Pumpkin & Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

A few years back a precious neighbor of ours shared these lovely muffins with us.  I then pestered her until I was given a copy of the recipe.  She not only gave me a copy, she showed my how to 
make them.  I have the best neighbors.  Miss ya Janine!!  

Today, my hair stylist is opening up shop on her day off to 
do my hair.  Oh, I too, have the best 

hair stylist.  I thought I would make her some of these 
muffins as a thank you.  Not all hair stylist

will come in on their day off to do your hair.  
Since I am whipping these lovelies up, 
you now get to enjoy them as well.  

This recipe makes a TON of muffins, like nearly 100!!  
I also give them to teachers.  
They work so hard they need a little treat every now and again. 
I hope you make these.  You won't regret it.  

The boys love helping me make them
because we mix it all by hand. 

I always tell my husband, "The best cooks are the messiest."  

Wet Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

plop them both together and mix

the guys love this part

add your mini chocolate chips

I use a scoop but a spoon will work too

enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!

WET INGREDIENT

1 1/2 Cups of Light Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Cups White Sugar

29 oz large can of Pumpkin(not the pie mix)

1 1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1 Tbs Vanilla

DRY INGREDIENTS

6 Heaping Cups of Flour

1 Tbs Baking Powder

1 Tbs Baking Soda

1 1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Nutmeg

3 tsp Cinnamon

1 bag of mini morsels chocolate chips

mix extra sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on top of muffins

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Mix wet ingredients together in a bowl (I use my kitchen aid and let it mix the entire time I put my dry ingredients together)

3.  Mix dry ingredients together in huge bowl

4.  Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture

5.  Beat until smooth  ( it makes so much we use our hands to mix it.  My mixer won't fit it all.)

6.  Add chocolate chips and mix well

Use either a spoon or small scoop to drop 1 tsp into a Pam sprayed mini muffin pan. 

Bake for 15 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

*A little side note.  I ran out of white flour and had to use 3 cups of organic barley flour.  They still turned out great and this little addition helps lower the calories and adds more fiber.  When baking you can replace barley flour with 1/2 of the white flour called for.

{ Kelly }


 

ORGANIZING WILL SET YOU FREE, OR SO THEY SAY...

So this week is going to be crazy busy for me us.  Tons of commitments during the day and after school activities going on.  I hate being this busy.  It stresses me out.  This weeks juggling reminds me of when my husband is deployed and I have to always be in 2 places at once.  It's for the birds quite frankly.  In my efforts to ease the tightness of the week I have done a little pre-planning.   Plus it gives me my blog post for the week(BONUS!!), which would not be happening at all because I will have no time to work on projects. 

I am not an organized person by trait.  I normally wait until the last moment to do anything.  I would rather be spray painting or mod podging something than cleaning my house or prepping the evenings meal.  So tonight's burst of organizational motivation is coming from God, because this is so far out of character it can't be from anywhere else. So don't be all impressed and think I've got my act together because this rarely happens. ;D

Anyways...

I have been seeing a lot of cool lunch ideas and tips on organizing your lunches, which is all I needed for inspiration and motivation...

School Lunch Organizing Tips

Preparing Lunches Ahead of Time

Organizing Lunches to Lower Stress

Here are my efforts

5 days (count 'em 5 days!!), worth of fruits and veggies, snacks and chips.  The sandwiches will be made in the morning.  I know some people pre-made those as well, but I like them fresh.  All I will have to worry about is my HB's lunches and everyone will be set.  This took me all of 20 minutes to package up.  Not bad considering that is what it takes me to make their lunches in the morning.  One less thing to worry about.  I was also motivated enough to make dinner for tomorrow.  Yea me.  It would be nice if this motivation stuck around, but I'm not holding my breath. 

So for all of you full time working mommas or full time mommas that go to college themselves or the stay at home domestic goddesses I hope this gives you some motivation to ease your work load when it comes to making lunches.

Happy Monday Everyone!!!

Kelly

PERSONAL CHANGE CAN SOMETIMES COME IN A PRETTY SHADE OF BLUE: LAUNDRY ROOM REDO

If you follow me on Facebook you would have seen the below image on there over the weekend.  However, I didn't tell you what it was for.  This post is not only to share with you what I used 

it for, but also to share the unexpected change of heart

that came along with it.

My eldest, Mr. B., has stripes on one of his walls. {My marriage survived applying these stripes to the wall by the way.}  The rest of the walls are a cream color.  

 They used to be contractor beige, like the rest of my house.  In the spring time I wanted to paint the rest of his walls the blue that was in the stripes.  I thought, "red and turquoise are so trendy, he will love it, I will love it."   Wrong!!  Moody, opinionated, I know best, Mr. B. showed up to that pow wow and knocked me off my cloud of high hopes.  Teenagers!!  Boy teenagers!!!!  Who wants to raise mine?  I digress.  Now, I forgot to mention that I already bought the paint before talking to him about it.  I thought I would surprise him, but that too did not work out as planned.  So, there I was stuck with a gallon of blue turquoise paint.  If you know me, really know me, you know that blue is not my shade.  What in the world was I gonna do with this paint?  Well...

I was watching HGTV one night and on an episode of House Hunters this man put the prettiest, coolest, boldest wallpaper on his walls.  I am not a wallpaper fan, but my oh my I was in love.

This ain't your Grandma's wallpaper ladies. 

It was enough to inspire me.

And so I began the journey of blue...

 As much as I am fine with my laundry room walk through I knew it was the only option to use this blue in.  I had to paint something and it wasn't going to be a main living space, because remember, not a fan of blue.  

 While my husband was out staining the boys' fort, I proceeded to prep the laundry room for painting, much to my husband's dismay.  And I started to paint with all the optimism in the world.  This would be great.

This was all it took to freak the living day lights out of me.  What have I done?  I can't just erase this.

My HB walked in and said, "What have you done with my neutral colors?"If I wasn't so lazy I probably would have stopped and painted over, but I didn't tear that laundry room apart for nothing.  Onward and upward.  

Here comes the image.  Yep, it was my stencil.  I decided to do a mock wallpaper treatment if you will.  Plus it would help break up the blue.  This is painted creme.  I cut it out using my Cricut, but scissors will work as well.  I placed them all over in random order.  

Starting to fill them in.  

I have stopped rebelling so much at this point and started to allow some excitement to creep in.  Cautiously of course.  

I still may hate it.

I think I love it!!  I love the blue and I especially love the print in creme.  I am so glad I stuck with it.  My HB actually loves it as well.  It still takes me off guard when I pass it, but I enjoy walking in and out of my house through this room now.  I officially enjoy the color blue.  Doesn't it just look pretty with all the creme?!!

I am still not done reorganizing and I will post follow up pictures when that happens.  Lots of cute storage and organizing ideas buzzing around in my head.

Thanks for sticking with me through the lengthy post about my new laundry room.  I hope you enjoyed it.  

Have you ever started a project in fear and ended 

up loving it in the end?  Let me know I love hearing from all you ladies.  Enjoy the rest of your week.

Kelly

PS:  Rebekah, you are next!!

PUPPY BLOCKS FOR A BOY NURSERY

How many of you get inspired by what you see out there in blog land, catalogs, stores and try to copy it?  Well, I am guilty.  Sometimes it is not for the "I can make it cheaper" aspect, but because whatever I am copying makes me happy.  It makes me inspired.  It makes me want to get out my supplies and start working.  I love it when people say to me, "Oh I loved what you did and I need to do that." or "Great idea, I'm gonna do that to."  After all that is what this blog is for.  To inspire.  

To show that it's not always difficult to craft or create something.  

It's here to make you want to get out your supplies and start working.

A friend recently called me and asked me if I could make a few things for her.  I do really love it when friends call to ask for my help.  She is having her first boy to add to her already 4 girls.  I am excited for her.  Boys, however ornery, are fun.  So far puppies are the theme for his little corner of their world.  She found a link of some blocks at an online store using The Pokey Little Puppy book.  She wanted to use a book they had at home called Daniel the Cocker Spaniel.  Such a sweet book and it was so old the pages were turning colors, which was perfect, and starting to crumble.  

If you would like a full tutorial on how I make these then click here to see how I made some LOVE blocks awhile ago.  For today I am just going to show you the final project.

Aren't these just the sweetest pictures?!

I normally distress around the edges, but I didn't on these.  I like them just how they are.

It had a little blonde headed boy in there, which he will most likely have, so I just had to use him.

This is the inspiration piece.  So cute!!!

Such a simple craft.  You can use any book.  Check out some thrift stores next time you are out and about.  Happy Crafting!!!

{ Kelly }

You can find me making friends over at...
 

I've Got the Back To School Boy Blues

If you are a reader of my blog you know I only have boys.  To top my creative misery off, they are older boys.  I don't get to do all this cutesy, yummy, goodness to any of their things.  I can't embroider their bags anymore, I can't send them to school with hand made bows in their hair, or with shoes that I have bedazzled to match their outfit.  Do you pity me yet?  Do you have some cheese to go with my whine?  Well, as much as I whine about not having a daughter to share all my creativity with, I did manage to sneak a little in here and there with my boys this year, and with out much grumbling on their part I might add.  I guess this year, I have finally started to learned balance, some give and take if you will,  when it comes to jazzing their belongings up, sprinkling them with as much of my creativity as they will possibly allow.  My days are numbered, but until then I will test their limits every year just so I too can enjoy some of this back to school creative bliss that you mothers of girls and little children get to enjoy.

This post is dedicated to my small attempt to cure my back to school blues with my boys.

This first picture is of their new lunch bags.  I bought them from the company Thirty One, which my friend, Amelia, is a seller for.  Love this company.  Great prices and monogramming.  I know I said I couldn't monogram anymore, but I snuck it in this year with great success.  Not one grumble.

Ya, Mr. B thinks he is funny.  Just like his father.

Mr. N got a red N on his, school colors are black and red.  Great for boys!!!  And Mr. B received a black B on his.  He is a teenager now so I made it black to be less obvious.  As you see I still got to jazz up their gear a little bit.  Yea for me.   Less whining coming from my lips.  :D

My next few pictures are of Mr. B and his school supplies and room we got ready for his freshman year.  {Good grief, I choke even typing that.}  Here again, I got to sneak it in a bit.  

Where we live they aren't allowed to use their lockers.  Because of that we have to minimize as much school supplies as we can, because they carry it on their backs all day in their backpacks.  I hate it for them.  When he came home the first day he had written, scratched in pencil the word Spanish on his binder.  "This will not do", I said.  I took his binders and told him, "I will be back."  "MOM!!  What are going to do to them?" he asked with concern.  "Don't worry, I will make them look awesome."  With my black vinyl and my Cricut I cut out his class names and stuck them on.  Now, I at first started to put the vinyl on the outside of the binders.  He looked at me and said, "Those will be off by the end of the day from me pulling them in and out of my bag."  Duh!!  Why didn't I think of that?  Back to my machine I went and cut the words out in the mirror image and stuck them on the inside of the binder.  Here we are in week 3 and so far so good.  He has not mumbled anymore about me "bedazzling" his binders.  Yea, for me again.  This brought my creative side much joy. 

And for the grand finally.  Remember his desk redo?  I told you I was working on his peg board.  It is finally done.  Even though it is not how I want him to have it used or looking, it is keeping him more organized and I think as the year goes on we will tweak it here and there to use it better. 

We painted the peg board black and I added his blue wall color to the baskets to make them pop more.  I bought shelf brackets so we could add a book shelf to it.  I bought a small white shelf at Lowe's for $4 and sanded it then spray painted it black.  All his hooks keep his para-cord organized for the bracelets he makes.  This new peg board at least helps start him on the road to being more organized for high school.  Yikes, that word makes my heart hurt. 

The top black stripe on his wall is painted with magnetic paint {several coats} and then painted black.  It goes all around his room.  He can stick whatever he wants on there with magnets.  

There ya go ladies.  This is how I tackled my back to school blues with boys.  I hope you have enjoyed my little post.  If you are a mom of older boys and have any more ideas for this momma that loves to add a little creativity to her everyday life, please, please pass them along.  Maybe this has inspired you to sneak a little jazz to your boys school supplies.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  

I'm glad you could come for a visit.  

{Kelly} 

You can find me over at...
 




  

 

Easy Peasy Weekend Projects

 

 If you are looking for quick and easy projects here ya go.  I knocked these both out within a matter of 1 hour. If you don't have much time to make a gift or you are just dying to create, alter or make something hopefully these two cuties will steer you into the right direction 

or at least give you some inspiration.

The first one is chalkboard stones.  I picked up some Dollar Tree stones and put chalkboard paint on them.  I initially was going to leave them blank, but then decided to put the I Corinthians 13:4-7 verses on them.  I used my white chalk board marker to write on them. I put them in my bird cage by my entry way.  It is probably not something that you would notice at first glance, but I think it adds a little something extra to that little corner of my world. 

The second project was a gift for a friend's birthday.  I have been seeing this next craft all over Pinterest. I have been dying to make one for my home, but I have been dragging my feet.  

There is nothing like a birthday to motivate you to make a gift. 

I used scrapbook paper for my background and went with a neutral brown button selection.  I thought, then she could place it wherever in her house.  The sky is the limit on these cuties though.  Here is the one I made.  It took me about 30 min once I got going.

I first picked out a font and blew up the W in her last name then printed it and cut it out.

 

I then traced the W onto the scrapbook paper.  This gave me my guidelines for the buttons.

At this point it is all about layering.  I have seen some with tons of layers to fill in the gaps and some with only one layer.  Your choice.  I used about three layers to make sure I had the outline right.  I used hot glue to glue it all down.  She was kind of my guinea pig but I can't wait to make more.  I am officially hooked on this craft and buttons!!!

I hope this gives you some hope that projects don't have to take all day or hours for that matter.  Try these out and let me know how they go.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!

Having a blast over at...