Finding delight in everyday things...
You know how much we love to give away FREE printables on our site. Well, today we’d love for you to check out this wood sign that might not be ‘free’ but it is still a great deal!
We are selling this 5×15 inch wood sign for only $14 on Groopdealz!
It’s a unique way to tell someone that you love them!
It would be perfect to add to your Valentine décor or given to your loved one as a unique gift!
Check us out on Groopdealz! Hurry before they are all sold out!
Limited quantity!
~Jenny and Jess
We are guest hosting at How to Nest for Less today!
Click here to get the free printables for this fun Valentine’s craft.
~Jenny & Jess
Yep! I did! I just used LOL as my topic for this post! WHY? Because I really do hope to make you Laugh Out Loud and because I couldn’t think of anything really witty to say! (Battling a headache- VERY common for me- I get lots of headaches, and I stayed up WAY too late last night-still trying to debate as to whether I will tell you WHY I was up so late last night! I’ll think about it as I write my post! )
I don’t know about you Adorable folks out there but I really believe that laughter TRULY is one of the BEST medicines! I love to laugh! I love to sit down with my hubby or kiddos and just watch a funny show or movie, or get together with my best girlfriends and talk and laugh until people start looking at us funny, and I love to laugh when I am alone and find a good laughable story or joke!
As you might have guessed my Pinterest inspired pins are ALL about the FUNNY today! I hope these bring a smile to your face, a small chuckle or maybe even a big old belly laugh! I hope you’ll share them so that someone else can have a little FUNNY in their day too!
These 2 (top and bottom pictures) are just so clever! I LOVE the top one!! If only my kids were still in onesies- WAIT!! What am I saying??! I’ll get it for someone else’s adorable onesie-wearing kid!
Oh, how I remember those days!
I actually have a copy of this in my kid’s baby books! It is just SO Fitting for a 2 year old!
This totally made me laugh out loud. So STINKIN’ funny and cute!! (And practical- I bet his chin is super warm! ) hehe!
I think I should hang this up in my laundry room! Maybe that is the motivation to do laundry!!!
I think someday my grandchildren will have NO idea that a phone EVER looked like this!
Easy Being Green, It Is Not!
And this last one is for all my fellow Pinterest Addicts!
Hope you got at least one laugh out of these! And I was up way too late last night sorting through my daughter’s polly pockets and organizing them (someone just gave us a HUGE amount of them) and watching Never Say Never-yep the Bieber documentary! (Now I know you got a good laugh out of this post!)
~JESS
And the winners of The Hunger Games Books are…
Stephanie & Katrina!
Click here to see it updated on Rafflecopter.
Ladies, we will notify you by email as well!
I love this saying.
I hope you feel the same about the one you love.
I’ve created four colors and sized them as 5×7’s.
Click on the pictures below to download and print.
~Jenny
Jenny and I LOVE to read! It is one of the many things that we have in common and we luckily love the same books so we always have a great sounding board when we are looking for something new to read! I have been HARASSSING Jenny for a little over a year to read The Hunger Games series, have you heard about it? This is seriously one of my favorite series ! I bought the series a while back and they are slowly being lent out to everyone I know! I finally got Jenny to dig into them and she loves them too!
And today we will be giving away 2 FREE COPIES of the first book in the trilogy, “The Hunger Games.”
Here is a brief summary from the back of the book!
“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them to all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”
We wanted to give the copies of the book away so that you could enjoy them too and so that you could be ready for the movie when it comes out in March! SO EXCITED!
Here is a preview for the trailer! Did I mention I am REALLY Excited?!
And here is Taylor Swift’s song from the movie!
~
Taylor Swift Hunger Games Soundtrack
Good Luck and…
“May the odds be ever in your favor!”
~JESS
You would think after Christmas I would be done with sweets, but actually I can’t stop making them. I don’t even really like sweets.
Ok.
That was a big fat lie.
I love them.
I found these peanut butter cups on Pinterest and decided they would make a fun Valentine’s treat. The recipe I used was from Design Sponge. The only thing I did differently was make them ‘mini’ peanut butter cups instead muffin sized. Trust me they are rich enough as mini ones!
They are very easy. Line a mini muffin pan with paper liners.
Then find a sister to help you coat the sides and bottom of the melted chocolate. This my other cute sister, Laura. She and I are the ones that don’t sew like our other sister Em and our momma. She is the sister that eats healthy and works out all the time. I know her weak points though and these nuggets of heaven are one of them.
Once the liners are coated with chocolate put them in the fridge for 20 minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, powdered sugar and salt. Stir with a spoon until well combined. Then divide the peanut-butter mixture into 24 even amounts. (I used a small pampered chef scooper and measured them all out on a cutting board to make sure I had them evenly divided.) Put one mound into each paper liner. Tap down each mound with your fingertips to “nest” it into the chocolate bottom.
Using a spoon, dollop the top of each peanut butter mixture mound with a generous portion of the melted chocolate. Use the back of a teaspoon to smooth out the tops. Clearly mine are not perfect. But does it matter? :) Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator.
Your cups should be done within an hour.
Not sure my sis and I waited that long. Let’s pretend we did.
They are so good. My husband couldn’t stop eating them either.
I created these cute tags if you choose to give them out. Wrap a couple of mini cups in cellophane, tie it with a ribbon and add the tag.
*Side note: The paper liners clung to the chocolate so that you couldn’t really see the cute paper. My smart sis told me to just put a new one under it. I put a little tape on the bottom and stuck it on. You really only need to do this if you plan to dress them up all cute like this. Otherwise devour with gusto-who cares about the cuteness.
To download the tags click here or scroll down and click on picture below.
Recipe:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (Original Recipe Found Here)
Yields 24 mini cups (Or 12 muffin cups like she does here)
Ingredients
1. Line a muffin pan with 24 mini paper liners. Set aside.
2. Melt 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate in a double boiler or do like I did and use the microwave, melting the chocolate in short bursts (30 seconds at a time.
3. Using the back of a spoon or a pastry brush, paint a layer of melted chocolate onto the bottoms and sides of the paper liners. Don’t skimp on chocolate here; coat the liners generously. Set the bowl aside with any remaining melted chocolate left in it.
4. Put the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you make the peanut-butter filling.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, powdered sugar and salt. Stir with a spoon until well combined.
6. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of chocolate and melt in microwave. Or if using the double boiler return the bowl used to melt the chocolate to the top of the double boiler. Turn the heat to medium-high.
7. Meanwhile, divide peanut-butter mixture into 24 even amounts. (I used a small pampered chef scooper and measured them all out on a cutting board to make sure I had them evenly divided.)
8. Remove the muffin pan from the refrigerator. Put one mound into each paper liner. Tap down each mound with your fingertips to “nest” it into the chocolate bottom.
9. Using a spoon, dollop the top of each peanut butter mixture mound with a generous portion of the melted chocolate.
10. Use the back of a teaspoon to smooth out the tops (alternately, use the spoon to make a swirl atop each cup).
11. Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator. Within one hour, your cups should be set, depending how cold your fridge runs.
Click on the picture below to download and print the tags.
~Jenny
Linking up with … Whipperberry
I don’t know about the rest of you but I REALLY like Granola! I especially like it on Yogurt. Here is a weird factoid about me- I don’t like Yogurt! It doesn’t matter what flavor it is, there is just something about the consistency that after 3 or 4 bites, I am just DONE. And NO don’t try to fool me with that fruit on the bottom stuff, then it is just yucky consistency and yucky blobs of mushy fruit (YUCK!). So NO I don’t normally like yogurt (any kind of yogurt) UNLESS you put Granola on it! Then I LOVE yogurt! Kind of like Vanilla Ice Cream, it just needs a little extra SOMETHING! ( I know of A LOT of you are totally disagreeing with me right now about the Vanilla Ice Cream, and maybe even the yogurt thing!)
But back to the GRANOLA, I REALLY like Granola! And my awesome friend Heather emailed me last week with her very own recipe and then even brought me samples on Sunday at church! Which ended up on my vanilla Yogurt for lunch that day. And it was DELICIOUS!!
So of course, I had to run to the store the next day, get all the ingredients and make some of my own! Which was so good that it only lasted 2 days in our house until my family ate it ALL! But my awesome friend Heather is letting me share her recipe with you!!
The entire recipe will be posted at the very bottom of this post to make it easier for you to copy or write down for yourself! Here are the steps and some photos as I did them!
Preheat oven to 325 and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
You will need 4 ounces of butter, 1/4 cup honey and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar. Melt your butter in a small pan on the stove on low heat, once melted, add sugar and honey and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Add your vanilla once you remove the pan from the heat! (Total side note, I accidently forgot the vanilla and it was still delicious! So excited to try it again WITH IT! )
In a large bowl, combine your oats, coconut, almonds, pumpkin kernels, flax seed, sunflower seeds and spices. You can either stir it all up now or wait until you add the sugar from the pan and then stir all together.
Once all your dry ingredients are combined and your butter/sugar/honey mixture is done, pour the butter onto the dry ingredients and stir to coat well.
Pour the granola onto your prepared pan and spread it out. (I find it quite helpful to have my parchment paper hang over the sides of my pan a bit as you will have to stir it later on the pan). Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, stir and then bake another 15 minutes!
Remove from oven, stir and bake another 8-10 minutes. (That is 3 rounds in the oven- 2 for 15 minutes, and one last time for about 8 minutes) It should be dark brown like the picture below!
Stir it up as you allow the granola to cool so that you don’t have any huge chunks forming.
Once your granola has cooled, you can add anything else you like to it! Mini Chocolate Chips, Raisins, Craisins, Mini M&Ms, small dried fruit, whatever you like in YOUR granola! We went for the very healthy choice of Mini M&Ms and chocolate chips!
So yummy!! We are making it again tomorrow!! Thank you Heather for sharing your recipe with us!!
And as promised the complete recipe is listed below for you! Enjoy!!
My current favorite “recipe” would look like this:
4 ounces butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
3 cups oats
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 cup finely chopped almonds
3/4 cup raw pumpkin kernels
1/3 cup golden flax seed
1/3 cup flax seed
1/2 cup millet
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add honey and brown sugar and stir till the sugar is dissolved, which doesn’t take very long at all. Add 3 TSP Vanilla
Place all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl, making substitutions or trying something different if you want*. Mix them together if it makes you feel good. Leave them as the land if you’re okay with that. When the sauce is done, pour it over the dry ingredients and stir. It won’t look like everything could possibly get covered with the sauce but keep stirring a few more times and you’ll be surprised at how well it gets incorporated. Pour the granola into the prepared pan and smooth it out. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. You could leave it in the oven to stir, but that’s almost guaranteed to make a mess. Put it back in to bake another 15 minutes, and then remove and stir again. Another 8 to 10 minutes in the oven will be about right; you’ll want to take it out before it gets too brown because it continues to cook after you’ve taken it out for the last time. Stir it around as it cools to assure it finishes cooking evenly. Chunks may form, but they fall apart easily.
One the granola has cooled, you can keep it in a Ziploc bag to keep it fresh. You can add other ingredients at this time (or as you use it) such as:
raisins
craisins
any small dried fruits such as blueberries
chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips
mini M&M’s
sprinkles
ENJOY!!
~JESS & Heather too!! (Thank you for sharing it Heather!)
Let me first start my post with some VERY exciting news!! WE GOT SNOW!! SO excited!! (obviously!)
And now for more exciting news (we’ll get back to the snow soon!). We have a winner for the ADORABLE Molly’s Sweet Peas Giveaway! I LOVED these hats, so cute!! And the winner is……
JUDIE GROSS!! Yay Judy!! Molly posted her info on her Facebook page to so you can email her with your info!
We will have another giveaway coming up on Friday so stay tuned folks!! (We love to do giveaways!)
So did I mention that it FINALLY SNOWED!? We don’t usually get a lot of snow here in Western Washington so it is usually a big deal when we do, you know people can’t drive if it is more than a couple of inches, school is cancelled, sleds and snow shovels that get used once a year are dusted off and used for a day or two all winter!! It is GREAT FUN!
My kids REALLY LOVE IT!!
This is what my mantle has looked like since I sadly took down all our Christmas décor. I kept wishing and hoping and waiting for it to work it’s magic and “Let it Snow” as my sign says!!
I had to use pictures of the snow from LAST YEAR since there obviously weren’t any from this year, until NOW!!!
And since today is Monday, our day to share our Pinterest inspirations, I HAD to share SNOW related pins! Luckily, I had a few that I was hoping would come in handy!!
I LOVE this wood sign! I just recently found it so it will have to go into the “to make” board for next year!
Snow Cream! I keep hearing my Facebook friends say how yummy this is but I have yet to try it! But, that has more to do with my OCD germy issues than anything else. Still trying to get past that! They say to get clean snow, but how do I know if it is clean? (See I have issues, working on it!)
If you are looking for some fun things to do in the ’real’ snow I think your kids would love this from Really Quite Lucky Put food coloring in a spray bottle or some other type of container to draw pictures in the snow!
Or how about a science experiment? Check out how to make these snow bubbles at Science Made Fun.
I also love this idea. Freeze ice cubes that have been colored and then put them around the yard for a fun scavenger hunt. You could even do different colors and have the colors be a certain amount of points! Check out more ideas at Parents.
You all might recognize this one from our blog but I just can’t think about the snow theme without remembering Jenny’s adorable waterless snow globes!
And lastly, here is a fun idea for those of you that don’t have snow, but would like to pretend! Ten Kids And A Dog shows a fun way to make snow playdoh!
Well folks, since it is snowing where we live I’m going to keep this short, so I can actually go enjoy the snow!! And make my kids hot chocolate when they come inside freezing from their snow adventures!!
Check back in this week, we have a couple of really YUMMY recipes and a giveaway on Friday!!!
And while I am really excited about the snow (did you catch that?!), I also want to take a minute to recognize this day in honor of a great man who fought for equality in our country and share two of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
~JESS
I created this gumball machine last year when Ella was in Kindergarten. Isn’t she cute? She’s one of my two favorite girls. She looks so little here!
Like many of your kids, she had to count out and bring in 100 things to celebrate the 100th day of school. I thought it would be fun to have her count out 100 ‘pom poms’ and glue them down as gumballs. She was quite pleased with her gumball machine.
Lucky for you I remembered I had made it. And just in time for this year’s 100th day of school! I printed mine out at home because I have a large enough printer, but I have sized the printable below as a 12×18 inch print so that you can print it where you’d like. Costco will print a 12×18 inch photo for only $2.99. Not too shabby!
I also added the line in front of the ‘100 gumballs’ for you to write your child’s name. Your kids will have a blast counting out 100 gumballs and adding them to their machine!
Click on the picture below to download the free 12×18 inch printable.
Almost 100 days of school?
That means summer is right around the corner! ;)
~Jenny
Linking up with…
The Frugal Girls Whipperberry Today’s Creative Blog The 36th Avenue One Artsy Mama
Even though Valentine’s Day is still a month away, I know you are being tempted in every store to purchase your cards now! So, I thought it would be fun to create a unique card for you to print yourself. I don’t know what it is about all the silly mustaches lately, but they do make me smile.
Attach a sucker or other piece of candy under the mustache. If you wanna get crazy you could cut out the mustache, attach it to the leftover sucker stick (we cut the candy part off) and use it as a mustache prop!
I love this kid!
I’ve created four colors for you to choose from. These are sized to print on 8.5 x 11 paper. Click on a picture below to download. For best results print on a quality matte paper using an ink jet printer.
I hope you have a FAN{TACHE}TIC day!
~Jenny
Click on the image below to see what we created for this year! Free Printable Tags!
They are gumballs with a Hershey’s Kiss on top…hence, ‘Blow Me A Kiss!
Linking up with…A Glimpse Inside Blue Cricket Design Not Just a Housewife Tip Junkie Today’s Creative Blog A Little Tipsy Whipperberry
The Frugal Girls The 36th Avenue One Artys Mama Easy Digital Scrapbooking and Crafts Michelle Paige
We got some sticker love from The 36th Avenue One of my favorite blogs!
