PUMPKIN waffles

A few weeks ago, my friend Beth, posted on facebook that she had made pumpkin white chocolate chip waffles for breakfast one Saturday morning. YUM! I asked her how she made them; she told me what ingredients she added to the Bisquick mix.

Last night I decided to try it. I did not have exact measurements so I just dumped & eye-balled it. Beth was right - these are AMAZING!

Here is what I did. (Disclaimer: I did NOT measure so below is a GUESS at what amounts I added.)

I DOUBLED the the recipe on the Bisquick box, however I did not add as much milk as it called for. The recipe doubled called for 2 2/3 cups milk. I only added 2 cups.

Then I added the following:

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon (you can never have too much cinnamon)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Mix batter & begin making waffles in your waffle iron.

This made 8 belgium waffles (6 inch).

They are so good plain. You could add maple syrup.

We had ours for supper (we love breakfast for supper) with coffee.

I'm planning to make these A LOT this fall!

mini cone cupcakes

Below is how I made the mini cone cupcakes that I posted HERE.

I must start by saying that this is not my original idea. I saw a picture of these HERE, but there were really no details. It wasn't hard to figure out. I used a box cake mix. Once the cake batter was mixed up, I filled up my small creamer (from my sugar & creamer set) with batter. I used it to carefully poor the batter into the mini ice cream cones. This worked well; it was tedious but fun. I do not have a piping bag or set - definitely will be asking for one for Christmas. You could just pipe the batter into the cones to avoid the mess. I filled up the cones a little over half way. If you fill them too full the batter will pour over the sides of the cones. I put the filled cones into a glass 9x13.

Carefully put them in the oven. Bake at 325 until the cupcakes are done (I think it took 18 minutes for mine, but my oven does not run hot.) Make sure you have a qualified supervisor!

Let them cool completely.

I bought two pieces of floral foam. I then sprayed the tops of them with the Glow in the Dark spray paint (see previous post). I covered the edges with ribbon & used straight pins to keep the ribbon in place. BEFORE FROSTING - use wooden kabob skewers to poke in the bottom of cone & then into floral foam. Leave room in between cones & do various heights.

Like I said, I don't have piping supplies. I do however have an old (antique) cake decorating set. I used the metal writing tip. I cut a small corner off of a ziplock bag, place the tip inside the bag & then taped the tip on the outside to the bag. It worked fine. I wanted buttercream frosting. Found a recipe HERE. I ended up adding a few ounces of cream cheese to the frosting so it wasn't so sweet. We are picky with frosting at our house. Mix it up & start piping.

Once they were all frosted, I put them on a sheet pan & placed them in the fridge so the frosting would set.

Chillin'

So here's where the story really gets hilarious (sorry this post is SO long). My sister, Emily came up for the weekend. Jake was gone Wednesday to Friday to Myrtle Beach for a Teacher Convention & then he left right from Myrtle Beach & headed to Atlanta for a basketball coaches clinic. So thankful Emily came up.

The problem - we had to transport these, that is another reason why I put them in the fridge I wanted them to harden up for the car ride. I drove, Emily held the pan. I was breaking (slowly) for a red light. Emily went to reposition her hand & we lost half of the cupcakes into the dashboard! I had not brought any extra frosting with me. Immediately Lily started chanting UT-OH from the backseat (and kept chanting for miles). Emily & I just started laughing. What can you do but laugh?

Thankfully there was only ONE total loss.

Once we arrived at the Attoe's house, I touched up the frosting & then we ended up putting them in the freezer for a few minutes. Some of them had fallen thru the stick from the car ride as well. In the future, I would do the assembly (sticks in the cupcakes & frosting) once we get to the location.

party planning

What's more fun that planning your own party (HERE & HERE)?

Helping plan someone else's party!

My friend's (Janna) daughter turned 16 earlier this month. Janna had asked me to help her plan Jensen's 16th birthday party. Jensen is Lily's favorite babysitter! Of course I said yes. Now Jensen already had some ideas for her party. She wanted NEON pink, green & orange for the colors. She also wanted to do a black light/glow-in-the-dark party.

So here is what Janna & I came up with:

Janna & Jensen prior to the party.

I already had this fabric in my stash so I sewed a table cloth, as well as medium & large bunting.

Photos of Jensen, balloons, flowers.

Love green button mums (I had them in my wedding).

Large bunting.

I bought Glow In the Dark spray paint at WalMart. We made the 16's.

They glowed during the black light part of the party.

Happy Birthday banner over the fireplace.

These mini cone cupcakes were so fun to make. I will post details of this later.

Some mini bunting for the sweets table.

They had glow sticks for bracelets, earrings, necklaces, etc. . . We put on the invite to wear white & that prizes would be given for whoever GLOWED best. The kids got into it.

The party was great! Jensen & her friends had fun.

onesies for the twosies

So I had my sewing machine out last week since the pillowcase dress & decided to keep it out & keep checking off the projects. Made these cute little embellished onesies for the new twins.

I used fabric paint & my Anthropologie stamps (above).

I made my own tie pattern (below).

Crayon Roll

I saw THIS & knew that Lily HAD to have one.

So why wait? I made this one last night.

These would be so fun to make for birthday gifts or favors. We took Lily's to the games today with her coloring book. She still likes to eat the crayons, but we are aspiring for an artist.

jewelry holder & organizer

Who hasn't been running late & then can't seem to find the perfect jewelry to go with your outfit? Or when you do find it it's all tangled with 3 other necklaces.

I made this YEARS ago, posted it way back HERE. I thought I'd post it again. I have had a handful of friends ask me how I made it & they have gone on and made their own. A few also made extra's for Christmas gifts for their daughters & nieces. It's so simple; use an empty frame & some chicken wire. I ended up adding some Anthropologie hardware as well so I could hang necklaces. LOVE this. Simplifies my mornings.

pillowcase dress

Here is another thing I've been wanting to do forever. Finally got around to it on Saturday during Lily's nap time.

Since Lily was napping, I couldn't go in her closet to get out a dress to measure against. The brown dress is way too longer (6+ inches) so we'll have to save it for next summer or when she is 3! Later, I grabbed a dress & made the below dress for her to wear now.

And our little model. . .

Last Night's Project

I should have taken a before picture, but the below *white* onesie was no longer white. Lily spilled something on it & I just could not get it out. I tried everything: spotting, soaking, bleaching & I tried them all multiple times. So I decided to cover it up!

(I did something similar with a cute Children's Place dress that I got for 25 cents at a yard sale. It looked like it a had a few blue marker stains. I ended up sewing buttons over the stains & now the dress looks even cuter! )

Next project: Hair-bows for Lily

I have been wanting to make Lily some hair-bows ever since she was born. I just have not had time or energy or made time. I just made a couple super simple ones last night. My mom had given me some vintage buttons over Christmas. I am finally putting them to use.




Please note that Lily is modeling her new hair-bows in her new Notre Dame jersey. It just came via FedEx today! Sent to her by Aunt Anna. Thanks Anna!

Now I need to make Lily a navy blue hair-bow to wear with that jersey. I'm sure she'll have the jersey on every Saturday (especially the Saturday's Jake gets her up & dressed).