to match her sweater (and yes, sadly, it's mid March and we still have to wear sweaters).

This one doesn't show the headband very well but is sure does show how cute my Lily Bug is!!



These fabric flowers are EVERYWHERE lately!!  And I just ♥ them!!  I've found lots of tutorials on various blogs so I don't have one in particular to link you too but if you're interested in making them I'm sure you can google instructions.  I'm seriously addicted to making them!!  I should have taken a picture of all the ones I've made so far...there's a ton of them!!

Anyway, that's all for now.  Oh I also made a tie for my son from Lil Blue Boo's pattern but forgot to take a picture...maybe next time!!

I'll try to post more often now that my cleaning frenzy is over...lol

Have a great day!!



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Snow white cake

It seems like I've been pretty busy with cakes and goodies lately and not much time for sewing or crafting. I had another cake to make last weekend...this one was a Snow White cake for Madison's friend's birthday. I really like making the doll cakes and can't wait to make another one!!



I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Most Awesome Giveaway!!

Manni over at I Bake Cakes is having the most awesome giveaway!! If you've never been to her blog you need to check it out...she does amazing work!!

It's the Cat in the Hat...

Of course now I have that song stuck in my head...lol. Camden's birthday was last week and my in-laws came to visit over the weekend so we had a little celebration for him. He loves the Cat in the Hat cartoon so I decided to make a Cat in the Hat cake!! This cake was somewhat of a nightmare...lol. Things just weren't working out for me...but in the end it turned out ok. For dinner we had deviled eggs with green centers and ham sandwiches...among other things.

Here's our green eggs and ham


Camden with his cake (Don't mind the goofy face...that's what he does when you tell him to say cheese...lol)


And opening all of his gifts


He had a great time at his little party!!


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Better late than never...

I'm finally getting around to sharing all the goodies my girls and I made for Valentine's Day...lol!! Things have been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much time for blogging. Madison and I made lots of goodies for her classmates for Valentine's Day.

We made all of the goodies the Saturday before V-Day. To get everybody in the Valentine's mode I made some pink heart shaped pancakesfor breakfast that morning. Just add pink food coloring to your pancake batter and pour carefully!!



The first thing we made was chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallow pops. These were super easy and lots of fun!!

We stuck a stick in each strawberry marshmallow. These sticks can be found at your local craft store...I bought them from Hobby Lobby. I ♥ Hobby Lobby!!!


Then we melted some chocolate candy melts.


I dipped the top of the marshmallow in the chocolate and Madi sprinkled some V-Day sprinkles on. I then stuck them into styrofoam until the chocolate hardened.



When they were all hardened we wrapped a little piece of plastic wrap around each one and tied it with a red ribbon. Madison signed her name on a bunch of hearts we had cut out with the cricut and then slid the heart onto the stick. ( I made 2 slits in each heart to slide the stick through)


Using a similar process we made cookie pops. These were made using oreos :-) We dipped some in melted pink candy melts and some in melted chocolate.


Once all of the sticks were gone I just made regular chocolate covered oreos. These were soooo yummy!!!


We packaged some of the cookies up in little boxes for her teacher and her Sunday School teacher. We also made a V-Day sock cupcake for her teacher!! This was super easy!! I'll have to take pictures as I make it next time, but here's the finished project. I sewed the beads on very loosely to look like sprinkles.


We also made cupcakes....strawberry with chocolate frosting. I made some cupcake picks with my cricut and we sprinkled some sprinkles on the cupcakes.



Well I think that's all!! I had tons of fun with Valentine's Day this year and I'm looking forward to next year already!!

Sorry for the lack of posting...

I've been super busy lately and haven't had a chance to post. I wanted to apologize for that!! I've been working on some more Valentine's stuff that I'll be posting soon!!

♥
Amanda

Camden's new pillow

Since we were snowed in yesterday I decided to finish a little project I've been wanting to do for a while. I made a pillow for Camden out of an old pillow that got ruined in the dryer and a no longer needed changing pad cover!! The colors match Camden's room exactly!!



I love how it turned out!! Here's a stock photo of his bedding set so you can see how well it matches.



I hope you're all enjoying your snow (if you have any that is)!!

Some Valentine's Day Craftiness

I've never really decorated for Valentine's Day before but this year I'm loving all the V-Day decor!!! I've come across so many cute ideas and I've been able to make a few of them.

I saw a tulle Christmas wreath on a blog a while back and thought it was adorable. Then I thought how cute it would look as a pink heart so that's what I made!! A very simple project that didn't cost me anything since I had the materials on hand already (I love those kind of projects)!! I found an old wire hanger and straightened it out. The shaped it into a heart and then tied small rectangular pieces of tulle onto it. I used the same technique as if I were making a a tutu. It's hard to tell but there's hot pink and light pink tulle. I finished it off with a hot pink satin bow.


And then I found these wooden letter Christmas ornaments for 90% at Hobby Lobby the other day.


I sanded them to get all of the glitter off and then painted them all red. I used pink and white paint to make the dots, tied some pink string to hang them and there you have it...an adorable (and cheap!!) V-Day decoration!!


I found the printable at Sprik Space...there are lots of other really cute ones too!!

A Rainbow in the Winter!!!

I'm very ready for winter to be over!!! I'm tired of the drab colors of winter so this morning I decided to brighten up breakfast!!

(Sorry for the not so great pictures but hey my camera is 6 years old and it still works...I can't ask for much more!!)


If all that color doesn't make you smile on a cold, dreary winter morning then you should probably just get back in bed!!



The kids just loved them!! This is all we had left


I used this recipe from Allrecipes. I doubled it and added a little vanilla. Drown in syrup and enjoy!!


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Mmmmm

Ok, so I was informed yesterday afternoon that it was National Chocolate Cake Day...how did I not already know that?!? So of course to celebrate I just had to make a chocolate cake!! ;-) I searched for a recipe that used only what ingredients I had on hand (not an easy task!!). Well I finally found this one and got to baking at 6:00 yesterday evening. The cake finished baking right before we ate dinner and cooled while we were eating...as soon as we were done I frosted that baby (with frosting I pulled out of the freezer...chocolate of course). And before bed we all had a yummy piece of chocolate cake with a glass of milk!! In fact, it was so good I had a piece for breakfast...shhh don't tell ;-) I would have taken a picture before I cut it but I had 3 little munchkins standing at my feet drooling...lol.



I love cake!!

AG clothes!!

I think my new favorite thing to do is make clothes for AG dolls!! It's tedious work but I love it! I've made several things for Madison's Chrissa doll and I have plans for a few more things. I've also been working on an outifit for a friend's sweet daughter's birthday (it's a little belated...but better late than never right?). I just about finished the skirt this weekend...just have to finish off the elastic. So here's a picture of it!!



Along with that love for doll clothes is my new love for using things we have to make new things!! Here is a picture of Madison with Chrissa. Chrissa's shirt is made from a shirt of Lily's that was stained beyond repair. I tried so hard to get the stain out that I ended up with a hole in the shirt...lol. I used the back of the shirt and the heart from the front to make Chrissa a shirt to match Madison's :-)



And Lily wanted to jump in a picture with her doll also!!



That's all for now but I'll have more pictures of the clothes I've made tomorrow....hopefully!!

A few Christmas gifts I made

I have a billion projects that I'm currently working on but who knows when I'll get them done...lol. So I thought I would share with you a few things I made to give as Christmas gifts.

I made these adorable aprons for my nieces. I put a cookie cutter, some adorable cupcake wrappers, colored sugar sprinkles and food coloring to match in the package with each apron (sorry I didn't think to take a picture of it all together).


I also made this super cute pom pom necklace for my sister!! I'm planning to make one for myself as soon as I find some more fabric that I like!! I found the great tutorial at Little Miss Momma


I'll be sharing pictures of the clothes I made for Madison's American Girl doll soon :-)

It's My Life!!

Hey y'all!!
My name is Amanda!!

(Sorry, no pictures of just me...they all seem to have a kid or two in them)

I've been happily married to my high school sweetheart, Jason, for 8 years!!


And we have three wonderful (most of the time!!) children!!
Lilian (4), Camden (almost 2), and Madison (7)


I love all things crafty and I started this blog to share some of what I make with you :-) I love to decorate cakes, sew, make hairbows, and paper craft!! I just got a Cricut for Christmas so the world of paper crafting is very new to me but I have lots of visions in my head (which, by the way, is where many of my visions get lost!!).

I'm new to this whole blog thing so I hope you'll bear with me as I learn it all!!