Chocolate Cobbler!

I never ever eat cobbler. It has never sounded good to me. I think it's because it's usually peach or cherries, both of which I don't eat. But anything chocolate I love!

The original recipe is here. But I'll step it out for you...

First you stir together 

3/4 c sugar

1 c flour

3 Tbsp cocoa

2 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

 and it looks so pretty, like this...

Next stir in

1/2 c milk

1/3 c melted butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

and it looks yummy like this...

I highly recommend at this point sticking your finger in and taking a good taste.

Pour into a square pan, ungreased, glass is best.

next you mix together

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

4 Tbsp cocoa

Once again... delicious...

Sprinkle this mixture evenly on top of the batter.

Next you pour 1 1/2 c of hot water on top of the whole thing. (this step freaked me out, felt like I was ruining it. That just shows my cobbler inexperience)

Bake at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes and let it sit and cool for 15 minutes.

as you see there is delicious chocolate sauce that you scoop out and pour on top. YUMMY!

Shag Wreath

My sweet in-laws took my sweet boys to San Antonio for 2 days and one of those days my husband had to go out of town for work. SO... I got to work in my classroom for the entire time! Alone!

I was feeling tired frustrated at the end of one of the days and decided to go raid the teacher section at Dollar Tree (which was awesome) and got a wreath form to decorate for my door. 

I had a sneaking suspicion that making something to decorate my room with would make me feel a lot better. I was totally right. I know the pictures aren't the best but I took these at midnight so there was a slight lack of natural light.

The first thing I did was turn on The Nanny and popped some popcorn.

This is the wreath form I found. They had 2 different sizes.

This is the fabric I choose, I already had a lot of it. I cut it into strips 3 inches wide and 12 inches long.

I folded the strips in half length wise and then tied double knots 

Just keep tying and squish them together until you're done. You can either fluff them up or lay them flat.

To hang it with I cut a ribbon and tied it around the form. So easy. So cute. So many options.

Pom pom garland

School started back for me this week and I'm so excited and so tired at the same time. I am going to try to keep up my creativity enough to keep this blog going... we shall see :)

I made a garland out of pom poms and it turned out to be way cuter and way easier than I expected!

I just bought a huge bag of them at Hobby Lobby when they were half off. 

All you do is cut a piece of thread the length that you want and thread a needle, you don't even need to tie a knot at the end of the thread.

 The pom poms stay exactly where you put them as long as you put the needle through the very middle of the ball. 

You can put them tightly close together or spread them out.

I love these! I hung them in my classroom, which I will include pics of later when it's actually finished.

I will for sure be making these for christmas decor, and possibly halloween and valentines!

Mini Fruit Pizzas

Aren't they pretty? 

I got this idea from Pinterest and used it for an extra dessert at our Sunday evening bible study. It turned out to be the favorite!

All it includes is sugar cookies, cream cheese and fruit of your choice.

I am somewhat of a cookie snob and was going to make the sugar cookies from scratch and then I decided for time sake to buy the dough at the grocery store... then I got to the grocery store and found a package of big huge sugar cookies already made :) 

That means this is officially the easiest dessert ever... the most time consuming part of it is slicing up the fruit. I also heated up the cream cheese a little so that it would be easier to spread.

Super easy... super yummy!

Orange Cake

BEST CAKE EVER! Especially for summertime!

I'm not even going to waste time telling you where I got this recipe, just that it's wonderful and delicious.

For the cake you will need...

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 small can of mandarin oranges (include the juice)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

4 eggs

Mix all 4 ingredients together and pour greased cake pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and let cool.

For the icing (this is the best part)...

1 small can of crushed pineapple (include the juice)

1- 3 oz box of vanilla pudding (don't actually make the pudding, I was dumb enough to do that the first time)

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

1 tub of cool whip

1 cup of coconut ( I have some crazy people in my life who do not like coconut, for those crazies this can be left out, but I don't suggest it)

Mix together by hand and spread on top of the cake once it's cooled.
Of course I forgot to take pictures of the finished project, I had a house full of people and totally forgot. I also would have felt stupid taking pictures of my food :).

If you've ever baked with your grandmother or used any old recipes you know that some of them have certain little rules, things that need to be done to make it taste better. It doesn't make sense why that makes it taste better but it just does and you don't question it. With that said, this cake always taste better when baked in 2 round cake pans so that some of the icing can go in the middle. I almost ALWAYS bake this in 2 layers. I've done it in a flat rectangle pan and I've done it as cupcakes and neither one were quite as good.

Cloudcroft, New Mexico (I love you so)

 We got to go to Cloudcroft and stay with some friends for a few days and had a blast! It was so relaxing I didn't know what to do with myself and the boys were in heaven. Well we all were in heaven, we even briefly looked for jobs and houses for sale :).

We went for walks...

We saw bears... 

More walks...

This is my favorite picture, I'm pretty sure Will was roaring like a dinosaur and Max was beating rocks with a stick.

We took a short hike to the top of a waterfall and the kids climbed over the stream..

 And jumped over the stream...

And in the stream.

we even hiked up a little ways to find where it came out of the mountain.

We drove up to this spot a couple times. You could see another mountain range and the white sands desert and all the towns in between. My little camera couldn't even begin to capture how gorgeous it was.

Old frame makeover

While I was in Kerrville for my birthday I found this huge frame with a board nailed to the back for $4. 

My plan was to paint it and do chalkboard paint in the middle. Then I realized I already have a chalkboard in my hallway, kitchen and living room.

My mother in law is wanting to redo her kitchen with fun bright decor and had a big blank wall that would be perfect for a chalkboard... 

 The pictures are a little weird but it was so big that it was hard to get it all in one picture and you still be able to see the design. I also changed some setting on my camera while we were on vacation and it made the pictures really wide. I have no idea how to undo it...

I'll post vacation pics when I can hold my eyes open a little better, SO tired!