Beautiful Goodies

Look at these Beautiful Goodies!!!

I was recently informed by the lovely Cristina at SweetPeaInk that I was the lucky winner of her amazing giveaway. Cristina and I have been partners on a swap before and let me just say WOW!! If everyone could swap like that woman does!! Seriously, look at the way everything is packaged so lovely, and with such attention to detail. You should really check out her etsy shop.

Here's what the Goodies look like unpacked. Wonderful sheet music, beautiful vintage Dennison birdie labels and Special Delivery labels and this amazing little handwritten 1902 invitation in the sweetest little envelope. These things are almost to cute to use.

Thank you so much Cristina, you rock, as always..

xoxo

Cari

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The "wearing of the Green". This is apropos today since my boys definitely are NOT wearing Green. You see, I have had a sick little boy home with a high fever for the last two days and last night his fever broke. Yeah!! So, this morning when I was getting the boys ready I was really just happy to have clean clothes for them to wear. It never even entered my mind that today was St. Patrick's Day. It should have!! Today is my dads birthday. (Happy Birthday Dad!!). I hadn't forgotten his birthday, I just didn't put that and the whole "wearing of the Green" together in my head. So, I drop my boys off, walk up to the top of our hill to wave goodbye and what do I see?A see of GREEN!!!

Of course!! So.... I rush home, draw two four leaf clovers on some felt, plug in the glue gun, cut out my clovers, trace around them with gold glitter glue accent with green seam binding ribbon and hot glue a pin back on then race back over to the school. (To big of a hurry to take a picture, sorry.)They are boys after all. I mean seriously, how many times do you think they can get pinched and not punch somebody. LOL!!

On another note, my creative juices have begun to flow again. I put together some really cute Vintage Milk bottle cap Mini Scrapbook kits for my shop.

These are what the finished products could look like if you so chose. They are perfect as little brag books or Mother's Day gifts. You can even wear them as a pin.

The kits are filled with lots of lovely vintage papers and were just super fun to put together.Now, I'm off to finish up my Easter Basket Swaps.

Have a fabulous day.

xoxo

Cari

Strawberry Muffins

Strawberry Muffins did the trick!!

Well, I actually found the time and gumption to make the Strawberry muffins I had promised my lovely family. I did have to run to the store in the middle of all of it though for a lemon, even though I have a prolific lemon tree. See, my kids like to play with the lemons and make a gigantic mess in the kitchen...... well, that's another story for another day. Lets just say I had to go to get a lemon and leave it at that.

The recipe I chose is from the Phyllis Hoffman CELEBRATE magazine that's out on the stands now. I did change it up a bit. I put in an entire lemons worth of zest and i used half almond extract and half vanilla. (I just love, love, love almond extract. Seriously, I could sit and smell the jar all day) Also, the butter for the crumb topping was a bit much. Yes, you heard me right!!! I would use half of what the recipe calls for next time. There was so much butter that it pooled up under the paper liners in the pans.

They were fabulous. Yes, I said "were". My family and I ate almost an entire batch I did manage to hide (freeze) 9 muffins for next weeks breakfast but still, we ate 15 muffins in one evening. Rave reviews for sure!!!

The Strawberry Butter turned out fabulous too. Someone asked what Strawberry butter is and it's also in the magazine but I'll just tell you how to make it. Take any flavor preserves you like, soften some butter and mix it in. You can start with about 1/2 cup butter and 1/8th cup preserves and add more preserves or butter as you like it. To make mine super smooth I ended up putting it in the food processor on pulse for a few seconds. I probably hadn't let the butter soften all of the way. My oldest was eating it by the spoonful....... good thing she's a size 2.

So..... I am feeling a bit better. It's always nice to have sweets:-) But, I think that the real reason is because it feels good to make something filled with love, from scratch,(or a box, whatever works for you) for your family and to have them truly appreciate it.

Have a fabulous day. Thanks for all of the kind words.

xoxo

Cari

Daffodils and Strawberry Muffins

Daffodils and Strawberry Muffins!!

I've been struggling with the blues lately. I am not the kind of person that generally allows that kind of thing so, I have been trying to figure out a way to snap out of it. Oh yeah, sure, I could do what I used to do, I could go to Michaels and buy lots of new crafting items, that always worked. Except for the fact that I have no money right now.

Ugh!!

So, what's a girl to do?

Well, here's what I did...

I found these absolutely stunning flowers at the grocery store (of all places) 20 stems for $3.00!!!! Even I can afford an absolutely amazing bouquet of sunny yellow daffodils that lasts more than a week for just $3.00.

O.K, that covers the sense of sight, now for smell and taste....

Well, I found some lovely strawberries on sale (at the same store) for just $1.50 a basket!! So, I'm going to try making some Strawberry muffins. I meant to do it yesterday but got busy at my boys school. Boy was my family disappointed when they came home to NO muffins. I have a few recipes in mind. I know that I am going to make Strawberry butter to go along with the lovely muffins I plan on making. I'll take pictures and post whichever recipe I use if they turn out good.

Oh yeah, and I won a fabulous giveaway from SweetPeaInk!! Yeah me!! The giveaway was to spread a little joy. So, some of my swap partners might be getting little bits of my prize in our swaps. Check out her fabulous blog when you get a chance.

I think my mood is changing already. With all of this loveliness how could it not?!

Hope you all have a fabulous week.

xoxo

Cari

One Amazing Giveaway, and One Amazing Blog

" Oh, hello friend. You are loved..."

Don't you just love that?!! That's what the blog is called. I just discovered it yesterday and I must say that I loved seeing those words on my blog list. It's such a nice affirmation. Kinda silly of me huh? Well, even if you don't add this stunningly stimulating blog to your blog list you should still hop over and enter their amazing (i mean AMAZING) giveaway. Like one of my wonderful fellow bloggers, I've got the "March blues". I'm pushing through it though and should be back to post more frequently soon. Hopefully, this giveaway will brighten all of your days just a little bit.

Have a fabulous day.

xoxo

Cari