Cute Easter Ideas: Goodies & a Craft

You know what is alright - a cupcake paper. And a cute one too! If you are looking for a cute Easter treat idea OR a beautiful homemade card you can make for family and friends then look no further!

First select a cute Easter cupcake paper or a bright green color would work good too for this cupcake creation. Here is the ingredients you'll need:

Cake Mix

Eggs

Vegetable Oil

Buttermilk

Robin Eggs Candy

Chocolate Frosting

Vanilla Frosting

Green & Yellow Food coloring

4 Black Jelly Beans (small ones, like Jelly Belly's)

White Circus Peanuts (or just cover the orange ones with white melting chocolate)

24 Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds

Oreo Cookies

Small Flower Sprinkles

Mini Marshmallows (4)

Light Corn Syrup

White NonPareils (sprinkles)

Ziploc Bags - a good sturdy kind like freezer bags

Mix up the cake mix using the same amount of vegetable oil, 1 Cup of buttermilk and 4 eggs. Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake for about 25 minutes if using a dark pan like stoneware. If not just follow box directions for cooking. While they are baking spoon 2 TBLS of chocolate frosting into the corner of a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air and seal and set it aside.

And then if you are like me and can't find white circus peanuts go ahead and cover them with some white chocolate melting wafers!

Next take a handful of Oreo cookies and crush them completely down to crumbs. Call your little boy or girl into the room to pour the bag of crumbs and take the opportunity to use both hands to take a photo! hehe.

When the cupcakes are cooled completely - take four of them and cover with chocolate frosting. Next roll the tops in the crushed cookie crumbs until covered. These are your "holes" for your cute bunnies!

Next split the vanilla frosting in half and color one a dark green color while mixing green and yellow food coloring in the other half to make a brighter green (or cheat and buy the neon pastel food colors like I did).

I have to pause to apologize because at this point I got so into it and was just a truckin' through these that I forgot to keep taking pictures. However I will do you the honors of still walking you through it all! Aren't I nice?

Once you have both colors carefully place one color on one half and the other green on the other side so when you pipe it from the corner of the bag both colors come out at the same time. Once it's ready cut a small tip from the piping corner side of your Ziploc bag and then use a squeeze and pull technique to form grass on the remaining cupcakes. Squeeze and pull technique: simply placing the tip of the bag against the cupcake, giving a slight squeeze and then pulling the bag straight up and away to form a stiff peak with the frosting.

Then add small patches of flower sprinkles and robin's eggs candies around the grass cupcakes.

To make the bunnies feet take your circus peanut and cut them in half lengthwise - you just need the smooth side. For the pads of the feet cut your jelly beans in half also and pipe a small dot of chocolate frosting (from the frosting you earlier set aside) and place one half of your jelly bean on each foot. Then add three more dots at the top end of your feet and place the sunflower seeds with the pointy side pointing inward.

Last step is to roll your 4 mini marshmallows in the light corn syrup and then cover them with the white nonpareils. It worked easily for me to put both into small bowls.

Then you just place your feet together in their pairs on your dirt holes and give them each a fluffy tail! And I know no pictures to go by - but I DID at least take pictures of the finished product so in case you got lost on the last few steps just take a gander at the photos and hopefully you can figure it out!

WARNING: Undertaking this project may result in undesirable kitchen conditions.

HOMEMADE EASTER CARDS

These are super easy and quick! Just start out with some blank cards that you can find at Hobby Lobby. Draw three rounded rectangles on the top half of the paper, off set a bit. Have your kids finger paint dots (using their pointer finger) to fill the rectangles completely, even covering your light pencil lines too!

Next have them paint a straight stem down from each flower using a thin brush. Finally using a thicker brush have them make small leaves at the bottom of the stem by doing a quick short stroke starting at the very bottom and brushing diagonally up in both directions.

And voila! Just like that you have yourself some Texas bluebonnets! My kids are 4 and 5 and they did these ALL by themselves! The above picture is a card we did together (I painted most of this one to show them an example) and I added our initials at the bottom of the one we finger painted. However here is one they did all on their own:

There you go - a fun cupcake creation to do for a class party or perhaps a family Easter Egg Hunt and some pretty Bluebonnet cards to send to family this spring holiday and the day of Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

31 Days to Clean - Day 1 Challenge

I highly doubt I'll share every day on here but I will share when I feel the...feeling to. The first day was an interesting Mary Challenge and I figured I would share it here on my blog. Sarah Mae asks you why YOU clean. You are to figure out why you clean and then come up with a mission statement and of course just because we're crafty moms and such to display your mission statement somehow where you can see it daily. Here are my five reasons why I clean (in no particular order): 1. To make my home a haven. HAVEN: any place of shelter and safety; refuge 2. To set an example for my kids. 3. To keep my mind clear and focused. If your surroundings are cluttered, so are your thoughts and if your surroundings are clean and organized then your mind can be too :) 4. To keep my home healthy and sanitary! 5. Because God called me to tend to my home. My Cleaning Mission Statement: To keep my home healthy and happy so I may create an environment of rest and refuge, as an example to my children and husband, as God has called me to do.

A Blast from the Past

I was born in 1986. Yes I'm young. And I'm proud to still be able to say that because I know my time is coming. However awhile back some friends of ours got in a conversation about trolls. I believe we saw some hair or something that reminded us of a troll and our minds just went spiraling down the mountain of our past toys and shows etc. It was a fun journey. So I thought in honor of the past (and I can call it that because the teens I work with don't know most of these things I mention) I would do a blast from the past post! 1. Obviously I have to start with the famous Troll Dolls! Their crazy straight up hair, their often naked little backsides and the petite little gut they all had. Once the craze began it spilled over to character trolls such as doctor, baby, girly and even animal trolls! I'm pretty certain I had a unicorn troll at some point.

2. POGS - okay who remembers these? Because they were a short lived wonder. You stacked them up nice and straight and used your thicker pog, called a Slammer; which were often made out of metal or plastic versus cardboard like the pogs were, to throw it at the top of the pile and however many you could knock off the pile you got to keep! And it had to be a straight down shot, sideways shots were obviously considered cheating. It was a fun game and I remember being excited to go through my new pogs I won after a game. Best part was they were DIRT CHEAP!

3. Sand Art - These are actually still around today but were huge when I was young. Every event or fair or place you went you could either create your own or buy their "souvenir sand art" It was simply colored sand layered odd ways into a creative container. Plain and simple. And I'm sure I did one or two as a kid.

4. POPPLES - This was one of my FAVORITE shows when I was really little! They were cute furry animals that looked like an ordinary ball until their owner (a kid) was by himself and then they would POP out into them self! Very cute and taught good morals. They had some funny popple characters. I still own a Popples shirt and plan on cutting out the front graphic to sew onto a new shirt - since my current shirt is a little short for my "mommy look" now.

Do you remember some crazes from your childhood? Or perhaps just something you loved back then? I'd love to hear what it/they were!

31 Days to Clean!

If you're like me and spring is passing you by and you keep telling yourself you REALLY need to do some spring cleaning before summer arrives then you'll be just as excited as I was when I saw this on a fellow blog I read: 31 Days to Clean, Having a Martha House the Mary Way!

Sarah Mae, writer of "Like a Warm Cup of Coffee" has written this e-book (which means you can buy the download or it's also available on Kindle - woo woo since I have one now) and it helps you keep your house clean while also doing some spiritual picking up and dusting as well! This is right up my alley and I will most definitely be downloading it ASAP and thought I should share it with my readers as well, in case heaven forbid you have a dusty windowsill as well, *gasp*. Obviously it does this by giving you daily challenges and just a wild guess but I'm guessing there are 31 of these daily challenges but that's just a wild guess.

I also thought you'd be interested to know that she is having a giveaway in honor of finishing the e-book! Among the prizes (yes as in plural) is a $50 gift certificate to DownEast Basics! (See below)

And to get an entry is a cinch! Check out all the details at her blog (just click the above link)! And here's a super easy way to get an extra entry: just put this button on your sidebar and let her know in a comment - do you notice my sidebar :)

Excuse me now while I go download something on my Kindle...

Project 365

March 9th

My daughter Gracious & I at her class Valentine Ice-Cream Social!

March 11th

Girls Retreat - I took a group of 15 girls to my friend's Girls Retreat she hosts at her church. It was an AMAZING EVENT and those girls and their stories bring tears to my eyes even now. I love watching a girl hear God for the first time & realizing it's REAL. The above photo is me and my two group leaders that tagged along and got kept up that night :)

March 12th

We got to bed by 2:15 AM but still arose ready to hear more from God. Here is a picture of our group at the end of this fantastic journey.

March 14th

If you read my previous post you know that we unexpectedly took a trip to see my in-laws. So I was a bit distracted during this week...well this month so don't expect a picture from everyday or perhaps that week :/. However even though I'm not in it here is a picture of the sunrise over my husband's home ranch.

March 15th

It is my birthday. However due to plans we postponed my "party" plans for another time and instead I played in the snow piles with my kids, cooked for my in-laws, visited with some aunts I rarely see and ate chocolate cake they brought - not to mention enjoyed gazing at the flowers they also brought. My favorite flower is a Lilly. And they just happened to have brought me some :)

Cancer

I seem to always have excuses for not posting yet this one you may actually give to me. And I realize by choosing what I did for the title of this post that my best friend back home is already freaking out asking herself a million questions of who has cancer and why am I posting about it. No I do not have cancer. Feel better Jaci? However my mother-in-law did. About a month ago (thus the no posting last month) we got that dreaded phone call saying that my husband's mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Adernocarcinoma to be exact. (Did I spell that right? I'm truly not sure) Anyhow it is a lung cancer and a very aggressive one. So we waited another week for her to get her PETscan and then hear what the plan of action would be. So one week later we get the call on how the PETscan results came out: It has consumed her body. Words that no one ever wants to hear. Especially as fearful as everyone has become of this dreaded disease. However our family serves THE Mighty God, THE Healer of all and we had no fear. She CHOSE to rely on God as her source and Provider and Healer especially after her son (not my husband - the other one) found a verse in 1 Kings 18:21 which says, "...How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." God is God. And God is Healer and we should have no fear. We took the family up to South Dakota - which God provided all the details and ways for us to do this trip so perfectly that all of that is a testimony in itself - but we went to see them and help them. I cooked and cleaned so Cathy could rest and Nick helped his dad with his church services. My father-in-law is a pastor in South Dakota and does circuit preaching (drives to several locations each week to hold services because of the distance between people out there). It was a great week, Cathy got the rest and fresh food she needed, got to be encouraged and cheered up by her grand kids and we got to come together as a family to fight the spiritual fight of this whole ordeal. Her faith is incredible! She would NOT allow herself to think any negative thoughts, not ONE. She had a CD player (yep old school CD player) playing in one earphone all day - she took her "treatments", which was reading and speaking the Word of God over her life and claiming the healing promises. Not to mention she had praise music on 24/7, it never got turned off. It was awesome! And I'm proud to say that she let us all know this past Monday that she FELT the cancer leave her body! She is healed and is on her way to building her strength back up! Don't you dare tell me God doesn't STILL do miracles and don't you DARE tell me something is impossible for Him - He is God of ALL and He can heal ALL. Period.

My class is done!! Woohoo!

To celebrate my class FINALLY being over (for quite awhile too) I'm going to attempt to catch up on my Project 365! Hey don't laugh...it's possible. (sheepishly) Right?

Well we'll find out. Here's the first set:

February 14th

We celebrated the Friday night before since we were both working on Valentine's Day but I had to take a picture with my honey anyways today! Cuz he's my BABE!

February 16th

This lil guy is a Sugar Glider - our new CrossFire mascot! (Not really - but a teen owns him and brings him so we can play every Wednesday night :) )

February 17th

I wish I wasn't behind on photos so some of them like the one above could be bigger for you. I have said on here before that mu hubby REALLY is a good photographer - he has a very creative eye. I came up with this shot (as we finished a Domino game) however he had to pull it off and he did MORE than pull it off don't you think?

February 19th

We are on the Speed the Light Walk to Drive Event with some teens from our youth group - we are walking 5K to raise money for missionaries! The above photo is a tile mural in one of the tunnels on the waterway where we walked. The picture below is some of my walking buddies.

February 21st

I finished the month long boot camp at Gold's Gym and have now started some P90X a couple times a week as I figure out what workout schedule I want next - so I thought I'd celebrate with a Muscle Picture!

February 22nd

Okay so this picture is at like 11:30 p.m. - I had spent the last three hours making horse cupcakes for Cowboy Day at Gracie's school to only have a major disaster at the end and they not turn out! GRRRRRRRR! None-the-less I got a photo of my annoyance.

February 23rd

Cowboy Day at Gracie's school!

February 26th

If you can believe it, weeds are already growing around here! My kids being the age they are bring mommy every flower they find (weed or not)! And it's adorable. And sweet. And cute. And it touches a mommy's heart. So I wanted to take a picture to remember it by.

February 27th

Sunday night is the night I meet with my prayer partner. Every other week we meet at Starbucks and treat ourselves to a mocha or something yummy, however the other weeks we simply call each other up. Tonight was a stay at home night but we still ended up "meeting" for like an hour and by the time I was done I had two bibles, two spiral notebooks with scriptures and prayers, my journal, an array of pens and highlighters and me! Sheesh this definitely deserved a picture!

March 2nd

Okay so you can't see me exactly but I'm sure you guessed that these are my footprints. One of the things I LOVE it watching the birds feed at our feeder in the mornings. This morning I had looked out to find it empty (hungry little things) and so tiptoed through the dew covered grass to quickly fill it back up. And lo and behold my footprints were left as a sign that I'd been there. And then I had to raise my lens a bit as my dog Menina came to see what in the world I was up to but also to capture the foggy morning it was.

March 6th

Nope, I haven't changed THAT much.

March 7th

Before you go accusing me of not following rules let me explain. I DID take this picture - and it's of myself. So what is the problem? I actually took a photo of a photo in my scrapbook for my Facebook photo challenge that I'm doing. And hey it fit the rules so why not use it? It's of me and my two cousins at the San Diego Zoo when we were probably around 12??

Okay so everyone can thank my best friend, Jaci, for me ACTUALLY catching up (I know I still have more but they are coming in separate posts - I didn't want to overwhelm you in one post). She sent me a birthday wishes email and reminded me how far behind I am in this project, and since we live a state away she told me how much she enjoys seeing the pics of me. :) I know it warmed my heart too! So I decided I'd been bad for too long and owed it at least to her. So here you are Jaci - and thank you for my sweet Birthday Wishes, I miss ya girl!

And I also realized if I switch to the smaller photos I can get these done much quicker - so are they okay or are the bigger ones worth the time? Please comment and let me know!

Oh and did you notice I got on a Sepia kick there towards the end? Guess I see my life in brownish tones right now, hmm.

I'm having withdrawals

I am so glad to announce that I will be taking my final for my college class this week and then I will have a long break until the fall! SOOO I might actually get to come back to my poor abandoned blog! I feel like I finally start getting some momentum and then I get so swamped with homework and, well the rest of my life, that I just crash and burn and then I'm left trying to pick all the pieces back up and build up my masterpiece again. Can you relate?

But since I have a moment I wanted to share an awesome writing by Charles Spurgeon that I read in my textbook.

"Jesus is more ready to pardon

than you are to sin,

more willing to supply your wants

than you are to confess them.

Never tolerate low thoughts of Him.

You may study, look, and meditate,

but Jesus is a greater Savior than

you think Him to be

when your thoughts are at their highest."

Isn't that beautiful? And this is my college class. I love attending a Christian University and am getting SO much out of my classes, not just intellectually but spiritually too.

On another note, here are a few more catch-ups from my Project 365:

February 3rd

Okay no, it's not me. We're just going to call February my forgetful month because I forgot a lot of days to take a photo of myself. However I still am a photo freak and DID capture some moments - so here is my daughter with the ONLY snowball of our winter!

February 4th

My daughter made her own HUGE snowflake at school with a massive coffee filter paper! She was so proud and it was too cute.

February 6th

SUPERBOWL!! Need I say more?

February 9th

Okay I'm back in the photos finally! On this night my daughter, who is 4, was walking around the house talking. When I stopped to ask what she was doing she informed me she was reading her bible. (which yes she was carrying a New Testament around) When I started listening, everything she said was dead on...perhaps it didn't quite form a structured sentence but the points she made were right! I was such a proud momma that night.

February 10th

Partly because he can't EVER wait to get a gift or give a gift and two because I challenged him to actually surprise me this year and NOT tell me what I was getting before I got it - I arrived home on Thursday afternoon from picking up my son from school and when I walk up to my house I find a note taped on my door. It is a clue written in my hubby's handwriting and it explains to find the next clue. I think 8 clues later and after being in and out of my house it eventually led me to my favorite reading chair where my Valentine's gift lay! It was so sweet and he knows me to a "T" because I love treasure hunts and things of the sort! He got me one of my fave movies - Avatar!!