Can Healthy Be Quick? YES!

What is this….

Apples, apples, apples….

I love making sure my little guy eats healthy!  We are fortunate enough to know that he carries the gene for type I diabetes.  This does not mean that he will definitely get diabetes, but that his chances are a little higher than the average child without the gene.  So with diabetes running in our family, it is important that we try to foster good eating habits early. 

Disclaimer*** We try!  We are not perfect and give in to the occasional guilty pleasure to allow for memorable experiences.

So when my mother-in-law bought me the apple peeler/corer/slicer that I wanted for Christmas I was excited.   

Motherhood…the things I never got excited about before now have the potential to change my life???

Five apples, peeled, cored, and sliced in 5 mintues!

I love it!

I used to stand and do this by hand.  Never again.

Aren’t they beautiful?

A little butter and cinnamon goodness!

A whole lot of yum!

PS.. Can you believe that I saw one of these are the thrift store yesterday?  I hope someone snatched it up and changed their life.

Valentine Day

Our Valentine Day has been full of baking, crafts, and special memories!

First I made cake balls for my husband to take to work.

I have seen a variety of these, but decided to use Jen's at Scissors & Spatulas for my inspiration.  I just changed up the combination of flavors.  There are so many possibilities.

{I didn’t think he was going to go for it when he saw me decorating with hearts, but once he tried them he was great with taking them and sharing them with his co-workers.}

First make a sheet cake and let it cool completely.  Next, crumble the entire cake in a large bowl.

Mix in an entire container of frosting.

Use some type of utensil such as a coffee scoop or melon scoop to make uniform sized balls.

Next dip in chocolate, place on wax paper,  and decorate!

 

After the cake balls were ready to go….we began making our valentines!

I completely stole this idea from Kierste at Brown Paper Packages

Give it your own style with some cute paper.

And my valentine for my hubby…

Some cute paper, ribbon, and a hole puncher is all you need.

Print your pages using a word document or similar program.

Cut the bottom of the pages with decorative scissors to appear ripped.

What’s for dinner?

We did a nice day out over the weekend, so tonight I decided that we would have the family favorite.

And finally….. some loving moments with the little guy today. 

Some play time….

Some sweets….

“I am going to figure the whole puncher out”

Such a special Valentine’s Day to be able to share with our 15 month old son!

NUMBERS!!!

Are you on the number bandwagon?

Well here is a little cuteness that you can find at Michaels.

Pencils with numbers!

They are in the dollar bins, but be sure to check on the kids dollar aisle also as my store has dollar items in two different places.  Should you be in the market for letters, they have those also….and all for $1.

I’m Sharing at:

Finding Fabulous

Simple Marshmallow Pops

I love making little sweets for holidays. So for Valentine’s Day, I started with these marshmallow lollipops.

Well I should have said that I love dipping little sweets for the holidays.

Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Marshmallow Pop

(all decked out in cute little hearts and pink ribbon)

Caramel Pecan Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Marshmallow Pop!

So easy….and everyone always appreciates a cute sweet treat.

I tried melting chocolate chips for dipping and have to say that I much prefer the chocolate wafers that you can find at the craft store. They are so much easier and less finicky.

So if you need something quick, simple, and easy to do get creative. I used chocolate vanilla swirl marshmallow, but there are so many flavors now like strawberry, regular, toasted coconut, and vanilla. You can dip in so many different things like caramel, butterscotch, chocolate, white chocolate, and the many different color chocolate wafers. Finally, sprinkle colored sugar, confetti, decorations, nuts, or coconut! The possibilities are endless!

Cake pops or brownie pops next, hmmm?

I’m partying:

Sassy Sites

Distressed Tags

I love paper crafting and have tried several times over the years to distress paper with tea and coffee staining.  But, I am loving walnut ink lately and distressing paper tags.  So here are some recent tags that I made to put in my etsy store.  But truth be known, I use them for my own personal little gifts!  There is nothing better than seeing someone appreciate a homemade gift that you spent time making just for them.

I love the heart tag now with Valentine’s Day so close, but think it would be great for many other occasions.

And yes, it is less than a week away.

I love this cute little cupcake!

Simple and elegant bride….

How cute is the expecting mommy on this tag?

Well that is what I have been up to in the paper craft department. Having so much fun and can’t wait to get some of my other projects done!

I’m partying:

Sassy Sites

Comments Make Blog Buttons

Okay, so I am sure that you have seen posts about how to make a blog button. Me too, but I still didn’t have one. I sat last night and decided that I would work on a button for my Etsy shop. With all of the information out there, this had to be easy enough, Right? Wrong! I worked on it and finally had to go to bed without a working button.

I followed the directions of Musing of a Housewife. It seemed easy, not so yet! I also read Blogging with Amy. Both I found doing a Google search. Still not appearing and working as I liked.

Then this is where I have to say that I love comments so much for my own posts as well as to direct me to new blogs. Yes, I don’t have many followers yet! But I do read them all and follow up with an email and checking out their blog. Often I end up following also as we probably have similar interests, purposes, or inspiration.

Well, that happened here and a big THANK YOU to Melissa who recently commented on one of my blog posts. Here is her button that will lead you to her page:

You can also check out the link that inspired me to give my button another chance here.

So here is the button for my Etsy shop. Nothing fancy (yet), but it works. Click on it.

I am still just starting out, but having so much fun getting everything up, running, and linked together.

Sweet Valentine Treats

Recently, Marisa at Make Happy posted these little beauties.

She made them out of cute cupcake liners and gave a great tutorial here.

Then, I saw this in my Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.

So….I had to have some too.

If you can thread, crumple, and fluff you can do this!

{Before we get too far, please excuse any picture imperfections as my camera died and the following pictures were taken with my phone.}

Dum-Dum pops are great!

I decided to use tissue paper and my handy large scalloped punch. This step is easiest if you punch about 10 layers of tissue paper at a time.

Then take 20 layers of scalloped tissue paper in the color pattern that you want your flower to be and punch a hole in the center. I chose several options as you will see below. Thread the layers on to your lollipop, crumpling each tissue layer around the lollipop as you go. Finally tie a piece of green curly ribbon after the last tissue layer. Now with your crumpled tissue paper, gently fluff out your flower to the appearance you desire.

This cute little flower could be used for many occasions such as party favors, decorations, Easter, weddings. But since mine are for Valentine’s Day, I needed a cute little tag. I printed “be my valentine” in the snap ITC font that can be found in a standard word document. Then I cut a free hand leaf shape out around the words leaving one end or tail slightly longer for wrapping around the lollipop.

Then I had to go PINK!

{FYI…these single color flowers are made with 10 layers}

Finally a little fun with some PURPLE thrown in.

Cute, ey?

I’m partying, come check it out:

Tatertots & Jello

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