Randomly Updating :)

Blah! Sooo.. it's been way too long since I've been able to update this blog!! I have been super busy baby proofing my son from getting into EVERY thing! Ahh.. If anyone has any tips.. This girl could use them! He is so close to walking, he took 2 steps toward me the other day! It was a fantastical feeling.. then I remember how it was when my nephew started walking.. Oi Vey.

ANYWHOO! I've been working on a bunny hat for my little munster for Easter, along with his Easter basket! I am so hoping that it turns out good, I want my baybay's first Easter to be PERFECT! 

This is the Easter basket I'm going for.. except grey and baby blue and no flower of course! :) Hopefully it won't be too hard.. or time consuming!

AAAAAAnd this is the hat.. it will be cream and grey with a light green for the ears.. No flower. Ahh the joys of having a little boy :) He has my heart though!!

Sooo. Cooking has been limited lately since we have been so busy.. However tonight I will be trying something new.. I'm sure its been made before, but since I don't have any fetticini noodles for chicken alfredo.. I'm going to be making chicken alfredo lasagna.. Hopefully it turns out as planned!! I will post pictures the next time I am able to blog. I definitely planned to be able to blog more when I signed up for this account, but since I have so much to be doing lately, its so hard! Maybe when things die down a little bit I will surely be posting a few times a week. 

So.. As soon as I get enough hats made up I will be making an etsy account to try and make some extra money. Maybe before Easter (I really hope for that..) I have also made a  commitment to making hats for this church mission for my boyfriends cousin.. Really?! I don't have enough time in the day BUT I make more commitments. Come on Danielle, duh! It's for a good cause though, right?!

I've also been toying with the idea of redoing my living room/kitchen/dining room.. Ehh it gives me a headache just thinking about it.. But I've been seeing some help from the beautifully wonderful Pinterest :) Ideas? Hints? Tips? Leave me some comments readers!

OH, the biggest news of all is that I've finish planning our summer vacation to Chicago!! We got our Chicago Cubs tickets, and our airplane tickets! Now we just have to twittle our little thumbs until July gets here! Oh and I didn't mention that my birthday is July 2nd.. the Cubs game is on the 1st.. Happy Birthday to me?!!

So! As I've been writing this.. I was thinking.. what if I had a weekly special day! I can't even think of any right now.. but maybe I will come across some ideas.. OR MAYBE you all could give me an idea..

Anywhoo.. I know I didn't have much to update today.. Next time I will have good updates!!

Thanks for stopping by..

Well! Again it has been longer than I anticipated being able to write. For the last week I have been looking for a new refrigerator, finding a new table for my "dining area" (which shares a spot with the weight bench, why? because we have too many people in this house and not enough room *end rant*) and doing homework. Like on. Overload. Yes, overload! I was literally so busy yesterday that I didn't even eat until after midnight last night. It was purely ridiculous.Anywhoo.

I made OREO Cheesecake Cupcakes!!! Goodness they are so delicious! As always here is the wonderful recipe that I found on pinterest via Grace's Sweet Life:

Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

(from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)
Makes 30

• 42 Oreo, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
• 908 grams (2 pounds or about 3 2/3 packages) cream cheese, room temperature
• 225 grams (1 cup) sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 230 g (1 cup or 8 ounces) sour cream
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275° F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Place 1 whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.  Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined.  Beat in the vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add in sour cream and salt, beat to combine.  Using a large spatula, fold in the chopped Oreo cookies.
4. Divide batter evenly among the cookie-filled muffin cups, fill each cup almost to the top.  Bake, rotating muffin tins halfway through, until the filling is set, about 22 to 28 minutes.  Transfer the muffins tins to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate (in the muffin tins) at least 4 hours (or overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Alright, so it's been a few day's since I've posted.. As my Munster Man is growing, we are adjusting to his "new accomplishments", plus the boy and I have been really busy getting the house cleaned and more organized since we are slowly losing square footage in our house!

So since my last post I have made a few things that I'm going to be sharing with ya'll today. The first one was Carmel Apple Cheesecake! And HOLY CRAP! It was amaZingly DElicious! I did take a picture of this one, not a very good one.. bUT it will work..

 Okay, so now that you've seen the goods, I GUESS I have to share the recipe with you guys! SO here it is! (This recipe was found on The Girl Who Ate Everything's Blog)

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel topping, recipe follows

1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. I like to really combine it by using my clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.

YUUUMMY! Alrighty --> ONWARD!

I also wanted a quick dinner after a late trip to the grocery store (that seemed endless.. with an 8 month old and being unorganized, it was a disaster) I wanted some quick and easy to make..So I remembered, yet another, recipe I had seen on pinterest (Yeah I'm addicted to it.. Follow me on Pinterest :) I forgot to take a picture of them, so I will post the one that is on pinterest..

Crescent Pepperoni Roll-Ups

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

40 slices turkey pepperoni

4 pieces of mozzarella string cheese, cut in half

garlic powder

pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375.

Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles.  Place 5 slices of turkey pepperoni on each crescent roll.  Top pepperoni with string cheese half and roll up.  Sprinkle crescent rolls with garlic powder.  Place rolls on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve with a side of warm pizza sauce.

 

Although I altered mine a bit... I used a pre-rolled dough for a whole pizza and made a big pizza roll! It was SO delicious and very simple to make! I also added some sugar into the jar-o-sauce I purchased :)

Let's see.. what else have I been up too? OHH I also made Cake Batter Pancakes!! They were SO delicious, I was in a bit of a hurry when I made these so again no picture. They were seriously some of the best pancakes I've ever eaten!! I would definitely recommend them to anyone.. I been considering making a huge batch of the dry batter and putting them into a canister with how many eggs per cup of batter etc.. As soon as I finish that project I will post pics and the amounts I used!! BUT for now.. here is the recipe and again a stolen picture, lol.. I got this recipe from pinterest through Chef In Training 's blog.

CAKE BATTER PANCAKES

Found recipe on: How Sweet It Is

makes about 12 pancakes

• 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

 
Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed.  *You may need to have small taste test to see if the pancakes are flavored enough, if not, add a little more yellow cake mix until desired flavor is reached**

Preheat a skillet on medium heat (or an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.

GLAZE

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• assorted sprinkles

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. I needed to add more milk.  Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

Enjoy!

Enjoy?! Of course we all did!! They were so so SO good!! 

Alright, that's it for the cooking..

I've also been crocheting a few hats, but they aren't 100% finished yet, so I will be adding those sometime tomorrow I hope! The first 2 I've made that can actually fit MY head!! I'm considering opening a Etsy account and trying to sell my creations. I'm also going to start dabbling in making some little itty bitty shoes for newborns and babies! They are too adorable not to try, plus a few of my friends are pregnant, so what better than a handmade gift for the baby shower! On of my close friends just found out she was pregnant, I can't WAIT to find out what she is having so I can make her a bunch of little goodies and put them in a cute little basket, Oh she will LOVE them!! Anyways..

We took our son to a Discover the Dinosaurs that our local convention center was having for the weekend, we had seen it on the commercials during The Voice (SN: I LOVE Blake Shelton) so I thought why not! Something fun and different for all of us to experience even if Grayson is a little small and won't remember, we took lots of pictures at least we can show him them when he gets older :) Here are a few of my favorites!

We had so much fun! Even as adults it would have been a great thing to do :) I need to keep and eye on the things going on around here!! I want him to be able to experience as much as he can while he is young that way he has lots of great memories and as much fun as he can in his childhood. Anyways!! We had a great weekend! We also took a trip to Lowe's to price a few things we are looking to remodel at our home! And we are also thinking of fencing in our back yard for our furbabies and Grayson when he gets a bit older!! Again I'm rambling!! Sorry!!!

I think that's a long enough post for now!! I hope everyone had a great weekend with your families!! Leave comments about your weekend!! :)

Creations and Introductions :)

So now that the baby is asleep, I thought I would post some of my "crafting". I'm proud of some of the stuff, and not so proud of other stuff. Well, maybe a little proud of being capable of doing it.. I can't wait to be able to do some different stuff! Anyways, ONWARD with some pictures!!




So.. we are starting with Halloween..

Grayson's First Halloween! The "C" and circled "C" is because we are huge Chicago Cubs fans -- didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it still looks decent. I loooved the font, although it didn't work out 100% I had to improvise!

Uh, SO. These cupcakes did NOT turn out how I wanted them too! The frosting was not stiff enough to pipe on the cupcake correctly. This is the first time I tried frosting.. Better luck next time?

 

I made this as a gift, and planned on making use one too.. Little did we know that it would take FOREVER to finish! Basically I used a tomato stake, some wire, ribbon/material (A LOT OF IT) a 100 lights in any color, ornaments, garland.. basically any sort of decoration you would want to add.. Just tie the ribbon and material around the stake and extra added wire.. then add your optional decorations! It turned out cute.. The person I made it for LOVED it. She actually still has it out at her house! :) 

SO, I love love loved these when I did them!! This was my first attempt and I must say that I'm pretty happy with the results! I painted my fingernails with a top clear coat, then white, then pink. I used black in those really skinny brush (Family Dollar for $1 per bottle!! :) I just made lines to the center of your nail.. Well, I'm sure you can figure this out very easily just by looking at the picture..

Alrighty <3 This is my new Love. Crocheting! I've been want to learn and actually had a kit and 2 things of yarn.. so I thought "Maybe I should actually try to learn how to do this!" So I youtubed crocheting.. and VUA-LA! I made a baby hate. I ADORE this hat and hope I have a little girl to put it on someday. It's a puff stiched beanie with a flower. This is the very FIRST thing I had ever crocheted! (Tear- So proud of myself - - ;-P)

Okay these <--- three pictures are of a beret that I decided to practice on before making on for my cousin.. This is how it came out. I'm proud of it, I don't like the butterfly on the back but I was experimenting with them, I need to use a less bulky yarn to make the butterflies that would look cute.. I'm not one to really wear this type of hat.. So maybe someone will want it someday, lol. Eventually as I get better and faster.. I want to start an etsy shop and sell my stuff, I have a LOT of ideas and I can't wait to make it reality :)

Okay, now that I've updated you on what I been up too, I think it would be appropriate to post some of my Photoshop work, and let you meet my family and I!

SORRY! I know there are A LOT of pictures on this post.. I promise this is the only post that will be so full of them! Anyway, this my little family, Me (Dee), Clay and Grayson.. We are not married, but we plan to when we have a better financial grasp on things. We plan on having another child sometime as well :) I edited all of these photos in Photoshop.. I have MANY more photoshopped pictures that I could add.. but I'll save those for a "rainy" day! I hope you all enjoyed seeing my creations and such! Comment and Follow - - Leave your address of your blog so I can check out your blog too!

A little new..

SO. I am completely new to blogging.. Bare with me. :)

The names Danielle, I'm a 24 year old stay at home mother of an 8 month old named, Grayson. He is pretty much my whole life! While venturing as a stay at home mother.. I've become a little bit of everything, hence the title.. A little bit of this.. A little bit of that.. 

I've recently started crocheting and I must say that I LOVE doing it. I have made a beanie and a beret and a flower for the beanie. I, also LOVE LOVE love to cook! I try to make a family meal EVERY night.. but sometimes you just need a break.. I'm a big DIY'er as well, and I LOVE pinterest and all the great ideas on there! I love music, ALL kinds of music. Shopping in craft stores usually takes about 2 hours even if I'm don't buy anything. I have so many interests! I'm kind of all over the place sometimes (thanks to the boyfriend for sticking with me through all my phases, lol). I love to mess with Photoshop, but sometimes I just don't have the time, because I am a college student as well, but I take online classes. I'm majoring in business management, it's fantastic and I'm so proud of myself for going back to school!!

I don't really have a great idea of where this blog might be heading BUT I'm sure it will head in some direction soon!! If anyone has any ideas.. that would be AWESOME. 

I don't really have a whole lot of friends, and Facebook is starting to drive me insane, so I think this is going to be a new way for me to feel "connected" with the world, I'm originally from Ohio and moved to South Carolina about 2 years ago, and I STILL don't have many friends, mainly because the ones I had left when I had my son. Yeah, it's sad that I sit around the house ALL the time, but I'm recently learning to just deal with it.. That is why I'm starting a blog, in hopes of keeping myself busy! 

For the first few posts, I will probably post things that I've done over the last couple of years.. but eventually it will be new recipes, DIY's, crafts, crocheting, photoshopping, basically anything artsy! I hope to get a few followers and also meet some other bloggers/crafters along the way! :) 

So, if your reading this! Introduce yourself and leave your blog address so I can check you out! 

Sincerely.

Dee