Snickers Fudge!

So mine didn't turn out as beautifully as "Culinary in the Deserts", but they were still delicious! 

For the first layer

1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

For the second layer

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped salted peanuts

For the third layer

14 ounce package caramel cubes
1/4 cup heavy cream

For the fourth layer

1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

To prepare the first layer

In a small saucepan over low heat, add milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Stir often until completely melted and smooth. Pour mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13" baking pan lightly coated with nonstick spray. Using an off-set spatula, spread the mixture to an even layer and place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the second layer

In a medium heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Mix in sugar and evaporated milk. Once it comes to a boil, let cook 5 minutes while stirring. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in marshmallow creme, peanut butter and vanilla. Stir in peanuts. Pour over the set chocolate layer and use an off-set spatula to gently spread mixture in an even layer. Place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the third layer

Place the unwrapped caramel cubes and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Place over low heat and stir until the mixture has completely melted and is smooth. Pour in the pan and quickly spread to an even layer with an off-set spatula. Place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the fourth layer

In a small saucepan over low heat, add milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Stir often until completely melted and smooth. Pour over the third layer and use an off-set spatula to spread to an even layer. Place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before cutting into squares.

Now I'm craving these and cannot wait to make them again!

Homemade Play Dough

I need Play Dough for Tuesday. After talking to the school principal we learned we cannot put food coloring in homemade play dough, she's worried about the permanency of the the dye. Putting the food coloring in is the best part, but it's okay. We decided well pretend it's cookie dough and the kids can use cookie cutters to make "cookies." I found two recipes on Pintrest and decided to make them both.

Playdough:
1 Cup Flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 cup water
food coloring

Heat the oil in a pot. Remove from heat and add food coloring (if desired) and water. Stir in all other ingredients. Continue to cook over low heat until mixture is firm, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and set clay mixture on wax paper to cool. Store in an airtight container.

This is the second recipe I found. Homemade Play Dough- makes 2.5 cups.
1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 cups of salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 TB vegetable oil
1/2 TB cream of tarter
food coloring (liquid kind)

Mix all the ingredients into a saucepan. Add the food coloring to your liking. - Children can help with this step.

Adults only-

Set your stove top to medium- low (about a 2.4 on a glass stove top). Stand by the pan and stir occasionally. When the batter look is gone and the ingredients start staying together when you stir (5-8 minutes), remove the pan from the heat. Lay out some wax paper and scoop play dough onto the wax paper. Once cooled, kneed the dough. Once the dough has been kneaded into a nice texture, place in an airtight container or zip lock.

Both of the recipes turned out about the same. The first one I notice is more grainy, but as far as softness I don't notice a difference. I am curious to see how they hold up after a few days!

Teacher's Survival Kit and Card

 I got this idea off Pintrest and after making it "my own" this is what I came up with! I thought my container was a bigger, I didn't intend on having to break up packages of things. Oh well, there's always next time. I am very pleased with how this turned out and I can't wait to give it to Ms. Christy!

 

 

I figured I should make a Christmas card as well and I've seen a lot of Christmas tree cards so I decided to try one too. It took me over an hour just to do the front, but it looks good! 

It's Been Awhile...

It's been awhile since I updated last. I've been busy...

I organized all my papers and filed them into appropriate binders. I just don't know where to put the binders...

Then with Thanksgiving I made a card for someone special in my life- This is paper combination I went with. 

These were the stickers I had to work with.

I decided on the brown paper to enhance the Turkey sticker. The leaf was used as an accent on the card.

Front of the card's all done! I used these stickies on the back of the Turkey and the leaf to make them "pop" off the page.

 Within these past two weeks I started two new jobs and quit the previous two I had. In my new Preschool class we sing a weather song on Tuesday mornings. The children have been using hand motions to interpret the different types of weather. We decided it would be fun to split the kids up by weather categories and when their category is mentioned in the song they can wave that weather "puppet" in the air. So this is what I have been working on this morning...

First I used Google to find images I liked. Some where black and white and I colored them with pencil. Then I glued them to card stock to make them more durable. Then I cut them out.

Once they were all cut out I used hot glue to glue them onto Popsicle sticks. I'm excited to introduce the song in a new way on Tuesday.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Birthday Card

My mom's birthday was Saturday. I haven't made her a card since I was a little kid. 

Crafting's a messy process with so many options!

 I decided to incorporate a poem and I wanted the poem to pop out as she opened the card. I just folded card stock three times and glued the poem on.

This is what I came up with!

The poem that pops out. I wish I was better at poetry and maybe I would've written my own : O

I didn't want the message to be read by strangers, but this is the inside...

I love you, Mom!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! 

I hope you had a wonderful day!

Jingle Bells

I bought a black shadow box from Micheal's. I looked into a Kraft Block, but the bells didn't fit inside.

My sister convinced me to spray paint it. It was supposed to be white glitter, totally not how it came out!

The bells I chose to use.

I bought a pack of 250 wooden letters. I thought they were smaller! I obviously didn't have room to spell out "Jingle All the Way" so I spelled Jingle Bells instead.

I glued the letters on, put the bells in and then I played with the bells to arrange them in a design I liked.

It's all done! I still want to add a white ribbon around the box and tie a bow on the top.

I had left over bells so I put them in a bowl.

I had to go to Michael's again today and I ended up buying this Mason jar. I arranged the bells and put a RED ribbon on top! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casserole

Make- It- Mine Casserole

8 ounces packaged dried Pasta

1 pound Meat or one 15 oz can Beans

1 10.75 oz. can Condensed Soup

1 1/2 cups Frozen Vegetables

1 cup Shredded Cheese (4 oz)

3/4 cup Milk

1/4 cup Goodie

1 teaspoon Seasoning

1/2 cup Topper (Optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to pan.

2. In a large skillet cook Meat until meat is brown. Drain fat; discard. (If using ham, tuna, or beacns, skip this step.)

3. Add Meat, Condensed Soup, Frozen Vegetable, half of the Shredded Cheese, the milk, Goodie, and Seasoning to cooked Pasta; stir well to combine. Transfer Pasta mixture to the prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining Shredded Cheese.

4. Bake, covered, in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Uncover; if desired, sprinkle with Topper. Return to oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until heated through and Topper (if using) is lightly browned. 

PICK ONE!! It's called Make It Mine Casserole. Bold is what I used.

* Goodie- Canned sliced Mushrooms, Canned sliced Water Chestnuts, Roasted Red Sweet Peppers, Slivered Almonds, or ripe Kalamata or Green Olives.

** Pasta- Egg Noodles, Mostaccioli, Macaroni, Farfalle, Penne, or Rotini.

*** Meat/Tuna/Beans- Ground Beef, Sausage, Ground Turkey, 2 cups chopped Ham, two 6 oz. cans of Tuna, or canned black/kidney beans.

**** Condensed Soup- Broccoli- Cheese, Cream of Celery, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom, Creamy Mushroom with Roasted Garlic, or Tomato.

***** Frozen Vegetable- Broccoli Florets, Mixed Vegetables, Peas, Peppers and Onions stir- fry Vegetables. 

****** Shredded Cheese- Cheddar, Italian blend, Mexican blend, Monterey Jack, Monterey Jack, Swiss. 

******* Seasoning- Cajun, Italian, Dried Basil (crushed), Dried Oregano (Crushed), Dried Thyme, and/or Chili Powder plus 1/4 tsp. Ground Cumin.

******** Topper- Chow Mein Noodles, coarsely Chopped Nuts, crushed Corn Chips, crushed Potato Chips, crushed rich round Crackers, Panko or soft Bread Crumbs tossed with 2 Tbsp. melted Butter.

 

Laid out all the ingredients to make sure we had everything!

 

Now I'm becoming a pro, I can make noodles and meat at the same time! 

 

Noodles are done, time to add in everything else.

 

Ready to go in the oven.

 

Ready to Eat!

Relationships- Marriage

In a relationship, married or not… You should read this.
Marriage.

“When I got ...home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Mosaic Frame

 

Beads I chose at Michael's.

 

Sanded down the frame a bit so it wasn't so glossy.

 

Added Adhesive for the beads to stick.

 

A few hours later I added in the sanded grout.

 

Done with the grout! 

Cleaning off the beads.

 

All dry so I added in a picture. 

I wasn't sure which picture to go with so I put the second one in and the first one is behind it in case she wants to switch it out. 

All done and ready for Cassie!

Best Wishes!

My best friend for the past 4 years is moving down to South Carolina on Friday. Her going away party is tomorrow night and this is the card I made her. I scanned it in so it's crooked and kind of cut off, but that's not how it really looks! It turned out really cute and I love the color scheme I went with. I also made her a Mosaic frame. I'll post pictures of that soon. I need to run to Target and print off some pictures of us and see which one I like best with the frame. I still can't believe she's leaving, it hasn't hit me yet. I wish her the best of luck and I can't wait to see her over Christmas!! 

I follow this page called Positive Outlooks and they just posted this a few minutes ago. Kind of relates to how I've been feeling and I think it's really true so I thought I'd share!

Banana Bread

  

 Mashed Bananas!

Ready to Bake!

 

All done!

YUM!

The last time I made Banana Bread I forgot the butter...

I tried it again today and it was delicious!