On The Mend

What a week this has been.  As I mentioned last week, I had to get my impacted wisdom tooth removed Monday.  It came out without a hitch, but left me in a lot of pain.  The meds that my oral surgeon gave me were not only ineffective, but made me very sick (yuck.)  I spend Tuesday in bed trying to hold down the little food I'd been able to eat.  Luckily, I was feeling much better Wednesday, just in time for my anniversary!

5 years married to this handsome guy.  I'm such a lucky girl :)  We celebrated with a lovely dinner and a show.

Things are moving very slowly with the house and I'm getting more anxious every day.  If you've noticed a lack of crafting or Christmas-related things, that's why.  I'm busy getting our apartment all packed up.  

I just wanted to fill you all in on what's been going on here and why I've been so absent.  I want to thank you all for your continued support and patience.  I promise things will soon return to normal!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 12- Minty Chocolate Butter Cookies

Another great find from Baby Center:

Minty Chocolate Butter Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mint extract
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the mint extract and the egg, and mix until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together into a medium bowl and add to the dough. Mix just until smooth. Place tablespoon-size balls of dough 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes (cookies should not brown at the edges). Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Decorate cooled cookies with the melted chocolate, and let harden for about 1 hour before serving. (Makes 48 small cookies) 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 11-Snowballs

So,half of my posts from this last week have just disappeared, including the last two cookie recipes for the countdown.  I'm re-posting them for your reading pleasure :)

This yummy morsels are from my awesome Grandma-in-law and they are fabulous!

Snowballs

1 cup butter or margerine (butter is best)

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups sifted flour

1 cup ground nuts (I like pecans or walnuts)

1 tsp. vanilla,

Red food coloring (optional)

powdered sugar

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly.

Add a few drops of red food coloring here if desired

Add vanilla,

Add flour - 1/2 cup at a time.

Add nuts

Blend.

Chill for at least an hour.

Shape into small balls about the size of marbles.

Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cool and then roll in powdered sugar OR

Roll while hot in powdered sugar and again when the cookies cool.  (Best)

Enjoy!

Calling All Blogging Buddies...

My blogging buddy Dana of Saturday Mornings needs your help, guys.  She is in the top 11 on the Blog Guidebook's Top Blog of 2010!  How awesome is that?!  If you could help her out, head on over to the Blog Guidebook and cast your vote.  

Voting ends in two days, so when you get a chance, please vote for Dana!  I know she really appreciates your support!

And I want to congratulate Dana for being nominated!  What an amazing accomplishment!  You go, girl!

Extended!

Those awesome mark. deals I shared with you all have been extended through midnight tonight!  So head on over and get in on the saving!

Weekend Specials

mark. has some great deals going on this weekend!  It's a great way to get a bigger bang for your buck and take care of those ladies on your list!  

Shop our Holiday Gift Event THIS WEEKEND ONLY!

Ends December 12! 

With your $45 mark. order, you'll receive: - Touch of Lace Scarf - Lipclick Lipstick – In Ruffle - Totally Balmed – In Totally Hot Use Promo Code: GIFT45 

With your $75 mark. order, you'll receive: - Touch of Lace Scarf - Soft and Sleek Cosmetics Case - Sassy Dry Oil Mist - Lipclick Lipstick – In Ruffle Use Promo Code: GIFT75 

With you $100 mark. order, you’ll receive: - Touch of Lace Scarf - Arm Candy Bag – In Black - Totally Balmed – In Totally Sweet - Lipclick Lipstick – In Ruffle Use Promo Code: GIFT100 

You can head on over to my eBoutique to take advantage of this great offer!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 10-Rolo Cookies

One of our fans from Facebook, Michelle, emailed me this recipe that her friend Melanie shared with her.  It sounds absolutely wonderful!  Thanks for sharing, Melanie and Michelle!

Rolo Cookies

Picture via

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 egg

1/3 cup of oil

24-28 rolos

Unwrap the rolos

Mix all the ingredients except for the rolos (it will be thick)

Roll up the dough into about 26 one inch balls.

Flatten the balls stuff a rolo in....and roll them up again.

Cook them about 7-10 minutes (I do closer to 7-8) at 350 degrees.  You want to pull them out while they are still lumpy in the middle.  Yum.  Double Yum.  Triple Yum. 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 9- Peanut Butter Blossoms

This delicious number is from Baby Center (they have all kinds of awesome recipes-I definitely recommend checking them out.)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
48 chocolate stars

Combine all ingredients except candy is a large mixing bowl. Mix on lowest speed of mixer until dough forms. Shape dough into balls using a rounded teaspoon full of each. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and top each cookie with a star, pressing it down firmly so cookie cracks around edge. Return to oven and bake another 2-5 minutes

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 8-Vanilla Spritz

Here's another great recipe from Robin!

Perfect Vanilla Spritz Cookies

(with a cookie press or decorators bag and tips)

1 cup butter, room temp

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beta in eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and salt.

Add flour, beating until a soft dough forms.  (At this point you can add food coloring if desired)

Pack dough into cookie press or decorators bag and press onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake until golden, about 10-12 min.

Transfer to cooling racks.  Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

These are a scrumdidliumtious little treat.

Enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 7-Cranberry Orange Cookies

I'm playing a little bit of catch up with the Cookie Countdown.

I found this yummy recipe on Land O' Lakes' site via Bluebird Notes.

Koralee shared these beauties that her daughter made and they look so scrumptious!  I love the striped bakers twine that she used to tie them up, too.  The recipe can be found on the Land O' Lakes site.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 5 & 6-Cookies from Cash is Chaos

Robin from Cash is Chaos is generously helping me out with the Cookie Countdown and has 2 yummy cookie recipes to share with you all today!  Take it away, Robin!

So today is my very first guest post.  Hope this works out.  I'm a little nervous.  But I am going to help out with the Cookie Countdown and I have decided to do 3 cookie recipes, I will do 2 today and one tomorrow (don't forget that Sunday is family day).  Enjoy the recipes, make sure there is some left for Santa, he will love these.

Recipe 1

Chocolate Banana Cream Pies (sorry for the messy pic, I had to take a quick pic before more little fingers got into them)

4 ripe (or over ripe) bananas, smooshed
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups four
1/3 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla, mix well.  Stir in smooshed bananas.
Slowly add flour, baking soda and cocoa.  Stir until just mixed.
(This is probably sounding quite like a banana bread recipe, and that's cause it's adapted from one)
Your dough should be thicker than a cake dough, but thinner than a drop cookie dough.
Put dough into icing bag, with 1 1/2 inches cut from tip (I used a disposable one, but you can use a sandwich bag if thats what you have on hand). Drop cookies onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  At this point, the cookies should look something like reindeer poop (at least thats what my kids thought it was)

Bake for 10-15 minutes (I know it's not super specific, but everyone's ovens vary)
Let cool completely.

Cream Filling:
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup (+) icing sugar
sprinkles, tinted sugars to decorate.

In another bowl, on high speed, mix whipping cream and icing sugar to a thick consistency. Feel free at this pint to tint it yourself, or keep it white and roll the entire cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.

Once the cookies are cooled, take 2 cookies approximately the same size, and sandwich about 1 teaspoon of cream filling between them.  At this point you could leave it, or you could roll the cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.


Recipe 2

Those wonderful looking cookie bars in the middle are one of the easiest and most delicious recipes ever.  Not to date myself, but I have made these for ** years.  They are actually from a kids cookbook that my grandpa gave me when I was 10.  Yes I still have the book, and yes I still use it.  So here they are.

Lemon Slice Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour

Topping
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish
Beat butter and icing sugar until smooth.  Stir in 1 cup flour, mixing into a smooth dough.  Press evenly into prepared dish. Bake 20 min.  Set aside to cool.

Topping:
Beat eggs well, stir in lemon juice and rind.  Stir in sugar and 2 tablespoons flour and baking powder.  Stir until mixed well.
Pour over cooled base and bake again (at 350) for 25 minutes.
Let cool.  Sift icing sugar over the top and cut into squares.


Hope you all enjoy the post and the recipes.  Until tomorrow, enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas

Blech.

Guys, I'm sick.  Like REALLY sick.  And I'm four days behind on my Cookie Countdown.  If it weren't for the wonderfulness that is post scheduler, I would have had no posts last week.  The little man got sick the day after Thanksgiving and by the following Tuesday, the hubs and I both had it.  It got worse when I woke up Thursday morning to incredible pain in my mouth due to an impacted wisdom tooth (yes, I know, I'm an adult and I still have my wisdom teeth.)  My dentist couldn't get me in until Monday so I had to tough it out all weekend, while still battling a cold, complete with fever.  Top it off, Saturday was the little man's birthday party (he turned 2 yesterday.)  Thank goodness for my awesome in-laws and Mom who helped me SOOO much to get everything ready for that party.

It's now Wednesday, I'm still sick and still in pain.  I wasn't able to get in to see the oral surgeon until this coming Monday.  

So, I'm asking for your help.  I want to finish out this year's Cookie Countdown, but I just don't have the time and energy right now to do everything.  I'm looking for recipes-you can either link them up to the linky party, or you can share them as a guest blogger (just email me and let me know you're interested.)  I don't want to leave you all with nothing but I really need your help.  

And I'll need it even more in the weeks to come.  Next week is going to be so busy!  I have my surgery, my anniversary, the hubs' work party and on top of all of this, we are in the middle of moving to a new house, which means things need to be packed.  And I still need to finish up Christmas stuff!

So, if you'd like to help me out and guest blog, I'd be much obliged.  

Thank you all and thanks for being so understanding!!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 4-Caramel Marshmallow Treats

Today's recipe is from the linky party.  Link up your Christmas cookie recipes and you, too, could be featured!

Emily from Jan Dee Crafts linked up her Caramel Marshmallow Treats.

Don't these look scrumptious?!  Head on over to Jan Dee Crafts to find the recipe and 

 while you're there, take a look around.  Emily has a ton of other cute ideas and projects!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 3-Eggnog Cookies

I found today's recipe over at Baby Center (of all places) and it sounds absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures of it, so if you give it a try, please send me a pic of the finished product-I'd love to show you off.

Eggnog Cookies

Cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

Icing:
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog
Optional: 1 to 2 teaspoons of spiced rum or rum extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. (If consistency is hard to work with, cool dough first in refrigerator.) Bake 16 to 24 minutes or until edges start turning light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare the icing, put the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the remaining eggnog one tablespoon at a time (and the rum or rum extract, if opted for) until the desired consistency is reached. Spread onto cooled cookies and sprinkle tops very lightly -- adding too much will overpower the taste -- with nutmeg.

Let icing harden. Serve and enjoy!  Makes 36 large or 50 medium-sized cookies.

Yum!

The link party is up and running, so stop by and link your cookies up!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 2-Gifts in a Jar

Today's cookie recipe is a bit out-of-the-box.  Even though it's in a jar.

I love making gifts in a jar for presents and they're equally fun to receive.  I made these ones as gifts last year.  Here are a couple great places to find cookies in a jar instructions with recipes:

Double Chocolate Cookies-Chocablog

Holiday Cookies in a Jar-Family Fun

Cowgirl Cookies-Bakerella

Butterscotch Pecan Cookies-Domino Sugar

Gramma Cookies-Purple Lemon Designs

Gifts in a Jar-Craft Bits (there are a ton of recipes on this site!)

And of course, you don't have to keep these in the jar.  You can go ahead and bake up a batch and skip the jar step all together!

Don't forget to link up your cookie recipes!

2nd Annual 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown!

It's that time again!

If you ask my father, Christmas doesn't really come unless there's cookies (specifically cut-out sugar cookies, but you get the idea.)  To get the holiday spirit started, I like to share yummy Christmas cookie recipes with you all.  I started it last year when my blog was a baby (which reminds me-I totally spaced on my blogiversary last month!  So happy belated birthday, blog!)

I've decided to make it a tradition.  So, here it is again!

And I'm mixing it up a bit this year.  There's a linky party that will be going on and I'll be sharing and showing off your wonderful recipes so everyone can get in on the fun.  Grab the button and add it to your post if you link up so others can join in on the party, pretty please!

Without further ado, here's today's cookies:

Who loves buckeyes?  I do!  

Christmas Cookies.com has a great recipe for this holiday favorite that's easy to make.  Head on over and check it out.  I think this would be a great one to do with the kiddos.

Don't forget to link up your Christmas cookie recipes!

Road Trip!

No, I'm not going on one.  I was reading through my old journals the other day and came across this entry from a ways back that made me laugh.  To call it my favorite road trip might be a stretch, but it definitely was an eventful one.  I wanted to share it with you all:

Monday, May 23, 2005

I just had an awful weekend.  It started off bad, got briefly better, then just went all downhill from there.

FRIDAY: [My friend] Whitney and I had to go to the airport to drop off her dad's car on our way to Orlando, me following her in my car.  We got that done without incident and get back on 275 (the major highway near the Tampa airport.)  We needed to go north to get to I-4 (the major highway that goes from Tampa to Daytona and goes through Orlando.)  Well, the jerk impolite driver in the lane next to us wouldn't let us over, thus forcing us into the exit lane for 275 SOUTH.  Now, immediately following this exit in the Howard Franklin Bridge, which is THE. LONGEST bridge around here.  No joke.  There are signs just before you get on it telling you to check your gas because it's that long.  So, of course, because it's a bridge, there is no place to turn around, except for at the other end of it.  So, we had to go all the way across, turn around and head back across, this time FINALLY in the right direction.  We made it to I-4 and Orlando just fine.  Now, let me back up just a bit: our reasons for going to Orlando were twofold.  One, we want to go to a church dance that was being held over there and we wanted to go to Cocoa Beach to go surfing.  We have friends that live in Orlando near UCF (the University of Central Florida) and we were planning on staying the night with them and then all of us would go to the beach the next day.  

We make it safely to [my friend] Maria's apartment to get ready for the dance and head off.  It's about 9:15 pm at this point and the dance started at 9, so we figured we would be fine.  We start off and end up getting HORRIBLY lost.  The road that we needed changes names like a million times, thus we were looking for the wrong end of it and ended up going the wrong way, winding up in an itty bitty town about 30 minutes north.  Luckily the nice man at the gas station helped us get pointed in the right direction.  We finally make it to the dance at around 11:30.  Now, usually these dances last until 1 am, so we figured we still had about a hour and a half to cut a rug.  WRONG!  About 2 minutes after we get there, we here an announcement saying something like "Dance ends in 30, so get your groove on."  [Insert angry faces here.]  We stayed til the end and then headed back to Maria's apartment.  To get back to the apartment from where the dance was, we had to drive through downtown Orlando.  Turns out a band that we all liked was playing that night and had just gone on by the time we were passing through.  We decided to stop only to discover that the show was 21 and up since it was at an outdoor bar [lame.]  We decided to go anyways, figuring we could at least listen from the street.  We parked and made our way over to find that no one was watching the back entrance.  Score!  We went right in and got to see Lit.  For free.

SATURDAY: We make it to the beach, no problems.  The weather was lovely, the water was nice and the waves were good.  As we're getting ready to leave, the sky gets very black and just opens up.  No biggie, we're heading home anyways.  We stopped at a drive thru, grabbed some lunch and started on our way home.  We're not even out of Cocoa when my tire goes flat.  As we're going across a bridge.  In the rain.  So, we pulled over onto the median-the grassy, soggy, red ant-infested median-and proceeded to change the tire. The jack kept sinking into the wet ground and falling over.  We did manage to get the tire off and put on the spare.  We got back on the road, found the next gas station and aired up the spare.  I gave my mom a call to let her know what happened and she located a Wal-mart for me so I could get a new tire (I couldn't drive all the way home, which all total was a 3 hour drive, on the spare.)  I go back inside, with the address of the Wal-mart and ask the attendant for directions.  After driving for FOREVER, we finally reach the sign for 520, where the Wal-mart is and it was right near where we had been right before we got the flat.  WE WENT IN A GIANT CIRLCE!!!  We finally get to the Wal-mart at 7:30 after having left the beach at 4:30.  The nice lady at the tire place told us it might take up to 3 hours to get to my car.  So we had to wait.  We wandered around Wal-mart for a bit.  Around 8:30, I hear my name on the loudspeaker saying that my car was done.  WOOHOO!  We made it back to Orlando and were back on the road home by 10:30.  But, no trip home from Orlando is complete without some road construction.  We finally got home at 1 in the morning.

The day started like this

 And ended like this.  This is our "Bad Day Saturday Club" that we formed in the middle of the folding chair aisle at the Wal-mart.

It wasn't too funny at the time, but looking back at it now, it makes me laugh : )

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Discount Tire blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card and be entered for a chance to win a prize valued at $1,000. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Cyber Monday!

I've got a TON of new things up in my Etsy shop.  

That's my brother-in-law, Aaron, modeling for me.  He's single, ladies! ; )

And, in honor of Cyber Monday, you can take 20% off your entire purchase TODAY ONLY.  Just enter DSCYBER20 when you check out.  Also, all orders over $30 receive free shipping!  

I have some more holiday sales from the shop up my sleeves, so stay tuned!

{Love Stitched}

Tatertots and Jello is hosting a great Love Stitched giveaway.

The lucky winner will receive a $20 credit to Love Stitched's Etsy shop.  How sweet is that?!  Just in time for your holiday shopping : )