Hi peanut butter cup. Meet Cookie.

What could be better than a peanut butter cup inside of a cookie?  Me: almost nothing.  I'm a full blown Reese lover.  I found this recipe on All Recipes website.

Find out how to make them HERE.  One thing I realized was that I needed to measure the amount of cookie dough before putting it into the mini muffin pan.  I used a measuring spoon. The Tbsp worked really well. 

It was a struggle not eating those peanut butter cups while waiting on the cookie to finish baking! But, I prevailed!

Baking Therapy

This is the result of my baking therapy.  When I'm upset, I bake. When I'm angry I clean.  So, right now I have a clean house and it's full of these little pumpkin loaves. Not so bad, right? They are yummy.  We spread cream cheese frosting on them and they were delish! I feel much better now!

I got the recipe from ALL RECIPES.  It's good, but I adapted it.  I always cut the oil in half and add applesauce.  I didn't have cloves, so I increased the amount of cinnamon. 

Ingredients

• 3 cups canned pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil and 3/4 cup applesauce
• 3 cups white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
•   3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

I think they came out a little too sweet.  If I make it again, I will cut down the sugar.  I'm sure the frosting didn't help any in the sugar content...but hey, it was screaming, "I NEED FROSTING". 

I Want To Know

I want to know when will it ever feel like my kids are not kids anymore.  When will I stop feeling the need to be sure they have balanced meals, safe vehicles to drive, or enough money?

I have been thinking about something that happened at a friends mom's home last year.  We were standing outside in the mom's driveway and she came out and told my friend that he needed to be sure everyone was out of the driveway because they were leaving and needed to back out.  My friend is my age.  Old enough to know that when a car starts moving in your direction that he needs to move.  And I am sure I am old enough to know that too.  Yet, his mom felt the need to give her motherly advice like we were all five years old or something.  He muttered something under his breath and moved onto the grass and made a sarcastic comment to us that we needed to move too. It was humorous.  But, I am sure, somewhat humiliating for him. I thought the same way he did.  That his mother was being quite ridiculous.  She might has well brought him a juice box too.


Today, I am feeling like his mom.  It seems like letting go will never come.  Do I have to fully let go? If I do, will I stop being a mom?  I have been a mom my entire adult life.  How can I stop being a mom?

 But, do I really want to be that kind of mom?  Can I help myself from being that kind of mom? And if I am not that kind of mom anymore, am I really being me?   Or maybe I am just being ridiculous.  Oh brother.  Someone pass me a juice box please.

Make Your Own Camera Bag

 Friends, bloggers, crafters! Lend me your ears! (teehee) I have thwarted commercialism by bucking the system.  How? I made my own camera bag! And it was easy!

Seven months ago, when my fellow photographer friend found out that I was getting a DSLR camera she sent me a nice little care package.   One of the things she sent was a camera bag.  Wasn't that thoughtful of her? I'm fortunate to have friends like that. :-) So, here I am, 7 months later and all my stuff lenses won't all fit  anymore. So, I began looking for a new bag.  That's when I found these cute little bags that look like purses.  Awesome! Right?!  Until I looked at the price!

$169  Kelly Moore bag

Not in my budget.   As luck would have it, I stumbled upon a blog that showed how to make your own stylish camera bag with a purse, a few materials and a little sewing. And that is what I set out to do.  Find out how to make yourself one here.


So my sister and I set out on a mission to find the perfect bag for my needs.  We found one at Burlington Coat Factory for $25 that was lightweight with enough room for my camera and a couple lenses. I wanted it to have a zipper top and some pockets.  Nothing really big.  I just wanted something that I could grab for a quick trip out, and not have to lug around my purse too. 

My $25 bag.

Then I rounded up my Joann's Fabric store coupons ( love that 50% off one item coupon) and went shopping for my supplies. I didn't do things exactly as my inspirational blogger did.  I chose to use a velcro called Fabric Fusion that adheres by ironing with steam.  I just wasn't up for the battle of sewing on velcro.    It seems to have worked rather well, too! All of my supplies came up to almost $30.  I have enough supplies left over to even make another camera bag. Woohoo! Maybe I will return that favor and send my friend one. :-)  Here is how my bag turned out.

I love the front pocket!

If I want more space I can move the inserts around. There is also a zipper pocket to put lens cleaner and extra memory cards in too. 

Dontcha know I was having so much fun that I couldn't stop at making just a camera bag! I had to have a matching camera strap and key chain too. None of the Kelly Moore bags have those!  Find out how to make a camera strap here.  And the key chain instructions are here.

I even put velcro on the back of my keychain. What fun!

Don't know how to sew? I seen a bag made by hot gluing the fabric to the foam. I'm not lying! It looked pretty good too.  See for yourself.Ya know, all this creativity got me to thinking... a person could make a camera bag out of other things too.  Maybe a diaper bag, or a fanny pack.  Or maybe even  a lunch box could be used.   But, I love my bag so much, I think I'm stopping here.  It's exactly what I wanted ---at my price.  -----Oh wait. I might add an extra pocket. Or maybe, make a bean bag for a tripod alternative. Hmmmm... it might get heavy though. OH... but wait, I could use my teenager's air rifle pellets! Okay.. so maybe this project isn't quite finished...YET. 

Here are some sites that sell camera bags that look like moneybags purses.

http://kellymoorebag.com/ 
 http://epiphaniebags.com/  
I love the Belle one on the Epiphanie site.  
http://jototes.com/

Nuts ARE Pretty

A month ago, I was digging around in my pantry and found a package of pecans.  They were in their original packaged, shoved into a click clack container.  Expiration date November 16, 2011. Ahhhh two months left to eat these nuts! So, I made my plea to everyone in the household to eat these nuts.  Did it happen?  No.

UNTIL.... I found this cute little glass pumpkin dish at Target yesterday.  It is now sitting on my table with pecans in it. And guess what? They are being eaten! So much better than candy.  Now I just need to come up with a bright idea to make carrots and celery pretty.

Frugal Decor

It's that time of year again, when my creative monster wants to come out and play. Where to start first? Well, a couple months ago we got a new dinette set.  I have been chomping at the bit to decorate it! Isn't it lucky? (teehee) The other day, I was in Sams Club and seen this beautiful centerpiece. (It was much more impressive to see in person)

But it was so expensive for what it was. Almost thirty five dollars!  That got me to thinking.  I can make my own table decor! As I began my search for the perfect items for my table, I seen so many possibilities. But, one particular blog really caught my eye.http://www.decorchick.com/dollar-store-hurricanes/  How to make your own hurricane glasses.   And here is what I came up with. 

Isn't it gorgeous?  Believe it or not, I bought the glassware at the Dollar Tree, WalMart and Goodwill. Yes, Goodwill!  I'm not kidding.  So, let me show you how I put this all together for dollars.

Relentless

Holy Cow! It's been almost a year since I blogged!

So, what have I been up to? Well, I chewed out a sales rep who called my house at 8:40 in the morning. I was still in bed.  It was not pretty.  I told her not to call my house again.  Do you know that lady called right back? So, I answered and gave her another piece of my mind and hung up on her again.  ANDDDD do you know that lady called back again??? And again, and again, and again.... She continued to call as I picked up and hung up on her.  Some people just aren't that smart. I'm just sayin'.