Fear

First of all I need to apologize because I have no idea how to blur out this woman's name. 

I stumbled across this board on Pinterest yesterday and it broke my heart.

I just wanted to share it because it makes me sad that someone would live with such negativity and fear in their life. 

Now I realize that I have no idea what her story and situation is but further down on the board most of the comments on the amazing pictures had something to do with 'too scary'. 

I'm going to assume the best and say that she pinned these things so that she can prove herself wrong and turn it into a bucket list.

Re-Paint By Number

I have always thought paint by numbers were neat looking, especially when done with bright fun colors. The only problem is they are usually of little kids fishing or dogs... stuff that doesn't look great hanging in my house. I got to spend the weekend with my super awesome friend, Aubrey. Aubrey has the cutest house on the face of the earth and some stinking awesome paint by numbers, legit ones. There were a few things that she was getting rid of that I brought home with me. Two of them were some paint by number roses that I think her grandmother painted onto crushed velvet. The only problem was that the colors were very very sad.

A while back I saw a project on a blog that I follow, Ashley Ann (Jade says I stalk). She bought an old picture and repainted over it, paint-by-number-esque. Here is a link to that project.

So I took the sad colored roses and tried it myself. 

Here are the originals...

(It is completely impossible to take a picture of something in a frame with a black background without a reflection)

I grabbed some acrylic paint that I already had in some fun, bright colors and just painted over what was already there. Here's what I got...

I painted the frames, too.

I seriously couldn't get a picture without a crazy glare or reflection... I haven't decided where to put these yet, but I absolutely love them! This was seriously my favorite project, I had so much fun painting! I may go crazy and start repainting all the paint-by-numbers I can find. Hint, Hint, if anyone has any they don't want any more.

Thanks Aubrey for these treasures!

Best Birthday Breakfast Ever!

Hi friends! I apologize to all 5 of you who read my blog for being absent so much :) 

I will try to do better at least for the rest of the summer!
Jade made me an amazing breakfast on the morning of my very first 29th birthday!
I found the recipe for cake batter pancakes on Pinterest, of course. The original website is here.

Ingredients are...

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup yellow cake mix

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups milk

assorted sprinkles

Mix it all together and you will want it to look like regular pancake batter. The blogger says to start with one cup of milk and add more as you need it. 

Now for the glaze that goes on top...

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

I actually needed more milk, you could also add water... just stir it until it's about the consistency of syrup.

These are absolute heaven!

And the perfect finishing touch is chocolate milk and a pink candle :)

Strawberry Muffins With Accidental Blueberries

Warning... this is healthy, healthier than anything I usually care to make but I'm trying :) 

I am attempting to be a healthy mom... ugh. I realize that breakfast is incredibly important but no one in my house is a morning person so I am trying to find things that I can make ahead of time that are healthy and we can just grab as we are running out the door. My goal is to find something filling so that I don't eat my body weight in goldfish crackers and fruit snacks while I'm at work.

I of course found this on Pinterest and the original website is here.

The ingredients needed are...

2 1/2 cups - old fashioned oats

1 cup - plain low fat greek yogurt (this is where the accidental blueberries came in, I bought greek yogurt with blueberries in it)

2 eggs

3/4 cup - of a sweetener of your choice (I used Splenda)

1 1/2 tsp - baking power

1/2 tsp - baking soda

1 1/2 cup - strawberries diced and dry

1 tsp - lemon juice (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400

2. The directions I followed said to put all the ingredients (except the strawberries) into a blender or food processor but I found it easier to mix them all in a bowl and then blend it until it's almost liquid. Mine was more like mush, I may not have blended it long enough...

3. Now put the mush back into the bowl and stir in your strawberry chunks. (Next time I might blend the strawberries in, I wasn't a fan of the slimy chunks but that's just me)
Confession... I forgot to stir the strawberries in and so I just smushed them down in the mush when they were already in the muffin pan.

4. The directions I followed also said to use foil cupcake liners instead of paper... when cooking without flour it will still to paper liners. I just sprayed my pan extra good and sprinkled a little flour into the bottom of each little section.

5. Now bake for 20-25 minutes
and...

They look very pretty! Honestly I was not crazy about them but I think it's the blueberry that doesn't do it for me. The kids love them and I'm almost positive the hubs will.

What I like about these is that you can add whatever fruit or topping you want... I'm thinking dark chocolate and coconut!

Easter Kabobs

Cutest things ever, I found an adorable idea on Pinterest, of course, for a treat to make for all the kids on Easter.

Here is the link to where I found the idea.

All you need is candy melts...

Yumm... I have found these at Hobby Lobby or Wal Mart or wherever there is fancy baking stuff. It comes in different colors which would look a lot better than just white but that would have required me to go to a completely different store. That day it was not happening.

You also need marshmallows...

Very pretty sprinkles...

some creepy marshmallow bunnies...

The last thing you will need are some sticks to put these precious things on.

I used these sticks...

I think they are for making cookie pops or something.

 If you use regular kabob sticks then you can fit more marshmallows on them. However the kabob sticks have a pointed end and some of the kids that would be running around with these on Easter didn't really need pointed objects in their mouths. They would be fine for older kids or adults.

Here's the extremely detailed, difficult to understand directions.

> melt the candy melts per the directions on the bag (microwave for 1 minute then stir until it's all melted)

> dump out all your sprinkles into little individual bowls

> dip your marshmallows into the melted candy and then into sprinkles of your choice and place on wax paper

> once all your marshmallows have dried (it doesn't take long) then place them on the stick/kabob

> top it off with a poor little bunny who doesn't deserve that type of punishment :) sorry

> Let some cute kids finish off what's left

Just a couple tips... 

- I did use a kabob with the pointy end to make a hole through the marshmallow before I put it on the pretty stick. It helped the finish product be not so messy.

- Be careful if you are trying to be healthy because marshmallows covered in candy and sprinkles are deliciously addicting.

- This will make a very pretty mess

Yours may or may not include robots.

Since these will be traveling I found some bags to place them in and contain the sprinkle mess.

Chicken Salad Attempt #2

I have mentioned before that I am on a quest for the perfect chicken salad. I'm super picky about chicken salad...

I found a recipe, probably on Pinterest, and tried it out. 

This is me excited to be "cooking" for once, yes making chicken salad is cooking to me....

The recipe is:

2 cups of shredded chicken, I used the kind in a can

1 cup of chopped celery (I'm not sure I used a whole cup, I got tired of chopping)

1 Tbsp of lemon juice

(being stalked by a dinosaur, as most things are in this house)

3/4 cup of Mayo but it was a tiny bit dry so I added a big spoonful more

and then 2 hard boiled eggs

Mix it and WALAA!

I believe this recipe is definitely a winner for me, the only thing I might add next time is some chopped pickles, or at least pickle juice.

Here it is in sandwich form... (I'm not the best picture taker)

And dinosaur form...

So that these cuties would eat it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie

YUMMY!

Just a warning if you are watching what you eat for a wedding, swimsuit season or whatever reason, this may be a bad idea. If you don't care, it's a wonderful idea!

I found it on Pinterest of course and the recipe came from this blog.

It is actually so sweet that I could only eat a little bit (every 5 minutes).

Ingredients for the brownie part:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate finely chopped

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups brown sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

Ingredients for the cookie dough:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp milk

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 chocolate chips 

I hope I don't get in trouble but I totally copied the directions from the recipe girl website...

Directions:

1. Prepare the brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with nonstick spray. In a medium glass bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave in short bursts of 30 seconds; stir after each burst and remove from microwave when melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk those in too. Mix in melted chocolate. Whisk in the flour and mix just until combined (don't over-mix). Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake 25 to 35 minutes. Watch closely and remove from oven when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Mix in milk and vanilla. Mix in flour just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spread cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is quite firm. It's okay to speed up the process and place it in the freezer too. The firmer the dough, the easier it will be to cut into neat squares. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies. You may need to wipe the knife off with a paper towel in between cuts since the fudgy brownies and cookie dough will tend to stick to the knife a bit. These brownies are best to serve placed inside cupcake papers and served with a fork.

4. If you'd like to add chocolate drizzle on top, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of shortening in the microwave; stir until smooth. Scoop the melted chocolate into a zip baggie and snip off the corner. Squeeze the bag to drizzle the chocolate on top of each brownie. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top, if desired.

*just an apology, this was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture :( follow the link to the place where I found the recipe up above and look at it there! xo