A "Not From Scratch" Kind of Day

We got more snow today (booo!!) so I decided to bake when I got home from work. I made some lemon cupcakes (from a box) with fluffy white frosting (from a can). I baked the first batch like I normally would....I preheated the oven to 325 then tossed the pan in. I let the bake for 21 minutes then pulled them out. This is how my cupcakes have always come out of the oven...flat topped.Then I remembered a little tip I read (I think it was on Bakerella). So I turned my oven up to 425. Once it was preheated I threw the pan in, let it bake for 5 minutes, then turned the oven back down to 325. I think I let them bake for another another 8 minutes when I opened the oven door to check on them and noticed they were a deep golden brown so I took them out. Luckily they weren't burnt but they did have a nice little peak on top of each cupcake.These little cupcakes are so much cuter than the flat tops! Maybe ya all already knew this little tip but it was the first time I tried it and it worked like a charm!

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On a totally unrelated note, I have to share my awesome find from last weekend. I went to a local florist shop and found these bird plates for 80% off. There were orginally $17 a piece and I got them for $3.40 a piece. Love great deals!!

I...

I ran across this on a blog the other day.

I ...
i am....wishing winter would go away.

i think...I should stick to my chore list.

i know...pretty much everything in the world. One of my students told me so last week. :o)

i want...to have a totally organized and clean apartment. And for it to stay that way.

i have...a college degree and a low paying job.

i dislike...grocery shopping and doing laundry.

i miss...high school from time to time.

i fear...doctor appointments.

i feel...relieved.

i hear....my computer moaning. Hope it makes it another few months at least.

i smell...freshly baked brownies.
i crave.....self confidence.

i cry...a lot less than I used to.

i usually...am the quiet one in a group.

i wonder....when we’ll win the lottery.

i regret...I try not to regret choices I’ve made because I could drive myself crazy if I did.

i love...being organized.

i worry...way too much.

i am not....thin. Someday…someday…

i remember...not well. I have a horrible memory.

i believe...that I am capable of much more than I am now.

i dance...horribly. I only dance when I’ve had too much to drink, which only worsens the dancing.

i don't...like to be by myself in a group of people I don’t know.

i write...too little. I’m trying to create a new habit of writing letters to friends and family.

i win...when I’m bowling with my husband. Not always, but often.

i lose...when I’m playing Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit with my husband.

i wish...we had a house.

i listen...to music my husband hates.

i don't understand...people who abuse children.

i can usually be found...at home. I’m a homebody.

i am scared...of spiders, mice, heights, and most all creepy crawly things.

i need to lose...my sense of self doubt.

i forget...that I am capable of much more.
i am happy...when I am crafting.

And just because..........I found this picture on my hard drive while cleaning it off yesterday. It's me around the age of 1.

My Husband Rocks

It's been awhile since I posted a My Husband Rocks Fridays but it's back. David and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day at home. Neither of us felt like going out into a crowded restaurant to celebrate our first V-Day as a married couple. Since we were staying in, David decided that he wanted to make our meal. He made chicken marsala and oven roasted potatoes for dinner. It was fantastic! He's a great cook and I really appreciated that he spent so much time planning and preparing our dinner. He always works really hard to make sure things are special for me.

To learn more about MHR, visit Katy Lin.

Have You Ever?

Two questions. Have you ever seen tulips grow sideways? And....have you ever managed to kill a plant in less than 10 days? I bought this plant on Saturday and at the rate I'm going I think it'll be completely dead in 10 days. Yay me.

Cora Paige

I'm sure a lot of you have read about little Cora. If not you can go here to read her story.

I visited the Cora Playground benefit sale at Etsy tonight. If you haven't already, you should check it out. There are a lot of great items for sale and sellers are donating their profits to the playground fund. You can also donate here.

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I've picked up a few goodies at Goodwill over the past month or so. It's a little slow during the winter months so I haven't found much. Things will pick up during rummage sale season though. Anyway, I picked up this little perpetual calendar for $2. It still has the original Hallmark sticker on it with the $12.95 price tag.
I also picked up these bunnies.
They were pretty darn ugly with that crap around their necks but I liked the shape. Plus they were only 50 cents a piece so I thought I could afford to experiment with them. I worked on them this past weekend. They were a challenge to say the least.
It took a good hour and a half to pull all that junk off. Whoever decorated them used a ton of hot glue. So I pulled as much of the stuff off as I could by hand, then started pulling at the glue with a pair of pliers. I got as much glue off as I could then sanded them down.
I pulled out some scrapbook paper and mod podged it on. I'm not sure if I'm completely finished with them, but after working on them for over two hours I decided to quit. Not bad for a $2 project.
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I got this cute Valentine from Nicolle at Boyd's Crazy Mama in the mail today. What a cutie!

Open Wide

I went to the dentist today. It's been awhile since I last visited a dentist and I started having some pain in a few teeth awhile ago. So anyway, the dentist looked at my teeth then had some X-rays taken. Turns out that not one, two, or even three of my teeth have problems. Nope, turns out ALL of my molars have one issue or another. Great. I have to go back in next week for a full cleaning and then they are going to write out an action plan. Sounds like it's going to be awhile before I'm finished. Not good considering I have extremely high anxiety when dealing with any type of doctor appointment. I was seriously fighting back tears today and all they did was take X-rays and pictures. I'm going to need drugs, lots and lots of drugs.

Bargain

Where does the time go? I knew it had been awhile since I posted last but 8 days? Geez.

I finally bought some new shoes! I have a really hard time finding shoes that are cute and comfortable. I'm also really cheap when it comes to shoes. But I decided that I REALLY needed to find some new shoes the other night when I got home. I could smell my own feet once I took my shoes off. Now that's gross! My brother recently bought a pair of shoes of the Skechers website so I decided to take a look. I found these and really wanted them but didn't really want to pay the $64 (price + S&H).

I decided to look around the internet and came across them on Amazon for $27.48. Yay! I just got them tonight and so far so good. They seem to be pretty comfortable.
I just love a good deal!!

I Heart Clip Art

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before or not, but I kind of have a thing for pretty stationary. I don't write many letters but I still love it. So the other night I decided that I needed some personalized stationary. I went to VistaPrint to check out their deals (sometimes you can get their products free and just pay shipping). They had a great deal on cards so I went in to their galleries and made up some cute cards for myself. Once I had purchased them I started wondering if I could have just made them myself. So, I went into MS Word and started messing around. Clip art has come a long way since I lasted used it! I had a lot of fun looking through all the clip art and picking out fonts to go with them.

I picked out some images that I liked, then stuck some WordArt in and wa-la - I had some pretty, personalized cards. I just printed the images out on some white cardstock that I had on hand, trimmed them up with my paper trimmer, and had myself some pretty little cards.

Love them! Cheap, fun little cards. This could keep me busy for a long time. Well...until I run out of ink that is.

A Little V-Day

Thought I'd share my Valentine's decorations with ya all. I don't have a lot up, just a few things here and there.

Did anyone else make these Martha hearts?

source

Here's my version. They were cute at first but now they are all curling and looking a little wonky. They only have to make it another few days so they are staying up.

I bought a string of red lights and a string of clear lights with white wire after Christmas. I hung them up in our patio window with some red and pink tulle.

A candle that I glittered and the hearts that I made. It (the candle) was quite a messy project.

And.... I finally got our family wedding pictures hung up! We displayed our parent's and grandparent's wedding photos at our wedding reception. They've been packed away since April and I finally got them out and up on the wall.

I've been working on a fun little project the last few nights. Hopefully I'll be back to show you tomorrow...if not, it'll be soon!

PS - Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and prayers last week. Both my mom and grandma are doing well.

Bleh....

I'm home. Kind of in a bleh mood. My mom is doing well and my grandma is doing better. I'm relaxing and kinda watching the Superbowl.

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with something halfway interesting to say/show.

Hope ya all had a good weekend.