Brownies in a Mason Jar

Happy Friday friends!  I hope that you all had a great week.

We've been pretty tied up here with life, you all know how that goes.

My little man is due for minor surgery next week,
and we are praying that everything goes well.

This week, my boys were craving chocolate,

or was that me?  Nevertheless, I had this idea to put brownies in a jar

as a treat and also as a gift.  I've seen some cute ideas around the web, 

but I have not seen this one, so I went ahead and made this.

To make your very own, you will need the following:

• scissors or x-acto knife
• paint brush or small sponge
• fabric paint
• your choice of fabric
• mason jar
• mason jar open lid
• paper or vinyl template
• string

Before you begin, bake your favorite brownie recipe first!
Click here for the top 10 brownie recipes.

When brownies are done, let it cool.

Print a template of a bunny or other figure unto your sheet, 

then cut out your figure with scissors or x-acto knife, I recommend x-acto knife.

Cut out a piece of fabric that can fit nicely over the top of your mason jar.

For a regular sized jar, about 4.5 to 5 inches works well.  

You may need a larger piece, for a large jar.

Place your template over your fabric piece, 

make sure that your figure is small enough to fit

on the top of your jar.  

An open lid helps determine the proper size of template.

Use the open lid to hold the template down and start painting the inside of the template 

covering the exposed fabric.

 When you are done, allow your paint to dry on the fabric.

While you wait for the fabric to dry, 

cut your brownie into squares, then into bite size pieces.

 Stuff your brownie bites into a clean mason jar and top with 

your favorite brownie frosting.

To protect the inside, 

seal the lid with press & seal plastic wrap.

Take your painted fabric and place it on the top of your jar,

you may hold it down with the open lid that you used before,

this allows you to wrap the fabric around the jar with your string as you see here.

To make it look pretty, you may also add a lovely gift tag.

You know, after all was said and done, I realized I could have added some berries

for color and flavor, that would've made it extra special. 

I hope that this inspires you to make your own sweet and tasty jar treats,

they're perfect for friends, neighbors, favors and Easter.

Thank you for visiting,
Happy Crafting & Baking!
Hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

My Random Weekend

Hey everyone!  It's been a while since I've written a random post.
 I hope that you had a wonderful and fun St. Patrick's Day.
We had a beautiful, bright and warm weekend in these parts, perhaps a little too warm.
And although the weekend was gorgeous, I wasn't able to enjoy it much.
You see, I was feeling ill this weekend; drained, in pain and just...not myself.
I was feeling like this nest, pretty empty, sickly and unmotivated.

The hubs has been super sweet, comforting me and taking care of things around the house
while I tried to rest, but I just couldn't rest.  I didn't want to miss a thing with my two boys.
So while they had some fun, I finished my little can container to store my camera wires
 and fabric roses.

For St. Patrick's Day, I made my little family a quick and delicious meal,
since I wasn't feeling well, I decided to make something easy.
I made creamy pasta with carrots and beef tips in gravy.
The easy part was that the only thing I made from scratch, was the pasta sauce.
The meat was already cooked and it only needed to be defrosted.
I added the carrots to the gravy and beef.
It pays off when you cook in advance and freeze food for times like this.

Craft Easter Garden: Colleen Hammond
I am loving this lovely Easter Garden by Colleen Hammond.
What a great way to teach our children about the real meaning of Easter,
by planting a little garden using potting soil, a very small flower pot for the tomb,
shade grass seeds, and crosses made of twigs.
All you do is sprinkle the seeds and keep soil moist for about 7- 10 days.
Do this at least 12 days before Easter and watch your garden grow,

Source: Google
This is my new love!
I was visiting several Volkswagen sites and came across this beauty.
Oh, how I wish to have a little camper like this.
Can you picture this?
Candy apple red with a white roof,
interior little kitchenette, camping bed, comfy seats, cute drapery on the windows,
adorable crochet or knitted blankets lots of love and travel.
I have a VW Golf
which I love, but this little baby would add so many wonderful
family memories if we had one.
Many camping weekends, road trips and so much more.

How did you spend our weekend?

Homemade Iced Java Chip Coffee

Hello there! I hope that you are enjoying your day, if not feast your eyes on this.

Are you a coffee lover?  Iced coffee lover?  

If so, I've got a recipe to share with you today.

I have created this marvelously decadent iced coffee for those 

who love the taste of chocolate in their iced coffee, I know that I do.

I was making my regular iced coffee today and a light-bulb went on,

why not add chocolate, and not just any chocolate, but chocolate morsels.

I know!

I brewed my coffee.
I like to use a strong blend like Bustelo.

You may use your choice of coffee, 

and follow coffee brewing directions on the container.

(Tip:) When brewing your coffee, use cold water.

After my coffee was done, I let it cool in the refrigerator, 

you don't want to work with hot coffee. 

 After it had cooled a bit, I poured about one cup in the blender.

I like my coffee sweet, so I added two tablespoons of sugar.

I poured in a half cup of cold milk and 2 tablespoons of Italian Creme (for extra flavor), yum! 

(Cream is optional)

Did I mention I like sweet?  Oh yes, here's the good part, I added two tablespoons of

sweet condensed milk, thanks to The Pioneer Woman for that inspiration.

Okay, okay, so I added a "quarter of the can", I told you I like it very sweet.

Next came 1/3 cup of dark chocolate morsels, oh my!

I don't like my iced coffee to get watered down by ice, 

so I froze coffee the night prior from the leftover coffee of the day.

I added the frozen coffee cubes instead of ice, 

and let me tell you, it makes a big difference.

Blend it all together...

Pour in a glass, add some whip cream if you like and even better, 

chocolate syrup for those big chocolate lovers and voila!

You may change the measurements of the ingredients in this recipe

according to your preferences, how much of the coffee flavor you like,

chocolate or sweetness.

Enjoy!

Linked up to:
Success U-Wed.#35
Creative Juices
Feature Yourself Fridays

FREE Wedding Website: Wedding Paper Divas

Via Google: Grace Kelly

Where, oh where were Wedding Paper Divas when I was getting married? 
By the way, that's not me, that's Grace Kelly, doesn't she look stunning?
Unfortunately, I don't have digital wedding photos of my big day.
I was completely clueless when it came to weddings years ago.

I could have used Wedding Paper Divas to make my life easier then, 
instead I stressed over everything.
During that time my family was overseas, so 
I was pretty much alone in planning everything.  
I had to go high and low to find what I needed 

and Wedding Paper Divas provides it all.

If you need a free wedding website, 

one that matches your Save the Date cards, invitations, etc. 

Wedding Paper Divas has what you need! 

If you, or someone you know is getting married,

visit Wedding Paper Divas or e-mail your friend this information, 
they will be thankful you did.

A free wedding website to go along with over 40 of their most popular wedding invitations. 

This means that you can now easily create an ad-free personal wedding website 

complete with online RSVP capabilities and more—and keep it FREE for one year! 

Some of the features of the free wedding website include:

• Match your site to over 40 of Wedding Paper Divas bestselling invitation designs.
• Easy to design. You don’t need to be a programmer to do this!                                                 Just point and click at anything on the site to customize.
• Custom Domains. You can truly customize your site with a domain that is just for you like ourwedding.com.
• Unlimited Photos.
• Guest comments
• Music and Video
• Online RSVP, Blog, Password protection, guest list manager, and much more.

How great is that?  You need to march on over and take a peek

if not, you need to send this to a future bride.

Enjoy!

DIY: Chalkboard

This is not a post on Humility, but rather of what I made this past week.
Every week I write on my board something new that I try to apply to my life,
this week, it' Humility which is why you see it on my new chalkboard.

I purchased this old painting from a thrift shop many months ago
at a super cheap price.  I loved the frame,
not in the particular state that you see here,
but I knew that something great could be done with it.



I waited many months before deciding exactly what to do with it and what color to paint it.
I realized that after moving my original chalkboard to my craft room/ office,
I lacked one in my kitchen, so I decided to repaint the frame white and add a cream accent color to match my small kitchen cork board.

I cleaned the frame to prep it for painting, and removed it from the art piece.
I spray painted the frame with white satin paint,
then I painted the art piece with the chalkboard paint.

I used an off white craft paint to give the frame depth.

When everything was set and dry, I remounted the art piece to the frame.

Now I finally have my kitchen chalkboard.
I like to display on it things I want to work on during this Lenten Season.
This week it's Humility, next shall be Patience, that's a tough one.
Do you have something old that you want to make new again?

DIY: Scrapbook Paper Bunting

This has probably been done many times, but why not share it again.

If you have been with me since the beginning, then you're familiar with my son's bunting project.

But since I've received many comments about this cute little scrapbook bunting craft, I

decided to share it on this post.

It's fairly easy, all you need are the basics:

1. scissors or any cutting device
2. tape
3. scrapbook paper
4. string
5. Ruler

Cut your paper into small triangles about 3 inches the long way and 2 inches on the top.

You may group a few papers together so that when you cut them, they may come out all the same size.

Once you have cut all your triangles out, fold the top of each one as featured above.

Place the string under the fold making sure that it has room to slide over so that you may 

space your triangles as you wish.

Tape your fold to secure the string and triangles.

Repeat the steps with each triangle until you have formed your bunting.

There you have it, a cute bunting project.

Happy Crafting!

Local Handmade Soap

Hello, hello!  Hope that you are enjoying your day today.

We're under a storm watch right now, so it's pretty dark out and thundering at this moment,

but the good news is that it's not raining, well not yet anyway.

Since it is dark and gloomy out, I decided to post these bright

 photos of my new handmade soaps. 

That's one thing I like about living in a small town,

I love the charm that the town and it's local shops possess.

These soaps are goat milk based and made with luxurious oils from 

Olive, Jojoba and Avocado to Shea and Cocoa butters 

blended with the natural essences of fruits, flowers, herbs and spices. 

They are scented with exquisite essential 

and fragrance oils that I just love.

I wish you could smell these bars, they are heavenly.

When I first discovered this little company, they were situated in an old house which

gave the shop a beautiful southern charm.  

Now they have expanded their products by incorporating lotions, creams and even

a men's line along with their soaps, so they have moved to a larger shop.

I have to admit though, I miss that southern charm that the old shop possessed,

but I still love their wonderful soaps. 

Do you live in a small town or large city with 

a charming shop that you just love?